Category: Susanne Müller nee Bruck

POST 165: MORE ABOUT ERNST MOMBERT, DEPORTED FROM FRANCE TO AUSCHWITZ WITH MY AUNT SUZANNE MÜLLER, NÉE BRUCK


Note: In this post, I examine newly acquired documents obtained from France’s Ministère des Armées related to a man named Ernst Mombert arrested and deported from France to Auschwitz with my aunt Suzanne Müller, née Bruck in August-September 1942.

Related Posts:

POST 22: MY AUNT SUSANNE, NÉE BRUCK, & HER HUSBAND DR. FRANZ MÜLLER, THE FAYENCE YEARS 

POST 23: MY AUNT SUSANNE’S FINAL JOURNEY

POST 119: THE FRENCH CONNECTION, ERNST & FRANZ MOMBERT

 

As I write this post, I’m reminded of what the mother of one of my former girlfriends told her when she was working on her doctorate, “you’re learning more and more about less and less.” Such is the case of a man related by marriage to my family who I introduced in earlier posts, Ernst Mombert (“Ernest” in France); he was arrested in Fayence, France in August 1942, along with my father’s beloved sister, Suzanne Müller, née Bruck. (Figure 1) Their fates were already known to me.

 

Figure 1. My aunt Suzanne Müller, née Bruck (1904-1942), murdered in Auschwitz

 

However, recently I’ve learned more about Ernst thanks to a French student from Toulon, France, Julia Saintgermain. (Figure 2) In commemoration of the 80th anniversary in 2022 of the mass deportations of Jews from the Var department of France, where both Toulon and Fayence are situated, as a school project Julia and her schoolmates researched some Jewish victims of this extradition. Julia selected Ernst and Suzanne and came across my blog in the process. Julia contacted me and eventually supplemented what I’d uncovered. I will discuss these recent discoveries. What I learned about Ernst in small part informs me about my aunt’s final weeks, so it is materially relevant.

 

Figure 2. Julia Saintgermain, the French student who researched some of the Jews deported in August-September 1942 from the Var region of France, including Ernst Mombert and my aunt Suzanne

 

A little context. My aunt Suzanne (1904-1942) was married to an older gentleman, my uncle Dr. Franz Muller (1871-1945) (Figure 3), who was 33 years her senior; he had two children from a previous marriage, Peter Muller-Munk and Karin Margit Muller-Munk. Because of Franz’s and Suzanne’s age difference, her “stepchildren” were roughly the same age as her. Franz’s daughter Margit was married to Franz Mombert (“Francois” in French), Ernst’s brother, and the two co-owned a fruit farm in Fayence, France. After my aunt and uncle were forced to leave Fiesole, Italy, outside Florence, in September 1938, after earlier fleeing Berlin, Germany in late 1935 or early 1936, they took refuge at Ernst and Franz’s farm in Fayence, France.

 

Figure 3. My aunt Suzanne with her husband Dr. Franz Müller in Fiesole, Italy in 1938

 

While researching Ernst Mombert, Julia stumbled on Posts 22 & 23 where I introduced him to readers. She initially asked whether I knew how he’d wound up in the various detention camps in France he is documented to have been incarcerated in during the war (more on this below). As I discussed in Post 119, I’d only been aware he’d been briefly detained in a place called “Le Camp de La Rode” near Toulon, so was unable to answer her question though I was equally intrigued.

Julia obtained a file on Ernest Mombert from France’s “Ministère des Armées” in November 2022, which she graciously shared. (Figure 4) In this post I’ll discuss several new things I learned from this dossier. I would reiterate two points I’ve made in previous posts. First, the assistance of readers and people whom I refer to as “my boots on the ground,” particularly native German and French speakers, has often given me access to documentary evidence I would likely never have found on my own. Second, I find it illuminating that extensive files often exist on Jews murdered during the Holocaust, as though documenting their deaths was more important than celebrating their lives and accomplishments. I acknowledge there may have been pragmatic reasons for post-mortem documentation, such as resolving estate issues.

