Reisepass Archives - bruckfamilyblog.com

Post 98, Part 1 (Stories): The Woinowitz Zuckerfabrik (Sugar Factory) Outside Ratibor (Part V-Chilean Descendants)

Note: In this post I relate the story about a German gentleman born in Santiago, Chile in 1944 and now living in Bonn, Germany, Mr. Roberto Hirsch, who is the great grandnephew of Sigmund Hirsch, the co-owner of the Woinowitz Zuckerfabrik outside Ratibor, Germany [today: Racibórz, Poland]. Roberto contacted me through my Blog and filled in gaps in my understanding of the fate of some of his ancestors, adding nuance, color, and some fascinating context to a horrific period in history. I will not pretend to readers I can do justice to Roberto’s family story, nor tell a comprehensive story. Rather, I will highlight aspects that augment the story of some people I have previously written about or examine lesser-known facts of my extended family’s survival during WWII.

Post 36: The Woinowitz Zuckerfabrik (Sugar Factory) Outside Ratibor (Part I-Background)

Post 36, Postscript: The Woinowitz Zuckerfabrik (Sugar Factory) Outside Ratibor (Part I-Maps)

Post 55: The Woinowitz Zuckerfabrik (Sugar Factory) Outside Ratibor (Part II-Restitution for Forced Sale by The Nazis)

Post 59: The Woinowitz Zuckerfabrik (Sugar Factory) Outside Ratibor (Part III—Heirs)

Post 61: The Woinowitz Zuckerfabrik (Sugar Factory) Outside Ratibor (Part IV-Grundbuch (Land Register))

Figure 1a. A postcard of the Woinowitz sugar factory as it looked in the early 1900’s

Figure 1b. The still-standing Woinowitz sugar factory in 2014

In multiple earlier posts, I have spoken at length about the Woinowitz Zuckerfabrik (sugar factory) (Figures 1a-b), located outside Ratibor, Germany [today: Racibórz, Poland], the town where my father was born in 1907. Prior to the forced sale of the plant during the Nazi era, the business was co-owned by Adolph Schück (1840-1916) (Figure 2) and his brother-in-law Sigmund Hirsch (1848-1920). (Figure 3) Adolph and Sigmund were married to sisters, and they and their wives died in Ratibor and were interred there in the former Jewish Cemetery.

Figure 2. Adolph Schück (1840-1916), co-owner with Sigmund Hirsch of the Woinowitz Zuckerfabrik

Given the general inaccessibility of records from Jewish ancestors who wound up in South America, it is always gratifying when surviving descendants with connections there send me messages. Such was the case when I was contacted by Roberto Hirsch, born in Santiago, Chile in 1944 but living in Bonn, Germany for the past 50 years. For context, he explained that his great-grandfather, Jakob Hirsch (1842-1905) (Figure 4), was one of Sigmund’s older brothers, and that he was married to Auguste Hirsch née Hirsch (1849-1935). (Figure 5)

Figure 4. Sigmund Hirsch’s older brother, Jakob Hirsch (1842-1905) (photo courtesy of Roberto Hirsch)

Figure 5. Jakob Hirsch’s wife, Auguste Hirsch née Hirsch (1849-1935) (photo courtesy of Roberto Hirsch)

Roberto told me ample stories and gave me enough enticing clues about some of his ancestors that it sent me down one of the deepest rabbit holes I have ever climbed into seeking primary source documents, my gold standard for accuracy. As readers will learn in the second part of this two-part Blog post, I accessed historic records on Roberto’s ancestors that were practically indecipherable. Fortunately, my German friend, Peter Hanke, the “Wizard of Wolfsburg,” confirmed they were pertinent and translated them. Including Roberto’s generation, I have incredibly now found seven generations of his family, going all the way back to 1739!! For Jewish families, this covers a long span.

Figure 6. Sigmund & Selma Hirsch in Ratibor with their three children from left to right: Henrietta (Frieda), Robert, and Helene (Lene)

Sigmund Hirsch was married to Selma Braun (1856-1916), one of 14 children the Ratibor brewery owner Markus Braun (1817-1870) had with two wives. Sigmund and Selma had three children, Helene “Lene” Goldenring née Hirsch (1880-1968), Robert Hirsch (1881-1943), and Henrietta “Frieda” Mamlok née Hirsch (1883-1955). (Figure 6) Prior to being contacted by Roberto Hirsch, I had already learned the fate of all three children. From Lene Goldenring’s (Figure 7) post-WWII German compensation file, I knew she had died in 1968 in Newark, New Jersey, that her brother Robert perished in Valparaiso, Chile in 1943, and that her sister Frieda had passed away in Montevideo, Uruguay in 1955. (Figure 8)

