Dr. Erich Bruck Archives - bruckfamilyblog.com

POST 129: THE UNSUCCESSFUL QUEST TO TRACK DOWN DR. ERICH BRUCK IN ARGENTINA

Note: In this post I talk about the failed search for my first cousin twice removed Dr. Erich Bruck whom I have tantalizing evidence wound up in the Argentinian part of Tierra del Fuego. I discuss the proof I obtained in confirming that a similarly named Dr. Enrik Bruck who is buried in Presidencia Roque Sáenz Peña, a town more than 2,300 miles away from Tierra del Fuego, is not my distant cousin.

POST 62, POSTSCRIPT: THE FAR-REACHING SEARCH FOR MY FATHER’S FIRST COUSIN, HEINZ LUDWIG BERLINER—FURTHER PROOF OF HEINZ’S EXISTENCE

POST 113: CHIUNE SUGIHARA, JAPANESE IMPERIAL CONSUL IN LITHUANIA DURING WWII, “RIGHTEOUS AMONG THE NATIONS”

Dr. Erich Bruck is my first cousin twice removed born in Ratibor, Germany [today: Racibórz, Poland], same town as my father Dr. Otto Bruck, on the 31^st of August 1865. I have evidence of his birth from the Family History Library’s Microfilm Roll 1184449 for Jewish births in Ratibor. (Figure 1) He was one of 14 or 15 children born to my great-granduncle- and -grandaunt, Oskar Bruck (1831-1892) and Mathilde Bruck née Preiss. At the tail end of Post 113, I included a table with the available vital statistics on these children. Astonishingly, to date, I’ve been unable to find a single living descendant for any of these offspring.

Figure 1. Birth register listing from the Family History Library’s Microfilm Number 1184449 for Erich Bruck showing his parents were Oscar Bruck and Mathilde née Preiss and that he was born on the 31st of August 1865

Unlike some of his siblings who perished in the Holocaust, Erich is believed to have survived. As briefly mentioned in Post 113, a tantalizing clue as to Erich’s fate was found in the “Pinkus Family Collection 1500s-1994, 1725-1994” archived at the Leo Baeck Institute. On the Oskar Bruck-Mathilde Preiss family page, names and some vital data on 12 of their 14 or 15 “kinder,” children, can be found, including information on Dr. Erich Bruck. (Figure 2) It confirms he was born on the 31^st of August 1865 in Ratibor, was a doctor in Argentina, and emigrated to “Feuerlandinseln,” Tierra del Fuego Islands in the 19^th century. Beyond the fact this is an unusual place for an individual to have emigrated to, this is the closest I’ve been to finding a Jewish ancestor in Antarctica, still more than 2,300 miles away, the only continent where my family’s diaspora has not yet taken me.

Figure 2. Page from the “Pinkus Family Collection 1500s-1994, 1725-1994” archived at the Leo Baeck Institute on the Oskar Bruck-Mathilde Preiss family with vital data on 12 of their 14 or 15 children, including Erich Bruck; this is the source for the information that Erich Bruck was a doctor and emigrated to Tierra del Fuego, Argentina

Some brief geography. Tierra del Fuego, Spanish for “Land of the Fire,” is an archipelago off the southernmost tip of the South American mainland, across the Strait of Magellan. The archipelago consists of the main island, Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego, with an area of 18,572 sq. mi. (48,100 km2), and a group of many islands, including Cape Horn and Diego Ramírez Islands. Tierra del Fuego is divided between Chile and Argentina, with the latter controlling the eastern half of the main island and the former the western half plus the islands south of Beagle Channel and the southernmost islands. Ushuaia is the capital of Tierra del Fuego, with a population of nearly 80,000 and claims the title of the world’s southernmost city. The family page from the Pinkus Family Collection makes it clear that Dr. Erich Bruck was a physician in Argentina, not in Chile.

My quest to discover what may have happened to Dr. Erich Bruck has been ongoing for several years interrupted by investigations into other ancestors. Obviously aware of an Argentinian connection, in 2021 I contacted the “Asociación de Genealogía Judía de Argentina (AGJA),” the Jewish Genealogical Society of Argentina, asking whether they or another genealogical association or group could provide any information about my distant cousin. I received a prompt response from a Ms. Estela Rappaportt (Figure 3) referring me to a Facebook group located in the Ushuaia community of Tierra del Fuego. I contacted them but never received a reply.

Figure 3. Ms. Estela Rappaportt from the “Asociación de Genealogía Judía de Argentina (AGJA),” the Jewish Genealogical Society of Argentina

More intriguingly, Estela mentioned there is a tomb in the province of Chaco in Argentina, in the city of Presidencia Roque Sáenz Peña, of an Enrik Bruck, who died there on 31^st of May 1931. Given that Erich Bruck was born in 1865, the age of this individual at death at least seemed like a plausible match. Moreover, I thought his forename might well have been changed to Enrik in Spanish. Ignoring the fact that Tierra del Fuego and Sáenz Peña in Chaco Province are more than 2,300 miles apart (Figure 4), I became obsessed with the notion that my distant relative is interred there. How Erich Bruck might have wound up in Sáenz Peña after living in Tierra del Fuego was an afterthought.

