December 2018 - bruckfamilyblog.com

POST 41: DR. OTTO BERGER & OTHER “SILENT HEROES” WHO HELPED MY UNCLE DR. FEDOR BRUCK SURVIVE THE NAZI REGIME

Note: This post is about a handful of righteous Germans who provided life-saving support to my Uncle Dr. Fedor Bruck during the 30 months he lived “underground” in Berlin during WWII, hiding from the Nazis. I relate the little I’ve been able to uncover about these “silent heroes.”

There exists in Berlin a museum, the “Silent Heroes Memorial Center,” dedicated to the resistance to persecution of the Jews between 1933 and 1945. A catalog developed by the Memorial Center describes the heroic role played by some people who resisted Nazi persecution of the Jews and provides some statistics about German Jews worth citing. At the time the Nazis assumed power on January 30, 1933, there were roughly 500,000 German Jews. This date marked the beginning of the ostracism, defamation and disenfranchisement of these Jews, key stages of which were the boycott of Jewish-owned businesses beginning on April 1, 1933; the Nuremberg race-laws of September 1935; and the pogroms of November 9, 1938. More than 30,000 Jewish men were imprisoned in concentration camps following the pogroms in 1938.

Of the 500,000 Jews in Germany when the Nazis assumed power, roughly 300,000 of them were able to flee Germany before the war began in the fall of 1939. Of the 6 million Jews murdered during the Nazi genocide, more than 160,000 of them were German Jews. Between 10,000 and 12,000 German Jews tried to escape deportation to extermination camps and other killing sites by fleeing underground, since emigration by 1942 was prohibited and virtually impossible even through illegal means. About half this number did so in Berlin, including my Uncle Dr. Fedor Bruck, subject of multiple earlier Blog posts. Fleeing underground required that hiding places be found and frequently changed because of the danger of being denounced or discovered. Of the Jews who went “into hiding” in Germany, about 5,000 of them survived, more than 1,700 of them in Berlin. The chances of survival were indeed small, yet my uncle managed it with the help of multiple silent heroes. An interesting quote from the Memorial Center’s publication speaks to the network of non-Jewish supporters required to protect a solitary Jewish fugitive: “In the course of attempts to save Jews, networks of helpers often developed. For every Jew who went underground, up to ten, and sometimes even more, non-Jewish supporters were involved . . .” Clearly, multiple non-Jews placed themselves at risk to try and shelter a single Jew.

Figure 1a. Affidavit written by Elisabeth “Lisa” Pauly née Krüger on February 3, 1947, on behalf of my Uncle Fedor, intended for the American Embassy

Figure 1b. Translation of affidavit written by Lisa Pauly

In the previous post, Blog Post 40, I discussed Elisabeth “Lisa” Pauly née Krüger and how I discovered she was the wife of my Uncle Fedor’s second cousin, Franz Pincus/Pauly. In a declaration, pledged under oath on February 3, 1947 (Figures 1a-b), Lisa provided a chronology of the timeframes and enumerated the network of helpers who enabled my uncle to survive in Berlin during his odyssey underground:

October 1942 Hidden by Dr. Wolfgang Sieber & Frau von Werner

February 1943 Dr. Wolfgang Sieber arrested by the Gestapo; my uncle hidden by Lisa Pauly

July 1943 My uncle finds refuge with Dr. Otto Berger

March 24, 1944 Dr. Otto Berger’s building bombed; my uncle again hidden by Lisa Pauly

May 1944 Dr. Otto Berger again provided accommodation to my uncle in his new home

December 1944 Dr. Otto Berger found yet another home, and hid my uncle until the capture of Berlin by the Red Army

Figure 2. Letter dated October 12, 1942 sent to my Uncle Fedor by the “Jüdische Kultusvereinigung zu Berlin e.V.,” Berlin’s Jewish Cultural Association, telling him to report to an “age-transport.” Letter was signed by Philipp Israel Kozower who was murdered at Auschwitz, two years later to the day

My uncle’s trying ordeal began in October 1942 when friends warned him the Gestapo was preparing to pick him up for “questioning.” In a letter dated October 12, 1942, he was informed he should present himself to a so-called “age-transport.” (Figure 2) Interestingly, this letter was sent to my uncle by the “Jüdische Kultusvereinigung zu Berlin e.V.,” Berlin’s Jewish Cultural Association, and signed by a “Philipp Israel Kozower,” who two years later to the day, October 12, 1944, would himself be murdered in Auschwitz.

