Tag Archives: holocaust

Malchen Rothschild Rosenblatt’s Youngest Child, Siegmund

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The other surviving son and the youngest child of Malchen Rothschild and Daniel Rosenblatt was their son Siegmund. Like his brother Felix, he escaped from Nazi Germany to Argentina with his wife Else Schwab and their three children, Arno, Ruth, and Margot.

I was very fortunate that Ellie Roden, a first cousin, once removed, of Siegmund’s wife Else, reached out to me through my blog. Ellie wrote that “Siegmund wanted all the family on both sides to leave Germany but before Kristallnacht many hoped and believed that the Nazi reign would end.”1 Unfortunately, as we have seen, Siegmund’s three sisters Julchen, Jette, and Auguste, did not heed that advice. According to Ellie, Siegmund, Else, and their children left Germany for Argentina in July 1937. They joined the same community, Colonia Avigdor, where Siegmund’s brother Felix had settled the year before. According to Siegmund’s great-niece Carmen, Siegmund and his family left Colonia Avigdor in about1955 and moved to Buenos Aires. After receiving compensation from the German government, they could afford to live in the city.2

Ellie shared these wonderful photographs of Siegmund and his family, first a photograph of Siegmund and Else and their children in 1937 before they left their home in Kassel, Germany:

Siegmund Rosenblatt and family in 1937, Kassel, Germany
Courtesy of Ellie Roden

This second photograph is undated, but is of Siegmund and Else. I assume it was taken in Argentina some years later.

Else Schwab and Siegmund Rosenblatt. Courtesy of Ellie Roden

The third photo may have been taken at the same event as the one above; it was taken in Buenos Aires:

The Rosenblatt family in Buenos Aires: Margot, Siegmund, Else, Ruth, Arno, and Danny. Courtesy of Ellie Roden

I don’t have any records for the family’s life in Argentina, but Ellie was able to confirm that Arno, the oldest child, had a son named Danny, presumably named for his grandfather Daniel Rosenblatt; he must be the young boy in the photo above. Margot, the middle child, married someone named Kurt Oppenheimer; I don’t know whether they had children. And Ruth, the youngest child, may have married someone named Arno Kaufman. I don’t know whether they had children.

I was able to find burial records for Siegmund and Else and for two of their three children in the records for Argentina in the JOWBR at JewishGen.org. Siegmund died on November 3, 1982, and is buried in Buenos Aires.3 His wife Else died on August 11, 1984, and is buried in Buenos Aires.4 Their daughter Ruth Rosenblatt Kaufmann died on January 12, 1989, and is also buried in Buenos Aires.5 Finally, their son Arno Rosenblatt died on December 31, 2008, and is buried in Buenos Aires.6 I was not able to locate a burial record or any other record for Margot, but did locate one for her husband, Kurt Oppenheimer, which named her as his spouse. Kurt died on February 13, 2007, and is buried in the same cemetery as his in-laws.7

I am so grateful to my cousins Julio and Carmen and to Ellie Roden for sharing the photographs and information about the families of Malchen Rothschild Rosenblatt’s three sons, Felix, Julius, and Siegmund. Although the family of Malchen Rothschild and Daniel Rosenblatt suffered terrible losses during the Holocaust, it was uplifting to learn that there are still living descendants living in many countries around the world. I am so grateful for that.

I have now completed the stories of the children of Malchen Rothschild Rosenblatt and will move on to Malchen’s younger sister, Sara Rothschild Adler, and her family. But first a few updates on earlier posts.

 

 

  1. Email from Ellie Roden, August 13, 2025. ↩
  2. Email from Carmen Rosenblatt, September 17, 2025. ↩
  3. Burial record in the JOWBR database at JewishGen, found at https://www.jewishgen.org/databases/cemetery/jowbr.php?rec=J_ARGENTIN_0199329 ↩
  4. Burial record in the JOWBR database at JewishGen, found at https://www.jewishgen.org/databases/cemetery/jowbr.php?rec=J_ARGENTIN_0199309 ↩
  5. Burial record in the JOWBR database at JewishGen, found at https://www.jewishgen.org/databases/cemetery/jowbr.php?rec=J_ARGENTIN_0164434 ↩
  6. Burial record in the JOWBR database at JewishGen, found at https://www.jewishgen.org/databases/cemetery/jowbr.php?rec=J_ARGENTIN_0199303 ↩
  7. Burial record in the JOWBR database at JewishGen, found at https://www.jewishgen.org/databases/cemetery/jowbr.php?rec=J_ARGENTIN_0189236 ↩

Zooming with My Cousin Julio Rosenblatt in Uruguay

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Since it’s been a while since I wrote about the Blumenfeld clan, let me recap where I was. I was writing about the family of Malchen Rothschild, the ninth child of Gelle Blumenfeld and Simon Rothschild. Malchen and her husband Daniel Rosenblatt had seven children, one of whom died as a child (Betti) and one, Julius, who died in 1920 as a thirty-six year old newlywed whose wife Julie Rosenblatt had just recently given birth to their son, Manfred or Friedel/Fredi (hereinafter “Fredi.”)

Thus, when Hitler came to power in 1933, there were five living children of Malchen and Daniel: their daughters Julchen, Jette, and Auguste, and their sons Felix and Siegmund. Also living was their daughter-in-law Julie and their grandson Manfred/Fredi.

But as we saw, the three daughters were all killed by the Nazis as were some of their family members. Fortunately their two sons and their daughter-in-law Julie survived as did two of the children of Auguste. And that is where we will now pick up.

As I wrote in my last post about this family, I was able to find a descendant of Julius and Julie Rosenblatt, their grandson Julio, named for his grandfather Julius. I finally had a chance to zoom with Julio on September 10, and he was able to fill me on on the story of the surviving branches of Malchen and Daniel’s family.1

As noted above, Julio’s father Fredi was born just three months before his father Julius Rosenblatt died in December 1920. I asked Julio how his grandmother Julie Rosenblatt (wife and first cousin of Julius) coped with raising a baby without her husband. Julio told me that after Julius died, his grandmother moved from Zimmersrode where they’d been living back to Beisefoerth where her father and two of her brothers were still living. Julie and Fredi lived with them and, as Julio said, she not only raised her son but also took care of her father and brothers.

Here is a photograph taken in about 1931 of Fredi and some of his cousins in Beisefoerth. Fredi is the boy in the front, “driving” the motorcycle. The motorcycle belonged to his uncle Ferdinand Rosenblatt, his mother’s brother.

