Category Archives: Leaving Germany

Eugen Baer’s Escape from Germany, Part II: The Cancelled Ship

Posted on by
12

We saw last time that Eugen Baer and his family left Griedel for Bad Nauheim and were in Bad Nauheim until August 1, 1939. According to their ship manifests, his wife Hedwig and son Adolf had visas for the US from the consulate in Stuttgart dated August 11, 1939, ten days later. But Eugen did not obtain his visa until October. And yet even Hedwig and Adolf did not sail for the US until November and Eugen not until December.

This had me perplexed. What could have held them up? Why didn’t they travel together? I had several theories. Maybe Eugen was sick. Maybe he had a harder time getting a visa. Maybe there were quotas for men that were different from women. Theories but no answers. I didn’t know why Eugen’s visa was dated so much later than that of his wife and son or why he didn’t get a ticket on the same ship as Hedwig and Adolf. Maybe there was no more room on that ship, maybe he needed to tie up loose ends before he could leave.

One thing my general research indicated was that none of them could have received a visa from the US consulate unless they already had tickets on a ship to the US.1 That meant that by August 11, 1939, at least Hedwig and Adolf and perhaps even Eugen already had purchased their tickets. And yet they didn’t arrive in the US for months.

And then I found a 2020 obituary for their son Adolf that revealed part of the story. It included this information:

Ed [as he was known in the US] was born on January 7, 1930 in Greidel [sic], Germany, and immigrated to New York City in 1939 with his mother, Hedwig. They settled in Baltimore, MD in 1940 when his father, Eugene, was able to join them after being separated from his family and held falsely in a French internment camp in Falaise.

So Eugen had been separated from his wife and son, but when? And why in France?

Only when I received the documents relating to the compensation claim that Eugen filed after the war was I able to put together more of their story. In detailing his emigration costs as part of that claim, Eugen claimed in part, “2½ tourist-class passages (per attached invoice) RM 1,163.12. These tickets were not used, since the ship was recalled before Southampton.”2

 

The file from Germany also included a confirmation of the purchase of these tickets from Hamburg-Amerika Linie, otherwise referred to as HAPAG, the shipping company from which Eugen and his family originally planned to travel to New York. This meant that at that time the ship was to sail in August, 1939, Eugen also must have had a visa from the US Consulate in Stuttgart, likely obtained the same time that Hedwig and Adolf received theirs.

HHStAW Abt. 518 Nr. 23400, Norddeutscher Lloyd/Hamburg-Amerika Linie Bestätigung, 1 Aug. 1939, p. 22.

But that ship was recalled, as Eugen wrote, because two weeks after they obtained their visas on August 11, 1939, Hitler ordered all German commercial ships to return to Germany or a neutral port, and no German ships could leave Germany after that date.3

This explains why despite having visas in August, Hedwig and Adolf did not leave until months later. Their original plan to leave failed once the ship had to return to port. The family thus had to purchase new tickets from a non-German shipping company sailing out of a non-German port. As Eugen wrote:4

We consequently had to stay in France. My wife and son could only continue on with the “Manhattan” after 3 months. I myself was interned and could only travel on 6 Dec. with a French ship, the “Oregon,” arriving here only on 28.12.39. These passages were paid in advance by my brother-in-law from New York and I had to repay him:
1½ passages from Verdun, approx. $175.—
1 [passage] from Le Havre, approx. $150.—
Stay in France for 3 months cost approx. $500.—

But when had they gotten to France? And where did they stay? The compensation claim file included a statement from Julius Baer, Eugen’s brother, who, as you may recall, had left Germany in 1936 and settled with his family in Molsheim, France, in the Alsace region. Julius wrote:

My brother Eugen came 8 days before the outbreak of war, with his family (wife and son) to us in Molsheim, in order to emigrate to America from here. He had already paid for the ship tickets on the “Hansa” and wanted to board the ship with his family at the port of Cherbourg. Due to the war events the ship did not sail, and so he traveled back from Cherbourg to Paris. He himself was held as a foreigner in a camp until the end of 1939, and his wife and son were sent to Bordeaux and Limoges. Since all three had no financial means and had not anticipated these events, I of course, as the only brother living here, had to provide for their support. I lent them, successively, sums amounting to the equivalent of 500 dollars.[translation by Claude.ai]

HHStAW Abt. 518 Nr. 23400, Jules Baer, eidesstattliche Versicherung, 3 June 1957, p. 47

World War II started on September 1, 1939, and eight days before September 1, 1939, was August 24, 1939. A separate confirmation from HAPAG indicates that August 24, 1939 was the day that Eugen, Helga, and Adolf were supposed to embark from Hamburg:

We hereby confirm that Mr. Eugen Baer and family traveled with our former ship S.S. HANSA on 24 August 1939 from Hamburg, and that this steamer was recalled one day after departure due to the threat of war, so that the family had to withdraw from the voyage. As is further evident from our records, the family’s assets were confiscated pursuant to an order of the Chief of the Security Police and the SD dated 2 November 1942.

HHStAW Abt. 518 Nr. 23400, Hamburg-Amerika Linie to Regierungspräsident Darmstadt, 25 April 1957, p. 52.

Thus, Eugen and family went to Molsheim after their ship was turned back, leaving behind their possessions. I cannot explain why Julius said they were sailing from Cherbourg and HAPAG says Hamburg, but as we will see, their possessions were confiscated in Hamburg. More on that to come in my next post.

We know from their ship manifest that Hedwig and Adolf were eventually able to get tickets on the US-owned ship, the SS Manhattan, and left from Le Verdun, France on November 7, 1939. But Eugen was left behind. I am hoping to get more information about his arrest and time in the French concentration camp, but for now we know that Eugen was later able to get a new visa to travel to the US in October and sailed out of France in December. On December 28, 1939, he joined his family in the United States.

 

 

  1. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, “Immigration to the United States, 1933–41,” Holocaust Encyclopedia, https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/immigration-to-the-united-states-1933-41. ↩
  2. Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv Wiesbaden (HHStAW), Abt. 518, Nr. 23400 (Wiedergutmachungsakte Eugen Baer, 1954–1960) eidesstattliche Erklärung (emigration costs), 4 Feb. 1957, p. 21. [hereinafter cited as ” HHStAW Abt. 518 Nr. 23400, Eugen Baer” with the appropriate title and page number in the file.] ↩
  3. See, e.g., “The S.S. Bremen: Last Voyage of a Luxury Liner,” Cruising the Past, https://www.cruiselinehistory.com/the-s-s-bremen-last-voyage-of-a-luxury-liner/; also, see the Kriegstagebuch der Seekriegsleitung 1939–1945 (KTB Skl), the official daily war diary of the German Naval High Command, at https://uboatdata.ussleahy.com/SKL/1/Trans/wardiarygermanna11939germ.pdf ↩
  4. See Note 2, supra. ↩

Eugen Baer, Escaping the Nazis, Part I: Bad Nauheim

Posted on by
17

Now that I am back from traveling, I will return to the saga of the Baer siblings, in particular the one remaining Baer sibling, Eugen. And his story, like that of his brother Julius, is quite complicated. Eugen and his wife Hedwig and son Adolf did not arrive in the US until after World War II had started. Hedwig and Adolf arrived on November 15, 1939, and Eugen arrived six weeks later on December 28, 1939.

I was curious as to why they arrived so late and why they arrived separately. Piecing together that story was a challenge. Rather than tell the story in a direct way, I’d like to take you on the roundabout journey I took to figure it out.

The first documents I studied about their departure were the two ship manifests, one for Hedwig and Adolf and one for Eugen. According to the information on the passenger manifest for Hedwig and Adolf, they had obtained US visas in Stuttgart on August 11, 1939, before the war started; they listed their last residence as Griedel, Germany.

Hedwig and Adolf Baer, ship manifest, The National Archives in Washington, DC; Washington, DC, USA; Passenger and Crew Lists of Vessels Arriving at New York, New York, 1897-1957; Microfilm Serial or NAID: T715; RG Title: Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, 1787-2004; RG: 85, Ancestry.com. New York, U.S., Arriving Passenger and Crew Lists (including Castle Garden and Ellis Island), 1820-1957

Looking at the passenger manifest for Eugen, however, I noticed that he did not receive his visa in Stuttgart until October 12, 1939, two months after his wife and son received theirs and six weeks after the war started. But since the US was not yet at war with Germany at that time, Eugen was still able obtain a visa from the US Consul in Stuttgart.

Eugen Baer, ship manifest, The National Archives in Washington, DC; Washington, DC, USA; Passenger and Crew Lists of Vessels Arriving at New York, New York, 1897-1957; Microfilm Serial or NAID: T715; RG Title: Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, 1787-2004; RG: 85, Ancestry.com. New York, U.S., Arriving Passenger and Crew Lists (including Castle Garden and Ellis Island), 1820-1957

Unlike Hedwig and Adolf’s manifest, which listed their last residence as Griedel, Eugen’s manifest listed his last residence as Bad Nauheim, a town where there was and is a resort and spa and that is less than ten miles from Griedel (and incidentally the town where his brother Arthur had moved to after his home and business were vandalized). I wondered: Why was Eugen living in Bad Nauheim, not Griedel? Was he ill? Is that why he left later? Is that why he didn’t apply for a visa when his wife and son did? Was the family living separately?

Thus began a search that took me through archives in Germany and France and through many other sources.

I found my next important clues in the LostLift Database, a database created by the German Maritime Museum that contains documents detailing the Nazi expropriation and sale of the belongings of Jewish refugees.1 I located a file in that database for Eugen Baer that included the following comment: “The furnishings of their apartment in Griedel near Friedberg were destroyed. The family then moved to Bad Nauheim and later emigrated to the USA.”

So I learned that the family’s home in Griedel had been ransacked and that the family had fled to Bad Nauheim, but there were no dates included as to when these events occurred. It took until more recently when I acquired files from the Hesse Archives in Wiesbaden2 that I learned more details. These files related to a claim for compensation that Eugen made after the war in part for boat tickets he had purchased for himself, his wife, and his son to leave Germany and immigrate to the United States, just as many of his siblings had already done.

