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POST 155: HISTORY OF THE PROPERTY WHERE THE BRUCK’S “PRINZ VON PREUßEN” HOTEL IN RATIBOR CAME TO BE BUILT

CORRECTIONS ADDED IN RED ON 3/1/2024

Note: In a post I’ve long wanted to write, using maps and contemporary accounts, I discuss the history of the property where the inn stood that my family owned from ca. 1850 until 1926 in Ratibor [today: Racibórz, Poland], the Bruck’s “Prinz von Preußen” Hotel. I also make a case for when I think the hotel was likely constructed.

POST 11, POSTSCRIPT: RATIBOR & BRUCK’S “PRINZ VON PREUßEN” HOTEL

POST 11, POSTSCRIPT 2: RATIBOR & BRUCK’S “PRINZ VON PREUßEN” HOTEL

POST 61: THE WOINOWITZ ZUCKERFABRIK (SUGAR FACTORY) OUTSIDE RATIBOR (PART IV-GRUNDBUCH (LAND REGISTER))

POST 132: FATE OF THE BRUCK’S “PRINZ VON PREUßEN“ FAMILY HOTEL IN RATIBOR (RACIBÓRZ): GEOPOLITICAL FACTORS

I’ve spilled a lot of ink writing about my next of kin’s business in Ratibor, Germany [today: Racibórz, Poland], the Bruck’s “Prinz von Preußen” Hotel (Figures 1-2), owned by three generations of my family from roughly 1850 until 1926. My recently departed friend Paul Newerla from Racibórz (Figure 3), a lawyer who found his second calling in retirement researching and writing about the history of Ratibor and Silesia, was very instrumental in furthering my understanding of the hotel’s history and generously sharing multiple historical references and illustrations related to the establishment.

Figure 1. The Bruck’s “Prinz von Preußen” Hotel

Figure 2. Entrance to the Bruck’s “Prinz von Preußen” Hotel

Figure 3. In 2018 in Racibórz, Poland me standing alongside my recently deceased friend Mr. Paul Newerla in front of the historic statue of John of Nepomuk, now located in the middle of a parking lot

Paul was never able to tell me exactly when the inn was constructed and whether a previous owner had built the structure. For the longest time, I imagined the name “Prinz von Preußen” meant it might have been erected and lived in by a member of the von Preußen family, a royal lineage with longstanding ties to Silesia. Another friend whom I’ve often mentioned to readers, Peter Albrecht von Preußen (Figure 4), a descendant of this illustrious bloodline now living in the United States, explained to me that the “Prinz von Preußen” name was franchised from at least the 19^th century. Thus, the Bruck Hotel’s incorporation of the Prinz von Preußen honorific may simply reflect a business arrangement. So far evidence of this has not been found.

Figure 4. My good friend Peter Albrecht von Preußen who was of enormous assistance in the course of writing this post

One document Paul was unable to track down in the Archiwum Państwowe w Katowicach Oddział w Raciborzu, the State Archives in Katowice, Branch in Racibórz, was the so-called Grundbuch, the land register, for the Bruck’s “Prinz von Preußen” Hotel. Grundbuch means the applicable official register held by the Land Registry in which, among other things, the rights of ownership in, and encumbrances on, a plot of land are registered.

In Post 61, I discussed how Paul found the Grundbuch for the Zuckerfabrik, the sugar factory owned by distant family relatives, located in Woinowitz [today: Wojnowice, Poland] outside Ratibor, among the uncatalogued documents in the basement of the Racibórz State Archives. Regular readers know I’ve written multiple posts about the Zuckerfabrik. Had Paul been able to locate the Grundbuch for the Bruck’s Hotel, it might have shed some light on when the building was built and/or exactly when my family purchased the establishment. Whether the file still exists is an unanswered question though I suspect if it did Paul Newerla would have tracked it down.

Another of my Polish friends, Małgosia Ploszaj (Figure 5), from Rybnik, Poland, 15 miles east of Racibórz, was able to find a police file in the Racibórz State Archives related to the Bruck’s Hotel (Figures 6a-b), but this dated to the period that my grandparents, Felix (1864-1927) and Else Bruck (1873-1957), owned the hotel during the first quarter of the 20^th century. This file includes reports on periodic inspections conducted by the local police; safety issues my grandparents were compelled to address; authorizations they were required to obtain to operate beyond normal working hours; violations for which they were fined, etc. Nothing in the file related to the history nor tenancy of the hotel prior to my grandparents’ ownership.

Figure 5. Another of my Polish friends Małgosia Ploszaj from Rybnik, Poland who discovered the early 20th century police file on the Bruck’s “Prinz von Preußen” Hotel

Figure 6a. Cover of the police file on the Bruck’s “Prinz von Preußen” Hotel found in the “Archiwum Państwowe Racibórz,” State Archives in Racibórz

Figure 6b. Closeup of the cover of the police file on the Bruck’s “Prinz von Preußen” Hotel

My good friend Peter Albrecht von Preußen spent a good deal of time explaining the contents of this police file. Additionally, because of his own family’s connection to Silesia, he spent a lot of time searching publications for mentions of the hotel and the sequential Bruck family members who owned the inn, namely, Samuel Bruck (1808-1863), Fedor Bruck (1834-1892), and Felix Bruck (1864-1927).

One of the most useful public domain sources Peter discovered was a 695-page book entitled “Geschichte der Stadt Ratibor,” “History of the Town of Ratibor,” written by Augustin Weltzel in 1861. (Figure 7) Therein, Peter found mention of a Bruck who was a “gastwirth,” an innkeeper, no doubt Samuel Bruck (1808-1863) the original owner of the Bruck’s Hotel. (Figure 8)

Figure 7. Cover of the 1861 book by Augustin Weltzel, “Geschichte der Stadt Ratibor,” “History of the Town of Ratibor”

Figure 8. Page from “Geschichte der Stadt Ratibor” mentioning the “gastwirth Bruck,” the innkeeper believed to be my great-great-grandfather Samuel Burck (1808-1863), first family owner of the Bruck’s Hotel

The book is written in Fraktur, which was the subject of Post 154. Unfortunately, the text has not been transcribed into German, nor has it been translated into Polish or English. However, because Peter can read Fraktur, he graciously perused and summarized relevant sections of Weltzel’s book.

This book was commissioned in 1859 by the Protestant Church in Breslau [today: Wrocław, Poland], who had searched in the archives and discovered that the history of the entire Upper Silesian region, a principally Catholic area at the time, had not been documented. As a result, Dr. Weltzel, a Catholic Priest, was contracted to write about Ratibor. This seemingly odd arrangement was an indirect outcome of the First Silesian War from 1740 to 1742 which resulted in Prussia seizing most of the region of Silesia (today mostly in southwestern Poland) from Austria but Catholics in Silesia being guaranteed the right to continue practicing their religion.

Based on Peter’s synopsis and analysis, I can reconstruct a partial history of the property where the Bruck’s Hotel was built and theorize when the hotel is likely to have been constructed. Another of my Polish contacts from Racibórz is Magda Wawoczny, an acquaintance in the Jewish Studies program at Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Poland. At my request, she graciously sent me high-resolution plans of Ratibor from 1831 and 1843, as well as a map from 1812 with a birds-eye view of Ratibor and its fortifications, that allow me to clarify using contemporary maps what likely was going on in the area at the time in conjunction with Augustin Weltzel’s description of historic events.

First, a brief digression. I’ve periodically told readers about my “boots on the ground” without whom I would be unable to relate my family stories to the depth I feel is required. As readers can easily tell, I have limited knowledge about many of the subjects I discuss so the assistance of knowledgeable people is crucial. In the case of this post, for example, I felt the need to illustrate with historic maps what Ratibor may have looked like at different points in time to make the case for approximately when the Bruck’s Hotel might have been constructed.

Erroneously recalling there exists a map from 1829 with the Bruck’s Hotel shown, I asked Magda, my student acquaintance from Racibórz, if she could track it down for me. In the process, Magda directed me to a historical portal run by her father, Grzegorz Wawoczny, a historian. The portal includes a post written by a German gentleman, Christoph Sottor, describing the oldest plans of the city of Ratibor. This is how I learned about the 1812, 1831, and 1843 plans of Ratibor mentioned above. This post was very useful and one I encourage readers with an ancestral link to Ratibor to skim:

https://ziemiaraciborska.pl/najstarsze-plany-miasta-raciborza/

Let me continue.

Historically, Ratibor was a fortified castle-town. The period the Bruck’s Hotel could conceivably have been built is closely related to when the fortifications surrounding Ratibor were dismantled because of the hotel’s proximity to where the protective walls once stood. Let me briefly relate to readers some of the history of the town’s defensive system. The defensive walls have existed in Ratibor since 1299. They were extended in the 14^th century, and several fortified towers and three wooden gates were later added. A deep moat was constructed in front of the walls. The curtain walls were reinforced in 1663 in anticipation of a Turkish invasion.

Beginning in the 18^th century, the fortifications were gradually eliminated. Between 1764 and 1771 the moat was filled in. According to Weltzel, the wooden gate (Figure 22) of the defensive tower nearest where the Bruck’s Hotel was eventually built was removed in 1825 and relocated to the Ratibor side of the bridge crossing the nearby Oder River; some of the nearby curtain walls were removed but the tower remained.

Figure 22. Example of a Medieval wooden gate that was part of a fortified tower

All that remains of the fortifications today is a Renaissance style tower constructed in 1574 and some remnants of the Gothic curtain walls that abutted this tower. (Figures 9-10) At the apex of the tower, there is an attic with embrasures (sometimes called gun holes) and four turrets. The building provided shelter for the garrison of defenders and was also used as a prison tower.

Figure 9. As it looks today, the surviving Renaissance-style tower and curtain walls that were once part of the fortifications surrounding Ratibor (picture courtesy of Magda Wawoczny)

Figure 10. The surviving Renaissance-style tower in Racibórz today (photo courtesy of Magda Wawoczny)

The removal of the moat, including the gradual elimination of some of the defensive structures, coincides with the end of the Seven Years’ War (1756-1763). Let me say a few words about this conflict.

The Seven Years’ War (1756–1763) was a global conflict involving most of Europe’s great powers that was fought primarily in Europe, the Americas, and Asia-Pacific. Without getting too far into the weeds, suffice it to say the opposing alliances were led by Great Britain and France, each seeking to establish global pre-eminence at the expense of the other. France and Spain fought against England and their ally Prussia in Europe and overseas. Long-standing rivalries pitted these adversaries against one another in North America and the West Indies.

No less a personage than Winston Churchill described the Seven Years War, which went by different names in its respective theaters (e.g., Franch and Indian Wars (1754-1763); War of the Conquest in French-speaking Canada; the Third Silesian Wear (1756-1763) between Prussia and Austria) as the first “world war” because of its global reach.

For purposes of this post, suffice it to say that in Europe, Prussia sought greater influence in the German states (i.e., Prussia and the other German states did not unite to form Germany until 1871) while Austria sought to contain Prussian influence as well as regain Silesia which they’d lost at the end of the First Silesian War in 1742. Austria failed in this regard. Based on Augustin Weltzel’s discussions, it is evident the city’s fortifications suffered heavy damage from cannonball strikes during the conflict.

Perhaps, the end of the war, new economic opportunities, ongoing deterioration of the defensive walls and towers, along with a need to expand the city caused town officials to gradually remove the fortifications and towers.

The address of the Bruck’s “Prinz von Preußen” Hotel was Oderstrasse 16. The inn stood on the northwest corner of Oderstrasse where it met Bollwerk Strasse. A 1929 street map of Ratibor includes the hotel’s name and location (Figure 11), while a 1933 plan shows the number “16” on Oderstrasse. (Figure 12) A map from around 1890 indistinctly outlines an area where the Bruck’s Hotel stood that is identified by the number “104,” which may indicate the lot number. (Figure 13) Since I don’t have copies of all Ratibor’s plans, it’s not clear when the hotel was first plotted on a map.

Figure 11. 1929 plan map of Ratibor with the “Bruck’s Hotel” name circled

Figure 12. 1933 plan map of Ratibor with “16” circled referring to the address of the Bruck’s Hotel, Oderstrasse 16

Figure 13. 1890 plan map of Ratibor with the indistinctly outlined plot where the Bruck’s Hotel once stood, identified as the number “104”

The “Prinz von Preußen” is listed in John Murray’s 1850 “Hand-Book for Travellers on the Continent” as a place for people to stay in Ratibor while voyaging between Breslau and Vienna. (Figures 14a-b) Family ownership of the inn is thought to have begun at around this time.

Figure 14a. Cover of John Murray’s 1850 “Hand-Book for Travellers on the Continent” discussing the “Prinz von Preußen” Hotel

Figure 14b. Page of John Murray’s 1850 “Hand-Book for Travellers on the Continent” discussing the “Prinz von Preußen” Hotel

Next, I’ll discuss a few of the historic maps I had access to, and what they suggest regarding the construction of the Bruck’s Hotel. I’ll also touch on some of Weltzel’s historic accounts for reference.

Let me start by discussing the map that Christoph Sottor dates to 1812 (Figure 15) that I previously described as a birds-eye view of the city with its still-standing fortifications.

Figure 15. 1812 birds-eye view of Ratibor and its fortifications, with the approximate location of the future Bruck’s Hotel marked

Sottor says the following about this map:

“On the newly made plan (in 1812 on the basis of measurements from 1810) the orientation to the west was improved, buildings in towns near Racibórz were described and projections of several buildings in Racibórz itself were marked. The “Situations-Plan von der Stadt Ratibor” covers a smaller area than the 1811 plan and is on a smaller scale, 1 : 7,200. The plan measures 48 cm x 32.3 cm. It was also created by the geometer Andre Wihrheim. The only copy of the plan is in AP Opole, reference number: AP Opole, Rej. Opole. Kart., sign. IX/92. I only have a blurry picture of him.” [EDITOR’S NOTE: “AP Opole” stands for “Archiwum Państwowe Opole,” the State Archives in Opole, Poland]

The main conclusion one can draw from this map is that the defensive towers and curtain walls were mostly still intact in 1812. This means the Bruck’s Hotel, whose approximate location I’ve shown on the map, could not yet have existed at this time since the curtain walls would have impeded its construction.

According to Weltzel, the Bruck’s Hotel was referred to as the “Prinzen von Preußen” (“Princes of Prussia”) rather than “Prinz von Preußen” (“Prince of Prussia”), with no mention of the Bruck surname. He also tells us the property where the hotel was eventually built had previously been owned by the so-called Schützengilde, the shooting club, and sat along Oder Gasse, as Oderstrasse was then known. The Schützengilde had two structures on their property, a Schützenzwinger, or clubhouse, and a Schießstand, or firing range. The clubhouse faced Oder Gasse, while the firing range sat towards the rear of the property closer to the Oder River.

At the time Weltzel was researching his book he had access to the shooting club’s records dating back to 1620. According to these documents the Schützengilde owned the property on Oder Gasse until 1824/25 when they sold it to the city of Ratibor in two transactions; by May 1825 the city had full possession of the entire property. Using the proceeds from the sale of the property, the shooting club purchased another property in town. Seemingly, Weltzel does not discuss how the city used the property following its acquisition.

Peter Albrecht von Preußen uncovered a YouTube video describing the activities of the Schützengilde today featuring none other than my late friend Paul Newerla. While the video is in both German and Polish with subtitles in both these languages, readers can get a general idea of how the shooting club operates today and view some of the antique weapons members fire:

Schlesien Jornal 23 08 2016

youtu.be

In essence, Paul Newerla says that today the Schützengilde is principally a historical society and functions as a recreational club rather than as a defensive force as it once did. As previously mentioned, the club relocated from Oder Gasse in 1825, but moved again in 1898 to their present location. The existing clubhouse incorporates a tower (Figure 16) that may be a remembrance of the Oder Thor that once stood adjacent to their property on Oder Gasse. According to Paul, the oldest documents the club possesses date to 1925, so he is appealing to anyone that may have older artifacts or memorabilia to contact the club. And finally, we learn the Schützengilde was inoperative from the 8^th of May 1945 until 2004, when it was resurrected.

Figure 16. The “Schützengilde’s” existing clubhouse incorporating a tower than be a remembrance of the “Oder Thor” near its original location on Oder Gasse

Let me turn now to the two high resolution maps from 1831 and 1843 that Magda sent me and discuss what inferences can be drawn from them. Both plans show two buildings on the property, the 1843 map more distinctly, where the Bruck’s Hotel would eventually be built. On the 1831 map (Figure 17), in the rear structure, that’s to say the shooting range, readers can vaguely make out what Weltzel refers to as a “wall extension” that paralleled the lane where Bollwerk Strasse was ultimately sited. It would appear the firing range incorporated as an extension a fragmentary part of the curtain walls that once surrounded Ratibor.

Figure 17. 1831 plan map of Ratibor with the two structures and the defensive curtain walls that were part of the “Schützengilde” along Oder Gasse vaguely visible

One thing we can conclude from the 1843 map (Figure 18) is that the Oder Thor, Oder Tower, the tower closest to where the hotel was ultimately built had apparently not yet been demolished, though as previously mentioned the wooden gate had been removed in 1825. The tower is labelled on the map suggesting it was still in place. It’s difficult to know precisely where the Oder Thor was situated relative to the hotel making it hard to know whether it would have impeded construction of the building; however, the defensive curtain walls would assuredly have prevented construction of the inn.

Figure 18. 1843 plan map of Ratibor with the “Oder Thor”, as well as the two structures that formed part of the “Schützengilde” circled

Another thing we can observe from the 1843 ocular map of Ratibor is that if you extend the line that was formerly part of the curtain wall and the extension of the Schießstand, it lines up perfectly with the side of the Oder Thor that was closest to the Oder River.

So, we return to the question of when the Bruck’s Hotel might have been built and what the impetus for doing so would have been. A French travel guide dated 1836 entitled “Manuel du Voyageur en Allemagne” (Handbook for Travelers in Germany), mentions an auberge or inn in Ratibor, “Auberge de Jaeschke.” (Figure 19) Prior to construction of the Bruck’s Hotel this is believed to have been the only guesthouse in Ratibor.

Figure 19. Page from the 1836 “Manuel du Voyageur en Allemagne” (Handbook for Travelers in Germany) mentioning an “auberge” or inn in Ratibor named “Auberge de Jaeschke”

As previously discussed, the “Prinz von Preußen” is mentioned in John Murray’s 1850 publication “A Hand-Book for Travellers on the Continent,” and is described as a “very comfortable hotel.” (see Figure 14b) Clearly, by 1850 the “Prinz von Preußen” Hotel was open for business. This is further confirmed by a concert the famed Austrian composer Johann Strauss delivered on the 17^th of October 1850 in the hotel’s concert hall. (Figure 20) A similar recital by Dr. Franz Lizst four years earlier on the 29^th of May 1846 was performed at the so-called “Jaschke’schen Saale” (Figure 21), presumably part of the “Auberge de Jaeschke,” indirect evidence the newer and larger Prinz von Preußen concert hall was not yet open.

Figure 20. Notice for Johann Strauss’ recital at the “Prinz von Preußen” on the 17th of October 1850

Figure 21. Notice for Dr. Franz Lizst’s recital at the “Jaschke’schen Saale” on the 29th of May 1846

According to Weltzel, the anticipated arrival of the railroad in Ratibor, which began service on the 1^st of January 1846, caused a “building boom” between 1842 and 1850. If the 1843 map is accurate, the Oder Thor still stood at this time, so construction of the hotel post-dates its removal. While there is no smoking gun, the indirect evidence points to the Prinz von Preußen having been built sometime between 1845 and 1847, coinciding with the arrival of the railroad. No doubt regular train service and mention of the Prinz von Preußen in an English travel guide would have accelerated the number of visitors and tourists from Germany, Austria, and far-off places who would have expected modern conveniences. It can only be hoped the hotel’s Grundbuch still exists and is eventually found to definitively answer the question of what year the inn was built.

REFERENCES

First Silesian War. (2023, July 20). In Wikipedia. First Silesian War – Wikipedia

Knie, Johann G. (1845). Alphabetisch-statistisch-topographische Uebersicht der Dörfer, Flecken, Städte und andern Orte der Königl. Preuß. Provinz Schlesien.

Alphabetisch-statistisch-topographische Uebersicht der Dörfer, Flecken … – Johann G. Knie – Google Books

Murray, John (1850). A hand-book for travellers on the continent. London: John Murray.

A hand-book for travellers on the continent. [1st] [2 issues of the 16th and … : John Murray : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

Racibórz. (2024, January 25). In Wikipedia. Racibórz – Wikipedia

Seven Years’ War. (2024, February 24). In Wikipedia. Seven Years’ War – Wikipedia

Sottor, Christoph (2020, August 3). The oldest plans of the city of Racibórz. ZiemiaRaciborska.pl.

