Another Chapter in Warsaw Ghetto Orphan’s Past Revealed

Another Chapter in Warsaw Ghetto Orphan’s Past Revealed

In honor of International Holocaust Remembrance Day last year, we shared the unbelievable story of Shalom Korai: an orphan found as a toddler in the Warsaw Ghetto and raised having no idea who his birth family was, who connected with a cousin across the Atlantic and learned the identity of his grandparents thanks to a MyHeritage DNA test. In July, we shared that Shalom traveled to the United States to reunite with his newfound family.

Today, we are excited to share yet another breakthrough in Shalom’s story.

When Shalom traveled to Charleston to meet his newfound relatives, their reunion was covered by many media outlets and broadcast throughout the U.S. and the world — including the living room of Rita Katz, 78, of Orlando, Florida. Rita was blown away by excitement when she saw the story, because she had been searching for Shalom for decades.

The brother she almost had

When Rita was 3 years old, her father Bernard Kohn applied to adopt a child from among the surviving Jewish orphans in Europe. The child he was assigned was a 7-year-old boy known then as Piotr (Peter) Korzcak — the name Shalom was given when he was rescued by Lena Kuchler-Silberman. The adoption process proceeded, to a point where Rita’s parents were already considered Shalom’s foster parents and provided monthly payments for his care.

Bernard Kohn, Rita’s father

Bernard Kohn, Rita’s father. Photo enhanced and colorized by MyHeritage

However, at some point Bernard learned that the boy they had planned to adopt was sent from France to Israel, and the adoption process was stopped.

Rita’s family held on to all the documentation — more than 30 papers, including correspondence from Peter — and for decades, Rita tried to locate the man that was supposed to become her brother, so she could share these priceless documents with him.

The folder containing the adoption paperwork

The folder containing the adoption paperwork: “The story of your child”

A letter from Rita’s father Bernard to Shalom, written in 1948

A letter from Rita’s father Bernard to Shalom, written in 1948

And suddenly, this summer, there he was on television!

Rita quickly found the contact details of Ann Meddin Hellman, Shalom’s newfound cousin, and reached out to her.

When the information was passed to Shalom, he recalled that there was indeed an American family who wanted to adopt him while he was in Belleville, near Paris, with the rest of the children from Lena Kuchler-Silberman’s orphanage. The story he carried with him was that they even came to visit him twice in Belleville. However, on the second visit, he realized that being adopted would mean parting from the other children and from Lena — who were the closest thing to family he had ever known by that point.

Shalom as a child
Shalom as a child
Shalom as a child

When he realized this, he ran away and climbed to the top of the highest tree around — “so high, even the birds were afraid to fly up there,” he recalls. “Lena pleaded with me to come down, but I refused. I made her promise that I wouldn’t be adopted by anyone in another country, and that I would join her and the other kids on their upcoming journey to Israel. Only after she promised me all this, and I made sure the coast was clear of people I didn’t know, I was willing to climb down the tree. No one mentioned adoption after that.”

‘My God, that’s him! He’s alive!’

Last month, Shalom and Rita spoke for the first time via video chat: Shalom from his neighbor’s house at his kibbutz, and Rita from her Orlando home, joined in person by Ann and her husband — who drove all the way from Charleston — and Arie, Shalom’s close friend, who flew from New York especially for the occasion. A member of the MyHeritage Research team also joined to mediate and translate.

Rita told us that she had been watching that news program every night for years. “At the beginning of the program they show short clips from the stories that will be covered and one of them was a story of a family reuniting through DNA,” she said. “It intrigued me, also because they mentioned that thanks to a DNA test a Holocaust survivor discovered his biological family after 80 years. I was not thinking or expecting to see the name Peter Korczak on the screen. And then, as soon as I saw that, I screamed! I said, my God, that’s him! He’s alive! He’s well!”

