Leo Baeck Institute Archives - Page 2 of 2

POST 40, POSTSCRIPT: ELISABETH “LISA” PAULY NÉE KRÜGER, ONE OF GERMANY’S SILENT HEROES—DISCOVERING HER HUSBAND’S FATE

Note: In this post, I relate the forensic work I undertook to learn the fate of Franz Pincus/Pauly, husband of Lisa Pauly, one of Germany’s “silent heroes” during WWII. Franz Pincus and my uncle Dr. Fedor Bruck were second cousins, and though Franz died in 1941 before my uncle was forced “underground” in 1942 by the Nazis, Franz’s widow sheltered my uncle for periods during his 30 months in hiding.

Post 44: A Trove of Family History from The “Pinkus Collection” at the Leo Baeck Institute

Post 48: Dr. Ernst Neisser’s Final Days in 1942 in the Words of His Daughter

Post 49: Guide to the Landesarchiv Berlin (Berlin State Archive) Civil Registry Records

Post 57: Disappeared Without A Trace, Maria Pohlmann b. Pauly

Figure 1. Translation of affidavit written by Elisabeth “Lisa” Pauly née Krüger on February 3, 1947, on behalf of my Uncle Dr. Fedor Bruck, intended for the American Embassy

On February 3, 1947, Elisabeth “Lisa” Pauly née Krüger, one of my uncle Dr. Fedor Bruck’s protectors in the course of his thirty months spent “underground” eluding the Nazis in Berlin during WWII, wrote a letter of reference for him. (Figure 1) In this recommendation, Lisa Pauly mentioned that her husband had died in 1941, without naming him or specifying a cause of death. By referring to the Pauly Stammbaum, family tree (Figure 2), I was able to figure out her husband was Franz Pincus, although for a very long time I was uncertain this was really Lisa Pauly’s spouse. As I explained to readers in the original post, I was only able to confirm “Franz Pincus” and “Franz Pauly” were the same person by systematically going through 1920’s and 1930’s Berlin Address Books checking both names residing at the same address. Employing this approach, as discussed in the original post, I eventually found a “Franz Pincus” living at Deidesheimer Str. 25 in Friedenau in 1928 (Figure 3), and by 1930 discovered a “Franz Pauly” residing at that same address. (Figure 4) For whatever reason Franz changed to using his mother’s maiden name, though both Pincus and Pauly were Jewish.

Figure 2. Pauly Stammbaum section showing “Franz & Lisa.” Franz Pincus was the son of Dr. Oscar Pincus & Paula Pauly, but changed his surname to “Pauly” between 1928 and 1930

Figure 3. 1928 Berlin Phone Directory listing “Franz Pincus” living at Deidesheimer Str. 25 in Friedenau

Figure 4. By 1930, “Franz Pauly” was now living at Deidesheimer Str. 25 in Friedenau

Having uncovered Lisa Pauly’s husband’s name from the Pauly Stammbaum, I next turned to ancestry.com to see what more I might learn. As alluded to in the previous paragraph, I found Franz Pincus/Pauly listed in multiple Berlin Address Books in the 1920’s and 1930’s. I also found a family tree on ancestry.com providing his purported place and date of birth, in Posen, Germany [today: Poznan, Poland] on the 23^rd of October 1898 (Figure 5a); this same tree showed that Franz Pincus’s sister, Charlotte Lieselotte “Lilo” Pincus, had been born in Posen on the 30^th of December 1895. (Figure 5b)

Figure 5a. Page from “Schlesische Jüdische Familien,” Silesian Jewish Families tree, showing Lisa Krüger was married to Franz Pincus, purportedly born in Posen on the 23rd of October 1898 (Franz and his sister Charlotte’s years of births were transposed on this family tree), with notation that he went by the surname “Pauly”

Figure 5b. Page from “Schlesische Jüdische Familien,” Silesian Jewish Families tree, showing Charlotte Pincus purportedly born on the 30th of December 1895 in Posen (Charlotte and her brother Franz’s years of births were transposed on this family tree)

When I stumbled upon a picture of Franz and Lilo as children, attending the 1901 wedding of their aunt Maria Pauly to Alexander “Axel” Pohlmann [see Post 57], where Franz looks decidedly older than his sister (Figures 6a-b), I knew Franz and Lilo’s year of births were incorrect. This allows me to reiterate a point I’ve repeatedly made to readers to question vital data found in family trees on ancestry and elsewhere unless you have the original documents to corroborate dates. So, while I was able to conclude Franz and Lilo Pincus were not born, respectively, in 1898 and 1895, I had not yet resolved in what year they’d been born.

Figure 6a. Alexander “Axel” Pohlmann and Maria Pauly on their wedding day, 30th September 1901 in Posen, Germany, with the name of some congregants identified in the margin of the photo

Figure 6b. Closeup of Franz Pincus and his younger sister Charlotte “Lilo” Pincus as children in 1901

I then remembered the Pinkus Family Collection [See Post 44] archived at the Leo Baeck Institute in New York which is accessible online. Thinking this might include a chart with Franz and Lilo Pincus’s names, along with that of their parents, I scoured the online documents, and eventually stumbled on a page with all their names. (Figure 7) This page confirmed what I had suspected, namely, that their years of birth had been transposed. It turns out, Franz Pincus was born in 1895, and his sister Lilo in 1898; the family tree on ancestry.com, however, correctly noted their respective dates of birth, the 23^rd of October for Franz, and the 30^th of December for Lilo. This same page also noted Lisa Pauly née Krüger’s place and date of birth, in Berlin on the 20^th of December 1890. With the help of Mr. Peter Hanke, affiliated with “forum.danzig.de,” I was able to track down copies of both Franz and Lilo Pincus’s original birth certificates. (Figures 8-9) So far, however, I’ve been unable to pinpoint which borough in Berlin Lisa Pauly was born so have not found her birth certificate.

