This
web page is Dedicated to the memory of my grandmother Leeba Welber one of the
few mothers to have “passed” the initial selection upon arrival to
Auschwitz-Birkenau in May of 1944. Her fate was sealed by the monster Mengele AT
THE final selection prior to the
evacuation of the camp in January of 1945.
The
Yizkor book for Munkacs has yet to be written. Munkacs’ Jewish legacy lay
dormant within the minds of her survivors. One’s whole being reverberates with
images about a way of life that future generations will never know. This is how
I became a casualty of the Holocaust. When entire families in a mature community
with a variegated culture are suddenly and violently torn from its moorings, the
damage becomes irreparable for many years. Those painful events and the
continuing aftereffects fall within the province of the survivors, the
consequences of that pain carries onto the children, the residuals are the lot
of the grandchildren, and the restless souls of the murdered victims remain
unsettled in nameless burial holes & piles of ash. I tell you this, because
I want you to know that I don’t bring an academician’s objectivity or an
untainted understanding of Munkacs’ past. This work is the product of an
insatiable compulsion that has absorbed me and many of my generation. At the end
of one’s days only memory remains, and perhaps hope. This is how we might
understand the words of the prophet Ezekiel (Yechezkel):
And I was set down in a valley full of dry bones; there were many dry
bones, and I prophesized that these bones will yet live, yet there was despair
since the bones were so utterly dry, but I prevailed and a spirit came upon them
and hope won over despair. Our
ancestor’s bones of which we have so little knowledge and the ashes of our
martyrs of which we have so little memory have been neglected and abandoned for
too long, perhaps that is why they (and us) are so utterly dry. Will our spirit
nourish these dry bones so that they may live once again, this time in our
hearts and minds? Why do we
unceasingly and passionately search for dry bones? How does one elevate one’s
self if they have no knowledge as to the strength and makeup of the foundation
on which they plan to build? As we discover the meaning of these dry bones they
will come alive, and perhaps, because of their spirit we too can live.
The
creation of this website has been a labor of love. The work began before I had a
specific vision of Munkacs; it was an idea in formation, amorphous feelings with
no place to give them expression. This
website offers a small measure of relief as it is only a fraction of the
memorial that the town’s history deserves. I urge you to visit here
often. Periodically you will find updates and upgrades to this site.
I
also invite you to participate in this memory project along with me. To the
survivors I ask that you share with us your remembrances, your photographs and
documents (copies only, please) that may give us some insight into a once
flourishing community and its people. From others I ask for your attention, your
commitment and to share with us whatever you think worthy. In the weeks and
months to come I will be posting additional pre-Holocaust postcards, photographs
taken during my annual pilgrimage to Munkacs, additional census and tax lists
from the 19th century, names of professionals and shopkeepers from
the Podkarpatskaya business directories that were published early in the last
century, a list of survivors from Munkacs culled from a variety of lists, names of
voters in the 1910 election for community (Hitkoseg) officers, and more. I would
like to add pre-war photographs of former residents as well as photographs of
Matzevot (tombstones) from the old cemetery which was destroyed by the Soviets
in the early 1960s. I welcome your ideas, suggestions and positive comments. If
I have disappointed anyone here, I ask their forgiveness and solicit their assistance
in rectifying the cause of their dissatisfaction.
Finally,
I have a request: can anyone identify one or more of the Munkatchers
photographed by Roman Vishniac and displayed in his books, The Vanished World
published in 1947 and A Vanished World published in 1983?
If so, please contact me.
The Holocaust and Munkacs; Links: