Road to SteemFest - Why I Will Visit Auschwitz - Part 1 - Hidden Family Connection

in #roadtosteemfest5 years ago (edited)

I never planned to visit Auschwitz-Birkenau. Having always opposed "Holocaust Tourism", I avoided visiting the Anne Frank house in Amsterdam on four different trips, including one where the flat we rented was across the street. I never visited the Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem (Yad va Shem) even though I've lived in this country for most of my life. I even missed the school-trip. It's just too hard for me, and I don't feel remembrance should be traumatic.

So why am I planning to join a group of Steemians on a trip to the ruins of the Auschwitz death camp?

It all started a few months ago when @mrlightning casually said something about his grandfather escaping Auschwitz. To anyone who's been raised in Israel (or is familiar with the history of the Jews in WWII) this would sound pretty crazy, especially dropped so casually in conversation. Most families honor their survivors, and are closely familiar with the history of their ancestors in the war. Curious, I inquired further.

Family Secrets

According to @mrlightning, the topic of his grandfather's life in the Holocaust was a taboo in their home. The one time @mrlightning's aunt innocently inquired about her father's survival story, he had nightmares for weeks, and she was forbidden to ever mention it again. What little @mrlightning remembered from the few stories his grandfather (who died peacefully when @mrlightning was only 13) shared was even more shocking than the fact he survived Auschwitz - he never really told any government that he did.

The reason he didn't submit a survivor testimony wasn't the fact he was one of the 5% of Jews from Salonika (Thesaloniki) in Greece that survived the Holocaust, but the fact that he was an unwilling member of the Sonderkommando. It was no wonder he rarely spoke of it - the memories of burning the bodies of his friends and family must have been more than he could stand. Another reason to keep quiet was the fact that he had deserted the Greek army to stow away on a boat to Israel, and he wasn't very keen on the Greek looking into his matters even decades later. In addition, he mentioned escaping from Auschwitz during a mutiny, which might be nearly impossible to verify, but just made me even more curious to discover who this man was, and where his tragic story took him.

What's In a Name

So where would I start? @mrlightning's grandfather's name was Mois Brudo, and he was born in 1919 in Salonika, Greece. He was the son of Donna and Iosif Brudo. It's why he named his children Dina and Josef. He had at least 2 brothers and a sister he continued to search for after the war. 

With that information, and very little else, I put to use my Google-Fu skills and began to search through every database of Holocaust records - from Yad va Shem to the Auschwitz Archives and community-specific victim lists. Which is when I came across a somewhat unexpected challenge: How do you spell Brudo? Or more specifically, how does a tired Nazi death-camp clerk spell it?

I've occasionally toyed with the idea of writing my last name as Brudaux to make it sound fancy and confuse people. But never did I think that I would spend hours guessing how a German would transcribe it from Greek. Apparently, there's a variety (that's managed to create quite a few duplicate records across databases). Among the names I found: Brodo, Broudo, Proudo and even Mproudo. Narrowing it down with the first name (Mois or Moshe), year of birth and the name of the parents, I managed to get access to some public records to confirm he was indeed deported with his family in the spring of 1943. But that was only the beginning.

"Lucky" Find

One of the databases I searched, the Holocaust Museum in Washington, had the name "Mois Proudo" connected to a file. This file, a digitized version of microfilms, included the scans of only 5310 forms, filled out by the Nazis for the prisoners entering the camp. It is worth noting that (according to historians), over 1.3 million people (!!!) entered that dark place. Many lost completely to history and their names forgotten, no record of them anywhere. 

But not this one. Not Mois Proudo. I found him.

The kind archivists in Washington were quick to answer and attached an image. A scan of a document that brought tears to the eyes of family members, revealed the names of the first wife and child of Mois (who died in the gas chambers, most likely) and was the beginning of a journey that will take me to a place I would otherwise avoid visiting - Auschwitz.

Here it is, the entry form of my husband's grandfather to the place I will be touring with my Steemian friends:

...

In my next post: Getting help from friends on Steem, connecting numbers and looking for the Brudos who didn't make it.

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Great post. Sorry I only just saw it now.

history informs our presence and can guide us in the future. Well done tracking down this piece of personal history and taking the opportunity to visit where it happened.

I guess for me, history is always personal
I would avoid doing things because I was Supposed to
but the trip to AB must be intensely personal for you...
so, I would make the trip

for me, the connection to see a bit o Greek history, too.

We're also planning a trip to Salonika as some point. Also, might get a Greek passport.

I spent a few hours in this place as a child. It was a terrifying and sad experience. Not for 10 years old boy, but I think that every adult should visit the camp! Only one time.

Why do they even let people under 16 enter?!

I really don't know. Children are definitely too young for this experience!

Wow - what a dive into history and what a find - that's a spelling you would never have guessed. I just recently learned you're going to be there at SteemFest! I will love meeting you. I will also be available to help you in your search. I can totally understand your views on 'Holocaust Tourism' and I hope you will find what you need to find while visiting such a traumatic place.

Thank you! My main goal in the visit is to try and perhaps find more information or something else in the archives there.

I hope you'll find what you're looking for. It's important to know the history of your family.
I visited Auschwitz I and Auschwitz II–Birkenau when I was in high school, and it was one of the hardest I ever did. It was an important visit for me, as It is part of my Jewish roots, as without history there is no future.

My goodness what a story! I can imagine you are walking around so differently then compared to so many other who will visit. Listen I will visit as well next week..I dont know, it feels like a place where so much weirdness in history is, that you then you understand our grandparants who were alive at that time...or in your case..actually there.

What a search you have already overcome!

Interesting to read about a person who also do not seek these places of sorrow. I didn't go to the museum in Hiroshima. To me it was enough just being there, and I never went to any Kz-camp. For me it has been enough, more than enough to have talked to survivors, both from kz-camps and other terrible things happening back then.

When I grew up in the eighties it was still a big part of our lives. Our grandparents was a direct source. They had lived through the war and through them we learned the shame and sorrow. It made very deep impressions on my generation. I do tell my daughters about it and somehow I am frightened when I realise that all this slowly fades from our collective memory. I think we remember just as much by empathy as by intellect, and when the old die the strong feeling of sorrow and guilt dies with them and is not reflecting in our feelings any more.

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