Ernst Sandler Archives - bruckfamilyblog.com

POST 90: THE LONG & WINDING ROAD LEADING TO JEWISH RELATIVES FROM BRAZIL

Note: In this brief post, I relate the story of tracking down with the help of a distant cousin the descendants of relatives who immigrated to Brazil in the leadup to WWII.

Figure 1. Andi Pauly, keeper of many Pauly family pictures, documents, and letters

Figure 2. Klaus Pauly, Josef & Rosalie Pauly’s grandson, who developed the detailed Pauly Family Tree (“Stammbaum”)

This story begins in 2016 when I first met my third cousin, Andreas “Andi” Pauly, in Munich. (Figure 1) By this time, I already had a hard copy of the Pauly family tree that his father, Klaus Pauly (Figure 2), had developed. Given the enormous amount of information recorded in this densely packed tree, it would be some time before I would work out and understand all the connections, and augment and make corrections to it.

Klaus Pauly developed the tree before email was widely available and before it was possible to create trees using online computer applications. For family members who had escaped the Holocaust and emigrated from Germany before WWII, Klaus was relegated to exchanging letters with faraway surviving relatives and waiting weeks for a reply. During our initial meeting in 2016, Andi Pauly brought along a letter his father had received in 1989 from a relative living in Porto Alegre, Brazil outlining her lineage and including poor quality xerox photos of her ancestors and descendants. It was only months later that I thought to ask Andi for a copy of the letter. I have my own tree on ancestry.com that I use primarily to visualize connections to people whom I write about in my Blog. When possible, I like to attach photos to people in my tree. Ergo, my request for a copy of the 1989 letter with the embedded photos.

With the correspondence, xerox photos, and family tree in hand, along with the copy of the envelope and mailing address showing where the letter had originated, I determined it had been sent by a woman named Gertrud “Traute” Meyer née Milch (1911-2010). (Figures 3-5) Using Klaus Pauly’s Stammbaum, family tree, I determined she was the granddaughter of Rosalinde Kantorowicz née Pauly, sister of Josef Pauly. Regular readers will recognize the Pauly family name as I have often written about them. Josef Pauly (1843-1916) (Figure 6), the patriarch and Andi’s great-grandfather, was married to Rosalie Pauly née Mockrauer (1844-1927) (Figure 7), and together they had nine children, eight of them daughters.

Figure 3. Poor quality xerox photo sent to Klaus Pauly in 1989 by Gertrud “Traute” Meyer née Milch shown with three of her children, from left to right, Bettina, Irene, and Luiz in Vacaria, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil in the early 1940’s

Figure 4. Poor quality family photo sent to Klaus Pauly in 1989 by Gertrud “Traute” Meyer née Milch (third from left) showing her parents, four siblings, and her brother-in-law in Cortina, Italy in 1924 on the 60th birthday of her father, Ludwig Milch (far left)

Figure 5. Traute Meyer’s generalized family “tree” sent to Klaus Pauly in 1989, with her name circled

Figure 6. My great-great-uncle Dr. Josef Pauly (1843-1916)

Figure 7. Dr. Josef Pauly’s wife, Rosalie Pauly née Mockrauer (1844-1927)

Because the Pauly and Meyer families had long ago lost contact, I was on my own trying to find Traute Meyer’s descendants. Initially, I sent a letter to the Meyer family at the Porto Alegre, Brazil address appearing on the 1989 letter hoping in vain the home might still be family-owned. After months of no reply, I turned to Facebook using my wife’s little-used account. I came across a few possible descendants but received no replies from any I tried to contact. Neither my wife or I are users of social media, so my efforts were half-hearted and eventually I desisted. My approach to doing forensic genealogy is to take the path of least resistance setting aside gnarly issues for another day in the hopes of ultimately obtaining more information. In earlier posts, I have mentioned to readers the difficulty in learning about Jewish families who relocated to South America since few records from there have been digitized.

Fast forward. In time, I would turn my attention to determining the fates and destinations of Josef and Rosalie Pauly’s nine children. The youngest of them, Therese “Tussy” Sandler née Pauly (1885-1969), was one of the last of their children whose destinies I was able to work out. (Figure 8) After traveling to Buenos Aires, Argentina in August 1937, then returning to Germany in November of that year, Tussy, her husband Ernst, and their two boys departed Germany for good in the nick of time in September 1938, settling in Buenos Aires. This is all I could learn from ancestry and MyHeritage, and Andi Pauly could add nothing to what might have happened to his great-aunt and her family following their arrival in South America.

