A
couple of months ago, I told you about my friend, Ms. Rachel. She was the
relative of Emanuel . Rachel had sent me a photo of a young child sitting in a
stroller. She said that the picture was probably taken in Lithuania in the late
1930’s and she wondered of the stroller could be identified as a 1930’s vintage
Taylor-Tot.
As
it turned out I have been in recent contact with Rachel and she told me that
she has visited her ancestral hometown of Skuodas and even has a website that’s
dedicated to it. She said: “By the way,
I don't know if I ever told you I started a website about my dad's
hometown of Skuodas, in Lithuania. I've been back there a few times and hope to
go back again this summer. Aside from researching my own "roots," I'm
interested in fostering a dialogue between present-day Skuodas citizens, who
are all Christians, and descendants of the former Jewish community, who now
live all over the world. The site is at www.shtetlshkud.com, if you're
interested. It's a big site, so you probably won't want to look at everything,
but I can recommend the blog if you want an idea of the kinds of things I've
been up to.”
Of
course, I’ve been all over the site and it is truly interesting. There is now a
nice little video which shows a ride through the area and it is very quaint.
One can only imagine the horrors that occurred in that small town.
This
passage is from a translation of writings from one of the citizens:
“Once
there was a shtetele, Shkud, which is no longer, which will never again rise
from blood and ash and smoke. The laughter of Jewish children will never again
echo in the marketplace. Respectable people, lost in thought, will never again
walk down the Long Street into the synagogue, and summery young people will
never again stride through the Vilke Birzhe ["forest of the wolf,"
possibly the local name of a wooded area between Old and New Skuodas] and
through the Old Town to the rivers. Fires have devoured the Long Street’s
marketplace. Perhaps red roses will sprout from the Vilke Birzhe, dark with
Jewish blood, and the last cries of mothers and fathers will echo in the
playful murmur of the rivers. The conflagration has devoured the town together
with those who built it. And the place where it stood will not, and should not,
dare to refill itself with life. The laughter of Lithuanian peasants must not
disturb the rest of our murdered generation”
People,
it can happen here…in America- never forget.
Send your questions or comments to:
Toolsmartz@bellsouth.net and we’ll see what we can do to help you. 
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