Message from Lily Engel

As a relative from an earlier generation, the youngest daughter of Lazarus Dombrowski, my memories tend to go further back rather than more recent. We were a large family of 9 children and I was the youngest. I mainly remember Sidney from the time when I was evacuated to Letchworth to avoid the flying bombs that were falling in London from 1944 to 1945, when I had just turned 14, and I lived with my father Lazarus’s older sister Etkele and her husband Avrumche Goschalk for about a year. Sidney was not yet married. He was always nice and pleasant, calm and patient, and he never raised his voice or got angry with anybody. The Dombrowski’s were a large, busy family where everybody was hard-working and capable. We would visit each other on Sundays, and my grandfather Avraham and his wife Booba – a very quiet lady who was always cold and wore several cardigans – would always greet the grandchildren warmly and bring them little gifts which were wrapped up in boxes and papers that came from Boxes Limited, the company set up by Uncle Ralph and Uncle Dave Davis.

Lily Engel