Tag Archives: Rosenblatt

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 ↩

Malchen Rothschild Rosenblatt’s Descendants in the Colonia Avigdor in Argentina

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As we saw, Malchen Rothschild and Daniel Rosenblatt’s daughters all were killed in the Holocaust. Their son Julius had died as a young man, leaving behind a young widow Julie Rosenblatt and their infant son Fredi. Julie and Fredi escaped to Uruguay, and thanks to Fredi’s son Julio, I’ve been able to learn and share much of their story.

Malchen and Daniel’s other two sons Felix and Siegmund escaped to Argentina, not Uruguay,1 and thanks to the magic of the internet, I am now in touch with Felix’s granddaughter in Argentina, Carmen. I found a photograph of the gravestone of Felix’s son Ludwig Rosenblatt (see below) on JewishGen and posted it on Tracing the Tribe, asking for a translation of the Hebrew inscription. A woman in the TTT group tagged Carmen when she saw my post, and Carmen, Ludwig Rosenblatt’s daughter, responded. Although Carmen doesn’t speak English and I don’t speak Spanish, we’ve managed to communicate, thanks to Google Translate and DeepL.

Carmen shared with me a lecture2 she delivered in 2018 to the Latin American Rabbinical Seminary about the community where her family has lived since 1936 when they immigrated from Germany to Argentina. It is in Spanish, and I’ve used DeepL to translate it and now will paraphrase and take excerpts from the translation to share the story of Carmen’s family and their community. Carmen also filled in other details through email.

As Carmen explained in her lecture, the German philanthropist Baron Maurice de Hirsch formed the Jewish Colonization Association (“JCA”) in the late 19th century to acquire land and create settlements in Argentina for Jews escaping persecution in Russia and Eastern Europe. When Hitler came to power in the 1930s, it became apparent that there was a need for more land and more places for German Jews to escape, so the JCA acquired additional land to create a new settlement called Colonia Avigdor, which is over 300 miles from Buenos Aires.

Thanks to the efforts of the JCA, Jewish families like Carmen’s were able to escape Nazi Germany. I asked Carmen what convinced her grandparents to leave Germany. She wrote that one night her grandfather’s car was confiscated by the Nazis in Zimmersrode, and when it was returned to him the next day, an official in the town told him: “Felix, this is getting very ugly for you Jews, take your family and leave Germany.” Felix replied, “How??? I have to sell my house, my things.” The official replied, “Leave everything, don’t sell anything… nobody is going to pay a Jew.” Felix contacted the JCA and asked for help to leave Germany and move to Argentina.

Carmen’s grandparents Felix and Minna (Goldwein) Rosenblatt and their sons were one of the ten families that first settled in Colonia Avigdor. They arrived in Buenos Aires, Argentina, with their sons Ludwig, then 17, and Siegfried, 20, and their daughter-in-law, Siegfried’s wife Jenny Feilmann, on January 25, 1936. As Carmen explained to me and in her lecture, because the JCA required a family to have five adults to qualify for the settlement program, Siegfried, although only twenty years old, had married Jenny at such a young age in order for the family to qualify.

After a few days in Buenos Aires, Felix, Minna, and their family traveled by train from Buenos Aires to Bovril, the closest train station to Avigdor. From there they traveled the last fifteen miles of the over 300 mile journey “by horse-drawn carts through trees and bushes in the woods along winding paths” to get to their new home. Carmen wrote that they were “full of hope that they would adapt to such a hard life and happy to set foot on land that promised above all FREEDOM and work to build a good future.”

Carmen’s description of their early lives cannot be paraphrased adequately; here is how DeepL translated her words:

Each of the settlers was allocated 75 hectares of land and a poorly constructed house made of mud-covered bricks with a dirt floor, two rooms, one kitchen, one veranda, and a bathroom at the back, about 10-15 meters away from the house. In each house, they found a bag of hard “cookies” (country bread), several days old… as well as some work tools, a few cows, some horses, some chickens… The next day, they got to work, first clearing the yards of wild trees, then the fields so they could plant them, building fences to divide them. It was very hard work, but as I said, they were happy because they had hope for progress. The women devoted themselves more to the tasks in the yard, tending to the chickens and other poultry, milking the cows for the milk they consumed, in addition to their household chores. They had to knead the bread in wood-fired ovens, whose mouths opened into the kitchen…

They say that at first, these women did these tasks crying practically all day (and at night too) because of the precarious conditions around them… there was no electricity, the lamps were kerosene… there were no refrigerators, no appliances whatsoever. And it should be emphasized that they came from an advanced civilization in Germany… Some, those who came from small towns, adapted more easily, but those who came from cities such as Berlin, Munich, Frankfurt, etc., of which there were many… found it extremely difficult, or simply could not get used to it…

Colonists plowing the land
Courtesy of Carmen Rosenblatt

A colonist’s yard
Courtesy of Carmen Rosenblatt

Children coming to school
Courtesy of Carmen Rosenblatt

The community grew as more and more refugees came from Germany; eventually there were about 120 families. The settlers engaged in many forms of agricultural work: dairy, livestock, farming, gardening, and beekeeping. They established a cooperative to market their products. A school was established by the JCA, and there was a post office, a synagogue, a kosher butcher, and a Hebrew teacher. There was even a small hospital to provide health care to the settlers and a social center for dances, theaters, and orchestral performances. Land was also set aside for a cemetery.

