Tag Archives: Germany

Clara Rothschild Katz, Part III: Her Sons at War for America

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Once again proving how valuable immigrants have been to this country, Clara Rothschild Katz’s two sons, Otto and Helmut (Harold or Hal) both did outstanding service for their new country against their old country during World War II. These memories of their service during the war were collected by Otto’s daughter and Hal’s niece, Judy Katz, and she generously shared them with me. All of the details below came from Judy’s interviews with her father Otto in 2001 and 2016 and with her uncle Hal in 2019 or from my Zoom calls with Hal and his family this year.

Otto did basic training in Vancouver, Washington, and went overseas in January 1944. He was in training in England until June 1944. Otto told Judy in his 2016 interview that he was first stationed in Bournemouth, England, and then was sent to Plymouth, where they took landing craft to Normandy, landing there two or three days after D-Day (or June 8-9, 1944). Otto described walking through the water to get to the beach, holding onto a rope that extended from the landing craft to the beach and holding his weapon overhead. One soldier in the group took his pants off; the rest got their wool pants wet and were extremely uncomfortable until their pants dried. Then they walked fifteen miles from the beach where they were loaded onto trucks and taken into France towards the front with Germany where they dug foxholes to sleep in. During that summer the Allied troops made substantial progress in moving the German army east out of France and into Germany.

In his 2019 interview with Judy, Hal reported that his brother Otto was in the Quartermaster Corps in the Third Army in France and Germany, commanded by General George Patton. Otto was in a unit stationed near General Patton’s headquarters as the troops battled into France and thus was near the center of the army’s advance through France into Germany. According to several sources, the quartermaster corps was generally in charge of procuring and delivering supplies for the combat units, including food, clothing, fuel, ammunition, and general supplies. They also planned for transportation and handle other logistical matters. And they could often be in danger during combat, serving alongside their fellow soldiers in providing those goods and services to them.

Otto reported that he saw little fire as they moved through France. By the fall of 1944, they were stationed for several months about fifty miles from Metz, France, and by early January, 1945, his division had advanced into Metz, which is about fifty miles from the German border.

They were in Metz until the spring, and Otto reported that the captain of their unit was Jewish and allowed the Jewish soldiers to stay for Passover in Metz. By that time (March 28, 1945) the rest of the unit had begun moving into Germany. They were all reunited in early April in Eisenach, Germany, which was close to the Nazi camp in Buchenwald.1 Otto told Judy in 2001 that the Jewish captain of their unit sent the known antisemites in the unit to Buchenwald, now liberated, to see the results of Nazi persecution, and the soldiers who visited came back very upset by what they had seen. Unfortunately, that did not erase their underlying antisemitism, according to Otto.

Otto’s unit stayed in Eisenach for two weeks. When the war ended on May 8, 1945, he was then stationed near Nuremberg. He was camped in Furth, near Zirndorf, where he and Hal were reunited for a brief visit. This photograph was taken during that visit in July, 1945.

Otto and Hal Katz, July 1945, in Zirndorf, Germany. Courtesy of the family

Otto worked from March 1945 until August 1945 as a sewing machine operator, making snow suits and repairing army clothing. He was then transferred to Reims in France, and then Marseilles, where he waited to be sent to fight in the Pacific Theater. Fortunately, the war ended before he could be sent to the Pacific, and he was transferred to a suburb outside of Antwerp, where from August 1945 until November 1945, he was an inspector in a dry cleaning plant and was able to see Ruth and Jonas Tiefenbrunner. He returned home sometime after that and was discharged from the army on January 19, 1946.

Otto Katz at his sewing machine. Courtesy of the family

Here is a map showing Otto’s path from Normandy to Metz to Eisenach to Zirndorf to Reims to Marseilles and finally to Antwerp.

 

Meanwhile, Hal also was stationed overseas during the war. He provided Judy with many details about his training and his service during her interview with him in 2019. He was drafted in September 1943 and reported for duty in New York, bringing nothing with him except some underwear and toilet articles. He told Judy that he “wasn’t smart enough to be nervous.” He was not yet nineteen years old at the time.

He was taken by train to Fort Dix in New Jersey and then to Camp Landing in Jacksonville, Florida, for basic training where he learned how to march in formation and how to handle an M1 rifle. He claimed he was terrible at shooting because he couldn’t see the target (Hal wore and wears glasses). He became a low speed radio operator and rifleman. While in Florida he applied for and became a US citizen.

Here is Hal with his rifle:

Hal Katz during World War II. Courtesy of the family

From Florida he was sent to Newport News, Virginia, and after one night there he boarded a Liberty ship with five hundred other GIs. The ship was not built for passengers, and the bunks were stacked four to five high in the cargo hold. They sailed to Naples, Italy—a trip that took 28 days. They were sent to a “Repo Depot,” a replacement depot where the newly arrived soldiers were used to replace those who had been wounded, killed, or captured. He spent two to three weeks there, waiting for assignments and marking time. They lived in tents and slept on cots, ten people to a tent.

Hal became a radio operator in the 88th Division, 351st Regiment, Second Battalion, Company B, in the Fifth Army in Italy. By that time Italy had surrendered to the Allies and had joined them in the war against Germany. The Allies were at the time of Hal’s service trying to drive the Germans out of Italy. His division was assigned to areas in Italy between Naples and Rome, and it was mostly quiet for the sixteen months he was there. In the spring of 1945, his regiment would move forward a couple of miles a day, occasionally having contact with the Germany army, and “sometimes people were shot.”

It was during this time that Hal did something extraordinary for which he received a Bronze Medal, an experience he did not even discuss in his interview with Judy and was reluctant to discuss with me. I will transcribe the citation given when he received medal.

Bronze Star citation for Hal Katz

Headquarters 88th Infantry Division

United States Army

APO 88

SUBJECT: Award of Bronze Medal

To: Private First Class Harold Katz, 42043105, Company F, 351st Infantry Regiment

CITATION

Harold Katz, 42043105, Private First Class, Company F, 351st Infantry Regiment. For heroic achievement in action on April 19, 1945 in the vicinity of San Giacomo di Martignone Italy. When his platoon was fired on from a house three hundred yard to its front, Private KATZ volunteered to go forward dodging from cover to cover until he was within seventy-five yard of the house and within easy calling distance. Then stepping boldly out into the open Private KATZ shouted to the enemy in perfect German that their force was completely surrounded and further resistance would be suicide. His answer was a blast of machine pistol fire from an upper window. Private KATZ was entirely alone and the nearest friendly troops were three hundred yards from the house, he kept his nerve and negotiated the surrender of forty-six Germans through sheer bluff, telling them that if anything happened to him the house and all its occupants would be completely destroyed. This plucky action of Private KATZ removed a serious obstacle to the advance of his battalion and permitted the advance to continue with almost no delay. This action is typical of Private KATZ’s courageous conduct in battle, and he reflects the fine traditions of the Armed Forces. Entered military service from New York, New York.

J.C. FRY, Colonel, Infantry, Commanding

Imagine the scene. A house of Germans shooting at a company of American soldiers. Of the three hundred American GIs there, Hal Katz, all of 5’3 1/2” according to his draft registration, is the one to run up close to the house and yell, in German, that they were surrounded and had to surrender. And the Germans believed him and surrendered to him. I find it hard to imagine how he had the guts to do this.

Hal came home from Europe six months later in early September 1945 and was assigned to Fort Dix and then to Fort Wadsworth on Staten Island. He was able to sleep at home and report to duty at Fort Wadsworth during the day. He was finally discharged from the army on October 31, 1945. He had just turned 21.

As you can probably infer from these summaries of their interviews with Judy, both Otto and Hal spoke very modestly about their service during the war. Both of them played down the dangers they faced and the violence they must have seen. When I asked Hal on Zoom about his medal, he dismissed his heroic act as being just a stupid act by a very young man.

My cousins Otto Katz and Harold “Hal” Katz are two of the many men of the Greatest Generation who helped us defeat the Nazis: two young Jewish men, immigrants from Germany, who fought against Hitler and defended their new homeland here in the United States. We should all be eternally grateful to them.

