Note: This two-part post is written in collaboration with Melissa Ashner, the daughter of one of my childhood friends from New York. We examine evidence of her distant ancestors from Upper Silesia and Ratibor [today: Racibórz, Poland] while Melissa makes the case for her lineal connection to one of the earliest known Aschners (with a “c”) to which we found reference. We also provide some historic context on the 1812 “Edict Concerning the Civil Status of the Jews in the Prussian State.”
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POST 147: THE GRÜNBERGER FAMILY TIE TO RATIBOR IN THE YEARS 1812-1815
In Post 146, I introduced readers to Mr. Kamil Kotas a gentleman formerly from the Racibórz District of Poland, recently living in Münster in the German state of Westphalia but now returning to Poland. Kamil directed me to files archived at the State Archives in Wrocław Branch in Kamieniec Ząbkowicki with information on my family’s erstwhile enterprise in Ratibor, the Bruck’s “Prinz von Preußen” Hotel and sent me links to two articles he’s written about Ratibor. Translated, one is entitled “Preliminary list of Jews from Racibórz deported to death camps,” and the second is “Jews with Prussian citizenship in the Racibórz region in the years 1812-1815.”
Kamil’s article on Jews from Racibórz deported to death camps had previously been sent to me in 2019 by Paul Newerla, a friend and elder statesman and retired lawyer who has written extensively about the history of Ratibor and Silesia. In reexamining this article, I noticed a name I’d previously overlooked, that of a man named Salo Aschner, whose surname is misspelled as “Aschener.”
Salo was deported from Opole [German: Oppeln] to Theresienstadt aboard Transport XVIII/2 on the 20th of November 1942, and was among 50 Silesians deported to the concentration camp that day, 38 of whom came from Ratibor. Salo is identified as having been born on the 28th of December 1871 in Dziergowitz [today: Dziergowice, Poland] (also called Oderwalde) and having been a tailor that lived at Leobschützerstrasse 125 [today: ulica Głubczycka]. (Figures 1-2a-b) He is shown as having died on the 10th of April 1943. This information is much more detailed than the entry found for Salo Aschner in Yad Vashem which merely identifies him as a victim of the Holocaust who perished in Theresienstadt. (Figure 3)
A 1926 Ratibor Address Book lists Salo Aschner, and identifies him as a Schneider, a tailor, then living at Gartenstrasse 14. (Figure 4)
The “Aschner” surname resonated because one of my friends growing up in New York was a playmate named Harold Ashner (Figure 5), surname spelled without a “c” since his family’s arrival in America. Kamil’s second article listed Jews from the Racibórz region who received Prussian citizenship between 1812 and 1815 and included an earlier generation Aschner, Joachim Marcus Aschner from Kranowitz [today: Krzanowice, Poland].
Having previously come across primary source documents listing Aschners buried in the former Jewish Cemetery in Ratibor or who had reserved tombs there (Figures 6a-c), I was not surprised to find them among the earliest citizens. I naturally assumed that both Salo Aschner and Joachim Marcus Aschner might be ancestors of my childhood friend from New York. I was more surprised to not find any Brucks among the Jews who received Prussian citizenship between 1812 and 1815, an observation I shared with Kamil. As I’ve explained in previous posts, the roster of students who attended Ratibor’s gymnasium, or high school, upon its opening in 1819 included Isaac Bruck and Samuel Bruck (Figures 7a-b), sons of my great-great-great-grandfather Jacob Nathan Bruck indeterminately estimated to have been born in 1762 or 1770 and to have died in either 1832 or 1836.
My discussion with Kamil about his list of Jews from the Racibórz region granted Prussian citizenship led to two interesting discoveries. According to Kamil, the source of this information is a database accessible online through the Upper Silesian Jews House of Remembrance, a new branch of the Museum in Gliwice in Poland (https://skarbnica.muzeum.gliwice.pl/historia/ludzie/pochodzenie-nazwiska-gornoslaskie-rody). Kamil explained that the current Racibórz powiat, that’s to say the second-level unit of local government and administration in Poland, equivalent to a county, district, or prefecture, is different today than it was in the past. For this reason, my Bruck relatives who lived within the boundaries of the county or district as it was construed in past times were not included among the list of the earliest Jews to receive Prussian citizenship. When I broadened my search to the Jews living in all Upper Silesia who received Prussian citizenship, my earliest ancestor Jacob Nathan Bruck’s name showed up. (Figure 8)
The second discovery I made when searching the Museum of Gliwice’s database related to my friend’s family. Not only did I relocate Joachim Marcus Aschner’s name, but I also found the names of two other Aschners, namely, Benjamin Moses Aschner and Moses Abraham Aschner, both from the current Smolna district of Rybnik. It’s not entirely clear how they are related to Joachim, but the three are likely all brothers. (Figure 9)
Harold and I continue to be friends. (Figure 10) However, his daughter Melissa (Figure 11) is the one who has taken an interest in her family’s history. Periodically, we exchange information we’ve uncovered about her family. Upon discovering references to the Aschners from Ratibor and Upper Silesia (Figure 12), I shared this with Melissa to learn whether she recognized the names. In response, she sent me two original register pages (Figures 13a-b) from Rybnik (Figures 14a-b) with vital information on Joachim Marcus and Benjamin Moses Aschner.