Eugen filed this sworn statement as part of his compensation claim [translation by Claude.ai]: 3

Since 1929 I operated the cattle-trading business and butcher shop that had existed for many years, run by my late father, under the firm name Eugen Baer, Griedel b/Friedberg/Hessen.

After the seizure of power by the Third Reich on 30 January 1933 and the boycott of Jewish businesses, I had no way to continue my livelihood and was forced by measures of the Party to close the butcher shop already in 1933 and to give up the cattle trade in 1935.

The methods used are generally known and I consider it unnecessary to go into them further. However, I cannot fail to mention the following incident:

My son had to be transferred to the Israelite Hospital in Frankfurt/M for an operation, and my wife and I stayed overnight with the boy. The next day we returned to Griedel. When we entered our apartment, we were met with a scene of devastation that can hardly be described. On the evening of the previous day, a number of SS and SA men had forced their way into the house after breaking down the front door, and smashed everything that wasn’t nailed or bolted down. All the cupboards had been torn open and all valuables, clothing, linens, etc. destroyed and largely stolen. All the windowpanes and doors were smashed, nothing was spared. Pepper had been strewn in quantity throughout all the rooms, so that it was impossible to remain in the house. …

As a witness I can name the entire population of Griedel.
Signed: Eugen Baer

HHStAW Abt. 518 Nr. 23400, Eugen Baer, “Verfolgung,” p. 4.

Eugen did not include the date on which these attacks occurred, but from his statement and the description of the vandalism, I assume that it took place after 1935 and could have been during Kristallnacht on November 8-9, 1938, when many Jewish homes and synagogues were attacked by the Gestapo and SA and heavily vandalized and even destroyed.

An article entitled “A Special Homecoming” about Eugen’s family published on December 7, 2022, in JMore, the Baltimore Jewish community newspaper, provided an indication that this attack had occurred during Kristallnacht. It reported that, “Growing up in the German village of Griedel, Adolph “Ed” Baer [Eugen’s son] was often the victim of antisemitic bullying by his classmates. He witnessed the torching of his town’s synagogue during Kristallnacht, the 1938 “night of broken glass” ….” That language would suggest that the family had not left Griedel until after Kristallnacht.

One additional clue that helps to corroborate this possibility is the fact that Eugen and his family left Griedel by April 26, 1939. That fact appeared in another document in this compensation file. The town of Bad Nauheim reported that Eugen Baer was registered as a resident of Bad Nauheim from April 26, 1939, until August 1, 1939.4

HHStAW Abt. 518 Nr. 23400, Meldebestätigung, Bad Nauheim, 12 March 1957, p. 24.

Why did they choose Bad Nauheim as their refuge? There appear to have been two possible reasons. First, he had family there. Included in the LostLift database was a document that revealed that Eugen and presumably Hedwig and Adolf were living in Bad Nauheim at the address of Berthold Baer, Eugen’s second cousin.5 That may also explain why Eugen’s brother Arthur had also fled to Bad Nauheim.

Also, Bad Nauheim had had a Jewish community for centuries and had three hundred Jewish residents in 1933. Its synagogue was looted and severely damaged during Kristallnacht but not destroyed as was the case for so many other synagogues in Germany.

This article from the Jerusalem Post from November 11, 2017, provides more context:

BAD NAUHEIM, known for its hot springs, attracted many visitors, including Jews, looking for health benefits. There were a number of kosher hotels, and a significant percentage of the doctors who served the townspeople and guests were Jews.

Prior to the Nazi takeover, antisemitism was somewhat muted – the presence of paying guests who were Jews made overt hostility bad for business….The many guests from all over the world – including Dwight Eisenhower, who would later instruct the US Army Air Force to refrain from bombing the town – probably mitigated open antisemitism to a certain degree and may well have played a part in the preservation of the synagogue.….

IN BAD NAUHEIM, as elsewhere, Kristallnacht was traumatic for the Jewish community. On November 10, local Brownshirts gathered at a tavern and set out from there, with the active assistance of other residents, to destroy Jewish homes and shops. They looted and threw merchandise into the street. Hitler Youth joined them in removing clothing and furniture from destroyed homes and burning them.

The vice mayor and head of the local Nazi cell attempted to restrain the mob to some degree, especially when it came to private homes and the synagogue – an attempt that was only partially successful. The hooligans broke into the synagogue and defaced the large Stars of David on the building’s facade. Ritual articles and costly rugs were destroyed, although some holy objects had been removed to a different location for protection.

They set the building aflame – but it was extinguished by town residents recruited for the task. A French Red Cross delegation was visiting Bad Nauheim to observe its spa and therapeutic facilities, and municipal officials did not want foreign visitors to be eyewitnesses to the barbarity.

This is what ultimately saved the synagogue. Yet the damage was significant.

Thus, Eugen likely chose to move to Bad Nauheim because he had relatives there and because it was a safer place for his family to hide. Not that there weren’t Nazis there, but, as the article above indicates, the antisemitism was not as virulent there as in other places in Germany because it was a destination for many foreigners.

But obviously at some point Eugen and Hedwig realized that they had to get out of Germany and by August 1, 1939, one month before the war started, they left Bad Nauheim. But where did they go?

That requires another post.

  1. LostLift database, German Maritime Museum – Leibniz Institute for Maritime History, Person: Eugen Baer, Permalink: https://lostlift.dsm.museum/en/detail/person/3439a55b-b0da-43a3-8305-20e8d46ee767 (Last modified: 8.9.2025) [translated by Google] ↩
  2. Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv Wiesbaden (HHStAW), Abt. 518, Nr. 23400 (Wiedergutmachungsakte Eugen Baer, 1954–1960) [hereinafter cited as ” HHStAW Abt. 518 Nr. 23400, Eugen Baer” with the appropriate title and page number in the file. ↩
  3. HHStAW Abt. 518 Nr. 23400, Eugen Baer, “Verfolgung,” p. 4. ↩
  4. I can’t explain why Hedwig and Adolf’s last residence was given as Griedel on their manifest except to say it seems to be an error. ↩
  5. LostLift Database (Hamburg State Archives), Eugen Israel Baer file, Order for Auction, Aktz. U.89, Nov. 1942  Eugen’s father Eisemann Adolf Baer was the first cousin of Berthold Baer’s father Meier Baer. Eisemann and Meier were the grandchildren of Eisemann Baer and Breinie Bendheim. Berthold was born in Bad Nauheim. Berthold Bär, Gender männlich (Male), Birth Date 20 Dez 1895 (20 Dec 1895), Birth Place Bad Nauheim, Hessen (Hesse), Deutschland (Germany), Civil Registration Office, Bad Nauheim, Father Meier Bär, Mother Nannÿ Bär, Certificate Number 86, Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv; Wiesbaden, Deutschland; Bestand: 924; Laufende Nummer: 1167, Ancestry.com. Hesse, Germany, Births, 1851-1901 ↩

Arthur Baer Leaves Germany

Posted on by
3

By the end of July 1938, only two of the eight Baer siblings were left in Germany: Arthur and Eugen. Five (Klara, Selma, Jenny, Paula, and Meyer) were in the US, and Julius was in France. This post will tell more about what I’ve learned about Arthur Baer and a correction to what I once thought.

As I wrote earlier here, Arthur was eventually able to escape from Germany to England, but I was wrong when I wrote that he had been arrested after Kristallnacht. Hanno Muller’s entry for Arthur Baer in his book about the Jewish families in Butzbach1 states:

He was born in Griedel, married in Nieder-Weisel, and was a merchant (ready-made clothing business together with his brother Julius Bär in Butzbach at Wetzlarerstraße 31 and Römerstraße 27; F[ather]: Adolf Bär in [Butzbach]). He was a member of the Griedel gymnastics club (Turnverein Griedel) (WOLF, 1998 p. 14) and was a witness to the death of Berta Kaufma[nn] Speyer, who died in his apartment. During the night of September 16 to 17, his house was defaced with the word “Jude” (Jew) written in oil paint (WOLF, 1988 p. 49). Best men (wedding witnesses) were Leopold Krä[mer] from Nieder-Weisel and Julius Bär from Butzbach. The family relocated on June 27, 1938, to Bad N[auheim], thereafter to England, and later to the USA (WOLF, 1988 p. 55). The wife was born in Nieder[-Weisel], F[ather]: Adolf Krämer II. The son was born in the Johanniter Hospital in Nieder-Weisel.

I wrote to the archivist in Butzbach to see if they would scan those two pages (49 and 55) from the source Muller referred to, that is, Dieter Wolf’s book Zur Geschichte der Juden in Butzbach (On the History of the Jews in Butzbach), which was published in 1988. I was hoping that those pages would clarify exactly when Arthur Baer’s house was vandalized and when they left Bad Nauheim for England.

The archivist, Gerd Becker, graciously sent me the scans of those two pages. 2 On page 49, it lists events for 1935 and says as to September 16/17 the following:

16./17. September:

During this night, the house at Wetzlarerstraße 31 is defaced with the oil paint inscription “Jude” (Jew); the local group leader (Ortsgruppenleiter) of the NSDAP (Nazi Party) intends to point out the cessation of such “isolated actions” (Einzelaktionen) at the next members’ meeting. – Smearings of antisemitic content are also frequently applied to other Jewish houses and businesses at night.

Wetzlarerstraße 31 was the same address Muller cited as the location of the clothing business owned by Arthur Baer and his brother Julius. It is also the address given for Arthur on p. 55 of Wolf’s book, which confirms that Arthur and his family left Butzbach on June 27, 1938.3

This residence card from Butzbach further confirms that they left on June 27, 1938.

Stadtarchiv Butzbach, Butzbach, Germany. Bestände des Einwohnermeldeamts: Meldekarten der jüdischen Einwohner. Registration card for Arthur Bär (born 28 August 1905), recording residential changes and family details from 1929 to 1938. Digital Images 1 & 2.

But did they go directly to Bad Nauheim and when did they leave Bad Nauheim? Gerd Becker suggested I contact someone in Bad Nauheim for that information, and I wrote to the archivist there, but he never wrote back. Now I have written to another person and am hoping that I will get a response.

