Photoessay #2822 - A search for six in six million

I've finished the book "The Lost".  Significant from memoir and genealogy viewpoints.  He skillfully weaves his story, teasing you that he's going to find something else.  Quite a bit of torah commentary, while interesting, I found distracting.

The author searches to find out what happened to his great uncle along with his wife and 'four beautiful daughters' in a small Polish town occupied by the Nazis in 1941.  The Jews with the best outcome were the ones who withdrew with the Soviet troops as the Germans took over.  Still their fate was not so great as many were deported and perished in Siberia.  The second group of Jews that made it hid, they hid quietly in dark places.  The author finds out that his great uncle and oldest daughter hid in a terrible creepy hole shown in the house in the picture above.  To add to the creepiness, the house, now decrepid, was inhabited with deteriorating alcohols and drug users.

Five years before, he had decided to really find out what happened to great uncle and his family.  More than he could glean from online information and family stories.  He knew time was short as the survivors were now elderly.  

He travels all over the world to visit those who actually knew his great uncle, to Israel, Australia, Scandinavia and, of course, Poland.  He closely interviewed them and the story progressed from

"The Nazis killed them all."

to

The all died but it was complicated.  The information he received was complex and contradictory.  Those in touch with his great uncle couldn't even identify the daughters or know how many daughters there were.  Had they been betrayed?  Was one of the daughters pregnant?  Some hid information (such as family members which were part of the Jewish police),  Some misled him.  By the end, the author had despaired of really finding out what had happened during those occupation years.  One thing for sure, it was all not good.

Finally by returning to the small town and, with an interpreter, really asking around, he found this underground hole that Shmiel (the great uncle) and his oldest daughter (Frydka) had hidden but were betrayed by someone.  All involved were killed, some shot on the spot and some hanged in the nearest town.

Several things struck me from this book

a. how the Nazis demoralized and broke down the population before dragging them off to the cemetery to be shot or stuffed on a cattle car to be gassed.  Often they would assemble the victims in a public square, terrorize them with plenty of random shootings and sadistic brutal acts, keep them there for several days, no food, no water, often their clothese were taken away, no toilet facilities.  By the end you are so disoriented and terrorized, hungry thirsty, maybe soiled with your own urine and excrement.  You've seen your family and friends shot right in front of you.  You are so broken down, you have no reistance left.

b. how it was so complicated. Yes, the Nazis are always the bad guys and the Jews ended up deaed.  But it often isn't that simple or straightforward.  The persecuted people, without complete information or advocates, tried everything, acted desperately.  And nobody can remember exactly how it all came down even for these six.

Another piece of the story, though not maybe in this exact area was the recent forced famine in the Ukraine, not far away in 1932-3.  As many people died here as in the Holocaust.  Stalin, in order to rid himself of the nationalist Ukrainians deprived a large area of all food.  Everything they harvested was taken away.  You were shot if you looked at all healthy.  The soviet police made sure no food was available to anybody.  Millions starved.