Otto Katz and Hal Katz. Courtesy of the family

 

 

 

 

 

  1. Eisenach was heavily bombed by the Allies during World War II and was taken over by the Americans in April 1945 near the end of the war. It then was taken over by the Soviets and became part of East Germany. See website at https://www.germansights.com/eisenach/#:~:text=Eisenach%20was%20bombed%20heavily%20at,miles%20away%20from%20the%20town). ↩

Clara Rothschild Katz, Part I: Living in and Escaping from Germany

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Doing family history research is a labor of love. I have said that many times over the almost fifteen years that I’ve been engaged in this work. Being able to honor the memories of those I never knew but who are somehow related to me is a joy and a privilege. Connecting with and getting to know so many living “long-lost” cousins has given me great joy.

Researching the family of Clara Rothschild and Moritz Katz has led me to a really special opportunity for such joy—-the opportunity to talk to their son Hal Katz, my one-hundred-year-old fourth cousin, once removed. Imagine having lived through an entire century and seeing all the horrors and all the miracles since 1924—the Holocaust, World War II, the creation of the state of Israel, the Cold War, the social activism and unrest of the 1960s and the 1970s, the Vietnam War, all the civil rights movements, the election of the first African-American president, the COVID pandemic, and the introduction of so many scientific inventions good and bad—-the atomic bomb, television, cell phones, the internet, and now AI. It’s mind-boggling how much the world has changed in the last hundred years.

Hal Katz has lived through it all, starting as a small boy in Germany, living in a small town, escaping from Germany in 1938 shortly after his bar mitzvah, settling in New York City as a young teenager, fighting for the US in World War II, building a lifelong career with General Electric, marrying and having children, and now still living on his own, playing bridge, and talking to me on Zoom as if it were the most natural thing in the world. Over the course of three Zoom calls, I have been blessed to talk to Hal as well as his daughter, his nieces, his nephew, and another Rothschild cousin, all of whom are my cousins.

And so now as I turn to the story of the sixth of Gerson and Fanny’s children who lived to adulthood, their daughter Clara Rothschild, I feel so fortunate that I was able to hear her story and the stories of her family from her son Helmut Harold “Hal” Katz. Unless otherwise indicated, the information in this post came from Zoom calls or emails with Hal and members of the family or from interviews with Hal or Hal’s brother Otto done by Otto’s daughter Judy, Hal’s niece.1

As we saw, Clara Rothschild was born on July 15, 1891, in Waltersbrueck, Germany.  According to Hal, this photograph of Clara was probably taken when she was nineteen and working as an apprentice bookkeeper in a dry goods store.

Clara Rothschild c. 1910
Courtesy of the family

On November 1, 1921, she married Moritz Katz, who was born in Neuenhain, Germany, on November 4, 1894. Here is a photograph of Moritz taken in 1912 when he was eighteen, a photograph of Clara in the 1920s, and an undated one of Clara and Moritz taken years later.

Moritz Katz in 1912. Courtesy of the family.

Clara Rothschild in the 1920s. Courtesy of the family.

Clara Rothschild and Moritz Katz undated
Courtesy of the family

Clara and Moritz had three children, Otto, born in 1922, Helmut (Hal) born in 1924, and Ilse, born in 1928. Hal told me that until he was six years old, he and his family lived with his paternal grandmother, Caroline Rosenblatt Katz, in Neuenhain. His paternal grandfather Jacob Katz had died many years before in 1899. Neuenhain was a very small village, about two hundred people. Hal’s parents and grandmother ran a grocery business out of their home selling produce grown on their farm. This is a photograph of Hal’s paternal grandmother Caroline in 1930 in Neuenhain.

Caroline Katz 1930. Courtesy of the family

Hal said that they were the only Jewish family in the village, and he never understood how his father had become so knowledgeable about Judaism and Hebrew since there was no Hebrew school in Neuenhain. The closest synagogue was within walking distance, but it was a challenge finding the ten men to make a minyan. His father was able to lead services and even acted as the kosher butcher on the side.

Here is a beautiful photograph of Hal with his older brother Otto taken when they lived in Neuenhain. Hal looks no more than two years old, so this photograph was probably taken in about 1925-1926.

Otto and Helmut Katz, c. 1925-1926. Courtesy of the family

I asked Hal what he remembered about his maternal grandfather Gerson Rothschild, and he told me that he was in the coal business. He also said that the first funeral he ever went to was Gerson’s funeral in 1930 when Hal would have been six years old.

When Hal was six, the family moved to a larger town, Borken, which was about six miles from Neuenhain and had a population of about two thousand people and more of a Jewish community than Neuenhain. There his father Moritz had a business selling the raw materials needed to make clothing. Hal compared it to being a peddler. From the way Hal spoke, it sounds like those early years of his life were happy and secure. He had many cousins from his Rothschild side—-all the children of his mother’s siblings—who were living in other towns in the Hessen region. He also had many relatives from his Katz side.

This is a photograph of the three Katz siblings taken in Borken in 1934. It was probably Ilse’s first day of school since she is holding a cone filled with candy traditionally given to children in Germany on their first day of school.

Otto, Ilse, and Hal Katz 1934 in Borken. Courtesy of the family

Of course, everything changed after Hitler came to power. In an interview Judy did with her father Otto, he reported that once the Nazis came to power, the children had to change schools as they were no longer allowed to go to school with Christians, so they went to a Jewish school. In addition, the family was forced to sell their land and their business and lived on the money from those sales until that money ran out.

In 1937 when he was fifteen, Otto left school and was doing an apprenticeship in a retail clothing store in Wolfhagen, a town about 40 miles north of Borken. Apparently this was a common practice—-to send a teenage boy to live with another Jewish family and learn a trade. In an interview with his daughter Judy,  Otto said that the store had so little business that he spent his days gardening. One day Otto was riding his bike in Wolfhagen and a group of Hitler Youths tried to take his bike from him; Otto hit them with the bike pump and escaped. When Otto told the man with whom he was apprenticing what had happened, that man contacted Moritz.

Moritz went to Wolfhagen and took Otto to Kassel to stay with relatives for six months. Fortunately, Moritz had had the foresight to see what was happening with the Nazis, and this gave him the extra incentive to work on getting them out of the country. He was able to get the necessary papers to leave Germany with the help of the Hebrew Immigration Aid Society and a sponsor named Albert Decker. First, Moritz left with Otto and went to Hamburg where the two of them were able to board a ship and travel to America. Leaving Clara, Hal, and Ilse behind was very difficult because none of them knew when they would see each other again.

Hal believes this family photograph was taken not too long before Moritz and Otto left Borken for the US.

Katz family in Borken, maybe 1936. Courtesy of the family

Moritz and Otto arrived in New York on August 27, 1937.2

Fortunately, Clara was able to leave with Hal and Ilse eight months later, just a few months after Hal celebrated his bar mitzvah in Borken without his father or brother. In an interview Judy did with Hal in 2023, Hal told her that Clara and the children were living with a family from Borken, the Blums, until April 8,1938 when they left to go to the US. First, they took a train to Antwerp, where they stayed with the Tiefenbrunners at the orphanage they were running. (See earlier blog post here.) Then they boarded a freighter, a slower moving form of transport that was crowded with mostly Jewish people escaping Hitler. This photograph was taken before they boarded the ship to leave Germany on April 11, 1938.

Clara, Ilse, and Hal (on the right side of the photo) on the day they left Germany for the US in 1938. Courtesy of the family

They arrived in New York after an uncomfortable eleven day journey on April 21, 1938.3

Thanks to Moritz’s foresight, he and Clara and their children were now safely out of Germany, and they were the first ones in the extended Rothschild family to get out—-before Siegmund and before Max, Clara’s brothers.

And as we have already seen, most of the rest of the family did not escape in time. Hal said that his parents did all they could to get other family members out, but unfortunately as we have seen and as we will see, those efforts did not succeed. Hal said that they eventually lost contact with those still in Germany. When I asked why those who remained—-e.g., Clara’s sisters Katchen, Auguste, Jenny, Rosa and Amalie—-hadn’t also tried to get out of Europe when Moritz and Clara did, Hal said he thought they all just believed it would all blow over and that they would be safe.

But Clara, Moritz, Otto, Hal, and Ilse were now in New York, starting over in a new country.

More on that to come in my next post.

