This is a picture of great grandmother, Bubie Rose as we call her, in front of a Jewish shop in Poland,1939. This picture is very important to my family and I because it is one of the only tangible memories we have of where came from and why we came to America. She is standing in front of a shop that was destroyed and graffitied during Kristallnacht. Thousands upon thousands of anti-Semitic Germans and Poles went around destroying Jewish homes, shops and synagogues. My great grandmother was one of the victims. This photo was actually a very important factor in her family immigrating to the United States. She didn’t want to move but knowing and seeing everything she knew and loved about her country destroyed changed her. My grandfather (her son) has kept this photo his entire life. He passed it down to my dad so we can remember our history and our heritage. This picture is very is significant to him and to us because it represents who we are as Jews, as a people and why we had to come to America. Every year on Holocaust Remembrance Day we look through the album of photos we have from Poland, but this one has always stood out to me. It has because I can only learn about Nazi Germany and the anti-Semitism in eastern Europe, but she lived through it. 

– M.S.

Relationship:  Great-grandchild of im/migrant or more Great-grandchild of im/migrant or more