Category Archives: South Africa

Berthold Rothschild: More Answers, More Questions

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As I mentioned in my prior post, I received some additional documents and photographs from my cousin Meir, grandson of Berthold Rothschild and Selma/Sarah Adler. Last time I shared a postcard from 1918 that Berthold wrote to Selma from his post in World War I just a month before the war ended.

Here is a second postcard, as translated by MyHeritage:

Postcard from Berthold Rothschild to Selma Adler, 1918
Courtesy of the family

It translates as:

My dear Selma! Received your dear letter of the 4th inst. Since we are in the final period, etc. I have only the hope, expectation and request, [sending] my heartfelt greetings and kisses Your Berthold

It is dated October 8, 1918, and like the other postcard, was sent from Berdowka in what is now Belarus. Obviously Berthold could see that the end of the war was nearing.

Berthold and Selma married on December 30, 1919, and had two daughters, Adelheid (Adi) in 1920 and Helene (Hana) in 1922. Then they divorced in 1927. Meir had their divorce papers, which show that Selma sued for divorce based on adultery.

Divorce papers of Berthold and Selma (Adler) Rothschild
Courtesy of the family

This time I used Transkribus, a platform Cathy Meder-Dempsey recommended, and Claude as backup to produce a translation. Since this was typed or printed text, not handwriting, I assume it is reliable and accurate. I have deleted some of the language and names for clarity and brevity:

In the matter of the housewife [and] Mrs. Rothschild  [Address] Frankfurt am Main, Tongesgasse, Pronounced on: July 11, 1927, Plaintiff, against her husband, the merchant Rothschild, Frankfurt am Main, Tongesgasse 14, Defendant, regarding divorce.

The 6th Civil Chamber of the Regional Court in Frankfurt am Main, based on the oral hearing held on July 1, 1927 with the participation of Regional Court Director Cramer, Regional Judge, Dr. Hess, and Court Assessor Dr. Wildberger, has ruled as follows:

The marriage between the parties, concluded on December 30, 1919, in Frankfurt am Main, is hereby dissolved by divorce. The Defendant is declared to be the guilty party and is ordered to bear the costs of the legal proceedings.

The parties, who hold Prussian citizenship, entered into marriage with one another on December 30, 1919, before the Registrar in Frankfurt am Main. Two children were born of this marriage. The Plaintiff now alleges that the Defendant has committed adultery with a certain Miss Teller and moves:

1.) for the dissolution of the marriage entered into by the parties on December 30, 1919, before the Registrar in Frankfurt am Main;

2.) for a declaration that the Defendant bears the fault for the divorce;

3.) for the costs of the legal proceedings to be imposed upon the Defendant.

The Defendant, who is not represented by legal counsel, has admitted the allegations set forth in the complaint.

The taking of evidence regarding the Plaintiff’s allegations—ordered by a resolution dated July 10, 1927, to be conducted through the examination of Miss Teller as a witness—could not take place, as the witness could not be served with a summons.

Reference is made to the contents of the case file as presented.

Grounds for the Decision:

The action, based on § 1565 of the Civil Code (BGB), is well-founded and substantiated. Even though the defendant has admitted to adultery with the witness Teller, the court would not have pronounced the divorce on that basis alone. However, since the plaintiff has credibly asserted that she herself once found the defendant with a lady in the marital home, and the defendant could not deny this fact when confronted with it, the court has also taken into account his admission that he committed adultery with the witness Teller. Accordingly, the marriage was to be dissolved on the sole fault of the defendant on account of adultery with the witness Teller.

Selma died just ten years later. I don’t know when or why Selma was admitted to the sanatorium, but I know that she died there in 1937. Her younger daughter Helene emigrated from Germany to Palestine that same year. The older daughter Adelheid also left Germany and ended up in Amsterdam and eventually at Bergen Belsen. More on her experiences in my next post.

Berthold also survived the Holocaust and ended up in South Africa, where he died in 1964. But I had been left with many questions about his experiences: For example, when did he leave Germany? Was he in the concentration camps or did he escape from Germany in time? When did he get to South Africa, and why did he go there, not Palestine like his daughter Helene?

Well, in the second batch of documents that Meir sent were two documents that are South Africa residency registrations for Berthold, one for 1939-1942, the other for 1949-1952.

