Having seen the notation of the Rootsweb study on
Napoleon in what is currently Belarus, I took out my
oversized biography of Napoleon and looked at the maps
of the campaigns and read the descriptions of the
Grand Army burning and pillaging what was in their
path. It reminded me of the brutal actions of the
Nazis in that area in 1941 [if you omit the racist
ideology of the Germans.] Towns and shtetls [Vitebsk,
Orsha, Mogilev] that I have mentioned in my archiving
of landsmanshaften sprang up before my eyes. Too bad I
was unable, at the time to question my Mogilever
grandparents whose own grandparents were there at the
time of the French invasions. Think of all the family
history we missed because our interests were stirred
after our last links to an early history were cut off.

Jerry Seligsohn
Volunteer Archivist
YIVO
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