Lothar Rosenblatt, Claire Rosenblatt, Doris Rosenblatt and Fredi Rosenblatt on the motorcycle of Ferdinand Rosenblatt at Beiseförth in about 1931, 1932. Courtesy of Julio Rosenblatt

Once Hitler came to power, the family experienced antisemitism. When Fredi was fourteen or fifteen years old, boys threw rocks and apples at him. After Kristallnacht, Julie knew it was time to leave Germany.

This is a photograph of Fredi taken in Beisefoerth in 1938 the day before he left Germany.

Fredi Rosenblatt c. 1938 Courtesy of Julio Rosenblatt

Julio explained how his grandmother Julie and father Fredi ended up in Uruguay. Julie’s brother Ferdinand Rosenblatt had a sister-in-law, his wife Flori’s sister, who owned a well-known cafe in Frankfurt called Cafe Falk. The Uruguay Consul General Florencio Rivas was a regular customer at the cafe, and after the Nuremberg Laws were enacted, he offered to help the family get visas to immigrate to Uruguay.

Florencio Rivas not only helped the Rosenblatt family; he helped hundreds of German Jews survive the Holocaust. As The New York Times reported:2

While serving as consul general in Germany, Rivas harbored more than 150 Jews on embassy grounds during Kristallnacht in 1938, when Nazi-inspired mobs attacked synagogues and Jews. He then issued them all passports and visas ensuring passage to Uruguay.

Ferdinand Rosenblatt and his wife and son were the first Rosenblatts to leave Germany and go to Uruguay. Fredi left in 1938, and after Kristallnacht in November 1938, Julio’s grandmother Julie Rosenblatt joined them in Montevideo, Uruguay.

This photograph is of Ferdinand Rosenblatt and his wife Flori Goldschmidt. In the middle is their niece, Martha Rosenblatt.

Ferdinand Rosenblatt, Martha Rosenblatt, and Flory Goldschmidt. Courtesy of Julio Rosenblatt

I asked Julio about the family’s transition from Germany to Uruguay, and he told me that Uruguay has always been a very open and accepting country to immigrants. As The New York Times commented:3

Unlike Argentina and many other Latin American countries, Uruguay has been a liberal, secular democracy for much of its history. It became a republic in 1830 and has remained one, with the exception of right-wing dictatorships in the periods of 1932-38 and 1973-85. It separated church and state in 1917. And by 1890, it had enacted a ”policy of the open door,” encouraging immigration by issuing visas free of charge and even providing a hostel for new arrivals.

Julio said that his grandmother quickly found work as a maid in Montevideo and that his father Fredi worked making tapestries to cover furniture. They were welcomed and did not encounter any antisemitism. Julio clearly loves his country and feels deeply grateful that Uruguay took in his grandmother, father, and other relatives and gave them a place to be safe and to prosper.

Fredi Rosenblatt married Erika Katz in 1949 in Uruguay. Here they are on their wedding day:

Erika Katz and Friedel Rosenblatt on their wedding day in 1949. Courtesy of Julio Rosenblatt

Erika Katz and Fredi Rosenblatt on their wedding day in 1949. Courtesy of Julio Rosenblatt

wedding of Fredi Rosenblatt and Erika Katz 1949. Courtesy of Julio Rosenblatt

Julio was the only child of Fredi Rosenblatt and Erika Katz. Here is a photo of him with his parents, taken in 1954.

Fredi Rosenblatt, top; Julio Rosenblatt and Erika Katz, bottom. Courtesy of Julio Rosenblatt

Julio is married to Ana Bogacz, and they have two children. This photograph is of Ana with her daughter Beatriz and Julio’s grandmother, Julie Rosenblatt Rosenblatt.

Ana Bogacz, Beatriz Rosenblatt, and Julie Rosenblatt Rosenblatt, in 1976. Courtesy of Julio Rosenblatt

Julio and Ana have two children. One lives in Uruguay and and the other in England. They also have three grandchildren, one in Uruguay and two in England. So Julius Rosenblatt, who died when his son Fredi was just a baby, and his wife, Julie Rosenblatt, have living great-grandchildren living across the world because Julie Rosenblatt Rosenblatt was smart enough and strong enough and lucky enough to leave Germany when she did.

Thank you to my cousin Julio for sharing his stories and these amazing photographs of his family. I am so glad we connected!

 

  1. The information about Julie Rosenblatt and her family in this post almost all came from her grandson Julio Rosenblatt during a Zoom on September 10, 2025. ↩
  2. Samuel Freedman, “A Treasure Hunt for Lost Memories,” The New York Times, August 16, 2003, p. A 15. ↩
  3. Ibid. ↩

Malchen Rothschild Rosenblatt, Part III: How I Found Her Great-Grandson Julio

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Although the three daughters of Malchen Rothschild and Daniel Rosenblatt were all murdered in the Holocaust, their two surviving sons Felix and Siegmund were able to escape Nazi Germany as was their daughter-in-law Julchen Rosenblatt Rosenblatt, the widow of their son Juda/Julius.

I did not have a great deal of information about Felix or Siegmund because they escaped to Argentina, and I have limited resources for research there. I could not find them or their children on the CEMLA website for ships going to Argentina. All I had were burial records for some of them from the Jewish Online Worldwide Burial Registry (JOWBR) at JewishGen.org.

But some of the bricks in this wall crumbled a bit. In looking at the Pages of Testimony for Thekla Rosenblatt and Julie Rosenblatt Wolf, I noticed that both were filed by someone named Julio Rosenblatt. No relationships were given by the submitter, and I had no one in my tree with that name. Julio submitted the pages fairly recently–in 2017–and he lived in Montevideo, Uruguay.

Thekla Rosenblatt page of testimony, found at https://collections.yadvashem.org/en/names/13324460

Julchen Rosenblatt Wolf page of testimony, found at https://collections.yadvashem.org/en/names/13324463

So I googled his name and found two links that helped me figure out who he is and how is he related to the other Rosenblatts and to me. The first page I found was an interview with Julio Rosenblatt of Uruguay that revealed that Julio is the author of several children’s books in the “Max y sus desafíos” series (translated either as Max and His Questions or Max and His Challenges). The books tell the story of Julio’s family in Nazi Germany. “Max” is Julio’s middle name, and he was named in memory of his grandmother’s brother Max. But who was his grandmother? The interview did not reveal.

