My Cousin Sigmund Livingston, The Founder of the Anti-Defamation League

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Although traditional genealogy research tools gave me many of the bare bones details of the life of Sigmund Livingston, it wasn’t until I googled his name after reading his obituary that I learned that he had founded the Anti-Defamation League and was quite an exceptional person. He thus merits his own separate post.

We’ve already seen that Sigmund was a lawyer. According to a biography published on the McLean County Museum of History website, he graduated from the law school at Illinois Wesleyan University in Bloomington in 1894 and was second in his class. After graduating, he and William R. Bach, who had ranked first in the class, became law partners in Bloomington. Their practice was primarily devoted to civil matters.

According to the museum’s biography:1

In numerous newspaper articles, Sigmund was described as extremely intelligent and well respected. One article claimed, “he gives promise of becoming one of the ablest as well as the most prominent attorney in the state.” However, Livingston gave a personal account in his book Must Men Hate? of how, outside of dear friends, he had a “general distrust to overcome” because locals had never known of a Jewish lawyer when he was beginning his career. Livingston recalled that after a few years, he had earned their trust.

Sigmund was involved in many civic activities in Bloomington. He was active in Republican politics and a loyal supporter of the American Red Cross and of efforts to support America and its soldiers in World War I. But he is best remembered for his efforts to support Jewish Americans and to fight anti-semitism. In 1894 he became president of the Bloomington chapter of B’nai Brith, and in 1899 he was elected vice-president of the 6th district of B’nai Brith.

The museum biography described in detail the experience that Sigmund had that motivated him to become more involved in the fight against anti-semitism:

Shortly after the turn of the century, he had an experience that impacted the trajectory of the rest of his life. When he was in Chicago on business, Livingston decided to drop into a vaudeville theater to while away a couple of hours before an appointment. The show began like many others with the usual trained dog acts, jugglers, and acrobats. However, when the show turned to a couple of comedians with a “routine of bum jokes, told in dialect and at the expense of Jews,” Livingston had enough and walked out of the theater. It was this life changing event that made him decide then and there that he would try to do something about the prejudicial caricaturing of Jews.

Livingston was most disgusted with the portrayal of Jewish people in vaudeville shows and films. ….Following the show, Livingston spoke with the managers to make them aware of their cruel and inaccurate depictions of Jews. Surprisingly, the managers were willing to make a change despite them not being aware of their offense.

Believing that publicity would help to alleviate prejudice, in 1908, Livingston established the Publicity Committee of the Publicity Bureau within the B’nai B’rith, which evolved into the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) five years later. The Publicity Committee, based in Bloomington, was created to consider the problem of the defamation of Jews and named Livingston its chairman.

The website for The Pantagraph, the local Bloomington newspaper, published an article on July 11, 2010, about Sigmund and included this description of his involvement in the fight against anti-semitism and the founding and growth of the Anti-Defamation League in 1913.2

[In 1912] Livingston embarked on a lengthy tour of Europe and the Middle East, with stops in Vienna, Jerusalem, Cairo and elsewhere. In London he delivered an address titled “The Condition of the Jew in America,” and in Berlin, at an international meeting of B’nai B’rith, he spoke on the moral necessity of intervening in the internal affairs of sovereign nations “when humanity and civilization dictate.”

The Anti-Defamation League was established in Bloomington in October 1913 as an arm of the B’nai B’rith, with Livingston as its first director.

The museum biography noted that:

The organization had a fairly humble start. The ADL was established in the First National Bank building in Chicago. Livingston started out with only a $200 budget and two desks in his law office, but the ADL quickly grew into a nationwide organization. Members, led by Livingston, planned to campaign along three lines of education, vigilance, and legislation. Livingston believed that hate and fear could be overcome through education and had faith in “the essential goodness of the American people.”

As we saw, Sigmund married his wife Hilda in 1918, and their son Richard was born in 1920. In 1929, after practicing law in Bloomington for 35 years, Sigmund and his family moved to the Chicago area, where he continued to practice law. He was still practicing law there in 1940.3 Here is a photograph of Sigmund and Hilda taken around this time.

Sigmund and Hilda (Freiler) Livingston c. 1940. Courtesy of Art Zemon, found at https://genealogy.zemon.name/gramps/ppl/0/d/b21ea1d3dd971e202d0.html

He also authored ten books as well as continuing his work with the ADL and his other civic activities. His best known book, entitled Must Men Hate, was published in 1944.

Sadly, Sigmund died just two years later on June 13, 1946, at age 73.4 According to his obituary, he was a “leading Chicago corporate counsel” and had been in failing health for the past year. He was survived by his wife Hilda and their son Richard, who was at that time studying at Duke University after serving four years in the Army Air Force.5

Richard Livingston graduated from Duke in 1947, and the following year on May 30, 1948, he married Miriam “Mimi” Spector in New York City. Mimi, the daughter of Samuel and Tessie Spector, had graduated from Wellesley College.6 Richard and Mimi settled in New York and had three children.

Richard’s mother Hilda died February 20, 1962, in Highland Park, Illinois.7

Richard became a successful business owner and moved from New York City to Scarsdale in 1959, where he and his family lived until 1986. He later moved to Larchmont, New York, and also had a home in Boca Raton, Florida. He was not only successful in business; he was active in civic affairs in many different organizations as well as numerous philanthropic endeavors. He died while vacationing in Turkey on October 5, 1994, when he was 74. He was survived by his wife Mimi, their children, and grandchildren.8

Sigmund Livingston was the third of the eight children of Dora and Meyer to be born, and he was the third to die, following his brother Maurice and sister Rosalie. He was born in Germany and came to the US as a young boy with his mother. He was a successful lawyer in Bloomington and Chicago. He definitely made a lasting mark on Bloomington, but also should be remembered by all Jews everywhere for his work with the Anti-Defamation League, which continues today its hard work of fighting not only anti-semitism but all forms of prejudice and discrimination.

 

  1. A version of the biography that provides citations to its sources can be found at https://mchistory.org/perch/resources/biographies/sigmund-and-hilda-livingston-2021.pdf ↩
  2. “Bloomington Lawyer Led Anti-Semitism Fight,” The Pantagraph, July 11, 2010, found at https://pantagraph.com/special-sections/news/history-and-events/bloomington-lawyer-led-anti-semitism-fight/article_19b023ee-8c8e-11df-badf-001cc4c03286.html ↩
  3. Sigmund Livingston and family, 1930 US census, Year: 1930; Census Place: New Trier, Cook, Illinois; Page: 24A; Enumeration District: 2220; FHL microfilm: 2340238,
    Ancestry.com. 1930 United States Federal Census; 1940 US census, Year: 1940; Census Place: Chicago, Cook, Illinois; Roll: m-t0627-00929; Page: 1B; Enumeration District: 103-257, Ancestry.com. 1940 United States Federal Census ↩
  4. Sigmund Livingston, Birth Date: abt 1873, Death Date: 13 Jun 1946, Death Place: Highland Park, Lake, Illinois, Death Age: 73, Gender: Male, Father Name: Mayer Livingston, Mother Name: Dora Blamenfeld, Spouse Name: Hilda F., FHL Film Number: 1991309, Ancestry.com. Illinois, U.S., Deaths and Stillbirths Index, 1916-1947 ↩
  5. “Sigmund Livingston Dies in Highland Park,” The Pantagraph,
    Bloomington, Illinois, 15 Jun 1946, Sat • Page 3 ↩
  6. “Bride of Former Bloomingtonian,” The Pantagraph, Bloomington, Illinois
    01 Jun 1948, Tue • Page 6 ↩
  7. Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/9198509/hilda-v-livingston : accessed 03 November 2021), memorial page for Hilda V Freiler Livingston (25 Apr 1891–20 Feb 1962), Find a Grave Memorial ID 9198509, citing Jewish Cemetery, Bloomington, McLean County, Illinois, USA ; Maintained by Robin Farley Dixson Coon (contributor 46558224) . ↩
  8. “Richard M. Livingston, businessman, philanthropist,” The Daily Times
    Mamaroneck, New York, 11 Oct 1994, Tue • Page 6 ↩

Dora Blumenfeld Livingston’s Children and Grandchildren: The Departure from Bloomington

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By 1930, Dora Blumenfeld Livingston was gone, but seven of her eight children were still living as were her ten grandchildren, who ranged in age from Morton Livingston, who was thirty, to Ralph Livingston, who was two. This post and the three that follow will complete the story of those children and grandchildren, starting with Dora’s two oldest children and their families: Rosalie and Maurice.

Rosalie Livingston, widowed when her husband Albert died in 1928, moved to Chicago and was living with her son Morton in 1930.1 Morton had graduated from the University of Chicago in 1921 with a Bachelors of Philosophy, but had then returned to Bloomington until at least 1922.2 I don’t know when he moved back to Chicago, but in 1930 he was working there as a plumbing fixtures salesman.3

Morton Livingston, University of Chicago 1921 yearbook, “U.S., School Yearbooks, 1880-2012”; School Name: University of Chicago; Year: 1921, Ancestry.com. U.S., School Yearbooks, 1900-1999

Morton married Helen Pflaum on January 14, 1932.4 She was the daughter of Abraham J. Pflaum and Harriet Ettenson and was born in Chicago on December 7, 1906.5 According to the newspaper article announcing their wedding, Morton’s mother Rosalie was living at the Chicago Beach Hotel at that time. Morton and Harriet had two children born in the 1930s. In 1940, they were all living in Chicago where Morton was now working as a salesman for an investment brokerage.6

Mrs. Morton Livingston, Chicago Tribune, Chicago, Illinois, 31 Jan 1932, Sun • Page 84

Rosalie was also still living at the Chicago Beach Hotel in 1940.7 She died three years later on July 19, 1943, in Chicago;8 she was 74 and was the second of Dora and Meyer’s children to die—twenty years after her brother Maurice and fifteen years after her husband Albert. She was survived by her son Morton, who died in Chicago in May 1984;9 his wife Helen had predeceased him in 1976.10 They were survived by their children.

Maurice Livingston had died in 1923, as we saw. His widow Bertha and their two daughters remained in Bloomington until at least 1930 where Bertha appears to have taken over Maurice’s role at the department store.11 On December 1, 1937, their older daughter Ruth married Stanton Robert Schiller in Chicago.12 Stanton was born in Chicago on September 4, 1912, and was the son of Morris H. Schiller and Mary Burnstein.13 In 1940 Stanton and Ruth were living in Chicago where he was a clothing salesman.14 They had two children born in the 1940s. Ruth later relocated to California where her mother and sister were living.

Ruth’s younger sister Betty married Herman Bendix, Jr. on October 30, 1938, in Los Angeles where she and her mother were then living. Betty had graduated from the University of Chicago. Herman was born in Denver on August 9, 1910, to Herman Bendix, Sr. and Clara Kohn.15 When Betty and Herman married, he was in business in Portland, Oregon, where they then settled and where in 1940 Herman was working as a traveling salesman for a ladies’ garment factory.16 By 1946 Betty and Herman had relocated to Los Angeles where her mother Bertha was still living.17 I have not been able to find any records of children born to Betty and Herman.

“Local Girl Becomes Bride in California,” The Pantagraph, Bloomington, Illinois
03 Nov 1938, Thu • Page 8

Bertha died on October 7, 1957, in Los Angeles.18 She was survived by her two daughters, Ruth, who lived to 106 and died on April 21, 2020, in Mountain View, California,19 and Betty, who died in 1983, in Los Angeles.20

Thus, the families of both Rosalie and Maurice Livingston had left Bloomington, Illinois, behind by the time their children were adults. In fact, by 1940, as we will see, only two of the eight siblings were still in Bloomington.

Next, the third Livingston sibling, Sigmund.

