Author: richardbrook@bruckfamilyblog.com

POST 44: A TROVE OF FAMILY HISTORY FROM THE “PINKUS COLLECTION” AT THE LEO BAECK INSTITUTE

Note: In this Blog post, I discuss how I inadvertently uncovered vital records information for several people in my family tree and talk about leaving open the possibility of discovering evidence of ancestors whose traces appear negligible.

Related Posts:

Post 39: An Imperfect Analogy: Family Trees and Dendrochronology

Post 40: Elisabeth “Lisa” Pauly née Krüger, One of Germany’s Silent Heroes

In the prologue to my family history blog, which I initiated in April 2017, I conceded there are some ancestral searches which are bound to end up unresolved during my lifetime.  While I never actually close the book on these forensic investigations, I place them on a back-burner in the unlikely event I discover something new or make a new connection.  This Blog post delves into one recent find that opened the door to learning more about several close ancestors whom I’d essentially given up hope of unearthing anything new.

Given my single-minded focus over the last two years on writing stories for my family history blog, I’ve woefully neglected updating my family tree which resides on ancestry.com.  An opportunity recently presented itself to piggy-back on a friend’s membership to ancestry and review the hundreds of “leaves” associated with the roughly 500+ people in my tree.  Typically, at the top of the list of ancestry clues are links to other family trees that may include the same people as found in one’s own tree.  While I systematically review these member trees, I only “import” new ancestral information if source documents are attached to the member trees and I can confirm the reliability of the details; I may occasionally make exceptions if trees or tree managers have been trusted sources of information in the past, and/or I otherwise can confirm the origins of the data.  Over the years I’ve seen multiple trees replicate the same erroneous information, and this is a path I choose to avoid.

The family ancestral information I happened upon came from a family tree I discussed in Blog Post 39, entitled “Schlesische Jüdische Familien,” “Silesian Jewish Families.”  Regular readers may recall this tree has an astronomical 52,000+ names in it, so it should come as no surprise that it is often the source of overlapping or new information for individuals found in my own modest-sized tree.  That said, I still apply the same rigorous principles in assessing the information found in this larger tree.  I rarely take anything at face-value when it comes to vital records (e.g., births, baptisms, marriages, deaths) given the multiple reasons, often inadvertent or negligent, why data may be incorrect or divergent (e.g., illegible or unintelligible writing on source documents; transcription errors).  With these caveats in mind, however, I came across some vital record information on the Silesian Families tree that seemed credible given the specificity of birth and death dates for a few individuals in my tree.  The information related to my great-great-uncle Josef Mockrauer’s first wife, Esther Ernestine Lißner, and their son, Gerhard Mockrauer; while I’d previously found Gerhard’s birth certificate mentioning his parents, I had never found precise birth and death dates for Ernestine or Gerhard, so this was particularly intriguing.

Having previously established contact with the manager of the “Schlesische Jüdische Familien” family tree, a very helpful German lady by the name of Ms. Elke Kehrmann, I again reached out to her.  I acknowledged that remembering the source of data for 52,000+ people is unrealistic but thought I should still ask.  Initially, Ms. Kehrmann could only recall the information came from a manuscript prepared by an American Holocaust survivor who’d wanted to memorialize his lineage; with numerous computer upgrades over the years, Elke expressed the likelihood the document was digitally irretrievable.  Disappointed, but not surprised, I was prepared to accept the vital records information at face-value. 

 

Figure 1. Screen shot of the “Pinkus Family Collection 1500s-1994, (bulk 1725-1994),” archived at the Leo Baeck Institute—New York/Berlin (LBI), highlighting Series VII where my family’s ancestral materials were found

Then, much to my delight, a day later Elke told me she’d located the source document from a larger collection entitled the “Pinkus Family Collection 1500s-1994, (bulk 1725-1994).” (Figure 1)  It was too large to email, but she opined I might be able to locate it on the Internet, and, sure enough, I immediately learned the collection is archived at The Leo Baeck Institute—New York/Berlin (LBI) and can be downloaded for free.  For readers unfamiliar with this institute, according to their website, “LBI is devoted to the history of German-speaking Jews. Its 80,000-volume library and extensive archival and art collections represent the most significant repository of primary source material and scholarship on the Jewish communities of Central Europe over the past five centuries.”

The Pinkus Family Collection is enormous.  From the “Biographical Note” to the collection, I learned the Pinkus family were textile manufacturers.  Their factory, located in Neustadt, Upper Silesia [today: Prudnik, Poland], was one of the largest producers of fine linens in the world.  Joseph Pinkus became a partner in the firm S. Fränkel when he married Auguste Fränkel, the daughter of the owner.  Their son Max Pinkus (1857-1934) was director until 1926.  Subsequently, Max Pinkus’s son Hans Pinkus (1891-1977) managed the family company from 1926-1938 until he was forced out after the company’s total aryanization in the wake of Kristallnacht.  Both Max and Hans Pinkus were very active in civic and cultural affairs and interested in local history; they amassed a large library of books by Silesian authors.  In their spare time, they devoted themselves to genealogical research, the basis of the family collection archived at LBI.  Hans Pinkus left Germany at the end of 1938, emigrated to the United Kingdom with his family in 1939, and died in Britain in 1977.

In reviewing the index to the collection, I had no idea where to begin.  Fortunately, Elke came to my rescue and pointed me to “Series VII” (Figure 1),  described as encompassing not just close Pinkus family relations but the broader array of families in Upper Silesia.  Within this series I located pages related to my family, although, unlike other portions of the collection, ancestral information is recorded in longhand, in Sütterlin, no less.  Even so, I was able to decipher most of the numerical data, and enlisted one of my German cousins to translate the longhand.

Here is where I discovered the source of the birth and death dates for my great-great-uncle Josef Mockrauer’s first wife, Esther Ernestine Lißner, and their son, Gerhard Mockrauer.  A summary of vital information for Josef Mockrauer, his two wives, and their children follows:

Figure 2. My great-great-uncle Josef Mockrauer (1845-1895)

 

Figure 3a. First page of Josef Mockrauer’s 1895 death certificate
Figure 3b. Second page of Josef Mockrauer’s 1895 death certificate

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Figure 4a. Plan map of the Jüdischer Friedhof in Berlin Weißensee (East Berlin) showing section Q1, where Josef Mockrauer is interred
Figure 4b. Headstone of Josef Mockrauer’s grave

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

NAME EVENT DATE PLACE
Josef Mockrauer

(Figures 2, 3a-b, 4a-b)

 Birth 18 June 1845 Leschnitz, Oberschlesien, Germany [today: Leśnica, Poland]
Death 9 February 1895 Charlottenburg, Berlin, Germany
Esther Ernestine Mockrauer, née Lißner (Josef’s first wife) Birth 30 October 1854 Dresden, Saxony, Germany
Death 24 May 1934 Berlin, Germany
Marriage Unknown Unknown
Elly Landsberg, née Mockrauer

(Figure 5)

 Birth 14 August 1873 Berlin, Germany
Death 15 May 1944 Auschwitz, Poland
Gerhard Mockrauer

(Figure 6)

 Birth 25 January 1875 Berlin, Germany
Death 21 September 1886 Freienwalde, Märkisch-Oderland district, Brandenburg, Germany
George Mockrauer (Ernestine’s out-of-wedlock child)

(Figure 7)

 Birth 16 April 1884 Dresden, Saxony, Germany
Death Unknown Unknown
Charlotte Mockrauer, née Bruck (Josef’s second wife)

(Figure 8)

 Birth 8 December 1865 Ratibor, Germany [today: Racibórz, Poland]
Death 1965 Stockholm, Sweden
Marriage 18 March 1888 Ratibor, Germany [today: Racibórz, Poland]
Franz Josef Mockrauer

(Figure 9)

 Birth 10 August 1889 Berlin, Germany
Death 7 July 1962 Stockholm, Sweden

 

Figure 5. Josef Mockrauer and Esther Ernestine Mockrauer née Lißner’s daughter, Elly Landsberg née Mockrauer, in 1902

 

Figure 6. Birth certificate for Josef and Ernestine Mockrauer’s son, Gerhard Mockrauer, indicating he was born on January 25, 1875
Figure 7. Birth certificate for Georg Mockrauer, Ernestine Mockrauer’s out-of-wedlock son, who carried the “Mockrauer” surname even though he was not Josef Mockrauer’s son

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Figure 8. Josef Mockrauer’s second wife, my great-aunt Charlotte Mockrauer née Bruck
Figure 9. Josef and Charlotte Mockrauer’s son, Franz Josef Mockrauer

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Figure 10. My great-great-grandfather Fedor Bruck
Figure 11. My great-great-grandmother Friederike Bruck née Mockrauer

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I made other surprising discoveries in the Pinkus Collection. Briefly, some context.  The second-generation owners of the Bruck’s “Prinz von Preussen” Hotel in Ratibor were my great-grandparents, Fedor Bruck (Figure 10) and Friederike Bruck née Mockrauer. (Figure 11)  As the table below shows, Fedor and Friederike Bruck had eight children, only six of whom I’d previously been able to track from birth to death; Elise and Robert remained wraiths whose existence I knew about but assumed had died at birth, a not uncommon fate in the 19th century.  This was not, in fact, what happened.  Elise lived to almost age 4, and Robert to age 16.  While Elise expectedly died in Ratibor, mystifyingly, Robert died on December 30, 1887 in Braunschweig, Germany, more than 450 miles from Ratibor.  Why here is unclear.  Their causes of death are a mystery, though childhood diseases a real possibility.

