Category Archives: Leaving Germany

Children Orphaned by the 1918 Flu Epidemic: The Family of Clementine Goldschmidt Sondheimer, Part II

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In the last post we saw that after Clementine Goldschmidt Sondheimer died in 1918 and then her husband Nathan Sondheimer died in 1933, there were three children left orphaned: Manfred, Erich, and Augusta. They were still just teenagers at the time. But fortunately for them their grandmother Selma Cramer Goldschmidt and their extended family in Frankfurt cared for them as did their stepmother Anna.

All three were able to escape from Nazi Germany in time. We saw that  Augusta ended up in the US in early 1939 and lived with her stepmother Anna and her aunt Selma Ettlinger Oppenheimer until she married Walter Levy in 1942.

As for Augusta’s older brothers, Manfred and Erich, by 1939, they were living in England, according to the 1939 England and Wales Register. The Sondheimer brothers were living in Surrey with a couple named Friedrich and Ruth Hirsch, who were not much older than they were; Friedrich was a metal broker. Manfred was working as the secretary and Erich as a clerk for a company identified as Messrs. Tonerde on their enemy alien registration cards (see images below). That was the same company where their cousin Ernst Bodenheimer was employed.

Manfred and Erich Sondheimer, The National Archives; Kew, London, England; 1939 Register; Reference: RG 101/1938C, Enumeration District: DNEA, Ancestry.com. 1939 England and Wales Register

Manfred married another Frankfurt native, Ruth Blumenthal, on June 16, 1940, in the Hendon district of London; Ruth was born on June 4, 1920, to Samuel Blumenthal and Gutta Spangenthal. She had come to London after finishing school in Germany.1 Their daughter, my fifth cousin Daniela, kindly shared a scan of their marriage registration:

Marriage certificate of Manfred Sondheimer and Ruth Blumenthal

Both Manfred and Erich were eventually interned as enemy aliens on the Isle of Man. Here is Manfred’s enemy alien registration card showing that he was then living in Surrey and working for Messrs. Tonerde. Although he was originally found to be exempt from internment, he was later interned on the Isle of Man, where he was put in charge of one of the barracks,2 and released on September 8, 1940.

Manfred Sondheimer enemy alien registration, The National Archives; Kew, London, England; HO 396 WW2 Internees (Aliens) Index Cards 1939-1947; Reference Number: HO 396/240
Piece Number Description: 240: Dead Index (Wives of Germans etc) 1941-1947: Siderer-Steppacher, Ancestry.com. UK, World War II Alien Internees, 1939-1945

Manfred’s brother Erich Selig Sondheimer also was interned on the Isle of Man. According to his enemy alien registration card, he was living with his brother Manfred in Surrey at the time of  registration and was also working for Messrs. Tonerde. But he also was later sent to the internment camp where he was the chauffeur to the commander of the camp.3 Eric was  released from the camp on September 7, 1940, the day before his brother Manfred.

Erich S Sondheimer enemy alien registration, The National Archives; Kew, London, England; HO 396 WW2 Internees (Aliens) Index Cards 1939-1947; Reference Number: HO 396/240
Piece Number Description: 240: Dead Index (Wives of Germans etc) 1941-1947: Siderer-Steppacher, Ancestry.com. UK, World War II Alien Internees, 1939-1945

On September 9, 1940, Ruth and Manfred and Erich all left England for Cuba. They had decided they would go wherever they first got a visa, and although Ruth would have preferred to go to Palestine where her parents and sister were living, the visa for Cuba came through first.4

On the same ship were their cousins Ernst and Clementine (Eisemann) Bodenheimer, who had also been interned on the Isle of Man. According to their daughter Daniela, Ruth and Manfred had a religious wedding ceremony aboard the ship to solemnize the civil ceremony they had had in London in June.5

Ernst and Clementine Bodenheimer, Manfred and Ruth Sondheimer, Erich Sondheimer, ship manifest, Ancestry.com. UK and Ireland, Outward Passenger Lists, 1890-1960

On February 17, 1941, Manfred and Ruth arrived in Miami, Florida, from Cuba. Manfred reported that the person they were going to at their destination was Anna Sondheimer in New York City. Manfred stated that he was a merchant who last permanently resided in London. He could speak five languages: German, English, French, Dutch, and Hebrew.

Manfred Sondheimer, Ancestry.com. Miami, Florida, U.S., Index to Alien Arrivals by Airplane, 1930-1942

By the time Manfred filed his declaration of intention to become a US citizen on September 12, 1941, he and Ruth were living in New York City. Manfred listed his occupation as the vice-president/secretary of an importing business.

Manfred Sondheimer, Declaration of Intention, The National Archives at Philadelphia; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; NAI Title: Declarations of Intention for Citizenship, 1/19/1842 – 10/29/1959; NAI Number: 4713410; Record Group Title: Records of District Courts of the United States, 1685-2009; Record Group Number: 21, Description: (Roll 630) Declarations of Intention for Citizenship, 1842-1959 (No 500201-501100), Ancestry.com. New York, U.S., State and Federal Naturalization Records, 1794-1943

On his World War II draft registration, he identified that company as Campro, Inc. Manfred and Ruth had two children born in New York after the war, their son Adrian and their daughter Daniela, who has generously shared so much of her family’s story with me.

Manfred Sondheimer World War 2 draft registration, Ancestry.com. U.S., World War II Draft Cards Young Men, 1940-1947

Manfred’s marriage to Ruth Blumenthal ended in divorce in 1966, and in 1968, he married another Ruth—Ruth Darmstadter Grunebaum.6 He became the vice-president of the Hugo Neu Company, a business that, as described on its website, “is a privately held company with deep experience in investing, building and managing businesses in recycling, real estate and related industries.” Manfred worked there for fifty years. One of his favorite charities was the Bibleland Museum in Jerusalem, and he worked hard to provide support and to obtain support from others for that institution.7

Manfred died on January 8, 2006, at the age of 91. He was survived by his children and grandchildren as well as his brother Erich. Those descendants have carried on the Goldschmidt commitment to Jewish education as both of Manfred’s children and all of his grandchildren have attended or are attending Jewish day school.8

Instead of going directly to the US from Cuba like his brother Manfred, Erich Sondheimer agreed to stay in Cuba so that another relative, one of his Sondheimer cousins, could leave for the US. Because he was unable to get a visa to the US, Erich ended up living for some years in Ecuador,9 where he married his wife Joan Charlotte Salomon on October 26, 1943. She was born in Berlin on March 31, 1912, to Herman and Gertrud Salomon.10

Erich and Joan immigrated to the US on August 22, 1946, arriving in Miami, Florida. On an information sheet filed with INS upon his arrival, Erich indicated that they were heading to Long Beach, New Jersey, where Anna Sondheimer, his stepmother, was living. (This is probably a mistake and should have been Long Beach, New York, according to Erich’s niece Daniela.) Erich described his occupation as “industrial” and noted that he, like his brother Manfred, was able to read five languages: German, Dutch, French, Spanish, and English.

Erich Sondheimer, The National Archives at Washington, D.C.; Washington, D.C.; Series Title: Passenger and Crew Manifests of Airplanes Arriving at Miami, Florida; NAI Number: 2788537; Record Group Title: Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, 1787 – 2004; Record Group Number: 85, Roll Number: 133, Ancestry.com. Florida, U.S., Arriving and Departing Passenger and Crew Lists, 1898-1963

Erich (later spelled Eric in the US) and Joan settled in New York and made several trips to South America as well as other destinations over the years. They did not have children. Joan died November 22, 2009; she was 97 years old.11 Eric died March 8, 2010, less than four months after Joan. He was 94.12

Eric worked for many years for the Melanol Corporation, an oil trading business, but his niece Daniela said that his real passion was his volunteer work for an organization called Selfhelp Community Services that Selma Ettlinger Sondheimer was also involved in developing.13 Selfhelp describes itself on its website as follows:

Selfhelp Community Services was founded in 1936 to help those fleeing Nazi Germany maintain their independence and dignity as they struggled to forge new lives in America. Today, Selfhelp is one of the largest and most respected not-for-profit human service agencies in the New York metropolitan area, with 46 programs offering services throughout Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx, Nassau and Suffolk Counties, and Westchester. Selfhelp provides a broad set of services to more than 20,000 elderly, frail, and vulnerable New Yorkers each year, while remaining the largest provider of comprehensive services to Holocaust survivors in North America.

In a death notice published in The New York Times on March 9, 2010, Selfhelp paid tribute to Eric Sondheimer and his long and dedicated service to their organization:14

Selfhelp Community Services deeply mourns the passing of the esteemed elder statesman of our Board, Eric S. Sondheimer. For over fifty years, Mr. Sondheimer demonstrated an unwavering commitment to Selfhelp’s historic mission of supporting life with dignity to survivors of the Holocaust. His passion for independent living is evidenced by Selfhelp’s six residences, built under his guidance and direction, which house 1,000 seniors. Mr. Sondheimer will be lovingly remembered as a true gentleman whose exceptional kindness and wit was matched only by his insightful wisdom and vision. He left an extraordinary legacy for which he will always be remembered.

Thank you to my fifth cousin Daniela for sharing her family stories and photographs, including these two of her Sondheimer family. First, a photograph of Ruth Blumenthal Sondheimer, Daniela’s mother, Selma Ettlinger Sondheimer, the widow of Nathan Sondheimer’s brother Fritz, and Joan Charlotte Salomon Sondheimer, Erich Sondheimer’s wife:

Ruth Blumenthal Sondheimer, Selma Ettlinger Sondheimer, Joan Charlotte Sondheimer. Courtesy of the family

This last photograph is of four of the Sondheimer siblings and their spouses. It includes Manfred and Eric Sondheimer’s half-siblings, Fred (previously known as Fritz) and Marion. Their sister Augusta had already died when this photo was taken.

Robert Couturier, Joan Charlotte Sondheimer, Fred Sondheimer, Marion Sondheimer Couturier, Ruth Grunenbaum Sondheimer, Manfred Sondheimer, Eric Sondheimer. Courtesy of the family.

Reading about Manfred and Eric and their sister Augusta and how successful and well-loved they all were was reassuring and uplifting. Here were three children who lost their mother as preschoolers and their father as teens and then had to escape from Nazi Germany. Eric and Manfred were both interned as enemy aliens on the Isle of Man. Both brothers then escaped to Cuba because they couldn’t get into the US as quickly due to visa issues and quotas. And then finally they both settled in New York and lived very long and productive lives.

Once again I am inspired by the resilience of the human spirit and the ability of people to survive terrible losses and displacement and yet go on to find joy and meaning in life.

 

 

 

 

 

  1. Ruth Blumenthal Sondheimer, Gender: Female, Race: White, Birth Date: 4 Jun 1920, Birth Place: Frankfurt, Federal Republic of Germany, Death Date: 27 Oct 1996
    Father: Samuel Blumenthal, Mother: Gutta Spagenthal, SSN: 060405088, Ancestry.com. U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007. Conversation with Daniela Sondheimer Klein, December 1, 2020. Volume Number: 3a
    Page Number: 2220, General Register Office; United Kingdom; Volume: 3a; Page: 2220, Ancestry.com. England & Wales, Civil Registration Marriage Index, 1916-2005 ↩
  2. Conversation with Daniela Sondheimer Klein, December 1, 2020. ↩
  3. Ibid. ↩
  4. Ibid. ↩
  5. Ibid. ↩
  6. Divorce documents provided by Daniela Sondheimer Klein. Ruth Grunebaum
    Gender: Female, Marriage License Date: 1968, Marriage License Place: Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA, Spouse: Manfred Sondheimer, License Number: 2434,
    New York City Municipal Archives; New York, New York; Borough: Manhattan, Ancestry.com. New York, New York, U.S., Marriage License Indexes, 1907-2018 ↩
  7. Death notices for Manfred Oppenheimer, The New York Times, Jan. 10, 2006, Section C, Page 17. Conversation with Daniela Sondheimer Klein, December 1, 2020. ↩
  8. Conversation with Daniela Sondheimer Klein, December 1, 2020. Manfred Sondheimer, Social Security Number: 051-18-3476, Birth Date: 27 Oct 1914, Issue Year: Before 1951, Issue State: New York, Last Residence: 10024, New York, New York, New York, Death Date: 8 Jan 2006, Social Security Administration; Washington D.C., USA; Social Security Death Index, Master File, Ancestry.com. U.S., Social Security Death Index, 1935-2014 ↩
  9. Conversation with Daniela Sondheimer Klein, December 1, 2020. ↩
  10. David Baron and Roger Cibella, Goldschmidt Family Report. Joan Charlotte Sondheimer, Birth Date: 31 Mar 1912, Age: 39, Naturalization Date: 25 Feb 1952
    Residence: New York, New York, Title and Location of Court: New York Southern District, Ancestry.com. New York, U.S., Index to Petitions for Naturalization filed in New York City, 1792-1989 ↩
  11. Joan Sondheimer, Social Security Number: 094-24-2094, Birth Date: 31 Mar 1912
    Issue Year: Before 1951, Issue State: New York, Last Residence: 10024, New York, New York, New York, Death Date: 22 Nov 2009, Social Security Administration; Washington D.C., USA; Social Security Death Index, Master File, Ancestry.com. U.S., Social Security Death Index, 1935-2014 ↩
  12.  Eric Sondheimer, Social Security Number: 070-24-6828, Birth Date: 10 Nov 1915
    Issue Year: Before 1951, Issue State: New York, Last Residence: 10024, New York, New York, New York, Death Date: 8 Mar 2010, Social Security Administration; Washington D.C., USA; Social Security Death Index, Master File, Ancestry.com. U.S., Social Security Death Index, 1935-2014 ↩
  13. Conversation with Daniela Sondheimer Klein, December 1, 2020. ↩
  14. Death notice for Eric Sondheimer, The New York Times, March 9, 2010. ↩

Children Orphaned by the 1918 Flu Epidemic: The Family of Clementine Goldschmidt Sondheimer, Part I

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As mentioned in an earlier post, Meyer Selig and Selma (Cramer) Goldschmidt’s daughter Clementine married Nathan Sondheimer in 1913 and had three children: Manfred born in 1914, Erich in 1915, and Auguste in 1918. I was very fortunate to connect with Clementine’s granddaughter Daniela, daughter of Manfred Sondheimer, who generously shared with me family stories and photographs, including this wonderful photograph of the three Sondheimer children with their mother.1

Erich, Manfred, Auguste, and Clementine Goldschmidt Sondheimer, c. 1917. Courtesy of the family

Tragically, Clementine died on October 29, 1918, leaving behind three young children, Manfred, (four years old), Erich (three), and Auguste (one), and her husband Nathan Sondheimer. Clementine was only 25 years old and was a victim of the 1918 flu epidemic like her cousin Rosa Cramer Oppenheimer and millions of others. According to Clementine’s granddaughter Daniela, Clementine was pregnant with her fourth child at the time of her death.

Clementine Goldschmidt Sondheimer death record, Personenstandsregister Sterberegister; Bestand: 903; Signatur: 10793, Ancestry.com. Hesse, Germany, Deaths, 1851-1958

Daniela shared with me that after their mother died, her father Manfred and his siblings were raised in large part by their maternal grandmother, Selma Cramer Goldschmidt, the wife of Meyer Selig Goldschmidt, who himself died in 1922. The entire Goldschmidt extended family was extremely close and lived near each other, so there was a great deal of support for Clementine’s three young children. That was especially important when Auguste came down with tuberculosis and was extremely ill and in and out of sanitoria. Fortunately she eventually recovered and regained her strength.2

Here are three more photographs of the Sondheimer children, two of just the three of them and one with the extended family:

Manfred, Auguste, and Erich Sondheimer, c. 1921 Courtesy of the family

Manfred, Erich, and Auguste Sondheimer, c. 1923 Courtesy of the family

Members of the extended Goldschmidt and Sondheimer families at the North Sea, c. 1927. At far right in the first row is Nathan Sondheimer. To his right is Manfred and then Auguste with Erich behind them. Courtesy of the family

In 1928, ten years after Clementine’s death, her widower Nathan Sondheimer remarried, and he had two more children with his second wife, Anna Ettlinger, a doctor who graduated from the University of Heidelberg, according to my cousin Daniela. Anna was born in Karlsruhe, Germany, on May 28, 1894, to Kaufmann Ettlinger and Dora Frankel.3 She was likely a distant cousin of Nathan through his mother Auguste Ettlinger as both were originally from Karlsruhe, Germany. I traced them both back four generations without finding a direction connection, but I assume there is one there.

Nathan Sondheimer and Anna Ettlinger marriage record, Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv; Wiesbaden, Deutschland; Bestand: 903, Ancestry.com. Hesse, Germany, Marriages, 1849-1930

Then just five years after he married Anna, Nathan died on May 13, 1933, in Washington, DC. According to his granddaughter Daniela, Nathan had traveled to Washington to promote his business. While there he secured a life insurance policy. Then, without warning, he died suddenly of a heart attack at the age of 54.4

Nathan and Clementine’s three children were now teenaged orphans. Manfred was eighteen, Erich was seventeen, and Auguste was fifteen. Clementine’s children had lost both of their parents before reaching adulthood just as had happened to the children of her cousin Rosa Cramer Oppenheimer. It also left Nathan’s second wife Anna a widow with their two little children, Fritz and Marion, both under the age of five.

Fortunately, Nathan had successfuly secured that life insurance policy just days before his death, and the proceeds proved to be enough to get his body back to Germany for burial in Frankfurt and to get his widow Anna and his five children out of Germany.

According to the website of the Holocaust Museum of Los Angeles, Anna Ettlinger Sondheimer fled Nazi Germany in 1935 and smuggled eighteen sapphires out of the country by sewing them into the clothing of the family. Some of those sapphires are now in the museum’s collection.