Figure 7. Sigmund Hirsch’s daughter, Helene “Lene” Goldenring, in New York at Christmas 1950

Figure 8. Sigmund Hirsch’s daughter, Henrietta “Frieda” Mamlok née Hirsch, with her husband Dr. Alfred Mamlok on their wedding day in the early 1900’s

Among the relatives Roberto first told me about was his namesake, Robert Hirsch, Sigmund’s middle child. Robert had studied electrical engineering in Berlin but had unspecified problems there, so his parents arranged to send him to Spain to work for AEG, “Allgemeine Elektricitäts-Gesellschaft.” The company was founded in 1883 in Berlin by Emil Rathenau, and according to Roberto, the Rathenau had ties to the Hirsch family from Ratibor. Possibly a business relationship existed between the families connected to the Woinowitz Zuckerfabrik and maybe this facilitated Robert Hirsch obtaining a position as general manager for AEG in Bilbao, Spain? So far, I have been unable to find the thread.

Robert Hirsch was not the only member of the Hirsch family to find refuge in Spain before or during WWII. In Post 27, I talked at length about Robert’s niece, Eva Zernik née Goldenring (1906-1969) (Figure 9), who made her way to Madrid after walking away or escaping from the French detention center in Gurs, France. As I pointed out in Post 27, security at Gurs was lax, and because Eva spoke impeccable French, she likely managed to cross the nearby Spanish border illegally using money she had squirreled away to bribe human smugglers. She remained in Madrid until 1947 when she emigrated to America.

Figure 9. Sigmund Hirsch’s granddaughter, Eva Zernik née Goldenring (1906-1969), in Florence, Italy in June 1938 standing alongside my father, Dr. Otto Bruck, with whom she partnered in tennis

Roberto Hirsch’s parents, Fritz Hirsch (1908-2006) and Margarete Hirsch née Janzen (1914-1992), also made their way to Spain. Prior to the ascendancy of the Nazis, it had been envisioned that Fritz would take over the family fashion business in Bonn, established by his father Hermann Hirsch (1876-1943) (Figures 10-11) at the turn of the 20^th Century; named “Wittgensteiner,” this store was famous throughout Germany for its fine apparel from England, France, and elsewhere. (Figures 12a-d) After it quickly became apparent the store would be expropriated by the Nazis, Fritz escaped to France to join his older brother Kurt Hirsch (1905-1993) (Figures 13-14) who had tried to establish a new life in Paris after his PhD. was revoked by the Nazis in 1933. Like my own father, Kurt joined the French Foreign Legion, but unlike my father who was shipped to Algeria, Kurt remained hidden in the south of France until 1945, eluding the German occupiers for five years and experiencing innumerable adventures.

Figure 10. Roberto’s father and grandfather, Fritz Hirsch (1908-2006) and Hermann Hirsch (1876-1943), in 1928 (photo courtesy of Roberto Hirsch)

Figure 11. Roberto’s grandfather, Hermann Hirsch (1876-1943) with his two sons, Kurt Hirsch (1905-1993) and Fritz Hirsch (1908-2006), in 1932 in Colmar, now a part of Alsace, France but formerly belonging to Germany (photo courtesy of Roberto Hirsch)

Figure 12a. Hermann Hirsch’s fashion store in Bonn, “Wittgensteiner” (photo courtesy of Roberto Hirsch)

Figure 12b. Hermann Hirsch’s fashion store in Bonn, “Wittgensteiner” (photo courtesy of Roberto Hirsch)

Figure 12c. Hermann Hirsch’s fashion store in Bonn, “Wittgensteiner” (photo courtesy of Roberto Hirsch)

Figure 12d. Hermann Hirsch’s fashion store in Bonn, “Wittgensteiner” (photo courtesy of Roberto Hirsch)

Figure 13. Roberto Hirsch’s uncle Kurt Hirsch (center) (1905-1993) at his bar mitzvah in 1918, amidst his family, many of whom were murdered in the Holocaust including veterans of WWI (photo courtesy of Roberto Hirsch)

Figure 14. Roberto’s uncle Kurt Hirsch (1905-1993) in Paris in 1984 (photo courtesy of Roberto Hirsch)

Because Fritz’s residence permit in France only allowed for a three-month stay, he tried to get to Spain. There he knew some people with whom he had studied in Bonn that had good connections to Spanish Government officials. Through this channel, Fritz obtained an unlimited residence permit for Spain. Several months later Roberto’s mother, only 21 at the time, left Germany by train and joined her future husband there. Roberto’s mother, incidentally, was Protestant, and, on account of her relationship with Fritz Hirsch, was considered by the National Socialists as a “Judenliebchen,” a Jew’s lover, strictly forbidden under Nazi law.