Figure 7. Page from the Pinkus Family Collection archived at the Leo Baeck Institute with Franz Pincus/Pauly and his immediate family’s vital data proving he was born in 1895 and his sister Charlotte Pincus in 1898

Figure 8. Franz Pincus’s birth certificate from Posen, Germany showing he was born on the 23rd of October 1895

Figure 9. Charlotte Pincus’s birth certificate from Posen, Germany showing she was born on the 30th of December 1898

Having located Franz Pincus’s birth certificate, I now set out to try and find his death certificate. From the 1947 letter of recommendation his wife Lisa had written for my Uncle Fedor, I only knew he’d died in 1941, and assumed to begin with that he had died at Maßmannstraße 11, where he and Lisa Pauly resided at the time in the Steglitz Borough of Berlin. I erroneously assumed locating his death register listing in the Landesarchiv Berlin database would be relatively straight-forward; I was sorely disappointed.

At the risk of sounding pedantic, let me explain to readers how and where I was eventually able to locate Franz Pincus’s death register listing. This requires reviewing findings I discussed in Post 48, the publication describing Dr. Ernst Neisser’s final days in September-October 1942 in Berlin after he and his cousin Luise Neisser, with whom he lived, were told to report to an old age transport. To remind readers, the elderly Ernst and Luise Neisser opted to commit suicide rather than report for deportation. Because Luise died immediately after taking poison, I easily located her death register listing under the records of Berlin-Charlottenburg, but I was unable to find Ernst’s name listed in the records of this Berlin borough. Ernst, I later learned from a letter his daughter wrote in 1947, lingered for several days before dying, so I reckoned he might have died in another borough. I eventually figured out the only place in Berlin where Jews could still receive medical attention by 1942, or where they were brought to die in case of “failed” suicide attempts, was the Jüdisches Krankenhaus Berlin, the Berlin Jewish Hospital, in the Wedding Borough of Berlin. Having worked this out, I was then able to find Ernst Neisser’s death register listing under records for 1942 in the Wedding Borough and order his death certificate from the Landesarchiv Berlin.

In trying to track down Franz Pincus’s death register listing, I decided to apply the same logic and “assume” he might also have died in the Wedding Borough of Berlin for unknown reasons. Obviously, I had no way of knowing then whether Franz Pincus’s death ultimately was from a “failed” suicide attempt, war wounds, fatal disease, or natural causes. Nonetheless, my logic turned out to be sound, and, as in the case of Ernst Neisser, I located Franz Pincus’s death register listing under 1941 in the Wedding Borough. (Figures 10a-b) Naturally, I ordered a copy of Franz’s original death certificate uncertain what new information it might include.

Figure 10a. Cover of the Landesarchiv Berlin register for the Berlin Borough of Wedding (1941) with Franz Israel Pincus’s 1941 death register listing

Figure 10b. Closeup of Franz Israel Pincus’s death register listing showing he died on the 2nd of August 1941

Franz’s typed death certificate arrived several weeks later. (Figure 11a) My cousin translated the form and it included several new pieces of information. (Figure 11b) Franz had been given the added middle name of “Israel” as was required of all Jewish-born males during the Nazi era. It confirms he died on the 2^nd of August 1941 in the Berlin Jewish Hospital of a ruptured appendix. And, at the bottom of the certificate, it shows he’d gotten married on the 12^th of May 1928 in Berlin’s Friedenau Borough, or so my cousin and I both read.

Figure 11a. Franz Israel Pincus’s death certificate, Nr. 3681; circled at the bottom is the date he and Elizabeth Krüger married, initially misread as year 1928

Figure 11b. Translation of Franz Israel Pincus’s death certificate

Armed with a new vital event to check out, I again immediately turned to the Landesarchiv Berlin database trying to locate Franz Pincus and Elisabeth Krüger’s marriage register listing. Surprisingly, I was unable to find it even though the precise date and number of the certificate, Nr. 241, were furnished. I’ve previously encountered this situation, even with exact dates and specific Berlin boroughs in hand, where it is not always possible to track down listings of vital events. The reason for this is not clear to me.

Just in the last few days, collecting and organizing newly acquired information for this post, I reexamined Franz’s typed death certificate hoping something new might reveal itself, and indeed it did. While the marriage year clearly seemed to be 1928, I began to question whether the typed “8” might not be a “3,” so checked the marriage listings under “K” (for Krüger) for 1923 and was rewarded by finding Elisabeth Krüger and Franz Pincus’s names in the Berlin-Friedenau Landesarchiv database. (Figures 12a-b) I’ve now ordered and await the actual marriage certificate but detected a notation in the register that Franz Pincus changed his surname to Pauly, a footnote obviously made some years after Franz got married.

Figure 12a. Cover of the Landesarchiv Berlin register for the Berlin Borough of Friedenau (1916-1924) with Franz Pincus and Elizabeth Krüger’s 1923 marriage register listing

Figure 12b. Closeup of Franz Pincus and Elizabeth Krüger’s 1923 marriage register listing with the certificate number, Nr. 241

A recent check in MyHeritage for Franz Pincus yielded a “German Minority Census, 1939” form which corroborates some of the aforementioned information, namely, Franz’s dates of birth and death, and he and his wife’s ages and residence in Berlin-Steglitz in 1939. (Figure 13) The information from MyHeritage was late in coming and might have short circuited other searches I did.

Figure 13. “German Minority Census, 1939” page from MyHeritage for Franz Pincus confirming his birth and death dates, he and his wife’s ages, and their residence in Berlin-Steglitz

Franz Pincus’s sister, Charlotte “Lilo” Pincus, I discovered from ancestry.com rode out the war in Scotland; as a German foreigner, she was briefly interned before being released and allowed to teach. (Figure 14) She returned to Berlin after the war. A small metal sign bearing her name has been placed at the Christus-Friedhof in Mariendorf, Berlin, showing she died on the 6^th of September 1995. (Figure 15)

Figure 14. 1939 “Female Enemy Alien” card for Charlotte Pincus showing she lived in Alva, Clackmannanshire (Scotland), was “Exempted from internment,” and was a teacher during the war

Figure 15. A small metal sign bearing Charlotte Pincus’s name placed at the Christus-Friedhof in Mariendorf, Berlin, showing she died on the 6th of September 1995

From time to time, I stumble across a family letter or diary mentioning the people about whom I write. In writing this post, I recalled a brief mention of Franz and Lilo Pincus in a letter Suse Vogel née Neisser, daughter of the Dr. Ernst Neisser discussed above, wrote in 1972 to her first cousin, Klaus Pauly. (Figure 16) Klaus developed the Pauly Stammbaum, and he asked Suse Vogel’s assistance in identifying some of the people in the picture taken at Maria and Axel Pohlmann’s 1901 wedding. This included Franz and Lilo Pincus (Figure 17), and translated below is what Suse Vogel wrote about them:

Figure 16. Circled section of November 22, 1972 letter written by Suse Vogel née Neisser identifying and briefly discussing Franz and Lilo Pincus

Figure 17. Closeup of Franz (upper) and Lilo Pincus as children in 1901

“. . .The remaining little dwarfs bottom left: the upper one is obviously Franz Pincus-Pauly, below probably his sister Liselotte (is she calling herself Charlotte now?) I confess that I disliked her since childhood contrary to the nice ‘Blondel,’ her brother. And I was in agreement about that with bosom friend Aenne. Later, but long before Hitler-times, I declared to myself that Franz and Lilo were raised by their father strictly positivist. To my childish horror they did not ‘believe’ in anything. So, they were a priori ‘without faith, hope and love’ – sounds very presumptuous, but that’s how I felt as a young girl.”

