Nahum Fishelov

GEDCOM Note

Letter from Nuchem Fiszelow (Moshe’s father) in Israel to Ben in 1948: Dear Friend Ben Fisher: I have received a few notices from the Jerusalem Joint that a friend, Ben Fisher is looking for me. So I feel a holy obligation to report to you - from 1939 to the outbreak of WWI, I ran away from my home and family and experienced a lot of countries and wanderings in Russia, Poland, Germany camps, Cyprus until I came to Israel. Nine years have gone by. I was pretty young then. Now my memory is weaker so it’s hard to remember my friends who live in other countries. I would be happy to be in touch with you. I am from Pinsk. My father’s name was David Fiszelow and my mother’s name was Goldberg. Best wishes for the New Year, Nachum Fiszelow

Moshe, 8/2011: "3rd of 7 children, the only boy. He played violin until his fingers were too sore. Had an Aunt Bracha, but Moshe doesn't know from which side of the family. "At the end of the war in 1945, my father who was already married to my mom, Gisya, decided to return to Pinsk to see the home and to check maybe someone from his family survives, however, he was heard that no one survives, and the house was destroyed, therefore he got to the conclusion that all his family was died in the holocaust in 1942, something that is probably true, however I don't think we have any absulut evidence for it." "My dad wrote in his book that they use to have as a full time job an householder by the name Netelka, and I assume that in Yiddish is a sort of an affection name to Elka, (born 1918)." 9/11 Nachum was the sole survivor in the family of the Babi Yar massacre, having gone to Israel. A handout dated September 28, 1941 in Russian, Ukrainian with German translation ordered all Kievan Jews to assemble for the march to Babi Yar. On 29 and 30 September 1941, a special team of German SS troops supported by other German units and local collaborators murdered 33,771 Jewish civilians after taking them to the ravine. The massacre was the largest single mass killing for which the Nazi regime and its collaborators were responsible during its campaign against the Soviet Union and is considered to be "the largest single massacre in the history of the Holocaust".

My Dad succeeded to escape from Pinsk on the last minute in September 1st 1939 by crossing the River's bridge with some of his friends from the youth movements just an hour before the Germans bombed it, went to Russia where he met my mother and they got married. They never were in any concentration camp, and in 1947 they took a ship from Italy to Israel, but the British caught them and sent them to a temporary camp in Cyprus. After being there for about 6 months the British gave them the attached certificates to enter Israel and transport them to another temporary camp in Israel close to Haifa. - Moshe Jan+Feb 2018