Roberto tells a few fascinating stories about his parents’ time in Spain.

Roberto’s parents lived mostly in small towns in the northern part of the country. In the mid-1930’s, Spain was a cultural and social backwater with limited outside contacts. Arriving speaking not a word of Spanish and having no money Fritz still managed to land himself a job as a traveling salesman selling office supplies. Armed with only a small dictionary, he traveled around his sales district, speaking his broken Spanish to comical delight and endless derision. Nonetheless, the Spaniards, a joyful people by nature, were so amused by the situation, they bought more supplies than they needed. Thus, Fritz was able to provide for himself and his wife.

Roberto’s parents were in touch with Robert Hirsch during their four-year stay in Spain between 1935 and 1939. By virtue of Robert’s position as general manager for AEG, he had more freedom of movement, which allowed all to meet periodically. Based on Roberto’s aunt’s surviving address book, Fritz Hirsch lived for a time in Bilbao. (Figure 15) Given that Robert, Fritz, and Margarete’s stays in Spain overlapped with almost the entirety of the Spanish Civil War, which began on the 17^th of July 1936 and ended on the 1^st of April 1939, I was particularly curious how the conflict might have affected their lives.

Figure 15. Page from Margarete “Gretel” Hirsch’s address book showing her brother Frederico (Fritz), Roberto’s father, lived in Bilbao (photo courtesy of Roberto Hirsch)

Roberto relates one amusing story about an unnerving encounter his mother had towards the beginning of the Spanish Civil War. At the time, at least in northern Spain, the conflict was a low-key affair. Young men from opposing sides would gather in an open field and start shooting at one another with their ancient and off target rifles; neither side could afford more accurate arms, so damage and injury was limited. One day Roberto’s mother was returning from shopping and came upon this scene. Suddenly, a voice shouted, “stop shooting, the lady wants to pass.” And the boys did precisely this, allowing her to walk through with trembling knees, whereafter the same voice shouted, “now we can continue!”

According to Roberto’s parents, the conflict became more gruesome when the Germans, Italians, and Soviets began to send troops and more sophisticated arms. At the time, Fritz and Margarete lived in a small town not far from Guernica. Students of history know this town was the scene of an infamous April 26, 1937 bombing, the first aerial bombing by the German Luftwaffe carried out at the behest of Francisco Franco’s Nationalist faction; the number of casualties ranged from about 150 to more than 1600, depending on which faction was reporting. This incident was the inspiration for Pablo Picasso’s famous painting “Guernica.”

At some point, Roberto’s father had to renew his German passport and was forced to visit the German consulate in Bilbao, which was evidently staffed by Nazis. While Fritz’s passport was eventually renewed, it did not happen before anti-Semitic epithets were hurled at him and he was told that Berlin would be informed of his whereabouts. I have on occasion uncovered vital documents for some Jewish ancestors with their location outside of Germany noted. Roberto’s story is independent confirmation that this in fact took place, ostensibly because the Nazis expected one day to invade these yet unoccupied countries and round up Jews living there. No doubt, Fritz and other Jews living in Spain were worried about this eventuality.

As the Spanish Civil War intensified and Franco’s forces captured larger cities, Roberto’s parents moved further west towards Portugal. Approaching the end of their stay in Spain in 1939, Roberto’s parents lived in La Coruna, the capital of Galicia in the northwest of Spain by the sea, in a zone already captured by Franco. (Figure 16) Each morning, they could hear shooting on the nearby beach as Franco’s forces executed Republican prisoners.

Figure 16. Page from Margarete Hirsch’s address book showing her brother Frederico (Fritz) later lived in La Coruna (photo courtesy of Roberto Hirsch)

It was at this moment that Roberto’s parents decided to flee Spain. One day they told their neighbors they were traveling to Portugal for the weekend and took with them only two suitcases. Using $3,000 they had saved over the years, they left for Lisbon. Upon their arrival, they started visiting the various consulates trying like thousands of other Jewish refugees there to obtain an exit visa. Everywhere, they were turned down until they visited the Chilean Embassy. Upon their arrival, the Ambassador was out, so a young staffer received them and started flirting with Roberto’s attractive mother; she reciprocated, and this miraculously resulted in Roberto’s parents being granted a visa for Chili. Within a week, by April 1939, they had boarded a ship bound for Buenos Aires, Argentina, a transit point. (Figures 17a-f)

