Family Secrets

My Grandfather and namesake, Samuel Michael Hochman, grew up in a little town in Austria called Kolomea. Aparently he never talked about his growing up too much with his children. He fled Austria during WWII and aparently was one of the few in his family that escaped the murder of the Nazis.

I was playing with Google and found a site with some morsel of information about a city in Poland called Kolomea that was annexed from Austria before the war. The timeline of events was quite chilling when I imaginged that this was my family.

While my Mother is very interested in geneology and has traced her family back to Adam, my Father, I think, doesn't have too much information about his family history. I forwarded him the link and got back the following email:

Michael,

Thank you so much for the information. My father told me that he was from Austria not Poland . He was very sad about the circumstances that he lived in but never wanted to talk about them. He told me a story 3 days before he died which he held from age 12. Some day I'll tell it to you if I haven't already.

What's up with family secrecy? Why, if there is something important, would you wait 50-something years to tell your son? Why, if there is something so important, would the story not be passed on to me?

Knowing Howard, I've probably heard it. I recall a few stories about the Nazi occupation and an SS officer giving food to my Grandfather who was in hiding in a house, and I think I recall something about my him having to witness the murder of his own family. I guess that would be difficult to talk about.

I'm actually hoping my Father doesn't relay the story to me if I haven't already heard it. If his Father died 3 days after telling the story, I hope I don't hear it from my Father for a very long time.

Posted by Michael at October 15, 2003 06:49 PM