Tag: Goldstein
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The OTHER other Sol Goldstein (not the gangster, not my grandfather…)
THIS Sol was one of the few Goldsztern family members to survive the Shoah. My grandfather Sol told me that his brother Yudel Moshe’s son Sol had immigrated to Palestine in about 1936 and that he later came to the US. My cousins Sharon Suckman Kimelstein, Lorraine Eisner Fitelson and Maxine Eisner Pollack remembered hearing […]
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Cousin Solly and the “Kiss of Death Girl”
Hit-man for Murder, Inc…wanted to go straight… killed and thrown into a lake: the family legend turns out to be true. Solly (Solomon) Goldstein was the the fourth of five children born in the US to my father’s Uncle Shimon (Sam). Born in about 1913 in New York City, he was 23 or 24 years […]
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Surprise! Uncle Shimon Goldstein Hands Us a Mystery
From knowing next to nothing about this branch of the family, details – one rather astonishing – are now being discovered. To remind you, Uncle Shimon is the older brother of my grandfather Sol Goldstein. Their parents were Berl Fayvel Goldsztern and Yocheved Rozenzumen. Along with Sol, he and his brother Meyer were the only […]
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Finding Uncle Shimon Goldstein
Shimon was the first Goldstein (Goldshtern) to arrive in the US and has proven to be elusive, until now. All my father Isadore could tell me was that he was a house painter, had at least two children and divorced his wife Gittel because “she was a nag.” Though my father and his father Sol […]
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Mollie Speaks: An Unexpected Gift
I doubt that any news outlet could publish a suicide note today; journalism standards in the 1920’s seem to have been much looser and privacy not a consideration at all. Recently, I searched in Newspapers.com for “Mollie Goldstein in 1926 in Brooklyn, NY,” hoping to find an obituary. Instead, the very first hit was an […]
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Surviving the Holocaust: Before, During and After
The gates of memory opened for Pnina Goldsztern Shaufer (Perla) when I first spoke with her in October 2019, flooding her with memories and details of her young life in Poland. Based on conversations with her and her brother Shraga (Fayvel), I have pieced together this story of their family’s life in Poland before World […]
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Finding the Surviving Goldstein’s
Finding Goldstein cousins who survived the Holocaust is the highlight and most gratifying success of my genealogical research. Here’s how it happened: Clue Number 1: Grandpa Sol Goldstein had told me that the family name in Poland was “Goldshtern” (Goldsztern in Polish). The name was written as “Goldstein” on his brother Shimon’s ship manifest in […]
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“What Did You Do in the War, Daddy?”
My father never said one word about Gardelegen and the atrocity he witnessed there. Some secrets are taken to the grave and lost forever, but this one is hidden no longer. When my mother died, seven months after my father’s death, I inherited their photos albums. They included carefully labelled pictures from my father’s army […]
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Our Friendly Fourth Cousins in Haifa
Family in Israel! Finally, genealogical research has revealed some connections! Bruce and I had been invited to spend our second Shabbat in Israel this past February with our Rozenzumen cousins in Haifa, Yosi and Nitza Ben-Dov, staying over on Friday night in their home. Here’s a reminder of how we are related: My great-grandmother was […]
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The Creation & Destruction of Uszer (Asher) Goldsztern’s Family
The three children of Berl Fayvel Goldsztern and Yocheved Rozenzumen who stayed in Poland rather than emigrating were destined for annihilation by the Nazis. This post focuses on Uszer (Asher) Goldsztern and his family. Uszer was one of the middle children of Berl Fayvel Goldsztern and Yocheved Rozenzumen. He was born in 1881 in Terespol […]