Harry Dubrow was born Aron Dubrovsky in Imperial Russia. He and his wife Lea emigrated sometime before 1921 to Israel and then America. They have not seen their families since they left. Harry’s mother (name unknown) and Hana’s mother Hasia Kolik were daughters of the blacksmith Itzhok Yankiv Schwartz.

The year is around 1968 and the Dubrows are on a packaged tour organized by Inturist, the state-owned travel agency that oversees all foreign visitors. Viewed as spies by the Soviets, American visitors were not free to tour on their own. They stay with their group in an approved hotel and visit allowed sites.

Shuttled on a Soviet bus, the Dubrows arrive at their hotel. Harry Dubrow wishes to contact his cousin Hana Yaroker, but Hana’s apartment does not have a telephone and the Dubrows can’t just take a taxi. Harry decides to send a postcard to Hana and mails it from the hotel. Harry writes:

Visiting the Inturist hotel a few days later, Hana meets the Dubrows for breakfast in the hotel’s restaurant. The waiter comes and everyone places their breakfast order. Harry orders a hard boiled egg.

While reminiscing and discussing their lives in the two different countries, they are served breakfast. Preparing to break the shell with his spoon, Harry taps the egg but the spoon goes straight through. The egg is empty! Harry was served just the shell. The hotel’s wait staff is laughing. Leaving the table, Hana and the Dubrows go up to the hotel room to finish their breakfast.

In the hotel room, Harry says that he has money for Hana from her sister Fannie. It is $80. Voluta, hard currency, real money. There are voluta-only stores in Kiev where luxury goods like food can be purchased when the state-owned stores are empty. Eighty American dollars would mean a lot to the Yaroker family. Having foreign currency was a big deal in the U.S.S.R.

Hana refuses to take the money. The Dubrows insist, but Hana still refuses. Making plans to meet again, Hana and the Dubrows say goodbye and Hana leaves the hotel.

Waiting outside the hotel, the militsiya (Soviet police) see Hana exit and approach her. “You have 880 voluta,” they say. It is illegal for a Soviet citizen to have foreign money. The militsiya demand the eight hundred eighty dollars from Hana. She says she does not have any money, but they don’t believe her. Hana is arrested and driven to prison.

Lea Dubrow (l) recounting the money story to Hana’s daughter (r). Rose Dubrow (center). 1985 wedding of Sarah’s granddaughter.

Seeking the eight-hundred eighty dollars, the militsiya strip search Hana at the prison. Not finding the voluta, the militsiya head back to the Inturist hotel.

Confronting the Dubrows at their hotel room, the militsya tell them that Hana is a currency trader and accuse them of being accomplices. It is illegal for the Dubrows to give her money, the militsiya say. They are going to confiscate the eight hundred eighty dollars. Whoever spied Harry Dubrow’s message on his postcard to Hana mistook the funny squiggle for the number ‘8’ and not the dollar symbol ‘$’. The Dubrows are confused by the $880 demand. Frightened, the Dubrows pack and leave Kiev the next day, thinking that they have gotten themselves mixed up in Hana’s illegal currency trading activities.

Released from Lukyanivska prison late at night, Hana came home to her daughter who was scared because she did not know where Hana was. The Dubrows returned to America to report to Fannie and Sarah that their sister was a currency trader.

Facts

Atlas Family 1915 New York Census

The 1915 New York State Census show the Atlas family residing at 1562 Madison Avenue in New York City.  This is the same address that Feige Kolik gave for “Yossel Atlas“, her American host, to the Ellis Island immigration official.  On Feige Kolik’s passenger manifest, the last digit in the 1562 street number was obscured and “Madison” was hard to decipher.  This address became known only when I searched census records for “Feige Atlas” and made the connection.  At first, I thought that Feige Kolik was mistakenly identified as a daughter of Yossel Atlas, but then I found the Atlas family in Ellis Island passenger manifests.

Arriving in New York on 10 February 1907, Bessie Atlas (listed as “Bassie”) traveled with her daughters Feige 9, Sure 4, Chane 10 months, and son Elie 6.  The passenger record shows Elie as “In Hospital” with an adjacent stamp, “Died in Hospital”.  The place of birth for Bessie and her children is Kalenkewitz.  This is modern-day Kalinkavichy in Belarus. (Belarusian: Калінкавічы. Russian: Калинковичи. Yiddish: קאַלענקעוויטש / קאַלינקאָוויטש).

