Gedalia Cofnas and his son, Pessah, work in their carpentry shop.
Overview
- Caption
- Gedalia Cofnas and his son, Pessah, work in their carpentry shop.
Gedalia was murdered by the Germans during the September 1941 mass killing action in Eisiskes, and Pessah survived in Russia. - Date
-
1937
- Locale
- Eisiskes, [Nowogrodek] Poland
- Variant Locale
- Eishyshok
Eshishuk
Eyshishkes
Ejszyszki
Eishishkes
Lithuania - Photo Credit
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of The Shtetl Foundation
Rights & Restrictions
- Photo Source
-
The Shtetl Foundation (Yad Vashem Photo and Film Archives)
Copyright: Agency AgreementProvenance: Cofnas FamilySource Record ID: RN97-6 - Restriction
- NOT FOR RELEASE without the permission of the The Shtetl Foundation
Keywords & Subjects
Administrative Notes
- Artifact Photographer
- Arnold Kramer
- Biography
- Pessah Cofnas is the son of Gedalia Cofnas and Fruml Cofnas. He and his father worked as skilled carpenters, and Fruml headed a circle of woman who gathered at her house on Saturday afternoons to organize charitable work for the town's poor. Gedalia was murdered in the September 1941 mass killing action. Pessah was an ardent Communist who used to leaflet for the party and even released pigeons with small red flags attached to their legs. He married Rivka Pruskin, and the two survived the war in Siberia. A relative, Nahum Hayyim Leib Cofnas was executed in the Soviet Union as a Trotskyite. Pessah's sister Rivka married Leibl Tenenbaum, a bus driver between Eisiskes and Vilna. They had three daughters Hayya Rochl, Fraidke, and Matle. Rivka, Leibl and their children also were murdered by the Germans in September 1941. After the war Pessah and his wife, Rivka returned from Siberia and made their way to the Beit Bialik DP Camp in Salzburg, Austria. There, Rivka gave birth first to a daughter and then to twins, Gail and Abe in 1950.
- Record last modified:
- 2002-11-06 00:00:00
- This page:
- http://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/pa1129004
