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Survivors & Witnesses In Western North Carolina |
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| Choosing to Remember: From the Shoah to the Mountains | |||
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Name: George Tushak Life span: 1919 - 1993 Birthplace: Vienna, Austria Parents: Oscar and Elsa Spira Tushak Siblings: Renee (died at 18 in 1933 of illness) Children: Three Grandchildren: Three Oscar and Elsa Tushak were a part of one of the oldest and most established Jewish communities in all of Europe. As an Orthodox family, they observed Jewish rituals yet they were largely assimilated into the Viennese community. They owned a jewelry manufacturing business in Vienna and in Prague where they were living before the Nazi invasion. Beginning in the early 1930's, before Hitler's official rise to power, George would sometimes take a wire whisk to school, to protect himself from bullies who hassled Jews. He graduated from high school in Vienna, Austria, and in 1936 enrolled in the University of Prague where he received a business degree. When Hitler took over Czechoslovakia in March 1939, Jews were forced from their homes, their businesses were looted and closed and they were forced into cramped quarters. George tried to encourage his parents to leave Europe. They took the precaution of shipping household goods and valuables to relatives in England for safekeeping, but postponed their own departure. George left for Bienne, Switzerland and obtained visas for his parents. His parents kept hoping that the troubles in Europe would dissipate, and thus they let their exit visas expire. George never heard from his parents again after 1941. In Bienne, Switzerland, George attended watch-making school. He later traveled to Barcelona, Spain and then to Lisbon, Portugal planning to eventually go to the United States. In a casino in Estorile he bet his last dollar and won $36. Six months later he was on a ship to America. His mother's cousin sent him an affidavit and helped him get a job in a watch-making factory. In 1941, having only been in the USA for six months, George was drafted into the US Army. He served in the 19th Corps of the Armed Calvary, and was in the G2 intelligence unit of the Army. |
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George married Francine Karklin from Cleveland, Ohio and they had three daughters. George and Francine's daughter Elise Tuschak Israel now resides in Candler, NC. While she was growing up she came to know bits and pieces of her father's family's history in Europe. But she always wondered about the grandparents she had never known and had a concern for her lost heritage. Elise's parents took the family back to Prague. There they visited the Pinkas Synagogue, the oldest in Europe. The plaster walls were covered from floor to ceiling with the names of thousands of Jews who had been taken from their homes and sent to their deaths. Amazingly, Elise spotted the names of her father's parents, Oskar and Elsa Tuschak. This was the first confirmation for her father that his parents had died in Auschwitz. Elide continued researching her family history, and in the mid 1990's she visited the Resource Center at the Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC. Elise was able to find the death records of her father's mother's parents, Ferdinand and Hermina Spira. She learned that they were on board the first transport out of Vienna with 1,000 other deportees to Theresienstadt in 1942. Ferdinand and Hermina Spira were murdered at the ages of 84 and 79. Still wishing to learn more about her father's family, Elise learned that her father had kept a bundle of letters sent to him by his parents. Elise has recently received those letters which are written in German. She is working on their translation and is hoping to learn more about the final years of her grandparents' lives in Europe. |
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