We are searching for Michel-Mordche LIBOVITS the father of Abraham LIBOWITZ who was born
in a Displaced Persons camp
after the end of the 2nd World War
Michel-Mordche LIBOVITS was born on 15 March 1922 in Gradok, Poland or in Braslav, Belarus.
 |
Misha and Ella
Leibovitz |
 |
Misha and Ella Leibovitz
probably on their wedding
day 17 March 1945
|
 |
The DP Camp Registration card of
Michel Mordche LIBOVITS
obtained from the ITS Tracing Service at Bad Arolsen,
It revealed for the first time
-
the name of his parents
- that Gradok was an area in Vilna
- he intended to travel to Palestine
- was assigned to "Area Team 005
- was absent on 20 March 1948
|
 |
The search highlights the difficulty of identifying a location which has changed names
so frequently in recent history!
Where is GRADOK, Vilno, Poland?
The images above illustrate all we know about Abraham's father whom we seek.
Birth certificate of Abraham 18 June 1947
Michel-Mordche LIBOVITS his wife Ella and their daughter Anna were refugees in the
Displaced Persons Camp Boelcke-Kaserne in the town of Ulm, Germany on 22 December 1946:
They were still together in the camp on as shown on the list dated up to 1 July 1947, which lists
Abraham who was only born on 18 June 1947
Ella and her two children Anna and Abraham left the DP Camp for Israel on 23 Aug1949
There is no explanation why the father of the family was not on the same list or what happened to him.
There is an added complication that the family name appears with numerous spelling variations in the
documents which we have, and can. indeed, be spelled in many more variations:-
LEBOWITCH
LEIBOVICH
LEIBOVITZ
LIBOVITS
LIBOVITZ
LIBOWICZ
LIBOWITZ
and very many more !
We have heard rumours that Michel-Mordche LIBOVITS, born on 15 March 1922 in Gradok, Poland or in Braslav, Belarus.
We think that he had served in the Russian Navy but deserted at wars end. He had a little finger missing and half a finger on
one hand and a tattoo in Russian on his chest. After the birth of Abraham, his father was selling contraband cigarettes in
East Berlin and was arrested and jailed as a criminal and a deserter. Which jail? He may have been killed in a prison fight
and we are searching cemetary records at the moment. However it is more likely he was repatriated to Palestine in 1947/8
leaving his family behind. We think this because when Anna was 12 in 1958 and living in Israel a woman came to their door
and claimed to know what had happened to the father but was screamed at by the mother suggesting that she knew the person.
Did Michael come to Palestine?
|
