Tag Archives: The Holocaust

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. ↩

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 ↩

Yom Hashoah 2025

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Before I started researching my family history back in 2010, I believed that I had no relatives who were killed in the Holocaust. Since then I have learned that there are so many of my cousins who were killed by the Nazis that I have lost count—babies, children, teenagers, mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters, grandparents, the frail and the elderly—innocent people who were put to death for no reason other than their Jewish identity.

Here we are 80 years after the Holocaust and we are still seeing people being despised and targeted because of their identities. There is still widespread antisemitism, but also widespread racism and islamophobia. We seem to have learned nothing.

On Yom Hashoah let’s work for and hope for the end of all kinds of intolerance and hatred.

Another update: Alfred Meyer Survived The Holocaust

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Almost five years ago I wrote about Alfred Meyer, son of Regina Goldschmidt and Aaron Meyer and my third cousin, twice removed. He was born in Frankfurt, Germany, on June 16, 1875, and that was almost all I knew about him. The only other records I could find for Alfred were two Holocaust era records on file at the Arolsen Archives. Both indicated that Alfred had left Germany for France on April 24, 1939, and was still there as of November 3, 1939. I couldn’t find any other records for him.

Had he ever married? Did he have children? I didn’t know. Had he died in the Holocaust? There were no records for him at Yad Vashem or at the US Holocaust Memorial and Museum. I was left without any further information.

Until, that is, a few weeks ago when I received an email from another researcher named Ofra Karo. Ofra and I had been in touch over a year ago about a different branch of my tree, but now she was writing to say that she had found additional information about Alfred Meyer. For one thing, she had found a marriage record for Alfred indicating that he had married Augustine Marguerite K/Brat in Paris, France on August 11, 1911.

Alfred Meyer marriage record, Archives de Paris; Paris, France; État-Civil 1792-1902, Certificate Number: 0553-0836, Paris, France, Births, Marriages, and Deaths, 1555-1929

At first I was skeptical. What was Alfred doing in France in 1911 if he was in Frankfurt in 1939? Was this the same Alfred Meyer? But after studying the marriage record and relying on my rusty high school French, I saw that this was indeed the same man—-son of Regina Goldschmidt and Aaron Meyer, born in Frankfurt, Germany, on June 16, 1875. And he was at that time residing in Paris. Given that Alfred was a grandson of Jacob Goldschmidt, whose family owned the international art and antiques business, it wasn’t really surprising that Alfred was living in Paris in 1911, perhaps working for the family’s business.

Ofra also directed me to a death record for Alfred. He had not died in the Holocaust, but had lived long enough to die after World War II. He died on January 27, 1947, in Gennevilliers, France, and had been residing in Clichy, France, a suburb of Paris just a few miles from where he died. He was 71 and a widower at the time of his death. No occupation was listed.1

Unfortunately, I have no other sources at this time for Alfred. Ofra found a tree on Ancestry that appears to be created by Alfred’s granddaughter and has many photos of family members. I tried to contact that tree owner through Ancestry without success, and I have looked to see if I could find her outside of Ancestry without success. Because I cannot confirm the information in that tree, I am not comfortable relying on it. If it is accurate, it does appear that Alfred had a son and has living descendants, but I cannot confirm that at this time.

At any rate, I do now know that Alfred did not die in the Holocaust. How he survived remains a mystery.

  1. There are two men named Alfred Meyer on this page—same age, same day of death, both with spouses with the first name Augustine. Ofra suggested that the one on Line 14 is a correction of the one on Line 8. That seems a reasonable assumption. ↩

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. ↩

A Brick Wall Tumbles: The Fates of August Felix Katzenstein and Julius Katzenstein, Orphaned Sons of Meier Katzenstein, Part I

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Thanks to my friend Aaron Knappstein and my cousin Richard Bloomfield, an old brick wall has recently come down. Over seven years ago I wrote about the tragic story of Meier Katzenstein and his family. You can find all the sources, citations, and details here. But I will briefly outline their story.

Meier, my great-grandmother Hilda Katzenstein Schoenthal’s first cousin, lost his first wife Auguste Wolf in 1876, shortly after she gave birth to their son August Felix Katzenstein. Meier remarried and had two more children with his second wife Bertha Speier:  Julius Katzenstein, born in 1879, and Ida Katzenstein, born in 1880. Both Ida and her mother Bertha died in April 1881, less than a year after Ida’s birth. Meier was left with two young sons, August, who was five years old, and Julius, who was two.

And then Meier himself died three years later in 1884, leaving August and Julius orphaned at eight and five, respectively. I couldn’t imagine what had happened to those two little boys. Who took care of them? What happened to them? This post will follow up on August, and the one to follow will be about his half-brother Julius.

I had been able to find out some of what happened to August as an adult when I initially wrote about him over seven years. He had married his first cousin, once removed, Rosa Bachenheimer in Kirchain, Germany, in 1900 when he was twenty-four years old. August and Rosa had two children, Margarete and Hans-Peter. All four of them were killed by the Nazis during the Holocaust. I knew that much, but there were still some gaping holes in my research. Where had August lived after his father died? Did he have any grandchildren? If so, did they survive the Holocaust?