For now, I know that Arthur and his family were in Germany until at least June 27, 1938, when they left Butzbach. And it seems that they were in England by September 29, 1939, when the England and Wales Register was taken and compiled.

Arthur Baer 1939 England and Wales Register, The National Archives; Kew, London, England; 1939 Register; Reference: RG 101/625D, Enumeration District: AYBQ, Ancestry.com. 1939 England and Wales Register

The marked-out name underneath Arthur and Erna’s names must have been for their son Erich; names of those who were minors in 1939 were covered over for privacy reasons when these records were released.

As we will see, Arthur Baer and his family later went to the United States and joined the relatives who were already there.

  1. Hanno Muller, Familienbuch Butzbach Band V: Judenfamilien in Butzbach und seinen Stadtteilen (Family Book Butzbach Volume 5: Jewish Families in Butzbach and its Districts). Translation by Google AI. ↩
  2. Dieter Wolf, Vor 50 Jahren brannten die Synagogen: Aus sieben Jahrhunderten jüdischen Lebens in Butzbach und Umgebung (Butzbach: Stadtarchiv und Museum Butzbach, 1988), 49, entry for 16./17. September 1935. Translated by Google AI. ↩
  3. Dieter Wolf, Vor 50 Jahren brannten die Synagogen: Aus sieben Jahrhunderten jüdischen Lebens in Butzbach und Umgebung (Butzbach: Stadtarchiv und Museum Butzbach, 1988), 55, entry for 27 June 1938. ↩

The Baer Sisters and Two Brothers Leave Germany

Posted on by
14

Therese Spier Baer, the first child of Samuel Spier, died on July 26, 1935, in Griedel, Germany, at the age of 64, leaving behind all eight of her children and all of her grandchildren. By that time the Nazis had come to power. What was the fate of those eight children and all of their children?

Even before Therese died, her youngest daughter Klara and her husband Hermann Fuld and their two-year-old daughter Helga had left Germany. They arrived in New York on March 22, 1934. On the passenger manifest for their ship, which sailed from Hamburg, they listed their destination as Jackson Heights in Queens, New York, where Hermann’s brother Max Fuld was living. Max had arrived in the US in 1926, long before the Nazi era.1

Klara Baer Fuld and family, passenver manifest, “New York City, New York, United States records,” images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33S7-95ZY-W4W?view=explore : Jul 30, 2026), image 161 of 847; United States. National Archives and Records Administration. Image Group Number: 004870034

When Klara filed her declaration of intention to become a US citizen on May 23, 1935, the family was living in the Bronx.

Klara Baer Fuld declaration of intention, The National Archives at Philadelphia; Philadelphia, PA; 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, Description: (Roll 486) Declarations of Intention For Citizenship, 1842-1959 (No 364301-365300), Ancestry.com. New York, U.S., State and Federal Naturalization Records, 1794-1943

However, by 1937 Herman and Clara (as spelled in the 1937 Baltimore directory) were living in Baltimore; Herman was associated with a disinfectant business called Fuld Brothers Inc. There were two other men listed in that directory, Joseph Fuld and Melvin Fuld, who also listed Fuld Brothers as their business. I assumed they were his relatives and that the business was why he and Clara moved to Baltimore.

Herman Fuld, Maryland, City Directory, 1937, Ancestry.com. U.S., City Directories, 1822-1995

So I researched Joseph and Melvin Fuld and found that they were the sons of Solomon Fuld from Sickenhofen, the same town where Hermann Fuld was born. I then researched Solomon Fuld and found that he was the brother of Lazarus Fuld, Hermann’s father. So Melvin and Joseph Fuld were first cousins of Hermann. Interestingly, Solomon had come to the US back in 1894 and his sons were American born.2

By the time  Klara and Herman moved to Baltimore in about 1937, some of Klara’s siblings had also arrived in the US, but all after their mother Therese had died. Jenny Baer and her husband Julius Goldschmidt and their seven-year-old daughter Lore arrived in New York on July 31, 1936, along with Julius’ mother Lina, a widow. They listed Atlantic City as their final destination on the manifest, but on January 25, 1937, when Julius filed his declaration of intention, they were living in the Bronx. Julius, who had listed his occupation on the manifest as a merchant, now listed his occupation as a mechanic.3

Julius Goldschmidt and family, passenger manifest, The National Archives in Washington, DC; Washington, DC, USA; Passenger and Crew Lists of Vessels Arriving at New York, New York, 1897-1957; Microfilm Serial or NAID: T715; RG Title: Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, 1787-2004; RG: 85, Ship or Roll Number: Hansa, Ancestry.com. New York, U.S., Arriving Passenger and Crew Lists (including Castle Garden and Ellis Island), 1820-1957

Selma Baer and his husband Julius Siegmann were the next to arrive. They and their three sons, Heinz (later Henry), Adolph (later Edward), and Erich (later Eric) arrived in New York on October 7, 1937. They listed Julius Goldschmidt, Jenny’s husband, as the person they were going to and their destination as the Bronx. Julius Siegmann listed his occupation as a cattle dealer, but clearly there was no opportunity to pursue that in the Bronx!

Selma Baer Siegmann and family, passenger manifest, The National Archives in Washington, DC; Washington, DC, USA; Passenger and Crew Lists of Vessels Arriving at New York, New York, 1897-1957; Microfilm Serial or NAID: T715; RG Title: Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, 1787-2004; RG: 85, Ship or Roll Number: Gerolstein, Ancestry.com. New York, U.S., Arriving Passenger and Crew Lists (including Castle Garden and Ellis Island), 1820-1957

Just a month later the next Baer sibling arrived, Paula, along with her husband Julius Steinberg and their teenage son Kurt. They arrived in New York on November 11, 1937, indicating that they were going to Paula’s sister Clara in Baltimore.

Paula Baer Steinberg and family, passenger manifest, The National Archives in Washington, DC; Washington, DC, USA; Passenger and Crew Lists of Vessels Arriving at New York, New York, 1897-1957; Microfilm Serial or NAID: T715; RG Title: Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, 1787-2004; RG: 85, Ship or Roll Number: Champlain, Ancestry.com. New York, U.S., Arriving Passenger and Crew Lists (including Castle Garden and Ellis Island), 1820-1957

When Paula filed her declaration of intention on March 2, 1938, they were in fact living in Baltimore.

Paula Baer Steinberg declaration of intention, The National Archives at Philadelphia; Philadelphia, Pa; Petitions For Naturalization, 1903-1972; NAI Number: 654310; Record Group Title: Records of District Courts of the United States, 1685-2009; Record Group Number: 21
Petitions 24451-24750, Ancestry.com. Maryland, U.S., Federal Naturalization Records, 1795-1931

Thus, the four sisters—Klara, Jenny, Selma, and Paula—-were all safely in the US and out of Europe before their four brothers. Were the women more able to see the writing on the wall and willing to leave Germany behind or did they marry men who had that foresight?

The oldest brother Meyer Manfred Baer, his wife Friedel, and their son Erich arrived in New York on July 22, 1938, just a few months after Paula. Meyer listed his occupation as a butcher on the manifest.

Meyer Manfred Baer and family, passenger manifest, The National Archives in Washington, DC; Washington, DC, USA; Passenger and Crew Lists of Vessels Arriving at New York, New York, 1897-1957; Microfilm Serial or NAID: T715; RG Title: Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, 1787-2004; RG: 85, Ship or Roll Number: Washington, Ancestry.com. New York, U.S., Arriving Passenger and Crew Lists (including Castle Garden and Ellis Island), 1820-1957

Although the manifest did not indicate their destination, the family ended up in Baltimore like Klara and Paula, as seen on Meyer’s declaration of intention dated October 29, 1938. He was still working as a butcher.

Meyer Manfred Baer declaration of intention, The National Archives at Philadelphia; Philadelphia, Pa; Declarations of Intention For Citizenship, 1911-1967; NAI Number: 573394; Record Group Title: Records of District Courts of the United States, 1685-2009; Record Group Number: 21, Description: Declarations 27401-28200, Ancestry.com. Maryland, U.S., Federal Naturalization Records, 1795-1931

Arthur Baer’s story is not quite as straightforward. In the aftermath of Kristallnacht in November 1938, he was arrested and sent to Buchenwald concentration camp; he was released on December 28, 1938, and like the others arrested after Kristallnacht, he left Germany soon after being released.4

UPDATE: I have now realized that this was a different man named Arthur Baer. My cousin Arthur Baer was not sent to Buchenwald! In fact, as we will see in a subsequent post, he left Griedel before Kristallnacht and was living in Bad Nauheim. More on that to come. The paragraphs below, however, are accurate. Arthur and his family did escape to England.

Arthur and his wife Erna and their son Erich escaped to England, where they appear living in London on the 1939 England and Wales Register which identified Arthur and Erna as refugees. Arthur was temporarily interned in England as an alien enemy but was released on November 25, 1940. As we will see, Arthur and his family eventually came to the United States.

Arthur Baer 1939 England and Wales Register, The National Archives; Kew, London, England; 1939 Register; Reference: RG 101/625D, Enumeration District: AYBQ, Ancestry.com. 1939 England and Wales Register

Arthur Baer UK World War II Alien Internees, 1939-1945, The National Archives; Kew, London, England; HO 396 WW2 Internees (Aliens) Index Cards 1939-1947; Reference Number: HO 396/166, Piece Number Description: 166: German Internees Released In UK 1939-1942: Ba-Berg, Ancestry.com. UK, World War II Alien Internees, 1939-1945

The remainingg two siblings, Eugen and Julius, have much more complicated stories that will follow in the posts to come, but as we can see, Paula, Jenny, Selma, Clara, Meyer, and Arthur were safely out of Germany before 1940.

