Alla Gauptman honors her family, the Hauptmans, who had lived in a number of Polish
cities and towns before the Holocaust, including Katowice, Kielce, Radomsko, and
Lodz. Alla’s grandfather, father, uncle, and cousin had told her that all of her
family members who lived in Poland were killed during the Holocaust. Although the
spelling of the family name changed, the family name was not extinguished. One or
more individuals in the family had left Poland around 1910 and eventually moved to
Baku, Azerbaijan (formerly under the domain of the Russian Empire). Alla’s grandfather,
Isaac, lived in Baku until his death in 1958, but he had four children, one of whom
was Alla’s father, an engineer. Isaac’s brother, Abram, who worked in the family
business as a wood turner, died during the Holocaust. With the exception of one son,
the remaining members of Abram’s family were killed during the Holocaust. Abram’s
son lived in Baku until his death in 1979. A surviving photograph of this family
is available, but it does not picture all of the Hauptman family members who died
during World War II.
