Spectors from Ukraine Moldova Kishinev
The Spector Story
by
Henry Spector
as told to Susan Spector Gould
The name Spector most likely comes from the Russian word "Inspektor" which means the same in English.They came from the shtetl of Kiblitch which was (presently still is) in the SW corner of the Ukraine, in the large Podolia Gobernia (state or province).
Kiblitch was near the Romanian border, when the entire region was known as Bessarabia, and shifted frequently from Russian to Romanian control.The population was largely Ukrainian peasants.There were a large population of jews throughout the area, living in "Fiddler on the Roof" type villages.They were comparative newcomers, arriving in the 1500's from Poland and Germany.
Kiblitch was not very far from Kishinev, capital city of Bassarabia, lately the Soviet Republic of Moldovia.A small river, the Byk, flows through Kishinev and eastward into the Ukraine to empty into the Dneister.About halfway between Kishinev and the Dneister, the Byk flows near Kiblitch.It was there that Shlomo Spector spent his boyhood years, and developed his fantastic swimming skills.
The whole region is rich in history, of the kind meant by the Chinese curse, "May you live in interesting times."After endemic pogroms, Kishinev in 1903 was the scene of a major pogrom so brutal that it attracted international attention and set off the great wave of Jewish emigration to America.It was in this wave that Shlomo Spector, around 1905, made it to Hamburg, Germany, and sailed directly to Philadelphia, where there was a large immigration service shed at the foot of Washington Avenue on the Delaware River.Despite numerous moves, the entire family remained in the general south Philadelphia area for decades.In the next few years, Shlomo (Sam) helped bring over his wife, Malka (Sokoloff), and four brothers, Moishe, Itzie, Yossel, Yankle (Jake), and his sister, Ita.Also, Malka's sister, Esther and her husband Elya (Elmer) Goldberg.They all remained in Philadelphia, except Elya, who was a big, strong, simple man who could not make it here and went to Detroit, where he struck it rich.(He worked for a mafia man in auto sales.When the owner thought someone was going to take his store, he transfered ownership to Elmer.A shot ended the owners life and the store went to Elmer.
Some relatives of Malka and Shlomo stayed in Kiblitch.In the chaos after the Communist Revolution there were new pogroms and some of the adults, but not the children, were killed.Around 1922, Shlomo brought over the seven little Sokoloffs, the children of Malka's brother, ranging in age from 4 to about 14, and the 3 Skolnicks, the children of Malka's sister.Shlomo had neither the means nor the room to bring them up, and gradually farmed them out to relatives in New York, Detroit and Ontario, Canada.
There are no jews left int he area around Kiblitch, which was "cleaned out" before there were any death camps, first by the Rumanians, who were so brutal that they were riprimanded by the Nazis! and then by the SS Sonderkommando, special battalions who went into Russia with the invading armies with th e sole purpose of killing Jews.They killed close to 1.5 million Jews before
concentration camps were the final solution.