Sonik was my Grandpa Leon’s 1st cousin. Mum and I were blown away that this turned out to be so personal.
My Holocaust Twin
To make my Bar Mitzvah more meaningful, I chose to twin it with a boy who died in the Holocaust before his own Bar Mitzvah
The Twinning Programme sent me a boy called Sonik Gleicher. It turns out that he was my Grandpa Leon’s 1st cousin. Mum and I were blown away that this turned out to be so personal. We did some research: Sonik was born in Toporov, Poland. He had an older sister, Sheindel. We found out his father Izak died in Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, but there is no trace of his mother, Cila, or of Sonik or Sheindel. Research shows that the majority of the 389 Jews of Toporov were sent to Belzec.
Mum and I are still looking for them.