So I went back now to to double-check my research and see if I could find anything more about August Felix Katzenstein and his family. I am so glad I did.

First, I learned at Yad Vashem that August and Rosa’s daughter Margarete had married Rudolf Loewenstein and had had two children with him: Klaus, born March 16, 1930, in Soest, Germany, and Klara, born June 9, 1932, in Soest, Germany. Unfortunately, Rudolf, Margarete and their two young children were also killed along with their grandparents and uncle during the Holocaust.

Then I found this Stolpersteine biography of August Katzenstein on a website about the history of the community of Essen, revised in 2024 by Mr. and Mrs. Hülskemper-Niemannn. It provides in part, as translated by Google Translate:

August Katzenstein was orphaned at a very early age. He then lived for a long time in the household of the parents of his future wife Rosa Bachenheimer from Kirchhain, whom he married around the turn of the century. The couple had two children: Margarethe (1901, later Loewenstein) and Hans (1905). August Katzenstein moved with his family to Steele in 1908 and took up a position as a teacher in the one-class Jewish elementary school at Isinger Tor. …

After 1933, the Katzensteins’ lives changed radically. In 1937, the Gestapo arrested the couple because they were allegedly managing the assets of a dissolved Jewish organization. After a search of their apartment and rigorous interrogation and warnings, the couple were released. Even worse happened to August Katzenstein, who taught at the Jewish elementary school in Essen on Sachsenstrasse after the Jewish elementary school in Steele was closed, during and after the November pogrom. The apartment on Grendtor (then Ruhrstrasse) was destroyed and looted, and he and his disabled son Hans were arrested. While the 62-year-old father was released from police prison after 11 days, Hans was taken to Dachau despite written requests from his parents, from where he was only released after four weeks.

In the autumn of 1941, the deportation of Jews began across the Reich, including in Essen. … Half a year later, Katzenstein and his entire family were deported to Izbica. 

So now I know who had taken care of August after his father died: Rosa’s parents Sussman Bachenheimer and his wife Esther Ruelf, my second cousin, twice removed. I wrote about them here. I also now know that August had become a teacher and lived in Steele, Germany, a suburb of Essen, Germany.

I found additional information about August and his family at Yad Vashem. The website has been updated since I had last researched August Katzenstein, and I found these documents I had not seen before from the Yizkor Book for the Jews of the Essen community who had been killed during the Holocaust. I asked my cousin Richard Bloomfield to translate these pages, and he graciously (and quickly!) agreed to do so.

Richard’s translation provides:

August Katzenstein was a Mensch.

He was a German citizen and of the Jewish faith, whose teachings shaped his life. He was born on September 13, 1876, in Jesberg/Hesse and lived in the Jewish community of Steinheim in Westphalia until 1908, where he held the office of teacher and religious official. With his wife Rosa, née Bachenheimer, he had a daughter Margarete, born in 1901, and a son Jacob (Hans), born in 1905.

August Katzenstein saw his work as a teacher not just as a profession, but as a vocation. In his eyes, the teacher was not only an imparter of knowledge, he was also a leading figure in the Jewish community who had to ensure a harmonious relationship between the community and school life.

Beginning at the age of 20, August Katzenstein decided to represent not only the interests of his community and pupils, but also those of German citizens of the Jewish faith as a whole.

He joined the “Central Association of German Citizens of the Jewish Faith” “Central-Verein deutscher Staatsbürger jüdischen Glaubens”.

Until he moved to Essen in 1908, he was a representative of the C.-V. local group in Steinheim.

After moving to Essen Steele, he taught at the Jewish elementary school there. The importance that Katzenstein attached to the new self-image of Jews as German citizens of the Jewish faith can be seen in his speech on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Jewish school, in which he states,

“For 50 years now, the youth of the Jewish community has received their education in the Jewish school to become faithful Israelites and loyal citizens who love their fatherland, in addition to their general education. May the Jewish school continue to work beneficially for God, for the fatherland and for humanity, true to its guiding principles.”

The mission of the independent order “Bnai Brith” founded in the USA, spiritual self-education, the promotion of science and art, help for the persecuted and needy and the defense of Jewish citizens in the event of anti-Semitic attacks led August Katzenstein to join the Glück-Auf-Lodge of “Bnai Brith” in Essen in 1911 and of which he was president until April 1935.

Until his retirement in 1937, he also headed the Jewish relief organization in Essen-Steele. But despite his retirement, he did not neglect the members of the community whose employ he had left.

The ban and immediate dissolution of the “Bnai Brith” order by Himmler’s decree of April 10, 1937, resulted in August Katzenstein’s arrest on April 19, 1937, after his apartment and all the rooms of the Glück-Auf-Loge had already been searched two days earlier.

