POST 35: FATE OF SOME JEWISH GUESTS WHO STAYED AT THE VILLA PRIMAVERA (FIESOLE, ITALY), 1937-1938

UPDATED MAY 18, 2021

(UPDATES IN RED)

 

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.

Related Post:  Post 21: Aunt Susanne & Dr. Franz Müller, The Fiesole Years

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.

Figure 1. “Soggiorno degli Stranieri in Italia” (Stay of Foreigners in Italy) form for my great-aunt Franziska Bruck

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.

Figure 2. My aunt Susanne Müller née Bruck, murdered in Auschwitz in September 1942
Figure 3. My great-aunt Franziska Bruck, suicide victim of the Holocaust in January 1942

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Figure 4. My first cousin twice-removed, Auguste “Gusti” Schueck, murdered in the Theresienstadt Ghetto in May 1943

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
Cohn née 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
Heilbronner née 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
Sakheim née Plotkin, Anuta (PALESTINIAN)(Figure 16) 2/15/1896         Lodz, Poland 8/1939                      Tel Aviv, Palestine Destiny: Suicide
Schoop, Paul (SWISS) 7/31/1907      Zurich, Switzerland 1/1/1976     Van Nuys, CA Destiny: Immigrated to America
Steinfeld née Blum, Jenny       (GERMAN) 10/24/1865 Deutsch Eylau, West Prussia 8/27/1942        Berlin, Germany Destiny: Suicide victim of the Holocaust
Figure 5. Report of Charlotte Victoria Baerwald’s Death in Switzerland in March 1966
Figure 6. My grandmother Else Bruck née Berliner in 1925

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Figure 7. Eva Bruck in Barcelona in May 1950
Figure 8. Eva Bruck’s Death Certificate from Ainring, Germany, August 1977

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Figure 9. Manifest of Alien Passengers showing Belgian Jew Jacques Cypres’s arrival from Porto, Portugal to NYC in July 1941
Figure 10a. Gabriele Fleischner’s 1940 Naturalization Record
Figure 10b. Gabriele Fleischner in 1940

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Figure 11a. Konrad Fleischner’s 1940 Naturalization Record
Figure 11b. Konrad Fleischner in 1940

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Figure 12a. Paul Heilbronner’s 1939 Naturalization Record
Figure 12b. Paul Heilbronner in 1939

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Figure 13a. Sofie Heilbronner’s 1944 Naturalization Record
Figure 13b. Sofie Heilbronner in 1944

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Figure 14. Emanuel Emil Herz’s 1938 Swiss Emigration form
Figure 15. My uncle Dr. Franz Müller on his 70th birthday in December 1941 in Fayence, France

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Figure 16. Anuta Sakheim who committed suicide in Palestine in August 1939
Figure 17. My aunt Susanne & her husband Dr. Franz Müller in 1938 at the Villa Primavera in Fiesole, Italy
Figure 18. Lucia von Jacobi in 1936-37, at the Villa Primavera in Fiesole, Italy

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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. Eduard Berend in 1939

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.

Figure 20. The “Soggiorno degli Stranieri in Italia” 1937 form for Eduard Berend showing his 1934 passport number
Figure 21. Eduard Berend’s 1939 Passport

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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)

 

Figure 22. My great-aunt Franziska Bruck’s 1942 Death Certificate showing her cause of death
Figure 23. My great-aunt Franziska Bruck’s Stolperstein in Wilmersdorf, Berlin

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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 & Maria Donath

Figure 24a. Ludwig Donath’s 1940 Naturalization Record
Figure 24b. Ludwig Donath in 1940

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Figure 25a. Maria Donath nee Camsky’s 1940 Naturalization Record
Figure 25b. Maria Donath nee Camsky in 1940

 

 

 

 

 

 

Figure 26. Character actor Ludwig Donath

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.

Figure 27. Character actor Ludwig Donath
Figure 28. Character actor Ludwig Donath in the role of Adolf Hitler

 

 

 

 

 

Carl Ludwig Elias

Figure 29. 1899 painting by Lovis Corinth of “Carl Ludwig Elias 7 1/4”

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

Figure 30. 1940 Berlin Address Book listing Helene Goldenring

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)

Figure 31. Helene Goldenring and her daughter Eva after they reunited in America, Easter 1960

 

Eugen & Lillian Haydt

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.”

 

Figure 43. The “Soggiorno degli Stranieri in Italia” form for Eugen Haydt

 

Figure 44. The “Soggiorno degli Stranieri in Italia” form for Lillian Haydt née Winternitz

 

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)

 

Figure 45. Apartment building in Sydney where Eugen and Lillian Haydt lived after they immigrated to Australia in 1939

 

Lucia von Jacobi

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

Figure 32. Page from the Memorial Book for Jewish Victims of Nazi Persecution for Johanna Leven

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

Figure 33. Julius Matthias’s May 1942 Death Certificate

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

Figure 34. Paul Schoop with unknown woman, possibly his sister Trudi Schoop

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)

Figure 35a. Paul Schoop’s famous brother-in-law, Friedrich Maurice Holländer’s 1935 Naturalization Form
Figure 35b. Friedrich Maurice Holländer in 1935

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Figure 36a. Paul Schoop’s sister, Hedwig “Hedi” Holländer nee Schoop’s 1935 Naturalization Form
Figure 36b. Poor quality photo of Hedwig “Hedi” Holländer nee Schoop in 1935

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

Figure 37. Jenny Steinfeld’s name on a Manifest of Alien Passengers sailing from Bremen, Germany to NYC in April 1937

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. 

Figure 38. Page from the Memorial Book for Jewish Victims of Nazi Persecution for Jenny Steinfeld

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.

SIDEBAR

Figure 40. My first cousin once-removed, Kay Lutze, with Anja Holländer in Amsterdam, Netherlands in October 2017

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)

Figure 40a. Benjamin Holländer’s Death Certificate (1809-12 May 1884) identifying his wife as Helene Bruck (misspelled as “Boch”)
Figure 40b. Translation of Benjamin Holländer’s Death Certificate

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Figure 41a. Ludwig Heinrich Holländer Death Certificate (4 Feb 1833-12 March 1897) identifying his mother as Helene Bruck
Figure 41b. Translation of Ludwig Heinrich Holländer’s Death Certificate

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As we speak, I am trying to learn how Anja is related to Friedrick and Helene Holländer née Bruck.  Watch this space!

Figure 42. My father, Dr. Otto Bruck, and his sister, Susanne Müller née Bruck, at the Villa Primavera in 1937 or 1938