We stayed in a charming hotel just down the street from the home of Elie Weisel. We had a tour guide who described the home, and what was original furnishings…One really felt what prewar life was like growing up in that house on that street. Szighet is a lovely village, with a nice town square, and parks. Surrounded by views of the Carpathian Mountains. We went to see the one remaining shul (others had been completely destroyed). Standing in that shul is very inspiring, the beautiful architecture, large spacious room and windows. One thing that struck me was a drawing depicting a tombstone, commemorating 2 particular Jews that perished in the camps. Since they were without a proper matzevah, these drawings were produced.
From there we went to the Jewish community center, with another lovely guide describing what used to be Szighet. At the same time some of us went into a separate office and looked through old dusty original ledgers that had names of survivors in 1945 that returned. Names of family members were found (my brother and I found our Mother and Aunt, it was a powerful moment to see those names hand written). More detective work led us to where our Mother’s house once stood. The group was so inspiring to want to take the time to help find it, and share in the excitement of seeing it.
Lastly, one of the highlights was visiting the cemetery, and again finding family tombstones. The awe of finding these, and returning to this town to pay respect to past descendants, was incredible. Once again for Lenny and me, the particular monuments of true tzadikim. It was our great Grandfather, and great great Grandfather. He was the Elich Shai and wrote many famous books. So holy, that there were notes left (like at the kotel) by the gravestone. Those graves were also in a separate structure of their own, again great Tzadikim. It was very moving for us to really see our roots; how those roots have shaped our lives, and how much we have lost because of the holocaust.
Next, Rabbi Tessler found some relatives tombstones as well. We were all so taken by the find. Our Rabbi was very moved. We said tehillim in this very special Jewish cemetery.
We left Szighet to travel to Munkacs. We had some hardships that turned into comedy on our journey. There were issues at the border crossing into the Ukraine, our driver didn’t have the proper documentation. We had to wait hours for a new driver to arrive. Luckily, Alan called for 7 taxis to take us on the few hour ride. We were quite the group on the side of the road, going through our suitcases, pulling out what we need for the night since there would not have been room in the taxis for all of our stuff. No one complained and the jokes prevailed.
Finally we arrived late to a charming hotel, with a nice warm dinner nearby, all in Munkacs style. It turned out David and Sylvia had an enormous suite with a Hungarian style dining room! We joked that it was the honeymoon suite so we pretended to have a wedding there. After a long and emotional day the vodka l’chaims were very much enjoyed! ~ Debbie F.
