<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The stories were that Ernestina’s brother, Leon, was born in 1903 and was living in Paris after having returned from working on a tobacco farm in Havana, Cuba, for a year. Leon was a waiter. He was in a tuberculosis home. He married a woman from Warsaw, Poland, who was older than he was. Leon and possibly his wife visited two cousins, Malche Linker and Anna Meltzer, in Czernowitz, Romania. In 1944, one of Ernestina’s sons remembers his mother receiving a handwritten letter from her brother, Leon, from Paris. Another son remembers that his mother thought Leon had survived the Holocaust.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After\nreading Jan Meisels Allen’s post, I tried to determine how to search the Fonds\nde Moscou files. I learned that the files are in French, which would make the\ntask doubly difficult. A few days after Ms. Allen’s post, a JewishGen member,\nDavid Selig, posted on the discussion group that he would help others search\nthe Fonds de Moscou. I replied, asking for help in finding my paternal great-uncle,\nLeon Steckman. I provided the information above pertaining to France.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A\nfew days later I received a reply from David Choukroun, a colleague of David\nSelig, who searched the Fonds de Moscou and found a reference to Chaim\nSteckman. Mr. Choukroun said that the name Leon is a French variant of Chaim.\nAnother discussion group member contested this statement, but Mr. Choukroun\nsaid he had a personal example of this happening in his family. I decided to\nlet Mr. Choukroun pursue the search.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.jewishgen.org\/jewishgen\/testimonials\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/Habenstreit_05.jpg\")
<\/a>(click to enlarge)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
On\nFebruary 6, 2021, Mr. Choukroun sent me a scan of the files in the Fonds de\nMoscou pertaining to Chaim Steckman. The files showed that in March 1938 the\nFrench Ministry of the Interior began investigating Chaim Steckman because he\nhad not renewed his worker’s identity card. The files detail that Chaim\ncomplied with the French Legislation on Foreigners by renewing his worker’s\nidentity card until 1934, when he fell ill and was hospitalized in different\nsanatoriums for three years. Since he was unable to work, he was unable to\nrenew his worker’s card. The files also indicated that Chaim was born January\n11, 1905, in Lieckowice, Poland, the same shtetl where I had earlier learned\nhis sister, Ernestina, was born; that he had been living in Paris since 1924;\nthat he was living at 31 rue de la Goutte d’Or, in Paris; and that he did not\nhave the money to purchase a non-worker card, but was trying to get the money.\nIn early July 1938, the files indicate that a stay of deportation was granted,\npending further investigation, and Chaim was allowed to continue residing in\nParis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\nwas blown away by this information. While I had been waiting to hear from Mr.\nChoukroun, I reexamined my paternal grandmother’s family tree, which reminded\nme that Ernestina had a younger brother named Chaim, who was thought to have\nbeen born in 1905. None of the family stories passed down to me had ever\nmentioned Chaim, only Leon. I knew about Chaim because, in the 1980s, my\nfather\u2019s siblings had given me a Steckman family tree they had created based on\ninformational interviews they had with their mother, Ernestina \u2014 a tree that\nincluded Chaim. I realized that my paternal grandmother and her children may\nhave confused events in Leon’s life with events in Chaim’s life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
(l-r): Leon, Feiga n\u00e9e Breine Becker, Josef, & Chaim Itzik; 1911<\/b><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
On\nFebruary 8, 2021, Mr. Choukroun sent more information about Chaim, including\nChaim’s May 24, 1930, marriage record to Sara Nusbaum, confirming that Chaim\nwas indeed the brother of Ernestina! The marriage record states that Chaim was\na waiter, born in Liezkowce, Poland, on September 11, 1905, living at 54 rue\nOberkampf, Paris. His parent’s names were Joseph Steckman and Feiga Breine\nBecker (Ernestina’s parent’s names), both deceased. Chaim’s wife Sara was a\ndressmaker, born October 3, 1900, in Wegrow, Poland, to Aron Nusbaum and Chana\nRyfka Wienia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mr.\nChoukroun also found Sara and Chaim Steckman living together at 54 rue\nOberkampf in the 1931 Paris Census and found Sara Steckman living alone at 18\nGoutte d’Or in the 1936 Paris Census. Sara was likely living alone in 1936\nbecause her husband, Chaim, was being treated for tuberculosis in sanatoriums\nfrom 1934-1937, as noted in the Fonds de Moscou records.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/a>18 Goutte d’Or<\/b>
