Category Archives: Israel

Meier Rothschild, Part VI: Anna Rothschild Hamberg

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The youngest child of Meier Rothschild and Bertha Lorge was their daughter Anna. And unlike with her older siblings, I was able to learn where she and her family were in the 1930s and 1940s. I found the Palestine immigration files for Anna, her husband (and my cousin) Julius Hamberg, and for two of their three children, Alice and Ernst, on the Israel State Archives website. They all had immigrated from Germany to Palestine in 1934 when Alice was twelve, Hans Leo was eleven, and Ernst was eight. Here are two pages from Julius Hamberg’s application that show their date of immigration.

Julius Hamberg, Palestine immigration file found at the Israel State Archives, https://www.archives.gov.il/

Among the interesting things I learned from these immigration files is that Julius listed his occupation as a “commission agent,” meaning most likely a broker who handled commercial sales for sellers and buyers, Alice was a children’s nurse, and Ernst was an agricultural laborer.

Here are the photos of them from their immigration files:

Anna Rothschild Hamberg, found at https://www.archives.gov.il/

Julius Hamberg, found at https://www.archives.gov.il/

Alice Hamberg, found at https://www.archives.gov.il/

Ernst Hamberg, found at https://www.archives.gov.il/

I was not able to find a Palestine naturalization file for Hans Leo Eliezer Hamberg, but he was mentioned in his father Julius’ file when Hans later sought immigration to Israel in 1990 under the Law of Return and had to establish his Jewish identity to qualify. Although I cannot find him elsewhere, I assume Hans Leo Eliezer must have come to Palestine in 1934 with his parents since he was just a young boy; he perhaps left Palestine/Israel at some point and then wanted to return in 1990.

Hans Leo (Eliezer) Hamberg mentioned in Julius Hamberg’s immigration file, found at https://www.archives.gov.il/

As an aside, the fact that Anna Rothschild Hamberg and her family arrived in Palestine in 1934 helps to understand how Helene/Hana Rothschild, Berthold’s daughter, was more able to come to Palestine in 1937 without her sister or her father (her mother had died). She had an aunt, her father’s sister, living there so did have family already established in the country.

Returning to the family of Anna Rothschild Hamberg, a letter in her daughter Alice’s file from when she was applying for naturalization in 1941 includes the sentence: “The applicant came to Palestine together with her parents and on the ppt [passport] of her father, whose whereabouts she does not know.” Alice was nineteen at that time, and her family had been in Palestine since 1934. Where could Julius have gone? Or is the writer of the letter referring to her father’s passport and its whereabouts? I think that seems more likely, but the sentence is certainly poorly drafted.

Letter in Alice Hamberg’s Palestinian immigration file, 1941, found at https://www.archives.gov.il/

On IGRA I found the marriage record of Alice Hamberg to Fritz Shalom Mayer on February 10, 1947, in Tel Aviv, Israel. Fritz was 35 at the time, Alice was 24. Fritz was the son of Gerson Leo and Alza Sara Mayer, according to the marriage record.

Alice Hamberg and Fritz Shalom Mayer marriage record, found at https://genealogy.org.il/AID/

At this point I have not found any further records for Anna, Julius, or any of their children. Perhaps a descendant will find me and fill in the gaps.

This brings me to the end (for now) of my attempt to learn about the children of Meier Rothschild and Bertha Lorge. There is so much I still don’t know. What I do know is that all five of their children and all of their grandchildren survived the Holocaust, except Berthold’s ex-wife Sarah, who died in a sanatorium in Germany.

Berthold himself ended up in South Africa where he died in 1964, and his daughter Adelheid survived the concentration camp at Celle/Bergen Belsen and ended up in Israel after the war. His daughter Helene/Hana escaped to Palestine in 1937.

Theodor Rothschild and his wife Bettina ended up in Monaco, and their daughter Doris died in France. I don’t have further records for their daughter Ellen.

As for Gertrud Rothschild Neuhahn and her husband Gustav and daughter Ruth, I know they were in Tel Aviv for some time, but Ruth and her children ended up in Mexico later on.

Siegfried and his wife Gisela are buried in Israel, their son Zeev died in British Columbia, and their son Gunther Michael lived in the United States.

Finally, Anna Rothschild Hamberg and her husband and children immigrated to what was then Palestine in 1934.

So Meier and Bertha’s children and grandchildren were not killed by the Nazis, but they ended up spread to all corners of the earth: Israel, France, Monaco, Mexico, Canada, South Africa, and the United States. They may have survived the Holocaust, but their family was torn apart forever. They also were therefore all victims of the Holocaust.

With this final chapter in story of the children of Gelle Blumenfeld and Simon Rothschild, I have also closed the chapter on Gelle’s father Moses, the first of the six children of my four-times great-grandparents Abraham Blumenfeld and Geitel Katz. I started this particular chapter of the Blumenfeld family over four years ago, and now I can finally move on to the second child of Abraham and Geitel, their daughter Sprintz.

 

Meier Rothschild, Part V: Siegfried Friedrich Rothschild

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

 

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

Adelheid Rothschild: How She Survived the Holocaust

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My cousin Adelheid Rothschild survived the Holocaust, as did her father Berthold and sister Helene/Hana, as we have seen,  but unlike her father and sister, Adelheid spent time in a concentration camp. She was deported from Amsterdam to the concentration camp at Bergen Belsen. She survived the war and at some point immigrated to Palestine/Israel, where she lived near her sister for the rest of her life. Her nephew Meir has shared a number of photos of Adi (as she was known in Israel) and his mother Hana, two of which I already shared. Here’s one more:

Helene/Hana and Adelheid/Adi in Germany, 1998.
Courtesy of the family

But one of the many questions that remained was when did Adi leave Germany for Amsterdam? Her father left for South Africa in 1936 when she was just sixteen, and her sister left for Palestine in 1937 around the same time that their mother Selma/Sarah Adler died. Adi was the last remaining member of that family to be left in Germany if she was still there after her sister left and mother died.

It took me quite some doing, but I believe I finally have some answers. I found in the Amsterdam Archives the following resident registration card for Adi.