August Katzenstein then had to endure hours of interrogation under threat of state police measures. He was forced to sign a declaration that he had no further property belonging to the Glück-Auf-Lodge at his disposal and that he was not aware of where further material might be hidden, as documented in the Gestapo protocol of the same day.

During the so-called Reichskristallnacht on November 9, 1938, the Katzenstein family’s home at Ruhrstrasse 24 was also severely damaged. One day later, August Katzenstein and his disabled son were arrested again. They were held in the police prison in Essen until November 19, 1938. After his release, August Katzenstein wrote a letter to the Gestapo asking them to release his son, who had been sent to Dachau concentration camp. His son Jacob (Hans) then returned on December 21, 1938.

However, not only the care of his family, but also the suffering of the community entrusted to him had become his life’s purpose. Even the destruction of the school and synagogue as the center of the community during the November pogrom could not break August Katzenstein’s will to live in the Jewish faith.

In January 1939, August Katzenstein carried out his last community-related activity, officiating at the wedding of a young couple in the wife’s parental home.

On April 22, 1942, August Katzenstein, his wife Rosa, his son Hans, his daughter Margarete, his son-in-law Rudolf Loewenstein and his two grandchildren were deported to Izbica. No trace of them remains.

His strong faith and the willpower born of it made him a lovable, upright person whose care for his Jewish community defined his life.

Contemporary Jewish witnesses describe August Katzenstein as a wonderful person of integrity, very wise, reserved and fully committed to his Judaism. As a teacher, he was not only a person of respect for the children, but “more like a father.” August Katzenstein was a man whose life was simply snuffed out because he was Jewish.

Nikolaus-Gross, Abendgymnasium Essen, Semester 4

I wondered whether August’s “retirement” from teaching was voluntary or forced upon him by the Nazis, and although it’s still not clear, Richard also found this article about August’s retirement published on November 1, 1936, in the Jüdische Schulzeitung [Monthly journal for education, instruction and school policy; official publication of the Reich Association of Jewish Teachers’ Associations], (p.6):

Richard translated the article for me:

On September 30, 1936, after 40 years of beneficial work in the service of Jewish schools and 7 years of work at the local Jewish elementary school in Essen, teacher and preacher August Katzenstein of Essen-Steele, who recently turned 60, retired. With him, one of the best representatives of the older Jewish generation of teachers leaves the teaching profession.

The school held a farewell party in the festively decorated classroom. Principal Isaac paid tribute to the departing teacher’s services to Jewish schools in general and to the Jewish Elementary School in Essen in particular. Principal Buchheim of Dortmund conveyed the wishes of the Association of Israelite Teachers of the Rhineland and Westphalia. Mr. Lieblich spoke as a representative of the Steele Synagogue community.

The children of the class that Mr. Katzenstein taught last, as well as the school choir led by teacher Levisohn, contributed to the ceremony with poems and songs.

Finally, colleague Katzenstein gave a heartfelt thank you.

Obviously, August was a well-loved, well-respected teacher and community leader. His early childhood was quite miserable—losing his mother, then his stepmother and half-sister, then his father—all before he was nine years old. But despite that tragic beginning, he lived a full and productive life, filled with meaning, faith, family, and love. How someone recovers from so much tragedy is amazing to me.

But then the Nazis came to power and destroyed August’s life and his family. I am so glad I went back to see if I could learn more about his life, and I am so grateful to Richard for his translation of the documents from the Essen Yizkor Book and for finding the article about August’s retirement. I found comfort in knowing that despite his tragic beginning and ending, August found fulfillment and meaning in his life.

But what about his younger brother Julius? I had known even less about him when I first researched this family. I couldn’t find anything that revealed what happened to him after his parents died. I couldn’t find a marriage record, a death record, a birth record for any children—-not one thing. Fortunately, he was not listed at Yad Vashem, so presumably had not shared the fate of his brother August. But where had he gone? Who had taken care of this little orphaned boy?

I will report on what I’ve learned about Julius in my next post.

 

 

 

Cousin Meetings: Richard and Max Meet in Merano, Max and I Meet on Cape Cod

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One of the greatest gifts I’ve received through my genealogy research is connecting with and getting to know new cousins. Some are as close as second cousins, some as distant as fifth or even sixth cousins. But none of that seems to matter once we have connected.

Sometimes these connections are only through email. Sometimes they are by phone. And sometimes I have been able to connect with cousins and get to see their faces and get to know them through Zoom. There are cousins from all over the US and the world with whom I have emailed, phoned, and/or zoomed—some as far away as Israel, Germany, France, Switzerland, England, and Australia, some as close as right here in Massachusetts.

I’ve been especially blessed when I’ve gotten to meet and spend time with a cousin in person. And that has happened far more times than I’d ever, ever have predicted. I have had meals with cousins in all kinds of places—in western Massachusetts where I once lived and on Cape Cod where I now live, in Florida and in New York City, in Boston and in Philadelphia, and even overseas—in Germany and in London. Each time it has been a truly joyful experience. Even though we had never met before and even though our connection may go back several generations to an ancestor we never knew, there was still something magical about meeting a cousin.

