Mark Webber - December 13, 2004
Introduction
Um, could you tell me your name, please, and where you're from?
My name is Mark Webber. I was uh, my last name was Wygoda, W-Y-G-O-D-A. I am uh, from Poland, from a town, Pułtusk. I was born there on March the 29th, 1928.
Um, how large is your family?
Well um, we were five siblings. I have a brother who lives here in Detroit, Leo. He's the oldest. Then comes a sister, Bronia, and she lives in Israel. Uh, then uh, comes a sister in Baltimore, Anne, and then myself, and a younger sister who lives in Southfield, Rae ???.
And your parents?
My parents...
Grandparents?
...my parents unfortunately uh, died a year after the war.
And uh, did you have grandparents before the war that you remember?
Yes, I had grandparents, but um, we had my father's parents lived in that same town that uh, that I come from. And uh, my mother's dad died um, at an early age, and um, so did her mother later on. So I only know a step uh, father of my mother's, who frequently visited uh, our town.
And what about aunts and uncles, cousins?
In my home town, there was--from my mother's side, there was uh, my mother's uh, sister, who married also someone from uh, our town, and they lived in our town, and they had one child. Then of course, in my mother's town, which was about fifty miles from um, Pułtusk uh, by the name of Nasielsk uh, N-A-S-I-E-L-S-K. Um, there she had um, a sister, a husband, two children, and then she had an uncle uh, she had a, she had a brother, who was married and they had one child. And um, no other closer relatives. Um, there was also um, some relatives uh, my father's brother lived in that same town that we did, but unfortunately we didn't have any very uh, close relationship with him, so I never got to meet them.
Including the cousins, how large would you say the, the family was?
Well uh, including the cousins, I would say about twenty people.
And...
Immediate. Other there was some mother's cousins, and um, and father's cousins, and all this kind of a thing which I cannot really tell you how many, but they were quite numerous.
And your immediate family survived the war?
My immediate family survived.
How many of the others, do you know?
None of the others survived. Oh yes, an uncle of my--a, a brother of my father's that also comes from my home town survived, with his wife and the son. They were also in Russia. And so was my father's mother--my grandmother. She survived also the war. My grandfather died in Russia.
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