Reilly and "Momma" Remember...

A Special Card From Reilly (and "Momma")

As a puppy with White Shaker Syndrome and a Maltese underbite as well as a "Momma" with Cerebral Palsy and other conditions, Reilly thanks Former President & First Lady Bush 41 (ז״ל) especially for signing the Americans With Disabilities Act into law!

Just A Reminder From Reilly And Camille

Cry, Cry, "Recall the Fifth Of July!"

On a Thursday, July 5th 73 years ago today, these two men were part of an uprising that is overlooked by historians and others alike: these two, Franciszek and Witold Andrulewicz, were part of the Augustów Resistance. They didn't have to fight the invading Soviets. They did. Why?

Why they didn't have to do it and why they did it are on the one in the same (and I can tell you that the sides of our family back in Europe were aware of it, no matter denials, etc. on all sides now): they were B'nei Anusim whom had seen it before, and they were not going to see it again, even if they had to die to try to make sure that nobody else would see it—and they did die.

Even if Holocaust historians and others overlook the Russian part of the Holocaust, I won't. Even if Holocaust historians and others don't consider the time from Stalin's reign to the closing of the gulags as part of the Holocaust, I will. Even if the Augustów Resistance isn't remembered even much in Poland—let alone as much as other defenses that Jewish and other partisans undertook—I will remember it.

אפריים בן אביגדור (פרנטישק בן וינצנטי) ופעידל בן יוסף (ויטולד בן יוסף), זיכרונם לברכה; וכל אחרים קדושים באוגוסטוב, זיכרונם לברכה

Excerpt From "More Shit And Other Stuff That I Can't Make Up": At Least Fudge Was Alive. As For Our Hamsters...

Trust me that they each were dead: 

1. One inhaled refrigerator insulation (Dad's negligence)
2. The second had wet tail
3. The namesake fell into a squirrel-dug hole and fell 16 feet before meeting another six (Dad's negligence)
4. And the fourth died naturally 

With the namesake, by the way, Dad actually named the namesake one to make us think that the name-honored one had survived. At least I give that he used minhag Ashkenazi, even though that wasn't exactly his intent.

What I don't give—or get—is his intent to deceive—which could be called both lashon hara and perhaps shem hara, maybe even chillul shem (and since we're discussing deceit here, chillul HaShem). Even worsely is that we—that is, my sister and I—found out about it only long after both the name honoree and the namesake had been deceased, and even long after the final hamster had been deceased—and we found out when we were having lunch with my father and my grandmother.

To sum this up, then:

1. Dad allows Santa Little—whom, by the way, was named as a compromise for "Santa Claus" and "Stuart Little"—to dig a hole in the closet after escaping from his ball—and all of us agree that Dad should've gotten Santa out of the closet and back into the ball right away, as one cannot compromise wherein negligent rodenticide is involved.
2. Dad lets the second Frisky meet a similarly-ignominious end after not even telling us that the first Frisky died of Wet Tail—let alone that he searched around for a similar-looking hamster to make us think that the first Frisky had survived—and then the second Frisky ends up meeting the kind of ending that the first overall hamster met.
3. Dad lets Anastasia die naturally—because what better way to let a hamster die after her predecessors die is there, especially since she was named in honor of a princess whom was caught up in the middle of how her Anti-Semitic parents angered Lenin, Trotsky, and quite a few others? 

A "tail" of four hamsters that has fur-flying irony, paradoxes, and plenty of "Oy veys!" to accompany it—and with the reflection that a third-generation pogrom survivor uses minhag in a bad way while he at least has no mishaps with the namesake of a secondary victim of Anti Semitism.

As I said, more shit and other stuff that I can't make up!

Meanwhile, at least Fudge (whose story I just read on the news and thus inspired me to recall the story of my own hamsters) is apparently living a sweet and warm life in contrast to the cold and bitter endings that my own hamsters met—though at least they all had decent levayot in my grandma's backyard! 

A Reflection Re "Heaven, 9/11 Memorial Version"

I can only imagine how, I suppose to a similar extent, my paternal grandfather's father and living siblings felt on September 11, 1922 and subsequent days. From what I understand, my great-great-granddad Julian Czarnecki was absolutely no hero—or if he was one, his bad facets outweighed his good ones. Nonetheless, his death must've really weighed on my great-granddad and his living siblings (one of whom would follow her father only slightly over 2.75 years later).