Knowing that an “age-transport” meant deportation to a concentration camp, my Uncle Fedor immediately fled to a good friend in Berlin-Dahlem, Dr. Wolfgang Sieber. He, along with a Frau von Werner, provided refuge for a time. However, on February 15, 1943, Dr. Sieber was arrested by the Gestapo in the very presence of my uncle; miraculously, my uncle escaped. In the ensuing months, Lisa Pauly and other friends sheltered him, in-between periods spent hiding in greenways, coal cellars, and in secluded areas around Berlin.

Figure 3. Dr. Otto Berger (b. 15 April 1900-d. 22 May 1985), as a young man

During my uncle’s underground odyssey, the dentist Dr. Otto Berger (b. 4/15/1900-d. 5/22/1985) (Figure 3), was especially helpful. Among all the righteous Germans who aided my uncle, Dr. Berger placed himself at risk for the longest time. In a letter my Uncle Fedor wrote in 1964, he described his initial contact with Dr. Berger:

“I met Mr. Otto Berger in the spring of 1943. When he learned on this occasion that I lead an illegal life as a persecuted Jew, he provided me with food at that first meeting and offered to take me in. This happened a short time later and I moved in early July 1943 into the apartment of Otto Berger.”

Figure 4a. “Kennkarte,” Identity Card, in the name of Dr. Friedrich Burkhardt, that Dr. Berger was able to procure for my Uncle Dr. Fedor Bruck, matching his own initials

Figure 4b. “Kennkarte,” Identity Card, in the name of Dr. Friedrich Burkhardt, that Dr. Berger was able to procure for my Uncle Dr. Fedor Bruck, matching his own initials

Not only did Dr. Berger provide food and shelter to my uncle, but, perhaps most critically, he obtained illegal papers for him under the false identity of Dr. Friedrich Burkhardt, matching my uncle’s own initials. (Figures 4a-b, 5a-b) The identity cards for “Dr. Burkhardt” show he was born on July 18, 1890 in Jägerndorf, Upper Silesia, today Krnov, an Upper Silesian city in the northeastern Czech Republic. Why my uncle selected this alias and location are unknown.

Figure 5a. False “Postal Identity Card” Dr. Berger was able to obtain for my Uncle Dr. Fedor Bruck in the name of Dr. Friedrich Burkhardt

Figure 5b. False “Postal Identity Card” Dr. Berger was able to obtain for my Uncle Dr. Fedor Bruck in the name of Dr. Friedrich Burkhardt

Figure 6. 1941 Berlin Phone Directory showing Dr. Berger lived at Händelplatz 1 in “Lfe” (=Lichterfelde) at the time, same place where he originally hid my uncle beginning in July 1943

In July 1943, Dr. Berger lived at Händelplatz 1 in Berlin-Lichterfelde (Figure 6), in southwestern Berlin, but on March 24, 1944, aerial bombardment by the Allies resulted in destruction of the building where Dr. Berger and my uncle lived. Both barely managed to escape; of the 44 people cloistered in the bomb shelter, only nine survived. Following this close call, my uncle temporarily again found refuge with his second cousin’s wife, Lisa Pauly, until Dr. Berger was able to secure new lodgings, a house with a garden in Berlin-Zehlendorf. Here he spent the summer of 1944. By this time, my uncle had lost all his personal property, given to friends for safe-keeping but incinerated, as well as his dental equipment, placed in a dental depot but likewise destroyed during aerial bombing; all he had left were a few items of clothing and a portfolio with his most important papers. In December 1944, Dr. Berger was assigned new living quarters in Berlin-Steglitz, to which he and my uncle moved, a place fire-bombed on April 25, 1945, a day before Steglitz was conquered by the advancing Russians.