Berthold Rothschild South Africa residency document 1939
Courtesy of the family

Berthold Rothschild South Africa residency document 1949

If you look closely, you can see that they both indicate that Berthold last entered South Africa (and perhaps first entered South Africa) on October 28, 1936. In 1936, his daughter Helene was still in Germany and only fourteen. As we will see, Adelheid also was still in Germany in 1936 and would have been just sixteen. Who was caring for them? Meir believes that their aunts Gertrud and Anna, Berthold’s younger sisters, were taking care of them.

The first South Africa residency registration card reports that Berthold was married, and the later one says he was a widower. But in 1939 when he presumably filled out the earlier form, Selma had already died, and they had been divorced in 1927. That made me wonder whether Berthold had remarried sometime after 1927 and before 1939.

I couldn’t find a second marriage record for Berthold in Germany, but when I decided to try looking for one in South Africa, I found this:

Marriage record of Berthold Rothschild and Johanna Glock, Murraysburg, Murraysburg, Cape Province, South Africa records,” images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CS27-N3D2-3?view=explore : May 13, 2026), image 50 of 978; . Image Group Number: 008163773

Berthold married Johanna Glock in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, on January 19, 1937. She was 30 years old, born in Germany, and a “spinster.” Berthold’s age is listed as 47, but he would have been only 41, so perhaps the person filling out the form either misunderstood or wrote a “one” that looks like a seven. His occupation is given as a shop assistant, and he is listed as a bachelor, even though he’d been married before. Despite those inconsistencies, I am quite comfortable assuming that this is the same Berthold Rothschild although I cannot say so with absolutely certainty. How many Berthold Rothschilds could have been living in Port Elizabeth, the same location where Berthold was living at the time he died in 1964?

Berthold Rothschild death certificate, “South Africa, Civil Death Registration, 1953-1967”, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:6Z3Z-F3SN : Wed Jan 15 15:31:44 UTC 2025), Entry for Berthold Rothschild, 17 May 1964.

Sadly, Johanna died just three years after marrying Berthold. She was only 33 and died from a pituitary adenoma.

Johanna Glock Rothschild, death record, “South Africa, Cape Province, Civil Records, 1840-1972”, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:Q2QM-4WD8 : Sat Mar 09 04:43:23 UTC 2024), Entry for Johanna Rothschild, 23 Sep 1940.

That explains why Berthold was listed as married in 1939, but a widower in 1942. I am still trying to learn more about Johanna and also about the rest of Berthold’s life, but for now I have at least answers to some of my questions. I know when he was born, where he served in World War I, when he married Selma Adler and why she divorced him, when he left for South Africa, when he married Johanna Glock, and when and where he died. Most of the holes have been filled, thanks in large part to his grandson Meir.

My next post will answer some questions about Berthold’s daughter Adelheid, questions for which neither Meir nor I had originally had answers.

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 Son Berthold And An Important Lesson about AI

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Although I had a fairly easy time locating the names, birth dates, marriages, and children of the five children of Meier Rothschild and Bertha Lorge and I knew that all five lived beyond World War II, I have had a much harder time finding information about how they survived the Holocaust—did they leave in time or did they get sent to the camps? And where did they go after the war?

Each of those five children presented some research challenges because it appears that none of them ended up in the same place and almost all ended up somewhere other than the United States. So the records are harder to locate—if they exist at all. But I will do my best to trace their histories during the 1930s and thereafter.

Starting with the oldest child, Berthold Rothschild, his wife Sarah Adler, and their daughter Adelheid, one fact I was able to establish was that Sarah died on May 15, 1937, when she was only 43. The death record says she died in Herborn, which is a small town about 60 miles from Frankfurt, where the death record states she was living. So why was she in Herborn and not Frankfurt where Berthold lived? What caused her death? Was it related to the persecution of Jews by the Nazis? I didn’t know.

Sarah Rotschild, Maiden Name Adler, Gender weiblich (Female), Death Age 43, Birth Date Abt 1894, Death Date 15 Mai 1937 (15 May 1937), Death Place Herborn, Hessen (Hesse), Deutschland (Germany), Civil Registration Office Herborn, Certificate Number 74, Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv; Wiesbaden, Deutschland; Personenstandsregister Sterberegister; Bestand: 4139; Laufende Nummer: 911, Ancestry.com. Hesse, Germany, Deaths, 1851-1958

I thought that perhaps there was more information in the parts of the death record that I could not read and asked in the GerSIG group on Facebook for help. Ralf, a member there, provided me with this translation:

The management of the state sanatorium has announced that Sara Rothschild, née Adler, without occupation, 43 years old, resident of Frankfurt am Main, born in Rüsselsheim, district of Gross-Gerau, divorced, died in the state sanatorium in Herborn on the afternoon of the fifteenth of May 1937 at five and a half o’clock.

