One of the things that always disturbed me, on that original family tree, were all the places where the line ended abruptly. A single name, nothing more, and the notation, “D 1941.” My great-grandfather and my great-grandmother–on the sheet they are the ones who made it out, Abe and Yetta–were from the same town in Latvia, Varaklani<\/a> (spelled oh-so-many ways, but that is the current spelling). In 1897, Jews made up 75% of the population in the town. Today, as I understand it, there is a single Jewish family still living there. On my great-grandmother’s side, there were as many “dead ends” on the family tree. Yad Vashem, the Holocaust memorial in Israel, keeps a record of all who have perished. Survivors post Pages of Testimony of those who were killed. Page after page of my Varaklani relatives reads a variation of the same: “1941 Shot by Germans.”<\/p>\n Today is Yom HaShoah<\/a>–Holocaust Remembrance Day. The day that Jewish people recall the lives of those who were lost. Now that I know so many of the names, now that I see how much of my family died, I feel a need to speak their names, to let the world know that they are remembered. My family, at least the ones I know about:<\/p>\n Killed in Varaklani: Killed in Kobryn, Belarus<\/a> (read “From an Eyewitness”): Killed in a camp after being sent from Suwalki to Biala Podlaska<\/a> I know I will uncover more names on my family tree, more dead ends. I worry about the day that no one remembers those who were killed, when the survivors are all gone, and the Holocaust is merely an entry in a history book. We need to remember them all–those who were strong and fought (these photos<\/a> are particularly moving) and those who were strong and lost. My family.<\/p>\n We must remember. Never again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" People who know me outside of this blog know that I’m obsessed–and obsessed is an understatement here–with genealogy. I’ve let it take over a huge portion of my life, as I’m able to chalk it up to “research.” As someone who is interested in writing about different periods of time, I’m using what I find […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[87,116,9],"class_list":["post-2270","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-family","tag-genealogy","tag-jewish"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jennyandadam.com\/Jenny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2270","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jennyandadam.com\/Jenny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jennyandadam.com\/Jenny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jennyandadam.com\/Jenny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jennyandadam.com\/Jenny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2270"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jennyandadam.com\/Jenny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2270\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jennyandadam.com\/Jenny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2270"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jennyandadam.com\/Jenny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2270"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jennyandadam.com\/Jenny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2270"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n![\"Tree\"](\"https:\/\/www.jennyandadam.com\/Jenny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/Tree-216x300.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"David](\"https:\/\/www.jennyandadam.com\/Jenny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/David-Daragoi-212x300.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n
\nMy great-great grandfather, Youssel Tania Kapelovich, 1848-1941
\nMy great-great grandmother, Tania Raiza Kapelovich, ?-1941
\nLazer Kapelovich, 1889-1941
\nLea-Mara Kapelovich, 1882-1941
\nMana Kapelovich, 1920-1942 (in Leningrad)
\nPeretz Kapelovich 1922-1941
\nRachel Kapelovich, 1924-1941
\nMoshe Kapelovich, 1926-1941
\nLea Racha Kapelovich, 1930-1941
\nRiva Kapelovich, 1886-1941
\nPesse Kapelovich Gudman, 1881-1941
\nMicha Shana Kapelovich Dimant, ?-1941
\nDavid Dimant, ?-1941
\nItzick Dimant, ?-1941
\nPeretz Dimant, ?-1941
\nTirza Dimant, ?-1941
\nSara Dimant, 1877-1941
\nReuven Kapelovich, 1896-1941
\nRiva Kapelovich, ?-1941
\nLabe Kopelovitz, ?-1941
\nMufsha Kopelovitz, ?-1941
\nYankel Kopelovitz, ?-1941
\nBenzion Dorogoi, 1857-1941
\nEnta Vainer Dorogoi, 1864-1941
\nChaya Leah Dorogoi Jucha, 1891-1941
\nMordechai Leib Jucha, 1886-1941
\nSymcha David Jucha, 1924-1941
\nDavid Dorogoi, 1901-1941
\nRajzia Dorogoi, 1905-1941
\nBaruch Dorogoi, 1907-1941
\nYentke Dorogoi, 1935-1941
\nMikhail Dorogoi, 1936-1941<\/p>\n
\nmy great-great grandfather, Yitzak Leder 1862-1941
\nhis second wife, Sarah Feignbaum Leder
\nhis children (from both his marriages):
\nVelvel Leder
\nChaya Leder
\nLeah Leder
\nMiriam Leder
\nPinchas Leader<\/p>\n
\nMy great-great grandfather, Chaim Brennholz, 1864-194?
\nYaacob Brenholc, who was the coach of the Maccabee’s soccer team in Suwalki, Poland, perished in the Holocaust, but we don’t know where or when.<\/p>\n