POST 24: A FEW WORDS WITH READERS

Note:  Occasionally, I will take a brief pause in my story-telling to engage with readers.  These conversations may relate to the approach I take in writing my Blog; entail new discoveries that readers have brought to my attention; offer promising avenues for doing “forensic genealogy”; or discuss new features or elements I’ve added to my Blog.  Feedback is welcome.

I feel compelled to take hold of the narrative as it relates to the telling of my family’s stories.  Were better writers than me inclined to tell this tale, they could likely do it with greater pathos and originality but perhaps it would lack some of the authenticity I’m striving for.  Beyond this, I concede family histories are mostly of interest to blood relatives familiar with the individuals discussed, either personally known to them or to whom they can link to on a family tree.  For this reason, I consider it vitally important to couch as many of my family stories in a broader historic context that a larger audience can relate to and find interesting.  And, personally, researching the history in which some of the events played out has been endlessly fascinating.

Other than my family Blog, I have no direct footprint in social media, and this is a conscious decision.  During my second visit to Tiegenhof, the town in the Free State of Danzig where my father was once a dentist, I was interviewed by a reporter from a Pomeranian newspaper after my translated talk.  Some days later, I Googled the event.  The reporter had accurately portrayed the interview.   However, I was stunned by the vile and odious nature of some reader comments believing I’d only come to Poland for financial gain or to reclaim confiscated property.  Loathe as I am to say this, I attribute some of these attitudes to anti-Semitism.  For this reason, I intentionally opt to keep a low profile on the Internet even if it means that people who might be interested in my Blog only discover it by accident or never find it.

One of my stated goals when I launched my Blog was the hope some readers would provide additional information related to my posts, and in two instances I’m delighted to say this has happened.  Post 14 deals with the Braun & Berliner Brewery in Ratibor.  A Polish gentleman, Mr. Grzegorz Miczek, shared with me pictures of two historic bottles from this brewery which he graciously has allowed me to upload as a “Postscript” to this post.  Similarly, another Polish gentleman, Mr. Paul Newerla, shared with me some photos and advertisements of the hotel owned by my family in Ratibor through three generations, the Bruck’s “Prinz von Preußen” Hotel; these too will soon be added as a Postscript to Post 11.  In the case of these gentlemen and a few other individuals who’ve contacted me through my Blog, I’ve turned them on to resources they were previously unaware of, so the exchange has hopefully been mutually beneficial.

I’ve mentioned the Jewish diaspora in several Blog posts.  In working on my family history, I occasionally discover fleeting references to a few of my father’s cousins or relatives that dispersed to places in South America or even China in the era of the National Socialists.  Thereupon, I usually call upon a friend and long-standing affiliate of the Los Angeles Jewish Genealogical Society, of which I’m a member, to ask if she has any contacts in the Jewish community in those countries.  This friend has been beyond gracious and of enormous help. (Figure 1)  In an upcoming post, I will share the results of one such investigation instigated by information obtained from a man organizing tours of Jewish Shanghai.

Finally, I want to alert readers to two new pages I’ve added to my Blog in a section retitled “Resources.”  Readers will now find a “Glossary” of foreign words I’ve used in my posts, as well as a list of the “Archives and Databases” I’ve accessed and made use of in uncovering historic documents related to my posts.  For genealogists researching in some of the countries listed, I hope they may find these resources useful.