  1. Max Fuld, Petition for Naturalization, The National Archives in Washington, DC; Washington, DC; NAI Title: Index to Petitions For Naturalizations Filed in Federal, State, and Local Courts in New York City, 1792-1906; NAI Number: 5700802; Record Group Title: Records of District Courts of the United States, 1685-2009; Record Group Number: Rg 21, Ancestry.com. New York, U.S., State and Federal Naturalization Records, 1794-1943 ↩
  2. Sol Fuld, Gender Male, Race White, Birth Date 4 Jan 1875, Birth Place Sickenhofen, Federal Republic of Germany, Father Joseph Field Mother Bertha Simon, SSN 212091919, Ancestry.com. U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007; Solomon Fuld and family, 1910 US census, Year: 1910; Census Place: Baltimore Ward 15, Baltimore (Independent City), Maryland; Roll: T624_558; Page: 2b; Enumeration District: 0255; FHL microfilm: 1374571, Ancestry.com. 1910 United States Federal Census ↩
  3. Julius Goldschmidt, declaration of intention, The National Archives in Washington, DC; Washington, DC; NAI Title: Index to Petitions for Naturalizations Filed in Federal, State, and Local Courts in New York City, 1792-1906; NAI Number: 5700802; Record Group Title: Records of District Courts of the United States, 1685-2009; Record Group Number: 21, Description: Petitions For Naturalization From Us District Court For the Southern District of New York, 1897-1944, Ancestry.com. New York, U.S., State and Federal Naturalization Records, 1794-1943 ↩
  4. Arthur Baer, Religion Jude, Record Type Register, Departure Date 28 Dez 1938 (28 Dec 1938), Prisoner Type Schutzhaft, Prisoner Number 22955, Reference Number 00116100004, Arolsen Archives; Bad Arolsen, Germany; Group 1 Camp Lists, Ancestry.com. Arolsen Concentration Camp Lists, 1939-1944 ↩

Meier Rothschild, Part V: Siegfried Friedrich Rothschild

Posted on by
10

After several weeks focused on updates on Berthold Rothschild and other topics, I now will return to the other children of Meier Rothschild and Bertha Lorge. As with the three oldest children of Meier Rothschild and Bertha Lorge, Berthold, Theodor, and Gertrud, I struggled to learn more about what happened to their fourth child Siegfried Friedrich Rothschild and his family during and after the Holocaust.

I have no actual records or even indices of records that show where Siegfried and his wife Gisela Katz and sons were in the 1930s or 1940s, but multiple factors indicate that they went to Palestine/Israel. First, there are some entries on the IGRA website for a Zigfried Rotschild, and that could be Siegfried, but I cannot be certain. Secondly, one of Siegfried’s sons used the name Zeev Rotem; and that may indicate that the family was at least for some time in Israel because Zeev is a common Israeli name and  Rotem is a Hebrew term for the tamarisk plant found in Israel. I doubt that Zeev was born with that name in Germany, but rather that it is a name he adopted in Israel. But these are just circumstantial bits of evidence, nothing definitive.

But my assumption that the family went to Israel at some point is also reinforced by the grave memorials I found on the Gravez site for both Siegfried and Gisela. Siegfried died on September 14, 1972, and Gisela died on December 26, 1998. They are both buried in the same cemetery in Tel Aviv, Israel. Does that mean they lived in Israel or that they had spent the war years in what was then Palestine? No. Many are buried in Israel who did not live there. But all these clues together support an assumption that Siegfried and Gisela and their sons lived for some time in Israel.

Their son Zeev may have spent time in Israel, but according to this death record, he had been a professor at the University of British Columbia in Canada for nine years when he died at the age of 46 on November 20, 1973, in Vancouver, Canada. He was survived by his wife and children. He had been a professor in the mechanical engineering department, according to a death notice located online.

Zeev Rotem death certificate, Zeev Rotem, Birth Circa 1927, Death Nov 20 1973, Vancouver, British Columbia, Age at death 46, Registration # 1973-09-016282, BCA microfilm # B13328
GSU microfilm # 2050141, Canada, British Columbia deaths, MyHeritage at https://www.myheritage.com/research/record-20459-596398-/zeev-rotem-in-canada-british-columbia-deaths?indId=externalindividual-b78e16dee8e36e46fe53394e9101649b&trn=partner_Geni&trp=logged_out_matches_module

As you can see, this record ties Zeev Rotem to Gisela Katz, his mother, and to “Frederick Rotem.” Siegfried’s middle name was Friedrich, and my guess is that this is how the informant remembered Zeev’s father’s name.

UPDATE: Thanks to Mark Goldsmith who sent me a link to the obituary for Zeev’s widow Chava Eve Rotem, I am able to fill in a few gaps in this blog. According to her obituary, she and Zeev were married in Palestine in 1947. Eve was born in Berlin on January 15, 1928, and escaped to Palestine when she was five. She trained as a doctor in Switzerland and then returned to Palestine where in 1948 she and Zeev volunteered to help resettle refugees from Nazi Germany. After completing her medical studies in 1949, she and Zeev went to England where their two children were born. They returned to Israel in 1960, but then moved to the US and ultimately to British Columbia, where she and her children continued to live after Zeev’s death in 1973. Chava died on August 15, 2020, after a very distinguished career as a cardiologist in Vancouver, British Columbia. She was survived by her children and grandchildren. (Another obituary here has some differences, but the essence is the same.)

As for Gunther Michael Rothschild, Zeev’s younger brother and the youngest grandchild of Meier Rothschild and Bertha Lorge, a search on FamilySearch turned up some very helpful documents. First, I found his Declaration of Intention to become a US citizen. That document revealed that Gunther Michael Rothschild was living in Detroit, Michigan, when he filed the declaration on November 27, 1953. It also revealed that he had arrived in the US on July 29, 1952. Finally, it reported that Gunther was a citizen of Israel, proof that he had been living in Israel and more evidence suggesting that the other members of his family had as well.

Gunther Michael Rothschild dec of intent, “Michigan, Naturalization Records, 1837-1997”, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:CLHY-RRPZ : Thu Apr 10 18:17:38 UTC 2025), Entry for Gunther Michael Rothschild, 27 Nov 1953.

I had no idea why Gunther Michael would have been living in Detroit until I found his petition for naturalization on FamilySearch. Gunther Michael Rothschild became a US citizen on August 22, 1957.On his petition he again stated he was a citizen of Israel and that he was living in Detroit but added that he was a student. Most helpful were the names of the witnesses who supported the petition, in particular a man named Louis L. Friedland who identified himself as a professor.

“Michigan, Naturalization Records, 1837-1997”, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:CV38-FWZM : Thu Apr 10 14:56:55 UTC 2025), Entry for Gunther Michael Rothschild.

I googled “Louis L. Friedland” and learned that he had been a professor at Wayne State University in Detroit. Further googling uncovered a commencement program from Wayne State in 1958 that listed G. Michael Rothschild as a candidate for a bachelor’s of science degree in industrial engineering.

A passenger manifest from August 1958 lists Michael Rothschild, as he seemed to be known in the US, as a passenger coming from the US, his permanent residence, going to England for two weeks. His occupation was a student. A few months later in December 1958 he is listed on a passenger manifest card as a US citizen residing in Detroit, Michigan. I found several records showing him traveling between the US and England during the 1950s and 1960s as well.1

Some records from Ancestry’s “Public Records” Index list Gunther living in various places in the US over many years including into the 2000s.2 I could not find, however, any news articles or other records revealing more about him. I don’t know whether Gunther Michael Rothschild ever married or had children. According to the Social Security Applications and Claim Index entry for Gunther Michael Rothschild, he died on October 10, 2007.3 Entries on FamilySearch and Geni indicate he was buried in Tel Aviv, but I cannot find his grave on Gravez or anywhere else. So perhaps he was living in the US, perhaps at some point he’d returned to Israel. I sent a message to the manager of his profile on MyHeritage, and perhaps I will learn more.

Piecing this all together, it seems safe to assume that at some point the family of Siegfried Friedrich Rothschild lived in Israel, but their son Zeev spent years in Canada and their son Gunther Michael spent many years in the US. If and when I learn more, I will update the blog.

Coming soon! Ten days until the release of The Women Before Us on Amazon! You can pre-order the Kindle version now and both paperback and Kindle versions will be released on June 20.

 

 

  1.  Michael Rothschild, Arrival Age 27, Birth Date 11 Mar 1931, Port of Departure New York, New York, USA, Arrival Date 2 Aug 1958, Port of Arrival Southampton, England, Ports of Voyage New York and Galway, Ship Name Ryndam, Shipping Line Escombe, McGrath and Company Ltd, Official Number 7767/20, The National Archives in Washington, DC; London, England, UK; Board of Trade: Commercial and Statistical Department and Successors: Inwards Passenger Lists; Class: Bt26; Piece: 1410; Item: 74, Ancestry.com. UK and Ireland, Incoming Passenger Lists, 1878-1960. There are several passenger cards for him leaving from the US in Ancestry. ↩
  2. E.g., Michael M Rothschild, [G Michael Rothschild], [Gunther M Rothschild], [Michael G Rothschild], Birth Date Mar 1931, Residence Date 2002-2020, Residence Shokan, New York, USA, Postal Code 12481, Second Residence Date 2001-2012, Second Residence Norwich, Connecticut, USA, Second Postal Code 06360, Third Residence Date 2002-2012, Third Address Po Box 403, Third Residence Shokan, New York, USA, Third Postal Code 12481, Ancestry.com. U.S., Index to Public Records, 1994-2019 ↩
  3. Michael Rothschild, [Gunther Michael Rothschild], [G Rothschild], Gender Male
    Race White, Birth Date 11 Mar 1931, Birth Place Werezmunde, Federal Republic of Germany, Death Date 10 Oct 2007, Father Sigfried F Rothschild, Mother Giseca Katz
    SSN 078284849, Notes Aug 1952: Name Listed As Michael Rothschild; Nov 1952: Name Listed As Gunther Michael Rothschild; 21 Jun 2005: Name Listed As G Michael Rothschild; 22 Dec 2007: Name Listed As G M Rothschild, Ancestry.com. U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007 ↩

Meier Rothschild’s Daughter Gertrud Rothschild Neuhahn and Her Family: How and Where Did They Survive the Holocaust?