While Suse Vogel’s words are not particularly complimentary, the mere fact I could find anything written about Franz and his sister, provides a fleeting glimpse into these long-gone ancestors and brings them to life in a small way.

FRANZ PINCUS/PAULY & HIS IMMEDIATE FAMILY

Name (Relationship)	Vital Event	Date	Place

Franz Pincus/Pauly (self)	Birth	23 October 1895	Posen, Germany (Poznan, Poland)
	Marriage	12 May 1923	Berlin-Friedenau, Germany
	Death	2 August 1941	Berlin-Wedding, Germany
Charlotte “Lilo” Pincus (sister)	Birth	30 December 1898	Posen, Germany (Poznan, Poland)
Charlotte “Lilo” Pincus (sister)	Death	6 September 1995	Tempelhof-Schöneberg, Berlin, Germany
Elisabeth “Lisa” Krüger (wife)	Birth	20 December 1890	Berlin, Germany
	Marriage	12 May 1923	Berlin-Friedenau, Germany
	Death	25 April 1977	Stuttgart, Germany
Oscar Pincus (father)	Birth	23 April 1859	Insterburg, East Prussia (Chernyakhovsk, Russia)
	Marriage	21 October 1893	Posen, Germany (Poznan, Poland)
	Death	18 January 1934	Magdeburg, Germany
Paulina Pauly (mother)	Birth	26 April 1872	Posen, Germany (Poznan, Poland)
	Marriage	21 October 1893	Posen, Germany (Poznan, Poland)
	Death	31 March 1922	Magdeburg, Germany

POST 48: DR. ERNST NEISSER’S FINAL DAYS IN 1942 IN THE WORDS OF HIS DAUGHTER

Note: This Blog post briefly summarizes a 34-page personal account written in German by Susanne Vogel née Neisser, the daughter of Dr. Ernst Neisser and Margarethe Neisser née Pauly, describing the last months of her father’s life during WWII.

Post 46: Wartime Memories of My Half-Jewish Cousin, Agnes Stieda née Vogel

Figure 1. My great-great-aunt Rosalie Pauly née Mockrauer (1844-1927), married to Dr. Josef Pauly

Figure 2. My great-great-uncle Dr. Josef Pauly (1843-1916)

Figure 3. Dr. Ernst Neisser with his future wife Margarethe Pauly ca. 1895 in Posen, Germany

To remind readers, Margarethe Neisser née Pauly (1876-1941) was one of my great-great-aunt Rosalie Pauly née Mockrauer’s (1844-1927) (Figure 1) nine children with Josef Pauly (1843-1916) (Figure 2); Margarethe Pauly and Dr. Ernst Neisser (1863-1942) (Figure 3) married on September 5, 1898 in Stettin, Germany [today: Szcezcin, Poland], and together they had two children, Susanne Vogel née Neisser (1899-1984) (Figure 4) and Peter Neisser (1906-1929). Susanne Vogel authored the moving account of her father’s last months in a 34-page letter she wrote to her first cousin, Liselotte Dieckmann née Neisser (1902-1994) (Figure 5), on March 28, 1947; to further orient the reader, Susanne Vogel was the mother of Agnes Stieda née Vogel (1927-still living) (Figure 6), whose wartime memories were the subject of Post 46.

Figure 4. Birth certificate for Susanne Dorothea Neisser showing she was born in Stettin, Germany on July 30, 1899, later married to Hans Vogel on July 31, 1926 in Berlin

Figure 5. Lieselotte Dieckmann née Neisser’s birth and death information; Lieselotte was Susanne Vogel née Neisser’s first cousin and the person to whom she sent the 34-page letter about Dr. Neisser’s final years

Figure 6. Painting of Agnes Stieda née Vogel (born 1927), granddaughter of Ernst and Margarethe Neisser

Susanne Vogel’s account of her father’s last months is on file at the Leo Baeck Institute NewYork/Berlin, but I discovered it while researching Dr. Ernst Neisser on the Internet. Agnes would later tell me about it and suggest it needed eventually to be translated from German. Consequently, Agnes and I have agreed to collaborate on this, so in coming months Agnes will translate her mother’s letter into English, I will edit it, and we’ll make it available to readers through my Blog. In the interim, I asked one of my cousins to summarize the contents. What follows are some highlights of Susanne Vogel’s account, which fill in a few gaps in the timing of the unfortunate events in Ernst and Margarethe Neisser’s lives.

Dr. Ernst Neisser, nicknamed “Bärchen,” was the Director of the municipal hospital in Stettin, Germany from 1895 until his retirement in 1931. Prior to 1909 he published multiple papers on tuberculosis. Beginning in 1902, Dr. Neisser began calling for the establishment of “tuberkulose krankenhäuser,” tuberculosis hospitals, rather than isolation houses for people with heavy consumption, “Schwere Schwindsucht.” For many years, his proposal was ignored, as most physicians wanted to retain the character of what were called “Heilstätten,” sanatoriums, which would be lost if people seriously sick and dying of tuberculosis were admitted. Nonetheless, Dr. Neisser finally prevailed, receiving financial support from the city of Stettin to build the Tuberkulosekrankenhaus in Hohenkrug [a part of Szczecin, Poland] which opened in 1915. This turned out to be such an excellent model that eventually many of the best Heilstätten became tuberculosis hospitals.

