{"id":2662,"date":"2020-10-06T14:23:29","date_gmt":"2020-10-06T18:23:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.jewishgen.org\/jewishgen\/testimonials\/?p=2662"},"modified":"2021-04-20T12:09:09","modified_gmt":"2021-04-20T16:09:09","slug":"say-dad-grandpa-is-not-dead-reuniting-the-family-after-68-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewishgen.org\/jewishgen\/testimonials\/say-dad-grandpa-is-not-dead-reuniting-the-family-after-68-years\/","title":{"rendered":"Say, Dad, Grandpa is Not Dead? Reuniting the Family After 68 Years"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

by Noah Isman<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Preface<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

This\nstory is about a miraculous family reunion that occurred after sixty-eight\nyears. The prime facilitators of this reunion are no doubt the Yad Vashem Institute\nthat established the Testimony Pages project, the JewishGen organization, and\nthe Internet which made all the information so easily accessible. However, none\nof it would have happened were it not for one woman who, as early as 1957, meticulously filled in\nthe testimony pages commemorating all her family members who perished in the\nHolocaust, and one devoted man who relentlessly investigated in order to\nunearth the roots of his father\u2019s family, and who did not give up regardless of the many dead ends he encountered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Family<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Hersch and Sarah-Pesia Waniewski, a Jewish couple, lived in Zabludow, a small town near Bialystok in north-east Poland. They had two sons, Zelig and Chaim-Zeidke, and five daughters, Shifra, Raine, Rivka, Beile, and Guta. Zelig and Chaim-Zeidke got married, had children, and continued living in Zabludow. Shifra and Raine immigrated to the USA before WWII (where they became Sophie Ostroff and Raine Miller, respectively). Guta died in 1919, apparently after giving birth to a daughter, Rivka-Esther, who was born that year. Rivka-Esther and her father, also immigrated to the USA before the war (where she eventually became Rebeca-Betty Kahanowitz). All other brothers and sisters remained in Poland. Needless to say, all of them, their spouses and offspring, were Jewish.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
Fig 1. Wanievski sisters in Zabludow (l-r): Rivka, Shifra, Raine, & Beile
(click image to enlarge)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Beile\nmarried David-Shmuel Dzienciolski. Their first son Henryk (Hersch) was born in\n1923 and his brother Zigmond (Israel) in 1924. In 1927 they moved to Bialystok\nand in 1929 moved farther east to Novogrudok (then in Poland, now in Belarus), where\nthey eventually settled. David was, apparently, not religious, but the family\nmaintained their Jewish identity and was part of the Jewish community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rivka\nmarried Noah Feder. Their daughter Guta was born in 1924 and their son\nZalman-Leib in 1925. Noah was an accountant and Guta used to assist him in his\nwork while she was still attending elementary school. In 1939 she graduated\nfrom a trade school in Bialystok and then worked as an accountant while still a\nteenager. Her professional experience would later help her survive the wartime\nhardships.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
Fig 2. David Dzienciolski & grandson Nahum Dentelski, 1951
(click for family photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

During\nthe Holocaust most family members who stayed in Europe were murdered or\notherwise found their death. David, Hersch, Israel, and Guta, who are at the\nfocus of this story, were the only survivors.           <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Early History<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

In 1939 Nazi Germany and the USSR signed the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact that divided Poland and then occupied its territory. Luckily, Novogrudok was in the Soviet part, as the Nazis immediately started to murder the Jews in theirs. The Soviet communist regime, being very oppressive in many ways, also changed the names of places, institutions, and even surnames to suit their policies. Hence, Dzienciolski, being a Polish name and apparently also difficult to pronounce in Russian, was modified to Dentelski. However, in June 1941 the Nazi\u2019s broke the pact and, as part of the Barbarossa campaign, attacked the USSR and started to move east towards Novogrudok. At the time, it did not scare the Jews in Novogrudok, as they considered the Germans as more \u201ccivilized\u201d than the Russians (at the time, the Nazi atrocities were not yet known), but the Jews did have concerns that the Germans might mobilize the men to work for the military. In light of that, the Dentelskis decided that David and Henryk (then about 18 years old) should leave eastbound closer to the Russian zone, while mother Beile with Israel would stay (Israel, then about seventeen years old, was recovering from a minor operation). Later, Beile determined it was better to send away Israel as well; he joined another family who was heading in the same direction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
Fig 3. (l-r): Noah, Rivka, Guta, & Zalman-Leib Feder
Zabludow before WW II
(click image to enlarge)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Many\npeople gathered at the border-crossing\nbut the Russians did not let them pass. While they were waiting, and before\nIsrael had a chance to find and join his father and brother, a German air raid\nstarted and the crowd dispersed, some running into a nearby forest and some\nexploiting the disorder to cross into the Russian zone. In the commotion David\nand Henryk lost each other, never to meet again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beile,\nwho stayed in Novogrudok, was eventually murdered by the Nazis together with\nall other Jewish residents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At\nabout the same time, the Germans occupied Zabludow and Bialystok. At the\nbeginning of the occupation, while Nazi rule was not very brutal, a Nazi\nofficer started to show growing interest in Guta, who was a seventeen-year-old\npretty girl; Guta\u2019s father, Noah, became extremely anxious about the situation.\nSo, in spite of her young age, Noah decided that Guta should escape towards\nRussian territory. She left in December 1941, never to see her family again; they were all murdered by the\nNazis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