So I was somewhat envious but also thrilled when I learned that two cousins I’d found through my research and then connected to each other—Richard Bloomfield and Max Bermann—were able to meet in Merano, Italy, this past spring. Richard is my fifth cousin through his 3x-great-grandfather Jakob Blumenfeld, a younger brother of my 3x-great-grandmother Breine Blumenfeld; Max is also my fifth cousin, but through his 3x-great-grandfather Moses Blumenfeld, an older brother of Breine Blumenfeld, my 3x-great-grandmother. And Richard and Max are fifth cousins to each other; we are all the 4x-great-grandchildren of Abraham and Geitel (Katz) Blumenfeld.

Although I had zoomed and emailed with Max and Richard many times, I had never met either of them—until last Thursday, that is, when my husband and I had dinner with Max and his wife Glenna here on Cape Cod. Again, it was a magical and joyful experience. The warmth and connection were authentic and immediate, and we found so much to talk about in the three hours we sat at Fin, an amazing restaurant in Dennis. When we looked around at 10 pm, we realized we were the only ones left in the restaurant; the staff were all sitting around the bar politely not disturbing us, but obviously waiting for us to leave. After repeated promises to get together again, we all hugged goodbye, leaving as not just cousins but four new friends.

At dinner Max and Glenna told us about their trip in May, 2024, to Merano and meeting Richard and his wife Irma there. Why, you might ask, did they meet in Merano, Italy, a town not far from the Austrian border when Richard lives in Switzerland and Max in Massachusetts?

Well, that requires some background about Max’s life. I’ve shared Max’s story before on the blog, and I hope you will go back to the earlier blog posts for more details and photographs as well as for my sources for the information below. Also, Richard wrote a comprehensive biography of Max’s family.

But here is a very brief overview of why Max was visiting Merano:

Max’s mother was Edith Blumenfeld, daughter of Max Blumenfeld and Anna Grunwald. She married Joseph Bermann, Max’s father, in 1935.1 Joseph was born in Merano, Italy, where his father Max Bermann was a doctor and the director of the Waldpark Sanitarium. Joseph also became a doctor and worked there as well. After marrying, Edith and Joseph settled in Merano.

My cousin Max, grandson of both Max Blumenfeld and Max Bermann and named for both, was born in Merano a few years after his parents’ marriage. His father Joseph left Merano for the US in 1939 to escape from the Nazi and Fascist persecution and the impending war, intending to send for Edith, Max, and Max’s older sister Margherita once he was settled. But World Was II intervened, and Edith and the children could not get out of Europe.

They soon left Merano for Milan and then for the countryside of Italy where they hid their Jewish identity while Edith worked for the resistance as a courier. Once the war ended, Edith brought the children to the US, and they were reunited with Joseph. The story of how Edith kept herself, her mother, and her children safe during the war is a remarkable one and is described here on my blog and in Richard’s biography of Max’s family.

Max had never been back to Merano, his birthplace, after immigrating to the US in 1946, and he and his wife Glenna decided to visit there this year. The visit was motivated in part to see a painting of Max’s paternal grandfather, Max Bermann, a painting that Joseph Bermann had brought with him to the US in 1939 and that had been in Max’s parents’ home in New York City. It had then hung in Max and Glenna’s home for many years. Because he wanted to be sure that the painting was preserved in a safe and appropriate place in perpetuity, Max decided to donate the painting to the Jewish Museum in Merano, his birthplace and his father’s family home for many years. After shipping the painting there last year, Max and Glenna wanted to see it in its new home in Merano.

Meanwhile, Richard, born and raised in the United States, lives near St. Gallen, Switzerland, and thus about five hours from Merano. Richard had helped to connect Max with the Merano Jewish Museum, and when Richard learned that Max and Glenna were coming to Merano, he asked whether he and his wife Irma could meet them there. Max and Glenna were delighted.

Richard has generously shared with me some of the photographs of their meeting and an essay he wrote about the experience. I will quote parts of what he wrote rather than trying to paraphrase it.2 I am also going to include some of his photographs.

“Last Sunday we [Richard and Irma, his wife] stood on the balcony of our hotel room in Meran and looked across the Passer River at the Hotel Meraner Hof where Max and Glenna were going to be staying. It had been just two and a half weeks since Max had written me that he and Glenna were going to travel to Meran. Max had donated a painting of his grandfather [Max Bermann] to the Jewish Museum in Meran and wanted to have the experience of seeing it on display. When I asked Max if he would mind if Irma and I came to meet them there, Max wrote that he found that touching. Although we are 5th cousins, i.e. relatives, and had had email and Zoom contact, we didn’t want to intrude on Max’s first trip back to his place of birth since leaving it at age 2.

