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.
REVISIONS MADE ON OCTOBER 21, 2018 BASED ON COMMENTS PROVIDED BY MR. PAUL NEWERLA
Note: This article is about the sugar factory located in Woinowitz, a small village outside Ratibor, that was co-owned by Adolph Schück and Sigmund Hirsch. These men were married to sisters, Alma and Selma Braun, great-great-aunts of mine and children of Markus Braun, owner of the M. Braun Brauerei in Ratibor. Below I briefly examine the history of the sugar factory in a regional context.
Post 14 was about the Brauereipachter, tenant brewer, Marcus Braun, my great-great-grandfather who owned one of the oldest breweries in Ratibor [today: Racibórz, Poland]. (Figure 1) Markus had a dozen children by his first wife, Caroline Spiegel, then another two by his second wife, Johanna Goldstein. (see the table at the bottom of this post for details on Markus’s 14 children) Earlier, I told readers I am related to numerous cousins in America through Markus and Caroline Braun’s descendants. Two of Markus and Caroline’s children, Alma and Selma Braun, married men who were partners in the Zuckerfabrik, sugar factory, located in the village of Woinowitz [today: Wojnowice, Poland] (Figure 2), just outside Ratibor. Alma Braun (Figure 3) was married to Adolph Schück (Figure 4), and Selma Braun to Sigmund Hirsch.
The sugar factory still stands today (Figure 5), and part of my purpose in writing this post was to determine, if possible, the circumstances surrounding its closure, sale and/or possible confiscation during the Nazi era. In compiling this narrative, I again consulted Paul Newerla, retired lawyer and Racibórz historian, whom I’ve discussed in earlier posts (Figure 6); he has written extensively about the history of Racibórz and Śląsk (Silesia). His books and questions I asked him form the basis of much of what I write, although any mis-representations or mis-interpretations are entirely my responsibility.
The fertile lands surrounding Ratibor produced a lot of sugar beet that were processed in at least four local sugar factories, the one in Ratibor proper, along with ones in Woinowitz [today: Wojnowice, Poland]; Groß Peterwitz [today: Pietrowice Wielkie, Poland]; and Bauerwitz [today: Baborów, Poland]. (Figure 7) All were built along the railway line running between Ratibor and Leobschütz [today: Głubczyce, Poland] constructed in 1856, that was extended to Jägerndorf [today: Krnov, Czech Republic] in 1895. The railway was critical for the transport of the sugar beet to the plants, and, subsequently, for the transport of the refined product to the various makers of the much sought-after chocolate and candy produced in Ratibor.
The sugar factory in Woinowitz (Figures 8a-b), which is the subject of this post, was built by the company Adolph Schück & Co. G.m.b.H. (“Gesellschaft mit beschränkter Haftung”); the American equivalent of a G.m.b.H would be a limited liability company (LLC), meaning the owners (Gesellschafter, or members) of the entity are not personally liable or responsible for the company’s debts.
Mr. Newerla has been unable to discover exactly when the Woinowitz sugar factory was built. The railway between Ratibor and Leobschütz, which opened on November 1, 1856, already existed at the time the factory was built, and the nearest railway station at the time was “Woinowitz”; thus, the sugar factory was referred to by this name although it was closer to the town of Schammerwitz/Schammerau [today: Samborowice, Czech Republic]. Interestingly, Mr. Newerla discovered a postcard illustrating both the Woinowitz railway station, thus named, and the sugar factory, but with the postcard, perhaps aptly, labelled as “Schammerwitz.” (Figure 9)
On November 20, 1895, the railway line from Ratibor was extended to Troppau [today: Opava, Czech Republic], with stops in Ratibor, Woinowitz, Kranowitz, Kuchelna, and Troppau. (see Figure 7) At this time, the Woinowitz railway stop was renamed Mettich [today: Lekartów, Poland] (Figure 10), but the sugar factory retained its original name; this station still exists today. (Figure 11) When the railway line was extended in 1895, a bus stop was built in Woinowitz, along the railway line. This bus stop then became Woinowitz, and the railway station Mettich, although referred to as “Bhf (station) Weihendorf” on a 1941 army map.
According to Paul Newerla, Adolph Schück’s sugar factory ceased production in the 1920’s, well before the Nazi era. Readers should know that from 1742 until 1871, Woinowitz was part of Prussia, and thereafter part of the German Reich until 1945; it was only after WWII that Woinowitz became a part of Poland.
As previously alluded to, in the 1920’s, there existed four sugar factories between Ratibor and Leobschütz: Ratibor, Woinowitz, Groß Peterwitz, and Bauerwitz. Mr. Newerla sent me a letterhead from the sugar factory in Groß Peterwitz, “Landwirtschaftliche Zuckerabrik-Aktien-Gesellschaft” (Figure 12), along with a postcard of this same factory identifying it by then as a “Flachsfabrik,” flax factory. (Figure 13) It seems that in 1925 the factory was prohibited from processing sugar by order of the Zuckerfabrik in Bauerwitz and was acquired by the “Oberschlesischen Flachs-Industrie G.m.b.H. zu Groß-Peterwitz,” and converted into a flax factory. The reasons for the closure of the sugar factory in Woinowitz are unknown, but the existence of four factories within 15 miles suggests they were unprofitable, and that consolidation was necessary.
According to Paul, there existed, in fact, six local sugar factories, factoring in a fifth one in Polnisch Neukirch [today: Polska Cerekiew, Poland], and a sixth in Troppau [today: Opava, Czech Republic]; the latter was part of Austria until 1918, then later belonged to Czechoslovakia.
Let me digress briefly to discuss the sugar factory located in Ratibor. It was built in 1870 by a Julius Zender along the Oder River, near the railway tracks. In 1896, this sugar factory became the “Ratiborer Zuckerfrabrik G.m.b.H.” with the largest number of shares being held by Karl Max Fürst von Lichnowsky (born Kreuzenort, Upper Silesia [today: Krzyżanowice, Poland], 8 March 1860 – died Kuchelna, 27 February 1928); the Lichnowsky’s were a Czech aristocratic family of Silesian and Moravian origin documented since the 14th Century. At the time, the Ratiborer Zuckerfrabrik processed 20,000 tons of sugar beet a season and employed 500 people.
