Family Focus

POLAND REV SITED

Tirane Warp

T, wricar4t

P°41--

Helen Garfinker—s--
Greenspun mai- Regina
Garfinkel Muskovitz
in front of the
*MIN that was
formerly their
maternal
uncle's hat
Ifejiln:Lodz.

For Detroiter, emotions swirl
amid return to Holocaust grounds.

Suzy Hagstrom

fined visiting Poland as part of a generic
group tour — not with her family. "I didn't
realize I would be lucky enough to go with
or Jewish Holocaust survivors,
my grandma and (Great-) Aunt Helen" To
returning to where they were born
hear them talk about the places they were
and raised involves confronting the visiting was exceptionally poignant, Feinberg
death they so narrowly escaped. Throughout
said."Being here together, experiencing it as a
Europe, Poland especially, concentration
family makes my grandma talk more openly.
camps, cemeteries, ruined synagogues, mass
I am hoping that helps her move forward.
graves, execution sites and World War II
Before ... she just didn't want us to feel any
memorials punctuate the lush landscape.
hurt. She wanted us to be happ?'
Consequently, the obstacles are over-
Long before their recent trip, Muskovitz's
whelmingly more emotional than physical for children and grandchildren had reconstruct-
those survivors now in their 70s and 80s and ed her story via the uncle and aunts willing to
still healthy enough to travel.
talk and via supplemental research.
"I never wanted to go back; said
"We knew in bits and pieces': Mara Van
Regina Garfinkel Muskovitz, 79, of West
de Grift, 38, of Atlanta said, echoing Feinberg
Bloomfield. For Muskovitz "back" means
and her other cousins. Van de Grift, a great-
her hometown of Chmielnik, Poland; Kielce, niece of Muskovitz, joined the entourage
Poland, where she was exploited as slave
to gain insight about her late grandmother.
labor; and Dachau, Germany, where she was Bela, the eldest Garfinkel sister, was a sur-
liberated after a grueling death march.
rogate mother to Muskovitz, the youngest,
Referring to her World War II experi-
while the two were imprisoned in Kielce. Like
ence, Muskovitz said, "I just couldn't
Muskovitz, Bela was mostly silent about the
speak about it. I had to put it in the back
traumas she had endured.
of my mind, not in the front of my mind.
"My Grandmother Bela talked in gen-
Otherwise, I couldn't raise my family."
eralities about her past, about how she
Although virtually no one was enthusi-
liked to read. She definitely felt she would
astic — two of her three children opposed have had more of a career if the war had
the trip and only one of her grandchildren not happened;' Van de Grift said. "It was
had ever contemplated exploring Poland
important for me to see the apartment [in
— Regina made plans. "Basically, I wanted Lodz, Poland] my grandmother lived in,
to leave them with a legacy. I wanted to
where she was so happy before the war. I
leave them something!'
figured now is the opportunity to go while
my [great-] aunts are still alive!'
The Backdrop
Accompanied by 10 relatives and two
Memories, Memories
friends, Muskovitz recently spent 10
In Chmielnik's synagogue, now a shell of a
days in Poland and Germany to show,
building, Muskovitz spoke of scampering
more than tell, her epic life story. In the
upstairs to the balcony to see her mother,
entourage was sister Helen Garfinkel
then running outside to play and going back
Greenspun, 82, of Orlando, Fla., who had
and forth during services. In the townsquare,
previously blazed the trail. Not only had
or rynek, she spoke of watching the Germans
Greenspun returned to Chmielnik twice
take Helen, Sonia and Nathan to a slave labor
before, but also to Treblinka, where their
camp. When she tried to approach her sib-
parents and younger siblings were gassed
lings, a German flogged her with a whip.
with nearly all of Chmielnik's 10,000 Jews.
In Kielce, where as a mere 12-year-
Remarkably, Greenspun and Muskovitz
old she was ordered to work on Hasag's
survived the worst of Nazi Germany with
ammunition assembly lines, Muskovitz
three other siblings: the late Nathan Garfinkel, remembered gazing out the factory win-
the late Bela Garfinkel Soloway Hurtig
dow. Seeing a dog lying in the dirt, she had
and Sonia Garfinkel Nothman, 86, of West
wished to be that dog.
Bloomfield. With the exception of Greenspun,
Sixty-seven years later, Muskovitz was
the siblings rebuilt their lives in Detroit.
simultaneously disappointed and relieved to
Muskovitz' granddaughter, Tovah Feinberg, not recognize Chmielnik with its mix of old
30, a design student in New York, had imag-
and new buildings. "I wanted to see a trace of