So I kept digging. And then I found the second website about Julio Rosenblatt, Judische Leben in Beisefoerth, or Jewish Life in Beisefoerth, which was the town where Daniel Rosenblatt was born and where the first two of Daniel and Malchen’s children were born. Seeing that confirmed that I was on the right track. The website had a detailed telling of Julio’s trip to Beisefoerth and his search for his family history there. And from that page I learned Julio’s ancestry and how he is related to me. The page describes his trip to the Jewish cemetery in Haarhausen with Hans Peter Klein, the same man who took me there in 2017. This is what they saw there (see photo accompanying quote below):

Five generations of Julio Rosenblatt’s ancestors from Zimmersrode and Waltersbrück are buried there; the oldest grave of his four-times [sic] great-grandfather, Simon Rothschild from Waltersbrück, dates back to 1811. Julio and his wife Ana were particularly touched by the grave of his grandfather Julius Rosenblatt, who died in 1920 at the age of just 36 and just a few months after the birth of Fredi Rosenblatt, Julio’s father.

Now I know exactly who Julio is. He is my fifth cousin, the four-times great-grandson of Abraham Blumenfeld I and Geitel Katz, my four-times great-grandparents. His father was the baby born to Julius Rosenblatt and Julie Rosenblatt, Manfred; his great-grandmother was Malchen Rothschild Rosenblatt, his great-great-grandmother was Gelle Blumenfeld Rothschild, his great-great-great-grandfather was Moses Blumenfeld I, the older brother of my great-great-great-grandmother Breune Blumenfeld Katzenstein.

Julio’s paternal grandmother was Julie Rosenblatt, the widow and first cousin of Julius Rosenblatt. And Julie had a brother Max Rosenblatt who was killed in the Holocaust and became the name of the character in Julio’s books. But Julie survived and immigrated to Uruguay with her son Manfred (or Fredi), and Julio was born there.

I have gotten in touch with Julio and learned more about the Rosenblatts who survived the Holocaust in South America. Once again connecting with a cousin has allowed me the privilege of better understanding and appreciating my family history.

On top of that, a cousin of Sigmund Rosenblatt’s family, Ellie, found me through the blog, and she has been updating me on that branch of the family.

To be continued in September. My family will be visiting for the next two weeks, so I will see you after Labor Day!

 

 

 

Malchen Rothschild Rosenblatt, Part II: Who Shall Live and Who Shall Die

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Of the five children of Malchen Rothschild and Daniel Rosenblatt who were still living when Hitler came to power in 1933, only two survived, the two sons Felix and Siegmund. Their three daughters—Julchen/Julie, Jette/Thekla, and Auguste–were all murdered by the Nazis.

Julchen/Julie and her husband Max Wolf were first deported from Kassel to the Riga ghetto on the December 9, 1941, transport that had deported so many other Rothschild family members. Julie and Max were then deported from Riga to Auschwitz on November 2, 1943, where they were murdered. Since their only child Edgar had died as a toddler, they had no direct descendants.

Julie Rosenblatt Wolf page of testimony, found at https://collections.yadvashem.org/en/names/13324463

Jette/Thekla Rosenblatt was also on the December 9, 1941, transport to Riga, where she did not survive. Since she had never married or had children, she also had no direct descendants.

Thekla Rosenblatt page of testimony, found at https://collections.yadvashem.org/en/names/13324460

Auguste’s husband Samuel Roth died on February 15, 1935, in Breitenbach. He was 52 years old.1 Auguste unfortunately had to face Nazi persecution without him. She was deported to the Sobibor death camp on June 1, 1942, and killed there two days later on June 3, 1942.

As for the four children of Auguste and Samuel, I only have the following information:

Irma Roth married Alfred Moses on December 19, 1934, in Berlin.

Irma Roth and Alfred Moses marriage record, Landesarchiv Berlin; Berlin, Deutschland; Personenstandsregister Heiratsregister, Register Year or Type: 1934 (Erstregister). Ancestry.com. Berlin, Germany, Marriages, 1874-1940

I found Alfred listed on the CEMLA website, immigrating to Argentina on December 30, 1939. I could not find a listing for Irma, but I assume she immigrated there as well since they are both buried together at the Cementerio Comunitario de Berazategui in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Alfred(o) died on March 28, 1980, and Irma died on May 30, 1999. I do not know whether they ever had children.

Alfred Moses CEMLA listing, at https://cemla.com/buscador/

Irma’s sister Friedel never married as far as I can tell. She was living in Luxembourg during World War II and was deported from there to the concentration camp at Argeles-sur-Mer in France. The camp at Argeles-sur-Mer was built by the French in 1939 to house refugees from the Spanish Civil War, and conditions were horrific. “The lack of lodging structures, as well as unsafe water supply and food scarcity, added to the exiled people’s poor health conditions caused the spreading of several diseases that, in turn, led to a dramatic increase in mortality among refugees.” Then during World War II, the camp was used to imprison Jews, gypsies, and other targets of Nazi persecution. Friedel Roth died as a prisoner there on June 11, 1941.

Friedel Roth death record, Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv; Wiesbaden, Deutschland; Personenstandsregister Sterberegister; Signatur: 598; Laufende Nummer: 926, Year Range: 1953, Ancestry.com. Hesse, Germany, Deaths, 1851-1958

Lothar Roth, the third child of Auguste Rosenblatt and Samuel Roth, also appears to have never married. The only record I could locate for him was a burial record in Buenos Aires, Argentina, indicating that he died there on July 27, 1992. I could not locate any birth or immigration or marriage record for him.

Auguste and Samuel’s youngest child Gretl was also murdered by the Nazis. I could not find any record of marriage for Gretl. She was deported from Berlin to Auschwitz on March 1, 1943, and was murdered there.

Thus, the three daughters of Malchen Rothschild and Daniel Rosenblatt and some of their children were victims of the Nazi killing machines.

But the two sons of Malchen and Daniel fared better than their sisters. For a long time I was up against a brick wall trying to find more about Felix and Siegmund Rosenblatt. I knew that they had gone to Argentina, but aside from burial records, I could learn nothing more.

And then I looked at the name of the submitter on the Pages of Testimony above for Julie and Thekla Rosenblatt: Julio Rosenblatt of Montevideo, Uruguay. I googled his name, and the bricks on that brick wall began to crumble.

 

 

  1. Samuel Roth death record, LAGIS Hessen Archives, TitelStandesamt Breitenbach am Herzberg Sterbenebenregister 1935 (HStAMR Best. 907 Nr. 927)AutorHessisches Staatsarchiv MarburgErscheinungsortBreitenbach am HerzbergErscheinungsjahr1935, p 6, found at https://dfg-viewer.de/show?id=9&tx_dlf%5Bid%5D=https%3A%2F%2Fdigitalisate-he.arcinsys.de%2Fhstam%2F907%2F927.xml&tx_dlf%5Bpage%5D=6 ↩

Rosa and Amalie Rothschild, Gerson and Fanny’s Youngest Daughters

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Getting to know Hal Katz and his family and learning the stories about Clara Rothschild and Moritz Katz and their children and grandchildren has been a real highlight of the past few months. Now I turn to Clara’s two younger sisters, the seventh and eighth children of Gerson Rothschild and Fanny Kugelmann of those who survived to adulthood. And unfortunately there is no joy in telling their stories.