Figure 8. Therese “Tussy” Pauly (1885-1969), the youngest of Josef and Rosalie Pauly’s nine children, in about 1895

When I launched my family history Blog in April 2017, I communicated a desire not only to relate tales of some of my Jewish ancestors who lived through interesting or noteworthy times, but also expressed the hope that relatives or descendants of the people I had written about might discover my Blog. In this latter regard, I have been rewarded on several occasions.

Figure 9. Pedro Sandler (b. 1949), one of Tussy Sandler née Pauly’s grandsons, who discovered and contacted me through my blog

Figure 10. Danny Alejandro Sandler, Pedro’s son and one of Tussy Sandler née Pauly’s great-grandsons, who has sent me multiple family photos and documents related to his ancestors (photo taken in November 2019)

In April 2019, I had the good fortune of being contacted by Tussy Sandler’s grandson, Pedro Sandler (Figure 9), and great-grandson, Danny Alejandro Sandler (Figure 10), who had stumbled upon my Blog. Both now live in Florida, having immigrated there years ago. At first, my exchanges with Tussy’s descendants involved learning when and where their relatives lived and died and sharing what I have learned about their family and putting them in touch with Andi Pauly. The relationship quickly evolved into sharing family documents and photos (Figures 11-14) and enlisting my and Andi’s help with identifications. As an aside, of Josef and Rosalie Pauly’s nine children, only Therese Pauly’s descendants practice Judaism today.

Figure 11. Inside of Therese Sandler née Pauly’s “Reisepass,” or German passport, showing it was issued on the 29th of August 1938, in Berlin

Figure 12a. Ernst and Therese Sandler amidst a group of 27 people in a photo likely taken in the 1910’s in Germany (Photo courtesy of Pedro Sandler)

Figure 12b. Close-up of Ernst Sandler (1870-1945) (Photo courtesy of Pedro Sandler)

Figure 12c. Close-up of Therese Sandler (1885-1969) (Photo courtesy of Pedro Sandler)

Figure 13a. Photo montage of seven of Josef and Rosalie Pauly’s nine children as adolescents (Photo courtesy of Pedro Sandler)

Figure 13b. Close-up of Therese Pauly as a young girl (Photo courtesy of Pedro Sandler)

Figure 14. Dr. Josef Pauly’s wife, Rosalie Pauly née Mockrauer, holding one of her newborns (Photo courtesy of Danny Alejandro Sandler); compare to Figure 7

Though Therese’s descendants originally hail from Argentina, one day I asked Pedro Sandler whether he knows anyone in the Jewish community in Brazil. Pedro had mentioned in passing that both his father and uncle had been very involved in Jewish life in Buenos Aires, so I was hoping he might know someone in the Jewish community in Brazil. My question was akin to encountering a visitor in a foreign land, telling them I come from San Diego, and having them ask me whether I know their friend from there. Clearly, there was no logic to my question. But as far-fetched as my query seems, Pedro in fact has a good friend living in Brazil whose wife’s parents knew Traute Meyer! The coincidence was remarkable.

Many months passed, then one day I asked Danny Sandler whether he or his father had ever managed to locate any of Traute Meyer’s offspring, and he told me that he had. I was surprised. Soon thereafter, Danny put me in touch with Bettina Basanow née Meyer (Figure 15), one of Traute Meyer’s four children. (Figure 16) While I had spent my time looking for her family in Brazil, Bettina has lived in the Denver area for more than 50 years, although her three siblings stayed in Brazil. (Figures 17-18) It should be noted that, unlike myself, Danny is active on social media so tracking down Bettina was relatively straight-forward.

Figure 15. Bettina Schukr née Meyer, daughter of Gertrud “Traute” Meyer née Milch, shown in Figure 3 as a baby seated on her mother’s lap

Figure 16. Bettina’s mother, Gertrud “Traute” Meyer née Milch (1911-2010), also seen in Figure 3 holding her three oldest children, Bettina, Irene, and Luiz

Figure 17. Bettina’s sister, Irene Castro née Meyer (1937-2018), also shown in Figure 3 with her mother and two younger siblings

Figure 18. Bettina’s younger brother Geraldo (left) and older brother Luiz as they look today (Geraldo was not yet born when Figure 3 was taken)

I quickly got in touch with Bettina, and we have established a warm rapport. Regular readers know that finding distant relatives brings me pleasure not only for the stories they tell but also for old family photographs they send. Bettina shared some interesting family anecdotes and copies of some of the same pictures her mother had sent Klaus Pauly in 1989, completing a circle so to speak, but also sent new images as well. (Figures 19-20)

Figure 19. Bettina’s grandfather, Ludwig Milch (1864-1926), shown in Figure 4 on his 60th birthday

Figure 20. Bettina’s grandmother, Else Milch née Kantorowicz (1875-1963), as a young lady, seen also in Figure 4

In the ensuing post, I will tell readers the story of Bettina’s third cousin to whom she introduced me and to whom I’m also distantly related. Bettina’s cousin also generously shared family photos and pictures of paintings of distant ancestors. This has led to expanding my family tree in most interesting ways, as readers will learn.