  1. Rosalie and Morton Livingston, 1930 US census, Year: 1930; Census Place: Chicago, Cook, Illinois; Page: 20B; Enumeration District: 0129; FHL microfilm: 2340155, Ancestry.com. 1930 United States Federal Census ↩
  2. 1922 Bloomington directory, Ancestry.com. U.S., City Directories, 1822-1995 ↩
  3. See Note 1. ↩
  4. Morton A. Livingston, Marriage Date: 14 Jan 1932, Spouse: Helen B. Pflaum, Marriage Location: Cook County, IL, Marriage license: {78E80849-0E1C-40E8-892B-84CEBC8682FF}, File Number: 1333793, Archive collection name: Cook County Genealogy Records (Marriages), Archive repository location: Chicago, IL, Archive repository name: Cook County Clerk, Ancestry.com. Cook County, Illinois Marriage Index, 1930-1960 ↩
  5.  Helen P Livingston, Nationality: USA, Age: 55, Birth Date: 7 Dec 1906, Birth Place: Chicago, Illinois, USA, Arrival Date: 12 Feb 1962, Arrival Place: Miami, Florida, USA
    Airline: BWIA, Flight Number: 406, The National Archives at Washington, D.C.; Washington, D.C.; Series Title: Passenger and Crew Manifests of Airplanes Arriving at Miami, Florida.; NAI Number: 2788541; 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. “Out-of-Town Wedding,” St. Joseph (Missouri) News-Press, 13 Jun 1904, p. 6; Pflaum family, 1910 US census, Year: 1910; Census Place: Chicago Ward 3, Cook, Illinois; Roll: T624_243; Page: 2A; Enumeration District: 0235; FHL microfilm: 1374256, Ancestry.com. 1910 United States Federal Census ↩
  6. Morton Livingston and family, 1940 US census, Year: 1940; Census Place: Chicago, Cook, Illinois; Roll: m-t0627-00928; Page: 9A; Enumeration District: 103-245,
    Ancestry.com. 1940 United States Federal Census ↩
  7. Rosalie Livingston, 1940 US census, Year: 1940; Census Place: Chicago, Cook, Illinois; Roll: m-t0627-00928; Page: 81B; Enumeration District: 103-238, Ancestry.com. 1940 United States Federal Census ↩
  8. Rosalie Livingston, Death Date: 19 Jul 1943, Death Location: Cook County, IL,
    File Number: 21087, Archive collection name: Cook County Genealogy Records (Deaths), Archive repository location: Chicago, IL, Archive repository name: Cook County Clerk, Ancestry.com. Cook County, Illinois Death Index, 1908-1988 ↩
  9.  Morton Livingston, Social Security Number: 352-05-1727, Birth Date: 20 Oct 1900
    Issue Year: Before 1951, Issue State: Illinois, Last Residence: 60035, Highland Park, Lake, Illinois, USA, Death Date: May 1984, Social Security Administration; Washington D.C., USA; Social Security Death Index, Master File, Ancestry.com. U.S., Social Security Death Index, 1935-2014 ↩
  10.  Helen Livingston, Social Security Number: 325-38-3720, Birth Date: 7 Dec 1906
    Issue Year: 1962, Issue State: Illinois, Last Residence: 60035, Highland Park, Lake, Illinois, USA, Death Date: Oct 1976, Social Security Administration; Washington D.C., USA; Social Security Death Index, Master File, Ancestry.com. U.S., Social Security Death Index, 1935-2014 ↩
  11. Bertha Livingston and family, 1930 US census, Year: 1930; Census Place: Bloomington, McLean, Illinois; Page: 19B; Enumeration District: 0011; FHL microfilm: 2340270, Ancestry.com. 1930 United States Federal Census  ↩
  12. Ruth J. Livingston, Marriage Date: 1 Dec 1937, Spouse: Stanton R. Schiller
    Marriage Location: Cook County, IL, Marriage license: {2B03ABBF-478F-4796-AE43-5CD16AF78743}, File Number: 1557550, Archive collection name: Cook County Genealogy Records (Marriages), Archive repository location: Chicago, IL
    Archive repository name: Cook County Clerk, Ancestry.com. Cook County, Illinois Marriage Index, 1930-1960 ↩
  13. Stanton Schiller, Birth Date: 4 Sep 1912, Birth Place: Chicago, Cook, Illinois, Ethnicity: American, Gender: Male, Race: White, Father: Morris H Schiller, Mother: Mary Burnstein, FHL Film Number: 1288265, Ancestry.com. Cook County, Illinois, U.S., Birth Certificates Index, 1871-1922 ↩
  14. Stanton Schiller and family, 1940 US census, Year: 1940; Census Place: Chicago, Cook, Illinois; Roll: m-t0627-00929; Page: 62A; Enumeration District: 103-267, Ancestry.com. 1940 United States Federal Census ↩
  15. Herman Bendix, World War II draft registration, National Archives at St. Louis; St. Louis, Missouri; WWII Draft Registration Cards for Oregon, 10/16/1940-03/31/1947; Record Group: Records of the Selective Service System, 147; Box: 8, Ancestry.com. U.S., World War II Draft Cards Young Men, 1940-1947; Bendix family, 1920 US census, Year: 1920; Census Place: Denver, Denver, Colorado; Roll: T625_162; Page: 6B; Enumeration District: 242, Ancestry.com. 1920 United States Federal Census.Clara Kohn, Age: 22, Gender: Female, Birth Year: abt 1883, Marriage Type: Marriage, Marriage Date: 25 Oct 1905, Marriage Place: Chicago, Cook, Illinois, Spouse Name: Herman Bendix, Spouse Age: 30, Spouse Gender: Male, FHL Film Number: 1030393,  Ancestry.com. Cook County, Illinois, U.S., Marriages Index, 1871-1920 ↩
  16. Herman and Betty Bendix, 1940 US census, Year: 1940; Census Place: Portland, Multnomah, Oregon; Roll: m-t0627-03385; Page: 5A; Enumeration District: 37-24A,
    Ancestry.com. 1940 United States Federal Census ↩
  17. Mrs Betty Livingston Bendix, Residence Date: 1946, Street Address: 682 S Irolo St, Residence Place: Los Angeles, California, USA, Party Affiliation: Democrat, California State Library; Sacramento, California; Great Register of Voters, 1900-1968, Ancestry.com. California, U.S., Voter Registrations, 1900-1968 ↩
  18. Bertha August Livingston, Gender: Female, Birth Date: 29 Jan 1887, Birth Place: Other Country, Death Date: 7 Oct 1957, Death Place: Los Angeles, Father’s Surname: August, Ancestry.com. California, U.S., Death Index, 1940-1997 ↩
  19. See obituary at https://www.losaltosonline.com/people/obituaries/ruth-livingston-schiller/article_a37f4448-b9d6-5860-8ce7-d1d6ab3387c2.html ↩
  20. Betty Livingston Bendix, Social Security #: 572427551, Gender: Female
    Birth Date: 22 Jan 1916, Birth Place: Illinois, Death Date: 3 Aug 1983, Death Place: Los Angeles, Mother’s Maiden Name: August, Father’s Surname: Livingston, Ancestry.com. California, U.S., Death Index, 1940-1997 ↩

Dora Blumenfeld Livingston and Her Family in the 1920s: Years of Loss

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After Meyer Livingston died in 1915, his widow Dora and many of his children continued to live in Bloomington, Illinois, although some relocated to Chicago. And the family continued to grow.

Rosalie, the first-born child of Meyer and Dora, was living in Bloomington with her husband Albert Livingston and their son Morton in 1920; Albert was a dry goods merchant.1 Her brother Maurice and his wife Bertha and their two daughters Ruth and Betty May were also living in Bloomington, and Maurice listed his occupation as the proprietor of a department store.2

The second oldest son, Sigmund, married Hilda Freiler in Chicago on December 18, 1918. She was the daughter of Philip Freiler and Lizzie Ehrlich and was born on April 25, 1891, in Elgin, Illinois.3

Sigmund Livingston marriage, found at https://genealogy.zemon.name/gramps/ppl/0/d/b21ea1d3dd971e202d0.html Courtesy of Art Zemon

Here is a photograph of Sigmund and Hilda taken on their honeymoon.

Sigmund Livingston and Hilda Freilder on their honeymoon 1918. Courtesy of Art Zemon, found at https://genealogy.zemon.name/gramps/index.html

Sigmund and Hilda settled in Bloomington, where in 1920 Sigmund continued to practice law.4 Their son Richard was born on March 8, 1920, in Bloomington.5 There will be more on Sigmund and his career in a separate post.

Herman, the next oldest sibling, and his youngest brother Harold were still single and living at home with their mother Dora in 1920. Both Herman and Harold listed department store owner on the 1920 census as well as on their World War I draft registrations.6 Harold served in the Finances and Supplies Detachment of the Surgeon General’s Office of the US Army during World War I.7

Herman Livingston, World War I draft registration, Registration State: Illinois; Registration County: McLean County, Ancestry.com. U.S., World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918

Harold Livingston, World War I draft registration, Registration State: Illinois; Registration County: McLean County, Ancestry.com. U.S., World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918

Gussie, who had moved to Virginia, Illinois, with her husband Solomon Salzenstein after marrying him in 1906, had returned to Bloomington with her husband and their son James. In 1920 Solomon was working as a corn farmer.8

So in 1920 six of the eight Livingston children were still living in Bloomington. The other two, Alfred and Irvin, were in Chicago. On his 1918 registration for the draft, Alfred reported that he was the sales manager for a piano manufacturer; in 1920, he was living with his wife Eva and their daughter Miriam/Marion in Chicago, and now he described his occupation as “piano manufacturer.”9

Alfred Livingston, World War I draft registration, Registration State: Illinois; Registration County: Cook, Ancestry.com. U.S., World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918

Irvin was practicing law in Chicago and living with his wife Helen and their two older children in 1920.10 Their youngest child, Irvin, Jr., was born the following year.11

The 1920s brought many changes for the family, including some very sad losses. First, Maurice Livingston died on November 19, 1923, in Bloomington. He was only 52 years old, and making it even sadder, his two daughters Ruth and Betty were only ten and seven, respectively. His wife Bertha was only 37.12 The Pantagraph, the local Bloomington newspaper, published this obituary, which reported that Maurice had been in poor health for a few years, but died suddenly of a heart attack after a night at the theater with his family.

“M. Livingston Is Suddenly Taken,” The Pantagraph, November 20, 1923, p. 5

Just a year later, Gussie Livingston lost her husband Solomon Salzenstein on September 9, 1924, in Bloomington. He was only 55, and his only child James was just eleven when he lost his father. Gussie was 43.13

There was some good news in the 1920s when the two remaining single brothers married. Herman Livingston married Dorothy Ensel in Louisville, Kentucky, on March 14, 1922. Dorothy, the daughter of Gustave Ensel and Sophie Lieber, was born in Somerset, Kentucky, on November 4, 1882.14 Herman and Dorothy settled in Bloomington.

“Ensel-Livingston,” The Louisville (KY) Courier-Journal, March 12, 1922, p. 8

Harold, the youngest child of Dora and Meyer Livingston, married Marion Kunstadter, the daughter of Samuel Kunstadter and Theodora Hess, in May 1926 in Chicago. Marion was born on October 6, 1905, in Chicago. Harold and Marion also settled in Bloomington.15

But those two happy events were bookended by two more losses in the 1920s. On January 15, 1927, the family lost its matriarch, Dora Blumenfeld Livingston; she was 79 years old.16 She was survived by seven of her eight children and her grandchildren. Dora had successfully given birth to and raised eight children and left her homeland in Germany to settle in the middle of America with her husband Meyer and his many Livingston relatives in Bloomington, Illinois. That fateful decision meant that her children and their children were spared the horrors that many of her relatives who stayed in Germany had to endure.

Dora’s death was followed by another loss a year later. Dora’s oldest child, her daughter Rosalie, lost her husband Albert Livingston on January 7, 1928.17 He was 65 years old and was survived by Rosalie and their son Morton, who was 28.

Thus, in the span of just five years from 1923 to 1928, the family suffered four losses—Maurice, Solomon, Dora, and Albert. Fortunately, the decade ended with a birth. Harold Livingston’s wife Marion gave birth to Ralph Hirsch Livingston on November 17, 1928, in Bloomington.18 Ralph was the tenth grandchild of Dora and Meyer and the last to be born.

I found it interesting that although Dora and Meyer’s children grew up with so many siblings, one of those eight children had no children (Herman) and five had just one child (Rosalie, Sigmund, Alfred, Gussie, and Harold). Only Maurice (2) and Irvin (3) had multiple children. If not for the fact that these siblings appeared to stay connected to each other geographically and presumably otherwise, I might have thought their choices to have small families were a negative response to their own childhood experiences. And if not for the fact that the family was prosperous, I might have thought that it was an economic choice.

But perhaps it was just other forces—fertility issues, the desires of their spouses, or the demands of time. And of the times themselves.

