Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

Martin Koby - April 20, 1999

Family (continued)

Right.

Before the war.

Okay. And the broth...and brothers? She said you had--she had...

Yeah, she had a little boy.

But your mother had three--she--what was her--what ???...

Malka had--Malka, her last name was Ooster.

Yeah and she had a...

A son, Isaac Yitzhak. You see, when my father--when my grandfather died, Malka you know, Yitzhak Shainbojm was named after him, my cousin Yitzhak Shainbojm that lives in Israel.

Right.

He was named after my grandfather. My brother was named after my grandfather. And Yitzhak Ooster were--was named after my grandfather. So it...

Do you...

My fath--my grandfather must have been a real--some character. No, no, he got three grandsons and every one named after him.

And did, did, did Malka's son survive, survive the war?

Yes, Malka...

They did...

Malka and Hannah teamed up. They were together with--they had two little boys.

And the children also survived.

Or the children also survived.

All right. Now, you--you had uncles in your...

Yes. I had--my mother had three brothers, Mayer Tessler and Pinhaus Tessler and Moishe Tessler. The--Pinhaus, who ended up in Brazil, he became Pedro. And Moses--Moishe, he also survived. He also ended up in Brazil. Uncle Mayer, the oldest son, who was the pride of the family, supposedly a good, a good head on his shoulders, he perished, a week before the Russians were to liberate his area. A week before. Horrendous. The two of them, he and his wife perished on the same day, a week before liberation.

Did they have children?

No, they had no children. My son is named after him.

Yeah. Your son Miles.

Yeah.

Yeah. Okay.

You see uh, too bad my father didn't survive. I mean, my father survived, he died here in the States. But his grandson, Miles, his first grandson, was only a year old when he died. He would have appreciated him, much more than my mother. I don't know, either my mother did not have--my mother appreciated things, but not the way my father did.


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