Figure 12. My grandfather Felix Bruck
Figure 13. My great-aunt Franziska Bruck

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

NAME EVENT DATE PLACE
Felix Bruck

(Figure 12)

 Birth 28 March 1864  Ratibor, Germany (today: Racibórz, Poland)
Death 23 June 1927 Berlin, Germany
Charlotte Mockrauer, née Bruck

(Figure 8)

 Birth 8 December 1865 Ratibor, Germany (today: Racibórz, Poland)
Death 1965 Stockholm, Sweden
Franziska Bruck

(Figure 13)

 Birth 29 December 1866  Ratibor, Germany (today: Racibórz, Poland)
Death 2 January 1942 Berlin, Germany
Elise Bruck Birth 20 August 1868  Ratibor, Germany (today: Racibórz, Poland)
Death 19 June 1872 Ratibor, Germany (today: Racibórz, Poland)
Hedwig Löwenstein, née Bruck

(Figure 14)

 Birth 22 March 1870

 

 Ratibor, Germany (today: Racibórz, Poland)
Death 15 January 1949 Nice, France
Robert Bruck Birth 1 December 1871 Ratibor, Germany (today: Racibórz, Poland)
Death 30 December 1887 Braunschweig, Lower Saxony, Germany
Wilhelm Bruck

(Figure 15)

 Birth 24 October 1872  Ratibor, Germany (today: Racibórz, Poland)
Death 29 April 1952 Barcelona, Spain
Elsbeth Bruck

(Figure 16)

 Birth 17 November 1874  Ratibor, Germany (today: Racibórz, Poland)
Death 20 February 1970 Berlin, Germany

 

Figure 14. Another great-aunt, Hedwig Löwenstein, née Bruck
Figure 15. My great-uncle Wilhelm Bruck

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Figure 16. Yet another great-aunt Elsbeth Bruck

 

With respect to the tables above, I don’t expect readers to do anything more than glance at them; for me, they’re a quick reference as to what I know and where it came from, a form of metadata, if you will.  The italicized information in the tables was new to me and originated from the Pinkus Collection.

As a related aside, Friederike Mockrauer and Josef Mockrauer were siblings.  Interestingly, Josef Mockrauer would go on to eventually marry one of his sister’s daughters, his niece, my great-aunt Charlotte Bruck.  Incestuous, I would agree.

Figure 17. Page from the Pinkus Family Collection showing Fedor and Friederike Bruck’s eight children, including birth and death dates for my great-aunt Elise and my great-uncle Robert, both of whom died as children. Towards the bottom right my father’s name is shown (Otto Bruck). [Citation: Series VII: Genealogical and historical materials on the Fraenkel family and others, undated, 1600s-1971; Pinkus Family Collection; AR 7030; Box 20; Folder 3; Page 293; Leo Baeck Institute]

Remarkably, on the very same page where I discovered Elise and Robert’s dates and places of death, I found my father and his three siblings listed! (Figure 17)  Inasmuch as I can tell, the detailed family information was recorded by either Max (Max died in 1934) or Hans Pinkus around the early- to mid-1930’s, at which time my father, Dr. Otto Bruck, would have been a dentist in Tiegenhof in the Free State of Danzig, and this is precisely what is noted: “Zahnarzt im Tiegenhof (Freistaat Danzig)”; “Freistaat Danzig” was the official name of this former part of the Deutsches Reich after World War I.

Figure 18. Page from the Pinkus Family Collection identifying Oscar Pincus and Paula Pincus née Pauly’s two children (“kinder” in German), Franz Pincus and Lisselotte “Lilo” Pauly. Here can also be seen that Franz Pincus married Lisa Krüger. [Citation: Series VII: Genealogical and historical materials on the Fraenkel family and others, undated, 1600s-1971; Pinkus Family Collection; AR 7030; Box 20; Folder 3; Page 307; Leo Baeck Institute]
Finally, from the Pinkus Collection, I was also able to confirm that Elisabeth “Lisa” Pauly née Krüger, discussed in Blog Post 40, one of the “silent heroes” who hid my Uncle Dr. Fedor Bruck during his 30-months “underground” in Berlin during WWII, was indeed married to Franz Pincus (Figure 18); Franz Pincus, readers may recall, died in 1941 as Franz Pauly, having taken his mother’s maiden name as his own surname.  While the Pinkus Collection shed no additional light on exactly how Franz Pincus/Pauly died, I discovered Franz was the older rather than the younger of two siblings, contrary to what was in my family tree.  This comports with a photo, attached here, showing Franz and his sister, Charlotte “Lisselotte or Lilo” Pauly, as children, found since I published Post 40; readers can clearly see Franz is the older of the two children. (Figure 19)

Figure 19. Franz and Lilo Pauly as children in 1902

 

Tracking down the Pinkus Collection with its relevant family history is admittedly noteworthy, but the real service was rendered by Max and Hans Pinkus.  Their detailed compilation of ancestral data from related Silesian families was gathered while running a full-time business and in the days before genealogical information was digitized, when most of the painstaking work had to be undertaken manually through time-consuming letter-writing, and perhaps occasional phone calls and family gatherings.  So, while I take obvious pleasure in having discovered the Pinkus Collection, I acknowledge the true forensic genealogists for amassing this valuable trove of family history.  

Let me conclude by emphasizing that well-done family trees to which ancestry.com leads genealogists can often be the source of valuable forensic clues but should be closely scrutinized and delved into to before accepting the data prima facie.  And, finally, I have no idea how many “cold cases” I can eventually solve but the challenge is what motivates me.

CITATION

Series VII: Genealogical and historical materials on the Fraenkel family and others, undated, 1600s-1971; Pinkus Family Collection; AR 7030; Box 20; Folder 3; Leo Baeck Institute

POST 43: HELPING A JEWISH FRIEND UNCOVER HIS GERMAN ROOTS

Note:  In this Blog post, I talk about some ancestral research I undertook at the request of a childhood friend from New York of almost 60 years, and some interesting findings we made along the way.

Related Posts:  

Post 11: Ratibor & Bruck’s “Prinz von Preußen” Hotel

Post 12: “State Branch of Katowice Archives Branch in Racibórz (Ratibor)”

Post 13: The Former Jewish Cemetery in Ratibor (Racibórz)

 

Figure 1. My and my wife’s English-speaking Polish friend, Malgosia Ploszaj, from Rybnik, Poland, 16 miles east of Racibórz

First, let me set the stage.

In 2014, my wife and I spent 13 weeks in Europe driving everywhere from Gdansk, a Polish city on the Baltic coast, all the way to Valencia and Barcelona, along Spain’s eastern coast, visiting places my father and his family had once lived.  Prior to our departure, we attended a lecture in Los Angeles given by Mr. Roger Lustig, sponsored by the Los Angeles Jewish Genealogical Society, on researching Jewish families of Prussian Poland, a place where many of my Hebraic ancestors come from.  Knowing we would be passing through Poland, I contacted Mr. Lustig about extant Jewish records for Ratibor [today: Racibórz, Poland], formerly part of Upper Silesia in Prussia, where my father and many of his immediate family were born.  Roger took an immediate interest in helping since a branch of his own family came from there.  He graciously introduced me to an English-speaking Polish lady, Ms. Malgosia Ploszaj (Figure 1), from nearby Rybnik, Poland [formerly: Rybnick, Germany], who is actively involved in researching what she calls “her Rybnik Jews” and who was enormously helpful when we met.  In Blog Post 12, I discussed how Malgosia helped me navigate the civil records at the “State Archives in Katowice Branch in Racibórz.” (Figure 2)  Archived here, we discovered an administrative  file of historic police documents from the Bruck’s “Prinz von Preußen” Hotel (Figure 3), a family-owned establishment through three generations (see Blog Post 11), as well as vital records for family members.