Rosa Rothschild, who was born on May 16, 1893, in Zimmersrode, married Meijer Franken sometime before April 23, 1936, when their son Gerson was born in Almelo, Netherlands. I don’t know whether Rosa married Meijer in the Netherlands or Germany because I cannot find a marriage record in either country.1 Meijer was Dutch, born in Haaksbergen, Netherlands, on March 16, 1873, making him twenty years older than Rosa. His parents were Levij Franken and Antje Goedhardt.2 Meijer had been previously married; his first wife Jeanette Herzog, died in Almela, Netherlands, on November 12, 1923.3

Presumably Rosa married Meijer sometime after November 12, 1923, when his first wife died, and before April 23, 1936, when Gerson was born in Almelo, Netherlands. I don’t know whether Rosa met Meijer before moving to the Netherlands or moved there to escape Hitler and met Meijer thereafter. I think it’s reasonable to assume she moved first sometime after 1933 when Hitler came to power and then met and married Meijer. Her mother Frommet “Fanny” Kugelmann Rothschild also moved to Almelo, Netherlands, either with Rosa or afterwards, and was living with Rosa, Meijer, and and her grandson Gerson, named for Rosa’s father and Fanny’s husband, Gerson Rothschild.4 Hal Katz told me that she came to his bar mitzvah in late 1937, but that she was already living in the Netherlands at that time.

Unfortunately, the move to the Netherlands did not protect Rosa, her mother, her husband, or her son from the scourge of the Nazis. On April 9, 1943, they were sent to the Herzogenbusch concentration camp near Vught in the Netherlands, and then on May 8, they were sent to Westerbork where they were then sent to Sobibor, where they were murdered by the Nazis: all four of them, 86 year old Fanny, 70 year old Meijer, 49 year old Rosa, and seven year old Gerson.

Arolsen Archives, DocID: 402367 (FROMMET ROTSCHILD KUGELMANN)
DeepLink: https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/de/document/402367

Arolsen Archives, DocID: 355979 (ROSA FRANKEN ROTHSCHILD)
DeepLink: https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/de/document/355979

Arolsen Archives, DocID: 355969 (MEIJER FRANKEN)
DeepLink: https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/en/document/355969

Arolsen Archives, DocID: 355947 (GERSON FRANKEN)
DeepLink: https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/en/document/355947

Here are the official Dutch death records for Rosa and her family, showing they were killed at Sobibor :

Rosa Rothschild Franken death record, BS Death Heritage institution Collection Overijssel Institution place Zwolle Collection region Overijssel Archive 0123 Registration number 16645 Sourcenumber 14 Registration date 09-01-1950 Document place Almelo Collection Civil Registry in Overijssel Book

Meijer Franken death record, Collection Overijssel location Zwolle in Zwolle (Netherlands), Civil registration deaths Burgerlijke Stand in Overijssel, Almelo, archive 0123, inventory number 16644, 29-12-1949, Register van overlijden, Almelo, record number 550

Gerson Franken death record, Collection Overijssel location Zwolle in Zwolle (Netherlands), Civil registration deaths Burgerlijke Stand in Overijssel, Almelo, archive 0123, inventory number 16644, 29-12-1949, Register van overlijden, Almelo, record number 549

Frommet Kugelmann Rothschild death record, Register of deaths, Almelo (Overijssel Collection, Zwolle location), Death Frommet Kugelmann, 14-05-1943, Type of deed :
death certificate, Date of deed: 09-01-1950 Location of deed: Almelo, born in Wohra (D); date of birth 11-09-1857, Access number : 0123 Civil Registry in Overijssel Inventory number :
16645 File number : 12

Rosa’s sister Amalie, the youngest of Fanny and Gerson Rothschild’s children, met a similar fate. Amalie, who was born on April 26, 1901, married Jakob Stiefel, who was born January 19, 1893, in Ziegenhain, Germany, and was the son of Michel Stiefel and Emilie Bachrach. As with Rosa Rothschild and Meijer Franken, I don’t have a marriage record for Amalie and Jakob, but according to Holocaust records, they had two children, Eva, born April 3, 1937, in Fritzlar, Germany, and Gerhard, born April 26, 1938, in Kassel, Germany. The family was living in Kassel at that time.

Amalie, Jakob, Eva, and Gerhard were among those who were sent from Kassel on December 9, 1941, to the Riga ghetto. Remember that Amalie’s older sisters Katchen, Auguste, and Jenny were also deported to the Riga ghetto on that same transport. In any event, they all ended up in Riga. In 1942, Jakob died in the Kaiserwald camp near Riga. On November 2, 1943, Amalie and her two young children, six year old Eva and five year old Gerhard were sent from Riga to Auschwitz, where they were murdered. Another family of Rothschild cousins was destroyed by the Nazis.

Thus, of the eight children of Gerson Rothschild and Fanny Kugelmann who had survived to adulthood, five of them were murdered by the Nazis: Katchen, Auguste, Jenny, Rosa, and Amalie, as well as their mother Fanny and almost all of their children. Only Siegmund, Max, and Clara and their families escaped in time, as well as Auguste’s son Bruno Feldheim. That is just one family’s saga, but it was multiplied millions of times over for all the other families who were torn apart and destroyed by the hatred of the Nazis and those who supported them.

What gives me hope after learning all this tragic information about the family of Gerson Rothschild is the incredible strength I’ve seen in the descendants of Siegmund and Clara, those who are here today because their parents or grandparents were able to escape in time. Those descendants are all examples of how good can conquer over evil and love can overcome hatred.

