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Paulina taking the measure of Paul. Her daughter Fanya is supporting her. |
The next day, I met the family members whom Miriam Weiner had discovered in Novograd Volynsk. Miriam had used a 20-year-old phonebook to look up my mother’s family names, Korff and Goldman. There were no Korffs in the phonebook but four Goldmans were listed and one still lived in the town. Miriam struck gold when she phoned the home of Paulina Isakovna Goldman Bortman. Pauline started reeling off her family tree and eventually Miriam determined that Paulina was the second cousin of Adele Korff, my mother. Paulina was quite excited because she knew that a branch of her family lived in America but she had not known how to contact us.
Miriam’s timing was fortuitous. Paulina was ill with cancer and was preparing to move the next week to Kiev where the medical care was better. She had applied for a visa to the United States so she could join her son Isaac Bortman, who had immigrated 15 years earlier and was now living in Trenton, New Jersey. But Paulina’s visa was denied because she was terminally ill.
When I met Paulina face to face I was struck by her uncanny resemblance to my mother, of blessed memory. Paulina was almost a carbon copy both physically and in character. She was very direct and very curious about my life, wanting to know how I was with women. She practically quizzed me on my sex life.
I also met Paulina’s daughter Fanya Skibetyanskaya, an engineer, and her husband Boris Skibtyanskiy, an economist, their daughter Elina, and Elina’s husband Aleksander (Sasha) Kleynerman. Elina is a teacher and Sasha is a doctor. They are the parents of Larina, who was then four years old. Another daughter, Leana, was born a few years later.
Paulina and her family were extremely warm to Baruch and me. They had prepared a huge meal for us and did their best to make us feel welcome. They truly felt like family from the moment we met.
I felt very much at home. I showed photographs of family members, and I brought copies of my mother’s honeymoon pictures from Ukraine. Paulina recognized my parents and elaborated on her memories. They had visited Novograd Volynsk in 1937, a very dangerous time, and they couldn’t hold a large family gathering. My parents could only meet with family members late at night in small groups.
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They gave me pictures of the family and a fur hat.
The next morning Baruch decided to visit his good friend, Ambassador Bill Miller, at the American Embassy in Kiev, but hadn’t made arrangements ahead of time. When we showed up at the embassy, the Marine guards wouldn’t admit us because we lacked authorization. The guards explained that the ambassador was busy and couldn’t entertain visitors, but Baruch insisted that they phone the ambassador and announce his arrival. Bill Miller was quite willing to make time to see us but the Marine guards wouldn’t escort us to his office, as we hadn’t been cleared. So the ambassador came down to the entrance to personally escort us.
Baruch wanted a photograph of himself with Bill Miller but the guards had confiscated the camera equipment. When the ambassador called down and asked for the camera, we got to witness more bureaucracy in action. The guards said they weren’t authorized to bring the camera up to the office, so the ambassador had to retrieve it himself.
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Left to right, Maxim Peisakhov, Ambassador Bill Miller, Vitaly Chumak, and Baruch Korff |
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Left to right: Paul Gass, Ambassador Bill Miller, and Baruch Korff |
The ambassador and Baruch had a wide-ranging discussion about politics, world events, and lingering antisemitism in Poland and Ukraine. They even discussed the superstitious belief that antisemitism is passed through a mother’s breast milk directly to her child. Additional insight into anti-Jewish sentiment in the region was also gleaned from the members of the U.S. Embassy in Poland whom we visited in Warsaw at the end of our trip.
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[3] [4] [5]
[6] [7] [8]
[9] [10]