Adelheid Rothschild Samson registration card from the Amsterdam Archives, found at https://archief.amsterdam/archief/30238/691

The card contains the following information, including pertinent information about Adi’s whereabouts in the Netherlands. Note that it starts with Adelheid being single and then was updated to show her marriage information. The card contains the following information:

Surname: Rothschild. First names: Adelheid Gertrud Sara

Born10 December 1920, Frankfurt am Main, Germany–Female

Father: Berthold, born 5 Dec 1889 in Hoff b. Kassel, Germany

Mother: Adler, Selma Sarah

Occupation: Housewife/without 

Married to: Samson, Manfred,  born 2 December 1923, Leipzig, Germany

Married on: 22 November 1943

Place of marriage: Westerbork

Address History 

| Date | Municipality | Address |

| 4 Jan 1939 | Cologne, Germany | (arrival from abroad) |

| 4 Jan 1939 | Amsterdam – Zeeburg | |

| 10 Jan 1939 | Etten en Leur, Liesberg | Hoofdstraat 63 |

| 3 Apr 1939 | Driebergen-Rijsenburg | |

| 1 Dec 1939 | Ommen, BB | |

| 4 Jun 1940 | Amsterdam | Valkenburgerstraat 186hs |

| 4 Sep 1940 | Franeker | Harlingerweg 45 |

| 29 Dec 1941 | Westerbork | |

| 27 Jan 1944 | Abroad – Germany | 

| 9 Aug 1945 | Amsterdam | Merwedeplein 39 II |

| 22 Oct 1947 | Amsterdam | VOW |

Of particular interest to me was the date of Adelheid’s arrival in the Netherlands: January 4, 1939, from Cologne, Germany. She was then not yet nineteen years old and had been without any immediate family member in Germany for almost two years.

Adelheid then lived in various towns in the Netherlands between January 4, 1939, and December 1941 when she was sent to Westerbork, the location where the Nazis sent the Jews they rounded up while awaiting transport to the concentration camps. It was there that Adelheid met and married Manfred Samson, a marriage of convenience, according to Meir.

I was curious about what advantages that marriage afforded Adelheid and/or Manfred, so I decided to dig a little deeper. What I learned was that people held at Westerbork learned that it was better to be deported to Bergen Belsen, which was not a death camp, than to Auschwitz or another death camp. One article described the purpose of the Bergen Belsen camp:

In late 1942, Hitler and SS chief Heinrich Himmler agreed to make a camp for the purpose of setting aside Jewish families as hostages, with specific instructions that they be given healthy living conditions, so that they could be used at an unspecified later to be traded as hostages for Germans civilians living in allied and allied-occupied countries, for foreign currency, or for much-needed supplies. For this purpose, Jewish people were to be chosen under categories such as those who had special influential connections in foreign countries; those who were themselves of some importance in foreign countries; those who already had so-called ‘Palestine certificates’ giving them the right to emigrate to Palestine; those who already had authorized travel visas to allied countries; those who had ‘hostage value’ via political or economic means, or who were leading Jewish functionaries….Despite the name, the camp was still a part of the Nazi concentration camp system. Belsen was unique in the Nazi camp system in a number of ways, however. From the very start it was a camp intended for families, with a large number of children and teenagers. As a rule, entire families rather than single persons were not [sic??]sent to Belsen, even if only one person in family fulfilled the above criteria for ‘hostage value’.

Thus, perhaps Manfred and Adelheid married because they wanted to go to Bergen Belsen, a safer camp, and only one of them qualified as having “hostage value.” I was curious what a Palestine certificate was and how one obtained one and learned that they were issued by the Jewish Agency in Palestine to give those living under Nazi control permission to escape to Palestine. But only those who had a family member living already in Palestine were eligible to obtain one of these certificates. Remember that Adelheid’s sister Helene (Hana) had already immigrated to Palestine in 1937, so Adelheid was eligible to apply for a Palestine certificate. Perhaps Manfred was not, so Adelheid married him to save him from being sent to Auschwitz. Although they later divorced, Adelheid likely saved his life.

The chronology then continues, showing that in January 1944, Adelheid was deported. From other documents we learned that she and Manfred ended up in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. According to a record I located at JewishGen.com, Adelheid Rothschild and her husband Manfred Samson were liberated at Tröbitz on April 23, 1945, just a week after the war in Europe ended.

I looked up Tröbitz and learned that that was where “the Lost Train” ended up as described in an article at the Yad Vashem website:

Between 6-10 April 1945, days before the liberation of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Germany, three trains were sent from the camp with some 7,000 Jews on board, bound for the Terezin ghetto.  The first train was liberated by the Allies.  The second train reached Terezin on 21 April, and the third, later known as “The Lost Train”, never reached its destination.  After a journey of approximately two weeks, the train was stopped on a destroyed bridge on the Elster River, and on 23 April, it was liberated by the Red Army on the outskirts of the German village of Tröbitz.

The article then tells the story of Betje Andriesse, and her children Bram, Tett and Mirjam, passengers on that train presumably along with Adelaide Rothschild Samson. Betje’s husband Hermann died in February 1945 from starvation and illness at Bergen Belsen (as did Anne Frank). Like Adelaide and Manfred, the Andriesse family had been sent from Amsterdam to Westerbork and then to Bergen-Belsen around the same time. Perhaps they all knew each other. And they likely were all on the same Lost Train. According to an article on JewishGen, there were initially 2500 people on that train, which was supposed to be going to Theriesenstadt, but never made it there.

The Yad Vashem article continued, “For two interminable weeks, the train zigzagged between bombed tracks and destroyed bridges, and on 23 April, it was liberated by the Red Army on the outskirts of the German village of Tröbitz.  Survivors of the journey were given lodging in the village.” But over 600 of the people on that train died during that trip or afterwards in Tröbitz—from disease and malnutrition. Fortunately, Adelheid and Manfred were among those who survived.

In June 1945, the survivors were brought to the Netherlands, and if you look at the chronology on Adelheid’s registration card, you will see that she is registered again as a resident of Amsterdam in August 1945.

The last entry on the card says that on October 22, 1947, she was “VOW,” which stands for “Vertrokken Onbekend Waarheen,” which translates to “Departed to Unknown Destination.” Although I cannot be sure until the Israel State Archives reopen after the war, I am going to guess that that’s when Adelheid and Manfred left Amsterdam for what was then Palestine, soon to be Israel.

It’s remarkable to me to think of all Adelheid survived. I know her marriage to Manfred Samson did not, but somehow together the two of them survived the terrors of Bergen Belsen and the Lost Train and both ended up living the rest of their lives in Israel.

Photo update: The Family of Berthold Rothschild

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Two weeks ago I posted an update about my relative Berthold Rothschild after receiving information about his family from his grandson in Israel, Meir. Now Meir has shared a collection of photographs and given me permission to share them on the blog. Answers to any questions about the background of this family can be found in my two earlier posts about Berthold, here and here.