Posted on by
8

Finally, after a few weeks without a post, I return to the children of Meier Rothschild and Bertha Lorge. Meier was the youngest child of Gelle Blumenfeld and my second cousin, three times removed. I am up to his third child, Gertrud.

As with her brothers Berthold and Theodor, I have also struggled to find reliable information about the third child of Meier Rothschild and Bertha Lorge, their daughter Gertrud Rothschild, her husband Gustav Neuhahn, and their daughter Ruth.

I found Gertrud on a passenger manifest card dated January 22, 1962, for a flight to Houston from Mexico City. On that card her residence is given as Tel Aviv, Israel. I could not find a comparable card for Gustav or their children.

Gertrud Rothschild Neuhahn passenger manifest card, The National Archives At Washington, D.C.; Washington, D.C.; Series Title: Passenger and Crew Manifests of Airplanes Arriving At Houston, Texas; ARC Number: A3982; Record Group Title: Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, 1787-2004; Record Group Number: 85, NARA Roll Number: 50, Ancestry.com. Texas, U.S., Arriving and Departing Passenger and Crew Lists, 1893-1963

I searched for them all in Israel and found this interesting document in the Israel Genealogical Research Association (IGRA) website:

This is a list of packages sent from Israel to people in Europe who were Holocaust survivors; the program was organized by the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee. One of those sending packages in 1945 was “Neuhahn-Rothschild,” presumably Gertrud, and the intended recipient was Theodor Rothschild, her brother, in Monte Carlo, Monaco. That reaffirms the fact that Theodor was in Monaco and also establishes that Gertrud was in Tel Aviv in 1945, but not anything more.

A search on the IGRA site for Ruth Neuhahn revealed more evidence of the Neuhahn family in Palestine in 1944. A list of registered voters in 1944 shows Ruth, her parents, and a previously undiscovered sister Tirza living in Tel Aviv.

Neuhahn family on 1944 Voters Registration list found at IGRA, https://genealogy.org.il/AID/

This translates as:

Yosef Neuhahn, son of Zelig

Gertrud Neuhahn, daughter of Shlomo

Ruth Neuhahn, daughter of Yosef

Tirza Neuhahn, daughter of Yosef

That matches what I know about Gustav; his father was Selig Neuhahn. Gustav’s Hebrew name must have been Yosef. I was confused by Gertrud’s name since her father was Meier, but perhaps he used Shlomo as his Hebrew name. And I have no prior record for a daughter named Tirza or by any other name. Unfortunately, I cannot find any later record for Tirza Neuhahn.

I did, however, locate a marriage record for Ruth Neuhahn on the IGRA website:

Marriage of Ruth Neuhahn to Moritz Neumann, found at IGRA, https://genealogy.org.il/AID/

The record shows that Ruth Neuhahn, daughter of Yosef and Gertrud Neuhahn, age 22, married Moritz Neumann, son of Shimon and Chaya Neumann, age 35, on  February 2, 1945, in Tel Aviv. Both resided in Petah Tikva, Moritz was a clerk, and Ruth a typist.

On Ancestry I located some passenger manifest cards for Ruth and two women with the same surname and addresses who I presume are her daughters. For example, here is a passenger card for Ruth Neumann in June 1959, stating that her nationality was Israeli, but her residence was in Mexico. She was traveling and staying in San Antonio, Texas. She also traveled in Miami in 1960 and in 1962,1 reporting the same facts. Her residence in Mexico may explain why her mother Gertrud had been flying from Mexico to San Antonio in 1962, as seen above.

Ruth Neumann passenger manifest card 1959, The National Archives At Washington, D.C.; Washington, D.C.; Series Title: Passenger Manifests of Airplanes Arriving At San Antonio, Texas; ARC Number: A3524; Record Group Title: Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, 1787-2004; Record Group Number: 85, NARA Roll Number: 28, Ancestry.com. Texas, U.S., Arriving and Departing Passenger and Crew Lists, 1893-1963

Thus, in 1962 Ruth was still living in Mexico, still an Israeli citizen, and now visiting Miami, Florida. As for her husband Moritz, one tree on Ancestry shows that he died in Mexico City in 2003 and that Ruth died there as well. I have written to the owner of that tree and am hoping that she can share more information about Gertrud, Gustav, and Ruth, and their family.

If I can get more information about Gertrud and her family, I will update the blog. But for now this is the best I can do. The good news is that it appears that all of Gertrud’s family all survived the Holocaust.

  1.  Name Ruth Neumann, Nationality Israeli, Arrival Age 40, Birth Date 18 Mar 1920
    Birth Place Kassel, Germany, Record Type Arrival Arrival Date 2 May 1960, Arrival Place Miami, Florida, USA, Flight Number 150, Airline Guest Aerovias Mexico, The National Archives in Washington, DC; Washington, DC, USA; Series Title: Passenger and Crew Manifests of Airplanes Arriving At Miami, Florida.; NAI Number: A3995; Record Group Title: Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, 1787-2004; Record Group Number: 85, Ancestry.com. Florida, U.S., Arriving and Departing Passenger and Crew Lists, 1898-1963; Ruth Neumann, Nationality Israeli, Arrival Age 42, Birth Date 18 Mar 1920, Birth Place Germany, Record Type Arrival, Arrival Date 19 May 1962, Arrival Place Miami, Florida, USA, Flight Number 100, Airline Gam, The National Archives in Washington, DC; Washington, DC, USA; Series Title: Passenger and Crew Manifests of Airplanes Arriving At Miami, Florida.; NAI Number: A3995; Record Group Title: Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, 1787-2004; Record Group Number: 85, Ancestry.com. Florida, U.S., Arriving and Departing Passenger and Crew Lists, 1898-1963 ↩

Meier Rothschild’s son Theodor Rothschild and His Family: How and Where did They Survive the Holocaust? And Who Was Willie Weisbecker?

Posted on by
8

Although it was hard to find much about the life of Berthold Rothschild and his family after the Nazis came to power in Germany, I was able to scratch together some basics: the death of his ex-wife in a Nazi-run hospital in Herborn, his death in South Africa, his profession (photographer), the marriage of his daughter Adelheid to Manson Samson at Westerbork, and the young couple’s survival of their time in Nazi concentration camps.

Turning to Berthold’s oldest sibling Theodor Rothschild and his family, my research was also less than complete. But I did find out a few things.

First, a file in the Arolsen Archives included the name of Theodor Rothschild.1 A translation of that file reveals its purpose:

To all German universities

Breslau, 12 February 1941

The following named persons have, on the basis of § 2 of the Law on the Revocation of Naturalizations and the Deprivation of German Citizenship of 14 July 1933, been declared to have forfeited German citizenship.

In view of this, the academic doctoral degrees awarded to them by the competent faculties of the University of Breslau have been revoked by resolution of the Dean’s Committee of the Silesian Friedrich-Wilhelms University of Breslau dated 5 February 1941.

The revocation becomes effective with this publication. No legal remedy is permitted.

Theodor Rothschild is listed as one of those whose degree was being revoked. He is grouped with those with a doctorate in dentistry and identified as follows: “Rothschild, Theodor, born 16 Mar. 1891 in Hof, district of Kassel, doctorate 26 Sept. 1929.” This meant that Theodor had lost his citizenship as well as his doctorate.

By doing a full-text search on FamilySearch, I found a letter written by someone named Willie Weisbecker to the US State Department on July 7, 1941, requesting the appropriate forms to apply for visas for eight different families. Theodore Rothschild and his wife and daughters were one of the listed families (#7), as was someone named  Berthold Rothschild and his wife Minna (#2). I learned that Willie Weisbecker was a German-born immigrant to the US who was an attorney and active in helping former German Jews recover compensation for property that was confiscated by the Nazis.2

“United States records,” images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/
ark:/61903/3:1:3QHV-V386-M93C-G?view=fullText : Feb 6, 2026), image 1058 of 1101;
United States. Department of State. Image Group Number: 008699970
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QHV-V386-M93C-G?view=fullText

Although Theodore was described as a second cousin to Willie, Berthold was described as his brother-in-law. I have no record of Theodor’s brother Berthold being married to a woman named Minna, though we know that his first wife Sarah had died in 1937. I thus am not sure that the Berthold Rothschild listed was the same person as Theodor’s older brother Berthold. I did find a tree on JewishGen with a different Berthold Rothschild married to a woman named Minna Weisbecker, so assuming that is accurate, the Berthold Rothschild in Willie’s letter is not my relative.

That made me wonder whether the Theodor Rothschild in Willie’s letter was in fact the same Theodor Rothschild on my family tree. I spent a great deal of time down the rabbit hole without any luck, trying to figure out how Willie Weisbecker was a second cousin (or any cousin) to Theodore Rothschild or his wife Bettina Schiff. The fact that Willie listed Theodor as from Monaco and having two daughters supports the assumption that this was the same Theodor Rothschild who was the son of Meier Rothschild and thus my cousin because other documents (discussed below) revealed that Theodor did live in Monaco. And I knew that he did have two daughters, Doris and Ellen.

But if Theodor and Willie were second cousins, they would share great-grandparents; same if Theodor’s wife Bettina and Willie were second cousins. So far, however, I have not found any commonality in the ancestries of Theodor and Willie or Bettina and Willie. I have contacted a person who has an extensive Ancestry tree for the Weisbecker family to see if he can help me find a link.

In any event, the State Department responded to Willie’s letter, agreeing to send the required forms for all the people listed in the letter except for those still in Germany.

“United States records,” images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/
ark:/61903/3:1:3QHV-V386-M97K-M?view=fullText : Feb 6, 2026), image 1060 of 1101;
United States. Department of State. Image Group Number: 008699970
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QHV-V386-M97K-M?view=fullText

I don’t know whether Theodor ever completed those forms and applied for a visa, but in any event I have no record of him or his family ever coming to the United States.