Great-Granddad was going to be 18 that October (and to compound the worst matters in his life, he turned 25 on a day on which a 25th birthday would not be joyous to anyone—Black Thursday). So on that birthday (and subsequent birthdays), he had to remember the loss of his father (with whom he had a conflicted relationship—or at least I'd be surprised if he didn't have a conflicted relationship with him—and subsequent birthdays would become even worse as the years passed and worse events kept happening—in fact, his 35th birthday had the fresh pain of Black Thursday's 10th anniversary and the only-almost-two-months old invasion of Poland).

As for Great-Granddad's youngest sibling, she wasn't yet even nine months old when Great-Great-Granddad died—and the oldest surviving one had, if you count 13 as the bat-mitzvah age, become a bat-mitzvah that year (and she was the one whom followed Great-Great-Granddad into death on June 23, 1925).

At least none of them were around to see 9/11. However, my great-granddad's widow—to whom he was quite abusive, and with whom she obviously had a conflicted relationship—was, and so were four of his five children (One died seven hours after birth, right before the 10th anniversary of his aunt Regina's death.). While I do not know whether my great-grandma ever met her father-in-law or her sister-in-law Regina, I know that she was well aware that September 11th always carried pain for my great-granddad—as carried every October 24th, and not just because of the September 11th before his 18th birthday—and both were born in Jewish homes (he in Anti-Semitic Polish Russia, she in an Anusi home in Ashley-Hanover Township, Pennsylvania) and raised in Anusi homes, and they thus knew the pain of every passing September 11th (on which Great-Great-Granddad may not have died had his family not disowned him for becoming an Anusi) and October 24th.

I can only imagine how the pain of every other September 11th hit her on 9/11, and I never did ask her because I didn't know our family story—not even that we were and are Jews—not to mention that I saw her only once every year from some time in the 90s until 2005, and I was dealing with an abusive dad (It's like the Passover question that the fourth child doesn't ask—he or she doesn't ask because he or she doesn't know how to ask or maybe even to ask at all.).

I wonder what she thought—or at least would've thought—if she heard this song—I also wonder the same about Pop-Pop (whom was sadly, as Granduncle Tony stated, "Like father, like son.") and Granduncle Tony (whom unexpectedly died on July 31 2014, three days after what would've been his mother's 101st birthday). I also certainly wonder what Great-Granddad would've thought and what Granduncle Red (Francis "Red" Czarnecki, whom died in 1985) would've thought (BTW, he was called "Red" because of his red hair—which, as I later found out, is, so to speak, a dead giveaway of if someone is Jewish in Poland, as is Brown hair for someone whom's a Brown-haired Jew, as Ethnic Poles are indigenously light-haired and light-eyed).

Will Great-Granduncle Bernie Ever Rest In Peace? At Least Until He Gets A Purple Heart...

Great-Granduncle Bernie won't ever rest in peace as the hero that he is. Granted that I've written about Great-Granduncle Bernie before, though today's Memorial Day and a post-Holocaust victim of the Holocaust still goes unacknowledged:

Bernard Stanley Czarnecki (Benyamin Shmarya Tshernyetski ben Yehudah-Yochanahn Efryaim v'Sara Osnat, z"l) was born on March 15, 1920 to Julian John Felix (Yehudah-Yochanahn Efryaim ben Chananiah v'Sarah, z"l) and Alexandria Alice (Osnat Sarah bat Yosef HaKohen v'Sarah, z"l).

Born into a Anusi family, he was born into a family whom posed as Polish-Lithuanian Catholics in order to avoid Anti Semitism in America after the first three members (including his brother Anthony) emigrated from Poland Russia after becoming Anusim to avoid Anti Semitism there and, thus, estranging their openly-Jewish family. When Bernard "Bernie" Czarnecki became of bar-mitzvah age, part of why his parents had become Anusim was becoming clearer every day in especially Germany and the Soviet Union: the brutal and ethnocidal Anti Semitism that had permeated pogrom-riddled Russia was on an extreme resurgence. Only under a year into his adulthood (since his 20th birthday was March 15, 1940), he would enlist in the U.S. Army 111th Infantry Division Medical Corps.

Receiving a head wound due to shrapnel that hit him during combat, Pfc. Bernard S. Czarnecki had a failed operation to remove the shrapnel and was discharged from the Army on December 12, 1945. Not really being able to live at home (despite what his exploitative brothers John "Jankie" and Joseph "Susi" stated), Pfc. Czarnecki lived at the Lebanon, PA Veterans' Home And Hospital. When he died on July 16, 1963, his brothers Jankie and Susi received his Social Security benefits, which they tricked him into giving him because of his childlike condition that the shrapnel wound and botched operation effected—since he was vulnerable and easily trusting, thus able to be tricked as a child can be.