Figure 17a. The cover of Fritz Hirsch’s 1936 German passport (photo courtesy of Roberto Hirsch)

Figure 17b. The inside page of Fritz Hirsch’s German passport with a big red “J” and “Israel” added to his name, both indicating he was Jewish (photo courtesy of Roberto Hirsch)

Figure 17c. Page from Fritz Hirsch’s German passport with visas dated the 3rd of October 1936 and the 7th of October 1936 from La Coruna, Spain authorizing his stay there until the situation normalizes in Bilbao (photo courtesy of Roberto Hirsch)

Figure 17d. Pages from Fritz Hirsch’s passport with March 1939 passport stamps for entrance into Portugal and Lisbon (photo courtesy of Roberto Hirsch)

Figure 17e. On the left page is the entrance visa for Chile, and on the right side the transit visa for Argentina (photo courtesy of Roberto Hirsch)

Figure 17f. On these pages are various passport stamps showing Fritz Hirsch left Portugal on the 14th of April 1939 aboard the ship “Asturias” headed for Buenos Aires, Argentina; left Buenos Aires the 26th of May 1939; and arrived in Chile on the 1st of June 1939 (photo courtesy of Roberto Hirsch)

Upon Fritz and Margaret Hirsch’s arrival in Santiago, Chile in June 1939, they were met by Robert Hirsch. (Figure 18) Roberto knows nothing about Robert’s departure from Spain and eventual emigration to Chile. Robert was apparently living with a Spanish woman named Carmen to whom he left a large sum of money upon his departure. Robert’s sister, Helene Goldenring née Hirsch, would eventually also go to Chile via an unknown route from Germany. While I already knew that Robert had died in Valparaiso, Chile on the 7^th of October 1943, Roberto explained that his namesake had committed suicide because of a severe persecution complex. This resolved yet another unanswered question I had.

Figure 18. Roberto’s mother Margarete Hirsch née Janzen (1914-1992) and Robert Hirsch (1881-1943) in Chile in 1942 with Roberto’s sister in the pram (photo courtesy of Roberto Hirsch)

Helene Goldenring lived not with her brother Robert in Valparaiso but with Roberto’s parents (Figures 19-20) in Santiago until she left for America on the 3^rd of July 1947 (Figure 21), never having learned to speak any Spanish. Oddly, after her departure, Roberto’s parents never again heard from her.

Figure 19. Roberto’s parents, Fritz Hirsch (1908-2006) and Margarete Hirsch née Janzen (1914-1992) in Santiago, Chile in 1975 (photo courtesy of Roberto Hirsch)

Figure 20. Roberto Hirsch with his father in Santiago, Chile in 1998 (photo courtesy of Roberto Hirsch)

Figure 21. Passenger list showing Helene Goldenring née Hirsch’s departure from Valparaiso, Chile on the 3rd of July 1947 headed to New York

As to some of Roberto’s relatives who did not escape from Europe, I will briefly relate the heartbreaking story of Roberto’s grandparents, Hermann Hirsch (1876-1943) and Ida Hirsch née Sollinger (1874-1944). (Figures 22-23) Erroneously concluding the Nazis would have no interest in them because of their age, like many other elderly Jews, they consciously decided to stay in Germany. However, by 1939, Hermann and Ida were forced to move to a special house for Jews in Bonn where they paid high prices for water, electricity, and gas. Most of their money had been confiscated, and only a small sum remained from which paltry monthly withdrawals could be made. Around this time their son Fritz began corresponding with his parents from Santiago, Chile, retaining carbon copies of his letters. By 1941, Roberto’s grandparents were again forced to move, this time to a convent in Bonn where the nuns had been evicted. The posts came to a stop in June 1942, when his grandparents were deported to Theresienstadt.

Figure 22. Roberto’s grandfather Hermann Hirsch (1876-1943) ca. 1902 (photo courtesy of Roberto Hirsch)

Figure 23. Roberto’s grandparents, Hermann Hirsch (1876-1943) and Ida Hirsch née Sollinger (1874-1944) in 1935 in Bonn, Germany; both later died in Theresienstadt (photo courtesy of Roberto Hirsch)

Roberto graciously shared with me the last correspondence the family ever received from his grandmother. (Figure 24 a-c) It is an exceptional document, a typed postcard written on the 20^th of December 1943 from Theresienstadt to Roberto’s family in Geneva. Dictated by Ida Hirsch who was already nearly blind, she wrote that her husband had died of cardiac arrest; the family would later learn from survivors his real cause of death had been suicide, which it was forbidden to write. Preposterously, Ida’s postcard was first sent by the Nazis to Berlin to the “Oberkommando der Wehrmacht” to be censored before being forwarded to Geneva, as though an elderly blind woman could divulge military secrets. It is astonishing the Nazis would allow Jewish internees of the concentration camps any communication with the outside world.