 

Figure 4. Cover of “Ernest Mombert” dossier from the “Ministère Des Anciens Combattants Et Victimes De Guerre,” Ministry of Veterans and Victims of War

 

The Ministère’s file includes documents from their archives of the so-called “Ministère Des Anciens Combattants Et Victimes De Guerre,” Ministry of Veterans and Victims of War. I’ll discuss some of these records beginning with the most recent and working my way backwards. 

In Post 23, I talked about my aunt and Ernst’s arrest in Fayence in August 1942 by the Vichy (Figure 5), and the overarching geopolitical environment surrounding the timing. In that earlier post, I also highlighted the last three “postcards” (Figures 6a-c) my aunt ever sent following her arrest; the postmarks and dates on the cards provide clues as to the exact date of her and Ernst’s seizure and the route by which they were ultimately deported to and murdered in Auschwitz. Because her first card was dated the 26th of August 1942 from a place near Fayence called Draguignan, 19 miles to the southwest, I assumed she’d been taken prisoner several days prior. It turns out that according to the dossier, this is the precise date Ernst and Suzanne were detained and began their final journey. My aunt clearly wasted no time communicating with her husband following her arrest.

 

Figure 5. Letter dated the 23rd of December 1945 from Ernst Mombert’s brother, Francois, to the French authorities providing details on his brother and my aunt’s arrest and requesting information on their whereabouts

 

 

Figure 6a. My aunt Suzanne’s first card sent from Draguignan on the 26th of August 1939 following her arrest the same day

 

 

Figure 6b. My aunt Suzanne’s second card sent from “Les Milles,” postmarked the 29th of September 1939 following her arrest on the 26th of September

 

Figure 6c. The last communication from my aunt Suzanne following her arrest by the Vichy French postmarked from Avignon the 2nd of September 1939

 

On one page in the report dated the 13th of August 1946 (Figure 7), the following telling sentences are written: “Arreté 26/8/42 par la gendarmerie de Fayence comme Israelite. Étranger, deporté de Drancy le 7/9/1942, depuis sans nouvelles.” Translated: “Arrested the 26th of August 1942 by the Fayence constables as a Jew. Foreigner, deported to Drancy on the 7th of September 1942, no news since.” This page along with one or two others in the dossier from the Ministère des Armées confirm the date that Ernst Mombert and my aunt Suzanne were arrested in Fayence. This passage begs dissection.

 

Figure 7. Page in Ernst Mombert’s file from the French “Ministère des Armées” dated the 13th of August 1946 with the passage that has been parsed

 

First some historical background. Nazi Germany captured France during WWII following the abbreviated Battle of France that lasted from only May 10, 1940, until June 25, 1940. The occupation of France by Nazi Germany at first affected only the northern and western portions of the country. The remainder of Metropolitan France was the rump state of Vichy France headed by Marshal Philippe Petain. Fayence was in this so-called unoccupied “free zone” (zone libre). Vichy France adopted a policy of collaboration with Nazi Germany which entailed helping the German authorities deport Jews to killing centers, explaining why Franz and my aunt were arrested by the Fayence constables rather than their Nazi overlords. In November 1942 Germany and their Italian allies finally occupied Vichy France, the zone libre. 

A 2017 article I came across by Paul Webster, entitled “The Vichy Policy on Jewish Deportation,” speaks to this tragic French collaboration: 

“Even some pro-German states took a stand. Fascist Hungary resisted Nazi demands to hand over Jews until the country was invaded in 1944. Italy had anti-Semitic laws, but nevertheless defended French Jews in south-eastern France, which was occupied by the Italian army, and thus saved thousands of lives. 

The last example is the most relevant to the tragic French experience, whose consequences are yet to be resolved. More than 60 years after a collaborationist French government helped deport 75,721 Jewish refugees and French citizens to Nazi death camps, the national conscience has still not come to terms with the betrayal of a community persecuted by French anti-Semitic laws.” 