I added the emphasis to two parts here. First, Sarah’s marital status was reported as divorced. I went back to the marriage record for Berthold and Sarah and now saw there was a marginal comment that in fact says that they were divorced as of August 22, 1927.

From the marriage record of Berthold Rothschild and Sarah Adler, Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv; Wiesbaden, Deutschland; Bestand: 903
Source Information
Ancestry.com. Hesse, Germany, Marriages, 1849-1930

Then I looked a little further and learned that there was (and is) a psychiatric hospital in Herborn known then as Landesheil- und Pflegeanstalt Herborn (State Healing and Nursing Institution Herborn).  I was disgusted when I learned that this hospital was a place used by the Nazis for forced sterilization; 561 women and 623 men were forcibly sterilized, many after a diagnoses of “feeblemindedness.”  Patients slept on straw sacks instead of mattresses. Later, after Sarah’s death, Jewish patients were deported from the hospital to the concentration camps. I don’t know what circumstances caused Sarah to be sent to Herborn, but I imagine that the conditions there and the Nazi control of the facility were factors in her early death at 43.

As for her ex-husband Berthold, I have not been able yet to locate his whereabouts before 1943. As seen below, I know that in 1943 he was living in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, and in 1957 he traveled from Port Elizabeth, South Africa, to England, reporting that he was a photographer. The passenger manifest indicates that he planned to stay in England permanently.1

But he died on May 17, 1964, in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, not in England. The death certificate reported that he was a photographer, a widower, and wanted to be buried in Jerusalem, Israel. Unfortunately, I have not found any further information yet. I don’t know when he left Germany, when he ended up in South Africa, or anything else about his life between his divorce in 1934 and his travels in 1959 and then his death in 1964.

Berthold Rothschild death certificate, “South Africa, Civil Death Registration, 1953-1967”, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:6Z3Z-F3SN : Wed Jan 15 15:31:44 UTC 2025), Entry for Berthold Rothschild, 17 May 1964.

As for Berthold and Sarah’s daughter Adelheid, I also only have random pieces of information about her life.  I have inferred that she was sent to Westerbork sometime during the Nazi era—that is, the detention camp outside of Amsterdam where Jews were sent before being transported to the death camps. A record on the WieWasWie site includes the marriage certificate of Adelheid Rothschild and Manfred Samson. They were married on November 22, 1943, in the Westerbork camp.

Marriage record for Adelheid Rothschild and Manfred Samson, found at https://www.wiewaswie.nl/nl/detail/111087321

I asked ChatGPT, having been told that AI can be helpful on translations, to transcribe and translate this marriage record. And this is a warning to anyone else who relies on ChatGPT for this type of inquiry. It made several errors. This was the first translation it produced.

Record No. 116. On Thursday, 23 December 1943, before me, Registrar of Civil Status of the municipality of Westerbork, appeared for the purpose of entering into marriage:

Manfred Samson, aged  29, merchant, born in Leipzig, Germany, residing in Westerbork, son of Sami Samson and Berta Samson, both residing in Bielefeld.

Adelheid Rothschild, aged 29, without occupation, born in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, residing in Westerbork, daughter of Siegfried Rothschild, merchant, residing in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, and Paula Rothschild, without occupation, residing in Baden.

After the required announcements and with no impediment having appeared, they declared that they accepted one another as husband and wife.

I knew that the information in bold could not be correct. On the WieWasWie page itself, it had different information based on the same record. After several inquiries about this to ChatGPT, it admitted it had read the handwriting incorrectly and made the changes. The translation now reads:

Manfred Samson, aged  19, merchant, born in Leipzig, Germany, residing in Westerbork, son of Josef Samson and Zerlina Hoelzer, both residing in Bielefeld.

Adelheid Rothschild, aged 22, without occupation, born in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, residing in Westerbork, daughter of Siegfried Rothschild, merchant, residing in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, and Sarah Adler, deceased.

