If the 1910s were years of growth for the families of Sarah Goldschmidt and Abraham Mansbach’s children and the 1920s were years of transition, the 1930s and 1940s were primarily years of loss.

Those decades were particularly sad for the family of Bert Mansbach. First, on January 17, 1933, Rosa Schloss Mansbach, Bert Mansbach’s wife, died in Albuquerque, New Mexico, at age 64.¹ Then on March 16, 1935, Bert’s son-in-law Herbert Kahn, husband of Corinne Mansbach, died at age 51 in Trinidad, Colorado.²

The following year, Corinne and Herbert’s daughter Rosalyn married Warren Jefferson Hahn in Philadelphia.³ Warren was born in Woodville, Rhode Island, on August 6, 1909, but grew up in Philadelphia where his father was a furniture salesman. In 1930 Warren had been living with his parents in Philadelphia and working for a motion picture company.⁴ Rosalyn and Warren settled in Philadelphia. Rosalyn’s widowed mother Corinne also moved to Philadelphia, and it appears that Rosalynn’s grandfather Bert Mansbach did as well because Bert died in Philadelphia on March 6, 1939; he was 83 years old.

In 1940, Corinne, her daughter Rosalyn, and son-in-law Warren Hahn were living together in Philadelphia where Warren was now working as a clerk in a loan office.⁵ Corinne’s brother Alvin Mansbach was living with his wife Lucille and their daughter Betty in New York City where Alvin continued to work for the telephone company.⁶ The following year on April 10, 1941, Alvin and Lucille’s nine year old daughter Betty died for reasons that are not revealed in her death certificate:

Alvin then lost his sister Corinne six years later on June 17, 1947, in Philadelphia; she was only 57 and died from breast cancer:

Alvin and his wife Lucille, who had no more children after losing Betty, both died in 1961, Alvin on March 16 in New York at age 66, Lucille exactly three months later on June 16 in New York at age 64.⁷

The 1930s were not as difficult for the family of Hannah Mansbach Dannenberg. Hannah and Gerson were still living in Philadelphia, as were all three of their children, Reta, Arthur, and Katinka.  They were also all still living in Philadelphia in 1940. Gerson Dannenberg and his son-in-law Elmor Alkus, Reta’s husband, were still in the towel supply business together. Arthur Dannenberg was a physician in private practice, living with his wife Marion and their sons; his brother-in-law Sidney Olsho was also a doctor in private practice and living with his wife Katinka and their children.⁸

But the family’s settled life changed soon after the 1940 census. First, Hannah Mansbach Dannenberg died at age 83 on August 27, 1940, from myocarditis; her husband Gerson followed her three years later on March 20, 1943; he was eighty and died from leukemia.⁹

And sometime in the 1940s Katinka Dannenberg’s marriage to Sidney Olsho ended. I am not sure exactly when, although she did fly to Texas without him in 1946. But by 1949 she and Sidney were definitely divorced because during 1949 Katinka married Julius Adler.¹⁰

Now when I saw the name Julius Adler, something rang a bell (it amazes me that any names stick in my head these days). So I searched on my tree, and sure enough, I did have a Julius Adler on my tree, and in fact, I already had entered Katinka as his second wife but hadn’t realized she was my relative (I had to merge the duplicates on my tree). Why was Julius already on my family tree?

Because his first wife was also a cousin—my second cousin, twice removed, Flora Baer, the daughter of Malchen Hamberg and Jacob Baer, about whom I have already written in depth. In fact, I had already written quite a bit about Julius as well, who lived to 106. He outlived Katinka by 21 years; she died on March 27, 1971, and her death notice listed her survivors as not only her husband Julius and her son Edward Olsho, but also Julius and Flora’s three children, Stanley, Amy, and Jerrold, who were young adults when Katinka married their father and who were my third cousins, once removed, through my Hamberg line. Once again, my crazy tree was doubling over itself.¹¹

As for Katinka’s siblings, Reta Dannenberg Alkus died on August 30, 1960, at age 70 from cancer; her husband Elmor Alkus died eight years later in December 1968; he was 79.¹²

Hannah and Gerson’s son Arthur Dannenberg outlived them all. The Philadelphia Inquirer published this wonderful  obituary of Arthur on December 9, 1990:¹³

Arthur Mansbach Dannenberg lived to 99; he died on December 7, 1990. His wife Marion had died twelve years earlier in April 1978. According to his obituary in The Philadelphia Inquirer,

Arthur M. Dannenberg, 99, a pediatrician who made house calls, died Friday at his home in Philadelphia.