  1. Zoom calls with Hal Katz and family, May and June 2025. Interviews with Hal and Otto over the years by Judy Katz. ↩
  2. Moritz Katz, ship manifest, Departure Port Hamburg, Germany, Arrival Date 27 Aug 1937, Arrival Port New York, New York, USA, Ship Name Hansa  The National Archives in Washington, DC; Washington, DC, USA; Passenger and Crew Lists of Vessels Arriving at New York, New York, 1897-1957; Microfilm Serial or NAID: T715; RG Title: Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, 1787-2004; RG: 85, Ancestry.com. New York, U.S., Arriving Passenger and Crew Lists (including Castle Garden and Ellis Island), 1820-1957 ↩
  3. Clara Katz ship manifest, Place of Origin Germany, Departure Port Antwerp, Belgium, Arrival Date 21 Apr 1938, Arrival Port New York, New York, USA
    Ship Name Gerolstein, The National Archives in Washington, DC; Washington, DC, USA; Passenger and Crew Lists of Vessels Arriving at New York, New York, 1897-1957; Microfilm Serial or NAID: T715; RG Title: Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, 1787-2004; RG: 85, Ancestry.com. New York, U.S., Arriving Passenger and Crew Lists (including Castle Garden and Ellis Island), 1820-1957 ↩

Jeanette “Jenny” Rothschild Abraham: An Entire Family Murdered

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Turning now to Jeanette or Jenny Rothschild, the fifth of the eight Rothschild children who survived to adulthood, we saw that she married Salomon Abraham on November 11, 1920, and that they had two children: Walter, born in 1921, and Herta, born in 1928.

This photograph is possibly of Jenny and Salomon:

Maybe Jenny Rothschild Abraham
Courtesy of the family

Unfortunately, Jenny and her family suffered a fate like those of her older sisters Katchen and Auguste and not like those of her older brothers Siegmund and Max, both of whom survived the Holocaust. Jenny, Salomon, Walter, and Herta were all murdered in the Holocaust.

This document from the census taken in 1938-1939 by the Nazis of any household where a resident had at least one Jewish grandparent shows us that Jenny and Salomon and their children were living in Kassel at that time. It also shows that none of them had finished high school or vocational school and that all of them had four Jewish grandparents.

Salomon Abraham and family, RG-14.013M.0216.00000011, German minority census of 1939, United States Holocaust Museum and Memorial, also summarized at MyHeritage at   https://www.myheritage.com/research/record-10901-14585/herta-greta-abraham-in-german-minority-census?fbclid=IwY2xjawJyNahleHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHjMpngFoUVAHvZ8hfTE5lCsMwdc-9bHAeMU5opyaipBCxYmQYX8bXBPReDTp_aem_DvzcPxQysQHhqKjX3STcgw

Another document created by the International Tracing Service reveals that in 1939-1940, Salomon Abraham was working in Kassel for the Georg Sauer railway, road, and underground construction company.1

Yad Vashem files and the Gedenkbuch report that on December 9, 1941, Salomon, Jenny, and their thirteen-year-old daughter Herta were deported along with over a thousand other Jews from Kassel and surrounding towns and sent to the Jewish ghetto established by the Nazis in Riga, Latvia. According to an article about the transport on Yad Vashem, “The deportees were told to bring a sum of 50 Reichmarks, a suitcase, a set of clothes, suitable shoes, bedding, tableware, and food supplies for a few days. They were also required to produce an inventory of all their properties. In the Kassel district, the Jews received notification that all furniture was to be carefully packed and placed in one room of the apartment. Household valuables were to be deposited in a closet together with a list of contents.”

The train took three days to get to Riga, arriving on December 12, 1941; according to one account by a survivor as quoted in the same Yad Vashem article, “The temperature was 40 degrees below freezing. Most of the luggage was left at the train station and we never saw it again. We had to walk to the ghetto while a terrible snow storm was blowing.”

Unfortunately, I do not have any specific information about what happened to Salomon or Jenny after arriving in Riga, except I know that they did not survive. Readers may recall that Jenny’s sisters Auguste and Katchen as well as Katchen’s husband Adolf Hirschberg and their son Ludwig Hirschberg were also deported to Riga on December 9, 1941, and that none of them survived the Holocaust either. According to the Yad Vashem article, “little is known about the further fate of the deportees from Kassel in the Riga ghetto. More than 900 Jews were shot in several “Aktionen” in the Bikerniki forest. Others were transported to Auschwitz-Birkenau or to Stutthof concentration camp for forced labour. According to the historian Monica Kingreen only 137 Jews from this transport survived.”

Records show that little Herta was one of those transported to the Stutthof concentration camp. The report from the ITS on Herta Abraham states that she was sent to Stutthof on October 1, 1944.2  I do not know what happened to Herta after that, but she also did not survive the Holocaust.

As for Walter Abraham, he had moved to Berlin sometime after the 1939 Minority Census was taken and was working as a baker. One document seems to suggest he had left Kassel on April 28, 1940. Unfortunately Walter’s move to Berlin did not save his life. On December 7, 1943, he was deported from Berlin to Auschwitz. I don’t know when exactly Walter was killed there, but like his mother, father, and sister, he was murdered by the Nazis.3

There thus are no descendants of Jenny Rothschild Abraham. Her entire family was wiped out by the Nazis.

 

 

 

  1. Tracing and documentation case no. 416.705 for ABRAHAM, SALOMON born 14.08.1898, Reference Code 06030302.0.382.916, 6 Records of the ITS and its predecessors / 6.3 Inquiry processing / 6.3.3 ITS case files as of 1947 / 6.3.3.2 Repository of T/D cases / Tracing and documentation cases with (T/D) numbers between 250.000 and 499.999 / Tracing and documentation cases with (T/D) numbers between 416.500 and 416.999 ITS Digital Archive, Arolsen Archives ↩
  2. See Note 1, supra. ↩
  3. Welle 61 – 47. Osttransport in das KL Auschwitz, 07.12.1943, 1 Inhaftierungsdokumente / 1.2 Verschiedenes / 1.2.1 Deportationen und Transporte / 1.2.1.1 Deportationen / Deportationen aus dem Gestapobereich Berlin /  Signatur 15510056b, Entstehungszeitraum. 1943-12-07 – 1943-12-10, Anzahl Dokumente 4, ITS Digital Archive, Arolsen Archive ↩

Katchen Rothschild Hirschberg: A Family Destroyed

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The second oldest child of Gerson Rothschild and Fanny Kugelmann was their daughter Katchen, born in 1885 in Waltersbrueck. As we saw, she married Adolf Hirschberg in 1914, and they had one child, a son Ludwig born in 1920. According to their marriage record, Adolf was a merchant and a butcher. They were living in Kassel, Germany, when Ludwig was born in 1920. Unfortunately, I do not know much more about their lives before the Nazi era. But I know that all three were persecuted and killed during the Holocaust. But the records of where and how they died are in conflict.

Katchen Rothschild and Adolf Hirschberg marriage record, Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv; Wiesbaden, Deutschland; Bestand: 920; Laufende Nummer: 9576, Year Range: 1914, Ancestry.com. Hesse, Germany, Marriages, 1849-1930

First, there are records at the Arolsen Archives showing that both Adolf and Ludwig were incarcerated at Buchenwald for some period of time after Kristallnacht in 1938.

Then, according to entries in the Gedenbuch (“Victims of the Persecution of Jews under the National Socialist Tyranny in Germany 1933 – 1945″ prepared by the German Federal Archives) as recorded at Yad Vashem, Katchen, Adolf, and Ludwig Hirschberg were all deported from Kassel on December 9, 1941, to the Riga ghetto in Latvia. As best I can determine from records at Yad Vashem, Katchen died in the Riga ghetto, but no date was given. For Adolf, the Gedenbuch reported that he died there on August 24, 1943.

Pages of Testimony were filed at Yad Vashem for Katchen, Adolf, and Ludwig by Katchen’s sister-in-law, Elise Block Rothschild, the wife of Siegmund Rothschild, one of the few siblings to survive the Holocaust. Elise filed many Pages of Testimony for the family members murdered by the Nazis, as we will see. Her Pages of Testimony for Katchen and Adolf state that they died at the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, but after searching the Arolsen Archives lists of those killed at Bergen-Belsen, I was unable to find either Adolf or Katchen’s name, so I do not know how accurate Elise’s information was. Did they die in Riga, or were they at some point transferred to Bergen-Belsen and killed there? I don’t know.

