Švėkšna

Švėkšna, Lithuania

The Ladon Family - Family of Zipporah (nee Ladon) Sandler

Compiled by Esther (Herschman) Rechtschafner

The name LADON:
Ladon (also spelled Ladin and Laden) is derived from Ladinos reflecting the medieval Spanish heritage of the family. The Ladinos name was used in legal documents into the 20th century. Howard Meyers, e-mail: hmeyers@bcattorneys.com

Yakov & Nili Sandler (son & daughter-in-law), e-mail: nililine@bezeqint.net

A man from England wrote that he has a cousin in Rechovot (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rehovot) named Rivka Zur, who was the daughter of one of the 6 survivors of Sveksna (Meir Ladon). She told about her family, and about her Father in detail. She and her husband had gone on a trip to Sveksna; and she has the movie they had taken there. The house where her father grew up was used as a laboratory at the time of her visit. One of the pictures from the Lithuanian Archives in Tel Aviv [Note: Website for that organization is not available as of 22 Apr 2018.] was of her aunt Mina, who was then still alive and living in Tel Aviv. She told of another aunt who had come on Aliyah in about 1935 and was still alive and living in Rechovot.

Her aunt Zipporah (Sandler) is a very interesting person. She is now over 100 years old. To listen to her life story is like listening to the history of our country (ISRAEL). Zipporah was member of the HaShaomer HaZair youth organization in Sveksna. She was on Hachsharah (preparation for Aliyah [coming to live in Israel]) of HaShaomer HaZair in Lithuania. When she arrived in Israel she lived on Kibbutz Givat Brenner. Afterwards she moved to Rechovoth. She and her husband (Z"L) and 3 sons have always lived there. She earned money to help bring her sister Mina here. After the Holocaust, she found out that her brother Meir had survived and he came to live in Rechovoth. She took care of him, which included fixing his teeth, for they were knocked out by Dr. Schau in the beginning of the WAR. He lived with them for about half a year, while undergoing the dentistry work on his teeth. Then he found work as a baker. Soon afterwards he founded the co-operative bakery "Deganim", which operated in Rechovoth for over 30 years. Meir married a woman who was originally from a town place near Sveksna. He worked as a baker in the camps and then worked as a baker in Rechovoth. Rivka Zur is his daughter. She and her family now live in Rechovoth.

Zipporah's sons live in Rechovoth, have held very respectable and important jobs and take care of their Mother. Yakov, the oldest, was once mayor of Rechovoth.

Zipporah's oldest brother Demitri (Mordechai) was at first a TELS Yeshiva (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telshe_yeshiva) student and then became an important person in the Communist party in Russia.When he was 16 (at the time of WWI), he asked Trompeldor (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Trumpeldor) to take him to Eretz Yisroel. Troumpldor refusd him, on the grounds that he was too young. After WWII, he became the governor of Bucharest. Ziporah's younger sister Mina met with him in Moscow on her way to Palestine. She said he lived in a very impressive house and was an important person in the University.

Zipporah's youngest sister Edit was a communist. She married a Russian Supreme Court judge. As understood, the fact that she had family in Israel had to be kept a secret. Edit and her daughter came on a visit when her daughter was still single. The daughter was shocked to find out that she is really Jewish. Her daughter and granddaughter came to visit recently.

When the President of Latvia came to visit, Rabin invited Ziporah's son Yakov to the dinner in his honor, because of his Lithuanian-Jewish background and his being a mayor of a city here.

Meir married a woman who was originally from the town Taurage, which is near Sveksna. (Incidently, Zipporah's husband also came from this place.) He worked as a baker in the camps and this gave him the experience to be able to work as a baker in Rechovoth. Rivka Zur is his daughter. She and her family now live in Rechovoth.

As understood, Zipporah lost many family members and friends in the Holocaust. Zipporah was one of 8 children. Her parents and 3 of her siblings, 2 of which already had children, all perished in Sveksna in the Holocaust (brother Yehoshua [married and a father of one], sister Chaika [married and mother of three daughters], and brother Theordis).

Zipporah Sandler

Photograph courtesy of Nili Sandler

Zipporah's oldest son, Ya’akov Sandler, is a past mayor of Rechovot. This is an honor for the Jewish community of Sveksna - that was. Nili & Yakov Sandler had also visited Sveksna and took photographs. Nili told that upon entering and touring Sveksna, she commented that everything was just as Zipporah had described it.

The yellow house is the house where Zipporah and her family lived. It was in the process of being redone when this picture was taken (before 2007).

Photograph courtesy of Nili Sandler

Zipporah now has many grandchildren and great-grandchildren. She enjoys telling about the Sveksna that was. She remembers everything quite well.

Click here to see a diagram of the LADON Family Home in SVEKSNA, Lithuania, as Zipporah remembers it from 1935.
This diagram was made by Esther (Herschman) Rechtschafner. It is according to Zipporah's description.

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