As of 1940, the five youngest of the eight surviving children of Sara Rothschild and Moses Adler—Caroline Grete, Malchen, Emmi, Betty Jennie, and David Theodore— were all living in Chicago. The 1940s saw them become US citizens and saw many of their children marry.

Grete’s son Kurt Mandelstein registered for the US draft on October 16, 1940, before he was even a US citizen. At the time he was working at Stop & Shop. His draft registration included the comment that he was unable to “use his left arm normally.”

Kurt Mandelstein World War II draft registration, National Archives at St. Louis; St. Louis, Missouri; Wwii Draft Registration Cards For Illinois, 10/16/1940-03/31/1947; Record Group: Records of the Selective Service System, 147; Box: 1117, Ancestry.com. U.S., World War II Draft Cards Young Men, 1940-1947

Kurt became engaged to Lillian Greenberg in May 1942.

“Engagement,” Chicago Tribune, May 23, 1942, p. 169

They were married on September 22, 1942, in Chicago.¹ Lillian was the daughter of Meyer Greenberg and Jeanette Brown and was born November 22, 1924, in Chicago.² She and Kurt would have two children. Kurt became a US citizen in 1943.³ In 1950 he and his family were living in Chicago where Kurt owned a delicatessen.⁴

His mother Grete Adler Mandelstein became a US citizen on October 4, 1943.⁵ In 1950 she was living on her own in Chicago, working as a power sewing machine operator in a garment factory.⁶

Grete’s sister Malchen Adler Apolant became a US citizen on March 30, 1944;⁷ her husband Fritz Apolant had become a citizen the same day as Grete, October 4, 1943.⁸ In 1950 Malchen and her husband Fritz were living in Chicago where Fritz was working as a porter in a “food shop” and Molly was a self-employed private nurse.⁹

Emmi Adler Speier became a citizen on February 25, 1944.¹⁰ In 1950 she and her younger daughter Elsie were living in Chicago, and Emmi was working as a dress jobber doing needlework on children’s clothing. Elsie was a secretary in a mail order house.¹¹

Emmi’s older daughter Senta married Eric Emanuel Ferda on September 6, 1944; he was the son of Otto and Rosa Ferda and was born in Cologne, Germany, on June 14, 1920.¹² Eric served in the US Army during World War II.¹³ Senta and Eric had one child born in the 1940s. In 1950 they were living in Chicago, and Eric was working as a draftsman for a battery manufacturer.¹⁴

Emmi’s other daughter Elsie married  on April 28, 1951, in Chicago.¹⁵ Her husband may still be living. They had three children.

Betty Jenny Adler Regenstein, the youngest daughter of Sara Rothschild and Moses Adler, became a US citizen on March 14, 1945. She was also using the surname Reagen, according to her petition for naturalization.¹⁶ On the 1950 census she is listed as Betty Reagan, living in Chicago and working in assembling for a machine manufacturer.¹⁷

Her daughter Lucie had married Ben Sable on October 1, 1940, when Lucie was only seventeen.¹⁸ Ben registered for the draft just two weeks later on October 16, 1940, in Chicago; he was working as a florist. Ben was born in Los Angeles, California, on December 2, 1916; he was the son of Louis Sable and Rose Lipman.¹⁹ Lucie and Ben had three children in the 1940s. In 1950 they were all living in Chicago where Ben and Lucie were both working in his florist shop.²⁰

Betty’s son Eric, who also changed his surname to Reagen, enlisted in the US Army on April 18, 1944, and served until April 13, 1946.²¹ He married Ruth Lotte Levisohn on November 27, 1947, in Chicago. She was born in Hamburg, Germany, on February 15, 1928, and was, as far as I can determine, a child who came to England on the Kindertransport in 1939. She immigrated to the US from England after the war, arriving on May 13, 1946.²² In 1950 Eric and Ruth were living in Chicago, and Eric was a trucker for a trucking company and Ruth was a switchboard operator for a candy company. They would have one child in the 1950s.²³

Thus, the four daughters of Sara Rothschild and Moses Adler were all settled into life in Chicago during the 1940s, becoming US citizens, working hard at jobs often requiring manual labor, and seeing their children marry and start their own families. Life may have been hard, but they were all safe and alive.

Their brother David Theodore’s story is less uplifting. More on that in the next post.