Fela Steinbok (Oksenhendler)

Title: Remember
Author: Fela Steinbok
Publisher: Makor Jewish Community Library
Place of publication: Caulfield South, VIC.
Year of Publication: 2008
Location of Book: Lamm Jewish Library, State Library of Victoria and National Library of Australia.
Cities/towns/camps: Poland: Zaglembie district, Sosnowiec, Rybach; Ukraine: Zolkiew, Donbas, Kremetchuk, Primorsk, Mariopol; Russia: Siberia; Kazakhstan: Ushtube, Lepsin; Germany: Hesse Lichtenau DP camp; France: Paris; Australia: Melbourne
Note: those cities/towns/camps underlined are those which are most central to the narrative
Genre: Memoir
Key events/experiences: Jewish refugee; Siberian labour camp.

Remember is a collection of speeches and poems written by Fela Steinbok in commemoration of her perished community from the Zaglembie district of Poland. It is her second memoir. For an overview of her wartime experiences see the entry for My Life.

The collection is 107 pages long with the first 5 pages providing an introduction on the formation of the Zaglembie Landsmanshaft and its activities. Pages 1-34 present English speeches reflecting on the early stages of the war and the author’s life in Poland. Pages 40-52 provide transliterated Yiddish poems describing Jewish cultural and religious life in Poland. Pages 53-79 provide a mixture of Yiddish and English speeches and poems commemorating the victims of the Holocaust and the creation of Israel. Pages 81-137, primarily in English, discuss the author’s life in Russia, her post-war experiences in Europe as well as providing commentaries on Jewish history and Judaism.

Fela Steinbok was born in Sosnowiec, Poland. Shortly after the Nazi invasion, she fled Poland with her husband, Samuel. Together, they survived the war in the Soviet Union, enduring a Siberian labour camp for two years until they were released in July 1941. The couple then lived in Kazakhstan until 1943 before briefly returning to Siberia. In 1944, Soviet authorities resettled them in Ukraine and in early 1946, they returned to Poland with their young daughter, Julie, only to discover that Fela’s family had been murdered in Auschwitz. They then travelled to the Hess Lichtenau DP camp in Germany where they remained until 1947 before moving to Paris. In 1950, with the help of Fela’s Uncle Sam, the family emigrated to Australia, arriving in Melbourne on 1 September 1950. For a more detailed summary of Fela’s wartime experiences see the entry for My Life: Surviving in Russia.

Fela was also an active member of Betar and a passionate Zionist. After arriving in Australia in 1950, she became a founding committee member of the Zaglembie Landsmanshaft – a society of Holocaust survivors from the Zaglembie district in Poland formed in Melbourne in 1953. Every year, the Zaglembie Landsmanshaft holds a commemorative service in Melbourne in memory of the Zaglembie Holocaust victims in which Fela has been an active participant.

Remember is a collection of Fela’s speeches and poems from the past thirty-six years, which she has formed into a memorial book dedicated to the Zaglembie Jewry. Some are in English, and some in transliteration from Yiddish. It is arranged chronologically, with each chapter corresponding to a speech or poem delivered at the Zaglembie commemoration service from the the period of 1971-2004. The chapters are short, usually spanning 3-4 pages in length, and discuss various topics not limited to Holocaust history and memorialisation but also Judaism, politics and Jewish culture.