Pauline, Baruch, and Meier: Heartbreaking Stories

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I am now more than half way through the nine children of  my three-times great-uncle Jakob Katzenstein and his wife Sarchen Lion; there are four more to go, and this post will cover three of them: Pauline, Baruch, and Meier. Special thanks to Cathy Meder-Dempsey for her help in translating some of the records in this post.

Sadly, I have very little to report about Pauline. She was born on May 12, 1841, in Jesberg, and died in Jesberg 61 years later on December 27, 1902. She did not marry or have children and presumably lived in Jesberg all her life.

Death record of Pauline Katzenstein
HStAMR Best. 920 Nr. 3900 Standesamt Jesberg Sterbenebenregister 1902, S. 49

As explained to me by Cathy Meder-Dempsey, the marginal notation refers to the fact that Pauline died without an occupation. She is buried in the cemetery in Jesberg, where I took this photograph of her gravestone.

Pauline Katzenstein, daughter of Jacob Katzenstein

I am sorry that I do not know more about her life.

Baruch, the seventh child of Jakob and Sarchen, was born April 30, 1844, in Jesberg, and died there when he was 75 on March 26, 1920.

Baruch Katzenstein death record
Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv; Wiesbaden, Deutschland; Personenstandsregister Sterberegister; Bestand: 920; Laufende Nummer: 3915

I also know very little about his life. Although I could not locate a marriage record, it appears that Baruch married Auguste Bertha Schlesinger, according to her death record.  She was born in Gladenbach in 1850 and died in Jesberg on November 2, 1890. She was the daughter of Feitel Schlesinger and Gelle Wolf, according to her death record.

Death record of August Bertha Schlesinger wife of Baruch Katzenstein
Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv; Wiesbaden, Deutschland; Personenstandsregister Sterberegister; Bestand: 920; Laufende Nummer: 3888

I was able to photograph the headstone for Baruch Katzenstein in Jesberg, but I don’t know where Auguste was buried. She died thirty years before Baruch and before the “new” Jesberg cemetery was being used. She should have been buried at Haarhausen cemetery, where the other Katzenstein family members were buried before Jesberg opened its own cemetery. But there is no record of her burial there on the LAGIS website, nor can I find a record of her burial at any of the other Hesse region Jewish cemeteries. Also, as far as I can tell, she and Baruch did not have any children.

Baruch Katzenstein, son of Jacob Katzenstein

Fortunately I have a little more information about Jakob and Sarchen Lion’s eighth child, Meier, but it is a very sad story.  Meier was born April 26, 1849. Sometime before September 1876, he married Auguste Wolf, who was born on October 27, 1851, in Gladenbach, Germany, to Folk Wolf and Ester Stern.

On September 13, 1876, Auguste Wolf Katzenstein gave birth to a son, August Felix Katzenstein.

August Felix Katzenstein birth record
Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv; Wiesbaden, Deutschland; Collection: Personenstandsregister Geburtsregister; Signatur: 920; Laufende Nummer: 3807

Six days later, Auguste Wolf Katzenstein died on September 19, 1876, leaving behind her husband Meier and her infant son. She was not yet 25 years old.

August Wolf Katzenstein death record
Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv; Wiesbaden, Deutschland; Personenstandsregister Sterberegister; Bestand: 920; Laufende Nummer: 3874

How Meier raised the baby for the next year and half is unknown, but then he married again. On May 19, 1878, he married Bertha Spier, daughter of Moses Spier and Roschen Fackenheim. Bertha was born in Raboldshausen on May 13, 1853.

Marriage record of Meier Katzenstein and Bertha Spier
Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv; Wiesbaden, Deutschland; Collection: Personenstandsregister Heiratsregister; Signatur: 920; Laufende Nummer: 3833

Bertha gave birth to the couple’s first child, a son named Julius, on March 18, 1879, in Jesberg.

Birth record of Julius Katzenstein
Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv; Wiesbaden, Deutschland; Collection: Personenstandsregister Geburtsregister; Signatur: 920; Laufende Nummer: 3810

A second child was born on July 2, 1880, a daughter named Ida.

Birth record of Ida Katzenstein
HStAMR Best. 920 Nr. 3811 Standesamt Jesberg Geburtsnebenregister 1880, S. 56

Ida only lived ten months; she died on April 1, 1881.

Death record of Ida Katzenstein
HStAMR Best. 920 Nr. 3879 Standesamt Jesberg Sterbenebenregister 1881, S. 26

Her mother Bertha died one week after her baby daughter on April 8, 1881.  She was 27 years old.