Karl Max, Prince Lichnowsky is relevant to our story because not only was he part owner of the Ratibor sugar factory, but he also owned shares in the sugar factory of Adolph Schück & Co. G.m.b.H. The Lichnowsky’s had aided in the construction of the railway line from Ratibor to Kuchelna and Troppau in 1895, so were later given permission to develop a train connection from Troppau to Grätz, where the Lichnowsky’s had a grand palace. When Kuchelna, Karl Lichnowsky’s headquarters, eventually became part of Czechoslovakia in 1920, Lichnowsky chose to retain his German citizenship.
Beyond Lichnowsky’s contribution to the expansion of local transportation, and advancement of the sugar industry in Silesia, he is better known as Ambassador to Britain beginning in 1912. Prior to the outbreak of WWI, Prince Lichnowsky was one of the few German diplomats who sought to prevent the war. He warned Kaiser Wilhelm II that in the event of war, England would align itself against Germany, as ultimately happened. Lichnowsky’s assessments were withheld from the Kaiser. After declaration of war, he was regarded as responsible for the unfavorable situation. He wrote several articles and pamphlets defending himself and reproaching the German politicians for not having pursued “realpolitik” (i.e., politics or diplomacy based primarily on considerations of given circumstances and factors, rather than explicit ideological notions or moral or ethical premises), which eventually resulted in his being expelled from the Prussian government in July 1918.
Regrettably, none of Paul Newerla’s research, which has included examination of the Lichnowsky family papers, has so far shed any light on the ultimate disposition of the sugar factory. As previously mentioned, Paul says the sugar factory was shuttered in the 1920’s. However, this differs from what Adolph and Alma Schück’s descendants were told. Larry Leyser is my third cousin once-removed (Figure 14), and his great-great-grandmother, Alma Braun, was married to Adolph Schück. Larry’s family claims that following Adolph’s death in 1916, and Sigmund Hirsch’s demise in 1920, one of Adolph’s son, Dr. Erich Schück (Figure 15), assumed control of and continued to run the sugar factory and other family businesses. During the Nazi era, Erich was approached by the Nazis, and given a low-ball offer on the business, which he rejected. Ultimately, the business was seized, the family lost everything, and Erich committed suicide.
However, an alternate story circulates, namely, that some unscrupulous member of the family sold the business and absconded with the proceeds. Blame here has squarely been placed on Sigmund Hirsch’s wife, Selma Braun; the problem with this theory is that Selma Braun pre-deceased her husband by four years, in 1916, when the sugar factory was assuredly still in operation and likely run by her husband after Adolph Schück’s death that same year. In the absence of any proof of sale document, one may never know exactly whether the sugar factory was confiscated or sold, and, if so, by whom.
When my wife and I visited the existing factory in May 2014, we were immediately approached by a watchman who demanded to know what we were doing. (Figure 16) Paul Newerla, whom I’ve previously told readers is a retired attorney, assisted the current “owner” of the sugar factory purchase it from the Polish Government; how the government came to own the factory remains unclear. According to Paul, the owner has the “proper” papers. The factory was once the headquarters of a magazine, and is now used to store chemicals to treat crops.
Larry recently had the good fortune to access photos and documents from one of his cousins that he scanned and shared with me. Included within this trove were copies of eleven obituaries about Adolph Schück (Figures 17a-17k), who passed away on November 3, 1916 in Ratibor.
I asked another one of my cousins to summarize these, and they give us a good measure of Adolph. (Figure 18) Little is written about the sugar factory proper, except that Sigmund Hirsch was his partner. However, we learn that Adolph had been on Ratibor’s City Council from 1879 until 1901, and from 1890 onward was the Chairman of the City Council. He was also the speaker of its Budget Committee (Haushaltsausschuss); his business acumen lent itself well to carefully managing the city’s expenditures and keeping taxes in check for a long time.
Adolph was very active in the Jewish community. One obituary, from an association that aided the city’s destitute Jews, praised Adolph upon his death . On his 75th birthday, a delegation from the City of Ratibor came to his home in Ratibor to present him with flowers. More than 40 people showed up on his birthday, half of whom had worked for him more than 25 years. (Figures 19a-b) He used this occasion to give all his employees cash bonuses. His workers acknowledged his lofty standards and hard work. When he died, the entire Ratibor City Council attended his funeral. One of the obituaries is unusual in that it was written by two of Adolph Schück’s servants, Albertine Kudella and Klotilde Fuss, suggesting Adolph’s staff held him in high regard.
Figure 19b, the backside of the postcard showing a lineup of employees who worked in the Woinowitz sugar factory, gives me an opportunity to make a connection to an individual discussed in Post 25, specifically, Fritz Goldenring who died in the Shanghai Ghetto on December 15, 1943. The postcard, dated November 20, 1909, was addressed to him, care-of his uncle Paul Goldenring living in Berlin. At the time, Fritz would have been seven years of age. The postcard was sent to Fritz by his maternal grandfather, Sigmund Hirsch, who thanked Fritz for the well-wishes on his birthday; Sigmund’s birthday was November 18, 1848. Readers can read the German transcription and the translation. (Figure 22)
____________________________________________
NAME
DATE & PLACE OF BIRTH
DATE & PLACE OF DEATH
COMMENT
MARKUS BRAUN CHILDREN WITH CAROLINE b. SPIEGEL
Leo Braun
July 4, 1847
Ratibor, Germany
UNKNOWN
Married Frida Burchardt on 9/8/1883 in Berlin.