  1. Albert Livingston and family, 1920 US census, Year: 1920; Census Place: Bloomington Precinct 18, McLean, Illinois; Roll: T625_387; Page: 2A; Enumeration District: 108, Ancestry.com. 1920 United States Federal Census ↩
  2. Maurice Livingston and family, 1920 US census, Year: 1920; Census Place: Bloomington Precinct 11, McLean, Illinois; Roll: T625_386; Page: 9A; Enumeration District: 101, Ancestry.com. 1920 United States Federal Census ↩
  3. Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/9198509/hilda-v-livingston : accessed 02 November 2021), memorial page for Hilda V Freiler Livingston (25 Apr 1891–20 Feb 1962), Find a Grave Memorial ID 9198509, citing Jewish Cemetery, Bloomington, McLean County, Illinois, USA ; Maintained by Robin Farley Dixson Coon (contributor 46558224). Phillip Feilen [sic], Gender: Male, Marriage Date: 8 Jul 1883, Marriage Place: Kane, Illinois, USA, Spouse Name: Lizzie Ehrlich, Spouse Gender: Female
    Ancestry.com. Illinois, U.S., Marriage Index, 1860-1920. Freiler family, 1900 US census, Year: 1900; Census Place: Elgin Ward 1, Kane, Illinois; Page: 3; Enumeration District: 0092; FHL microfilm: 1240311, Ancestry.com. 1900 United States Federal Census ↩
  4. Sigmund and Hilda Livingston, 1920 US census, Year: 1920; Census Place: Bloomington Precinct 19, McLean, Illinois; Roll: T625_387; Page: 2B; Enumeration District: 109,Ancestry.com. 1920 United States Federal Census ↩
  5. Richard Mayor Livingston, Gender: Male, Race: White, Birth Date: 8 Mar 1920
    Birth Place: Bloomington, Illinois, Death Date: 5 Oct 1994, Father: Livingston, Mother:
    Hilda V Feild, SSN: 322148741, Ancestry.com. U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007 ↩
  6. Dora, Herman, and Harold Livingston, 1920 US census, Year: 1920; Census Place: Bloomington Precinct 11, McLean, Illinois; Roll: T625_386; Page: 9B; Enumeration District: 101, Ancestry.com. 1920 United States Federal Census ↩
  7.  The National Archives at College Park; College Park, Maryland; Record Group Title: Records of the Office of the Quartermaster General, 1774-1985; Record Group Number: 92; Roll or Box Number: 437, Description Date Range: 14 Mar 1918-26 Jul 1918, Ancestry.com. U.S., Army Transport Service Arriving and Departing Passenger Lists, 1910-1939 ↩
  8. Sol Salzenstein and family, 1920 US census, Year: 1920; Census Place: Bloomington Precinct 1, McLean, Illinois; Roll: T625_386; Page: 4A; Enumeration District: 91, Ancestry.com. 1920 United States Federal Census ↩
  9. Alfred Livingston and family, 1920 US census, Year: 1920; Census Place: Chicago Ward 6, Cook (Chicago), Illinois; Roll: T625_309; Page: 9B; Enumeration District: 306,
    Ancestry.com. 1920 United States Federal Census ↩
  10. Irvin Livingston and family, 1920 US census, Year: 1920; Census Place: Chicago Ward 6, Cook (Chicago), Illinois; Roll: T625_309; Page: 9A; Enumeration District: 305,
    Ancestry.com. 1920 United States Federal Census ↩
  11. Irvin P Livingston, Birth Date: 2 Apr 1921, Birth Place: Chicago, Cook, Illinois
    Gender: Male, Father: Irvin L Livingston, Mother: Helen Baer, FHL Film Number: 1309494, Ancestry.com. Cook County, Illinois, U.S., Birth Certificates Index, 1871-1922 ↩
  12. Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/9198500/maurice-livingston : accessed 02 November 2021), memorial page for Maurice Livingston (14 Jan 1871–19 Nov 1923), Find a Grave Memorial ID 9198500, citing Jewish Cemetery, Bloomington, McLean County, Illinois, USA ; Maintained by Robin Farley Dixson Coon (contributor 46558224) . ↩
  13. Sol. Salzenstein, Birth Date: 3 Dec 1868, Birth Place: Pleasant Plains, Ill
    Death Date: 9 Sep 1924, Death Place: Bloomington, McLean, Illinois, Burial Date: Sep 1924, Cemetery Name: Jewish, Death Age: 55, Occupation: Real Estate, Race: White
    Marital status: M, Gender: Male, Residence: Bloomington, McLean, Illinois, Father Name: Jacob Salzenstein, Father Birth Place: Germany, Mother Birth Place: Germany
    Spouse Name: Lussie [sic] Salzenstein, FHL Film Number: 1493146, Ancestry.com. Illinois, U.S., Deaths and Stillbirths Index, 1916-1947 ↩
  14. Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/9199180/dorothy-livingston : accessed 02 November 2021), memorial page for Dorothy Ensel Livingston (4 Nov 1882–17 Nov 1953), Find a Grave Memorial ID 9199180, citing Jewish Cemetery, Bloomington, McLean County, Illinois, USA ; Maintained by Robin Farley Dixson Coon (contributor 46558224). Ensel family, 1880 US census, Year: 1880; Census Place: Somerset, Pulaski, Kentucky; Roll: 440; Page: 94C; Enumeration District: 086, Ancestry.com and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 1880 United States Federal Census. Kentucky Department for Libraries and Archives; Frankfort, Kentucky.
    Description: Film 7017487: All Counties, Ancestry.com. Kentucky, U.S., Death Records, 1852-1965 ↩
  15. Marion Kunstadter, Gender: Female, Marriage Date: 1926, Marriage Place: Champaign, Illinois, USA, Spouse: Harold Livingston, Various Illinois County Courthouses; Marriage Records; Collection Title: Marriage Records, Ancestry.com. Illinois, U.S., County Marriage Records, 1800-1940. Marian Kunstadter Livingston
    Gender: Female, Race: White, Birth Date: 6 Oct 1905, Birth Place: Chicago, Illinois
    Death Date: 29 Aug 1987, Father: Samuel Kunstadter, Mother: Theodora Hess
    SSN: 341206539, Death Certificate Number: 125588, Ancestry.com. U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007. Marriage announcement, Chicago Tribune, Chicago, Illinois, 23 May 1926, Sun • Page 91 ↩
  16. Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/9198506/dora-livingston : accessed 02 November 2021), memorial page for Dora Blumenfeld Livingston (27 Jun 1848–15 Jan 1927), Find a Grave Memorial ID 9198506, citing Jewish Cemetery, Bloomington, McLean County, Illinois, USA ; Maintained by Robin Farley Dixson Coon (contributor 46558224) . ↩
  17. Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/9198010/albert-livingston : accessed 02 November 2021), memorial page for Albert Livingston (31 Jan 1862–7 Jan 1928), Find a Grave Memorial ID 9198010, citing Jewish Cemetery, Bloomington, McLean County, Illinois, USA ; Maintained by Robin Farley Dixson Coon (contributor 46558224) . ↩
  18.  Ralph H. Livingston, Social Security Number: 351-20-2225, Birth Date: 17 Nov 1928, Issue Year: Before 1951, Issue State: Illinois, Last Residence: 94941, Mill Valley, Marin, California, USA, Death Date: 23 Feb 2008, Social Security Administration; Washington D.C., USA; Social Security Death Index, Master File, Ancestry.com. U.S., Social Security Death Index, 1935-2014 ↩

Dora Blumenfeld Livingston’s Growing Family, 1887 to 1915

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By 1887, Meyer and Dora (Blumenfeld) Livingston, as they were now known, had eight children and were living in Bloomington, Illinois, surrounded by Meyer’s siblings and their ever-growing dry goods businesses. There were over twenty individual listings for people and businesses named Livingston in the 1889 Bloomington directory.1

The 1893 city directory also lists numerous Livingstons, including two Miss Rosalie Livingstons, one presumably the daughter of Meyer, the other the daughter of Isaac. Sigmund Livingston is listed as a law student, Maurice (formerly Moritz) as a bookkeeper for M Livingston & Co, his father’s business.

1893 Bloomington, Illinois directory, Ancestry.com. U.S., City Directories, 1822-1995

I located this photograph (available under a Creative Commons license) of the six Livingston brothers taken in the late 1890s on a Flickr site belonging to Geoff Livingston, great-grandson of Irvin Livingston:

Back Row (left to right): Irvin Livingston, Alfred Livingston, Herman Livingston
Front Row (left to right): Sigmund Livingston; Harold Livingston; Maurice Livingston. From the Flickr site of Geoff Livingston, found at https://www.flickr.com/photos/geoliv/3894617201

On November 10, 1897, Dora and Meyer’s oldest child Rosalie married Albert Livingstone (spelled that way for both Rosalie and Albert in this wedding article). They were described as “among the most prominent members of the Hebrew society in Central Illinois,” and Rosalie was described as the daughter of “Mayer Livingstone, a wealthy merchant of this city.”

Marriage of Livingstone / Livingstone -

“Livingstone-Livingstone,” The Inter Ocean (Chicago), November 11, 1897, p. 3.

Albert, who was likely related to Rosalie although I’ve not yet figured out exactly how, was born in 1862 in Germany,2 but by 1880 when he was eighteen he was living in Bloomington.3 Albert is listed in the 1893 Bloomington directory as a “merchant tailor” in business with Julius Griesheim.4 Albert and Rosalie had one child, a son Morton born in Bloomington on October 20, 1900.5

In 1900, Meyer and Dora Blumenfeld Livingston were living with the other seven of their eight children in Bloomington, Illinois.6 The seven children living at home were Maurice (30), who was working as a merchant, Sigmund (28), a lawyer, Hermann (24), a clothing clerk possibly in his father’s store, Alfred (21), Gussie (19), Irvin (16), and Harold (12), all at school.

Meyer Livingston family, 1900 US census, Year: 1900; Census Place: Bloomington Ward 1, McLean, Illinois; Page: 6; Enumeration District: 0080; FHL microfilm: 1240321
Ancestry.com. 1900 United States Federal Census

Between 1900 and 1910, two more of Meyer and Dora’s children married, but surprisingly it was not two of the older children, but two of the younger ones. Gussie Livingston married Solomon Salzenstein on October 17, 1906. Solomon was born in Pleasant Plains, Illinois, on December 3, 1868, to Jacob and Hanna Salzenstein.7  In the newspaper article announcing their engagement, Solomon was described as a “junior member of the dry goods firm of Salzenstein Brothers in Virginia, Illinois,” and Gussie was described as “a popular society girl of Livingston.”

“Short Telegrams,” Evening Times-Republican, Marshalltown, Iowa, 30 May 1906, Wed • Page 8

Marriage record of Gussie Livingston and Sol Salzenstein, “Illinois, County Marriages, 1810-1940,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-L924-RDGN?cc=1803970 : 28 November 2018), image 1 of 1; county offices, Illinois.

In 1910, Gussie and Solomon were living in Virginia, Illinois, where Solomon continued to work as a dry goods merchant.8 Solomon and Gussie had one child, James Salzenstein, born in Bloomington on May 2, 1913,9 indicating that by that time Solomon and Gussie had relocated to Bloomington from Virginia, Illinois.

Gussie’s brother Alfred also married before 1910. He married Eva Seigel on November 6, 1907, in Chicago, Illinois.[^9] Eva was born in Des Moines, Iowa on June 27, 1882, to Solomon Seigel and Mary Cohen.10 In 1910, Alfred and Eva were living in Chicago where Alfred was a lawyer in general practice. They had one child, a daughter Miriam, though sometimes identified as Marion, born in Chicago on March 22, 1912.11

Although he was not yet married, Irvin Livingston, the second youngest child of Dora and Meyer, had also moved out of the home by 1910. In 1908 he was living in Chicago, studying law at the University of Chicago, having already obtained his bachelor’s degree from Illinois Wesleyan University.

Irvin Livingston, U.S., School Yearbooks, 1880-2012″; School Name: University of Chicago; Year: 1908 Ancestry.com. U.S., School Yearbooks, 1900-1999

By 1910, he was practicing law in Chicago, living as a lodger.12 On January 19,1914, Irvin married Helen H. Baer,13 daughter of Joseph and Emilie/Amelia Baer, in Chicago. Helen was born on August 1, 1890, in Chicago.14 Irvin and Helen had three children: Robert, born in Chicago on December 30, 1914;15 Julie May, born January 7, 1919, in Chicago;16 and Irvin T. Livingston, born April 3, 1921, in Chicago.17

The other four sons of Dora and Meyer Livingston were still single and living at home in Bloomington in 1910. Interestingly, Dora is referred to as Toni here, a reference I’ve seen in several other places starting around this time and going forward. Meyer still owned a department store, and it appears that three of the four sons living at home were working in the family business: Morris (Moritz or Maurice), Harry (probably Herman by age and process of elimination, and Harold (although it looks like “Jarold” on the census record). Sigmund was working as a lawyer.