As a half-French, half-German Jew, this last paragraph explains my highly ambivalent attitude towards the French, namely, their unwillingness to acknowledge and apologize for their complicity in the persecution and murder of Jews during and immediately following WWII. 

In the file, Ernst is characterized as “étranger,” foreigner. (see Figure 7) While clearly a Jewish refugee from Germany, by the time of his deportation, he had owned land and been a farmer in Fayence since 1933. (Figure 8) Like my father, Ernst was characterized as “apatride,” stateless (see Figure 7), so thereby not afforded the protection that long-term residency should have bestowed.

 

Figure 8. Archival record from the “Archives Départementales du Var” in Draguignan, France placing Ernst Mombert’s acquisition of his fruit farm in Fayence on the 1st of December 1933

 

Another page in the dossier from the Ministère des Armées dated the 20th of July 1946 uses the words “NON RENTRE” (Figure 9) as regards Ernst Mombert’s whereabouts at the time. Translated as “not returned,” this is a highly charged expression, as I learned. It was a transparent effort by French authorities to avoid culpability for the fate of deportees, most of whom had been transported by the French using their railway system to the German collection center of Drancy outside Paris, a known transit point to the concentration camp of Auschwitz. There can be no doubt the French knew most deportees had been murdered and would never return.

 

Figure 9. Page in Ernest Mombert’s file from the French “Ministère des Armées” dated the 20th of July 1946 using the words “NON RENTRE,” not returned

 

This leads me to a brief discussion in a historical fiction book by Anne Berest my wife Ann is currently reading, entitled “The Postcard,” that coincidentally speaks to this very point regarding the French government. Quoting: 

“‘After the war, Myriam wanted to file an official record for each member of her family.’

‘What kind of record?’

‘Death certificates.’

‘Oh. Yes. . .of course.’

‘It was extremely complicated. It took almost two years of dealing with endless bureaucratic red tape for Myriam to file a record. And bear in mind: at the time, the French government still wouldn’t officially use the terms “killed in concentration camp” or “deported.” The term they used was “not returned.” Do you understand what that meant? The symbolism?’

‘Yes. The French government was saying to the Jews, your families weren’t murdered because of our actions. They just. . .haven’t come back.’” (2021:255) 

As Anne Berest implies, the hypocrisy is breathtaking. 

The fact Ernst Mombert never came back is reflected on several pages in the dossier, including a document dated the 30th of October 1946, titled “Acte De Disparition,” Deed of Disappearance, or the date he went missing. (Figure 10)

 

Figure 10. Page in Ernst Mombert’s file from the French “Ministère des Armées” with his “Acte De Disparition,” Deed of Disappearance, dated the 30th of October 1946 declaring he was deported on the 7th of September 1942

 

In the case of four of Anne Berest’s “not returned” relatives, it took until October 26, 1948, for them to be officially declared “missing.” The next phase of her ordeal then began with her fight for official death certificates, which only a judgment by a civil court could render in the absence of bodies. When the judgment was eventually handed down on July 15, 1949, seven years after her relatives died, stunningly, the official place of death of her relatives was Drancy, as it would also have been for Ernst and Suzanne. In other words, the French government didn’t recognize that they died at Auschwitz. Thus, the deported went from “not returned,” to “missing,” to “deceased on French soil.” (2021: 255-56) The official death dates were the date the deportation convoys left Drancy. In the case of Ernst and Suzanne, who were aboard the same convoy, their death dates would have been recorded as the 7th of September 1942 when the transport left Drancy. 

In Anne’s case, the Ministère Des Anciens Combattants Et Victimes De Guerre even requested the trial court prosecutor to specify the place of death as Auschwitz, but they rejected this request. Additionally, the court prosecutor refused to say at the time that the Jews had been deported because of race, but rather said it was for political reasons. It took Anne until 1996, after vigorous lobbying, that official recognition of “death by deportation” was granted and the death certificates were amended. (2021: 256) 

In the case of Ernst’s certificate of death, his death judgment was rendered by the Draguignan civil court on the 17th of July 1947, but there is no mention of “death by deportation” since the judgment was made well before 1996. (Figure 11) My aunt’s death certificate was similarly issued by the Draguignan civil court more than two years later, on the 21st of September 1949. (Figure 12) The certificate states she was deported to Poland, but again no mention of “death by deportation.”