Adolf Hirschberg Page of Testimony filed at Yad Vashem, found at https://collections.yadvashem.org/en/names/14982438

Katchen Rothschild Hirschberg Page of Testimony filed at Yad Vashem, found at https://collections.yadvashem.org/en/names/645337

As for Ludwig, there is also conflicting information. The Gedenbuch summary at Yad Vashem reports that Ludwig was killed at the Natzweiler-Struthof concentration camp in France on December 24, 1944. A record in the Arolsen Archives also indicates that he died at Natzweiler-Struthof on that date, and there is also a record on Ancestry that seems to confirm that Ludwig was imprisoned at Natzweiler-Struthof during the Holocaust.1 Both records indicate that Ludwig was transferred to Natzweiler-Struthof from the camp in Dautmergen, a town in southwest Germany about 100 miles from Natzweiler-Struthof in France.

Ludwig Hirschberg record at Arolsen Archives, 2 Registration of Foreigners and German Persecutees by Public Institutions, Social Securities and Companies (1939 – 1947) / 2.3 Post-war Evaluations of Various Organizations / 2.3.3 Haut-Commissariat de la République Française en Allemagne / 2.3.3.1 Card file of persecutees in the later French zone and of French persecutees in other areas / Documents without (captured) names and names from A; further sub-structure available /, Reference Code
02030301001.474

But other records on JewishGen and Ancestry2 indicate that Ludwig was at the Stutthof concentration camp in Poland. Those records, however, are confusing because they say “Riga/Stutthof/Natzweiler.” Did they mean Stutthof, or did they mean Struthof/Natzweiler?

But this card from the Arolsen Archives is clearly marked only Stutthof and indicates that Ludwig Hirschberg was incarcerated there.

Ludwig Hirschberg at Stutthof, 1 Incarceration Documents / 1.1 Camps and Ghettos / 1.1.41 Stutthof Concentration Camp / 1.1.41.2 Individual Documents Stutthof / Personal Files – Stutthof Concentration Camp / Files with names from HERZ , Reference Code
01014102 047.243found at https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/en/document/4493200

Could he have been at both camps? Or is one of these records incorrect? After all Struthof and Stutthof could be easily confused. The Page of Testimony filed by Elise Block Rothschild does not resolve this confusion because it only reported that his place of death was unknown.

Ludiwg Hirschberg page of testimony at Yad Vashem, found at https://collections.yadvashem.org/en/names/622945

Only to add to the confusion, the Projekt Judische Leben Frankfurt states that Ludwig was one of the passengers on the St. Louis, the ship that was turned back in 1939 after being refused entry by both Cuba and the United States, and that he was later killed at Auschwitz. I searched the list of St. Louis passengers on file at the US Holocaust Museum and Memorial, however, and did not find Ludwig Hirschberg on that list. Nor does any record at Yad Vashem or on JewishGen or on Ancestry indicate that Ludwig was murdered at Auschwitz.

One might conclude that Ludwig was at Natzweiler-Struthof based on the larger number of records so indicating, but how did he get there from the Riga ghetto? They are more than 1200 miles apart. Not that Riga is close to Stutthof either (469 miles), but still much closer. Also, the JewishGen database devoted to Stutthof includes a description that states, “The Stutthof camp was originally not designed to hold Jews, but, beginning in 1944, substantial numbers (30,000-50,000) of Jews were sent there, primarily from Kovno, Rīga and Auschwitz.” So it would make sense that Ludwig would have been sent from Riga to Stutthof, not to Natzweiler-Struthof.

Unless Ludwig was in fact on the St Louis? Since many of those passengers did end up in France after being turned back by the US and Cuba, that might explain how Ludwig ended up in Natzweiler-Struthof. But if he was on the St Louis in 1939 and then sent to France, how could he have been deported to Riga from Kassel with his parents in 1941? Something didn’t add up.

I was very fortunate to speak with Ludwig’s first cousin Hal Katz on May 8, 2025, and he confirmed that Ludwig was not on the St. Louis. That makes it even less likely that Ludwig ended up in France and thus in Natzweiler-Struthof. My best guess at this point is that Ludwig was sent to Stuffhof along with other prisoners from Riga. My hunch, totally speculative, is that somewhere someone mixed up Struthof and Stutthof and wrote the wrong name on one of Ludwig’s records.

Sadly, in the end, these details do not change the ultimate outcome. Katchen, Adolf, and Ludwig Hirschberg were all murdered by the Nazis during the Holocaust. One family story shared with me in my conversation with Hal Katz and his daughter Sandy and niece Judy is that Ludwig survived in the camp and was shot in cold blood by a guard on the day the camp was to be liberated.

May the names and memories of Katchen, Adolf, and Ludwig be preserved forever.

 

 

  1. Name Ludwig Hirschberg, Nationality German Jew, Birth Date 1 Feb 1920
    Transfer Place In Dautmergen, Death Date 24 Dec 1944, Prisoner Number 34908
    Microfilm/Roll/Section A3355/2/4, Alphabetical/Roll/Section A3355/76/GOE-HUA
    Record Number 24120, Irvin Horn, comp. France, Natzweiler-Struthof Concentration Camp Record Book, 1940-1945 ↩
  2. Ludwig Hirschberg, Birth Date 1 Feb 1920, Birth Place Kassel, Residence Kassel, Camp Riga/Stutthof/Natzweiler, Ancestry.com. Poland, German Jews at Stutthof Concentration Camp, 1940-1945. See also the same information at JewishGen found at https://www.jewishgen.org/databases/jgdetail_2.php ↩

Siegmund Rothschild: Escape from Nazi Germany

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It’s been a few weeks since I wrote about the family of Gelle Blumenfeld Rothschild, given the breaks for some updates, Passover, and our trip to England. Today I return to Gelle’s story, specifically the story of her son Gerson Rothschild. In my last post about Gerson, we saw he died in 1930 and was survived by his wife Fanny Kugelmann and eight children.

In my next series of posts, I will write about the eight surviving children of my cousin Gerson Rothschild and his wife Fanny Kugelmann. Only three of those children survived the Holocaust, making this task a very painful one. But I can start with one of those three who survived, the oldest child of Gerson and Fanny, their son Siegmund.

As we saw, Siegmund married Elise Olga Block on December 22, 1919, in Frankfurt, and they had two sons, Ernst, born March 1, 1922, and Werner, born January 12, 1928, both in Frankfurt. There is a wonderful resource about this family on the Projekt Judische Leben Frankfurt am Main website. Based in part on information obtained during a visit to Frankfurt by Werner Rothschild in 2019, the website details the family’s life before, during, and after the Nazi era. Much of the information in this post came from that website.

According to that website, Siegmund Rothschild moved to Frankfurt in 1911 and was known as “a valued historian with good contacts abroad and president of the liberal main synagogue in Frankfurt.”  He taught at Philanthropin, a free Reform Jewish school founded in 1804 in Frankfurt. An article from the Encyclopedia of Jewish History and Culture abstracted here states that the school was “one of the most significant German Jewish Reform projects in the first half of the 19th century.” Siegmund’s wife Elise also taught at Philanthropin on and off between 1913 and 1939.

UPDATE: I learned from Siegmund’s grandson Alex that Siegmund fought for Germany during World War I. Here is a photo of him from that time.

Siegmund Rothschild c. 1915
Courtesy of the family

Siegmund and his family were living a good life in Frankfurt, identifying more as German than Jewish, until Hitler came to power in 1933. Siegmund’s son Werner recalled that one friend joined Hitler Youth and stopped talking to him. Another time while visiting family in Borken, he and his cousins were tormented by Hitler Youth.

Here is the family in January 1938:

Siegmund, Werner, Ernst, and Elise (Bloch) Rothschild, January 1938.

As for Ernst, the older son, according to the Projekt Judische Leben Frankfurt website, he had always dreamed of being a dentist, but under Nazi persecution he was not allowed to pursue the studies to reach that goal. Instead he ended up working as an apprentice in a leather dressing business after leaving school in 1937. But when that business was Aryanized in 1938, Ernst lost his job.

The family’s situation became even more dire in November 1938 with Kristallnacht.  As reported on the Projekt Judische Leben website, “For Werner… the worst day of his young life was the so-called “Reichskristallnacht.” He saw furniture fly out of the windows and buildings burn. Immediately afterwards, his father was picked up by the Gestapo. They gave [Siegmund] ten minutes to pack his things, then they deported him to Buchenwald. Fortunately, [Ernst] was not at home or he would have been arrested too.” Elise did everything she could to get Siegmund released; he was released in December 1938 with orders to leave Germany quickly.

