Although the last few posts have had their sad stories—young children who died, a horrible accident taking the life of a young mother, a young man dying at 29 from a heart attack—I was at least spared the pain of writing about the murder of my relatives by the Nazis. Sadly, I now must return to such horrific stories as I turn to the two youngest sons of Giedel Blumenfeld and her husband Gerson Blumenfeld, Salli and Meier. First, I will tell the story of Salli Blumenfeld.
Salli Blumenfeld was born in Kirchhain on March 25, 1878.
Salli Blumenfeld birth record, Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv; Wiesbaden, Deutschland; Bestand: 915; Laufende Nummer: 4979, Ancestry.com. Hesse, Germany, Births, 1851-1901
Salli married Fanni Wetterhahn on May 9, 1906, in Hersfeld, Germany. Fanni was born there on May 29, 1879, to Isaak Wetterhahn and Karoline Simon.
Salli Blumenfeld Fanni Wetterhahn marriage record, Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv; Wiesbaden, Deutschland; Bestand: 907, Year Range: 1906, Ancestry.com. Hesse, Germany, Marriages, 1849-1930
Salli and Fanni had two children. Siegfried was born on July 25, 1907, in Kirchhain.1 According to several trees and other secondary sources, a daughter Kathe Karoline was born to Salli and Fanni on November 4, 1910; I don’t have any record tying this child to Salli and Fanni, however. I do have one record showing that a woman named Kathe Karoline Blumenfeld was born in Kirchhain on November 4, 1910, but that record does not identify her parents.2 For now I will assume she was the daughter of Salli and Fanni.
Salli and Fanni’s son Siegfried married Betti Reutlinger on February 24, 1935, in Frankfurt. Betti was born on May 28, 1908, in Frankfurt. Her parents were Julius Reutlinger and Sophie Weil.3
But then this story turns tragic. Salli and Fanni and their presumed daughter Kathe Karoline were all killed in the Holocaust. They were all deported from Kassel to Riga, Latvia, on December 9, 1941, and died sometime thereafter.
Only Salli and Fanni’s son Siegfried and his wife Betti escaped in time. They arrived in New York on October 21, 1938, with Betti’s mother Sophie Weil and sister Martha Weil.
Siegfried Blumenfeld ship manifest, Year: 1938; Arrival: New York, New York, USA; Microfilm Serial: T715, 1897-1957; Line: 1; Page Number: 59, Ship or Roll Number: Hansa, Ancestry.com. New York, U.S., Arriving Passenger and Crew Lists (including Castle Garden and Ellis Island), 1820-1957
On his Declaration of Intention dated March 1, 1939, Siegfried reported that he was a factory hand. He and Betti were living in New York and had no children.4
In 1940, Siegfried and Betti were living with her mother Sophie and brother Walter in New York.5 Siegfried was working as a machine operator. His World War II draft registration lists his employer as Burros and Burros. By that time he had changed his surname to Bloomfield.
Siegfried Bloomfield, World War II draft registration, National Archives at St. Louis; St. Louis, Missouri; WWII Draft Registration Cards for New York City, 10/16/1940 – 03/31/1947; Record Group: Records of the Selective Service System, 147, Ancestry.com. U.S., World War II Draft Cards Young Men, 1940-1947
Siegfried died at the age of 55 in June 1963;5 Betti outlived him by 34 years. She died March 4, 1997, at 88.6 I have not been able to find any record that Siegfried and Betti ever had children. If that is true, it appears that this is another branch of the family of Giedel Blumenfeld and her husband Gerson Blumenfeld that has no living descendants.
Next, the story of Giedel Blumenfeld’s youngest son to live to adulthood, Meier Blumenfeld.
