Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

Esther Feldman Icikson - October 23 & 29, November 5 & 12, 2001

Extended Family

Let me ask you, how many aunts and uncles were there?

My dad had three--two brothers and a sister. My mom had a brother, but he lived in Germany actually. This is a different story altogether. The two brothers, my dad's two brothers uh, my dad was the oldest--these were two younger brothers--they wound up in Russia. He had a sister. She did not leave. She um, was killed. I don't know where. She had a husband and two or three children, I don't know. Actually she had my, my name, her name was Esther. Just like me, mine.

Also in Chelm? They lived in Chelm?

They lived in Chelm. She got married and I think that they left as, as the war br...started they left to, to White Russia. They thought that they'll be safer there. But Hitler found them there too. Yeah, so he--they, they perished. They perished. My...

Cousins? Do they have children?

They had two children or three, I don't know exactly.

And the rest of your aunts and uncles?

Now my two uncles, my daddy's brothers, they survived. One, one of my uncles was with us, his family, the whole family. We were together in Siberia.

How many children was that?

Um, there were ???. There were four.

And the other brother?

The other brother uh, when he left to Russia he did not have any children. In Russia he got married to a Russian woman and there are some children there.

They still live there?

Uh, yes, because he married this Russian woman, she wasn't Jewish. And I think he had three sons with her. And then--I don't know what happened, I think the family broke up. The children--the sons are still there. My uncle died in Russia actually. Because my dad was so religious, my uncle felt very uncomfortable in those days to come back with a non-Jewish wife. At the end they separated for some reason, I don't know. So he stayed in Russia and he passed away in Russia. But there are some children from that marriage.

So w...with your family, your immediate family...

Yeah.

...and the extended family up to first cousins...

Yeah.

...grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins. How large do you think your family was?

Oh, I. There was a lot. My mom had a sister that she had, I think, eight or ten children. They all perished. Um, and um, lots of cousins that I don't even remember, which I couldn't probably tell you from other...

Forty maybe?

Probably.


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