 

Figure 11. Handwritten page in Ernst Mombert’s French “Ministère des Armées” file from the civil court in Draguignan declaring Ernst died

 

Figure 12. My aunt Suzanne was officially declared dead by the civil court in Draguignan on the 21st of September 1949

 

 

TRANSCRIPTION OF ERNST MOMBERT’S DECLARATION OF DEATH (see Figure 11)

en marge à gauche est écrit :

“transcription du jugement, déclaration du décès de Mombert Ernest” 

sur la page est écrit :

“Mairie de Fayence, arrondissement de Draguignan”

“Le 7 décembre 1947, 10 heures, nous, maire de la commune de Fayence avons procédé à la transcription du jugement déclaratif du décès ci-après.

d’un jugement rendu par le tribunal de première instance de Draguignan établi le 17 juillet 1947.

Il a été extrait ce qui suit :

Par ces motifs, le tribunal sévit de première instance de Draguignan, après en avoir délibéré en jugement conformément à la loi

Déclare le décès de Mombert Ernest apatride d’origine allemande né à Frisbourg en Brisgau (Allemagne) le 9 juillet 1911 du mariage de Paul Mombert et de Gieser Cornelie, domicilié en dernier lieu à Fayence (Var)

déporté le 7 septembre 1942

ordonne la transcription du présent jugement sur les registres courants de l’état civil de la commune de Fayence (Var) et du lieu de naissance de Mombert Ernest

Dit que mention en sera faite pour être en besoin sera ainsi jugée et prononcé à Draguignan en audience publique tenue au Palais de Justice de ladite ville le 17 juillet 1947

par messieurs Basque président, Beleret juge doyen, madame Parivet Thierrot juge en présence

de monsieur Clagnier juge suppléant occupant le siège du ministère public

assistés de monsieur Mailhare greffier

Enregistré à Draguignan le 22 juillet 1947

folio 29, case 290 pratis

le receveur Jeanne Cairrail et de cette transcription nous vous dressons la présente note que nous avons signée à la requête de monsieur le procureur de la République suivant note du 4 courant

approuvons la rature de 55 mots rayés nuls” 

TRANSLATION 

In the margin on the left is written:

“Transcription of the judgment, declaration of the death of Mombert Ernest” 

On the page is written: 

“Fayence City Town Hall, Draguignan district”

“On December 7, 1947, 10 a.m., we, the mayor of the municipality of Fayence, proceeded to the transcription of the declaratory judgment of death below. 

Of a judgment rendered by the Draguignan Court of First Instance established on July 17, 1947. 

The following has been extracted: 

For these reasons, the court is in the first instance of Draguignan, after having deliberated in judgment in accordance with the law. 

Declares the death of stateless Mombert Ernest of German origin born in Frieburg in Brisgau (Germany) on July 9, 1911 from the marriage of Paul Mombert and Gieser Cornelie, last domiciled in Fayence (Var). 

Deported on September 7, 1942. 

Orders the transcription of this judgment on the current registers of the civil status of the municipality of Fayence (Var) and the place of birth of Mombert Ernest. 

Said that mention will be made to be in need will thus be tried and pronounced in Draguignan in a public hearing held at the Palace of Justice of said city on July 17, 1947. 

By gentlemen Basque president, Beleret judge dean, Mrs. Parivet Thierrot judge in presence. 

Of Mr. Clagnier substitute judge occupying the seat of the public prosecutor’s office. 

Assisted by Mr. Mailhare clerk. 

Registered in Draguignan on July 22, 1947. 

Folio 29, case 290 practices.”

The receiver Jeanne Cairrail and from this transcript we give you this note that we signed at the request of the Public Prosecutor following note of 4 current. 

Let’s approve the erasure of 55 null crossed out words. 

