My grandmother Shoshana was a “Jewish Polish Grandmother” – chicken noodle soup, a carp fish in the tub for fattening until one morning it disappeared and there was ‘gefiltefish’ (traditional Jewish dish) for lunch, running to buy live chickens at one end of town and then to the ‘shochet’ (Jewish traditional butcher) at the other end, always carrying baskets with foodstuff – a 100% Jewish Polish grandmother. Shoshana was born in Zakroczym, a small agricultural village, on the bank of the Vistula River, northwest of the capital Warsaw, where a rich Jewish culture had evolved. In November 1941 all Jewish residents were gathered in the ‘rynek’ (town square) and brutally expelled to the Jewish ghetto in the nearby town Nowy-Dwor. From there, their fate was similar to that of six million others. Today, not a trace remains to thousands of Jews who had built their lives in the town for about 1,000 years.

This is an account of an expedition to discover my personal roots and those of the Jewish people in exile in Poland.

Click on photo to enlarge

My grandmother Shoshana was a “Jewish Polish Grandmother” – chicken noodle soup, a carp fish in the tub for fattening until one morning it disappeared and there was ‘gefiltefish’ (traditional Jewish dish) for lunch, running to buy live chickens at one end of town and then to the ‘shochet’ (Jewish traditional butcher) at the other end, always carrying baskets with foodstuff – a 100% Jewish Polish grandmother. Shoshana was born in Zakroczym, a small agricultural village, on the bank of the Vistula River, northwest of the capital Warsaw, where a rich Jewish culture had evolved. In November 1941 all Jewish residents were gathered in the ‘rynek’ (town square) and brutally expelled to the Jewish ghetto in the nearby town Nowy-Dwor. From there, their fate was similar to that of six million others. Today, not a trace remains to thousands of Jews who had built their lives in the town for about 1,000 years.

This is an account of an expedition to discover my personal roots and those of the Jewish people in exile in Poland.

Click on photo to enlarge