Our first live encounter took place when we waved to each other from our balcony to their terrasse. Shortly thereafter, we greeted each other with big hugs, sat down for a drink and exchanged the special, personal gifts we had brought for each other. We were joined by Sabine Mayr, researcher and co-worker at the Jewish Museum, and the museum’s director Joachim Innerhofer. Joachim and Sabine welcomed us like VIPs: Max, the long-lost son; I, the person who had connected Max with the museum in Meran and provided them with lots of information from my family research; Glenna and Irma as though they were long lost members of the Jewish community in Meran.

Remembering the adage that the way to the heart is through the stomach, we headed off to a restaurant for dinner. Unfortunately, Joachim had an appointment and couldn’t join us. Maybe we should have had an empty chair at the table for Amy, the person who had done the matchmaking between Max and me (and lots of other cousins!).

Richard, Sabina Mayr, Irma, Glenna, and Max

Monday morning we visited the synagogue and museum just behind Max and Glenna’s hotel. The first synagogue in Tirol was dedicated on 27 March 1901 and the interior has survived in its original form. When the Nazis removed the pews to use the room as a horse stall, the people of Meran saved them and returned them after the war. The very attractive Jewish Museum of Meran is located in the same building.

The sanctuary pictured below is warm – comfy – and inviting. Even with just seven rows of pews on the main floor, there is more than enough room for the 50 members of the community. Here is where Max’s family had worshipped. Today services with a rabbi are only held on holidays.

Merano synagogue

Irma, Richard, Max, and Glenna standing in front of the ark in the Merano synagogue

The name Bermann is embroidered into the parochet or curtain that covers the ark

At long last we descended the steps to the museum under the sanctuary. Just around the corner to the right of the entrance Max found his grandfather Max [Bermann]! …

Richard and Max standing in front of the portrait of Max’s paternal grandfather, also named Max Bermann

 This picture of [Max’s relatives’] wedding in 1926 hangs on the other side of the room to the right of [his grandfather] Max’s portrait. When Max saw it, he ex-claimed: “Look, there’s my father!” (1) (1898-1966). Joachim pointed to the right edge of the photo where Max’s grandfather with a long white beard is pictured (2) (1865-1933). “And there’s my grandmother next to him” (3) (1870-1958)….

…

A rather long and wet walk took us to the Waldpark Sanatorium where Max was born and lived for two years: In 1907, [his grandfather] Doctor Max Bermann acquired the Villa Paulista from John Stoddard and founded the Waldpark Sanatorium, which he ran as a specialist in internal medicine. In the early 1930s, two buildings were added, and in the following years the main building was renovated and enlarged. Claiming that the owners were indebted, the buildings and the large park surrounding them were sold at auction in 1941. (Source: Jewish Meran Walking Tour, Jewish Museum of Meran)

Although Max was only two when he left Meran in 1940, he thinks he remembers a white fence surrounding the Waldpark. Indeed, the fence is still white!

Max’s birthplace in Merano

…

On Tuesday it did not rain, and the sun eventually came out. A chair lift carried us up to a place above Meran where we had a good view of the city and the surrounding countryside….

….

Before dinner we wanted to visit the New (1908!) Jewish Cemetery where members of the Bermann family are buried. After a stop at the memorial for the victims of the Shoah… we went to visit the graves of Max’s grandfathers, Max Bermann and Max Blumenfeld….

Max is standing next to Grandfather Bermann’s headstone, and both of us touched together the gravestone of our common relative Max Blumenfeld (1880-1936). The common roots that Max and I have that we have talked and written about became something living here in the cemetery.”

—————————–

I am so glad that Richard and Max were able to meet and share this moving experience together. It makes me appreciate how fortunate I have been to find so many cousins and to help them find each other.

And now I also have had the special opportunity to spend time with my cousin Max and his wife Glenna and to feel those common roots. His life and mine had such different beginnings—his as a small child hiding from persecution in Italy, mine as a middle class American child growing up in suburban New York after the war, never worrying about antisemitism.

But here we are so many decades later, both living in Massachusetts less than ninety miles apart. In so many ways our lives have taken similar paths despite those very different beginnings, and we have far more in common than those different beginnings would have predicted.

I am so lucky and so grateful for all the gifts that genealogy has brought to my life, especially all my amazing cousins like Richard and Max!

  1. I have seen records that spell his name Joseph, others that spell it Josef. For consistency purposes I have used the American spelling Joseph since he was born Giuseppe and kept that name until he immigrated to the US in 1939. ↩
  2. Merano was once under Austrian control, but after World War I it became part of Italy. The town uses both the German-Austrian spelling Meran, which Richard uses, and the Italian spelling Merano, which I use. Both are equally acceptable. ↩

Levi Rothschild’s Daughters Thekla Rothschild Weinberg and Frieda Rothschild Phillipsohn: One Survived, One Did Not

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This is the story of the last two children of Levi Rothschild and Clara Jacob who lived to adulthood, their daughters Thekla and Frieda. Both have heartbreaking stories though Thekla survived and Frieda did not.

