Carolyn Gelenter’s Story
I don't know much about my dad, James Gelenter, but have recently managed to find out where he was born – in the Polish town Parczew near Lublin. I only know this story from my mother, who herself was the child of Russian immigrants (ethnically Polish but with Russian passports) to the UK in the early 20th century, escaping the pogroms in Poland/Russia. I am not sure where my grandfather, Culman Adlerfliegal (shortened to Adler in the UK), was born in Poland/Russia. My grandmother, Yetta Morganstern, was born in the UK to Russian immigrants and only spoke Yiddish; she had a cigarette stall at the Roman Road Market in London.
I believe that my paternal grandfather, Tuvya Gelernter, had a bike shop or factory in Parczew and died when my father, then called Icko (short for Yitzchak), was only 3 years of age. When Poland was invaded by Germany and the Soviet Union in 1939, Lublin fell to the Germans, but my father was captured by the Russians. Many Poles, including many Polish Jews, refused to take Russian citizenship and were arrested and sent to various remote parts of the Soviet Union. My father was sent to a forced labour camp in Siberia working in a salt mine. Terrible as this was, it ultimately saved his life; if he’d stayed in Lublin, he would almost certainly have been murdered by the Germans.
After the Russians joined the allies in 1941, a treaty was negotiated between them and the Polish government in exile that allowed the Poles out of these camps. My father, along with others who had survived, walked huge distances across Russia. I am not sure of the history, but some of them joined the Polish Free Army. I believe my father joined a Jewish unit and was sent to the UK for training. I know that some soldiers from the Jewish unit protested about antisemitism in the Polish army, wanting to be transferred to the British army. My mother thought my father was part of that protest, however I believe most of those who took part in the protests were court martialled! I am not sure how my father did come to serve in the British Army, but his records here show that he was sent to France and Germany to fight in 1944/45.
After the war, he didn't wish to be sent to Palestine to fight against Jews and somehow managed to get to Australia and anglicised his name. My mother, Cissie Adler, migrated to Australia in 1950 under the £10 scheme which favoured white British people, while at the time the Australian government did not recognise the indigenous peoples as even human until 1967, which is the first time they had the right to vote. My parents met in Sydney, where there was a small but growing Jewish community.
I do not know what happened to my paternal grandmother, Chana-Cypa Gelernter (née Choyenstam). I suspect she was gassed in Majdanek, but as no records were kept, I guess I will never know.
Of my father's 2 sisters, one ended up in Israel, but my father lost contact with her after she managed to locate him and wanted to come out to Australia. My father, who was struggling in all ways, evidently couldn't deal with facing her and didn't pursue contact, sadly.
I was an ardent Zionist growing up. I joined the Zionist youth movement ‘Habonim’ and went to Israel when I was 18 where I married and lived for a couple of years before coming back to Australia with my then husband. Despite being involved in many social justice campaigns over the years, it wasn't until the Second Intifada that I went back to Israel and the West Bank with the International Solidarity Movement, to see things for myself. I returned over several years working with the International Women's Peace Service in the West Bank.
I now live in London and am part of a small group of women called Jewish Peaceniks UK which includes others who are also descendants of Holocaust survivors, organising fundraising and actions against this terrible genocide in Gaza and the West Bank. I also took part in the Defend our Juries - Lift the Ban campaign because I am devastated at the ongoing genocide in Gaza and the West Bank, but also hugely concerned as the daughter of a Holocaust survivor by the erosion of democracy in the UK. I cannot be a bystander to the rise of fascism.