In closing I would say that while telling the tale of finding Traute Meyer’s descendants appears rather linear, I would never have located them without numerous intermediate steps and the help of a younger cousin better versed in social media.

POST 58: FINDING THERESE “THUSSY” SANDLER NÉE PAULY, MY GREAT-GREAT-UNCLE AND AUNT’S YOUNGEST CHILD

Note: In this post, I discuss what I’ve been unable to discover about the fate of Therese “Thussy” Sandler née Pauly, the youngest of my great-great-uncle and aunt Josef and Rosalie Pauly’s children, and how I came upon this information.

Figure 1a. Therese “Thussy” Pauly (1885-1969) ca. 1890

Figure 1b. Therese “Thussy” Pauly (1885-1969) ca. 1890

Figure 1c. Therese “Thussy” Pauly (1885-1969) ca. 1895

Figure 1d. Therese “Thussy” Pauly (1885-1969) on her sister Maria’s wedding day, the 30th of September 1901

In recent posts, I’ve systematically presented what I’ve been able to learn about my great-great-uncle and aunt Dr. Josef and Rosalie Pauly’s nine children, siblings who would effectively be my first cousins twice-removed. The destiny of the last of Dr. Josef and Rosalie Pauly’s children, Therese Charlotte Thusnelda “Thussy” Pauly (Figures 1a-d), would likely have remained shrouded in mystery if not for an email I received through my Blog in April 2019, from Therese’s grandson and great-grandson, Pedro Sandler (Figure 2) and Daniel Alejandro Sandler. This contact opened a portal to uncovering some new and somewhat surprising information.

Figure 2. Therese Pauly’s grandson, Pedro Sandler (b. 1949-living)

Andi Pauly, one of Josef and Rosalie Pauly’s great-grandchildren, has been, as I’ve explained in recent posts, the source of much of the information and visual images I’ve obtained on his grandfather Wilhelm “Willy” Pauly and his eight sisters. In many instances, I’ve been able to supplement what Andi’s provided by accessing historic documents and data on ancestry.com; the Yad Vashem Victims’ database; and residential registration cards for Posen, Germany [today: Poznan, Poland], the town where Josef and Rosalie Pauly lived and where all nine of their children were born. Naturally, this is where I began my investigation into Therese Pauly.

Figure 3. Passenger manifest with Ernst and Therese Sandler’s names showing they departed London bound for Buenos Aires on the 21st of August 1937

Figure 4. Passenger manifest with Ernst and Therese Sandler’s names showing they returned to London from La Plata, Argentina on the 18th of November 1937

In ancestry.com, I discovered a passenger manifest listing Therese’s name and that of her husband, Ernst Sandler, showing that on the 21st of August 1937, they travelled from London on a ship bound for Buenos Aires, Argentina. (Figure 3) Another passenger manifest shows them returning from Argentina bound for London on the 18th of November 1937 (Figure 4), thus, slightly less than three months later. Given the increasingly restrictive environment German Jews were confronted by on account of the Nuremburg Laws, I was surprised they returned to Europe. Initially, I thought they might have stayed in England, but I found Ernst Sandler, a retired judge, listed almost continuously from 1919 through 1937 in Berlin Address books (Figure 5), suggesting they had in fact returned to Berlin.

Figure 5. Page from 1937 Berlin Phone Directory with Ernst Sandler’s listing him as a retired judge residing in the Charlottenburg Borough, marking the last year in which he is shown living in Berlin

Figure 6. Passenger manifest with Ernst and Therese Sandler’s names showing they departed London once again bound for Buenos Aires on the 24th of September 1938

I found a third passenger manifest for Ernst and Therese Sandler, dated the 24th of September 1938, again departing London by ship bound for Buenos Aires, Argentina (Figure 6), presumably for good this time. This indicated the Sandlers had survived the Holocaust, and a quick check of Yad Vashem, confirmed they indeed were not listed as victims. The discovery of this 1938 passenger manifest is where the trail of the Sandlers ran cold.

I’ve explained in earlier posts I’ve had little success in unearthing ancestral documents for Jews who wound up in South America. As I’ve discovered for some European countries with a history of fascism, this is a function of present-day privacy concerns, though the paucity of ancestral records from South America may also reflect the likelihood this information has not yet been digitized.

The last place I was able to find “hard” evidence related to Ernst and Therese Sandler prior to being contacted by their descendants, Pedro and Daniel Sandler, was in the on-line Posen “Einwohnermeldekarte,” residential registration cards, or “Einwohnermeldezettel,” residential registration forms. To remind readers about these resident cards, in Post 45 I explained that each city historically kept track of their citizens using these forms. With recent changes in European laws, these police records must be digitized for individuals born at least 120 years ago and made available at no cost to all comers. Poznan, Poland, where Josef and Rosalie Pauly’s children were born, happens to be one of the jurisdictions where these police registration records have been automated and are available on-line.

Among the information found on the Einwohnermeldekarte for the Pauly children are their dates of birth; the names, dates and places of birth of their spouses; and the dates and places where they were married. In the previous Post 57 dealing with the sixth-born child of Josef and Rosalie Pauly, Maria Pohlmann née Pauly, I explained to readers it was on her residential registration card where I discovered she was married to Alexander Pohlmann on the 30th of September 1901. Similarly, the registration form revealed that Therese Pauly was married to Ernst Sandler on the 31st of August 1912 (Figure 7), in a place I could not initially read but later learned was Tremessen, located in the former German province of Posen and today known as Trzemeszno, Poland. Thus, the city registration forms are a tremendous source of data on vital statistics if they are available to readers for towns where their European relatives may once have lived.

Figure 7. “Posen Einwohnermeldekarte,” Posen residential registration card, showing Judge Ernst Sandler and Therese Pauly got married on the 31st of August 1912 in Tremessen, in the German province of Posen

My knowledge of Ernst and Therese Sandler’s fates might well have ended here had her great-grandson Daniel Alejandro Sandler not stumbled upon my Blog while doing research on multiple branches of his family tree and reached out to me in April 2019. In one of my posts, Danny found the same picture of his great-great-grandfather Dr. Josef Pauly that his father Pedro has a copy of. Danny and Pedro told me the family left Argentina in 1999 and relocated to Florida, although Pedro’s brother Enrique “Tito” Miguel moved to Israel in 1970.

It came as a surprise to learn that Ernst and Therese Sandler were practicing Jews. Regular readers may recall that in Post 56 I discussed Dr. Josef Pauly’s recollections of his life as he recorded them in 1894 on his 25th wedding anniversary. While open to interpretation, Josef’s memoirs seem to indicate he was a practicing Protestant though he may have been raised Jewish and converted at some point; direct evidence of Jewish conversions is extremely hard to come by as I explained in Post 38 with regard to my own father. There’s nothing in the memoir to indicate Josef and Rosalie Pauly’s household was Jewish, nor that any of their children practiced Jewish traditions. Nonetheless, as discussed in earlier posts, Josef and Rosalie’s descendants were considered “racially Jewish” in the eyes of the Nazis and many were thus murdered in the Holocaust. And, the fact remains that Therese and her husband were devout Jews who were forced to flee Germany in the 1930’s.

Armed with new names and dates following my discussions with Danny and Pedro Sandler, I returned to ancestry.com to track down a few more ancestral documents related to Therese’s descendants. (Figure 8) In recent weeks I’ve also updated my family tree, as well as obtained some vital statistics about the Sandler family and clarified some facts for this current Blog post.

Figure 8. 1964 Brazil Immigration card for one of Ernst and Therese Sandler’s grandsons, born “Ernesto,” referred to in Spanish as “Tito,” but identified on the immigration card as “Ernesto Miguel Sandler”; he moved to Israel in 1970

According to Pedro Sandler, Ernst and Therese Sandler’s two sons, Alfred and Heinz Sandler quit Berlin in 1933 and 1934, respectively, in favor of Holland. By 1937, the sons were in Argentina where, as previously mentioned, passenger manifests show their parents spent three months between August and November before returning to Germany; by then, the situation in Germany had so dramatically deteriorated for Jews, they decided to leave for good.

