Still, they were luckier than those families where only one out of ten had remained alive. Four grandchildren were ultimately named for Nachman and Devorah – Benny and Betty’s son David Nachman, and Elish and Lola’s son Nachman David (Norman), and Leibush and Frieda’s and Tuleh and Toni’s daughters, both named Devorah.
As much as the Eisenbergs wanted to bring their European family immediately to the United States after the war, it was impossible to do so because of American immigration regulations. Only special categories, such as parents with minor children living in the United States or clergy, could receive visas. All others had to wait their turn. Therefore, while the Enzenbergs were on a wait-list for America at the same time they made arrangements to immigrate to Palestine, which they hoped would soon become an independent Jewish state.
Elish, Lola, and their older son Max (born during the war) were the first of the European family to come to America, even before the others left Bucharest for Israel. Aware of his younger brother’s scholarly background, Abie, together with a rabbinical friend of the family, dreamed up a plan to bring Elish to America on a rabbinical visa. Informed of the move, Elish rapidly grew a beard and in March 1948 the family flew to Italy and sailed from there to New York.
Elish gave the family in America a more detailed accounting of what he and the others had undergone during the war. He also gave them one piece of good news. There had been a family simcha in Bucharest – Sheindl’s marriage to Naftali (Naftula) Bernthal. After the war Elish had introduced Sheindl to Naftula, a prewar family friend and distant family member who had been with him in the labor camp. Naftula had lost a wife and had a daughter, just as Sheindl had lost Shaja and had a daughter the same age. After waiting over two years after the war’s end, Sheindl and Naftula married, creating a new family unit.
* * * * *
In the end, Sheindl reflected, Berel Surkis had been prescient. The way had indeed been very difficult but she, Tuleh, Leibush, and Srul had finally arrived in Israel with the first wave of immigrants from Romania. Now it was time to begin a new life in a new country.
Letters from Israel began arriving in New York on a regular basis. After reading one such letter, Freida Sima turned to Mordche. “How can I have a brother and sister whom I have never seen?” she asked. Knowing she could now do what she could not have done before the war, she informed Mordche that despite the cost, she planned to visit Israel within the next few months to see her siblings and look into the possibility of reuniting with them permanently.
After the devastations wrought on her family by the war, a new chapter of Freida Sima’s life was about to begin.
(This installment of the Freida Sima series is dedicated to the memory of Freida Sima, whose yahrzeit is 15 Sivan, which this year fell on June 21.)