The Projekt Judische Leben Frankfurt website continued, “Siegmund was a broken man when he came home and it took weeks and intensive care from his wife before he regained his strength. As soon as his health permitted, he traveled to England with his son Ernst, with ten Marks in his pocket. More was not allowed per person. The only contact there was with two of Elise’s brothers who had emigrated from Ratibor in 1935 and opened a dental practice in London.”

Meanwhile, Elise and Werner remained in Frankfurt until Elise arranged in 1939 for Werner to leave Germany as part of the Kindertransport program. Werner took the train alone to Hamburg and was forced to strip naked so that the Gestapo could check to be sure he wasn’t taking anything prohibited with him. In Hamburg he took a ship to England, where he  was placed in a youth hostel.1

Once Elise also was able to escape to England, the family was reunited in London and Werner was able to attend school.   The 1939 England & Wales Register shows Siegmund and Elise living in London.2 But after the war started against Germany in September 1939, Ernst was interned as an enemy alien; Siegmund and Elise, however, were exempted from internship. Werner was just a child.

Siegmund Rothschild, The National Archives; Kew, London, England; HO 396 WW2 Internees (Aliens) Index Cards 1939-1947; Reference Number: HO 396/238, Piece Number Description: 238: Dead Index (Wives of Germans Etc) 1941-1947: Rosenber-Schitz, Ancestry.com. UK, World War II Alien Internees, 1939-1945

Elise Rothschild, The National Archives; Kew, London, England; HO 396 WW2 Internees (Aliens) Index Cards 1939-1947; Reference Number: HO 396/238, Piece Number Description: 238: Dead Index (Wives of Germans Etc) 1941-1947: Rosenber-Schitz, Ancestry.com. UK, World War II Alien Internees, 1939-1945

Ernst Rothschild, The National Archives; Kew, London, England; HO 396 WW2 Internees (Aliens) Index Cards 1939-1947; Reference Number: HO 396/193, Ancestry.com. UK, World War II Alien Internees, 1939-1945

Ernst was eventually released, and the family was finally able to immigrate to the United States in the summer of 1940, as we will see. Then they had to start their lives all over again. More on their life in the US in the next post.

  1. Werner Rothschild, Gender Male, Record Type Refugee List, Birth Date 12 Jan 1928, Residence Place Frankfurt, Document Date 22 Mär 1939 (22 Mar 1939)
    Permit Number 3813, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum; Washington, D.C.; Series: Selected Records Relating to Kindertransports; Record Group: RG-59.075; File Number: mh55-704.00000088, Ancestry.com. UK, Selected Records Relating to Kindertransport, 1938-1939 (USHMM) ↩
  2. Siegmund Rothschild, The National Archives; Kew, London, England; 1939 Register; Reference: RG 101/244E, Description Enumeration District: Akde, Ancestry.com. 1939 England and Wales Register ↩

Two Updates: Why Didn’t Mathilde Rothschild Leave Germany With Her Family? And How did Albert Alexander Meet His Wife?

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Before I continue the stories of the children of Gerson Rothschild and Fanny Kugelmann, I have three updates to earlier posts that I’d like to share. All three are possible because other researchers and family members found this blog and contacted me. These are true gifts from the genealogy village. I am so grateful.

Some of you may recall that back in May 2024, I wrote about my relative Hirsch “Harry” Rothschild and his three children, all of whom escaped from Nazi Germany to the United States before World War II started. But unfortunately Harry’s wife Mathilde did not escape with her family and was ultimately murdered by the Nazis.

In my blog post about this family I wondered why Mathilde had not come with Harry and her children when they left Germany. Was she ill, I speculated? I had no answers.

Now I have more information about the family of Harry Rothschild. A man named Fredo Behrens recently contacted me after seeing my blog post. He lives in Oldenburg, Germany, and as he told me in his email, he worked for the “Nordwestdeutsches Museum für Industriekultur” in Delmenhorst for several years 25 years ago, where his area of responsibility was museum education, exhibitions and a regional “Topography of the Nazi Era.” He also is on the board of the “Friends and Supporters of the Jewish Community of Delmenhorst,” and heads the Delmenhorst City History Working Group. More specifically, he has done research into the history of the Jewish people of Delmenhorst, including the Rothschild family.1

Fredo told me about a monograph by Dr. Enno Meyer from 1985 entitled “Die Geschichte der Delmenhorster Juden 1695-1945”, or the History of the Jews of Delmenhorst 1695-1945. Dr. Meyer was the head of “Gesellschaft für christlich-jüdische Zusammenarbeit” (Society for Christian-Jewish Cooperation) for at least 30 years, according to Fredo. Fredo sent me both a copy of Dr. Meyer’s monograph (in German) and also a copy of an article that Fredo himself wrote about the Jews of Delmenhorst that excerpts parts of Meyer’s monograph and adds to it.2 I was able to use DeepL to translate Fredo’s work and learn more about the Rothschild family’s life in Delmenhorst.

According to the works of Meyer and Behrens, Dr. Harry Rothschild came to Delmenhorst from Hesse in 1914 and was the first Jewish doctor to practice in that town. By 1925, he was one of the top two taxpayers in the town. Harry was not active in the organized Jewish community, however, until after the Nazis came to power.3 According to Fredo’s research, the growing antisemitism in the early 1930s prompted Harry to become more involved. By 1933 he was chairman of the local Zionist organization and on the Jewish community board.

When the Nuremberg Laws were adopted and Jews were no longer allowed to employ Aryans, Harry and his Aryan cleaning woman petitioned the mayor for permission to continue their employment relationship, but their petition was rejected.4

Fredo kindly shared with me this photograph showing the street where the Rothschild family lived in Delmenhorst in 1930. The arrow points to where Harry Rothschild practiced medicine and lived before he left Germany in 1939.

Rothschild house and office in Delmenhorst, 1930, courtesy of Fredo Behrens: Jüdisches Leben in der Langen Straße nach 1933. In: Die Lange Straße in Delmenhorst : Biographie einer alten Straße ; Begleitveröffentlichung zur Ausstellung in den Museen der Stadt Delmenhorst auf der Nordwolle vom 24.6. – 2.9.2001. Hg. vom Stadtmuseum Delmenhorst. Isensee, Oldenburg 2001, p. 60

Then on October 10, 1937, Harry and a number of other Jewish residents of Delmenhorst were arrested by the Gestapo without warning or warrants. According to the observations of a fellow prisoner who became Harry’s cellmate, Harry was particularly humiliated by this experience and was called a “dirty stinking Jew” by one of the Gestapo agents. Harry and his cellmate were in solitary confinement, and Harry remained in prison until the spring of 1938. Harry’s condition had deteriorated greatly during his imprisonment.5

On November 10, 1938 in the aftermath of Kristallnacht, Harry was again arrested and was one of fourteen Jewish men who were arrested and sent to the concentration camp at Sachsenhausen.6

By that time all three of Harry and Mathilde’s children had left Germany for the United States. Harry left in the spring of 1939 and went to Cuba, and he was finally able to join his children in the US in December 1939.

But as we know, Mathilde did not come with him, and she was eventually deported to Minsk and died there. Dr. Meyer shed some light on this in his monograph, also quoted in Fredo Behren’s work. On page 85 of his history of the Delmenhorst Jews, Enno Meyer wrote that Mathilde had stayed behind to try and sell the family house; then when the war started in September 1939, she was trapped in Germany and could not leave.7

If only Mathilde had left with Harry and had not tried to sell the family’s home, this family’s story would have had a much happier ending. There may be more to this story that we will never know, but if this account is accurate, it shows how one decision affected an entire family’s fate during the Holocaust.

I want to thank Fredo Behrens again for providing me with the information and the photograph used in this post and for the work he does to preserve the Jewish history of Delmenhorst.

The second update came from two newly found cousins—my fifth cousin Charles Alexander and his daughter Kate. They also found me through my blog. Charles is the grandson of Theresa Rothschild Alexander, and I wrote about that family here. Check out the update there and learn how Charles’ parents, Albert Alexander and Mary Jane Deiches, actually met. My original speculation proved to be incorrect.

Also, I’ve added to that post a photo Charles gave me from his father’s yearbook. I am also adding it here since I could not place it properly in the original post.

Finally, the third update will have to wait until next week.

