Our family names are Fuhrmann, Goldmann, Kisslinger, Ellenbogen, Ghenser, and Litwak. 

Marjem, my great-grandmother, was born in 1861 in Khotin. In 1878, at the age of 17, she got married in Nowoseilitza to Israel Goldman, a painter and decorator. They had four children: Regina and Marcus, born in Nowosielitza, and Lotti and Berta, born in Czernowitz (now Chernivtsi). They were married for 58 years until Israel passed away in 1936 in Chernivtsi.

When the war started in 1941, Marjem was 80 years old. Her apartment on Strada Evreiască #1 (now - Shalom Aleichem Street) became part of the Chernivtsi ghetto. Three of her children and their immediate and extended families were forcibly deported from the Chernivtsi ghetto to the ghettos in Mogilev. Marjem was all alone during the war, without the support of her family, living in her apartment on Strada Evreiască #1 and then in a Jewish Home for the Elderly and Disabled. Fortunately, she managed to survive the war. She passed away in 1946.

The Jewish Home for the Elderly and Disabled was located at Synagogue Street #29, adjacent to the Jewish hospital. During the war, the Home and the Hospital became part of the Chernivtsi ghetto. I am currently attempting to locate any surviving lists of individuals who resided in the Home during and after the war, as well as information about where they may have been buried. Unfortunately, I do not believe a memorial was erected for Marjem in the Jewish cemetery, as she likely did not have the funds for a proper burial and gravestone. Any help in finding information about her resting place would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance for your assistance!

The information is recorded from the words of Rita Melamud Kaufmann (November 2023)

Photo: Marjem and Israel Goldmann