My grandmother, Helen
Rosenman Lesses, died on Friday, June 20, 2003, at the age of 98. She was
born in Kielce, Poland, on December 24, 1904, and emigrated to the United States
in 1906 with the rest of her family. She grew up in Cleveland, Ohio, in a poor
Jewish immigrant family. She attended Western Reserve University (now Case-Western)
in Cleveland, studied at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, then
graduated from the University of Michigan in 1926. She met and married my grandfather,
Dr. Mark Falcon Lesses, of the Boston area, when she was studying at the New
England Conservatory. They had two children, my father (Maurice) and my uncle
(Peter). They lived in Newton Centre, Massachusetts.
Towards the end of World War II, she trained to become a machinist, but the war ended before she could start her career. After the war, she became active in local politics. She ran twice for the office of Alderman in Newton, perhaps the first woman to do so, but lost both times. Later, she worked at Peter Bent Brigham Hospital, the Wellesley College Library and the Fletcher School Library at Tufts. After retiring from Tufts, she decided - in her eighties - to become a real estate broker. She took the license exam (with trepidation), passed easily and then became a successful broker.
She retired fully only when she was in her nineties, and then only because she wanted to spend her winters in Florida. During the last several years of her life she lived in an apartment in the same building as my father and his wife, Eve. She was a smart, independent woman, who read widely and kept up on world news almost until the end, when it began to seem no longer relevant to her concerns. I will miss her. She was my connection to a past world that no longer exists.
Many years ago I had heard that my grandfather had corresponded with European relatives before the Second World War, but that was all the information we had from my grandmother. I found the letters in a box full of my grandfather's personal effects, such as his medical school diploma, and photographs. I certainly did not expect to find them there, forgotten and unknown.
From reading the web site set up by Edward Anders, entitled JEWS IN LIEPAJA/LATVIA, 1941-45, which lists the victims and survivors of the Nazi Holocaust in Liepaja, it seems apparent that Mordechai and his wife and children were murdered in 1941. I do not know what happened to Sima Shlosberg or to Gittel Kagan and her family. The vast majority of the Jews of Latvia were murdered by the Nazis, so my presumption is that Sima was also killed. If Gittel and her family stayed in Moscow they would presumably have escaped the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union, but of course could have fallen victim to the Stalinist purges of the 1930s or to sickness or hunger.
For those who would like a glimpse into the lives of these three people, I have transcribed the letters:
I am searching for further information about all three people, especially Sima Shlosberg and Gittel Kagan. Anyone reading this page who has such information, please e-mail me at: rlesses@ithaca.edu.
This
page maintained by: Rebecca Lesses
Last revised August 26, 2004