Dr. Dannenberg graduated from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine in 1913 and did his internship at the Jewish Hospital, now known as Albert Einstein Medical Center. From 1938 until his retirement in 1968, Dr. Dannenberg was chief of pediatrics at the center.

He practiced medicine during the 1920s, when there were only a few pediatricians in Philadelphia, said his son, James. “I would ride in the car with him when he made house calls,” said Dannenberg, recalling his childhood. ”He spent time educating the mothers about what was a serious illness and what wasn’t and how to take care of their babies.”

During Dr. Dannenberg’s career, he wrote numerous articles on pediatrics that were published in medical journals. He was a member of the Philadelphia County Medical Society, the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics. He was a past president of the Philadelphia Pediatric Society.

He also was a member of the Council of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia.

We saw that in 1930 Meyer and Ida (Jaffa) Mansbach as well as their daughter Edith and her husband Herbert Marshutz and their children were living in Los Angeles where Meyer was selling millinery and Herbert was practicing optometry.  Meyer’s son Arthur Mansbach and his wife Gertrude and their daughter had also relocated to Los Angeles by 1936, where Arthur was working as the sales manager for Caltex Sportswear.¹⁴

Meyer was still in the hat business in 1940 in Los Angeles, and Herbert was still in the optometry business there as well.¹⁵ I could not find Arthur on the 1940 census, but he is listed in the 1940 Los Angeles directory.¹⁶

Just months after the 1940 census, Meyer passed away on December 10, 1940, in Los Angeles.¹⁷  He was eighty years old. Two weeks after his death, the Los Angeles Times ran this sweet article about Meyer’s encounter with Damon Runyon, the journalist and writer best known for the book Guys and Dolls, the source of the well-known Broadway musical:

Meyer’s wife Ida Jaffa Mansbach died almost exactly a year after her husband on December 2, 1941. She was 66.¹⁸ Meyer and Ida’s son Arthur died just nine years later on May 4, 1950; he was only 53.¹⁹ His wife Gertrude lived another 28 years, dying at age 77 on June 3, 1978. She had remarried in 1954.²⁰ Finally, Edith Mansbach Marshuk died on March 20, 1968; she was 66. Her husband Herbert had predeceased her, dying on October 5, 1959.²¹ Meyer, Ida, and their children all died and are buried in Los Angeles.

Last but not least, Julius Mansbach, Sarah and Abraham’s youngest child, and his wife Frieda were still living in Wunstorf, Germany, in 1930, but their son Alfred had left for the US the year before to study at Northwestern University in Chicago. Fortunately Julius and Frieda did not remain in Germany for long once Hitler came to power. They sailed to the US in September 1933, and followed their son Alfred to Chicago:

Here is a photograph of Julius, Frieda, and Alfred taken in 1934 and one of Julius taken in 1936:

Finally, here is one taken in 1937, which must have been not long before Julius died. He died on April 12, 1937, at the age of 71.²²

His son Alfred married Alice Spitz of Cleveland in about 1946 and moved to Cleveland. ²³ Frieda Bensew Mansbach died in 1968, and Alfred died in 1982, his wife Alice in 2012.²⁴

That brings me to the end of the story of those children of Sarah Goldschmidt and Abraham Mansbach who came to the US. There is one more line of the Goldschmidt-Mansbach familiy to discuss: the family of Breine Mansbach Bensew, the one sibling who did not come to America herself.