The fifth child of Levi and Clara, their daughter Thekla, married Manuel Edward Weinberg on August 19, 1907, in Borken. Manuel was born in Lichenroth, Germany, to Lazarus Weinberg and Karoline Oppenheimer on October 11, 1880.

Thekla Rothschild and Manuel Weinberg marriage record, Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv; Wiesbaden, Deutschland; Bestand: 920; Laufende Nummer: 843, Ancestry.com. Hesse, Germany, Marriages, 1849-1930

Thekla and Manuel had a son Hans Herbert Weinberg born in Frankfurt, Germany, on November 2, 1908.1

After Kristallnacht in November 1938, Manuel Weinberg was imprisoned at Buchenwald for a short time,2 and that may have motivated the family to leave Germany. By 1940 if not before, the family had left Germany for France, and according to Yad Vashem, Thekla’s husband Manuel was deported in 1940 to the internment camp near Toulouse, France known as the Recebedou camp.3

According to one website, the camp of Recebedou was created in July 1940 to receive refugees and those who had been evacuated. It was turned into a hospital camp in February 1941. But conditions in the camp deteriorated over time due to the lack of adequate medical care and a shortage of food. By late 1941, there were 739 interns, many of whom were over 60 and ill; 118 of them died in the winter of 1941-1942. Manuel Weinberg was one of those who died; he died on March 4, 1942.4

I don’t know for certain whether Thekla or their son Herbert, as he came to be known, were also interned at Recebedou because there are no documents I can find that indicate that they were. However, I do know that they must have been in France because Herbert and his wife, Edith Seckbach, had a daughter Yvonne born in Toulouse, France sometime in 1943.5  I could not find a marriage record for Herbert and Edith, but according to other records, Edith was born in Wiesbaden, Germany, in about 1918. 6

Wherever they were in France, somehow Thekla, Herbert, Edith, and their baby daughter survived. A document on Ancestry’s collection of Munich, Vienna and Barcelona Jewish Displaced Persons and Refugee Cards, 1943-1959 (JDC) indicates that as of November 1942, Thekla, Herbert, Edith, and Yvonne were in Vigo, Spain, which is almost seven hundred miles from Toulouse, France. How they got there in the midst of the war is a story I do not know.

Ancestry.com. Munich, Vienna and Barcelona Jewish Displaced Persons and Refugee Cards, 1943-1959 (JDC)

From Vigo they went to Madrid as of December 26, 1943. The Refugee Card lists two people as the “parents,” which I assume really means sponsors in this situation. One was Walter Hirschmann, Thekla’s nephew, the son of her sister Betti Rothschild Hirschmann.7 The other, Jacob Bleibtreu, was a banker and later a governor of the New York Stock Exchange who had immigrated to the US from Germany as a young man in 1909. He also was on the Greater New York Army and Navy Committee of the Jewish Welfare Board. Perhaps he knew Walter from the banking and broker business and agreed to help rescue his aunt and other family members.8

On March 23, 1944, Thekla, Herbert, Edith, and Yvonne all arrived in Philadelphia after sailing from Lisbon, Portugal. The ship manifest shows that they all had last been residing in Madrid, Spain, and were heading to Montreal, Canada under the sponsorship of the Joint Distribution Committee. Herbert reported that he was a chemist by occupation.

Thekla Weinberg and family passenger manifest, The National Archives at Washington, D.C.; Washington, D.C.; Series Title: Passenger Lists of Vessels Arriving at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; NAI Number: 4492386; Record Group Title: Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, 1787-2004; Record Group Number: 85; Series: T840; Roll: 177, Ancestry.com. Pennsylvania, U.S., Arriving Passenger and Crew Lists, 1798-1962

Herbert’s wife Edith must not have lived very long after their voyage from Portugal to Philadelphia because on September 8, 1946, Herbert married his second wife, Anna or Anya Grodzky, in Hochelaga, Quebec, Canada. Anna was born in Russia on June 18, 1910, and was a beautician. Herbert is listed as a widower on their marriage record and as a chemist by trade.

Hans Herbert Weinberg marriage to Anna Grodsky, Marriage Sep 8 1946 Westmount, Québec, Canada, Groom Herbert Hans Weinberg, Groom’s birth 1908 Germany, Bride Anna Goodsky, Certificate number upd46-128967, Quebec Marriage Returns, 1926-1997, found at https://www.myheritage.com/research/record-10723-1831907/herbert-hans-weinberg-and-anna-goodsky-in-quebec-marriage-returns

The family all settled in Montreal, where Thekla died on March 11, 1962, at the age of 76.9 Herbert lost his second wife Anna on July 9, 1976.10 He died February 12, 2001, at the age of 92, and was survived by his third wife Sally Lazoff Bailen.11

I have not found any further information about Herbert’s daughter Yvonne despite searching everywhere I could and receiving help from members of Tracing the Tribe. I don’t know whether she died, married, or moved from Canada and changed her name. There just is no trace of her after a mention in her stepmother Anna’s obituary in 1976. She is not mentioned in her father’s obituary in 2001.12

Although Thekla Rothschild Weinberg survived the Holocaust, she lost her husband, her homeland, and, as we will now see, her sister Frieda to the Holocaust.

