Refugees:" What country, friends, is this"

Note: this space is for personal musings. See older posts for frugality!


"What country, friends, is this?" Shakespeare, Twelfth Night.1.2.

My father's family

Harry G: arrived with mother and siblings in 1910 from Russia. Father Benzi already in America. Benzi died at age 32 from a botched hospital procedure, leaving a pregnant widow and four children. The two oldest children sold candy to support the family. the mother, Rose, opened a grocery store and took in boarders.

Sylvia F: arrived with parents and several siblings from Poland in the teens. They had one baby, the beloved David, in 1920, assuming that a baby born in America would protect their status.

My father B, named for his grandfather, was born in NY in 1928.

My mother's family

Leo O and Emma O and my mother Renee arrived from Vienna (by way of Belgrade and Cherbourg) in 1938.

All refugees, save one. All fleeing persecution.