Figure 7. 1974 Berlin Phone Directory showing Dr. Berger’s address at the time

Dr. Otto Berger received various awards for his courageous commitment to helping those persecuted by the Nazi regime. In 1964, he was honored by Berlin’s mayor Willi Brandt for his outstanding human commitment, followed in 1974 (Figure 7) by an invitation from the Federal President to the Bellevue Palace in order, as the President of the Confederation wrote, “. . .to get acquainted with Otto Berger, the man who gave unselfish help to the persecuted during the Nazi era.”

Posthumously, in 2008, Dr. Otto Berger was awarded the “Ewald-Harndt Medal” by the Dental Association of Berlin, a medal to “. . .honor colleagues who have made outstanding contributions to the dental profession.” In bestowing this award, the Dental Association recognized “. . . Otto Berger, who in a selfless and exemplary manner, courageously and at the risk of his own life in the time of National Socialism. . .” actively helped my uncle and others persecuted by the Nazi regime.

Figure 8. Page from Yad Vashem website recognizing Dr. Otto Berger as “Righteous Among the Nations,” listing the type of aid he provided to my Uncle Fedor and other persecuted individuals

Then, again posthumously, in 2009 Dr. Berger was recognized by Yad Vashem as “Righteous Among the Nations” (Figure 8), an honor the State of Israel gives to non-Jewish individuals and organizations who opposed the Nazi regime to save Jews.

Figure 9a. The “Ewald Harndt-Medaille” posthumously presented to Dr. Otto Berger in 2008 by the Dental Association of Berlin

Figure 9b. The “Ewald Harndt-Medaille” posthumously presented to Dr. Otto Berger in 2008 by the Dental Association of Berlin

With the assistance of one of my German cousins, I was able to establish contact with Dr. Otto Berger’s grandson, Dr. Oliver Speyer, like his grandfather also a dentist. Ostensibly, my reason for contacting him was to obtain a few photos of Dr. Berger for use in this post. Much to my delight, Dr. Speyer sent me photos of the Ewald-Harndt and Yad Vashem awards given to his grandfather, awards prominently on display in Dr. Speyer’s dental office. (Figures 9a-b, 10)

Figure 10. The “Certificate of Honour” posthumously given to Dr. Otto Berger in 2009 by Yad Vashem

Figure 11. 1941 Berlin Phone Directory listing Dr. Wolfgang Sieber who hid my Uncle Fedor from around October 1942 until his arrest by the Gestapo in February 1943

Briefly, let me say a few words about some other silent heroes who played a role in my uncle’s survival, limited only because I’ve uncovered very little about them. My uncle’s friend, Dr. Wolfgang Sieber, with whom my uncle straightaway sought safety in October 1942, was, as previously mentioned, arrested by the Gestapo in February 1943. His name appears in Berlin Address Books only in 1940 and 1941 (Figure 11); what to make of this is not entirely clear but depending on the extent of Dr. Sieber’s involvement in sheltering other persecuted persons, he may have been incarcerated and not have survived the war.

Figure 12. 1928 Berlin Phone Directory listing Lise Lotte von Werner shown living in Berlin-Wannsee at the time and showing her maiden name as “Tiemann”; Frau von Werner hid my uncle for periods between October 1942 and July 1943

Figure 13. Page from 1978 Berlin Phone Directory, last year Lise Lotte von Werner is listed

In the case of two other known silent heroes, specifically, Lisa Pauly and Frau von Werner, both survived into the late 1970’s, at least. Because both Lisa and Frau von Werner’s addresses are provided in Lisa’s 1947 affidavit, I was able to track them through Berlin Address Books. Frau von Werner’s full name was Lisa Lotte von Werner. She is first found in a 1928 Berlin Phone Directory (Figure 12), then, again between 1951 and 1978 listed in Berlin Phone Directories at Petzower Straße 7 (Figure 13), the address in Lisa Pauly’s affidavit. Similarly, Lisa Pauly is living at Massmannstraße 11 in Steglitz between 1966 and 1977, the address shown in her affidavit of 1947. It is safe to assume both died of natural causes sometime after 1977-1978.

