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as a representative of her 10 grandchildren
and 14 great-grandchildren, all owing our
very existence to her miraculous survival,”
Salama says.
Sonders was 16 years old in 1941, when
her father and brother were shot and
killed. She managed to escape by hiding,
changing her identity and finding work
in other countries before marrying and
moving to the United States, where she
raised three daughters, Rita Salama, Debra
Feldman and Bonnie Levin.
“I have been very close to my grand-
mother and wanted to experience the
area where she grew up,” explains Salama,
who is putting together his grand-
mother’s memoir as begun with the help
and encouragement of the late Morton
Horwitz, who was Sonders’ companion
and also lived at Hechtman. Horwitz
was the father of Jewish News Publisher/
Executive Editor Arthur Horwitz.

RELIVING MEMORIES
Roz Komisar Blanck, who shares the
presidency of the David-Horodoker
Organization with Norma Spielberg
Gorosh and Amy Friedman Brody, all of
West Bloomfield, made her third trip to
the childhood neighborhood of her late
paternal grandmother this past August.
Also on the trip were local residents
Susan Moiseev, Sara Braverman and
Rachel Kelmenson. These descendants
know about the Jewish townspeople who
came to Detroit in 1909 and started the
organization that grew with the growth of
families.
“Going with the Israelis was very spe-
cial,” Blanck says. “Two cousins — one
from America and one from Israel — were
able to link up and cement a friendship
that started long distance.
“There are 600 families across the
United States and Canada in the David-
Horodoker Organization,” she says. “The
travelers talked about the strong feelings
experienced walking down the streets
where generations of our families walked.”
Blanck, whose grandmother came to
America at age 12, made time to walk
through the town on her own because of
the strong emotions that surfaced.
“I would look at the people and the
buildings,” she says. “I would feel all the
regret because of the absence of Jews who
had been so involved with the town before
the Nazis came.”
Ziv Begun, who organized travelers
from Israel, has been in charge of five such
trips, two with Israelis and Americans.
“I believe it is necessary to show our-
selves at the town every few years to let
the people and authorities understand the
importance of maintaining the mass grave
and other Jewish symbols,” says Begun,
whose father was the only survivor of a

30 September 29 • 2016

“There are 600 families across the United States and
Canada in the David-Horodoker Organization. The travelers
talked about the strong feelings experienced walking down
the streets where generations of our families walked.”
— Roz Komisar Blanck

Top: The memorial honors the Jews from David-Horodok killed in a mass grave during WWII.
Left: David and Pauline Salama with David’s grandmother, Beatrice Sonders, who escaped from David-Horodok during WWII.
Right: Beatrice Sonders in the David-Horodok room at the Holocaust Memorial Center.

large family. “For me, going back is a mis-
sion for life.”
When Salama returned to Michigan, he
showed his grandmother pictures of what
he had experienced. She revealed being
nervous about his trip without telling
him, never forgetting how awful people
had been and wondering what he would
encounter.

“Now that he has returned, I admire
him for the drive he had to explore his
roots,” she says. “He wasn’t going to Paris;
he was going to a small town with nothing
left of what it used to be.
“While it was sad to see pictures of
the mass grave, it was nice to see that a
respectable memorial has been put there.
Before he left, I held a few rocks, and my

grandson put the family name on them
and placed the rocks on the mass grave.
“He also showed me that he lit a memo-
rial candle in memory of my parents and
brother. Seeing his effort to honor their
memory was very moving.”

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