At the top of one primary source document readers can vaguely make out the date September 1812, while further down under the far-right column for both individuals is written “Staatsbürger Brief vom 7. Mai 1814,” translated as “citizen letter dated the 7th of May 1814.” These are references to the rights and duties that Jews gained under the so-called Edict of Emancipation of 11 March 1812, rights that were evidently affirmed in writing. This so-called Judenedikt was promulgated by Friedrich Wilhelm III, King of Prussia and was more formally called the “Edict Concerning the Civil Status of the Jews in the Prussian State.”
The Emancipation Edict of 1812 was a decree by the Prussian government granting citizenship to all Prussian Jews. The edict was part of a series of constitutional, administrative, social, and economic reforms instituted in the early 19th century in Prussia. A large measure of civil equality was extended to Jews because of the edict’s enactment, including the abolition of serfdom, allowing them to become landowners, and take up municipal and university posts. In turn, the Jews were required to adopt fixed surnames, use German or another living language in keeping their commercial records, drawing contracts and legal declarations of intention, and use only German or Latin script for their signatures. The Jews were free to practice their religion and their cultural traditions were protected. While they were required to fulfill common citizenly duties, including military conscription, it did not give them the right of appointment in the civil service and army.
The edict was a significant milestone in the long and convoluted path of Jewish emancipation in Europe. It recognized all Jews already resident in Prussia as citizens of Prussia and rescinded all limitations on their rights of residence and commerce, all special taxes, and in general, all special laws relating to the Jews.
Fascinatingly, the slow process of Jewish emancipation in Prussia produced a distinction between the newly assimilated German Jews and the Jews of Eastern Europe, who were viewed as intellectually and morally inferior, and whose “Yiddish derided as a vulgar German dialect.” In popular literature and culture, such as “Fiddler on the Roof,” “so-called ‘ghetto stories’ offered a romantic yet patronizing view of East European Jewish life.” (2008 exhibit at the University of Chicago Library) Volume 2 of “From Absolutism to Napoleon, 1648-1815,” also speaks to this point: “Prussian Jewish policy since 1750 distinguished between the legally protected propertied Jews and their merely tolerated co-religionists. Complicating the Prussian situation were the numerous Polish Jews acquired as subjects through the partitions of Poland (1772-1795), which saw Prussia annex large portions of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The 1812 edict confined itself to the pre-1772 protected Jews. . .”
As mentioned above, the primary source document for Joachim Marcus Aschner and Benjamin Moses Aschner indicates they received a letter dated the 7th of May 1814 affirming their Prussian citizenship. Coincidentally, while examining an unrelated primary source document the co-author recently found for his great-great-grandaunt, Wilhelmine Friedenstein, née Bruck (1796-1864), the register noted that the letter she submitted to authorities in Sohrau [today: Zory, Poland] certifying her citizenship was identically dated the 7th of May 1814. (Figure 15) We can only assume that while the Edict of 1812 was promulgated on the 11th of March 1812, letters were sent out en masse to Prussian Jews two years later.
One final thing. In the seventh column identifying the place where Joachim and Moses lived is written Smolna. According to a contemporary map, this was located on the outskirts of Rybnik [today: Rybnik, Poland]. (Figure 16) Their residence on the outskirts of Rybnik may not have been accidental and may have reflected contemporary historic laws that limited the number of Jews who could live in the center of towns.
REFERENCES
East European Jews in the German-Jewish Imagination from the Ludwig Rosenberger Library of Judaica. “New Jews” vs. “Old Jews”: Emancipation, Assimilation, and the Ostjuden as Other. Exhibition on view from 1 Sep 2008. University of Chicago Library, Chicago. https://www.lib.uchicago.edu/collex/exhibits/exeej/new-jews-vs-old-jews-emancipation-assimilation-and-ostjuden-other/
Germany History in Documents and Images. From Volume 2. Absolutism to Napoleon, 1648-1815. Frederick William III, King of Prussia, “Edict Concerning the Civil Status of the Jews in the Prussian State” (March 11, 1812). https://ghdi.ghi-dc.org/sub_document_s.cfm?document_id=3650
Kotas, Kamil. (2021, January 10). Wstępna lista raciborskich Żydów deportowanych do obozów zagłady. Ziemia Raciborska.pl. https://www.ziemiaraciborska.pl/wstepna-lista-raciborskich-zydow-deportowanych-do-obozow-zaglady
Kotas, Kamil. (2022, March 2). Żydzi z obywatelstwem pruskim na ziemi raciborskiej w latach 1812-1815. Ziemia Raciborska.pl. https://www.naszraciborz.pl/site/art/5-styl-zycia/14-historia/72306-zydzi-z-obywatelstwem-pruskim-na-ziemi-raciborskiej-w-latach-1812-1815-