The oldest plans of the city of Racibórz – Ziemia Raciborska

Weltzel, Augustin (1861).

Geschichte der Stadt Ratibor : Weltzel, Augustin : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

POST 150: UPPER SILESIAN GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY, PRIMARY SOURCE DOCUMENTS FROM RATIBOR [RACIBÓRZ, POLAND]

Note: In this post I discuss some primary source documents from Ratibor [today: Racibórz, Poland] and Upper Silesia I was recently made aware of. I also explain to readers how to access these online ancestral records digitized by the Upper Silesian Genealogical Society. Finally, I highlight a few “gems” I uncovered that date back to my earliest known Bruck ancestor from Ratibor.

POST 14, POSTSCRIPT: RATIBOR & THE BRAUER (BREWER) M. BRAUN “LINK” TO AMERICA

POST 149: A CHILDHOOD FRIEND’S EARLY ANCESTORS FROM UPPER SILESIA & RATIBOR [RACIBÓRZ, POLAND] (PART 1-BACKGROUND)

This story begins with an email my good friend Peter Albrecht von Preußen (Figure 1) sent me with a link to a Dropbox account with a stash of primary source documents from Ratibor, Germany [today: Racibórz, Poland]. Regular readers will recognize this as the town in Upper Silesia (Figure 2) to which some of my Jewish ancestors had an association of over 100 years and where the erstwhile family establishment, the Bruck’s “Prinz von Preußen” Hotel, was owned through three generations of my family, from around 1850 until 1926.

Having previously and on multiple occasions carefully examined three microfilm rolls of Jewish vital records from Ratibor (i.e., LDS Family History Center (FHC) Microfilms 1184447, 1184448, & 1184449) available through the Mormon Church’s familysearch website and having personally visited and spent many hours at the Archiwum Państwowe w Katowicach Oddział w Raciborzu, the State Archives in Katowice, Branch in Racibórz (Figure 3), scrutinizing civil registration records of vital events for my family, I had scant expectations of finding anything new. I had no reason to believe additional documents of vital events for Jews from Ratibor still exist. I could not have been more wrong.

Figure 3. Entrance to the “Archiwum Państwowe w Katowicach Oddział w Raciborzu,” the State Archives in Katowice, Branch in Racibórz

Below I will walk readers step-by-step through how to access the database I learned about that includes not only primary source documents about Jews from Ratibor and some adjoining towns but also the more extensive Catholic and Lutheran parish records from across Upper Silesia. I will also detail some of the most satisfying discoveries I made about some near and distant forebears, breakthroughs I honestly thought I would never realize. However, I’m going to start at the tail end and explain the origin of these primary source documents.

The source of the documents Peter sent me is the “Górnośląskie Towarzystwo Genealogiczne ‘Silius Radicum’,” or the Upper Silesian Genealogical Society “Silesian Roots.” Under an agreement signed on the 21^st of January 2015 with the State Archives in Katowice, the Society obtained permission to digitize genealogical records in the State Archive, a function not then being undertaken by the National Archives. The Society further obtained authorization to post the digitized records to their website.

The published books are classified according to the three main faiths, Roman Catholic, Evangelical, and Jewish within the historical area of Upper Silesia. The records generally cover the years 1800 to 1874 and are duplicates of records which were submitted to the court. At the time these records were created, the Standesämter, the civil registration offices, had not yet been established in Prussia, something which began in 1874.

The Ratibor-related files to which Peter Albrecht sent me the Dropbox link are listed in the following table:

Book Signature Number	Polish & English Names	No. of Pages

1693	*Racibórz akta ludności wyznania mojżeszowego—urodzenia 1851-1855.* Racibórz population records of the Jewish faith, births 1851 – 1855.	304
1694	*Racibórzakta ludności wyznania mojżeszowego–urodzenia 1910* Racibórz population records of the Jewish faith, births 1910	12
1695	*Racibórzakta ludności wyznania mojżeszowego–małżeństwa 1869-1870* Racibórz records of Jewish population, marriages 1869-1870	299
1696	*Racibórzakta ludności wyznania mojżeszowego–małżeństwa 1872-1885* Racibórz records of the Jewish population, marriages 1872-1885	376
1697	*Racibórzakta ludności wyznania mojżeszowego–urodzenia, małżeństwa 1852-1853* Racibórz population records of the Jewish faith, births + marriages 1852-1853	386
1698	*Racibórz(powiat)akta ludności wyznania mojżeszowego–urodzenia, zgony 1841-1847* Racibórz (county) population records of the Jewish faith, births + deaths 1841-1847	17
1699	*Racibórzakta ludności wyznania mojżeszowego–urodzenia, małżeństwa, rozwody, zgony 1815-1844* Racibórz Jewish population records – births + marriages + divorces + deaths 1815-1844	87
1700	*Racibórzakta ludności wyznania mojżeszowego–urodzenia, małżeństwa, rozwody, zgony 1845-1847* Racibórz Jewish population records, births + marriages + divorces + deaths 1845-1847	18
1701	*Gorzyceakta ludności wyznania mojżeszowego–urodzenia, małżeństwa, zgony 1843-1847* Gorzyce (Groß Gorschütz) Jewish population records, births + marriages + deaths 1843-1847	26
1702	*Kornowacakta ludności wyznania mojżeszowego–urodzenia, małżeństwa, zgony1845-1848* Kornowac (Kornowatz) Jewish population records – births, marriages, deaths 1845-1848	24
	TOTAL PAGES	1,549

For my purposes, Signature Books 1701 (Groß Gorschütz) and 1702 (Kornowatz) were of no interest.

While theoretically including records between 1800 and 1874, readers will notice significant gaps in what’s been digitized. Whether those records still exist or have yet to be scanned is unknown. Excluding Signature Books 1701 and 1702 which cover areas outside Ratibor, the table below shows the years for which birth, marriage, divorce, and death records are available for Ratibor through the Upper Silesian Genealogical Society’s website:

Ratibor Births

Ratibor Marriages

Ratibor Divorces

Ratibor Deaths

1815-1844 (Book 1699)

1841-1847 (Book 1698)

1845-1847 (Book 1700)

1851-1855 (Book 1693)

1910 (Book 1694)

1815-1844 (Book 1699)

1845-1847 (Book 1700)

1869-1870 (Book 1695)

1872-1885 (Book 1697)

1815-1844 (Book 1699)

1845-1847 (Book 1700)

1815-1844 (Book 1699)

1841-1847 (Book 1698)

1845-1847 (Book 1700)

Comparing the above to what’s available for Ratibor through the Mormon Church’s Family History Library, we find three films with Jewish records. Microfilm 1184447 includes cemetery deeds between 1888 and 1940; Microfilm 1184448 records deaths between 1865 and 1930; and Microfilm 1184449 documents births between 1815 and 1874 and marriages between 1814 and 1862. Clearly researchers would want to examine both databases since there’s only partial overlap. More on this below.

Before discussing the most informative documents found in the other Signature Books, let me describe the process step by step for accessing the primary source documents digitized by the Upper Silesian Genealogical Society:

Go to https://siliusradicum.pl/en/ksiegi-metrykalne/
On the portal page, readers can select one of four languages: English, German, Polish, or Czech;
While the “User Panel” allows you to sign in or register, the records can be accessed without doing so simply by scrolling down the page to the list of towns;
The towns for which Signature Books are available are listed alphabetically;
By way of example, select “ASC Jewish Community—Racibórz (Ratibor”;
Select “Browse online with Dropbox” towards the bottom of the page, and the ten Signature Books described above will be listed;
Select one, then scroll through the pages, and download relevant pages individually;
Once done perusing all the pages in a particular Signature Book, hit the “Back” button. Select “ASC gminy żydowskiej – Racibórz (Ratibor)” under “Copy to Dropbox” or “Download” and you’ll be taken back to the list of Signature Books. The first page of each Signature Book is a PDF page that describes its contents.

Towns in Upper Silesia besides Ratibor for which Jewish Signature Books have been digitized include Beuthen [today: Bytom, Poland]; Chorzow [today: Chorzów, Poland]; Dzietzkowitz [today: Dziećkowice, district of Mysłowice, Poland]; Gleiwitz [today: Gliwice, Poland]; Gollasowitz [today; Golasowice, Poland]; Kattowitz [Katowice, Poland]; Königshütte [today: Royal Huta, Poland]; Myslowitz [today: Mysłowice, Poland]; Pless [today: Pszczyna, Poland]; Rybnik [today: Rybnik, Poland]; and [Tarnowskie Góry, Poland];

For my purposes, Ratibor Signature Books, 1693, 1695, 1699, and 1700 were most informative.

I dub my great-great-great-grandfather Jacob Nathan Bruck (1770-1836) the paterfamilias of the Ratibor line of the Bruck family. As recently as Post 149, Part 1, I wrote it was indeterminately estimated he was born in 1762 or 1770 and died in 1832 or 1836. Thanks to a death register listing I found in Signature Book 1699, I now know his exact death date, the 29th of June 1836, when he was 66 years of age (Figure 4), meaning he obviously was born in 1770. This was the most exciting find in the Signature Books from Ratibor.

Figure 4. The death register listing found in Ratibor Signature Book 1699 showing my great-great-great-grandfather Jacob Nathan Bruck died on the 29th of June 1836 at the age of 66

I will devote an upcoming post to the scant but tantalizing clues I’ve collected about Jacob Nathan Bruck, including the number of children I can firmly document that he and his wife, Marianne Aufrecht, begat. Various ancestral trees I’ve found on ancestry.com and in MyHeritage claim that his first offspring was a daughter named Helene Bruck who was purportedly married to an Itzig Mendel Guttman Aufrecht. Serendipitously, I also found Helene Aufrecht, née Bruck’s, death register listing showing she died in 1838 at the age of 68 (Figure 5), meaning that like Jacob Bruck she too was born in 1770. They could conceivably have been twins but were more likely cousins. While it’s possible Jacob’s first daughter was indeed named Helene, something I’ve not yet found evidence of, Helene Aufrecht was assuredly not Jacob’s daughter and Itzig Aufrecht was certainly not Jacob’s son-in-law. Intriguingly, Helene gave birth to a child in 1815 at the improbable age of 45. (Figure 6)

Figure 5. The death register listing found in Ratibor Signature Book 1699 for Marianne Aufrecht, née Bruck, married to Itzig Mendel Guttman Aufrecht, showing she died on the 20th of May 1838 at the age of 68

Figure 6. Birth register listing showing that Helene Bruck and Itzig Mendel Guttman Aufrecht had a boy named Nathan born on the 2nd of September 1815 when Helene would have been 45 years old

I often remind readers that some information found on family trees in ancestry.com, MyHeritage, and Geneanet with respect to dates of vital events and names and numbers of offspring is notoriously unreliable. Unverified vital data is often cloned from existing trees by people seeking to build their own genealogical charts. I typically reject much of this data unless it’s backed up by primary source documentation, particularly as it relates to individuals born in the late 18th and early 19th centuries when records on Jews living then are sparse.

It is not my intention to review all the personally intriguing discoveries I made in perusing the digitized Silius Radicum records from Ratibor, since they are of scant interest to most readers. However, several things stand out that are worth briefly discussing.

Even if the Ratibor records in Silius Radicum themselves are unique, some of the data was previously known to me from similar documents in which the same data was recorded. For example, three of the paterfamilias Jacob Nathan Bruck’s oldest daughters were married, respectively, in 1814 (Wilhelmine Bruck), 1817 (Dorothea Babette Bruck), and 1822 (Fanny Bruck). I previously discovered this information on LDS Family History Center Microfilm 1184449 where a register documenting their marriages and family relationships was found. (Figures 7-8) On the typed Jewish Records Indexing-Poland database, much of the same information is recorded, presumably copied from the Mormon Church’s films. (Figure 9)

Figure 7. Page from LDS FHC Microfilm 1184449 showing that two of Jacob Nathan Bruck’s daughters got married, Wilhelmine on the 7th of March 1814 and Dorothea Babette Bruck on the 25th of February 1817

Figure 8. Another register page from LDS FHC Microfilm 1184449 showing that another of Jacob Nathan Bruck’s daughters, Fanny, got married on the 26th of November 1822

Figure 9. Page from the Jewish Records Indexing-Poland database listing the marriages of Jacob Nathan Bruck’s three eldest daughters

In Silius Radicum I discovered register pages for the same three marriages, with family relationships similarly noted. (Figures 10-11) However, the handwriting is noticeably different and the registers dissimilar in appearance, meaning the information was recorded in duplicate and likely stored separately. Clearly, the records that Silius Radicum digitized were never photographed by the Mormon Church. Obviously, this is noteworthy because it means the possibility exists that additional records for Jews from Ratibor and Upper Silesia may eventually materialize.

Figure 10. Register page from Signature Book 1699 listing the marriages of two of Jacob Nathan Bruck’s elder daughters, Wilhelmine in 1814, and Dorothea Babette Bruck in 1817, written in a different hand than the registers on FHC Microfilm 1184449

Figure 11. Another register page from Signature Book 1699 listing the marriage of Fanny Bruck in 1822, again written in a different hand

One of my ancestors from Ratibor through whom I’m related to most of my cousins in America because of his fecundity was the brewer Markus Braun (1817-1870). On LDS Family History Center Microfilm 1184449, the birth register shows he had twelve children with his first wife, Caroline Spiegel, then another two with his second wife, Johanna Goldstein, the last of whom was born after he died and named after him. Signature Book 1693, while only covering the years 1851 through 1855, includes copies of the actual birth certificates for several of Markus’ children with his first wife. In Signature Book 1700, I learned that Markus and Caroline were married on the 25th of August 1846 (Figure 12), and discovered they had a daughter named Sara, the first of 13 rather than only 12 children, on the 28th of October 1846 (Figure 13), shortly after they wed.

Figure 12. Register page from Signature Book 1700 indicating that Markus Braun and his first wife got married on the 25th of August 1846

Figure 13. Another register page from Signature Book 1700 showing that Markus Braun and Caroline Spiegel gave birth to their first child Sara on the 28th of October 1846, several months after they married

Again, the dates of birth of most of Markus’ children was previously known to me from Microfilm 1184449. What is new based on the Signature Books from Ratibor are the actual birth certificates for several of Markus and Caroline’s children and the discovery of a 13^th child with his first wife. This again proves that the documents digitized by Silius Radicum were not previously photographed by the Mormon Church and likely have not been closely studied by people investigating their ancestors from Ratibor.

One of the most extensive records I discovered was a 14-page marriage folio in Signature Book 1695 which includes Ratibor marriages from only 1869 and 1870. This brief period happens to coincide with when Alma Braun (1851-1919) (Figure 14), one of Markus’ daughters, got married to Adolph Schück (1840-1916) (Figure 15) on the 1^st of September 1870, and is their marriage file. One of my German cousins translated and interpreted the document for me. Suffice it to say, the pages contain an astonishing amount of ancestral information, including the precise date Markus Braun died, the 4^th of February 1870, at the age of 52; clearly, he died some months before Alma got married. Additionally, had I not already known this information, the file would have allowed me to work out family relationships which are recorded in detail.

Figure 14. Markus and Caroline Braun’s daughter Alma (1851-1919)

Figure 15. Adolph Schück (1840-1916) whom Alma Braun married on the 1st of September 1870; Adolph was the co-owner of the Zuckerfabrik, sugar factory, in Woinowitz, outside of Ratibor

As I mentioned above, there is some overlap between the Jewish records for Ratibor available online through familysearch and the newer stash found in Silius Radicum. For example, all the offspring of Jacob Nathan Bruck’s three eldest daughters married, respectively, in 1814, 1817, and 1822, are found in both databases. By contrast, for my great-great-grandparents Samuel Bruck (1808-1863) (Figure 16) and Charlotte Marle (1809-1861) (Figure 17), the Silius Radicum records only include eight of their nine known children; the ninth one can only be found on LDS Microfilm 1184449.

Figure 16. My great-great-grandfather Samuel Bruck (1808-1863)

Figure 17. My great-great-grandmother, Charlotte Bruck, née Marle (1809-1861)

In closing, I admit that I do not know whether the Jewish and non-Jewish vital records the Upper Silesian Genealogical Society has digitized are widely known and/or used by ancestral researchers. I can only speak for myself and acknowledge that I was unaware of them. I hope for others who are in my situation that they may discover some hidden “gems” like I did.

POST 145: PRIMARY SOURCE DOCUMENTS ABOUT MY GREAT-GREAT GRANDUNCLE, DR. JONAS BRUCK (1813-1883)

Note: In this post, I briefly discuss some primary source documents sent to me by a reader mentioning one of my renowned ancestors, Dr. Jonas Bruck (1813-1883) from Wrocław, Poland [German: Breslau], who owned an inn 120 miles away in the town of Zyttna, Prussia [Żytna, Poland]. Initially uncertain whether this related to my great-great-granduncle, after having the documents translated, I confirmed it was indeed his property.

POST 99: THE ASTONISHING DISCOVERY OF SOME OF DR. WALTER WOLFGANG BRUCK’S PERSONAL EFFECTS

POST 144: SPURIOUS AND AUTHENTIC HISTORIC DOCUMENTS RELATED TO MY GREAT-GREAT-GRANDFATHER, SAMUEL BRUCK (1808-1863)

I beg the indulgence of readers as I continue my examination of primary source documents related to some of my earliest Bruck relatives from Silesia. For reference, in Post 144, I discussed primary source documents referring to my great-great-grandfather Samuel Bruck (1808-1863) who is thought to have been the original owner of the Bruck’s “Prinz von Preußen” Hotel in Ratibor, Prussia [today: Racibórz, Poland], the family business there owned through three generations.

In this post, I briefly examine a document citing Dr. Jonas Bruck (1813-1883) who was Samuel’s younger brother. (Figure 1) The first mention I found of Jonas was in the same 1820 publication, entitled “Denkschrift über die feierliche Eröffnung des Königl. Evangel. Gymnasium zu Ratibor am 2 Juni 1819” by Dr. Carl Linge, where his older brother Samuel was listed. (Figures 2a-c) Translated as “Memorandum on the ceremonial opening of the Royal Evangelical High School in Ratibor on June 2, 1819,” this publication names all the students who attended the inaugural class upon the high school’s opening in June of 1819.

Figure 1. My great-great-granduncle Dr. Jonas Bruck (1813-1883)

Figure 2a. Cover of 1820 publication about the grand opening of the Royal Evangelical High School in Ratibor on the 2nd of June 1819

Figure 2b. Inside cover of 1820 publication about the grand opening of the Royal Evangelical High School in Ratibor on the 2nd of June 1819

Figure 2c. Page 70 of the 1820 publication listing the names of enrolled students, including Samuel Bruck and Jonas Bruck who attended the inaugural class at the Royal Evangelical High School in Ratibor on the 2nd of June 1819

The Bruck surname was reasonably common in Upper Silesia where my father’s family was concentrated for more than 100 years. When I come across mention of the family surname, I am apt to only make a mental note unless I’m aware of an ancestral connection to the town in question or unless the citation mentions ancestors to which I can link to on my ancestral tree. Thus, a question I received in June from a Polish gentleman named Mr. Jan Krajczok who lives in Rybnik, Poland caused me outwardly to have a dismissive reaction. However, his family’s three centuries-long connection to the nearby village of Żytna (i.e, Rybnik and Żytna are only about 10 miles apart) and the latter’s proximity to Ratibor, where many Brucks hail from, gave me pause. (Figure 3)

Figure 3. 1901 map showing the relationship of Ratibor, Prussia to Zyttna, Prussia

Let me provide a little more background. Mr. Krajczok was referred to me by my retired lawyer friend from Racibórz, Paul Newerla, who has written extensively about the history of Ratibor and Silesia. While helping his friends from nearby Żytna, Poland [Germany: Zyttna, Prussia], Jan checked land registration records of 19^th century owners in the village and in Register 34 seemingly found Jewish surnames; if true, these surnames would relate to the memories and oral histories of current town dwellers who recall stories of purported Jewish owners of an inn in Zyttna. According to Jan, while the inn no longer stands photos supposedly survive along with a beer glass from the inn. Jan explained that he is trying to find a connection between the last owners listed in the register and the people who occupy the space now.