Figure 24a. Front of 1943 typed postcard written by Roberto’s grandmother, Ida Hirsch née Sollinger (1874-1944) from Theresienstadt (photo courtesy of Roberto Hirsch)

Figure 24b. Text of last postcard ever written by Roberto’s grandmother, Ida Hirsch née Sollinger (1874-1944), from Theresienstadt (photo courtesy of Roberto Hirsch)

Figure 24c. Translation of text of December 1943 postcard from Ida Hirsch née Sollinger

I am profoundly grateful to Roberto for sharing some of his family’s stories, pictures, and documents. I like to think this has been a mutually beneficial exchange since I have uncovered additional ancestors of which he was unaware including their fates. Roberto’s grandfather had three siblings, only two of which he knew about; the three he knew about were all murdered in the Holocaust, and the fate of the fourth has yet to be worked out.

In the second installment of Post 98, I will describe and illustrate some of the historic documents I recovered from various sources related to Roberto Hirsch’s family that have allowed me to track a few of his relatives to the 18^th Century.

_________________________________________

VITAL STATISTICS OF SIEGMUND HIRSCH AND HIS RELATIVES

NAME	EVENT	DATE	PLACE	SOURCE

Sigmund Hirsch (self)	Birth	18 November 1848	Karlsruhe, Baden-Württemberg, Germany	Family History Library Karlsruhe Microfilm Roll 1256447 (p. 441 of 748)
	Death	14 October 1920	Ratibor, Germany [today: Racibórz, Poland]	Headstone from former Jewish Cemetery in Ratibor, Germany [today: Racibórz, Poland]; Family History Library Ratibor Microfilm Roll 1184448
Selma Hirsch née Braun (wife)	Birth	11 July 1856	Ratibor, Germany [today: Racibórz, Poland]	Headstone from former Jewish Cemetery in Ratibor, Germany [today: Racibórz, Poland]; Family History Library Ratibor Microfilm Roll 1184449
	Death	11 July 1916	Ratibor, Germany [today: Racibórz, Poland]	Headstone from former Jewish Cemetery in Ratibor, Germany [today: Racibórz, Poland]
Helene Goldenring née Hirsch (daughter)	Birth	25 March 1880	Ratibor, Germany [today: Racibórz, Poland]	Helene Goldenring’s Hesse, Germany Post-War Compensation File
	Death	12 January 1968	Newark, New Jersey	Helene Goldenring’s Hesse, Germany Post-War Compensation File
Robert Hirsch (son)	Birth	31 October 1881	Ratibor, Germany [today: Racibórz, Poland]	Ratibor birth certificate: Mittweida, Germany 1904 Residence Register
	Death (suicide)	7 October 1943	Valparaiso, Chile	Roberto Hirsch (personal communication)
Henrietta “Frieda” Mamlok née Hirsch (daughter)	Birth	8 February 1883	Ratibor, Germany [today: Racibórz, Poland]
	Death	29 July 1955	Montevideo, Uruguay	Roberto Hirsch Family Papers
Emanuel Hirsch (father)	Birth	About 1805	Karlsruhe, Baden-Württemberg, Germany	Karlsruhe, Germany death certificate
	Marriage	27 May 1834	Karlsruhe, Baden-Württemberg, Germany	Family History Library Karlsruhe Microfilm Roll 1256447 (p. 251 of 748)
	Death	25 March 1880	Karlsruhe, Baden-Württemberg, Germany	Karlsruhe, Germany death certificate
Henriette “Jette” Hirsch née Ettlinger (mother)	Birth	1808	Karlsruhe, Baden-Württemberg, Germany	Karlsruhe, Germany death certificate; Germany Find a Grave Index
	Marriage	27 May 1834	Karlsruhe, Baden-Württemberg, Germany	Family History Library Karlsruhe Microfilm Roll 1256447 (p. 251 of 748)
	Death	2 August 1882	Karlsruhe, Baden-Württemberg, Germany	Karlsruhe, Germany death certificate
Bernhard Hirsch (aka Leonhard Hirsch) (brother)	Birth	26 August 1836	Karlsruhe, Baden-Württemberg, Germany	Family History Library Karlsruhe Microfilm Roll 1256447 (p. 272 of 748); Karlsruhe, Germany death certificate
