A few years ago I was looking through my grandmother’s photo album. One of the most striking pictures shows thirty-one people in a group portrait. They are nicely dressed and posed in a purposeful composition with the family patriarch and his wife, my great-great-grandparents, sitting in the center. My grandmother stands slightly to one sideContinue reading “Spiersfelde”
Author Archives: K Heidi Fishman
Dicey Splicing
This spring Tutti’s Promise will be published as a paperback and in e-book format. I love the idea of saving paper and lightening the loads in kids’ backpacks. It seems everyone has a iPad or a Nook or some sort of e-reader. Even my 88 year old father reads on a Kindle. One advantage ofContinue reading “Dicey Splicing”
Stumbling on the Stumbling Stones
Gunter Demning is a German artist who has made a name for himself installing stolpersteine (translation – stumbling stones) in front of the final residences of Holocaust victims. I was lucky enough to be invited to help set the stolpersteine for my great uncle and his wife in Tilburg in January 2014. This past weekendContinue reading “Stumbling on the Stumbling Stones”
The Value of a Life
After finding out at the International Tracing Service in Bad Arolsen that there were Gestapo files on several of my relatives I was very excited that our next stop was Duisburg. This is where the State of North Rhine Westfalia (NRW) Archives are located. The building is on the waterfront of the inner harbor ofContinue reading “The Value of a Life”
Lucky Star
My mother kept the yellow star she had to wear during the war. She never showed it to me. It must have been in the back of a drawer in a dusty envelope. At some point in the mid 70’s she donated it to the Jewish Historical Society of Greater Hartford (JHSGH). What she remembersContinue reading “Lucky Star”
Needles in the Haystack
We arrived in Bad Arolsen after dark. Only one other person got off the train with us at the small station and we followed him to the one taxi parked at the curb across the street. The taxi driver was happy to take both fares. As we drove through town, I noticed that everything wasContinue reading “Needles in the Haystack”
On to Osnabrück
I would like to apologize to my readers for the break from the blog this past month. I needed to do some revisions on my manuscript of Scraps of Hope. Last week, for the first time, I sent it off to be reviewed by a potential publisher. Hopefully, it will be accepted – but I’llContinue reading “On to Osnabrück”
Next Stop – Pilsen
After our emotional day in Terezín we took a day to visit Pilsen (Plzeň), about 50 miles west of Prague. It is a vibrant city (fourth largest in the country) and was given the distinction of being a European Capital of Culture in 2015. Two things that Pilsen is known for are their beer andContinue reading “Next Stop – Pilsen”
Yom HaShoah
For Holocaust Remembrance Day I am sharing some pictures of my mother’s family members who did not survive Hitler’s hatred and evil. Pictured above are Flora and Louis Spier (my mother’s maternal grandparents). Below are Franz Robert Spier and Justine Spier-Bendien (my mother’s aunt and uncle). This card tells us that Franz Robert Spier wasContinue reading “Yom HaShoah”
Feeling the Bern*
One of the mysteries of my family’s Holocaust survival is their passport from Paraguay. According to my mother, that passport saved her father from a transport to Auschwitz. We have a copy of the document along with a letter of notarization stating that it is real. The mystery here isn’t that the passport exists, butContinue reading “Feeling the Bern*”
K Heidi Fishman (Popje and Me) 