Date: Mon, 7 Dec 1998 07:16:15 +0200


I have been trying to find Dina Ostreicher for some
time.  She submitted several Pages of Testimony in 1957
to Yad VaShem and both her parents were Pickholz.  And
she seemed young enough to be still alive and coherent.

Eventually I turned to Batya Untershatz, the missing
persons lady of the Jewish agency for help and found to
my embarrassment that I had misread the handwriting and
that Dina Ostrover was right there in the phone book.

This evening I called her.  (I hate the phone, but this
seemed important.)  She is about seventy-five and she
survived the Holocaust pretending to be a Christian.  She
was separated from her very large family at about age 
sixteen, so some of her details may be incorrect.  I have
not recorded it all yet, but here are some highligts.

Some ninety of her family were killed in the Holocaust.  Of 
the handful who survived, two are Dina and one is Dan, all 
named for the same person.  (The other Dina is in Union New 
Jersey.)

Her grandfather had an older cousin named Bendit Pickholz who
went to America.  Bendit is probably Benjamin and we are 
looking for someone born before 1898.  STEVE - the one candi-
date we have is Bruce's great-grandfather.  This is very 
important to her, so let's see if this works.  Bendit's 
father was Matityahu and Dina's father was named for him and the
"orphan" seems to fit Bruce.  I expect we'll find that his grandfather 
had a brother named Matityahu in Hebrew.  BTW, Steve, I have not 
added your two contacts from last week to this list yet.  

Dina's mother was the daughter of David Shemuel, a first cousin
of the David Shemuel whose granddaughter I met last week
in Jerusalem.  Like the other David Shemuel, this one lost 
his first wife in childbirth and had a second of set of kids
with a second wife.  Eleven all told.  However this David Shemuel
married his dead wife's sister.  Their last name was (Jacob, 
hold onto your chair) Kostman!!  Both DS's were originally from
Rozdol and went later to Strij.

Dina's father Matityahu (from Zrovneh - Jacob is that Zborno?)
had a cousin Feigele from Lisecs(!) who was an aunt of the
Etzion/Pickholz who died last week and who was Ephraim's 
cousin.

There is a large amount of information in my notes, and the
inter-connections are beginning to get very complicated.  The
unfortunate thing, of course is that hardly any of them come
down to today.  Even Dina herself has only two children and two
grandchildren.  Much of her information is in the Strij Yizkor
book, but I didn't spend enough time with it and will have 
another look later.

Incidentally, the "aunt" whom the three survivors were named for
was the sister of her mother's cousin who was a Rabbi in a town
she pronounced Skola.

I'll try to get this recorded in some sensible fashion. Soon. 
Before I begin to misunderstand my notes.

Israel P.


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