War Time Proceedings<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

David,\nIsrael, and Henryk separately managed to infiltrate into Russia. They each\ncontinued to Samarkand in Uzbekistan, without knowing about each other\u2019s fate.\nThere, Israel somehow managed to re-unite with his father, and they stayed\nthere until the war ended. In Samarkand, Israel and his father were \u201cadopted\u201d by the family of\nIsrael\u2019s future wife Lisa. Unfortunately, although Henryk was also in Samarkand\nat the very same time, he never became aware of the survival and very close\npresence of David and Israel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Guta,\nafter leaving home as a teenager with no possessions at all, wandered for six\nmonths surviving by the help of good Russians, and eventually arrived in Gorky\n(now Nizhny Novgorod). In Gorky she managed to find a job as a deputy chief\naccountant in a textile factory, but in February 1943 she re-located to Kermine\n(now Navoiy) in Uzbekistan. At first, she lived with a local woman who kindly\nlet her in, but she was in quite bad shape, as she did not have any means to\nmake a living. As she was looking for work, she came to a silk processing\nfactory, of which the manager happened to be a Russian Jew. After hearing her\nstory, he decided to \u201cadopt\u201d her. He took her to live in his home together with\nhis family and arranged for her a to work as an accountant in the\nfactory that he managed. This apparently saved her life, as she stayed with\nthem and kept her job until the war ended.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In\nKermine, Guta became friends with her future first husband, Eliezer (a.k.a\nLazer) Isman and his elder brother, Leibish, both of whom were also Jewish\nPolish refugees. Accidentally, while standing on a train station platform, Guta\nwas lucky to spot her cousin Israel on a stopped train. They had a happy reunion. Israel continued his journey, but\nthey stayed in touch ever since. Guta somehow came to find out that her uncle,\nZelig, was in Kolhoz, near the town of Karakul. She visited him and found him\nin such a terrible condition that she could hardly recognize him. Guta and the\nIsman brothers tried to help him as much as they could, but he caught malaria\nand eventually died.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shortly\nafter arriving in Uzbekistan, Henryk\ndecided to join the Polish \u201cAndres\u2019 Army\u201d that was forming in Uzbekistan in\n1941. In spite of his Jewish roots, he started attending the Catholic church on\nSundays (he later indicated that he did that because the alternative was to\nclean the toilets, but perhaps it was because he felt it was safer to\nassimilate with his Polish soldier mates). In 1942 the Andres\u2019 Army was\nevacuated from the Soviet Union (Henryk included) and made its way through Iran\nto Palestine where it was put under the British command. From Palestine they\ncontinued to South Africa and then were stationed in Scotland for training. In\n1944, after D-day, the soldier Henryk found himself with his unit back in\nmainland Europe where he served as a courier. He was injured near the Belgian\nborder and was sent back to a hospital in Montrose, Scotland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After the War<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

After\nthe war ended, Israel moved to Lvov (now Lviv in the Ukraine) together with\nLisa\u2019s family; David settled in Kiev (Ukraine\u2019s capital).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Israel\nand Lisa got married in 1946, and had two sons, Nahum and Baruch, both born in\nLvov. In 1957, following the Gomulka-Khrushchev agreement for repatriating\nPolish refugees in the USSR, they traveled to Poland and then immigrated to\nIsrael. In Israel they first came to Netanya and joined Guta\u2019s family, who\nprovided them with initial accommodation and assistance. In Netanya, their\ndaughter Esther was born, and a year later they moved to Givatayim, where they\nlived for the rest of their lives. The families of Guta and Israel stayed in\nclose contact ever since.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

