Michal Fogelman (Photo Kehilat Shkud 43)

According to Hana Shaf-Brener, Michal Fogelman, son of Fishl and Hinda, 50, was the chairman of the “Ezra” charity. He also established the National Bank and the pro-gymnasium. Michal Fogelman was exiled to the Krasnoyarsk camp in Siberia, where he died.

An article by Irena Marcinkeviciene, published in the newspaper Sovetskyaya Litva (no. 70, 1964), and reprinted in “Jews in the Memory of Skuodas People” (see link this page), explains, “Michel Fogelman’s family owned a shop in the location where there is now a radio equipment repair shop. The family lived above the shop. Most people may remember Michel Fogelman as a director of the Skuodas branch of the International Jewish Bank; he inherited the shop after his father died, and he started to work in the field of commerce” (32).

Kehilat Shkud describes Michal Fogelman as an active businessman. He was the one of the founders of the Jewish Folksbank (52) and its head (43). He was also one of the founders and the first chairman of the community organization Ezra (43, 51): “It should be pointed out that the town’s affairs were run very successfully by ‘Ezra.’ Its first chairman was Michal Fogelman hy”d, and eventually the position was filled by Meir Henoch Bloch hy”d” (9). Michal Fogelman also supported Shkud’s schools. After 1921, he was the head administrator of the Yiddish pro-gymnasium (Kehilat Shkud 29, 55).

According to Jewish Gen’s Lithuania Internal Passports database, Mikhel Fogelman, son of Fishel, born in Skuodas in 1891, applied for a foreign passport in October 1938. However, he did not emigrate, but was deported to Siberia, together with other Jewish and non-Jewish Lithuanians, including the Khoikher and Mirkes families (“Jews in the Memory” 27, 33), on June 14, 1941 (13). He died in the Siberian camp in 1943, aged 52 (35); his wife and other family members, including his son Boris, survived (35). In 1964, Boris Fogelman, visiting his childhood town of Skuodas, participated in the opening ceremony of the monument on the mass murder site (“Jews in the Memory” 13). For details, see “Memoirs of  Boris Fogelman” in “Jews in the Memory of Skuodas People,” 32-35.

Boris, “whom we called Boria,” (“Jews in the Memory” 15), is remembered by some older Gentile citizens of Skuodas: “Edvardas [a non-Jewish student] was close friends with his classmate Boris Fogleman, whose father had several shops in Skuodas. Boria and Edvardas visited each other frequently, but Boria would wait outside for Edvardas to come out; he was not willing to enter the rooms, especially when he saw that the family was dining” (“Jews in the Memory” 7).

Yad Vashem provides the following information on Michal Fogelman:

Michel Vogelmann was born in Skuodas, Lithuania in 1892 to Fishel and Hinda. He was a merchant and married Lea. Prior to WWII he lived in Skuodas, Lithuania. During the war he was in Siberia Region, Russia (USSR). Michel was murdered in the Shoah. This information is based on a Page of Testimony submitted by his sister. http://db.yadvashem.org/names/nameDetails.html?itemId=1027403&language=en