Rather, I found on MyHeritage references for the French naturalization for both Theodor and his daughter Ellen on May 27, 1949. 3 But I did not find any naturalization references for either Theodor’s wife Bettina or his older daughter Doris. Willie Weisbecker’s letter indicated that Monaco was part of the unoccupied territory of France in July 1941, and I don’t think that’s technically correct since Monaco has always been a separate sovereign country. But France did allow residents of Monaco to become French citizens by decree if certain conditions were met.4

Although I did not find a naturalization record for Theodor’s daughter Doris, I did find a French death record showing that she died in Saint-Gratien, Val-d’Oise, France, on February 13, 2017. She would have been 97 years old.5

For Theodor and Bettina, the only other references I could find are a FindAGrave memorial showing that they both died and are buried in Monaco. Theodor died in 1961, Bettina in 1982.6

I don’t know how accurate those memorials are, but those same dates and locations also appear in an Ancestry family tree that could be that of a descendant. I have written to the tree owner for more information, hoping she knows the story of Theodor and Bettina and their daughters. Her tree has more information about the daughters and their marriages, but I’d prefer to wait to learn more than to rely on a tree alone. For now, this is all I have records for about the lives of Theodor Rothschild and his family.

If and when I learn more, I will update the blog accordingly.

  1.  1 Incarceration Documents / 1.2 Miscellaneous / 1.2.1 Deportations and Transports /, Glatz (Lower Silesia): Minutes and correspondence concerning the collection of Jewish property, compulsory names, expatriation and deportation of the Jewish population (1938-1943), Reference Code 10007588 Creation Date 1938-12-06 – 1943-05-10 ↩
  2. “Willie Weisbecker, Lawyer and Writer,” The New York Times, December 4, 1955, p. 88 ↩
  3. Ellen ROTHSCHILD, Birth Mar 7 1929, Kassel, District de Kassel, Hesse, Allemagne, Naturalization May 27 1949, France, Notes Cette personne était un enfant mineur lorsque ses parents ont bénéficié d’un décret de Naturalisation, de Réintégration ou d’Admission sur lequel elle a été mentionnée, il est donc Français par EFFET COLLECTIF., Source Les naturalisations entre 1900 et 1963, Decree Number 12302-38, Reference Number H002-NAT1056319, Sources Journal Officiel, found at MyHeritage, https://www.myheritage.com/research/record-14015-409204/ellen-rothschild-in-france-naturalizations?s=OYYV67OZ5BWBQ5GHZXDK3ZTZXZLZYQY; Théodore ROTHSCHILD
    Birth Mar 16 1891, Hoof, Schauenburg, District de Kassel, Hesse, Allemagne
    Naturalization May 27 1949, France, Notes A l’origine cette personne était de nationalité étrangère, elle est devenue française en bénéficiant d’un décret de NATURALISATION. Le premier texte concernant les naturalisations d’étrangers en France est un arrêt du Parlement de Paris daté de 1515: “L’enfant né en France de parents étrangers est Français s’il choisit de se fixer définitivement en France”
    Source Les naturalisations entre 1900 et 1963, Decree Number 12302-38
    Reference Number H002-NAT1056334, Sources Journal Officiel, found at https://www.myheritage.com/research/record-14015-765667/theodore-rothschild-in-france-naturalizations ↩
  4. Ordonnance n° 45-2441, 19 oct. 1945 (Fr.), Code de la nationalité française art. 60–62 (1945). ↩
  5. Doris Rothschild, Gender femme (Female), Death Age 97, Birth Date févr. 1920 (Feb 1920), Birth Place Kassel, Allemagne (Germany), Death Date 13 févr. 2017 (13 Feb 2017), Death Place Saint-Gratien, Val-D”Oise (Val-d’Oise), France, Certificate Number 27, URL https://www.data.gouv.fr/fr/datasets/fichier-des-personnes-decedees/, Institut National de la Statistique et des Etudes Economiques (Insee); Paris, France; Fichier des personnes décédées; Roll #: deces-2017.txt, Ancestry.com. Web: France, Death Records, 1970-2021 ↩
  6. Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/99379564/theodore-rothschild: accessed February 5, 2026), memorial page for Dr Theodore Rothschild (1891–1961), Find a Grave Memorial ID 99379564, citing Cimetière de Monaco and Columbarium, Monaco-Ville, Monaco; Maintained by: Find a Grave. ↩

Sara and Moses Adler’s Younger Children: The Chicago Five

Posted on by
9

As of 1933 when Hitler came to power in Germany, five of Sara Rothschild and Moses Adler’s surviving children were still living in Germany: Caroline (Grete), Malchen, Emmi, David Theodore, and Betty. Their oldest three children—Louis, Sigmund, and Julius—had long ago emigrated to the United States. Fortunately, all five of those still in Germany were able to leave in time.

Interestingly, Betti, the youngest of those still in Germany, was the first to leave. She, her husband Marx Regenstein, and their two children Lucie and Erich sailed from Cherbourg, France, on April 29, 1936, and arrived in New York on May 6, 1936. Notice that all the first names were changed on the manifest. Marx became Max, Betti became Jenny, and Lucie was no longer Johanna, Erich no longer Siegfried. Max listed his occupation as a merchant on the ship manifest. They listed their destination as Leavenworth, Kansas, identifying Betti/Jenny’s brother Louis Adler as the person they were going to.

Regenstein family passenger manifest, The National Archives in Washington, DC; Washington, DC, USA; Passenger and Crew Lists of Vessels Arriving at New York, New York, 1897-1957; Microfilm Serial or NAID: T715; RG Title: Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, 1787-2004; RG: 85, Ship or Roll Number: Berengaria, Ancestry.com. New York, U.S., Arriving Passenger and Crew Lists (including Castle Garden and Ellis Island), 1820-1957

Regenstein family passenger manifest p 2

I found it heartwarming to learn that Louis, who had left his family behind in 1900 when he was fifteen, was still in touch with his siblings back home. Just as he had taken in his brother Julius after Julius lost his first wife, Louis once again seemed to take on the role of assisting a sibling. In January 1938, when Betty declared her intention to become a US citizen, she and her family were still living in Leavenworth, Kansas.

Betti Jenny Regenstein Declaration of Intention, National Archives at Chicago; Chicago, Illinois; ARC Title: Petitions For Naturalization, 1906-1991; NAI Number: M1285; Record Group Title: Records of District Courts of the United States, 1685-2009; Record Group Number: Rg 21, Petitions, V· 1243-1245, No· 309401-309950, 1944, Ancestry.com. Illinois, U.S., Federal Naturalization Records, 1856-1991

But two years later in 1940, Betti (now listed as Jennie), Marx (now Max), and their children Lucie and Eric were living in Covert, Michigan, where Max was working as a farmer. I don’t know what drew them to that location. In 1935 they’d been living in Chicago, according to the census report. At first I thought it was Betti/Jenny’s brother Sigmund who had drawn them to Michigan since at one point he had been living in Ishpeming, Michigan, but that is very distant from Covert, and besides, by 1940 Sigmund was living in Connecticut.

Regenstein family, 1940 US census, Year: 1940; Census Place: Covert, Van Buren, Michigan; Roll: m-t0627-01822; Page: 3A; Enumeration District: 80-13, Ancestry.com. 1940 United States Federal Census

The next Adler siblings to leave Germany were Caroline Grete and Malchen. They sailed together from Cherbourg on April 14, 1937, with Malchen (Mally)’s husband Fritz Apolant and Caroline (Karoline) Grete’s son Kurt. Caroline’s husband Albert Mandelstein had died on October 20, 1934, in Grebenstein; he was 79.1 Fritz listed his occupation as a manufacturer’s agent, and Kurt Mandelstein, who was twenty, listed his as a merchant. Like Betti before them, they all listed Leavenworth, Kansas, as their destination, and Louis Adler as the person to whom they were going.

Mandelstein and Apolant passenger manifest, The National Archives in Washington, DC; Washington, DC, USA; Passenger and Crew Lists of Vessels Arriving at New York, New York, 1897-1957; Microfilm Serial or NAID: T715; RG Title: Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, 1787-2004; RG: 85, Ship or Roll Number: Queen Mary, Ancestry.com. New York, U.S., Arriving Passenger and Crew Lists (including Castle Garden and Ellis Island), 1820-1957

I have to confess that until I saw this ship manifest, I’d had no idea that Sara Rothschild and Moses Adler had a daughter named Caroline Grete. Somehow in my initial search for their children, Caroline had eluded me. It was only when I saw her listed on that ship manifest that I realized I’d missed a child and went back and found her records.

I don’t know whether or not Caroline or Malchen ever actually went to or lived in Leavenworth, Kansas. When Caroline filed her declaration of intention on October 20, 1937, just six months after arriving in New York on April 19, 1937, she and her son Kurt were living in Chicago, Illinois.

Similarly, when Malchen’s husband Fritz Apolant filed his declaration of intention on October 14, 1937, they were living in Chicago.

Fritz David Apolant declaration of intention, National Archives at Chicago; Chicago, Illinois; ARC Title: Petitions For Naturalization, 1906-1991; NAI Number: M1285; Record Group Title: Records of District Courts of the United States, 1685-2009; Record Group Number: Rg 21
Petitions, V· 1079-1081, No· 268890-269400, 1942, Ancestry.com. Illinois, U.S., Federal Naturalization Records, 1856-1991

I don’t know what drew them to Chicago, but I did notice that one of the witnesses on Malchen’s naturalization papers was a man named Benjamin “Nandelstein.” Perhaps that was really Mandelstein, as the signature appears to be, and this was a relative of her sister Caroline’s deceased husband Albert Mandelstein.

Affidavit of Witnesses for Malchen Apolant naturalization, National Archives at Chicago; Chicago, Illinois; ARC Title: Petitions For Naturalization, 1906-1991; NAI Number: M1285; Record Group Title: Records of District Courts of the United States, 1685-2009; Record Group Number: Rg 21, Petitions, V· 1192-1195, No· 297765-298328, 1943, Ancestry.com. Illinois, U.S., Federal Naturalization Records, 1856-1991

In any event, in 1940, Fritz, Malchen (Mally), Caroline (Grete now), and Kurt were all living together in Chicago, and all four were working. Fritz was an egg salesman, Mally a nurse for a private patient, Grete a cook in a private home, and Kurt a clerk in a retail grocery store.