David,\nrealizing that his wife Beile had been murdered, re-married Adel, a woman who\napparently was involved in saving his life, and she became his second wife.\nThey had no children. He lived in Kiev all his life and visited his son Israel,\nliving in Israel, several times. He passed away in Kiev in 1981.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Guta\nand Lazer got married in Uzbekistan in May 1945. About three weeks later, Guta,\nLazer, and Leibish together left Uzbekistan for Poland and, after another three\nweeks, arrived in Legnica, in south-west Poland. Shortly after their arrival,\nLazer got sick and died in July 1945. At the end of 1945 Guta and Leibish\ndecided to immigrate to Israel (then Palestine). They left Legnica and traveled\nsouth to Austria where they settled temporarily in a displaced person’s camp in\nSalzburg. They got married in 1947, and Leibish immediately left for Israel and\nsettled in Netanya, with Guta following in 1948. Their only child was named\nNoah after Guta\u2019s father. Guta passed away in 2000 and Leibish in 2006.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In\nScotland, Henryk Dzienciolski (or Dzieciolski as it was passed on to his\nchildren) became Harry Davidson. In 1945 he married Joanne (a.k.a Joyce), a\nhospital nurse, settled in Montrose, and had five children: Margaret, Michael\n(Mike), Gordon, Brian, and Gary. The children were raised as protestants, as Joyce\u2019s\nfamily were Church of Scotland. While knowing very well of their father\u2019s\nPolish origin, they apparently never had a clue about their Jewish heritage.\nHarry\u2019s parents-in-law knew, but neither cared about it nor did they share this\nknowledge with anybody else. Joyce passed away in 1991.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For\nmany years Israel tried to search for his brother Henryk in different ways.\nEventually, he inevitably concluded that Henryk was apparently killed during\nthe air-raid at the Soviet border crossing. To commemorate him, Israel placed a\nmemorial plaque in the synagogue which he used to attend. Israel passed away in\n2003 and Lisa in 2008.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

21st Century<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Gordon\nDavidson writes:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a\nfamily we had always been proud of our Polish heritage and the family name of\nDzieciolski. We knew that our father Harry fought alongside the British during\nthe war and that he had tried to find his family once the conflict ended. He\nhad no success, and the assumption was that they had all perished during the\nwar. Once I retired, I decided to spend some time investigating to see if I\ncould find out what happened to father’s family, and maybe even discover a\ngrave or two to visit. I tried hard to find out some details by trawling\nthrough the internet, the JewishGen site included, with little success, but to\nbe honest, I wasn’t sure what I was looking for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As my\nfather approached his eightieth birthday in 2003, I planned a trip to\nNovogrudok. The trip was not very successful; we found out little there.  My father recognized the\nplace where they lived by a hand-operated water pump that was left intact, but\nin general, the place, to be brutally honest, was a hell hole! The cemeteries\nwere in a shocking condition and we really couldn’t wait to leave the place.\nAgain, I had little success and could find no trace of any Dzieciolskis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nothing much more happened for the following five years. The breakthrough actually came on December of 2008 when my father and I were in Australia visiting my sister Margaret, to attend my nephew’s wedding. One day my father said, \u201cLet’s have a look through the Internet to see what we can find.\u201d I looked again through the JewishGen website, but could find little or nothing about any Dzieciolskis, so my father said to try Wanievski. Names suddenly started popping up in various databases, and then he mentioned Gutka, although on the site she was referred to as Guta. He then asked me to try the name Feder, which he remembered and, again, up popped some names on other databases. The names we looked up, and all the information I saw, suggested a strong Jewish connection. Out of the blue he mentioned that he actually came from \u201cZabladowa\u201d, when all of us in the family thought he was from Bialystok. I then found Tilford Bartman\u2019s website, the Zabludow Memorial Website<\/em>. In there I found this:

FEDER Noah
Rebeka
Zalman
Guta Esman (Feder), Nitaniyeh, Medinot, Israel<\/div><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This\ngot me thinking that Guta might have survived and that it might be the same Guta\nthat my father talked about.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\ndidn’t find anything concrete, but when we returned to Scotland, I did a lot\nmore searching. Somehow, I stumbled across another site which had pages of\ntestimony and suddenly there were many Wanievskis. When I tried Dzieciolski the\nhairs stood up on the back of my neck  \u0336  there was a page about my\ngrandmother written by Guta (Figure 4). I come from the cautious, careful,\nbelts and braces side of the family, so I was still unsure if what I had was\ncorrect, and father’s memory was sketchy to say the least. I then got a book\nfor my father, Novogrudok: the history of a Jewish shtetl<\/em>, compiled by\nJack Kagan.  My father started to recognize some people; this made him\nwant to revisit Novogrudok. I said that before we do this, I wanted to see what\nmore I could find out about his family. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I got\nmore information about Waniewskis in Zabludow and was in touch with various\npeople throughout the world who I thought might be family, but they all came to\nnothing. I then asked Rose Feldman, an experienced genealogist whom I learned\nabout from the JewishGen website, for some help; by this time, I had found a\nburial record for Guta Isman. Rose came back with: \u201cThis might be her\ngranddaughter Einat Eisman telephone<\/em>\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\ndidn’t feel I could just phone someone up out of the blue and say that your\ngrandmother might be my father’s cousin, so I got in touch with a genealogist,\nTed Gostin, who put me in touch with Israel Pikholz in Israel. My father was\nvery skeptical, but myself, my sister, and two brothers thought it was worth a\nshot, so I asked Israel Pikholz if he could try and trace any living relatives\nof Guta and to see what he could find out in Belarus about the Dzieciolskis. He\nthought it wouldn’t be a big job, but he was busy and couldn’t start for a\ncouple of weeks. However, from the pages of testimony and burial notice I had\nforwarded to him he came up with the name Noah Isman and his address, so I\nthought I could explain things in a letter and see what would happen. I thought\nI probably wouldn’t even get a reply, and never in my wildest dreams did I\nexpect how it actually developed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Noah\nIsman writes:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

My\nmother Guta\u2019s ninth memorial was due on 13 May 2009 (according to the Jewish\ncalendar) and, a few weeks earlier, Nahum (Israel\u2019s son) informed me that he\nplanned to attend the memorial service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On 11\nMay 2009, when I returned home after work, I found in my (physical) mailbox a\nletter from the UK. My wife has relatives in the UK but I did not recognize any\nof the details on the envelope. When I opened it, this is what I was reading:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Noah\nEisman,<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Firstly,\napologies for the intrusion on your privacy, but I thought it was worth doing.\nMy name is Gordon Davidson and I live in Scotland. My father however was born\nin Bialystok, Poland and spent his early years in Zabludowa. He and his family\nthen moved to Bialystok and then to Novogrudok where he lived from the age of\naround nine until the Germans invaded in 1942.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

He has\nhad no contact with any of his family since that day and this is the reason for\nmy letter. My father’s father’s name was David Dzieciolski and his mother was\nBejle, maiden name Wanievski. I have searched the Internet for a few years now,\nbut recently discovered pages of testimony and I think it is possible that your\nmother put in a page of testimony for my grandmother. In that page your mother\nwould have been my grandmother’s niece which obviously would make your mother\nmy father’s cousin \u2013 hope that’s not too convoluted for you.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have\nto say that it is only a possibility, but if you are interested in exploring\nthis possibility then I will send you all the information I have on the\nsubject.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Again,\napologies for intruding on your privacy, but it is with the best of intentions.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yours sincerely<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gordon Davidson\nformerly Dzieciolski<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

(A phone number and\nan e-mail address were also attached.)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
Fig 4. Beila Dzieciolska’s Testimony page written by Guta Feder Isman
(click image to enlarge)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