Figure 4. Generalized map showing the distance between Tierra del Fuego and Presidencia Roque Sáenz Peña where Dr. Enrik Bruck is buried is more than 2,300 miles

Presidencia Roque Sáenz Peña in Chaco Province is under 700 miles from Buenos Aires (Figure 5), and has a population of 83,000 people, mostly descendants of settlers from Spain, Italy, Russia, Poland, then-Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, and Ukraine, as well as Jewish families from elsewhere in Argentina. Sáenz Peña was founded in 1912 and has developed as a commercial and industrial center serving the surrounding agricultural region of the Gran Chaco plains. In 1945, the Jewish population numbered around 200 families, though today fewer than ten Jewish families remain.

Figure 5. Generalized map showing the distance between Presidencia Roque Sáenz Peña and Buenos Aires is less than 700 miles

With Jews having lived in and around Sáenz Peña, it stands to reason there would be a Jewish cemetery. And, in fact, I learned about Saenz Peña’s “El Cementerio Judio,” a Jewish cemetery dating from 1920 with 120 graves, formerly called “Presidencia Roque Sáenz Peña Cementerio.” The information about this Jewish cemetery was derived from the International Jewish Cemetery Project, which is a volunteer, cooperative effort of the International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies and JewishGen, Inc.’s “JewishGen Online Worldwide Burial Registry” or “JOWBR” which seeks to identify Jewish burial sites and interments throughout the world.

I tried contacting the Sáenz Peña’s Ayuntamiento, the city’s town hall, but never received a response. I tried working through a friend at the Jewish Genealogical Society of Los Angeles and her Rabbi to establish a local contact but this too failed. I even tried having South American relatives call the Jewish cemetery’s caretaker, all to no avail. Because information on the International Jewish Cemetery Project regarding gaining entry to the cemetery implied the process was rather informal (Figure 6), I set the issue aside for future consideration. Nonetheless, I remained stubbornly convinced that my ancestor was interred in the Jewish cemetery in Saenz Peña and had eventually intended to go on a letter-writing campaign to confirm this.

Figure 6. Information about the Presidencia Roque Sáenz Peña’s “El Cementerio Judío” from the International Jewish Cemetery Project

Let me briefly digress. Like most avid genealogists, I have a “bin” of unresolved genealogical questions, quests if you will. In Post 62 and Post 62, Postscript, I discussed my father’s first cousin, Heinz Ludwig Berliner, who, like Erich Bruck and my father, was born in Ratibor; “Berliner,” incidentally, was my paternal grandmother’s maiden name. Hearsay from Heinz’s branch of the family suggests he committed suicide in 1948, place unknown.

Heinz’s last known location is in Bolivia. A brief reference in MyHeritage stated he wound up there. In 2019, I contacted the Jewish synagogue in La Paz, the Circulo Israelita de Bolivia, hoping they might have immigration or other records on Heinz, which they do not. At the time, I mistakenly concluded the theater where Heinz had performed under his stage name “Enry Berloc,” the “Teatro Municipal,” was in Buenos Aires rather than in La Paz (Figure 7); as a result the Circulo referred me to the AMIA in Argentina, the central institution of the country’s Jewish community. AMIA, in turn, directed me to the “Asociación de Genealogía Judía de Argentina (AGJA),” which is how I encountered Ms. Rappaportt.

Figure 7. Playbill from the “Teatro Municipal” I originally thought was located in Buenos Aires for a performance my distant cousin Heinz Ludwig Berliner starred in, using his stage name “Enry Berloc”; it turns out the Teatro Municipal is located in La Paz, Bolivia

My contact with the Circulo Israelita de Bolivia was not for naught, however, as I will explain in another postscript to Post 62.

Getting back on track. A recent email from the Circulo Israelita de Bolivia reminded me I had never connected with Saenz Peña’s El Cementerio Judio, so I decided to again contact Ms. Rappaportt from AGJA asking her who I should write to in Saenz Peña about Enrik Bruck. Estela sent me the name and email of the President of the Kehilá or village of Sáenz Peña, but then almost immediately sent me a photo of Enrik Bruck’s headstone. (Figure 8) To say I was flabbergasted would be an understatement given that I’d been looking for such information for years.