While researching names found in the primary source documents, including “Heimann Ajruck (which he thinks is “Bruck”),” “Moses Mendel Bruck,” and “Jonas Bruck,” Jan stumbled upon my blog. (Figures 4a-c) He found mention I had made of “my” Dr. Jonas Bruck in Post 68, among others. To remind readers, Dr. Jonas Bruck was the father of my famed ancestor, Dr. Julius Bruck (1840-1902) (Figure 5), from Breslau, Prussia [today: Wrocław, Poland]. I don’t expect readers to recall but in 1867 Dr. Julius Bruck designed a water-cooled diaphanoscopic instrument for translumination of the bladder via the rectum; this instrument consisted of an illuminated platinum thread inserted into a double glass wall cylinder with the instrument’s outer glass chamber cooled by water. Julius and his father Jonas, and their respective wives are interred in the Old Jewish Cemetery in Wrocław in a mausoleum-like structure that has been restored. (Figure 6)

Figure 4a. Page 1 of land registration records from Zyttna, Prussia, Register 34

Figure 4b. Page 2 of land registration records from Zyttna, Prussia, Register 34

Figure 4c. Page 3 of land registration records from Zyttna, Prussia, Register 34, specifically mentioning the dentist Dr. Jonas Bruck

Figure 5. Dr. Julius Bruck (1840-1902), my famed ancestor from Breslau, Prussia [Wrocław, Poland] who invented the stomatoscope

Figure 6. Restored tombstones in the Old Jewish Cemetery in Wrocław, Poland of Dr. Jonas and Julius Bruck and their respective wives

Jan wondered whether Dr. Jonas Bruck from Breslau and Jonas Bruck from Zyttna could have been one and the same. Żytna and Wrocław are about 120 miles apart (Figure 7), so I was hard pressed to imagine why the dentist would have owned or managed an inn in Zyttna, unless of course it was an investment which he leased to a tenant. While I was dubious of the link, I’ve been working on my ancestry for long enough to realize that seemingly unrelated people and places connect in unexpected ways. For this reason, I promised Jan that I would ask my German friend, Peter Hanke, the “Wizard of Wolfsburg,” to translate the German-language documents.

Figure 7. Map showing the distance between Wrocław and Żytna

My friend Peter learned the following from the land registration records. Under “Moses Mendel Bruck,” the register shows that on the 26^th of November 1842 he purchased the plot of land with a building from Adolph Richter for 14 Reichsthaler. (see Figure 4c) Ownership was documented on the 4^th of April 1846. The next entry confirms the involvement of “the dentist Dr. Jonas Bruck.” On the 18^th of December 1845 he buys the inn from Moses Mendel Bruck for 35 Reichsthaler, and his ownership is also documented on the 4^th of April 1846. Dr. Jonas Bruck sells the inn to Johann Kotzian between the 23^rd of May 1859 and the 24^th of June 1859 for 35 Reichsthaler.

The relationship of Moses Mendel Bruck and Jonas Bruck is not evident to me since I don’t have Moses in my family tree and have never found mention of him in my research. I suspect that he may have been one of Jonas and Samuel Bruck’s older brothers, but this is mere conjecture.

In any case, notwithstanding my doubt as to Dr. Jonas Bruck’s involvement in the ownership of an inn at quite a remove from Wrocław, this is yet another reminder to myself that when researching Bruck relatives in Silesia I should keep an open mind as to how far afield I’m likely to discover relevant information.

Naturally, I shared Peter Hanke’s translation of the primary source documents from Żytna with Jan Krajczok, who in turn shared them with the villagers. The townspeople were absolutely thrilled that evidentiary materials confirmed what had previously only been a faint recollection that a Jewish family had owned an inn in town during the 19^th century. Paraphrasing Jan, what was also particularly satisfying is that a historic connection to Jews once living in the area that the Communists had sought to eradicate had been reaffirmed.

Jan concurred that as improbable as it seems that a dentist from Wrocław would own an inn and a plot of land in a small village 120 miles away, he could well imagine that Jonas was the formal owner and that he employed someone to run the establishment.

Karczma in Polish means inn. Jan happens to be a teacher of literature and philosophy and clarified that in Polish culture the person of a Jewish innkeeper is held in high regard. He explained that in Poland’s national poem, Pan Tadeusz—Sir Thaddeus by Adam Mickiewicz, the character Jankiel who is an innkeeper and a friend of the main heroes and a loyal keeper of their secrets, is esteemed and known to virtually all modern-day Poles.

The inn in Żytna was torn down after the war because of its deteriorated condition. Jan sent me a picture postcard of the inn. (Figure 8)

Figure 8. Picture postcard of the “gasthaus” or inn in Zyttna that my ancestor Dr. Jonas Bruck owned between 1845 and 1859

In closing I would note that some contemporaries of our ancestors with identical names have no known connection to our forebears, such as the Samuel Bruck from Zülz discussed in Post 144, while others are indeed our relatives, such as the Dr. Jonas Bruck from Żytna. Discerning between the two is not always a simple exercise.

REFERENCE

Linge, Dr. Carl (Director des Gymnasiums zu Ratibor) (1820). Denkschrift über die feierliche Eröffnung des Königl. Evangel. Gymnasium zu Ratibor am 2 Juni 1819, nebst den dabei gehaltenen Reden des Consistorialrath Dr. Wachler, und des Dr. Linge, und andern Beilagen herausgegeben von Dr. C. L., etc. The British Library. Digitized: August 20, 2018.

POST 144: SPURIOUS AND AUTHENTIC HISTORIC DOCUMENTS RELATED TO MY GREAT-GREAT-GRANDFATHER, SAMUEL BRUCK (1808-1863)

Note: In this post, which I anticipate will be of limited interest to most readers, I examine primary source documents related to my great-great-grandfather Samuel Bruck (1808-1863) which shed light on his business activities and legacy. The fact that he owned one of the first hotels in Ratibor in Silesia [today: Racibórz, Poland] and had his hand in other commercial ventures made finding information about him easier than it would have been for a less prominent individual.

POST 11, POSTSCRIPT: RATIBOR & BRUCK’S “PRINZ VON PREUßEN” HOTEL

POST 11, POSTSCRIPT 2: RATIBOR & BRUCK’S “PRINZ VON PREUßEN” HOTEL

POST 60: 200 YEARS OF THE ROYAL EVANGELICAL HIGH SCHOOL IN RATIBOR & A CLUE TO THE BRUCK FAMILY

POST 132: FATE OF THE BRUCK’S “PRINZ VON PREUßEN“ FAMILY HOTEL IN RATIBOR (RACIBÓRZ): GEOPOLITICAL FACTORS

Thanks to the assistance of readers, friends, and distant relatives, over the last few months I’ve acquired primary source documents that shed light on the activities of a few of my earliest Bruck relatives from Silesia (Figure 1) when it was a part of Prussia before Germany became a unified state in 1871. Primary source documents including contemporary registers of vital events, such as births, marriages, and deaths; records certifying these occurrences; contemporary handbooks and address directories; and concurrent historical accounts or diaries, are my “gold standard” for verifying the age and context of ancestral events. While these records are not infallible, they come as close as possible to confirming the timing of vital events.

Figure 1. General map of Silesia when it was part of the state of Prussia

In this post, I will discuss some evidentiary materials that my dear friend Peter Albrecht von Preußen and others have unearthed related to my great-great-grandfather Samuel Bruck (1808-1863). (Figure 2) Samuel is thought to be the original owner of the family establishment in Ratibor, Prussia [today: Racibórz, Poland], the Bruck’s “Prinz von Preußen” Hotel (Figure 3), believed to have been purchased in around 1850. However, a recently uncovered memoir penned by Eberhard Friedrich Bruck (1877-1960), one of Samuel’s grandnephews, currently being translated by his granddaughter, Helen Winter née Renshaw (b. 1948), now suggests Samuel’s father, Jacob Bruck (1770-1836), may originally have conceived the idea of building the hotel. As we speak, I am trying to run to ground other primary source documents that can not only confirm which Bruck ancestor first owned the hotel but possibly when the hotel might have been constructed.

Figure 3. Bruck’s “Prinz von Preußen” Hotel

Before launching into the documents that Peter Albrecht (Figure 4) and others have found and what I learned about Samuel, I would like to share with readers something I discovered in the process. I mistakenly believed that because the Bruck’s Hotel was in Ratibor, relevant archival materials would be restricted to the “Archiwum Państwowe w Katowicach Oddział w Raciborzu,” that’s to say the “State Archives in Katowice Branch in Racibórz.” Such is not the case. While I’ve assuredly found records about the Bruck’s Hotel in Racibórz’s archives, thanks to one of my readers I recently learned about and obtained archival materials related to the hotel from the State Archives in Wrocław, Branch in Kamieniec Ząbkowicki [formerly Kamenz, Prussia]. These latter materials will be the subject of a future post as they speak to the subject of the last days of my family’s ownership of the hotel in 1926-1927. My point to readers is that even if your family originates from one specific town in Silesia, you should keep an open mind as to which archives you search for ancestral information.

Figure 4. My good friend Peter Albrecht von Preußen

Because Peter’s surname is contained within the name of the former family establishment in Ratibor, Bruck’s Hotel “Prinz von Preußen,” and the fact that both of our families have deep ties to Silesia, caused Peter to take an interest in finding Bruck-related documents. Among other things, his discoveries shed light on my great-great-grandfather Samuel Bruck’s business activities.

Materials uncovered about Samuel Bruck provide a cautionary tale of the lens through which primary source documents should be examined. Just because historical files are related to an individual with the same name as one’s ancestor does not guarantee they are relevant, particularly if the surname is reasonably common in a geographic area.

In the online extracts of files archived at the Archiwum Państwowe w Opolu, State Archives in Opole [formerly Oppeln, Prussia], Peter found the following two files related to a Samuel Bruck from the former Prussian town of Zülz [today: Biała, informally Biała Prudnicka, Poland]:

“Die letzwillige Bestimmung des Breltesten und Handelsmannes Samuel Bruck Zülz: 1820-1835” (Figure 5)

(“The last will and testament of the brethren and merchant Samuel Bruck Zülz: 1820-1835”)

“Die gerichtliche Annahme und Niederlegung das von dem Kaufmann Samuel Bruck am 13 Januar 1832 verschlossen übergebene Testaments: 1832-1839” (Figure 6)

(“The judicial acceptance and filing of the will handed over by the merchant Samuel Bruck on 13 January 1832 in sealed form: 1832-1839”)

Figure 5. Index in the State Archives in Opolo to the file containing “The last will and testament of the brethren and merchant Samuel Bruck Zülz: 1820-1835”

Figure 6. Index in the State Archives in Opolo to the file containing “The judicial acceptance and filing of the will handed over by the merchant Samuel Bruck on 13 January 1832 in sealed form: 1832-1839”

Though the wills relate to a Samuel Bruck who filed testaments in the town of Zülz [today: Biała, informally Biała Prudnicka, Poland], this alone was not enough to convince me they related to someone other than my ancestor. As I just mentioned, I’ve found documents on the Bruck’s Hotel in Ratibor in archives other than Racibórz. For geographic reference, Opole is roughly 26 miles north-northeast of Biała. (Figure 7)

Figure 7. Map showing the distance between Biała (German: Zülz) and Opole (German: Oppeln)

Let me briefly digress. Readers cannot fail to notice that the two wills filed with the court in Zülz date from when Samuel Bruck, born in 1808, would respectively have been only 12 and 24 years of age. However unlikely writing wills at such a young age might appear to us, I try and imagine how different things might have been almost 200 years ago. I considered the possibility that Samuel had been extremely precocious and might have felt obligated to write a will as improbable as this seems.

Persuaded both files might relate to my ancestor, I ordered them. (Figures 8-9) Upon their arrival, I asked my fourth cousin Thomas Koch if he could help me make sense of the 39 pages of records I’d been sent; Thomas is the great-great-grandnephew of Samuel Bruck, thus he has an interest in the Bruck’s Hotel and Samuel Bruck.

Figure 8. Cover page of the 1820 file for the merchant Samuel Bruck from Zülz

Figure 9. Cover page of the 1832 file for the merchant Samuel Bruck from Zülz

There were some immediate clues the wills from Zülz related to someone other than my Samuel Bruck. The Samuel Bruck in question was apparently the owner of a local pawnshop and an ironmonger (i.e., a dealer in iron and hardware), as well as a money lender, trades I’ve never heard associated with the Samuel Bruck from Ratibor. The Zülz wills also refer to Samuel as a parish or community elder, terms unlikely to have been applied to a 12 or 24-year old person. For the most part, the files document what court officials said, the actions of Samuel Bruck, and the fees to be paid by Samuel. Something notably absent that would affirmatively have allowed me to determine the testator are named heirs, none of whom are identified.

Convinced the Samuel Bruck from Zülz, though likely related to my Bruck family from Ratibor (Biała and Racibórz are only about 38 miles apart (Figure 10)) in some unknown way, was not the former owner of the Bruck’s Hotel, I investigated other possibilities. I examined the Church of Latter-Day Saints Family Historic Center Microfilm 1271493 for Zülz, and discovered a Samuel Bruck born there on the 10th of September 1761. (Figure 11) It seems likely this Samuel Bruck is the person whose 1820 and 1832 wills were filed locally.

Figure 10. Map showing the distance between Biała (German: Zülz) to Racibórz (German: Ratibor)

Figure 11. Record from LDS Family Historic Center Microfilm 1271493 for Zülz listing a Samuel Bruck born there on the 10th of September 1761

One document, however, that unequivocally relates to the Samuel Bruck from Zülz is a notice about a bankruptcy auction that took place on the 23^rd of June 1837 in Zülz (Figures 12a-b), presumably following this Samuel Bruck’s death in 1836 or 1837. The reason for this certainty is that this Samuel Bruck is identified in the notice as a “Eisenhändlert,” an iron trader, just as his wills identify him. According to Peter, while it is unusual for the estate of a deceased person to wind up in bankruptcy, this is possible when there are no heirs and/or no will. We know two testaments existed, so likely there were no heirs.

Figure 12a. Bankruptcy auction notice for the estate of the iron trader Samuel Bruck placed in a newspaper from Zülz dated the 23rd of June 1837

Figure 12b. Transcribed bankruptcy auction notice for Samuel Bruck identifying him as a “Eisenhändlert,” an iron trader

There is another document in my possession that should have clued me in to the fact that Samuel Bruck from Zülz was not my great-great-grandfather. In connection with his research, my retired lawyer friend from Racibórz, Paul Newerla, who has written extensively about Ratibor and Silesia found a historic publication from 1820 about the grand opening of the Royal Evangelical High School in Ratibor on the 2^nd of June 1819. (Figures 13a-c) It lists the names of the enrolled students, including both Samuel Bruck and his younger brother, Jonas Bruck (1813-1883). It is more reasonable to surmise that at the age of 11, Samuel Bruck would have been in school in Ratibor rather than writing wills.

Figure 13a. Cover of 1820 publication about the grand opening of the Royal Evangelical High School in Ratibor on the 2nd of June 1819

Figure 13b. Inside cover of 1820 publication about the grand opening of the Royal Evangelical High School in Ratibor on the 2nd of June 1819

Figure 13c. Page 70 of the 1820 publication listing the names of enrolled students, including Samuel Bruck and Jonas Bruck who attended the inaugural class at the Royal Evangelical High School in Ratibor on the 2nd of June 1819

Samuel Bruck is listed in an 1843 merchant member book, entitled “Grosses Adressbuch der Kaufleute, Fabrikanten und handelnden Gewerbsleute von Europa und der hauptplazen der fremden Weltheile: Brandenburg, Preussen, Posen, Pommern, Schlesien,” “Large address book of the merchants, manufacturers, and trading professionals from Europe and the main square of the foreign world salvation: Brandenburg, Prussia, Posen, Pomerania, Silesia.” (Figures 14a-b) Interestingly, 1843 corresponds with the year that a city map of Ratibor shows the location where the Bruck’s Hotel once stood having a building on the lot. (Paul Newerla, personal communication) Samuel Bruck’s listing in the 1843 merchant member guide, however, may or may not have anything to do with his ownership of the Hotel “Prinz von Preußen” at this time. Samuel is known to have been involved in other businesses.

Figure 14a. Cover of 1843 merchant guide, entitled “Grosses Adressbuch der Kaufleute, Fabrikanten und handelnden Gewerbsleute von Europa und der hauptplazen der fremden Weltheile: Brandenburg, Preussen, Posen, Pommern, Schlesien,” listing Samuel Bruck from Ratibor

Figure 14b. Page from 1843 merchant guide listing Samuel Bruck from Ratibor

As a related aside, Ratibor was once a walled city. It was not until 1828 that the Oder gate, the tower nearest where the Bruck’s Hotel was eventually built, was demolished; the removal of this gate made it possible to extend Oderstraße, the street on which the Bruck’s Hotel stood (Paul Newerla, personal communication). It’s safe to assume that it was only after 1828 that the Hotel “Prinz von Preußen” Hotel could have been built.

As readers can generally make out from the photo of the hotel (see Figure 3), it was a reasonably large building known to have had 32 guest rooms. How long the hotel took to build, who paid for the construction, and the date of the grand opening are yet unknown. Whether I will be able to work out the answers to these questions is a big unknown.

The famous Austrian composer, Johann Strauss II, is known to have performed twice at the Hotel “Prinz von Preußen” once on the 17^th of October 1850, then again, a month later, on the 17^th of November 1850. Neither advertisement makes mention of the “Bruck’s Hotel,” only “Prinz von Preußen.” Possibly at the time Samuel Bruck did not yet own the hotel.

By the middle of 1852, Samuel Bruck assuredly owned the establishment because he signed a contract on the 14^th of October 1852 permitting the so-called Liedertafel to hold meetings in the hotel’s ballroom beginning in January 1853. (Figures 15a-c) Page 20 (Figure 15c) mentions the “Hotelbesitzer Bruck,” that’s to say, the hotel owner Bruck. This citation occurs in a 1909 publication, entitled “Festschrift zum 75 jährigen Jubelfest der Liedertafel,” “The commemorative publication for the 75th anniversary of the Liedertafel,” in Ratibor. It was released on the 25^th and 26^th of September 1909 in conjunction with the unveiling of the Joseph Freiherr von Eichendorf monument in Ratibor. (Figure 15d)

Figure 15a. Page 20 of book about the Liedertafel mentioning the Bruck’s Hotel

Figure 15b. Page 21 of book about the Liedertafel mentioning the Bruck’s Hotel

Figure 15c. Page 20 of Liedertafel book with Bruck’s Hotel citation circled

Figure 15d. Cover page of the book marking the 75th anniversary of the “Liedertafel” in Ratibor, released in conjunction with the unveiling of the Eichendorff monument

The Liedertafel translates literally to “song board.” It was a co-ed musical society or amateur choir, which in the case of the Ratibor group consisted of about 88 members. They met in the large ballroom of the Bruck’s Hotel every Thursday and Friday evening for an à la carte dinner with plenty of alcohol, followed by a sing-along to music played by a pianist, often accompanied by a bassist, cellist, and violinist. Their contract with the hotel suggests Samuel Bruck was a well-regarded and integrated member of the community.

Another mundane document tracked down by Peter Albrecht shows that Samuel Bruck was allowed to operate as an inn keeper by the police after obtaining fire insurance for the hotel through a company in Stettin [today Szczecin, Poland] called “Pommerania.” (Figure 16) Although the announcement published in Oppeln, Prussia [today: Opole, Poland] on the 4^th of March 1856 makes no specific mention of fire insurance, to secure police permission to operate the inn, it is implicit that fire insurance was obtained.

Figure 16. March 4, 1856, announcement in Oppeln paper proving Samuel Bruck had obtained police approval to operate his inn after obtaining insurance from a company called “Pommerania,” located in Stettin [today: Szczecin, Poland]

An advertisement Samuel Bruck posted in April 1858 indicates that he was involved in more than running an inn and being a lumber wholesaler. According to this ad he also sold lump lime (Figure 17):

Figure 17. April 1858 advertisement by Samuel Bruck offering lump lime for sale from his lime kiln in Moerau [German: Mohrau; Polish: Morów]

Transcribed:

Kalk-Anzeige

Von meinem in Moerau gelegenen Kalkoefen verkaufe ich besten Stueckkalk, den Waggon von 33 Tonnen mit 27 Rthlr. (Reichstahler) frei hier. Gefaellige Auftraege werden prompt und bestens ausgefuehrt.

Ratibor, im April 1858

S. Bruck

im Hotel “ Prinz von Preußen”

Translated:

Lime Ad

From my lime kiln located in Moerau I am selling the best lump lime, the wagon of 33 tons with 27 Rthlr. (Reichstahler) free here. Appropriate orders are executed promptly and in the best possible way.

Ratibor, April 1858

S. Bruck

in the hotel “Prince of Prussia”

Let me offer a few comments about this ad. The spelling of many place names in Prussia changed between 1890 and 1900, so “Moerau” became known as “Mohrau,” (Figure 18) and is now known as Morów, Poland. It is about 57 miles northwest of Racibórz. (Figure 19)

Figure 18. Old map from Meyers Gazetteer showing location of Mohrau, Prussia

Figure 19. Map showing the distance between Racibórz and Morów

From 1855 onwards, a Prussian ton was equivalent to 200 kilos or almost 441 pounds. Thirty-three Prussian tons was equivalent to 6,600 kilos, 6.6 metric tons, or 14,551 pounds. Presumably this was the maximum weight an ox cart could handle.