Apolant and Mandelstein on 1940 US census, Year: 1940; Census Place: Chicago, Cook, Illinois; Roll: m-t0627-00929; Page: 1A; Enumeration District: 103-268, Ancestry.com. 1940 United States Federal Census

The next sibling to arrive in the US was Emmi Adler Speier. Like her older sister Caroline Grete, Emmi was a widow when she immigrated to the US. Her husband Robert Speier had died on May 15, 1937, in Guxhagen, Germany; he was only 47 when he died.2 Emmi and her two children, Ilse/Elsie and Senta, and her sister-in-law Lea Speier all sailed from Easthampton, England, on June 29, 1938. They arrived in New York on July 4, 1938, an auspicious date to arrive in the US. Like her other sisters, Emmi listed her brother Louis as the person she was going to and Leavenworth, Kansas, as her destination. She listed her brother T. [Theodore] Adler as the person she left behind.

Speier family passenger manifest, The National Archives in Washington, DC; Washington, DC, USA; Passenger and Crew Lists of Vessels Arriving at New York, New York, 1897-1957; Microfilm Serial or NAID: T715; RG Title: Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, 1787-2004; RG: 85, Ship or Roll Number: Queen Mary, Ancestry.com. New York, U.S., Arriving Passenger and Crew Lists (including Castle Garden and Ellis Island), 1820-1957

But Emmi and her children also did not end up in Leavenworth for long, if at all. By November 19, 1938, she also was living in Chicago, as were her two daughters.

Emmi Adler Speier declaration of intention, National Archives at Chicago; Chicago, Illinois; ARC Title: Petitions For Naturalization, 1906-1991; NAI Number: M1285; Record Group Title: Records of District Courts of the United States, 1685-2009; Record Group Number: Rg 21
Petitions, V· 1180-1183, No· 295150-295735, 1943, Ancestry.com. Illinois, U.S., Federal Naturalization Records, 1856-1991

In 1940, Emmi was living in Chicago with Ilse and Senta, along with three lodgers. Ilse was working as a dressmaker.3

Finally, the last sibling to arrive was the remaining son of Sara Rothschild and Moses Adler, their son David Theodore Adler. He sailed without his wife Emma on April 30, 1939, arriving in New York on May 8, 1939. He listed his wife Emma as the person he had left behind and his brother Louis Adler in Leavenworth, Texas, as the person he was heading to; his occupation was a dealer.4 David did in fact go to Leavenworth, where on September 29, 1939, he filed his declaration of intention. He listed his occupation as a farmer.

David Theodore Adler declaration of intention, National Archives at Chicago; Chicago, Illinois; ARC Title: Petitions For Naturalization, 1906-1991; NAI Number: M1285; Record Group Title: Records of District Courts of the United States, 1685-2009; Record Group Number: Rg 21
Petitions For Naturalization, V· 1224, No· 305251-305500, Ca· 1943-1944, Ancestry.com. Illinois, U.S., Federal Naturalization Records, 1856-1991

But in 1940, like his other siblings Grete (Caroline), Malchen, Emmi, and Betty, David Theodore (now just using Theodore) was living in Chicago, working as a laborer doing odd jobs.5

All five of the younger children of Sara Rothschild and Moses Adler were reunited in one city. What would their lives in America bring for them and their children?

To be continued.

 

  1. Albert Mandelstein, Gender männlich (Male), Death Age 79, Birth Date abt 1855
    Death Date 20 Okt 1934 (20 Oct 1934), Death Place Grebenstein, Hessen (Hesse), Deutschland​​​ (Germany), Civil Registration Office Grebenstein, Spouse Grete
    Certificate Number 27, Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv; Wiesbaden, Deutschland; Personenstandsregister Sterberegister; Signatur: 3080; Laufende Nummer: 909, Ancestry.com. Hesse, Germany, Deaths, 1851-1958 ↩
  2. Robert Speier, Death Age 48[sic], Birth Date 15 Sept 1889, Death Date 15 Mai 1937 (15 May 1937), Death Place Guxhagen, Hessen (Hesse), Deutschland (Germany, Civil Registration Office Guxhagen, Certificate Number 12, Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv; Wiesbaden, Deutschland; Personenstandsregister Sterberegister; Bestand: 2869; Laufende Nummer: 920, Ancestry.com. Hesse, Germany, Deaths, 1851-1958 ↩
  3. Emmi Speier, 1940 US census, Year: 1940; Census Place: Chicago, Cook, Illinois; Roll: m-t0627-00929; Page: 4A; Enumeration District: 103-267, Ancestry.com. 1940 United States Federal Census ↩
  4. David Adler, passenger manifest, The National Archives in Washington, DC; Washington, DC, USA; Passenger and Crew Lists of Vessels Arriving at New York, New York, 1897-1957; Microfilm Serial or NAID: T715; RG Title: Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, 1787-2004; RG: 85, Ship or Roll Number: New York, Ancestry.com. New York, U.S., Arriving Passenger and Crew Lists (including Castle Garden and Ellis Island), 1820-1957 ↩
  5. Theodore Adler, 1940 US census, Year: 1940; Census Place: Chicago, Cook, Illinois; Roll: m-t0627-00930; Page: 7A; Enumeration District: 103-303, Ancestry.com. 1940 United States Federal Census ↩

Malchen Rothschild Rosenblatt’s Youngest Child, Siegmund

Posted on by
11

The other surviving son and the youngest child of Malchen Rothschild and Daniel Rosenblatt was their son Siegmund. Like his brother Felix, he escaped from Nazi Germany to Argentina with his wife Else Schwab and their three children, Arno, Ruth, and Margot.

I was very fortunate that Ellie Roden, a first cousin, once removed, of Siegmund’s wife Else, reached out to me through my blog. Ellie wrote that “Siegmund wanted all the family on both sides to leave Germany but before Kristallnacht many hoped and believed that the Nazi reign would end.”1 Unfortunately, as we have seen, Siegmund’s three sisters Julchen, Jette, and Auguste, did not heed that advice. According to Ellie, Siegmund, Else, and their children left Germany for Argentina in July 1937. They joined the same community, Colonia Avigdor, where Siegmund’s brother Felix had settled the year before. According to Siegmund’s great-niece Carmen, Siegmund and his family left Colonia Avigdor in about1955 and moved to Buenos Aires. After receiving compensation from the German government, they could afford to live in the city.2

Ellie shared these wonderful photographs of Siegmund and his family, first a photograph of Siegmund and Else and their children in 1937 before they left their home in Kassel, Germany:

Siegmund Rosenblatt and family in 1937, Kassel, Germany
Courtesy of Ellie Roden

This second photograph is undated, but is of Siegmund and Else. I assume it was taken in Argentina some years later.

Else Schwab and Siegmund Rosenblatt. Courtesy of Ellie Roden

The third photo may have been taken at the same event as the one above; it was taken in Buenos Aires:

The Rosenblatt family in Buenos Aires: Margot, Siegmund, Else, Ruth, Arno, and Danny. Courtesy of Ellie Roden

I don’t have any records for the family’s life in Argentina, but Ellie was able to confirm that Arno, the oldest child, had a son named Danny, presumably named for his grandfather Daniel Rosenblatt; he must be the young boy in the photo above. Margot, the middle child, married someone named Kurt Oppenheimer; I don’t know whether they had children. And Ruth, the youngest child, may have married someone named Arno Kaufman. I don’t know whether they had children.

I was able to find burial records for Siegmund and Else and for two of their three children in the records for Argentina in the JOWBR at JewishGen.org. Siegmund died on November 3, 1982, and is buried in Buenos Aires.3 His wife Else died on August 11, 1984, and is buried in Buenos Aires.4 Their daughter Ruth Rosenblatt Kaufmann died on January 12, 1989, and is also buried in Buenos Aires.5 Finally, their son Arno Rosenblatt died on December 31, 2008, and is buried in Buenos Aires.6 I was not able to locate a burial record or any other record for Margot, but did locate one for her husband, Kurt Oppenheimer, which named her as his spouse. Kurt died on February 13, 2007, and is buried in the same cemetery as his in-laws.7

I am so grateful to my cousins Julio and Carmen and to Ellie Roden for sharing the photographs and information about the families of Malchen Rothschild Rosenblatt’s three sons, Felix, Julius, and Siegmund. Although the family of Malchen Rothschild and Daniel Rosenblatt suffered terrible losses during the Holocaust, it was uplifting to learn that there are still living descendants living in many countries around the world. I am so grateful for that.

I have now completed the stories of the children of Malchen Rothschild Rosenblatt and will move on to Malchen’s younger sister, Sara Rothschild Adler, and her family. But first a few updates on earlier posts.

 

 

  1. Email from Ellie Roden, August 13, 2025. ↩
  2. Email from Carmen Rosenblatt, September 17, 2025. ↩
  3. Burial record in the JOWBR database at JewishGen, found at https://www.jewishgen.org/databases/cemetery/jowbr.php?rec=J_ARGENTIN_0199329 ↩
  4. Burial record in the JOWBR database at JewishGen, found at https://www.jewishgen.org/databases/cemetery/jowbr.php?rec=J_ARGENTIN_0199309 ↩
  5. Burial record in the JOWBR database at JewishGen, found at https://www.jewishgen.org/databases/cemetery/jowbr.php?rec=J_ARGENTIN_0164434 ↩
  6. Burial record in the JOWBR database at JewishGen, found at https://www.jewishgen.org/databases/cemetery/jowbr.php?rec=J_ARGENTIN_0199303 ↩
  7. Burial record in the JOWBR database at JewishGen, found at https://www.jewishgen.org/databases/cemetery/jowbr.php?rec=J_ARGENTIN_0189236 ↩

Malchen Rothschild Rosenblatt’s Descendants in the Colonia Avigdor in Argentina

Posted on by
7

As we saw, Malchen Rothschild and Daniel Rosenblatt’s daughters all were killed in the Holocaust. Their son Julius had died as a young man, leaving behind a young widow Julie Rosenblatt and their infant son Fredi. Julie and Fredi escaped to Uruguay, and thanks to Fredi’s son Julio, I’ve been able to learn and share much of their story.