I read\nthe letter once, and again, and remained utterly bewildered. On the one hand, I\nwas excited: Zabludow, Bialystok, and, in particular, Bejle Wanievski, the name\nof my mother\u2019s aunt, were all so familiar. Moreover, after some quick\nreasoning, it struck me that if this Bejle Wanievski was indeed my mother\u2019s\naunt, namely Israel Dentelski\u2019s mother, then Gordon\u2019s father would be Israel\u2019s\nbrother. But I never heard that Israel had any brother and \u201cDavid Dzieciolski\u201d\ndid not ring any bell!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am\nnot sure if it was a gut feeling or wishful thinking, but I immediately replied\nby email expressing my excitement and somewhat irresponsibly stated: \u201cI am sure\nI could fit in some more pieces of the puzzle for you, in particular as you\nindicated that your father lost contact with most of his family, and maybe some\nsurprises are waiting for you along the line\u201d. Practically, I did not really\nknow how to follow up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Luckily,\nGordon responded the following day, naturally, being much more skeptical than\nmyself. However, he provided some more details: That his father\u2019s name is Hersz\nHenryk Dzieciolski and that his father had a brother called Zigmond. He also\nmentioned that his father remembers having a cousin called Guta and one, Noah\nFeder, who he thinks was married to Ryvka, and that he also thinks that she was\nhis mother’s sister.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\nwere too many matches for this to be just a coincidence. However, while the\nnames of my mother, grandmother, and grandfather that Gordon mentioned indeed\nadded a level of confidence, there were still a few mismatches that had to be\nresolved. The name of Henryk\u2019s brother should have been Israel, not Zigmond, a\nname I did not recognize. Dzieciolski and Dentelski indeed sound similar but\nthey seemed to differ too much to consider a typo or just a distortion. I could\nnot remember Israel\u2019s father\u2019s name, though, so I figured if it turns out to be\nDavid, this one more match would nail it. But how could I find the name without\napproaching Israel\u2019s children? I felt it would be quite irresponsible on my\nbehalf to contact them and raise what may turn out to be false hopes about\nfinding a long-lost uncle!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After a\nrestless night, in the morning of which happened to be my mother\u2019s memorial\nanniversary, it came to me that I could find the name in the Hevra-Kadisha\nburial records, where they always register the name of the deceased person\nalong with his father\u2019s name. So, the first thing I did as I opened my computer\nat work that morning was to check Israel\u2019s burial record and, bingo, there it\nwas: \u201cIsrael son of David<\/em>\u201d!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was\nabout to meet Nahum that afternoon at my mother\u2019s memorial service, but I felt\nsomewhat uncomfortable to tell him about recent events before all the\nmismatches were resolved (an annoying aspect of me being an engineer,\napparently).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anyway,\nin the afternoon Nahum, myself, and a few other relatives gathered at the\ncemetery. While we were waiting for some other people to join, a cousin of mine\n(on my father\u2019s side) was chatting with Nahum about family history. I decided\nthat this was the right opportunity to try finding out what I needed. So, to\nstimulate Nahum, I asked him to tell me about the early history of his father\u2019s\nfamily, which I was not familiar with. Nahum did, and I could hardly believe my\nears: He told that his father had a brother who was lost during WWII and\ncontinued by stating that his father\u2019s surname was not originally Dentelski but\nrather something similar, which was too difficult for Russians to pronounce, so\nit was changed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nahum\nDentelski writes:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In May\n2009 I came to Netanya to attend the memorial service of \u201caunt Guta\u201d. After the\nservice I was about to hit the road but Noah insisted that before I leave I\nshould stop at his nearby home to have a cup of coffee. I accepted, and savored\nthe coffee, the excellent pastries made by Noah\u2019s wife, and the opportunity for\nsome relaxed small talk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While I\nwas relaxing, Noah suddenly said, and I remember it exactly: \u201cAre you sitting\ntight? There is a chance that your uncle Herschel, Israel\u2019s brother, is\nalive!\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was\nutterly shocked (when I described it to my family, I said that \u201cIf Noah would\nhave told me that Stalin is alive, I would not have been more surprised!\u201d).\nThen Noah showed me the letter he received from Scotland, signed by one Gordon\nDavidson (see above). Noah also told me about his short e-mail correspondence\nwith Gordon (described above) and suggested that I follow-up from this point on\nto further clarify the details.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In\norder to try and verify the unreasonable possibility that uncle Herschel is\nalive, I contacted Gordon by email. He was very skeptical. So much so, that in\none of his first responses he suggested that we may need to make DNA tests.\nThen Gordon sent me a recent photo of his father together with his daughter\n(Gordon\u2019s). When I saw the photo, I got the \u201cafter shock\u201d of the initial surprise\nof the revelation. Gordon\u2019s father\u2019s photo was almost an exact copy of my\ngrandfather David as I remembered him, and had a striking resemblance to my\nfather (see Figure 5).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Fig 5. Harry & Israel (21st century)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

