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Today I will write about a new discovery I made while searching for photographs in the Yad Vashem web site.
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היום אני מתארת מה גיליתי באתר של יד ושם. גיליתי תמונה של אחות של אמא שלי מלכה אלקיס (טאוב) ותמונה של בנה ישראל אברהם אלקיס. התמונות מ1940. שניהם וגם בעלה כנראה נספו בשואה. עד עכשיו לא היה לנו אף תמונה ברורה ושום מידע.
While searching for pictures of my Uncle Sam's first wife and daughter, who died in the holocaust, I came across something very interesting. As I wrote in a previous post, my mother Yitke, had an older sister, Malka. This sister did not come to America with the rest of the family in World War 2. My mother told both me and my sister that she was run over by a horse or a trolly (my sister remembers a trolly, I remember a horse). The only picture we had was a very small, unclear photo with her name written on the back.
I found out more information from my sister's neighbor who has alot of knowledge about our family. He found the name of Malka's husband and child, Shimon and Israel Elkis written in a book.
Today I discovered to my astonishment a very clear picture of
Malka in the Yad Vashem archives. Her name was written as Manya Taub Elkes and was attached to an application for a rescue passport. The same address is written on the Malka's picture as well as Aydel and Dvora Taub's picture, Nalewki No.42, Apt. 8a, Warsaw. I don't know if that's where they lived or if it's the address of the photographer. My mother told me that Sam's wife, Aydel and daughter Dvora, lived with a Polish family until they were told there was a way they could get passports and come to America. This took them out of hiding but in reality, the passports were never given and they were sent to a concentration camp. The fact that these pictures were attached to passport applications seems to fit with what my mother told me. But it seems that it was also true for my mother's sister Malka and her son as well.
On the right is a picture of Aydel Taub - Rotenberg and her daughter Dvora Kina.
There are still a lot of unanswered questions regarding Malka. How did the pictures get to Yad Vashem. What exactly happened to Malka, her husband and her son. Why did my mother say she died in an accident (Maybe that's what she was told). But at least we have a clear pictures of Malka and her son and quite possibly she was together with her sister-in-law Aydel and her niece Dvora Kina.
In the Yad Vashem archives it says that the pictures were submitted by "A. Silberschein (Relico) Geneva". I found, by searching the internet that relico stands for relief committee and that it was organized by A. Silberschein in order to save jews during the holocaust. Here are the details I found in the below web site.
http://www.iwm.org.uk/server/show/nav.22845
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RELICO, short for ‘Relief Committee’, was founded in Geneva in 1939 by Dr Abraham Silberschein. Funded mainly by the World Jewish Congress, it tried to aid Jews in Nazi-occupied Europe. Silberschein managed to secure the release of a number of Jews from German concentration camps by finding immigration routes for them to Bolivia and Palestine. RELICO co-operated with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), with consuls of occupied countries in Geneva, and with the Catholic and Protestant Churches. Its widespread network of contacts allowed RELICO to transmit information and to send food and medicine to Jews in need.
In 1942 Silberschein became involved in a new plan to rescue Polish Jews. Certain Latin American countries extended citizenship to anyone who owned land in their country, so RELICO bought parcels of land in the names of Polish Jews. In return, the governments issued promesas – promises to issue passports on receipt of the necessary documentation. By coincidence, the German Foreign Office had in the meantime initiated the Exchange Action and the Repatriation Action (see Netherlands), reopening the possibility of emigration.
Silberschein sent thousands of these promesas to contacts in Warsaw, but by then most intended recipients were already dead. The Gestapo intercepted the documents and let it be known that, for a price, they would sell them to anyone who came forward. The offer lured about 2,500 Jews out of hiding. Most were transported to holding camps at Vittel in France or Bergen-Belsen, but the countries that had issued promesas now said that the passport applications they received were forgeries and refused to honour them. Those refused were then deported to Auschwitz and killed. The only survivors were 200 Jews with immigration certificates for Palestine from the British government, which turned a blind eye to the forgeries.
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RELICO, short for ‘Relief Committee’, was founded in Geneva in 1939 by Dr Abraham Silberschein. Funded mainly by the World Jewish Congress, it tried to aid Jews in Nazi-occupied Europe. Silberschein managed to secure the release of a number of Jews from German concentration camps by finding immigration routes for them to Bolivia and Palestine. RELICO co-operated with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), with consuls of occupied countries in Geneva, and with the Catholic and Protestant Churches. Its widespread network of contacts allowed RELICO to transmit information and to send food and medicine to Jews in need.
In 1942 Silberschein became involved in a new plan to rescue Polish Jews. Certain Latin American countries extended citizenship to anyone who owned land in their country, so RELICO bought parcels of land in the names of Polish Jews. In return, the governments issued promesas – promises to issue passports on receipt of the necessary documentation. By coincidence, the German Foreign Office had in the meantime initiated the Exchange Action and the Repatriation Action (see Netherlands), reopening the possibility of emigration.
Silberschein sent thousands of these promesas to contacts in Warsaw, but by then most intended recipients were already dead. The Gestapo intercepted the documents and let it be known that, for a price, they would sell them to anyone who came forward. The offer lured about 2,500 Jews out of hiding. Most were transported to holding camps at Vittel in France or Bergen-Belsen, but the countries that had issued promesas now said that the passport applications they received were forgeries and refused to honour them. Those refused were then deported to Auschwitz and killed. The only survivors were 200 Jews with immigration certificates for Palestine from the British government, which turned a blind eye to the forgeries.
On the back of the pictures the address Nalewki 42, Ap 8a, Warsaw and the date 1940
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