Rita was elated beyond belief, because she recognized the name she’d heard so much growing up: Peter Korzcak. “My father was communicating with Peter, through an intimate intermediary at the orphanage,” she said. “He kept everything, all the information, and everything had the name of Peter Korczak as the potential adoption my parents were hoping for.”

Rita said that “from what I understand, Peter and the other orphans were sent to Israel so any potential adoption was then off limits. That’s the story I grew up hearing.”

It was important to Shalom to ensure that Rita was not offended by his refusal to part from Lena and the children, and she completely understood: “It would have been a very difficult decision for a little boy to leave the comfort zone of what he was familiar with. I understand that well,” she assured him.

“I knew that he was not capable of writing any of the letters,” Rita said. “But I believe it was his thoughts that he was relating to an intermediary writer that translated and wrote for him. But it is Peter’s thoughts at the time — communicating with my father.”

The translation of one of Peter’s letters from the file

The translation of one of Peter’s letters from the file

‘He was on my mind all these years’

Rita shared with Shalom about her family’s background: her father was born Bernard Koyen in Istanbul, Turkey, to a Jewish family originally from Eastern Europe. “Then he wanted to come to the United States, but the quota system was such that they couldn’t allow him in at that time, so he spent about 15 years in Cuba first, and immigrated to the U.S. around 1933,” she says. In the U.S., his last name was changed to Kohn.

Rita’s parents. Photo colorized and enhanced by MyHeritage

Rita’s parents. Photo colorized and enhanced by MyHeritage

“He learned Spanish very quickly,” says Rita. “He was multilingual. So he was an interpreter in Cuba and a theater critic for a Spanish magazine. He settled in New York and continued working as an interpreter for a while until opening up a retail store.  It started out with one store for women’s hosiery, and then he opened more — branched out to all kinds of merchandise. It was like a novelty store with a little bit of everything.”

Rita’s mother was born in New York, “but ironically her parents were from Turkey. When my father came from Cuba to New York, he met my mother in a Jewish Turkish community center.”

Rita was born 1946, and her sister Serena in 1944. In 1949–1950 the family moved to Miami, Florida.  

“After my sister and I were born, my mother couldn’t have any more children, but she and especially my father really wanted a boy,” says Rita. “Adopting a Jewish boy orphaned during the Holocaust felt extremely important and meaningful to him. My parents even had a name picked out for him: Victor. So if Shalom would have grown up with our family, as my brother, his name was Victor Kohn.”

After they were informed that the adoption process would not continue, the Kohns received no more information about the boy they had been hoping to welcome into their family.

‘I hope my father’s spirit is with us’

For 75 years, every piece of paper from the adoption process was kept by the family. “They were in my mother’s possession until she passed away in 2001 and then I took everything with me and I kept it in a drawer for posterity,” says Rita. “I couldn’t let it go. About 20 years ago when I first went on Facebook I was curious to know about Peter. And I thought maybe I could find him with the name that I knew he had many years ago. I put his name in and of course, nothing showed up. All I could assume is that he did find an adopted family who changed his name. He was on my mind all the years, and I was thinking a lot about where he could possibly be.”

Since she found nothing about him, she put it away, thinking she had reached the end of this chapter — but she was wrong.

During the meeting Rita showed Shalom the golden bracelet on her wrist: “It belonged to my father,” she said. “It is at least 80 years old. I’m hoping his spirit is with us today, and he knows all about what’s going on between us.”

The bracelet was given to him by the Bnei Brith organization when he retired from his role as advisor to a group for young boys. “I wore it today with hope that my father’s spirit is here with us, and he can see Shalom and know that he is well and everything turned out the way it should be.”

This new chapter of Shalom’s story is just one of many examples we’ve seen where media coverage of one discovery led to additional discoveries and reunions. It exemplifies, once again, how important it is for these stories to be shared.

If you’ve also made an incredible discovery on MyHeritage, we’d love to hear about it. Please share it with us via this form or via stories@myheritage.com.