Figure 8. Photo of Enrik Bruck’s headstone from the “Presidencia Roque Sáenz Peña Cementerio” sent to me by Ms. Estela Rappaport

While I never asked Estela where she obtained the photo, I eventually located it on my own on the JOWBR website. I have literally looked at hundreds of burial registry records on JOWBR’s website (Figures 9a-b), and this is the first time I’ve ever seen one with a picture of the individual’s gravestone, so I consider myself fortunate to have obtained this image without going down more rabbit trails.

Figure 9a. Page from the “JewishGen Online Worldwide Burial Registry” or “JOWBR” with information on the “Presidencia Roque Sáenz Peña Cementerio”

Figure 9b. Page from the “JewishGen Online Worldwide Burial Registry” or “JOWBR” with the photo of Enrik Bruck’s headstone

At first glance, Enrik’s tombstone appears unreadable but enlarging and zeroing in on the text I realized that a lot of information was decipherable. (Figure 10)

Figure 10. Closeup of (H)ENRIC BRUCK’s headstone showing detailed information

Below is what I managed to construe:

DOCTOR

O.E.P.

(H)ENRIK BRUCK

NACIO EN ALBA JULIA (born in Alba Iulia)

EL 16 DE DICIEMBRE xxxx (the 16^th of December xxxx)

FALLECIO EL 31 DE Mxxxx (passed away the 31^st of xxx (May according to JewishGen))

DE MUERTE PE (of death xx)

Armed with what seemed like rather scant details, I first turned to Google to learn where “Alba Julia” is located. I discovered it is in Transylvania, the historical and cultural region in Central-Eastern Europe, that now encompasses central Romania. Alba Iulia, as it is called, was the seat of residence of the princes of Transylvania in the 16^th and 17^th centuries, and for several centuries was administered by Hungary. In the 17^th century there were about 100 Jews living in Alba Iulia, and by 1930, 1,558 out of 12,282 people living there were Jewish. By 1941, all Jewish community property had been confiscated, and the men seized for forced labor. The Jewish population peaked in 1947 at over 2,000, but by the beginning of the 21^st century, the Jewish population in Alba Iulia, as well as in the rest of Romania, was very small.

Next, I searched in ancestry for Enrik Bruck in Alba Iulia, and surprisingly found two births registers listing a Henrik Brück, with an umlaut over the “u,” born there on the 16^th of December 1888. (Figures 11a-c) Since the place and day of birth match the information on the headstone located in Saenz Peña, I am certain the individual interred there is Dr. Henrik Brück.

Figure 11a. Cover page for birth register listing for Henrik Brück showing he was born on the 16th of December 1888 in Alba Iulia, Romania

Figure 11b. Version 1 of birth register listing for Henrik Brück showing he was born on the 16th of December 1888 in Alba Iulia, Romania

Figure 11c. Version 2 of birth register listing for Henrik Brück showing he was born on the 16th of December 1888 in Alba Iulia, Romania

While disappointed so far not to have tracked down my distant cousin Dr. Erich Bruck in Argentina, I am now certain he is not interred in Sáenz Peña. Ms. Rappaportt, who has relatives in Ushuaia, the capital of Tierra del Fuego, tells me there is no Jewish cemetery there. An online search of the cemetery records in Ushuaia and Río Grande, Tierra del Fuego’s two largest cities, show no Brucks interred there. So, while the question of where Erich Bruck wound up remains unresolved, I was finally able to establish the identity and origin of the Brück who lies in Sáenz Peña.

REFERENCE

Nimcowicz, Diane. Jewish Genealogical Research in Argentina. Arhttps://www.jewishgen.org/InfoFiles/argentina.htmlgentina

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

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

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

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

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

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

Figure 3. Erich and Ada Bruck with their oldest daughter Erika as an infant

Figure 4. Dr. Erich Bruck and his wife Adelheid “Ada” Bruck née Oppe’s three children, Gertrude, Elisabeth and Erika in 1917

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Figure 10. Dr. Erich Bruck’s death certificate indicating he died at Château Parcien in France

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

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

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

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

Figure 13b. Closeup of Lieutenant Georg Sternberg’s restored tombstone

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

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

Figure 15. A German WWI Casualty list with Lieutenant Georg Sternberg’s name and date and place of birth

Figure 16. One document showing Lieutenant Georg Sternberg is buried in the Langemark German Military Cemetery in West Flanders, Belgium

Figure 17. A different document showing Lieutenant Georg Sternberg is interred in the Old Jewish Cemetery in Wrocław

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

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

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

Figure 19. Elisabeth Steinitz née Bruck (1909-2011), Dr. Erich Bruck’s middle daughter, who died in Israel

Figure 20. Dr. Erich Bruck’s youngest daughter, Gertrude “Trudi” Maiwald née Bruck (1913-2001)

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

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

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

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

REFERENCE

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

ERICH BRUCK & HIS IMMEDIATE FAMILY

Name (Relationship)	Vital Event	Date	Place

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