Figure 9a. Cover of Therese Sandler née Pauly’s “Reisepass,” or German passport, with the letter “J” for “Jude” or Jew and the date, the 9th of January 1939, handwritten

Figure 9b. Inside of Therese Sandler née Pauly’s “Reisepass” showing it was issued on the 29th of August 1938, in Berlin

Pedro sent me a copy of his grandmother’s Reisepass, essentially a German travel passport, issued on the 29th of August 1938 in Berlin (Figures 9a-b), indicating that Ernst and Therese Sandler were still in Berlin at the time. Again, as previously mentioned, a passenger manifest I discovered in ancestry.com confirms that Ernst and Therese Sandler departed London for Argentina less than a month later the 24th of September 1938. Their departure came none too soon, as Kristallnacht or the Night of Broken Glass, the Nazi pogrom against Jews, took place on the 9th and 10th of November 1938.

I notice one interesting thing on Therese Sandler’s Reisepass. According to historical information found on the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum’s website, the Nazis’ Reich Ministry of the Interior invalidated all German passports held by Jews on October 5, 1938. Jews were required to surrender their old passports, which became valid again only after the letter “J” (for Jude or Jew) had been stamped on them. Readers will notice that on the cover of Therese’s passport, in the upper left-hand corner, is handwritten the red letter “J” with the date of 9th of January 1939. (Figure 9a) Presumably, this change in policy with respect to the invalidation and reissuance of passports to Jews with a stamped “J” was already anticipated at the time that Therese’s passport was issued in late August. The Sandlers escape from Germany came in the nick of time.

Figure 10a. Ernst and Therese Sandler amidst a group of 27 people in a photo likely taken in the 1910’s in Germany (Photo courtesy of Pedro Sandler)

Figure 10b. Close-up of Ernst Sandler (1870-1945) (Photo courtesy of Pedro Sandler)

Figure 10c. Close-up of Therese Sandler (1885-1969) (Photo courtesy of Pedro Sandler)

Pedro and Daniel Sandler shared one group picture of Ernst and Therese Sandler, taken in Germany, likely in the 1910’s. (Figures 10a-c) They also sent a photo montage that had once included individual pictures of all nine of Josef and Rosalie’s Pauly’s children as adolescents (Figure 11a-b); the images of Therese’s oldest sisters Anna and Paula have been lost.

Figure 11a. Photo montage of seven of Josef and Rosalie Pauly’s nine children as adolescents (Photo courtesy of Pedro Sandler)

Figure 11b. Close-up of Therese Pauly as a young girl (Photo courtesy of Pedro Sandler)

In updating my family tree, I asked Pedro for the dates and location of his grandparents’ deaths, which he graciously provided. Ernst Sandler passed away in Buenos Aires on the 20th of October 1945, while Therese died on the 25th of November 1969. Pedro mentioned in passing they are buried in the Jewish cemetery in Buenos Aires called “Cementerio Israelita de la Tablada.” Thinking I might find a photo of their headstone online, I Googled the cemetery’s website; while I was unsuccessful finding such a photo, I stumbled upon a database of names listing people interred in the various cemeteries across Argentina (Figures 12a-b), often including birth and death dates. As regular readers know, I frequently bemoan the lack of ancestral data available for South American countries, so it came as a pleasant surprise to come across this index specifically for Argentina, a frequent destination for Jews escaping Nazi Germany. With respect to the Sandlers interred in Argentina that Pedro had told me about, I was able to locate five of his relatives, including Ernst and Therese Sandler. (Figures 13a-b) A brief footnote. In Argentina, unlike many other South American and Spanish-speaking countries, individuals are given only one surname, that of their father.

Figure 12a. Screen shot of the “Jewish Cemeteries in Argentina” Portal Page highlighting the “Search for Buenos Aires Jewish Burial Records” one must select to look up surnames

Figure 12b. Screen shot of the “Burial Records in Argentina” Portal page where surname one is searching is entered

Figure 13a. Ernesto (Ernst) Sandler’s listing in the “Burial Records of Argentina” index showing he died on the 20th of October 1945 and is interred in “Tablada” (i.e., “Cementerio Israelita de la Tablada”), located in Buenos Aires, Argentina

Figure 13b. Teresa Pauly di Sandler (Therese Sandler née Pauly) listing in the “Burial Records of Argentina” index showing she died on the 25th of November 1969 and is interred in “Tablada” (i.e., “Cementerio Israelita de la Tablada”), located in Buenos Aires, Argentina

This post concludes my detailed examination of Josef and Rosalie Pauly’s nine children, although I likely will return to this branch of the family if or when I uncover more information about them.