February 6,1921, age 18, alone, ROSA SLOMOVIC arrived at Ellis Island on her way to Cleveland, Ohio. It had taken 14 days, in steerage, on the Rijndam,. She was sea sick and dehydrated.The trip had cost $30 dollars. She did know one American word which she shouted at the immigration officer as he was hurrying the new immigrants in line. SHUTTYUP!! She laughted when she told me that story years later.

I often wondered why my mother was chosen by her father to be the one to go to America. He had been to Cleveland in 1891? (reference found on an immigration record which may be incorrect}. He definitely arrived  from Rotterdam on the Werkendam on November 10, 1898, estimated birth year 1868{some discrepency about birthdate} He came with his brother, Moses Salmonovics, and Fanny Slomovic, all from Csomanfalva {Chumalovo}. Fanny{unknown to me} stayed in Cleveland and married . Moses went back home{America was not kosher enough for him}. My grandfather stayed in Cleveland for a while. He worked, earned money and then went back home, built a house for his family in Chumalovo, bought a plot of land and a team of horses. This was all reported to me by my mother. All family lore.

My mother was the adventurous one in the family. She was chosen to go to Cleveland to work and send money home. There were also two younger sisters at home who would need dowries. WW1 had been very hard on her family.. Subcarpathian Russia was occupied by Russian troops until 1917. My mother remembered that "cossacks" had been billeted in her home.  Her  father had been conscripted and with his wagon and his team of horses had been sent to the front with supplies. He was gassed and came home a sick man. He never really recovered. He died in 1935.  My mother stayed in Cleveland, married Herman Ganz, my father, and never saw her family again. They were all victims of the Holocaust.

Most of the Jewish people from Chumalovo were murdered  in August of 1941  and buried in mass graves in areas around  or near Kamenets Podulsk. I will really never know what exactly happened to my grandmother and my Aunt Mariam,  but the reports from escapees of the massacre confirmed what had happened to the Jews of Chumalovo.