Julie Braun
March 4, 1849
Ratibor, Germany
UNKNOWN
Married to Nathan Goldstein. Nathan & Julie Braun had three children:
Gustav (b. 1/27/1869-d. _)
Max Markus (b. 2/3/1871-d._)
Ernst (b. 9/19/1873-d. 1941)
Adolf Braun
May 14, 1850
Ratibor, Germany
UNKNOWN
Immigrated to America & became US citizen.
Alma Braun
June 5, 1851
Ratibor, Germany
March 25, 1919
Ratibor, Germany
Married to Adolph Schück (b. 7/5/1840-d. 11/3/1916). Adolf & Alma Schück had three children:
Auguste (“Guste”) (b. 1/26/1872-d. 10/5/1943)
Elly (b. 9/7/1874-d. 4/28/1911)
Erich Schück
Olga Braun
July 23, 1852
Ratibor, Germany
August 23, 1920
Ratibor, Germany
Married to Hermann Berliner (b. 5/28/1840-d. 9/3/1910). Hermann & Olga were buried in the former Jewish Cemetery in Ratibor. Hermann & Olga Berliner had three children:
Margareth Auguste (b. 3/19/1872-d.__)
Else (b. 3/3/1873-d. 2/18/1957)
Alfred Max (b. 11/6/1875-d. 2/19/1921)
Fedor Braun
August 27, 1853
Ratibor, Germany
UNKNOWN
Jenny Braun
June 7, 1855
Ratibor, Germany
May 12, 1921
Breslau, Germany
Married to George Pinoff (b. 3/2/1844-d. 9/3/1914). George & Jenny are buried in the Jewish Cemetery in Wroclaw, Poland.
Selma Braun
July 11, 1856
Ratibor, Germany
July 11, 1916
Ratibor, Germany
Married to Sigmund Hirsch (b. 11/18/1848-d.10/14/1920), partner with his brother-in-law Adolph Schück in the sugar factory in Woinowitz. Sigmund & Selma were buried in the former Jewish Cemetery in Ratibor. Sigmund & Selma Hirsch had three children:
Robert (b. _-d. 1943)
Henrietta (b. 2/8/1873-d. 7/29/1955)
Helene (b. 3/25/1880-d. 1/1968)
Julius Braun
July 11, 1857
UNKNOWN
Emma Braun
June 7, 1858
Ratibor, Germany
January 17, 1904
Ratibor, Germany
Married to Nathan Zweig (b. 5/1/1851-d. 8/12/1921). Nathan & Emma had two daughters who perished in the Holocaust:
Elizabeth (b. 3/20/1885-d. 10/9/1944)
Susanne (b. 3/2/1890-d. 7/18/1943).
Hermine Braun
May 23, 1859
Ratibor, Germany
September 20, 1921
Ratibor, Germany
Married to Siegfried Zweig (b. 8/25/1855-d. 1/7/1932). Siegfried & Hermine had a daughter and a son:
Magdalena (b. 11/14/1886-d. _)
Hans (b. 8/23/1889- d. 9/12/1929).
Hugo Braun
August 7, 1860
Ratibor, Germany
UNKNOWN
Married to Hildegard Köhler (b. 2/9/1875-d. _) on 5/30/1896. Hugo & Hildegard had two children:
Anna-Marie
Peter
MARKUS BRAUN CHILDREN WITH JOHANNA b. GOLDSTEIN
Eugenia Wanda Braun
April 21, 1869
Ratibor, Germany
October 25, 1918
Breslau, Germany
Never married
Markus Braun
May 23, 1870
Ratibor, Germany
UNKNOWN
Married to Eva Wondre (b. 11/10/1871-d._) on 12/11/1900.
“I should like someone to remember that there once lived a person named David Berger.” (David Berger in his last letter, Vilna 1941, quoted from www.yadvashem.org brochure)
NOTE: This post examines the fate of some of the Jewish residents and guests who stayed at the Villa Primavera in Fiesole, Italy, between roughly March 1937 and September 1938, the period during which my aunt Susanne Müller née Bruck co-managed the property as a bed-and-breakfast with a Jewish emigrant formerly from Austria and Germany, Ms. Lucia von Jacobi. Investigating what became of the guests who stayed at the Villa Primavera during this time wound up upending my preconceived notion that the boarders were all Jewish emigrés permanently fleeing Germany.
Surviving historic records archived at the “Archivio Storico Comunale,” the “Municipal Historic Archive,” in Fiesole, place my aunt Susanne and my uncle Dr. Franz Müller’s arrival there in about March 1936, and their departure in mid-September 1938. Beginning approximately a year after their arrival, that’s to say, in March 1937, and continuing until they left for France in mid-September 1938, registration logs from the Villa Primavera record numerous guests. I was surprised at the large number of visitors who stayed there, mostly Jewish, and just assumed my aunt and uncle hosted them as they tried to escape Europe and Nazi persecution. While I eventually came across a reference indicating my aunt and Ms. Jacobi had run the Villa Primavera as a bed-and-breakfast, explaining the multiple boarders, this did not initially alter my view that the Jewish guests had already permanently fled Germany, Austria, Belgium, and Switzerland, never to return.
To remind readers, during Italy’s Fascist era, all out-of-town visitors to Fiesole and elsewhere were required to appear with their hosts at the Municipio, or City Hall, provide their names and those of their parents, declare their occupation, state when and where they were born, show their identity papers, give their passport numbers, divulge their anticipated length of stay, and complete what was called a “Soggiorno degli Stranieri in Italia,” or “Stay of Foreigners in Italy.”(Figure 1) As readers will rightly conclude, collecting this information represented a vast invasion of privacy, although forensic genealogists can glean an enormous amount of useful ancestral data. While virtually all the Soggiorno forms state the reason for the guest’s visit as “turismo,” tourism, I concluded this was a “cover” for their real purpose, planning their escape to America or elsewhere. There can be little doubt in examining the Soggiorno forms that most guests were educated and accomplished people of means, likely with good personal and professional contacts elsewhere in the world who could sponsor them and help them obtain travel visas. That said, this did not ensure that Jews were able to obtain such outside help or even intended to leave Europe.