It appears that Anna and her two children Fritz and Marion escaped to Holland. A ship manifest shows her sailing to the US with her sister Kate Ettlinger in June 1938; Anna listed her last permanent residence as The Hague, Holland, and indicated she intended to stay in the US permanently.5 Then in September 1938, she sailed from the US to England, listing her last residence as the US.

Anna Sondheimer, ship manifest, The National Archives of the UK; Kew, Surrey, England; Board of Trade: Commercial and Statistical Department and successors: Inwards Passenger Lists.; Class: BT26; Piece: 1165, Ancestry.com. UK and Ireland, Incoming Passenger Lists, 1878-1960

On February 11, 1939, Anna returned to the US with Fritz and Marion and her mother, who had all been living in Holland. Anna and her children listed as the person they were going to in the US an A. Sondheimer—identified as Anna’s daughter and the sister of her two children, living at 1359 51st Street in Brooklyn, New York. (See the third image below.)

Anna Sondheimer, ship manifest, with children and mother, Year: 1939; Arrival: New York, New York, USA; Microfilm Serial: T715, 1897-1957; Line: 29; Page Number: 33 Source Information Ancestry.com. New York, U.S., Arriving Passenger and Crew Lists (including Castle Garden and Ellis Island),

I first assumed that A. Sondheimer was Auguste Sondheimer, who was Anna’s stepdaughter and her children’s half-sister. But I found two manifests—one an outgoing manifest from England, the other an arrival manifest in New York—showing that Auguste sailed from England to New York in August 1939, six months after Anna’s arrival back to the US in February. Auguste was  accompanied by  Selma Sondheimer, who was the widow of Fritz Sondheimer, Nathan Sondheimer’s brother. Both of those manifests show that Auguste had been living in England, not in Brooklyn. They also reveal that Auguste was a photographer.6

I searched for any other A. Sondheimer who could have been living in Brooklyn at that time. Nathan did have two brothers who came to the US. One, Arthur, had died in New York in 1905;7 the other, Albert, arrived in the US in April 1939, so months after Anna’s arrival.8

And then the lightbulb went on. The “A. Sondheimer” they were going to in Brooklyn was Anna Ettlinger Sondheimer herself. Anna listed her last residence as Brooklyn on that February 1939 manifest. The poor shipping company clerk who entered the data must have been so confused. Look at how he crossed out the relationships in the first column for the person left behind, another A. Sondheimer, this one probably Albert Sondheimer, Nathan’s brother. And he also listed the A. Sondheimer they were going to as the daughter of both Anna’s mother and of Anna herself.

In any event, the 1940 US census shows that Augusta (spelled here with a A at the end, not an E) was then living in New York City with Anna, Fritz, Marion, Anna’s mother Dora Rudlia Frankel Ettlinger, and Anna’s sister-in-law Selma Ettlinger Sondheimer, the widow of Nathan’s brother Fritz and Nathan’s first cousin. Anna was practicing medicine.

Augusta Sondheimer, 1940 US census, Year: 1940; Census Place: New York, New York, New York; Roll: m-t0627-02638; Page: 3B; Enumeration District: 31-626, Ancestry.com. 1940 United States Federal Census

Auguste married Walter James Levy in New York in April, 1942.9 Walter was also a refugee from Germany; he was born in Hamburg on March 21, 1911, to Moses Levy and Bertha Lindenberger.10 Walter arrived in the US on March 19, 1941, and filed his declaration of intention to become a US citizen on August 6, 1941, listing his occupation as statistician and his last residence as England.11 He also by that time had registered for the World War II draft, listing his occupation as writer, statistician, economist. Most interestingly, he listed as his contact person a “friend,” Augusta Sondheimer. They were both living at 41 Central Park West in New York City. Less than a year later, they were married.

Walter Levy, World War II draft registration, Ancestry.com. U.S., World War II Draft Cards Young Men, 1940-1947

During the war, they moved to Washington, DC, where Walter ran the petroleum section of the Office of Strategic Services, the forerunner of the Central Intelligence Agency. According to Walter’s obituary in The New York Times:

After the war, he guided the petroleum sector of the Marshall Plan. In 1948 he became chief of the petroleum, oil and lubricant division of the Economic Cooperation Administration, which administered the plan to mend Europe’s shattered economies and provide the political stability for democratic institutions to thrive. He filled that job until 1949 and continued to advise the E.C.A. until it ended its mission two years later.

During the 1940s, Walter and Augusta (as she later spelled it in the US) had two children, Robert and Susan. They returned to New York where Walter established his own international consulting business, Walter J. Levy Consultants Corporation, where he “helped renegotiate oil leases between states that wanted to tap their own resources effectively and companies that feared outright nationalization.”12

Augusta Sondheimer Levy died on September 19, 1981, in Westport, Connecticut; she was 64 years old.13 Her son Robert died only twelve years later on April 20, 1993; he was only 47.14 Walter Levy died at age 86 on December 10, 1997, in New York; he was described as “the dean of United States oil economists” in his obituaries.15 Sadly, Augusta and Walter’s remaining child also died relatively young; Susan Levy died on November 15, 2003, Altamonte Springs, California; she was 54.16 All four family members are buried at the Riverside Cemetery in Saddle Brook, New Jersey, where many other Sondheimer relatives are also buried. As neither Robert or Susan had children, there are no living descendants of Augusta Sondheimer Levy.

But Augusta survived the loss of her mother, her father, and then her homeland. Her name and her story should not be forgotten.

What about Augusta’s older brothers, Manfred and Erich?

To be continued.

  1. My fifth cousin Daniela Sondheimer Klein and I exchanged numerous emails in November and December and also spoke by Zoom on December 1, 2020. All references to matters in this post that I was told by Daniela came from those emails and that conversation. ↩
  2. See also Arnold S. Oppenheimer, The Story of My Life (2007, Jerusalem), pp. 15-18. ↩
  3. Anna Ettinger, Gender: weiblich (Female), Birth Date: 28 Mai 1894 (28 May 1894)
    Birth Place: Karlsruhe, Baden (Baden-Württemberg), Deutschland (Germany), Civil Registration Office: Karlsruhe, Father: Kaufmann Ettinger, Mother: Dora Frünkel, Certificate Number: 968, Signatur: 3_B_A_I_47, Bestand: 3/B, Title: Enthält: Einträge Nr. 938 – 1875, Date: 1894, Lange: 20, Laufende Nummer: A/I/47, Zahlung Gesamter Bestand: 47, Ancestry.com. Karlsruhe, Germany, Births, 1870-1904. Conversation with Daniela Sondheimer Klein, December 1, 2020. ↩
  4.   Nathan Sondheimer, Gender: männlich (Male), Nationality: Deutsch Juden, Record Type: Inventory, Last Residence: Frankfurt am Main, Residence Place: Frankfurt am Main, Death Date: 13 Mai 1933 (13 May 1933), Notes: Inventories of personal estates of foreigners and especially German Jews, Reference Number: 02010101 oS, Document ID: 70367447, Arolsen Archives, Digital Archive; Bad Arolsen, Germany; Lists of Persecutees 2.1.1.1, Ancestry.com. Free Access: Europe, Registration of Foreigners and German Persecutees, 1939-1947. Conversation with Daniela Sondheimer Klein, December 1, 2020. ↩
  5. Anna Sondheimer, ship manifest, Year: 1938; Arrival: New York, New York, USA; Microfilm Serial: T715, 1897-1957; Line: 1; Page Number: 2, Ancestry.com. New York, U.S., Arriving Passenger and Crew Lists (including Castle Garden and Ellis Island), ↩
  6. Auguste and Selma Sondheimer, ship manifests, Ancestry.com. UK and Ireland, Outward Passenger Lists, 1890-1960, and Year: 1939; Arrival: New York, New York, USA; Microfilm Serial: T715, 1897-1957; Line: 5; Page Number: 149, Ship or Roll Number: Champlain, Ancestry.com. New York, U.S., Arriving Passenger and Crew Lists (including Castle Garden and Ellis Island), 1820-1957 ↩
  7. New York, New York City Municipal Deaths, 1795-1949″, database, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:27BT-FK8 : 3 June 2020), Arthur Sondheimer, 1905. ↩
  8. Albert Sondheimer, ship manifest, Year: 1939; Arrival: New York, New York, USA; Microfilm Serial: T715, 1897-1957; Line: 15; Page Number: 26, Ancestry.com. New York, U.S., Arriving Passenger and Crew Lists (including Castle Garden and Ellis Island), ↩
  9.  Auguste Sondheimer, Gender: Female, Marriage License Date: 10 Apr 1942, Marriage License Place: Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA, Spouse: Walter Levy, License Number: 7458, New York City Municipal Archives; New York, New York; Borough: Manhattan; Volume Number: 3, Ancestry.com. New York, New York, U.S., Marriage License Indexes, 1907-2018 ↩
  10. Walter James Levy, [Walter J Levy], Gender: Male, Race: White, Birth Date: 21 Mar 1911, Birth Place: Hamburg, Federal Republic of Germany, Death Date: 10 Dec 1997, Claim Date: 17 Dec 1975, Father: Moses Levi, Mother: Bertha Lindenberger
    SSN: 110240194, Ancestry.com. U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007 ↩
  11. Walter J Levy, Declaration Number: 496713, Box Number: 370, The National Archives at Philadelphia; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; NAI Title: Declarations of Intention for Citizenship, 1/19/1842 – 10/29/1959; NAI Number: 4713410; Record Group Title: Records of District Courts of the United States, 1685-2009; Record Group Number: 21,
    Ancestry.com. New York, U.S., State and Federal Naturalization Records, 1794-1943 ↩
  12. “Walter James Levy, 86, Oil Consultant, Dies,” The New York Times, December 15, 1997, Section B, p. 7. ↩
  13. State File #: 19446, Connecticut Department of Health. Connecticut Death Index, 1949-2012 ↩
  14. Walter James Levy, [Walter J Levy], Gender: Male, Race: White, Birth Date: 21 Mar 1911, Birth Place: Hamburg, Federal Republic of Germany, Death Date: 10 Dec 1997, Claim Date: 17 Dec 1975, Father: Moses Levi, Mother: Bertha Lindenberger
    SSN: 110240194, Ancestry.com. U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007. “Walter James Levy, 86, Oil Consultant, Dies,” The New York Times, December 15, 1997, Section B, p. 7. ↩
  15. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/80079636/robert-levy ↩
  16. Susan Beatrice Levy, Gender: Female, Birth Date: 23 Sep 1949, Birth Place: New York City, New York, Death Date: 1 Nov 2003, SSN: 065384544, Ancestry.com. U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007 ↩

Meyer Selig Goldschmidt’s Descendants Scattered Across the World

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As we’ve seen, Meyer Selig Goldschmidt and his wife Selma Cramer Goldschmidt had three children who survived them as well as a daughter Clementine who predeceased them. This post will report on the three who outlived them and also survived the Holocaust: Harry, Arthur, and Alice.

Harry Goldschmidt

Meyer and Selma’s oldest child Harry, his wife Fanny Steindecker, and their son Walter Selig Goldschmidt had moved to Paris, France, by 1933. Harry is listed on a ship manifest to New York, his occupation as an antiquary, and his marital status as married.1 But by 1936 when Harry is next listed on a ship manifest, his marital status is listed as single.2

Both Fanny (returning to her birth name Steindecker) and their son Walter Selig Goldschmidt immigrated to the US on February 18, 1942. Walter listed his occupation as bank clerk on the ship manifest. Fanny reported that she was divorced. They listed their last residence as Cassis, France, a community near Marseille in the south of France. I wonder if they’d been hiding there, waiting for a ship and visa to get to the US, as by February, 1942, the Nazis were occupying northern France and southern France was controlled by the Vichy government, considered a mere puppet government of the Nazis or even their allies and collaborators.

Fanny Steindecker, Walter Goldschmidt ship manifest, The National Archives at Washington, D.C.; Washington, D.C.; Passenger and Crew Lists of Vessels Arriving at Newport News, Virginia; NAI Number: 2877802; Record Group Title: Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, 1787-2004; Record Group Number: 85, Roll Number: 10, Ancestry.com. Virginia, U.S., Arriving Passenger and Crew Lists, 1904-1963

On her 1942 declaration of intention Fanny reported that she was divorced from Harry Goldschmidt and that Harry was living in Aix-en-Provence in southern France. Perhaps he was hiding from the Nazis. Also, Fanny reported that her last residence was Cairo, Egypt, and that she had sailed from Casablanca, Morocco. Her travels show how difficult it was for people to get out of Europe by 1942.

Fanny Steindecker, Declaration of Intention, The National Archives at Philadelphia; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; NAI Title: Declarations of Intention for Citizenship, 1/19/1842 – 10/29/1959; NAI Number: 4713410; Record Group Title: Records of District Courts of the United States, 1685-2009; Record Group Number: 21, Description: (Roll 657) Declarations of Intention for Citizenship, 1842-1959 (No 525001-525900), Ancestry.com. New York, U.S., State and Federal Naturalization Records, 1794-1943

Interestingly, her son Walter’s declaration of intention differed in some details from that of his mother, even though they were on the same ship. Walter listed his last residence as Cassis and said he emigrated from Marseille. Had Fanny left for Cairo and then Casablanca and met Walter on the ship? Unfortunately the ship manifest above does not name from which port the ship departed.

Walter Selig Goldschmidt, declaration of intention, The National Archives at Philadelphia; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; NAI Title: Declarations of Intention for Citizenship, 1/19/1842 – 10/29/1959; NAI Number: 4713410; Record Group Title: Records of District Courts of the United States, 1685-2009; Record Group Number: 21, Description: (Roll 660) Declarations of Intention for Citizenship, 1842-1959 (No 527701-528600), Ancestry.com. New York, U.S., State and Federal Naturalization Records, 1794-1943

On his World War II draft registration filed in May, 1942, Walter reported that he was employed by the Filtered Water Service Corporation, and both he and his mother were living at 21 West 86th Street in New York City. He also listed his citizenship as French.

Walter Selig Goldschmidt World War II draft registration, Ancestry.com. U.S., World War II Draft Cards Young Men, 1940-1947

Walter married Nicole Meyer in New York on February 6, 1946.3 She was born in Paris on June 12, 1923, to Emile Meyer and Georgette Hagenauer.4 Walter became a naturalized US citizen on July 15, 1948, and was still living in New York City at that time.5  Walter and Nicole had two children born in the 1950s, one in France and one in New York, and by 1959 the family was living in Paris and Walter was now claiming that his nationality was French, not American.6

According to David Baron and Roger Cibella’s research, Harry Goldschmidt died in Paris on November 12, 1970. His son Walter Selig Goldschmidt died in Paris in October 1982,7 and Walter’s mother Fanny Steindecker also ultimately returned to France where she died on November 15, 1987, at the age of 95.8

Arthur Goldschmidt

Meyer and Selma Goldschmidt’s second oldest child was their son Arthur Goldschmidt, and I have very little information about his life. I’ve not been able to find a ship manifest or any other record for Arthur between his 1924 marriage record to Martha Mitterhauser Widmer and his World War II draft registration dated 1946. By that time Arthur was living in New York City and self-employed.

Arthur Goldschmidt World War II draft registration, The National Archives at St. Louis; St. Louis, Missouri; Record Group Title: Records of the Selective Service System; Record Group Number: 147, Ancestry.com. U.S., World War II Draft Registration Cards, 1942

He did not list Martha as his contact person, and in fact in 1955 he married Anna Maria Kelsen9 so his marriage to Martha had obviously ended sometime between 1924 and 1955. Anna Maria Kelsen was born on February 7, 1907, in Berlin.10

I don’t have any other details about Arthur except that he died while traveling in Zurich, Switzerland, on August 22, 1960, from pneumonia and heart failure. The report on his death indicates that his address was in New York City, but that his widow Anne Marie Kelsen Goldschmidt with whom he’d been traveling also had an address in Paris. From the passenger card for Anne Marie traveling to Paris in April 1960, it appears that Arthur and Anne Marie had residences in both cities.11 I have found no evidence that Arthur had any children with either of his wives.

Arthur Goldschmidt death record, National Archives at College Park; College Park, Maryland, U.S.A.; NAI Number: 302021; Record Group Title: General Records of the Department of State; Record Group Number: Record Group 59; Series Number: Publication A1 205; Box Number: 399; Box Description: 1960-1963 Switzerland A – L, Box Number: Box 0399: 1960 – 1962
Ancestry.com. U.S., Reports of Deaths of American Citizens Abroad, 1835-1974

Alice Goldschmidt Eisemann

Whereas Harry had immigrated to France and Arthur to the US, Meyer Selig and Selma’s youngest child, their daughter Alice, and her husband Heinrich Eisemann escaped to England. They are listed on the 1939 England and Wales Register residing in London. Heinrich was working as a dealer in books of antiquity. They are not listed with any of their children, although there is one line blacked out that could be one of their six children. (I do not think that Berta Goldschmidt, their cook and housekeeper, was a relative.)

Heinrich and Alice Eisemann, The National Archives; Kew, London, England; 1939 Register; Reference: RG 101/564D, Enumeration District: AWAD, Ancestry.com. 1939 England and Wales Register

Alice and Heinrich became British citizens, as indicated on a 1952 ship manifest for a visit to New York.12 Alice died in London on January 18, 1965 when she was 68 years old;13 her husband Heinrich survived her by eight years, dying in 1973 in England.14

Alice and Heinrich might have been visiting their daughter Clementine Eisemann Bodenheimer on that 1952 trip to New York. Clementine, who was born in Frankfurt on October 16, 1920,15 was married to Ernst Bodenheimer. Ernst was born on December 5, 1905, in Frankfurt,and is listed on the 1939 England and Wales Register as a manager of a chemical company. 16  According to David Baron and Roger Cibella’s research, Ernst and Clementine married on the Isle of Man where they must have been interned as enemy aliens. Ernst’s registration as an enemy alien indicates that he was released on September 7, 1940, and heading to Cuba.