 

  1. I could not locate a marriage record for Rosa and Meijer in either the Dutch archives at WieWasWie or in the various Hessen archives for Zimmersrode or Waltersbrueck, Germany, where Rosa was presumably living before relocating to the Netherlands. But Rosa and Meijer are listed as Gerson’s parents on his Dutch death record and as each other’s partner on each of their Dutch death records. See images below. ↩
  2. Meijer Franken, Birth Date 16 mrt. 1873 (16 Mar 1873), Birth Place Haaksbergen
    Father Levij Franken, Mother Antje Goedhardt, Collectie Overijssel; The Hague, Netherlands; Burgerlijke stand. Ancestry.com. Netherlands, Birth Index, 1784-1923 ↩
  3. Jeannette Hertog, Age 52, Birth Date abt 1871, Birth Place Meerssen
    Death Date 12 nov. 1923 (12 Nov 1923), Death Place Almelo, Father Alexander Hertog, Mother Carolina Anschil, Historisch Centrum Overijssel (HCO); Den Haag, Nederland; Burgerlijke stand (overlijdensakten), Ancestry.com. Netherlands, Death Index, 1796-1973 ↩
  4. A document in the Arolsen Archives for Fanny shows that her residence before deported to a concentration camp was Wierdensestr. 119 in Almelo, Netherlands. A similar document in the Arolsen Archives for Rosa shows her living at the same address. See Arolsen Archives, DocID: 402367 (FROMMET ROTSCHILD KUGELMANN) at https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/de/document/402367 and DocID: 355979 (ROSA FRANKEN ROTHSCHILD), at https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/de/document/355979 ↩

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 ↩

Auguste Rothschild Feldheim: Another Life Destroyed

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As I move on now to the next child of Gerson Rothschild and Fanny Kugelmann, I am struck by the differences in the fates of their eight surviving adult children. Siegmund and his wife and all his children left Germany in time to escape death at the hands of the Nazis. Katchen and her husband and son were all killed by the Nazis. Max and his family escaped to Argentina, but their son Erich died shortly after arriving from cholera; that might not have happened if they hadn’t had to leave Germany. Why were some able to escape while others were not? Fate seems so cruel and unpredictable.

Now I turn to the fourth child, Auguste “Gusta” Rothschild Feldheim. And sadly, Auguste’s fate was more like that of her sister Katchen than that of her brothers Siegmund and Max.

As we saw, Auguste married Wolf Feldheim on March 18, 1919, in Zimmersrode. Wolf was a widower. His first wife Johanna Risch died on April 29, 1916,1 less than a week after giving birth on April 23, 1916, to her fourth child with Wolf, their son  Arthur/Aharon.2 Wolf and Johanna also had three daughters born before Arthur/Aharon: Ruth, Selma, and Else, and all were younger than five years old when their mother died.3

Auguste married Wolf three years after Johanna’s death, and thus Johanna’s four children with Wolf were all still very young when Auguste became their stepmother. Here is a photograph of Auguste with her four stepchildren. Look how sad those children look. It’s heartbreaking.

Auguste Rothschild Feldheim with her four stepchildren. Courtesy of the family

And then Wolf and Auguste had their own child together, a son Bruno who was born in Fulda, Germany, on November 12, 1921.4

Auguste’s husband Wolf Feldheim died of a heart attack on October 4, 1940, in Fulda, Germany, where he and Auguste were living. Wolf was 65 years old. Was his death caused directly or indirectly by the Nazi persecution? I don’t know.5

Just over a year later Wolf’s widow Auguste was deported from her home in Fulda to Riga. A Page of Testimony filed at Yad Vashem by her stepson, Aharon Feldheim, reported that he believed she died there on or about December 8, 1941, the day after Pearl Harbor. The Gedenbuch summarized at Yad Vashem says she was deported to Riga on December 9, 1941, and died there in March, 1942.6 And then there is a second Page of Testimony for Auguste filed by her sister-in-law Elise Rothschild, wife of Siegmund Rothschild, saying that Auguste was deported to Bergen-Belsen. I don’t know which date or which place is more accurate. But the bottom line is the same. Auguste Rothschild Feldheim died at the hands of the Nazis.

Page of testimony at Yad Vashem filed by Aharon Feldheim. found at https://collections.yadvashem.org/en/names/13532864

Page of Testimony filed at Yad Vashem by Elise Rothschild, found at https://collections.yadvashem.org/en/names/798469

Bruno Feldheim survived the Holocaust by going to Palestine. His application for citizenship in Palestine in 1946 indicates that he arrived on March 27, 1939, from Fulda.

Bruno Feldheim Palestine immigration papers found at the Israel State Archives at https://search.archives.gov.il/

At some point after the war, Bruno moved to Belgium, where he had a diamond business, according to his cousin Hal Katz. Hal’s tree on Ancestry reports that Bruno died in Belgium on September 16, 2016. He was survived by his children and grandchildren. Here is a photograph of Bruno with his family, courtesy of Judy Katz, his first cousin, once removed.

Bruno Feldheim and family. courtesy of the family

I did not really research in depth the four stepchildren of Auguste, relying primarily on the Ancestry tree created by their stepcousin, Hal Katz. That tree reported that two of those stepchildren, Selma and Aharon, survived the Holocaust and ended up in Israel, but a third, Else, was murdered by the Nazis.

As for the remaining stepchild, Ruth, Wolf and Johanna’s oldest child, I went down a deep rabbit hole to learn what happened to her. It’s a Holocaust story I had not known before and that may not be very widely known.

Ruth was born on October 28, 1912, in Fulda, Germany.7 She married Jonas Tiefenbrunner, who was born in Wiesbaden on June 19, 1914. Sometime after Hitler came to power, Jonas left Germany for Belgium and established a youth home and yeshiva for religious boys in a town near Antwerp. Ruth later also left Germany for Belgium, and she worked as a cook in a different children’s home. According to a recorded interview with their daughter Judith, they had first met in Frankfurter, but reconnected and became a couple in Belgium. Ruth and Jonas were married on May 9, 1940, the day before the Nazis invaded Belgium.8

As told by Jonas and Ruth’s daughter Judith in that interview, after the Nazis invaded, the Queen Mother of Belgium intervened to protect the Jewish children and elderly. She convinced the commandant overseeing the Nazi deportation of Jews back to Germany, purportedly for “work,” that children younger than seventeen and the elderly would not be productive workers and that they should not be sent back to Germany. A number of orphanages and homes for the elderly were established, and Jonas Tiefenbrunner was made the head of one of those orphanages, the one in Brussels and the only one that was observant of Jewish laws and holidays, according to Ruth’s daughter.9

Jonas and Ruth took in up to fifty or sixty children at a time. They faced constant danger of raids by the Nazis, who accused them of hiding children who were over the age of sixteen or children who had not been properly registered with the Nazi regime in Belgium. Jonas was arrested once, but quickly released.10

In 1943, Ruth, Jonas, and their first-born daughter Jeanette had an opportunity to escape from the Nazis and emigrate from Belgium by obtaining what are now known as Mantello certificates. As described on JewishGen:

George Mandel was a Hungarian Jewish businessman who befriended a Salvadoran diplomat, Colonel José Arturo Castellanos, in the years leading up to World War II.  After Castellanos was named El Salvador’s Consul General in Geneva, he appointed Mandel, who had assumed a Spanish-sounding version of his last name, “Mantello,” to serve as the Consulate’s first secretary.  Even in Nazi-occupied Europe, Jews who were citizens of or held official documents from other countries were often able to escape deportation.  With the consent of Castellanos, George Mandel-Mantello used his diplomatic position to issue documents identifying thousands of European Jews as citizens of El Salvador.  He sent notarized copies of these certificates into occupied Europe, in the hope of saving the holders from the Nazis. … Word then spread among representatives of various Jewish organizations, who also approached Mandel-Mantello, each providing data and photographs of the people they wanted to try to save. … In total, Mandel-Mantello may have issued as many as five thousand certificates, many with the names and photographs of several family members.