Samuel Bruck passed away in July 1863. In June 1864, an official notice was placed in the Ratibor paper stating that Samuel Bruck’s handelsgesellschaft, holding company, which had been inherited by Samuel’s seven children, was ceded by the co-heirs to Samuel’s oldest child, Oskar Bruck, making him the sole owner of the S. Bruck Handelsgesellschaft. (Figure 20)

Figure 20. June 2, 1864 notice from Ratibor paper announcing Samuel Bruck’s “handelsgesellschaft,” holding company, which had been inherited by Samuel’s seven children, was ceded by the co-heirs to Samuel’s oldest child, Oskar Bruck

Transcription:

Bekanntmachung

Bei der sub Nr. 69 unseres Firmen-Register fūr den Kaufmann Samuel Bruck eingetragen Firma S. Bruck ist zufolge Verfügung vom 2ten Juni 1864 der Vermerk:

Die Firma ist durch Erbgang auf die Geschwister Oskar, Fedor, Jenny, Emilie, Julius, Helene und Wilhelm Bruck übergangen und die Miterben haben dieselbe dem Kaufmann Oskar Bruck abgetreten, und sub Nr. 189 unseres Firmen-Registers der Kaufmann Oskar Bruck hierselbst als Inhaber der hiesigen Firma S. Bruck zufolge Verfügung von dem selben Tage eingetragen worden.

Ratibor, den 2. Juni 1864

Königliches Kreisgericht, 1. Abtheilung

Translation:

Announcement

According to the decree of June 2, 1864, the company S. Bruck, registered under No. 69 of our register of companies for the merchant Samuel Bruck, is marked:

The company has passed by inheritance to the siblings Oskar, Fedor, Jenny, Emilie, Julius, Helene and Wilhelm Bruck and the co-heirs have ceded the same to the merchant Oskar Bruck, and sub No. 189 of our company register the merchant Oskar Bruck has been registered here as the owner of the local company S. Bruck according to the decree of the same day.

Ratibor, June 2, 1864

Royal District Court, 1st Department

We learn a few unexciting things from this announcement. First, Oskar Bruck was a kaufmann, a merchant, which would have required a four-year apprenticeship. Had I not already known the names of Samuel’s children, this announcement would have provided this information. Samuel Bruck’s Handelsgesellschaft was registered as Number 69 in the District Court, while Oskar Bruck’s Handelsgesellschaft is registered as Number 189. As we speak, I’m trying to determine whether these files still exist in the Racibórz archives.

The final document related to Samuel Bruck involves a landmark Prussian case that his eldest son Oskar Bruck got involved in following his father’s death. The case is discussed at length in a book on Prussian case law published in 1867, entitled “Central-Organ fur die deutsche handels- und Wechselrecht,” “Central Organ for German Commercial and Exchange Law.” (Figure 21)

Figure 21. Cover of Prussian case law book published in 1867, entitled “Central-Organ fur die deutsche handels- und Wechselrecht,” “Central Organ for German Commercial and Exchange Law,” providing a detailed description of the landmark case involving Samuel and Oskar Bruck’s estate

While the following will be of limited interest to most readers, let me briefly outline and summarize the salient points of this very involved case for readers.

In addition to being an inn owner, Samuel Bruck was a lumber wholesaler, and may have made his money here which enabled him to construct and/or purchase the Bruck’s Hotel. Shortly before his death in 1863, Samuel entered into a contract with a Dutch merchant, David Schwedter, agreeing to sell him 260 pieces of 4” x 4” structural lumber, possibly the equivalent of four ox carts of finished product. The Dutchman lived in the vicinity of Berlin, and had requested Samuel deliver the milled lumber there, which he’d agreed to.

Following Samuel’s death, Oskar Bruck acted on an interim basis on behalf of the the S. Bruck Handelsgesselchaft, which the probate court only officially granted him authority to do in his own name on the 2nd of June 1864 (see Figure 20). Regardless, following his father’s death, he notified Schwedter by mail that the transaction would go forward as planned and that he would run the S. Bruck Handelsgesselchaft.

Either Samuel before his death or Oskar contracted with an agent named Atzpodim who had a warehouse in Brieskow (Figure 22), near Frankfurt an der Oder. Schwedter had agree that Atzpodim would be the pickup point for the lumber. Oskar Bruck shipped the lumber to Atzpodim who acknowledged receipt of the materials. Oskar then notified Schwedter the lumber was ready for pickup at Atzpodim’s warehouse, and invoiced him, as agreed upon.

Figure 22. Old map from Meyers Gazetteer showing location of Brieskow, near Frankfurt an der Oder

Schwedter then mailed a letter to Oskar requesting him to instruct Atzpodim to transport the lumber to J.J. Stramer’s warehouse located in Stralow [today: Stralau in the Friedrichshain district of Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg in Berlin, Germany]. (Figure 23) The distance between the two towns is about 64 miles. (Figure 24)

Figure 23. Old map from Meyers Gazetteer showing location of Stralow [today: Stralau]

Figure 24. Map showing the distance between Brieskow and Stralau

Three or four days later, Schwedter filed for bankruptcy. Atzpodim had not yet shipped the lumber to Stramer for reasons that are not entirely clear, although possibly Atzpodim through word-of-mouth had learned of Schwedter’s financial woes and sought to protect the young Oskar Bruck. I surmise Atzpodim had been one of Samuel’s trusted business associates over the years.

At this point, the trustee for the Bankruptcy Court in Frankfurt an der Oder sued Atzpodim for release of the lumber. Had the lumber already been delivered, the Bankruptcy Court would have carried it on their books and could then have sold it at a bankruptcy auction; Oskar, as creditor, would have been paid pennies on the dollar. Atzpodim, by not delivering the lumber to Stramer, saved Oskar from a steep financial loss.

Prussian law dealt with merchandise in bankruptcy proceedings where the debtor had taken possession of the merchandise three days or less before the debtor filed for bankruptcy and had paid not in cash but with credit.

In the case at hand, Atzpodim didn’t receive instructions from Oskar Bruck until the 26th of November 1863. Schwedter filed for bankruptcy on the 30th of November 1863. The Supreme Court in Berlin upheld the lower court’s ruling that the lumber shipment fell under the 3-day rule. If the lumber had been delivered to Schwedter, which it obviously wasn’t, he would have been required to return it because he hadn’t paid in cash but by credit, with a so-called Wechsel.

Let me say a few brief words about a Wechsel. According to German law, even today, transactions based on Wechsels can only be transacted by full merchants, meaning those who have completed a 4-year apprenticeship and received a kaufmann’s certificate. Upon certification, the kaufmann is registered either as a sole proprietor or as a Handelsgesellschaft, a trading company, like those Samuel and Oskar Bruck had recorded, in the Handelsregister, commercial register, of the city where the business is licensed.

The Wechsel allows the parties to do several things. It can be used as collateral for a bank loan. It can also be used as a futures contract; thus, with a Wechsel in hand, Schwedter could have sold the lumber at a higher price for a profit. Similarly, Samuel or Oskar could have sold his obligation to produce the lumber to a different sawmill (other than the one they originally contracted with) or another lumber merchant for a profit.

In closing, let me say a few things. The specifics of the information contained in some of the primary source documents cited above are less important than the fact they still exist. For researchers seeking comparable information about their ancestors who may have owned or operated businesses, an awareness that such documents may still exist can be useful. Often, it’s a question of knowing where to look and what to ask for. On a personal level, the fact that my family was involved in a legal case that was deemed of sufficient importance to merit inclusion in a book about Prussian commercial and trade law is fascinating.

Cobbling together one’s family history invites a clichéd comparison to the saying that “Rome wasn’t built in a day.”

POST 114: EDWARD HANS LINDENBERGER, A DISTANT COUSIN: MIGHT HE HAVE SURVIVED BUCHENWALD?

Note: In this post, I consider the possibility, absent absolute evidence to the contrary, that a distant cousin I just learned about who was interned in Buchenwald might have survived his confinement in this notorious concentration camp.

Figure 1. Edward Lindenberger’s original signature from the “Häftlings-Personal-Bogen”, the prisoner personnel sheet he was compelled to sign upon his arrival at KL Mittelbau, a subcamp of concentration camp Buchenwald

I most assuredly consider my distant cousin Edward Hans Lindenberger’s life to have mattered. (Figure 1) Within this context, I review the limited evidence of his existence in terms of whether he might have survived his ordeal in the Konzentrationslager (KL), concentration camp, Buchenwald. His case serves as an illustration of a question relatives of internees likely asked themselves in the aftermath of WWII, namely, whether their loved ones might somehow have outlasted detention in Nazi internment camps. Too often this question is rhetorical because, as we know, the odds of survival once Jews were in the maws of the Nazis were infinitesimal. Yet, in the absence of irrefutable confirmation of Edward’s fate, I assess what I have been able to uncover about him and consider the remote possibility he might have lived.

Briefly, let me provide readers with an orientation on how I learned about Edward Lindenberger and how we are related. In Post 113, I discussed my great-granduncle Oskar Bruck (1831-1892) and his wife Mathilde Bruck née Preiss (1839-1922) who together had 14 or 15 children. As mentioned, Oskar Bruck had eight siblings, children of Samuel Bruck (1808-1863) (Figure 2) and Charlotte Bruck née Marle (1809-1861) (Figure 3), whose fates I’ve been trying to determine. The vital information on the nine children is presented in a table at the end of this post. For reference, Edward Lindenberger would have been one of Samuel and Charlotte Bruck’s great-grandsons.

Figure 2. My great-great-grandfather Samuel Bruck (1808-1863)

Figure 3. My great-great-grandmother Charlotte Bruck née Marle (1809-1861)

One of Oskar Bruck’s younger sisters, the eighth-born child of Samuel and Charlotte, was Helena Bruck (1845-1910). She was married to Edward Strauss (1842-1920) with whom she had three children. The youngest of these was Else Strauss (b. 1884) who married Moritz Lindenberger (b. 1877), and these were the parents of Edward Lindenberger, their only child and the subject of this post. I discovered these distant relatives on ancestry.

Ancestry.com includes documents for Moritz (Figure 4), Else (Figure 5), and Edward Lindenberger (Figure 6) entitled “Kraków, Poland, ID Card Applications for Jews During World War II, 1940-1941 (USHMM).” The page for Edward Lindenberger contains a link to another document, “Germany, Concentration Camp Records, 1937-1945” showing he was interned in a Konzentrationslager referred to as “KL Mittelbau,” a subcamp of Buchenwald concentration camp. (Figures 7a-b) Knowing that Edward’s parents had also filed for IDs as Jews living in Kraków, Poland at the same time as Edward established the fact they too had been there as late as 1941 and had probably been swept up in a deportation to a concentration camp like their son.

Figure 4. Cover sheet for Moritz Lindenberger’s “Kraków, Poland, ID Card Application for Jews During World War II, 1940-1941 (USHMM)”

Figure 5. Cover sheet for Else Lindenberger’s “Kraków, Poland, ID Card Application for Jews During World War II, 1940-1941 (USHMM)”

Figure 6. Cover sheet for Edward Lindenberger’s “Kraków, Poland, ID Card Application for Jews During World War II, 1940-1941 (USHMM)”

Figure 7a. Cover sheet for Edward Lindenberger’s “Germany, Concentration Camp Record”

Figure 7b. One page of Edward Lindenberger’s “Germany, Concentration Camp Record,” the same page found in his file at the Arolsen Archives (see Figure 15a)

I checked in the Yad Vashem Shoah Victims’ Database and, sure enough, all three of their names show up. (Figure 8) The source of the data in Yad Vashem is the aforementioned database entitled “Card file of Jews in Krakow with German identity card (‘Kennkarte’) nos. 12301-12600, with personal details and photographs, 03/1941.” (Figure 9) Based on this, it would appear pictures of Edward and his parents possibly exist. Oddly, their fates are unspecified and the transport and concentration camp where they were shipped is not identified. I assume they were deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau since it was the internment camp closest to Krakow.

Figure 8. Page from Yad Vashem with Moritz, Else, and Edward Lindenberger’s names showing their fate as “not stated”

Figure 9. The page with Moritz, Else, & Edward Lindenberger’s names from the “Card file of Jews in Krakow with German identity card (‘Kennkarte’) nos. 12301-12600, with personal details and photographs, 03/1941”

Suspecting the page of Edward Lindenberger’s internment in a Konzentrationslager might be from the Arolsen Archives, I also checked Edward’s name in this database. Surprisingly, here I discovered a complete 10-page file on him (Figure 10), including one page I had found in ancestry.com, that provides important clues. His date and place of birth are given as the 27^th of July 1925 in Bielitz, Poland [today: Bielsko-Biała, Poland]. (Figure 11) The latest date in the file suggests he was still alive as late as the 27^th of January 1945. His occupation was “mechaniker,” a mechanic. His parents’ names and father’s occupation are given, “Kaufmann. Mauricius L.” and “Alzbieta L. geb. Strausz.” The file confirms he was assigned to KL Mittelbau, which was established in late summer of 1943 as a subcamp of the Buchenwald concentration camp. (more on this below)

Figure 10. Cover page of Edward Lindenberger’s KL Mittelbau file from the Arolsen Archives, giving his name, data and place of birth, his detainee number “114883,” and the name of the four documents attached to his file

Figure 11. 1893 map of Silesia showing town of Bielitz where Edward Lindenberger was born

The file shows four documents attached: Häftlings-Personal-Karte (Detainee Personnel Card); Effektenkarte (Effects Card); Postkontr.-Karte (Post Control Card); and Häftlings-Personal-Bogen (Detainee Personnel Sheet) (Häftlings-Personal-Karte_AroA.pdf (arolsen-archives.org) Uncertain as to the significance of these documents, I started researching them. Briefly, here’s what I learned.

The Häftlings-Personal-Karte (Detainee Personnel Card) (Figures 12a-b) was created for all concentration camp prisoners. At first glance, the cards seem diverse, having been printed in different colors, having been filled out by prisoner scribes by hand, usually in pencil, or typewriter, and on some of them having a photograph of the prisoner attached. In certain instances, the cards are entirely filled in, while on others personal descriptions in the right-hand column are missing. Despite the diversity, all cards are the same document regardless of age, nationality, and category of detention, and were completed for both male and female prisoners.

Figure 12a. Side 1 of Edward Lindenberger’s “Häftlings-Personal-Karte (Detainee Personnel Card)”

Figure 12b. Side 2 of Edward Lindenberger’s “Häftlings-Personal-Karte (Detainee Personnel Card)”

The Effektenkarte (Effects Card) (Figures 13a-b) came in different colors, though all versions had the same meaning. These cards were used to manage the personal belongings prisoners had to turn over when they arrived at a concentration camp. According to the Arolsen Archives, the cards could be filled out very differently. On pre-war cards, more items were ticked or numbered than on cards from 1939 onwards. By 1944 and 1945, most cards were completely empty as the prisoners were transferred to camps with no personal belongings. It’s unknown exactly when Edward Lindenberger arrived in Buchenwald and/or whether he was transferred there from another camp, but his Effektenkarte shows no personal effects. Apparently, different stamps provided information on the disposition of the objects. As the war progressed, Nazi decrees and regulations increasingly allowed belongings to be confiscated and reused for other purposes.

Figure 13a. Side 1 of Edward Lindenberger’s “Effektenkarte (Effects Card)”

Figure 13b. Side 2 of Edward Lindenberger’s “Effektenkarte (Effects Card)”

The Postkontr.-Karte (Post Control Card) (Figures 14a-b) implausibly appears to record the incoming mail received and outgoing mail sent by concentration camp prisoners. I can find no specific information about this record, but in the case of Edward Lindenberger, predictably, there is no incoming or outgoing mail. Perhaps, like the Effektenkarte, this card was more relevant in the pre-war period?

Figure 14a. Side 1 of Edward Lindenberger’s “Postkontr.-Karte (Post Control Card)”

Figure 14b. Side 2 of Edward Lindenberger’s “Postkontr.-Karte (Post Control Card)”

The Häftlings-Personal-Bogen (Detainee Personnel Sheet) (Häftlings-Personal-Karte_AroA.pdf (arolsen-archives.org) (Figures 15a-b) is the most informative record. The form was designed in such a way that it could be printed inexpensively and in large numbers and be used in different concentration camps. The Detainee Personnel Sheets, also referred to as prisoner personnel sheets, were intended only for male prisoners, with no separate form for females; the names of spouses were almost always added by hand.

Figure 15a. Side 1 of Edward Lindenberger’s “Häftlings-Personal-Bogen (Detainee Personnel Sheet)” (see Figure 7b.)

Figure 15b. Side 2 of Edward Lindenberger’s “Häftlings-Personal-Bogen (Detainee Personnel Sheet)”

The prisoner personnel sheet was one of the central documents used to administer prisoners in the concentration camps. Upon arrival, all relevant information about a prisoner was recorded, including personal data, previous periods and reasons of imprisonment, and sentences or transfers to other camps. In the early years, registration was done by the Gestapo, which used the interrogations to harass and abuse the internees. Soon, so-called Funktionshäftlinge, prisoner functionaries or “kapos,” as Germans commonly called them, took over the interrogations.

Regarding this system, “. . .the prisoner functionary system minimized costs by allowing camps to function with fewer SS personnel. The system was designed to turn victim against victim, as the prisoner functionaries were pitted against their fellow prisoners to maintain the favor of their SS overseers. If they neglected their duties, they would be demoted to ordinary prisoners and be subject to other kapos. Many prisoner functionaries were recruited from the ranks of violent criminal gangs rather than from the more numerous political, religious, and racial prisoners; such criminal convicts were known for their brutality toward other prisoners. This brutality was tolerated by the SS and was an integral part of the camp system.” (Wikipedia)

On Edward’s personnel form, above the printed word Konzentrationslager, is handwritten “Pol. Jude,” signifying Polish Jew. Obviously, he was Polish and was interned because he was Jewish. The Nazis assigned each concentration camp inmate to a category, making it clear why he or she had been arrested. Assignment to a detention group, like nationality, led to a hierarchy in the camp, since the groups were subject to different rules, among these the amount of food or the hardship of the work. Therefore, prisoner category and nationality had an impact on one’s chances of survival.

All concentration camp prisoners were assigned a number upon arrival at a camp. Numbers were more important than names, and prisoners had to report to roll calls using them. Multiple numbers could be assigned within a camp, for example, after discharges, transfers, or death of prisoners. Prisoners transferring from another camp were almost always given new numbers.

As mentioned above, as the number of new arrivals in camps increased the Gestapo could no longer handle the registration. Consequently, the SS assigned prisoner functionaries to carry out administrative tasks or supervise forced labor. The prisoner clerk’s number recording the information was noted on the form.

The prisoner personnel sheet has a special meaning for many relatives today, especially of deceased prisoners. The signature is often the last personal sign they have of their relative. (see Figure 1) A “newcomer” to the camps had to confirm with his signature that the information he gave was true; false statements were threatened with the most severe penalties. This seems like an oxymoron since internment in a concentration camp was tantamount to a death sentence.

On the back of the prisoner personnel sheets, after the personal data and the history of imprisonment, are items that determined the lives of the concentration camp inmates: punishments and (re)transfers to other camps. However, in most cases, the prisoner personnel sheets were not updated which is why these fields are almost always empty.

Having given readers a general overview of the individual documents attached to Edward Lindenberger’s file, let me turn now to the Buchenwald subcamp to which he was assigned. This may provide clues as to whether Edward might have survived.

The Konzentrationslager where Edward Lindenberger was interned was KL Mittelbau, also referred to as Mittelbau-Dora, Dora-Mittelbau, and Nordhausen-Dora. (Figure 16) It was a Nazi concentration camp located in Nordhausen in the German state of Thuringia. (Figure 17) It was established in late summer 1943 as a subcamp of Buchenwald.

Figure 16. Map showing location of Dora-Mittelbau concentration camp in relation to Buchenwald and other German camps

Figure 17. German state of Thuringia where Dora-Mittelbau camp was located

To better understand the role that Mittelbau-Dora came to play in the Nazis’ war effort, a brief discussion of some historic events is useful. In early summer of 1943, the Germans began mass production of the A4 ballistic rocket, later and better known as the V-2, the “V” standing for Vergeltung or retribution. Among other places, it was mass produced at the Heeresanstalt Peenemunde on the Baltic Island of Usedom. On the 18^th of August 1943, a bombing raid by the Royal Air Force seriously damaged the facilities and effectively ended the construction of V-2s there.