	Marriage (to Sofie Reutlinger)	17 August 1871	Karlsruhe, Baden-Württemberg, Germany	Karlsruhe, Germany marriage certificate
	Death	7 December 1888	Karlsruhe, Baden-Württemberg, Germany	Karlsruhe, Germany death certificate
Jakob Hirsch (brother)	Birth	8 November 1842	Karlsruhe, Baden-Württemberg, Germany	Family History Library Karlsruhe Microfilm Roll 1256447 (p. 357 of 748)
	Marriage	30 July 1874	Karlsruhe, Baden-Württemberg, Germany	Karlsruhe, Germany marriage certificate
	Death	1905	Neuwied, Germany (buried in Bonn, Germany Jewish Cemetery)	Roberto Hirsch (personal communication)
Auguste Hirsch née Hirsch (sister-in-law)	Birth	14 January 1849	Ilvesheim, Baden-Württemberg, Germany	Family History Library Ilvesheim Microfilm Roll 1271220 (p. 260 of 403); Karlsruhe, Germany marriage certificate
	Marriage	30 July 1874	Karlsruhe, Baden-Württemberg, Germany	Karlsruhe, Germany marriage certificate
	Death	1935	Bonn, Germany	Roberto Hirsch (personal communication)
Hermann Hirsch (nephew)	Birth	19 August 1876	Karlsruhe, Baden-Württemberg, Germany	Karlsruhe, Germany birth certificate
	Deportation (to Theresienstadt)	27 July 1942	Trier-Köln, Germany	Jewish Victims of Nazi Persecution, 1933-1945
	Death (suicide)	16 February 1943	Theresienstadt, Czechoslovakia	Roberto Hirsch (personal communication); Ida Hirsch’s 1943 postcard sent from Theresienstadt
Ida Hirsch née Sollinger (wife of nephew)	Birth	1874	Einbeck, Germany	Roberto Hirsch (personal communication)
	Death	1944	Theresienstadt, Czechoslovakia	Yad Vashem Shoah Victims
Sophie Hirsch (niece)	Birth	3 April 1875	Karlsruhe, Baden-Württemberg, Germany	Yad Vashem Page of Testimony
	Death	UNKNOWN	UNKNOWN	Yad Vashem Shoah Victims
Bernhard Hirsch (nephew)	Birth	7 December 1877	Karlsruhe, Baden-Württemberg, Germany	Karlsruhe, Germany birth certificate
	Death	UNKNOWN	UNKNOWN
Karl Hirsch (nephew)	Birth	15 February 1879	Karlsruhe, Baden-Württemberg, Germany	Karlsruhe, Germany birth certificate
	Deportation (to Auschwitz-Birkenau)	10 September 1944	Auschwitz-Birkenau	Yad Vashem Shoah Victims
Fritz Hirsch (great-nephew)	Birth	20 January 1908	Bonn, North Rhine-Wesphalia, Germany	Hirsch Janzen family tree; Roberto Hirsch (personal communication)
	Death	11 January 2006	Santiago, Chile	Hirsch Janzen family tree; Roberto Hirsch (personal communication)
Margaret Hirsch née Janzen (wife of great-nephew)	Birth	12 January 1914	Elbing, Germany [today: Elbląg, Poland]	Hirsch Janzen family tree
	Death	29 February 1992	Santiago, Chile	Hirsch Janzen family tree
Roberto Hirsch (great-great-nephew)	Birth	3 September 1944	Santiago, Chile	Roberto Hirsch (personal communication)

POST 94: MY GREAT-GREAT-UNCLE & AUNT JOSEF & ROSALIE PAULY’S NINE CHILDREN THROUGH TIME

“You know how the time flies

Only yesterday was the time of our lives

We were born and raised in a summer haze

Bound by the surprise of our glory days”

Adele “Someone Like You”

Note: In this post, I present photos of Josef and Rosalie Pauly’s nine children, my great-great-uncle and aunt’s offspring, showing them as young children, adolescents, young adults, middle aged, and elderly. Naturally, there are gaps in the photo sequences for some of the children.

Post 56: Reflections on Life and Family by The Paterfamilias, Dr. Josef Pauly

Post 57: Disappeared Without A Trace, Maria Pohlmann Née Pauly

Post 57, Postscript: Disappeared Without A Trace, Maria Pohlmann Née Pauly—Mystery Solved!!

