[Cz-L] Personal Introduction

Hello Everyone,

  This is probably longer than it should be, but I have been "lurking" in
the background for about two months, trying to figure out what I would
say. I have to admit that it was Lucca's e-mail that pushed me from the
shadows to introducing myself. I am the oldest daughter of "Esty" that
she mentioned in her last e-mail. My name is Linda Hutkin Slade.

  My mother, Evelyne Esther “Esty” Eisenfeld Hutkin was born in Czernowitz
August 17, 1930. She married my father, Irving Hutkin, of Brooklyn, NY
in 1952. On April 22, 2002 she passed away from cancer. She had three
children – Linda (that’s me) and my sister Stephanie and my brother
Allen. She also had 7 grandchildren.

  I am so sorry that I didn’t find this listserv before my mother died.
She would have been so excited. I think she often felt like she was the
only surviving person from Czernowitz. We have several photographs that
predate the war, I believe that they were from one of her uncles. If I
can get myself organized I will see about posting some of them.

  Throughout my entire life my mother spoke with great fondness of her
early childhood and Czernowitz. Her tales of these magical years
interwoven with her war years stories were my bedtime tales. You can
imagine what kind of nightmares I had. Since this is just an
introduction, I am only going to highlight a few things.

    Her parents were Schöne Fuhrmann Eisenfeld and Isidore Eisenfeld. I
know more about my grandmother’s side of the family. Her parents were
Samuel Fuhrmann and Hannah Fuhrmann. Hannah was Samuel’s second wife
and she was widowed quite young and left with 7 or 8 children to
raise. We have a photo of the shop – 4 Fratii Fuhrmann but I am
uncertain as to the whereabouts of the store. The family had
connections in Vienna as well. I know that Hannah lived in Chernowitz
with her sons, Geri, Isiu, Mort and her only daughter (my grandmother)
Schöne. They lived next door to my grandfather’s family, the
Eisenfelds. According to family lore, my great-grandmother’s dying
wish was for my grandfather, Isidore to marry Schöne which they did
sometime in 1928 or 1929.

  Two of the Fuhrmann sons, Isiu and Mort were able to leave prior to the
war. Isiu married Frieda Spritzer and joined his father-in-law in the
family jewelry business (Spritzer and Fuhrmann). They relocated to
Curacao. Geri, Pepi and their son Kubi were deported to Siberia in
1941. My mother narrowly missed going with them. She was sick and home
from school. When the Soviets loaded Geri, Pepi, Kubi and my mother
onto the back of a truck. At the last minute her grandfather grabbed
her off the back of the truck and snuck back home with her. Sometime in
the late 1960’s or early 1970’s Geri and Pepi were allowed to come to
the US to visit with us. Kubi and his family remained in the USSR as a
guarantee that Geri and Pepi would return. Later, during the 1980’s
they were all allowed to immigrate to Israel. My parents visited with
Kubi in Israel in the late 1980’s. I believe that he changed his name,
but I don’t have a record of it.

  During the summers my grandparents ran a children’s camp – Vijenca
Kinderheim. The camp was in Wiznitz on the border near Galizien. My
mother had many fond memories of those times, mostly of the mischief she
played.

  My grandmother, Schöne was very talented - she sang, danced, entertained
and wrote poetry. My mother told us that they often went to the theatre
and their home was filled with performers rehearsing in their home. She
often watched set designers build small scale sets on their kitchen
table.

  My grandfather, Isidore was an accountant and could do huge sums in his
head. His father lived next door to my mother and her parents. When
she was naughty and about to get a spanking she would bang on the wall
with her elbow. Her grandfather would come to her rescue and tell her
parents not to harm a hair on her head. I believe that my
great-grandfather’s name was Abraham Eisenfeld. I think he remarried
and had a second son named Julziu. I believe that they survived the
war, but I don’t know what happened to them.

  My mother had fond memories of Chernowitz. She said that their street
consisted of four two story apartment houses, I am uncertain of the
address.

