The Secret Holocaust Diaries: The Untold Story of Nonna Bannister (31 page)

Appendix C: Documents

MAP OF THE WESTERN SOVIET UNION •
Nonna included this map in her transcript, with her own handwritten notes indicating, among others: “Leo Tolstoy’s place,” “Grandmother’s birthplace,” “Konstantinowka dacha, Great House,” “Taganrog, Nonna’s birthplace,” “Rostov on Don,” and “Novorossisk, Mama’s birthplace.”

BIRTH CERTIFICATE •
IRO-certified copy of Nonna’s birth certificate.

IRO CERTIFICATE •
Document from the IRO certifying Nonna’s residence at the hospital in Kassel, Germany.

MARRIAGE LICENSE •
Nonna and Henry married on June 23, 1951. Their photograph, taken as they cut their wedding cake [see the Prologue], appeared in
The Journal,
the local newspaper. In that article Nonna listed her birthplace as Frankfurt, Germany. She kept her Russian/Ukrainian heritage a secret even from her family for many years.

LETTER TO HENRY

COMMEMORATIVE CERTIFICATE

LETTER FROM HENRY •
This was one of Nonna’s last notes from Henry. She died just over a year later, fifty-three days after their fifty-third wedding anniversary.

Appendix D: Genealogy of Nonna Lisowskaja Bannister

Nonna’s Father’s Family

Paternal Grandfather: Johan Stanaislaus Lisowsky

Paternal Grandmother: Wanda (maiden name unknown)

Known children of Johan and Wanda:

Yevgeny Ivanovich Lisowsky (Nonna’s father), b. 1897 in Warsaw, Poland

Stanislaw Lisowsky

Nonna’s Mother’s Family

Maternal great-grandfather: Alexander Alexyevich Ljaschov

Maternal grandfather: Yakov Alexandrovich Ljaschov

Maternal grandmother: Feodosija Nikolayevna Ljaschova

Children of Yakov and Feodosija:

Ivan (Vanya)

Xenja

Anna (Nonna’s mother)

Leonid (Ljonya)

Antonja (Tonja)

Yevgeny (Zhenya)

Nonna’s Family

Anna Yakovlevna Ljaschova, b. 1906 in Novorossisk, Russia; m. Yevgeny Ivanovich Lisowsky, b. 1897 in Warsaw, Poland

Children:

Anatoly (b. 1925, last seen in 1939) Yevgeny

Nonna (b. 1927, d. 2004) Yevgenyevna

Taissia (b. 1940, died in infancy in 1940)

William Henry Bannister, b. 1927 in Bogalusa, Louisiana; m. Nonna Yevgenyevna Lisowskaja

Children:

W. H. (Hank Jr.) Bannister

Elizabeth J. (Bannister) Sumner

John D. Bannister

Chronology

Nonna wrote a chronology, including German and Russian national history along with her personal one, to which a few additions have been made. It begins in the late 1800s with the birth of her father and ends when she sets foot on American soil to begin a new life. Though some of the information has been covered in other places, its inclusion here reflects the events Nonna particularly wished to make known. Editorial additions appear in italics.

1897: January 8

Yevgeny Ivanovich Lisowsky (my father) is born in Warsaw, Poland. His father, Johan Lisowsky, and mother, Wanda (last name unknown), were wealthy landowners around the Warsaw and West Ukraine areas, which were still occupied by Poland.

1906: December 24

Anna Yakovlevna Ljaschova (my mother) is born in Novorossisk, a city near the Black Sea (Caucasus). Her father, Yakov Alexandrovich Ljaschov, and mother, Feodosija Nikolayevna, were owners of at least seven dachas with grain mills and orchards throughout the southern parts of the Ukraine and southern Russia, with most of them located near the Black and Caspian seas.

Yakov’s holdings were vast, and at each property there were hired hands to take care of the house and lands when the family was away. Their favorite place was in Konstantinowka, where they had a thirty-seven-room house referred to as the Great House. Whenever possible, the entire family gathered at the Great House for Christmas and other celebrations.

1907

Yakov Alexandrovich Ljaschov is accepted into the Imperial Cossack Army.