  1. Email from Fredo Behrens, March 25, 2025. ↩
  2. Fredo Behrens, “Jüdisches Leben in der Langen Straße nach 1933. In: Die Lange Straße in Delmenhorst : Biographie einer alten Straße; Begleitveröffentlichung zur Ausstellung in den Museen der Stadt Delmenhorst auf der Nordwolle vom 24.6. – 2.9.2001. Hg. vom Stadtmuseum Delmenhorst. Isensee, Oldenburg 2001. ↩
  3. Enno Meyer, “Die Geschichte der Delmenhorster Juden 1695-1945,” (1985), pp. 48, 55, 60, as cited in Behrens,  Note 2, supra. ↩
  4. Behrens, Note 2, supra, citing a letter dated November 14, 1936, response from the mayor dated December 3, 1936. Exhibition “Delmenhorst in National Socialism.   based on a letter dated September 24, 1955, affidavit from Wilhelm Schroers for Dr. Rothschild. Exhibition “Delmenhorst under National Socialism.” ↩
  5. Letter dated September 24, 1955, affidavit from Wilhelm Schroers for Dr. Rothschild. Exhibition “Delmenhorst under National Socialism.” as quoted in Behrens, Note 2, supra. ↩
  6. Behrens, Note 2, supra. ↩
  7. Enno Meyer, “Die Geschichte der Delmenhorster Juden 1695-1945,” (1985), p. 85, as cited in Behrens, Note 2, supra. ↩

Gerson and Fanny Rothschild’s Children: From A Large Family to Small Families

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Gerson Rothschild’s wife Fanny gave birth to eleven children between 1883 and 1901, but three of those babies did not survive. Two died at birth, and one died at seven weeks. That left eight surviving children: Siegmund (1884), Katchen (1885), Max (1886), Auguste (1888), Jenny (1890), Clara (1891), Rosa (1893), and Amalie (1901). Two sons, six daughters.

But from such a large family, only one of those eight surviving children would have more than two children, and they all married at a later age than was typical of those times. They almost all married in their thirties. It made me wonder why these siblings delayed marriage and had so few children after coming from such a large family. Were they so close to each other that they didn’t want to leave home? Were the older ones helping to care for the younger ones? Did the fact that three babies did not survive make them wary of having more that one or two children? Or was it simply a matter of economics or the trend in the 1920s in Germany? I don’t know, but here are the facts.

Siegmund, the first born, was 35 when he married Elise Olga Block on December 22, 1919, in Frankfurt. Elise, the daughter of Max Block and Fanny Schaefer, was born in Ratiburg, Germany, on April 4, 1892.

Siegmund Rothschild and Elsa Block marriage record, Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv; Wiesbaden, Deutschland; Bestand: 903, Year Range: 1919, Ancestry.com. Hesse, Germany, Marriages, 1849-1930

Siegmund and Elise had two sons: Ernst, born March 1, 1922,1 and Werner, who is still living as far as I’ve been able to determine. Both were born in Frankfurt.

Katchen Rothschild was 28 when she married Adolf Hirshberg on April 23, 1914, in Zimmersrode. Adolf was born July 6, 1889, in Bad Zwesten, Germany, to Levi Hirshberg and Braunchen Levi.

Katchen Rothschild and Adolf Hirschberg marriage record, Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv; Wiesbaden, Deutschland; Bestand: 920; Laufende Nummer: 9576, Year Range: 1914, Ancestry.com. Hesse, Germany, Marriages, 1849-1930

Katchen and Adolf had one child, a son Ludwig, born in Kassel, Germany, on February 1, 1920.2

Max Rothschild was 32 when he married Johanna Katz in Zimmersrode on October 19, 1919. Johanna was the daughter of Jacob Katz and Karoline Rosenblatt, and she was born Neuenhain, Germany, on May 1, 1892.

Max Rothschild and Johanna Katz marriage record, Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv; Wiesbaden, Deutschland; Bestand: 920; Laufende Nummer: 9581, Year Range: 1919-1920, Ancestry.com. Hesse, Germany, Marriages, 1849-1930

Max and Johanna had two sons: Erich, supposedly born on May 13, 1921, and Richard, supposedly born October 24, 1922, both in Zimmersrode.3

Auguste Rothschild was thirty when she married Wolf Feldheim on March 18, 1919, in Zimmersrode. Wolf was born April 4, 1875 in Graudenz, then part of Prussia, now part of Poland. His parents were Aron Feldheim and Lena London. Wolf had been previously married and had four young children when he married Auguste.

Auguste Rothschild and Wolf Feldheim marriage record, Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv; Wiesbaden, Deutschland; Bestand: 920; Laufende Nummer: 9581, Year Range: 1919-1920, Ancestry.com. Hesse, Germany, Marriages, 1849-1930

Auguste and Wolf had one son, Bruno, according to several trees, but I am still looking for a record that ties Bruno to Auguste and Wolf. I did find records for a Bruno Feldheim born in Fulda, Germany, on November 12, 1921, but those records do not identify Bruno as the son of Auguste and Wolf.4

Jenny Rothschild was thirty when she married Salomon Abraham on November 11, 1920, in Zimmersrode. Salomon was born in Durboslar, Germany, on August 14, 1891. I am still looking for a record to confirm the names of his parents.

Jeanette Rothschild and Salomon Abraham marriage record, Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv; Wiesbaden, Deutschland; Bestand: 920; Laufende Nummer: 9582, Year Range: 1920-1921, Ancestry.com. Hesse, Germany, Marriages, 1849-1930

Jenny and Salomon had two children, Walter, born September 13, 1921, in Zimmersrode5 and Herta, born August 26, 1928, born in Kassel.6

Clara Rothschild was thirty when she married Moritz Katz in Zimmersrode on November 1, 1921. Moritz was born on November 4, 1894, in Neuenhain, Germany. He was the son of Jakob Katz and Karoline Rosenblatt and the younger brother of Johanna Katz, who had married Clara’s brother Max.

Clara Rothschild and Moritz Katz marriage record, Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv; Wiesbaden, Deutschland; Bestand: 920; Laufende Nummer: 9582 Description Year Range: 1920-1921 Source Information Ancestry.com. Hesse, Germany, Marriages, 1849-1930

Clara and Moritz had three children: Otto, born September 5, 1922, in Neuenhain;7 Helmut (later Harold) born in Neuenhain in 1924,8 and Ilse, born on May 19, 1928, in Kassel, Germany.9 Since Harold may still be living, I will not report on his exact birth date.

The last two children of Gerson Rothschild and Fanny Kugelmann, their daughters Rosa and Amalie, married after 1930 and had children after Hitler came to power.  I will write about their husbands and children in a subsequent post.

Isn’t it interesting how late these eight children married and how few children they had after being from such a large family? I’d love to know more about their decisions, but alas, all I have is speculation.

Their father Gerson Rothschild passed away on April 17, 1930, at the age of 74.

Gerson Rothschild death record, LAGIS Hessen Archives, HStAMR Best. 920 Nr. 9644 Standesamt Zimmersrode Sterbenebenregister 1930, S. 6

Gerson had lived to see all eight of his surviving children reach adulthood, and before he died, he saw the six oldest of those children marry and have children of their own. As of his death, Gerson had ten grandchildren. His daughter Rosa would later have one child and his daughter Amalie two, meaning that Gerson and Fanny at one time had thirteen grandchildren from their eight surviving children.

Gerson may have been blessed to die before Hitler came to power and before he would know what would happen to so many of those children and grandchildren.