On the 22^nd of August 1943 with Hitler seeking to move facilities to areas less threatened by Allied bombers he ordered SS leader Heinrich Himmler to use concentration camo workers in the production of the A4/V-2 rocket. One of the sites selected was at the mountain known as Kohnstein, near Nordhausen in Thuringia, not far from Buchenwald. Since 1936, the Germans had been building an underground fuel depot there for the Wehrmacht, which was almost ready by late summer 1943.

By the 28^th of August 1943, thus within ten days after the British raid on Peenemünde, inmates from Buchenwald began to arrive at the Kohnstein. Over the ensuing months, almost daily transports from Buchenwald brought thousands more prisoners. During the first months, most of the work done was heavy construction and transport.

Mittelbau-Dora exemplifies the history of the concentration camp forced labor and the subterranean relocation of armaments production during WWII. The inmates at Mittelbau-Dora, most of them from the Soviet Union, Poland, and France, were treated brutally and inhumanely, working 14-hour days, and being denied access to basic hygiene, beds, and adequate rations. There were no sanitary facilities except for barrels that served as latrines. Inmates, died from hunger, thirst, cold, and overwork. Since there were initially no huts, the prisoners were housed inside the tunnels in four-level beds. Only in January 1944, when production of the A4/V-2 began, were the first prisoners moved to the new above-ground camp on the south side of the Kohnstein though many continued to sleep in tunnels until May 1944.

Estimates are that one in three of the roughly 60,000 prisoners who were sent to Mittelbau-Dora between August 1943 and March 1945 died; the precise number of people killed is impossible to determine. By the end of 1943, the Dora work squads are known to have had the highest death rate in the entire concentration camp system.

Towards the end of 1944, as the Red Army approached Auschwitz and Gross-Rosen concentration camps (Figure 18), the SS began to evacuate the inmates from there, many winding up in Mittelbau. It seems reasonable to assume that Edward and his family were initially deported to Auschwitz since the distance there from Kraków, Poland, where the family lived, was only slightly more than 40 miles. Edward’s parents were already elderly by 1942 or whenever they were deported so likely were immediately killed. Edward, on the other hand, would only have been in his late teens so would have been considered useful to the Nazis as a slave laborer. It’s possible Edward was among those evacuated from Auschwitz to Mittelbau towards the beginning of 1945, as his Häftlings-Personal-Karte dates his arrival there as the 17^th of January 1945. Likely any who survived the transit would have been weak or sick. References suggest that between January and March 1945, around 6,000 inmates died. We have no way of knowing whether Edward was among this number.

Figure 18. Map of the concentration camps in occupied Poland including Auschwitz-Birkenau and Gross-Rosen; Edward was likely transferred from Auschwitz to Mittelbau-Dora

With the advance of US troops towards the Harz in early April 1945, just under nine miles north of Kohnstein, the SS decided to evacuate most of the Mittelbau camps. Thousands of inmates were forced to board box cars in great haste and with considerable brutality, while others were forced to walk; they were being headed northeast towards Bergen-Belsen, Sachsenhausen, and Ravensbrück concentration camps. (Figure 19) Those unable to keep up with the death marches were summarily shot. The worst atrocity, known as the Gardelegen massacre, resulted in more than 1,000 prisoners being murdered in a barn that was set on fire; those who were not burned to death were shot by the SS as they tried to escape. Again, no reliable statistics exist on the number of deaths on these transports, but estimates put the number of prisoners killed at around 8,000. On the 11^th of April 1945, US troops freed the remaining prisoners who’d been left behind at Mittelbau-Dora.

Figure 19. Map showing the location of Dora-Mittelbau in relation to Bergen-Belsen, Sachsenhausen, and Ravensbrück concentration camps where prisoners were transported or marched in early April 1945

The British Army liberated Bergen-Belsen on the 15^th of April. Many of the “kapos” there had accompanied the internees from Mittelbau, and after liberation the inmates turned on their former overseers and killed about 170 of them on that day.

So, returning to the question I asked at the outset of whether Edward Lindenberger could have survived the brutal and inhumane conditions in Buchenwald, the answer is we don’t know given the absence of accurate record-keeping in the final days of the war. However, given the chaotic conditions that prevailed towards the end of WWII, the callous and barbaric manner in which prisoners were treated, the weakened and sickened state surviving internees would have been in, and the final paroxysm of atrocities the Nazis perpetrated as they were cornered, the answer is that he likely did not reach his 20^th birthday.

VITAL STATISTICS FOR SAMUEL & CHARLOTTE BRUCK AND THEIR CHILDREN

NAME (relationship)	VITAL EVENT	DATE	PLACE	SOURCE OF DATA

Samuel Bruck (self)	Birth	11 March 1808		Pinkus Family Collection (family tree for Samuel Bruck & Charlotte Marle)
	Marriage (to Charlotte Marle)	18 January 1831	Pless, Upper Silesia, Germany [today: Pszczyna, Poland]
	Death	3 July 1863	Ratibor, Germany [today: Racibórz, Poland]	Pinkus Family Collection (family tree for Samuel Bruck & Charlotte Marle)
Charlotte Marle (wife)	Birth	2 October 1809	Pless, Upper Silesia, Germany [today: Pszczyna, Poland]	Pinkus Family Collection (family tree for Samuel Bruck & Charlotte Marle)
	Marriage (to Samuel Bruck)	18 January 1831	Pless, Upper Silesia, Germany [today: Pszczyna, Poland]
	Death	17 August 1861	Ratibor, Germany [today: Racibórz, Poland]	Pinkus Family Collection (family tree for Samuel Bruck & Charlotte Marle)
Oskar Bruck (son)	Birth	9 October 1831	Ratibor, Germany [today: Racibórz, Poland]	Family History Library (FHL) Ratibor Microfilm 1184449 (births)
Oskar Bruck (son)	Death	6 April 1892	Berlin, Germany	Berlin, Germany death certificate
Rosel Bruck (daughter)	Birth	9 June 1833	Ratibor, Germany [today: Racibórz, Poland]	Family History Library (FHL) Ratibor Microfilm 1184449 (births)
Rosel Bruck (daughter)	Death	Unknown
Fedor Bruck (son)	Birth	8 October 1834	Ratibor, Germany [today: Racibórz, Poland]	Family History Library (FHL) Ratibor Microfilm 1184449 (births)
Fedor Bruck (son)	Death	3 October 1892	Ratibor, Germany [today: Racibórz, Poland	Pinkus Family Collection (family tree for Samuel Bruck & Charlotte Marle)
Jenny Bruck (daughter)	Birth	12 December 1835	Ratibor, Germany [today: Racibórz, Poland]	Family History Library (FHL) Ratibor Microfilm 1184449 (births)
Jenny Bruck (daughter)	Death	25 April 1902	Paris, France	Paris, France death register listing
Emilie Bruck (daughter)	Birth	10 September 1837	Ratibor, Germany [today: Racibórz, Poland]	Family History Library (FHL) Ratibor Microfilm 1184449 (births)
Emilie Bruck (daughter)	Death	1908	Bielitz, Poland [today: Bielsko-Biała, Poland]	Pinkus Family Collection (family tree for Samuel Bruck & Charlotte Marle)
Julius Bruck (son)	Birth	9 August 1841	Ratibor, Germany [today: Racibórz, Poland]	Family History Library (FHL) Ratibor Microfilm 1184449 (births)
Julius Bruck (son)	Death	28 February 1919	Berlin, Germany	Berlin, Germany death certificate
Hermine Bruck (daughter)	Birth	16 February 1843	Ratibor, Germany [today: Racibórz, Poland]	Family History Library (FHL) Ratibor Microfilm 1184449 (births)
Hermine Bruck (daughter)	Death	Unknown
Helena Rosalie Bruck (daughter)	Birth	11 August 1845	Ratibor, Germany [today: Racibórz, Poland]	Family History Library (FHL) Ratibor Microfilm 1184449 (births)
Helena Rosalie Bruck (daughter)	Death	20 June 1910	Bielitz, Poland [today: Bielsko-Biała, Poland]	Pinkus Family Collection (family tree for Samuel Bruck & Charlotte Marle)
Wilhelm Bruck (son)	Birth	23 February 1849	Ratibor, Germany [today: Racibórz, Poland]	Family History Library (FHL) Ratibor Microfilm 1184449 (births)
Wilhelm Bruck (son)	Death	15 February 1907	Berlin, Germany	Berlin, Germany death certificate

POST 113: CHIUNE SUGIHARA, JAPANESE IMPERIAL CONSUL IN LITHUANIA DURING WWII, “RIGHTEOUS AMONG THE NATIONS”

Note: In this brief post, I discuss how while researching the fate of my great-granduncle’s 14 or 15 children I learned about a Japanese diplomat in Lithuania, Chiune Sugihara, who saved the lives of upwards of 6,000 Polish and Lithuanian Jews following the Nazi invasion of Poland and the beginning of WWII.

Figure 1. My great-grandfather Fedor Bruck (1834-1892)

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

Figure 3. Entrance to the family hotel in Ratibor, the Bruck’s “Prinz von Preußen” Hotel

My great-grandfather Fedor Bruck (1834-1892) (Figure 1) and his wife Friederike Bruck née Mockrauer (1836-1924) (Figure 2), were the second-generation owners of the family hotel in Ratibor, Germany [today: Racibórz, Poland], the Bruck’s “Prinz von Preußen” Hotel. (Figure 3) Fedor Bruck and his eight known siblings, born between 1831 and 1849, were the children of Samuel Bruck (1808-1863) (Figure 4) and Charlotte Bruck née Marle (1809-1861) (Figure 5), seven of them believed to have lived into adulthood.

Figure 4. My great-great-grandfather Samuel Bruck (1808-1863)

Figure 5. My great-great-grandmother Charlotte Bruck née Marle (1809-1861)

The oldest child was Oskar Bruck (1831-1892) married to Mathilde Bruck née Preiss (1839-1922) with whom she had, by my last count, 14 or 15 children born between 1859 and 1877. The sources of this information are two family trees (Figure 6); the Jewish birth register listings from the Church of Latter-day Saints Microfilm No. 1184449 for Ratibor, where most of the children are known to have been born; and ancestral information on MyHeritage. (The names of the children, their birth and death dates, and the sources of the data are summarized on a table at the end of this post). Aware that several of their children were born during the Kulturkampf, the conflict from 1872 to 1878 between the government of Prussia and the Roman Catholic Church, I even asked Paul Newerla, my historian friend from Racibórz, to check the civil birth records at the Archiwum Państwowe W Katowicach Oddzial W Raciborzu (“State Archives in Katowice Branch in Racibórz”) for their children born during this period, to no avail.

Figure 6. The Oskar Bruck-Mathilde Preiss family page from the “Pinkus Family Collection 1500s-1994, 1725-1994,” archived at the Leo Baeck Institute showing the names and some vital data on 12 “kinder” (children) out of 14 or 15 thought to have existed

Realizing that any of Oskar and Mathilde’s surviving great-grandchildren would be my third cousins, I recently tried to determine whether any of their children have living descendants to whom I would be related by blood. Surprisingly, after having conducted a thorough search, I have been unable to find a single living third cousin (i.e., my generation), second cousin once removed (i.e., previous generation), or third cousin once removed (younger generation) descended from any of those 14 or 15 children. I did not include any of Oskar and Mathilde’s children’s spouses where the divorced or surviving spouse remarried and had children who would not be blood relatives. I have tentatively been able to track one of their children, Dr. Erich Bruck (b. 1865) to, of all places, Tierra del Fuego, Argentina, and am currently scrounging more information to hopefully bring an intriguing future post to regular readers. The youngest daughter Emma Naumann née Bruck (1877-1942) and her husband Ernst Naumann (1877-1942) were both murdered in Theresienstadt, but otherwise all their other children are believed to have died of natural causes.

What is surprising to me given the enormous collection of family photos I own or that have been shared with me by different branches of my family is that I have not a single photo of my great-granduncle or great-grandaunt nor any of their children. I’m hoping that a reader of this post may recognize an ancestral connection and contact me so I may learn more about this offshoot of my family.

Continuing. As often happens when I embark on searches of remote ancestors is that I make unexpected discoveries, such as the one which forms the basis for this brief Blog post. And truth be told this fortuitous finding is much more significant than unearthing another distant cousin. As an aside, I would never pretend that my ancestors are any more interesting or accomplished than those of readers. In writing about my predecessors, I am more interested in describing the too often tragic social and historic context in which they led their lives to see what lessons and modern-day parallels can be drawn. As Shakespeare wrote in “The Tempest,” “what’s past is prologue.” In other words, history sets the context for the present.

As mentioned above, the table below summarizes the birth and death dates, where known, of Oskar and Mathilde’s children. One of their daughters, Charlotte Bruck (1866-1909) married a man named Rudolf Falk (1857-1912) with whom she had one daughter, Käthe Falk. This is the only one of Oskar and Mathilde’s descendants I’ll directly discuss, one of their granddaughters.

Through the documents I found on ancestry.com, Käthe Falk had already caught my attention. Her first husband was Wilhelm Sinasohn (b. 1880-d. unknown), and her second husband was Erhard Friedrich Sinasohn (1888-1967); I assumed her husbands were related to one another. A January 1925 notation in the upper righthand corner of Käthe and Wilhelm’s 1911 marriage certificate (Figures 7a-c) indicates they were divorced on the 29^th of November 1924; Käthe got remarried on the 11^th of February 1926 (Figures 8a-c) to Erhard Sinasohn, who I would later learn was her first husband’s cousin. Inasmuch as I can determine, Käthe had two sons, Robert Nast and Werner Rudolf Nast (in America, Warren Roger Nast) with her first husband, and none by her second; Nast was the maiden name of their paternal grandmother.

Figure 7a. Cover page of Käthe Falk and Wilhelm Sinasohn’s 1911 marriage certificate

Figure 7b. Page 1 of Käthe Falk and Wilhelm Sinasohn’s 1911 marriage certificate containing a notation in the upper righthand corner stating their divorce became final on the 29th of November 1924

Figure 7c. Page 2 of Käthe Falk and Wilhelm Sinasohn’s 1911 marriage certificate

Figure 8a. Cover page of Käthe Falk and Erhard Friedrich Sinasohn’s 1926 marriage certificate

Figure 8b. Page 1 of Käthe Falk and Erhard Friedrich Sinasohn’s 1926 marriage certificate

Figure 8c. Page 2 of Käthe Falk and Erhard Friedrich Sinasohn’s 1926 marriage certificate

A continuing search on ancestry.com yielded an astonishing document for both Käthe (Figure 9) and her husband (Figure 10), simply a cover sheet entitled “in the Lithuania, Jews Saved by Passports from the Japanese Diplomat Chiune Sugihara, 1940”; the page showed both were Luxembourgers, and that each had been issued a visa dated the 31^st of July 1940 signed by a Japanese consul. Having never heard of Chiune Sugihara, I scurried to learn about him.

Figure 9. Page from ancestry.com for Käthe Sinasohn titled “in the Lithuania, Jews Saved by Passports from the Japanese Diplomat Chiune Sugihara, 1940” showing she was a Luxembourger and was issued a Visa dated the 31st of July 1940 by Chiune Sugihara

Figure 10. Page from ancestry.com for Käthe’s husband, Erhard Friedrich Sinasohn, showing he too was issued a Visa dated the 31st of July 1940 by Chiune Sugihara

Chiune Sugihara (Figure 11), I would find out, was a Japanese diplomat who during WWII helped Jews living in Lithuania leave, including Jews who had made their way there after the war began. Let me provide some brief historic context. WWII began with the German invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939. This caused hundreds of thousands of Jews and other Polish citizens to flee eastward ahead of the advancing German troops; many displaced persons found at least temporary safety in Lithuania. Once there, however, their options for escape were limited and required diplomatic visas to cross international borders. One route involved traveling through Asia, but it required a combination of permits issued by acquiescent foreign envoys trying to address the refugee crisis. However, it required declaring a final destination, with the Dutch Caribbean Island of Curaçao being suggested.

One diplomat willing to help Jews was the Japanese Imperial Consul Chiune Sugihara, the first Japanese diplomat posted to Lithuania. Absent any clear instructions from his government, Sugihara took it upon himself to issue 10-day transit visas to Japan to hundreds of Jewish refugees supposedly possessing destination visas for Curaçao. By the time he received a reply from his own government, he’d already issued 1800 visas. The Foreign Ministry in Japan told him then that individuals to whom he’d issued these visas were really headed to Canada and the United States but had arrived in Japan without money or final destination visas.

Sugihara acknowledged to his superiors he’d issued visas to people who’d not completed all the necessary arrangements for destination visas but explained that Japan was the only transit country available for people going in the direction of the United States and Canada, and that Japanese visas were required to leave the Soviet Union. Despite orders from his government to desist, Sugihara continued issuing visas, even going so far as to sign his name on blank stamped sheets, hoping the rest could be filled in; he was apparently still passing out the visas as he boarded the train for Berlin where he’d been reassigned. At the end of August 1940, the Soviets shuttered all diplomatic consulates, including the Japanese mission, but by then, Sugihara had managed to save thousands of Jews in just a few weeks. For his humanitarian efforts in 1984 Yad Vashem awarded him the title of “Righteous Among the Nations.”

Many of the Jews who managed to escape through Lithuania were either Jewish residents from there or Jews from Poland. Sugihara is estimated to have helped more than 6,000 Jewish refugees escape to Japanese territory. And among those to whom Sugihara issued visas are the granddaughter of Oskar and Mathilde Bruck and her husband. Among the pertinent documents I found on ancestry.com was a “Manifest of Alien Passengers” for the “SS President Taft” with Käthe and Erhard Sinasohn’s names showing they arrived with one of her sons, Werner Rudolf Nast, in San Francisco from Kobe, Japan on the 8^th of February 1941 (Figures 12a-b), slightly more than six months after receiving their visas signed by Chiune Sugihara. Coincidentally, following their escape from Europe and their arrival in the United States, Käthe and Erhard settled in Forest Hills, Queens, the neighborhood adjacent Kew Gardens, Queens, where I was raised.

Figure 12a. Page 1 of the passenger manifest bearing Käthe Falk and Erhard Friedrich Sinasohn’s names, as well as the name of Werner Rudolf Nast, her second son, showing they departed Kobe, Japan on January 25, 1941

Figure 12b. Page 2 of the passenger manifest with Käthe Falk, Erhard Friedrich Sinasohn, and Werner Rudolf Nast’s names showing they arrived in San Francisco on February 8, 1941 and were met by Robert Nast, Käthe’s first son with Wilhelm Sinasohn-Nast

One final fitting note about this valorous Japanese diplomat. On his tombstone is engraved his first name, “Chiune,” the Japanese word which just so happens to translate into “a thousand new lives.”