The synagogue in Colonia Avigdor
Courtesy of Carmen Rosenblatt

Interior of the synagogue
Courtesy of Carmen Rosenblatt

But conditions remained fairly primitive for a long time. It wasn’t until 1971 that there was electricity in the colony, and there were only dirt roads until 1987. Despite all these challenges, Felix and Minna and their children remained at Colonia Avigdor, working hard to achieve their dreams.

Their younger son Ludwig Rosenblatt married Ruth Plaut, another refugee from Germany, in 1944. They had two children, Carmen and her sister Alicia. Ludwig’s older brother Siegfried and his wife Jenny also had two daughters, Miriam and Lenore.

Felix Rosenblatt died on February 4, 1955, and is buried at the Centro Unión Israelita de Colonia Avigdor cemetery in Colonia Avigdor, Argentina, as is his wife Minna Goldwein Rosenblatt, who died on February 16, 1969. Here is a photograph of their gravestones.

Felix and Minna Rosenblatt headstones from JOWBR database, found at https://data.jewishgen.org/imagedata/jowbr/ARG-06046/WA0125.JPG

Their son and Carmen’s father Ludwig Rosenblatt died on October 10, 1977, and is buried at the same cemetery as his parents. He was only 57 when he died. As translated by the kind people at Tracing the Tribe, the Hebrew reads: “Here [lies] buried / Leib son of Uri / a reputable man / a faithful protector of / his family / an example for his descendants / [we] remember him with love / may his soul be bound in the bond of [eternal] life.”  The footstone engraving in Spanish mentions his wife, children, and grandchildren; it was placed there on the occasion of what would have been his 70th birthday on November 15, 1989.

Ludwig Rosenblatt headstone at JOWBR database, found at https://data.jewishgen.org/imagedata/jowbr/ARG-06046/WA0143.JPG

As for Siegfried Rosenblatt, Felix’s other son, he died on October 23, 2004, and is buried at Cementerio Israelita De San Vicente Cordoba, in Cordoba, Argentina; he was predeceased by his wife Jenny Feilmann who died on May 23, 1978, and is buried in the same cemetery.3 Their daughter Lenore, who was born on November 2, 1940, died on April 27, 2001.4

Carmen still lives in Colonia Avigdor with her husband Abraham Isaac Kogan, whom she married almost 58 years ago. They had two sons, one of whom passed away; the other still lives in Argentina, but not in Colonia Avigdor. Today there are only about twelve Jewish families left in Colonia Avigdor because many people left long ago to live in the cities. Carmen wrote, “These days, basic services such as electricity, water, roads, television, communications, etc. are practically comparable to those in cities… the precariousness has been overcome… but let’s not forget that since the founding of Avigdor in 1936, 82 years have passed… and the vast majority have left…”

Carmen generously shared with me some photographs of her extended family. This photograph was taken at her wedding in 1967.

Photograph taken at Carmen Rosenblatt’s wedding to Abraham Kogan in 1967, courtesy of Carmen Rosenblatt. Standing from left to right: Ruth Plaut, Carmen’s mother; Ludwig Rosenblatt, Carmen’s father; Abraham Isaac Kogan; Carmen Alexander; Jenny Feilmann, wife of Siegfred Rosenblatt; Siegfried Rosenblatt, Carmen’s uncle Seated: Family friend,\; Minna Goldwein, Carmen’s grandmother; Else Schwab, wife of Sigmund Rosenblatt; Sigmund Rosenblatt, Carmen’s great-uncle.

This more recent photograph was taken in 1981 on the occasion of Carmen’s son’s bar mitzvah. I think it illustrates how Jewish traditions are similar all over the world. This photograph could have been taken at any bar mitzvah in the US in 1981, and it would have looked very much the same.

Abraham Kogan, Andres Kogan, Carmen Rosenblatt, Marcelo Kogan, 1981. Courtesy of Carmen Rosenblatt

Carmen’s story has given me a new perspective on the lives of those who escaped from Nazi Germany. It’s hard to imagine how they adapted to such a hard life—a precarious one, to use Carmen’s word. They were coming from a place where their ancestors had lived for centuries to a primitive place, far from any city, where people spoke a language they didn’t know, and they had to live according to the rules and subject to the authority of the JCA—and yet they were filled with hope and grateful for the chance to survive and live freely.

All this reminds me to be grateful for what I have and to empathize with all those around the world who are forced to abandon their homes in search of a safer and better life.

 

 

  1. Although they came from different villages in Germany and ended up in different countries in South America, the Rosenblatts in Uruguay and the Rosenblatts in Argentina have stayed in touch and even visited each other over the years. Julie Rosenblatt was a first cousin to Felix and Siegmund as well as their sister-in-law. ↩
  2. Carmen Rosenblatt, unpublished lecture, “Immigracion de Judio Perseguidos en Alemania, Colonizados en Los Campos de Colonio Avigdor (Entre Rios),” (September 2018). ↩
  3. See burial records at the JOWBR database at JewishGen, found at https://www.jewishgen.org/databases/cemetery/jowbr.php?rec=J_ARGENTIN_0036804 and at https://www.jewishgen.org/databases/cemetery/jowbr.php?rec=J_ARGENTIN_0036805 ↩
  4. See burial records at the JOWBR database at JewishGen, found at https://www.jewishgen.org/databases/cemetery/jowbr.php?rec=J_ARGENTIN_0071081 ↩

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!