Another of Dr. Neisser’s signature accomplishments was the consolidation of all institutions involved in the treatment of tuberculosis (e.g., tuberkulose krankenhäuser, tuberkulose Fürsorgestelle (welfare center), etc.) under one umbrella, resulting in better supervision, improved organization, and enhanced care. Dr. Neisser left the field once he had achieved this goal. Whether by accident or design, his accomplishments in the treatment of tuberculosis do not appear to be acknowledged in sources generally available on-line.

Dr. Neisser was co-inventor with a man named Pollack in 1904 of what is called a “hirnpunktion,” a brain puncture. What I have concluded this involves is a procedure to relieve pressure in the brain caused by an edema (i.e., a condition characterized by an excess of watery fluid collecting in the cavities or tissues of the body, including the brain), or a hematoma (i.e., a solid swelling of clotted blood within the tissues, including the brain). The procedure entails placing a patient on their side with their head bent forward, making a cut along the median line of the head, then pushing through the membrane with a probe to draw out the excess fluid to relieve pressure on the brain.

As researcher and hospital director, Dr. Neisser was interested in lead and arsenic poisoning; pernicious anemia; iodine treatment for these ailments; tick therapy; psittacosis (i.e., “parrot fever”, a zoonotic infectious disease in humans contracted from infected parrots, macaws, cockatiels, etc.); and more. He advocated for a “Krankheitserscheinungen Fortlaufende Beobachtung,” an institute for the continuous observation of illnesses from their onset to their fully-fledged maturation and organized such a department in 1918 at the municipal hospital where he was director. Following his forced retirement in 1931 because of age, 68 at the time, Dr. Neisser became chief of a sanatorium in Altheide [today: Polanica-Zdrój, Poland]. After he was likely forced out of this position because of Nazi ascendancy, he and Margarethe moved to Berlin.

Dr. Neisser loved music and the arts, and to this day some of his descendants are professionally involved in these endeavors.

From Post 45, regular subscribers may recall my discussion about the timing of Margarethe Neisser’s death. From one family tree to which I’ve referred multiple times, “Schlesische Jüdische Familien,” Silesian Jewish Families, I discovered Margarethe Neisser died in December 1942; this never seemed credible because Dr. Neisser committed suicide in October 1942, so I could not understand why she would not have killed herself at the same time. I contacted the family tree manager about this discrepancy, and she told me her data came from two other trees; however, upon reexamining those trees, the family tree manager realized she had erroneously transcribed Margarethe’s death date, and that in fact she had died in December 1941. While this makes much more sense, it turns out even this date was incorrect. According to Susanne Vogel’s account where she summarizes vital statistics for Dr. Neisser and his immediate family, Margarethe died on October 12, 1941. (Figures 7) I want to again caution readers to seriously question information found on other family trees, particularly when no supporting documentation is referenced or attached. Personally, I would rather omit data than incorporate faulty statistics in my family tree.

Figure 7. Page from Susanne Vogel’s letter to her cousin, Lieselotte Dieckmann, citing some vital statistics for herself, her parents, and her husband, brother and daughter

Figure 8a. Cover of Landesarchiv Berlin Book No. 712 from 1941 listing Margarethe Sara Neisser née Pauly’s death in October of this year

Figure 8b. Register listing in Landesarchiv Berlin Book No. 712 from 1941 for Margarethe Sara Neisser née Pauly showing she died in October of this year

As a related aside, in an upcoming Blog post I will explain to readers how to use the difficult-to-navigate “Landesarchiv Berlin” database, containing information on births, marriages, and deaths for people who resided in the multiple boroughs and districts of Berlin. As it happens, I was able to locate the death register listing for Margarethe Neisser and confirm she died in October 1941 (Figures 8a-b); I’ve requested a copy of the death certificate, but the Landesarchiv currently has a four-month backlog in processing orders.

According to Susanne Vogel, her mother Margarethe Neisser suffered from chronic depression, and spent the last three years of her life in a sanatorium; it was here she committed suicide in October 1941 and where a funeral service was secretly held in the facility’s cellar. The need to hold the service in secret was likely due to prohibitions on Jewish funerals during the Nazi Era. Ending one’s life was referred to as “going on a journey into the distant country.”

Figure 9. Hans Vogel’s birth certificate indicating he was born on July 28, 1897 in Stettin, Germany

Susanne Vogel spoke of her own circumstances during the war. She wanted to divorce her husband, Hans Vogel (1897-1973) (Figure 9), so that he could work as an art historian, his chosen profession; as the husband of a Jewish wife Hans was forced to do menial clerical work. Despite these circumstances, he would not agree to a divorce. Susanne also mentions that she had hoarded enough poison to end her life if that became necessary, likely Veronal and Scopolamine-Entodal.

Dr. Ernst Neisser’s first cousin, Luise “Lise” Neisser (1861-1942), former teacher, kept house and cooked for him. Circumstances for Jewish people were becoming increasingly restrictive—they could not obtain coal, they were not permitted to use public transportation, and they were only allowed to buy food between the hours of 4 and 5pm.

Whenever Hans and Susanne Vogel visited Ernst and Lise, they would secretly take big, heavy bags with Professor Neisser’s possessions, for example paintings. This was strictly prohibited and dangerous. Ernst may still have believed he would survive the war, and these material things would again matter.

Figure 10. Dr. Neisser’s attorney, Karl von Lewinski, listed in a 1939 Berlin Phone Directory

Dr. Neisser and Lise had already decided they would take their own lives if they were ordered to present themselves for deportation. On September 30, 1942, Susanne decided spontaneously to visit them where they lived in Eichenallee [Charlottenburg, Berlin]. Upon arriving at her father’s apartment, she learned he and her aunt Lise had been ordered to present themselves for deportation to Theresienstadt the following morning; typically, Jews received their deportation orders a few weeks in advance. Upon learning of their critical situation, Susanne immediately went to a telephone booth, and called her husband, the sanatorium where her mother had died, the Jewish Community, and their attorney Karl von Lewinski (Figure 10), trying to find a hiding place for her father and aunt, all to no avail; ironically, Mr. v. Lewinski had by that time been able to procure an entry visa for Ernst and Lise to Sweden, but by then Jews could no longer legally leave Germany.

