Papa

 A bustling Polish town near the Romanian border was where my grandfather, Leo Erlich (Papa), was born by another name, a red-headed Leib Kwittner, on June 5, 1888, to Mindel (Menie) and David Mayer Kwittner/Erlich. The town, Tysmienica (pronounced Tishmenitza), changed names with the borders, which was frequently, now Poland, now Austria, now the Ukraine, which it remains today. (Papa may have been born in Lodz…Grandma Lucy referred to that once. It is in the Stanislava/Stanislau/called Janowicz region now, Galicia/Galizien, Knihininie Koloni area and was part of Poland at that time, now the Ukraine.) The Ukraine was Greek Orthodox and Poland was Roman Catholic. What chance did we have?

Apparently, the family also had several names, due, in part to three situations.

• One, Mindel and David were not married legally, only in the Jewish tradition.
• Two, in World War I, there was a big reason to avoid the draft. The Russian army was abducting Jewish boys out of the villages and raping the girls. Therefore, there was lots of name and birthdate changing, to avoid a possible lifetime in the service.
• Much later, there was an even bigger reason to change your name, to avoid Hitler. Papa was involved in all three. Therefore, the family’s name alternated from Kwittner, to Erich, to Ehrlich, to Erlich. 

Include poem Suddenly the Apple Tastes So sweet