Forever Torn (2013) is the biography of two young orphaned Lithuanian
Jewish boys arriving in England in 1930.
Orcik Gilevic is about nine years old, give or take a year or two. His
brother Solomon is five. Their grandfather, Smeras Atlas, married Frade and had
six children. Smeras was from Linkuva in Lithuania, and fought in the Russian
army, after which he moved to Ufa in the Urals region near the Siberian border.
Smeras has a daughter, Golde (24), who married Dovid Gilevic (34) in 1919.
In 1922 the Gilevic family returned to Linkuva, but grandfather Smeras and
grandmother Frade moved to England in 1928. When Golde and Dovid died – both
young – their aunt paid for their two sons, Orcik and Solomon, to migrate to England
to live with their grandparents.
The first half of the book is about the life of the boys’ parents and
grandparents. The second half of the book is about the two boys growing up in
England.
Orcik Gilevic became Harry Gilvicious and then Harry Gilmore. Solomon
Gilevic became Solly. But when grandfather Smeras could not look after the
boys, they were separated. Solly lived with the Watermans, who changed Solly’s
name to Cyril. They were to forget that they were brothers – now they were
merely ‘friends’: it was for their own good, everyone said. Harry visited his
younger ‘friend’ once or twice a week, and maintained the secret out of respect
for grandfather Smeras, who was now called Samuel.
As they grew up, Harry ‘through his own labours and determination earned
enough to enjoy a simple life’ whereas Cyril was now in the ‘high end of the
wealthy middle classes.’ One had ‘gone out into the world early. One was
sheltered from the world.’
Harry’s visits became less frequent, and by 1946 they stopped completely –
when Harry married Sylvia and Cyril married Rita.
Harry and Sylvia had two girls – Gloria and Elaine. Gloria had two boys –
Jason and Lee. The author of this biography is Jason, attempting to write the
story of his own grandfather, forever torn from his young brother Cyril.
This is a simple story told simply: raw and unsophisticated, heartfelt and
questioning. What if the boys had not made it to England; what if the boys had
remained together. It is a family separated, a family whose history is almost
changed forever. In trying to lead a normal life in England, their Jewish and
Lithuanian roots are virtually forgotten – and the bond of brotherhood is
severed.
MARTINA NICOLLS is an international
aid and development consultant, and the author of:- The Shortness of
Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet
(2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).
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