Meyer Livingston family, 1910 US census, Year: 1910; Census Place: Bloomington Ward 1, McLean, Illinois; Roll: T624_306; Page: 10A; Enumeration District: 0081; FHL microfilm: 1374319, Ancestry.com. 1910 United States Federal Census

Later that year on November 15, 1910, Maurice married Bertha August in Rochester, New York. She was the daughter of Jacob August and Henriette Meyer and was born in Germany on January 29, 1886.18 She immigrated with her parents when she was a young child and grew up in Rochester.19 Maurice and Bertha settled in Bloomington where their two children, Ruth and Betty May, were born, Ruth on August 17, 1913,20 and Betty on January 22, 1916.21

Marriage of Bertha August and Maurice Livingston, Year Range: 1908 – 1912
Ancestry.com. New York, U.S., County Marriage Records, 1847-1849, 1907-1936

Meyer Loewenstein/Livingston did not survive to see the births of all his grandchildren. He died on October 10, 1915, in Bloomington when he was 75 years old.22 Meyer was survived by all eight of his children, most of whom were still living in Bloomington, and by ten grandchildren. Many of those children and grandchildren continued to contribute to the Bloomington business community for years to come, as we will see.

  1. 1889 Bloomington, Illinois City Directory, Ancestry.com. U.S., City Directories, 1822-1995 ↩
  2. Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/9198010/albert-livingston : accessed 28 October 2021), memorial page for Albert Livingston (31 Jan 1862–7 Jan 1928), Find a Grave Memorial ID 9198010, citing Jewish Cemetery, Bloomington, McLean County, Illinois, USA ; Maintained by Robin Farley Dixson Coon (contributor 46558224) . ↩
  3. Albert Livingston, 1880 US census, Year: 1880; Census Place: Bloomington, McLean, Illinois; Roll: 230; Page: 180A; Enumeration District: 161, Ancestry.com and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 1880 United States Federal Census ↩
  4. See image above. ↩
  5.  Morton Livingston, Social Security Number: 352-05-1727, Birth Date: 20 Oct 1900
    Issue Year: Before 1951, Issue State: Illinois, Last Residence: 60035, Highland Park, Lake, Illinois, USA, Death Date: May 1984, Social Security Administration; Washington D.C., USA; Social Security Death Index, Master File, Ancestry.com. U.S., Social Security Death Index, 1935-2014 ↩
  6. As noted in my prior post, the notation that Dora had had eighteen children and only eight survived is an error, corrected on the 1910 census.  It also erroneously reports that the family immigrated in 1871. ↩
  7. Sol. Salzenstein, Birth Date: 3 Dec 1868, Birth Place: Pleasant Plains, Ill, Death Date: 9 Sep 1924, Death Place: Bloomington, McLean, Illinois, Burial Date: Sep 1924
    Cemetery Name: Jewish, Death Age: 55, Occupation: Real Estate, Race: White
    Marital status: M, Gender: Male, Residence: Bloomington, McLean, Illinois, Father Name: Jacob Salzenstein, Father Birth Place: Germany, Mother Birth Place: Germany
    Spouse Name: Lussie Salzenstein [sic], Comments: 11y of this place, FHL Film Number: 1493146, Ancestry.com. Illinois, U.S., Deaths and Stillbirths Index, 1916-1947 ↩
  8. Solomon and Gussie Salzenstein, 1910 US census, Year: 1910; Census Place: Virginia Ward 3, Cass, Illinois; Roll: T624_232; Page: 13B; Enumeration District: 0029; FHL microfilm: 1374245, Ancestry.com. 1910 United States Federal Census ↩
  9. Alfred Livingston, Age: 28, Gender: Male, Birth Year: abt 1879, Marriage Type: Marriage, Marriage Date: 6 Nov 1907, Marriage Place: Chicago, Cook, Illinois
    Spouse Name: Eva Seigle, Spouse Age: 23, Spouse Gender: Female, FHL Film Number: 1030431, Ancestry.com. Cook County, Illinois, U.S., Marriages Index, 1871-1920 ↩
  10. Eva S Livingston, [Eva S Seigle], Gender: Female, Birth Date: 27 Jun 1882
    Birth Place: Iowa, Death Date: 11 Apr 1954, Death Place: Los Angeles, Father’s Surname: Seigle, Place: Los Angeles; Date: 11 Apr 1954, Ancestry.com. California, U.S., Death Index, 1940-1997. New York, New York Passenger and Crew Lists, 1909, 1925-1957,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33SQ-G5QY-Q7W?cc=1923888&wc=MFVY-TM9%3A1029870501 : 2 October 2015), 4136 – vol 9244-9245, Sep 24, 1928 image 446 of 813; citing NARA microfilm publication T715 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.). The spelling of Eva’s birth name varies between Seigle, Siegle, and Siegel. ↩
  11. E.g., Miriam Livingston, New York, New York Passenger and Crew Lists, 1909, 1925-1957,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33SQ-G5QY-Q7W?cc=1923888&wc=MFVY-TM9%3A1029870501 : 2 October 2015), 4136 – vol 9244-9245, Sep 24, 1928 image 446 of 813; citing NARA microfilm publication T715 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.). Marion Livingston, 1920 US census, Year: 1920; Census Place: Chicago Ward 6, Cook (Chicago), Illinois; Roll: T625_309; Page: 9B; Enumeration District: 306, Ancestry.com. 1920 United States Federal Census ↩
  12. Irvin Livingston, 1910 US census, Year: 1910; Census Place: Chicago Ward 6, Cook, Illinois; Roll: T624_245; Page: 11A; Enumeration District: 0314; FHL microfilm: 1374258, Ancestry.com. 1910 United States Federal Census ↩
  13. Irvin J. Livingston, Age: 30, Gender: Male, Birth Year: abt 1884, Marriage Type: Marriage, Marriage Date: 19 Jan 1914, Marriage Place: Chicago, Cook, Illinois
    Spouse Name: Helen H. Baer, Spouse Age: 23, Spouse Gender: Female
    FHL Film Number: 1030564, ncestry.com. Cook County, Illinois, U.S., Marriages Index, 1871-1920 ↩
  14. Baer family, 1900 US census, Year: 1900; Census Place: Chicago Ward 3, Cook, Illinois; Page: 4; Enumeration District: 0077; FHL microfilm: 1240247, Ancestry.com. 1900 United States Federal Census; Helen Livingston, Gender: Female, Age: 48
    Birth Date: 1 Aug 1890, Birth Place: Chicago Ill, Arrival Date: 13 Feb 1939, Arrival Place: Miami, Florida, USA, Ship: Florida, The National Archives at Washington, D.C.; Washington, D.C.; Series Title: U.S. Citizen Passenger Lists of Vessels Arriving at Miami, Florida; NAI Number: 2774842; 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 ↩
  15. Robert Irvin Livingston, Birth Date: 30 Dec 1914, Gender: Male, Father: Irvin Livingston, Mother: Helen Baer, FHL Film Number: 1288338, Ancestry.com. Cook County, Illinois, U.S., Birth Certificates Index, 1871-1922 ↩
  16. Julie May Livingston, Birth Date: 7 Jan 1919, Birth Place: Chicago, Cook, Illinois
    Gender: Female, Father: Irwin Livingston, Mother: Helen Baer, FHL Film Number: 1276449, Ancestry.com. Cook County, Illinois, U.S., Birth Certificates Index, 1871-1922 ↩
  17. Irvin P Livingston, Birth Date: 2 Apr 1921, Birth Place: Chicago, Cook, Illinois
    Gender: Male, Father: Irvin L Livingston, Mother: Helen Baer, FHL Film Number: 1309494, Ancestry.com. Cook County, Illinois, U.S., Birth Certificates Index, 1871-1922 ↩
  18. Bertha August Livingston, Gender: Female, Birth Date: 29 Jan 1887, Birth Place: Other Country, Death Date: 7 Oct 1957, Death Place: Los Angeles, Father’s Surname: August, Place: Los Angeles; Date: 7 Oct 1957, Ancestry.com. California, U.S., Death Index, 1940-1997 ↩
  19. August family, 1900 US census, Year: 1900; Census Place: Rochester Ward 16, Monroe, New York; Page: 6; Enumeration District: 0098; FHL microfilm: 1241076, Ancestry.com. 1900 United States Federal Census ↩
  20. See obituary at https://www.losaltosonline.com/people/obituaries/ruth-livingston-schiller/article_a37f4448-b9d6-5860-8ce7-d1d6ab3387c2.html ↩
  21. Betty Livingston Bendix, Social Security #: 572427551, Gender: Female, Birth Date: 22 Jan 1916, Birth Place: Illinois, Death Date: 3 Aug 1983, Death Place: Los Angeles, Mother’s Maiden Name: August, Father’s Surname: Livingston, Place: Los Angeles; Date: 3 Aug 1983; Social Security: 572427551, Ancestry.com. California, U.S., Death Index, 1940-1997 ↩
  22. Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/9198505/mayer-livingston : accessed 28 October 2021), memorial page for Mayer Livingston (Nov 1839–10 Oct 1915), Find a Grave Memorial ID 9198505, citing Jewish Cemetery, Bloomington, McLean County, Illinois, USA ; Maintained by Robin Farley Dixson Coon (contributor 46558224) . ↩

German Jewish Immigrants in America in the 1800s: The Livingstons in Bloomington, Illinois, as a Classic Example

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In 1882, Dora Blumenfeld Loewenstein and six of her children arrived from Germany and settled with her husband Meyer Loewenstein in Bloomington, Illinois, where they had two more children, completing their family. But why Bloomington? What brought them there? It was not near any major city—about 140 miles from Chicago, 170 from Indianapolis. But between 1850, when there were only about 1500 people living there, and 1880, when there were about 17,000 people, it had experienced a huge population explosion. Its rich farm land attracted settlers, and it grew to be a center for trade in central Illinois. Even Abraham Lincoln was known for traveling there from his home in Springfield, Illinois, seventy miles away.

But why did Meyer choose Bloomington? A February 10,1927, article (pp. 3, 5) from The Pantagraph, the Bloomington newspaper, provided the background to answer that question.

History of Livingston Family in Bloomington -

History of Livingstons in Bloomington part 2 -

The Pantagraph, February 10, 1927, pp, 3, 5

I will excerpt from and summarize some of the pertinent parts of this long article. Note that Meyer is spelled “Mayer” in this article as it sometimes was on other records as well.

Probably no other family in Bloomington has played such a prominent part in the mercantile history of the community as the Livingston. No other has produced so many buildings or taken such an active part in the commercial affairs of the city. Dating back to the middle ages and originating in Hessen, Germany, the father of the first representatives of the Livingston family to reach Bloomington was Hirsch, who resided at Daubriegn [sic], a suburb of Giessen in Hessen. He was the fiscal agent for a baronetcy and very prominent in that locality.

It was in the early fifties that two of his sons, Sam and Aaron, then in their teens, decided to emigrate to America to carve their fortune in the land of liberty. … They came over in a sailing vessel and the voyage required two months. …

The two lads came to Cincinnati where an uncle, Mayer Livingston [note: not Dora’s husband, but his uncle], was in business and with whom they resided until they had mastered the English language. They then started out with peddlers packs upon their backs and sold merchandise thru Ohio. Reports of a more prosperous condition in Illinois, led to their shift to this state in 1852, and they did so well with their merchandising that they were able to buy a horse and wagon with which they traveled from farm to farm. They found the farmers hospitable and the two boys accumulated a little money.

Aaron was the first to reach Bloomington, coming in 1855 and renting a little shack at the southwest corner of Main and Washington streets for a clothing store. ….

Prosperity came and a few months later, the brother Sam also laid aside the peddler’s pack and also opened a clothing store at the southwest corner of Main and Front streets…These two establishments marked the inaugural of the Livingston business in Bloomington….

On the early seventies Sam and Aaron erected the building at the northwest corner of Center and Washington streets [which a third brother, Maik, managed]. …Aaron also launched a dry goods store at the south side of the square and which he turned over to his cousins….

That was a notable event in the Livingston family when their beloved father, Hirsch, was induced to join his sons here and see the prosperity that had come to them. The old man made the long voyage in 1880, just arriving to witness the death of Aaron. Hirsch, a fine type of the old school of German families, was greatly interested in Bloomington, saw the need of a Jewish synagogue here and was the founder of the Moses Montefiore edifice which was erected in the early eighties. Hirsch passed to his forefathers in 1885, his couch surrounded by his sorrowing children and grandchildren.