Frieda was born May 31, 1993, in Borken, Germany.  As we saw, she first married Leonard Marxsohn and was widowed and then married Paul Phillipsohn, with whom she had a daughter Hannelore, born December 3, 1926.

Unfortunately, I have no happy ending for Frieda, Paul, or Hannelore. On June 11, 1942, they were all deported to Theriesenstadt. None of them survived. According to Yad Vashem, Paul died on December 20, 1942. I have no exact dates for Frieda or Hannelore, only that they also died in about 1942.13

Thus ends the story of Levi Rothschild’s family. Although most of them survived the Holocaust and made it to the US, Israel, or Canada, they were scattered across the globe, and their lives were all forever changed. The family members who were killed must have left holes in their hearts forever.

 

 

  1. Hans Herbert Kaufmann Weinberg, Gender männlich (Male), Record Type Inventory, Birth Date 02 Nov 1908 (2 Nov 1908), Birth Place Frankfurt am Main,
    Last Residence Frankfurt am Main, Residence Place Frankfurt am Main, Father
    Edmund Weinberg, Mother Thekla Weinberg, Spouse Edith Seckbach, Notes Inventories of personal estates of foreigners and especially German Jews
    Reference Number 02010101 oS, Document ID 70370883, 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 ↩
  2. Arolsen Archives, 1 Incarceration Documents / 1.1 Camps and Ghettos / 1.1.5 Buchenwald Concentration Camp / 1.1.5.3 Individual Documents male Buchenwald / Individual Files (male) – Concentration Camp Buchenwald / Files with names from SYS and further sub-structure / Files with names from WECK /, Personal file of WEINBERG, EMANEL, born on 11-Oct-1880, Reference Code, 01010503 002.042.476, Number of documents, 1, found at https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/en/document/7388346 ↩
  3. Yad Vashem entries for Manuel Weinberg, found at  https://collections.yadvashem.org/en/names/13545516 and at https://collections.yadvashem.org/en/names/3229127 ↩
  4. See Note 3, supra. ↩
  5. Yvonne Miriam Weinberg, passenger manifest, The National Archives at Washington, D.C.; Washington, D.C.; Series Title: Passenger Lists of Vessels Arriving at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; NAI Number: 4492386; Record Group Title: Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, 1787-2004; Record Group Number: 85; Series: T840; Roll: 177, Ancestry.com. Pennsylvania, U.S., Arriving Passenger and Crew Lists, 1798-1962 ↩
  6. Edith Weinberg, passenger manifest, The National Archives at Washington, D.C.; Washington, D.C.; Series Title: Passenger Lists of Vessels Arriving at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; NAI Number: 4492386; Record Group Title: Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, 1787-2004; Record Group Number: 85; Series: T840; Roll: 177, Ancestry.com. Pennsylvania, U.S., Arriving Passenger and Crew Lists, 1798-1962. See also Edith Weinberg geb. Seckbach, 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 ↩
  7. It was Walter’s name on this card that led me to discover that he was the child of Betti and Emanuel Hirschmann. ↩
  8. “Jacob Bleibtreu, Former Governor of New York Stock Exchange, 90,” The New York Times, December 6, 1976. ↩
  9. Thekla Weinberg death notice, The Montreal Star, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, Mon, Mar 12, 1962, Page 16. ↩
  10. Anna (Anya) Weinberg death notice, The Montreal Star, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, Sat, Jul 10, 1976, Page 10. ↩
  11. Marriage of Herbert Weinberg to Sally Lazoff, Nov 15 1980, Côte St Luc, Québec, Canada, Groom Herbert Weinberg, Groom’s birth Nov 5 1908, Germany, Groom’s age 72, Bride Sally Lazoff, Bride’s birth Aug 15 1917, Québec, Canada, Bride’s age 63, Groom’s father Manuel Weinberg, Groom’s father’s birth Germany, Groom’s mother Thekla Rothschild, Groom’s mother’s birth Germany, Bride’s father Gedaliah Lazoff
    Bride’s father’s birth Russia, Bride’s mother Telia Brasgold, Bride’s mother’s birth Russia
    Certificate number upd80-141452, Quebec Marriage Returns, 1926-1997, found at https://www.myheritage.com/research/record-10723-2419633/herbert-weinberg-and-sally-lazoff-in-quebec-marriage-returns. Herbert Weinberg death notice, The Gazette
    Montreal, Quebec, Canada, Mon, Feb 12, 2001, Page 35. ↩
  12. Anna (Anya) Weinberg death notice, The Montreal Star, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, Sat, Jul 10, 1976, Page 10. Herbert Weinberg death notice, The Gazette, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, Mon, Feb 12, 2001, Page 35. ↩
  13. See Yad Vashem entries at https://collections.yadvashem.org/en/names/11607287 for Frieda, https://collections.yadvashem.org/en/names/14969310 for Paul, and https://collections.yadvashem.org/en/names/11607287 for Hannelore. ↩

Mathilde Rosenbaum Rothschild: Why Didn’t She Leave Germany?

