Road to SteemFest - Why I Will Visit Auschwitz - Part 2 - Steemians Help Piece History Together

In the first part of this story, I told you about an unexpected discovery that sent me Googling after the history of one Moshe (Mois) Brudo - the grandfather of @mrlightning, my life-partner.

(Image via Pixabay)

With the copy of the camp entry form that I received from the US Holocaust Museum in Washington, and an address in Greece, I knew it was time to get some help from friends worldwide. And what better place to find them than Steem?

Friends in Germany

I turned to @jedigeiss , my partner in crime and lead anchor of the Utopian Open Source Radio Show, asking him to translate the text on the form, and specifically point out the prisoner number. That number would be the definitive proof connecting the man in the form to the man @mrlightning knew and wore that number on his arm. Obviously uncomfortable and awkward, @jedigeiss helped. With his translation, I discovered some interesting facts, in addition to the prisoner number (115252). 

All of the information on the form matched - names, dates, places and physical description - except for one little detail: eye color. Mois had striking blue eyes - as do both his living children and a few of his grandchildren. The form had brown as the color of his eyes, most likely because the intake officer didn't bother to look and just assumed his eyes were brown and his nose was crooked - like all Jews - and wrote that.

Friends in Greece

Another direction in my search led me to Greece, so I turned to @trumpman looking for help in translating and contacting the archives in the Jewish museum of Salonika. With his help, I got in touch with the archivists at the Museum, who provided us (for a fee) with a genealogy of the Brudos.

(Notes: Names marked with blue are Holocaust survivors, while names marked with yellow are Holocaust victims, and names marked with pink are for people who died before the deportation, 1943)

This sad family tree shows only Mois survived, but according to his children, he continued to search for his sister, Vida, after escaping Auschwitz. He believed she survived because someone told her he had seen her. He's failed to find her, or any record of her demise. Odds are I will not find any either, but that did not stop me from trying.

Searching Back Home & More From Auschwitz

With the information I've gathered, I've reached out to the archives at Auschwitz, requesting all and any information they could add. Their reply revealed only little new information - the last record of the whereabouts of Mois in the camp.

 Thank your request for information about Mois Proudo. I would like to inform, that in the collection of  partially saved documentation of KL Auschwitz, I found following information about him: Proudo Mois born in 1919 in Salonika, to Josef and Dona nee Chanel; was deported to  KL Auschwitz on April 13, 1943 from Salonika. He was registered and received his camp number 115252. He was imprisoned in the Auschwitz sub-camp in Monowitz. Last entry in files: March 24, 1944 – KL Auschwitz III-Monowitz, infirmary for prisoners. There is no information about his further fate. Unfortunately, there is no information about Vidal Proudo and Victoria Proudo.

The hardest part, after having found all this information, was connecting it to @mrlightning's grandfather. As I've written above, the best way to do that would be to compare the number on his arm to that on the form. Since he died peacefully in his sleep close to 30 years ago, the only way to try and compare was through documents and photographs. Thankfully, Mois' children kept whatever documents they could, hoping one day they would be of use in reconstructing this story. Searching in her home, Mois' daughter found his membership card in the union of Greek Holocaust survivors. On this card, in addition to his Israeli ID number, was his prisoner number under the caption "number on arm". It is the same as the one in the Auschwitz form. The pieces all fit.

What do I expect to find in Auschwitz?

To be honest, I don't quite know. This story has moved me, and though I doubt the archives there will have any more discoveries to offer, I think it's important I go there. It's important that I stand there, fully understanding the horrors this man survived, and admire him completely. Not only for somehow making it out, but also for having the emotional resilience to fall in love again and start a new family after losing his own.

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