Month: December 2019

POST 34, POSTSCRIPT 2: MARGARETH BERLINER, WRAITH OR BEING? MORE DISCOVERIES

CORRECTED

Note: In this second postscript to Blog Post 34, I relate to readers additional information that has come to my attention about my great-aunt, Margareth “Grete” Brauer née Berliner, and her family, largely the result of a member of the Brauer family having come across my family history blog and having contacted me.

Related Posts:

Post 34: Margareth Berliner, Wraith or Being?

Post 34, Postscript: Margareth Berliner, Wraith or Being? Murdered in Theresienstadt

One of my expressed desires when I launched my Bruck family history blog in April 2017 is that not only would I relate to readers forensic discoveries I’d made about my father’s family, friends and acquaintances, but perhaps from time to time readers would come across my blog, contact me, and tell me how we are related or share additional information or tales about people that have been the subject of my posts. My expectations have been met, in some cases exceeded, on multiple occasions. This is particularly satisfying when the people or family I’ve written about met a tragic end at the hands of the Nazis and their henchmen. The opportunity to relate even a small part of these people’s lives ensures they will not have passed through this world completely unnoticed.

Figure 1a. My great-aunt Margarethe “Grete” Brauer, her daughter-in-law Herta Brauer, and her grandson Till Brauer, Neubabelsberg, Germany, 1933, a photo found among my Uncle Dr. Fedor Bruck’s surviving papers

 

Figure 1b. Captions on back of photo with Margareth “Grete” Brauer, her daughter-in-law Herta Brauer, and her grandson Till Brauer, Neubabelsberg, Germany, 1933

 

Figure 2. Margareth Auguste Berliner’s birth record (March 19, 1872) (LDS Microfiche Roll 1184449, p. 101)

For readers who’ve not followed the previous posts about my great-aunt Margareth Auguste Brauer née Berliner, let me briefly review. In early 2018, while visiting my German first cousin’s son who is in possession of some of my uncle Dr. Fedor Bruck’s surviving pictures and papers, I asked if I could peruse these documents. Surprisingly, included among the pictures was a single photo captioned partly in my uncle’s handwriting, identifying my grandmother’s sister, Grete Brauer, a great-aunt. (Figures 1a-b) I’d never heard about her growing up, though had discovered a record of her birth on March 19, 1872 (Figure 2), in the Jewish microfilm records available online for Ratibor [today: Racibórz, Poland] from the Church of Latter Day Saints; having previously never found any evidence she survived into adulthood, I’d erroneously assumed she’d died at birth or in childhood. While I knew my grandmother, Else Bruck née Berliner (Figure 3), growing up, I was only six years of age when she passed away in New York City, so it’s not unexpected my grandmother would never have spoken to me about her older sister. Readers may well wonder why my father never told me about her, and I can merely respond by saying that, apart from his beloved sister Susanne, murdered in Auschwitz in September 1942, he had scant interest in family. Regardless, the picture from my uncle’s estate dated 1933 proved that Margareth Brauer née Berliner had indeed lived well into adulthood. What happened to her after 1933 was initially a mystery.

 

Figure 3. My grandmother and Margareth Brauer née Berliner’s younger sister, Else Bruck née Berliner (1873-1957)

 

 

While learning about my great-aunt Margareth Brauer was a new development, I had previously come across the surname “Brauer.” In 2014, when examining the personal papers of two renowned great-aunts, Franziska and Elsbeth Bruck, archived at the Stadtmuseum in Spandau, a suburb of Berlin, I’d come across multiple letters penned to Elsbeth Bruck by Ernst Hanns Brauer and his wife Herta Brauer from Calvia, Mallorca, Spain; just to be clear, Franziska and Elsbeth were sisters of my father’s father, as opposed to Margareth, who was a sister of my father’s mother. At the time, I’d not yet worked out that my Bruck relatives were related to the Brauers through my great-aunt Margareth Berliner’s marriage to a man named Siegfried Brauer, and that Ernst Hanns Brauer (1902-1971) (Figure 4) was their son and my father’s first cousin. (Interested readers will find a table at the end of this post with vital statistics of my great-aunt Margareth Brauer and her immediate family.)

 

Figure 4. Margareth Brauer’s youngest son, Ernst Hanns Brauer (1902-1971), in 1967 in Calvia, Mallorca, Spain

 

 

 

Figure 5a. Photo from left to right: Oliver Brauer, Ernst Brauer, Herta Brauer, Till Brauer, and a family friend “Ricardo,” taken on the day of Till Brauer’s wedding

 

Figure 5b. Captions on the reverse side of Figure 5a

 

Regular readers may recall I was eventually able to track Ernst and Herta Brauer’s descendants to Puerto Rico. (Figure 5a-b) I discussed this in the first postscript to Post 34. In the earlier postscript I also explained to readers that my great-aunt Margareth Brauer had been murdered in Theresienstadt, a fact I uncovered in the Yad Vashem “Shoah Names Database,” a directory I’d neglected to check before publishing my original post.

Figure 6a. Death certificate for Margareth Brauer’s husband, Siegfried Brauer (1859-1926), with the name of their daughter, Hildegard Brauer, circled
Figure 6b. Translation of Siegfried Brauer’s death certificate

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Margareth Brauer’s husband, Siegfried Brauer, died in 1926 in Cosel, Germany [today: Koźle, Poland]. (Figures 6a-b) His death was reported to authorities by a Hildegard Brauer, whom I confused with Herta Brauer, Siegfried’s daughter-in-law, Ernst Brauer’s wife. I hadn’t yet discovered that Margareth and Siegfried Brauer had had a daughter named Hildegard. Once I found Hildegard’s birth certificate (Figures 7a-b) and checked her name in the “Shoah Names Database,” I realized she too had been a Holocaust victim, like her mother. (Figure 8)

 

Figure 7a. Cover page of Hildegard Brauer’s birth certificate from ancestry.com showing she was born on the 8th of August 1892 in Cosel, Germany; her surname, along with those of her parents, is misspelled as “Brawer”
Figure 7b. Hildegard Brauer’s birth certificate

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Figure 8. Page from Yad Vashem’s “Shoah Names Database,” showing Hildegard Brauer was deported to Auschwitz from Berlin on the 3rd of March 1943

 

 

 

 

 

 

Figure 9. My great-aunt and -uncle Margareth & Siegfried Brauer (photo courtesy of Eri Heller)
Figure 10. The “Justizrat” (Judicial Councilman) Siegfried Brauer (~1859-1926) (photo courtesy of Eri Heller)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Figure 11. Margareth & Siegfried Brauer’s daughter, Hildegard “Hilde” Brauer (1892-1943) (photo courtesy of Eri Heller)

 

 

This current postscript was originally intended to merely update readers on Hildegard Brauer’s fate until I was contacted through my blog’s webmail by a delightful gentleman from Los Angeles named Eri Heller. Like other individuals researching their ancestors, he accidentally discovered my family history blog, specifically the posts about my great-aunt Margareth Brauer. He learned about some of his ancestors and family history he’d previously been unaware of; he also graciously shared with me high-quality pictures of Margareth and Siegfried Brauer (Figures 9-10), as well as their daughter Hildegard (Figure 11), and explained our familial connection. Unbeknownst to me, Siegfried Brauer (~1859-1926) had an older brother, Adolf Brauer (1857-1933) (Figures 12-14), that’s to say Margareth Brauer’s brother-in-law and Eri Heller’s grandfather. So, while Eri and I are not blood relatives, we are second cousins by marriage. Using MyHeritage, I was able to reconstruct much of Eri Heller’s ancestry and find additional photos of his family, although it is not my intention to elaborate on that here.

 

Figure 12. Adolf Brauer (1857-1933), Siegfried Brauer’s older brother and Eri Heller’s grandfather (photo courtesy of Eri Heller)
Figure 13. Adolf Brauer’s wife and Eri Heller’s grandmother, Fanny Brauer née Krebs (1863-1944) (photo courtesy of Eri Heller)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Figure 14. Adolf Brauer and his daughter, Margarete “Grete” Brauer (1892-1982), respectively, Eri Heller’s grandfather and mother (photo courtesy of Eri Heller)

 

 

I’ve previously mentioned to readers I’ve come across a Jewish Silesian family tree on ancestry.com with in excess of 60,000 names; my tree has slightly more than 750 names, and I use it mostly to orient myself when writing about various forebearers and figuring out ancestral connections. One of the greatest pleasures I derive is attaching photos to people in my tree. Without my blog, it’s unlikely I would ever have obtained pictures of my great-aunt and-uncle, Margareth and Siegfried Brauer, and their daughter, Hildegard Brauer, two of whom were victims of the Holocaust. As I implied at the outset, having pictures of individuals and researching and writing their stories makes these otherwise spectral beings in my tree come to life. And, likewise, this is the reason I liberally pepper my blog posts with documents and photos to “prove” these individuals once walked among us.

 

MARGARETH BRAUER NÉE BERLINER & HER IMMEDIATE FAMILY

 

Name

(Relationship)

 Vital Event Date Place
       
Margareth “Grete” Berliner (self) Birth 19 March 1872 Ratibor, Germany (Racibórz, Poland)
Marriage 14 July 1891 Ratibor, Germany (Racibórz, Poland)
Death 24 November 1942 Theresienstadt Ghetto, Czechoslovakia
Siegfried Brauer

(husband)

 Birth 1859 Biskupitz, Germany (Zabrze, Poland)
Marriage 14 July 1891 Ratibor, Germany (Racibórz, Poland)
Death 5 February 1926 Cosel, Germany (Koźle, Poland)
Hildegard Brauer (daughter) Birth 8 August 1892 Cosel, Germany (Koźle, Poland)
Death 3 March 1943 Auschwitz, Poland (Oświęcim, Poland)
Kurt Brauer (son) Birth 7 July 1893 Cosel, Germany (Koźle, Poland)
Death 27 August 1920 Cosel, Germany (Koźle, Poland)
Ernst Hanns Brauer

(son)

 Birth 9 August 1902 Cosel, Germany (Koźle, Poland)
Death 19 May 1971 Calvia, Mallorca, Spain
Adolf Brauer (brother-in-law) Birth 10 May 1857 Biskupitz, Germany (Zabrze, Poland)
Death 17 December 1933 Berlin, Germany

 

 

 

POST 70: MY UNCLE DR. FEDOR BRUCK AND HIS GERMAN AND AMERICAN CARS

Note: In this short post, I take a whimsical look at the cars my uncle Dr. Fedor Bruck, Theodore Brook in America, owned in Germany and later in New York. The opportunity for whimsy rarely presents itself when telling stories about my father’s Jewish family, so I’m relieved to take a brief pause from these to relate a lighthearted tale.

Figure 1. Dressed as an English gentleman atop a horse, my uncle Fedor Bruck in 1926 in Liegnitz, Germany before he acquired his first car

 

Figure 2. Dressed as Frederick the Great, my uncle Fedor Bruck in 1926 in Liegnitz, Germany

 

One of my English teachers once cited a writer, whose name is lost to me, talking about coming up with short story ideas who’d quipped these can be found on every street corner. As I near the three-year anniversary of writing stories on my father’s Jewish family, this is a sentiment with which I most heartily concur. The inspiration for this current post came from a gentleman, Raymond “Ray” Fellows, who contacted me through my blog after discovering several posts I’ve written on my uncle Dr. Fedor Bruck (1895-1982), known in America as Theodore “Teddy” Brook. (Figures 1-2)

It turns out Ray’s mother rented a room with kitchen privileges to my uncle in Yonkers, New York before he got married in 1958, a period in my uncle’s life I’m unfamiliar with. Ray, born in 1941, met my uncle when he was a teenager and my uncle was working as a toll collector on the New York State Thruway; at the time, he commuted to work in an AMC Rambler, manufactured by the American Motors Corporation between 1958 and 1969.  Ray clearly remembers this car. He also has fond memories of my charismatic uncle because he treated him as a member of his family, vividly remembers my uncle effusively complimenting him on how nicely he’d decorated his “Charlie Brown” Christmas tree, and even amusingly recalls my uncle making him one of his “delicacies,” cow brains, something Ray has never again eaten! Years later, Ray visited my aunt and uncle in Yonkers, at which time my uncle drove a sporty Plymouth Barracuda, manufactured by Plymouth from 1964 to 1974.

In any case, in my photo archive, I discovered photos of my uncle standing by his AMC Rambler as well as his Barracuda. I also found images of him standing as an obviously much younger man by two cars he owned when he was a dentist in Liegnitz, Germany [today: Legnica, Poland] before the war. One of these cars even has a brief anecdote attached to it from a story my two, now-deceased, German first cousins once shared.

Figure 3a. My uncle Fedor Bruck standing alongside his first motor car, a DKW “Typ P” model, also referred to as a DKW P15; the DKW logo can be seen just below my uncle’s right elbow
Figure 3b. Another image of my uncle standing by his first DKW

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Clearly, having his picture taken alongside his latest set of wheels was a tradition my uncle shared with many other car owners. Following his tour of duty in WWI, my uncle obtained his dental license from the University of Breslau in 1921; then, between November 1924 and April 1936, he had his own practice in Liegnitz until he was forced to shutter it by the Nazis. Likely, my uncle’s first car purchase was a DKW (Dampf-Kraft-Wagen), judging from the picture, the DKW “Typ P” convertible model (Figures 3a-b), also referred to as a “DKW P15” (Figure 4), which rolled off the production lines beginning in May 1928. This was the first motor car made by DKW. It was a light-weight design with a unit body made of wood and imitation leather, that was powered by a two-stroke inline twin engine. DKW was one of the four companies that formed Auto Union in 1932 and is hence an ancestor of the modern-day Audi company. (Figure 5)

Figure 4. Photo of a DKW P15 Roadster

 

Figure 5. Following the amalgamation of four German automobile manufacturers into “Auto Union” in 1932, the DKW logo can be seen above the Auto Union logo enmeshed with the four rings of the modern-day Audi company

 

Figure 6. My uncle Fedor Bruck standing alongside his second DKW motor car, a DKW Cabrio

 

Figure 7. Photo from the “Franschhoek Motor Museum” of a DKW Cabrio, similar to the car once owned by my Uncle Fedor

 

Subsequently, my uncle appears to have owned another DKW, the slightly larger DKW Cabrio. (Figures 6-7) While this is mere conjecture on my part, my uncle’s acquisition of a larger car may have been prompted by his “inadvertent” family. In earlier posts, I told readers my uncle carried on a long-term affair with a married woman, Irmgard Lutze (Figure 8), by whom he had two children, my first cousins Wera Thilo née Lutze (1927-2017) and Wolfgang Lutze (1928-2014) (Figure 9); Irmgard never divorced her husband, with whom she raised the children, which afforded my half-Jewish cousins considerable protection when the Nazis later ascended to power; for this reason, my cousins retained the Lutze surname, though my uncle had ardently hoped they would adopt the Bruck surname.

Figure 8. My uncle in Liegnitz standing alongside Irmgard Lutze, the married woman with whom he had two children, my first cousins Wera and Wolfgang Lutze
Figure 9. In 2001, in Bruhl, Germany, with my two first cousins, Wolfgang and Wera (I’m seated furthest on the right)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My two first cousins, Wera and Wolfgang, whom I initially met in the mid-1990’s, clearly remember riding in the DKW Cabrio with my uncle and his paramour on Sunday drives through the Silesian countryside, although it would be years later before my uncle announced himself as their “real” father. What made these drives so memorable to my cousins as children was being seated in the rumble seat in the rear of the DKW in the freezing cold. (Figure 10)

Figure 10. Photo from the “Franschhoek Motor Museum” of the rumble seat in a DKW Cabrio, like the one my two cousins vividly remember riding in as children
Figure 11. My Uncle Fedor standing in front of his AMC Rambler
Figure 12. My Uncle Fedor standing alongside his sporty Plymouth Barracuda

