Where the gravestone is
Paraná
Capital of Entre Ríos. Marcos Smud is buried there, and his gravestone —which names him Meir, son of Folke— is the piece that joined the two halves of this story.
Marcos Smud is buried in Paraná. His gravestone preserves his Hebrew name: it calls him Meir Smud, and names his father as Folke.
On the Argentine side, the gravestone says the same thing the Mariupol birth record says on the Russian side —the son was called Meir, the father Folke— but with the surname already in its Spanish form.
What happened here
- 1951
Marcos dies
Marcos dies. His gravestone, in Paraná, preserves his Hebrew name and his father's.
- 2026
The circle closes
Thirty years after Rubén's text, the original documents come to light. The Mariupol record closes the circle: the Meyer in the synagogue register and the Marcos on the Paraná gravestone are the same boy. In August this research is published.