Jakub Kaferman’s relatives

These are my father, Jakub Kaferman’s relatives.

The photo was taken in Lublin in the 1910s. In the center is my father’s mother, Hena Kaferman, nee Roter, and his sisters (from the left): Wonia Richter, Ewa Lewin, Pola Blumenkopf and Natalia (all nee Kaferman). First from right is my Jakub Kaferman.

Grandma was a great cook. If my own mom was a dunce in culinary matters, Grandma Kaferman was a genius.

The food she served was incredibly delicious. To this very day I remember her Jewish-style goose and caviar, cholent, her fantastic carp, a meat-based dish, which was called 'shalei moostet' [shelakhmones], and more.

Grandma didn't have a servant in the house, but there were her daughters, my aunts, who were very good; they had jobs and helped to keep house.

The eldest son in the family was my father, Jakub Janusz.

One of the daughters, Chawa, or Ewa, who was his elder, married a Mr. Lewin and moved to Cracow. Next came a whole galaxy of sisters.

The youngest girl and another slightly older sister were the only ones who survived, stayed alive through the Holocaust, in the following way: in 1936 Wonia married a Mr. Richter, who had emigrated to Palestine previously and then come to Warsaw in the hope of getting married here; he met Wonia and together they left for Palestine.

My father's youngest sister, Lucja, married a Mr. Margulies; they both survived the war in Siberia, and immigrated to Palestine in 1948.

Besides those two sisters, there was Aunt Natalia, Aunt Jozefa, and Aunt Pola, who married a Mr. Blumenkopf.

Their daughter - Dzidka or Jadwiga Blumenkopf - was in the ghetto in Korczak's orphanage and died with the rest of the orphanage.

In addition to those sisters, my father had two younger brothers: Jozef and Tadeusz.

All of them were killed in the Warsaw ghetto, with the exception of the Richters and the Margulies.