Supplement to article entitled Antopol in the Years 1957-1959
appearing in the 1972 Antopol Yizkor Book

The article in the yizkor book starts out with:

During the years 1945-1950 there were only three Jews to be found in Antopol: Avigdor Devinietz ("Nat"), Chaim-Leib Finkelstein, and Yitzchak Zacks.
I have received several e-mails from Leah Hammond in England with additional information.  In a message dated August 8, 2002 she wrote:
I am writing to point out an inaccuracy contained in the section reference Antopol 1957 - 1959.  The author starts the chapter with the naming of three men who were the only Jewish inhabitants living in Antopol.  He has omitted my family who resided in Gorky street. Indeed my sister was born in 1947 in Antopol and I was born there in 1950.
Our family name is Projansky, my mother's name is Tamara, my father's name was Shachney (Sacha) my sister's name was Regina (now Rachel) and my name was Ludmilla (now Leah).  I believe I am the last jewish person to be born there.

My father's family had lived there before the war and all perished during Nazi occupation.  My father died very recently which has started my search for my roots.

In her next message, dated August 10, she wrote:
I am not sure if any other families were left in Antopol.  According to my sister (she was 8 years old when we left) there was one family.  I will check it with my mother and inform you as soon as possible.  My father's family owned a bakery.  Originally they came from Homesk but moved to Antopol.  My father was old enough to be drafted into the Red Army.  He fought with the Russians.  When Berlin has been liberated he had two options: to move across to the British / American or go back to search for his family.  He took the latter.

When he got back to Antopol he found devastation the whole family gone.  He moved to Pinsk were he met my mother.  Then they moved back to Antopol where he got  little bit of land to build a home.  As far as I understood, my father was tired of travelling and as a result he missed the boat -- Stalin shut the gates.

The life as far as I remember was hard.  We were always treated as little Jews by our friendly neighbours.  My father refused to join the Communist party and that made our life harder. The only time we were treated nice was on my birthday ( I was born on 7th November).  Eventually they let us go to Poland to "join" relatives, and from there we emigrated to Israel.

As for family,  my father left on his own -- his mother, father, and 5 other children perished.


-- Steve Morse