(click to enlarge)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
Sadly, Mr. Choukroun searched the Memorial de la Shoah Mus\u00e9e in Paris and found that Sarah \u201cStecheman,\u201d a dressmaker, living at 31 rue de la Goutte d’Or, Paris, born October 30, 1900, in Wiagrow, Poland, was deported from the Drancy Transit Camp[3]<\/sup> in the suburbs of Paris to Auschwitz on July 29, 1942. No records were found at the Memorial de la Shoah Mus\u00e9e of Chaim Steckman. I emailed Mr. Choukroun a 1930 photo of Chaim I had obtained from my father\u2019s sister. Mr. Choukroun sent the photo to the Memorial de la Shoah Mus\u00e9e. The Mus\u00e9e is uploading Chaim’s photo to their website and making it visible in their reading room. I am very grateful to the Mus\u00e9e for preserving the memory of the victims of the Shoah, including Chaim Steckman and Sara Nusbaum Steckman. On\nFebruary 13, Mr. Choukroun searched the French Archives Nationales and found an\nindex card with Chaim Steckman’s name on it in a large box of index cards. The\nindex card may indicate that other papers, such as a copy of a passport, work\npermit, or identification card, exist. The French National archivist directed\nMr. Choukroun to the Archives de la Prefecture de Police de Paris in the\nArrondissement where Chaim lived. This Police Archive holds records about\nindividuals who had issues with the police, but also about the Drancy Transit\nCamp. <\/p>\n\n\n\n On March 10, 2021, Mr. Choukroun went to the Prefecture de Police archives center. He found a file on Chaim Steckman and one on Sara Nusbaum Steckman. Neither file provided any new revelations, except to demonstrate the heartlessness of the French under the German occupation authorities. Before being deported to the Drancy Transit Camp on July 16, 1942, Sara, along with other Jewish women, had to sign a \u201cStatement of Sums and Jewels Deposited or Confiscated,\u201d listing the amount of money taken from each of them. The money was deposited into a French bank \u2014 the Banque des Depots et Consignations \u2014 supposedly to pay state taxes and other expenses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I cannot express how grateful I am to JewishGen.org for providing armchair genealogists, like myself, with a wide variety of resources and help in finding their long-lost ancestors. At times, it seems nearly impossible to find information about my paternal grandparents and their families. With persistence, luck, and JewishGen’s and David Choukroun’s assistance, a brick wall built nearly 100 years ago, has collapsed and the secrets behind it are being revealed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In my\nmany years of genealogical research, I have experienced bittersweet moments\nwhen finding long-sought information has made me profoundly happy, while at the\nsame time made me profoundly sad to learn the truth of another human being\u2019s\nlife and death. My genealogical research has provided me with a window into the\nlives of my ancestors \u2014 their successes and failures, their happy moments and\ntheir suffering. It has brought me closer to them. I feel that I am their\nspokesperson. I am telling their story for them, which they were unable to tell\nthemselves. Their lives are a microcosm of the era in which they lived.\n\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n For\nmy great-uncle and his wife, the prejudice, hate, abuse, and annihilation that\nthey suffered during World War II is one story out of the six million stories\nof the Jewish people\u2019s suffering. Maybe this story will make a difference.\nMaybe the lessons of World War II will not be repeated. Unfortunately, I fear\nthat humanity is doomed to repeat the past over and over again. I pray I am\nwrong.<\/p>\n\n\n\n April\n2021 [1]<\/sup> The Fonds de Moscou contains surveillance information gathered by the French government, police, and military about a wide variety of people \u2014 French nationals, foreign nationals, anarchists, militants, spies, Jews \u2014 residing in France between World War I and World War II (1918-1940). When Nazi Germany invaded Paris on June 14, 1940, the Nazis seized the surveillance information and used it against the people investigated. After the allies repatriated France on August 25, 1944, the former Soviet Union took the French surveillance information. