My Immigrant Grandmother Celia, A Burning Hyde Park Newsstand, a Bar Mitzvah Gift and How it all Fits Together: An American Story
by Robert M. Katzman © April 14, 2022
Been writing poetry since 1958 – that’s before Castro came to power – and I was thinking about my justifying offering a passionate new one here about: the slaughter of innocents in Ukraine, my Grandmother, Bob’s Newsstand, and what the hell does it have to do with Hyde Park history in Chicago? This is what happened.
Celia Baumwahl, born in 1901, daughter of Fanny Turkingkopf, was later married to Nathan Warman of Minsk, Byelorussia. She once lived near Lvov when it was part of Poland. Later, borders were moved after World War One and it became Lviv, Ukraine. She spoke a dialect she called “Ukraina” which allowed Poles to speak to Ukrainians. She arrived in Ellis Island, New York City, America in 1917 during the War then traveled to Whiting, Indiana, very quickly married my Grampa Nathan in 1918 and eventually I showed up thirty-two years later.
A real American Boy.