  My mother was the first generation in her family to attend Romanian
school. When she was 5 she was determined to begin school even though
everyone thought she was too young. No school in town would have her
because of her age. As a last resort her mother took her to an all
boys’ school where she was rejected once again. But when the principal
realized how badly she wanted to be in school he relented. Apparently,
getting into the all boys school was much easier than staying there. As
the only girl she quickly learned that she could get away with murder
and became a disruptive influence on the student body. When Christmas
came around she was transferred to an all girls’ school which proved to
be quite a shock. There she got rapped on the knuckles along with
everyone else. Their maid would walk her to school. They would stop
and buy a sandwich for her lunch on the way. She said that she had no
favorite teacher. She hated them all. Her first school friend was Anna
 (?); she was also an only child. Her best friend was a boy named Friedel
Sontag who lived across the street. They were best friends until they
were separated during the war.

  School was uneventful till the war broke out. She attended Russian
school for 2 years but no school at all during the German occupation.
My grandfather, Isidore was drafted by the Russians, and departed with
them on a train. Before he left he taught my mother how to survive,
find food and take care of herself, her mother and her grandmother.
Sometime after he left he decided he was going to die anyway, so he
jumped off the train and made his way back to Chernowitz to be with his
family.

  At one point, my mother and her family were taken out of the Jewish
quarter to be hidden by a Romanian Colonel. His name was Barbu. I
don’t know if it was his first or last name. According to my mother,
Barbu and his soldiers marched into their home and removed them as if
they were to be deported. Instead they were taken to his apartment and
hidden. In some notes my mother left she indicates that they were
hidden in an apartment at Karl Marx Street and Leninsky Prospect.

  My grandparents had money to buy tickets to escape from Romania. They
originally had tickets to be on the Struma, but these were stolen. My
great-grandmother saw this as an intervention by G-d.

  Eventually, they had enough money to buy passage on another ship. This
was a yacht built to hold 20, but had 124 passengers. The ship took on
water from the start. By the time they entered the Black Sea and were
off the coast of Turkey the ship sank. There were no lifeboats and the
only chance for survival was to steer the ship close to shore when the
tide came in. My mother was terrified and didn’t know how to swim. Her
father was in the water urging her to jump. She climbed onto the outer
rim of the ship and held on for dear life while her father kept
hollering for her to jump and she kept screaming back “I can’t, I can’t
swim, I will drown!”

  The incoming tide saved them. Many articles were brought ashore by the
tide. Her father’s search for their belongings yielded 3 articles – a
scarf, a tie and a spoon. The boat sank on October 1, 1942. The
survivors were picked up by Turkish soldiers that debated whether to
give the survivors to the Russians, Germans or English. Fortunately
they were handed over to the English. My mother and the other children
were sent to the American Academy in Nicosia Cyprus from 1943 – 1944.
The adults were interned in Marango’s Hotel, Pedoulas, Cyprus.

  In 1944 they went to Palestine and lived in Tel Aviv. My mother went to
school in Tel Aviv and danced in the Grafzoff Dance Company and Ballet
School. In late 1948 they immigrated to Curacao to join my
grandmother’s brothers, Isiu and Mort.

  Living in Curacao was a culture shock for my mother. She really wanted
to be back in Israel and her family wanted her to be a proper lady. She
submitted some fashion sketches to FIT and won a scholarship at FIT and
Design. Despite her broken English she convinced the scholarship
committee that she would keep up with the Scholastic requirement of the
school. She graduated with an Associate degree in Applied Arts and later
became a fashion designer on 7th Avenue.

  My mother had a tremendous amount of survivor's guilt and she had a need
to help people, so she talked her way into a probationary admission at
NYU where she studied OT. She never graduated from NYU. She met my
father, Irving Hutkin, a young engineer and they were married and had
three children. They moved from New York to New Jersey, then
Indianapolis and eventually San Diego. When my brother was five years
old my mother returned to school. She scored too low on the SAT exam
and could not gain entry at SDSU. She was crushed. With little hope
but great determination she went to see the admission officer. She must
have sounded pretty convincing because she was granted an unconditional
admission to SDSU. It took her several years, but she obtained her
Bachelors Degree and then a Masters Degree in Social Work. She was a
highly successful and well respected gerontologist until her death in
2002.

  I would like to continue to explore my mother's past and her family
history. As I said earlier, I have many photos and a great many more
questions. I'd like to identify several of the people in the photos, as
well as locations, etc. I would especially like to find people who knew
my mother and/or her family. As I mentioned in the beginning, my mother
really felt like the soul survivor of a long lost town. It pains me to
know that she just missed out finding this community. It would have
meant the world to her.

  With warmest regards,

  Linda Hutkin Slade
Received on 2006-06-11 20:26:10