Ernst Bodenheimer enemy alien registration, The National Archives; Kew, London, England; HO 396 WW2 Internees (Aliens) Index Cards 1939-1947; Reference Number: HO 396/167
Piece Number Description: 167: German Internees Released in UK 1939-1942: Berk-Bohr
Ancestry.com. UK, World War II Alien Internees, 1939-1945

This ship manifest shows that Ernst and Clementine did in fact leave England for Cuba on September 9, 1940.

Ernst and Clementine Bodenheimer ship manifest, Ancestry.com. UK and Ireland, Outward Passenger Lists, 1890-1960

As we will see in a post to follow, Clementine (Eisemann) and Ernst Bodenheimer were on the same ship as Clementine’s first cousins, Manfred and Eric Sondheimer, the sons of Clementine Goldschmidt Sondenheimer, Clementine Eisemann’s aunt, her mother’s sister.

On July 1, 1941, Ernst Bodenheimer registered for the World War II draft. He and Clementine were living in Brooklyn, and Ernst was employed by Tonerde, Inc.17 Clementine and Ernst had three children in the 1940s, all born in New York.

Ernst Bodenheimer died at the age of 94 on September 12, 2000.18 Clementine Eisemann Bodenheimer died seven years later on December 21, 2007. She was 87. They are survived by their children and other descendants.19

The other children of Alice Goldschmidt and Heinrich Eisemann are either still living or have living spouses so in the interest of privacy, I will not be writing about them. Suffice it to say, Alice and Heinrich have many grandchildren and great-grandchildren living in many parts of the world.

 

  1. Harry Goldschmidt, ship manifest, Year: 1933; Arrival: New York, New York, USA; Microfilm Serial: T715, 1897-1957; Line: 26; Page Number: 6, Description Ship or Roll Number: Ile de France, Ancestry.com. New York, U.S., Arriving Passenger and Crew Lists (including Castle Garden and Ellis Island), 1820-1957 ↩
  2. Harry Goldschmidt, ship manifest, Year: 1936; Arrival: New York, New York, USA; Microfilm Serial: T715, 1897-1957; Line: 16; Page Number: 8, Ancestry.com. New York, U.S., Arriving Passenger and Crew Lists (including Castle Garden and Ellis Island), 1820-1957 ↩
  3. Walter S Goldschmidt, Gender: Male, Marriage License Date: 29 Jan 1946
    Marriage License Place: Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA, Spouse: Nicole Meyer, License Number: 3469, New York City Municipal Archives; New York, New York; Borough: Manhattan; Volume Number: 5, Ancestry.com. New York, New York, U.S., Marriage License Indexes, 1907-2018. The marriage date itself comes from Baron and Cibella. ↩
  4. Nicole Estelle Meyer, Gender: femme (Female), Death Age: 92, Birth Date: 12 juin 1923 (12 Jun 1923), Birth Place: Paris-14e-Arrondissement, Paris, Death Date: 22 mars 2016 (22 Mar 2016), Death Place: Paris-16E-Arrondissement, Paris, France
    Certificate Number: 366, Institut National de la Statistique et des Etudes Economiques (Insee); Paris, France; Fichier des personnes décédées; Roll #: deces-2016.txt, Ancestry.com. Web: France, Death Records, 1970-2018. Original data: Fichier des personnes décédées. France: data.gouv.fr. https://www.data.gouv.fr/fr/datasets/fichier-des-personnes-decedees/:accessed 15 October, 2020. Parents’ names are from Baron and CIbella. ↩
  5. Walter Goldschmidt, Birth Date: 3 Feb 1915, Age: 33, Naturalization Date: 15 Jul 1948, Residence: New York, New York, Title and Location of Court: New York Southern District, Ancestry.com. New York, U.S., Index to Petitions for Naturalization filed in New York City, 1792-1989 ↩
  6. Walter Goldschmidt, Nationality: French, Arrival Age: 44, Birth Date: 3 Feb 1915
    Birth Place: Frankfurt/Main, Arrival Date: 4 Feb 1959, Arrival Place: New York, New York, USA, Destination: New York, Airline: PAA, Flight Number: 115/03, The National Archives at Washington, D.C.; Washington, D.C.; NAI Number: 2848504; Record Group Title: Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, 1787 – 2004; Record Group Number: 85; Series Number: A3998; NARA Roll Number: 140, Ancestry.com. New York State, Passenger and Crew Lists, 1917-1967 ↩
  7. Walter Goldschmidt, Social Security Number: 108-18-8193, Birth Date: 3 Feb 1915, Issue Year: Before 1951, Issue State: New York, Last Residence: 912, (U.S. Consulate) Paris, France, Last Benefit: 912, (U.S. Consulate) Paris, France
    Death Date: Oct 1982, Social Security Administration; Washington D.C., USA; Social Security Death Index, Master File, Ancestry.com. U.S., Social Security Death Index, 1935-2014. See also FindAGrave entry at https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/185496471/walter-goldschmidt ↩
  8. Fanny Steindecker, Gender: femme (Female), Death Age: 95, Birth Date: 11 déc. 1891 (11 Dec 1891), Birth Place: Paris-16e-Arrondissement, Paris, Death Date: 4 nov. 1987, Death Place: Saint-Maur-Des-Fosses, Val-De-Marne, France, Certificate Number: 678, Institut National de la Statistique et des Etudes Economiques (Insee); Paris, France; Fichier des personnes décédées; Roll #: deces-1987.txt, Ancestry.com. Web: France, Death Records, 1970-2018. Original data: Fichier des personnes décédées. France: data.gouv.fr. https://www.data.gouv.fr/fr/datasets/fichier-des-personnes-decedees/:accessed 15 October, 2020. ↩
  9.  Arthur Goldschmidt, Gender: Male, Marriage License Date: 1955, Marriage License Place: Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA, Spouse: Anne Kelsen, License Number: 24215, New York City Municipal Archives; New York, New York; Borough: Manhattan, Ancestry.com. New York, New York, U.S., Marriage License Indexes, 1907-2018 ↩
  10. Anne Marie K Goldschmidt, Nationality: American, Arrival Age: 53, Birth Date: 7 Feb 1907, Birth Place: Berlin Germany, Arrival Date: 1 Apr 1960, Arrival Place: New York, New York, USA, Destination: New York, Airline: Air France, Flight Number: 0707
    Ancestry.com. New York State, Passenger and Crew Lists, 1917-1967 ↩
  11. Ibid. ↩
  12. Alice and Heinrich Eisemann, ship manifest, Year: 1952; Arrival: New York, New York, USA; Microfilm Serial: T715, 1897-1957; Line: 5; Page Number: 228, 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 ↩
  13. Alice Eisemann, Death Date: 18 Jan 1965, Death Place: London, England
    Probate Date: 5 Apr 1965, Probate Registry: London, England, Source Information
    Ancestry.com. England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1858-1995 ↩
  14.  Heinrich Eisemann, Death Age: 82, Birth Date: 7 Aug 1890,
    Registration Quarter: Oct-Nov-Dec 1973, Registration District: Islington
    Inferred County: Greater London, Volume: 5c, Page: 1806, General Register Office; United Kingdom; Volume: 5c; Page: 1806, Ancestry.com. England & Wales, Civil Registration Death Index, 1916-2007 ↩
  15.  Clementin E. Bodenheimer, Social Security Number: 059-40-5773, Birth Date: 16 Oct 1920, Issue Year: 1964, Issue State: New York, Last Residence: 10952, Monsey, Rockland, New York, Death Date: 21 Dec 2007, Social Security Administration; Washington D.C., USA; Social Security Death Index, Master File, Ancestry.com. U.S., Social Security Death Index, 1935-2014 ↩
  16. Ernst Bodenheimer, The National Archives; Kew, London, England; 1939 Register; Reference: RG 101/1884A, Enumeration District: DMFQ, Ancestry.com. 1939 England and Wales Register ↩
  17. Ernst Bodenheimer, World War II draft registration, Ancestry.com. U.S., World War II Draft Cards Young Men, 1940-1947 ↩
  18. Ernst L Bodenheimer, Gender: Male, Birth Date: 5 Dec 1905, Death Date: 12 Sep 2000, Claim Date: 4 Feb 1971, SSN: 050184990, Ancestry.com. U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007 ↩
  19.  Clementin E. Bodenheimer, Social Security Number: 059-40-5773, Birth Date: 16 Oct 1920, Issue Year: 1964, Issue State: New York, Last Residence: 10952, Monsey, Rockland, New York, Death Date: 21 Dec 2007, Social Security Administration; Washington D.C., USA; Social Security Death Index, Master File, Ancestry.com. U.S., Social Security Death Index, 1935-2014 ↩

Recha Goldschmidt Schwarzschild’s Family: From Frankfurt to England

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Once again I’ve been fortunate to connect with one of my fifth cousins, this time a great-grandson of Recha Goldschmidt and Alfred Schwarzschild. My fifth cousin Alan and I exchanged emails and chatted by Zoom earlier this week, and he has greatly enriched my understanding of his family history by sharing family stories and photographs.

Selig Goldschmidt’s third daughter Recha and her husband Alfred Schwarzschild were living a good life in Frankfurt with their three children as the twentieth century began. Here are some wonderful photographs of Recha and Alfred that my cousin Alan shared with me as well as a copy of their wedding invitation and menu:

Recha Goldschmidt Schwarzschild. Courtesy of the family.

Alfred Schwarzschild. Courtesy of the family

Recha and Alfred Schwarzschild. Courtesy of the family

This is a photograph of their daughter Clementine, Alan’s grandmother. It appears that this is a graduation photograph, taken perhaps in around 1906:

Clementine Schwarzschild c. 1906 Courtesy of the family

And here are their three children, Clementine, Robert, and Jacob, taken in around 1907:

Jacob, Robert, and Clementine Schwarzschild c. 1907

Sadly, their son Robert Meier Schwarzschild died as a young man, just 22, on July 12, 1909, in Frankfurt. Alan believes that he died from appendicitis.

Robert M Schwarzschild death record, Personenstandsregister Sterberegister; Bestand: 903; Signatur: 10651
Ancestry.com. Hesse, Germany, Deaths, 1851-1958

Recha and Alfred’s youngest child Clementine Schwarzschild married Zacharias Max Hackenbroch, son of Maximilian Hackenbroch and Getta Neuberger, on December 24, 1908, in Frankfurt; he was born on December 3, 1884, in Frankfurt.

Clementine Schwarzschild marriage record, Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv; Wiesbaden, Deutschland; Bestand: 903, Ancestry.com. Hesse, Germany, Marriages, 1849-1930

Zacharias Hackenbroch was, like his Goldschmidt in-laws, an art collector and dealer. Here are two photographs of him, one in uniform during World War I and one of him in his study. Zacharias received the Iron Cross for his service for Germany during the war and was at one point the attache to the Crown Prince of Germany, according to his grandson Alan.

Zacharias Hackenbroch Courtesy of the family

Zacharias Hackenbroch. Courtesy of the family

Clementine and Zacharias had three daughters. Lucie was born on May 17, 1910,1 Yvonne was born April 27, 1912,2 and Irene was born June 23, 1918.3 All were born in Frankfurt. This lovely photograph is of Clementine with her daughter Lucie, taken in 1910:

Clementine Schwarzschild Hackenbroch and her daughter Lucie Hackenbroch, c. 1910 Courtesy of the family

Here are two photographs of the Hackenbroch daughters, one of Irene Hackenbroch and one of Lucie and Yvonne:

Irene Hackenbroch c. 1922
Courtesy of the family

Lucie and Yvonne Hackenbroch. c. 1922 Courtesy of the family

This is a photograph of their home at Untermainkai 34 in Frankfurt before World War II:

In 1911, Recha and Alfred’s son Jacob Schwarzschild married Elsa Stern, his second cousin, as I discussed here. Jacob and Elsa had one child, Elizabeth, born in 1915, but their marriage did not last. They were divorced in 1920, and Jacob married his second wife, Sonja Hepner, in Rome, Italy later that year, and they had one child together, Robert Boris Schwarszchild, born October 20,1921.4 According to my cousin Alan, Sonja’s father was a very wealthy sugar merchant from Russia who escaped from that country after the Revolution.

Jakob Schwarzschild and Elsa Stern marriage record, Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv; Wiesbaden, Deutschland, Ancestry.com. Hesse, Germany, Marriages, 1849-1930

Recha Goldschmidt Schwarzschild died on March 3, 1929, in Frankfurt. She was sixty-five.5 Her husband Alfred Schwarzschild died on May 15, 1936, in Frankfurt.6 They were survived by their two surviving children, Jacob and Clementine.

Both Jacob and Clementine and their families escaped to England in about 1938.

Jacob/Jack Schwarzschild

Jacob Schwarzschild and his second wife Sonja Hepner were living in London in 1939, and Jacob was working as a stockbroker.7 Jacob (known as Jack in England) was interned for some time as an enemy alien on the Isle of Man, but released on September 19, 1940 and granted an exemption.

Jacob Schwarzschild enemy alien registration, The National Archives; Kew, London, England; HO 396 WW2 Internees (Aliens) Index Cards 1939-1947; Reference Number: HO 396/195
Piece Number Description: 195: German Internees Released in UK 1939-1942: Schmil-Seer
Ancestry.com. UK, World War II Alien Internees, 1939-1945

Sonja died in England on September 9, 1950.8

I didn’t know where Jack and Sonja’s son Robert Boris Schwarzschild (presumably named in part for his uncle Robert but known as Boris) was living in 1939 when the English census was taken, but Alan told me that Boris left Germany in about 1937 and went to school in Switzerland and later came to England and went to boarding school there, so he was not living with his parents in 1939. He served in the British army during World War II, fighting against his former homeland.9

In 1947 Boris was living in England, using the name Robert Boris Shields.10 In 1955 he married Elizabeth Ullmann11 with whom he had two children. He and his family had moved to Canada by 1962 and were living in Ontario.12

His father Jack died December 11, 1978, in England.13 He was 93 years old. Robert died in Canada in 2014.14

Clementine Schwarzschild Hackenbroch

Clementine’s husband Zacharias Hackenbroch died on August 9, 1937, in Frankfurt, where they were still living. Alan didn’t know the precise medical cause of death, but many  believe that the stress of Nazi persecution contributed to his early death. He was fifty-two.15

Zacharias Hackenbroch death record, Personenstandsregister Sterberegister; Bestand: 903; Signatur: 11062 Description Year Range: 1937 Source Information Ancestry.com. Hesse, Germany, Deaths, 1851-1958

After Zacharias died, the family lost their home to the Nazis, which turned it into the headquarters for Nazi youth. Once she had a visa for England in September 1938, Clementine packed up much of her furniture and art and left Germany with her daughter Irene. Her daughter Yvonne was already living there. Alan said that Yvonne had received a doctorate in art history from Munich University in December 1936 or January 1937 and had then done research in Italy before arriving in England in May 1938. In 1939 Clementine was living with her two younger daughters Yvonne and Irene in London, although they were in Sussex at the time the 1939 Register was enumerated. Yvonne was working at the British Museum in their medieval antiquities department.16

Clementine Schwarzschild Hackenbroch, The National Archives; Kew, London, England; 1939 Register; Reference: RG 101/2600C, Enumeration District: EMKJ, Ancestry.com. 1939 England and Wales Register

Alan, Clementine’s grandson, described Clementine as having a wonderful personality, always finding the silver linings even in the loss of her home in Germany, for example, noting that because of the Nazis, she learned to cook, having had a cook in her home in Frankfurt.

Clementine remarried after the war. Her second husband was Harry Cahn, also a refugee from Frankfurt, Germany.17 He was the son of Albert Cahn and Lilly Wolff and was born on November 25, 1899, in Frankfurt.18

Clementine’s oldest daughter Lucie had been to England many times before the war, starting as early as 1928 when she went to improve her English. She stayed in England several times in the 1930s on visitor visas that expired; she would leave and return on a new visa. Then she met Elliot Elias Philipp on February 18, 1939, and the two fell madly in love. They were married in a civil ceremony on March 22, 1939, which enabled Lucie to obtain a British passport. Lucie and Elliot then had a religious wedding ceremony on May 19, 1939, in Paris. 19

Elliot was born in London on July 20, 1915, the son of Oscar Philipp and Clarissa Weil.20  The Royal College of Surgeons of England website provides this biographical information about Elliot’s background:

Elliot Philipp was an eminent gynaecologist and obstetrician, author of numerous popular and technical medical works, and a committed religious and charitable Jew. He was born on 20 July 1915 to Oscar Isaac and Clarisse Philipp (née Weil) in Stoke Newington, London. He was educated at Warwick House and St Paul’s School. His father, a metal dealer from Hamburg, had come to England in 1908 to open an office, which in due course became the hub of a large and internationally successful operation. Elliot settled on a different career, deciding by the age of seven he would be a doctor, and went on to study at Cambridge University.

….At the start of the Second World War, only a month after qualifying, Elliot left his first appointment at Middlesex Hospital to join the RAF. He joined Bomber Command in East Anglia, where he was responsible for the medical centres at Feltwell and Mildenhall, and by the end of hostilities held the rank of squadron leader. He was offered a long term commission in the RAF to stay as a doctor and medical researcher, but declined, returning to Middlesex Hospital and Addenbroke’s, where he had been a clinical student.

Subsequent appointments included St Thomas’, Royal Free and University College hospitals. During this time, Elliot was writing books and newspaper articles. His first, for which he had help from his distant relative, Sigmund Freud, was The techniques of sex (London, Wales Publishing Company), first published in 1939 under the pseudonym ‘Anthony Havil’. At a time when such guides were few and far between, it became a bestseller, with numerous editions over the next 40 years. …. He married Lucie Ruth Hackenbroch in 1939, five weeks after meeting her.

Here are two photographs of Lucie and Elliot—at their May 1939 wedding in Paris and on their honeymoon:

Lucie Hackenbroch and Elliot Philipp, 1939. From Elliot Philipp, “An Autobiography” (unpublished), p. 3.

