A Family Journey Of Survival And Discovery
By Howard Jeruchimowitz, 3G Chicago
My paternal grandparents were from Lithuania and both survived the Holocaust in different camps through very different experiences. My grandfather died in Cuba before I was born, and my grandmother was very introspective about her experience until I was a teenager. I think she felt an urgency that came with aging, a need to make sure at least her family knew what happened to her and our extended family.
My interest in my grandmother’s experience really started in college when she began opening up. My father, stepmother, brother, and I decided to travel to Lithuania to retrace her past. We spent most of our trip in the towns where she was born and lived, then Vilnius where she studied before being forced into the Vilnius ghetto. We ended in Germany, where my grandmother was displaced after the war (rescued from a German U-Boat) and where my father was born. The discoveries we made while traveling pulled our family deeper into wanting to learn more.
After the trip, my father kept researching. We found amazing records that pieced our family history together. My father wasn’t comfortable being a public spokesperson for our history, but I wanted to take it further. To honor my grandparents’ and my father’s hard work, I started speaking through the Illinois Holocaust Museum as soon as I could.
Telling my grandparent’s story is an honor for me. But it’s also an obligation I feel to both of them, especially my grandmother. Her only surviving oral testimony started from our garbled interview years before and came into clearer focus through conversation, research, records, and that trip to her homeland. It’s my responsibility as her grandson to preserve that, not just for my family but for all the lost souls or survivors of the Holocaust. Speaking gives me that opportunity in a way that’s robust, public, and meaningful.
We’ll teach you how to share your grandparent’s story.