While "[i]t's a shame what [Jankie and Susi] did to Bernie," even more of a shame is that the United States never gave Pfc. Bernard Stanley Czarnecki the Purple Heart that he deserved, even posthumously. Also a shame is the shanda fur di goyim that Pfc. Bernard S. Czarnecki (WW2, DOW) was never recognized as a post-Holocaust victim of the Holocaust, despite that he died of his wounds and took almost 18 agonizing years to die.

בנימין שמריה צהרנצקי בן יהודה-יוחנן אפרים ואסנת שרה, ונכד של חנניא ושרה צהרנצקי ויוסף הכוהן ושרה  אנדרולוביץ (ז''ל, תרע''ט-תשכ''ג)

Short Biography Pfc. Bernard "Bernie" Stanley Czarnecki, U.S. Army 111th Infantry Division Medical Corps (WW2, DOW)

(As originally written for and sent to family friends)

Born in Sugar Notch, Pennsylvania on March 15, 1920, Bernard Stanley Czerniecki was the youngest son of Ashkenazi Crypto-Jews Julian and Alexandria Andrulewicz Czerniecki. Entering the United States Armed Forces shortly before he turned 21 years old, Bernard (now Bernard "Bernie" Stanley Czarnecki) served in the 111th Infantry Division Medical Corps of the United States Army for exactly five years—from December 12, 1940 to December 12, 1945. Bernie enlisted shortly before his brothers Edward ("Ed")—who enlisted on January 21, 1943—and Joseph ("Susi")—who enlisted on February 17, 1941—did (Incidentally, Bernie either re-enlisted on the same day as Susi enlisted or did not have his original enlistment recorded until the day that Susi registered.).

Having received a shrapnel-effected wound in combat, Bernie underwent surgery to remove the shrapnel. Given that the surgery was botched, Bernie was discharged from the Army at the Newton D. Baker General Hospital in Martinsburg, West Virginia. From Baker Hospital, he moved to the Veterans' Affairs Housing and Hospital complex in Lebanon, Pennsylvania. Living at the VA Housing and Hospital complex in Lebanon for the rest of his life, he succumbed to his received-in-combat injuries on July 16, 1963 in the VA Hospital in Lebanon.

He died of Schizophrenia and a Coronary Occlusion as a result of his battle wars at 6:30 AM EST in the VA Hospital on that July 16th. Having an autopsy performed on him by Dr. A.H. Heisey of Quentin, Pennsylvania, he was not received by his family and the George Strish Funeral Home in Ashley, Pennsylvania until July 20th. Once he was received, he was buried in Holy Family Cemetery in Sugar Notch.

Pfc. Bernard "Bernie" Stanley Czarnecki, then, was:

1. One of the Nazis' post-war victims of the Holocaust. Since Bernie came from a Crypto-Jewish family, he—along with his brothers Ed and Susi, along with his other family members—was a target of the Nazis solely on account of his Jewish heritage.
2. An unrecognized Jewish-American soldier of World War Two. Whether he even received a Purple Heart is unknown, and he has nobody who the Department of Veterans' Affairs considers to be a next-of-kin family member who may claim.
3. A Jew who had to go through the additional agony of having an autopsy performed on him—since Jewish tradition forbids autopsies except for in cases when the law and/or extenuating circumstances require that an autopsy is to be performed on the Jewish decedent in question.*

*All information comes from documents that were found on Ancestry.com, Bernie's nephew Anthony "Tony" John Czarnecki, Jr. (1946-2014) and other family sources, and prior knowledge. 

September 11, 2014

In a few painful hours, the memorial of September 11, 2001 will occur...

לעולם שכחו ; לעולם עוד פעם. זכרו דנה פלקנברג והאחר קדושים מעונים, ז''ל והי''ד.