Although Alan told me that his parents bought a house in London in 1939 after marrying, Lucie and Elliot were not listed together on the England census in 1939. Lucie was listed with Elliot’s family in Sussex, and Elliot was listed in Middlesex; he was finishing his last year of medical school at that time and may have been on an emergency assignment  Alan and I speculated as to why they were living in different locations on the day the Register was enumerated. The 1939 Register was taken in late September, 1939, after the war had started. 21

And then I found the answer in Elliot Philipp’s autobiography:22

I was a medical student at the Middlesex Hospital and had been evacuated to the Harrow hospital when Mr.Neville Chamberlain made his famous announcement that we were at war with Germany. Within minutes the air-raid sirens shrilled out and no one knew what to do. Lucie and my parents were at a hotel in Brighton and within a very short time she and her mother had rented a small house in Worthing because it was thought to be safer than staying in London where the bombs were bound to drop. In fact no bombs dropped for at least nine months – the period of the ‘phoney war’.

Lucie Philipp, The National Archives; Kew, London, England; 1939 Register; Reference: RG 101/2599C, Enumeration District: EMKG, Ancestry.com. 1939 England and Wales Register

Lucie and Elliot had two children born in the 1940s.

Clementine Schwarzschild Hackenbroch Cahn lived in England the rest of her life, dying on June 26, 1984 at the age of 9523. Harry Cahn, her second husband, died four years later on January 19, 1988; he was 88.24

Lucie Hackenbroch Philipp died on July 4, 1988, in London at the age of 78;25 her husband Elliot Philipp died on September 27, 2010 when he was 95 years old after a long and well-respected career as a doctor and author of many medical articles and books.

Clementine’s daughter Yvonne Hackenbroch became an internationally renowned art curator. She had studied art in Italy and in Munich before the family emigrated from Germany. She was the last Jew to be awarded a doctorate at the University of Munich; her topic was medieval Italian enamels. After working at the British Museum during World War II, in 1946 she was sent by the British government to Canada to be responsible for curating a valuable collection of Renaissance art that had been donated to Canada, and then three years later she was invited to become a curator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York where she spent the rest of her career.

According to an obituary in the New York Times, “Her many publications established her reputation as the world’s foremost expert on Renaissance jewelry.” Yvonne died on September 7, 2012, in London, where she had retired after leaving the Metropolitan in 1987.

Clementine’s youngest daughter Irene lived the rest of her life in England. Like her sister Yvonne, she never married or had children. She traveled frequently to the United States—perhaps to visit her sister in New York—and also traveled to Brazil, indicating on her temporary immigration card that she was a secretary. Alan said that his aunt Irene was very quiet and worked for the same company for many years. She died November 9, 1987, in London.26

I am deeply grateful to my cousin Alan for taking the time to chat with me by Zoom and for sharing all these wonderful photographs and the background about his family. One final set of photographs from Alan. These three show the Hackenbroch home in Frankfurt before, during, and after the war. Today it has been torn down and a view on Google Maps shows just a hole in the ground. What an apt metaphor for what the Nazis did to the once proud Jewish community of Frankfurt.

Untermainkai 34 before the war

During the war when it was the headquarters of Nazi Youth, showing damage from Allied bombing.

After the war with the top floors of the building rebuilt

  1.  Lucie Ruth Hackenbroch, Birth Date: 17 Mai 1910, Birth Place: Frankfurt am Main
    Last Residence: Frankfurt am Main, National Archives and Records Administration (NARA); Washington, DC; Name Index of Jews Whose German Nationality Was Annulled by the Nazi Regime (Berlin Documents Center); Record Group: 242, National Archives Collection of Foreign Records Seized, 1675 – 1958; Record Group ARC ID: 569; Publication Number: T355; Roll: 3, Fränkel, Werner – Hartmann, Hermann,
    Ancestry.com. Germany, Index of Jews Whose German Nationality was Annulled by Nazi Regime, 1935-1944 ↩
  2.  Yvonne Hackenbroch, Gender: Female, Nationality: German, Birth Date: 27 Apr 1912, Birth Place: Frankfurt, Germany, The National Archives; Kew, London, England; HO 396 WW2 Internees (Aliens) Index Cards 1939-1947; Reference Number: HO 396/32, Ancestry.com. UK, World War II Alien Internees, 1939-1945 ↩
  3.  Irene Hackenbroch, Gender: Female, Nationality: German, Birth Date: 23 Jun 1918
    Birth Place: Frankfurt, Germany, The National Archives; Kew, London, England; HO 396 WW2 Internees (Aliens) Index Cards 1939-1947; Reference Number: HO 396/32, Ancestry.com. UK, World War II Alien Internees, 1939-1945 ↩
  4. Email from Alan Philipp, December 13, 2020. Robert Boris Schwarzschild,
    Birth Date: 20 Okt 1921, Birth Place: Frankfurt am Main, Last Residence: Frankfurt am Main, National Archives and Records Administration (NARA); Washington, DC; Name Index of Jews Whose German Nationality Was Annulled by the Nazi Regime (Berlin Documents Center); Record Group: 242, National Archives Collection of Foreign Records Seized, 1675 – 1958; Record Group ARC ID: 569; Publication Number: T355; Roll: 8, Schafranek, Lizzi – Stern, Moritz, Ancestry.com. Germany, Index of Jews Whose German Nationality was Annulled by Nazi Regime, 1935-1944 ↩
  5. Recha Goldschmidt, Gender: Female, Death Age: 65, Birth Date: 11 Jun 1863
    Birth Place: Frankfurt (Main), Hessen-Nassau, Preussen, Germany, Residence Place: Frankfurt (Main), Hessen-Nassau, Preußen, Germany, Death Date: 3 Mrz 1929 (3 Mar 1929), Father: Seelig Goldschmidt, Mother: Clementine Fuld, FHL Film Number: 342026, Ancestry.com. Germany, Select Births and Baptisms, 1558-1898 ↩
  6. Alfred Isaac Schwarzschild, Gender: Male, Death Age: 78, Birth Date: 14 Mai 1858 (14 May 1858), Birth Place: Frankfurt (Main), Hessen-Nassau, Preußen, Germany
    Residence Place: Frankfurt (Main), Hessen-Nassau, Preußen, Germany
    Death Date: 15 Mai 1936 (15 May 1936), Father: Isaac Schwarzschild, Mother: Roslaie Kulp, FHL Film Number: 342021, Ancestry.com. Germany, Select Births and Baptisms, 1558-1898 ↩
  7. J A Schwarzchild, Gender: Male, Marital Status: Married, Birth Date: 12 Feb 1885
    Residence Year: 1939, Address: 8 Cambridge Gate, Residence Place: St Pancras, London, England, Occupation: Stockbroker on Half Cou, Line Number: 23, Schedule Number: 151, Sub Schedule Number: 1, Enumeration District: ASAY, Borough: St Pancras, Registration district: 9/1., Inferred Spouse: Sonia Schwarzschild, Household Members Age, J A Schwayschild 54, Sonia Schwayschild 39, The National Archives; Kew, London, England; 1939 Register; Reference: RG 101/473D, Ancestry.com. 1939 England and Wales Register ↩
  8. Sonia Schwarzschild, Death Date: 9 Sep 1950, Death Place: London, England
    Probate Date: 14 Feb 1951, Probate Registry: London, England, Ancestry.com. England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1858-1995 ↩
  9. Email from Alan Philipp, December 13, 2020. ↩
  10. Robert Boris Shields, Electoral Date: 1947, Street Address: 27, Ward or Division/Constituency: Finchley East, County or Borough: Finchley, England
    London Metropolitan Archives; London, England; Electoral Registers, Ancestry.com. London, England, Electoral Registers, 1832-1965 ↩
  11. Robert B Schwarzschild, Registration Quarter: Jul-Aug-Sep 1955, Registration District: Hendon, Inferred County: Middlesex, Spouse: Ullmann, Volume Number: 5e
    Page Number: 1475, General Register Office; United Kingdom; Volume: 5e; Page: 1475, Ancestry.com. England & Wales, Civil Registration Marriage Index, 1916-2005 ↩
  12. Robert Boris Shields, Residence Date: 1962, Residence Place: York, Ontario, Canada, Electoral District: York East, Occupation: Chartered Accountant, Reference Number: M-5044, Library and Archives Canada; Ottawa, Ontario, Canada; Voters Lists, Federal Elections, 1935-1980, Ancestry.com. Canada, Voters Lists, 1935-1980 ↩
  13. Jack Alfred Schwarzschild, Death Date: 11 Dec 1978, Death Place: London
    Probate Date: 23 Mar 1979, Probate Registry: London, Ancestry.com. England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1858-1995 ↩
  14. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/168107310/robert-boris-shields ↩
  15. Email from Alan Philipp, December 13, 2020. ↩
  16. Email from Alan Philipp, December 13, 2020. Zoom conversation with Alan Philipp, December 14, 2020. ↩
  17. Clementine Hackenbroch, Registration Quarter: Jan-Feb-Mar 1946, Registration District: Hampstead, Inferred County: London, Spouse: Harry Cahn, Volume Number: 1a, Page Number: 1447, General Register Office; United Kingdom; Volume: 1a; Page: 1447, Ancestry.com. England & Wales, Civil Registration Marriage Index, 1916-2005 ↩
  18. Harry Cahn, Gender: männlich (Male), Record Type: Miscellaneous, Birth Date: 25 Sep 1899, Birth Place: Frankfurt am Main, Last Residence: Frankfurt/Main, Mainzerlandstrasse 4, Residence Place: Frankfurt am Main, Father: Albert Cahn
    Mother: Idlli Wolf, Reference Number: 02010101 oS, Document ID: 70346089
    Arolsen Archives, Digital Archive; Bad Arolsen, Germany; Lists of Persecutees 2.1.1.1,
    Ancestry.com. Free Access: Europe, Registration of Foreigners and German Persecutees, 1939-1947 ↩
  19. Lucie R Hackenbroch,Registration Quarter: Jan-Feb-Mar 1939, Registration District: Kensington, Inferred County: London, Spouse: Elliot E Philipp, Volume Number: 1a, Page Number: 291, General Register Office; United Kingdom; Volume: 1a; Page: 291, Ancestry.com. England & Wales, Civil Registration Marriage Index, 1916-2005. Email from Alan Philipp, December 13, 2020; conversation with Alan Philipp on December 14, 2020. Alan said that Lucie had known Elliot’s family for a while, but really only got to know Elliot the month before their March 22, 1939, civil ceremony. ↩
  20. Elliot E. Philipp, Gender: Male, Marital Status: Married, Birth Date: 20 Jul 1915
    Residence Year: 1939, Address: 58 Residence Place: Harrow, Middlesex, England
    Occupation: Medical Student (Final Year), Line Number: 27, Schedule Number: 65
    Sub Schedule Number: 5, Enumeration District: BIDH, Borough: Harrow, Registration district: 130/1, The National Archives; Kew, London, England; 1939 Register; Reference: RG 101/788F, Ancestry.com. 1939 England and Wales Register ↩
  21. Ibid. Email from Alan Philipp, December 14, 2020. ↩
  22. Elliot Philipp, “An Autobiography,” (unpublished), p. 54. ↩
  23. Clementine Cahn, Death Age: 95, Birth Date: 30 Aug 1888, Registration Date: Jun 1984, Registration District: Westminster, Inferred County: London, Volume: 15
    Page: 1838, General Register Office; United Kingdom; Volume: 15; Page: 1838,
    Ancestry.com. England & Wales, Civil Registration Death Index, 1916-2007 ↩
  24. Harry Cahn, Death Date: 19 Jan 1988, Death Place: London, Probate Date: 6 May 1988, Probate Registry: London, Ancestry.com. England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1858-1995 ↩
  25. Lucie Ruth Philipp, Death Date: 4 Jul 1988, Death Place: York Gate London, Probate Date: 12 Dec 1988, Probate Registry: London, Ancestry.com. England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1858-1995 ↩
  26. Irene Maximiliane Hackenbock, Death Date: 9 Nov 1987, Death Place: East London, Probate Date: 12 Feb 1988, Probate Registry: London, Ancestry.com. England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1858-1995. Email from Alan Philipp, December 14, 2020. ↩

Hedwig Goldschmidt Cramer’s Three Sons: Can You Help Me Find More Records?

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In the last post we saw that Hedwig Goldschmidt Cramer’s daughter Rosa Cramer Oppenheimer died young, her grandson William Oppenheimer died very young, and her son-in-law Arthur Oppenheimer also died young. But Rosa and Arthur’s three remaining children survived those losses and also survived the Holocaust.

This post will look at Hedwig’s three sons, Max, Sally, and Herbert Cramer, and their families in the 20th century. Unfortunately, there are many places in this post where I had to rely on secondary sources, which I am always reluctant to do, but I was unable to find many primary sources for the Cramer sons and their descendants. If anyone has suggestions—especially for finding Israeli birth, marriage, and death records and some English death records—please let me know.

UPDATE: Thank you to the many people who reached out to help, including Yehuda  from Tracing the Tribe, Anne from the German Genealogy Group on Facebook, Shirley, my cousin by marriage and friend, and a blog reader BRegenstein. I am updating this post with some of the new information and records I’ve received from them.

I was, however, able to learn more about the three Cramer sons from the book written by their nephew Arnold Selig Oppenheimer, and that source provided more inisghts into these three men. It also included some wonderful images including these portraits of Selig Goldschmidt and his wife Clementine Fuld and two photographs of their daughter Hedwig Goldschmidt Cramer:

From Arnold S Oppenheimer, The Story of My Life (2007)

From Arnold S Oppenheimer, The Story of My Life (2007)

Now, the story of Hedwig’s sons in the 20th century.

Max Cramer

From Arnold S. Oppenheimer, The Story of My Life (2007)

Max Cramer married Sidonie Charlotte Gestetner, the daughter of David Gestetner and Sophie Lazarus, in 1908.1 Sidonie was born in Islington, England, on March 12, 1888,2 and that’s where the two married.

Max and Sidonie settled in Frankfurt where their first child Ilse Caroline Cramer was born on September 17, 1909.3 Her sister Ellen was also born in Frankfurt, two years later on September 21, 1911.4 A third daughter Hilda was born on February 3, 1916,5 followed almost exactly two years later by Max and Sidonie’s fourth daughter Nelli Else, born February 13, 1918.6

When the Nazis took power in Germany, Max and his children all left Germany. Max went to Palestine. According to his Palestinian immigration papers, Max Cramer and his first wife Sidonie divorced in May, 1935, and Sidonie returned to England. Max then went to Palestine on October 21, 1935, first as a visitor, but he ultimately decided to stay and become a citizen. In 1949, he married Elfriede Sachs Gluecksohn in Israel.7 Max died in Jerusalem on July 22, 1952, according to his profile on Geni.

UPDATE: Thank you to Yehuda from TTT for locating Max’s headstone on Gravez, which confirms his date of death.

Max Cramer, Palestine Immigration File, Israel Archives, found at https://www.archives.gov.il/en/archives/Archive/0b07170680034dc1/File/0b07170680ee723e

As for the children of Max and Sidonie, their oldest daughter, Ilsa Caroline Cramer, was the only one who did not immigrate to England, according to various secondary sources. According to the research of David Baron and Roger Cibella, Ilsa married Marcel Fruchter Peri in Palestine in 1939, had one child, and died on March 21, 1954, in Tel Aviv, Israel. Profiles on My Heritage list her husband as Walter Skotzki and with no children, but with the same year of death. I’ve been unable to locate any primary source to verify any of these facts other than other profiles on My Heritage, Geni, and Ancestry.

Max and Sidonie’s three other daughters ended up in England with their mother Sidonie, who married Hans Feibusch, an artist, in 1935 right after her divorce from Max Cramer.8  The 1939 England and Wales Register lists Sidonie, Hans, and the three Cramer daughters in one household living in London. Hilda was working as a secretary-copywriter, Nelli was not employed, and Ellen was a studio photographer, listed under the surname Kay.

Sidonie Cramer Feibusch and family , The National Archives; Kew, London, England; 1939 Register; Reference: RG 101/467I, Enumeration District: AROJ, Ancestry.com. 1939 England and Wales Register

According to Baron and Cibella, Ellen Theresa Cramer had married Leo Knoepfelmacher in Prague, Czechoslovakia (today, the Czech Republic) on April 15, 1933. Leo was born on October 23, 1904, in Ostrava, Czechoslovakia. I have no marriage record for Ellen and Leo. They had two sons born in the 1930s, one in Vienna, one in Tel Aviv.9

I located a ship manifest for Ellen and her two sons dated September 21, 1936, showing that she and her sons were residents of Palestine, sailing to England to become permanent residents. It also indicates that she and her sons were Czech citizens. Leo was not sailing with them.

Ellen Cramer Knoepfelmacher, ship manifest, The National Archives of the UK; Kew, Surrey, England; Board of Trade: Commercial and Statistical Department and successors: Inwards Passenger Lists.; Class: BT26; Piece: 1110, Month: Sep, Ancestry.com. UK and Ireland, Incoming Passenger Lists, 1878-1960

So by 1939, as suggested by the 1939 England and Wales Register shown above, Ellen and Leo were apparently no longer together and she had changed her suname to Kay. But where were her sons on the 1939 register? And where was Leo?

He married a second time in England in 1942 to Elizabeth Irvine,9 but died less than four years later in England in March 1946 when he was only 41.10 Ellen Cramer Kay died June 28, 1962, in England; her listing on the probate calendar names her sisters Nelli and Hilda, but not her sons.11 I cannot find any record for either of them after that 1936 ship manifest.

UPDATE: Shirley located a marriage listing for one of the sons, showing he married in 1961. Since he may still be living, however, I won’t publish the specific details. Thank you, Shirley!

UPDATE: I have recently (May 2026) been in touch with one of Ellen’s sons, and he and I have together confirmed this information as well as other details.