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next, one must fast-forward to see my uncle standing by his first American car, the AMC Rambler (Figure 11), which Ray Fellows so clearly remembers. And, judging from my photo archive, my uncle Fedor’s last American car was his Plymouth Barracuda. (Figure 12) However, there is one other car alongside which my uncle can be seen, a Plymouth Savoy, produced between 1951 and 1964. It’s an advertisement for a 1964 Savoy, and, as readers can see for themselves, my uncle is standing in a toll-collection booth, dressed in his work uniform, reaching towards the driver to collect the toll; this photograph was likely staged on the Tappan Zee Bridge where my uncle in fact worked as a toll-collector. (Figure 13) How my uncle came to be featured in a magazine advertisement for Plymouth is unknown, but perhaps when buying his Barracuda, the dealer decided my uncle fit an older demographic towards which the Savoy was targeted, even though he ultimately wound up buying the sportier car?

Figure 13. Dressed in his toll-collector uniform standing at his toll booth on the New York State Thruway, my Uncle Fedor was featured in a 1964 advertisement for a Plymouth Savoy

 

 

POST 69: THE CASE OF DR. ERICH BRUCK, AN UNKNOWN ANCESTOR FROM BRESLAU, GERMANY [TODAY: WROCLAW, POLAND]

Note: In this post I describe the chain of events that led me to learn about a Dr. Erich Bruck, a man with whom I share a surname. His picture was given to me more than five years ago with the question of whether we’re related. I didn’t know then and still don’t, although I know much more about the doctor and his family today as I will relate.

Related Post:

Post 68: Dr Julius Bruck and His Influence on Modern Endoscopy

 

 

Figure 1. Dr. Erich Bruck (1880-1915) in his German military uniform wearing his Iron Cross, an unknown relative interred in the Old Jewish Cemetery in Wrocław

 

In my previous post, I told readers about the very distinctive picture I was handed in 2014 by Ms. Renata Wilkoszewska-Krakowska, Branch Manager, Museum of Cemetery Art (Old Jewish Cemetery, Branch of the City Museum of Wrocław), of a man named Dr. Erich Bruck, telling me he is buried there and asking whether I know anything about him or am related to him. The picture is memorable because, as readers can see for themselves, he is dressed in his German military uniform and is wearing an Iron Cross. (Figure 1) This is not a picture one forgets.

Fast forward. Recently, my 92-year old third cousin, Agnes Stieda née Vogel, mentioned my name and Blog to her 95-year old German friend with whom she communicates by “snail” mail. This friend originally hails from Breslau, Germany [today: Wrocław, Poland] and mentioned in passing to Agnes, that as a child living there, she was friends with the daughter of her dentist, a Dr. Bruck as it happens; the daughter’s name was “Putzi.” This Dr. Bruck taught at the University of Breslau until he was summarily dismissed in 1933 by the Nazi Regime, and eventually committed suicide around 1938. Agnes’s friend wondered whether I might be related to this Dr. Bruck, no forename provided. Knowing that multiple of my Bruck ancestors were doctors or dentists in Breslau or had trained there, including my Uncle Dr. Fedor Bruck, I Googled and checked MyHeritage for any Bruck relatives who might have been in the medical profession there. Imagine my surprise when multiple images of the identical photo I’d been given five years ago of Dr. Erich Bruck popped up on MyHeritage.

Figure 2. Dr. Erich Bruck’s parents, Ludwig Bruck (1842-1906) and Clara Bruck née Berliner (1853-1906)

 

Figure 3. Erich and Ada Bruck with their oldest daughter Erika as an infant
Figure 4. Dr. Erich Bruck and his wife Adelheid “Ada” Bruck née Oppe’s three children, Gertrude, Elisabeth and Erika in 1917

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Figure 5. Erich Bruck’s wife, Adelheid Bruck, who was murdered in the Izbica Ghetto in German-occupied Poland in 1942

From MyHeritage, I was able to determine some vital events in Dr. Erich Bruck’s life, recreate three generations of his family tree, learn the fate of some of Erich’s immediate family, and even uncover photographs of his parents (Figure 2), wife, and three children. (Figures 3-4) (Interested readers will find a table at the end of this post with vital statistics of Dr. Erich Bruck’s immediate family.) As too often happens with Jewish families, I also discovered Erich’s wife, Adelheid Bruck née Oppe (Figure 5), as well as his sister, Liesebeth “Lilly” Bruck née Goldschmidt were both murdered in the Shoah. As for Dr. Erich Bruck, he was born on the 5th of April 1880 in Waldenburg, Germany (Figure 6) [today: Wałbrzych, Poland], and died on the 28th of April 1915 in France during WWI.