With the Soggiorno forms and Fiesole registration ledgers in hand, using ancestry.com, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and Yad Vashem Holocaust victims’ databases, as well as general Internet queries, I set out to try and determine the fate of as many of the guests of the Villa Primavera as possible. With respect to my own family, I already knew what had happened to them, in particular that my beloved aunt Susanne (Figure 2) and my great-aunt Franziska Bruck (Figure 3) had both died in the Holocaust; similarly, I already knew that one of my first cousins twice-removed, Auguste “Gusti” Schueck (Figure 4), had died in the Theresienstadt Ghetto in Czechoslovakia on May 28, 1943. But, I was very curious whether other individuals who had passed through the Villa Primavera suffered a similar fate or managed to find sanctuary elsewhere. The findings upended my preconceived notion that the guests at the Villa Primavera were on a one-way journey out of Europe at the time they stayed in Fiesole.
Below is a table, alphabetically-arranged, of the Jewish residents and boarders who stayed at the Villa Primavera between March 1937 and September 1938, with comments as to their destiny, where discovered. Below the table, I highlight a few individuals, discussing some interesting things I’ve learned about them, including pictures, where found.
NAME (NATIONALITY)
DATE & PLACE OF BIRTH
DATE & PLACE OF DEATH
COMMENT
Argudinsky née Fleischer, Elisabetta (UNKNOWN)
11/24/1873 Reichenbach, Germany
Unknown
Destiny: Unknown
Bachrach née Bachmann, Elvire (SWISS)
9/15/1872 Karstein
Unknown
Destiny: Unknown
Baerwald née Lewino, Charlotte Victoria (GERMAN)
8/6/1870 Mainz, Germany
3/16/1966 St. Gallen, Switzerland
Destiny: Immigrated to America, died in Switzerland (Figure 5)
Berend, Eduard (GERMAN)
12/5/1883 Hannover, Germany
1973 Marbach, Germany
Destiny: Left Germany in 1939, returned after WWII
Bergmann née Neufeld, Amalie (GERMAN)
4/16/1881 Posen, Germany
Unknown
Destiny: Unknown
Brieger née Elias, Else (GERMAN)
2/19/1888 Posen, Germany
Unknown
Destiny: Unknown
Bruck née Berliner, Else (GERMAN)(Figure 6)
3/3/1873 Ratibor, Germany
2/16/1957 New York, NY
Destiny: Immigrated to America
Bruck, Eva (GERMAN) (Figure 7)
8/19/1906 Barcelona, Spain
8/15/1977 Ainring, Germany
Destiny: Immigrated to Spain, died in Germany (Figure 8)
Bruck, Franziska (GERMAN)
12/29/1866 Ratibor, Germany
1/2/1942 Berlin, Germany
Destiny: Suicide victim of the Holocaust
Bruck, Otto (GERMAN) (Figure 42)
4/16/1907 Ratibor, Germany
9/13/1994 New York, NY
Destiny: Immigrated to America
Cohnnée Pollack, Caroline (GERMAN)
Unknown
Unknown
Destiny: Unknown
Cypres, Jacques (BELGIAN)
10/29/1904 Antwerp, Belgium
Unknown
Destiny: Immigrated to America (Figure 9)
Donath, Ludwig (GERMAN)
3/6/1900 Vienna, Austria
9/29/1967 New York, NY
Destiny: Immigrated to America
Donath née Camsky, Maria Josefa (GERMAN)
8/20/1902 Vienna, Austria
4/21/1975 Vienna, Austria
Destiny: Immigrated to America, returned to Austria after her husband’s death
Elias, Dr. Carl Ludwig (GERMAN)
9/19/1891 Berlin, Germany
1942 Auschwitz, Poland
Destiny: Murdered in Auschwitz
Fleischner née Schoenfeld, Gabriele Ann Sophie (AUSTRIAN)(Figures 10a &b)
10/12/1895 Vienna, Austria
9/22/58 Massachusetts
Destiny: Immigrated to America, died Gabriele Anna Fleischner-Lawrence
Fleischner, Dr. Konrad George (AUSTRIAN)(Figures 11a& b)
10/12/1891 Vienna, Austria
9/1963 Massachusetts
Destiny: Immigrated to America, died Conrad Lawrence
Goldenring, Eva (GERMAN)
10/29/1906 Berlin, Germany
12/1969 Wilmington, DE
Destiny: Left Germany for France & Spain; eventually immigrated to America
Goldenring, Fritz (GERMAN)
9/11/1902
12/15/1943 Shanghai, China
Destiny: Left for Shanghai where he died in the Shanghai Ghetto
Goldenring née Hirsch, Helene (GERMAN)
3/25/1880 Ratibor, Germany
1/12/1968 Newark, NJ
Destiny: Left for Chile & eventually immigrated to America
Grödel, Emilie (GERMAN)
Unknown
Unknown
Destiny: Unknown
Hayoth HAYDT, Dr. Eugen (GERMAN)
4/19/1906
Metz, France
Unknown
1/17/1973
Sydney, Australia
Destiny: Unknown
Arrived in Sydney, Australia on 2/6/1939 aboard the ship “NIEUW HOLLAND”;
Died as Alvin Eugene Werner Haydt or A.E.W Haydt
Hayoth HAYDT née Winternitz, Lilly (GERMAN)
8/12/1908
Vienna, Austria
Unknown
2/4/1997
Sydney
Destiny: Unknown
Arrived in Sydney, Australia on 2/6/1939 aboard the ship “NIEUW HOLLAND”
Heilbronner, Dr. Paul Milton (GERMAN) (Figures 12 & b)
11/22/1904 Munich, Germany
4/6/1980 Santa Barbara, CA
Destiny: Immigrated to America, died as Paul Milton Laporte
Heilbronnernée Wimpfheimer, Sofie (GERMAN) (Figures 13a & b)
3/18/1876 Augsburg, Germany
3/26/1965 Los Angeles, CA
Destiny: Immigrated to America, died as Sofie Broner
Herz, Dr. Phil. Emanuel Emil (GERMAN)
4/5/1877 Essen, Germany
7/8/1971 Rochester, NY
Destiny: Immigrated to America (Figure 14)
Herz née Berl, Gabriele (GERMAN)
4/26/1886 Vienna, Austria
1957 Rochester, NY
Destiny: Immigrated to America
