A Tribute to Erwin and Riva Baker
by Steven Gershman

It is very difficult to write about Riva (Rivka) Baker in the past. She passed away September 23, 2004, the 8th day of the Hebrew month of Tishri. Her funeral took place September 24, 2004--the eve of Yom Kippur and my birthday. I had taken care of her for 25 years--ever since the death of her husband Erwin. She became a mother and father to me. Erwin and Riva Baker were the only members of their immediate families to survive the Holocaust. Furthermore, they did not have any children. I feel that it is my personal obligation to write down their stories so that future generations will appreciate what Jewish life was like in Europe prior to World War II and they will know what atrocities the Jews endured during the war. Erwin and Riva Baker were kind and gentle people. Although they no longer walk this earth, their memories will live on...

Riva Baker (nee Rivka Leah Burko) came from the same town as my father, Morris Gershman (Mojsze Gerszman). They were landsleit. Coming from the same town often created a bond between people. Rivka was born May 3, 1914, to Mordechai (Motel) and Faiga (nee Okeiylo, pronounced O-Ki-Lo) in the shtetl (town) of Miedzyrzec (in Polish) or Mezeritsh (in Yiddish) in the province of Wohlyn. Prior to Poland obtaining this area after World War I, it was part of Russia. The shtetl is actually situated in the Western Ukraine. Therefore, the Jewish residents of this area knew Polish, Russian, and Ukrainian. Naturally, Yiddish was their mama loshen (mother tongue).

Rivka told me that her mother and father married when her mother was 16 and her father was 18. Faiga was the youngest of three children. She had two brothers, Noah and Moishe (?). She was orphaned at a very early age and had to live with her brothers. Life was not easy for Faiga. However, when she married, she was able to help her brothers and their families. She had a true Yiddishe neshama (Jewish soul). In many respects, Rivka followed in her mother's footsteps. Furthermore, in her senior years, her resemblance to her mother was uncanny.

Rivka's father was known as Motel Amerikaner (Motel the American). As was very common in shtetlach (towns), many people were known bynicknames. Why Motel Amerikaner? Prior to 1900, Motel Burko made his way to New York looking for opportunities in America, leaving Faiga behind with two children in Mezeritsh. He remained in New York for five years. Eventually, he planned to bring his wife and children over. He was a peddler in New York and was doing reasonably well. One night he had a very disturbing dream. He did not know what to make of it. As was common for the times, he went to a rabbi to interpret the dream. The rabbi 

advised him to return to Mezeritsh and to name his next child Ben Tzion (the son of Zion). Motel Borko returned home to find that his two children had died.

Although poverty was prevalent in Mezeritsh, it cannot be said that Motel Amerikaner was poor. In fact, by economic standards of the time, he was quite wealthy. He was a merchant who engaged in numerous businesses, including timber and wholesale grains. He sold and shipped merchandise to cities in Poland, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Russia, etc. In addition, he owned land and maintained a full scale farm, or as Rivka called it, a fulvarok. Consequently, the Burkos lived very well in a beautiful home that contained a room for chusanim (grooms, but in this case potential grooms), as the Burko children consisted of five daughters and three sons, the first one named Ben-Tzion.

1. BEN-TZION (or Bentzia for short) did not have his father's business acumen. With his wife Golda, they had two children. Although sickly, he could not make a living. His wife Golda ran a small store, but it was not successful. Knowing how bad his economic situation was and knowing how wealthy his father was, Bentzia walked into his father's home and laid down on the floor. He told his father that he would not get up from the floor until his father promised to build him a house and support him. Needless to say, Motel built Bentzia and his family a house and supported them.
2. CHAYA (better known as Chayka) was married to Shlomo Rondal. They had three children. Rivka related that her brother-in-law was a very handsome and good-natured man. However, he, too, could not make a living. As Rivka's father saw what happened with his eldest son, he stated that Shlomo would be better off working with his hands, as in a factory, as he was not a businessman. In the 1930's, many Jews were immigrating to South America, as immigration to the US had been cut off in the 1920s. Motel arranged for all required documentation to be processed, all expenses were paid, baggage was packed, and the Rondals were all prepared to leave for Argentina. When it came to saying farewell, Faiga and Chayka embraced and started crying uncontrollably. What was the end result? Chayka and her family remained in Mezeritsh. Motel was extremely angry because he had hoped that if one child emigrated, perhaps additional children would follow. Motel was a modern and practical man for his times and knew that there was no future for the Jews in Poland. He blamed his wife Faiga for "spoiling" the children. Faiga responded: "My children do not have to be doctors". Had they gone to Argentina, they would have escaped the Holocaust.
3. MALA was Rivka's sister. When she married, she had moved to Sdalbunov, a neighboring town. Rivka, as a young