Figure 6. 1893 map of German Silesia with the town of Waldenburg, Germany [today: Wałbrzych, Poland], where Dr. Erich Bruck was born, circled

Having found new information and documents I thought Renata Wilkoszewska-Krakowska might be unaware of, I contacted her. We’d lost touch in the intervening years, but Renata remembered me. A few of the documents I uncovered were new but because she regularly conducts walking tours of the Old Jewish Cemetery, Renata naturally has made it her mission to acquaint herself with the Jews interred there and search out historic documents; additionally, much as I’ve done in researching some of my father’s family, friends, and acquaintances, Renata has sought and in some cases met descendants of these people. While much of our recent communications have centered on Dr. Erich Bruck, as I explained to readers in Post 68, I’ve helped track down where Dr. Julius Bruck’s daughter-in-law, Johanna M.S. Bruck née Graebsch, and granddaughter, Renate Bruck, alit in England after WWII; prior to my recent forensic work, neither Renata nor I had known whether either survived the war. Given the murderous rampage of the Nazis, it provides some comfort to know that some family ancestors somehow managed to survive the onslaught.

Figure 7. A German WWI Casualty list showing Dr. Erich Bruck perished on the 28th of April 1915

 

 

 

Figure 8. An announcement from a Breslau newspaper confirming Dr. Erich Bruck’s death on the 28th of April 1915, identifying the infantry regiment of which he was a part, and naming his wife

 

Not only have I been able to provide some new documents to Renata on Dr. Erich Bruck, but she has reciprocated with finds of her own. From MyHeritage, I was able to unearth a German WWI Casualty list showing Dr. Erich Bruck perished on the 28th of April 1915 (Figure 7), as well as a death announcement from a Breslau newspaper confirming this. (Figure 8) Renata explained that Dr. Erich Bruck had been a member of the medical section of the “Schlesische Gesellschaft für Vaterländische Cultur.” In the membership’s journal, “Jahres-Bericht der Schlesischen Gesellschaft für Vaterländische Cultur, Bd. 93-94,” covering years 1915-1916, Renata was able to locate Erich’s obituary explaining the circumstances of the doctor’s death. (Figures 9a-c) Contrary to my assumption that Dr. Bruck had been killed in combat, such was not the case. Instead, while riding a horse, Erich got caught on a telegraph wire resulting in an open wound that became infected and ultimately resulted in his death. Renate tracked down and gave me a copy of Dr. Bruck’s death certificate showing he perished at Château Parcien in France. (Figure 10)

Figure 9a. First page from the “Jahres-Bericht der Schlesischen Gesellschaft für Vaterländische Cultur, Bd. 93-94 (1915-1916),” with Dr. Erich Bruck’s obituary
Figure 9b. Second page from the “Jahres-Bericht der Schlesischen Gesellschaft für Vaterländische Cultur, Bd. 93-94 (1915-1916),” with Dr. Erich Bruck’s obituary

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Figure 9c. Third page from the “Jahres-Bericht der Schlesischen Gesellschaft für Vaterländische Cultur, Bd. 93-94 (1915-1916),” with Dr. Erich Bruck’s obituary
Figure 10. Dr. Erich Bruck’s death certificate indicating he died at Château Parcien in France

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Figure 11. Ms. Renata Wilkoszewska-Krakowska at the tomb of Dr. Erich Bruck on one of her walking tours at the Old Jewish cemetery

 

Figure 12. Lieutenant Georg Sternberg’s obituary with the names of his next-of-kin

 

On her walking tours, Renata almost always stops by the tombstone of Dr. Erich Bruck (Figure 11), using this as an opportunity to talk about the role of Jewish soldiers in WWI. As an interesting aside, Renata mentioned in passing another Jewish WWI victim interred in the Old Jewish Cemetery, a Lieutenant Georg Sternberg (Figure 12), whose tombstone is topped with a helmet (Figures 13a-b); he was killed in the Battle of Lens in 1917. (Figure 14) Renata said she’d been unable to find a photo or learn much about him. Curious whether I might be able to contribute something, I searched in MyHeritage and ancestry.com.

