A Package from Germany and More Sobering Revelations: A Seligmann Update

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Coat of arms of Gau-Algesheim

Coat of arms of Gau-Algesheim (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

A few days ago I received a package from Gau-Algesheim with photocopies of the birth records of Bernard Seligman and his siblings as well as a book about the Jews of Gau-Algesheim, Die Geschichte der Gau-Algesheimer Juden by Ludwig Hellriegel (1986, revised 2008)[The History of the Jews of Gau-Algesheim].  Of course, the records were in German, as is the book.  And the documents were also in Germanic font and in the old German script.   Completely unintelligible to me.  Here is an example, the birth certificate of my great-great-grandfather, Bernard Seligman or Bernhard Seligmann, as it was originally spelled.

Bernard Seligman's birth record

Bernard Seligman’s birth record

And so I started with the book, which is at least printed in regular font.  I first went through the entire book (about 110 pages), looking for the name Seligmann, not really expecting to find it.  But there on page 52 was the name Moritz Seligmann, and there again a few pages later, and then a list of Seligmanns a few pages after that, and then a few paragraphs here and a few paragraphs there.  But I can’t read German.

I painstakingly entered the passages that mention Seligmann into Google Translate and mostly got gibberish.  Google Translate does not like umlauts or those funny double S symbols used in German, and typing in German is very hard when you do not know the language.  Google Translate can do a word, but putting down a whole sentence leads to verbs and nouns and prepositions in places that just make it almost impossible to know what you are reading.

For example, what does this sentence mean?

Mr. Landauer of the Israelite Religious Community in Mainz has found that Moritz Seligmann who has led this protocol , although writes excellent German , but his burden with the Hebrew has unpunctured .

That is how Google Translate translated this sentence:  Herr Landauer von der israelitischen Religionsgemeinde in Mainz hat festgestellt, dass Moritz seligmann, der dieses protokoll gefuhrt hat, zwar ausgezeichnet deutsch schreibt, aber seine Last mit dem unpunktierten Hebraisch hat.

So if there are any readers out there who can help me with translation, please let me know.  I have no clue what that means except that perhaps my great-great-great-grandfather was very proficient in German.  The sentence that follows discusses the fact that the Jews in Gau-Algesheim did not speak or read Hebrew except for religious purposes.

Now I am working on getting a better translation program or finding someone to translate the book for me.  But here are a few random tidbits of information that I am pretty sure I did understand from my very poor translation of some of the passages.

Perhaps the most informative section revealed the livelihoods of two of my great-great-grandfather’s brothers, August and Hyronimus, and a third Seligmann whose name was Jacob, for whom I have no earlier record.  August opened a business in October, 1891, for iron and also spices and playing cards.  (That’s what Google Translate says anyway.)  August died on May 14, 1909.  Hyronimus also was in the iron and spice business as well in the wine trade; he opened his business on May 22, 1892.  Jacob was also in the iron trade and the wine and spirits trade; his business opened June 5, 1898.

I also know from the book that at one time August and Hyronimus both lived and/or did business on Langgasse or Long Alley.  I had posted this photo before without realizing that this was the street were some of my family lived or worked.

Gau-Algesheim. Langgasse.

Gau-Algesheim. Langgasse. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The paragraph that follows the one about the three Seligmanns and their businesses was a bit hard to follow with Google Translate, but from what I can decipher, August had a son named Julius born in 1877.  Julius married a Catholic woman and converted to Catholicism.  He had a hardware store in Gau-Algesheim as well as a spice business.  If I am reading the German correctly, he closed the store on December 9, 1935 and moved with his family to Bingen on September 15, 1939.  He had two sons, Herbert and Walter, who were both apparently still alive when the book was written.  Julius also survived the war, but was killed in a fatal car accident on his way to church on March 28, 1967.

Burg Klopp in Bingen am Rhein, Germany

Burg Klopp in Bingen am Rhein, Germany (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Julius had an older sister Frances, born on December 26, 1875, who married Max Michel, but divorced him and moved to Bingen.  Frances died on December 19, 1933; her son Fred escaped to the United States in 1937.

The third child of August Seligmann was named Moritz, and he participated in the town’s cycling association. Moritz Seligmann, his grandfather’s namesake, was born in June 25, 1881.  The book seems to be describing the skills of various members and seems to be praising the skills of young Moritz, who was nineteen when he joined the club.  The end of this passage about Moritz says that he was single and had moved to Koenigsberg and that it was believed he was killed in 1941 in Theresienstadt.

The fourth child of August Seligmann was his daughter Anna.  She was born on November 30, 1889, in Gau-Algesheim.  She had moved with her husband Hugo Goldmann to Neunkirchen in Saarland.  They and their three children, Ruth, Heinz, and Gretel, were all killed in the Holocaust.

There is also an entry for Elizabeth nee Seligman Arnfeld, who was born March 17, 1875.  She had moved to Mulheim on the Ruhr in 1938 and wanted to emigrate to the United States.  A woman named Leonara Morreau[1] had vouched for them, but for unknown reasons they were never able to emigrate.  Elizabeth died on January 23, 1943 at Theresienstadt.  Her son Heinz survived the war.  The book did not identify the parents of Elizabeth Seligman Arnfeld, but she could have been the daughter of Salomon or Benjamin, who unfortunately are not mentioned in the book, or of Hyronimus or Jacob.