When Aaron died, the remainder of the family sent for Isaac and Mayer to come over from Germany….Mayer arrived in 1881 and Isaac in 1882. [This confirmed my hunch that the Isaac Loewenstein sailing with Dora and her children was indeed her brother-in-law.] Following a conference, it was decided that Mayer should take charge of the clothing store at the corner of Main and Front streets; Isaac, the clothing store [at Main and Washington]; while Sam was to take charge of the 640-acre farm in Old Town township.

The article continues and brings the history of the Livingston family in Bloomington up to 1927, but I will stop here for now and return to the specific story of Meyer and Dora and their eight children.

The story of Hirsch Loewenstein and his sons is so typical in many ways of the German Jews who immigrated to the US in the mid-nineteenth century. Like my Katz/Katzenstein, Schoenthal, and Nusbaum families in particular, the Loewensteins/Livingstons came as young men, became peddlers traveling to far flung and rural parts of the growing country, eventually becoming successful enough to settle in one place and establish permanent stores there. Those stores grew to become department stores, leading to prosperity and security for those young immigrants and their families. It was not only my family’s story, but the story of many of the great department stores that grew all over this country in the mid to late 19th century, many of which still exist today.

 

Dusschen Dora Blumenfeld and Her Children: Immigrating to America in 1882

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I am now up to the fourth child and first daughter of Abraham Blumenfeld II and his wife Giedel Strauss, Dusschen Blumenfeld. Dusschen would have eight children, and I admit that when I looked at that list, I grew a bit weary. After all, Dusschen is only the fourth of the eight children of Abraham II, and Abraham II is the oldest of the three children of Moses Blumenfeld, the oldest sibling of my three-times great-grandmother Breine Blumenfeld Katzenstein.

So I still have so much to do on this Blumenfeld branch of my tree. I am not complaining; well, not really. It’s all good. I am glad to have the work. But sometimes it does feel overwhelming. Does anyone else ever feel that way about researching large families with many children?

And then, to make things even more overwhelming, I ended up confusing two different Dusschen Blumenfelds, one the daughter of Abraham II, one the daughter of his brother Isaac. After getting a lot of help from other researchers, I managed to sort it out and learned which one was born when, which one married which man.1

Anyway, enough kvetching! On to Dusschen Blumenfeld I, the daughter of Abraham Blumenfeld II and Giedel Strauss.

She was born on June 27, 1847, in Momberg, Germany.

Birth record of Dusschen Blumenfeld I, daughter of Abraham Blumenfeld. Arcinsys Archives Hessen, HHStAW Fonds 365 No 628, p. 16

Unfortunately, that is the only German record I can find for Dusschen I. Since she was later known as Dora, I will use that name going forward when I refer to her.

In 1868, Dora married Meyer Loewenstein,2 who was born in Daubringen, Germany, on November 9, 1839.3 Unfortunately, I do not have an actual birth or marriage record for Meyer, but had to rely on the information that he provided after he immigrated to the United States. Similarly, I had to rely on US records to find the birth dates for his children. Giessen, the town where Dora and Meyer lived in Germany, does not have records online for the dates that are relevant to this family.

UPDATE: Since publishing this post, I was able to obtain a book titled Juden in Giessen 1788-1942 by Hanno Miller (Giessen, 2012) that lists on p, 392 information about Meyer, Dora, and six of their children. Although no primary sources are included, the descriptions of the records include enough detail (time of birth, witnesses to each birth) that the information appears to be quite reliable. According to this source, Meyer was born on November 9, 1839, and Dora and Meyer were married on April 23, 1868.

Hanno Miller, Juden in Giessen 1788-1942 (Giessen 2012), p. 392.

I have noted below where the Juden in Giessen book provides different birth dates for the children of Dora and Meyer than those found in US sources. These discrepancies corroborate the accepted notion that birthdays were less important to European Jews than here in the US and that people estimated their birthdates rather than knowing them exactly.

As noted above, Dora and Meyer had eight children, and the first six of those children were born in Germany. Their first born was Rosalie, born April 3, 1869.4 Then came Moritz, born January 14, 1871.5 A second son Sigmund was born on December 13, 1872,6 and then Hermann, their third son and fourth child, was born December 25, 1874.7

After giving birth to four children in five years, Dora may have had a bit of a respite. Her fifth baby Aaron (later Alfred) was born on January 15, 1879.8 Perhaps that break came because Meyer had been traveling; I found a Meyer Loewenstein from Germany who was 41 years old on an 1878 ship manifest from Hamburg to New York.9 But I can’t be certain that is the same Meyer, given the lack of identifying information on the manifest and the discrepancy in the age.10

Dora and Meyer did have one more child in Germany before immigrating. Their sixth child and second daughter Auguste or Gussie was born on October 30, 1881.11 Dora and her six children sailed to New York from Bremen, arriving on September 9, 1882. The children are listed as Pauline (11 ½), Moritz (10), Sigmund (1 ½ ??), Hermann (7), Alfred (3), and Auguste (1). Meyer was not sailing with them so perhaps he’d returned to the United States before his wife and children though I cannot find him on any manifest after the 1878 one mentioned above.

Listed right above Dora on the 1882 manifest is another Loewenstein family: Isaac Loewenstein (38), his wife Rosa (28) and their two children (presumably), Rosalie (11) and Hermann (9).

Dora Loewenstein and children on ship manifest, Year: 1882; Arrival: New York, New York, USA; Microfilm Serial: M237, 1820-1897; Line: 1; List Number: 1286, Ship or Roll Number: Elbe
Ancestry.com. New York, U.S., Arriving Passenger and Crew Lists (including Castle Garden and Ellis Island), 1820-1957

I speculated that Isaac was the brother of Meyer Loewenstein. Why? Both ended up settling in Bloomington, Illinois, and both changed their surnames to Livingston (sometimes spelled Livingstone).

In any event, Dora and the children arrived in October 1882 and settled in Bloomington, Illinois, where on January 2, 1884, Dora gave birth to their seventh child and fifth son, Isaac, later Irvin.12 Their last child, Harold, was born on November 16, 1887, in Bloomington.13

Why Bloomington, Illinois? Why did Meyer and Isaac choose that city? I didn’t know the answer until I found a long news article from the Bloomington newspaper, The Pantagraph, dated February 10, 1927. More on that in my next post.

  1. Thank you so much to Richard Bloomfield and Michael Rosenberg for the invaluable assistance with straightening out the two Dusschen Blumenfelds, including helping me find and transcribe their birth records, which appear on the same page of the Momberg registry. ↩
  2. Livingston family, 1900 US census, Year: 1900; Census Place: Bloomington Ward 1, McLean, Illinois; Page: 6; Enumeration District: 0080; FHL microfilm: 1240321, Ancestry.com. 1900 United States Federal Census ↩
  3. Hanno Miller, Juden in Giessen 1788-1942 (Giessen, 2012), p. 392. Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/9198505/mayer-livingston : accessed 27 October 2021), memorial page for Mayer Livingston (Nov 1839–10 Oct 1915), Find a Grave Memorial ID 9198505, citing Jewish Cemetery, Bloomington, McLean County, Illinois, USA ; Maintained by Robin Farley Dixson Coon (contributor 46558224) . ↩
  4. Hanno Miller, Juden in Giessen 1788-1942 (Giessen, 2012), p. 392. Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/9198011/rosalie-m-livingston : accessed 27 October 2021), memorial page for Rosalie M “Rosa” Livingston (3 Apr 1869–19 Jul 1943), Find a Grave Memorial ID 9198011, citing Jewish Cemetery, Bloomington, McLean County, Illinois, USA ; Maintained by Robin Farley Dixson Coon (contributor 46558224) . ↩
  5. Hanno Miller, Juden in Giessen 1788-1942 (Giessen, 2012), p. 392. Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/9198500/maurice-livingston : accessed 27 October 2021), memorial page for Maurice Livingston (14 Jan 1871–19 Nov 1923), Find a Grave Memorial ID 9198500, citing Jewish Cemetery, Bloomington, McLean County, Illinois, USA ; Maintained by Robin Farley Dixson Coon (contributor 46558224) . ↩
  6. Hanno Miller, Juden in Giessen 1788-1942 (Giessen 2012), p. 392. US sources say December 27, 1872 or December 29, 1872. Sigmund Livingston, Age: 39, Birth Date: 27 Dec 1872, Birth Place: Giessen, Germany, Residence Place: Bloomington, Illinois, Passport Issue Date: 25 Mar 1912
    Has Photo: No, Certificate Number: 68761, National Archives and Records Administration (NARA); Washington D.C.; Roll #: 155; Volume #: Roll 0155 – Certificates: 68321-69176, 18 Mar 1912-30 Mar 1912, Ancestry.com. U.S., Passport Applications, 1795-1925 ↩
  7. Hanno Miller, Juden in Giessen 1788-1942 (Giessen 2012), p. 392. US sources say December 29, 1874.  Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/9199176/herman-livingston : accessed 27 October 2021), memorial page for Herman Livingston (29 Dec 1874–17 Feb 1951), Find a Grave Memorial ID 9199176, citing Jewish Cemetery, Bloomington, McLean County, Illinois, USA ; Maintained by Robin Farley Dixson Coon (contributor 46558224) . ↩
  8. Hanno Miller, Juden in Giessen 1788-1942 (Giessen 2012), p. 392.Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/9199178/alfred-livingston : accessed 27 October 2021), memorial page for Alfred Livingston (15 Jan 1879–1 Apr 1949), Find a Grave Memorial ID 9199178, citing Jewish Cemetery, Bloomington, McLean County, Illinois, USA ; Maintained by Robin Farley Dixson Coon (contributor 46558224) . ↩
  9.  Meyer Loewenstein, Gender: Male, Ethnicity/ Nationality: German, Age: 41
    Birth Date: abt 1837, Place of Origin: Germany, Departure Port: Hamburg, Germany and Le Havre, France, Destination: USA, Arrival Date: 17 Dec 1878, Arrival Port: New York, New York, USA, Ship Name: Cimbria, Year: 1878; Arrival: New York, New York, USA; Microfilm Serial: M237, 1820-1897; Line: 53; List Number: 1326, Ancestry.com. New York, U.S., Arriving Passenger and Crew Lists (including Castle Garden and Ellis Island), 1820-1957 ↩
  10. The 1900 US census indicated that Dora had given birth to eighteen children, eight of whom were still living. So perhaps that gap between 1874 and 1879 reflects at least some children who did not survive. But ten deceased children in five years seemed unlikely, and when I checked the 1910 US census, it reported that Dora had had eight children, all of whom were still living. ↩
  11. Hanno Miller, Juden in Giessen 1788-1942 (Giessen 2012), p. 392. US sources say October 27, 1881. Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/9198642/gussie-l-wertheimer : accessed 27 October 2021), memorial page for Gussie L Wertheimer (27 Oct 1881–12 Sep 1957), Find a Grave Memorial ID 9198642, citing Jewish Cemetery, Bloomington, McLean County, Illinois, USA ; Maintained by Robin Farley Dixson Coon (contributor 46558224) . ↩
  12. Irvin I Livingston, Gender: Male, Race: White, Birth Date: 2 Jan 1884, Birth Place: Bloomington, Illinois, USA, Residence Place: Glencoe, Illinois, USA, Military Draft Date: 1942, Relationship to Draftee: Head, The National Archives at St. Louis; St. Louis, Missouri; World War II Draft Cards (Fourth Registration), for The State of Illinois; Record Group Title: Records of the Selective Service System; Record Group Number: 147; Series Number: M2097, Ancestry.com. U.S., World War II Draft Registration Cards, 1942 ↩
  13. Harold Hirsch Livingston, Gender: Male, Race: White, Birth Date: 16 Nov 1887
    Birth Place: Bloomington, Illinois, Father: Mayer Livingston, Mother: Dora Blumenfeld
    SSN: 336146596, Ancestry.com. U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007 ↩

Another Update from Another Cousin! The Story of Karl Gutmann

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Once again, I have been very fortunate because another cousin found my blog and connected with me, sharing information and photographs of members of my ever-growing family tree. This time it was my fifth cousin, once removed, Jennifer, the granddaughter of Karl Gutmann, who has enriched my understanding of my family history. The information in this post, except where otherwise noted, came from my email correspondence with Jennifer, as did all the photographs.

You can read more about Karl and his family here and here, but let me provide a brief overview. Karl, born in 1923, was the only child of Moritz Gutmann and my cousin Nelly Goldschmidt; Nelly was the daughter of Hedwig Goldschmidt and Marcel Goldschmidt who themselves were first cousins, the grandchildren of Meyer Goldschmidt, my four-times great-uncle.

Jennifer shared with me this photograph of her grandfather Karl with his mother Nelly as well as the one that follows of Karl as a young boy.

