ZIWA, LEGACY OF A HOLOCAUST SURVIVOR, The Sheskin family |
Ziva Sheskin survived Siaulai ghetto and Sutthoff- here she is before the war (1936) in the Shavli train station. For more information go to www.chgs.umn.edu/histories/minnesotans/katz/ Abraham Frono Crimea and his sister Genya, who became principal of Jewish High School in Siaulai, Lithuania; sister Chanja, Ziwa's younger brother, Roman. for more information go to; www.chgs.umn.edu/histories/minnesotans/katz/
Wedding Photo of Ziva and Avigdor Sheskin, taken on April 3, 1938. Survivors include: Avigdor's little brother, Emmanuel Sheskin (lives in Israel) on bottom row, age 13; sister and brother-in-law Shoshana Auspitz (nee Sheskin)and Avraham Yitzhak Auspitz in back of the bride Shoshana and Avigdor's parents ( Chaim Leib and Ida Sheshkin) shown to the right of bride and groom ( they perished), sitting next to Frankel's mother, 2nd row, far right, and his mother-in-law above her. Frankel's daughter is right to Mr. Frankel. When war broke out, the Frankel family left for the USA. , Ziwa's uncles and aunts on left, other in-laws on right ( amongst them last row third from the right; grooms brother; Sheskin Yitzkhak . ZIWA LEGACY OF A HOLOCAUST SURVIVOR go to; http://www.chgs.umn.edu/histories/minnesotans/katz/ZiwaLegacy.pdf -- A cousin who was the principal of large Hebrew high school in a nearby town ( Siaulai) invited Ziwa to stay with them that winter. There was not much for her to do in her little town, so she went, thinking that she might find a job and certainly have some fun. At Purim there was a big ball at the high school. She didn't have a dress to wear, so her aunt gave her some black taffeta to make a skirt, and she bought a little white sweater with short sleeves and a little collar. At the ball, she met Avigdor (Victor) Sheskin, an electrical engineer from a wealthy manufacturing family. He was good friend of her cousin, 9 years older than she. They dated a few times, but she did not know if she liked him (she described herself as a late bloomer). Her cousin was delighted that he was interested and started calling her Cinderella. After all, she did meet him at a ball. Soon he had to leave for Israel to buy some property for his father. Ziwa's half-sister, Chaia, lived there, and she gave Avigdor crocheted pillow to take her as a gift. He visited Chaia and her husband, and borrowed a picture of Ziwa. He wrote several letters, telling her how much he looked forward to seeing her again. At Passover, Ziwa was at home with her parents. Avigdor returned from Israel and came to her home to see her and meet her parents. He went to synagogue with her father, and quickly becoming the talk of the town. "People said they didn't know what he sees in her. She's a pretty girl but not like her mother." They became engaged, although his family was not pleased; his mother Ida ( her mother Matale Goldberg nee Frenkel, was a member of a the very well to do, Frenkel family) had hoped he would marry someone with a large dowry. They had a small, plain wedding. It was 1939, and Ziwa was 19 years old. A little more then a year later, the war arrived in Lithuania. Ziwa had her first child, a little girl ( Aviva), on July 24, 1940 THE WAR YEARS Ziwa's summary of the war years is chilling in its simplicity: "The Germans came in, they took me to the ghetto, they took me to the concentration camp, and I survived. You don't know what kind poverty, they tell now different things; what I went through, it's unbelievable." When the war broke out, Ziwa and her husband were away from home, as were her brothers, and they all wanted to go home. "My brothers came to their destination [home] but for a girl it was dangerous because the roads were with soldiers and I was a pretty girl." Ziwa and her husband were sent to a ghetto .... They didn't have use for old people and children ...they used to take them to the outskirts of the city and kill them. I came from work--no girl, nothing. The little crib is empty. It's very hard for me to talk about that. He came from work--he had ...his big job still ....I remember his face when this little girl was gone. We were sitting a whole evening and crying . . . .The thing is that we thought that we are not going to survive anyway ....They took his mother, they took the little girl, another month, another half a year we are not going to be alive anyway . ...very hard to talk about that. She was so pretty ...she was gorgeous. Ziwa had no way of communicating with her family back in the little town. For a long time she didn't know what had happened to them, but eventually she learned of their fate. I worked in I worked in a leather factory and there was a cobbler who came to buy leather from our town and he told me how it happened. My brothers and parents--the Lithuanians killed them. The Germans came in and they gave a free hand to the anti-Semites. They could do with the Jews what they want. When my brothers came home...we were more prosperous. We had land--we were like farmers, but all the children were away, so we had 2 families living on farm, and farm the farm (my father-brother was already not so young) and profits went to us, so they didn't like us. We were like rich in comparison. So they took all the Jewish people to the outskirts, all 28 families. Such pogroms and mass execution were occurring in all territories as the Germans advance. "Those areas where native the population aided the Germans has the highest death toll of Jewish population. It is estimated that ninety percent of the Jewish population of the Baltic countries, including Lithuania, perished during the war" (Fisher, 1991, p. 73). In 1944, as the Allied armies were closing in on Poland, the Americans from one side and the Russians from the other, the Germans liquidated the ghettos and took all the survivors to concentration camps. On June 10, 1944, Ziwa was sent to a camp near-Stuthoff, where she remained for 9 months. Her husband, Avigdor Sheskin , was taken to Dachau, where he died.... Seskinas Avigdor
Sheskin Yaakov
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| Szeskin Chaim Leib Leib Szeskin was born in Ilukst in 1879 to Moshe Yechezkel and Malka. He was a merchant and married to Eidel nee Goldberg. Prior to WWII he lived in Siauliai, Lithuania. During the war he was in Siauliai, Lithuania. Leib perished in Germany. This information is based on a Page of Testimony (displayed on left) submitted on 11-Mar-1957 by his daughter. More Details Szeskin Natan Natan Szeskin was born in Ilukst in 1877 to Moshe and Malka. He was a Submitter's Last Name AUSHPIZ Szeskin Matetjau Sheskin Avigdor Szeskin Yakov
Goldberg Estera Estera Goldberg was born in Sauliai in 1913 to Noakh and Nekhama. She Scheskin Tilla Sheskin Tehila Submitter's Last Name RADIN |