By the time Susanne returned to the apartment, several friends had already gathered there, including Susanne’s husband, as well as the director of the sanatorium who’d brought enough poison for Ernst and Lise. Ernst then opened the last bottle of wine he had saved for this event, which everybody partook of. All persons eventually said their goodbyes, and left Ernst and Lise to take the poison. The following morning the Gestapo had taken Lise to the morgue, but Ernst lingered in a coma for another four days at the Jewish Hospital where he’d been taken, before he too expired, never having regained consciousness. (Figure 11)

Figure 11. Dr. Ernst Neisser towards the end of his life

Susanne Vogel was investigated by the police department because her father’s clock and identity card were missing, which Susanne had in fact taken. The police also searched the apartment where Ernst and Lise had lived, but all personal papers had already been destroyed. A sympathetic detective superintendent accompanied Susanne to her father’s apartment to inquire about the missing objects, as well as the source of the poison, and “believed” her when she told him she didn’t know. The detective also questioned the building superintendent, who spoke kindly of Ernst and Lise, but she too could shed no light on what had happened to Dr. Neisser’s personal belongings.

Susanne discusses the difficulty she faced in convincing the Nazi authorities to allow her to cremate her aunt, as well as her father. Because the Gestapo had taken away Dr. Neisser’s suit, he was wrapped and cremated in a shawl.

Susanne demurs telling Lieselotte Dieckmann about the three years her mother spent in the sanatorium, as well as about the last three days she spent with her cousin Aenne Herrnstadt, who readers may vaguely recall was Agnes Stieda’s godmother and who was deported and murdered in Theresienstadt in 1943.

Susanne Vogel’s account of her father and aunt’s final days is difficult enough to read as a brief summary, so readers need only imagine how melancholy reading the document in its unabbreviated form must be. Still, it is my intention in a future post to present the complete translation so readers may understand the circumstances of Dr. Neisser’s final years, as well as those of similarly “vulnerable” Jews.

POST 45: HOLOCAUST REMEMBRANCE: RECALLING MY PAULY ANCESTORS

REMARK: What started out as an attempt to remember relatives and friends of Dr. Josef Pauly’s branch of my family who perished in the Holocaust became more involved the deeper I got into writing. I uncovered two new third cousins, including an elderly relative who personally knew some of the victims; I discovered a diary written by one of the Holocaust victims, translated into English, describing the final wrenching months of he and his wife’s lives before they killed themselves; I found a second, lengthier account, in German, written by the daughter of another victim, describing her father’s final two years before he too committed suicide; I learned about a Polish on-line database with inhabitant information from Posen, Germany [today: Poznań, Poland] (Figure 1), the community where Dr. Pauly lived and where all nine of his children were born. And, to top it all off, I just uncovered another collection at the Leo Baeck Institute in New York/Berlin, the John H. Richter Collection, an enormous cache of materials referencing, among other ancestors, the family of one of Josef’s son-in-laws, the Neissers. None of these discoveries alone have changed the trajectory of this post, but together they were cause for distraction. That said, these recent finds allow me to tell a more complete story.

Note: In this post, I remember members of my Pauly family and their close friends who perished in the Holocaust.

Post 44: A Trove of Family History from the “Pinkus Collection” at The Leo Baeck Institute

Figure 1. 1917 map of Posen, Germany with Wilhelmstraße highlighted, street along which Dr. Josef Pauly and his family lived

Holocaust Memorial Day takes place annually on different days across the globe and marks the date on which remaining prisoners at Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest Nazi concentration camp, were liberated in 1945. This is a day for everyone to remember the millions of people murdered in the Holocaust, under Nazi Persecution, and in subsequent genocides which followed in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia, and Darfur. With each passing month, unhappily, I learn about more members of my extended family and their friends who perished at the hands of the National Socialists. To coincide with this day of remembrance, I want to recall and memorialize the multiple victims among the Pauly branch of my family along with a few of their close friends.

Regular readers may recollect that Post 40 post was about Elisabeth “Lisa” Pauly née Krüger, one of my Uncle Dr. Fedor Bruck’s “silent heroes,” who hid him in Berlin during WWII for periods of his 30-month survival “underground.” Most of the Pauly family members mentioned in this post were aunts, uncles, and cousins of Lisa Pauly. Briefly, let me provide more context on how this family is related to me.

Figure 2. My great-grandmother Friederike Bruck née Mockrauer (1836-1924)

Figure 3. My great-great-uncle Josef Mockrauer (1845-95), Friederike’s younger brother

In Post 44, I mentioned two siblings, my great-grandmother, Friederike Mockrauer (Figure 2), and her brother, my great-great-uncle, Josef Mockrauer (Figure 3); I was already aware of their existence but found more information on their children in the “Pinkus Family Collection” archived at the Leo Baeck Institute in New York/Berlin. Friederike and Josef had other siblings, including a sister Rosalie Mockrauer (1844-1927) (Figure 4) who married Dr. Josef Pauly (1843-1916) (Figure 5) from Posen, Germany [today: Poznań, Poland]; together they had eight daughters and one son, all of whom survived to adulthood. Ancestrally-speaking, these nine children would be my first cousins twice-removed.

Figure 4. My great-great-aunt Rosalie Pauly née Mockrauer (1844-1927), married to Dr. Josef Pauly

Figure 5. My great-great-uncle Dr. Josef Pauly (1843-1916)

Figure 6. Wilhelm Pauly (1883-1961), Josef and Rosalie Pauly’s only son

The only son from Josef and Rosalie Pauly’s union was named Wilhelm Pauly (Figure 6), and through steps I detailed in earlier posts, I was able to track down two of Wilhelm’s grandsons, Peter Pauly and Andreas “Andi” Pauly, living in Germany; Peter and Andi are my third cousins. Both have been enormously helpful in the course of my ancestral research. Not only have they provided a detailed, hand-drawn Stammbaum (family tree), developed by their father, Klaus Pauly, but they’ve scanned and made available copies of many family photographs.

