I have no idea how to answer this email:
Hello, I was wondering how I could gain aid in finding surviving relatives or their children in Isreal from their original destination of Poland after WWII.
I would appreciate any information. I am especially interested in the family of my father from Tarnapol, now Ukraine. I have information from my mother’s family from Vienna, Austria.
I know there are relatives in Israel.
Thank you.
Ruth
But I’ll send your suggestions back to her, or tell her to click on the link for this post.
If they’re Concentration Camp survivors, there may be a service through Yad Vashem that could help. That’s where I would start.
If she lives in the U.S., her local Federation chapter may be able to point her to some resources.
I’ve seen letters like this published on the Jerusalem Post website. Perhaps if she writes to them with more detailed information — names, locations, dates — that may be a start.
I’ll second what Eric wrote. There is information like that at the Yad Vashem website. Whether her relatives are listed there is uncertain. Also some of the records are old.
Yad Vashem is a good place to start. I would also suggest that she check out the JewishGen Holocaust Global Registry (http://www.jewishgen.org/registry/) and post her question on the JewishGen Discussion Group.
Sorry for the double-comment.
This is from an e-mail sent to the JewishGen discussion group yesterday:
The Israeli radio has a daily segment called “The department for
searching lost relatives”.
This program was originally aired after the 2nd World War to help Israelis
who survived, find lost relatives.
It has now been reinstated and has over 150 daily requests for searches.
Only 4-5 are aired every day.
You can listen to this program live on the Israeli radio website for Reshet Bet
http://bet.iba.org.il/ click top left “bet live”. The program is aired
Sun-Thurs at 2:45 PM Israel time in Hebrew.
An e-mail address given for the program is: mador2@gmail.com .
snail mail:
Finding Lost Relatives
POB 33069 Jerusalem
Israel
Phone: 972-25313315
Voice mail: 972-529990006
Maybe they would be willing to air her search or have some suggestions.
The international red cross (Same red cross the crusaders wore when they massacred much of Jewish Europe while on the way to the crusades)* has and international tracing service whose headquarters are in fact the archives in Bad Arolsen. Here is a link to the from you must fill out in triplicate, seperate set for each relative sought and forward to the IRC or your local red cross chapter.
http://www.redcross.org/services/intl/holotrace/international_hwwII.pdf
* As a side note, King Richard the Lion Hearted, the good guy who saves Robin Hood from King John and the sheriff of nottingham, has been gone from England for a few years leaving his brother king John in control. Where did he go? He went on on the crusades and has just returned from leaving Europe knee deep in Jewish blood and killing the ba’alei tosfos, (Tosafists) the greatest scholars of that generation. Yes, the good guy at the end of Robin Hood was the Adolph Hitler of his generation. With such heroes you wonder why Europe thinks the way it does?