Let me briefly pick up the narrative as to where my uncle went following the capture of Berlin by the Russians, in his own words, cited only because it provides the identity of another, entirely unexpected, person who assisted my uncle during his underground odyssey:

“On April 26, 1945, Steglitz, in the southwestern part of the city, was occupied by the Russians. Behind the advancing troops, I arrived, on May 4^th, in the apartment of my former assistant Käthe Heusermann. This apartment was situated at Pariserstraße 39-40 near Kurfürstendamm [in Berlin-Charlottenburg]. A friendship of twenty years tied my person and the family of Käthe Heusermann. . .”

Figure 14. My Uncle Dr. Fedor Bruck with a young Kathe Heusermann in his dental office in Liegnitz in Silesia, in the early 1930’s

To remind readers what I wrote in Blog Post 31, Käthe Heusermann (Figure 14), who’d once been my Uncle Fedor’s dental assistant in Liegnitz in Silesia [today: Legnica, Poland], eventually became Dr. Hugo Blaschke’s dental assistant; Dr. Blaschke was Hitler’s dentist. Almost immediately after the end of WWII, Käthe Heusermann, who’d known Hitler had killed himself, a fact Stalin sought to conceal from the world, was arrested by the Russians and detained for many years. Käthe Heusermann told her captors she’d occasionally supported my uncle during his time underground. Quoting from Yelena Rzhevskaya’s book, “Memoirs of a Wartime Interpreter: From the Battle for Moscow to Hitler’s Bunker”:

“I liked everything about her [Käthe]: the lightness with which she walked on high heels, her voice, her womanly stoicism even in her present unclear situation. Käthe was just somebody people liked, I sensed; she was a splendid person. For many years she had supported Dr. Bruck. Käthe got food vouchers for him in the Reich Chancellery, in Berchtesgaden, and at the Führer’s headquarters in East Prussia, it could, as Dr. Bruck pointed out to me, have been fatal. Käthe herself never once spoke about that.” (p. 265)

This is difficult to wrap one’s head around that the dental assistant to Hitler’s dentist provided aid to my Jewish uncle during the war, a most unlikely ally.

There may have been other individuals, whose names are lost to us, who played lesser roles in keeping my uncle from being deported. Perhaps, they were former dental patients of his who recognized him or army veterans with whom he fought during WWI who passed him on the street? We will never know. We only know the names of the people who provided most active support.

The motivations for people to help persecuted Jews were obviously varied. A few felt an obligation as family or friends, some probably did it out of human compassion, and others for religious or political reasons, but whatever their rationale, they placed themselves at risk and for this reason alone should be recognized.

REFERENCES

Lutze, Kay

2006 Die Lebensgeschichte des jüdischen Zahnarztes Fedor Bruck (1895-1982) Von Liegnitz nach New York. Zahnärzttliche Mitteilungen 96, Nr. 10, 16.5 (p. 124-127)

Rzhevskaya, Yelena

2018 Memoirs of a Wartime Interpreter: From the Battle for Moscow to Hitler’s Bunker. Greenhill Books. London.

Silent Heroes Memorial Center

N.D. Catalog: Resistance to Persecution of the Jews 1933-1945. For detailed bibliographic data online, go to http://dnb.d-nb.de

POST 40: ELISABETH “LISA” PAULY NÉE KRÜGER, ONE OF MY UNCLE FEDOR’S “SILENT HEROES”

Note: This post is about Elisabeth “Lisa” Pauly née Krüger, one of my Uncle Dr. Fedor Bruck’s “silent heroes,” who hid him in Berlin during WWII for periods of his 30-month survival “underground.” Having learned she was married to my uncle’s cousin, I discuss how I worked out their exact relationship in what was on my part a clear case of over-thinking their consanguinity.

