I have returned from my break, and unfortunately, I have another sad post to publish about my third cousin, twice removed, Clementine Blumenfeld Abraham. Clementine was the youngest child of Moses Blumenfeld IIB, and like her siblings Hermann and Bertha, she and much of her family were killed in the Holocaust.
Clementine’s daughter Lilli married Leon Gerstenhaber sometime before June 23, 1937, when their son David was born in Metz, France.1 Leon was also born in Metz, France; he was born to Simon Gerstenhaber and Dinah Beiser on November 31, 1901.2
Martin Abraham, Clementine’s older son, traveled from Germany to France in 1932, perhaps to visit his sister Lilli, and then in the spring of 1936, he immigrated to Palestine. The documents below including his German passport are from his Palestinian immigration file found at the Israel State Archives. Martin married Corinne Bloch, who was born in Trimbach, France, on May 13, 1912. She immigrated to Palestine in 1938, and they had one child together born in the 1940s.
Martin’s brother Walter also immigrated to Palestine, arriving just a couple of months after Martin on July 24, 1936, as seen in these documents from the Israel State Archives.
Unfortunately, Clementine, her husband Richard Abraham, their daughter Lilli, and her husband Leon and their son David did not follow Martin and Walter to Palestine. They were all killed at Auschwitz. Richard was deported from the Drancy concentration camp to Auschwitz on Transport 40 on November 4, 1942. Clementine was also deported from the Drancy Camp to Auschwitz on Transport 62 on November 20, 1943. Lilli and her family were also sent from the Drancy concentration camp in France to Auschwitz on January 20, 1944 on Transport 66.
Clementine Blumenfeld Abraham, Page of Testimony at Yad Vashem found at https://yvng.yadvashem.org/nameDetails.html?language=en&itemId=612790&ind=2
Richard Abraham Page of Testimony at Yad Vashem, found at https://yvng.yadvashem.org/nameDetails.html?language=en&itemId=612794&ind=2
Lilli Abraham Gerstenhaber Page of Testimony at Yad Vashem, https://yvng.yadvashem.org/nameDetails.html?language=en&itemId=1949660&ind=2
Leon Gerstenhaber Page of Testimony at Yad Vashem, found at https://yvng.yadvashem.org/nameDetails.html?language=en&itemId=13857240&ind=1
David Gerstenhaber, Page of Testimony at Yad Vashem, found at https://yvng.yadvashem.org/nameDetails.html?language=en&itemId=1390876&ind=2
Thus, three of Moses IIB’s five surviving children—Hermann, Bertha, and Clementine—and most of their children and grandchildren were killed by the Nazis. I am totally drained by telling their stories and reading these Pages of Testimony. I am also so grateful that Israel exists to provide a sanctuary for those who escaped.
The remaining two children of Moses IIB and Sara Blumenfeld, Salomon and Max, were more fortunate than their other siblings.
- See Page of Testimony for David Gerstenhaber filed by Hilde Schattner at Yad Vashem, found at https://yvng.yadvashem.org/nameDetails.html?language=en&itemId=1390876&ind=2 ↩
- See Page of Testimony for Leon Gerstenhaber filed by nephew Michael Gerstenhaber at Yad Vashem, found at https://yvng.yadvashem.org/nameDetails.html?language=en&itemId=13857240&ind=1 ↩
Brotmanblog: A Family Journey 
I find your research amazing and your findings tragic. I have so much anger at what happened.
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Thank you, and thank you so much for sharing your feelings.
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Thank you for keeping their memories alive!
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I am doing my best. Thank you!
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At least one country, Palestine, later Israel, was willing to receive wholeheartedly Jewish refugees from Europe.
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I need to do more research, but there there were definitely obstacles to Jewish immigration while Palestine was controlled by Britain. The story of The Exodus is one tragic example of British resistance to refugees coming to Palestine. https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/exodus-1947 Here’s another article that describes how England limited Jewish immigration to Palestine. https://www.jstor.org/stable/4283956 So not until 1948 when Israel declared its independence was there truly a sanctuary for Jews escaping oppression.
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I can’t even imagine the drain of your research Amy. It appears that my branches faired so much better having made their escapes to America in the late 1800’s to very early 1900’s. For that I am so very grateful.
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Well, all of my DIRECT ancestors also left Europe by 1904, many as early as 1840. All of these relatives were far more distant, and I guarantee that if you were to look into similar distant branches of your family, you also would find many who were killed in the Holocaust.
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Very true Amy. I have had trouble with that, having identified very few so far. I have Cohen and Lipschitz branches I simply can not get past brick walls on. Staying the course and haven’t given up yet
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I have the same problem with my maternal side. Eastern Europe is so much harder to research than Germany. Don’t give up!
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It is all so tragic. Absolutely heart breaking. What a history we inherited.
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I know. Just unfathomable. But then look at what just happened in Buffalo.
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Exactly right. The twisted thinking that resulted in the mass killing in Buffalo, or in Charleston, or a lot of other places is the same poison used by autocrats all over the world to frighten their followers and then name an enemy. It is certainly not limited to attacking Jewish people.
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No—certainly not limited to anti-Semitism. Jews are often an easy scapegoat, but we are not the only ones.
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Dear, Dear Amy, these stories are so hard to research, so hard to tell. And so vitally important! G-d bless you for the work you do.
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It’s difficult to fathom this mindset that creates “The Other” then learns to hate enough to kill.
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Sadly it appears to be fairly easy to do—and Fox News and the internet have made it even easier.
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Amy, it’s heart breaking when you see it in black and white on the Yad Vashem testimony pages.
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I know. Every time I read one of those I imagine the person filling them in, remembering their beloved family members.
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I have found only one very distant ancestor murdered. I’m almost afraid to research any more for fear of what I’ll find.
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I can totally understand your reluctance. It is not fun.
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Always more and more touching… Thanks for your diligent searching.
My mother-in-law was named Eva Braun (not the original lady) yet she suffered constant indignity for that. When her children were born, she gave them four names each, to be sure they could drop any name that might be infamous later on.
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Thanks. Wow, that’s quite a reaction to having that name. I totally get it.
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Amy, it’s no wonder you’re completed depleted. You’re revisiting trauma over and over again here. This is horrible. Thank you for documenting and then for giving us a little hope at the end of hte post.
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It really has an effect on me. I don’t always realize it at the time I am researching, but when I start writing, the cumulative effects of all this tragedy on my emotions becomes more apparent.
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