First, some photographs of Meir’s grandmother Sarah Adler Rothschild. You may recall that Sarah died in 1937 in Germany. Sarah was also known as Selma. She was quite a beautiful woman.

Sarah Selma Adler Rothschild
courtesy of the family

Sarah Selma Adler Rothschild courtesy of the family

Sarah’s daughter Helene (later known Hana in Israel) bore a striking resemblance to her mother. She left Israel in 1937, the same year her mother died, and immigrated to what was then Palestine. This photograph of her on the ship to Palestine is my favorite in this collection. It shows her youthful innocence and excitement. She was only fifteen and traveling without her family. The blue arrow points to Helene.

Helene Rothschild,1937, on the ship to Palestine
Courtesy of the family

This next photograph shows Helene working at the kibbutz where she met her husband, Benjamin Kestenbaum, who later changed his surname to Armon.

Helene (Hana) Rothschild c. 1937 courtesy of the family

Meir recalled that his grandfather Berthold Rothschild came to live in Israel for about a year in the 1950s. These two photographs presumably were taken during that time.

Berthold Rothschild, c. 1956
courtesy of the family

Berthold Rothschild with his daughters Adi (to his right) and Hana (to his left), 1956
courtesy of the family

Finally, Meir shared with me some photographs taken when his mother Hana and aunt Adi visited Germany in 1998. Here are Adi and Hana in Hoof, the town where there father was born.

Adi and Hana in Hoof, 1998
courtesy of the family

Here the sisters are visiting the graves of their paternal grandparents, Meier Rothschild and Berta Lorge.

Ani and Hana at their grandparents’ graves in Germany, 1998 courtesy of the family

I asked Meir if he could decipher the Hebrew on the stone and then translate it for me. This is what he could read, as translated:

Berta side : “Mrs. Berta, daughter of Selma, wife of Meir, crown of … and the glory of her children, died on (Hebrew date), and was buried on (Hebrew date).”

Meier side : “Meir, son of Rabbi Shimon, a teacher and faithful prayer leader, died on (Hebrew date) and was buried on (Hebrew date).

I am so grateful to my cousin Meir, my fifth cousin, for sharing these wonderful photographs of his family so that I could add faces to the names of the people I have researched.

 

ANOTHER UPDATE: Gertrud Rothschild Neuhahn and Family

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Today I am sharing another update, this time with additional information about Gertrud Neuhahn Rothschild, whose family I wrote about just three weeks ago. I had many questions left even after I wrote that post, including how this family survived the Holocaust.

My cousin and fellow family history researcher Richard Bloomfield left a comment on that blog post, saying, “Did you know that Gustav was first missing and then a POW in WWI? He belonged to the Infanterie-Regiment Nr. 83 – 9. Kompanie according to the records published on August 31, 1916. His return was recorded on May 14, 1918. From the German lists of ‘Losses.’ ”

As always, Richard is a superb researcher, and I am blessed to have his support. Richard sent me the two records he’d found. Although I had written in the blog post that Gustav had served in World War I, I had not researched his service details. I went back to Ancestry and located citations for the two lists that Richard sent me. The first document, dated August 31, 1916, reported that Gustav (misindexed as “Reuhahn”) had been previously reported missing but was now in captivity:

Gustav Neuhahn, Residence Year 1914, Residence Country Deutschland (Germany), List Date 31 Aug 1916, List Number 1131, Volume 1916_XVIII, Ancestry.com. Germany, World War I Casualty Lists, 1914-1919, Original data: Deutsche Verlustlisten 1914 bis 1919. Berlin, Deutschland: Deutsche Dienststelle (WASt).

A second record, dated May 14, 1918, reported that Gustav had been released from captivity:

Name Gustav Neuhahn, Residence Year 1914, Residence Country Deutschland (Germany)
List Date 14 Mai 1918 (14 May 1918), List Number 1894, Volume 1918_XVI, Casualty List: Verlust-Liste Nr 1894 (14 Mai 1918), Ancestry.com. Germany, World War I Casualty Lists, 1914-1919 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011.
Original data:Deutsche Verlustlisten 1914 bis 1919. Berlin, Deutschland: Deutsche Dienststelle (WASt).

He then returned to Germany, and as I wrote in my prior post, he married Gertrud Rothschild on May 16, 1919, in Hoof, almost exactly a year after his release. They had two daughters, Ruth on March 18, 1920, and Ursula (later known as Tirza) on March 9, 1921, according to what Richard found on MyHeritage in the “Jewish Holocaust Memorials and Jewish Residents of Germany 1933-1945” database. I searched for actual birth records for Ruth and Ursula/Tirza in the Hesse online archives, but the birth records available there do not extend as recently as the 1920s.

The family lived in Grebenstein at least until 1924, as seen in a page about Grebenstein from the Alemannia Judaica that Richard shared with me.  That page mentions Gustav Neuhahn as one of the leaders of the Grebenstein Jewish community in 1924 when there were 53 Jewish residents out of a population of almost 2500 people.

What I still don’t know is what Gustav and Gertrud and their daughters did after Hitler came to power. As I wrote in that prior post, I know all four survived the Holocaust and ended up in Palestine/Israel since they were all registered as voters in Tel Aviv as early as 1944. But I don’t know when they left Germany.

In the JewishGen Online Worldwide Burial Registry, Richard found a listing for a Tirza Rosenbaum, born Tirza Neuhahn, born in 1921. Thus, it appears that Tirza may have married someone named Rosenbaum, presumably sometime after 1944 when she was still listed as Neuhahn with her parents in the Tel Aviv voter registry. But I cannot find a marriage record for her on the IGRA website.

When I saw that Tirza was buried in the Menuha Nehona Alternative Cemetery in Kefar Sava, Petach Tikva, Central District, Israel, I searched for another Rosenbaum buried in that cemetery to see if I could find her husband. I found a Manfred Rosenbaum, born in 1924 who died in 2023, buried in that same cemetery. But was that Tirza’s husband?

A man with that same name, Manfred Rosenbaum, who was born in Berlin in May 15, 1924, was interviewed by the Shoah Foundation in 1997 in Tel Aviv,1 and his wife is identified on that site as Tirza Rosenbaum, but I cannot access the actual interview to verify that that is my relative, Tirza/Ursula Neuhahn. Ancestry’s data for that interview, however, lists Tirza’s birth date as March 9, 1921, the same date that was listed on MyHeritage for my relative, as seen above.2

However, it also lists Tirza’s death date as January 8, 1990,3 not in 2012, as listed in the JOWBR. Since these sources—the MyHeritage database, the JOWBR, the table of contents to the Shoah interview, Ancestry’s index to the interview, and BillionGraves—are not primary sources, I cannot say with any certainty whether Tirza Neuhahn married this Manfred Rosenbaum, but it seems a possibility. I also cannot say with any certainty when she died.