All\nGordon\u2019s doubts immediately seemed completely irrelevant. What is there to\ndeliberate if I am looking at my grandfather\u2019s photo, which is actually my\nuncle\u2019s photo, Gordon\u2019s father, who is believed to have been killed in 1941, 68\nyears ago!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I sent\nHerschel\u2019s picture from Gordon to my children together with a question: \u201cWho\nknows this man?\u201d. The first one to reply was my youngest daughter, Yael, the\ngranddaughter of Israel, Herschel\u2019s brother. Her response says it all: \u201cSay,\ndad, grandpa is not dead<\/em>?\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At that\npoint I already had no doubt in my mind that my uncle Herschel was found.\nHowever, in order to be absolutely sure, I sent Gordon some photos that I had,\none showing grandmother Beile with her sisters (Figure 1), one showing my\nfather with Herschel and friends, and one in which Heschel is shown wearing a\nlong leather coat (Figure 6). Gordon indicated that he intended to visit his\nfather the coming weekend and to show him the pictures, so I\nfigured that uncle Herschel should, of course, recognize himself and his\nmother.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nexcitement in our family was enormous. My children, who grew up with the story\nof uncle Herschel who was killed in WWII, were stunned as well. My brother and\nsister soon joined the correspondence and, as the story unfolded, the subject\nbecame the \u201ctalk of the town\u201d among all family members and close friends. We\nhave always heard stories about family members who found each other after being\nseparated for decades, but for us to find ourselves at the focus of such a\nreunion after almost seventy years, was beyond imagination!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
Fig 6. Henryk, Israel, & friends
before WW II
(click image to enlarge)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Gordon\nDavidson (continues):<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well,\nafter establishing the contact with Noah, there was just one shock after\nanother, and to find out that some of father’s family had actually survived the\nwar, was absolutely astonishing and beyond my wildest dreams! Not only had his\nbrother and father survived the war, we actually had over seventy relatives\nliving in Israel!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I\nvisited my father to give him the news, he was actually so shocked he was\nspeechless! He just couldn’t believe it when I showed him photographs of\nhimself, which Nahum had sent me from Israel. The only disappointment was that\nhis brother hadn’t survived long enough to make it a perfect story. In fact, he\nsaid if his brother had still been alive, he would have immediately jumped on a\nplane and flown straight to Israel. As I further explained that he actually had\ntwo nephews and a niece with an extended family of around seventy relations, he\nwas overcome with emotion and we immediately started planning a trip to meet\nthem all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nnext stage was to break the news to my sister Margaret, in Australia, my\nbrother, Michael who lives in the south coast of England, and my brother, Brian\nwho lives in Ripon, which is also in England. I had compiled an email with the\nstory so far and attached the photographs that Nahum had sent. I called them\nindividually, and told them to pour themselves a strong drink and wait for my\nemail to arrive without telling them what it was about. Well, their reactions\nwere almost identical – they were completely \u201cgobsmacked\u201d! They just couldn’t\nbelieve what I had discovered and, like father, they were desperate to go to\nIsrael and meet everyone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nReunion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