Thus, a word of caution to those relying on ChatGPT or any other AI tool for transcribing records: DO NOT TRUST THEIR WORK!!!

But one thing that I did learn from the translation is that Berthold was already in South Africa in 1943 when his daughter Adelheid was married in Westerbork. Why had she gone to the Netherlands instead of to South Africa with her father? I wish I knew.

Manfred Samson was born on December 2, 1923, in Leipzig and was a student of agriculture and horticulture.2 A record in the Arolsen Archives indicates that Manfred left Leipzig for Holland on November 28, 1938. He was sent to Westerbork on November 7, 1942.3

Manfred Samson registration as Jew in Leipzig, Arolsen Archives, 7 Archival records of microforms (new material / document acquisition) / 7.5 Document acquisition in Germany / 7.5.4 Leipzig, Archiv der Israelitische Religionsgemeinde /Mitgliederkartei, Reference Code
754003

Other Arolsen Archives records, one for Manfred and one for Adelheid, both contain the notation “BB 11.1.44,” I wondered whether that meant that Adelheid and Samson were deported to Bergen Belsen on January 11, 1944.

Manfred Samson, Arolsen Archives, 1 Incarceration Documents / 1.2 Miscellaneous / 1.2.4 Various Organizations /Documents with names from SALOMONS, Eva, Reference Code
01020402 220

Adelheid Samson Arolsen Archives, 1 Incarceration Documents / 1.2 Miscellaneous / 1.2.4 Various Organizations /Documents with names from ROSIANSKI, Jozef, Reference Code
01020402 217

Fortunately both Adelheid and Manfred survived the camps. They are both listed on several documents created after the war by the Joint Distribution Committee that identify Jews who were liberated from the Celle/Frankfurt an der Oder camp.4

I had never heard of this camp before but learned that it was located eleven miles north of Bergen-Belsen, so that reinforces my assumption that BB stood for Bergen Belsen and that Celle was just another way of referring to Bergen-Belsen or a satellite camp nearby.

For a long time I could find no clue as to where Manfred and Adelheid went after being liberated from the camp. Then I saw the reverse of one of the Arolsen Archives documents and noticed this:

Manfred Samson, Arolsen Archives, 7 Archival records of microforms (new material / document acquisition) / 7.5 Document acquisition in Germany / 7.5.4 Leipzig, Archiv der Israelitische Religionsgemeinde /Mitgliederkartei, Reference Code 754003

From this document it appears that Manfred (and perhaps Adelheid) ended up in a kibbutz in Israel. But I haven’t found any other records for them on either the IGRA website or the Israel State Archives website. Kibbutz Schluchoth was the first kibbutz created after the formation of the State of Israel, according to their website, and was founded primarily by Holocaust survivors from Germany and Austria. I sent them an email asking if they had information about Manfred and Adelheid Samson, but have not received a response.

It took hours of work to string together this information about Berthold and his family, and I wish I knew more. But perhaps the biggest lesson I learned from this research is NOT to rely on ChatGPT to transcribe and translate documents accurately.

  1. Berthold Rothschild, passenger manifest, The National Archives in Washington, DC; London, England, UK; Board of Trade: Commercial and Statistical Department and Successors: Inwards Passenger Lists; Class: Bt26; Piece: 1382; Item: 67, Month: Jun, Ancestry.com. UK and Ireland, Incoming Passenger Lists, 1878-1960 ↩
  2.  Arolsen Archives; Bad Arolsen, Germany; Record Group 1 Incarceration Documents; Reference: 1.2.4.2, Ancestry.com. Germany, Incarceration Documents, 1933-1945; https://www.wiewaswie.nl/nl/detail/111087321 ↩
  3. Arolsen Archives, 1 Incarceration Documents / 1.2 Miscellaneous / 1.2.4 Various Organizations /Documents with names from SALOMONS, Eva, Reference Code
    01020402 220 ↩
  4. E.g., Adelheid Samson, Manfred Samson, Arolsen Archives; Bad Arolsen, Germany; Registration of Liberated Former Persecutees at Various Locations (F18 lists); Reference: DE ITS 3.1.1.3 DE, Reference Number: 008804350, Ancestry.com. Registration of Liberated Former Persecutees, 1945-1950 ↩