The eldest child in a family of medical professionals, many of them doctors and nurses, Dr. Yaakov Trosman (101) of Denver, Colorado was born on March 20, 1913 in Luginky, Ukraine. Tragically in the fall of 1941 his parents, Dina and Natan, his grandfather, Chaim Gersh, his uncle Shmulik Trosman, grandmother Nechama Shapirstein, and many others from the Trosman family and town of Luginky were murdered in multiple actions carried out by the Germans throughout Ukraine. After serving in the Red Army, Trosman was eventually allowed to continue his medical studies in Alamaty, Kazakhstan and after the war, he was able to complete his schooling at the University in Odessa. In 1996, at the age of 83, Dr. Trosman immigrated to the United States, first to New York and later to Denver, Colorado.
Dr. Trosman and his daughter Dina (named after his mother), recently contacted Yad Vashem’s Shoah Victims' Names Recovery in Israel for assistance. Names Project staff then connected them with Tami Ellison of the YIZKOR project, a partner project in the greater Denver area. Trosman provided Ellison with a list of names of people from Luginky who were murdered in the Holocaust. Working with Russian speaking interpreter, Nelly Rubinov, they learned that the family had previously submitted Pages of Testimony to Yad Vashem to honor the memory of loved ones and friends. Ellison verified that the names the Trosman family, along with additional documentation Dr. Trosman obtained from Ukraine with details of his parents' murders, are indeed part of the permanent record in the Hall of Names and accessible through the online Names' database. Now they wanted to add a photo of his parents, Natan (Nutka) and Dina (Dunka).
"We were able to access the historical record and print out material for the Trosman family who did not have copies of the material they had previously submitted," noted Ellison who has worked for several years to help collect names and photographs, and to update submissions from survivors and their descendants. "Working with survivors has been profoundly rewarding," adds Ellison.
As a result of their efforts, The Pages of Testimony were printed and presented to Dr. Trosman and his daughter, and the photograph of Dina and Natan Trosman forwarded to Yad Vashem to complete the family's memorial Pages of Testimony.
For more information about the Shoah Victims’ Names Recovery Project please contact: names.outreach@yadvashem.org.il
