Part 3

(Continued from last week)

In translating from Hebrew or Russian to English, there can be several ways of spelling names. You will find below the same name often spelled in two or more different ways. I have tried to use whatever spelling was given to me in a particular correspondence even if it was different from the previous paragraph.

I did not pick up looking into the Alexander problem until almost three years later in November 2016 when we had come to the end of the successful Herzl story. Again, many emails back and forth with Boris discussing various possibilities.

I picked up a correspondence again with the organization known in its abbreviated form just as “Memorial.” I had a brief correspondence with them years earlier. From the internet I had gotten an email address with someone’s name of Kozlova. There is a tremendous amount of information on the internet about “Memorial.” Another email address there was just “NIPC.” I emailed them as well.

(Note: I will relate the many emails that I sent to numerous people and organizations. If there was no reply, or if the reply was not constructive, I will not bother to mention it. Also, I will not mention the literally hundreds of emails between Boris and myself unless they contain some information of substance.)

Also, on the internet I found that one could apply to the Russian Ministry of Defense, Central Archives, for information on military matters, but after downloading the application form, I went no further. The detailed information they requested would make it a waste of time since most answers to the questions would be “Unknown.”

I thought I had hit pay dirt when I found a document on the internet titled, “The victims of political terror in the USSR.” It sounded just like something I was looking for. The article, eight pages in length, goes into detail with all the reasons why it is so difficult, actually nearly impossible, to find out anything about anybody. The main reason is that the USSR consisted of numerous republics, each of which had their own responsibility to collect information. Some completed the work, some are still in process and others never started the work.

Also, from the same source I obtained the name of Natalya Malykhina of the “Memorial” archives. “Memorial” was one of the organizations active in the collection of information mentioned just before. I downloaded a form letter from them that spelled out what was needed and referring me to various websites for information. The information available about Alexander did not enable me to answer the questions. Looking at the appropriate database that had been given to me, I found a very large number of names similar or identical to Alexander. Executions were also shown but most were in the 1930s and the few that were in the 1940s showed no similarities to what was known about Alexander. I consequently wrote to Natalya Malykhina explaining my predicament.

Boris wrote to me that he had had a very friendly phone conversation with the head of the KGB in Minsk, but as we had been told before, they would not even discuss the case with us unless and until we first furnish proof of relationship. That is where previous inquiries had also come to a dead end.

Dorothy had no birth certificate stating who her father was, or any other document connecting her to him. Her mother had made sure that there was no way that her daughter would be endangered by the Russian police. Even her birth certificate issued in Paris, which, as related below, we were successful in obtaining through an attorney in Paris, stated no name for the father.

Boris suggested DNA testing through one of the various organizations who are engaged in that type of work to see whether by any chance a match turned up, outside of her immediate family, that might lead to a relative of Alexander somewhere in the world. Dorothy did it, but nothing ever turned up.

Boris was also able to find the passenger manifest of the ship on which Ita with Dorothy came to the U.S. The list shows them as Ida and Dorothea (French for Dorothy) Melcer. Ita, although married, out of fear, used only her maiden name everywhere.

Since the requirement of proving a family connection between Dorothy and her father seemed to be coming up from time to time, she had investigated previously the possibility of obtaining a copy of her birth certificate from Paris, France, her place of birth. Various attempts had failed due to the redistricting of Greater Paris and the resulting questions as to whether the certificate would be issued by the district where the hospital was located or the district where the family lived at the time. Consequently, we hired an attorney in Paris in January 2017. We had been hoping that maybe, just maybe, her father’s name would be on the document. The attorney charged a stiff fee, but was successful in obtaining a copy of the document. Her father’s name was not shown.

(To be continued next week)

By Norbert Strauss