Figure 7. Large Pauly family get-together, probably in the mid-1890’s, with heads of the 31 attendees circled and numbered (numbers correlate to table below)

Figure 8. My third cousin Agnes Stieda née Vogel, Ernst & Margarethe Neisser née Pauly’s granddaughter, whom I only just learned about

This included a photo of a large Pauly family get-together that likely took place in Posen, Germany, probably in the mid-1890’s, judging from the estimated age of some of the individuals pictured whose dates of birth are known to me. The partial caption that accompanied this and other photos has allowed me to put names to some of the people shown, including all nine of Josef and Rosalie Mockrauer’s children. Through a laborious process of cross-comparison with other photos, including another large Pauly family get-together for the 1901 marriage of one of Josef and Rosalie’s daughters, I’ve now been able to identify 22 of the 31 individuals captured on film in this snapshot (Figure 7); as I was writing this post, an elderly third cousin from Canada who I only just learned about, Ms. Agnes Stieda née Vogel (Figure 8), helped identify two more people. Considering the age of the image and the incomplete captioning, it’s astonishing that after almost 125 years it’s still possible to put names to faces of people who lived largely “anonymous” lives. I attach the table below with names and vital data of the people (i.e., casual readers need not concern themselves with this):

NO.	NAME	EVENT	DATE	PLACE

1	Anna Rothholz née Pauly	Birth	14 March 1871	Posen, Germany
		Death	21 June 1925	Stettin, Germany
		Marriage	20 May 1892	Berlin, Germany
2	Josef Pauly	Birth	10 August 1843	Tost, Germany
		Death	7 November 1916	Posen, Germany
		Marriage	1869
3	Paula Pincus née Pauly	Birth	26 April 1872	Posen, Germany
		Death	31 March 1922	Magdeburg, Saxony-Anhalt, Germany
		Marriage	16 November 1891	Berlin, Germany
4	UNKNOWN WOMAN
5	Julie Neisser née Sabersky	Birth	26 February 1841	Wöllstein, Germany
5	Julie Neisser née Sabersky	Death	11 April 1927	Berlin, Germany
6	*ERNST NEISSER*	Birth	16 May 1863	Liegnitz, Germany
		*DEATH* *(SUICIDE)*	*4 OCTOBER 1942*	*BERLIN, GERMANY*
		Marriage	5 September 1898	Stettin, Germany
7	Margarethe Neisser née Pauly	Birth	16 January 1876	Posen, Germany
		Death	10 December 1941	Berlin, Germany
		Marriage	5 September 1898	Stettin, Germany
8	Rosalie Pauly née Mockrauer	Birth	3 January 1844	Leschnitz, Germany
		Death	28 November 1927	Berlin, Germany
		Marriage	1869	Unknown
9	Rosalinde Kantorowicz née Pauly	Birth	22 January 1854	Tost, Germany
9	Rosalinde Kantorowicz née Pauly	Death	3 November 1916	Frankfurt am Main, Hessen, Germany
10	UNKNOWN MAN
11	Charlotte Mockrauer née Bruck	Birth	8 December 1865	Ratibor, Germany
		Death	10 January 1965	Stockholm, Sweden
		Marriage	18 March 1888	Ratibor, Germany
12	UNKNOWN WOMAN
13	UNKNOWN BOY
14	Therese Sandler née Pauly	Birth	21 August 1885	Posen, Germany
14	Therese Sandler née Pauly	Death	1969
15	*GERTRUD KANTOROWICZ* *“GERTRUDE PAULY (PSEUDONYM)”*	Birth	9 October 1876	Posen, Germany
15		*DEATH* *(MURDERED)*	*20 APRIL 1945*	*THERESIENSTADT, CZECHOSLOVAKIA*
16	Maria Pohlmann née Pauly	Birth	21 July 1877	Posen, Germany
		Death	Unknown
		Marriage	30 September 1901	Posen, Germany
17	*GERTRUD WACHSMANN* *NEE POLLACK*	Birth	10 July 1867	Görlitz, Saxony, Germany
		*DEATH* *(MURDERED)*	*22 OCTOBER 1942*	*THERESIENSTADT, CZECHOSLOVAKIA*
		Married	17 October 1893	Görlitz, Saxony, Germany
18	Heinrich Sabersky	Birth	July 1845	Grünberg, Germany
18	Heinrich Sabersky	Death	January 1929	Berlin, Germany
19	*HELENE GUTTENTAG* *NEE PAULY*	Birth	12 April 1873	Posen, Germany
		*DEATH* *(SUICIDE)*	*23 OCTOBER 1942*	*BERLIN, GERMANY*
		Marriage	5 February 1898	Berlin, Germany
20	*ADOLF GUTTENTAG*	Birth	4 December 1868	Breslau, Germany
		*DEATH* *(SUICIDE)*	*23 OCTOBER 1942*	*BERLIN, GERMANY*
		Marriage	5 February 1898	Berlin, Germany
21	Wilhelm Pauly	Birth	24 September 1883	Posen, Germany
21	Wilhelm Pauly	Death	1961	Unknown
22	UNKNOWN MAN
23	*ELLY LANDSBERG* *NEE MOCKRAUER*	Birth	14 August 1873	Berlin, Germany
		*DEATH* *(MURDERED)*	*15 MAY 1944*	*AUSCHWITZ, POLAND*
		Marriage	1892	Posen, Germany
24	Edith Riezler née Pauly	Birth	4 January 1880	Posen, Germany
24	Edith Riezler née Pauly	Death	1963	Unknown
25	UNKNOWN MAN
26	UNKNOWN WOMAN
27	*ELISABETH HERRNSTADT* *NEE PAULY*	Birth	2 July 1874	Posen, Germany
		*DEATH* *(MURDERED)*	*27 MAY 1943*	*THERESIENSTADT, CZECHOSLOVAKIA*
		Marriage	11 May 1895	Cunnersdorf, Germany
28	Arthur Herrnstadt	Birth	15 March 1865	Hirschberg, Germany
		Death	21 October 1912	Stettin, Germany
		Marriage	11 May 1895	Cunnersdorf, Germany
29	Adolf Wachsmann	Birth	3 January 1859	Ratibor, Germany
		Death	Unknown	Unknown
		Married	17 October 1893	Görlitz, Saxony, Germany
30	UNKNOWN MAN
31	UNKNOWN MAN

*Names italicized and in CAPS are family and friends who perished in the Holocaust. Numbers in the left-hand column correspond with the numbered, circled heads in Figure 7.

