VAKSTOK
[see also WAKSTOK]
Menachem Wakstok, Windermere, UK,~1946
Menahem Walshtok was interviewed by the Steven Spielberg Shoah Foundation. See info below:
Name of IntervieweeMenaḥem Vaḳshtoḳ
Menaḥem Vaḳshtoḳ (release name)
Monik (other name)
Menachem Waksztok (other name)
GenderMale
Date of Birth7/5/1927
City of BirthKlodawa (Lódz, Poland)< td>
Country of BirthPoland
Religious Identity (Prewar)traditional Judaism
Religious Identity (Postwar)
Religious Identity (Time Period Unknown)
Ghetto(s)
Camp(s)Auschwitz III-Monowitz (Poland : Concentration Camp)
concentration camps, German
Auschwitz II-Birkenau (Poland : Death Camp)
Went into Hiding
Member of Underground, Resistance or Partisan Group(s)
Hiding or living under false identity (Location)
Type of hiding place
Resistance Group(s)
Liberated byarmed forces, Soviet
Location of liberationCzechoslovakia
Fled from Nazi controlled territory
Forced (death) MarchesYes
Aid Giver, Liberator, or War Crimes Trials Participant
Other Experiencesescapes during transfers
State of InterviewSouthern
Country of InterviewIsrael
Language(s) of InterviewHebrew
Length of Interview1:30
Interview Code34762
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THE WINDERMERE CHILDREN:
Per Hila Shefer, my father was part of the Windermere children who were taken to the Lake District in England, after the war to be cared for. There was a movie made about the children. Hila is hoping to have a reunion with families whose parents were part of this. [see letter from Menachem Wakstok from the Lakes District bottom of page}
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Per email from Hila Shefer (Wackstok) 17MAY2015: My name is hila and I am the Douter of Menachem Wackstok from klodawa. My father's family killed in Chelmno . He was the only one who servived. My father appears in the picture of Menachem Landau bar mitzvah from 1961. He is sitting in the right hand, the second from the left between his friend Abraham opochinsky(also from klodawa) and his wife idith.The Parent's of my father Were Moshe and Chaja and They have Flour Mill in Klodawa. Do you have more information about my father's family or even picturs or documents? With all reegards.Hila Shefer(Wackstok) From Israel. (SEE PHOTO BELOW):
The Windermere Children: In Their Own Words" tells the story of the pioneering project to rehabilitate child survivors of the Holocaust on the shores of Lake Windermere. In the year that marks the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II and the Holocaust, this powerful documentary reveals a little-known story of 300 young orphaned Jewish refugees who began new lives in England’s Lake District in the summer of 1945.
Some of the children who came to the Lake District, photographed in Prague in August 1945, a few days before they left for the UK.
"My father [Menachem Wackstok] appears in the picture of Menachem Landau bar mitzvah from 1961. He is sitting in the right hand, the second from the left between his friend Abraham Opochinsky(also from klodawa) and his wife Ita. See Breszwinski for names of other people in this photo." Hila Shefer Wakstok. 17MAY2015.
EMAIL FROM HILA SHEFER WAKSTOK 17MAY2015: You are so lucky with your uncle because my father almost didn't talk about happy times in klodawa. He hardly remembered he's brother and sisters. He told us about he's grandfather Kaufman Krzewacki That was very tall men and everyone met him. and we know He had The flour mill. He told us about he's mother who was very worm and loving person and she use to work in a shop the family ouned And she was not so religious women. my father was very close to her. She use to send him letters after the German's took him from home Until it stopped. He's Father, But my father use to talk about the War and Oushwiz a lott . He saw it like a mission that the new generation will know and Never forget. He use to go in "YOM HASHOA" to schools and tell he's story and he even succeed to come to my 2 bigger children's class. Hila.
Moshe and Chaja-Hela [nee Krzewacki] Wakstok. Klodawa.Grandparents of Hila Wakstok, parents of Menachem. (see Yad Vashem Page of Testimony below for Chaja-Hela)
Menachem Wakstok and wife Sarah in front of his travel agency-Israel 1965.
Menachem Wakstok in his travel agency 1996.
EMAIL FROM HILA WAKSHTOK SHEFER 05SEP15: (re: photo above)
My parents were very well known in Ashkelon. My father was the only travel agency in town for many years and also did a lot of things for the city. Thanks to him there wer a lot of tourists there and he took place in many festivals and ceremonies in Askelon. Also, my mother was known . she was history teacher in the main high schoole for 30 year and also workes in the municipality as a travel guide. When I was in elemantry school after they died I wrote to the people who worked in Ashkelon and asked them to call a street after their names and it took 4 years, but they were delighted to do so. The street is not far away from their home in Ashkelon. I am very proud. thank you. When you will com to Israel i will take you there. Hila.
MENACHEM AND SARAH WAKSTOK AND FAMILY 2006.
PER HILA WAKSTOK 07JUN2015: I'm sending you pictures of my family and Avraham Opocznski in 1991 when we visit in Polland and Klodawa (see below):
Menachem Wakstok (right) Avrum Opocynski (left) return trip to Klodawa 1991.
Per Hila Shefer Wakstok: 07JUN2-15: Many of them are local people from Klodawa.The one with the back is Avraham Opozcnski .My father (Menachem Wakstok) is standing in the left side.They are standing near a building who use to be a shop of my father's family. His mother worked there before the war.
Menachem Wakstok and family outside the building that was their family home. Klodawa 1991.
The remains of the Krzewacki family flour mill. Klodawa 1991.
Email from Hila Wakstok Shefer 1/17/2022 with letter from her father Manahcem Wakstok while at Windmere in 1946:
