Tomer Minuskin honors his grandfather’s brother Berale Minuskin, who was born in 1935 in Zhetel, Poland. Before the Holocaust, the town consisted of approximately 4,000 Jews. The community was very active, with Hebrew and Yiddish schools, several Zionistic and other political organizations, and a rich cultural life. The first Jews came to Zhetel in 1580. Shepsele and his older brother Berale were in a synagogue that was used as a transfer station where Jews were led away to trucks. Shepsele’s mother held on to her sons with “all her might,” but they were taken from her arms by Nazi soldiers. The family never saw them again; both boys died in 1942.
The Nashville Holocaust Memorial