Brina Feitelberg

I’ve been trying to track down my 2^nd ggm without success, so am trying through her husband, Abraham, my paternal 2^nd ggf or my ggf Schmerl.

He  is usually referred to as Schmariyahu or Schmerl.  One of my ancestors, whom I believe to be a son of Smariyahu / Schmerl has Simcha as the father’s name on his headstone.   I am trying to research if Simcha and Schmerl and Smariyahu are variants of the same name in order to verify that this ancestor is a son of Schmariyahu/Schmerl.

Thank you for any insight you can give.

Martin Blumberg

Melbourne, Australia

Diggers Andriy Ryshtun and Oleksandr Ivanov explore the city sewage system where dozens of Jews were hiding from the Nazis during World War Two in Lviv, Ukraine September 25, 2021. REUTERS/Gleb Garanich

Under cobblestone streets in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv, diggers have uncovered new hiding spots in underground sewers where some Jews managed to flee from Nazi occupying forces during World War Two.

More than 100,000 Jews, or around one third of Lviv’s population at the time, were killed by the Nazis, according to the local historian Hanna Tychka.

Father and daughter Ignacy and Krystyna Chiger, who escaped from the Jewish ghetto by digging a tunnel to the city's sewage system, and later wrote books recounting their experiences. They recently uncovered the exact area where Chiger's family lived in 1943-1944, using the books as a guide.

In Lyiv, Tychka and her team in July discovered a tiny cave where they believe Jews fleeing the ghetto would spend their first night before moving on to a larger shelter in the sewage system.

Of the original group of 21, only 10 including the Chigers and Halina survived the ordeal.

To read more see:

https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/ukrainians-unearth-hiding-places-jews-city-sewers-during-nazi-holocaust-2021-10-05/

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The Mirror Field monument displays columns shot with bullets of the same caliber as those used in the massacre. Credit...

Brendan Hoffman for The New York Times

Ukraine this week marks the 80th anniversary of the massacre at Babyn Yar, web-savvy advertising, modern art installations and audience-grabbing techniques like online gaming have become an integral part of a well-funded effort to update Holocaust commemoration.

The tech-heavy approach has drawn criticism from traditionalists, who say it dishonors the solemnity of the topic. The Nazis shot tens of thousands of Jews, Roma, Ukrainian and Russian prisoners of war at Babyn Yar, as wells as patients from psychiatric hospitals and others.  Many of the original advisory team resigned in 2019 to protest the high-tech sensibility of the art director

The anniversary ceremonies culminate on Wednesday with Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, who is Jewish, visiting the site and unveiling a modern art installation, the Crystal Wall of Crying. The full museum complex is expected to cost more than $100 million, about half donated by Russian oligarchs, and it is scheduled for completion in 2025.

The massacre at Babyn Yar, also known as Babi Yar, was one of the most notorious of World War II. In late September 1941, soon after German army entered Kyiv, the city’s Jews were told to gather near a train station in order to be resettled. Crowds of people, including many women and children, followed the order but when they arrived with their belongings, they were forced to undress and gather in a ravine. People were shot in small groups, more than 33,000 in a two-day period according to historians, and further mass shootings took place at the site throughout the war.

“The narrative that is being promoted is anti-Ukrainian in nature,” Mykhailo Basarab, an historian, said of the plans for Babyn Yar. “There are great fears the memorial complex is being built with Russian money to expose Ukrainians in the world as anti-Semites and xenophobes. And this is beneficial to Putin.”

Babyn Yar organizers say they will raise 50 percent of the funding inside Ukraine

To read more see: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/05/world/europe/ukraine-holocaust-babyn-yar.html

Jan Meisels Allen

Chairperson, IAJGS Public Records Access Monitoring Committee

Approximately 6,500 Jewish Holocaust Survivors from the Leningrad siege, those hiding In France and persecuted In Romania to receive pensions for the first time and those who survived persecution in Romania, who are not currently receiving Shoah related pensions. Payments will be €375 ($443) per month if they satisfy one of the following types of region-specific severe persecution during the Nazi period:

• Were at least three months in the Siege of Leningrad; OR
• Lived between April1, 1941 and August 31, 1944 at least three months under Axis occupation within the borders of Romania on April 1, 1941; OR
• Lived at least three months in France in hiding, including with access to the outside world. For example, those living in southern France, were able to be out during the day and hid at night when deportations took place.

Child Survivor Fund payments, a symbolic one-time payment of €2,500 ($2,930), will also be paid to those who meet the persecution criteria and were born 1928 or later.

To read more see: https://www.claimscon.org/2021/10/claims-conference-negotiations-with-the-german-government-result-in-first-ever-pensions-for-6500-holocaust-survivors/

Jan Meisels Allen

Chairperson, IAJGS Public Records Access Monitoring Committee