In honor of Omi’s A”H birthday, Menachem Av 11, I present a brief history of Omi’s life from Russia to America.
Omi (Schfira) was born in 1901 in Moscow Russia on Shabbos at 7:00 pm and passed away on Cheshvon 27,1997 in Israel.
Escaping From Russia
Omi and her parents Levi & Ruchma Lagovier escaped Moscow in 1917 through Chemovisk/Chelovitch, Romania on a train carrying pigs. They hid in the mud between the pigs for many hours so that when they reached the border checkpoint the pigs would have been comfortable with them hiding among them and this way they would not get caught at the border.
Marriage
Omi married Opi on June 15, 1924 in the famous Dr. Goldschmidt Sanatorium in Bad Hamburg. The Goldschmidt’s were relatives of Omi’s.
Escape From Germany
In 1938 Opi realized that it was not safe to be in Germany (his banker had told him to take what he can and get out because the Nazi’s were trying to take control of his business) he told Omi to take the children and go to Antwerp to her parents and he had some of their belongings packed up and some of their valuables such as Omi’s leichters buried so that the Nazi’s would not confiscate them at the border.
After the war Opi sent someone to Hamburg and had him dig up the valuables and bring them to America.
Escape From Europe.
In 1939 Opi made the decision to leave Europe and go to America. He went to the US Consulate and try to get visa’s but they refused him saying that America couldn’t just let everyone in unless they had money in America to prove that they wouldn’t be a burden of the US government. Opi had a plan.
Opi was doing business with companies in the USA in US currency, which is why the Nazi’s were very interested in his business as they wanted dollars, so on March 16th, 1938 he boarded the Queen Elizabeth from Cherbourg, France to the USA and upon his arrival in America went to the main Chase bank on Front St in Manhattan and asked to speak to a banker. He showed the banker his identification and proof that he owned his company in Germany and told them that they had a wire from a US customer that they were supposed to send to his bank in Germany and asked them instead to open up an account for him in the bank and put the money into that account which they did and he left the bank with a bank passbook showing $50,000 in the account which was a very large sum in those days.
When he finished at the bank, Opi boarded, that same very day, the Queen Elizabeth on it’s return to Europe not wanting to waste any precious time since the situation in Europe was deteriorating very fast.
When he arrived in Europe, he went straight to the US Consulate and handed the man the passbook, when the man saw $50,000 in the account he told him to come back tomorrow and he will have their paperwork ready.
Omi, Opi and children all left Europe on the on July 21, 1939 aboard the S.S. Georgic from Havre, France to America.
The rest as they say is history….