As for Ellen’s two sisters who survived her, Nelli and Hilda, Hilda married Frank Werth in London on March 24, 1950.12 They had two children in the 1950s. Frank died December 2, 1990.13 I’ve not been able to locate any record of Hilda’s death. Perhaps she is still living at 104.

UPDATE: Thank you to Anne from the German Genealogy Group on Facebook for alerting me to the fact that the General Register Office in the UK had updated its listings for births and deaths. Anne located Hilda Werth’s death on that index as being registered in the first quarter of 2013. To know the exact date, I need to order a copy of the record itself. I also searched for a death notice in The Gazette, as BRegenstein suggested, but unfortunately have not found one.

Nelli Cramer, the youngest of Max Cramer’s daughters, married Alfred Bozwiecki, who according to Baron and Cibella was born in Warsaw, Poland, on February 18, 1899.14 Alfred died in London on September 30, 1971,15 and Nelli died five years later on February 4, 1976, also in London.16 She was 57. As far as I can tell, Nelli and Alfred had not had children.

Sally Cramer

From Arnold S. Oppenheimer, The Story of My Life (2007)

As with Max Cramer, I am missing many records for his brother Sally. I’d love help tracking them down. For example, I have no marriage record, only information from his nephew Arnold Oppenheimer’s book and from Baron and Cibella. Like his older brother Max who married a woman from England, Sally Cramer married a woman from a foreign country. Baron and Cibella report that on January 29, 1911, he married Felicitas Weil in Strasbourg, France. Felicitas was born in Strasbourg on August 10, 1889.17 According to Arnold Oppenheimer, Felicitas became nearly blind after a failed operation, but had a “vivacious educated personality and played the piano well.”18

Like Max, Sally returned to Germany, and Sally and Felicitas had two children born there. A daughter Marion was born in Frankfurt on April 3, 1913,19 and a son Robert was born December 29, 1918, in Bad Neuheim, Germany.20

By 1939, Sally and Felicitas had escaped from Nazi Germany and were living in London. On the 1939 England and Wales Register, Sally described his occupation as a “veterinary preparations maker.” I have absolutely no idea what that means!

Sally Cramer and family, The National Archives; Kew, London, England; 1939 Register; Reference: RG 101/827H, Enumeration District: BKEN, Ancestry.com. 1939 England and Wales Register

There is one line blacked out on the register, which I assume was for their son Robert. I only have two records for Robert. One is the card from the index of those whose German nationality was nullified by the Nazis, and the other is the card exempting him from being interned as an enemy alien by England in 1939. That card shows that Robert was training with the Modern Telephone Company and was living at the same address—26 Eagles Lodge—as his parents in 1939. Robert would marry Elizabeth Rosenberg in London in 1950, and they had two children born in London.21

Robert Cramer, The National Archives; Kew, London, England; HO 396 WW2 Internees (Aliens) Index Cards 1939-1947; Reference Number: HO 396/14, Piece Number Description: 014: Internees at Liberty in UK 1939-1942: Cohn-Cz, Ancestry.com. UK, World War II Alien Internees, 1939-1945

Marion, Sally and Felicitas’ daughter, was already married and living in New York by 1939. She had immigrated to New York on September 2, 1937, and married Fritz Ludwig (Fred) Wolf in New York two and a half weeks later on September 19, 1937. Fritz was born on October 23, 1911, in Hamburg, Germany.  On her declaration of intention, Marion’s occupation is listed as interpreter/housewife. That was also true on her ship manifest, where she indicated that Fritz Wolf, her fiance, was the person she was traveling to in New York.22

Marion Cramer Wolf, declaration of intention, The National Archives at Philadelphia; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; NAI Title: Declarations of Intention for Citizenship, 1/19/1842 – 10/29/1959; NAI Number: 4713410; Record Group Title: Records of District Courts of the United States, 1685-2009; Record Group Number: 21, Description: (Roll 529) Declarations of Intention for Citizenship, 1842-1959 (No 407701-408700), Ancestry.com. New York, U.S., State and Federal Naturalization Records, 1794-1943

On the 1940 census, Marion and Fritz were living in Queens, New York, and Fritz was working as a “customer man” for a stock brokerage and Marion as a private secretary for an architect. Marion indicated that she had been living in Hamburg in 1935 while Fritz said he’d been living in Paris. He and Marion had two children born after the 1940 census.23

I don’t have much information about Sally and his family after 1940.  According to the English Probate Calendar, Sally died on June 12, 1951, in London, but Arnold Oppenheimer wrote that he died in the US while visiting his daughter Marion24. His widow Felicitas died on October 24, 1983.25 I could not find any record of deaths for either of their children. Marion and Robert would both be over one hundred years old now.

UPDATE: Thank you to Anne from the German Genealogy Group on Facebook for pointing out that I misread this! Sally’s probate notice does say he died in the US.

UPDATE: I went back and found an obituary for Marion Cramer Wolf. She died on July 26, 2017, at the age of 104. Death notice, New York Times, August 4, 2017. The notice described Marion as “Former Guggenheim museum reading room librarian. Lover of the arts, books and everything beautiful.” It can be found here.

Herbert Cramer

From Arnold S Oppenheimer, The Story of My Life (2007)

The youngest child of Hedwig Goldschmidt and Hirsch Cramer, Herbert, volunteered for the German army in World War I and served at the front. After the war he opened a small art gallery in Frankfurt.25 He married Elsa Seligmann on August 6, 1920, in Frankfurt. Elsa was the daughter of Leopold Seligmann and Anna Bockmann and was born on July 11, 1894, in Frankfurt.

Herbert Cramer marriage record, Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv; Wiesbaden, Deutschland; Bestand: 903, Ancestry.com. Hesse, Germany, Marriages, 1849-1930

Herbert and Elsa had one child, a daughter Ruth born in Frankfurt, on August 14, 1921.26

In the 1930s Herbert organized the first exhibit of Chagall paintings in Frankfurt. Then in 1933 he and his family left Germany for Italy.27 From there they immigrated to Palestine on March 2, 1939, and became naturalized citizens of Palestine on April 16, 1941. He listed his occupation as manager of the Society of the Friends of the Jewish National Museum on his application for Palestinian citizenship.

Herbert Cramer, Palestine Immigration File, Israel Archives, https://www.archives.gov.il/en/archives/Archive/0b07170680034dc1/File/0b07170680b58628

Sadly, Herbert died just six years later on April 24, 1947, in Jerusalem, according to a profile on My Heritage. His nephew Arnold Oppenheimer wrote that Herbert was killed when a convoy he was traveling with was ambushed by Arabs.27 His widow Else and daughter Ruth and Ruth’s husband Charles Taubes moved to Australia where Else died in 198328 and Ruth in 2011.29 They were survived by Ruth’s daughter.

UPDATE: Thank you to Yehuda from TTT for locating Herbert’s gravestone on Gravez and Ruth Cramer’s marriage record.

Thus, Hedwig Goldschmidt Cramer’s children and descendants ended up spread all over the world—to Israel, England, the United States, and Australia. Now if I only could find more records for them.

UPDATE: Once again, thanks to those who helped. I am still looking for the birth records for Max Cramer’s children born in the 1920s in Frankfurter, marriage records for Ilse Cramer, Max’s daughter, a marriage and death record for Robert Cramer, who may have died in Israel or in England. I will keep looking.

 

  1. Max Meyer Cramer, Registration Year: 1908, Registration Quarter: Apr-May-Jun
    Registration District: Islington, Inferred County: London, Volume: 1b, Page: 707
    Max Meyer Cramer, Sidonie Charlotte Gestetner, FreeBMD. England & Wales, Civil Registration Marriage Index, 1837-1915 ↩
  2. Sidonie Charlotte Gestetner, Registration Year: 1888, Registration Quarter: Apr-May-Jun, Registration District: Islington, Inferred County: London
    Volume: 1b, Page: 394, FreeBMD. England & Wales, Civil Registration Birth Index, 1837-1915. Sidonie Feibusch, Gender: Female, Marital Status: Married, Birth Date: 12 Mar 1888, Residence Year: 1939, Address: 8 Westminster Court, Residence Place: St Marylebone, London, England, Occupation: Unpaid Domestic Duties, Line Number: 15
    Schedule Number: 8, Sub Schedule Number: 2, Enumeration District: AROJ, Borough: St Marylebone, Registration district: 7/3, Inferred Spouse: Hans N Feibusch, The National Archives; Kew, London, England; 1939 Register; Reference: RG 101/467I, Ancestry.com. 1939 England and Wales Register ↩
  3. I have no actual biirth records for any of Max Cramer’s children, but had to rely on secondary sources.  MyHeritage profile, https://www.myheritage.com/research/record-1-217644591-1-543485/ilse-caroline-skotzki-born-cramer-in-myheritage-family-trees ↩
  4.  Ellen Theres Kay, Gender: Female, Marital Status: Married, Birth Date: 21 Sep 1911, Residence Year: 1939, Address: 8 Westminster Court, Residence Place: St Marylebone, London, England, Occupation: Studio Photographer, Line Number: 19
    Schedule Number: 8, Sub Schedule Number: 6, Enumeration District: AROJ
    Borough: St Marylebone, Registration district: 7/3, The National Archives; Kew, London, England; 1939 Register; Reference: RG 101/467I, Ancestry.com. 1939 England and Wales Register. ↩
  5.  Name: Hilde Clementine Cramer, Gender: Female, Birth Date: 3 Feb 1916
    Birth Place: Frankfurt a/M, Germany, The National Archives; Kew, London, England; HO 396 WW2 Internees (Aliens) Index Cards 1939-1947; Reference Number: HO 396/220,
    Ancestry.com. UK, World War II Alien Internees, 1939-1945 ↩
  6.  Nelli Cramer, Birth Date: 13 Feb 1918, Birth Place: Frankfurt am Main, Last Residence: Frankfurt am Main, National Archives and Records Administration (NARA); Washington, DC; Name Index of Jews Whose German Nationality Was Annulled by the Nazi Regime (Berlin Documents Center); Record Group: 242, National Archives Collection of Foreign Records Seized, 1675 – 1958; Record Group ARC ID: 569; Publication Number: T355; Roll: 2, Brüll, Erna – Fränkel, Werner, Ancestry.com. Germany, Index of Jews Whose German Nationality was Annulled by Nazi Regime, 1935-1944 ↩
  7. David Baron and Roger Cibella, Goldschmidt Family Report. Arnold S. Oppenheimer, The Story of My Life (2007, Jerusalem), p. 5. ↩
  8.  Sidonie C Cramer, Registration Quarter: Jul-Aug-Sep, Registration District: Marylebone, Inferred County: Middlesex, Spouse: Hans N Feibusch, Volume Number: 1a, Page Number: 1783, General Register Office; United Kingdom; Volume: 1a; Page: 1783, Ancestry.com. England & Wales, Civil Registration Marriage Index, 1916-2005 ↩
  9.  Leo Knopfelmacher, Registration Quarter: Jul-Aug-Sep, Registration District: Bradford, Inferred County: Yorkshire West Riding, Spouse: Elizabeth E Irvine, Volume Number: 9b, Page Number: 267, General Register Office; United Kingdom; Volume: 9b; Page: 267, Ancestry.com. England & Wales, Civil Registration Marriage Index, 1916-2005 ↩ ↩
  10.  Leo Knoppelmacher, Death Age: 41, Birth Date: abt 1905, Registration Quarter: Jan-Feb-Mar, Registration District: Pancras, Inferred County: London, Volume: 1b, Page: 75, General Register Office; United Kingdom; Volume: 1b; Page: 75, Ancestry.com. England & Wales, Civil Registration Death Index, 1916-2007 ↩
  11.  Ellen T Kay, Death Age: 50, Birth Date: abt 1912, Registration Quarter: Jul-Aug-Sep, 1962 Registration District: Paddington, Inferred County: London, Volume: 5d
    Page: 122, General Register Office; United Kingdom; Volume: 5d; Page: 122,
    Ancestry.com. England & Wales, Civil Registration Death Index, 1916-2007. Ellen Theresa Kay, Death Date: 28 Jun 1962, Death Place: London, England, Probate Date: 12 Oct 1962, Probate Registry: London, England, Ancestry.com. England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1858-1995 ↩
  12. Ancestry.com. England, Andrews Newspaper Index Cards, 1790-1976; Hilda C Cramer, Registration Quarter: Jan-Feb-Mar 1950, Registration District: Marylebone
    Inferred County: Middlesex, Spouse: Frank E Werth Or Wertheimer, Volume Number: 5d, Page Number: 713, General Register Office; United Kingdom; Volume: 5d; Page: 713, Ancestry.com. England & Wales, Civil Registration Marriage Index, 1916-2005 ↩
  13.  Frank Edward Werth, Death Age: 72, Birth Date: 26 Apr 1918, Registration Date: Dec 1990, Registration District: Camden, Inferred County: Greater London., Volume: 14
    Page: 1849, General Register Office; United Kingdom; Volume: 14; Page: 1849, Ancestry.com. England & Wales, Civil Registration Death Index, 1916-2007; Frank Edward Werth, Death Date: 2 Dec 1990, Death Place: London, Probate Date: 25 Jun 1991, Probate Registry: London, Ancestry.com. England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1858-1995 ↩
  14. David Baron and Roger Cibella, Goldschmidt Family Report. ↩
  15. Alfred Norbert Wit Bzowiecki, Death Date: 30 Sep 1971, Death Place: London
    Probate Date: 21 Nov 1972, Probate Registry: London, Ancestry.com. England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1858-1995 ↩
  16. Nellia Elsa Bzowiecka, Death Date: 4 Feb 1976, Death Place: London
    Probate Date: 4 Feb 1976, Probate Registry: London, Ancestry.com. England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1858-1995 ↩
  17.  Felicitas Fanny Cramer, Birth Date: 10 Aug 1889, Birth Place: Straßburg, Elsass (Alsace), Last Residence: Hamburg, National Archives and Records Administration (NARA); Washington, DC; Name Index of Jews Whose German Nationality Was Annulled by the Nazi Regime (Berlin Documents Center); Record Group: 242, National Archives Collection of Foreign Records Seized, 1675 – 1958; Record Group ARC ID: 569; Publication Number: T355; Roll: 2, Brüll, Erna – Fränkel, Werner, Ancestry.com. Germany, Index of Jews Whose German Nationality was Annulled by Nazi Regime, 1935-1944 ↩
  18. Oppenheimer, note 7, p. 5. ↩
  19. Marion Wolf, [Marion Cramer], Gender: Female, Declaration Age: 24, Record Type: Declaration, Birth Date: 3 Apr 1913, Birth Place: Frankfurt a/m Germany
    Arrival Date: 2 Sep 1937, Arrival Place: New York, New York, USA, Declaration Date: 13 Jan 1938, Declaration Place: New York, Court: U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, Spouse: Fritz, Declaration Number: 408397, Box Number: 273
    The National Archives at Philadelphia; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; NAI Title: Declarations of Intention for Citizenship, 1/19/1842 – 10/29/1959; NAI Number: 4713410; Record Group Title: Records of District Courts of the United States, 1685-2009; Record Group Number: 21, Ancestry.com. New York, U.S., State and Federal Naturalization Records, 1794-1943 ↩
  20. Robert Cramer, Birth Date: 29 Dez 1918, Birth Place: Bad Nauheim
    Last Residence: Hamburg, National Archives and Records Administration (NARA); Washington, DC; Name Index of Jews Whose German Nationality Was Annulled by the Nazi Regime (Berlin Documents Center); Record Group: 242, National Archives Collection of Foreign Records Seized, 1675 – 1958; Record Group ARC ID: 569; Publication Number: T355; Roll: 2, Brüll, Erna – Fränkel, Werner, Ancestry.com. Germany, Index of Jews Whose German Nationality was Annulled by Nazi Regime, 1935-1944 ↩
  21. Baron and Cibella, Goldschmidt Family Report. ↩
  22. Marion Cramer, ship manifest, Year: 1937; Arrival: New York, New York, USA; Microfilm Serial: T715, 1897-1957; Line: 4; Page Number: 4, Ancestry.com. New York, U.S., Arriving Passenger and Crew Lists (including Castle Garden and Ellis Island), 1820-1957 ↩
  23. Fritz and Marion Wolf, 1940 US census, Year: 1940; Census Place: New York, Queens, New York; Roll: m-t0627-02725; Page: 5B; Enumeration District: 41-242,
    Ancestry.com. 1940 United States Federal Census ↩
  24. Salomon Sally Cramer, Death Date: 12 Jun 1951, Death Place: Lancashire, England, Probate Date: 20 Dec 1951, Probate Registry: London, England, Ancestry.com. England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1858-1995. See also Oppenheimer, note 7, p. 5. ↩
  25. Oppenheimer, note 7, p. 6. ↩ ↩
  26. David Baron and Roger Cibella, Goldschmidt Family Report ↩
  27. Oppenheimer, note 7, p. 6. ↩ ↩
  28. The Sydney Morning Herald – 1 Dec 1984 – Page 136 ↩
  29. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/145293304/ruth-tadmore ↩

A Genealogy Story for Hanukkah: Looking for Light in the Darkness

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Today is the first day of Hanukkah, a holiday that reminds us to find the light and hope even in the darkest of times. And in that spirit, this is a story of three children who lost their mother as children and then their father as young adults. Yet they found the strength to go on and survive the Holocaust. They looked for the light and hope despite the darkness.

Selig and Clementine Goldschmidt’s third daughter Hedwig Goldschmidt Cramer had five children with her husband Hermann Hirsch Cramer. Their oldest daughter Rosa Cramer married Arthur Abraham Oppenheimer on May 16, 1904, in Frankfurt. Arthur was born August 25, 1879, to William Oppenheimer and Ida Jettchen Cramer.