Figure 13a. Lieutenant Georg Sternberg’s restored tombstone, topped by a helmet, at the Old Jewish Cemetery in Wrocław, Poland
Figure 13b. Closeup of Lieutenant Georg Sternberg’s restored tombstone

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Figure 14. Postcard of the Monument at the Soldiers’ Cemetery in Pas-de-Calais for soldiers killed at the Battle of Lens in 1917, the battle where Lieutenant Georg Sternberg perished

 

While I was unable to find a photo of Lt. Sternberg, I was able to find his name on a German WWI Casualty list (Figure 15) as I’d done for Dr. Erich Bruck. He was born on the 26th of March 1889 in Ostrowo, Germany [today: Ostrów Wielkopolski, Poland], and died on the 27th of August 1917 in Nord-Pas-de-Calais, France. Curiously, I discovered two different places where he was supposedly interred, the Langemark German Military Cemetery in West Flanders, Belgium (Figure 16), approximately 68 miles north of where he was killed, and, as expected, in the Old Jewish Cemetery in Wrocław. (Figure 17) Uncertain what to make of this discrepancy, I asked Renata what she thought. She provided a very reasonable and simple explanation. Since Lieutenant Sternberg was only 28 years of age when he was killed and his parents were still living at the time, it’s likely they requested that his remains be returned to Breslau for internment in the Jewish Cemetery.

Figure 15. A German WWI Casualty list with Lieutenant Georg Sternberg’s name and date and place of birth
Figure 16. One document showing Lieutenant Georg Sternberg is buried in the Langemark German Military Cemetery in West Flanders, Belgium
Figure 17. A different document showing Lieutenant Georg Sternberg is interred in the Old Jewish Cemetery in Wrocław

 

As mentioned above, Erich’s wife and sister were both killed in the Holocaust. Renata was able to establish that Erich’s wife, Adelheid “Ada” Bruck, was deported on the 13th of April 1942 to the Izbica Ghetto. In 2018, on the 76th anniversary of Jew deportations from Breslau and Silesia, the City Museum of Wrocław, in collaboration with the “Schlesisches Museum zu Görlitz” and the Jewish community in Wrocław, unveiled a plaque marking the event. In the presence of descendants of the deportees, the ceremony took place at the Odertor Bahnhof, the railway station in Breslau from which transports to the concentration and death camps departed.

Figure 18. Dr. Erika Bruck (1908-2011), Dr. Erich Bruck’s oldest daughter, who died in New Boston, New Hampshire at the age of 103

 

Renate has been able to locate and establish contact with surviving friends of at least one of Dr. Erich Bruck’s daughters, Erika Bruck (Figure 18), who emigrated to America in 1939 and passed away in New Hampshire on October 13, 2011 at 103! Following Erika’s death, her friends and former colleagues wrote a booklet of remembrances; Renata was able to obtain a copy of this document, which she generously shared with me. Erika’s two younger sisters, Elisabeth (Figure 19) and Gertrude (Figure 20) also survived the Holocaust.