Richard also found Gertrud (Gerta) in the JOWBR, showing that she died on December 28, 1973.

Gertrud Rothschild Neuhahn burial record

Once I saw where Gertrud (Gerta) was buried, Kiryat Shaul cemetery in Tel Aviv, I searched for Gustav there, using the Hebrew version of the name Neuhahn, נויהן, and found Gustav’s gravestone on the Gravez.com website. He died on May 18, 1960, when he was 74.

With Richard’s help, I now know a great deal more about Gertrud Rothschild Neuhahn and her family.  I am still hoping to learn more, including more about when they immigrated to Israel and more about their daughters Ruth and Tirza and their families. I will continue to update the blog as I learn more.

Thank you, Richard!

  1. Manfred Rosenbaum, Gender Male, Birth Date 15 May 1924, Birth Place Berlin, Germany, Interview Date 4 Mar 1997, Interview Place Givatayim, Tel Aviv, Israel, Relationship Self (Head), Role Interviewee, USC Shoah Foundation; Los Angeles, CA, USA; Visual History Archive: the Holocaust, Free Access: USC Shoah Foundation, Holocaust – Jewish Survivor Interviews, Original data: Visual History Archive: The Holocaust. Los Angeles, CA, USA: USC Shoah Foundation. Also, see https://vha.usc.edu/testimony/28600?mm=bio for the Shoah Foundation page for Manfred Rosenbaum. ↩
  2. Name Tirza Rosenbaum, Gender Female, Birth Date 9 Mar 1921, Birth Place Germany, Death Date 8 Jan 1990, Relationship Wife, Role Relative of Interviewee,
    Survivor No, USC Shoah Foundation; Los Angeles, CA, USA; Visual History Archive: the Holocaust, Free Access: USC Shoah Foundation, Holocaust – Jewish Survivor Interviews, Original data: Visual History Archive: The Holocaust. Los Angeles, CA, USA: USC Shoah Foundation. ↩
  3. Ibid. ↩

UPDATE! Berthold Rothschild and His Family

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On March 11, 2026, just a little over a month ago, I wrote about the family of Berthold Rothschild and his family, including his wife Sarah Adler and their daughter Adelheid. As I wrote in that blog post, I did not know very much about how Berthold survived the Holocaust but knew he ended up in South Africa. I also knew that Adelheid had been in Amsterdam and sent to Bergen-Belsen with her husband Manfred Samson and that they both survived and possibly ended up in Israel after the war. But there were definite holes in my story, and I hoped a family member would find me and help fill in those holes.

Then, lo and behold, last week I heard from Meir, a grandson of Berthold Rothschild, who coincidentally was researching his family and looking to learn what had happened to his grandmother Sarah at just about the same time that I posted about his grandparents.

From Meir I learned that Berthold and Sarah had had a second daughter, Helene, Meir’s mother. Helene (who later became Hana in Israel) was born on March 30, 1922, in Frankfurt. In 1937 at the age of just fifteen she immigrated alone to what was then Palestine. On the Israel Genealogy Research Association website I located a document showing that Helene registered with the German consulate in Palestine in 1938, where she indicated that she intended to stay there indefinitely and that her German passport had expired. Here are those documents, the passport provided by Meir and the consulate registration from IGRA:

Helena Rothschild’s German passport
Courtesy of the family

 

Helene Rothschild registration form for the German Consulate in Jerusalem, 1938, found at IGRA, https://genealogy.org.il/AID/index.php

Helene Rothschild registration form for the German Consulate in Jerusalem, 1938, found at IGRA, https://genealogy.org.il/AID/index.php

In Israel she met and married Benjamin Kestenbaum, who later changed his surname to Armon in Israel. He was born in Berlin on July 28, 1918, and also immigrated to Palestine in 1937. He and Hana met while they were both working on Kibbutz Ein HaNetziv in the early 1940s. After marrying, they moved to Jerusalem where they had three children, including Meir, all born in Jerusalem. Meir’s father Benjamin died on February 20, 2000, and his mother Hana died on November 23, 2023, at the age of 101.1

Meir could not answer some of my questions about his grandfather Berthold—how he survived the Holocaust, when or why he ended up in South Africa, or whether he ever remarried. He did recall that Berthold came to Israel in the late 1950s with a South African woman and operated a photography studio in Jerusalem, but after a year or so they returned to South Africa.2

As for Meir’s aunt Adelheid (or Adi, as she was known in Israel), Meir wrote that her marriage to Manfred Samson was a marriage of convenience so that they could get a certificate to go to Bergen-Belsen. I am still trying to learn more about what that means. In any event they did not stay married after the war, but both did end up in Israel. There Adi married Asher Zarkover, another survivor, in 1948. They had two sons and divorced in 1960. Adi died in 2013 at the age of 93.3

Finally, Meir shared a photograph of his grandfather Berthold and his mother Hana.

Helena (Hana) Rothschild and her father Berthold Rothschild, undated. Courtesy of the family

I am so delighted that Meir reached out to me, and we are still exchanging emails, so if I learn more, I will update again.

  1. Email correspondence with Meir Armon, April 2026. Also, I found Benjamin’s burial record on JewishGen at https://www.jewishgen.org/databases/notglue_s2.php?rec=J_ISRAEL_bg1089704  In addition, I found a record on the IGRA website that shows the legal name chance from Helene Kestenbaum to Hana Armon dated 1953. ↩
  2. Email correspondence with Meir Armon, April 2026. ↩
  3. Ibid. ↩

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

This translates as:

Yosef Neuhahn, son of Zelig

Gertrud Neuhahn, daughter of Shlomo

Ruth Neuhahn, daughter of Yosef

Tirza Neuhahn, daughter of Yosef

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Lotte Nathan: Carrying and Passing on Family Trauma

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Although I couldn’t find out what happened to Bertha Katzenstein Nathan Langebartels, I learned from her naturalization papers that Bertha had had a child with her first husband, Hermann Nathan, named Lotte. Lotte, according to the naturalization petition, was born on May 1, 1915, in Hamburg, Germany. She would have been only eleven years old when her mother and stepfather immigrated to the US in 1926, but she did not come with them. The naturalization petition stated that she “lives in Germany.” The petition also indicated that Friedrich and Bertha had last resided in Hamburg before coming to the United States. I hoped to find Lotte as another way of learning what happened to her mother.

