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WEB
EXHIBIT - THREADS OF MEMORY |
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Frieda
Jakubowicz listen
to her personal story 
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| The
Akcea |
The
quilt represents the ‘akcea” which took place in
Trawna, Poland in 1943 in which the artist was shot along with
six other people. Lined up naked in front of a ditch. The bullet
entered her back and exploded out the left shoulder. She lay
there “dead” until a rain revived her, bringing
her back to life. She eventually made her way to a nearby barn
and collapsed under the overhang. The townspeople, coming to
bury the dead, found her ying naked in a pool of blood and decided
to leave her figuring that she would be dead by morning anyway.
Miraculously, she survived and was nursed by some Christian
people in a nearby shack for six weeks until she healed somewhat,
regained her strength, and was forced to leave because of news
of another “akcea” coming. She survived the remainder
of the war as a cripple, without any use of her left arm.
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| Frida
Jakubowicz, formerly Fruma Dembling, was born in Burakowka,
Poland (now part o the Ukraine) as the youngest in a family
consisting of her mother, two sisters, and a brother. Her father
died when she was very young, leaving the family to live a meager
existence. The village was small but alive with an active Jewish
cultural life. |
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| In
1941, the German came into the area, breaking the windows, confiscating
food and cattle, and took the men away to work camps. Driven
from their home, the family went in search of her brother who
lived in the city. In 1942, her mother was taken away to Belzec
crematorium. In the meantime, Frieda went back to her village
in search of food for her sister’s six children. She continued
this 25 kilometer trek, hiding out and sleeping where she could,
until the family moved into the ghetto, in Tlusta. While there,
she contracted typhus, which was running rampant through the
ghetto killing many in its path. Fortunately she survived the
disease and finally recovered in the spring of 1943. While sick,
her middle sister, Charna, made the long trek to Burakowka to
find food for the family. |
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| After
recovering from the illness, Frieda and Charna took turns at
work camp outside Tlusta. While she was away at work, a series
of “akceas” came to the ghetto, killing her sisters
and the six children. Now left alone, she eventually made her
way to another work camp, Trawna, where she was reunited with
friends. After a few weeks, another “akcea” hit
her camp, killing everyone who didn’t escape. Frieda was
shot in the back and left for dead. After a few hours it started
to rain and she was revived enough to sit up and eventually
crawl to a nearby barn where she collapsed under the overhang.
She survived with the help of good Christian people who gave
her some dressing for her wound, a place to stay, and clothes
to cover herself. |
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| In
April 1944 Tlusta was liberated by the Russinas. She and her
fellow Jews came out of hiding and tried to survive with remnants
of a past life. The Haganah arrived and lent their support.
They took groups into Germany to displaced persons camps. By
1946 she was reunited with her brother and his family in Bamberg,
Germany where she met and married Salmon Jakubowicz, and gave
birth to their daughter, Helen, in 1948. |
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| Finally
in May 1950, HIAS sponsored the family to come to America, settling
them in the Brownsville section of Brooklyn. After their second
daughter, Betty, was born in 1951, they followed her brother,
Sol, to Sullivan County in upstate New York where they bought
a poultry farm. They remained there through most of their working
years until Sol’s death in 1993. |
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| Frieda
now lives in Bayside, Queens and has two married daughters and
one granddaughter in college. |
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