 

  1. Ernest Simon Rothschild, Race White, Age 23, Birth Date 1 Mar 1922, Birth Place Frankfort, Germany, Registration Date 30 Jun 1945, Registration Place New York City, New York, Employer Hugo Brand, Next of Kin Siegmund Rothschild,  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 ↩
  2. Ludwig Hirschberg J., Gender männlich (Male), Nationality Deutsch Juden
    Record Type Miscellaneous, Birth Date 01 Feb 1920 (1 Feb 1920), Birth Place Kassel
    Residence Place Kassel, Kassel, Notes Lists of judicial and official files concerning foreigners and German Jews, Reference Number 02010101 oS, Document ID 70443311, Arolsen Archives, Digital Archive; Bad Arolsen, Germany; Lists of Persecutees 2.1.1.1, Ancestry.com. Free Access: Europe, Registration of Foreigners and German Persecutees, 1939-1947 ↩
  3. I could not find any actual birth records for Erich Rothschild or Richard Rothschild. There are no online birth records for Zimmersrode for 1921 or 1922. These dates, however, appear on numerous trees on Ancestry. I do not know how reliable that specific information is. I am still searching for birth records for these two sons, but I do have other records for them that place their birthdates as approximately in 1921 and 1922. I will discuss those other records in a later post. In addition, one tree included a third son, Fritz Simon Rothschild, but I have no records that support the existence of that son. ↩
  4. Bruno Feldheim, Palestine Immigration file, found at the Israel State Archives website at https://search.archives.gov.il/ ↩
  5. Walter Abraham, Birth Date 13 Sept 1921, Birth Place Zimmerrode, Residence Street Address 26 Johann-Georg-Strasse, Residence Place Berlin, [Halensee]
    Occupation Bãcker [Baker], Description Deportationen, URL https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/de/document/127213170 , Arolsen Archives; Bad Arolsen, Germany; Record Group 1 Incarceration Documents; Reference: 1.2.1.1, Ancestry.com. Germany, Incarceration Documents, 1933-1945 ↩
  6. Herta Abraham, Birth Date 26 Aug 1926, Birth Place Kassel, Residence Kassel
    Camp Riga/Stutthof, Ancestry.com. Poland, German Jews at Stutthof Concentration Camp, 1940-1945 ↩
  7. Otto Katz, Race White, Age 19, Birth Date 5 Sep 1922, Birth Place Neuenhaus [sic], Germany, Registration Date, 15 Feb 1942, Registration Place, New York City, New York, Employer Kenneth Miller, Next of Kin Clara Katz, National Archives at St. Louis; St. Louis, Missouri; Wwii Draft Registration Cards For New York City, 10/16/1940 – 03/31/1947; Record Group: Records of the Selective Service System, 147, Name Range: Katz, Bernard-Katz, Sam, Ancestry.com. U.S., World War II Draft Cards Young Men, 1940-1947 ↩
  8. Helmut Katz [Harold Katz] Race White Age 18 Birth Date …1924, Birth Place Neuenhain, Germany, Registration Date 19 Dec 1942, Registration Place New York City, New York, Employer Student, Next of Kin Clara Katz, 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 ↩
  9. This date came from Dennis Aron’s Ancestry tree, and Dennis obtained his information from Ilse’s brother, Harold Katz. I have no other source for this, but given that it came from her brother, for now I assume it is accurate. ↩

Eleven Babies in Eighteen Years

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My cousin Gerson Rothschild’s wife Fanny Kugelmann gave birth to eleven children, starting in 1883 with the last one born eighteen years later in 1901. It is impossible for me to imagine what that was like.

Unfortunately, the first baby, a girl, died at birth (or was stillborn) on March 28, 1883:

Stillborn female child, Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv; Wiesbaden, Deutschland; Personenstandsregister Sterberegister; Bestand: 8460; Laufende Nummer: 920
Year Range: 1883, Ancestry.com. Hesse, Germany, Deaths, 1851-1958

The note on the death/birth record was translated by my cousin Richard Bloomfield and reads:

Mrs. Fanni Rothschild née Kugelmann of Jewish religion in the apartment of her husband, the merchant Gerson Rothschild of Jewish religion at Waltersbrück in house no. 2 on the eighth and twentieth of March this year in the afternoon at five o’clock birthed a child of female sex and that this child died in childbirth. Mrs. Waßmuth explained that she had been present at the confinement of Mrs. Fanni Rothschild.

A second child, Siegmund Rothschild, was born less than one year later on March 4, 1884, in Waltersbrueck:

Siegmund Rothschild birth record, Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv; Wiesbaden, Deutschland; Bestand: 920; Laufende Nummer: 8386, Year Range: 1884, Ancestry.com. Hesse, Germany, Births, 1851-1901

Sixteen months after Siegmund’s arrival, Fanny gave birth to Katchen Rothschild on July 5, 1885, also in Waltersbrueck:

Katchen Rothschild birth record, Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv; Wiesbaden, Deutschland; Bestand: 920; Laufende Nummer: 8387, Year Range: 1885, Ancestry.com. Hesse, Germany, Births, 1851-1901

Sixteen months after Katchen came another son, Max, born November 22, 1886, in Waltersbrueck:

Max Rothschild birth record, Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv; Wiesbaden, Deutschland; Bestand: 920; Laufende Nummer: 8388, Year Range: 1886, Ancestry.com. Hesse, Germany, Births, 1851-1901

Then Fanny gave birth to another daughter,  Guste or Auguste, in Waltersbrueck on September 11, 1888. Imagine that—-a gap of almost two years after Max. I wonder whether Fanny had miscarried at some point in between Max and Auguste.

Auguste Rothschild birth record, Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv; Wiesbaden, Deutschland; Bestand: 920; Laufende Nummer: 8390, Year Range: 1888, Ancestry.com. Hesse, Germany, Births, 1851-1901

Johanette (“Jenny”) Rothschild, Gerson and Fanny’s sixth child, was born on February 13, 1890, also in Waltersbrueck, seventeen months after Auguste:

Johannette Rothschild birth record, Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv; Wiesbaden, Deutschland; Bestand: 920; Laufende Nummer: 8392, Year Range: 1890, Ancestry.com. Hesse, Germany, Births, 1851-1901

Their seventh child Clara was born on July 15, 1891, in Waltersbrueck, seventeen months after Jenny:

Clara Rothschild birth record, Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv; Wiesbaden, Deutschland; Bestand: 920; Laufende Nummer: 8393, Year Range: 1891, Ancestry.com. Hesse, Germany, Births, 1851-1901

Number eight arrived May 16, 1893, almost two years after Clara; her name was Rosa. She was born in Zimmersrode where the family was now residing. Zimmersrode is a larger town about a mile and a half from Waltersbrueck.

Rosa Rothschild birth record, Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv; Wiesbaden, Deutschland; Bestand: 920; Laufende Nummer: 9531, Year Range: 1893, Ancestry.com. Hesse, Germany, Births, 1851-1901

Gerson and Fanny’s ninth child Thoni only lived seven weeks; she was born on April 27, 1895, in Zimmersrode, and died there on June 20, 1895:

Thoni Rothschild birth record, Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv; Wiesbaden, Deutschland; Bestand: 920; Laufende Nummer: 9533, Year Range: 1895, Ancestry.com. Hesse, Germany, Births, 1851-1901

Thoni Rothschild death record, Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv; Wiesbaden, Deutschland; Personenstandsregister Sterberegister; Bestand: 9610; Laufende Nummer: 920, Year Range: 1895, Ancestry.com. Hesse, Germany, Deaths, 1851-1958

Sadly, their tenth child, like their first child, died at childbirth, this time a boy. Richard also translated the note on this death record for me.

Male Child stillborn of Gerson Rothschild, Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv; Wiesbaden, Deutschland; Personenstandsregister Sterberegister; Bestand: 9614; Laufende Nummer: 920
Year Range: 1899, Ancestry.com. Hesse, Germany, Deaths, 1851-1958

Today the personally known tradesman Gerson Rothschild, residing in Zimmersrode, appeared before the undersigned registrar and reported that

The wife of the reporting person of Jewish religion, Fanny Rothschild, née Kugelmann, also of the Jewish religion, gave birth to a male child at two o’clock in the morning on March 28th of this year in the home of the reporting party, and that the child died during birth.

Read, approved and signed

Gerson Rothschild

In a rather creepy coincidence, this baby was delivered on March 28, 1899, exactly sixteen years to the day after Fanny lost her first child in childbirth on March 28, 1883.

Fortunately, Fanny had better fortune with her eleventh and final baby, Amalie Rothschild, born in Zimmersrode on April 26, 1901. I do not have a birth record for Amalie but found her birth date on records from the Nazi era.1

Fanny Kugelmann Rothschild was 43 years old when she gave birth to Amalie, her last child. She had been either pregnant or nursing a baby for almost twenty years. She had suffered losing two of those babies at birth and one at only seven weeks old. But her other eight children survived to adulthood—-until the rise of the Nazis.

Here’s a timeline showing the birth dates of Fanny and Gerson’s eleven babies:

March 28, 1883—March 4, 1884—July 5, 1885—November 22, 1886—September 11, 1888—February 13, 1890—July 15, 1891—May 16, 1893—April 27, 1895—March 28, 1899—April 26, 1901

More on this family in the posts to come.