Bertha Katzenstein Langebartels Weber petition for naturalization, The National Archives and Records Administration; Washington, D.C.; Petitions For Naturalization From the U.s. District Court For the Southern District of New York, 1897-1944; Series: M1972; Roll: 542
Description
Archive Roll Descriptions: (Roll 0542) Petition No· 124777-Petition No· 125042
Source Information
Ancestry.com. New York, U.S., Naturalization Records, 1882-1944

My hunch is that Lotte stayed behind with her father Hermann Nathan, but I can’t be certain. But I do know that sometime during or before 1936 Lotte married Emil Fischbein because on September 8, 1936, they left Germany and immigrated to Palestine as a married couple.1 Emil was born in Duisburg, Germany, on September 15, 1912, but was of Polish nationality, according to his Palestine immigration documents; one tree on MyHeritage created by his great-grandson Gil reports that Emil’s parents were Isaak and Esther Fischbein, both born in what is now Poland. German law at that time provided that children born to non-German parents were not considered German.

Emil and Lotte’s Palestine immigration documents also include Lotte’s passport,2 which was issued as a Fremdenpass, or a passport issued by the German government to non-Germans living in Germany. Lotte was not eligible for a regular German passport—either because she had married a “foreigner” or because she was Jewish. Jews whose citizenship had been revoked also were granted Fremdenpasses, not regular German passports.

Lotte’s passport was issued on August 15, 1931, from Koeln (Cologne), which suggests that she was living in the German state of North Rhine Westphalia in 1931, not in Hamburg where she was born and where her mother and stepfather had been living before going to the US. It also appears that Lotte’s father Hermann Nathan was not living in North Rhine Westphalia; he was born in Wittingen3 and in 1939 was living in Hildesheim, both of which are located in the German state of Lower Saxony. Emil, however, was born in Duisburg, which is in North Rhine Westphalia, so perhaps that is where they connected with each other.

By October 15, 1940, when Lotte and Emil obtained Palestinian citizenship, they were living in Haifa and had a son, Hanan, who was born on August 11, 1937, in Haifa.4 Through MyHeritage, I located one of their descendants to learn more about Lotte and her family. Gil is Lotte’s great-grandson; his grandfather was Hanan, the baby born in Haifa in 1937. He told me that family lore is that Lotte left Emil and Hanan when Hanan was a child and went to England with an English soldier.

Some trees on Ancestry and MyHeritage indicate that she married Ronald Francis George Buchanan and died in England in 1971. There is a death record on Ancestry for  Lotte Emma B. Buchanan born on May 1, 1915, the day Lotte Nathan was born; the index indicated that she died in the fall of 1971 in Nottingham, England.5 Another record on Ancestry indicates that she died on November 21, 1971, and was cremated in Nottinghamshire on November 24, 1971.6

Lotte Nathan Fischbein Buchanan had a family history and personal history that was difficult. Her grandmother Bertha Metz died from complications of childbirth just two weeks after giving birth to Lotte’s mother Bertha Katzenstein in New York. Bertha Katzenstein was then taken by her father Adolf to Germany, away from her mother’s family.

Then Lotte’s mother Bertha married Hermann Nathan and had Lotte in 1915, only to be divorced from Hermann in 1919 and to marry Friedrich Langebartels in 1921. In 1926 Bertha and Friedrich came to the US and were there at least long enough to file for US citizenship in 1927, leaving Lotte behind in Germany at eleven years old. I don’t know what happened to Bertha after 1927 or whether Lotte ever reunited with her mother.

We know that there is truth to the concept of generational trauma—how the traumas and tragedies suffered by earlier generations are passed down to the children, grandchildren, and so forth of those earlier generations. Bertha Katzenstein grew up without a mother and was taken from the US to Germany as a child by her father, far from her maternal relatives. We don’t know how that trauma affected her, but in some ways her daughter Lotte suffered a similar trauma when her mother Bertha divorced her father, remarried, and left Lotte behind after moving to the US with her second husband. And then Lotte inflicted a similar trauma on her son Hanan, leaving him behind when she remarried and moved to England.

How tragic it is that the scars of one generation can be so easily passed on to the later generations.

 

  1. Emil and Lotte’s application for citizenship in Palestine in 1940 was found at the Israel State Archives website, temporarily found at https://search.archives.gov.il/, after a cyberattack on their main site. ↩
  2. See Note 1, supra. ↩
  3. Hermann Nathan and Bertha Katzenstein marriage record, Year Range and Volume: 1913 Band 01, Ancestry.com. Hamburg, Germany, Marriages, 1874-1920 ↩
  4. See Palestine immigration documents above. ↩
  5. Name Lottie Emma B Buchanan, Death Age 56, Birth Date 1 May 1915, Registration Date Oct 1971, [Nov 1971] [Dec 1971], Registration Quarter Oct-Nov-Dec, Registration District Nottingham, Inferred County Nottinghamshire, Volume 3c
    Page 1274, General Register Office; United Kingdom; Volume: 3c; Page: 1274, Ancestry.com. England & Wales, Civil Registration Death Index, 1916-2007 ↩
  6. Name Lottie Emma Bertha Buchanan, Register Type Cremation, Death Date 21 Nov 1971, Burial or Cremation Date 24 Nov 1971, Burial or Cremation Place Nottinghamshire, Deceased Online; Kettering, England, UK; Deceased Online Burial Indexes, Ancestry.com. Web: UK, Burial and Cremation Index, 1576-2024 ↩

The Devastating Effects of Terrorism

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Today I am honored and moved to share an essay written by my fourth cousin, once removed, Miki Katzenstein Dror. Miki is the daughter of Arie Katzenstein1, an Israeli who was killed by terrorists on February 10, 1970, at the Munich airport while he was traveling with his father Heinz on business.

As I wrote here and here, Arie sacrificed his own life by throwing his body on a grenade, thus saving the lives of many others, including his father, who had fled to Israel from Nazi Germany in the 1930s. Miki and her two siblings were just young children at the time. Because of this horrible act of terror, they grew up without their beloved and courageous father.

Arye Katzenstein Courtesy of his family

As Miki wrote almost a year a half ago, the city of Munich decided to create a memorial to honor the memory of her father Arie and the others who were injured and terrorized on that day in 1970. On February 10, 2025, Miki and her siblings and other family members traveled to Munich to participate in the dedication of that memorial.