VITAL STATISTICS FOR OSKAR & MATHILDE BRUCK AND THEIR CHILDREN

NAME (relationship)	VITAL EVENT	DATE	PLACE	SOURCE OF DATA

Oskar Bruck (self)	Birth	8 October 1831	Ratibor, Germany [today: Racibórz, Poland]	Family History Library (FHL) Ratibor Microfilm 1184449 (births)
	Marriage	29 October 1858	Ratibor, Germany [today: Racibórz, Poland]	FHL Ratibor Microfilm 1184449 (marriages)
	Death	6 April 1892	Berlin, Germany	Berlin, Germany death certificate
Mathilde Preiss (wife)	Birth	20 October 1839	Ratibor, Germany [today: Racibórz, Poland]	Family History Library (FHL) Ratibor Microfilm 1184449 (births)
	Marriage	29 October 1858	Ratibor, Germany [today: Racibórz, Poland]	FHL Ratibor Microfilm 1184449 (marriages)
	Death	23 February 1922	Berlin, Germany	Standesamt Berlin XI, Berlin, Germany death certificate
Richard Bruck (son)	Birth	17 August 1859	Ratibor, Germany [today: Racibórz, Poland]	Family History Library (FHL) Ratibor Microfilm 1184449 (births)
Richard Bruck (son)	Death	Unknown
Georg Bruck (son)	Birth	21 July 1860	Ratibor, Germany [today: Racibórz, Poland]	Family History Library (FHL) Ratibor Microfilm 1184449 (births)
Georg Bruck (son)	Death	2 April 1937	Berlin, Germany	Berlin, Germany death certificate
Carl Bruck (son)	Birth	10 May 1862	Ratibor, Germany [today: Racibórz, Poland]	Family History Library (FHL) Ratibor Microfilm 1184449 (births)
Carl Bruck (son)	Death	Unknown
Samuel Bruck (son)	Birth	17 July 1863	Ratibor, Germany [today: Racibórz, Poland]	Family History Library (FHL) Ratibor Microfilm 1184449 (births)
Samuel Bruck (son)	Death	Unknown
Franz Samuel Bruck (son)	Birth	28 September 1864	Ratibor, Germany [today: Racibórz, Poland]	Family History Library (FHL) Ratibor Microfilm 1184449 (births)
Franz Samuel Bruck (son)	Death	19 February 1924	Berlin, Germany	Landesarchiv Berlin, Standesamt Charlottenburg I, Sterberegister, 1921-1931
Erich Bruck (son)	Birth	31 August 1865	Ratibor, Germany [today: Racibórz, Poland]	Family History Library (FHL) Ratibor Microfilm 1184449 (births)
Erich Bruck (son)	Death	Unknown	Argentina ??
Charlotte Bruck (daughter)	Birth	18 September 1866	Ratibor, Germany [today: Racibórz, Poland]	Family History Library (FHL) Ratibor Microfilm 1184449 (births)
Charlotte Bruck (daughter)	Death	7 December 1909	Berlin, Germany	Charlottenburg I, Berlin, Germany death certificate
Margaretha Bruck (daughter)	Birth	19 October 1868	Ratibor, Germany [today: Racibórz, Poland]	Family History Library (FHL) Ratibor Microfilm 1184449 (births)
Margaretha Bruck (daughter)	Death	18 February 1900	Frankfurt am Main, Germany	Frankfurt, Germany death certificate
Gertrud Bruck (daughter)	Birth	9 June 1870	Ratibor, Germany [today: Racibórz, Poland]	Family History Library (FHL) Ratibor Microfilm 1184449 (births)
Gertrud Bruck (daughter)	Death	26 July 1871	Ratibor, Germany [today: Racibórz, Poland]	Family History Library (FHL) Ratibor Microfilm 1184449 (births)-notation of death on birth register
Anna Bruck (daughter)	Birth	4 July 1870	Ratibor, Germany [today: Racibórz, Poland]	Family History Library (FHL) Ratibor Microfilm 1184449 (births)
Anna Bruck (daughter)	Death	8 September 1895	Neustadt, Upper Silesia, Germany [today: Prudnik, Poland]	Pinkus Family Collection (family tree for Oskar Bruck & Mathilde Preiss)
Martin Bruck (son)	Birth	22 July 1873	Ratibor, Germany [today: Racibórz, Poland]	Family History Library (FHL) Ratibor Microfilm 1184449 (births)
Martin Bruck (son)	Death	Unknown
Marie Bruck (daughter)	Birth	29 June 1874	Plania, Kreiss Ratibor, Germany [today: Racibórz, Poland]	Family History Library (FHL) Ratibor Microfilm 1184449 (births)
	Death	20 February 1913	Leipzig, Germany	Borchardt-Pincus-Peiser Family Website (MyHeritage)
Bertha Bruck (daughter)	Birth	5 November 1876	Ratibor, Germany [today: Racibórz, Poland]	Pinkus Family Collection (family tree for Oskar Bruck & Mathilde Preiss)
Bertha Bruck (daughter)	Death	July 1949	Santiago, Chile	MyHeritage Family Tree
Emma Bruck (daughter)	Birth	20 October 1877	Berlin, Germany	Standesamt Berlin VI, Berlin, Germany birth certificate
Emma Bruck (daughter)	Death	15 October 1942	Theresienstadt Ghetto, Czech Republic	Theresienstadt death certificate (holocaust.cz)
Selma Bruck (daughter)	Birth	Unknown		Pinkus Family Collection (family tree for Oskar Bruck & Mathilde Preiss)
Selma Bruck (daughter)	Death	Unknown

POST 95: DISCOVERING THE FATE OF MY GREAT-GRANDFATHER’S NIECE, CHARLOTTE BRUCK

Note: In this post, I discuss the sad fate of Charlotte Bruck, my great-grandfather Fedor Bruck’s niece, a victim in this case not of the Holocaust but of a psychiatric disorder.

Figure 1. My great-great-grandfather Samuel Bruck (1808-1863), first generation owner of the Bruck’s “Prinz von Preußen” Hotel in Ratibor, Germany [today: Racibórz, Poland]

Figure 2. My great-great-grandmother Charlotte Bruck née Marle (1809-1861)

My great-grandfather, Fedor Bruck (1834-1892), was one of at least nine offspring of Samuel Bruck (1808-1863) (Figure 1) and Charlotte Bruck née Marle (1809-1861). (Figure 2) For context, Samuel Bruck and Fedor Bruck (Figure 3) were, respectively the first- and second-generation owners of the Bruck family hotel in Ratibor, Germany [today: Racibórz, Poland], the Bruck’s “Prinz von Preußen” Hotel. (Figure 4) The youngest of Samuel and Charlotte Bruck’s children and Fedor Bruck’s youngest sibling was Wilhelm Bruck (1849-1907). (Figure 5)

Figure 3. My great-grandfather Fedor Bruck (1834-1892), second generation owner of the Bruck’s “Prinz von Preußen” Hotel

Figure 4. Front entrance to the Bruck’s “Prinz von Preußen” Hotel around 1920-1930

Figure 5. My great-granduncle Wilhelm Bruck (1849-1907), youngest sibling of Fedor Bruck, married to the baroness Margarethe “Grete” Mathilde von Koschembahr (1860-1946) whose surname he took

Figure 6. Baroness Margarethe “Grete” Mathilde von Koschembahr (1860-1946)

Wilhelm married a baroness named Margarete “Grete” Mathilde von Koschembahr (Figure 6), and because of the prestige the von Koschembahr name endowed, he adopted her surname, initially in hyphenated manner as Bruck-von Koschembahr; eventually upon some family members arrival in America the Bruck surname was dropped. Wilhelm Bruck and Margarete von Koschembahr had five children, including Charlotte “Lotte” Bruck (Figure 7), niece of my great-grandfather Fedor Bruck and subject of this post.

Figure 7. Charlotte Bruck (1886-1974), daughter of Wilhelm Bruck and Margarete “Grete” Mathilde von Koschembahr, in 1914 or 1915 (photo courtesy of Jay Dunn née Lorenzen)

As a brief aside, Charlotte’s older brother and the oldest of Wilhelm and Margarete’s children was Gerhard Bruck von Koschembahr (1885-1961) (Figure 8), who emigrated to America in October 1938 with his wife and ten of their thirteen children (Figure 9), one of whom is still living. While I am in contact with descendants of virtually all other branches of my family whom I have written about in my family history blog, I have not yet established contact with this wing of my extended family. If precedent is any indication, descendants of the von Koschembahrs may in time stumble upon my blog and contact me.

Figure 8. Gerhard Bruck von Koschembahr (1885-1961) & his wife Hilda née von Zeidlitz and Neukirch (1891-1954) with their thirteen children in Lugano, Switzerland in the 1930’s; Gerhard was the oldest of Charlotte Bruck’s siblings who dropped the “Bruck” portion of his surname prior to arriving in America

Figure 9. New York Times article dated October 2, 1938 mentioning Gerhard von Koschembahr’s arrival in America with his wife and ten of their thirteen children

With upwards of 900 people in my family tree, which I use primarily to orient myself to the people whom I discuss in my Blog, I have never previously written about Wilhelm Bruck (von Koschembahr). Still, because Charlotte Bruck is in my tree, one genealogist stumbled upon her name and contacted me asking whether I know the fate of Charlotte’s first husband, Walter Edward Stavenhagen. The inquiry, it so happens, came from Charlotte’s granddaughter, Brenda Jay Dunn née Lorenzen (Figure 10), and I explained I have been unable to discover Walter’s fate. Not unexpectedly, Jay told me much more about Charlotte’s family than I could tell her and provided family photographs, which is always immensely satisfying.

Figure 10. Jay Dunn née Lorenzen, Charlotte Bruck and her first husband Walter Edward Stavenhagen’s granddaughter, in 2018 in La Jolla, California

Prior to being contacted by Jay Dunn through ancestry on June 24, 2018, I had already uncovered multiple documents related to Charlotte Bruck, although my understanding of her three marriages and life was rather disjointed. Rather than try and inaccurately reconstruct what I already knew at the time, let me briefly highlight major events in her life.

Charlotte (Lottchen, Lotte, Lottel) Bruck got married for the first time on the 3^rd of May 1906 in Berlin to the Protestant landowner Walter Edward Stavenhagen (Figures 11a-b) who owned an estate in Eichwerder in the district of Soldin, Germany [today: Myślibórz, Poland]. Though both of Charlotte’s parents were of Jewish descent, on her wedding certificate, Charlotte is identified as Protestant, indicating she and/or her parents had converted. Following her marriage to Walter at age 19, they moved to Soldin, and Charlotte gave birth to two sons there: Frederick Wilhelm Stavenhagen (1907-1997) and Hans Joachim Stavenhagen (1909-1947). (Figures 12-13a-b)

Figure 11a. Page 1 of Charlotte Bruck and Walter Edward Stavenhagen’s May 3rd, 1906 marriage certificate indicating they were married in Berlin and were Protestant

Figure 11b. Page 2 of Charlotte Bruck and Walter Edward Stavenhagen’s May 3rd, 1906 marriage certificate with Charlotte and Walter’s original signatures

Figure 12. Charlotte and Walter’s two young sons, Frederick Wilhelm Stavenhagen (1907-1997) and Hans Joachim Stavenhagen (1909-1947) (photo courtesy of Jay Dunn née Lorenzen)

Figure 13a. Birth certificate of Hans Joachim Stavenhagen, Jay Dunn née Lorenzen’s father, showing he was born on the 13th of February 1909 in Soldin, Germany [today: Myślibórz, Poland] (document courtesy of Jay Dunn née Lorenzen)

Figure 13b. Translation of Han’s Joachim Stavenhagen’s birth certificate (document courtesy of Jay Dunn née Lorenzen)

Charlotte first became ill following the birth of her second son, possibly the result of postpartum depression or a bi-polar disorder. Charlotte’s mother, Margarethe von Koschembahr Bruck (Figure 14), came and removed her from Walter Stavenhagen’s estate in 1909, whereupon she was briefly hospitalized in Schierke, located in the Harz Mountains of northern Germany. In a diary entry dated the 19^th of November 1909, Charlotte’s maternal grandmother, Amalie Mockrauer von Koschembahr (1834-1918) (Figures 15-16), describes her granddaughter’s circumstances at the time:

Figure 14. Charlotte Stavenhagen née Bruck’s mother, Margarete “Grete” Mathilde von Koschembahr, in 1938 at age 78

Figure 15. Charlotte Stavenhagen née Bruck’s grandmother, Amalie von Koschembahr née Mockrauer, with Charlotte’s mother, Margarete “Grete” Mathilde von Koschembahr, in 1863

Figure 16. Charlotte Stavenhagen née Bruck’s grandmother, Amalie von Koschembahr née Mockrauer, around 1904 at age 70

GERMAN ENTRY

“Ich bin furchtbar traurig über das Fehlschlagen von Lottchens Friedensversuch. Nachdem sie in Eichwerder (nördlich Mysliborz) mit den besten Vorsätzen und mit festem Muthe eintraf, sich in ihr Schicksal und ihre Pflichten zu fügen, benahm sich Walter abermals unglaublich lieblos, rücksichtslos und roh, so, daß es nach kurzer Zeit für Lotte unmöglich war Stand zu halten. Soweit mir berichtet wurde, ist alles geschehen, um es dem Mann leicht zu machen in Frieden zu leben, allein es war vergeblich. Krank und gebrochen mußte meine arme Lottel ihre Heimath für immer verlassen, nur begleitet von ihrem kleinen Fritzchen, den armen kleinen Hans gab der Mann nicht heraus. Mein armes Gretchen holte ihr Kind, Marianne und Kurt, die von großer Liebe und Treue sind, begleiteten sie. Lotte flüchtete nach Schierke (Ort im Harz), wohin ihr Gretchen nachfolgen mußte, da Lotte sehr krank ist. Welcher Schmerz ist es doch schon wegen der kleinen mutterbedürftigen Kinder! Welche große Sünde hat der bösartige Mann auf sich geladen! Mein lieber allmächtiger Gott hilf uns in dieser Noth!

Das alles muß ich so still für mich mittragen, denn mit Tilla kann ich mich nicht aussprechen – sie hat eine andere Anschauung vom Unglück der Menschen – sie kann froh darüber sein, während ich zwar ergeben aus Gottes Hand alles nehme, aber tief traurig an meine unglücklichen Kinder denke. Seitdem Martha von Schmidt der Tod von uns genommen hat, habe ich Niemanden, mit dem ich ein tröstliches Wort austauschen kann. Ach, wieviel Schwaches giebt es auf der Welt – der Kampf hört hier nicht auf und so sehnt man sich nach der ewigen Reise. –Mit Tilchen kann ich mich darüber deshalb nicht verstehen, weil sie glaubt das Unglück, welches der Herr schickt, soll die Menschen bessern und seine Gnade und Liebe erkennen lassen.”

ENGLISH TRANSLATION

“I am terribly saddened by the failure of Lottchen’s attempt at peace. After she arrived in Eichwerder (today north of Myślibórz, Poland) with the best of intentions and with firm courage to submit to her fate and duties, Walter again behaved in an unbelievably unloving, inconsiderate, and crude manner, so that after a short time it was impossible for Lotte to stand firm. As far as I was told, everything was done to make it easy for the man to live in peace, but it was in vain. Sick and broken, my poor Lottel had to leave her home forever, accompanied only by her little Fritzchen (Note: Charlotte’s older son Frederick); poor little Hans was not released by the man. My poor Gretchen (Note: Charlotte’s mother, Margarethe von Koschembahr) fetched her child, and Marianne and Kurt (Note: Charlotte’s younger sister and brother-in-law, Marianne & Kurt Polborn), who are of great love and loyalty, accompanied her. Lotte fled to Schierke (a place in the Harz Mountains in northern Germany), where Gretchen had to follow her, since Lotte was very ill. What a pain it is already because of the little children in need of a mother! What a great sin the wicked man has brought upon himself! My dear Almighty God help us in this distress!

I have to bear all this so quietly for myself, because I cannot talk to Tilla (Note: Tilla, Tilchen, was Margarethe von Koschembahr’s sister, Mathilde von Koschembahr) – she has a different view of people’s misfortune – she can be happy about it, while I humbly take everything from God’s hand, but think deeply sad about my unhappy children. Since death took Martha von Schmidt (Note: a friend of Amalie von Koschembahr, Charlotte’s grandmother) from us, I have no one with whom I can exchange a comforting word. Oh, how much weakness there is in the world – the struggle does not end here and so one longs for the eternal journey. I can’t get along with Tilchen because she believes that the misfortune the Lord sends should make people better and recognize His grace and love.”

Walter and Charlotte’s marriage certificate has a notation in the upper right-hand corner confirming they were divorced in Berlin on the 19^th of May 1910. (Figure 17) Atypical of the time, Charlotte was granted custody of both of her boys because spousal abuse was suspected, as the diary entry above suggests.

Figure 17. German notation in the upper right-hand corner of Charlotte and Walter Stavenhagen’s marriage certificate noting they got divorced on the 19th of May 1910

According to family history, following her hospitalization in the Harz Mountains, Charlotte lived with her mother in Dresden, Germany until she remarried Karl Eduard Michaelis in 1913, a marriage which lasted only two years. At around this time, Charlotte again showed signs of mental illness, so her family sent her to America in 1915, to a hospital located in Minnesota; her two sons accompanied her to America. Her stay there was relatively brief because she soon moved to New Haven, Connecticut, where she met her third husband, Ernest Gustav Lorenzen (1876-1951), through the German Society there, whom she married around 1916. Ernest Lorenzen was a law professor at Yale University; he would eventually adopt both of Charlotte’s sons by Walter Stavenhagen, and they would take the Lorenzen surname. The 1920 U.S. Federal Census indicates Ernest and Charlotte living with her two sons in New Haven, Connecticut, (Figures 18-19) although by 1930, only Ernest and Charlotte’s older son Frederick lived together. (Figure 20) By 1940, Frederick was married with two daughters and his younger brother was living with them. (Figure 21)

Figure 18. 1920 U.S. Federal Census showing Ernest Gustav Lorenzen living in New Haven, Connecticut with his wife Charlotte and his two adopted sons, Frederick and Hans

Figure 19. Charlotte Bruck with her two sons, Frederick and Hans (photo courtesy of Jay Dunn née Lorenzen)

Figure 20. By 1930 the U.S. Federal Census shows Ernest Gustav Lorenzen living only with his older adopted son, Frederick

Figure 21. The 1940 U.S. Federal Census indicates that Frederick Lorenzen has established his own household in Stamford, Connecticut with his wife and two daughters, and that his younger brother Hans (John) is living with them

Jay Dunn shared a remarkable letter with me dated 1940 written by the Superintendent of the Fairfield State Hospital in Connecticut where Charlotte Lorenzen née Bruck was permanently institutionalized as of around April 1939 until her death in June 1974. To me, this letter is noteworthy for two reasons. One, it is incredibly detailed as to Charlotte’s mental condition and institutionalization over the years, information I would assume would be confidential. And two, the letter was written at the request of Charlotte’s younger son, Hans Joachim Lorenzen, known in America as John Jay Lorenzen; it seems that John’s future father-in-law, William Sweet, sought a medical opinion as to the possibility of Charlotte’s mental condition being hereditary prior to his daughter Brenda’s marriage to John.

According to the 1940 letter, following Charlotte’s treatment in Minnesota and her relocation to New Haven, she appears to have been well until around 1921, then suffered another relapse from which she again improved by 1922; after 1925, however, she was institutionalized through the remainder of her life. While originally diagnosed with Manic Depressive Psychosis by 1928 she had become delusional. Over time, Charlotte’s original diagnosis was altered to Dementia Praecox, Paranoid Type, whose prognosis was not as good. Today, Dementia Praecox would more generally be referred to as schizophrenia. The Superintendent from the Fairfield State Hospital concluded as follows in his response to John Jay Lorenzen:

“Summing it up then in another manner I might say that if you consider yourself a normal individual in good physical health with no emotional problems which cannot be readily solved, I would not hesitate to contemplate marriage and would not entertain any undue fears that my children might inherit the illness of my parent. Unless one can definitely assure oneself that his heredity is too heavily tainted, I think one would do himself an injustice if he did not make every reasonable effort to live the kind of normal life to which everyone of us is certainly entitled.”

Ernst Lorenzen divorced Charlotte sometime after she was permanently institutionalized, and eventually got remarried. Charlotte’s older son Frederick (Figure 22-23) became a successful lawyer in New York and paid for his mother’s care throughout her life. Jay Dunn’s father, John Jay Lorenzen (Figure 24), obtained an MBA from Harvard around 1933, worked for a time as a stock broker for Smith Barney, then started a cola company called Zimba Kola (Figures 25-26) with a college friend. He was drafted in 1943, became an officer in the Navy (Figure 27), and was sent to the Pacific where he fought valiantly alongside General MacArthur in the battles of Okinawa and Leyte Gulf. He survived the war, only to commit suicide in 1947, likely from depression caused by PTSD, post-traumatic stress disorder. Though Charlotte Bruck and her sons came to America well before Hitler rose to power, her fate and that of her younger son were indeed sad tales.

Figure 22. Frederick Lorenzen as a teenager (photo courtesy of Jay Dunn née Lorenzen)

Figure 23. Frederick Lorenzen at his brother’s wedding on the 26th of September 1940 (photo courtesy of Jay Dunn née Lorenzen)

Figure 24. Hans Joachim Lorenzen, known in America as John Jay Lorenzen, on his wedding day on the 26th of September 1940 (photo courtesy of Jay Dunn née Lorenzen)

Figure 25. Zimba Kola bottle from the cola company John Jay Lorenzen established

Figure 26. Jay Dunn as a three-year-old child holding a bottle of Zimba Kola (photo courtesy of Jay Dunn née Lorenzen)

Figure 27. John Jay Lorenzen in his Navy uniform at age 33 (photo courtesy of Jay Dunn née Lorenzen)

One final fascinating anecdote. Gerhard Bruck von Koschembahr, Charlotte’s oldest brother mentioned above, like his father, also married a baroness, Hilda Alexandra von Zeidlitz and Neukirch (1891-1954). (Figures 28-29) Hilda’s mother, Cornelia Carnochan Roosevelt, married on the 3^rd of February 1889 to Baron Clement Zeidlitz, was a distant relative of President Theodore Roosevelt. (see Figure 9) It is likely that Gerhard Bruck von Koschembahr was able to “disguise” his Jewish ancestry by dropping the Bruck surname. Thus, because of Gerhard’s wife’s connection to the Roosevelts, they sponsored Gerhard’s entrance into America in 1938 with his family at a time when many Jewish families trying to reach America by ship were turned away. The most notorious ship turned away from landing in the United States in the lead up to WWII was the German liner St. Louis carrying 937 passengers, almost all Jewish; the ship was forced to return to Europe, and more than a quarter of the refuges died in the Holocaust.