Figure 2. Entrance to “Archiwum Państwowe W Katowicach Oddzial W Raciborzu,” the State Archives in Katowice Branch in Racibórz
Figure 3. Cover of the administrative police file with historic documents dealing with the Bruck’s family “Prinz von Preußen” Hotel, found at the State Archives in Racibórz

 

Figure 4. Entrance to the former Jewish Cemetery in Ratibor, which was dismantled during Poland’s Communist Era and converted into Community Gardens

In February 2015, many months after our visit to Racibórz, Malgosia sent me a link to an hour-long BBC video done by an English journalist, Mr. Adrian Goldberg, to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz in January 1945.  In this video, Mr. Goldberg told his family story through home recordings he’d done with his now-deceased father who, like my own father, was Jewish and born in Ratibor.  Adrian’s father survived because his parents were able to secure a place for him on a Kindertransport (German for “children’s transport”) to the United Kingdom, although Adrian’s grandparents were murdered in Auschwitz, same as my beloved Aunt Susanne.  Malgosia provided local support to Adrian during the production of his video, which was filmed in the now-destroyed former Jewish Cemetery in Ratibor (Figure 4), subject of my Blog Post 13, a place where many of my and Adrian’s relatives were once interred.

Following the release of Adrian’s video in 2015, we had occasion to exchange a few emails to bemoan the woeful condition of the former Jewish cemetery in Ratibor, and what might be done about this.  Within just the last two months, I was contacted by Adrian’s staff in connection with an article he was working on related to obtaining a German passport, which, as the son of a German refugee, he is entitled to.  Adrian’s article on the calculation that went into deciding to do so, given his father’s refugee status and the negative reaction his father likely would have had were he still alive, has since appeared in print on BBC.com on December 24, 2018.  Adrian makes clear his decision to apply for a German passport stems not from any political or philosophical standpoint, stressing he deeply loves England.  It is more a reflection of post-Brexit realities and the greater flexibility that being an EU citizen with the right to work and travel freely across 27 countries without any visa requirements provides; that said, the idea of adopting the nationality of a country that murdered many family members was not an easy one.

Figure 5. Harold and me as children

 

Adrian Goldberg’s deliberations about applying for a German passport happened to coincide with a request from my childhood friend Harold from New York, whom I’ve known for almost 60 years (Figure 5), for help documenting his German roots.  He has a similar goal, obtaining German passports for he and his immediate family; as the child of Jewish refugees who fled Germany in the 1930’s, like Adrian, my friend is entitled to a German passport.  My friend’s interest in securing dual nationality is different than Adrian’s, however.  It has little to do with wanting to become an EU member but relates to the increasingly divisive political environment in our country.  My friend wants the option of legally moving himself and his family to Germany should the political landscape in America continue to deteriorate and becomes far worse than that in Germany, and not find himself in the same circumstances as many German Jews did in the 1930’s, unable to find a safe port.  Contemplating returning to a country that perpetrated the Holocaust and killed some of Harold’s ancestors is an irony not lost on either of us.

Documenting my friend’s German lineage was a straight-forward task.  However, as ancestral searches are often wont to do, it morphed into searching for my friend’s family who may have wound up in the United States or South America after they left Germany, as well as a hunt for older ancestors who were born and died in Prussia.  I’m happy to report that the forensic genealogical work has now been taken over in exceptional fashion by my friend’s daughter.

Briefly, I want to devote the remainder of this post to talking about a few discoveries and connections my friend’s daughter and I have made, along with a mystery that remains unsolved.

My friend’s uncle Paul, his father’s brother, was born in 1900 in Wiesbaden, Hesse, Germany, lived and worked in Berlin for a time, then emigrated from Germany in 1937 or 1938, arriving in New York in October 1938; this was merely a transit point, by choice or design, and he eventually alit in South America, Chile by all accounts.  My friend remembers an annual conversation that took place between his father and his uncle Paul, perhaps around one of their birthdays, but cannot otherwise recall what happened to him.  From my own personal experience, I can attest to the difficulty in finding evidence of Jewish ancestors who immigrated to South America before or after WWII; as we speak, I am trying to discover the fate of one of my father’s first cousins who lived and perhaps died in Buenos Aires, Argentina around 1948, so far to no avail.  As to Harold’s uncle, his daughter and I have so far hit a brick wall in determining his destiny.

As previously mentioned, Harold and I have known one another for almost 60 years.  Like my father, I was an active tennis player growing up.  So, in the course of discussing my friend’s family with him, we both clearly recalled one of his distant relatives who was a highly regarded tennis player when we were growing up.  My friend remembered her name, Marilyn, and because she was a ranked player for a time, we had no trouble finding information on her and even getting her phone number.  Several days later, I placed a “cold” call to Marilyn, left a message explaining who I was and that I was calling on behalf of my friend, who I thought might be related to her.  Later that day, Harold’s tennis-playing kin returned my call, and we had an eminently delightful conversation.

While I quickly receded into the background, I learned when Marilyn had been born, but equally importantly that her mother, Gisela, is still alive and of sound mind.  I passed this information along to Harold, uncertain exactly where it would lead, although excited on his behalf that he could converse with an older member of his family.

 

Figure 6. Photo of Gisela from her Immigration Card when she and her husband Ernest traveled to South America
Figure 7. Ernest’s Immigration Card photo when he traveled to South America with his wife

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Prior to contacting Marilyn, I had already found Immigration Cards for both her parents, Gisela and Ernest, her father now deceased, with attached photos showing what they looked like when they traveled to South America. (Figures 6-7)  I forwarded these to Harold, at which point he had an “aha!” moment.  He dug out his bar mitzvah album photos and began comparing Gisela and Ernest’s immigration card pictures to them.  Triumphantly, Harold discovered a picture of himself with his parents and Gisela and Ernest altogether! (Figure 8)

Figure 8. Photo from Harold’s bar mitzvah showing Gisela and Ernest on the far left

Harold eventually spoke by phone with Gisela in December 2018 and sent her pictures he thought were of her and her husband at his bar mitzvah; she confirmed the pictures were them.  Gisela explained that Ernest and Harold’s father had been second cousins, and that Marilyn and Harold are therefore third cousins; it’s not clear Harold ever met his third cousin growing up in New York.  Gisela and Ernest would from time to time socialize with Harold’s parents when all lived in New York but drifted apart when they became “snowbirds” in different parts of Florida.  Gisela graciously provided a family tree to Harold that has allowed Harold’s daughter to broaden her ancestral investigations.  What Gisela was unable to provide, however, were clues as to where Harold’s uncle Paul wound up.

Tangentially, Harold’s daughter and I have discovered no fewer than three Upper Silesian towns where members of our respective families once lived, Ratibor, Beuthen [today: Bytom, Poland], and Breslau [today: Wrocław, Poland]; there are likely many more.  Given that some of these towns were modest in size, and the Jewish communities relatively small, it’s highly likely Harold’s family and my family intermarried, making us distant cousins.

In conclusion, let me remark on one thing.  Regular readers know my Blog is not political.  Yet, one cannot talk about Jews who were victims of National Socialism without being political and recognizing and condemning modern-day parallels.  Today’s populists who demonize and discriminate against Jews and other minorities are no different than the fascists of old.  It’s the canary in the coal mine when Americans of all stripes begin to consider moving elsewhere in the unlikely event that the political divisions in our country worsen.  It’s imperative we speak out against falsifiers and admirers of tyrants and dictators wherever and whenever they crawl out of the woodwork.

POST 42: “DIE SCHLUMMERMUTTER’S” PARTING GIFT TO MY FATHER, A SIGNET RING

Note:  In this post, I tell readers a little more about a signet ring given to my father, Dr. Otto Bruck, by his landlady in 1937 upon his departure from Tiegenhof, where he had his dental practice in the Free State of Danzig. The post is based on information provided by one of the co-authors of a book on the history of Tiegenhof, Mr. Grzegorz Gola.

I apologize to readers at the very outset, as this Blog post is likely to be of interest to few of you and is more a reflection of my obsession with accuracy, recognizing I’m not an expert on many subjects I write about.  When people with expertise on the matters I discuss enhance my understanding of these topics, I’m delighted.

From Blog Post 3, regular readers may recall the extraordinary lengths to which I went to learn the identity of a woman my father only ever referred to when I was growing up as “Die Schlummermutter,” translated roughly as “landlady.”  With much letter-writing and the help of a gentleman from the Danzig Forum, I eventually learned Die Schlummermutter was named Frau Margaretha “Grete” Wilhelmine Gramatzki née Gleixner.  She was born in Tiegenhof on June 13, 1885 and died there on February 24, 1942. 

Figure 1. My father and “Die Schlummermutter” (Grete Gramatzki) in Tiegenhof in Spring 1933, with sisters Suse Epp (left) and Idschi Epp
Figure 2. Die Schlummermutter, or as she was locally known “dicke Grete” (fat Grete)
My father spoke of Grete Gramatzki with great affection, and the surviving pictures of the two of them together attest to this friendship. (Figure 1) She was an enormous woman, weighing more than 400 pounds, and someone I picture to be of outsize personality. (Figure 2)  Given the close bond between “dicke Grete” (“fat Grete”), as she was known to locals, and my father, it comes as no surprise that upon my father’s departure from Tiegenhof, some months after Grete’s birthday in June 1937 (Figure 3), she gave him a parting gift.  That souvenir was a signet ring (Figure 4) that had belonged to her husband, who I came to learn was Hans Erich Gramatzki.  He was born on August 10, 1879 and died at an unknown date.  My father arrived in Tiegenhof on April 9, 1932, and while multiple photos post-dating his arrival show Grete Gramatzki, none of her husband exist; I surmise he was no longer alive by the time my father moved to town.