This video, in Hebrew but with English subtitles, includes interviews with Miki and her siblings and more information about Arie Katzenstein’s tragic murder. This video in German shows what the memorial looks like and also some images from the ceremony itself, including images of Miki and her brother and sister speaking at the ceremony. It also has some historic footage from coverage of the attack in 1970. Richard Bloomfield has provided me with this translation of the text of the second video.

55 years ago, members of a Palestinian terrorist organization tried to hijack an El Al Israeli airline plane. The victims and the heroes of the attack were commemorated today at the former tower.

Three golden clocks symbolize the times of the three detonations on February 10, 1970. They are located in front of the tower of the former airport in Munich-Riem. The artist Alicja Kwade created the work of art. At today’s inauguration of the memorial, Arie Katzenstein’s three children commemorated their father, who, through his courage, saved the lives of others exactly 55 years ago by throwing himself on a hand grenade. Palestinian terrorists had attacked the passengers during a stopover in Munich, killing the German-Israeli Katzenstein and injuring others. The captain of the aircraft also put up a courageous fight. The extent of the terrorist act had been clearly underestimated, said the mayor of Munich.

[The mayor] “However, I also find it shameful that it has taken half a century for us to finally publicly commemorate the terrible attack here in Munich on February 10, 1970. For this, I apologize. I am glad that we have finally found a worthy way to commemorate it.”

Brainlab, which is now located at the former tower, the city and the family worked closely together.

[Arie’s son] “It will remind people who come here of what happened. And it will make them think.”

A memorial plaque and a website [https://munich1970.de/en/] provide information about the attack. This is to keep the memory of the victims and heroes of Munich-Riem alive.

Here’s a photograph of the memorial:

I asked Miki if she would share with me and my readers her thoughts and feelings about the dedication and the memorial itself. This is what she wrote:

Finally, after fifty-five years, our heroic father was commemorated at the site of his murder in Munich, Germany.

On the afternoon of February 10, 1970, EL AL Flight 435 landed in Munich on its way to London. While waiting for the connecting flight, a squad of three terrorists attacked the passengers by firing pistols and throwing hand grenades.

Our father, the late Arie Katzenstein, who flew with his late father Heinz, for business, threw himself at one of the hand grenades that were thrown at the passengers, thus saving many others, but was killed on the spot.

At his death, he left behind a young widow and three small children between the ages of three months and six years: Miki Dror, Tami Meirovich and Ofer Katzenstein.

About a decade after his death, our mother received a letter from the President of Israel at the time, the late Yitzhak Navon, in which he wrote, among other things, that the State of Israel would cherish the memory of our father among its other heroes. Unfortunately, this promise was never kept, despite our many inquiries on the subject.

On the other hand, about five years ago, representatives of the Munich municipality contacted us, following a request from our German friends. They announced that the municipality intended to commemorate our father at the site of the attack – the old airport in Munich–Riem. As the Germans are using a newer airport these days, the old one is used as a big convention center and a high-tech park. From that moment on, a long process of conversations, meetings and discussions began between us and the Munich municipality regarding the manner of commemoration. At an early point, the high-tech company Brainlab joined the effort. Its offices are currently located in the area where the attack took place.

The company expressed its most generous consent to the existence of the memorial site on its premises and funded a work of art by the famous internationally acclaimed artist Alicja Kwade, to be displayed there.

On February 10, 2025, exactly fifty-five years after the murder of our father, the inauguration ceremony was held in the presence of the President of the Bavarian Parliament, Mrs. Ilse Aigner, the Mayor of Munich, Mr. Dieter Reiter, Founder of Brainlab, Mr. Stefan Viltsmeier, the Consul General of Israel in Munich, Ms. Talia Lador, the artist Alicja Kwade, family members of our Germans friends, other families of the victims and many, many more.

From left to right: Ms. Talia Lador, Consul of Israel to Munich; Mrs. Ilse Aigner, President of Bavarian Parliament; Ofer Katzenstein; Tami Katzenstein; Mr. Dieter Reiter, Mayor of Munich; Miki Katzenstein Dror;  and Mr. Stefan Viltsmeier, founder of Brainlab

During the ceremony, the German dignitaries gave moving speeches, and we, his three children, spoke about our father, his absence, and the long journey that had brought us to this day. In addition, we thanked the German government and their ambassador in Israel for their support in the struggle for the release of the Israeli hostages from Gaza and asked that they not give up until the last of the abductees was brought home.

The Katzenstein family attending the memorial dedication in Munich, February 10, 2025

The singing of opera singers Hagar Sharvit and Noa Beinart and pianist Amiel Bushkevich did not leave a dry eye.

We arrived to the ceremony with a full family lineup, including all of our father’s grandchildren, but unfortunately our mother Bilha, who passed away not long ago, did not get to attend this exciting event. At the end of the ceremony, we read Kaddish, and laid flowers, an Israeli flag, and a scarf of the Hapoel Haifa soccer team – which our father loved so much.

Ofer Katzenstein saying Kaddish at the memorial site for his father Arie Katzenstein

For us, this is a moment of partial closure and unparalleled excitement. After so many years of action, our father’s sacrifice is finally officially recognized.

Now, we have a place where we can come to with our families, relate to, and remember. We couldn’t have asked for more.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has helped us over the past few years to get to know our father better, to speak about him and to spread his heroic deeds.

And finally, I’m writing this post on the day that Hamas, the terror organization, released the bodies of Kfir and Ariel Bibas, two babies who were taken to Gaza as hostages more than a year ago. So sad that after 55 years it seems as if nothing has changed, and terror still strike Jews, in Israel and in the world.

When I received the email from Miki sharing this essay, I also was struck by the fact, as Miki observed, that this was the same day that the bodies of the two Bibas children were returned to Israel—two beautiful, innocent babies who were murdered by Hamas after they and their parents were kidnapped by Hamas on October 7, 2023. After first sending the wrong remains, Hamas later released the actual remains of their mother, Shiri Bibas. Their father Yarden Bibas survived his capture and confinement and was released back to Israel, but without his wife and children. Like the children of Arie Katzenstein and so many others, Yarden Bibas has had his family destroyed by terrorism.

Terrorism against Jews began centuries ago with the pogroms that chased some of my ancestors out of Europe, continued with the murder of six million Jews, including many of my relatives, during the Holocaust, and tragically continues to this very day with the nightmare of October 7, 2023, and its aftermath.

