Segalovich

Pablo Siegel tells about his family Segalovich from Rakow. Four Siblings left Rakow before WWII. In Rakow the family name was Segalovich. Chaim and Rochl immigrated to the USA and modified the name to Siegel. In 1924 the USA closed its door to immigrants*. Yosef (Pablo's father) and Yudl immigrated to Mexico in 1924 and modified their surname to Siegal.

Family members that stayed in Russia perished in the Holocaust, either in Rakow where they were burnt by the Nazis in the Shul, or some who moved to another Shtetl (Ashmiyani I think) which is close to Rakow, were taken to the concentration camps, and all but one perished.

The only survivor from the camps that was still alive at the end of the war is Ira (Israel) Siegel, who at the beginning after the war went to New York for 8 years to live with our Aunt Rochl, and after that my father brought him to Mexico where he got married. He is still alive, and he now lives in Tampa Florida, he is about 78 years old, and the only still alive relative of mine born in Rakow.

Rakow - Sagalovich home on the right.

Pablo's grandfather in Rakow - 1936

Pablo's grandfather in his youth

Rakow Cemetery

Sara Sagalovich grave

Pablo's father - Yosef Segalovich

19 years old, Rakow 1920

Yosef immigrated to Mexico in 1924

Yosef Segalovich's siblings

The photo was taken

by Pablo's uncle

on his visit to Rakow in 1936

* The Immigration Act of 1924 (The Johnson-Reed Act) .

The Immigration Act of 1924 limited the number of immigrants allowed entry into the United States through a national origins quota. The quota provided immigration visas to two percent of the total number of people of each nationality in the United States as of the 1890 national census. It completely excluded immigrants from Asia.