From Arnold S. Oppenheimer, The Story of My Life (2007)

I have had the great pleasure this week of talking with Arthur and Rosa’s grandson, my fifth cousin Arthur, who told me that Rosa and Arthur were first cousins, Ida Jettchen Cramer being the sister of Hirsch Hermann Cramer. Their parents were at first opposed to them marrying because they were first cousins. But they were deeply in love and insisted on being together.

Rosa Cramer marriage to Arthur Oppenheimer, Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv; Wiesbaden, Deutschland; Bestand: 903, Ancestry.com. Hesse, Germany, Marriages, 1849-1930

Rosa and Arthur had four children. Twins were born on March 3, 1905, in Frankfurt, William1 and Gertrud.2 Then Arnold Selig Oppenheimer was born on June 15, 1907,3 and finally Edith was born on June 13, 1911.4

Arnold Selig Oppenheimer wrote a wonderful book, The Story of My Life,5 which his son Arthur shared with me. It is filled with memories of his childhood and adult life as well as many photographs of the family. I wish I could add more of the rich details of his life described in the book, but for now I will include just some of those details as well as a few of his childhood pictures, including these two of the three older Oppenheimer children and, in the one on the right, their mother Rosa.

From Arnold S. Oppenheimer, The Story of My Life (2007)

And here is a fabulous photograph of Hedwig Goldschmidt Cramer with her husband Hermann Cramer, their daughter Rosa, and her husband Arthur, and their four children:

From Arnold S Oppeheimer, The Story of My Life (2007)

Here is one of all four children taken in 1916:

William, Gertrud, Arnold, and Edith Oppenheimer, c. 1916. From Arnold S. Oppenheimer, The Story of My Life (2007)

Those children were still quite young when their mother Rosa Cramer Oppenheimer died on December 24, 1918,  just two years after this photograph was taken; she was only 37 years old. According to her grandson Arthur, she died from the flu during the terrible epidemic of 1918.

Rosa Cramer Oppenheimer death record, Personenstandsregister Sterberegister; Bestand: 903; Signatur: 10794
Ancestry.com. Hesse, Germany, Deaths, 1851-1958

Arnold wrote this about his mother’s death:6

When she became ill with influenza in December 1918, she knew that her life would soon come to an end. I remember her on her last morning when she called us in, one after the other and talked a little and bensched [blessed] us. 

It’s just heartbreaking to imagine how those children must have felt, saying goodbye to their mother.

Rosa’s widower Arthur Oppenheimer was left to raise the four young children on his own, though there was plenty of support from the extended family and from the nannies and housekeepers, as described in Arnold’s book. Arnold wrote that his father never fully recovered after Rosa’s death—that he became more serious and rarely laughed. But that he was a loving and caring father who tried to be both father and mother to his four children.7

Then three years later, sixteen-year-old William Oppenheimer died from meningitis on December 31, 1921; family lore is that he had a bad headache, but it was Shabbat, and the family was told that it would be safe to wait another day. Unfortunately, William died later that day, although it would seem that especially back then before antiobiotics, little could have been done even if he’d gotten medical attention sooner. Arnold described his brother William as an excellent student and a gifted artist.8

William Oppenheimer death record, Personenstandsregister Sterberegister; Bestand: 903; Signatur: 10857, Ancestry.com. Hesse, Germany, Deaths, 1851-1958

The remaining three children were left orphans when their father Arthur died on March 22, 1925, just seven years after Rosa and four years after William. According to his son Arnold, Arthur died from misdiagnosed appendicitis. Arthur had been a banker and stockbroker as well as a synagogue leader and treasurer, who, according to his son Arnold, was “highly esteemed…and known for his just attitude.”9

Arthur Abraham Oppenheimer death record, Personenstandsregister Sterberegister; Bestand: 903; Signatur: 10907, Ancestry.com. Hesse, Germany, Deaths, 1851-1958

It’s hard to fathom how the three remaining children—Gertrud, Arnold, and Edith—coped with so much loss. They were twenty, eighteen, and fourteen, and had lost their mother, their brother, and their father.

But Arnold’s son Arthur said that his father in fact was able to live quite a good life in the 1920s—traveling around the world, owning two horses and a sports car, studying in Frankfurt and Berlin, and generally enjoying the life of a wealthy young man in his twenties. Photographs of the extended Goldschmidt family in Arnold Oppenheimer’s book demonstrate that the children had a very large network of relatives who must have provided a sense of comfort and safety.

Those children then lost their grandmother Hedwig. Hedwig died on November 19, 1934. She was 73 and was survived by her four sons and her grandchildren.

Hedwig Goldschmidt Cramer death record. Personenstandsregister Sterberegister; Bestand: 903; Signatur: 11024, Ancestry.com. Hesse, Germany, Deaths, 1851-1958

And then the Oppenheimer siblings had to face the rise of the Nazis.

Rosa’s two daughters both ended up in Palestine. Gertrud  Oppenheimer had decided to become a teacher against the resistance of her family, who believed that women should not work. But Gertrud persisted and ended up teaching in the Jewish elementary school in Frankfurt. Gertrud married Rabbi Bernhard Joel in 1928. As her brother Arnold wrote in his autobiography, Bernhard was the brother of Edith Joel, the housekeeper for the children who was like a surrogate mother to them. Bernhard had immigrated to Palestine in 1924 and was then a librarian at the Jewish National and University Library. After he and Gertrud married in Frankfurt, they returned to Palestine, where they had four children.10

Gertrude Oppenheimer marriage record to Bernhard Joel, Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv; Wiesbaden, Deutschland; Bestand: 903, Ancestry.com. Hesse, Germany, Marriages, 1849-1930

Gertrude (Ruth in Israel) died on November 15, 1979; her husband Bernhard (Issachar in Israel) died April 14, 1977. They were survived by their children and grandchildren.11

Gertrud’s younger sister Edith also immigrated to Palestine. Like her sister Gertrud, she also pursued a career and went to Stuttgart to become a nurse. There she met a second cousin of her brother-in-law Bernhard Joel and his sister Edith Joel, a doctor named Ernst Joel. They were married in 1932 and settled in Stuttgart.12

I was able to find the Palestinian immigration records for Edith and Ernst, and according to those records, they arrived in Palestine on April 24, 1933, just a few months after Hitler had been elected Chancellor of Germany. My cousin Arthur told me that after Ernst was told by a patient that he could no longer be his doctor because he was Jewish, Ernst told Edith they had to get out of Germany as soon as possible. They must have been among the earliest Jews to see the horrific handwriting on the wall.

Edith and Ernst had three children born in Palestine/Israel in the 1930s. Ernst died in Israel in 1980 and Edith in 2002.13

Ernst Ludwig Joel and Edith Hanna Oppenheimer, Palestine Immigration File, Israel Archives, https://www.archives.gov.il/en/archives/Archive/0b07170680034dc1/File/0b07170680ebc8ca

Rosa’s son Arnold Oppenheimer escaped to England, where he had better business prospects and which he liked better than other countries he’d visited. After clearing numerous bureaucratic hurdles, he was able to immigrate in the spring of 1936, but made several trips back to Germany to help family members emigrate, including one time that he narrowly escaped being arrested by the Gestapo. On August 1, 1939 he married Dorothy Duschinsky, whom he met at a Hanukkah party of a mutual friend in 1937.  She was born in London on March 27, 1911, to Charles Duschinsky, a rabbi and scholar from Hungary, and Blanche Barnett. By marrying Arnold, who was considered an “enemy alien,” Dorothy forfeited her British citizenship.14

But Arnold and Dorothy soon found themselves separated when Arnold was sent to a British internment camp for being an enemy alien soon after World War II started in September, 1939. Arnold, then working as a wool merchant, was first sent to an internment camp in southern England; he was released from that camp six months later, but then in May 1941, he was sent to the internment camp on the Isle of Man. Meanwhile, Dorothy was living with her brother Arthur in Hendon, working as a psychologist.15 Arnold wrote in detail about both the hardships and the more positive aspects of his internship in his book.16

Arnold Oppenheimer internment card UK, The National Archives; Kew, London, England; HO 396 WW2 Internees (Aliens) Index Cards 1939-1947; Reference Number: HO 396/189
189: German Internees Released in UK 1939-1942: Nels-Orde, Ancestry.com. UK, World War II Alien Internees, 1939-1945

Arnold was finally released in 1942.  Arnold and Dorothy continued to live in England after the war. They had two children, one of whom is my fifth cousin Arthur. Arnold worked in the antique jewelry business for many years before retiring at the age of 82 in 1989.  Dorothy died November 1, 1976, in London; she was 65.17 Arnold outlived her by 35 years.  After having heart surgery at the age of 92, he moved to Israel to be closer to his daughter.18 He died at 104 in Israel on September 25, 2011.19

Thus, Rosa Cramer’s three orphaned children all managed to survive not only the tragedy of losing their parents and brother when they were still young, but also the Holocaust. They found lives for themselves in their new homelands and are today survived by their children and grandchildren all over the world.

So when we are all feeling down and discouraged by COVID and quarantining, it’s important to remember that others have endured terrible ordeals and found light in the darkness. As we light the Hanukkah candles or celebrate whatever holiday traditions we observe that bring light to the darkness this time of year, let’s keep our eyes on the light at the end of the tunnel.

Happy Hanukkah!

  1.  William Oppenheimer, Gender: männlich (Male), Age: 16, Birth Date: abt 1905
    Death Date: 31 Dez 1921 (31 Dec 1921), Death Place: Frankfurt, Hessen (Hesse), Deutschland (Germany), Civil Registration Office: Frankfurt , Certificate Number: 7
    Personenstandsregister Sterberegister; Bestand: 903; Signatur: 10857, Ancestry.com. Hesse, Germany, Deaths, 1851-1958 ↩
  2.  Gertrud Karoline Oppenheimer, Gender: weiblich (Female), Age: 23, Birth Date: 3 Mrz 1905 (3 Mar 1905), Marriage Date: 22 Mrz 1928 (22 Mar 1928)
    Marriage Place: Frankfurt am Main, Hessen (Hesse), Deutschland (Germany)
    Civil Registration Office: Frankfurt am Main, Spouse: Bernhard Joel, Certificate Number: 218, Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv; Wiesbaden, Deutschland; Bestand: 903, Ancestry.com. Hesse, Germany, Marriages, 1849-1930 ↩
  3.  Arnold S Oppenheimer, Gender: Male, Nationality: German, Birth Date: 15 Jun 1907, Birth Place: Frankfurt, Germany, Internment Place: Isle of Man, Discharge Date: 15 May 1941, The National Archives; Kew, London, England; HO 396 WW2 Internees (Aliens) Index Cards 1939-1947; Reference Number: HO 396/189, Ancestry.com. UK, World War II Alien Internees, 1939-1945 ↩
  4. Edith Oppenheimer Joel, Palestinian Immigration File, Israel Archives, found at https://www.archives.gov.il/en/archives/Archive/0b07170680034dc1/File/0b07170680ebc8ca ↩
  5. Arnold S. Oppenheimer, The Story of My Life (2007, Jerusalem). ↩
  6. Oppenheimer, note 5, at p. 1. ↩
  7. Oppenheimer, note 5, at p. 2. ↩
  8. Oppenheimer, note 5, at p. 3 ↩
  9. Oppenheimer, note 5, pp. 1-2, 61. ↩
  10. Oppenheimer, note 5, at p. 2. ↩
  11. Oppenheimer, note 5, at p.3. ↩
  12. Oppenheimer, note 5, at p. 3. ↩
  13. Oppenheimer, note 5, at p.4. ↩
  14. Oppenheimer, note 5, at pp. 69-70. Arnold S Oppenheimer, Registration Quarter: Jul-Aug-Sep, Registration District: Marylebone, Inferred County: Middlesex, Spouse: Dorothy Duschinsky, Volume Number: 1a, Page Number: 2673, General Register Office; United Kingdom; Volume: 1a; Page: 2673, Ancestry.com. England & Wales, Civil Registration Marriage Index, 1916-2005 ↩
  15. Dorothy Oppenheimer, Gender: Female, Marital Status: Married, Birth Date: 27 Mar 1911, Residence Year: 1939, Address: 11 Residence Place: Hendon, Middlesex, England, Occupation: Psychologist Intelligence Tests, Line Number: 27, Schedule Number: 76, Sub Schedule Number: 1, Enumeration District: BKCV, Borough: Hendon
    Registration district: 130/3, Household Members Age, Dorothy Oppenheimer 28, Arthur Dusckinskyh 27, The National Archives; Kew, London, England; 1939 Register; Reference: RG 101/822C, Ancestry.com. 1939 England and Wales Register ↩
  16. Oppenheimer, note 4, at pp. 73-75. See also The National Archives; Kew, London, England; HO 396 WW2 Internees (Aliens) Index Cards 1939-1947; Reference Number: HO 396/236, Description Piece Number Description: 236: Dead Index (Wives of Germans etc) 1941-1947: Nicht-Plunn, Ancestry.com. UK, World War II Alien Internees, 1939-1945. Duschinsky Family, Class: RG14; Piece: 32, Enumeration District: 32, Ancestry.com. 1911 England Census. Dorothy Duschinsky, Registration Year: 1911, Registration Quarter: Apr-May-Jun, Registration District: Paddington, Inferred County: London, Volume: 1a, Page: 14, FreeBMD. England & Wales, Civil Registration Birth Index, 1837-1915 ↩
  17. Dorothy Oppenheimer, Death Age: 65, Birth Date: 27 Mar 1911, Registration Quarter: Oct-Nov-Dec, Registration District: Hendon, Inferred County: Greater London
    Volume: 13, Page: 0495, General Register Office; United Kingdom; Volume: 13; Page: 0495, Ancestry.com. England & Wales, Civil Registration Death Index, 1916-2007. Dorothy Oppenheimer, Death Date: 1 Nov 1976, Death Place: London, Probate Date: 15 Aug 1977, Probate Registry: London, Ancestry.com. England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1858-1995 ↩
  18. Oppenheimer, note 5, at pp. 85-86. ↩
  19.  MyHeritage at https://www.myheritage.com/research/record-1-317197441-7-501665/arnold-selig-oppenheimer-in-myheritage-family-trees ↩

Flora Goldschmidt Schwarzschild’s Family: One Branch Flourished, the Other Extinguished

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For Selig and Clementine Goldschmidt’s second daughter Flora Goldschmidt Schwarzchild, the twentieth century started with a sad loss when her husband Emil Schwarzchild died on June 17, 1902, at the age of 45.1

Their daughter Helene Schwarzschild married Joseph Offenbacher the following year on August 28, 1903. Joseph, the son of Lazard Ismael Offenbacher and Karoline Oppenheimer, was born on July 3, 1877, in Paris. The couple settled in Frankfurt.

Helene Schwarzschild Offenbacher marriage record, Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv; Wiesbaden, Deutschland; Bestand: 903, Ancestry.com. Hesse, Germany, Marriages, 1849-1930

Helene and Joseph Offenbacher had five children. Paul Offenbacher was born in 1905 and died just five years later on January 13, 1910, in Frankfurt.

Paul Lazard Offenbacher death record, Personenstandsregister Sterberegister; Bestand: 903; Signatur: 10664, Ancestry.com. Hesse, Germany, Deaths, 1851-1958

Emil was born June 11, 1909, in Frankfurt.2 Then came Erich, born in Frankfurt on May 2, 1912.3 Another son, Erwin, was born December 30, 1915, also in Frankfurt.4 And finally Helene and Joseph had a daughter, Irmgard, born in Frankfurt on January 30, 1918.5

Helene Schwarzchild Offenbacher’s older brother Siegfried married five years after she did. He married Bertha Birnbaum on August 7, 1908. She was born on March 7, 1886, in Frankfurt, to Heinemann and Fanny Birnbaum.

Siegfried Schwarzschild marriage record, Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv; Wiesbaden, Deutschland; Bestand: 903, Ancestry.com. Hesse, Germany, Marriages, 1849-1930

They had one child, a son Emil Schwarzschild, born July 16, 1909.6

Flora Goldschmidt Schwarzchild thus had five living grandchildren when she died at 63 on June 17, 1922, in Frankfurt.

Flora Goldschmidt Schwarzschild death record, Personenstandsregister Sterberegister; Bestand: 903; Signatur: 10858, Ancestry.com. Hesse, Germany, Deaths, 1851-1958

Sadly, her son Siegfried only survived her by nine years, dying at the age of fifty on February 26, 1929, in Frankfurt.

Siegfried Schwarzschild death record, Personenstandsregister Sterberegister; Bestand: 903; Signatur: 10964, Ancestry.com. Hesse, Germany, Deaths, 1851-1958

Siegfried’s family continued to be plagued with tragedy after he died. Both Siegfried’s widow Bertha and his son Emil Schwarzschild were murdered by the Nazis. Both had escaped from Germany to the Netherlands, where Emil married Judith Bartels in 1938.7 Judith was born in Amsterdam on June 29, 1911, the daughter of Salomon Bartels and Rebecca Hamburger.

According to Yad Vashem, Emil was killed on August 16, 1942, and Judith on September 30, 1942, both at Auschwitz. Emil’s mother Bertha also was killed at Auschwitz. She died on February 26, 1943.  There are thus no living descendants of Siegfried Schwarzschild; his line was extinguished by the Nazis.

Fortunately, Helene Schwarzschild Offenbacher and her family fared far better than the family of her brother Siegfried. They all survived the Holocaust.

Helene and Joseph Offenbacher’s third son Erwin was living in the Netherlands beginning in January 24, 1934 and was issued a Dutch passport in 1938. According to his Dutch passport and his application for Palestinian citizenship, he then immigrated to Palestine on March 23, 1940. He married Hadassah Bacharach in Rishon L’tzion on June 14, 1942, and they had two children born in Israel.

Documents from the Palestinian Immigration File of Erwin Offenbacher from the Israel Archives, found at https://www.archives.gov.il/archives/Archive/0b07170680034dc1/File/0b07170680cc494e

I don’t have any other sources about Erwin, but an entry in Geni submitted by one of his nieces indicates that he died in Tel Aviv on May 30, 2010. He was 94.

