Shoag family papers

Wolf Shoag (Szoag, 1906-1983) was born in Wilno, Poland (Vilnius, Lithuania) to parents Moses and Fagel (née Kozlovsky) on December 24, 1906. He had two brothers, Shia and Israel, and three sisters Roza, Beyle, and Sonia. The Szoag family lived in the Šnipiškės suburb of Wilno where they were the proprietors of a dry goods store. While the Shoags lived in an urban setting they also retained ties to family members who resided in Traby (Traby, Belarus), a village approximately 90 km SW of Wilno. In the summer of 1929, while visiting relatives in Traby, Wolf Shoag met and fell in love with Ida Lewin (1911-1984).

Ida was the American born daughter of parents who had emigrated from the region in the early 1900s. After the return of the Lewin family to the United States Wolf and Ida remained in written correspondence. This exchange of letters continued for the next four years. In his letters Wolf details circumstances pertaining to the Shoag family as well as to the local Wilno Jewish community at large.

In 1934 Wolf managed to secure his immigration to the United States. Upon his arrival Wolf joined the Lewin family in Jeanette, PA where he and Ida were married. In the years that followed Wolf remained in contact with his loved ones in Eastern Europe. While one brother, Shia Shoag, ultimately left Wilno for Palestine as a consequence of increasing anti-Jewish persecution, the rest of Wolf’s siblings remained in Poland with their families. Until 1940 Wolf was in regular correspondence with his sister Roza Kozlovsky who relayed the increasingly harsh circumstances of life under Soviet occupation after the outbreak of the Second World War, including the deaths of Moses and Fagel from illness in winter 1939. No further letters were received from Roza after May 1940. All of the extended Shoag family members who remained in Poland perished during the Holocaust.