Figure 9. Mid-1890’s Pauly family get-together with Holocaust victims’ faces circled

Having identified more than half the people in the Pauly family photo, I researched their fate using family queries, ancestry.com, and Yad Vashem; I’ve learned through experience that if I can find no other information on the fate of family, I’m compelled to check the Holocaust database. While multiple of the individuals in the photo had the relative “good fortune” to have died before the Nazis came to power, I was surprised at the number of people in the photo killed by the Nazis or who took their own lives after they were told to report for deportation. (Figure 9) What was even more sobering was discovering that children or husbands of some of the people photographed similarly perished during the Holocaust. While I’m unable to show images of all the victims, it’s important to acknowledge they once existed.

Adolf and Helene Guttentag

Figure 10. Helene Guttentag née Pauly (1873-1942)

Figure 11. Dr. Adolf Guttentag (1868-1942)

Figure 12. Christoph Guttentag, Adolf and Helene Guttentag’s grandson, the second third cousin I learned about while writing this Blog post

Helene Guttentag née Pauly (1873-1942) (Figure 10) was the third oldest of Josef and Rosalie Pauly’s daughters, and married Dr. Adolf Guttentag (1868-1942) (Figure 11); they had one son, Otto Guttentag (1900-1992), who immigrated to America. In the course of writing this Blog post, I found his obituary and established contact with one of Adolf and Helene Guttentag’s grandchildren, my third cousin Christoph Guttentag (Figure 12), living in North Carolina; I learned from him about the existence of a diary that Adolf Guttentag wrote for his son in the final weeks of his life before he and Helene committed suicide on October 23, 1942 in Berlin. The diary eventually made its way to their son, who donated it to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. It is available in English on their website (i.e., Christoph’s mother did the translation). My next Blog post will be about this diary, which is unquestionably one of the saddest accounts I’ve read about Jews entrapped in Germany during WWII with no means of escaping other than to kill themselves.

Hermann Rothholz

Dr. Hermann Rothholz (1857-1940) was married to the oldest of Josef and Rosalie’s nine children, Anna (1870-1925) (Figure 13); she died in 1925, and thereby escaped the horrors of the Holocaust. Dr. Rothholz was not so fortunate, and was transported from Stettin, Germany [today: Szczecin, Poland] to the Lublin District of Poland, and died there on October 19, 1940.

Ernst Neisser

Figure 15. Margarethe Neisser née Pauly (1876-1941), who predeceased her husband, possibly of natural causes

Ernst Neisser (1863-1942) (Figures 14a-b) was born in Liegnitz, Germany [today: Legnica, Poland] in 1863 to a Protestant family of Jewish descent. He was a bacteriologist, and the nephew of Alfred Neisser who in 1879 isolated the Neisseria gonorrhoeae bacteria that causes gonorrhea. Ernst Neisser became the director of the municipal hospital in Stettin, Germany in 1895, and married Margarethe Pauly (1876-1941) (Figure 15) in Stettin on September 5, 1898. After his retirement around 1931 they moved to Berlin. He and his cousin, who was named Luise Neisser (1861-1942), committed suicide together. In Adolf Guttentag’s diary, Ernst’s cousin is referred to only as “L. Neisser”; only one Neisser with the initial “L” is listed in the Shoah database who died in Berlin, “Luise,” so I reasoned this was the cousin with whom Ernst committed suicide. And, Ms. Stieda confirmed her name.

Figure 16. A “Page of Testimony” from Yad Vashem for Ernst Neisser uncertainly identified as a widower

Margarethe Neisser’s name does not appear in Yad Vashem as a Holocaust victim, suggesting she died before Ernst killed himself. According to the large family tree I’ve referred to in previous posts, the “Schlesische Jüdische Familien” (Silesian Jewish Families), she died on December 10, 1942, two months after her husband. This death date made no sense to me. First, Yad Vashem suggests Ernst Neisser was a widower (Figure 16), and second, why would Margarethe wait two months to kill herself after her husband, unless they were divorced or separated and living apart, no evidence of which exists. I’ve explained to readers in the past that I rarely accept prima facie ancestral data from other trees unless I can track down the origin, even if the information is from a usually reliable source. I again contacted Ms. Elke Kehrmann, the tree manager, and asked where dates for Margarethe’s death come from; she explained she’d found them in two other trees, but upon re-examining those trees, Elke realized she’d accidentally recorded the death year as 1942 when it was really 1941! Once I learned this, the timing of Ernst Neisser’s death vis a vis his wife’s death made more sense. The cause of her death is unknown, but the fact remains she is not listed as a Shoah victim.

In the course of researching Ernst Neisser, I found a 34-page typed letter written by his daughter, Susan Vogel née Neisser, in 1947 to an American relative. It is entitled “Die letzten ebensjahre Vaters Prof. Ernst Neisser,” “The Last Two Years, Professor Ernst Neisser,” and describes the last years of her father’s life from 1939-1942. The letter concentrates on the suicide of Ernst and his cousin to escape deportation in 1942. Unfortunately, the document is written in German, so presently I can offer no insights on Dr. Neisser’s final years.

And, lastly, as mentioned at the outset under “Remarks,” I learned about the huge “John H. Richter Collection, 1904-1994” archived at the Leo Baeck Institute in New York/Berlin; suffice it to say, this collection includes an enormous amount of ancestral information, not only about the Neisser family, but even about my own Bruck ancestors.

Elizabeth Herrnstadt, Anna Herrnstadt, & Ilse Herrnstadt

Figure 17. Elizabeth Herrnstadt née Pauly (1874-1943)

Figure 18. Elizabeth’s husband, Arthur Herrnstadt (1865-1912), who predeceased her and avoided the horrors of the Holocaust

Elizabeth Herrnstadt née Pauly (1874-1943) (Figure 17) was the fourth of Josef and Rosalie Pauly’s daughters. She was married to Arthur Herrnstadt (1865-1912) (Figure 18), with whom she had two daughters, Anna (“Aenne”) in 1896 (Figure 19) and Ilse in 1897. (Figure 20) Arthur died in 1912, but Elizabeth, Aenne and Ilse were all murdered in 1943 in the Theresienstadt Ghetto in Czechoslovakia. Astonishingly, Aenne Herrnstadt was the godmother of Agnes Stieda, the third cousin I mentioned above.

