Day 11: Fearless Females: Struggling with Loss

March 11 — Did you have any female ancestors who died young or from tragic or unexpected circumstances? Describe and how did this affect the family?

Sadly, my family has lost many female ancestors prematurely, all during the holocaust. Since this series of posts are about celebrating Women's history month,  I don't want this post to be about the Holocaust. Instead, I would like to dedicate this to the memory of one of my great-grandmothers who died in the Holocaust, and the heavy price my father's family paid for this loss. On March 3rd, I wrote about the other great-grandmother I lost in the Holocaust, Tzila Jampel, whom I was almost named for (see: Women's History Month Day 3: Fearless Females: The Middle Name that Almost Was). Today, I would like to introduce you to Ana Celnik (Rosenblum).

Anna Celnik (Rosenblum)
Born c1890 Tarnov, Poland,  Died c1943

Anna, also known as Hannah (pronounced Channa in Hebrew), was my father's maternal grandmother. I learned about Anna, not from my grandparents but from the Yad Vashem (Israel's Holocaust Museum) document, which my grandfather filed in 1955. Previously, I wrote a post called, Never Give Up and Good Things Will Come about the impactful experience of discovering these documents. Most relatives of Holocaust Victims, did not have a records for the deaths of their loved ones, no grave and no death certificate, not even a date date. This is the only document we have for Anna.

Anna Celnik Yad Vashem Witness Testimony Sheet
(Click to enlarge)

* Information I obtained from this document

Surname Name: Celnik 

First name: Channa* (in Hebrew) Anna* in Latin letters.

Father's name: Leib*

Mother's name: Esther*

Marital Status: Married

Date of Birth: c1890*

Place and Country of Birth: Tarnov*, Poland*

Belong to the community of: Tarnov

Country: Poland

Residence in 1939: Poland

Place and date of death:

Circumstances of death: Holocaust Victim

Maiden name: Rosenblum*

Last known address: Moscickiogo 21, Tarnov

Informant information: Shoshana Lavi Resident of: Kibbutz Tel Yitzchak Full address: P.O. Box 2167, Tel-Aviv (note: my grandparents lived on the Kibbutz, not in Tel-Aviv. The Kibbutz had a Post Office Box in Tel-Aviv which is where all the members received their mail and which was forwarded to a rickety box a few kilometers for the Kibbutz, on the main road to Tel-Aviv) 

Relationship to the victim: Daughter

Date: 28th of August 1955

Signed: Shoshana Lavi

Note: Even though my grandmother Shoshana supposedly filled out this form, I recognize my grandfather's handwriting. He must have filed the form for her. I can only imagine that the task of filling out the equivalent of a death certificate for her mother, was emotionally too difficult for my grandmother. When I received Ana's photograph from my uncle, I submitted Ana's photo to Yad Vashem and the museum attached it to her record a couple of years ago. 

Anna, was married to Matias Celnik. They had five children: Asher (c1910-c1943), Helena (c1916-c1943), Sabina (c1919-c1943), William (1922-2003) and my grandmother Shoshana (Ruja in Polish) (1913-1992). William survived Auschwitz and lived in Chicago. Asher, Helena and Sabina all perished in the Holocaust along with their parents. I learned from these testimony sheets, that my grandmother was the second eldest of her siblings. I also discovered that she had one niece, Asher's daughter, Esther who was about two years old when she perished in the holocaust. 

Baruch and Shoshana Lavi with their son's (my father and uncle)
c1947

Losing her parents and siblings proved to be too much for my grandmother. Shoshana, left Tarnov, around 1934, three years before Hitler invaded Poland. She was about twenty years old at the time. A very fearless act! Her siblings would have been twenty-three, seventeen, fourteen and eleven years old at the time. With the exception of her youngest brother William, she never saw any of them again. My uncle, was born in 1942. By then, it is very likely that my grandmother did not know the whereabouts of her family. Choosing to start a family, when you just lost your entire family, must have been very brave.

At some points, my grandmother became very depressed. Members of the kibbutz told me that in retrospect she may have suffered from postpartum depression (after my father's birth). She struggled with depression, anxiety, claustrophobia and agoraphobia for the rest of her life. One will never know how much of her mental illness was due to the premature loss of her family and the guilt of avoiding the holocaust caused her. She was extremely lucky to have so many loving friends on the Kibbutz. The fellow founding members of the Kibbutz, all of whom suffered similar tragic losses, were like family to each other. They helped my grandfather take care of my grandmother as he so lovingly did throughout her life. She displayed the picture of her mother Anna  in her bedroom and always pointed out to me how beautiful her mother had been. I had to agree that my great-grandmother Anna was a beautiful woman! 

To read more about Shoshana and Baruch Lavi visit: