Martin Koby - April 20, 1999
Family
All right. Tell me her sister's names.
Okay. She had a--well, let's--my mother had--my mother's--I know my mother was sandwiched in the middle between her sisters as far as age goes. Her older sister was Halva, Halva perished, but she left a daughter Manya, who lives in Israel. Halva's husband died somewheres in the twenties. Okay? So she was a widow with a daughter and she stayed in the house of her, of her mother, with Sarah.
But she perished in the Holocaust?
Yeah, oh, yes. There were uh, I'll tell you about it a little later.
Okay.
So she had--there was Halva and there was Sheindel, okay and there was Rose, my mother Raizel.
Tell--tell me again about Sheindel, you're only one...
Sure.
You have only one memory of Sheindel.
Yeah.
Tell me what that is.
What do you mean?
You said...
Oh.
...you only remembered her...
That I, I do not remember Sheindel alive, you know. I'm sure I saw her, because--I must have visited there, because I used to go visit my cousins, because my cousins, the Shainbojms Rai...uh, Sheindel's family lived near my grandma. Near my--near her house where she was born. But she had a family of her own. She was married to Mr. uh, Mr. Shainbojm. And she had the cousin Pinhaus, who was my age and a brother Yitzhak that both of them live in Israel. And I remember--the only thing I remember of Sheindel is that she was lying dead you know, she was covered up with white sheets. She was lying on the floor and they had candles...
Uh-huh.
...on each side of her. And I remembered to go you know, I went into the house, but I did not understand what all this white stuff and the candles were.
So you were just a child.
I was a kid probably. That's all I remember of her. At--was--she died in childbirth. I found out later. I didn't know at that time you know, what happened. And the little girl grow and--grew up to be about five--six--five years old, maybe six years old, I don't know, something like that. Because I used to go visit and she used to come and visit, she used to come and visit my house, because we lived about a mile away.
And what was the little girl's name?
Dataya, Dataya. I remember there's some ladies here around that are called Dataya, D-a-t-a-y-a. And that somewheres in the Hebrew literature you know, biblical, I come across that thing. So they--over there you know, you're always made more--more Yiddish or more acceptable, more to be called Dataya Dorcha .
And did she also perish?
She also perished, yes.
Uh-huh. Okay. So we have Raizel who's your...
My mother, yes.
Halva.
Halva.
Halva.
Sheindel.
Sheindel.
And Rose--Raizel my mother, then she had Malka a sister and Hannah, a sister. Of all the sisters, three survived. My mother, Malka and Hannah. Malka and Hannah teamed up, because they were together. Each one had the little boy. Malka's--Malka, when she married, she married out to a city Klewan. Klewan, on the other side of--north of--and west of, of, of, of Rovno, near--somewheres between Rovno and Lutsk was this little town--city, Klewan. But she used to come and visit us all the time. You know, she came home to visit.
Yeah.
And her name was Ooster. My cousin Ooster still lives in, lives in Brook...in New York, in Long Island or Staten Island. I think it's Staten Island.
Okay.
I mean, I'll have to look it up there. I know where he lives, on Birch Street.
Coval, is that where he's from?
No.
Oh.
Klewan.
Klewan.
Klewan.
So near Lutsk.
Yeah, it's between Lutsk and Rovno. It's--yeah.
Oh, there it is, Klewan.
Klewan, yes.
Yeah.
That's a nice name. You know why? Because when the Russians liberated the 1944--liberated our region, they were in Klewan before they came to us. And I was kind of disappointed because the center of the universe is where I am, right? They should have come first to, to liberate us, then Klewan. But Malka--Malka used to come and visit us, during peacetime, you know.
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