I never thought about visiting Poland. Paris, yes, but not Poland. I didn’t know anything about Poland except my maternal grandparents immigrated from Lublin, Poland in the early 1920s. Since they passed away before I was born, I knew little about their life there. That was about to change.
In November 2016 I received this Facebook message.
“Dear Pola, My name is Jackie Schwarz and I live in Antwerp. I am a researcher and am busy with a project between Jewish Lublin Families that passed through Antwerp. I have a Krimholc family and looking up on YVS found testimony left by Mary Zenitsky. I wanted to add info I have in case there is a family tree. I have a few photos that I have taken in the archives. I am supposing that you are her daughter, but may be wrong, if so sorry for the inconvenience. Kind regards Jackie Schwarz”
What did she know? I responded to Jackie to please forward information to me and my brother via email.
Soon after, I received this photo of my grandmother. It was her Antwerp ID photo taken in 1922. Jackie and a Lublin based organization, Grodzka Gate Theater NN were hoping to identify Jewish individuals born in Lublin who passed through Antwep before 1930 and lived there long enough to register with the city.
My grandmother's given name is Pola. Pesa is her Yiddish name. Then I received more photos of other relatives living in Antwerp.
The records Jackie later forwarded showed my grandfather, Szol, arrived in Antwerp in 1920, leaving Pola and their two young children, Ita (Yetta) and David in Lublin. Szol left Antwerp shortly after to sail to the United States. Pola and her children, her parents, Sura and Abraham, and her brother Chaim and his wife Rachel, arrived in Antwerp in 1921. The following year, Pola and her children sailed on the Minnedosa from Antwerp, arriving in Quebec, Canada on July 2, 1922 to join my grandfather in Kansas City leaving her parents and nine siblings behind in Europe.
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| Sura Matel, my great grandmother |
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| Chaim Krymholz, my great uncle |
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| Rachel Krymholz, nee Blat, Chaim's wife |
The records Jackie later forwarded showed my grandfather, Szol, arrived in Antwerp in 1920, leaving Pola and their two young children, Ita (Yetta) and David in Lublin. Szol left Antwerp shortly after to sail to the United States. Pola and her children, her parents, Sura and Abraham, and her brother Chaim and his wife Rachel, arrived in Antwerp in 1921. The following year, Pola and her children sailed on the Minnedosa from Antwerp, arriving in Quebec, Canada on July 2, 1922 to join my grandfather in Kansas City leaving her parents and nine siblings behind in Europe.
I can see your mother in your grandmother's picture! What a lovely journey
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