 

Figure 3. Grete Gramatzki on what would have been her 52nd birthday on June 13, 1937, with an unknown friend on her left and my father’s then-girlfriend Erika on her right. My father left Tiegenhof shortly after this photo was taken
Figure 4. Signet ring given to my father by Grete Gramatzki, once belonging to her husband

“The main element of the coat of arms on the ring shows a sloped battle axe embedded in a shield on what was once a red background, today only very faintly visible.  The Gramatzki family is Polish aristocracy of the so-called Topór tribe or clan, once living around Preußisch Eylau [today: south of Kaliningrad, Russia].  And, in fact comparing the ring’s coat of arms to that of the Topór tribe shows them to be remarkably similar.”

A signet ring is described as “. . .having a flat bezel, usually wider than the rest of the hoop, which is decorated, normally in intaglio, so that it will leave a raised (relief) impression of the design when the ring is pressed onto soft sealing wax or similar material.”  Thus, in the case of the ring given by Die Schlummermutter to my father it is essentially the “signature” of the Gramatzki family and a mirror image of their family’s coat of arms, so I logically assumed.  However, Mr. Grzegorz Gola remarked the following:

“In my opinion, this is a variant of the ‘oksza’ coat of arms. (Figure 5)  It is very similar to the ‘topór’ coat of arms. (Figure 6)  ‘Oksza’ is a battle axe with a sharp tip, inaccurately, a halberd.  According to the rules of heraldry, ‘oksza’ is turned to the right [left, when looking at the impression that would be pressed onto soft sealing wax].  The Gramatzki family had a ‘topór’ coat of arms.  The Gramacki family had a ‘oksza’ coat of arms.  The name ‘Gramacki’ in Polish is pronounced almost identically to the German pronunciation of ‘Gramatzki.’”

Figure 5. The “Oksza” Polish Coat of Arms of the Gramacki family
Figure 6. The very similar “Topór” Polish Coat of Arms of the Gramatzki family

It’s not entirely clear what to make of this, that the ring given to my father, supposedly belonging to Grete Gramatzki’s husband, shows the Gramacki rather than the Gramatzki coat of arms.  Possibly, the Polish Gramacki’s originally hailed from Germany or Prussia, and the Gramacki’s and Gramatzki’s have common ancestors.

Figure 7. The signet ring’s heraldic border; neither the Oksza nor the Topór coat of arms bear such a border

Mr. Grzegorz Gola noted one other thing: 

“. . .it is interesting that the coat of arms has a heraldic border (a narrow strip on the edge of the coat of arms). (Figure 7)  This is very rare in Polish coat of arms.  Much more often, this occurs in Scottish, French or English coat of arms.  Formerly, in Poland, this meant it was the coat of arms of a younger, newer branch of the family.  (In England and France, the heraldic border meant the family of an illegitimate child.)”

Perhaps the first and second issues are interrelated, the slight variation in the shape of the battle axe and the presence of a heraldic border, indicating that Grete Gramatzki’s husband was from a younger branch of an older family or an offspring of an illegitimate son.

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 4th, 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.

Related Post: POST 39:  An Imperfect Analogy: Family Trees And Dendrochronology

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.

POST 39: AN IMPERFECT ANALOGY: FAMILY TREES AND DENDROCHRONOLOGY

Note:  In this post, I discuss a vague similarity between some family trees and an archaeological dating technique, known as dendrochronology, that is, tree-ring dating.

Regular readers may recall me mentioning how my formal training as an archaeologist, which is what I did professionally, has been enormously useful in doing forensic genealogy.  The inspiration for this story is drawn from archaeology, specifically, an archaeological dating technique known as dendrochronology, that’s to say, tree-ring dating.  Admittedly, with slightly flippant intent, in this Blog post, I touch on a parallel between family trees and dendrochronology, and briefly explain the technique to provide the necessary context.  Regardless of whether readers accept the notion of any connection between these matters, perhaps, they may come away with a better understanding of how this technique is used in archaeology.

For some time now, I have been researching one of my Uncle Dr. Fedor Bruck’s cousins, Elisabeth “Lisa” Pauly née Krüger, who will be the subject of the subsequent post.  Lisa Pauly helped my Uncle Fedor survive during his 30 months “underground” in Berlin during WWII.  I have a copy of a letter of recommendation she wrote on behalf of my uncle in 1947, along with a separate letter of reference written by a couple who also assisted my uncle during his years in hiding that mentions Lisa Pauly.  Despite having these letters and having found Lisa Pauly listed in Berlin Phone Directories between 1966 and 1977 at an address she is known to have lived at in the Steglitz borough of Berlin, I had until recently been unable to learn anything more about her.

Faced with this hurdle, I turned to “Family Trees” in ancestry.com, and, finally, found her on a tree listed as “Lisa Krüger,” born in the year 1890.  The title of the family tree in which I discovered her name is “Schlesische Jüdische Familien,” translated as “Silesian Jewish Families.”  Because I utilize the free institutional version of ancestry at my local library, it is not possible for me as a non-member to contact family tree managers; only members can send messages to other ancestry affiliates.  Consequently, I asked a friend of mine who volunteers at the Los Angeles Jewish Genealogical Society whether she could send an email on my behalf.  She graciously agreed to do this, and within a day, the family tree manager responded and invited me as a “Guest” to the “Schlesische Jüdische Familien.”  I was thrilled with this development.

I immediately opened the tree, and, to my amazement, discovered it includes 52,000 plus names!!  To provide some context, my family tree has about 500 names.  While seemingly faced with the daunting challenge of deciphering the connection between specific people in the larger tree and my own, I rationalized I might finally be able to discover the relationship between myself and people whose names I recognized if I could somehow find the names of one or more people on both trees.  I naively assumed all the names on the Silesian family tree would be bound together like tango partners on a dance floor.  I was sadly mistaken.  Instead, I discovered that what I thought was one large tree with all people interrelated was instead branches of discrete Jewish families from Silesia.  It was at this moment that a less-than-perfect archaeological analogy came to mind, namely, “dendrochronology.”

Dendrochronology, literally the study of tree time, is a multi-disciplinary science that provides accurate and precise dating information based on the analysis of patterns of tree rings, also known as growth rings.  It burst into the national consciousness with the publication in December 1929 in National Geographic of an article by an astronomer from the University of Arizona, Andrew Ellicott Douglass, detailing his 15-year endeavor to date archaeological sites in the American Southwest.  In the first half of the 20th Century, Douglass had established the Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research at the University of Arizona with the intent of better understanding cycles of sunspot activity; he had reasoned that changes in solar activity would affect climate patterns on earth, which would subsequently be recorded by tree-ring growth patterns.

Prior to publication of Douglass’ article, archaeologists had no idea, for example, how old Puebloan archaeological sites and cliff dwellings found in the Four Corners region of the United States were; archaeologists had estimated they were 2000 years old when tree-ring dates later confirmed they were only about 800 years old.  When archaeologists realized sites were younger than previously thought, they were forced to change their interpretations about the rate of development of prehistoric societies in the American Southwest.

Tree rings or annual rings are the result of new growth in the vascular cambium, the layer of cells nearest the bark.  Each year trees create a layer of new wood under the bark.  In temperate climates, generally, one ring marks the passage of one year in the life of the tree.  Critical to tree-ring dating, trees of the same species from the same region tend to develop the same patterns of ring width during any given period.  Thus, researchers can compare and match these patterns ring-for-ring with patterns from trees of the identical species which have grown at the same time in the same locale (and therefore under similar climatic conditions).  Chronologies can be built up when one can match tree-ring patterns of the same species from one tree to another in the same geographic area.  It is this pattern that can be used for dating purposes whenever a piece of wood is preserved, such as in an archaeological site; matching wood from prehistoric and historic structures to known chronologies developed from tree-ring data is referred to as “cross-dating.”  [NOTE: “Cross-dating” refers BOTH to “a method of establishing the age of archaeological finds or remains by comparing them with other finds or remains which sometimes have known dates” as well as to “a method of pattern matching a tree’s growth signals of unknown age (floating chronology) to that of a known pattern that is locked in time (master chronology).”]

Critical to the imperfect analogy I am drawing between family trees and tree-ring dating is this concept of a “floating chronology” versus a “fully anchored and cross-matched chronology.”  A floating chronology is a tree-ring sequence whose beginning and end dates are not known.  Thus, in the case of the Silesian family tree, the 52,000 plus individuals in it cannot directly be connected to one another in any linear sense, they’re “floating,” so to speak, branches of distinct Jewish families from Silesia.  This contrasts with what’s dubbed a “fully anchored chronology,” where the beginning and end dates of a tree-ring sequence that has been established are known.  In this instance, my own family tree where every person can linearly be connected to every other person in the tree would be so characterized. 