Figure 28. Wedding photo of Gerhard Bruck von Koschembahr and Hilda Alexandra von Zeidlitz, married on the 21st of March 1914 (photo courtesy of Kurt Polborn)

Figure 29. Headstone of William C. Roosevelt, alongside which Gerhard (Bruck) von Koschembahr and his wife Hilda Roosevelt von Koschembahr are interred

VITAL STATISTICS FOR CHARLOTTE BRUCK & HER IMMEDIATE FAMILY

NAME	EVENT	DATE	PLACE	SOURCE

Charlotte Bruck (self)	Birth	17 August 1886	Berlin, Germany	Marriage Certificate
	Marriage to Walter Edward Stavenhagen	3 May 1906	Berlin, Germany	Marriage Certificate
	Divorce from Walter Edward Stavenhagen	19 May 1910	Berlin, Germany	Notation on marriage certificate
	Marriage to Karl Eduard Michaelis	20 August 1913	Dresden, Germany	Marriage Certificate
	Divorce from Karl Eduard Michaelis	~1915	Dresden, Germany	“Stavenhagen-Bruck-Von Koschembahr Family History” (Jay Dunn)
	Marriage to Ernest Gustav Lorenzen	~1916		1940 letter from Fairfield State Hospital in Connecticut describing Charlotte’s mental history
	Death	5 June 1974	Stamford, Connecticut	Connecticut Death Index
Wilhelm Bruck (father)	Birth	23 February 1949	Ratibor, Germany [today: Racibórz, Poland]	Berlin marriage certificate
	Marriage	14 September 1884	Berlin, Germany	Berlin marriage certificate
	Death	15 February 1907	Berlin, Germany	Berlin death certificate
Margarethe Mathilde von Koschembahr (mother)	Birth	28 November 1860	Lissa, Posen, Germany [today: Poznan, Poland]	von Koschembahr family tree
	Marriage	14 September 1884	Berlin, Germany	Berlin marriage certificate
	Death	19 October 1946	Boston, Massachusetts	von Koschembahr family tree
Amalie Mockrauer (grandmother)	Birth	9 September 1834	Leschnitz, Germany [today: Leśnica, Poland]	15 April 1855 Baptism Certificate
	Marriage (to Leopold von Koschembahr)	26 September 1855	London, England	England & Wales Civil Registration Marriage Index
	Death	5 August 1918	Dresden, Germany	Dresden death certificate
Walter Edward Stavenhagen (first husband)	Birth	1 September 1876	Calais, France	1900 Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Germany Census
Walter Edward Stavenhagen (first husband)	Marriage	3 May 1906	Berlin, Germany	Marriage Certificate
Karl Eduard Michaelis (second husband)	Birth	4 January 1884	Berlin, Germany	Birth Certificate
	Marriage	20 August 1913	Dresden, Germany	Marriage Certificate
	Death (died as Carl Edward Midgard)	12 October 1953	Seattle, Washington	Washington Death Certificate
Ernest Gustav Lorenzen (third husband)	Birth	21 April 1876	Kiel, Germany	US Passport Application
	Marriage	~1916		1940 letter from Fairfield State Hospital in Connecticut describing Charlotte’s mental history
	Death	12 February 1951	San Francisco, California	California Death Index
Frederick Wilhelm Stavenhagen (son)	Birth	28 February 1907	Soldin, Germany [today: Myślibórz, Poland]	US Social Security Death Index
	Marriage (to Dorothy P. Walker)	30 June 1931	Portland, Maine	Maine Marriage Index
	Death (died as Frederick W. Lorenzen)	30 December 1997	Stamford, Connecticut	US Social Security Death Index
Hans Joachim Stavenhagen (son)	Birth	13 February 1909	Soldin, Germany [today: Myślibórz, Poland]	Soldin, Germany Birth Certificate
	Marriage (to Brenda Sweet)	17 September 1940	Staten Island, New York	New York Marriage License Index
	Death (died as John Jay Lorenzen)	24 Jun 1947	Greenwich, Connecticut	Connecticut Death Record

POST 75: THE CURIOUS TALE OF A BIEDERMEIER-STYLE FAMILY PORTRAIT FROM THE EARLY 1830’S

Note: In this post, I relate the story of uncovering multiple copies of a family portrait rendered in the Biedermeier style in what I estimate was the early 1830’s.

Figure 1. My 92-year old third cousin, Agnes Stieda née Vogel, in Vancouver, Canada in August 2019

During a recent email exchange with my 92-year old third cousin, Agnes Stieda née Vogel (Figure 1), subject of several earlier posts, I casually mentioned other topics I want to eventually write about on my Blog. This includes one illustrious branch of my Bruck family, the von Koschembahrs, about which more is said below. This prompted Agnes to tell me in passing she has a family portrait of them hanging in her apartment in Victoria, Canada. A short while later she sent me several photos. (Figure 2) They show a touching depiction of two children, one holding a rabbit, painted in what I would learn was the Biedermeier style. Agnes quickly added this is a revered painting within her family.

Figure 2. Photo of the ca. 1830’s Biedermeier-style portrait that Agnes has hanging in her apartment in Victoria, Canada

Other than knowing it portrayed two von Koschembahr children, no doubt from the period when the Biedermeier style was in vogue in Germany between 1815 and 1848, Agnes had no further information as to the painter, the subjects, nor the exact year it was painted. Obviously curious whether the painting or the boy and girl might be known to other members of my extended family, I decided to send a copy of the photo to another of my German third cousins, Kurt Polborn. (Figure 3) He is a close descendant of the von Koschembahrs, and I thought he might recognize the artwork. And, indeed he did. He promptly told me they depict Leopold von Koschembahr (1829-1874) (Figure 4), and his slightly older sister, Mary von Koschembahr. Judging from the approximate age of the children, and Leopold’s year of birth, 1829, I estimate it was done in the early 1830’s, well within the timeframe the Biedermeier style was popular.

Figure 3. Another of my third cousins, Kurt Polborn, in Koenigsbrunn, Germany in October 2016

Figure 4. As a grown man, Leopold von Koschembahr (1829-1874), one of the two subjects in the Biedermeier-style portrait of the 1830’s

Let me briefly explain to readers how my Bruck family is related to the von Koschembahrs. The first-generation owner of the family hotel, the Bruck’s “Prinz von Preußen” Hotel in Ratibor [today: Racibórz, Poland], the town where my father was born in 1907, was Samuel Bruck (1808-1863) (Figure 5), my great-great-grandfather. Ownership of the hotel was acquired by his son, Fedor Bruck (1834-1892), my great-grandfather. (Figure 6) Fedor’s youngest brother was my great-great-uncle Wilhelm Bruck (1849-1907), (Figure 7) who married a baroness, Margarete “Grete” Mathilde von Koschembahr (1860-1946) (Figure 8), sometime before 1885; Leopold and Mary von Koschembahr were, respectively, Grete’s father and aunt. The term “von” is used in German language surnames “either as a nobiliary particle indicating a noble patrilineality, or as a simple preposition used by commoners that means of or from.” On account of his wife’s noble patrilineality, Wilhelm Bruck added her surname to his upon marriage. Thus, in Germany, this branch of the family was known as “Bruck-von Koschembahr,” but upon their arrival in America they completely dropped the Bruck surname. Suffice it to say, this complicates the family tree.

Figure 5. Samuel Bruck (1808-1863), my great-great-grandfather, original owner of the Bruck’s “Prinz von Preußen” Hotel in Ratibor

Figure 6. My great-grandfather, Fedor Bruck (1834-1892), son of Samuel Bruck, and older brother of Wilhelm Bruck (1849-1907)

Figure 7. My great-great-uncle Wilhelm Bruck who married the baroness Margarete “Grete” Mathilde von Koschembahr (1860-1946), and added her surname to his becoming “Wilhelm Bruck-von Koschembahr”

Figure 8. The baroness Margarete “Grete” Mathilde von Koschembahr (1860-1946) in 1891

During my conversation with my third cousin Kurt Polborn who’d identified the von Koschembahr children, he mentioned in passing the painting belongs to his aging von Koschembahr uncle, Clemens von Koschembahr, living in Ohio. Clemens is about to turn 94 and is the grandson of Wilhelm Bruck-von Koschembahr and the sole surviving child of Gerhard von Koschembahr (1885-1961) (Figure 9) and Hilda Alexandra von Zeidlitz und Neukirch (1891-1954), who immigrated to America in 1938 with their 13 children. (Figures 10a-b, 11) Kurt’s claim that the family portrait of the von Koschembahr children is still in the family, while entirely reasonable, left me puzzled. (Figure 12) What then is the version owned by Agnes, an original or a copy? I would add that Clemens, being told that another version of this family portrait exists, was quite surprised.

Figure 9. One of Wilhelm Bruck’s sons Gerhard von Koschembahr (1885-1961), as he was known in America after dropping the “Bruck” surname

Figure 10a. Gerhard von Koschembahr and Hilda Alexandra von Zeidlitz und Neukirch (1891-1954) and their 13 children, with Clemens von Koschembahr’s head circled

Figure 10b. Gerhard and Hilda von Koschembahr and their 13 children identified

Figure 11. New York Times article dated the 2nd of October 1938 reporting on the arrival in the United States of Gerhard and Hilda von Koschembahr and 10 of their 13 children

Figure 12. Photo of the ca. 1830’s Biedermeier-style portrait of Leopold and Mary von Koschembahr as children, owned by Clemens von Koschembahr

Things got even more puzzling when I probed into this more. Agnes remembered having visited her cousin Klaus Pauly (Figure 13) in Germany and hanging in his house was yet another copy of this same painting! Curious as to how many copies of this painting might exist, I immediately sent an email to Klaus’s son, Andi Pauly (Figure 14), whose name I’ve often mentioned. The existence of this copy, at least, could be explained. During one of Klaus’s visits to see Agnes, he’d greatly admired the painting and tried to talk her out of it. Agnes, naturally, was unwilling to part with this family heirloom, but, Klaus, undeterred, photographed the “original,” and upon his return home turned it into a full-size photo which he framed. Problem solved!

Figure 13. Klaus Pauly, owner of the enlarged framed photograph of the von Koschembahr portrait, thought to no longer exist

Figure 14. Andi Pauly, Klaus Pauly’s son, in 2018 in Munich, Germany

Still, the existence of two seemingly high-quality versions of the Biedermeier-style portrait is intriguing. It seems unlikely the von Koschembahrs would have allowed the original to leave the family, so I’d argue that version is the one owned by Clemens von Koschembahr. Admittedly, while I can only gauge this from low resolution images, it would seem the older looking of the two copies is also that one. Unfortunately, neither copy of the paintings is signed; Kurt explained this was not uncommon in paintings done of royals and aristocrats of the time, where the “star,” so to speak, was the king, queen, or noble. The creates an obvious problem where originals can easily be forged and claimed as authentic. Absent a professional side-by-side comparison, the question of which is the original portrait will remain an open one. Things, though, could get even more confusing should yet more high-quality versions of this portrait emerge from other members of the family! This may not be as implausible as it sounds given the endearing quality the von Koschembahr artwork possesses and the possible desire by others to have had their own copies.

POST 74: DRAWING A CONNECTION TO TWO LIVING BRUCKS: “WHERE’S THE SMOKING GUN?”

Note: In this post, I discuss how I’m related to two living Brucks I’ve known for half-a-dozen years, and how I inadvertently stumbled on the answer and responded to their question, “Where’s the smoking gun?”

Post 33: Finding Great-Uncle Willy’s Grandchildren

Post 73: Ratibor Gymnasium (High School) Student Register, 1819-1849—More Clues About My Bruck Family

Figure 1. My great-uncle Wilhelm “Willy” Bruck, Guillermo as he was known in Spain, in May 1950 in Barcelona

This story begins in 1951. Soon after I was born, my parents received a congratulatory note from my father’s uncle, Wilhelm “Willy” Bruck, then living in Barcelona, Spain. (Figure 1) As a boy, I would later meet my great-uncle’s daughter Eva in New York when she came to visit the family but never realized who she was. (Figure 2) Though I met her only once, I remember her fondly because she gave me an old silver coin I still cherish (i.e., readers will recall I’ve been a lifelong coin collector). Because of my father’s rather dismissive attitude towards family, except for his beloved sister Susanne murdered in Auschwitz, naturally he lost contact with most of his relatives. Thus, when I began my forensic investigations into my family, I was left to reconstruct and find family descendants on my own, years after my father was gone and might have helped.

Figure 2. My great-uncle Willy’s daughter, Eva Bruck, second from the left, with my aunt on the left, and my parents on the right, when she came to visit the family in New York in 1967

Aware some family members had wound up in Barcelona, I began my search there vaguely cognizant my great-uncle Willy may have had grandchildren. To remind readers, I discussed the search for my great-uncle and his descendants in Posts 32 and 33. Since this remains one of my all-time favorite family quests, I will briefly remind readers how I met the two Brucks, first cousins to one another, as what can only be characterized as serendipity. I thought perhaps my great-uncle’s grandchildren, my second cousins that’s to say, might live in Barcelona. I started by checking the White Pages for Barcelona and found nary any Brucks there. I expanded my search to all of Spain and discovered 14 listings. I immediately did the calculus, and said to myself, “No problem, I’ll write to all of them!” And, this is in fact what I did in late 2013.

Many weeks passed with no responses. Then, early one Saturday morning, I received a call from a gentleman in Haifa, Israel by the name of “Michael Bruck.” I had no known relatives there so was intrigued why this namesake was calling. He quickly explained I’d written to his first cousin Ronny Bruck in Alicante, Spain inquiring about my great-uncle Willy. Aha! Michael is the family genealogist, so Ronny forwarded him my letter, ergo his call. I must share one other alluring aspect of this story that corroborates what Branch Rickey, the brainy former General Manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers, once said: “Luck is the residue of design.” That’s to say, luck doesn’t just happen, you create the circumstances to get lucky. For those who may be familiar with the postal service in Spain, they’ll know it’s notoriously unreliable. The letter I sent to Ronny inquiring about my great-uncle Willy not only arrived safely, but it arrived in his mailbox on his 65^th birthday, making him believe some unknown cousin from America was sending him well-wishes! The stars were obviously properly aligned.

Figure 3. The photo of my great-uncle Wilhelm Bruck (1872-1952) included in the 14 letters I wrote to Brucks in Spain in 2013

All my letters to the Brucks residing in Spain had included a photo of my great-uncle, and Michael immediately noted the family resemblance (Figure 3), even though he’d never come across Wilhelm Bruck’s name in connection with his own research. In 2014, my wife and I had already planned to spend 13 weeks in Europe visiting places associated with my family from northeastern Poland to southern Spain, so I suggested we all meet in Spain. Meeting there was not possible, so Ronny suggested Germany instead, and Michael and his wife joined us from Israel. Thus, in 2014, we met in person at the home of my first cousin. (Figures 4-5) Despite our in-depth respective knowledge of our family trees, over the years, Michael and I could never pinpoint how closely or distantly we are related.

Figure 4. My fourth cousins once removed, Ronny and Michael Bruck, in August 2014 in Hilden, Germany

Figure 5. From left to right: my first cousin, Wolfgang Lutze, myself, and Ronny and Michael Bruck in August 2014 in Hilden, Germany

Fast forward to the present. My previous post told the story about obtaining the complete roster of students who were enrolled in the Ratibor Gymnasium, high school, between its opening in 1819 and 1849; Ratibor is the town in Upper Silesia where my father was born in 1907, and where many Brucks hail from. Among the first-year students who attended the Ratibor Gymnasium upon its opening were two brothers, Isaac and Samuel Bruck. (Figures 6a-b) As I told readers in Post 73, Samuel Bruck is my great-great-grandfather, and is known to me. (Figure 7) His brother Isaac was completely unfamiliar to me, so I casually checked on ancestry.com and MyHeritage, to no avail. Not expecting to find anything through a Google search, I nonetheless checked Isaac’s name there. Imagine my surprise, then, when I was “kicked” into a query that had been posted by Michael Bruck in 2012 on Genealogy.com inquiring about him. (Figure 8)

Figure 6a. Page from the Ratibor Gymnasium “Album” 1819-1849 listing Isaac Bruck and Samuel Bruck’s names, in succession, “bracketed” together, with the profession of their dad, “arrendator,” leaseholder, noted

Figure 6b. Page from the Ratibor Gymnasium “Album” 1819-1849 showing Isaac Bruck and Samuel Bruck’s ages at the time they were enrolled in the Ratibor Gymnasium in 1819

Figure 7. My great-great-grandfather Samuel Bruck (1808-1863)

Figure 8. Question Michael Bruck posted on Genealogy.com on the 6th of December 2012 inquiring about Isaac Bruck

As followers can read, Michael asked the genealogical community for information on Isaac Bruck and his wife Caroline Stolz from Ratibor; he went on to say that their daughter Marie Friederike Bruck married David Isaac there on the 29^th of June 1857, and that Friederike was Michael’s great-great-grandmother. Upon seeing Michael’s message, it immediately became clear how we’re likely related. While I qualify the previous statement, there is absolutely no question in my mind how Michael, Ronny, and I are related. We are fourth cousins once removed. Let me briefly review the evidence, again by reference to primary source documents as in the previous post.

To remind readers what I said in Post 73, in the Ratibor Gymnasium Album, the names “Isaac Bruck and Samuel Bruck” occur in succession and are “bracketed” together with their unnamed father’s profession identically described as “Arrendator,” leaseholder. (Figures 6a-b) From a condensed family tree developed by my uncle Dr. Fedor Bruck reproduced here (Figure 9), I know that Samuel’s father was Jacob Nathan Bruck and that by association, so too is Isaac’s father. To me, the names in association with one another and their father’s profession being the same is “the smoking gun,” the answer to the question Michael and Ronny once posed.

Figure 9. Copy of a condensed family tree developed by my uncle Dr. Fedor Bruck showing Samuel and Jonas Bruck as the sons of Jacob Bruck and Marianne Aufrecht

The marriage register listing of Michael’s great-great-grandmother Marie Friederike Bruck to David Isaak dated the 19^th of June 1857 survives and can be found on LDS Microfilm Roll 1184449. (Figure 10)

Figure 10. The marriage register listing for Isaac(k) Bruck and Caroline Stolz’s daughter, Marie Friederike Bruck, when she wed David Isaak on the 29th of June 1857, drawn from LDS Microfilm Roll 1184449

Below is a transcription and a translation of the marriage register listing for Isaac(k) Bruck’s daughter and her husband.

*Register No.*	*Datum* *1857*	*Vor & Zuname* *Bräutigam*	*Gewerbe* *Wohnhaft*	*Name der Braut*	*& ihrer Eltern* *Gewerbe* *Wohnhaft*
(Register Number)	(Date 1857)	(First & last name of the groom)	(Occupation, Residence)	(Name of the bride)	(& her parents’ occupation & residence)
GERMAN
*113*	*29.6*	*David ISAAK, 32 Jahre, Sohn d[es] zu Wrirtzen verstorb[enen] Handelsmanns Hirsch ISAAK & der dort lebenden Ehefrau Cheinchen geb. CASPER*	*Handlungskommis, Berlin*	*Marie Friederike BRUCK, Ratibor, 24 Jahre*	*zu Altendorf verstorb[ener] Sattlermeister / p. Kaufm[ann] Isaak BRUCK & Ehefrau Caroline geb. STOLZ, Ratibor*

ENGLISH
113	29 June	David ISAAK, 32 years old, son of the merchant Hirsch ISAAK, who died in Wrietzen, and his wife Cheinchen née CASPER, who lives there	Clerk, assistant or commercial employee, Berlin	Marie Friederike BRUCK, Ratibor, 24 years old	Died in Altendorf, master saddler / p. businessman Isaak BRUCK & wife Caroline née STOLZ, Ratibor

As readers can see, in the far-right column, Marie Friederike’s parents are identified, Isaak (spelled with a “k”) Bruck and Caroline Stolz, with a notation that Isaak died in Altendorf, a suburb of Ratibor (Figure 11), obviously before his daughter got married in 1857.

Figure 11. 1893 map of Ratibor showing the proximity of Altendorf where Isaak Bruck is reputed to have died

The town where the groom comes from is incorrectly spelled “Wrietzen,” when it should have read “Wriezen.” It’s a town in the district Märkisch-Oderland, in Brandenburg, Germany.

