... Gdansk, in Poland. Formerly the German Free State of Danzig and one of the ancient Hanseatic towns.
His father left in April 1939 intending to go to the United States, but never made it further than England. We think it is probable that he would have attended the last service held in the Great Synagogue on April 15th. The Synagogue was then sold to the Nazis and destroyed. Almost the entire Jewish community was evacuated from the city, although for the many who went to Poland (including Tevye's grandmother and one of his uncles) it simply postponed the consequences of being a Jew under the Nazis. Others went to the US, the UK or - often illegally - to Israel.
Wednesday, April 04, 2007
Tevye is visiting ...
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2 comments:
I was very curious!
There is a research group for Danzig/Gdansk Jewish genealogy, the JewishGen Danzig/Gdansk Special Interest Group (SIG) at http://www.jewishgen.org/danzig . If you want to know whether Tevye's father attended the last service, please post an inquiry to our mailing list and/or contact the SIG Coordinator. We would also love to have your help on our genealogical data projects.
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