And it isn’t only Jews who have suffered because of the hatred, violence, and terror inflicted on one group by another. We still are seeing across the globe the bloodshed and tragedy that hatred produces.

How many more children will grow up without a parent? How many more parents will have to mourn their children? Will we ever learn?

May the memory of Arie Katzenstein be for a blessing, as well as the memories of Kfir, Ariel, and Shiri Bibas, and all the other victims of October 7. And may we someday finally learn, to paraphrase Martin Luther King, that only love can drive out hatred, only light can drive out darkness.

  1. Sometimes transliterated from Hebrew as Aryeh or Arye. ↩

Levi Rothschild’s Children Part III: Escaping The Holocaust to South Africa, New York, and Palestine/Israel

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Of the six children of Levi Rothschild and Clara Jacob who lived to adulthood in Germany, amazingly all but one escaped from Germany in time to avoid being killed by the Nazis. Only the youngest sibling Frieda was not as fortunate. But that doesn’t mean that there wasn’t suffering and loss endured by the other five. This post will focus on the three oldest children: Sigmund, Betti, and Moses.

Sigmund Rothschild and his wife Fanny Rosenbaum escaped to South Africa. I don’t know when or how they immigrated there, but Fanny died there on August 20, 1942, in Capetown at the age of  62.

Fanny Rosenbaum Rothschild death record, Municipality or Municipality Range: Cape Town
Ancestry.com. Cape Province, South Africa, Civil Deaths, 1895-1972

Her husband Sigmund died in Capetown three years later on December 23, 1945; he was 71.

Sigmund Rothschild death record, Municipality or Municipality Range: Cape Town
Ancestry.com. Cape Province, South Africa, Civil Deaths, 1895-1972

As for Sigmund and Fanny’s son Kurt, I have very little information. An entry in the England & Wales Civil Registration Death Index on Ancestry shows that he died in Lancaster, England, and that the death was registered in September 1997.1 A FindAGrave entry shows his gravestone with the date of death as August 30, 1997.

Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/81923216/kurt-rothschild: accessed April 19, 2024), memorial page for Kurt Rothschild (1910–3 Sep 1997), Find a Grave Memorial ID 81923216, citing Lytham Park Cemetery and Crematorium, Lytham Saint Annes, Fylde Borough, Lancashire, England; Maintained by ProgBase (contributor 47278889).

The Ancestry tree that appears to have been created by Kurt’s daughter-in-law shows that Kurt married Erna Erdmann and had one child, who is the home person on that tree. I have not been able to find a marriage record for Kurt and Erna Erdmann or a birth record for their child, so I am hoping that the owner of that tree will respond to the message I sent to help me find out what happened to Kurt Rothschild and his family. But since it’s been well over two months at this point, I am not optimistic that I will hear from her anytime soon.

The second child of Levi and Klara, their daughter Betti, lost her husband Emanuel Hirschmann on November 4, 1932. He died in Fulda, Germany, and was 64.

Emanuel Hirschmann death record, Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv; Wiesbaden, Deutschland; Personenstandsregister Sterberegister; Signatur: 2470, Year Range: 1932, Ancestry.com. Hesse, Germany, Deaths, 1851-1958

Their son Walter had married Gertrud Hirschmann on August 6, 1924, in Hanau, Germany. Gertrud was born in Hanau on March 28, 1904, according to their marriage record, but that record does not include her parents’ names. It would appear that Gertrud was likely a relative given the surname and her birth place, but so far I’ve not found any way to connect her to Walter’s Hirschmann relatives.

Walter Hirschmann and Gertrude Hirschmann marriage record, LAGIS Hessen Archives, Standesamt Hanau Heiratsnebenregister 1924 (HStAMR Best. 913 Nr. 1894)AutorHessisches Staatsarchiv MarburgErscheinungsortHanauErscheinungsjahr1924, p. 328

Walter Hirschmann and Gertrude Hirschmann marriage record, p. 2

Walter and Gertrud and their twelve year old daughter immigrated to the US on a December 15, 1938. Walter listed his occupation as a banker and their last residence as Frankfurt, Germany, where his mother “B. Hirschmann” was still residing. They were heading to a friend, L. Schwarzchild, in New York.2

Walter’s mother Betti Rothschild Hirschmann immigrated to the US on March 25, 1939, with a cousin of her husband, Emil Hirschmann, and his wife Paula.

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

On the 1940 census, Betti was living as a lodger in the household of Helena Pessel in New York City, but in the same building as her son Walter and his family at 670 Riverside Drive in New York City. Walter was employed as a salesman.3

On his World War II draft registration, Walter identified his employer as Herbert E. Stern & Company. From his obituary I learned that Herbert E. Stern was also a refugee from Nazi Germany and an investment banker.4

Walter Hirschmann World War II draft registration, National Archives at St. Louis; St. Louis, Missouri; Wwii Draft Registration Cards For New York City, 10/16/1940 – 03/31/1947; Record Group: Records of the Selective Service System, 147, Name Range: Hirsch, Walfgang-Hobbs, Robert, Ancestry.com. U.S., World War II Draft Cards Young Men, 1940-1947

In 1950 Betti was still living in the same building as her son Walter and his family. Walter was still working as a broker and banker. I am very grateful to Eric Ald of Tracing the Tribe who found the 1950 census record for Betti and also a listing on Ancestry in the New York, New York Death Index for a Betty Hirschmann who died on February 15, 1956.5

Walter Hirschmann and Betty Hirschmann, 1950 US census, National Archives at Washington, DC; Washington, D.C.; Seventeenth Census of the United States, 1950; Year: 1950; Census Place: New York, New York, New York; Roll: 6203; Page: 75; Enumeration District: 31-1900, Ancestry.com. 1950 United States Federal Census

Her son Walter Hirschmann died on June 24, 1977, at the age of 77.6 He had been predeceased by his wife Gertrud, who died in December 1966 7 and was survived by their daughter and grandchildren.

Sigmund and Betti’s brother Moses/Moritz Rothschild and his wife Margarete David ended up in Israel/Palestine in the 1930s along with their two children, Ruth, born October 8, 1914, in Magdeburg, Germany, and Herbert (later Yehuda), born December 10, 1921, in Magdeburg. The documents below are immigration documents showing that Moritz and Margarete were in Jerusalem by June 30, 1939; these and the others that follow were found at the Israel Genealogy Research Association website.