Nelly Goldschmidt Gutmann and her son Karl Gutmann, c. 1927-1928 Courtesy of the family

Karl Gutmann Courtesy of the family

Nelly’s sister Else was married to Siegfried Gutmann, brother of Moritz Gutmann. Else and Siegfried, like Nelly and Moritz, had only one child, a son named Hermann Gutmann, later known as Dennis Goodman. I wrote about Dennis and his experiences here and here. Thus, Karl and Dennis were first cousins, and according to Jennifer, the two boys were very close growing up in Germany. They were both born in 1923, Dennis in February, Karl in May. They must have been like brothers to each other.

Tragically, Karl and Dennis were separated from each other because of the Nazis. As I wrote in my earlier post, Karl’s father Moritz came to the US in 1936, leaving his wife Nelly and Karl behind. What Jennifer shared with me was that her great-grandmother Nelly had long suffered from mental illness and had been institutionalized for some time before the Holocaust. Moritz, who resented the fact that her family had failed to disclose her mental health issues before they married, filed for divorce once he was in the United States. Jennifer shared this photograph of her great-grandfather Moritz Gutmann, whom she described as a very difficult man.

Moritz Gutmann Courtesy of the family

Meanwhile, Moritz and Nelly’s son Karl was living in Amsterdam as were his grandmother Hedwig Goldschmidt and his aunt Else Goldschmidt and uncle Siegfried Gutmann.  His cousin Hermann (Dennis) was sent in 1936 to England where he attended a Jewish boarding school, and the following year Karl went to the US.

From the apparent age of Karl in this photograph (he appears to be at least thirteen), I would guess that this photograph was taken either in Amsterdam or after he came to the US. I don’t know who the other boy was.

Karl Gutman and friend Courtesy of the family

What I did not know until Jennifer shared it with me was that Karl’s father Moritz traveled to Amsterdam to get his son and bring him back to the US; I now was able to locate Moritz on the same ship as the one that brought Karl to the US. Moritz, however, was sailing in a second class cabin whereas his fourteen-year-old son was sailing third class in a separate cabin (last line on second image below).

Moritz Gutmann, Year: 1937; Arrival: New York, New York, USA; Microfilm Serial: T715, 1897-1957; Line: 1; Page Number: 124,  Statendam, Ancestry.com. New York, U.S., Arriving Passenger and Crew Lists (including Castle Garden and Ellis Island), 1820-1957

Karl Gutmann (last line), Year: 1937; Arrival: New York, New York, USA; Microfilm Serial: T715, 1897-1957; Line: 1; Page Number: 143,  Statendam, Ancestry.com. New York, U.S., Arriving Passenger and Crew Lists (including Castle Garden and Ellis Island), 1820-1957

Karl earned money selling newspapers when he first got to the US, but then enlisted in the US Army in 1943. By that time he had joined his father in the art dealing business and brought art work back and forth between Europe and the US during the war. Karl became one of the Ritchie Boys, the elite espionage unit made up of German Jewish refugees who used their knowledge of Germany and German to spy on the Nazis and obtain critical military intelligence for the Allies. Here is Karl in uniform during World War II.

Karl Gutmann, c. 1945 Courtesy of the family

But it was too late to save his mother Nelly, who was killed by the Nazis in 1940. Tragically, both of Dennis Goodman’s parents were also murdered in the Holocaust. Karl and Dennis’s grandmother Hedwig Goldschmidt, however, miraculously survived after hiding in the Netherlands during the war, as described here. Jennifer shared this photograph of Hedwig, taken after she had safely immigrated to the US after the war.

Hedwig Goldschmidt Gutmann  Courtesy of the family

When Karl returned to the US after the war, he married Joan Fenton. What I had not known before Jennifer contacted me was that Joan, her grandmother, was the best friend of Karl’s first cousin Gabrielle Heimerdinger, the daughter of Greta Goldschmidt, Karl’s aunt, his mother Nelly’s sister. Gabrielle introduced Joan to Karl, and together they had three children. Jennifer, Karl and Joan’s granddaughter, has many memories of visiting her relatives in New York, including her grandfather’s first cousin Gabrielle, whose children I wrote about here. Karl went into the television repair business after the war and became quite successful.

While serving overseas as one of the Ritchie Boys, Karl had run into his cousin Dennis, Karl fighting the Nazis for the US, Dennis fighting the Nazis for England. Once the two cousins reconnected, they remained close for the rest of their lives, traveling back and forth between England and the US after the war many times. Thanks to Jennifer, I can share this photograph of Karl and Dennis joyfully reunited after the war. The other man on the left is their paternal cousin John Gutmann, and the woman is Karl’s second wife Gisela.

John Gutmann, Karl Gutmann, Gisela Bartels Gutmann, and Dennis Goodman Courtesy of the family

Jennifer remembered her grandfather Karl as a man with a strong work ethic and one who never wanted to talk about his past. But through her grandmother Joan and other family members, Jennifer was able to learn more about her grandfather’s story and the tragedies that her other relatives suffered during the Holocaust. I am so grateful that she shared their stories and her photographs with me.

 

 

Who Was That Baby? A Question Answered!

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You never know when you publish a blog post asking a question when, if ever, that question will be answered. And I’ve learned never to give up hope. Just recently I learned the answer to a question I posed over four years ago on this post about Jake Katz, the Oklahoma cousin who started the Katz Department Stores in Stillwater, Oklahoma, and who eventually helped to rescue several of his cousins who were still living in Germany during the Nazi era.

Included in that post was a photograph of the three children Jake had with his wife Sophia Salzenstein: Albert Jerome, Margaret, and Helen.

Albert Jerome Katz in rear, Helen Katz and Margaret “Babe” Katz seated with unknown cousin on laps
Courtesy of the Goldman family

Under that photograph I posed this question:

Perhaps some Katz family member can identify the two unknown little cousins? Since we know Albert Jerome died in 1919, I am assuming this photo was taken in about 1918, meaning the two young children were likely born in 1916-1917. I am thinking one might be the daughter of Lester Katz and Mayme Salzenstein, Mildred “Bobbie,” since she was born in January 1916 and was related to Jake and Sophia on both sides, Lester being Jake’s cousin and Mayme being Sophia’s sister.

I didn’t get any answers when I published this post, but on September 19, 2021, I received this comment on that blog post from a reader named Jerry Richards:

Hi Amy, I have the same picture you do of Helen, Margaret and Jerome Katz. The two babies are, as you guessed, on the left Mildred Henderson nee Katz, born 1916, two years old. The baby on the right is Peggy (Mary Carolyn) Richards nee Salzenstein, born 8/6/1917. She is my mother.

I emailed Jerry and learned that his grandfather Solomon Wolf Salzenstein was the brother of Sophia Salzenstein, Jake Katz’s wife. Thus, Jerry is the grandnephew of Sophia and grandnephew-in-law of Jake.

And now I can correct the caption under the photograph:

Albert Jerome Katz in rear, Helen Katz and Margaret “Babe” Katz seated, left to right. Mildred Katz Henderson and Peggy (Mary Carolyn) Salzenstein Richards sitting on their cousins’ laps, left to right.
Courtesy of the Goldman family

Another reminder that you never know when a question you never thought would be answered will in fact be answered! Thank you, Jerry!

The Children of Thekla and Felix Blumenfeld, Part IV: The Survivors

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Thekla Blumenfeld Gruenbaum and her brother Felix Blumenfeld lost their lives in the Holocaust as did Thekla’s son-in-law Walter Herzog; Thekla’s grandson Manfred Herzog was killed fighting against Nazi Germany. But Thekla and Felix’s children and the other grandchildren all survived because most of them were able to leave Germany before it was too late.

Thekla Blumenfeld Gruenbaum’s Children and Grandchildren

Franz Moritz Gruenbaum, Thekla’s younger son, was in South Africa by 19351 and on March 18, 1937, he immigrated to the United States.2  Franz soon settled in Springfield, Massachusetts, just a few miles from where I now live, where he married a woman named Maria Pauline Strasser in 1938.3 Maria was born in Munich, Germany, on April 21, 1901, and was previously married to Richard Bachmann.4 Maria had known Franz in Kassel before they all immigrated, and she and Franz had spent time together in South Africa and traveled back to the US together in March 1937 as you can see on this ship manifest.5

Maria Bachmann and Franz Gruenbaum, ship manifest, Year: 1937; Arrival: New York, New York, USA; Microfilm Serial: T715, 1897-1957; Line: 1; Page Number: 16, Ship or Roll Number: Rex
Ancestry.com. New York, U.S., Arriving Passenger and Crew Lists (including Castle Garden and Ellis Island), 1820-1957

Sometime after immigrating, Franz changed his name to Frank Gruen. He and Maria settled in Springfield and lived there for at least twenty years where Frank worked in the printing business6 and Maria taught German.7 At some point they relocated to Cambridge, Massachusetts, where they were living in 1980 when they died. Frank and Maria died within months of each other, Maria in January 1980,8 Frank two months later in March.9 She was 78, and he 80.

Franz Grunbaum World War II draft registration, National Archives at St. Louis; St. Louis, Missouri; Draft Registration Cards for Massachusetts, 10/16/1940-03/31/1947; Record Group: Records of the Selective Service System, 147; Box: 402, Name Range: Gross, Abraham-Grundstrum, Edwin, Ancestry.com. U.S., World War II Draft Cards Young Men, 1940-1947

Thekla’s older son Curt Wilhelm Gruenbaum was still in Kassel, Germany, in 1935,10 but thereafter left for England and then arrived in the US on May 9, 1939. He was living with his brother Franz in Springfield by 1939, and his wife Gertrude and son Heinz joined him in Springfield on May 25, 1939.11 By 1940 Curt and his family had relocated from Springfield to Cambridge, Massachusetts, where Curt, like his brother Franz, was working in the printing business.12

Curt Wilhelm Gruenbaum, declaration of intention, National Archives at Boston; Waltham, Massachusetts; ARC Title: Petitions and Records of Naturalization , 8/1845 – 12/1911; NAI Number: 3000057; Record Group Title: Records of District Courts of the United States, 1685-2009; Record Group Number: RG 21, Description: Petition No 277730, Jayme Gonzalez – Petition No 278386, Sarah Govenar. Ancestry.com. Massachusetts, U.S., State and Federal Naturalization Records, 1798-1950

In 1942, Curt, who changed the spelling of his name to Kurt, was working for the Fuller Brush Company.

Kurt Grunbaum, World War II draft registration, National Archives at St. Louis; St. Louis, Missouri; Draft Registration Cards for Massachusetts, 10/16/1940-03/31/1947; Record Group: Records of the Selective Service System, 147; Box: 402, Name Range: Gross, Abraham-Grundstrum, Edwin, Ancestry.com. U.S., World War II Draft Cards Young Men, 1940-1947

Kurt and Gertrude’s son Heinz, who changed his name to Henry, married Barbara Ann Gillespie in 1955 in Cambridge, Massachusetts.13 She was born on December 23, 1933, in Boston to Leslie and Pearl Gillespie.14 Henry and Barbara Ann had two sons.

Kurt and his wife Gertrude remained in Cambridge for the rest of their lives, which may explain why his brother Frank and Maria relocated there. Gertrude died at the age of 76 on July 7, 1977;15 Kurt died eight years later on February 6, 1985.16 He was 87 years old. They were survived by their son Henry and his wife and children. Henry died October 22, 2008;17 he was 76; his wife Barbara Ann survived him by seven years. She died on April 24, 2015, at 81. The family created a tribute page to Henry and his family with many photos of Henry and his parents Kurt and Gertrude here.

While the two sons of Thekla Blumenfeld Gruenbaum ended up in Massachusetts, her two daughters Caecile and Rosemarie ended up in New York.

Rosemarie Gruenbaum first immigrated to England. I don’t know when, but she is listed with her husband Ernest Heymann on the 1939 England and Wales Register.18 Ernest, a silk merchant like Rosemarie’s brother-in-law Walter Herzog, was born January 24, 1902, in Brussels.19 I was unable to learn more about Ernest’s family background or to find a record for their marriage. They had one child born in England in 1940.

UPDATE: Thank you so much to Cathy Meder-Dempsey who read this post and on her own decided to look up Ernest Heymann’s birth record. Now I know that he was the son of Edouard Heymann, a trader who was  born in Krefeld, Germany, and Mathilde Kaufmann, who born in Aachen (Aix-la-Chapelle), Germany. Although I was able to go back another generation and find Eduoard’s parents’ names, I am still looking for a marriage record for Ernest and Rosemarie.

