Postwar Ceremony at Mass Grave Site, Burial of Soap

Held by

Montreal Holocaust Museum via Canadian Jewish Heritage Network (incl. Alex Dworkin Canadian Jewish Archives)

Level

item

Extent

Photograph : Paper : b&w ; Ht: 6 cm x W: 8.7 cm

Scope & content

Outside, a group of people are standing around a mass grave site. Five men have shovels and are burying soap. Photograph was taken during postwar ceremonies held during the week-ends at different mass graves sites. Ely Rozenblat is shown in the middle with a light-colored coat and hat. Narrative: Donor is the son of Ely Rozenblat (born 1913-10-10 in Zamosc, Poland) and Zelda (maiden name Kozlowska, born 1915-09-09 in Lodz, Poland, grew up in Zamosc). The Rozenblat family was originally from Zamosc. They spoke Polish, Yiddish, German and Russian. While Zamosc was bombed in September 1939, the family hid in the grandparents’ basement. A German soldier found them and advised them to leave, warning them about SS troops coming to kill Jews. The family escaped to Russia and was sent to Samarkand, Uzbekistan. In 1941-1942, 9 members of the family died of starvation in Samarkand, including Ely’s first wife Hannah (who was Zelda’s sister) and Zelda’s first husband. In 1942-1943, the family was transferred to Siberia where they stayed until the end of the war. The surviving family members went back to Poland after the Liberation. Ely’s older sister was in a Displaced Persons’ Camp in Austria and moved to Montreal. The rest of the family immigrated to Israel between 1948 and 1954. Ely and Zelda stayed in Poland where they had a son, Henry (b. 1947) and a daughter born in 1949. Ely was a fervent Communist who believed in creating an idyllic communist life in Poland.ted to Israel between 1948 and 1954. Ely, Zelda and their children finally immigrated to Montreal, arriving on March 24, 1960. Ely found a job with friends from Poland, he worked as a butcher in a shop across from St. Michael’s church on St-Viateur Street in Montreal.

Location

• rue Saint-Viateur · street · confidence 50% · street · found as “St-Viateur Street”

Correct the location

Genre / form

graphic material

In the picture

CoatCrowdExcavationGroupHatMemorialMonumentOutdoor EventShovelTreeTagged automatically by a vision model; may contain mistakes.

Text in the image

cjhn.caRead automatically; may contain mistakes.

Language

Polish

Harvested

2026-10-19T03:21:16Z · source datestamp n/a · andornot

Digital objects at the source

• imageOpen original at source ↗2013_16_04.jpg