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Siegfried Bloomfield, [Siegfried Gerson Blumenfeld], Gender: Male, Declaration Age: 31, Record Type: Declaration, Birth Date: 25 Jul 1907, Birth Place: Kirchheim Germany, Arrival Date: 21 Oct 1938, Arrival Place: New York, New York, USA, Declaration Date: 1 Mar 1939, Declaration Place: New York Court: U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, Spouse: Betti, Declaration Number: 429824
Box Number: 295, The National Archives at Philadelphia; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; NAI Title: Declarations of Intention for Citizenship, 1/19/1842 – 10/29/1959; NAI Number: 4713410; Record Group Title: Records of District Courts of the United States, 1685-2009; Record Group Number: 21, Ancestry.com. New York, U.S., State and Federal Naturalization Records, 1794-1943 ↩ - Käthe Blumenfeld, Gender: weiblich (Female), Nationality: Deutsche Julen, Residence Age: 28, Record Type: Residence, Birth Date: 4 Nov 1910, Birth Place: Kirchhain, Sojourn Start Date: 2 Sep 1939, Residence Place: Marburg Marburg an der Lahn, Sojourn End Date: 8 Dez 1941 (8 Dec 1941), Notes: Foreigners who were living in the location during the war – permanently or temporarily, Reference Number: 02010101 oS, Document ID: 70454281, Arolsen Archives, Digital Archive; Bad Arolsen, Germany; Lists of Persecutees 2.1.1.1, Ancestry.com. Free Access: Europe, Registration of Foreigners and German Persecutees, 1939-1947 ↩
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See Note 1. Betti Paula Bloomfield, [Betty Bloomfield] [Betti Paula Reutlinger], Gender: Female, Race: White, Birth Date: 28 May 1908, Birth Place: Frankfort, Federal Republic of Germany, Death Date: 4 Mar 1997, Father: Julius Reutlinger, Mother:
Sophie Weil, SSN: 104124761, Ancestry.com. U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007 ↩ - See Note 1. ↩
- Siegrfried Bloomfield, Social Security Number: 066-14-7836, Birth Date: 25 Jul 1907, Issue Year: Before 1951, Issue State: New York, Death Date: Jun 1963, Social Security Administration; Washington D.C., USA; Social Security Death Index, Master File, Ancestry.com. U.S., Social Security Death Index, 1935-2014 ↩ ↩
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Betti Paula Bloomfield, [Betty Bloomfield] [Betti Paula Reutlinger], Gender: Female, Race: White, Birth Date: 28 May 1908, Birth Place: Frankfort, Federal Republic of Germany, Death Date: 4 Mar 1997, Father: Julius Reutlinger, Mother:
Sophie Weil, SSN: 104124761, Ancestry.com. U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007 ↩
Brotmanblog: A Family Journey 
How sad must it be for couples to have no children! Siegfried and Betty Bloomfield must have suffered a lot from loneliness during their old age.
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I wonder. Maybe they found a great community in New York—fellow survivors or others who could soften some of their losses. I hope so.
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I can speak from experience that while it is sad, one does move on…there are also advantages to not having children.
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I wasn’t really referring to their lack of children as the reason for sadness, but the loss of their entire family in the Holocaust.
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I assume all the cousins found each other? And also assume Bloomfield was the obvious change from Blumenfeld?
Also, I had thought Latvia was taken by the USSR, not Germany during WWII. Now I know better. So many places of horror in Europe because of Hitler.
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Blumenfeld means field of flowers, so Bloomfield is a pretty common Americanization of the name.
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I take you haven’t been able to locate the death record for Salli, Fanni, and Kathe. No doubt it was a horrible thing.
Every time you use the names Salli and Sally, I always first think it’s a woman!
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There really are no “death records” for those murdered in the Holocaust although I have seen some lists the Nazis kept that of those they killed. But not individual death records. Yad Vashem compiled the lists and some family members filed Pages of Testimony. That’s about the most that can be find for most of those killed.
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I understood from previous posts that there were some sources, but wasn’t entirely clear how limited they might be.
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Not actual death records that I’ve seen. I have some relatives buried at Theriesenstadt and have seen records for them. Otherwise I don’t recall any true death records, just the lists compiled by Yad Vashem or other sources (USHMM or the various memorial books or Stolpersteine pages, for example).
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Oh, and the links take you to the page on the Yad Vashem site that records their deaths.
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Oh, and one more response. Sally/Salli was likely a version of Salomon. And in German, the pronunciation would be more like Solly than how we pronounce the woman’s name Sally. I have known of men (of an older generation) who were called Solly or Sol for Solomon, as we would spell it in English.
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There are actually death records for German Jews. I have found some through the Arolsen Archives (Google it). It’s a difficult website but it turns up all sorts of bureaucratic records, including dates of transport, transfers from camp to camp and dates of death. I found Fanni (Fanny) Blumenfeld to have left her home to parts unknown December 8, 1941. I found that my Grandfather was admitted to Buchenwald December 2, 1938 with 20 marks in his possession, and that the money was confiscated as abandoned in 1940. He had been released in 1939 to immigrate to the US via England.
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True, there are some records that show death dates. But not actual personal death records that would reveal more information. Arolsen does have some fascinating documents.
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It’s always a punch to the gut when you find that the couple had no descendants. My brother, the only male grandchild, has no natural children, only step children. So although our birth name is common, that part of our tree will end with him.
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Well, the name will. But your children and grandchildren will still carry on the line, won’t they?
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Always interesting to read through to the comments. I too would think the loss of family in the Holocaust would bring more sadness than not having children.
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Although it’s always hard to compare how different people will react to different things, I think losing your entire family has to be one of the most shattering experiences anyone can endure.
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Any relation to Gustav Reutlinger my Grandfather? He had 2 brothers willie and Walter. He was from Kichein Unter Tek.
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I will take a look and email you.
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