[Cz-L] Josef Lazar Weinstein

I was cruising the Internet today looking for information about Vascauti,
the birthplace of my father, Josef Lazar Weinstein, in 1908. All my father
ever said about his early life was "when WW1 broke out, I was visiting
Vienna - and never saw my family again" ! He was apparently adopted in
Vienna and became Josef Weinstein-Rath.

He came to England before WW2, joined up and rose to the rank of Major.
Jewish soldiers were encouraged, I gather, to drop possibly Jewish sounding
names, so he became just Joe Rath.

I grew up in London but have lived in Barnstaple in North Devon for the last
5 years. Recently a book came out titled "Jews in North Devon" and,
surprise surprise, I found my dad's name in it. When I passed this
information on to my brother in London, he checked our parents' wedding
certificate - from a synagogue in London - and found that my dad's home
address was given as a camp in Westward Ho, about 10 miles from where I live
!

Clearly, two World Wars had had a devastating effect on his life, so he was
not inclined to talk about it. Naturally, it is sadly only after their
death that one starts to think seriously about ones parents' origins. I
found your site today and I am hoping to find out more about the area - as
well as, hopefully, finding people who can tell me about a Weinstein family
from Vascauti.

The site has already been helpful in that I have downloaded maps of Bukovina
showing me exactly where Vascauti - or Waschkoutz or Vashkivtsi - is. Can
anyone help me with information about the Weinsteins or about Jewish
families in Vascauti ?

Finally, I have a recollection of looking at the Readers' Digest World Atlas
(1968 edition) with my father - an Atlas I still have. I am sure he said
something like "fancy that place being on the map. My uncle owned it" ! I
thought it began with "S", so seeing the Bukovina map makes me wonder about
"Sniatyn" ?

Mike Rath

e-mail address

mike.rath_at_virgin.net

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