In the case of trees and tree-ring sequences, a fully anchored chronology extends back 8500 years for the long-lived bristlecone pine in the western United States, and for the oak and pine in central Europe going back 12,460 years.  Just as archaeologists are frustrated when they can’t cross-date a piece of wood from an archaeological site to a fully anchored chronology, genealogists are similarly disappointed when they are unable to connect branches of seemingly related families from the same general area with identical or familiar surnames.  In the case of my own family, I know multiple living people with the Bruck surname whose linear connection to myself can’t be drawn.  While, admittedly, not a perfect analogy, I argue there is some parallel between family trees where all individuals cannot be connected and floating chronologies that cannot be anchored in time.

In closing, I would emphasize one final point.  Lisa Pauly, my uncle and father’s cousin who I began this post discussing, appears in both my family tree and the “Schlesische Jüdische Familien” family tree.  However, because I can’t directly connect her on the Silesian tree to people with recognizable surnames, such as other Brucks, Berliners, Holländers, etc., I’m unable to determine how she is related to them, and, by extension, how I’m related to them.  More forensic work is necessary.

POST 38: THE EVIDENCE OF MY FATHER’S CONVERSION TO CHRISTIANITY

Note:  In this post, I discuss the evidence for my father’s, Dr. Otto Bruck, conversion to Christianity from Judaism, confirmation of which I recently came upon completely inadvertently.

Growing up, my father, Dr. Otto Bruck, never discussed being born into the Jewish religion.  If my memory is correct, I think I first learned about it when I was visiting my maternal grandmother in Nice, France as a child. At the time, we were walking through Vieux Nice, when she turned, pointed to a building, told me that’s where my father worked as a dentist after WWII, and mentioned he was Jewish; it would be many years before I understood the significance of all this.  Regular readers may recall I discussed my father’s time in Nice after the war in Post 26 and touched on the fact that he was not legally permitted to practice dentistry in France because he was “apatride,” stateless.  He was eventually caught and fled to America before he could be brought up on charges that were eventually dropped by the French authorities.

Figure 1. My Baptismal Certificate showing I was baptized on August 2, 1957, in Lyon, France

Because religion was not a part of my upbringing, I never gave much thought to it, although, ironically, I was eventually baptized as a Roman Catholic in Lyon, France on August 2, 1957, when I was six years old. (Figure 1)  Given the events my father had lived through, it made sense to him I should have a religion.  It’s always puzzled me, however, why my father thought that being baptized would afford me any protection if a future anti-Semitic political entity gained power and decided, as the Nazis had, that anyone with two Jewish grandparents is a Jew.  Puzzles without answers.

Given my father’s casual attitude about many things, including relatives and religion, it’s not surprising that much of what I’ve learned about such matters has involved a lot of effort.  Because my father considered himself German rather than Jewish, it would have made sense to me if he had converted to Christianity from Judaism.  But, as I just remarked, because of my father’s casual attitude, it would also not have surprised me if he’d never made the effort to formally convert.  Regardless, I’d never previously been able to find definitive proof either way.

The archives at the Centrum Judaicum Berlin include documentation that my father’s brother, Dr. Fedor Bruck, converted from Judaism at the Messiah Chapel in Berlin’s Prenzlauer Berg, Kastanienallee 22 on June 11, 1939, very late indeed.  Similarly, the Centrum Judaicum Berlin retains archival records for my Aunt Susanne’s husband, Dr. Franz Müller, who converted much earlier, on November 25, 1901, but still lost his teaching position at Humboldt University many years later, in 1933.

I’m unaware of any comprehensive database that includes the names and records of Jewish converts in Germany.  However, since conversion records survive at the Centrum Judaicum for both of my uncles, and since my father attended dental school in Berlin, I began the search for proof of my father’s own conversion here; they found nothing although it was suggested that knowing the specific church where he might have converted could prove useful.  Knowing my father had also apprenticed in Danzig [today: Gdansk, Poland] for a short period after graduating from dental school, I contacted the archives there, again to no avail.  The other place I reckoned where my father might have converted to Christianity was the town where he was a dentist between April 1932 and April 1937, Tiegenhof [today: Nowy Dwor Gdanski, Poland], although I had no idea at the time where to begin looking for such records.

I’ve learned, it was not uncommon beginning in the last half of the nineteenth century for German-Jews to convert to Christianity as a means of assimilating into German society.  A virulent wave of anti-Semitism that had emerged in Germany in the 1880s may have been another factor in the decision of some Jews to convert. 

Figure 2. Following a night of heavy drinking in which he totaled his Austin automobile, my father is standing by his 200cc Triumph motorcycle with a bandaged head, Tiegenhof 1934

I remember, as a child, my father talking about his time in Tiegenhof and how he drank heavily in those days.  Multiple pictures from my father’s days there exist showing him visibly inebriated. (Figure 2)  My father was by no means an alcoholic, and he justified his heavy drinking as “necessary to fit in.”  I’ve mentioned in earlier posts that my father was an active sportsman, particularly an excellent tennis player.  It’s highly likely there were barriers to becoming a member of the various sports and social organizations in Tiegenhof to which my father belonged, religion no doubt being one of them.  Thus, I have concluded that if my father did not convert to Christianity before he arrived in Tiegenhof, the provincial mores of this small town may have necessitated he do so here.  That said, until recently, I’d been unable to find any evidence my father ever converted.

Figure 3. Document found among my father’s papers initially thought to be dental invoice later determined to be receipt for payment in 1936 of Church Tax to “Evangelische Kirche” in Tiegenhof

Few of my father’s papers survive, but one document that has caught my attention only because it included the names of two members of the Joost family. (Figure 3)  Readers must understand that on account of all the Tiegenhof-related documents, books, and address directories I’ve perused over the years, many family surnames are now extremely familiar to me; such was the case with the surname “Joost.”  In reviewing this document, I was absolutely convinced it was a dental invoice because at the top of the paper it included my father’s name and identified him as a “zahnarzt,” a dentist.  Still, it seemed odd my father would have saved only one invoice among the many he’d no doubt written over the years as a dentist.

Figure 4. Baptism register for Alfred Albert Joost, born 4 June 1898, baptized 11 September 1898, whose name appears on the 1936 Church Tax receipt issued to my father

Figure 5. Card from the “Heimatortskartei” (File of Displaced Germans) for Albert Joost, showing his date of birth as 4 June 1898, and his religion as “Ev.” (=Evangelical)

Figure 6. Card from the “Heimatortskartei” (File of Displaced Germans) for Albert Joost’s wife, Käthe Großnick, showing her date of birth as 26 January 1902

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Setting aside this anomaly, I began to research in various databases the Joost names I found on the paper in question.  As readers can see, towards the bottom left side is written “Alb. Joost,” while on the bottom right side is written “f. Alb. Joost Kathe Joost.”  From ancestry.com, I discovered there lived a “Schneidermeister,” a tailor, in Tiegenhof, by the name of “Jacob Albert Joost,” born on July 27, 1865, who died on January 23, 1937.  The profession was passed on to his son, “Alfred Albert Joost,” born on June 4, 1898 (Figure 4-5), who died on February 18, 1975; he was married to Käthe Großnick. (Figure 6) The existence of the father and son tailors was confirmed by various Tiegenhof Address Books. (Figures 7-10)  Because both father and son had Albert in their name, I was uncertain whether the presumed dental work had been done on the father or son.

Figure 7. 1925 Tiegenhof (Kreis Großes Werder) Address Book listing Albert Joost’s residence as Vorhofstraße 44

Figure 8. 1927-28 Tiegenhof (Kreis Großes Werder) Address Book listing both father Alfred Joost and son Albert Joost residing at Vorhofstraße 44

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Figure 9. 1930 Tiegenhof (Kreis Großes Werder) Address Book listing Albert Joost’s residence as Vorhofstraße 44

Figure 10. 1943 Tiegenhof (Kreis Großes Werder) Address Book listing Albert Joost’s residence as Adolf-Hitler Str. 44 in the Nazi Era

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To resolve this confusion, I asked one of my cousins to decipher the document.  I learned the document was a receipt not for dental work, as I’d thought, but for payment of a church tax.  Like in Germany and several other European countries, in the Free State of Danzig, where Tiegenhof was located, members of the Protestant or Catholic Churches were compelled to pay a church tax of 7.5% of their income.  In 1936, my father was obviously a member of the Evangelische Kirche in Tiegenhof (Figures 11-14), and his annual tax amounted to 90 Guilden 90 Pfenninge; he was permitted to pay his obligation in four installments.  The first payment of 22 Guilden 74 Pfenninge was made on October 6, 1936, and it was receipted by “Alb. Joost,” while the second and third installments were made on December 29, 1936.  Kaethe Joost was the authorized representative of Albert Joost, so the “f” in “f. Alb. Joost Kathe Joost” stands for “fuer,” “for” or “in place of,” indicating she signed the receipt in lieu of her husband.  The last installment would have been due on March 15, 1937, a payment my father is unlikely to have made because by then he would no doubt have been expelled from the Church for being of the “Jewish race.”  By mid-1937, my father had left Tiegenhof.