Joseph and Helene’s youngest child and only daughter Irmgard also immigrated to Palestine. I could not locate an immigration file for her, but according to Baron and Cibella’s report, she married Carl Benjamin in Tel Aviv in 1938. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find any sources about Carl or their marriage, but I did find a mention of Carl on a website listing a book being auctioned. The book, entitled Photographs of the Ruins of the Atlit Fortress, is a handmade book of photographs taken by Erwin Offenbacher of the Atlit Fortress, a site in Israel. The description of the book indicates that Carl Benjamin wrote the introduction and bound the book. It also says, “The writer of the introduction, Carl (Ya’akov) Benjamin (1911-1976), born in Köln, immigrated to Palestine during the 1930s. Benjamin was married for a while to Offenbacher’s sister, Lina Irmgard (Devorah).”

Erich Offenbacher, the second oldest child of Helene and Joseph Offenbacher, arrived in the US on September 4, 1934, according to his declaration of intention to become a US citizen filed in Pennsylvania on November 22, 1934. He was then residing in Philadelphia where he was a student.

Erich Offenbacher declaration of intention, The National Archives at Philadelphia; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,  Declarations 1001-1500 (Original), Ancestry.com. Pennsylvania, U.S., Federal Naturalization Records, 1795-1931

Eric, as he later spelled his name, married Gertrude Stern on July 15, 1938, in New York City.8 She was born in Salmunster, Germany, on December 9, 1912, the daughter of Levy Stern and Rosa Neuhaus. When he filed his petition for naturalization in 1940, Eric reported that he was a dentist living in New York, so he must have been a dental student in Philadelphia in 1934 when he filed his declaration of intention.

Eric Offenbacher, petition for naturalization, National Archives and Records Administration; 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
Description: (Roll 1237) Petition No· 344551 – Petition No· 345024
Ancestry.com. New York, U.S., State and Federal Naturalization Records, 1794-1943

On the 1940 census, Eric and Gertrude were living in Manhattan and Eric was in private practice as a dentist.9 They would have four children born in the 1940s and 1950s.

Eric’s parents Helene (Schwarzschild) and Joseph Offenbacher arrived in New York on March 28, 1940, and by May, 1940, had declared their intention to become US citizens. On their May, 1940, declarations, they listed the location of their four surviving children. Emil was at that time living in Paris, France; Eric was in New York City, and Erwin and Irmgard were in Palestine.

Helene Schwarzschild Offenbacher declaration of intention, The National Archives at Philadelphia; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; NAI Title: Declarations of Intention for Citizenship, 1/19/1842 – 10/29/1959; NAI Number: 4713410; Record Group Title: Records of District Courts of the United States, 1685-2009; Record Group Number: 21, Description: (Roll 589) Declarations of Intention for Citizenship, 1842-1959 (No 462401-463200), Ancestry.com. New York, U.S., State and Federal Naturalization Records, 1794-1943

Helene and Joseph are listed on the 1940 US census, living in New York City, in a guest house. Joseph listed his occupation as a metals merchant.10

Their oldest child Emil Offenbacher, who had been in Paris when Joseph and Helene filed their declaration of intention, arrived in the US from Cuba on March 30, 1941. He had married Anna Rapp in Paris on August 23, 1934; she was also a native of Frankfurt, born there on February 25, 1912. 11 Emil was already a successful and well-known book dealer when he arrived in the US. According to a biographical profile of him on the website of the International League of Antiquarian Booksellers, he originally followed his father into the banking world, but in 1931 he started working in an antiquarian bookstore in Munich and then launched his own business in Frankfurt. When the Nazis took power in 1933, he and his wife Anna soon escaped to Paris where they waited for a visa to so they could immigrate to the US.

Emil and Anna had two small children who immigrated with them to the US in 1941. Interestingly, Emil’s parents were sailing with them from Cuba. Perhaps they had gone to help them move with their children.

Emil Offenbacher and family, ship manifiest, Year: 1941; Arrival: New York, New York, USA; Microfilm Serial: T715, 1897-1957; Line: 5; Page Number: 190, Ship or Roll Number: Talamanca
Ancestry.com. New York, U.S., Arriving Passenger and Crew Lists (including Castle Garden and Ellis Island), 1820-1957

Emil reported on his August 1941 declaration of intention that he was a book dealer. He started his business anew in the US, eventually moving to Kew Gardens, Queens, where he ran his antiquarian book business for the rest of his life.

Emil Offenbacher, declaration of intention, The National Archives at Philadelphia; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; NAI Title: Declarations of Intention for Citizenship, 1/19/1842 – 10/29/1959; NAI Number: 4713410; Record Group Title: Records of District Courts of the United States, 1685-2009; Record Group Number: 21, Description: (Roll 626) Declarations of Intention for Citizenship, 1842-1959 (No 496501-497400), Ancestry.com. New York, U.S., State and Federal Naturalization Records, 1794-1943

Helene and Joseph’s daughter Irmgard, who adopted the name Deborah, immigrated to the US in 1947. She had suffered from health issues, and her mother came to Palestine in 1946 and was granted an extension of her visitor’s visa so that she could wait and travel back to the US with Deborah.12 According to her death notice in The New York Times, Deborah became a professor of sociology at Brooklyn College. She died in New York on April 5, 2004. She was 86.13

Joseph Offenbacher died in New York on June 26, 1945; he was 67.14 Helene Schwarzschild Offenbacher died nine years later on September 30, 1954; she was 72.15

Emil Offenbacher died from lung cancer in Bennington, Vermont, on August 16, 1990. He was 81.16 He was survived by his wife Anna, who died in 2004, and his two children.

According to his obituary in the Seattle Times,17 Eric Offenbacher practiced dentistry in New York for forty years before retiring to Seattle in 1979, where one of his children resided. He was also “a famed musicologist” with a special interest in Mozart. Eric died at the age of 96 in Seattle on January 5, 2009. His wife Gertrude had died on October 18, 2006, in Seattle when she was 93.18 They were survived by their children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren.

Flora Goldschmidt Schwarzschild today has many living descendants in Israel and in the United States through her daughter Helene Schwarzschild Offenbacher. But her son Siegfried has none because of the Nazis.

  1.  Emil Schwarzschild, Gender: männlich (Male). Age: 45
    Birth Date: abt 1857, Death Date: 10 Jan 1902, Death Place: Frankfurt am Main, Hessen (Hesse), Deutschland (Germany), Civil Registration Office: Frankfurt am Main
    Father: Emanuel Schwarzschild, Mother: Rafel Frenkel, Certificate Number: 99
    Personenstandsregister Sterberegister; Bestand: 903; Signatur: 10559,
    Ancestry.com. Hesse, Germany, Deaths, 1851-1958 ↩
  2.  Emil Offenbacher, Birth Date: 11 Jun 1909, Birth Place: Frankfurt am Main
    National Archives and Records Administration (NARA); Washington, DC; Name Index of Jews Whose German Nationality Was Annulled by the Nazi Regime (Berlin Documents Center); Record Group: 242, National Archives Collection of Foreign Records Seized, 1675 – 1958; Record Group ARC ID: 569; Publication Number: T355; Roll: 7, Mosbacher, Eduard – Schafranek, Bruno, Ancestry.com. Germany, Index of Jews Whose German Nationality was Annulled by Nazi Regime, 1935-1944 ↩
  3.  Erich Offenbacher, Birth Date: 2 Mai 1912, Birth Place: Frankfurt am Main
    National Archives and Records Administration (NARA); Washington, DC; Name Index of Jews Whose German Nationality Was Annulled by the Nazi Regime (Berlin Documents Center); Record Group: 242, National Archives Collection of Foreign Records Seized, 1675 – 1958; Record Group ARC ID: 569; Publication Number: T355; Roll: 7, Mosbacher, Eduard – Schafranek, Bruno, Ancestry.com. Germany, Index of Jews Whose German Nationality was Annulled by Nazi Regime, 1935-1944 ↩
  4.  Erwin Offenbacher, Birth Date: 30 Dez 1915, Birth Place: Frankfurt am Main
    National Archives and Records Administration (NARA); Washington, DC; Name Index of Jews Whose German Nationality Was Annulled by the Nazi Regime (Berlin Documents Center); Record Group: 242, National Archives Collection of Foreign Records Seized, 1675 – 1958; Record Group ARC ID: 569; Publication Number: T355; Roll: 7, Mosbacher, Eduard – Schafranek, Bruno, Ancestry.com. Germany, Index of Jews Whose German Nationality was Annulled by Nazi Regime, 1935-1944 ↩
  5. Irmgard Offenbacher, Birth Date: 20 Jan 1918, Birth Place: Frankfurt am Main
    National Archives and Records Administration (NARA); Washington, DC; Name Index of Jews Whose German Nationality Was Annulled by the Nazi Regime (Berlin Documents Center); Record Group: 242, National Archives Collection of Foreign Records Seized, 1675 – 1958; Record Group ARC ID: 569; Publication Number: T355; Roll: 7, Mosbacher, Eduard – Schafranek, Bruno, Ancestry.com. Germany, Index of Jews Whose German Nationality was Annulled by Nazi Regime, 1935-1944 ↩
  6. Yad Vashem entry found at https://yvng.yadvashem.org/nameDetails.html?language=en&itemId=11630997&ind=0 ↩
  7. Family report of David Baron and Roger Cibella. ↩
  8.  Eric Offenbacher, Gender: Male, Marriage License Date: 12 Jul 1938
    Marriage License Place: Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA, Spouse: Gertrude Stern, License Number: 14185, New York City Municipal Archives; New York, New York; Borough: Manhattan; Volume Number: 6, Ancestry.com. New York, New York, U.S., Marriage License Indexes, 1907-2018 ↩
  9. Eric and Gertrude Offenbacher, 1940 US census, Year: 1940; Census Place: New York, New York, New York; Roll: m-t0627-02655; Page: 1B; Enumeration District: 31-1332, Ancestry.com. 1940 United States Federal Census ↩
  10. Joseph and Lena Offenbacher, 1940 US census, Year: 1940; Census Place: New York, New York, New York; Roll: m-t0627-02655; Page: 81A; Enumeration District: 31-1333, Ancestry.com. 1940 United States Federal Census ↩
  11. Anna Offenbacher, declaration of intention, The National Archives at Philadelphia; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; NAI Title: Declarations of Intention for Citizenship, 1/19/1842 – 10/29/1959; NAI Number: 4713410; Record Group Title: Records of District Courts of the United States, 1685-2009; Record Group Number: 21, Description: (Roll 626) Declarations of Intention for Citizenship, 1842-1959 (No 496501-497400), Ancestry.com. New York, U.S., State and Federal Naturalization Records, 1794-1943 ↩
  12. Helene Offenbacher, Palestinian Immigration file, found at https://www.archives.gov.il/en/archives/Archive/0b0717068002258e/File/0b07170685704ee5 ↩
  13. Death Notice, Deborah I. Offenbacher, The New York Times, April 9, 2004, Section B, Page 8 of the National edition. ↩
  14. Joseph Offenbacher, Age: 67, Birth Year: abt 1878, Death Date: 26 Jun 1945
    Death Place: Manhattan, New York, USA, Certificate Number: 14386, Ancestry.com. New York, New York, U.S., Extracted Death Index, 1862-1948 ↩
  15. Baron and Cibella Family Report. ↩
  16.  Emil Offenbacher, Gender: Male, Race: White, Age: 81, Birth Date: 11 Jun 1909
    Birth Place: Frankfurt, Germany, Residence Place: Kew Gardens, Death Date: 16 Aug 1990, Death Place: Bennington, Vermont, USA, Cause of Death: Natural, Metastatic Lung Carcinoma, Date Filed: 17 Aug 1990, Father: Joseph Offenbacher, Mother: Helena Offenbacher, Spouse: Anne Rapp, Vermont State Archives and Records Administration; Montpelier, Vermont, USA; User Box Number: PR-01616; Roll Number: S-31664; Archive Number: PR-2081, Ancestry.com. Vermont, U.S., Death Records, 1909-2008 ↩
  17. The Seattle Times, January 6, 2009, found at https://www.seattletimes.com/entertainment/dr-eric-offenbacher-mozart-scholar-96/ ↩
  18. Gertrude Stern Offenbacher, Birth Date: 9 Dec 1912, Birth Place: Salmuenster, Federal Republic of Germany, Death Date: 18 Oct 2006, Father: Levy Stern
    Mother: Rosa Neuhaus, SSN: 155369180, Ancestry.com. U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007 ↩

Selig Goldschmidt’s Only Son, Meyer Selig Goldschmidt, and His Family: Part I

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I am approaching the end of the story of Selig Goldschmidt as I now turn to Selig and Clementine Fuld Goldschmidt’s only son, Meyer Selig Goldschmidt, his wife Selma Cramer, and their four children: Harry, Arthur, Clementine, and Alice, and their lives in the 20th century.

As we saw, Meyer Selig was born on October 6, 1865, and married Selma Cramer on March 24, 1889. Their children were born between 1890 and 1896. Meyer Selig was his father’s chief biographer and the one who collected and collated the letters and tributes that became the Selig Goldschmidt book.

Thank you to my cousin Alan Philipp who sent me this photograph of Meyer Selig Goldschmidt.

Meyer Selig Goldschmidt. Courtesy of Alan Philipp

Meyer and Selma’s oldest son Harry married Fanny Steindecker in Paris on January 21, 1913.1 She was the daughter of David Steindecker and Therese Bing and was born in Paris on December 11, 1891.2 Harry and Fanny had one child, a son Walter Selig Goldschmidt born in Frankfurt on February 3, 1915.3

The next to marry was Meyer’s daughter Clementine. She married Nathan Sondheimer on December 15, 1913, in Frankfurt. He was the son of Moses Tobias Sondheimer and Augusta Ettlinger and was born in Frankfurt on August 27, 1874.

Clementine Goldschmidt and Nathan Sondheimer marriage record, Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv; Wiesbaden, Deutschland; Bestand: 903, Ancestry.com. Hesse, Germany, Marriages, 1849-1930

Clementine and Nathan had three children. Manfred Sondheimer was born on October 27, 1914, in Frankfurt.4 His brother Erich Selig Sondheimer was born November 10, 1915, in Frankfurt,5 and Auguste Sondheimer was born January 31, 1917, in Frankfurt.6

Then tragically Clementine died from the 1918 flu epidemic at the age of 25 on October 29, 1918, leaving those three children—all four years old and younger—without their mother. The rest of Clementine’s family’s story will follow in posts to be published next week.

Clementine Goldschmidt Sondheimer death record, Personenstandsregister Sterberegister; Bestand: 903; Signatur: 10793, Ancestry.com. Hesse, Germany, Deaths, 1851-1958

Meyer Selig Goldschmidt’s youngest child Alice Goldschmidt married Heinrich Eisemann on May 23, 1919, in Frankfurt. Heinrich was born in Frankfurt on August 5, 1890, to Michael Eisemann and Nanette Altmann.

Alice Goldschmidt Eisemann marriage record, Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv; Wiesbaden, Deutschland; Bestand: 903, Ancestry.com. Hesse, Germany, Marriages, 1849-1930

Alice and Heinrich had six children born between 1920 and 1930. Thank you to my cousin Chaim, a descendant of Alice and Heinrich, who sent me the link for this YouTube video of old home movies of the Eisemann family in Frankfurt. It shows just how comfortable and “normal” their lives were before the Holocaust.

Meyer Selig Goldschmidt died in 1922 and was survived by his wife Selma Cramer Goldschmidt and three of their four children, their daughter Clementine having died in 1918.

Meyer Selig Goldschmidt death record, Certificate Number: 1204
Personenstandsregister Sterberegister; Bestand: 903; Signatur: 10867
Ancestry.com. Hesse, Germany, Deaths, 1851-1958

Two years after Meyer Selig’s death his younger son Arthur married Martha Mitterhauser Widmer in Berlin on April 25, 1924. Martha was born on April 2, 1896 in Koln, Germany. She had previously been married to Hans Widmer.7 (Martha’s parents are not listed on either marriage record.)

Arthur Goldschmidt and Martha Widmer marriage record, Landesarchiv Berlin; Berlin, Deutschland; Personenstandsregister Heiratsregister; Laufendenummer: 458
Register Year or Type: 1924 (Zweitregister), Ancestry.com. Berlin, Germany, Marriages, 1874-1936

Selma Cramer Goldschmidt and her three surviving children and their spouses and children all survived the Holocaust. Selma escaped to England, though I cannot pin down when. She registered as an enemy alien on December 15, 1939, and was exempted from internment. On the 1939 England and Wales Register, she is listed as living with a servant in London.8

Selma Cramer Goldschmidt enemy alien registration, The National Archives; Kew, London, England; HO 396 WW2 Internees (Aliens) Index Cards 1939-1947; Reference Number: HO 396/28, Piece Number Description: 028: Internees at Liberty in UK 1939-1942: Goldm-Golds
Ancestry.com. UK, World War II Alien Internees, 1939-1945

Selma died in the fall of 1955 in London. She was 87.9 (I will have more to say about Selma in a subsequent post about the children of her daughter Clementine Goldschmidt Sondheimer.) She was survived by three of her children—Harry, Arthur, and Alice—and many grandchildren. Their stories will continue in the posts to follow.