During\nthe period when the story unfolded, coincidentally, Nahum, his brother Baruch,\nand his sister Ester were planning a family meeting including all Israeli\nmembers, which was scheduled for November when Israel Dentelski\u2019s memorial day\nwas due. In light of the exciting developments, naturally everybody was anxious\nto meet the new family members as soon as possible; it was suggested we also\ninvite the Davidsons to attend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, on\n28 October 2009 Harry Davidson (then 86 years old) and his children Margaret,\nMike, and Gordon, landed in Ben Gurion airport and were welcomed by Nahum and\nNoah. They stayed over a week during which they had several meetings with Nahum\nand Noah, in which Nahum and his newly found cousins tried to squeeze out of\nHarry as many details as possible about his past. Nahum drove the guests across\nthe country giving them a grand tour of Israel including, of course, a visit to\nIsrael Dentelski\u2019s grave to pay tribute. Noah took them on a guided tour of the\nYad Vashem museum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nThe climax of the visit was a reunion meeting of the extended family\nthat took place in a venue in Jerusalem, and which was extensively photographed\nand filmed. The attendees included the guests of honor, the Davidsons, and the\nDentelski and Isman families, including children and grandchildren. At the focus\nof the meeting were presentations given by Nahum and Noah telling the life\nstories of Harry, Israel, and Guta, as well as how the reunion came to be, all\nof which is told herein.   \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
Fig 7. The extended family
\n Jerusalem Reunion<\/span>
(click image to enlarge)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Nahum\nrecalls that, in one of his private conversations with his uncle Harry, after\nhe told him details about the life of his brother Israel, Nahum\u2019s father, Harry\nsaid (roughly): \u201cAll my life, after the war, I searched and tried to find out\nhow my family was annihilated, because I thought their fate was similar to many\nother Jews during WWII. Now, to see this huge crowd, all of whom are my\nbrother\u2019s descendants, is beyond imagination\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gordon\nindicated that the trip they made to Israel was the most amazing journey he has\never made, and that they were so impressed with their new family and the state\nof Israel that they couldn’t wait to plan their next trip!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nahum,\nNoah, and their spouses then visited Harry in Montrose in 2011 and Harry,\nMargaret, Mike, and Gordon visited Israel again in 2013.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Epilogue<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Harry\nDavidson passed away in Montrose on 19 May 2014. Harry had not felt comfortable\nmaking the story public and his feelings were respected. Now, as Harry is no\nlonger with us and it is the tenth anniversary of the reunion, all parties\ninvolved agreed that the story should be released. And, as Gordon summarized:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt is an absolutely\namazing story and thanks have to go to Noah’s mother for recording all the\ninformation in Yad Vashem and to JewishGen for maintaining their website.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

September 2020
Netanya, Israel

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Editor\u2019s Note:<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

From\nthe Archives of the JewishGen Discussion Group, a message from Gordon Davidson,\nJune 2, 2009:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\nwould just like to thank the JewishGen site for their fantastic work. Through\nthem and the help of Israel Pickholz in particular I have managed to contact\nsurvivors\u2019 relatives and discover what happened to direct relatives. I truly\ndidn’t expect anything, but thanks to this site I am now in contact with family\nI never knew existed. Keep up the good work!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gordon Davidson<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Research Notes and Hints<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Noah Isman enriched his success story by including sections\nwritten by his family members, Gordon Davidson and Nahum Dentelski.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Discovering the Pages of Testimony his mother had submitted to Yad Vashem<\/span><\/a> many years ago was Noah’s first step towards his successful\nresearch and family connections. The Pages of Testimony also proved to be key\nto Gordon Davidson’s research.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The breakthrough came for Gordon and\nhis father, Harry Davidson, when they searched on JewishGen for some of the\nfamily surnames Harry remembered from long ago. These names were listed on a\nnumber of JewishGen’s databases, giving the Davidson’s new avenues to research.\nYou can search your surnames on JewishGen’s Unified Search<\/span><\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gordon and Harry found helpful\ninformation in Jack Kagan’s book, Novogrudok: the\nhistory of a Jewish shtetl,<\/em> which is available in certain libraries\nand from booksellers. He also discovered the names of some family members\nlisted in Tilford Bartman\u2019s website, the Zabludow\nMemorial Website<\/span><\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Noah\ndiscovered family burial records listed on the Hevra-Kadisha<\/span><\/a>\nwebsite.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For more\ninformation regarding Zabludow<\/span><\/a>,\nsee Chosen Pages from the Zabludow Yiskor Book<\/em> on the JewishGen website.\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cMany people gathered at the border-crossing but the Russians did not let them pass. While they were waiting, and before Israel had a chance to find and join his father and brother, a German air raid started and the crowd dispersed, some running into a nearby forest and some exploiting the disorder to cross into the Russian zone. In the commotion David and Henryk lost each other, never to meet again.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":2683,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[63],"tags":[27,10,23,8,21,9,42],"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":"","source_text":"","source_url":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishgen.org\/jewishgen\/testimonials\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2662"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishgen.org\/jewishgen\/testimonials\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishgen.org\/jewishgen\/testimonials\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishgen.org\/jewishgen\/testimonials\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishgen.org\/jewishgen\/testimonials\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2662"}],"version-history":[{"count":69,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishgen.org\/jewishgen\/testimonials\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2662\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2899,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishgen.org\/jewishgen\/testimonials\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2662\/revisions\/2899"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishgen.org\/jewishgen\/testimonials\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2683"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishgen.org\/jewishgen\/testimonials\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2662"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishgen.org\/jewishgen\/testimonials\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2662"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishgen.org\/jewishgen\/testimonials\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2662"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}