Figure 11. The former “Evangelische Kirche Mit Pfarrhaus” (Church and Rectory) in Tiegenhof

Figure 12. The former Evangelical Church in Tiegenhof torn down during Poland’s Communist Era

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Figure 13. A schematic drawing and model of the former Evangelical Church in Tiegenhof

Figure 14. A plan of the town of Tiegenhof showing the locations of the Catholic and Evangelical Churches

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Having found the clear-cut proof that my father had converted to Christianity and knowing he’d been a member of Tiegenhof’s Evangelical Church, I contacted Mr. Peter Hanke from the Danzig Forum asking him whether conversion records for this church still exist.  He told me he’d never found such records, and that they’d likely not survived the turmoil of WWII.  This was disappointing but hardly unexpected.

Interestingly, Peter did find a brief reference to Albert Joost in Vol. 36 of the “Tiegenhofer Nachrichten,” the one-time annual journal for former German residents of Tiegenhof and their descendants.  In German it says: “Bei Joost war fruehmorgens um 4 Uhr Licht, um diese Zeit arbeitete er bereits in seiner Werkstatt; um 9 Uhr abends war immer noch das Petroleumlicht in der Werkstatt zu sehen. Der war einer von den Tiegenoertern, die ich nie in einem Gasthaus gesehen habe, aber jeden Sonntag im blauen Anzug in der Kirche.”  Translated: “Joost was already at work at 4 a.m. in the morning.  At 9 p.m. the kerosene lamp could still be seen in his workshop.  That man was one of the “Tiegenoerter,” never seen in a tavern but come Sunday always wore a blue suit to church.”  Possibly, Albert Joost was the “tithe collector” with his wife for Tiegenhof’s Evangelical Church.

Proof of my father’s conversion to Christianity came in a most roundabout way.  As mentioned, it’s highly unlikely his actual conversion document survived WWII, but the important thing is that my father’s attempt to assimilate into German society ended in failure and he was still forced to flee to save himself.

POST 34, POSTSCRIPT: MARGARETH BERLINER, WRAITH OR BEING? DEATH IN THERESIENSTADT

Note:  This postscript about my great-aunt Margareth “Greta” Brauer née Berliner details the substantial amount of new information I’ve learned about her and her family in the few short months since I published the original post in September 2018. In the process, sadly, I also learned when and where she died.

Related Post: Post 34: Margareth Berliner, Wraith or Being?

Figure 1. Till Carl Brauer Mongil, charter fisherman in Puerto Rico, my third cousin once-removed

 

Aware of a Puerto Rican connection to my great-aunt Greta Brauer’s family and frustrated I had been unable to learn what happened to her after 1933, I recently did an Internet query on the member of her family I knew had lived there, namely, “Till Brauer.”  However, given the cataclysmic events associated with Hurricane Maria in September 2017, I had scant expectations I would be able to locate much less connect with any member of the Brauer family; on the contrary, I expected anyone from the family who’d survived the Hurricane to have decamped for an unknown destination on the U.S. Mainland, as many Puerto Ricans did.  So, it came as an enormous surprise when I quickly discovered a “Till Brauer Mongil” (Figure 1), operating a charter fishing business out of Carolina, Puerto Rico, which lies immediately east of the capital San Juan.  His website stated he was no longer in business, but because it had once been an active operation, an email address was provided.  I immediately sent a message with tempered expectations, but within less than an hour, surprisingly, I received a response from Till Brauer asking me to call him.  I immediately did.

Till Carl Brauer Mongil, born in 1959 in Puerto Rico, it turns out, is the great-grandson of Greta Brauer, and my third cousin once-removed.  As we speak, Till has contracts to conduct inspections related to cleanup and reconstruction of Puerto Rico’s infrastructure resulting from Hurricane Maria, and is extremely busy.  Understandably, we’ve had only one opportunity to communicate, so all I’ve learned is from a brief phone conversation.  Still, I was able to pick up enough information to correct and supplement what I discussed in Post 34.

Figure 2a. Greta Brauer, her daughter-in-law Herta Brauer, and her grandson Till Brauer, Neubabelsberg, Germany, 1933

Figure 2b. Captions on the back of photo showing Grete Brauer, Herta Brauer, and Till Brauer, Neubabelsberg, Germany, 1933

 

 

 

 

 

 

Figure 3. Ernst & Herta Brauer’s son, Oliver, holding his daughter Margarita, Christmas 1966, Calvia, Mallorca

In my original post I included a picture of three generations of Brauer taken in 1933 in Neubabelsberg, near Spandau, outside Berlin.  The photo, reprinted here, shows my great-aunt Greta, her daughter-in-law, Herta Brauer, and her grandson Till as a baby. (Figures 2a-b)  I also showed an image taken in Calvia, Mallorca in 1966, similarly reprinted here, showing a son Oliver holding a young daughter named Margarita. (Figure 3) I mistakenly concluded that Till Brauer and Oliver were one person, but, in fact, Ernst and Herta Brauer had these two sons.  This was my first error, but not my only one.  Till Carl Brauer Mongil, I learned, is the son of the Till Brauer shown in the 1933 photograph.  To remind readers, in Spanish-speaking countries, newborns are given two surnames, that of their father and mother, thus the “Brauer Mongil” attached to Till’s name.

Briefly, let me discuss some of the documents and Passenger Manifests I found for Ernst and Herta Brauer’s family on ancestry.com and connect these to some of what Till Brauer told me. 

Figure 4. Brauer family listed on “Manifest of Alien Passengers” bound for New York City aboard the Spanish liner SS Marques de Comillas that departed Lisbon, Portugal on February 22, 1941

Figure 5. Brauer family listed on “Record of Aliens Held for Special Inquiry,” showing their arrival in New York on March 12, 1941, and a notation they were “transshipped” to Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic on March 20, 1941

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Figure 6. The SS Coamo, the US Merchant vessel on which the Brauer family was “transshipped” to Santo Domingo on March 20, 1941

Figure 7. Brauer family listed on “Manifest of Alien Passengers” departing New York on March 20, 1941

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The names of Ernst, Herta, and Till Brauer, along with that of a Yutta Maria Muenchow clearly traveling with them, are listed on a “Manifest of Alien Passengers” bound for New York City aboard the Spanish liner SS Marques de Comillas that departed Lisbon, Portugal on February 22, 1941; this document showed their last permanent residence prior to leaving Europe had been Rome. (Figure 4)  A “Record of Aliens Held for Special Inquiry,” shows the arrival of these four people in New York on March 12, 1941. (Figure 5) The title of this manifest suggests the Brauer family was separated from passengers disembarking in New York; a notation in the upper right-hand corner of this document confirms the family’s stay in New York was brief as they were “transshipped to Santo Domingo [Dominican Republic] on the SS Coamo (Figure 6) on March 20, 1941.”  And, this comports with a third Passenger Manifest showing the entire family leaving New York City on March 20, 1941 aboard this passenger ship. (Figure 7)  An Immigration & Naturalization Service (INS) file, dated May 2, 1941, lists the entire family having traveled aboard the SS Marques de Comillas. (Figure 8)  Finally, another Passenger Manifest shows Ernst Brauer traveling alone to San Juan, Puerto Rico from Ciudad Trujillo, Dominican Republic on October 7, 1947 aboard a Pan Am flight. (Figure 9)

Figure 8. INS File dated May 5, 1941 showing the Brauers traveled on the SS Marques de Comillas

Figure 9. “Passenger Manifest” for Pan American Airways showing Ernst Brauer traveled alone to San Juan, Puerto Rico from Ciudad Trujillo, Dominican Republic on October 7, 1947

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The four Passenger Manifests and the INS file generally confirm what Till Carl Brauer (to distinguish him from his father Till Brauer) related.  Till Brauer was married to a Puerto Rican woman, a circumstance that eventually allowed the Brauers to settle in Puerto Rico, although not before first living in the Dominican Republic for several years by choice or necessity; Ernst and Herta’s son, Oliver, was born there, and judging from the various Passenger Manifests I found, it appears the Brauers lived in the Dominican Republic no longer than seven years, though Till Carl claims it was about four years.

Till Carl Brauer explained that Herta Brauer’s maiden name was “Stadach,” and that she had previously been married to a Karl Ferdinand Hermann Münchow (Figure 10), by whom she had had a daughter, Yutta Maria Münchow. (Figure 11)  Thus, the “mysterious” Yutta Maria who traveled with the Brauers was Herta’s daughter by her first marriage.