In Memory of Staff Sgt. Andrew Louis Rusnak (Andrash HaLevi ben Andrash v'Aviva; USAF-WW2)

I didn't really know Great-Granduncle Andy (z'l), but I know this much:

1. He was humble. Even when he talked about his military service, he tried to make "Andrew Rusnak" and "Mr. Andrew L. Rusnak" look completely different—and they were the same Andrew Rusnak, even though he surely didn't (though he could have) noted "self" as the relationship of the honorer to the honoree. 
2. He loved his parents—he's even being interred at their gravesite.
3. He had that 1900s movie quality in his voice—I wish that I had recorded the call or calls that I made. If you'd wanted to hear a voice from that era, you'd've wanted to hear his.
4. He loved his family.
5. He—and I just figured this out—clearly loved his heritage. He is being cremated and interred at his parents' gravesite—like Tibor (z'l), who directly went through the Holocaust, he felt guilty about surviving (Why else would he want to be cremated when his siblings were all buried? Also, he served on the homefront—and his brothers, Sgt. Carl Stephen Rusnak and S2C Joseph John Rusnak [z'l], served overseas.). Tears came to my eyes when I figured that out—what could he do? As far as I know, he wasn't the one to whom Vilmos and Zoli wrote—Great-Grandma Gaydos (Great-Granduncle Andy's elder sister) had the mitzvah of helping Vilmos, Zoli, et. al. out; and she reneged on her mitzvah (He was single and serving in the Air Force; she was married with four to five children—he was doing what he could; she wasn't.)

I could list more points, but Point Five sticks in particularly with me. Think about this: Every Jew at the time of the Shoah—whether Anusim or openly-Jewish Jews, Messianic or Non Messianic, and inside or outside of Europe—went through the Shoah—whether directly or indirectly. Every Jew who could help fellow Jews had the mitzvah to do so, and Great-Granduncle Andy fulfilled his part of the mitzvah. 

"‘Well done, good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.’" and "‘Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world"

Great-Granduncle Andy died of Alzheimer's Disease—and, in a way, thank God that he did; for:

 "The righteous perishes,And no man takes it to heart;Merciful men are taken away,While no one considersThat the righteous is taken away from evil.
He shall enter into peace;They shall rest in their beds,Each one walking in his uprightness."

Would God have been fair to Great-Granduncle Andy to have him be able to comprehend such times? After all, he died on October 2nd—the middle of the week of the government shutdown—, and he'd been battling Alzheimer's Disease for a long time—and what times in which we live, and what times from which God had Great-Granduncle Andy escape!

Alzheimer's Disease was, in a sense, a blessing for a man such as Staff Sgt. Andrew L. Rusnak—a Levi tzedek, a good son, brother, and dad (and if you just know about—let alone at all know—any of his children, you know that); and (indeed) the last of the Fosko Rusnaks (Incidentally, Grandma and I were on the same brainwave—that is, about the mantle passing on to the next generation.).

Staff Sgt. Andrew Louis Rusnak HaLevi ben Andrash v'Aviva, shemo v'zichrono l'bracha (12 Kislev 5677 -25 Tishrei 5773).

From the 1999 Rusnak Family Reunion Cookbook (I should've scanned in the picture better at the time that I did so.).

From one of the Rusnak family reunions. 

From the 1999 Rusnak Family Reunion Cookbook (I should've scanned in the picture better at the time that I did so.). Here is Andrew L. Rusnak with his surviving brothers, Carl and Joseph (of blessed memory)—their oldest sibling, John, died shortly after he was born

From the 1999 Rusnak Family Reunion Cookbook (I should've scanned in the picture better at the time that I did so.). Here is Pvt. Andrew L. Rusnak with his mother (of blessed memory).

I Saw This Earlier Today, But...

Now I have time to share this:

   

Madison, Wisconsin arrived from google.com on "The Nicole Factor: So Great-Grandma Czarnecki Was Jewish After All.." by searching for is czarnecki a jewish name?.

10:36:55 -- 13 hours 28 mins ago

    

Longmont, Colorado arrived from google.com on "The Nicole Factor: Part Six of My Stage32 Submission" by searching for francis a. “red” czarnecki.

10:03:30 -- 14 hours 1 min ago

What an impact that my blog is making! Furthermore (unless just some relative, family friend, or whoever else changed his or her location online, is on vacation, moved, etc.), what an impact Granduncle Red made! Granduncle Red's is the kind of life that I want to live--I grant that he got Grandaunt Judy (then Judith Ann Thomas) pregnant outside of marriage, was an alcoholic, etc.; but he literally gave up his baseball scholarship to do the right thing by marrying his then-pregnant girlfriend, and he was known and remembered by all who knew him as a nice and righteous man.

Granduncle Red aspired to be famous baseball player, too--and he could have been one--, but he knew that doing righteousness and making an impact was far better than being famous. Francis "Red" Anthony Czarnecki, June 21, 1940 - July 9, 1985--zichrona l'bracha. 

The Olympics...

Even if the 2012 IOC behaves like even the fascist IOC 76 years later, we remember. Not much changed in 36 and 40 years, did it?