For their honeymoon, Max and Adele sailed on the S.S. Aquitania, to Paris, and then took a train to Poland. Adele reminisced about the trip:

“I had last seen Poland when I was nine; I had memories of it. When we got off the train in Warsaw I told the people just where to take me—the place where I had stayed as a little girl, 27 Schmula-mila. We visited friends that I had stayed with when I was a kid. Then Max and I spent a few days in Turiysk, the town where his family had come from. From there we traveled to Germany, where the Nazis were already in power and preparing for war, and then we continued on to Russia.
 

Adele did not receive her own passport. Identifying information about Adele was added to Max’s passport.

“Max had carried our ketuba with him when he traveled. This was a tradition that he continued until much later in our marriage when the document became frayed and started to fall apart. I finally convinced him to leave it in the safety deposit box. He used to say marrying me was a blessing. He resented anybody taking my time.
 

The back and front of the ketuba

“While we on the train traveling through Germany, a uniformed Nazi checked our passport and tried to make out with me. I told him I was Jewish and his Fuhrer didn't like Jews. He replied, My leader doesn't like Jews but I have nothing against them. Max had a fit.

“We had a problem with the Russian authorities. They confiscated our camera. When we complained to the U.S. Consulate our camera was returned but the film had been removed and the camera had been damaged.  

“In Moscow we were given separate hotel rooms on different floors, even though we shared one passport. Max and I kept telling the people in charge that we were married. We even showed them our ketuba. Finally we were permitted to stay together.

 “In Russia, we also visited Pinsk, Kiev, Leningrad, and Zvil. When I was in Kiev I gave some people money to maintain my mother's grave. Amazingly, when I returned in 1981, I discovered that the grave had been kept up, so I left more money for them to take care of it.”
 

Zvil was the place where Adele was born and where her mother and grandfather are buried. When she and Max arrived there they found the Jewish section in Zvil had been burned down and no rebuilding had occurred. But they did find some relatives.

“My father had two sisters. One had just died and been buried when I went there on my honeymoon. Her husband already had another woman in her place in the house. When I saw this, Max and I left immediately. My uncle (by marriage) ran after us and met us on the platform at the train station. He pleaded with us to return. He had a Torah that had belonged to the Korff family for about 500 years. He said it had no meaning to him and he gave it to us. [The Torah was later used in the Bat Mitzvah ceremony of my granddaughter, Leslie Gass, and the B’nai Mitzvot of other Korff descendants.] My uncle also gave me some kiddish cups.

 “Max and I brought along the $10,000 we had been given as wedding presents. I never counted the money and I never wrote any thank you notes. We gave all the money away and came home penniless, without even the clothes we had taken with us, just wearing the clothes on our back.

“My mother's father had been a grand rabbi. When I went to my mother's hometown of Korets, Poland, the whole town turned out. My maternal uncle, Rabbi Yankele Goldman, lined up the people, and as they came around he told me how much money to give each one. This one is a big businessman, don't shame him. This one needs a little more, he has small children. These people had money at one time, don't shame them. 

“We gave away all our money, cabled home for more, and gave that away, too. I had expected to give away the cash but I had not expected to give away my trunk full of clothing. But Yankele would introduce me to a young girl and say, She's getting married, she needs a new dress...

“It did not bother me to give the money away. Money never meant anything to me even as a kid. Money meant the good you could do with it. On the way to Europe, Max and I had traveled first class. We dressed for dinner in tuxedos and gowns. But we came home with very little clothing. We traveled first class on the return, wearing the same clothes over and over.

“We didn't have enough money left for tips at the end of our trip so we were met by family in New York. They came on board our ship, the Queen Elizabeth, to give us money for the tips. Our honeymoon was cut short after only 10 weeks abroad because the political situation in Europe had worsened.
 

“After our honeymoon, we tried to get our relatives out of Europe but we were unsuccessful and we lost my mother's family—the Goldmans. They had originally came from Zvil and then moved to Korets. Uncle Yaakov (Yankele) Goldman, who was a widower, perished along with his four children in Korets. In 1938, the children—three boys and a girl—had ranged in age from 11 to 15. They probably died in 1941 or 1942.”

Click here to read a letter that Rabbi Yaakov Goldman wrote to Adele and Max, as well as a letter from an unidentified aunt of Adele’s in Poland. Rabbi Goldman’s letter is so poignant because it is clear his situation is desperate and he needs the help of his American relatives, yet he does not want to burden them.

     
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