Jonas and Ruth Tiefenbrunner were among those who received a Mantello certificate, describing them as citizens of El Salvador. They even applied for a Swiss passport relying on the evidence of their Salvadoran citizenship.  They could have left Belgium for a safer country by using those certificates as many others were able to do.

Jonas Tiefenbrunner application for Swiss passport, found at USHMM at https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/pa1169302

But as described by their daughter Judith, they refused. Jonas would not abandon the children he was caring for so the family stayed in Belgium for the duration of the war.11

In August 1944, the Nazis decided to deport all the remaining Jews in Belgium including the children. “Luckily, Jonas received advanced warning and was able to take all the children to a convent run by an acquaintance, Father R.P. Robinet. Two weeks later, Brussels was liberated.”12 In the end, it is estimated that Jonas and Ruth were able to save over one hundred children.

Tragically, Jonas Tiefenbrunner died in Belgium in 1962 from a heart attack when he was only 48 years old. From what I can gather from various sources including Judith’s interview, Ruth and their three daughters all eventually ended up in Israel.13 Unfortunately I have not been able to find further information about Ruth or her daughters.

Although Ruth Feldheim and Jonas Tiefenbrenner were not my genetic relatives, I felt their story was important and wanted to share it with my readers.

  1. Johanna Risch Feldheim death record, Arcinsys Archives of Hessen, HHStAW, 365, 348, p. 11, found at https://digitalisate-he.arcinsys.de/hhstaw/365/348/00011.jpg ↩
  2. Arthur/Aharon Feldheim immigration papers found in the Israel State Archives at https://search.archives.gov.il/ ↩
  3. Ruth was born on October 28, 1912, according to this entry at Yad Vashem, https://collections.yadvashem.org/en/names/13474776  Selma was born on April 6, 1913, Selma Feldheim, Enemy Alien Registration card, The National Archives; Kew, London, England; HO 396 WW2 Internees (Aliens) Index Cards 1939-1947; Reference Number: HO 396/172, Piece Number Description: 172: German Internees Released In UK 1939-1942: Fa-Fl, Ancestry.com. UK, World War II Alien Internees, 1939-1945. Else was born on November 5, 1914, Arolsen Archives; Bad Arolsen, Germany; Record Group 1 Incarceration Documents; Reference: 1.1.46.1, Ancestry.com. Germany, Incarceration Documents, 1933-1945 ↩
  4. I still have not found a record linking Bruno to Auguste and Wolf, but Bruno’s first cousin Hal Katz confirmed that Auguste and Wolf did have a son Bruno, and that is certainly a reliable first hand source. Zoom call with Hal Katz on May 8, 2025. ↩
  5. Wolf Feldheim on a grave registration document found at Arolsen Archives, Digital Archive; Bad Arolsen, Germany; Lists of Persecutees 2.1.1.1, Description
    Reference Code: 02010101 oS, Ancestry.com. Free Access: Europe, Registration of Foreigners and German Persecutees, 1939-1947 ↩
  6. Entry at Yad Vashem for Auguste Rothschild Feldheim, found at https://collections.yadvashem.org/en/names/13532864 ↩
  7. See Note 3, supra. ↩
  8. The information in this paragraph came from an interview with Ruth and Jonas’ daughter that is available on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w1q4KCKrMjY Also, see Jonas Tiefenbrunner’s application for a Swiss passport below. ↩
  9. Ibid. ↩
  10. Biography of Jonas Tiefenbrunner found at the USHMM website at  https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/pa1144757 ↩
  11. See Note 8, supra. ↩
  12. See Note 10, supra. ↩
  13. See Note 8, supra. ↩

Max Rothschild: Escape to Argentina

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Fortunately, the story of the third child of Gerson Rothschild and Fanny Kugelmann, their son Max, does not end as tragically as that of his sister Katchen. Max was born in 1886, and, as we saw, he married Johanna Katz on October 19, 1919, in Zimmersrode, Germany. They had three sons, Erich, Fritz, and Richard. According to his marriage record, Max was a merchant in Zimmersrode.

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

Max and his family were among those who were able to leave Germany in time and thus survived the Holocaust. Thank you to Donna Levinsohn from the GerSIG Facebook group for finding them on a list of immigrants to Argentina at the CEMLA website. From that website I learned that Max listed his occupation as “agricola” and his sons listed theirs as “practicante agricola,” or in the practice of agriculture. Their date of arrival in Buenos Aires was May 25, 1939, on the ship Cap. Norte. Missing from this list is the third son of Max and Johanna, Fritz. According to Hal Katz. Max’s nephew and first cousin to his sons, Fritz immigrated with his parents and brothers, so I cannot account for the fact that he is missing from this passenger ship manifest index.1

Ship manifest facts for Max Rothschild and family from CEMLA website at https://cemla.com/buscador/

Although the family escaped the tragedy of being murdered by the Nazis, their life was not without tragedy. Just one month after arriving, Erich Rothschild died, perhaps from cholera, according to one tree on Ancestry. He was only eighteen years old. How devastating it must have been for the family to escape safely from Germany only to lose Erich so soon after leaving.

Andra Marx from the GerSIG Facebook group located Erich’s burial record on JewishGen; he was buried in the Jewish section of the cemetery in Moisesville, Argentina.

Erich Rothschild death and burial info from JewishGen, found at https://www.jewishgen.org/databases/cemetery/jowbr.php?rec=J_ARGENTIN_0260737

When I saw the name of the town—-Moisesville—-on that burial record in JewishGen, my immediate reaction was “Moses town,” that is, that it had to be a Jewish settlement in Argentina, and in fact that’s what it was. Interestingly, it was not founded by Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany, but many years before as a refuge for Russian Jews escaping persecution. According to Wikipedia, “Moises Ville was founded by a group of Russian Jewish immigrants who arrived in August 1889 aboard the SS Weser from Kamenetz-Podolsk, Ukraine.” But during the 1930s and 1940s, some German Jewish refugees like my Rothschild cousins were welcomed into that community. At one time there were four synagogues in Moisesville; today there are only 119 Jewish families there.