Hirschfeldt née Wolff, Katharina (GERMAN)
4/16/1866 Berlin, Germany
Unknown
Destiny: Unknown
Jacobi née Goldberg, Lucia von (GERMAN)
9/8/1887 Vienna, Austria
4/24/1956 Locarno, Switzerland
Destiny: Fled to Switzerland where she died after WWII
Kleinmann née Lewensohn, Gretchen (GERMAN)
12/31/1894 Hamburg, Germany
Unknown
Destiny: Unknown
Kleinmann, Dr. Phil & Med. Hans (GERMAN)
9/28/1895 Berlin, Germany
Unknown
Destiny: Unknown
Kleinmann née Luvic, Sophie (GERMAN)
11/27/1863 Memel, East Prussia
Unknown
Destiny: Unknown
Kuhnemund née Goldschmidt, Helene Ida (GERMAN)
3/15/1901 Berlin, Germany
Unknown
Destiny: Unknown
Leven née Levÿ, Johanna (GERMAN)
6/25/1866 Koenigshoeven, Germany
7/2/1942 Theresienstadt Ghetto, Czechoslovakia
Destiny: Murdered in Theresienstadt Ghetto
Leyser née Schueck, Auguste (GERMAN)
1/26/1872 Ratibor, Germany
10/5/1943 Theresienstadt Ghetto, Czechoslovakia
Destiny: Murdered in Theresienstadt Ghetto
Locker, Dine Martha (POLISH)
Unknown
Unknown
Destiny: Unknown
Maass, Margarete (GERMAN)
2/16/1880 Friedberg, Germany
Unknown
Destiny: Unknown
Matthias, Julius (GERMAN)
5/15/1857 Hamburg, Germany
5/16/1942 Hamburg, Germany
Destiny: Died in Germany during WWII
Müller, Dr. Franz (GERMAN) (Figure 15)
12/31/1871 Berlin, Germany
10/1/1945 Fayence, France
Destiny: Left for Italy & France, where he died
Müller née Bruck, Susanne (GERMAN) (Figure 42)
4/20/1904 Ratibor, Germany
~9/7/1942 Auschwitz, Poland
Destiny: Murdered in Auschwitz
Nienburg née Niess, Emmy (GERMAN)
8/16/1885 Berlin, Germany
Unknown
Destiny: Appears to have died in Germany after WWII
Oppler née Pinoff, Gertrude (GERMAN)
1/13/1876 Görlitz, Germany
3/9/1952 Frankfurt, Germany
Destiny: Died in Germany after WWII; (granddaughter of Marcus Braun, subject of Post 14)
Rosendorff, Friederike Elfriede (GERMAN)
11/28/1872 Berlin, Germany
Unknown
Destiny: Appears to have died in Germany after WWII
In the case of several people associated with the Villa Primavera, including my aunt and uncle (Figure 17), Lucia von Jacobi (Figure 18), and Charlotte Baerwald, their intent had been to stay in Fiesole “per sempre,” forever. In the case of most guests, however, their anticipated length of stay typically varied between a few weeks and two months.
Eduard Berend (Figure 19) was an eminent editor of the works of Jean Paul (1763-1825), a German Romantic writer. After fighting in WWI, Berend pursued an academic career, but on account of anti-Semitism, he was rejected as a teacher at three German universities. In 1927, the Preußische Akademie der Wissenschaften, the Prussian Academy of Sciences, eventually commissioned him with the historic-critical edition of the works of Jean Paul. By 1938, he had completed 20 of the 32 planned volumes, works that established Jean Paul as one of the most important writers of German classicism, alongside Goethe and Schiller. Still, he was dismissed by the Prussian Academy in 1938. Soon thereafter he was sent to the concentration camp of Sachsenhausen, and was only released on the condition that he leave Germany immediately.
Prior to WWII, Eduard Berend had developed an unlikely friendship with a Heinrich Meyer, a Goethe scholar at the Rice Institute in Houston with Nazi sympathies. Desperate, Berend turned to Meyer for help in December 1938. In spite of Henrich Meyer’s Nazi leanings, which landed him in prison in Texas in 1943 and ultimately got him fired, Meyer secured an affidavit for Berend to leave Germany for Switzerland where he even supported Berend financially. After the war, Berend continued his work on Jean Paul. He went back to Germany in 1957, and by the time of his death in 1973, had completed twenty-eight volumes.
The passport on which Eduard Berend traveled to Switzerland in 1939 was different than the one on which he traveled to Fiesole in May 1937, comparing the number on the Soggiorno form (Figure 20) with that on his 1939 passport, found on the Internet. (Figure 21)
Franziska Bruck
I was able to procure a copy of my great-aunt Franziska Bruck’s death certificate from the Landesarchiv Berlin. (Figure 22) The certificate states the gruesome way in which she killed herself on January 2, 1942, “selbstmord durch erhängen,” suicide by hanging, no doubt after being told to report to an old-age transport for deportation. (Figure 23)
In previous posts, I’ve explained to readers that beginning in 1937-38, all German Jewish men had to be called “Israel,” and all German Jewish women had to be called “Sarah”; these names were added to official birth, marriage and death certificates. Readers will note that on my great-aunt’s death certificate, the name “Sara” has been added.
My great-aunt Franziska spent two months at the Villa Primavera between September and November 1937. I’ve often wondered what her fate might have been had she not returned to Berlin. I can only surmise that like many Jews, she was either in denial as to what might happen upon her return, or her options for leaving Germany were limited.