Figure 19. Elisabeth Steinitz née Bruck (1909-2011), Dr. Erich Bruck’s middle daughter, who died in Israel
Figure 20. Dr. Erich Bruck’s youngest daughter, Gertrude “Trudi” Maiwald née Bruck (1913-2001)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It is not my intention to discuss the very rich and fulfilling life Erika led, but I want to highlight a little known, often overlooked, chapter in Holocaust history. By 1933, when the Nazis ascended to power, it quickly became apparent to many Jews, including Erika’s parents, it would no longer be safe for Jews in Germany and elsewhere in Europe. Quoting from the booklet about Erika on what was happening then: “At the time, the government of Turkey under the visionary leadership of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk invited many German and Austrian Jews to come to Turkey to help build the scientific, medical, and intellectual infrastructure of the new Turkish Republic. With her family’s urgent encouragement, Erika left Germany and resettled in Turkey in 1933, along with about 1000 other Jews. Before leaving her homeland, she was forced by German authorities to sign a declaration that she would never practice medicine in Germany because her Jewish heritage was unacceptable to the Nazi regime. Erika finally received her medical degree in 1935 in Istanbul. While in Istanbul, she worked at the Haseki Hospital, a government-run hospital which was primitive in most respects when Erika arrived.” Slowly, Erika brought the Haseki Hospital into the modern era.

After immigrating to America, Erika eventually became a pediatrician. She retained a very warm place in her heart for Turkey. Quoting from the booklet about her life: “Erika made regular visits to Turkey to visit old friends. For years after she settled in the U.S., Erika sponsored and trained medical residents from Turkey to repay the good turns done to her by the Turkish government. She retained a love of Turkey and a resolute devotion to the memory of Atatürk throughout her life.”

There is one interesting convergence I want to touch on. As previously mentioned, multiple members of my Bruck family were either doctors or dentists in Breslau or trained there. It just so happens that the subject of Renata Wilkoszewska-Krakowska’s PhD. dissertation, which she is currently writing, will be about Jewish professors from the second half of the 19th Century and early 20th Century who contributed to the development of the renowned medical and dental disciplines in Breslau in those years. Naturally, some of my Bruck relatives will be discussed, notably, Dr. Julius Bruck, Dr. Jonas Bruck, and Dr. Walter Wolfgang Bruck.

Finally, while I’ve not yet been able to determine how or whether Dr. Erich Bruck and I are related, there are two possible lineages to examine, obviously the Bruck patronymic, but also the Berliner matronymic, the maiden name of my grandmother, which is also the maiden name of Dr. Bruck’s mother, Clara Berliner.

REFERENCE

Jablonski, Nina. “Remembering Erika Bruck: April 5, 1908-October 13, 2011.”

 

ERICH BRUCK & HIS IMMEDIATE FAMILY

 

Name (Relationship) Vital Event Date Place
       
Ludwig Bruck (father) Birth 5 January 1848  
Death 23 October 1906 Waldenburg, Germany (Wałbrzych, Poland)
Clara Berliner (mother) Birth 9 February 1853 Gleiwitz, Germany (Gliwice, Poland)
Death 26 March 1906 Waldenburg, Germany (Wałbrzych, Poland)
Erich Bruck (self) Birth 5 April 1880 Waldenburg, Germany (Wałbrzych, Poland)
Death 28 April 1915 Château Parcien, France
Liesebeth “Lilly” Bruck (sister) Birth 5 September 1881 Waldenburg, Germany (Wałbrzych, Poland)
Marriage (to Franz Louis Goldschmidt) 29 July 1913  
Death March 1943 Auschwitz, Poland (Oświęcim, Poland)
Adelheid “Ada” Oppe (wife) Birth 18 March 1883 Mühlhausen, Germany
Deportation 13 April 1942 Izbica Ghetto, Poland
Death 1942 Izbica Ghetto, Poland
Erika Bruck (daughter) Birth 5 April 1908 Breslau, Germany (Wrocław, Poland)
Death 23 October 2011 New Boston, New Hampshire
Elisabeth Bruck (daughter) Birth 28 June 1909 Breslau, Germany (Wrocław, Poland)
Marriage (to Kurt Steinitz) 9 May 1934 Breslau, Germany (Wrocław, Poland)
Death 28 April 2011 Kfar Saba, Israel
Gertrude “Trudi” Bruck (daughter) Birth 22 June 1913 Breslau, Germany (Wrocław, Poland)
Marriage (to Georg Maiwald) 18 July 1938 Bolivia
Death 3 March 2001 Dresden, Germany