Stories

The following are some of the heartwarming stories of families reunited through the services of the American Red Cross Holocaust and War Victims Tracing Center.

• Holocaust Survivor Finds Answer through Red Cross
  Written by Douglas Lent, Communications Specialist, Central Maryland Chapter, American Red Cross.
• Volunteers at Tracing Center Help Relatives Reunite
  Written by Forward.com , where it originally appeared. Reprinted with permission.
• Seattle Red Cross Volunteers Reunite Brother, Sister Separated During Holocaust
  by Patty Lane, American Red Cross Serving King & Kitsap Counties
• Clearing Away the Mystery: Red Cross Helps Holocaust Survivors Learn the Fate of Those They Lost
  By Tyche Hendricks, San Franncisco Chronicle
• Sibling Holocaust Survivors Reunited after 60 Years
  By Mason Booth, American Red Cross Staff Writer
• Separated by War, Ukranian Family Reunited by Red Cross
  By American Red Cross Staff Writer
• NY Volunteer Reunited with Relatives Lost in Holocaust
  By Marion Bergtholdt, Special to RedCross.org
• Search Ends with Joyous Meeting of Long-Lost Relatives
  By Stephanie Kriner, American Red Cross Staff Writer
• Red Cross Volunteers Solve Historical and Personal Puzzles
  By Becky Orfinger, American Red Cross Staff Writer
• American Red Cross International Services Gives Hope to Our Families
  By Judith Raphael, Special to RedCross.org

A Holocaust Case of Hope . . . A Case From the Heart

A true story from the American Red Cross Central Arizona Chapter in Phoenix, Arizona.

In December 1990, through the Central Arizona Chapter and on behalf of her grandmother, Cherie Korer began a search for relatives who had disappeared during WWII. The case was sent from the chapter to the American Red Cross Holocaust and War Victims Tracing Center in Baltimore, Maryland. Cherie was told that if any information surfaced, she would be notified immediately.

In January 1998, new archives made it possible for the American Red Cross to provide additional information regarding the sought family members. While reading the case history, chapter caseworker Colin Hatcher realized that Cherie's grandmother was now at least 100 years old. The chapter called Cherie to inform her about the new findings. Grateful that the Red Cross had not given up the search, Cherie's joy of discovering new information changed to disappointment when she realized that her grandmother might be deceased.

Several weeks later, Cherie learned that her grandmother was still alive and healthy and was about to celebrate her 100th birthday. The good news brought closure. After 50 years, Cherie knows about her grandmother and is continuing her search for other relatives who disappeared during the Holocaust.

Expressing her thanks to the Red Cross, Cherie wrote this poem.

Long ago the beautiful blue skies of spring went black.
The birds ceased their singing.
The trees stopped swaying in the breeze and the butterflies no longer flew.
The smell of flowers and the taste of food all disappeared like the dew.

Fifty years seems long ago, but it's like yesterday to me.
It was then that my family disappeared as if swallowed up by a great cataclysmic event bellowing nature's fury.

But it was man's fury to put my family to death in a way I never knew until now.
Thanks to the Red Cross.
I know.

Milwaukee Siblings Separated During WWII Reunite After 53 Years

A Holocaust tracing case from the American Red Cross Greater Milwaukee Chapter in Wisconsin.

In 1942 Maria, a teenager living in the Ukrainian town of Zajatchkivka, was taken from her home by the German army and forced to work in a labor camp. In 1951, having survived WWII, she emigrated to the United States and settled in Milwaukee.

To begin the search for her brother, Maria requested help from the Greater Milwaukee Chapter of the American Red Cross. In February 1995, the Holocaust and War Victims Tracing Center made a request through the International Tracing Service, the largest repository of original Nazi documentation in the world, with more than 46 million documents in its archives. A second request for assistance was sent to the Ukrainian Red Cross Society which produced successful results.

In August 1995, after being separated for 53 years, Maria received a telephone call from her brother. Although a language barrier hampered their communication, Maria was not discouraged. With help from the Red Cross, Maria obtained her brother's address and telephone number. To her surprise, her brother was still residing in their hometown of Zajatchkivka. Maria was delighted to make the journey back home to visit him.

Days of Laughter, Tears of Joy

The following letter was sent to the American Red Cross San Francisco Bay Area Chapter from a woman who was searching for her relatives missing since WWII.

Dear Red Cross:
After several decades in the former USSR, my deceased mother and I tried to find our relatives in the United States of America, in particular mother's oldest sister Anna who left Russia in 1920 for America. She got married and had two daughters, Eleanora and Diana, both born in the United States. From our family in Russia, only I and my old aunt Tsilya in Moldova are alive and have continued to try to find our relatives. Now my husband and I are living in the United States of America. I asked the Red Cross in July 1995 to help us find our relatives.

Day of April 1st in Russia is called "Day of Laughter," but on this day, April 1, 1996, my husband and I wanted to cry from gladness! The American Red Cross found my cousins Eleanora and Diana. I learned that their mother, who was my aunt Anna, died in 1993. We had a phone call from Mrs. Susanne Glaser from the Red Cross Holocaust office. She gave me the phone number of my cousin Eleanora and her home address. The next day I had a few calls from my cousin Diana and her sons Howard and Alen. My English is not good enough, but we spoke and spoke and couldn't stop. We exchanged very important genealogical information with our relatives.

