Opa
Shawn and I went to the Holocaust Museum this past weekend, it's at the corner of Orchard lake and 12 Mile if you're interested, and it's free. It was an informative experience that focuses on the Jewish perspective of the Holocaust. After tooling around for an hour or so we sat in on a talk by a holocaust survivor from France. Her family was skattered to the wind when France was occupied, but they all managed to survive by hiding in very out of the way places. The speaker was hidden away in a castle. From there we went up to check out the library and resource room.
I don't have nearly enough information to even think of starting the research on my grandfather. I don't know (for sure) what his last name was, the city he was taken from, what camp he was in, what years, or even what country he was in! A lot of that I have on tape and I can get easily enough, but there isn't just 'A' book. There are thousands of books. And there aren't just 50 or 100 camps, there are THOUSANDS of camps. Some are just a cluster of factories with slave's quarters, some are like Buchenwald.
I've been discouraged about the prospects of this project after a very short phone conversation last weekend. I called opa to see what he was up to for the weekend, Joanne (his wife) said "We're going out of town." and nearly hung up on me. I was worried that I'd pressed too hard, had been too direct, or was too eager to hear Opa's stories, and that he was now unwilling to talk. Fortunatly my cousin Tracy said she'd heard from her father yesterday that Opa, his wife (Joanne), and most of the rest of my family is excited about my project.
I need to get ahold of him this week and see what his schedule is like. Possibly for Monday.
I don't have nearly enough information to even think of starting the research on my grandfather. I don't know (for sure) what his last name was, the city he was taken from, what camp he was in, what years, or even what country he was in! A lot of that I have on tape and I can get easily enough, but there isn't just 'A' book. There are thousands of books. And there aren't just 50 or 100 camps, there are THOUSANDS of camps. Some are just a cluster of factories with slave's quarters, some are like Buchenwald.
I've been discouraged about the prospects of this project after a very short phone conversation last weekend. I called opa to see what he was up to for the weekend, Joanne (his wife) said "We're going out of town." and nearly hung up on me. I was worried that I'd pressed too hard, had been too direct, or was too eager to hear Opa's stories, and that he was now unwilling to talk. Fortunatly my cousin Tracy said she'd heard from her father yesterday that Opa, his wife (Joanne), and most of the rest of my family is excited about my project.
I need to get ahold of him this week and see what his schedule is like. Possibly for Monday.