Figure 10. Certificate for Herta Stadach (later Brauer) and Karl Ferdinand Hermann Münchow’s marriage on October 3, 1925. They had a daughter together, Yutta Maria Münchow, born on August 30, 1926

Figure 11. Yutta Maria Münchow’s “Civil Death Record,” showing she died on October 26, 1986 in Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As explained in Post 34, in ancestry.com I located a document titled “Report of the Death of An American Citizen,” for Ernst Hanns Brauer showing he passed away in Calvia, Mallorca on May 19, 1971. (Figure 12)  I found no corresponding form for Herta Brauer, and, in fact, the Social Security Death Index recorded her address at the time of death in August 1983 as San Juan, Puerto Rico (Figure 13); I assumed she had died there.  Till Carl told me that in truth both Ernst and Herta died in Mallorca.  The circumstances that lead the Brauers to relocate there are connected to historical events in the United States during the late 1960’s.  Readers will recall that at the time America was ramping up its presence in Vietnam.  The compulsory draft would have made both Till and Oliver eligible to be called up since Puerto Ricans are citizens of the unincorporated territory of the U.S.  Opposed to the war, and not wanting their sons to be drafted, the Brauers left the country.  It’s clear that neither parent ever relinquished their American nationality, and, both sons, had dual American-German nationality; Oliver ultimately died in Germany, place unknown.  Till Carl was unable to tell me anything about the daughter Oliver is shown holding in a 1966 picture of the two of them.

Figure 12. “Report of the Death of An American Citizen” for Ernst Hanns Brauer showing he died in Calvia, Mallorca on May 19, 1971

Figure 13. Social Security Death Index for Herta Brauer showing her address at time of death as San Juan, Puerto Rico, even though she died in Mallorca

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The thing I had most wanted to find out from Till Carl was when and where Greta Brauer, his great-grandmother, died, but he didn’t know. I began to despair finding out.  On this note, Till Carl and I ended our conversation with a promise on my part to send him all the documents I’d uncovered related to his family.

Figure 14. Page from the “Gedenbuch,” one of the Holocaust databases, showing Greta Brauer died in the Theresienstadt Ghetto on November 24, 1942

 

In compiling all this evidence, but convinced I’d already examined the various Holocaust victims’ databases, I decided to double check for Grete Brauer before sending all the family documents to Till Carl Brauer.  For reasons that are unclear, I had never found or simply overlooked my great-aunt’s name in these databases but this time I found her and confirmed she died in the Theresienstadt Ghetto on November 24, 1942 (Figure 14), an all too familiar ending with Jewish relatives whose deaths remain unsolved during the Nazi era.

Figure 15a. 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 15b. Captions in German on the reverse side of Figure 15b

 

 

 

 

 

 

Following my brief conversation with Till Carl, I exchanged an email with Larry Leyser, my third cousin once-removed whom I’ve alluded to in other posts.  I told him in passing I’d spoken to one of our relatives in Puerto Rico, and, a short time, later he sent me a picture and a clipping from a Puerto Rican newspaper asking whether it had anything to do with the people shown or mentioned.  Incredibly, it did.  The photo and newspaper article were scanned from a horde of items Larry had borrowed from one of his cousins, curiously included in this stash, and set aside as people to be identified later.  Simply because I mentioned Puerto Rico, Larry sent these documents to me on the off-chance they might be connected to what I was working on.  The picture shows Herta and Ernst Brauer book-ended by their two sons, Oliver on the left, Till on the right along with a family friend, on the day of Till’s wedding. (Figure 15a-b)  Herta and Ernst Brauer are rightmost in the newspaper picture, involved, as they were most of their lives, in dance and theater. (Figure 16)

Figure 16. A clipping from a Puerto Rican newspaper showing Herta & Ernst Brauer, third and fourth persons

 

One final thing.  My still-living 89-year old mother, who knew my grandmother, Greta Brauer’s sister, says my grandmother never mentioned having an older sister.  What, if anything, to make of this omission is unclear.

POST 37: PETER & ILONA MULLER-MUNK’S GREEK SPONSOR CHILD

Note:  This post details how the family of a Greek girl who my Aunt Susanne’s stepson and his wife, Peter & Ilona Muller-Munk, sponsored through the “Save the Children Federation” in the 1950’s and 1960’s contacted me through my Blog.

When I launched my family history Blog in April 2017, I expressed hope that in addition to acquiring and passing on information about historical events my family lived through, I might also learn about other people to whom I’m related or people who met or were influenced by family members.  This post is the story of such an encounter.

For readers who are new or infrequent visitors to my Blog, let me review and provide some brief context that was included or alluded to in Post 22.  My Aunt Susanne Müller née Bruck was the second wife of Dr. Franz Müller, who was 33 years her elder.  By his first marriage to Gertrud Munk, my Uncle Franz had two children, Peter Muller-Munk, born on June 25, 1904, and Margit Mombert née Müller-Munk, born on September 23, 1908; my aunt was born on April 20, 1904, so was close in age to her two step-children.

Figure 1. Peter Muller-Munk in the 1920’s after his arrival in America

Peter Muller-Munk (Figure 1) has been described as a “brilliant silversmith and a pioneering industrial designer and educator.”  He studied as a silversmith at the University of Berlin and came to America in 1926.  He worked briefly from 1926 to 1928 as a silversmith for Tiffany & Co. in New York City, before opening his own metalworking studio in Greenwich Village with the financial help of his father.  He moved to Pittsburgh in 1935, to accept a teaching job at the Carnegie Institute of Technology as assistant professor in the first American university B.A. program in industrial design.  In 1938, he opened his first consulting office in Pittsburgh, and by 1944 resigned from Carnegie Tech to form Peter Muller-Munk Associates (PMMA).

Figure 2. Gas pump designed by Peter Muller-Munk

PMMA’s work touched on virtually all aspects of industrial design and was especially influential in the realm of consumer goods.  Peter Muller-Munk designed compacts, hand mirrors, hedge shears, steam irons, thermostats, valves, hearing aids, gas pumps (Figure 2), refrigerators, cooking utensils, heavy machinery, ballpoint pens, lathes, soup vending machines, airplane interiors, and much more.  In 1959 he won one of the first ALCOA industrial design awards.  Notably, U.S. Steel hired PMMA to work on the general aesthetic design of the Unisphere, the centerpiece of the 1964 New York World’s Fair. (Figures 3a-b) Peter Muller-Munk’s most famous piece was his 1935 Art Deco Normandie pitcher, named after the French ocean liner SS Normandie that launched that year and designed after the liner’s prow.  This iconic work was even featured on an American postage stamp released in 2010. (Figure 4)

Figure 3a. Unisphere, centerpiece of the 1964 New York World’s Fair

Figure 3b. Closeup of the Unisphere with description of process used to create the topography: “PMMA’s layer-style continents denote the mountains of North America. Designers invested considerable time into reconfiguring the scale so that earth’s topography would be visible on the Unisphere. They also devised the layering detail in lieu of stamping the mountains in relief from a single sheet.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Figure 4. Peter Muller-Munk’s iconic “Normandie Pitcher” featured on a 2010 USPS Stamp

As a curious aside, Peter Muller-Munk paid to have the umlaut in his surname removed.  For this reason, in this post, his father and sister’s names have an umlaut but Peter’s does not.

Figure 5. Peter & Ilona Muller-Munk in 1953

Peter got married to Ilona Marion Loewenthal Tallmer in October 1934. (Figure 5)  Their relationship was deemed scandalous because when Ilona got involved with Peter, she was still married to Albert F. Tallmer and was the mother of two young sons, Jerry and Jonathan.  Albert and Ilona’s divorce was exceedingly bitter and resulted in Albert being awarded sole custody of the children over their “adulterous” mother.  As an interesting aside, Albert Tallmer’s paternal grandfather, William Thalhimer, founded the Thalhimer’s department store in Richmond, Virginia in 1842, an esteemed chain that at its peak operated dozens of stores in the southern United States.

For a comprehensive biography of Peter and Ilona’s professional and personal life, readers are directed to the very readable book entitled “Silver to Steel: The Modern Designs of Peter Muller-Munk” by Rachel Delphia and Jewel Stern.  Sadly, Ilona Muller-Munk committed suicide on February 12, 1967 for reasons that are unclear.  Devastated by his wife’s death, Peter also committed suicide about a month later, on March 13, 1967. (Figure 6)

Figure 6. Peter Muller-Munk’s obituary from the March 13, 1967 issue of the New York Times

In June of this year, I received an interesting email from Mr. Anthony Karabetsos, a gentleman living in Sydney, Australia.  Anthony had found mention of Peter Muller-Munk in my Blog.  Unbeknownst to me, Peter and Ilona had been sponsor parents through the “Save the Children Federation,” and had sponsored and regularly visited Anthony’s mother, Polytimi “Poly” Ratta (also spelled “Rattas”), in Greece during the 1950’s and 1960’s.  Poly had never known Peter and Ilona’s surname, and only recently rediscovered a letter Peter had written to her on February 21, 1967 (Figure 7); having found Peter and Ilona’s surname on this letter, Poly and her family began looking for any of their descendants to thank them personally for their influence on her choice of career in the fashion industry, which has spanned 50 years. 