Birth record of Ernest Heymann, “Belgique, Brabant, registres d’état civil, 1582-1914,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:S3HT-DYHS-SBC?cc=1482191&wc=ST2N-6TG%3A966896201%2C967103401 : 22 May 2014), Brussel > Geboorten 14 dec (nr. 4370) 1901-sept 1902 > image 166 of 833; België Nationaal Archief, Brussels (Belgium National Archives, Brussels).

On November November 19, 1940, Rosemarie, Ernest, and their daughter left England for the US, arriving in the US in Boston on December 5, 1940.20 By February 1942 when he registered for the draft, Ernest and his family were living in Kew Gardens, Queens, New York, and he was working for Goodman and Theise, Inc., a textile company in New York City.

Ernest Heymann, 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, Ancestry.com. U.S., World War II Draft Cards Young Men, 1940-1947

Ernest Heyman (he later dropped the second N) died when he was 74 in 1976.21 His wife Rosemarie Gruenbaum Heyman outlived him by almost thirty years. She died at the age of 91 on April 14, 2004. They were survived by their daughter and her family.

After surviving persecution in two concentration camps—at Riga and Stuffhof, Caecilie Gruenbaum Herzog arrived in New York on July 17, 1946. The manifest indicates that she was headed to 83-57 118th Street in Kew Gardens, Queens, New York, the same address listed on Ernest Heyman’s draft registration depicted above.  I have no records for Caecile between 1946 and when she died on December 13, 1990, at the age of 95 in New York.22

Year: 1946; Arrival: New York, New York, USA; Microfilm Serial: T715, 1897-1957; Line: 1; Page Number: 51, Ship or Roll Number: Marine Perch, Ancestry.com. New York, U.S., Arriving Passenger and Crew Lists (including Castle Garden and Ellis Island), 1820-1957

Caecile’s daughter Renata married Hermann Luedecke in London in the summer of 194423 and had one child with him in 1947.24 She later married Gunther Cahn in 1952,25 and they immigrated to Canada in 1955.26 Renata died in Toronto in 1995 Her husband Gunther died in 2012 in Canada.27

Felix Blumenfeld’s Children and Grandchildren

As for the children of Felix Blumenfeld, Felix’s son Edgar Blumenfeld and his wife Anna Hanau left Germany by 1935 and were living in Paris, France, when their son Gerard Blumenfeld was born on August 20, 1935. They later left for Cuba and finally immigrated to the US on October 13, 1942.

Gerhard Blumenfeld naturalization papers, National Archives at Chicago; Chicago, Illinois; ARC Title: Petitions for Naturalization, 1906-1991; Record Group Title: Records of District Courts of the United States, 1685-2009; Record Group Number: RG 21, Petitions, V· 1323-1325, No· 327901-328515, 1945, Ancestry.com. Illinois, U.S., Federal Naturalization Records, 1856-1991

They settled in Chicago and first changed their surname to Bloomfield and then to just Field. Edgar was a chemical engineer. Edgar died on June 23, 1954, in Chicago. He was only fifty years old.28 His wife Anna later remarried and died in 1997 when she was 91.29

Edgar’s brother Gerhard Blumenfeld was still in Germany when he married Lotte Hedwig Rosenthal on June 21, 1936, in Giessen.30 Lotte was born in Giessen on February 27, 1915; her parents were Max and Emma Rosenthal. By 1939 Gerhard (known as Gerd) and Lotte were living in London with Lotte’s parents and siblings. I wonder whether the two blacked out names under the names of Gerd and Lotte Blumenfeld on the 1939 England and Wales Register are the two children of Gerd’s cousin Caecilie Gruenbaum Herzog, Renata and Manfred.

The National Archives; Kew, London, England; 1939 Register; Reference: RG 101/244A
Ancestry.com. 1939 England and Wales Register

Gerd and Lotte came to the US on November 16, 194031 and settled in Chicago also. Gerd also changed his surname to Bloomfield (but not later to Field). He was an engineer like his brother Edgar and worked for Union Asbestos & Rubber Company.

Gerard Max Bloomfield, World War II draft registration, National Archives at St. Louis; St. Louis, Missouri; WWII Draft Registration Cards for Illinois, 10/16/1940-03/31/1947; Record Group: Records of the Selective Service System, 147; Box: 150, Ancestry.com. U.S., World War II Draft Cards Young Men, 1940-1947

Gerd and Lotte had two sons born in Chicago after the war. Like his brother Edgar, Gerd died in his fifties. He was fifty-three years old when he died on August 11, 1959,32 leaving behind his wife and young children. Like her sister-in-law Anna, Gerd’s wife Lotte remarried after Gerd’s early death. Lotte died on October 18, 2010, at the age of 95.33

Thus, although Thekla Blumenfeld Gruenbaum and Felix Blumenfeld,  Salomon Blumenfeld’s two children with his first wife, both were killed during the Holocaust, they have living descendants today to carry on their legacy.

Salomon Blumenfeld’s connection to his children Thekla and Felix may have been long ago broken after their mother Caecilie Erlanger died and he remarried and moved to Spain, but he has descendants today only through those children.

  1. Franz Grunbaum, 1940 US census, Year: 1940; Census Place: Springfield, Hampden, Massachusetts; Roll: m-t0627-01710; Page: 62A; Enumeration District: 22-129, Ancestry.com. 1940 United States Federal Census ↩
  2. Franz Moritz Grunbaum, ship manifest, Year: 1937; Arrival: New York, New York, USA; Microfilm Serial: T715, 1897-1957; Line: 1; Page Number: 16, Ship or Roll Number: Rex, Ancestry.com. New York, U.S., Arriving Passenger and Crew Lists (including Castle Garden and Ellis Island), 1820-1957 ↩
  3. Franz Moritz Grunbaum, Marriage Year: 1938, Marriage Place: Springfield, Massachusetts, USA, Index Volume Number: 119, Reference Number: F63.M36 v.119
    Ancestry.com. Massachusetts, U.S., Marriage Index, 1901-1955 and 1966-1970 ↩
  4. Marriage record of Maria Strasser and Richard Bachmann, Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv; Wiesbaden, Deutschland; Bestand: 910, Year Range: 1924, Ancestry.com. Hesse, Germany, Marriages, 1849-1930 ↩
  5. “Asks Dedham Court to Cancel Divorce,” The Boston Globe, 28 May 1937, p. 5. ↩
  6. Frank Gruen, Title: Springfield, Massachusetts, City Directory, 1959, Ancestry.com. U.S., City Directories, 1822-1995 ↩
  7. E.g., “German Again to be Taught,” Springfield Union, September 16, 1959, p. 27. ↩
  8.  Maria Gruen, Social Security Number: 017-20-3941, Birth Date: 21 Apr 1901
    Issue Year: Before 1951, Issue State: Massachusetts, Last Residence: 02138, Cambridge, Middlesex, Massachusetts, USA, Death Date: Jan 1980, Social Security Administration; Washington D.C., USA; Social Security Death Index, Master File,
    Ancestry.com. U.S., Social Security Death Index, 1935-2014 ↩
  9.  Frank Gruen, Social Security Number: 031-01-6909, Birth Date: 9 Apr 1899
    Issue Year: Before 1951, Issue State: Massachusetts, Last Residence: 02138, Cambridge, Middlesex, Massachusetts, USA, Death Date: Mar 1980, Social Security Administration; Washington D.C., USA; Social Security Death Index, Master File,
    Ancestry.com. U.S., Social Security Death Index, 1935-2014 ↩
  10. Curt Gruenbaum, 1940 US census, Year: 1940; Census Place: Cambridge, Middlesex, Massachusetts; Roll: m-t0627-01685; Page: 10A; Enumeration District: 16-82,  Ancestry.com. 1940 United States Federal Census ↩
  11. Gertrude and Heinz Gruenbaum, ship manifest, Year: 1939; Arrival: New York, New York, USA; Microfilm Serial: T715, 1897-1957; Line: 4; Page Number: 122, Ancestry.com. New York, U.S., Arriving Passenger and Crew Lists (including Castle Garden and Ellis Island), 1820-1957 ↩
  12. See note 10. ↩
  13. Henry Walter Grunbaum, Marriage Year: 1955, Marriage Place: Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, Index Volume Number: 159, Reference Number: F63.M36 v.159,
    Ancestry.com. Massachusetts, U.S., Marriage Index, 1901-1955 and 1966-1970 ↩
  14. Barbara Ann Gillespie, Birth Date: 1933, Birth Place: Boston, Massachusetts, USA, Volume Number: 35, Page Number: 201, Index Volume Number: 128
    Reference Number: F63.M362 v.128, Ancestry.com. Massachusetts, U.S., Birth Index, 1860-1970; Barbara G Grunbaum, Birth Date: 23 Dec 1933, Residence Date: 1993
    Address: 29 Huron Ave, Residence: Cambridge, MA, Postal Code: 02138-6705, Ancestry.com. U.S., Public Records Index, 1950-1993, Volume 1. ↩
  15. Gertrude B Grunbaum, Certificate: 034745, Death Place: Cambridge. Death Date: 7 Jul 1977, Birth Place: Other, Ancestry.com. Massachusetts, U.S., Death Index, 1970-2003 ↩
  16. Kurt W Grunbaum, Certificate: 017505, Death Place: Cambridge, Death Date: 6 Feb 1985, Birth Place: Other, Birth Date: 23 Mar 1897, Ancestry.com. Massachusetts, U.S., Death Index, 1970-2003 ↩
  17.  Henry W. Grunbaum, Social Security Number: 024-26-8623, Birth Date: 29 Jan 1932, Issue Year: 1951-1952, Issue State: Massachusetts, Last Residence: 02138, Cambridge, Middlesex, Massachusetts, Death Date: 22 Oct 2008, Social Security Administration; Washington D.C., USA; Social Security Death Index, Master File, Ancestry.com. U.S., Social Security Death Index, 1935-2014 ↩
  18.  The National Archives; Kew, London, England; 1939 Register; Reference: RG 101/950H, Enumeration District: BWCO, Ancestry.com. 1939 England and Wales Register ↩
  19. Ernest Heyman, Race: White, Age: 40, Birth Date: 24 Jan 1902, Birth Place: Brussels, Belgium, Registration Date: 15 Feb 1942, Registration Place: Kew Gardens, New York, New York. Employer: Goodman and Theise Inc., 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, Ancestry.com. U.S., World War II Draft Cards Young Men, 1940-1947 ↩
  20. Ernst Heymann and family, ship manifests, The National Archives; Kew, Surrey, England; BT27 Board of Trade: Commercial and Statistical Department and Successors: Outwards Passenger Lists; Reference Number: Series BT27-147363, Month: Nov, Ancestry.com. UK and Ireland, Outward Passenger Lists, 1890-1960; The National Archives at Washington, D.C.; Washington, D.C.; Series Title: Passenger Lists of Vessels Arriving at Boston, Massachusetts, 1891-1943; NAI Number: 4319742; Record Group Title: Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, 1787-2004; Record Group Number: 85; Series Number: T843; NARA Roll Number: 451, Month or Roll: 451, Ancestry.com. Massachusetts, U.S., Arriving Passenger and Crew Lists, 1820-1963 ↩
  21.  Ernest Heyman, Social Security Number: 100-12-9367, Birth Date: 24 Jan 1902
    Issue Year: Before 1951, Issue State: New York, Last Residence: 11375, Flushing, Queens, New York, USA, Death Date: Mar 1976, Social Security Administration; Washington D.C., USA; Social Security Death Index, Master File, Ancestry.com. U.S., Social Security Death Index, 1935-2014 ↩
  22. Ceci Herzog, Birth Date: 26 Apr 1895, Death Date: 13 Dec 1990, Claim Date: 3 Aug 1960, SSN: 110267687, Death Certificate Number: 169466, Ancestry.com. U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007 ↩
  23.  Renate Herzoz, Registration Quarter: Jul-Aug-Sep, Registration District: Hampstead, Inferred County: London, Spouse: Hermann K A Luedecke, Volume Number: 1a, Page Number: 1109, General Register Office; United Kingdom; Volume: 1a; Page: 1109, Ancestry.com. England & Wales, Civil Registration Marriage Index, 1916-2005 ↩
  24.  Carol A Luedioke [sic], Registration Quarter: Jul-Aug-Sep, Registration District: Hampstead, Inferred County: Greater London, Mother’s Maiden Name: Herzog, Volume Number: 5c, Page Number: 1526, General Register Office; United Kingdom; Reference: Volume 5c, Page 1526, Ancestry.com. England & Wales, Civil Registration Birth Index, 1916-2007 ↩
  25.  Guenther Cahn, Registration Quarter: Jan-Feb-Mar, Registration District: Hendon
    Inferred County: Middlesex, Spouse: Renate Luedecke Or Herzog, Volume Number: 5e
    Page Number: 1431, General Register Office; United Kingdom; Volume: 5e; Page: 1431, Ancestry.com. England & Wales, Civil Registration Marriage Index, 1916-2005 ↩
  26.  The National Archives; Kew, Surrey, England; BT27 Board of Trade: Commercial and Statistical Department and Successors: Outwards Passenger Lists; Reference Number: Series BT27-, Ancestry.com. UK and Ireland, Outward Passenger Lists, 1890-1960 ↩
  27. I could not locate any records or obituaries for the deaths of Renata and Gunther Cahn so am referring to their profiles on MyHeritage for this information. ↩
  28. “Illinois, Cook County Deaths, 1871-1998,” database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:Q2MH-PGMM : 17 March 2018), Edgar L Field, 23 Jun 1954; citing Lincolnwood, Cook, Illinois, United States, source reference , record number , Cook County Courthouse, Chicago; FHL microfilm. ↩
  29. Anne Bloomfield, [Anne Prower] [Anne Field] [Anne Hanau]Gender: Female
    Race: White, Birth Date: 27 Mar 1906, Birth Place: Schiffweiler, France, Death Date: 24 Dec 1997, Father: Victor Hanau Mother:Mina May, SSN: 361208715
    Notes: Jul 1943: Name listed as ANNE BLOOMFIELD; : Name listed as ANNE PROWER; : Name listed as ANNE H FIELD; 04 Feb 1998: Name listed as ANNE H PROWER, Ancestry.com. U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007 ↩
  30. Gerhard Max Bloomfield, petition for naturalization, National Archives at Chicago; Chicago, Illinois; ARC Title: Petitions for Naturalization, 1906-1991; Record Group Title: Records of District Courts of the United States, 1685-2009; Record Group Number: RG 21, Description: Petitions For Naturalization, V· 1291, No· 320051-320300, Ca· 1944-1946, Ancestry.com. Illinois, U.S., Federal Naturalization Records, 1856-1991 ↩
  31. Gerd and Lotte Blumenfeld, ship manifest, The National Archives at Washington, D.C.; Washington, D.C.; Series Title: Passenger Lists of Vessels Arriving at Boston, Massachusetts, 1891-1943; NAI Number: 4319742; Record Group Title: Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, 1787-2004; Record Group Number: 85; Series Number: T843; NARA Roll Number: 451, Ancestry.com. Massachusetts, U.S., Arriving Passenger and Crew Lists, 1820-1963 ↩
  32. Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/9198671/gerd-m-bloomfield : accessed 16 October 2021), memorial page for Gerd M Bloomfield (3 Mar 1906–11 Aug 1959), Find a Grave Memorial ID 9198671, citing Jewish Cemetery, Bloomington, McLean County, Illinois, USA ; Maintained by Robin Farley Dixson Coon (contributor 46558224) . ↩
  33. Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/137430315/lottie-rosenthal-klein : accessed 16 October 2021), memorial page for Lottie Rosenthal Bloomfield Klein (27 Feb 1915–18 Oct 2010), Find a Grave Memorial ID 137430315, citing Jewish Cemetery, Bloomington, McLean County, Illinois, USA ; Maintained by Gary Ayers (contributor 48159041) . ↩

