Memories of Teddy Rausch: 2020

Friday, July 31, 2020

Teddy's Life Story as told in 2020

Buenos Aires, July 2020

The extended quarantine imposed by the Coronavirus pandemic turned out to be a blessing in disguise with regard to giving me the opportunity to spend enough time so as to reconstruct my father’s past by way of audiotaping these coffee table chats. His life was epic in many ways, but above all, what transpires in this transcription is an amazing resilience, integrity, tenderness, and good-natured stance that was his lifetime hallmark. I can proudly assert that Daddy has been praised and admired by whomever has met him. Hard working, very much set on his preferred ways (yes…. I mean stubborn), yet warm and generously giving in outstanding ways. His care provided to our mother along the extended years of her relentless decline are admirable. Even more so is his recollection of so many concepts, facts and details of this extended life. Tenaciously self-sufficient to this day (weeks away from his 101^st birthday), I am only grateful life has given me the opportunity to access and share the contents of this quasi- trance state that opened up the heart and memory my father. Always quiet and reserved, only in the later years has he become more talkative and emotional.

I am fortunate to have had him, not only as a role model, but also as a loving company, always caring, concerned and looking after his loved ones. I will miss you so much, Daddy dear…. Cecile

Teddy Rausch, was born in Zolkiew, formerly Poland, currently Ukraine, on 09/17/1919. His birth certificate and documents disappeared when his duffle bag was stolen from the tent during the war in Europe.

His father, Abraham, born in 1888, was presumed coming from the same town. Paternal grandfather was a Torah scholar. His mother Ida (Jutta) Astman, (1895) came from a more upcoming family, who lived in the area for many generations, and whose father was one of 12 sons. Ida had a better education and spoke Polish, German, Russian and Yiddish. She used to help out in her uncle´s office, who was THE town notary.

Teddy had four siblings: Bernard born in 1911, moved to Paris in 1934 and left Europe in 1939 (died in Buenos Aires at the age of 94); Jenta, born 1910 and married to Kalman Satz, an orthodox Jew, also a furrier from a nearby town. They subsequently moved to Paris and then Belgium; had 1 daughter Yaffa, and they all died in Auschwitz (family deported from Malines, Belgium in 1944). Henock (Henri) born June 12/1914 father of Clairette, married to Tanya (French religious Jew) in 1938 and deported to Auschwitz in 1942 where he was murdered on August 27. For Clairette’s recounting of their trajectory and details of his life and imprisonment in France see Henri Rausch's story. Tzivie, the youngest, born in 1920, was shot and murdered in the nearby woods of Zolkiew, along with their parents.

Henoch (Henri) RAUSCH par sa fille Claire Farkas

Henoch, ou Henri, pour tous ceux qui m’ont parlé de lui.

Comment écrire l’histoire de mon père? Comment écrire à propos de quelqu’un qu’on n’a jamais connu, ni vu, ni touché, ce quelqu’un qui est mon père? Dès mon plus jeune âge, je l’ai aperçu sur les photographies, que par chance ma mère avait conservées, et qu’aujourd’hui je garde soigneusement. Elles sont en noir et blanc et, malgré le temps, n’ont pas vieilli, comme mon père, d’ailleurs, cet homme qui n’a pas vieilli, qui est resté jeune à jamais. Il a parcouru un court chemin dans la vie, il n’a marché que 27 ans.

Il est né le 12 juin 1914 à Zolkiew, Lwow, en Pologne, aujourd’hui l’Ukraine, deuxième fils d’Abram Rausch et de Jutta Astman, d’une famille de cinq enfants, trois garçons et deux filles. Son père exerçait le métier de charretier, c’est-à-dire messager : il faisait des courses pour ceux qui avaient besoin de transporter soit des marchandises, soit du courrier. Je n’ai aucun autre renseignement concernant les origines de la famille Rausch. Par contre, je sais que la famille Astman était originaire de la région depuis plusieurs générations, le père de ma grand-mère maternelle était issu d’une famille de douze garçons.

J’ai très peu d’informations à propos de l’enfance de mon père, concernant son éducation. Je peux déduire qu’il a dû être élevé au “heder “ comme la plupart des enfants à l’époque, qu’il a dû être en bas âge apprenti fourreur, renseignement que j’ai eu par mon beau-père, à savoir que tous les enfants étaient préparés pour apprendre un métier. À part cela, je n’ai pas d’autres informations.

Henri Rausch by his daughter Claire Farkas (English Translation)

Henoch, or Henri, from what I have been told about him.

How to write the story of my father? How to write about someone that you have never known, seen, or touched, someone who is my father? From an early age, I saw him in the photographs, which luckily my mother had kept, and which today I keep carefully. They are in black and white and, despite the time, have not aged, like my father, moreover, this man who has not grown old, who has remained young forever. He has come a short way in life, he only walked 27 years.

He was born on June 12, 1914 in Zolkiew, Lwow, Poland, now Ukraine, the second son of Abram Rausch and Jutta Astman, of a family of five children, three boys and two girls. His father worked as a carter, that is to say a messenger: he went looking for those who needed to transport either goods or mail. I have no further information concerning the origins of the Rausch family. On the other hand, I know that the Astman family had been from the region for several generations, the father of my maternal grandmother came from a family of twelve boys.

I have very little information about my father's childhood, about his education. I can deduce that he must have been brought up as a “heder” like most children at the time, that he must have been a young furrier apprentice, information that I got from my father-in-law, namely that all children were prepared to learn a trade. Other than that, I have no other information.