Figure 1. My Uncle Fedor in 1940, two years before he fled “underground”

Among my uncle’s surviving papers are two declarations, pledged under oath, identifying people who provided life-saving support to my Uncle Dr. Fedor Bruck (Figure 1) during the 30 months he lived “underground” in Berlin during WWII. My uncle’s trying ordeal began in October 1942 when friends warned him the Gestapo was preparing to pick him up for “questioning,” detainment which would have led to his deportation to a concentration camp and certain death; straightaway, he went into hiding to avoid arrest. The declarations written, respectively, on January 19, 1947 and February 3, 1947, were basically intended as letters of reference for the Americans. They attested to my uncle’s “good character” and provided a brief chronology of how and with whose help he’d survived underground. A little context is necessary.

Figure 2. Entrance to Kurfürstendamm 213, in Berlin’s Charlottenburg borough, where Hitler’s dentist, Dr. Blaschke, once had his office, as it looks today

As discussed in previous Blog posts, almost immediately after the war ended, my Uncle Fedor applied to what he described as the “pertinent authorities,” presumably the Russians in this case, for permission to take over the office and apartment of Hitler’s former dentist, Dr. Hugo Blaschke, which had survived the war unscathed. (Figure 2) Permission was granted in early May 1945. While my uncle’s situation may have seemed comparatively secure at the time, he’d apparently been warned by the Americans that he was at risk of being kidnapped by the Russians on account of his knowledge of Hitler’s fate, which Stalin sought to conceal. My uncle no doubt realized his danger since both Blaschke’s dental assistant, Käthe Heusermann, and Blaschke’s dental technician, Fritz Echmann, both of whom he knew, had been taken away by the Russians in 1945, not to reappear again in the West for many years. While my uncle maintained his dental practice in Blaschke’s former office until around July 1947, the declarations written in January and February 1947 strongly suggest my uncle was, so to speak, working on an exit strategy earlier.

Figure 3a. Affidavit written by Elisabeth “Lisa” Pauly née Krüger on February 3, 1947, on behalf of my Uncle Fedor, intended for the American Embassy

Figure 3b. Translation of affidavit written by Lisa Pauly

One of the two affidavits provided to the American authorities on behalf of my Uncle Fedor was written by Elisabeth “Lisa” Pauly née Krüger. (Figures 3a-b) She mentioned how she hid him in her home for brief periods during the war and described her kinship as the wife of my uncle’s cousin; Lisa did not provide her husband’s name but only wrote he died in 1941, cause unknown. I first came across Lisa Pauly’s name in 2014 when I visited the Stadtmuseum in Spandau, outside Berlin, to examine the archived papers of two of my renowned great-aunts, Elsbeth Bruck and Franziska Bruck. There, I discovered a letter written by my grandmother, Else Bruck née Berliner, on February 2, 1947, mailed from Fayence, France to my great-aunt Elsbeth in Berlin care-of Lisa Pauly living at Maßmannstraße 11 in the Steglitz borough of Berlin. (Figure 4) Ultimately, this address proved to be useful for learning how long Lisa Pauly may have lived; more on this later.

Figure 4. Envelope containing letter my grandmother Else Bruck wrote in February 1947 to my great-aunt Elsbeth Bruck sent to her care-of Lisa Pauly living at Massmannstraße 11 in the Steglitz borough of Berlin

Let me digress for a moment. In Post 33, I discussed the extraordinary lengths to which I went to finding two of my second cousins, born in Barcelona, but living outside Munich, Germany. Once I had established contact with one of these second cousins, Antonio Bruck, he connected me to a third cousin, Anna Rothholz, who in turn put me in touch with yet other third cousins, brothers Peter and Andreas “Andi” Pauly. This was a fortuitous development. Peter and Andi gave me a detailed hand-drawn Pauly family “Stammbaum,” family tree, developed by their father years before these could be created on-line. While I was still a long way from figuring out the hereditary connection between Lisa Pauly’s husband and my Uncle Fedor, this Stammbaum eventually paved the way for working this out, although not without some missteps.

