It all started on a Facebook group I belong to: A posted photo of a Holocaust victim who had committed suicide rather than be captured by the Nazis led to a larger discussion of the topic. Somehow, I hadn't realized that many Jewish women and men took their lives, either to avoid being taken or to end their suffering at the death camps. I commented that I didn't know
Tarnow
Family History Writing Challenge, Day 8: When Ezriel Met Ernestyna
It turns out Ezriel Kornmehl married well. Mazel tov. His wife, the former Ernestyna Karp, didn't do too badly either. The History of the Jews of Jaslo says of the couple: [Ezriel] was the son in law of Mordechai Karp and a doctor. He was the only Jewish doctor to work for the general governmental health insurance office in the city. He was well regarded and respected by
Family History Writing Challenge, Day 4: Researcher Bait
If you're at all familiar with genealogy, you've heard the term "cousin bait": information posted expressly to attract relatives. This blog seems to attract relatives without my having had to deliberately create a particular type of post -- Jessica Klein Levenbrown was only the most recent -- and that's a wonderful thing. But I had a feeling in the back of my mind that if I
Family History Writing Challenge, Day 3: Finding Ezriel, Part 1
I decided I would start with a profile of Ezriel for this challenge because he is the older of the two Kornmehls I plan to focus on -- and also because I am waiting for permission to reproduce a document relating to Viktor. But I realized that my information about Ezriel is far sketchier than what I have about Viktor, requiring more blanks to be filled in. I also realized --
Shtetl Snobbery: Unearthing My Jewish Roots, 1
Exactly one year ago, on December 27, 2011, I learned that the butcher shop of my great uncle Siegmund Kornmehl was now an art gallery in Vienna's Freud Museum. This discovery spurred me to look into the history of my mother's family. It has been a year filled with surprises. The greatest one, unquestionably, was finding out that I had living relatives all over the