In a recent posting, I mentioned that I had the American Red Cross'
Holocaust and War Victims Tracing & Information Center did a search
on my father, Sidney Kalmanowitz (born Selig Kalmanowitsch or
Kalmanowicz on Nov. 15, 1912 in Lida, Belarus). It occurred to me
that some listserv members might want to have a similar search
conducted. Here is the address for the American Red Cross' Holocaust
and War Victims Tracing and Information Center:
The Holocaust and War Victims Tracing and Information Center
4700 Mount Hope Drive,
Baltimore, MD 21215-3231
Tel. # 410-764-5311; 410-764-4638 (FAX).
Dora Schecter is the Tracing Coordinator.
Please note that I made my initial request for a search thru my local
American Red Cross Chapter, but it can't hurt to contact the above for
the necessary forms one will need to fill out to initiate a search. It
took several years to obtain the results of the search, and I had moved
in the interim. I was lucky that the new owner of my last house
contacted me so I was able to follow up and get a copy of the excerpted
report. When the forms are received, fill in as much information as you
possibly can. In my father's case, I knew next to nothing about his
family, except for first names of his late siblings and parents, my
father's date of birth, hometown, and the fact that he'd been in
Buchenwald, and might have served in the Polish or Soviet Armies.
Be aware that the report you may receive will be an exerpted report
from documents in the ARC's possession and documents held elsewhere
(e.g. NARA). I've asked them to reopen my father's case because as a
librarian I felt I needed to know the source of what they cited in the
report. To be able to verify the accuracy of what's cited. And there
is the problem of two individuals named Kalmanowitz that had lived
in Vilna at the same time. I expect to check periodically with the
ARC for the progress of the re-opened search.
P.S. Someone >from Israel recently informed me that Yad Vashem has
American Red Cross card files for Holocaust victims/survivors.
--
Miriam J. Klepper
