Benedictina
Benedictina
I heard from Barbara, that Benedictina and her children had hid in a convent during the second world war, and then her daughter Helena had walked across the border to travel to Israel (B.Bauer, personal communications, 1998-present). The exact story is unknown, and Benedictina’s great-grandchildren did not have any information. Yosi gave me Benedictina’s great-granddaughter’s contact information in the U.S. and so I gave her a call.
Benedictina’s great-granddaughter (she would be my second cousin) firmly let me know that she and her sister (who lives in Israel) have no interest in the past. She told me her family escaped from Romania in the 1950s but did not elaborate. I offered her a lovely photographic portrait of her great-grandmother with her family (See Figure 47).
My cousin told me that they each have a box of photographs and documents, and so are not interested. In addition, I was advised they do not know anything about Benedictina’s or Helena’s story. She firmly said she was not interested in the photograph. There are more cousins in New Jersey however Benedictina’s great-grandchild would not connect me to them. The lack of interest my cousins expressed, spoke to me of the ‘telescoping of generations’ (Faimberg, 1988), a pathway of intergenerational traumatic silence.
I recalled from my mother, that Benedictina had a son, Henry Flavian, who moved to Paris, France at some point. Barbara said she heard that Henry had escaped from Romania on foot all the way to France. We have a photo in which Aunt Henrietta identified Henry. My mother remembers meeting Henry in Paris, and Yosi said that he met Henry in his later years, in Israel. I found out much later, that Henry had changed his name from Finklestein to Flavian, when he moved to France. Such significant pieces of information like a name change are more clues to unraveling the family narrative. Now I understood that Benedictina’s married name was Finklestein. Here is Benedictina and other family members with Henry Flavian, standing behind her to the right
