Re: [Cz-L] The Rendels and the Rosenbergs from Czernowitz

WOW, just amazing, thank you for sharing your story with us!

Edgar Hauster
from Edgar's iPad

Am 12.03.2012 um 23:26 schrieb "Henry Rendall" <henryrendall_at_hotmail.com>:

> Ladies and Gentlemen,
>
> My name is Henry Rendall and I am the proud son of two Czernowitz parents. I have been part of the fascinated but "silence is golden" minority on this site for about 2 1/2 years.
>
> At both Hardy and Jerome's suggestions, I'd like to change that today with this long and rather self-indulgent email, that only begins to share my parents' stories. I am doing so because a/ I feel it is very important to pass on their history and stories; and b/ on the outside chance that there are gaps that can be filled and new stories that can be told, related to my parents and their families, from others in this group.
>
> So let me begin.
>
> I joined this group in late 2009, shortly after the death of my father, Carol Rendall, originally Rendel.
>
> Carol, was named after King Carol, and was also known as Karol, Carl and Karl. He loved changing the spelling just to confuse people. He was born on June 6, 1920 in Falticeni but grew up in Czernowitz. His father, Sigmund Rendel, mysteriously left his family around 1926, when my dad was only six years old, and moved to Pernambuco, Brazil. There he supposedly remarried a Brazilian woman and had many new children. My father, who never saw or spoke to his dad again, had unfairly and unfortunately had to become the man of the house, at such a young age, to his mother, Lotti Rendel nee Hochman, and his younger sister, Jenny. Jenny was married to Nunia Coga, also from Czernowitz, during the war and moved to Caracas, Venezuela with many of her father's brothers and sisters in the late 1940's. Nunia, a prince of a man, is no longer with us but Jenny still resides in Caracas, although wheelchair bound. Their two daughters are Shirley Abbo, an architect in Caracas, and Lydia Liberman, a researcher in Israel.
>
> My mother, Sally Rendall nee Rosenberg, was born in Czernowitz on November 25, 1921. Her mother was Bertha Kurtz and her father was Hershel Benjumin Rosenberg, after whom I was named, but never met. Hershel was a pious man, who went to New York City in 1911 with two brothers-in-law, Yankel and Srul Kurtz. He stayed in the U.S. for many years but grew homesick and returned on his own in 1920. My mother was born the following year, disappointingly not the boy that her father had so desperately wanted after having two other daughters. My mother says he wanted a son to say Kaddish over him one day, and, in obvious denial, dressed my mother like a boy for the first 6 years of her life. Her eldest sister, Clara, was born in 1908. She was a wonderful but over-protective "tante", and like a second mother to me. She was first married to a David Katz in Romania before the war and they had a child who they adored named Romi. Both David and Romi sadly died during the war; her husband of complications from a savage beating by the police, and her son, tragically at the age of two, of influenza and malnutrition. Clara remarried in Montreal in the 1950's to Berish Lobel, who also passed away 15 years later. And finally, she was married to David Nudelman, of Romania, from 1966 to 1997, when she too passed away. David Nudelman was a remarkable man who lived until 2008 to the ripe old age of 102, in spite of the fact that he still smoked and had at least one shot of vodka every day. My mother's other sister, Betti, was born in 1911, and lived in Jerusalem with her husband, Schmeryl Hendel, until her death in 1981, I believe. Their only son, Benny Hendel, is a retired scholar and former radio talk show host, who is actively involved in voiceover and translation. His voice can be heard at Yad Vashem and he translates for many visiting dignitaries.
>
> My very short but very tough father met my mother, Sally Rosenberg, in Czernowitz in the mid-1930's. After he and his "gang" intimidated (rumor has it, beat up), her then boyfriend, they were never apart. They were together throughout the war and endured many hardships including three brutal years in Transnistria. Having survived the war on guts, luck and ingenuity, they were married in October of 1944. After an equally difficult life in Romania after the war, my parents and my father's mother were able to 'escape' to Italy in early 1948, on forged papers that my father's brother-in-law, Nunia, a jewelry engraver, had provided for them. They lived frugally in Cinecitta in Rome for 9 months, (my mother talks about how the three of them shared one banana every day), until a