Figure 12. Schematic “tree” showing where the “Isaak” surname was changed to “Bruck” and how Michael Bruck is related to Isaak Bruck

One final point. Some may wonder, as I did, why Michael and Ronny’s surnames are Bruck when this originates in their matrilineal line. (Figure 12) Michael explained that some of David and Marie Friederike Isaac’s children were in the clothing business in Berlin and owned several shops there in the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries; on account of persistent anti-Semitism, they started to use their mother’s maiden name. One of David and Marie Friederike’s sons, Max Isaac and his wife, formally applied to the Berlin authorities to use the Bruck name permanently on the 3^rd of November 1919, evidence of which survives. (Figure 13)

Figure 13. Untranslated copy of a primary source document chronicling the surname change from “Isaac” to “Bruck” in 1919

It’s satisfying to have figured out how Michael, Ronny, and I are related, albeit in the scheme of things, it’s not seemingly a near ancestral link. That said, I maintain close ties with Michael and Ronny, and we regularly communicate. Furthermore, Ronny, by dint of his familiarity with Sütterlin, the German saw-toothed script briefly taught in schools there, has translated numerous family documents penned in this writing. This has enormously furthered my family research.

POST 73: RATIBOR GYMNASIUM (HIGH SCHOOL) STUDENT REGISTER, 1819-1849—MORE CLUES ABOUT MY BRUCK FAMILY

Note: In this post, I discuss a recently obtained list of students who attended Ratibor’s Gymnasium, or high school, between its opening in 1819 and 1849, and facts I’ve gleaned from this registry. While I expected a linear unfolding of the ledger’s contents and information, in some ways it has turned into a game of three-dimensional chess, as I’ll explain. This post also provides an opportunity to lay out the exacting approach I try and take to make a case for ancestral connections relying on primary source documents.

Post 68: Dr. Julius Bruck and His Influence on Modern Endoscopy

One of the most exciting moments doing forensic genealogy occurs when you discover a copy or original historic document with the names of your ancestors, particularly when the names are those of your oldest known relatives. As a former archaeologist, this is analogous to unearthing an artifact that was last handled by a human hundreds if not thousands of years ago. The context in which an artifact or document is found is key to properly interpreting its significance.

Figure 1. Cover of the 1820 publication by Dr. Carl Linge, first director of Ratibor’s Gymnasium, entitled (translated) “Memorandum on the solemn opening of the Royal Evangelical High School in Ratibor on June 2, 1819”

Last year, Mr. Paul Newerla, my friend from Ratibor, retired lawyer and current writer of Silesian history, mentioned that 2019 marked the bicentennial of Ratibor’s Gymnasium, or high school, still used today as a commercial school. To remind readers, Ratibor is the town where my father, Dr. Otto Bruck, was born in 1907. In Post 60, using background information provided by Mr. Newerla, I discussed the high school’s history and a publication Paul found archived at the British Museum written by the school’s first director, Dr. Carl Linge, entitled “Denkschrift über die feierliche Eröffnung des Königl. Evangel. Gymnasium zu Ratibor am 2. Juni 1819. . .,” “Memorandum on the solemn opening of the Royal Evangelical High School in Ratibor on June 2, 1819. . .” (Figure 1) This publication, printed in 1820, included a list of names of all first-year attendees, including two members of my Bruck family with only the initials of their forenames written in elaborate Gothic script, read by Paul as “S. Bruck” and J. Bruck.” (Figure 2) Based on the intimate knowledge of my family tree, I concluded these stood for Samuel Bruck (1808-1863) and Jonas Bruck (1813-1883), brothers who are shown as the children of Jacob Bruck in an abridged typed family tree developed by my Uncle Dr. Fedor Bruck. (Figure 3)

Figure 2. Page from Dr. Linge’s 1820 publication with the names of my ancestors “J. Bruck” and S. Bruck” shown as enrolled in Ratibor’s Gymnasium when the school first opened in 1819

Figure 3. Copy of a condensed family tree developed by my uncle Dr. Fedor Bruck showing Samuel and Jonas Bruck as the sons of Jacob Bruck and Maria Aufrecht

Typically, attendance at Gymnasiums begins between the ages of 10 and 12, give or take a year, so Samuel’s attendance in 1819 when he would have been 11 years old makes sense. However, his brother Jonas’s attendance in 1819, when he was only six years old seems implausible, unless he was exceptionally precocious. Absent any other incontrovertible evidence, however, this is the preliminary conclusion I came to in Post 60, namely, that Jonas Bruck had attended the Ratibor Gymnasium at a very early age.

Figure 4. The former Ratibor Gymnasium as it looks today

Naturally, I became curious whether the original ledger of student names upon which Dr. Linge’s publication was based still exists, whether it is in the Polish State Archives in Racibórz or possibly curated by the Muzeum Racibórzu. Paul explained that because an existing commercial school now occupies the buildings of the former high school (Figure 4), some of the original records are retained there. In the recent past, there had apparently been some discussion about transferring the remaining ledgers to the archive or museum but for unknown reasons these negotiations ended acrimoniously.

Paul offered to contact the commercial school and inquire about the student ledgers, which he knew to have existed at one time because a colleague had shared some pictures of the “Album,” as it is referred to. Paul was recently granted access to the Gymnasium’s records. This turned out to be a frustrating exercise because the school was unable to initially locate the Album of student names for the period 1819 to 1849, even presented with irrefutable evidence of its existence in the form of pictures; Paul even checked the school’s archives, to no avail. Dispiritedly, Paul left his name and number, and asked them to call him if the Album was ever found.

Paul was not optimistic the ledger would turn up. He’s related some horror stories how nearby Polish and Czech Republic parishes have on occasion burned Kirchenbücher, church books, Kirchenmatrikeln, the roll or register of parishioners, and Pfarrmatrikel, parish matriculations, related to former German occupants of the area simply because none of their descendants live locally anymore. To use another archaeological analogy, it’s like pillaging a cultural site, ripping a page from prehistory, so to speak. So, it came as a pleasant surprise when several weeks after Paul’s visit to the former Ratibor Gymnasium he received a call telling him they’d finally located the Album in question. Paul promptly visited the commercial school and took pictures of the entire ledger of students covering the period 1819 through 1849, roughly 90 pages worth of material, which he sent me. (Figure 5)

Figure 5. Cover of the Ratibor Gymnasium “Album” with the complete list of students who were enrolled at the high school between the 11th of May 1819 and the 13th of April 1849, 2024 names

I’ve been a coin collector much of my life and going through all the pages of the Ratibor Gymnasium Album was comparable to sorting through a cache of pennies in search of pre-1959 wheat chaff coppers. While the names of family members I discovered were relatively few, the information corresponding to each ancestor has provided multiple avenues for further investigation. The challenge is making sense of ancestral connections for people who lived 170 to 200 years ago in the context of what was a very large Bruck family at the time. As I mentioned at the outset, it’s a bit like playing three-dimensional chess

In the table below, I summarize the family data I gleaned from the Ratibor student ledger. Then, I examine using available primary source documents how or whether these people are or may be related.

SUMMARY OF FAMILY NAMES FROM RATIBOR GYMNASIUM ALBUM, 1819-1849

Year/ Date of Admission	Line Number/Name	Where From	Father’s Profession (German & English)	Age or Date of Birth of Student
1819	Isaac Bruck Samuel Bruck	Ratibor	*“Arrendator”* Leaseholder	13 10
4 April 1823	402. Heimann Bruck	Ratibor	*“Destillateur”* Distiller	11
21 April 1824	440. Jonas Bruck	Ratibor	*“Destillateur”* Distiller	10 ½
19 May 1829	1829. Marcus Braun	Ratibor	*“Wirth”* Innkeeper	12 ½
22 May 1845	1752. Oscar Bruck	Ratibor	*“Kaufmann”* Merchant	8 October 1832
3 January 1846	1772. Heimann Bruck	Ratibor	*“Sattlermeister”* Saddler	26 December 1833
27 April 1848	1961. Fedor Bruck	Ratibor	*“Kaufmann”* Merchant	30 September 1834

Samuel Bruck (Figures 6a-b)

Readers will note that Isaac and Samuel Bruck’s names are listed in succession and bracketed, and the profession of their father is identical, an “Arrendator,” a leaseholder (i.e., holding property by lease). Thus, I assume they were brothers, although I had no prior knowledge of Isaac. Samuel Bruck (1808-1863) (Figure 7) was my great-great-grandfather, and I have photos of both he and his wife, Charlotte Bruck née Marle (1809-1861), later in life. Samuel purchased the family hotel in Ratibor, the Bruck’s “Prinz von Preußen” Hotel, around the middle of the 19^th Century, following a career as a wood merchant.

My uncle Dr. Fedor Bruck produced an abbreviated typed family tree (Figure 3) that includes the names of Samuel Bruck and his brother Jonas (more on him later), shown to be the sons of Jacob Bruck and his wife Maria Aufrecht. From primary source documents, Jacob (Jakob) Nathan Bruck, his complete name, and Maria Aufrecht are known to have had other children. LDS microfilm roll 1184449 for Ratibor documents the birth of a daughter named Rebecka on the 10th of January 1815. (Figure 8) The same microfilm roll also documents the marriages of three of Jacob’s daughters, Wilhelmina, Dorothea, and Fanny, respectively, in 1814, 1817, and 1822 (Figure 9); the mother is not identified but I presume is Maria Aufrecht. And, yet another primary source document identifies Jacob Nathan Bruck as the father of a son named Marcus Moritz Bruck who married Nanette von Aldersthal in 1836 in Berlin at the age of 36 (Figure 10); again the mother is not named but I presume is Maria. So, from various sources, I can reasonably document that Jacob Nathan Bruck likely had at least eight children (i.e., Wilhelmina, Dorothea, Fanny, Marcus Moritz, Isaac, Samuel, Jonas, and Rebecka).

Figure 8. Summary page from JRI-Poland.org, drawn from the Jewish Ratibor records found on LDS microfilm roll 1184449, listing the birth of Jacob and Maria Bruck’s daughter Rebecka on the 10th of January 1815

Figure 9. Summary page from JRI-Poland.org, drawn from the Jewish Ratibor records found on LDS microfilm roll 1184449, listing the marriages of three of Jacob Nathan Bruck’s daughters, respectively, in 1814, 1817 and 1822

Figure 10. The marriage register listing for Marcus Moritz Bruck and Nanette von Adlersthal on the 16th of October 1836 in Berlin, identifying Jacob Nathan Bruck as Marcus’s father and giving Marcus’s age as 36

Isaac Bruck (Figures 6a-b)

Let’s move on to Isaac and consider what primary sources are available for him. With the original Ratibor Gymnasium Album for 1819-1849 in hand, and with Isaac Bruck’s full name written out, I am now certain the initial for Isaac’s forename in Dr. Carl Linge’s 1820 publication referenced above was mistakenly recorded as a “J.” rather than an “I.” This led me to initially conclude that Jonas had attended the high school at the precocious age of 6. Not the case.

Isaac’s age at the time he attended the Ratibor Gymnasium in 1819 is stated as 13. Given that the Gymnasium Ratibor Album records students’ names starting on the 11th of May 1819, I generally place Isaac’s birth in the early part of 1806, though it could certainly have been in the latter half of 1805. I discovered a family tree on MyHeritage that gives an Isaac Bruck’s exact date of birth as the 9^th of November 1805 in Breslau. However, upon locating the original birth register listing for this individual in the LDS microfilm for Breslau (LDS Roll 1184380, page 34 of 594), I found the listing is for someone named ISAAC BRUG. (Figure 11) Conceivably, an alternate spelling for “Bruck” in the early 19^th Century could have been “BRUG,” but because the father is identified as “abr. Meyer Brug,” I’m dubious this is the same Isaac. I’m convinced Isaac’s father was Jacob Nathan Bruck because of his association in the student ledger with the name “Samuel Bruck,” whose father was assuredly Jacob. This is another example of something I rail about, the need to be cautious about adopting and replicating information found in other family trees without confirming the source of the data.

Figure 11. Page from the Jewish Breslau records, drawn from LDS microfilm roll 1184380, page 34 out of 594, listing “Isaac Brug” as the son of “abr. Meyer Brug”

Years ago when I did a basic Google query on Isaac Bruck, I stumbled upon an intriguing announcement in Volume 18 of the “Amtsblatt für den Regierungsbezirk Marienwerder (Official Gazette for the Marienwerder District),” dated the 26^th of May 1828 about him. (Figures 12a-b) There is no question the announcement relates to my ancestor as he is said to have come from Ratibor, and his age of 22 in 1828 coincides with my estimate of how old he would have been then had he been born between 1805 and 1806. It seems, the Security Services from the West Prussian town of Graudenz issued a bulletin in May of 1828 alerting the police authorities to arrest Isaac Bruck after he had gone AWOL or escaped from the local penitentiary. He was described as Jewish, 22 years old with black and curly hair, a black beard, a normal sized mouth, having an oval chin and face, of average stature, 5 feet 2 inches, with a scar on his right forearm from a horse bite. Whether Isaac was ever brought to justice remains unknown.

Figure 12a. Page 213 from Volume 18 of the “Amtsblatt für den Regierungsbezirk Marienwerder (Official Gazette for the Marienwerder District),” dated the 26th of May 1828, calling for Isaac Bruck’s arrest for having gone AWOL

Figure 12b. German transcription of page 213 from Volume 18 of the “Amtsblatt für den Regierungsbezirk Marienwerder (Official Gazette for the Marienwerder District),” dated the 26th of May 1828, calling for Isaac Bruck’s arrest for having gone AWOL

Several other primary sources from Ratibor make mention of Isaac Bruck and his wife Caroline Bruck née Stolz, who is identified as the daughter of Joachim Meyer Stolz. The birth register for Ratibor records Isaac and Caroline gave birth to a daughter named Fany on the 28^th of December 1833 (Figure 13), who according to one of my cousins supposedly died in 1834. Isaac and Caroline’s divorce is recorded on the 19^th of July 1835, and gives the name of Caroline’s father as “Joachim Meyer Stolz.” (Figure 14) Yet a third primary source from 1835, claiming that Caroline and Isaac are then living separately, states Isaac remarried a woman named Charlotte Leopold; this same document gives the names and dates of birth of Isaac and Caroline’s two other children, Marie born on the 27^th of June 1832, and Heinrich on the 6^th of January 1835. (Figure 15) Caroline Bruck née Stolz’s death certificate records her death in Berlin on the 24^th of January 1875, and claims she was born in 1803 in Rawitsch [today: Rawicz, Poland]. (Figures 16a-b)

Figure 13. Ratibor birth record for Isaac Bruck and Caroline Bruck née Stolz’s daughter “Fany” on the 28th of December 1833

Figure 14. Register listing of Isaac Bruck and Caroline Bruck b. Stolz’s divorce on the 19th of July 1835, identifying Caroline’s father as “Joachim Meyer Stolz”

Figure 15. Primary source document with the names and dates of birth of Isaac and Caroline Bruck’s two children, Marie (born on the 27th of June 1832) and Heinrich (born on the 6th of January 1835)

Figure 16a. Cover page from ancestry.com for Caroline Bruck b. Stolz’s death certificate (b. 1803-d. 24 Jan 1875, Berlin VIIa)

Figure 16b. Caroline Bruck b. Stolz’s death certificate (b. 1803-d. 24 Jan 1875, Berlin VIIa)

Heimann Bruck (Figure 17)

Figure 17. Page from the Ratibor Gymnasium “Album” 1819-1849 listing Heimann Bruck enrolled on the 4th of April 1823

The Ratibor Gymnasium Album records Heimann’s enrollment on the 4^th of April 1823, when he was 11 years old, placing his birth around 1812. Some ancestral trees claim his full name was “Heinrich Hermann Heimann Bruck.”

The Ratibor Gymnasium Album states that Heimann’s father was a “Destillateur,” a distiller, unlike Isaac and Samuel’s father, who, as mentioned, was an “Arrendator,” a leaseholder. Given that Jacob Nathan Bruck had so many siblings, it’s possible some lived in Ratibor, and that Heimann was one of Jacob’s nephews rather than his son. There is insufficient data to conclusively determine Heimann’s relationship to Jacob Bruck.

Jonas Bruck (Figure 18)

Figure 18. Page from the Ratibor Gymnasium “Album” 1819-1849 listing Jonas Bruck enrolled on the 21st of April 1824

A Jonas Bruck, whose father was also a “Destillateur,” a distiller, was enrolled in the Ratibor Gymnasium on the 21^st of April 1824, when he was 10 ½ years of age. Once again, the question of whether this Jonas was the son of Jacob Bruck or the son of one of his brothers or cousins is subject to debate. Let me explain.

The Jonas Bruck who was the son of Jacob Nathan Bruck and the father of the famed dentist Dr. Julius Bruck, discussed in Post 68, is buried in the Jewish Cemetery in Breslau; his dates of birth and death are thus known (i.e., b. 5 March 1813-d. 5 April 1883). (Figure 19) In April 1824, when Jonas was enrolled, he would already have been 11 years of age, not 10 ½ as noted. This, and the fact that the father of the Jonas who was enrolled in the Ratibor Gymnasium in April 1824 was “Destillateur” would suggest this is possibly not Jacob’s son. No way to be sure.

Figure 19. A closeup of Jonas Bruck’s headstone showing his birth and death dates

Marcus Braun (Figure 20)

Figure 20. Page from the Ratibor Gymnasium “Album” 1819-1849 listing Marcus Braun enrolled on the 19th of May 1829

Marcus (Markus) Braun was enrolled at the Ratibor Gymnasium on the 19^th of May 1829 at the age of 12 ½. Marcus, my great-great-grandfather, a Brauereipachter, or tenant brewer, was the subject of Post 14. He is known to have been born in 1817, and his age in 1829 confirms this.

Oscar Bruck (Figure 21)

Figure 21. Page from the Ratibor Gymnasium “Album” 1819-1849 listing Oscar Bruck enrolled on the 22nd of May 1845

Oscar (Oskar) Bruck was registered as a student at the Ratibor Gymnasium on the 22^nd of May 1845. By this year, the precise date of birth of students rather than their age was recorded, and Oscar’s birth is noted as the 8^th of October 1832, which corresponds with data available to me elsewhere (i.e., the Pinkus Family Collection at the Leo Baeck Institute). Oscar Bruck was my great-great-uncle.

Heimann Bruck (Figure 22)

Figure 22. Page from the Ratibor Gymnasium “Album” 1819-1849 listing Heimann Bruck enrolled on the 3rd of January 1846

On the 3^rd of January 1846, a Heimann Bruck from another generation is enrolled at the Ratibor Gymnasium, and his father was “Sattlermeister,” or saddler. His date of birth is noted as the 26^th of December 1833. It’s not clear how he’s related to Jacob Nathan Bruck. Figure 15 indicates that Isaac Bruck and Caroline Bruck née Stolz had a son named Heimann, born on the 6^th of January 1835, so presumably the parents of the Heimann born on the 26^th of December 1833 were someone other.

Fedor Bruck (Figure 23)

Figure 23. Page from the Ratibor Gymnasium “Album” 1819-1849 listing Fedor Bruck enrolled on the 27th of April 1848

My great-grandfather Fedor Bruck (Figure 24), brother of Oscar Bruck, was enrolled at the Ratibor Gymnasium on the 27^th of April 1848. His date of birth is recorded as the 30^th of September 1834, which again corresponds with data available in the Pinkus Family Collection at the Leo Baeck Institute.

Figure 24. My great-grandfather Fedor Bruck (1834-1892)

In preparing this Blog post, I conferred with one of my fourth cousins. He has in his possession a memoir written by his great-aunt Bertha Jacobson née Bruck, great-granddaughter of Jacob Nathan Bruck, claiming he was one of 17 children and had 12 children of his own with Maria Aufrecht!! One family tree manager, now deceased, has precise vital data on Jacob’s dates and places of birth and death (b. 18 February 1770, Pschow-d. 29 June 1832, Ratibor), as well as the birth years of a few of his children, but cites no source. Given the very precise dates and places, I’m inclined to believe they’re authentic, but I can’t independently confirm this, so I reserve judgement as to their accuracy.

Given the large number of potential ancestors Jacob Bruck may have had and the likelihood that names repeated themselves within and across generations, it’s difficult to pinpoint the relationship among all the Bruck members who attended the Ratibor Gymnasium absent more primary source documents.

In closing, I cannot emphasize strongly enough that many of the family history stories I relate on my Blog would be impossible without the generous assistance of a cadre of researchers and genealogists who offer their help free-of-charge simply because they derive a vicarious “high” from doing so. Obtaining the help of local historians and researchers, particularly native speakers, is especially valuable as they often have knowledge of historic documents, not yet automated, that an outsider, like myself, would be unaware of. The mere existence of my Blog, albeit of limited interest to most of the world, attracts enough attention by people in a position to further my ancestral investigations and allows me to relate some of my tales. To these named and unnamed people I’m eternally grateful.