Remembering When, Part Eight

I have to detour again to talk about the Foczko-Rusznak experience, so that you can get an idea of what my Czarnecki great-grandparents' experience was like in contrast to the Foczko-Rusznak one. By the way, Jacob Androlowicz—who will be mentioned in the following anecdote—was an Andrulevicus (Andrulewicz) cousin of Great-Granddad Czarnecki—remember that Great-Granddad Czarnecki's mother was Alexandria Alice Andrulewicz Czarnecki.

Tablet Magazine recently asked, "Have you or your relatives served in the military? What were your/their experiences serving as Jews?" I answered, "Yes, my relatives did serve. Only one identified as a Jew. We were Anusim—some of us even became Messianic, although we still hid our Jewishness—and the only one who had חוצפה טובה [hutzpah tovah] to identify as Jewish was Jacob Androlowicz. However, one (Staff Sergeant Andy Rusnak, z"l) chose to get cremated and have his ashes interred at his parents' gravesite—he also had a memorial service, and no viewing—he must've felt guilty that his elder sister (my dad's maternal grandma) was responsible for sending our relatives to Auschwitz (It's a long story that makes me want to vomit and still be angry at her.), and that he felt that he couldn't do anything to save his cousins."

I already discussed the awful Foczko-Rusznak debacle in which Great-Grandma Gaydos and her dad entangled us by refusing to write to relatives who asked for help. I should add, incidentally, that a cousin who did survive also got himself cremated when he died in 2006—he felt guilty about surviving. Again, I do not blame Great-Grandma's brothers or the other Foczkos for what she, as a Foczko Rusznak, did—and since her dad was a Rusznak, the responsibility fell on him as a Rusznak to help fellow Rusznaks. The Foczkos were in hiding or somewhere else by then (as, and as you will see below, there is a notable gap between the birth of Jozef Foczko to his Hanzok cousin Aurelia. Also, according to Cemetery.sk, a Jozsef Focko died on September 26, 1941—and you can bet that he did not just die.). Furthermore, a Novak cousin—Leopold Novak—was left abandoned in a mine in which he died in 1936—so, Anti Semitism was touching the Foczko and Rusznak families even before the Nazis invaded Czechoslovakian and Hungarian Slovakia. 

By the way, the translation of Leopold Novak's death cause—according to Google Translate—is as follows—and the cause is listed as "Zasypaný hlinou pri práci v opustenom kameňolome v Zlatej Idke.":

"Peppered with dirt while working in an abandoned quarry in Zlatá Idka."

"Peppered" can also read "Buried", "Buried in", "Off buried", or "Strewn". "[W]ith dirt", meanwhile, can read "the clay"or "with clay". So, the idea is that Leopold was attacked then left abandoned in the mine quarry.

As for Great-Granddad and Great-Grandma Czarnecki, meanwhile and while you are asking, I will get back to their story in the next chapter—I apologize for having to continue to detour like this.