I do not know more about what life was like for Max, Johanna, Fritz (who became Frederico in Argentina), and Richard (who became Ricardo) in Argentina. Andra Marx located a notice in the Aufbau newspaper that announced that Max Rothschild died on January 14, 1962, at the age of 75 after a serious illness. He was mourned by his wife Johanna, who was living in Buenos Aires, his sons Frederico and Ricardo and Ricardo’s wife Ruth Heymann Rothschild, and other family members.

Death notice for Max Rothschild in The Aufbau, January 19, 1962, p. 29, found at https://archive.org/details/aufbau291962germ/page/n46/mode/1up?view=theater

Max is buried in Buenos Aires. His wife Johanna (Juana) survived him by 21 years; she died on December 27, 1983, and is buried next to Max in Buenos Aires. She was 91 years old.

Max Rothschild burial record from JewishGen, found at https://www.jewishgen.org/databases/cemetery/jowbr.php?rec=J_ARGENTIN_0226824

Johanna Katz Rothschild burial record at Jewish Gen, found at https://www.jewishgen.org/databases/cemetery/jowbr.php?rec=J_ARGENTIN_0226822

Their son Richard or Ricardo Rothschild died on August 18, 2012, at the age of 89. He is buried in the Jewish cemetery in Palacios Luis, Argentina, where his wife Ruth, who died on April 28, 1995, is also buried.

The inscriptions on both headstones read, “tu esposo/a hijos hijas  politicas y nietos te recuerdan con carino,” or “Your husband/wife, sons, daughters-in-law and grandchildren remember you fondly.” Ricardo and Ruth thus had at least two sons and grandchildren who survived them. I assume the sons are Eric (presumably named for his deceased uncle) and Mario Rothschild, who were named as mourners in the death notice for Max Rothschild.

Judy Katz, Hal Katz’s niece, informed me that Fritz also married and had children and grandchildren. They lived in Argentina and Germany. Fritz died in Germany just a few years ago.2  There are thus living descendants for Max and Johanna and their family.

Thank you again to Donna Levinsohn and to Andra Marx from the GerSIG Facebook group for their help in locating information about the Rothschilds in Argentina. And special thanks to my cousins Hal, Sandy, and Judy for sharing their memories of Max and his family.

 

 

  1. Zoom with Hal Katz and family on May 8, 2025. ↩
  2. Email from Judy Katz, May 8, 2025. ↩

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 and His Family: Life in America

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After escaping from Nazi Germany to England, the family of Siegmund Rothschild chose to immigrate from England to the United States in September 1940.

First, Siegmund and his younger son Werner left on August 30, 1940, arriving in Boston on September 14, 1940, and then Elise and their older son Ernst left England on September 18, 1940, arrived in Quebec, Canada, on September 27, 1942, then crossed the border into the United States.1 Elise must have been waiting for Ernst to be released from being interned as an enemy alien in England. Both Siegmund and Elise reported on their respective ship manifests that they were teachers, the profession they had practiced in Frankfurt before the Nazi era.

Siegmund and Werner Rothschild ship manifest, The National Archives in Washington, DC; Washington, DC; 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: 450, Ancestry.com. Massachusetts, U.S., Arriving Passenger and Crew Lists, 1820-1963

Elise and Ernst Rothschild, ship manifest, The National Archives; Kew, Surrey, England; BT27 Board of Trade: Commercial and Statistical Department and Successors: Outwards Passenger Lists; Reference Number: Series BT27-145937, Month: Sep, Ancestry.com. UK and Ireland, Outward Passenger Lists, 1890-1960

The family settled in New York City where on April 23, 1941, Siegmund filed a Declaration of Intention to become a United States citizen, now listing his occupation as a salesman.

Siegmund Rothschild declaration of intention, The National Archives at Philadelphia; Philadelphia, PA; NAI Title: Declarations of Intention For Citizenship, 1/19/1842 – 10/29/1959; NAI Number: 4713410; Record Group Title: Records of District Courts of the United States, 1685-2009; Record Group Number: 21, Description: (Roll 613) Declarations of Intention For Citizenship, 1842-1959 (No 484001-485000), Ancestry.com. New York, U.S., State and Federal Naturalization Records, 1794-1943

As the Projekt Judische Leben Frankfurt described their early life in America, “The new beginning in the USA was associated with challenging times for the couple. Neither of them could ever be active in the profession they had learned. Siegmund, with a doctorate in philosophy, first worked as a dishwasher. Until the end of his life he mostly kept his head above water with mini jobs.” Imagine how frustrating that must have been for Siegmund and Elise. And what  a waste of their knowledge and skills.

Both Siegmund and his older son Ernst, now using the more Anglicized Ernest, registered for the World War II draft; I haven’t found any evidence that either served in the military during the war. As their registration statements indicate, they were living at 558 West 164th Street in New York City in the Washington Heights neighborhood where so many Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany settled. Siegmund was working for the Gibraltar Manufacturing Company in Jersey City, New Jersey, and Ernest was working for Hugo Brand in Brooklyn.

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

Ernest Rothschild, 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

Werner may have had the easiest transition to life in the United States. According to the report in the Projekt Judische Leben Frankfurt website, “Werner was 12 years old in 1940 and felt like an American from day one, he emphasized. In order to contribute to the family income, he took various jobs. Early in the morning before school at 5:30 a.m. he delivered bread rolls, delivered meat to the households or brought the clothes from the dry cleaners to the apartments, seven days a week, upstairs and downstairs. He immediately felt like an American in his school too. He studied with 35% Afro-Americans and classmates of different nationalities. Something like normal came back to life.”

The 1950 US census shows Siegmund without a job, but both Ernst, now 28, and Werner, now 22, were working. Ernst owned a laundry where both young men were working. According to the Projekt Judische Leben Frankfurt website, however, that laundry did not provide much income for the family until a few years later.

Siegmund Rothschild, 1950 US census, National Archives at Washington, DC; Washington, D.C.; Seventeenth Census of the United States, 1950; Year: 1950; Census Place: New York, New York, New York; Roll: 3572; Page: 72; Enumeration District: 31-2290, Ancestry.com. 1950 United States Federal Census

Here is a photograph of Elise and Ernest in their laundromat:

Elise Bloch Rothschild and her son Ernest in their laundromat. Courtesy of the family

Sadly, Siegmund died on October 2, 1952, at the age of sixty-eight.2 According to the Projekt Judische Leben Frankfurt website, he suffered a heart attack after receiving an injection from a contaminated needle.