Post 58: Finding Therese “Thussy” Sandler Née Pauly, My Great-Great-Uncle and Aunt’s Youngest Child

Post 89: Evidence of My 18th & 19th Centuries Marle Ancestors

I have often thought to myself that upon one’s birth, one is metaphorically handed an hourglass measuring the sands of time slowly or rapidly draining out. Regular readers may recall that in Post 89, I discussed my great-great-great-grandparents, Wilhelm Wolf Marle and his wife Rosalie (“Reisel”) Marle née Grätzer, whose headstones survive in the former Jewish Cemetery in Pless, Germany [today: Pszczyna, Poland]. (Figures 1-2) Given my musings about the passage of time, I was mildly surprised to see that an hourglass is carved into Rosalie Marle’s headstone signifying how quickly time passes. (Figure 2) Clearly, I can take no credit for the originality of this metaphor.

Figure 1. My great-great-great-grandfather Wilhelm Marle’s (1772-1846) tombstone in Pszczyna, Poland, formerly Pless, Germany

Figure 2. My great-great-great-grandmother Rosalie Marle née Graetzer’s headstone showing the hourglass carved into it signifying how quickly time flies

Josef Pauly (Figure 3) and Rosalie Pauly née Mockrauer (Figures 4-5), my great-great-uncle and aunt, had nine children all born in Posen, Germany [today: Poznan, Poland] between 1871 and 1885. (Figure 6) In perusing my digital collection of photographs, I realized I have photos of all of them capturing how they looked through the years. Not unexpectedly, there are gaps in the photo sequences for some of the children, which my third cousin, Andi Pauly, more closely aligned to this branch of my family, was partially able to fill. I think it is unusual to have a “continuous” sequence of photos for one’s relatives who were born in the 19^th century and died in the 20^th century, and for this reason I thought I would array these photos for readers to see. I certainly find it to be true that I can recognize photos of some of my ancestors from specific periods in their lives but not necessarily from other intervals in their lives; interestingly, I occasionally even find this to be true of photos of myself.

Figure 3. My great-great-uncle Dr. Josef Pauly (1843-1916)

Figure 4. My great-great-aunt Rosalie Pauly née Mockrauer (1844-1927)

Figure 5. My great-great-aunt Rosalie Pauly née Mockrauer with one of her newborns, likely one of her firstborn daughters, judging from Rosalie’s age (photo courtesy of Danny Sandler)

Figure 6. Photo of Josef and Rosalie Pauly’s six oldest daughters as children and infants, from left to right, Anna, Paula, Helene, Elisabeth, Margarethe, and Maria, probably taken ca. 1878 (photo courtesy of Andi Pauly)

Below, readers will find a table with the vital statistics of Josef and Rosalie Pauly’s nine children. This is followed by the sequence of photos I have for each of them showing how differently they looked at various stages of their lives. The second-born child, Paula Pincus née Pauly, died youngest at age 49, while the last born, Therese Sandler née Pauly, was the longest lived at age 84. Three of the daughters, Helene Guttentag née Pauly, Elisabeth Herrnstadt née Pauly, and Margarethe Neisser née Pauly, died during the Holocaust, two by their own hands.

VITAL STATISTICS FOR JOSEF & ROSALIE PAULY’S CHILDREN

NO.	NAME	EVENT	DATE	PLACE

1	Anna Rothholz née Pauly (Figures 6-7)	Birth	14 March 1871	Posen, Germany
		Marriage	20 May 1892	Berlin, Germany
		Death	21 June 1925	Stettin, Germany
2	Paula Pincus née Pauly (Figures 6, 8-9)	Birth	26 April 1872	Posen, Germany
		Marriage	16 November 1891	Berlin, Germany
		Death	31 March 1922	Magdeburg, Saxony-Anhalt, Germany
3	Helene Guttentag née Pauly (Figures 6, 10-14)	Birth	12 April 1873	Posen, Germany
		Marriage	5 February 1898	Berlin, Germany
		Death (suicide)	23 October 1942	Berlin, Germany
4	Elisabeth Herrnstadt née Pauly (Figures 6, 15-17)	Birth	2 July 1874	Posen, Germany
		Marriage	11 May 1895	Cunnersdorf, Germany
		Death (murdered)	27 May 1943	Theresienstadt, Czechoslovakia
5	Margarethe Neisser née Pauly (Figures 6, 17-22)	Birth	16 January 1876	Posen, Germany
		Marriage	5 September 1898	Stettin, Germany
		Death (suicide)	12 October 1941	Berlin, Germany
6	Maria Pohlmann née Pauly (Figures 6, 23-26)	Birth	21 July 1877	Posen, Germany
		Marriage	30 September 1901	Posen, Germany
		Death	18 July 1946	Freiburg, Germany
7	Edith Riezler née Pauly (Figures 17, 27-32)	Birth	4 January 1880	Posen, Germany
		Marriage	28 May 1923	Berlin, Germany
		Death	5 February 1961	Munich, Germany
8	Wilhelm Pauly (Figures 33-38)	Birth	24 September 1883	Posen, Germany
		Marriage	3 January 1914	Breslau, Germany
		Death	1961	Tsumeb, Namibia
9	Therese Sandler née Pauly (Figures 39-46)	Birth	21 August 1885	Posen, Germany
		Marriage	31 August 1912	Posen, Germany
		Death	25 November 1969	Buenos Aires, Argentina