Death of Bertha Spier Katzenstein
Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv; Wiesbaden, Deutschland; Personenstandsregister Sterberegister; Bestand: 920; Laufende Nummer: 3879

It seems too cruel to imagine that in the space of less than five years Meier lost two young wives and a ten-month-old child. He died just three years after Ida and Bertha on September 10, 1884, in Jesberg. He was 35.

Here is his gravestone; unfortunately I did not find it when we were at Haarhausen, so this is from the LAGIS website:

According to the LAGIS website, the inscription reads as follows: “Here lies a righteous man, and upright in all his works, who strove for peace every day of his life. This is Meier, son of Jacob ha-Kohen, from the holy community of Jesberg.”

Meier left behind his two sons, August Felix Katzenstein, who was only eight years old when orphaned, and Julius Katzenstein, his half-brother who was only five years old. Where did these two little boys go after losing both of their parents? Did they go to live with their aunts or uncles who lived in Jesberg or nearby? I don’t know.

In fact, I have no further record for Julius Katzenstein—no marriage record, no death record. I wonder if he was adopted by a relative or another person and took on a new surname. Or did he also die as a child without a recorded death? I don’t know.

As for August Felix Katzenstein, his tragic story has already been told. He married his first cousin, once removed, Rosa Bachenheimer. August Felix was the grandson of Jakob Katzenstein and Sarchen Lion through their son Meier, and Rosa was their great-granddaughter through their daughter Gelle Katzenstein Ruelf and granddaughter Esther Ruelf Bachenheimer.

August and Rosa had two children: Margaretha Grete Katzenstein (1901) and Hans Peter Katzenstein (1905). All four of them, as well as Margaretha’s husband Rudolf Loewenstein, were deported on April 22, 1942, to a concentration camp in Izbica, Poland, where they were all murdered: Rosa, August, Margaretha, Rudolf, and Hans-Jacob. (All links are to their entries in the Yad Vashem database.)

Thus, unless Julius Katzenstein survived, there are no descendants of these three children of Jakob Katzenstein and Sarchen Lion. Not a single soul alive to pass on the genes and the stories of Pauline, Baruch, or Meier Katzenstein.

That leaves only one more child of Jakob Katzenstein and Sarchen Lion, their youngest child, Levi. Because he had six children, I will tell his story in a separate post.

 

 

27 thoughts on “Pauline, Baruch, and Meier: Heartbreaking Stories”

  2. Hoping that this reaches you in time for your JCC presentation. We are very proud of you. The community is very lucky to have you. Our own librarian at Adas Israel would like to know more about what you have done and have a copy of your book. Congratulations on all you do Herb and Sharon

    On Tue, Nov 14, 2017 at 8:35 AM, Brotmanblog: A Family Journey wrote:

    > Amy posted: “I am now more than half way through the nine children of my > three-times great-uncle Jakob Katzenstein and his wife Sarchen Lion; there > are four more to go, and this post will cover three of them: Pauline, > Baruch, and Meier. Special thanks to Cathy Meder-” >

    Liked by 1 person

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    • Thanks so much, Herb and Sharon! I really appreciate the kind words and support. And I’d love to be in touch with the librarian at Adas Israel. Feel free to give her my contact info!

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    • Well, I wondered whether the “no occupation” comment had some significance in that regard. But I hesitate to assume that because a woman didn’t marry that she was disabled in some way!

      Liked by 1 person

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      • I have seen the notation “without occupation” both for men and unmarried women (no one ever cares whether a married woman had a job). I am not sure it means more than what it says, but I have wondered.

        Liked by 1 person

      • Yes, but coupled with her singleness (is that a word?), it does beg the question, at least in my mind. There were plenty of what they called spinsters in those days, no doubt, but perhaps not as many as there were a couple/few decades later. And they would have been dependent on the family anyway, so there would have been a huge push to get her married, unless she was unmarriageable. But let’s say she was an early feminist (haha, and that is a very dry laugh) she would have had an occupation. But I have been wrong before!!!

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      • I agree with you—and I think I will ask one of my German genealogy experts in Germany whether that annotation has any such significance. Thanks for pushing me to think about it harder.

        Liked by 1 person

  7. I always wonder how people carried on through so many losses. What kind of man was Meier? How did all his personal tragedies shape him? It’s a shame that such things end up lost to history.

    Do you know what the hands on the gravestones symbolize?

    Also, how did your presentation go?

    Liked by 1 person

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