1904 Ship Manifest for Josef Atlas

Bessie and her children were joining her husband “Josef Atlas” who is shown arriving alone on 14 May 1904 from Liverpool in the Ellis Island passenger manifest.  Josef Atlas listed his cousin M Selenko of 119 East 103rd Street, New York, as his host.

Hy Suchman remembers visiting “Uncle Atlas” when he was a boy, walking under a tunnel of the NY Central Railroad. He remembers Feige (later Fannie) Atlas marrying Fineberg, moving to Philadelphia and having three children. One of those children moved to New Rochelle, New York.

Three of Bessie’s daughters share names with with Hasia Schwartz‘s daughters: Feige, Sura and Chana. A son, born in New York, shares a name too: Nathan (Нохим Кулик).

1907 Ship Manifest for Bessie Atlas and Family

Hypothesis

How is the Atlas family related to Feige Kolik?  I cannot find definitive records, but I can make a guess: Bessie and Hasia are sisters.  The common girl names Feige and Chana suggest that the mothers (Bessie and Hasia) named their daughters after the same women on the mother’s side of their family.  This decreases the probability that Bessie was sister to Abram Kolik, but is insufficient proof by itself.

Further research may provide the necessary evidence to prove or disprove this supposition.  Until then, I believe:

• Bessie Atlas‘ maiden name was Schwartz and she was sister to Hasia Schwartz
• Feige Kolik and Feige Atlas, Hana Kolik and Chana Atlas, Sura Kolik and Sura Atlas, and Nuchem Kolik and Nathan Atlas were named after the same ancestor of Fagle Schwartz (maiden name unknown)

Further Research

The 1915 Census show Esther and Nathan Atlas being born in New York.  Find their birth records to see Bessie’s maiden name.  Get naturalization records for Joseph, Bessie and their three foreign born children.

Update: Bessie Atlas’s tombstone gave the necessary proof.

Feige’s timing was good: World War I started on 28 July 1914. Feige arrived a few months before transatlantic commercial services from Germany stopped. Her ship, the SS George Washington, was at its Hoboken NJ terminal when war started and remained there until seized by the United States upon its entry into World War I in April 1917.

Continue reading…

Immigration Record

Did 18 year old Feige Kolik make the journey from Yurevichi alone?

Yurevichi was a very small town in Imperial Russia, but on line 7 of the same manifest we see 17 year old Yurevichian Frume Kaufmann.  Frume’s father was Mottel Kaufmann and her host was cousin Mase Landerboun of 31 Morgan Ave Hartford, Connecticut.  Very likely, they were friends who made the journey together.

Feige Kolik is listed on line 29 of the SS George Washington’s manifest.

S.S. George Washington

Feige departed Bremen, Germany, on 30th of May 1914. In the 19th and 20th centuries, Bremen was the busiest port for embarkation for emigrants from Central Europe traveling to America.

The SS George Washington was build in 1907-1908 for North German Lloyd and launched under the German flag on 10 November 1908. Half of its 2,700 passengers sailed in steerage class.

Historic Ship Photos

During the journey, two year old Michail becomes gravely ill.  Hana barters her fur coat for food — a chick — with which to save her son from starvation.

On the train Hana met and befriended Lea Wiener, a young woman traveling alone. Unexpectedly meeting her brother at a train stop, Lea says goodby to Hana and she and her brother depart.  They eventually immigrate to America. (Lea and Hana will corresponded after the war.  In 1974, Lea becomes an important figure in the Yaroker family’s first few months in America.)

The Battle of the Caucasus continues and the Nazis advance on the Eastern Front.  Boarding the last military ship, Hana and her children evacuate Novorissiysk in advance of the Nazi’s 1942 attack. Traveling by train, they escape to Tashkent in Uzbekistan, Alma-Ata and finally Frunze in Kazakhstan.

Living in Frunze, a small village in the Almaty province of south-eastern Kazakhstan, Hana works on a kolkhoz, a communal farm, for the duration of the war.  In 1944, the family begins the return trip to Kiev.

Continue Reading

Registration is required to access the Kolik family site.  Continue reading…

Soviet Evacuation Route

The family’s evacuation route has been reconstructed from family documents and memories and historical books.  The map below shows the route that we believe the family took in the years between 1941 and 1944.

The Yaroker family’s route from Kiev to Central Asia

Book List

Books related to the Soviet evacuation to Central Asia. See the Resources section for a review of these books.

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Landowners placed orders for items such as French perfumes, silverware and fine fabrics.  He owned horses and traveled Poland to purchase these items.