Anna Rothholz née Pauly (1871-1925)

Paula Pincus née Pauly (1872-1922)

Figure 9. Paula Pincus née Pauly in the early- to mid-1890’s

Helene Guttentag née Pauly (1873-1942)

Figure 11. Helene Guttentag née Pauly in 1888

Figure 12. Helene Guttentag née Pauly in her 20’s

Figure 13. Helene Guttentag née Pauly in middle age (photo courtesy of Danny Sandler)

Figure 14. Helene Guttentag née Pauly in 1938 in Berlin, four years before she committed suicide after being told by the Nazis to report for deportation

Elisabeth Herrnstadt née Pauly (1874-1943)

Figure 16. Elisabeth Herrnstadt née Pauly in the early- to mid-1890’s

Figure 17. Elisabeth Herrnstadt née Pauly as a young adult (middle) with two of her younger sisters, Margarethe (left) and Edith (right) (photo courtesy of Agnes Stieda)

Margarethe Neisser née Pauly (1876-1941)

Figure 19. Margarethe Neisser née Pauly as a young girl (photo courtesy of Danny Sandler)

Figure 20. Margarethe Neisser née Pauly as a young adult (photo courtesy of Agnes Stieda)

Figure 21. Margarethe Neisser née Pauly in middle age (photo courtesy of Agnes Stieda)

Figure 22. Margarethe Neisser née Pauly later in life

Maria Pohlmann née Pauly (1877-1946)

Figure 24. Maria Pohlmann née Pauly in the early 1890’s

Figure 25. Maria Pohlmann née Pauly on her wedding day the 30th of September 1901

Figure 26. Maria Pohlmann née Pauly in 1906

Edith Riezler née Pauly (1880-1961)

Figure 28. Edith Riezler née Pauly as a young girl

Figure 29. Edith Riezler née Pauly as young adult (photo courtesy of Agnes Stieda)

Figure 30. Edith Riezler née Pauly as an adult (photo courtesy of Danny Sandler)

Figure 31. Edith Riezler née Pauly as an adult (photo courtesy of Agnes Stieda)

Figure 32. Edith Riezler née Pauly in 1936 (photo courtesy of Andi Pauly)

Wilhelm Pauly (1883-1961)

Figure 34. Wilhelm Pauly as a young boy (photo courtesy of Danny Sandler)

Figure 35. Wilhelm Pauly in 1901 at his sister Maria Pohlmann née Pauly’s wedding

Figure 36. Wilhelm Pauly in 1914 in his WWI uniform (photo courtesy of Andi Pauly)

Figure 37. Wilhelm Pauly with his wife Melanie Pauly née Schöneberg in the 1910’s (photo courtesy of Andi Pauly)

Figure 38. Wilhelm Pauly in 1952 (photo courtesy of Andi Pauly)

Therese Sandler née Pauly (1885-1969)

Figure 40. Therese Sandler née Pauly as a young girl (head leaning on her father) in a group photo with her parents, six older siblings, and an unidentified man (photo courtesy of Andi Pauly)

Figure 41. Therese Sandler née Pauly in 1901 at her older sister Maria Pohlmann née Pauly’s wedding

Figure 42. Therese Sandler née Pauly in a cabinet photo taken in Berlin (photo courtesy of Andi Pauly)

Figure 43. Therese Sandler née Pauly in a traditional Bavarian Oktoberfest Beer Dirndl dress (photo courtesy of Andi Pauly)

Figure 44. Therese Sandler née Pauly wearing an elaborate hat (photo courtesy of Andi Pauly)

Figure 45. Therese Sandler née Pauly photo from her 1938 “Reisepass,” or passport, that allowed her to leave Germany during the Nazi era (photo courtesy of Pedro Sandler)

Figure 46. Therese Sandler née Pauly after she immigrated to Argentina (photo courtesy of Danny Sandler)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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