Ernest Rothschild married Margot Ochs in New York in 1954.3 Margot was born in Duren, Germany, on July 29, 1923,and like her husband Ernest, she had first escaped from Germany to England before immigrating to the US on December 27, 1939.4 Ernest and Margot had one child; he was given the middle name Siegmund presumably in memory of Ernest’s father Siegmund Rothschild.

Werner Rothschild married Audrie Max on December 21, 1958.5 Audrie was born in Allentown, Pennsylvania, on September 18, 1929, to Isadore Max and Minnie Vinkelstein.6 According to the Projekt Judische Leben Frankfurt website, Werner and Audrie met while vacationing in Florida. Werner and Audrie have three children.

The engagement announcement for Audrie and Werner in the Allentown newspaper, The Morning Call, on October 5, 1958 (p. 25) reported that Werner was a graduate of City College of New York and had received a master’s degree in school administration from Columbia University. He was working at that time as a teacher in Levittown, New York. How interesting that Werner pursued the teaching profession, the profession both his parents had lost as a result of Nazi persecution.

Ernest and Werner’s mother Elise Block Rothschild lived to 102, dying on May 2, 1991.7 As reported on the Projekt Judische Leben Frankfurt website, “Elise outlived her husband by 42 years and died very old at 102. She led a very independent life; it wasn’t until the age of 90, after a hip fracture, that she was admitted to the Margaret Tietz Nursing Home. … Elise worked in the family laundromat, taught English to German immigrants, and volunteered at the Young Men’s Hebrew Association, YMHA, library. She fought for compensation for many years and got a small pension from the 1950s onwards. Of course, this amount could not even come close to compensating for the enormous financial losses that had arisen as a result of the Nazi era and emigration and that shaped her life from then on.”

Ernest Rothschild died on December 11, 2011; he was 89 years old.8 His younger brother Werner is living, and I am hoping to be in touch with him soon. His first cousin Hal and Hal’s daughter Sandy and niece Judy are trying to connect me with Werner.

Given what happened to so many of Siegmund’s siblings and their families, Siegmund and his wife and children might by some be considered lucky because they survived. And yes, in some ways that is true. But look at how they also suffered because of Nazi persecution. Both Siegmund and his wife Elise lost their chosen careers as teachers; Ernest never became a dentist. These were psychological losses as well as financial losses. They also lost their homeland and most of their close family members. No one who was touched by Nazi persecution should ever be considered lucky.

For more information and photographs of the family, please see the Projekt Judische Leben Frankfurt website.

 

  1. Elise and Ernst Rothschild, The National Archives in Washington, DC; Washington, DC, USA; Manifests of Passengers Arriving At St. Albans, Vt, District Through Canadian Pacific and Atlantic Ports, 1895-1954; NAI: 4492490; Record Group: Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, 1787 – 2004; Record Group Number: 85; Series Number: M1464; Roll Number: 611, Ancestry.com. U.S., Border Crossings from Canada to U.S., 1895-1960; Elise and Ernst Rothschild, The National Archives at Washington, D.C.; Washington, D.C.; Series Title: Index to Alien Arrivals at Canadian Atlantic and Pacific Seaports; NAI Number: 3000080; Record Group Title: Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, 1787-2004; Record Group Number: 85, Ancestry.com. U.S., Index to Alien Arrivals at Canadian Atlantic and Pacific Seaports, 1904-1944 ↩
  2. Siegmund Rothschild, Age 66, Birth Date abt 1886, Death Date 2 Oct 1952
    Death Place Manhattan, New York, New York, USA, Certificate Number 20929, Ancestry.com. New York, New York, U.S., Death Index, 1949-1965 ↩
  3. Ernest Rothschild and Margot Ochs, Marriage License, Ernest Rothschild
    Gender Male, Marriage License Date 1954, Marriage License Place Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA, Spouse Margot Ochs, License Number 7121, New York City Municipal Archives; New York, New York; Borough: Manhattan, Ancestry.com. New York, New York, U.S., Marriage License Indexes, 1907-2018 ↩
  4. Margot Ochs, Declaration of Intention, Margot Ochs, Gender Female, Race
    White, Declaration Age 18 Record Type Naturalization Declaration, Birth Date
    29 Jul 1923, Birth Place Duren, Germany, Departure Place Southampton, England
    Arrival Date, 27 Dec 1939, Arrival Place New York, New York, USA Declaration Date
    24 Apr 1942, Declaration Place New York, Court U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, Declaration Number 520250, Box Number 395, The National Archives at Philadelphia; Philadelphia, PA; NAI Title: Declarations of Intention For Citizenship, 1/19/1842 – 10/29/1959; NAI Number: 4713410; Record Group Title: Records of District Courts of the United States, 1685-2009; Record Group Number: 21, Ancestry.com. New York, U.S., State and Federal Naturalization Records, 1794-1943 ↩
  5. Werner Rothschild, Gender Male, Residence Date Abt 1958, Residence Place New York City, Marriage Date 21 Dec 1958, Spouse Audrie Max, The Morning Call; Publication Date: 21/ Dec/ 1958; Publication Place: Allentown, Pennsylvania, USA; URL: https://www.newspapers.com/image/275138958/?article=8c58a828-c766-4dff-8c86-8cceadb65bd&focus=0.38331795,0.5598585,0.4987282,0.6864521&xid=3398
    Ancestry.com. U.S., Newspapers.com™ Marriage Index, 1800s-current ↩
  6. Audrie M Rothschild, Birth Date 18 Sep 1929, Residence Date 1993, Address 14 Joyce Ln, Residence Woodbury, NY, Postal Code 11797-2115, Ancestry.com. U.S., Public Records Index, 1950-1993, Volume 1; “Rothschild,” South Florida Sun Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale, FL), September 7, 2016, p. B6; Minnie Vinkelstein and Isadore Max marriage announcement, The Times-Tribune, Scranton, PA, November 18, 1919, p. 18; Isadore Max and family, 1930 US census, Year: 1930; Census Place: Allentown, Lehigh, Pennsylvania; Page: 12A; Enumeration District: 0038; FHL microfilm: 2341798, Ancestry.com. 1930 United States Federal Census ↩
  7. Elise O Rothschild, Birth Date 4 Apr 1892, Death Date 2 May 1994, Claim Date 6 Apr 1957, SSN 080181441, Ancestry.com. U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007 ↩
  8. Ernest Rothschild and Margot Ochs Rothschild gravestones at Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/245622521/ernest-rothschild: accessed April 7, 2025), memorial page for Ernest Rothschild (1922–2011), Find a Grave Memorial ID 245622521, citing Beth-El Cemetery, Paramus, Bergen County, New Jersey, USA; Maintained by dalya d (contributor 46972551). ↩