 

 

 

  1. David Baron and Roger Cibella, Goldschmidt Family Report ↩
  2. Fanny Steindecker, Gender: Female, Birth Date: 11 Dec 1891, Birth Place: Paris, France, Death Date: 15 Nov 1987, Father: David Steindecker, Mother: Therese Bing
    SSN: 105363121, Ancestry.com. U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007 ↩
  3.  Walter Goldschmidt, Gender: Male, Declaration Age: 27, Record Type: Declaration
    Birth Date: 3 Feb 1915, Birth Place: Frankfurt, Main, Germany, Arrival Date: 18 Feb 1942, Arrival Place: Newsport News, Virginia, USA, Declaration Date: 21 Aug 1942
    Declaration Place: New York, Court: U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, Declaration Number: 528268, Box Number: 404, The National Archives at Philadelphia; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; NAI Title: Declarations of Intention for Citizenship, 1/19/1842 – 10/29/1959; NAI Number: 4713410; Record Group Title: Records of District Courts of the United States, 1685-2009; Record Group Number: 21,
    Ancestry.com. New York, U.S., State and Federal Naturalization Records, 1794-1943 ↩
  4. Manfred Sondheimer, Gender: Male, Race: White, Birth Date: 27 Oct 1914
    Birth Place: Frankfort Am, Federal Republic of Germany, Death Date: 8 Jan 2006
    Father: Nathan Sondheimer, Mother: Clementine Goldschmidt, SSN: 051183476
    Ancestry.com. U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007 ↩
  5.  Erich Selig Sondheimer, Race: White, Age: 31, Birth Date: 10 Nov 1915, Birth Place: Frankfurt, Germany, Registration Date: 22 Nov 1946, Registration Place: New York City, New York, Employer: Petro Tar and Chemical Corporation, Weight: 141
    Ancestry.com. U.S., World War II Draft Cards Young Men, 1940-1947 ↩
  6.  Auguste Sondheimer, Birth Date: 31 Jan 1917, Birth Place: Frankfurt am Main
    Last Residence: Frankfurt am Main, National Archives and Records Administration (NARA); Washington, DC; Name Index of Jews Whose German Nationality Was Annulled by the Nazi Regime (Berlin Documents Center); Record Group: 242, National Archives Collection of Foreign Records Seized, 1675 – 1958; Record Group ARC ID: 569; Publication Number: T355; Roll: 8, Schafranek, Lizzi – Stern, Moritz, Ancestry.com. Germany, Index of Jews Whose German Nationality was Annulled by Nazi Regime, 1935-1944 ↩
  7. Marriage of Martha Mittelhauser and Hans Widmer, Certificate Number: 25, Landesarchiv Berlin; Berlin, Deutschland; Personenstandsregister Heiratsregister; Laufendenummer: 255, Ancestry.com. Berlin, Germany, Marriages, 1874-1936 ↩
  8. Selma Goldschmidt, The National Archives; Kew, London, England; 1939 Register; Reference: RG 101/564E, Description Enumeration District: AWAE, Ancestry.com. 1939 England and Wales Register. ↩
  9. Selma S Goldschmidt, Death Age: 87, Birth Date: abt 1868
    Registration Quarter: Oct-Nov-Dec 1955, Registration District: Paddington
    Inferred County: London, Volume: 5d, Page: 159, General Register Office; United Kingdom; Volume: 5d; Page: 159, Ancestry.com. England & Wales, Civil Registration Death Index, 1916-2007 ↩

Tragedy and Escape: The Story of Helene Schnadig Cohn and Her Children

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We saw in the last post that Henriette Katzenstein Schnadig’s youngest child Elsa survived the Holocaust as did her husband Salomon Cats and their two sons. Elsa’s two older sisters Helene and Betty were not as fortunate.

Elsa’s sister Helene Schnadig and her husband Emil Cohn were both murdered by the Nazis. According to their residency registration cards at the Amsterdam archives, Helene and Emil moved from Hamburg to Hilversum in the Netherlands on January 2, 1939, and then to Rotterdam on September 11, 1939, ten days after the start of World War II. They then returned to Hilversum on November 9, 1940. Eventually they returned to Amsterdam on July 17, 1942.

Source reference Archive cards , archive number 30238 , inventory number 721 Municipality : Amsterdam Period : 1939-1960, https://archief.amsterdam/indexen/persons?ss=%7B%22q%22:%22schnadig%22%7D, Amsterdam Archives Gemeente Amsterdam Stadsarchiev

According to a Judenrat card found in the Arolsen Archives, Emil and Helene were taken to the detention camp at Westerbork on January 8, 1943. From there they were taken to the concentration camp in Terezin, Czechoslovakia, on January 20, 1944. Then on October 28, 1944, they were taken from Terezin to the death camp at Auschwitz, where they were murdered. Emil was 74, Helene 63.

1 Incarceration Documents / 1.1 Camps and Ghettos / 1.1.42 Theresienstadt Ghetto /
1.1.42.2 Card File Theresienstadt / 4966533/ITS Digital Archive, Arolsen Archives

Miraculously, however, Helene and Emil Cohn’s four children all survived, although my information about them is somewhat limited. Meta, their oldest child, was married to Salomon Pregers, who was born in Rotterdam on October 8, 1885, son of Salomon Pregers and Isabelle Therese de Groot.1 Meta and Salomon were married in Hamburg on May 14, 1926, according to their Amsterdam residency card.

Source reference Archive cards , archive number 30238 , inventory number 159 Municipality : Amsterdam Period : 1939-1960, https://archief.amsterdam/indexen/persons?ss=%7B%22q%22:%22meta%20cohn%22%7D, Amsterdam Archives Gemeente Amsterdam Stadsarchiev

That residency card indicates that Salomon and Meta came from Hamburg to Hilversum on June 3, 1926, a few weeks after their wedding. They remained in the Netherlands, eventually moving to Amsterdam in February 1943, not long after Meta’s parents were taken to Westerbork.

Salomon and Meta were registered with the Judenrat in Amsterdam, as reflected on these three cards. It appears that Salomon had been a teacher at a Jewish school. I can’t decipher much more than that.

1 Incarceration Documents / 1.2 Miscellaneous / 1.2.4 Various Organizations / 1.2.4.2 Index cards from the Judenrat (Jewish council) file in Amsterdam / Reference Code 124200008/ITS Digital Archive, Arolsen Archives

1 Incarceration Documents / 1.2 Miscellaneous / 1.2.4 Various Organizations / 1.2.4.2 Index cards from the Judenrat (Jewish council) file in Amsterdam / Reference Code 124200008/ITS Digital Archive, Arolsen Archives

1 Incarceration Documents / 1.2 Miscellaneous / 1.2.4 Various Organizations / 1.2.4.2 Index cards from the Judenrat (Jewish council) file in Amsterdam / Reference Code 124200008/ITS Digital Archive, Arolsen Archives

UPDATE: Bert de Jong pointed out that both these cards have the designation “gesperrt,” meaning that Meta and Salomon had been marked as exempt from deportation by the Judenrat, Salomon because of his former occupation as a teacher and his education, and Meta based on her husband’s exemption.

UPDATE from Rob Ruijs: Rob examined these three cards very carefully and provided some analysis. One interesting observation he made about Salomon Pregers was that he may have grown up in poverty and achieved success through higher education.  Rob also deciphered much of that third card with three entries for February 2, 1943. It appears that Salomon (and presumably Meta) were moving between Amsterdam and the town of Den Bosch, which is about an hour south of Amsterdam or that there was some confusion about where they were living.

The Amsterdam residency cards above indicate that both Meta and Salomon left for Germany (Duitschland) in March 1945. I would think that means they were deported then since I cannot imagine that any Jew would have gone to Germany willingly in March, 1945, but I have no record of any deportation, and I know that they survived the war.  Meta was listed as a person searching for relatives in an article in the June 15, 1945, issue of Aufbau. The words at the top translate as:

“The following list which we have received from the ITA [the International Tracing Agency] only reveals a part of the Jews found in Holland after the final liberation who are looking for relatives. In cases in which a closer address of the searcher is not given, they can be reached through the Red Cross.”

Meta Cohn Pregers in Aufbau June 15, 1945, p. 25, http://archive.org/stream/aufbau111945germ#page/n387/mode/1up

Although Meta and Salomon thus survived the war, it was not for very many years. Meta Cohn Pregers died on March 21, 1952, in Hilversum.2 Her husband Salomon Pregers died a month later on April 22, 1952, in Hilversum.3 He was 66 when he died, Meta was only 51. I have been unable to find a record of any children.

UPDATE: Thanks to Rob Ruijs for alerting me to the fact that there were death notices for Meta and Salomon that I could find on Delpher.nl. Given that neither death notice mentioned children, it appears that they did not have any.

New Israelite weekly
28-03-1952

New Israelite weekly
April 25, 1952

Meta’s younger brother Siegbert immigrated to Brazil in 1939; he arrived with his four-year-old daughter Ursula. I could not locate a woman traveling with him who might have been his wife, nor I have I yet found any further records for Siegbert or Ursula.

Siegbert Cohn, Digital GS Number: 004542471, Ancestry.com. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Immigration Cards, 1900-1965

The third child of Helene and Emil Cohn, their daughter Hertha Johanna, married James Horwitz, a kosher butcher, on February 21, 1928, in Hamburg. James was born on November 10, 1895, in Hamburg, the son of Hermann Horwitz and Johanna Tannenberg.4 James and Hertha immigrated to Rotterdam inthe Netherlands from Berlin on March 15, 1939, and to Amsterdam in March of 1940.

Source reference Archive cards , archive number 30238 , inventory number 367 Municipality : Amsterdam Period : 1939-1960, https://archief.amsterdam/indexen/persons?ss=%7B%22q%22:%22james%20horwitz%22%7D, Amsterdam Archives Gemeente Amsterdam Stadsarchiev

On July 17, 1940, they were both taken to the detention camp in Westerbork. According to entries in the Terezin Memorial database, both James and Hertha were deported to the Terezin concentration camp on September 4, 1944. James was then taken from Terezin to Auschwitz on September 29, 1944, but Hertha was not. The Terezin Memorial entry indicates that she was liberated from Terezin and survived.

1 Incarceration Documents / 1.1 Camps and Ghettos / 1.1.42 Theresienstadt Ghetto /
1.1.42.2 Card File Theresienstadt /Ghetto Theresienstadt Card File
Reference Code 11422001/ITS Digital Archive, Arolsen Archives

As for James’ fate, the records conflict. Some say he was killed at the death camp in Mauthausen in Austria on April 6, 1945.5 One nephew filed a Page of Testimony saying he was shot near Berlin in March 1945 as the camp inmates were being marched out of Auschwitz.  In either event, James Horwitz was murdered by the Nazis in the spring of 1945 right before the war ended.

In 1957, Hertha was living in Rotterdam when she traveled to Brazil, presumably to visit her brother Siegbert. She listed her marital status as “casada” or married, and the surname Van Thijn was added to her name, so Hertha must have remarried after the war. That is the only information I’ve found about her at this point.

UPDATE: Thank you to Rob Ruijs for reminding me to check Delpher.nl where I found a death notice for Salomon van Thijn published by H. J. van Thijn-Cohen, obviously Hertha. The death notice reads in part, “With sadness I announce the passing of my beloved caring husband Salomon van Thijn in his 87th year, March 18, 1982.” This death notice does not mention children or refer to Salomon as a father so I assume they, like Meta and Salomon Pregers, did not have children.

NRC Handelsblad
20-03-1982

Digital GS Number: 004916498, Ancestry.com. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Immigration Cards, 1900-1965

Lissy Sitta Cohn, the fourth and youngest of the Cohn siblings, ended up in England during the war. In 1939 she was living in Birmingham, working as a domestic servant.

Lissy Cohn, The National Archives; Kew, London, England; 1939 Register; Reference: RG 101/5600D, Enumeration District: QBUI, Ancestry.com. 1939 England and Wales Register

Lissy Cohn, enemy alien registration, The National Archives; Kew, London, England; HO 396 WW2 Internees (Aliens) Index Cards 1939-1947; Reference Number: HO 396/14
Piece Number Description: 014: Internees at Liberty in UK 1939-1942: Cohn-Cz
Ancestry.com. UK, World War II Alien Internees, 1939-1945

She may have returned to Germany after the war because in 1946 she immigrated to Brazil and listed her last residence as Hamburg and her nationality as Alema or German. However, her passport was issued from London. She indicated that her intention was to stay in Brazil permanently and that she was a nurse (enfermeira). As with her siblings, I have no further details about Lissy’s life.

Digital GS Number: 004542185
Source Information
Ancestry.com. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Immigration Cards, 1900-1965

Thus, although the Nazis murdered Helene Schnadig and Emil Cohn, they did not murder any of their four children. But the stories of those four children are not entirely complete. I do not know whether there are living descendants of Helene and Emil, so there is still much work to be done.

 

 

  1.  Salomon Pregers, Birth Date: 1885, Birth Place: Rotterdam, Father: Salomon Pregers, Mother: Isabelle Therese de Groot, Stadsarchief Rotterdam; Den Haag, Nederland; BS Birth, Ancestry.com. Netherlands, Birth Index, 1784-1917. Original data: BS Geboorte. WieWasWie. https://www.wiewaswie.nl/: accessed 24 May 2016. Child:
    Salomon Pregers, Mother: Isabelle Therese de Groot Father: Salomon Pregers
    Date of birth: 8-10-1885, Birthplace:  Rotterdam Access number: 999-01 Civil Registry Rotterdam, birth certificates, Inventory number: 1885D, Folio number: d045v Deed number: 1885.3822 ↩
  2.  Meta Cohn, Age: 50, Birth Date: abt 1902, Birth Place: Hamburg, Death Date: 21 mrt 1952 (21 Mar 1952), Death Place: Hilversum, Father: Emil Cohn, Mother: Helene Schnadig, Noord-Hollands Archief; Den Haag, Nederland; Burgerlijke stand (overlijdensakten), Ancestry.com. Netherlands, Death Index, 1795-1969. Original data: BS Overlijden. WieWasWie. https://www.wiewaswie.nl/: accessed 24 May 2016. ↩
  3.  Salomon Pregers, Age: 66, Birth Date: abt 1886, Birth Place: Rotterdam, Death Date: 22 apr 1952, Death Place: Hilversum, Father: Salomon Pregers, Mother: Isabella Therese de Groot, Noord-Hollands Archief; Den Haag, Nederland; Burgerlijke stand (overlijdensakten), Ancestry.com. Netherlands, Death Index, 1795-1969. Original data: BS Overlijden. WieWasWie. https://www.wiewaswie.nl/: accessed 24 May 2016. ↩
  4. James Horwitz birth record, Year Range and Volume: 1895 Band 06, Ancestry.com. Hamburg, Germany, Births, 1874-1901. Original data:Best. 332-5 Standesämter, Personenstandsregister, Sterberegister, 1876-1950, Staatsarchiv Hamburg, Hamburg, Deutschland. ↩
  5. James Israel Horwitz, Birth Date: 10 Nov 1895, Birth Place: Hamburg, Mauthaus #: 134330, Nationality: staatenlos (Stateless), Arrest Reason: Jude (Jew), Night and Fog: No, Profession: Fleischer (Butcher), Death Date: 6 Apr 1945, Arrival Date: 26-Feb-45
    Source: AMM E/13/12/9; Y/36;Mauthausen Gedenkstätte. Austria, Mauthausen/Gusen Concentration Camp Death Record Books , 1938-1945. The National Archives at College Park; College Park, Maryland; Microfilm: A3355; ARC: 596972; Title: Lists and Registers of German Concentration Camp Inmates, 1946 – 1958; Record Group: 242; Record Group Title: National Archives Collection of Foreign Records Seized, 1675 – 1958, Record Description: Records on Prisoners, Gat-Ji, Source Information
    Ancestry.com. Germany, Concentration Camp Records, 1946-1958. Also, some records at Yad Vashem show that James Horwitz was at Mauthausen. His Stolpersteine in Berlin also says that he died at Mauthausen. ↩

Fredericke Katzenstein Goldmann’s Daughter Meta: A Family Destroyed

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Fredericke Katzenstein Goldmann’s older daughter Clementine died in April 1942, just months before her husband Alexander Joel was deported to the concentration camp at Terezin, where he died in December 1942. But their daughters all survived the Holocaust as did their grandchildren.

Clementine’s younger sister Meta was not even that fortunate. She and her husband Adolf Hammerschlag and daughter Lieselotte were all murdered at Auschwitz. The page devoted to their Stolpersteine in Hamburg provides this biographical information:

[Adolph Hammerschlag], his wife Meta, and their daughters Lieselotte (*10 August 1910) and Irmgard (4 March 1915) lived in Göttingen, where he was a wealthy businessman, the co-owner of the grain company Bachmann Bros. …. Since profits fell rapidly after 1933, Hammerschlag moved the offices of his company to his private residence in Göttingen .… In the following years the political situation brought the company to a standstill.

Adolph Hammerschlag was arrested during the November Pogrom in 1938, and his company was “Aryanized” on 21 November. It was taken over by a grain merchant from Göttingen who was one of the first members of the Nazi Party.

After his release, Adolph Hammerschlag and his wife fled to Hamburg to his sister, Mrs. Alexander Joel, [sic: Mrs. Alexander Joel was Adolph’s sister-in-law, not his sister]…. The formerly wealthy couple was now destitute. ….[They were deported to Auschwitz on July 11, 1942, and murdered there.]

Hammerschlag’s daughter Lieselotte Blum and her husband had lived in Brussels since 1939. They were deported to Auschwitz in 1942. His daughter Irmgard married Heinz Baehr in September 1936. The couple was able to emigrate to Haifa in Palestine.

Thus, only Meta’s younger daughter Irmgard survived. The immigration documents for her and her husband Heinz show that they arrived in Palestine in 1937 and became naturalized citizens in 1939.

Irmgard’s husband Heinz died in 1947, according to Geni; he was only 33 years old. Irmgard remarried later, but I don’t know if she had any children with either husband. Irmgard died in Haifa in 1977, according to My Heritage. She was 62.

Thus, Fredericke Katzenstein Goldmann not only lost her husband Leopold and her son Karl before she died—both of her daughters, Clementine and Meta, and their husbands and one of her granddaughters died during the Holocaust. But her four other grandchildren survived as did their children.

Sometimes the randomness of who survived and who did not just overwhelms me.