 

 

 

 

  1. Amalie Rothschild Stiefel, Arolsen Archives, Digital Archive; Bad Arolsen, Germany; Lists of Persecutees 2.1.1.1, Ancestry.com. Free Access: Europe, Registration of Foreigners and German Persecutees, 1939-1947 ↩

The Blumenfeld-Rothschild Brain Teaser

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Here’s a good brain teaser for those of you who like puzzles, especially genealogy relationship puzzles:

Gerson Rothschild was the eighth child born to Gelle Blumenfeld and Simon Rothschild. He was born on May 1, 1855, in Waltersbrueck, Germany.

Gerson Rothschild birth record, Arcinsys Archives of Hesse, HHStAW Fonds 365 No 893, p. 27

Gerson married Frommet “Fanny” Kugelmann on September 13, 1881, in Waltersbrueck. She was born in Wohra, Germany, on September 11, 1857.

Gerson Rothschild marriage to Frommet Kugelmann, Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv; Wiesbaden, Deutschland; Bestand: 920; Laufende Nummer: 8407, Ancestry.com. Hesse, Germany, Marriages, 1849-1930

When I saw Frommet Kugelmann’s name, it rang a bell, but I wasn’t sure why. I searched my tree, and sure enough, I had a Frommet Kugelmann already on my tree. I wrote about her here. She had married Isaac Blumenfeld I, Gelle Blumenfeld’s older brother, and had died March 18, 1842, five days after giving birth to her son Abraham Blumenfeld III. She was about twenty years old when she died.

Frommet Kugelmann Blumenfeld death record, Lagis Hessen Archive, HHStAW Abt. 365 Nr. 630, S. 8

But was there a connection between the Frommet Kugelmann who had married Isaac Blumenfeld I and the Frommet Kugelmann who married Isaac’s nephew Gerson Rothschild, Gelle’s son? That was not immediately obvious.

From the marriage record for Gerson and his Frommet (to be referred to hereinafter as Fanny to keep them distinct), I knew that Fanny’s parents were Joseph Kugelmann and Male Katten. After searching for more information about Joseph Kugelmann, I learned that he was the son of Hiskias Kugelmann and Knentel Adorn.1 Flipping back to Isaac Blumenfeld’s wife Frommet, I saw that her parents were also Hiskias Kugelmann and Knentel Adorn.2 In other words, Joseph Kugelmann had named his daughter Frommet Fanny Kugelmann for his deceased sister Frommet Kugelmann, Isaac Blumenfeld’s wife.

Gerson and Fanny were thus related through the marriage of Gerson’s uncle Isaac to Fanny’s aunt and namesake, Frommet Kugelmann.

Gerson and Fanny would have eleven children, though two died at birth and one as an infant.

Here’s the brain teaser.

How were the children of Gerson Rothschild and Fanny Kugelmann related to Abraham Blumenfeld III, the son of Isaac Blumenfeld I and his first wife Frommet Kugelmann?

[Jeopardy! Music plays for thirty seconds…]

 

 

 

Here’s the answer:

They were his first cousins, once removed, on the Kugelmann side because their mother Fanny was Abraham III’s first cousin; Abraham III’s mother Frommet Kugelmann and Fanny’s father Joseph Kugelmann were siblings.

Here’s a chart showing that relationship, using one of Gerson and Fanny’s children (Max Rothschild) as an example:

But they were also related to Abraham III through the Blumenfeld side since Abraham’s father Isaac Blumenfeld I and Gerson’s mother Gelle Blumenfeld Rothschild were siblings, making Abraham and Gerson first cousins, thus making Max Rothschild and  Gerson and Fanny’s other children first cousins, once removed, to Abraham Blumenfeld III through that connection.

There is a third connection through Abraham Blumenfeld III’s marriage to Friedericke Rothschild—-but I will spare you that one.

OK, since you insist, here’s a chart for that one…

So once again, the family tree twists and groans from the weight of its interconnected branches, twigs, and leaves.

Coming up…the stories of the eleven children of Gerson and Fanny.

 

 

  1. Joseph Kugelmann death record, Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv; Wiesbaden, Deutschland; Personenstandsregister Sterberegister; Bestand: 9981; Laufende Nummer: 915, Description Year Range: 1900, Ancestry.com. Hesse, Germany, Deaths, 1851-1958 ↩
  2. Frommet Kugelmann Blumenfeld death record, Sterberegister der Juden von Neustadt 1824-1875 (HHStAW Abt. 365 Nr. 630), p. 8. Arcinsys Archives of Hessen, at https://arcinsys.hessen.de/arcinsys/digitalisatViewer.action?detailid=v1900007&selectId=45915616 ↩

Gelle Blumenfeld Rothschild’s Middle Children: Isaak, Gitel, and Betty

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Returning now to the Blumenfeld branch of my family tree, it’s time to see where I am in that saga. I am still on the oldest child of my four-times great-grandparents Abraham Blumenfeld and Geitel Katz—-their son Moses I. I have completed the stories of Moses’ first two children, Abraham IIA and Isaac I, and have been working through the children of Moses’ youngest child, his daughter Gelle Blumenfeld Rothschild. I have so far covered the first four of Gelle’s twelve children: Seligmannq, Abraham, Levi, and Moses. Here’s a chart to show my slow progress through the Blumenfeld family. I’ve only gotten as far as that arrow on the upper left side.

Now I turn to the next group of Gelle’s children, and for better or worse, there is not a lot to say about the next three: Isaak, Gitel, and Betty, their fifth, sixth, and seventh children.

Isaak is an unsolved brick wall. He was born January 15, 1850, in Zimmersrode. But there is no further record of him. No marriage record, no death record. I have searched high and low, and I’ve noticed that no other researcher on Ancestry or MyHeritage or elsewhere has any dates for Isaak’s death. My hunch is that he died in infancy, perhaps at birth, but I have no record to prove it. Here, however, is his birth record:

Isaak Rothschild birth record, Arcinsys Archives in Hessen, HHStAW Fonds 365 No 893, p.23

I thought perhaps the note on the far right would reveal more about Isaak’s life, but unfortunately it does not. All it says is “war noch nicht eingetragen, geschieht nachtraeglich,” which translates as “was not yet registered, will happen later.”

The child born after Isaak was Gitel Rothschild. Sadly, for her I have both her birth and death records. She was born on January 7, 1852, in Zimmersrode, and died there just over a year later on February 11, 1853.

Gitel Rothschild birth record, Arcinsys Archives of Hessen, HHStAW Fonds 365 No 893, p. 24

Gitel Rothschild death record, Arcinsys Archives of Hessen, HHStAW Fonds 365 No 896, p 21

Following Gitel came Beschen or Betty, born on June 22, 1853, just a few months after her sister Gitel died.

Beschen Rothschild birth record, Arcinsys Archives of Hesse, HHStAW Fonds 365 No 893, p. 25

Fortunately, Betty survived to adulthood. On February 4, 1876, in Kassel, Germany, she married Isaac Rosenblatt, the son of Meier Rosenblatt and Hannchen Loewenberg. Isaac was born in Malsfeld, Germany, on December 31, 1846.

Beschen Rothschild and Isaac Rosenblatt marriage record, Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv; Wiesbaden, Deutschland; Bestand: 910, Ancestry.com. Hesse, Germany, Marriages, 1849-1930,

I did not find any records showing children for Betty and Isaac. Isaac died on November 13, 1916, in Kassel.1 Betty died there ten years later on February 28, 1926.

Beschen Rothschild death record, Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv; Wiesbaden, Deutschland; Personenstandsregister Sterberegister; Signatur: 5603; Laufende Nummer: 910, Ancestry.com. Hesse, Germany, Deaths, 1851-1958

Thus, there are no known descendants for Isaak, Gitel, or Betty Rothschild as far as I have been able to determine.

The story of Gelle Blumenfeld Rothschild’s ninth child Gerson is a more complete one but filled with tragedy. That story begins in my next post.

 

  1. Isaak Rösenblatt, [Isaak Rosenblatt] Death Age 69, Birth Date abt 1847,
    Death Date 13 Nov 1916, Death Place Kassel, Hessen (Hesse), Deutschland (Germany), Civil Registration Office Kassel I, Father Meier Rösenblatt Mother
    Hannihan Rösenblatt Certificate Number 1490, Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv; Wiesbaden, Deutschland; Personenstandsregister Sterberegister; Signatur: 5546; Laufende Nummer: 910, Ancestry.com. Hesse, Germany, Deaths, 1851-1958 ↩