Figure 7. Two-sentence letter from Peter Muller-Munk to Polytimi Ratta(s), dated February 21, 1967, announcing his wife’s death

As readers can see, the letter Peter wrote to Poly, which the family graciously copied for me, was written only nine days after Ilona’s suicide and several weeks before Peter took his own life; the letter, perhaps because it is only two sentences long, poignantly captures the pain he is feeling.

In addition to sending me a copy of the letter, Anthony also sent me copies of pictures showing Peter and Ilona vacationing in Greece and with Poly.  With the family’s permission, I attach a few of these images below.

Figure 8. Ilona’s son, Jerry Tallmer, by her marriage to Albert F. Tallmer, shown here with the actress Julie Harris in 1962, when he received the George Jean Nathan Award in Drama Criticism

It was clear from Anthony’s initial email, that his mother had lost touch with Peter following Ilona’s death, so I sadly informed them Peter had himself committed suicide only weeks later.  Since Peter and Ilona had no children together, I referred Anthony and Poly to Ms. Jewel Stern, the researcher from Coral Gables, Florida, who has studied and written extensively about Peter Muller-Munk.  Ms. Stern eventually referred the family to Ms. Rachel Delphia, Jewel’s co-author on the book about Peter.  I also told Anthony about Ilona’s children by her first marriage, though I already knew both her sons, Jerry and Jonathan Tallmer, were deceased.  Jerry Tallmer (Figure 8), as it turns out, was a renowned critic of “The Village Voice” in its early days, and, later, the New York Post drama critic; interestingly, Jerry was the creator of the award for Off Broadway theater, the Obie.  Jerry greatly respected Peter Muller-Munk, considered him his stepfather, and wrote glowingly about him.

Figure 9a. Polytimi Ratta(s) with Peter Muller-Munk, around 1955, wearing the red dress and new shoes Peter bought her

Figure 9b. Polytimi Ratta(s) with Peter Muller-Munk, around 1955, wearing the red dress and new shoes Peter bought her

 

 

 

 

 

 

In time I learned more about Poly’s relationship with Peter and Ilona Muller-Munk and their influence on her choice of career.  Poly’s father’s best friend knew about the “Save the Children Federation,” and suggested she apply.  She first met Peter at about age 8, when he came on his own to Greece during Easter.  For the occasion, Peter wanted to buy Poly a present and she choose a small chocolate Easter egg.  Wanting to get her something more, he bought her a red dress and new shoes (Figures 9a-b), and took her to lunch at the hotel he was staying at.  It was perhaps around this time that Peter and Ilona offered to adopt Poly, thinking that her widowed mother was struggling raising four young children, but Poly’s mother demurred.  Peter and Ilona visited together in 1963 (Figures 10, 11 & 12) with one of Ilona’s grandchildren, Mary Ellen (the family has asked me to refrain from posting any pictures of Mary Ellen), when Poly was 16 or 17 and the two immediately bonded.

Figure 10. Peter Muller-Munk in Rhodes in 1963

Figure 11. Ilona Muller-Munk at Delphi in 1963

 

 

 

 

 

Figure 12. Ilona & Polytimi in Greece in 1963 when Poly was 16 or 17

Figure 13. Photo Ilona & Peter Muller-Munk sent to Poly of themselves

Peter had wanted Poly to finish her education, but after watching her own sister obtain a nursing degree and then not be permitted to work as a nurse because of her short height, Poly instead decided to work in the garment industry which was flourishing in Greece at the time.  When Poly mentioned to Peter and Ilona (Figure 13) wanting to get into the fashion industry, they were so excited they paid for her to learn to become a pattern maker.  Eventually she became a qualified patternmaker, and after marrying her husband in 1967 and moving to Australia for a better life, they created a huge clothing manufacturing business in Australia that at one time employed 200 machinists.  They had their own label, called Backstage Clothing, and, at one point, even manufactured denim for the Australian branches of Levis and Wrangler.

Figure 14. Polytimi Ratta(s) in 2018 holding the book “Silver to Steel” about Peter Muller-Munk

During our email exchanges, I suggested to Anthony he might want to purchase the book that Rachel Delphia and Jewel Stern wrote about Peter Muller-Munk.  This book was published in 2015 to coincide with the opening of a special exhibit at the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh in 2015 commemorating Peter Muller-Munk’s career and showcasing some of his innovative works.  And, in fact Anthony gave his mother this book on her birthday this year! (Figure 14)

 

But the story does not end here.  Anthony asked for help in tracking down any of Ilona’s descendants by her first marriage to Albert Tallmer.  Anthony did an Internet query and found siblings Matthew and Abby Tallmer, who I would later learn were the twin children of Jerry Tallmer, Ilona Muller-Munk’s son.  Aware of Jerry’s connection to New York City, I started looking there for phone numbers.  I was unable to find a listing for either Matthew or Abby in New York City, although Directory Assistance gave me the names of the only two Tallmers listed in Manhattan.  Clearly not a common surname, I obtained numbers for both.  The second person I spoke with, Jill Tallmer, turns out to be the granddaughter of Ilona Muller-Munk, or “Noni,” as she was known to the family, and the younger sister of the Mary Ellen who met Poly in 1963.  Success!

Curious as to who I am and why I was calling, Jill even mistook me at one point for a lawyer.  Still, after a series of back-and-forths, I eventually established my bona fides.  Jill, it turns out, knew the name Poly Ratta(s), and told me about when her recently-deceased sister, Mary Ellen, was taken in 1963 on vacation by Peter and Ilona Muller-Munk to Greece and met Poly; later, they apparently became pen pals.  Some of the photos Anthony Karabestsos had sent after first contacting me, taken in 1963, show Poly and Mary together.  Jill went through her own family’s photos and discovered additional images of Poly and her family, taken in Agia Varvara (Figures 15-16), a western suburb of Athens. (Poly’s family originally hails from  Valtesinikon, Arkadhia, Peloponnisos, Greece.) Anthony and Poly were naturally thrilled when I passed along what I’d discovered, and immediately established phone contact with Jill Tallmer; they even have tentative plans to meet in person.

Figure 16. Polytimi Ratta(s) in 1957 as a 10-year old child in Greece

Figure 15. Polytimi and her siblings in Athens. From l. to r.: Thanaso (b. 1944); Yianoula (Joanne) (b. 1939); family friend Lukia holding Poly’s dog Boylee; Mimi (Jim) (b. 1941); & Poly (b. 1947)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Figure 17. Peter Muller-Munk-designed goblet with family names & dates

Beyond the satisfaction of having brought together families through my Blog who’d long ago lost touch, I also got access to photos of a few objects that Jill and her family own designed by my Aunt Susanne’s stepson, Peter Muller-Munk.  These include a goblet with family names and dates (Figure 17), as well as a spectacular ring with a wolf’s head. (Figure 18) The names on the goblet were all familiar ones, and include those of my Uncle Dr. Franz Müller, his daughter Margit Mombert née Müller-Munk and her husband, Franz Mombert, who will be the subject of a future Blog post.

Figure 18. Ring designed and made by Peter Muller-Munk and left to Jill Tallmer upon Peter’s death

Peter Muller-Munk (1904-1967)

 

REFERENCE

Delphia, Rachel and Jewel Stern

2015    Silver to Steel: The Modern Designs of Peter Muller-Munk.  Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh.

POST 36, POSTSCRIPT: THE WOINOWITZ ZUCKERFABRIK (SUGAR FACTORY) OUTSIDE RATIBOR (PART I-MAPS)

Related Post: POST 36: THE WOINOWITZ ZUCKERFABRIK (SUGAR FACTORY) OUTSIDE RATIBOR (PART I-BACKGROUND)

Mr. Paul Newerla, retired lawyer and Racibórz historian, graciously shared with me maps of the “Ratiborschen fürstenthums” (Ratibor principality) and Kreis (district) Ratibor in the Śląsk (Silesia) region going back to 1750, well before the Woinowitz Zuckerfabrik was built.  The towns surrounding and/or adjacent the place where the sugar factory would eventually be located already existed.  For the visually-oriented readers, I’m including maps from three time periods, 1750 (Figure 1), 1825 (Figures 2a-b), and 1923 (Figures 3a-b), with the towns and villages mentioned in the text circled.  The 1923 map shows the location of the “Zucker” in relation to the nearby villages.

 

Figure 1. 1750 map of “Ratiborschen fürstenthums” (Ratibor principality) with towns and villages near where the Zuckerfabrik would eventually be built circled

Figure 2a. 1823 map of the Ratibor area with towns and villages near where the Zuckerfabrik would eventually be built circled

Figure 2b. Adjoining 1823 map with Ratibor circled

Figure 3a. 1923 map of the Kreis (district) of Ratibor with towns mentioned in text circled. Woinowitz was then known as “Weihendorf.”  Location of “Zucker” is identified, along with railroad station of “Mettich”

Figure 3b. Adjoining 1923 map of the Kreis (district) of Ratibor with Ratibor circled