Co m mun i ty
Welcome hem
ofreei cyclik si
Assisted
Right: Brothers Jason and
Marc Miller en route
from Warsaw.
with catered services
in Leautiful surrounclincis
created especially
for older aclulfs.
Lake P,oad
VVe,i Bloomfield, \AI .48323
4460 ()rcharci
Below: Charles
Finkelstein of Rochester
Hills with his long-lost
distant cousin Marianna
Romatowski, once known
as Rachel Finkielsztejn.
Studios and suites with private baths
Three well planned daily meals
Emergency call systems
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Round the clock staffing
Licensed Nurses 24 Hours Daily
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Spa with pool and exercise room
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Game room
Library
Hair salon
Sundri6. shop
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Plus -- For the Memory Impaired
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the town's Jews into a tiny ghetto. The
Nazis stripped Rachel and her family of
nearly everything they owned, seized
their property and destroyed the family's
mill that had been operating for genera-
tions.
Despite continuous Nazi threats and
their physical separation, Rachel and
Stanislaw remained close. At night, he
smuggled food, clothing and other
necessities to Rachel and her family in
the ghetto. Late one night, Stanislaw
daringly helped Rachel escape from the
ghetto and the pair darted off to hide in
the Polish countryside.
They lived in constant fear of the
Nazis, frequently moving to elude cap-
ture. But they never gave up hope that
the war would end soon and Rachel
would be reunited with her family.
However, in 1943, the Nazis closed
the Jewish ghetto, loaded all of
Radzilow's Jewish population into box-
cars and sent them to the Treblinka
death camp. Rachel never saw any of
them again.
0
cF .S UM .V . Z Z Z:
her family history and found that
Rachel was indeed a long-lost family
member of ours — a first cousin to
my grandfather's father, Jacob
Finkelstein. Rachel did not remember
Jacob, but she did remember one of
his brothers who had immigrated to
Cuba in the early 1930s. She men-
tioned that she had been close with
my grandfather's paternal grandpar-
ents, David and Mariem Finkelstein.
The realization that she had
located some of her long-lost rela-
tives launched Rachel into a whirl-
wind of emotions. The frail woman
who only minutes before could barely
lift her head had energetically risen
from the couch and was hugging my
grandfather, with tears streaming
down her face. As my grandfather,
Charlie Finkelstein, would recount
after our visit, "I was overcome with
emotion . . . to find [Rachel] living on
my grandfather's mill more than 50
years after the war — it was some-
thing we never expected or even imag-
ined when we planned this trip."
As we were about to leave, Rachel
clenched my grandfather's hand and
did something she had not done in
nearly 60 years — she spoke to him in
Yiddish. A couple of words turned
into complete sentences. Before long,
it was clear our unexpected visit and
reminiscing about her past had
enabled Rachel to truly reconnect with
her Jewish heritage and the family she
thought had all been lost.
❑
Happy Endings
At the war's end in 1945, and after four
years of hiding, Rachel and Stanislaw
married and returned to Rachel's family's
property outside Radzilow. Rachel
changed her name to Marianna
Romatowski and the couple moved on
with their lives.
After she finished telling her story, we
peppered Rachel with questions about
Charlie Finkelstein continues to keep
in touch With his relatives in Poland.
Through the help of Polish translators
working at a travel agency in
Hamtramck, Charlie writes letters
and sends money and clothes.
Inspired and amazed by the out-
come of his first visit, he is eagerly
planning a return trip to Poland.