The story started earlier, when the caller, Michael Zaibel of Moshav Ashalim in the Negev, opened a large envelope addressed to him from a man with exactly the same name living in Belarus. Inside, he found a handwritten letter, and some photographs. At once, he recognized them as his uncle – his father's brother – and his children.
"I am asking a friend of mine who knows Hebrew to write to you. I recently looked up the Yad Vashem Names Database and found Pages of Testimony you submitted with names and attached photographs that I recognize. I assume that you and I share family roots. You see, the pictures you attached are of my grandparents, as well as of my father as a young boy."
Michael Zaibel
That was the beginning of the discovery of a close family line thought to have been totally destroyed – in which both sides did not know of the other's existence and which finally led to a moving family Zaibel family reunion in Israel.
On the eve of WWII, Israel and Rachel Zaibel lived in Daugaspils, Latvia. They had three sons – Shalom, Grisha and Lova – and a daughter named Chana. Grisha had immigrated to Argentina and Chana to America, while Shalom and Lova remained in Europe. Lova Zaibel, who had lost an arm and a leg fighting in WWI, resided in the town of Gomel in Belarus together with his wife Chaya and their three children. His brother Shalom lived in Riga with his wife and three children.
On 4 July 1941, the Nazis rounded up some of the Jews of Riga in the local synagogue, which was set on fire and its inhabitants burned to death. Shalom and his family, as well as his parents, were in the synagogue. Nobody survived. Meanwhile, close to the invasion, Lova's wife Chaya had been hospitalized. When the Nazis entered the hospital, she was thrown out of the window, suffering a brutal death. Lova and his three children disappeared.
Throughout the years, Grisha, living in Argentina, tried to obtain information about his family in Europe. Before he passed away in 1961, he asked his son Michael to make every effort to find out what had happened and commemorate them at Yad Vashem.
After immigrating to Israel, Michael Zaibel filled out Pages of Testimony in 1999 for his lost family members and attached photographs his father had given him. Among the Pages were one in memory of his aunt Chaya, whom he knew had been murdered, as well as for Lova and his children, whom he assumed had also died.
Almost two decades later, Lova's grandson, also named Michael Zaibel, living in Belarus, had discovered these Pages of Testimony together with the photos, and reached out to his father's cousin Michael Zaibel in Israel. Now, he filled in the missing gaps of the story.
Having seen what had happened to his wife, and being a disabled Jewish war veteran, Lova understood that if there was any chance of survival he must flee with his children. After hiding in the forest, they managed to get on the last Russian train traveling towards Buchara, and from there to Ozbekestan, where they stayed until the end of the war. On liberation, they returned and searched for their family, but did not find anyone alive. Lova decided to settle in Belarus.
Lova passed away in 1952. His son, Vova, Michael's father, died in 2010. It took many years, but finally Michael Zaibel of Belarus found Michael Zaibel of Israel and were reunited. "Stories of reunification between family members like this are exciting, but sadly very rare," explained Director of Yad Vashem's Hall of Names Dr. Alexander Avram. "Nevertheless, they only happen due to survivors and their descendants taking the time to submit information to Yad Vashem regarding family members and acquaintances who were murdered during the Shoah. While we have managed to collect the names of over 4,700,000 individual Holocaust victims, more than a million name are still missing. I urge the public to check whether their beloved relatives and friends are commemorated in the Central Database of Shoah Victims' Names, and to complete Pages of Testimony in memory of those who are not yet recorded – so that no victim will ever be forgotten."
The Shoah Victims’ Names Recovery Project is generously supported by Dana and Yossie Hollander. Yad Vashem’s names collection efforts are also supported by: Fondation pour la Mémoire de la Shoah, France; the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany; Swiss Banks Settlement; Genesis Philanthropy Group; the Noaber Foundation; the National Fund of the Republic of Austria for Victims of National Socialism; the Nadav Foundation; Swiss Friends of Yad Vashem; the Zanker Foundation; the Maror Foundation; Friends of Yad Vashem in the Netherlands; Friends of Yad Vashem in Austria; and Anonymous, Switzerland.
For more information on filling out Pages of Testimony or donating other sources containing names of Holocaust victims, please click here.
This article originally appeared in the "Yad Vashem Jerusalem Magazine," volume 88.