Canadian delegation generously got my parents on the General Sturgess, for a long 3-4 week boat trek to Halifax, Nova Scotia, where they landed in September of 1948. From there, they were on a train to Montreal, where they quickly disembarked. Not speaking very much English, let alone any French, my father took the first job offered to him the next day by the Jewish Vocational Services ... as a stock boy working for Montreal Draperies, a chain of stores in Quebec. My dad, like many immigrants at that time, worked long hours and saved his money, so that just five years later, after moving up to sales and buying, he bravely went out on his own and opened up Rendall Draperies in 1954. He and my mother ran that store, and subsequently three more, for the next 50 years or so. "Le petit jeuf' (the little jew), as my dad was affectionately called in the mainly French-Canadian town of St. Jean, Quebec, was loved and admired by his staff, loyal customers and suppliers, although he was often also feared by the latter, as he never took no for an answer.
>
> My sister, Beatrice (Schachter) was born in 1949 and my sister Josephine (Stein) in 1952. Bea lives in Montreal with her husband, Hershie Schachter. They have a son in Montreal and their two eldest, a daughter and son, are both married and live in Toronto. They also have two young redheaded grand-daughters and their son's wife is expecting her first child this summer. Jessy, no one has called her Josephine in 50 years, has lived in Pittsburgh, PA with her husband Jay, since 1978. They have two grown married daughters, one living is Israel with her Rabbi husband, two toddler daughters and newborn son; and the other, a doctor recently married to another doctor, living in Michigan.
>
> I was born in 1953, only 13 months after Jessy, and was the son my dad so desperately wanted, as some things never change. My father, who was working on the days my sisters were born, was able to be at the hospital for my birth, as it was June 24th or St. Jean Baptiste Day, a Quebec holiday. Science and common sense be damned, he always insisted that was why I was a boy. And no one argued with my dad. I was also the heir apparent to Rendall Draperies and ended up working with my dad for 10 years on and off; summers, evenings and then full time, from 1968 to 1978. Unfortunately, my father was an extremely difficult man to work for/with, so I "ran away" to Vancouver, B.C. in 1979 to "escape" from my dad. Luckily, no forged papers were required this time. I am married to my McGill University sweetheart, Catherine Sachs-Rendall; have three tall and talented sons - an engineer who has his own robotics company in Waterloo, Ontario: an artist/writer/film-maker in Toronto; and a successful child actor who is now taking time off to build musical instruments on a farm he owns outside of Toronto. I also run my own one-man ad agency in Toronto, having inherited my entrepreneurship and desire to be my own boss from my dad.
>
> As mentioned earlier, my father died in 2009. He fought a short, losing battle with prostate cancer. I miss him very much.
>
> My mother Sally is 90 years young; has 8 grandchildren and 5, soon to be 6, great-children, including her first great-grandson born in Jerusalem literally a few hours ago. She thankfully and miraculously lives on her own in Cote St. Luc, a suburb of Montreal; and is in good physical health with a sharp mind and lots of vivid memories of the "old country".
> I would like to, in the near future, share some more of my parents' history and stories of Czernowitz with this group, along with many wonderful old black and white, and sepia photos, which Jerome is going to help me load onto the site.
>
> I thank you for your patience in reading this long, yet abridged story of my parents, and look forward to not being so silent any more.
>
> Henry RendallToronto, Ontario
> (416) 487-6188 Office
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This moderated discussion group is for information exchange on the subject of
 Czernowitz and Sadagora Jewish History and Genealogy. The opinions expressed
 in these posts are the opinions of the original poster only and not necessarily
 the opinions of the List Owner, the Webmaster or any other members
 or entities connected with this mailing list. The Czernowitz-L list has
 an associated web site at http://czernowitz.ehpes.com that includes a
 searchable archive of all messages posted to this list. Please post in "Plain
 Text" if possible (help available at:
<http://www.jewishgen.org/InfoFiles/PlainText.html>).

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Received on 2012-03-13 05:10:55