Malchen and Daniel’s other two sons Felix and Siegmund escaped to Argentina, not Uruguay,1 and thanks to the magic of the internet, I am now in touch with Felix’s granddaughter in Argentina, Carmen. I found a photograph of the gravestone of Felix’s son Ludwig Rosenblatt (see below) on JewishGen and posted it on Tracing the Tribe, asking for a translation of the Hebrew inscription. A woman in the TTT group tagged Carmen when she saw my post, and Carmen, Ludwig Rosenblatt’s daughter, responded. Although Carmen doesn’t speak English and I don’t speak Spanish, we’ve managed to communicate, thanks to Google Translate and DeepL.

Carmen shared with me a lecture2 she delivered in 2018 to the Latin American Rabbinical Seminary about the community where her family has lived since 1936 when they immigrated from Germany to Argentina. It is in Spanish, and I’ve used DeepL to translate it and now will paraphrase and take excerpts from the translation to share the story of Carmen’s family and their community. Carmen also filled in other details through email.

As Carmen explained in her lecture, the German philanthropist Baron Maurice de Hirsch formed the Jewish Colonization Association (“JCA”) in the late 19th century to acquire land and create settlements in Argentina for Jews escaping persecution in Russia and Eastern Europe. When Hitler came to power in the 1930s, it became apparent that there was a need for more land and more places for German Jews to escape, so the JCA acquired additional land to create a new settlement called Colonia Avigdor, which is over 300 miles from Buenos Aires.

Thanks to the efforts of the JCA, Jewish families like Carmen’s were able to escape Nazi Germany. I asked Carmen what convinced her grandparents to leave Germany. She wrote that one night her grandfather’s car was confiscated by the Nazis in Zimmersrode, and when it was returned to him the next day, an official in the town told him: “Felix, this is getting very ugly for you Jews, take your family and leave Germany.” Felix replied, “How??? I have to sell my house, my things.” The official replied, “Leave everything, don’t sell anything… nobody is going to pay a Jew.” Felix contacted the JCA and asked for help to leave Germany and move to Argentina.

Carmen’s grandparents Felix and Minna (Goldwein) Rosenblatt and their sons were one of the ten families that first settled in Colonia Avigdor. They arrived in Buenos Aires, Argentina, with their sons Ludwig, then 17, and Siegfried, 20, and their daughter-in-law, Siegfried’s wife Jenny Feilmann, on January 25, 1936. As Carmen explained to me and in her lecture, because the JCA required a family to have five adults to qualify for the settlement program, Siegfried, although only twenty years old, had married Jenny at such a young age in order for the family to qualify.

After a few days in Buenos Aires, Felix, Minna, and their family traveled by train from Buenos Aires to Bovril, the closest train station to Avigdor. From there they traveled the last fifteen miles of the over 300 mile journey “by horse-drawn carts through trees and bushes in the woods along winding paths” to get to their new home. Carmen wrote that they were “full of hope that they would adapt to such a hard life and happy to set foot on land that promised above all FREEDOM and work to build a good future.”

Carmen’s description of their early lives cannot be paraphrased adequately; here is how DeepL translated her words:

Each of the settlers was allocated 75 hectares of land and a poorly constructed house made of mud-covered bricks with a dirt floor, two rooms, one kitchen, one veranda, and a bathroom at the back, about 10-15 meters away from the house. In each house, they found a bag of hard “cookies” (country bread), several days old… as well as some work tools, a few cows, some horses, some chickens… The next day, they got to work, first clearing the yards of wild trees, then the fields so they could plant them, building fences to divide them. It was very hard work, but as I said, they were happy because they had hope for progress. The women devoted themselves more to the tasks in the yard, tending to the chickens and other poultry, milking the cows for the milk they consumed, in addition to their household chores. They had to knead the bread in wood-fired ovens, whose mouths opened into the kitchen…

They say that at first, these women did these tasks crying practically all day (and at night too) because of the precarious conditions around them… there was no electricity, the lamps were kerosene… there were no refrigerators, no appliances whatsoever. And it should be emphasized that they came from an advanced civilization in Germany… Some, those who came from small towns, adapted more easily, but those who came from cities such as Berlin, Munich, Frankfurt, etc., of which there were many… found it extremely difficult, or simply could not get used to it…

Colonists plowing the land
Courtesy of Carmen Rosenblatt

A colonist’s yard
Courtesy of Carmen Rosenblatt

Children coming to school
Courtesy of Carmen Rosenblatt

The community grew as more and more refugees came from Germany; eventually there were about 120 families. The settlers engaged in many forms of agricultural work: dairy, livestock, farming, gardening, and beekeeping. They established a cooperative to market their products. A school was established by the JCA, and there was a post office, a synagogue, a kosher butcher, and a Hebrew teacher. There was even a small hospital to provide health care to the settlers and a social center for dances, theaters, and orchestral performances. Land was also set aside for a cemetery.

The synagogue in Colonia Avigdor
Courtesy of Carmen Rosenblatt

Interior of the synagogue
Courtesy of Carmen Rosenblatt

But conditions remained fairly primitive for a long time. It wasn’t until 1971 that there was electricity in the colony, and there were only dirt roads until 1987. Despite all these challenges, Felix and Minna and their children remained at Colonia Avigdor, working hard to achieve their dreams.

Their younger son Ludwig Rosenblatt married Ruth Plaut, another refugee from Germany, in 1944. They had two children, Carmen and her sister Alicia. Ludwig’s older brother Siegfried and his wife Jenny also had two daughters, Miriam and Lenore.

Felix Rosenblatt died on February 4, 1955, and is buried at the Centro Unión Israelita de Colonia Avigdor cemetery in Colonia Avigdor, Argentina, as is his wife Minna Goldwein Rosenblatt, who died on February 16, 1969. Here is a photograph of their gravestones.

Felix and Minna Rosenblatt headstones from JOWBR database, found at https://data.jewishgen.org/imagedata/jowbr/ARG-06046/WA0125.JPG

Their son and Carmen’s father Ludwig Rosenblatt died on October 10, 1977, and is buried at the same cemetery as his parents. He was only 57 when he died. As translated by the kind people at Tracing the Tribe, the Hebrew reads: “Here [lies] buried / Leib son of Uri / a reputable man / a faithful protector of / his family / an example for his descendants / [we] remember him with love / may his soul be bound in the bond of [eternal] life.”  The footstone engraving in Spanish mentions his wife, children, and grandchildren; it was placed there on the occasion of what would have been his 70th birthday on November 15, 1989.

Ludwig Rosenblatt headstone at JOWBR database, found at https://data.jewishgen.org/imagedata/jowbr/ARG-06046/WA0143.JPG

As for Siegfried Rosenblatt, Felix’s other son, he died on October 23, 2004, and is buried at Cementerio Israelita De San Vicente Cordoba, in Cordoba, Argentina; he was predeceased by his wife Jenny Feilmann who died on May 23, 1978, and is buried in the same cemetery.3 Their daughter Lenore, who was born on November 2, 1940, died on April 27, 2001.4

Carmen still lives in Colonia Avigdor with her husband Abraham Isaac Kogan, whom she married almost 58 years ago. They had two sons, one of whom passed away; the other still lives in Argentina, but not in Colonia Avigdor. Today there are only about twelve Jewish families left in Colonia Avigdor because many people left long ago to live in the cities. Carmen wrote, “These days, basic services such as electricity, water, roads, television, communications, etc. are practically comparable to those in cities… the precariousness has been overcome… but let’s not forget that since the founding of Avigdor in 1936, 82 years have passed… and the vast majority have left…”

Carmen generously shared with me some photographs of her extended family. This photograph was taken at her wedding in 1967.

Photograph taken at Carmen Rosenblatt’s wedding to Abraham Kogan in 1967, courtesy of Carmen Rosenblatt. Standing from left to right: Ruth Plaut, Carmen’s mother; Ludwig Rosenblatt, Carmen’s father; Abraham Isaac Kogan; Carmen Alexander; Jenny Feilmann, wife of Siegfred Rosenblatt; Siegfried Rosenblatt, Carmen’s uncle Seated: Family friend,\; Minna Goldwein, Carmen’s grandmother; Else Schwab, wife of Sigmund Rosenblatt; Sigmund Rosenblatt, Carmen’s great-uncle.

This more recent photograph was taken in 1981 on the occasion of Carmen’s son’s bar mitzvah. I think it illustrates how Jewish traditions are similar all over the world. This photograph could have been taken at any bar mitzvah in the US in 1981, and it would have looked very much the same.

Abraham Kogan, Andres Kogan, Carmen Rosenblatt, Marcelo Kogan, 1981. Courtesy of Carmen Rosenblatt

Carmen’s story has given me a new perspective on the lives of those who escaped from Nazi Germany. It’s hard to imagine how they adapted to such a hard life—a precarious one, to use Carmen’s word. They were coming from a place where their ancestors had lived for centuries to a primitive place, far from any city, where people spoke a language they didn’t know, and they had to live according to the rules and subject to the authority of the JCA—and yet they were filled with hope and grateful for the chance to survive and live freely.

All this reminds me to be grateful for what I have and to empathize with all those around the world who are forced to abandon their homes in search of a safer and better life.

 

 

  1. Although they came from different villages in Germany and ended up in different countries in South America, the Rosenblatts in Uruguay and the Rosenblatts in Argentina have stayed in touch and even visited each other over the years. Julie Rosenblatt was a first cousin to Felix and Siegmund as well as their sister-in-law. ↩
  2. Carmen Rosenblatt, unpublished lecture, “Immigracion de Judio Perseguidos en Alemania, Colonizados en Los Campos de Colonio Avigdor (Entre Rios),” (September 2018). ↩
  3. See burial records at the JOWBR database at JewishGen, found at https://www.jewishgen.org/databases/cemetery/jowbr.php?rec=J_ARGENTIN_0036804 and at https://www.jewishgen.org/databases/cemetery/jowbr.php?rec=J_ARGENTIN_0036805 ↩
  4. See burial records at the JOWBR database at JewishGen, found at https://www.jewishgen.org/databases/cemetery/jowbr.php?rec=J_ARGENTIN_0071081 ↩