In the Telechan Memorial Book there is a section entitled “The Tragic Death of Azriel the Mute & the Rest of the Eisenberg Family."  It tells of my grandfather’s untimely death in 1917 and that of his son Hershel/Zvi who died as a result of a fall from a roof in Palestine in 1936.  It also tells of another son, Laibel, who was killed as a result of a truck accident while living at a DP (Displaced Persons) Camp in Germany in 1947 after World War II.  My grandfather was approximately 32 years old at the time of his death. Uncle Hershel was 22 years old and Uncle Laibel was the oldest at age 37.

Then in 1992 I learned that Azriel and Minka’s youngest daughter, Rivka, died of starvation at the age of 6.  The Nazis murdered their other daughter, Ziporah, in 1941 along with her two children.  Ziporah was 26 years old at the time and her children were no doubt both under 6 years old.  That same day, Laibel’s wife, Bracha and his two children also perished at the hands of the Nazis. 

The tragic death scenario of my father’s family spanned three successive generations. The youthfulness of my relatives at the time of their deaths only magnifies the tragedies.

Azriel died years before any of his children.  Minka outlived him by fifty years.  She also outlived four of their children, one daughter-in-law and four grandchildren.  Only two of their six children died of natural causes.  One was their oldest child, my father Morris, who died of a heart attack in 1974 at age 66.  The other was their third son, Yitzhak, who lived to the age of 83 and died peacefully in 1993 in Hadera, surrounded by his family.

My father had 5 siblings; therefore I had five uncles and aunts.  I knew only one of them, my Uncle Yitzhak.  I had four first cousins approximately my age.  I did not know of their existence until a few years ago. I knew neither of my paternal grandparents. 

Next Page:THE IMMIGRANT GENERATION | Back to: TABLE OF CONTENTS