Theresienstadt

Theresienstadt concentration camp

Now that I have more names and more recent relatives, I am hoping that perhaps I can find out more about these people.  I also now know that many of them moved to Bingen, so there may be records from that larger town that will tell me more about the Seligmanns who stayed in Germany. And from several other entries in the book, I know where they lived in Gau-Algesheim.

I would love to be able to read the entire book and learn more about the history and lives of Jews in Gau-Algesheim, but it took me a good part of two days just to translate these few passages, and those translations are not very reliable.  It seems hiring someone to translate the whole book could cost me as much as $1000, and that is not in my genealogy budget by a long shot.  If someone has any brilliant ideas on how to get the book translated for free or for a really reasonable price, please let me know.

What I did learn from the passages I struggled to translate is that my family was not untouched by the Holocaust, as I once believed, but that we lost many people just from Gau-Algesheim alone.   I am hoping that I can find the descendants of the few who seem to have survived—Heinz Arnfeld and Fred Michel and Herbert and Walter Seligmann—and learn more.

In my next post I will discuss the birth records I received for the Seligmanns and how I was able to translate them.  Then I will return to the Nusbaums.

memorial plaque gau aldesheim

Holocaust Memorial plaque in Gau-Algesheim

[1] I found Leonara Morreau’s obituary and researched her a bit, but know of no reason that she would have had a connection to the Seligmanns in Germany.  She was born, married, and lived in Cleveland.  Her husband died in 1933, and she died in 1947.  As far as I can tell, they never traveled to Germany.  Leonara’s brother was Isaac Heller, who was also born in Cleveland, as was their father, Charles Heller.  Although their grandfather was born in Germany, it was not even in the same region as the Seligmanns.  Perhaps Leonara was active in trying to bring German Jews to the United States during Hitler’s reign, but I can find no evidence of that.  Her obituary only states that she was active in charitable and religious causes.

38 thoughts on “A Package from Germany and More Sobering Revelations: A Seligmann Update”

    • Yes, I have used it. In fact, I talk about it in my next post. I don’t think it is a good option for the book. Just too many pages. I am looking for other options to get the whole book done. For now one reader has generously offered to do the relevant Seligman passages! Thanks for the suggestion.

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      • Do you have other towns to research in Germany? You might be happy to know that there will probably be a book or at least articles for almost every Jewish community that you are searching. : ) I can think of at least six books for my towns and numerous articles. So you might want to do just that, translate only the relevant info. because there might be a lot more that you’ll find in the future!

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  5. I share your frustration with the translation issue, Amy. I have over 100 postcards and letters that my great-grandpa saved, but they are all in German (and handwritten German at that–very difficult to parse). Your readers have left you some marvelous tips, though!

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  13. Leonara Morreau. Now, im unsure if there are multiples in the same family, but in my ancestory, my great great grandfather Albert Morreau was married to a Lea Nora Morreau, multiple docuuments spell it differently, though. But she too, was born an Heller. Here in the states. However, Albert was born in Germany, which is where the connection from germany could be…. The problem is, Albert was born in 1862, studied in germany until 1879, worked in dry goods, and came to america in 1886, marrying Lea Nora in 1893. Where he worked for a company owned by the Landesmans, until he started his own business “morreau gas fixtures” they birthed 3 kids, anna heller, myron morreau, and lee morreau( my great great grandpa) who in turn married the daughter of jacob landesman(im assuming was alberts coworker when he worked for them). It is also interesting to note, lee married helen landesman, whos mothers maiden name was IDA ROSENZWEIG which i beleive you have mentioned that surname in other posts. I have no idea if this is huge coincidence, or if there are more connections to be made, but i thought id share just in case.

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    • Which by the way…. A caroline seligmann married a moses moreau. Who had a child albert moreau go to america. (Albert is leanoras husband)

      She was probably trying to bring family to america more likely…..

      However, this info on leanora has me intrigued, i have something way different on her father….. So who knows maybe its not the same people but the dates seem to correlate……

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      • Also found some stuff…. Marcus morreau born 1960, in germany (around alberts age/brothers) but moved to wales, like that note had stated. And next to alice and bertha there are notes as if to say theyd married into other families…. But i just found marcus morreau was married to alice morreau….. Maybe her note was a maiden name or something?

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      • Hmm, now it gets more interesting. My 4x-great aunt was Caroline Seligmann. I do have her on my tree married to Moses Moreau! I don’t think I knew that information when I wrote this post back in November 2014. AH! So that must be the connection to Leonora! Thank you! I now need to go back and retrace my steps. ON to your next comment!

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    • Hi Shyanne, thanks for this information! It’s been almost three years since I tried to figure out why Leonora Morreau would have sponsored my relatives in the 1930s, so I’d have to go back and see what I found. I never found a familial connection. But it certainly seems like this could be the same Leonora. (The Rosenzweig is from an entirely different side of my family.) Let me read your other comments also.

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      • Dear Amy, Shyannne is almost definitely onto something. Leonora Heller (or Lea Nora Heller in some renditions) was married to Albert Morreau. If you google them, you can find plenty of information on them (add the search term Cleveland for more specific data). Albert, born in Germany but emigrated to the US as a young man, was the brother of my grandfather’s aunt and there was clearly a good deal of contact between the US and German families through their lifetimes, including multiple visits in each direction. Please feel free to contact me at pwlcommercial@gmail.com if you wish to discuss further. Paul

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      • Hi Paul, thanks so much for connecting. Shyanne and I have been working on this and found more information. And yes, Leonora Heller Morreau was the one who tried to rescue some of my Seligmann cousins from Germany. I will email you.

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