Special Thanks to...
First I would like to thank my Great Grand Mother Bubbie Roz for helping me learn about our past and our traditions. It took a lot of courage to recall such a painful part of your history and I am so grateful to learn all about Zaidy Sam's family and especially about Elyah.
I would also like to thank my Mom for helping me with all of the research and encouraging and supporting me throughout this project.
I would also like to thank my Dad, my Bubbie Bibi, Zaidy Hersh, Zaida Sol, Bubbie Brenda (a"h) and Zaidy Morry for playing such a large role in my Jewish life and education and for always being there for me.
Please check out the section below for more acknowledgements and for links to other informative websites.
- Zach
Links to Other Great Websites
Websites about Jewish Past in Dabrowa Bialostocka
https://dabrowabial.pl/EN Reading the Ashes
A website created and maintained by current residents of Dabrowa. It's important to note that there are no longer any Jews living in Dabrowa Bialostocka and there hasn't been since the Holocaust. These individuals have taken it upon themselves to make sure that future generations know about their past Jewish Community. My Mom wrote to them to ask about information on our family and they posted it on this site. There is an inspirational woman from Dabrowa who's name is Dorota Budzińska. She is a teacher who teaches her students about the Holocaust and the Jewish Community from Dabrowa. Every year the town commemorates the Holocaust on their "Day of Judaism." Dorota makes sure that the Jewish Cemetary is always maintained with her students. On this day, the people of Dabrowa all go to the Cemetary and each student has a list of Jewish Holocaust victims names which they read out. Dorota has now added our family names to this list so that they can be remembered. I highly recommend also visiting this link to learn more about her:
https://dabrowabial.pl/school-of-dialogue-s5818
https://www.jewishbialystok.pl/dabrowa-bialostocka,5428.htm Jewish Bialystock
https://www.jewishgen.org/YIZKOR/DABROWA_BIALOSTOCKA/DABROWA_BIALOSTOCKA.HTML
Dubrova: Memorial to a Shtetle by Michael Nevins
Special Thanks to Michael Nevins who wrote a very detailed and informative memorial book to Dabrowa- the town of his Grand Parents. He also responded to my mom's many emails which helped us a lot. Many of the photos on this website come from his book. It's all thanks to Dr. Nevins that we even know about what happened to the people of Dabrowa because there are no longer any records from this time period that exist today.
https://sztetl.org.pl/en/towns/d/1040-dabrowa-bialostocka Shtetl.org
This site is all about the Shtetl's (Jewish Villages) in Poland. You can look up Dabrowa Bialostocka and learn about their history.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9dBEfzFelH98OSl_RES-8A Jewish Bialystock Youtube Channel
This is the Youtube Channel maintained by the people who run the Jewish Bialystock webiste. Lot's of interesting videos.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xl_bW-sbnvw&t=464s Absent Family
This is a great film shot and directed by a man name Tomek Wisniewski. He helped my mom so much when we were trying to learn about Elyah. He made this film in 2016. He interviewed Poles (who are not Jewish) from Dabrowa who survived the Holocaust. They retold their life stories from this time focusing on the vibrant Jewish life in their town. They made sure to mention names whenever they could. Now, Tomek is going back to these individuals to ask ask them if they remember anything about our family. He has also photographed and filmed every Matzevah in the Jewish Cemeteries of Dabrowa and has posted them online for genealogical purposes.
Websites about the Holocaust
https://www.yadvashem.org/ Yad Vashem (Translated to "A Memory and a Name.")
This is the website from the Holocaust Museum in Israel.
https://www.ushmm.org/ The United States Holocaust Museum
This is the webiste from the Holocaust Museum in Washington, USA
https://pamiectreblinki.pl/en/ In Memory of Treblinka
All about the Nazi killing site Treblinka.
http://holocaustchronicle.org/index.html The Holocaust Chronicles
Based on the huge coffee table book the Holocaust Chronicles. My mom has the book and now it's completely online. Lots of information. Proceeds of the sale of these books went to further Holocaust research.
I also recommend to follow The Auschwitz Museum on Facebook or Twitter. They post personal information and memorials to the Camps victims, survivors and heroes a few times a day every day. They also work very hard to make sure that information about the Holocaust online is always correct.
Websites About Canadian Immigration and Jewish Life in Canada
https://pier21.ca/home/ Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21
This is the pier (In Halifax, Nova Scotia) that my Great Great Grandfather and his sisters arrived at when they immigrated to Canada. A woman named Cara MacDonald helped us so much in understanding what the immigration policies were like in Canada in the 1930's and how that affected our family. She also helped my mom locate my Zaidy Sam's immigration file and Naturalization records and how she can do the same for his sisters.
http://www.cjarchives.ca/en/ Canadian Jewish Archives
Located in Montreal, this site gave us a lot of information about our families live in Montreal. A woman named Janis Rosen was so extremely helpful in trying to discover if our family tried to sponsor Elyah to come to Canada and the difficulties the probably had. She also located immigration files through JIAS for Tsivia's Husband Isaac Star.