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Several readers asked me whether I could learn more about why Mathilde Rosenbaum Rothschild did not go with her husband Hirsch Rothschild and their children to the United States in the 1930s, but stayed in Germany. Tragically Mathilde was eventually killed by the Nazis whereas her husband and children all survived.

I decided to dig a little deeper into Mathilde’s family to see if perhaps she’d stayed to care for elderly parents, but both of her parents died long before the Nazi era.1  Mathilde also had numerous siblings, including one who was killed at Auschwitz, but others escaped—to Israel, to the US, and to South Africa. In fact, this review of my research allowed me to realize something I had not noticed before. Mathilde’s sister Fanni Rosenbaum had married Hirsch Rothschild’s older brother Sigmund. They had escaped to South Africa.

I couldn’t trace all of her siblings, but given that her family was from Schluechtern and that Schluechtern is over 250 miles from Bremen, the city Hirsch listed as his wife’s residence on the passenger manifest, I don’t think that Mathilde was in Bremen to help with a family member.

I looked more closely at the address that had been added to Hirsch’s passenger manifest—Bahnhofsplatz 16, in Bremen, thinking that perhaps it was the address of a hospital where Mathilde might have been getting treatment.

Hirsch Rothschild, passenger manifest, p. 2, The National Archives At Washington, D.c.; Washington, D.c.; Series Title: Passenger Lists of Vessels Arriving At Miami, Florida; NAI Number: 2788508; Record Group Title: Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, 1787 – 2004; Record Group Number: 85 Description Roll Number: 086 Source Information Ancestry.com. Florida, U.S., Arriving and Departing Passenger and Crew Lists, 1898-1963

But “Bahnhofsplatz” means a plaza or square where the train station is located, and as best I can tell, in the late 1930s there was no hospital located near there. Rather, it was a place where there were hotels for those traveling to Bremen, an indoor swimming pool facility, and other public and private buildings. Although I can’t be certain, Banhofsplatz 16 may have been the address for a hotel in the 1930s.

Bahnhofsplatz-1928 Bremen Germany

Why would Mathilde be living in a hotel in Bremen? When Hirsch left Germany in the late 1930s, he listed his last permanent residence as Delmenhorst, a village about ten miles from Bremen.  It’s possible that Hirsch and Mathilde had been forced out of their home in Delmenhorst by then either by force or for better opportunities and had moved into a hotel in Bremen. As a  Jewish doctor, by 1938-1939, Hirsch would only have been allowed to treat Jewish patients, and Bremen had a larger Jewish population than Delmenhorst.  Although the passenger manifest indicates that Hirsch’s last permanent residence was Delmenhorst, not Bremen, I would think that staying in a hotel near the train station would not be considered a “permanent” residence so Delmenhorst would still have been more accurate.

I still don’t know why Hirsch left without Mathilde. Maybe he thought he’d go first and settle in and then send for her. I also don’t know when Hirsch left Germany because the ship manifest listing his arrival in Florida on December 18, 1939, was for a ship arriving from Havana, Cuba. I searched the Bremen passenger manifests and found two of his children on them—Edith and Edmund—but not Hirsch. And I don’t know how long Hirsch was in Cuba before being allowed to sail to the US. So…anything I write is total speculation on my part.

The only way I’ll be able to find an answer to these questions would be to ask one of Mathilde’s grandchildren. I have located a few of them but have not yet contacted them. Somehow it just feels intrusive to ask them why their grandmother was left behind. For now I am letting this sit as an unanswered question.

  1. Her mother died in 1913. Jeanette Rosenbaum, Maiden Name Sondheimer, Gender weiblich (Female), Death Age 72, Birth Date abt 1841, Death Date 23 Okt 1913 (23 Oct 1913), Death Place Schluechtern (Schlüchtern), Hessen (Hesse), Deutschland (Germany), Civil Registration Office Schluechtern, Father Moses Sondheimer, Mother
    Marianne Sondheimer, Spouse Salomon Rosenbaum, Certificate Number 47, Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv; Wiesbaden, Deutschland; Personenstandsregister Sterberegister; Signatur: 5999, Ancestry.com. Hesse, Germany, Deaths, 1851-1958. Her father died in 1925. Salomon Rosenbaum, Gender männlich (Male), Death Age 83
    Birth Date abt 1842, Death Date 14 Juli 1925, Death Place Schluechtern (Schlüchtern), Hessen (Hesse), Deutschland (Germany), Civil Registration Office Schluechtern, Spouse Johannatta Certificate Number 40, Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv; Wiesbaden, Deutschland; Personenstandsregister Sterberegister; Signatur: 6011, Ancestry.com. Hesse, Germany, Deaths, 1851-1958 ↩