Holler Family

A brief description of the life of Sala Holler, written by her daughters, Rosalie Lawrence and Ruth Holler Smith, follows:

Sala Holler was born in Bukachevtsy, Poland to Abraham and Fanny Holler. Her paternal grandparents were Lea and Barnard "Bene" Holler, who lived in Auschwitz. Sala had one brother, David, and their mother passed away when Sala was about 8 months old. Her father got married again to Fanny Tannenbaum, who was a kindly step-mother. Abraham and Fanny had a son, Hansel, who was a half brother to David and Sala. They were a loving family, devoted to each other.

In early 1939, Sala, along with several other young people from Bukachevtsy, went to Palestine. In Palestine Mum lived on a plugar (moshav), where one was allowed to own property as opposed to a kibbutz where property was shared by the community. After World War II started Mum left the Plugar and went to Jerusalem where she obtained work, through a German Jewish friend, as a nanny to the two children of Theodore Herzl's son and family. Later Mum worked as a waitress at Cafe Union. At this time rumors began circulating  about  events in Bukachevtsy. All Mum could do at this time was to hope and pray that some of her family had survived.

Whilst working at the Cafe Union, Mum met and later married our father, Robert Joffre Smith, a member of the Scottish Blackwatch Regiment. Rosalie was born in January 1943, and in early 1945 the family embarked on the dangerous journey to Scotland, by way of a convoy of ships, reaching Scotland later on in 1945.

From Scotland we moved to Birmingham, England. Sala learned to read and speak English from the children's books she read to her children. Despite having lead a sheltered life in Poland, Sala studied cooking at college and graduated as a chef. Her acquired skills were used to run vast industrial cafeterias and  executive restaurants.  Ruth Julia and Thomas David were born in Birmingham.

In 1965, we emigrated to Sydney, Australia.  Mum was the guiding light in this resolve. Long before we emigrated, we were visited by an American relative, a cousin of Mum's, called Mendel Popick. Mendel was a merchant seaman who visited us many times.  I remember Mum being very emotional during these visits.

Mum passed away on 25 September, 1989 in Sydney, Australia.  She had great intelligence, courage and love and devotion for her family. Sadly she never fully recovered from losing her Polish family and friends and rarely spoke much about that part of her life.  She is greatly missed and remembered with love, gratitude and admiration.