New Beginnings in America

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Bronia’s mother had a brother living in Detroit and a sister and brother in New York. In Munich, Bronia’s mother met an American Jewish Army captain and he helped her contact her family in the United States as she did not know their address. The mother of the captain put an ad in the Jewish Forward in the United States and a friend of their uncle in Detroit saw it. Bronia’s aunts and uncles had thought they were dead and when they heard they were alive, they started working to bring them to America. Their cousins in New York found a Congressmen who put a bill in Congress that would allow them to come. On June 7, 1947 the family stepped off of the ship in New York. Bella met a survivor from Auschwitz in Germany who could not come to America and they instead went to Montreal. In New York, Bronia and Sam rented an apartment in Bronx, while Sam went to work in a kosher meat factory. After that he joined the union and went to work in a slaughterhouse. Bronia learned English at high school at night with American kids. While living in the Bronx, a second daughter was born, Sheryl. After 6 years of working, they bought a 10-acre chicken farm in southern New Jersey.. Bronia’s mother stayed in New York and worked in the garment industry. She died at age 63. In addition to the farm, they bought an old car and sold eggs to shore resorts. They kept the chicken farm for fourteen years, but Bronia hated it. After the farm, they purchased a wholesale food distribution company and sold chickens and eggs to restaurants at the beach towns of southern NJ.. During this time, they started buying properties. They bought a condo in Florida and during the winter they stayed there. They moved to Arizona in 1991 and Sam got cancer. In 1998, he died at 83 after 53 years of marriage.. In 2009, Bronia went with her daughter Sheryl and granddaughter Emily back to Poland and Sarny, Ukraine. She had not been back to Poland or Ukraine since 1945. They happened to be in Sarny on 67th anniversary of the mass murder of their family and visited the gravesite. They also visited Warsaw and Ryki in Poland and Rivne, Sarny, and Kiev in Ukraine. Bronia died on December 25, 2015.