metro »
Keeping
The Ties
Detroiters travel to David-Horodok in
Belarus to honor slain family members.
Suzanne Chessler | Contributing Writer
David and Pauline Salama | Photography
Above: David Salama
lit candles at the
memorial at the mass
gravesite in memory
of his grandmother’s
parents and brother.
Right: David Salama
had his grandmother
in Detroit hold a few
rocks, which he then
labeled with her
family's name and left
at the David-Horodok
memorial.
A group pose at the David-Horodok sign
O
n the third Sunday in August,
in keeping with tradition,
the Belarus town of David-
Horodok has a fair with lots of music.
The townspeople dress up for the cel-
ebration.
This past August, some 50 people from
America and Israel watched the festivi-
ties before going ahead with a somber
ceremony. They were in the area to
remember Jewish people rounded up and
killed 75 years ago to the day by Nazis
and collaborators.
The mass grave is just outside the
town, away from the fair.
The travelers were members of the
David-Horodoker Organization, descen-
dants of a few survivors and people who
left long before the Nazis arrived. They
wanted to experience surroundings
known by their relatives while expressing
respect for those lost.
David Salama and his wife, Pauline, of
Huntington Woods were among the trav-
elers. He grew up hearing about the town
from his grandmother, Beatrice Gaduzk
Sonders, 91, a resident of Hechtman
Apartments in West Bloomfield and one
of a limited number of her Jewish towns-
people who escaped the killings during
World War II.
Salama and his grandmother talked
about their experiences — recent
and long ago — during a David-
Horodok memorial service Sept. 25
at the Holocaust Memorial Center in
Farmington Hills, where there is a wall
dedicated to David-Horodok as repre-
senting what existed in Jewish shtetls
before World War II.
“It’s hard to describe the contrast of a
town celebrating while, off to the side,
descendants of its Jewish population
prepared to walk the 7 kilometers to the
mass grave, where so much of the town’s
heart and soul is now entombed,” Salama
says.
“At the same time, it remains hearten-
ing to think of meeting the town’s history
teacher, who clearly demonstrated his
respect and insistence in making sure
that his students have a firm understand-
ing of what occurred 75 years ago. They
ensure that the memorial site at the mass
grave isn’t vandalized and look after the
grounds.”
Salama and his wife felt they were
visiting a place stuck in time and believe
that progress halted when the Jewish
population was vanquished.
“While it was emotional to stand
where my grandmother’s family was
gunned down, there was also a sense of
victory to be present at such a dark place
continued on page 30
28 September 29 • 2016