Ludwig Donath (Figures 24a & b) and his wife, Maria Donath née Camsky (Figures 25a & b), were among the last German Jewish guests at the Villa Primavera, staying for no more than a month in July-August 1938. Ludwig Donath was a famous character actor (Figures 26 & 27) who’d had a distinguished career on the stages of Vienna and Berlin, before leaving Nazi Germany in 1933. He and his wife arrived in Hollywood via Switzerland and England, departing from Liverpool for New York in February 1940. Donath appeared in many American films, with at least 84 credits to his name, and was often typecast as a Nazi in films from 1942. (Figure 28) He was briefly blacklisted in the 1950’s for alleged left-wing connections, but resumed steady television work in 1957 for the remainder of his life.
Carl Ludwig Elias was born in 1891 to a distinguished art critic, Dr. Julius Elias, who was instrumental in promoting French Impressionism in Germany. Likely because of his father’s connections with the art world, an oil portrait of “Carl Ludwig Elias 7 ¼” by Lovis Corinth was painted in 1899. (Figure 29) Carl Ludwig was a lawyer in Berlin and immigrated to Norway when the Nazis came to power. Nonetheless, after the Nazis invaded Norway in December 1940, he was captured and deported with 500 other Jews from Denmark to Auschwitz in 1942, where he was murdered.
Helene Goldenring visited the Villa Primavera on two occasions, for about a month between May-June 1937, and, again, between December 1937 and January 1938 for two months. Both of her children, Eva and Fritz Goldenring, who’ve been discussed in earlier posts, were also guests on separate occasions. Helene’s name appears in a Berlin phone directory as late as 1940 (Figure 30), indicating she returned to Germany after her sojourns in Fiesole. At some point, she seems to have joined her brother, Dr. Robert Hirsch, in Chile, before eventually immigrating to America in 1947 after his death, where she reunited with her only surviving child, Eva. (Figure 31)
In May 2021, I was contacted by Ms. Tamara Precek, a most delightful Czech lady who has resided in Barcelona, Spain for the past 20 years. She is researching the Winternitz families that lived in Prague around 1850, of whom Lillian Haydt née Winternitz is descended. Tamara asked me to send her the “Soggiorno degli Stranieri in Italia” forms for Eugen (Figure 43) and Lillian (Figure 44), suspecting I had misread their surnames. Indeed, I had mistaken HAYDT as “Hayoth.”
Tamara has recently been able to learn what happened to them after their brief stay at the Villa Primavera. They managed to immigrate to Australia, arriving there on the 6th of February 1939 aboard the ship “NIEUW HOLLAND.” Dr. Eugen Haydt changed his named to Albin (Alvin) Eugene Werner (Warner) Haydt (A.E.W. Haydt) but was still generally known as Eugene Haydt. He was a tradesman, and died on the 17th of January 1973; his wife may have worked with him, and passed away on the 4th of February 1997. They appear not to have had any children.
Ms. Precek even found a picture of the apartment building where they resided in Sydney. (Figure 45)
Ms. Jacobi co-managed the Villa Primavera as a bed-and-breakfast with my aunt Susanne. She fled Fiesole in 1938 in favor of Switzerland, leaving everything behind, including her personal papers, which were miraculously found in Florence and saved by a German researcher in 1964, Dr. Irene Below (see Blog Post 21 for the full story).
Johanna Leven stayed at the Villa Primavera for the first two months of 1938, but clearly returned to Germany after her stay. She was eventually deported from Mönchengladbach, Germany to the Theresienstadt Ghetto in then-Czechoslovakia, where she perished in 1942. (Figure 32)
Julius Matthias was among the oldest guest to have stayed at the Villa Primavera, being almost 80 when he visted there between March and April 1937. After his days in Fiesole, he returned to Hamburg, Germany, where he died on May 16, 1942, seemingly of natural causes (i.e., senility, broncho-pneumonia). His death certificate (Figure 33) states he was a non-practicing Jew, although this fact would not have prevented him from being deported to a concentration camp. His death certificate assigned him the name “Israel” to identify him as a Jew.
Paul Schoop was born in 1907 in Zurich, Switzerland, one of four accomplished offspring (with Max Schoop (b. 1902); Trudi Schoop (b. 1903); Hedwig “Hedi” Schoop (b. 1906)) of a prominent family. Paul’s father, Maximilian Schoop, was the editor of Neue Zurcher Zeitung and president of Dolder Hotels. Paul (Figure 34) came to America in September 1939, and eventually joined his three siblings in Van Nuys, California. He was an accomplished composer, concert pianist and conductor, first in Europe and later in America. Paul’s brother-in-law was Frederick Maurice Holländer (Figures 35a & b), the famed composer and torch song writer, who’d once been married to one of Paul’s sister, Hedi Schoop. (Figures 36a & b)
I surmise the reason the Schoop children came to America is because of greater economic and professional opportunities rather than on account of Nazi persecution.
Jenny Steinfeld’s tale is a poignant one. Her name appears with that of her son, Paul Steinfeld, on an April 1937 manifest of boat passengers bound from Bremen, Germany to New York. (Figure 37) A scant five months later, between September and November 1937, she is a guest at the Villa Primavera, clearly having come back from America. Jenny eventually returns to Berlin, and on August 27, 1942 commits suicide there, yet another victim of Nazi persecution. (Figure 38) As with my great-aunt Franziska, who too returned to Berlin from Fiesole, one wonders why Jenny walked back into the maws of death.
This post deals only in passing with my immediate and extended Bruck family. For this reason, it involved considerably more forensic research, as most of the guests at the Villa Primavera were previously unknown to me. Still, learning more about these people was important to me. In some small way, as the Holocaust victim David Berger wrote in 1941, I hope I have honored and recognized a few other Jewish victims of Nazi persecution so they are not forgotten.