And on June 1, 1996, our long awaited meeting was in New York in the apartment of our friends. We met with Eleanora and her husband and Diana. Now I have hopes of my meeting with Diana in Los Angeles.

From my heart, I want to say thank you to all the staff of the San Francisco office of the American Red Cross and a special thank you to Mrs. M. Murphy, Ms. Markovich, and Ms. Rice for their attention and a successful end to my search. I think a great deal of the philanthropic work of the Red Cross.

Sincerely,
Sima Buber

Local Resident Regains Childhood Memories With Help of American Red Cross Holocaust Tracing Program

The following is from the American Red Cross Palm Beach County Chapter in West Palm Beach, Florida.

In October 1990, Marcus Horowitz called the American Red Cross to inquire about his mother, Ita Horowitz. What happened to her after they were torn apart in the heart of WWII? His father was sent to a work camp while Marcus and his brother were sent to the first of many children's homes. What happened to his mother after their family was pulled from M. Prouzet's home where they lived for two years in hiding? At the young age of 16, Marcus' older brother Raphael, died from one of Hitler's soldiers' bullets.

After the war, his father returned to find 15-year-old Marcus. Because his father was unable to provide financial support, Marcus stayed in the children's home until he turned 18 years old. "I cried when I had to leave the home. It was all I knew." Fortunately Marcus had an uncle in America who found him and sent a ticket to come to the United States. Marcus was 21 years old.

Still Marcus wanted to find out what happened to his mother and he went to the American Red Cross for help. The American Red Cross began a thorough search for information and in April of 1994 Marcus received news about his mother. "Ita Horowitz was evacuated on September 9, 1942 from Camp Drancy to Concentration Camp Auschwitz."

What happened after that? . . . The search continued.

On February 25, 2000, Marcus learned the fate of his mother. According to the declaration of death, Ita died between December 1943 and January 1944 while being deported to Camp Gross in Rosen, Germany. The French Red Cross had uncovered a photograph and letters about the Horowitz family. The letters and photo were forwarded to the Palm Beach County Chapter for Marcus. Receiving the letters penned in French and the photo of he and his brother was deeply moving. Marcus said, "You've given me back part of my life. I'm not sure anyone could understand what these mean to me. This is the story of my childhood."

Lilian, Marcus's wife of more than 40 years, shared his pleasure. Marcus is a very private man and over the years he has studied Holocaust movies, papers, and stories trying to piece together the events that he lived through. The new notes, letters, and photo were added to a little box that holds Marcus' treasured momentos.

Red Cross Reunites Loved Ones Separated by Holocaust

This article was written by Mike Powers, manager of media relations at the Los Angeles Chapter, which assisted in the reunion of Flora Singer and her cousin, Henry.

New Year's Day is often a time for new hopes and dreams. Thanks to the Red Cross, for two cousins separated during the Holocaust, January 1, 1998, will be forever remembered as the day they made contact with each other after 52 years.

Flora Singer, an East Coast resident, and Henry, a Los Angeles area resident, were close cousins residing in Belgium during World War II. In 1942, Flora, her mother, two sisters, and Henry were forced into hiding in Nazi-occupied Belgium. Two years later, they would be the only remaining survivors from a close Jewish family that once numbered nearly 200. Most of the family was killed at Auschwitz in the spring of 1944, five months before Belgium was liberated.

For two years, Benedictine nuns and monks hid Flora and Henry in separate convents. Unaware of Henry's whereabouts, Flora believed that she, her mother, and sisters were the only survivors in her family. With the assistance of a monk who kept extensive logs of each hidden child's location, Flora tracked down Henry, then an orphan. Flora and her two sisters found him in 1945, but Flora's mother was unable to gain custody of Henry due to strict guardianship laws over children orphaned during the war.

In 1946, Flora, along with her mother and sisters, immigrated to New York with the help of the U.S. Army. They again tried to bring Henry along, but were unable to do so because orphanage authorities would only allow immediate family members to immigrate together.

Off and on since she came to the United States, Flora had searched for her long-lost cousin. In 1983, she attended a Holocaust survivor's convention in Washington, D.C., where she met a woman who had been in a Belgian orphanage with Henry almost 40 years earlier. The woman shared a photo of the orphanage's children with Flora, who recognized Henry in the picture. This was the first time she had any trace of Henry since their separation in 1946. Although she was hopeful that this picture would lead to finding Henry, the trail ran cold.

In 1990, Flora submitted an inquiry to the American Red Cross, which operates a Holocaust and War Victims Tracing Center headquartered in Baltimore, Maryland. Search efforts proved unsuccessful until 1996, when a friend introduced Flora to Suzanne Kantt of the Red Cross Holocaust and War Victims Tracing Center. Moved by Flora's dogged determination to find her cousin, Kantt looked up the inquiry Flora had submitted six years earlier.

Through the Red Cross International Tracing Service in Arolson, Germany, Kantt located the names of Henry's adoptive parents. Internet searches then found Henry's adoptive sister living in San Francisco. She explained that a relative had been trying to find Henry for more than 50 years.

Feeling nervous, Henry called Flora on New Year's Day. As the caller identified himself, Flora cried out Henry's childhood nickname, "Harreke, Harreke," and broke down into tears. They spoke for hours, then made arrangements to see each other.

On January 16, 1998, Flora and Henry were reunited at Los Angeles International Airport.