Registration form for Margarete David Rothschild reporting to the German Embassy Legation at the German Consulate General Consulate Bizekonsult in Jerusalem, A-B (טפסי הרשמה: A-B), part of the Residents 1938-1939 (תושבים 1938-1939) database, system number פ-500/5, IGRA number 1459. The original records are from Israel State Archives (ארכיון המדינה), and found at the IGRA website.

Registration form for Margarete David Rothschild reporting to the German Embassy Legation at the German Consulate General Consulate Bizekonsult in Jerusalem, A-B (טפסי הרשמה: A-B), part of the Residents 1938-1939 (תושבים 1938-1939) database, system number פ-500/5, IGRA number 1459. The original records are from Israel State Archives (ארכיון המדינה), and found at the IGRA website.

Registration form for Moses Moritz Rothschild, This record comes from the Meldeblaetter: A-B (טפסי הרשמה: A-B), part of the Residents 1938-1939 (תושבים 1938-1939) database, system number פ-500/5, IGRA number 1462. The original records are from Israel State Archives (ארכיון המדינה), and found at the IGRA website.

Registration form for Moses Moritz Rothschild, This record comes from the Meldeblaetter: A-B (טפסי הרשמה: A-B), part of the Residents 1938-1939 (תושבים 1938-1939) database, system number פ-500/5, IGRA number 1462. The original records are from Israel State Archives (ארכיון המדינה), and found at the IGRA website.

Their daughter Ruth had arrived by September 29, 1938.

Registration form for Ruth Rothschild reporting to the German Embassy Legation at the German Consulate General Consulate Bizekonsult in Jerusalem, A-B (טפסי הרשמה: A-B), part of the Residents 1938-1939 (תושבים 1938-1939) database, system number פ-500/5, IGRA number 1465. The original records are from Israel State Archives (ארכיון המדינה), as found at the IGRA website.

Registration form for Ruth Rothschild reporting to the German Embassy Legation at the German Consulate General Consulate Bizekonsult in Jerusalem, A-B (טפסי הרשמה: A-B), part of the Residents 1938-1939 (תושבים 1938-1939) database, system number פ-500/5, IGRA number 1465. The original records are from Israel State Archives (ארכיון המדינה), as found at the IGRA website.

Although I was unable to find a comparable record for Herbert/Yehuda, I found a record showing that he and his father Moritz were on the voter registration list and living at Kfar Yedidya in 1942:

Moritz and Yehuda Rothschild on 1942 Knesset register, This record comes from the Voters List Knesset Israel 1942 (פנקס הבוגרים של כנסת ישראל תש”ב), part of the Voters Knesset Israel 1942 (בוגרים של כנסת ישראל 1942) database, system number 001mush, document number 119, line 59, IGRA number 1107. The original records are from Israel State Archives (ארכיון המדינה), and was found at the IGRA website.

Yehuda married Ruth Hesin, daughter of Avraham and Hava, on April 17, 1949, in Haifa, Israel. She was 22 years old, he was 27.

Yehuda Rothschild marriage record, Marriage/Divorce Certificates (תעודות נישואין / גירושין), part of the Marriages and Divorces 1921-1948 Palestine British (נישואין וגירושין 1948-1921 ארץ ישראל) database, document number 91714, IGRA number 507. The original records are from Israel State Archives (ארכיון המדינה), and was found at the IGRA website.

At this time I have no further records for this family, but we know that at least they escaped from Germany in time to survive the Holocaust.

Thus, the first three children of Levi Rothschild and Clara Jacob all escaped from Nazi Germany in time, but look at what they lost. They were all spread across the globe: Sigmund in South Africa, Betti in the United States, and Moses in Palestine/Israel.

The fourth child of Levi and Klara, their son Hirsch Rothschild, also escaped. He and his wife Mathilde Rosenbaum and their three children Gertrude, Edith, and Edmund ended up, like Betti, in the US. I will write about Hirsch and his family in my next post.

  1. Kurt Rothschild, Death Age 87, Birth Date 30 Mar 1910, Registration Date Sep 1997, Registration district Lancaster, Inferred County Lancashire, Register Number A58B, District and Subdistrict 5871A, Entry Number 166, General Register Office; United Kingdom, Ancestry.com. England & Wales, Civil Registration Death Index, 1916-2007 ↩
  2. Walter Hirschmann and family, passenger manifest, The National Archives in Washington, DC; Washington, DC, USA; Passenger and Crew Lists of Vessels Arriving at New York, New York, 1897-1957; Microfilm Serial or NAID: T715; RG Title: Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, 1787-2004; RG: 85, Ancestry.com. New York, U.S., Arriving Passenger and Crew Lists (including Castle Garden and Ellis Island), 1820-1957 ↩
  3. Betti Hirschmann, 1940 US census, Year: 1940; Census Place: New York, New York, New York; Roll: m-t0627-02671; Page: 7B; Enumeration District: 31-1929, Ancestry.com. 1940 United States Federal Census. Walter Hirschmann and family, 1940 US census, Year: 1940; Census Place: New York, New York, New York; Roll: m-t0627-02671; Page: 7A; Enumeration District: 31-1929, Ancestry.com. 1940 United States Federal Census ↩
  4. “Herbert E. Stern Dead, An Investment Banker,” The New York Times, August 6, 1973, p. 32. ↩
  5. Betty Hirschmann, Age 75, Birth Date abt 1881, Death Date 15 Feb 1956, Death Place Manhattan, New York, New York, USA, Certificate Number 3638, Ancestry.com. New York, New York, U.S., Death Index, 1949-1965. Although there is a listing for Betti on the SSCAI with her Social Security Number, there is no listing on the SSDI for her under that number or under that date or under her name. Betty Sara Hirschmann, [Betty Sara Rohserild], Gender Female, Race White, Birth Date 14 Sep 1876, Birth Place Borken Hesse, Federal Republic of Germany, Father Levi Rohserild
    Mother, Clara Jacob, SSN 057200860, Notes Feb 1943: Name listed as BETTY SARA HIRSCHMANN, Ancestry.com. U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007. ↩
  6. Walter Hirschmann death notice, The New York Times, June 27, 1977, p, 30. Walter Hirschmann, Social Security Number 092-14-5701, Birth Date 30 Dec 1899
    Issue year Before 1951, Issue State New York, Last Residence 10023, New York, New York, New York, USA, Death Date Jun 1977 Social Security Administration; Washington D.C., USA; Social Security Death Index, Master File,  Ancestry.com. U.S., Social Security Death Index, 1935-2014 ↩
  7. Gertrud Hirschmann death notice, The New York Times, December 16, 1966, p. 47. ↩