Figure 5. Section of Pauly “Stammbaum,” family tree, with “Franz” and “Lisa” circled; Franz is shown as Dr. Oscar Pincus and Paula Pauly’s son

Figure 6. Page from “Schlesische Jüdische Familien,” Silesian Jewish Families tree, with Lisa Krüger’s name showing she was married to Franz Pincus, born in Posen on October 23, 1898, with notation that he went by the surname “Pauly”

As readers can see in Figure 5, a “Lisa” is highlighted, shown married to a “Franz” who died in 1941. Based on the affidavit Lisa Pauly had written in 1947, logically, I knew this was she and her husband. My confusion stemmed from the fact that Lisa’s husband was the son of Dr. Oscar Pincus and Paulina Charlotte Pauly, presumably named Franz Pincus. I continued my search, convinced there had to be a different Lisa who’d married a Pauly. After many fruitless months, I eventually began looking for her in Family Trees in ancestry.com. I finally found her on a tree listed as “Lisa Krüger,” born in the year 1890. (Figure 6) As discussed in Post 39, the tree is entitled “Schlesische Jüdische Familien,” Silesian Jewish Families. There is a notation in German on this tree that Lisa Krüger was married to a Franz Pincus, born in Posen [today: Poznan, Poland] on October 23, 1898, and that he went by the surname “Pauly.” I then realized my Uncle Fedor and Franz Pauly were second cousins, grandsons of sisters (Figures 7 & 8), and understood how badly I’d misconstrued their kinship. This was clearly a case of my over-thinking things and ignoring what the Pauly Stammbaum had clearly indicated.

Figure 7. Rosalie Pauly née Mockrauer (1844-1927), Franz Pincus/Pauly’s grandmother, sister of Friederike Bruck née Mockrauer

Figure 8. Friederike Bruck née Mockrauer (1836-1924), Fedor Bruck’s grandmother, sister of Rosalie Pauly née Mockrauer; Friederike Bruck is my great-grandmother

Why Franz Pincus decided to change surnames and take his mother’s maiden name is unknown. Since both names are clearly Jewish and neither would have afforded an advantage in the Nazi era, I assumed Franz’s decision was made before the Nazis ever came to power. And, I was able to prove this using Berlin Phone Directories available on ancestry.com. Franz Pincus apparently changed his surname to “Pauly” between 1928 and 1930. A 1928 Berlin Phone Directory (Figure 9) lists a “Franz Pincus” living at Deidesheimer Str. 25 in Friedenau in the southwestern suburbs of Berlin, but by 1930 “Franz Pauly” is living at this address. (Figure 10)

Figure 9. 1928 Berlin Phone Directory showing “Franz Pincus” living at Deidesheimer Str. 25 in Friedenau, a southwestern suburb of Berlin

Figure 10. 1930 Berlin Phone Directory listing “Franz Pauly” at Deidesheimer Str. 25 in Friedenau

As mentioned earlier, I knew from the affidavit Lisa had written and the letter my grandmother had written to my great-aunt in 1947, addressed to Lisa, that she resided at Maßmannstraße 11 in the Steglitz borough of Berlin. I searched both Lisa and Franz’s names in ancestry.com and found him listed at this address in Berlin Phone Directories between 1936 and 1940 (Figure 11), the year before he died. Beginning in 1966 and continuing through 1977 (Figure 12), Lisa’s name appears at the same address, suggesting the apartment building survived the war and that Lisa had lived there continuously, possibly from 1936 onwards. The disappearance of Lisa Pauly’s name from Berlin Phone Directories after 1977 may coincide with her approximate year of death. As we speak, I’m working to obtain Lisa’s death certificate from the Bürgeramt Steglitz to confirm when she died.

Figure 11. 1940 Berlin Phone Directory listing Franz Pauly living at Maßmannstr. 11 in Steglitz

Figure 12. 1977 Berlin Phone Directory listing Elisabeth Pauly living at Maßmannstr. 11

I’ve been able to learn almost nothing more about Lisa and Franz Pauly. While Peter and Andi Pauly have numerous Pauly family photos, they have none of either of them. It’s an enduring mystery to me how Lisa Pauly avoided deportation to a concentration camp given that at least three of her husband’s Pauly aunts were murdered in the camps along with their husbands and some of their children.

In the subsequent post, I will tell readers about other silent heroes who enabled my uncle to survive his 30 months underground in Berlin during WWII, inasmuch as I’ve been able to work this out.