Special to the Jewish News

F

66

Editor's note: About a year ago, the IN published a feature about Arlene Garfinkel
Speiser's return to Chmielnik, Poland, the hometown of her late father and four
aunts. Remarkably, all five Garfinkel siblings survived Nazi Germany's death camps.
Four of the siblings rebuilt their lives in Detroit. This is a feature about Regina
Garfinkel Muskovitz's return to Poland. This is a far different story focusing on
Regina's feelings about the journey. The more intriguing part of the family's journey
was to Radomsko, Poland, hometown of Regina's late husband, Saul Muskovitz, also
a Holocaust survivor, who rebuilt his life in Detroit.

something I could remember, but nothing':
she said. "It would have been much harder if I
saw things that I remembered. Then it would
be like it never left me. I couldn't recognize
anything so it's the past, and that's it. I wanted
some closure, which I think I got."
The journey back to the innocence and
horror of Muskovitz' childhood also served as
a pilgrimage to honor the many relatives —
including the in-laws she never met — who
perished during the Holocaust. In Radomsko,
the hometown of her late husband, Muskovitz
couldn't tell or even show. She could only
reintroduce her children and grandchildren
to a longstanding mystery.
Saul Muskovitz, a longtime Detroit resi-
dent, never spoke of his childhood or war
experience other than to say he had served
in the Russian army to fight fascism. He
confided only to Regina the tragic fate of
his siblings and parents: so-called friends
who had sheltered the entire family during
the war betrayed them at the end by bru-
tally murdering them.
"My father's story is so painful, it never
really came out;' said Sandra Muskovitz
Danto, 58, of Bloomfield Hills, and
president of Jewish Family Service of
Metropolitan Detroit.
"I feel this is an accomplishment to make
this journey': Danto said, acknowledging that
she struggled to overcome angern actively
did not want to come here."
Yielding to the responsibilities of sup-
porting her mother emotionally and show-
ing her children the family's past, Danto
found herself full of anticipation. "On

my father's side, there's more excitement
because we know so little about him."

Stark Sights
Deby Muskovitz Lebow, 52, an interior archi-
tect in West Bloomfield, identified her father's
siblings in a pre-war family photograph for
State Civil Office workers in Radomsko. By
guessing the ages of SauFs sister and younger
brother, the workers found a few more birth
certificates in addition to that of Saul.
"Now that I'm here and seeing everything":
said Lebow, who always wanted to return
to her roots, "ifs exactly how I envisioned it.
Everything is so gray and very dismal."
Regina and her family walked up
Przedborska Street to see No. 17 and No. 19,
one of which may have been Saul's child-
hood home. Muskovitz spoke in Polish with
an older resident, who claimed she was too
young during World War II to have remem-
bered any of the neighbors.
Keenly aware that her husband would
have disapproved of her return to Poland,
Muskovitz undertook the trip as much for
herself as for her grandchildrenn wanted to
show them I am not afraid for myself and, in
turn, I don't want them to be afraid."
An office building stands at the site
of Radomsko's synagogue, which was
destroyed during the war. On some exte-
rior doorframes in Radomsko's former
Jewish ghetto, Regina and her family could
see outlines of mezuzahs.
On the outskirts of town, Radomsko's
Jewish cemetery remains intact although
neglected and overgrown with weeds.

Time Warp on page 67

October 15 • 2009