Autumn 2001

GENEALOGY PROJECT
Summertime. Jewish tourists with Polish roots flock to Warsaw to search the archives of The Ronald S. Lauder Foundation Genealogy Project.

Among the visitors were two Maryland women, Beatrice – a Holocaust survivor– and her daughter Diane, a "Yankee" visiting the ancestral home. As is all too often the case, Beatrice was a "sole survivor." Though her family was lost in the Holocaust, she had survived to bear a new generation.
Research archivist Anna Przybyszewska welcomed the women and listened to their story. Using recently computerized indices of the Warsaw Jewish Committee (1945-1946), she quickly located a record with the same unusual surname. It seemed a family member had
survived!

Further research showed that this other "sole survivor" – Lea – had worked at the Otwock orphanage. Community archives showed that after the war she was sent by TOZ (Jewish Health Care) to Geneva for training, but then the trail went cold.The women left with promises of further research and the knowledge that cousin Lea had survived.

As luck or providence would have it (the "bashert factor," we often say), the Project then received an update from the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum’s survivor list. Lea G. was freshly registered!

Anna informed Diane that the museum could locate Lea. Within days, the museum confirmed Lea’s married name and offered to forward a letter. But having already waited impatiently, Diane and Beatrice decided to launch an Internet search. They found 18 people with Lea’s married surname. But only one Lea.
With eager anticipation the phone call was made:
"Hello. Is this Lea G.?" "Yes," replied a woman, puzzled at hearing her maiden name. "Well, this is Beatrice G." In the ensuing excitement, the women confirmed their ties. The survivors were "sole" no more.
A reunion is planned for autumn. Diane writes: "This is all truly amazing, do you agree?" Diane, we agree.

Yale Reisner

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