Figure 19. Birth certificate for Anna “Aenne” Herrnstadt, the older of Arthur and Elisabeth’s two daughters, born in Cunnersdorf, Germany on the 1st March 1896

Figure 20. Birth certificate for Ilsa Herrnstadt, the younger of Arthur and Elisabeth’s two daughters, born in Cunnersdorf, Germany on the 20th of February 1897

Gertrud Kantorowicz (pseudonym “Gertrud Pauly”)

Figure 21. Gertrud Kantorowicz (1876-1945), whose pseudonym was “Gertrud Pauly,” suggesting a close affiliation with the Pauly clan

Gertrud Kantorowicz (1876-1945) (Figure 21), like all nine of Josef and Rosalie’s children, was born in Posen, Germany; her pseudonym was apparently “Gertrud Pauly,” suggesting a close relationship with the Pauly clan. Gertrud was one of the first women in Germany to obtain a PhD. in Humanities. She was in England in 1938 but inexplicably returned to Germany later that year. After the outbreak of war, she arranged a post at Skidmore College in the United States, but by then was unable to leave Germany legally; she was arrested trying to illegally cross into Switzerland, and sent to the Theresienstadt Ghetto in Czechoslovakia, where she died in April 1945, shortly before the end of WWII.

Gertrud Wachsmann

Figure 24. A death certificate for Gertrud Wachsmann (misspelt “Wachsbaum”), curiously completed on the 5th September 1955, 13 years after she was murdered in the Holocaust

Gertrud Wachsmann née Pollack (1867-1942) (Figure 22) was married to Adolf Wachsmann (Figure 23), an Apotheker (pharmacist) in Posen. The detailed Pauly Stammbaum (family tree) I’ve alluded to in multiple posts, includes some Pollacks, suggesting Gertrud was a distant cousin of the Paulys. She appears to have been deported from Breslau, Germany, first to a detention camp at Grüssau in Lower Silesia, then to the Theresienstadt Ghetto in Czechoslovakia where she perished in October 1942. (Figure 24)

Elly Landsberg

Figure 26. Charlotte Mockrauer née Bruck (1865-1965), second wife of Josef Mockrauer, whose niece she was

Elly Landsberg née Mockrauer (1873-1944) (Figure 25), was the daughter of Josef Mockrauer by his first marriage to Esther Ernestine Mockrauer née Lißner; to remind readers, Josef Mockrauer was the sister of Rosalie Pauly née Mockrauer. Josef Mockrauer’s second wife was Charlotte Mockrauer née Bruck (1865-1965) (Figure 26), my great-aunt, who was born in 1865. In a book by Elly Landsberg’s grandson, W. Dieter Bergman, entitled, “Between Two Benches,” he mentions his grandmother: “In 1891 Elly came from Berlin to the town of Posen to stay with her aunt Rosalie and with the well-known family of Dr. J. Pauly. Her widowed father had remarried a young cousin and Elly was not happy in Berlin. In Posen, however, she fitted right into the family of eight girls.” (p.11) A point of clarification. Josef Mockrauer was not in fact a widower, and his first wife Ernestine Mockrauer lived until 1934; after separating from her husband, she had an out-of-wedlock son in 1884, Georg Mockrauer, oddly given the surname of his mother’s former husband.

In 1892 in Posen, Elly married a lawyer, Adolf Landsberg (1861-1940), who came from a family of distinguished scholars and rabbis. Elly went on to become a lawyer. She lived in Naumburg Saale, Germany during the war, and was deported first to the Theresienstadt Ghetto in Czechoslovakia, then moved to Auschwitz, where she was murdered on May 15, 1944.

Figure 27. Maria Pohlmann née Pauly, born 1877, who survived WWII thanks to her “connected” husband

Figure 28. Alexander “Axel” Pohlmann (1865-1952), Maria’s husband

In response to why Maria might have survived the Holocaust when multiple members of her family did not, my cousin sent, among other things, what turned out to be an “Einwohnermeldekarte” (resident registration card) or “Einwohner-meldezettel” (resident registration form) for Maria and her husband. Having never seen one of these cards, I asked about its origin, and my cousin explained that each city historically kept these records for their residents. 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 the public. Poznan, Poland happens to be one of those jurisdictions which has automated these resident registration cards, but each city and country is moving at its own pace.

Polish databases, for me, are notoriously difficult to navigate. I had the incredibly good fortune to find detailed English instructions on how to use these digitized population records for the city of Poznań (Posen), so for any readers with ancestors born there at least 120 years ago, here is the link.

Readers may rightly wonder where some of the specific vital data included in the table above comes from, so using the digitized Posen population records, I’ll give three examples.

Figure 29. “Einwohnermeldekarte” (resident registration card) or “Einwohner-meldezettel” (resident registration form) for Maria and Alexander Pohlmann showing they got married on 30th September 1901

The resident registration card for Alexander “Axel” Pohlmann and Maria Pauly, mentioned above, records their marriage as 30^th September 1901. (Figure 29) A photo given to me by Andi Pauly of Axel and Maria’s wedding is captioned with the date 1902 (Figure 30), so the resident registration card provides an opportunity to precisely date the event.

Figure 30. Alexander “Axel” Pohlmann and Maria Pauly’s 1901 wedding including names of some guests

Three resident registration cards can be found among the Posen population records for Josef and Rosalie Pauly and their nine children; as readers may be able to discern, for at least some of the children, their date of birth and place and date of marriage are shown. (Figures 31a-c)

Figure 31a. Resident registration card 1 for Josef & Rosalie Pauly and their children providing dates of birth and place and date of marriage (only Josef and Rosalie Pauly’s names and vitals are circled)

Figure 31b. Resident registration card 2 for Josef & Rosalie Pauly children providing dates of birth and places and dates of marriage

Figure 31c. Resident registration card 3 for Josef & Rosalie Pauly children providing dates of birth and places and dates of marriage

And, finally, the resident registration form for Adolf and Gertrud Wachsmann, friends of the Pauly’s, provides Adolf’s date and place of birth and their date and place of marriage, all previously unknown facts now firmly “anchored” with reference to a historic document. (Figure 32)

Figure 32. Resident registration card for Adolf and Gertrud Wachsmann providing previously unknown vital data

In conclusion, in the absence of surviving personal papers, it is very difficult to properly commemorate victims of the Holocaust who led fulfilled lives which were abruptly terminated by the Nazis. Still, I feel a need to at least speak their names, show their faces, where possible, and acknowledge their existence using what scant evidence can be found to show they were once living beings.

REFERENCE

Bergman, W. Dieter

1995 Between Two Benches. California Publishing Co. San Francisco, CA