Salomon Blumenfeld’s Children Thekla and Felix: Killed by the Nazis

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In April, 1933,  Salomon Blumenfeld’s two children from his first marriage, Thekla Blumenfeld Gruenbaum and Felix Blumenfeld, were both living in Kassel, Germany. All of their children and grandchildren were also still in Germany. With Hitler’s rise to power, some of the family members left Germany not long afterwards. But others were not so fortunate.

Thekla Blumenfeld Gruenbaum was murdered by the Nazis. She was first deported to Theriesenstadt on July 25, 1942.  Two months later on September 26, 1942, she was sent to the extermination camp at Treblinka where she was killed. She was seventy years old. She had lived a hard life—losing her mother when she was just a toddler, being left behind by her father a few years later, losing her husband, and then being killed at Treblinka.

Thekla’s daughter Caecilie and her husband Walter Herzog were living in Krefeld, Germany, before the war. I am still researching where and when, but the evidence indicates that the two children of Caecilie and Walter, Renata and Manfred, were sent to England before the war.1 Walter was a successful silk tie manufacturer and had deposited a fair amount of money in a Swiss banking account; that account was confiscated by the Nazis.2 In December 1941, both Walter and Caecile3 were deported to the concentration camp in Riga, Latvia. Walter was later transferred to Buchenwald where he was “declared dead” on May 8, 1945.

Caecile was sent from Riga to the Stutthof concentration camp.4 The Holocaust Encyclopedia provided this information about the Stutthof camp:5

Conditions in the camp were brutal. Many prisoners died in typhus epidemics that swept the camp in the winter of 1942 and again in 1944. Those whom the SS guards judged too weak or sick to work were gassed in the camp’s small gas chamber. Gassing with Zyklon B View This Term in the Glossary gas began in June 1944. Camp doctors also killed sick or injured prisoners in the infirmary with lethal injections. More than 60,000 people died in the camp.

The Germans used Stutthof prisoners as forced laborers. … In 1944, as forced labor by concentration camp prisoners became increasingly important in armaments production, a Focke-Wulff airplane factory was constructed at Stutthof. Eventually, the Stutthof camp system became a vast network of forced-labor camps….

The evacuation of prisoners from the Stutthof camp system in northern Poland began in January 1945. When the final evacuation began, there were nearly 50,000 prisoners, the overwhelming majority of them Jews, in the Stutthof camp system. About 5,000 prisoners from Stutthof subcamps were marched to the Baltic Sea coast, forced into the water, and machine gunned. The rest of the prisoners were marched in the direction of Lauenburg in eastern Germany. They were cut off by advancing Soviet forces. The Germans forced the surviving prisoners back to Stutthof. Marching in severe winter conditions and treated brutally by SS guards, thousands died during the march.

In late April 1945, the remaining prisoners were removed from Stutthof by sea, since Stutthof was completely encircled by Soviet forces. Again, hundreds of prisoners were forced into the sea and shot. … It has been estimated that over 25,000 prisoners, one in two, died during the evacuation from Stutthof and its subcamps. 

Soviet forces liberated Stutthof on May 9, 1945, and liberated about 100 prisoners who had managed to hide during the final evacuation of the camp.

How did Caecilie manage to survive this ordeal? Was she one of the hundred who were hiding in the camp during its final evacuation? Her odds for survival were overwhelmingly low, yet somehow she did. After time as a displaced person and with the help of HIAS (Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society), she was able to immigrate to the US in July 1946.

Arolesn Archives; Bad Arlosen, Germany, Resettlement Year: 1946, Ancestry.com. Free Acces Africa, Asia and Europe, Passenger Lists of Displaced Persons, 1946-1971

I was able to locate more information about Thekla’s brother Felix Blumenfeld through several sources, including a detailed and well-sourced biography online. Felix had studied medicine at both the University of Marburg and the University of Munich. He served as a ship’s doctor and later as doctor in a POW camp during World War I. As we saw, Felix lost his first wife Thekla Wertheim in 1917, and on February 16, 1920, in Nordhausen, Germany, he married his second wife Helene Petri, who was not Jewish. She was born on October 20, 1894, in Nordhausen, the daughter of Fritz Petri and Bertha Peter. Felix and Helene were living in Kassel, where Felix was a practicing pediatrician.

The detailed biography of Felix I found online describes in great detail all the contributions that Felix made as a doctor and citizen in Kassel.

Encouraged by the high infant mortality rate among children of poor parents, he began to use his position as a doctor and to get involved in society. At his suggestion, milk kitchens were built in which perfectly hygienic milk-grain mixtures were produced as baby food and sold using a deposit bottle system . The products were also given free of charge to the poor.

He also served as the medical director of the children and infant’s home/hospital in the city and also was involved in other charitable and civic organizations.

Despite his service in World War I and all these contributions he made as a doctor and citizen, Felix was persecuted by the Nazis. 

Just a few weeks after the National Socialists came to power on April 1, 1933, as a Jew, he was deprived of the management of the children’s hospital, he was banned from working and had to give up his apartment and practice…. His property and library were confiscated and owing to the fact that his wife Leni was not Jewish, he was initially allowed to live in his summer house a…. He was forced to do auxiliary and road construction work and had to collect rags and scrap at the municipal scrap yard . He was exposed to constant discrimination and surveillance by the Gestapo.

A second biography written for the occasion of the installation of Stolpersteine in Felix Blumenfeld’s honor in Kassel also reported this information and explained that Felix ultimately decided to end his own life in order to avoid deportation and also to protect his wife Helene.

Before killing himself on January 25, 1942, Felix wrote a long letter to his two sons in America, Edgar and Gerd, explaining why he had decided to take his own life. The first part of the letter details some of the abuse and persecution he had endured, and then he ends with these paragraphs, as translated by DeepL:

But enough of that ! Let’s get to the main thing ! Life is no longer bearable for me! All my hope, to which I had clung, was to get out of this hell and to be united with you in a near or distant time. I dare not count on that hope any longer. For with the years of war my years of life also increase. But the worst thing at the present moment is that out of sheer arbitrariness they have deprived me of all my property and referred me to my hands work or to public welfare. Subsequently, they also “expropriated the wife of the Jew”, although since 1939 there had been a legal separation of property, i.e. there was no legal basis for this. Leni was in Berlin and has the prospect of getting part of her property back if she gets a divorce. I want to agree to this divorce in order not to endanger Lenimutter’s livelihood again and again through my person. In that case, however, my life, which has been ruined through no fault of my own, has lost all the more meaning, especially since it is not known what else will be done to us.

Under these circumstances, death seems more desirable to me than an existence with ever new torments. I am therefore leaving this world of meanness, baseness and inhumanity in order to enter eternal peace and to seek the path that leads from darkness to light.

My last thoughts belong to my faithful comrade, on an often thorny path, and to you my beloved children, my Edgar, Gerd, Annchen, Lotte and Little Gerard ! You will be with me in the hour that demands strength and courage. Especially with you, my Gerd, I would have liked to hold a conversation, you dear, you good one! Stay as good as you have been so far, and be the one who makes sure that you always stay together faithfully. Then I am always in your midst and remain eternally connected with you. Without looking backwards, move forward and build a more beautiful life in a hopefully better world. May it be a comforting thought to you that your father is relieved of all fear, worry and pain after his departure. We remain united ! ! You will never forget me, I know that, because my love for you was, is and will be infinite.

V a t e r

*** Translated with http://www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version) ***

Like his sister Thekla, Felix Blumenfeld lost his mother as a baby, then his father, and then his first wife. Nevertheless, he grew up to be a devoted father and pediatrician who contributed greatly to his community. Although not technically murdered by the Nazis, Felix is also rightfully counted among those whose deaths were caused by Nazi persecution.

There was one more death in the family attributable to Nazi Germany. Thekla Blumenfeld Gruenbaum’s grandson, Caecilie and Walter Herzog’s son Manfred, was killed in action while fighting for the Allies in Europe sometime in the spring of 1945.

Thus, the Nazis killed both Thekla and Felix, the two children Salomon Blumenfeld had with his first wife Caecilie Erlanger, as well as Thekla’s son-in-law Walter Herzog; in addition, Thekla’s grandson Manfred Herzog died fighting the Nazis in World War II. I can’t help but think about how Felix and Thekla’s lives would have been different if their father Salomon had taken them with him when he moved to Spain.

They were survived by the rest of the family. Their stories will be told in the next post.

  1. To be discussed in the next post. ↩
  2. Special Master’s Final Report on the Holocaust Victim Assets Litigation (Swiss Banks Settlement), Case No. CV 96-4849 (ERK)(MDG) (Consolidated with CV 96-5161 and CV 97-461) United States District Court, Eastern District of New York, pp.28-30. ↩
  3. Cecilia Herzog [Cecilia Gruenbaum] Birth Date: 26 Apr 1900 Birth Place: Kassel
    Residence: Krefeld Camp: Riga/Stutthof Ancestry.com. Poland, German Jews at Stutthof Concentration Camp, 1940-1945; Entry at the US Holocaust Memorial and Museum at https://www.ushmm.org/online/hsv/person_view.php?PersonId=3187531 ↩
  4. See Note 3. ↩
  5. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. “Stutthof.” Holocaust Encyclopedia. https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/stutthof Accessed October 5, 2021. ↩