Regular readers will know the enjoyment I derive making connections between people and events related to my family. One of my German first cousins, once-removed, Kay Lutze, is friends with an Anja Holländer, living in Amsterdam, Netherlands. (Figure 39) Anja is related to Frederick Maurice Holländer, the brother-in-law of Paul Schoop, who stayed at the Villa Primavera. In assembling this involved Blog post, I recollected this fact and also that Anja claims a relationship to my Bruck family. I asked Kay whether he knew the relationship, and he could only tell me that the mother of a Holländer named LUDWIG HEINRICH HOLLÄNDER was a Bruck. Curious about this, I researched this man on ancestry.com, and, indeed, discovered various historic documents that confirm the distant relationship of the Holländer family to my Bruck family. Ludwig’s mother was HELENE HOLLÄNDER née BRUCK (1812-1876), who I think is my great-great-great-great-aunt; Helene was married to a BENJAMIN HOLLÄNDER (1809-1884). I discovered his death certificate (Figures 40a & b), along with that of their son Ludwig (1833-1897). (Figures 41a & b)
Note: This tale is about another of my father’s first cousins, Mr. Fritz Goldenring. This post provides an opportunity to explore the fate of a Jewish émigré, who, while he did not perish in a concentration camp or ghetto in Europe, is every bit as much a victim of Nazi persecution as those individuals who were murdered in these places. How I learned about Fritz does not follow a linear path, although I’ll strive to relate my discoveries in a somewhat chronological fashion. Like the stories of many of my relatives, there are glaring gaps in what I’ve pieced together.
Two of my father’s photos taken in May 1938 in Fiesole, Italy, following his arrival there after fleeing Germany, show a woman identified as Eva Goldenring. (Figures 1 & 2) I later learned she was another of my father’s first cousins. Like most of his relatives, Eva and her mother Helene Goldenring, née Hirsch, were rarely mentioned when I was growing up, although I knew they’d survived the war and eventually immigrated to America. Both daughter and mother stayed at the Pension “Villa Primavera” in Fiesole, Italy, co-managed by my Aunt Susanne Müller, Helene twice in 1937-38 (Figures 3 & 4) and Eva in 1938.
In Post 14, I discussed the Tenant Brewer, Markus Braun, from Ratibor, the town where my father was born. Markus had a dozen children by his first wife, Caroline Spiegel, then two more by his second wife, Johanna Goldstein. I’m distantly related to most of my American cousins through Markus Braun. My third cousin, once-removed, Larry Leyser (Figure 5), is one such relative, and, like myself, an active genealogist. Several years ago, Larry shared a two-page summary written by his grandmother, Katerina Leyser, née Rosenthal (Figure 6), detailing some of Larry’s ancestors. This document provided the first mention of Fritz Goldenring and identified him as the brother of Eva Goldenring and son of Helene Goldenring; no other information was given.
To try and learn more, I turned to ancestry.com, and happened on a tantalizing mention of Fritz Goldenring originating from Aufbau Newspaper, saying he had died in Shanghai; Fritz’s name was listed in the April 19, 1946 edition of Aufbau. (Figure 7) Aufbau (German for “building up, construction”), I discovered, is a journal targeted at German-speaking Jews around the globe founded in 1934. From September 1, 1944 through September 27, 1946, Aufbau printed numerous lists of Jewish Holocaust survivors located in Europe, as well as a few lists of victims. These lists, which have been digitized, contain 33,557 names that are searchable via “JewishGen’s Holocaust Database,” “JewishGen Germany Database,” and the U. S. Holocaust Memorial Museum’s “Holocaust Survivors and Victims Database.” According to JewishGen, the extent of the information available on any individual varies widely.
For Fritz Goldenring, I learned he was born on September 11, 1902 and died on December 15, 1943; intriguingly, it gave his last residence simply as “Nizza.” Coincidentally, Nizza is the Italian name for Nice, France, a place with which my family has connections, as readers may recall. Mistakenly believing that Fritz may last have resided here before immigrating to Shanghai, I asked an acquaintance at Nice’s l’Hôtel de Ville whether she could find any trace of Fritz Goldenring there, to no avail. Knowing of the Goldenring family’s travels to Genoa, Italy in July 1926, I looked for a “Nizza” nearby, and discovered a place named “Nizza Monferrato” only 65 miles away; I sent the Comune there an email, received a very gracious reply saying Fritz Goldenring similarly had no connection to this place.
Realizing I was grasping at straws, I resolved to renew my search for Fritz Goldenring from the place he’d assuredly lived, namely, Shanghai. I turned to my friend, Ms. Madeleine Isenberg, from the Los Angeles Jewish Genealogical Society, who assists fellow “travelers.” I asked whether she could refer me to someone in the Jewish community in Shanghai, and she suggested I contact “Chabad” centers in Shanghai; Chabad is one of the largest Hasidic groups and Jewish religious organizations in the world. I emailed three such centers in Shanghai, asking who I should contact about obtaining a copy of Mr. Goldenring’s death certificate, and almost immediately received an email from Rabbi Shalom Greenberg. He’d forwarded my request to Mr. Dvir Bar-Gal, who leads “Tours of Jewish Shanghai.”
Mr. Bar-Gal, it turns out, is an Israeli photojournalist whose mission of tracking down traces of Shanghai’s Jewish past began by accident, when he discovered a Hebrew tombstone in a Shanghai antique shop in 2001. He’s become known as Shanghai’s “gravestone sleuth,” tracking down Jewish tombstones scattered around the city’s outlying villages, tombstones used for everything from building beams to washboards. Between the mid-19th and mid-20th centuries, Shanghai transformed from a small fishing village to China’s largest city and become known as the “Pearl of the East.”
The Jewish tombstones that Mr. Bar-Gal is racing the clock to save are remnants of Shanghai’s Jewish community that once numbered no fewer than 30,000 Jews. Jews first arrived in Shanghai in 1845, built their fortunes, and quickly occupied key positions in the city, making significant social and economic contributions. Russian Jews escaping the pogroms of the early 1900’s represented the next wave of immigrants. They were followed by the last major group of Jewish immigrants, the most well-known of three waves, European refugees escaping Nazi terror. At the time, China was the only country in the world where Jews did not require an entry visa, and this is certainly the reason my father’s cousin, Fritz Goldenring, sought refuge here.