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, the French negotiated the information\u2019s return. <\/p>\n\n\n\n [2]<\/sup> According to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Holocaust Encyclopedia, \u201cDuring the interwar period, France was one of the more liberal countries in welcoming Jewish immigrants, many of them from eastern Europe. After World War I, thousands of Jews viewed France as a European land of equality and opportunity and helped to make its capital, Paris, a thriving center of Jewish cultural life. In the 1930s, however, unnerved by a significant influx of refugees fleeing Nazi Germany and the Spanish Civil War, the leaders of the French Third Republic (1870-1940) began to reassess this \u2018open-door\u2019 policy. By 1939 French authorities had imposed strict limitations on immigration and set up a number of internment and detention camps for refugees\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n [3]<\/sup> According to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Holocaust\nEncyclopedia, \u201cThe Drancy camp\u2026 was established by the Germans in August 1941\nas an internment camp for foreign Jews in France. It later became the major\ntransit camp for the deportations of Jews from France… The camp was a\nmultistory U-shaped building that had served as a police barracks before the\nwar. Barbed wire surrounded the building and its courtyard\u2026 During the summer\nof 1942, the Germans began systematic deportations of Jews from Drancy to\nkilling centers in occupied Poland\u2026 Altogether, between that first transport\nand the last, on July 31, 1944, 64,759 Jews were deported from Drancy…\nApproximately 61,000 of these Jews were sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n Linda Habenstreit learned about the Fonds de Moscou from a\nposting on the JewishGen Discussion\nGroup<\/strong>. Through the Discussion Group, she also connected with a researcher\nin France who assisted her in her research. If you are not already a member of\nthe Discussion Group, we urge you to join so that you can ask your questions\nand share information with other members. Join the Group by clicking here<\/a>\nor clicking the \u201cConnect\u201d button on the homepage of the JewishGen\nWebsite<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For more information about the Fonds de Moscou<\/strong>, see the article from 3 January 2021 in The French Genealogy Blog<\/a> and the Fonds de Moscou Search Guide<\/a> on the French Archives Nationales website.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Other resources helpful to Linda included the Memorial de la Shoah <\/a>Mus\u00e9e in Paris, the Archives de la Prefecture de Police<\/a> de Paris, and the French Archives Nationales<\/a>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" “My genealogical research has provided me with a window into the lives of my ancestors \u2014 their successes and failures, their happy moments and their suffering. It has brought me closer to them. I feel that I am their spokesperson. I am telling their story for them, which they were unable to tell themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":2840,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[65,29],"tags":[38,8,66],"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":"Chaim Isaac Steckman, Paris, France, 1930","source_text":"","source_url":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishgen.org\/jewishgen\/testimonials\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2823"}],"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=2823"}],"version-history":[{"count":33,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishgen.org\/jewishgen\/testimonials\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2823\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2897,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishgen.org\/jewishgen\/testimonials\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2823\/revisions\/2897"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishgen.org\/jewishgen\/testimonials\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2840"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishgen.org\/jewishgen\/testimonials\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2823"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishgen.org\/jewishgen\/testimonials\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2823"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishgen.org\/jewishgen\/testimonials\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2823"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/a>
(click to enlarge)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
\nSpringfield,\nVirginia, USA<\/p>\n\n\n\n_____________
FOOTNOTES<\/b><\/h5>\n\n\n\nResearch Notes and Hints<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n