Many of the Jewish refugees who arrived in Shanghai were penniless but were assisted by the wealthier and established Sephardic Jews. After the Japanese occupied Shanghai in 1937, the Nazis applied pressure on them to deport or murder the city’s Jews, an order they refused. Instead, they confined the roughly 20,000 stateless Jewish refugees to the Shanghai Ghetto, formally known as the “Restricted Sector for Stateless Refugees,” an area roughly one square mile in the Hongkou district. About 23,000 of the city’s Jewish refugees were restricted or relocated to the area between 1941 and 1945 by the “Proclamation Concerning Restriction of Residence and Business of Stateless Refugees.” The Shanghai Ghetto was never walled, and Jews were housed alongside local Chinese, who lived in equally deplorable conditions.
The first Jewish cemetery was established in 1862, and by the 1950’s four Jewish cemeteries existed in Shanghai containing 3,700 graves. As the city expanded, in 1958, it was decided to systematically transfer the graves to a newly constructed international cemetery to the west of the city. The few Jews who remained after the Communists came to power were supposed to assist in these transfers, but during Mao Zedong’s “Cultural Revolution,” the international cemetery was instead destroyed, and the gravestones scattered. These uprooted tombstones are the traces of Shanghai’s Jewish past that Mr. Bar-Gal is striving to relocate and preserve.
So, as readers can clearly conclude, referral to Mr. Bar-Gal was fortuitous. While unable to provide a death certificate for Mr. Goldenring, Mr. Bar-Gal provided two valuable clues. He told me that before being expelled from Germany, Fritz had last worked in Darmstadt, Germany as a journalist. He recommended I contact Darmstadt to obtain his death certificate, so I sent the Rathaus (City Hall) there an email. My request was eventually forwarded to the Stadtarchiv, or City Archive, in Darmstadt, and finally, in October 2017, they responded. They could find no evidence that Fritz Goldenring had lived in Darmstadt, but they did find a reference to him in on-line directory at the Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv, the Hesse Central State Archive, in Wiesbaden. They added one additional clue, namely, that Fritz was born in Berlin.
With this new information, I next contacted the Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv. They eventually responded telling me there exists an Entschädigungsakte, a claim for compensation file, submitted by Helene Goldenring, née Hirsch, as the heir of her son Fritz Goldenring. (Figure 8) After paying a fee, I was able to obtain a copy of this 160-page file, a document that ultimately filled in some holes.
This file includes typed and handwritten pages, all in German, so I convinced one of my cousins to review and summarize the highlights. The compensation file, while leaving many facets of Fritz’s life in doubt, did answer some questions. It confirmed Fritz had been born in Berlin; attended grammar and high school there; apprenticed as an office worker in Nordhausen; and worked in Hamburg for Schenker & Co., a transport and logistics company dealing with planes, ships and trucks. He eventually became a journalist, as I’d learned from Shanghai. As his situation in Germany became increasingly tenuous, he hoped to parlay his possession of perfect pitch and musical talents into a ticket elsewhere, so in 1938 he went to Berlin. While there, he was apparently arrested for jay-walking and jailed for three days. In a classic example of a “Catch-22,” upon his release, he was deemed to have been “previously convicted” and forced to leave Germany.
Knowing Fritz’s sister and mother had both stayed at the “Villa Primavera” in Fiesole, I re-examined the Pension’s guest logs, and discovered Fritz had also stayed there, registering for a month-long visit on May 16, 1938. (Figure 9) I surmise after he was deported from Germany, Fritz first went to Fiesole before eventually making his way to Shanghai. While in Fiesole, he even played in a men’s tennis tournament because, among my father’s personal papers, I discovered a newspaper clipping showing my father and Fritz’s results. (Figure 10)
It’s not clear how long Fritz Goldenring stayed in Italy, but like my aunt and uncle, he likely left no later than September of 1938, probably from Genoa aboard a luxurious Italian or Japanese cruise ship headed to Shanghai. I became curious whether Mr. Bar-Gal could tell me when Fritz arrived there, so I again contacted him. There exists an Emigranten Adressbuch for Shanghai, dated November 1939, listing Fritz Goldenring, which Mr. Bar-Gal sent me a scan of, proving Fritz was there no later than late 1939. (Figures 11a & 11b)
The Japanese designated the Shanghai Ghetto on February 18, 1943 and compelled those who’d arrived after 1937 to move there by May 18, 1943; many relocated Jews lived in group homes called “Heime,” including Fritz, who lived at “Alcockheim 66,” along with 60 other men. Helene Goldenring’s compensation file explained Fritz’s cause of death, namely, Sprue and Avitaminose. Avitaminosis is a disease cause by a deficiency of vitamins, and is closely associated with sprue, a chiefly tropical disease characterized by diarrhea, emaciation, and anemia. Fritz is recorded as having died on December 15, 1943 at the Ward Road Hospital in Shanghai; apparently, the winter of 1943 in Shanghai was severe, and hunger was widespread.
Fritz’s mother’s compensation file, together with immigration records available from ancestry.com for his family, illustrate how widely the Goldenring family was dispersed during WWII. Fritz’s sister, Eva Goldenring, for reasons I’m striving to understand, survived incarceration in the notorious French detention center of Gurs at the base of the Pyrenees in southwestern France; Eva would eventually live in Madrid before immigrating to America in 1947. Fritz’s mother, Helene, made her way to Valparaiso, Chile, where her brother, Robert Hirsch, an engineer, had immigrated in 1939 from Bilbao, Spain. Robert died in 1943 in Chile, and on July 3, 1947, Helene immigrated to New York (Figure 12), where she was reunited with her daughter. (Figure 13)