Let me turn to another topic referred to in the Ministère’s document file, namely, the places and dates in France where Ernst Mombert was interned (Figure 13):

 

Figure 13. Page in Ernst Mombert’s file from the French “Ministère des Armées” listing the places and dates Ernst Mombert was interned between 1939 and 1942

 

LES MILLES (4 September 1939-25 October 1940)

GURS (26 October 1940-15 May 1941)

FAYENCE (26 August 1942-7 September 1942)

DRANCY (7 September 1942 deported to Poland) 

These are the internments Julia Saintgermain first asked me whether I knew anything about. As I mentioned above, prior to obtaining the dossier documenting the above internments, the only place where I’d found a fleeting reference that Ernst had been held was “Le Camp de la Rode” near Toulon. I found this in a publication by André Fontaine entitled “Quelques Camps du Sud-Est 1939-1940.” Because I can find no mention of this as an internment camp, I think it may simply have been a collection or transit point. 

I suspect Ernst was detained here very, very briefly, possibly only from the 4th of September 1939 until around the 16th of September 1939. Let me explain my reasoning by providing some context. 

Let me review what I discussed in Post 119. WWII began with the German invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939. The next day, France decreed a national mobilization. Internment sites for nationals of the German Reich (i.e., German, Austrian, and Czech emigrants) were planned and requisitioned in every French departement. By the 3rd of September, the French Minister of the Interior sent a telegram to each prefecture concerning the “concentration of foreigners from the German empire.” Immediately notifications about the planned roundups were circulated and posters put up in the town halls. All male nationals of the German Reich between 17 and 50 were required to report for incarceration. Male nationals from the department of Var were initially detained in La Rode near Toulon. This city is on the French Riviera located 74 miles southwest of Fayence. 

Now according to the Ministère’s dossier Ernst was detained in Les Milles as of the 4th of September 1939. André Fontaine very specifically places Ernst in Toulon at La Rode, so sometime around the 4th of September Ernst turned himself into the French authorities there. Why then is Ernst shown as incarcerated in Les Milles on that precise date? If, as I theorize, La Rode was never more than a collection or transit point, technically a “subcamp” of Les Milles, the place of Ernst’s initial incarceration may simply have been recorded as Les Milles. 

André Fontaine remarks the following on the transfer of the German Reich nationals to Les Milles from Toulon: “On September 16, 1939, the departure from Toulon was announced: a truck took the luggage at 6pm and the train left at 9pm. The arrival was only the next morning in Aix-en-Provence [Editor’s Note: location of Les Milles], after 15 hours of train to cover 90 km [Editor’s Note: 55 miles].” On these grounds, I surmise Ernst was among the detainees transferred from Toulon to Aix-en-Provence on the 16th of September 1939. 

Based on when nationals of the German Reich were required to report for internment, sometime around the 4th of September 1939, and when detainees were transported from La Rode to Les Milles, the 16th of September 1939, circumscribes Ernst’s detention dates in La Rode, so I think. 

From the dossier, we learn that Ernst was incarcerated for over a year in Les Milles (Figures 14-15) until the 25th of October 1940. According to the timeline provided, Ernst’s next internment was in Gurs, a large concentration camp in southwestern France, located 385 miles west of Aix-en-Provence. Ernst’s internment there started the day after it ended in Les Milles, the 26th of October 1940. It seems highly unlikely the distance between the two places could have been covered in one day. The reason for Ernst’s transfer from one camp to the other is unknown, though it took place many months after the Vichy government signed an armistice with the Nazis on the 22nd of June 1940. Had the Nazis intended to deport the Jews to Drancy from Gurs, as they later did, they could just as easily have done so from Les Milles, as they also later did. 

 

Figure 14. Camp Les Milles where Ernst Mombert and my aunt Suzanne were interned on their way to Drancy and Auschwitz

 

Figure 15. Camp Les Milles where Ernst Mombert and my aunt Suzanne were interned on their way to Drancy and Auschwitz

 

According to the dossier, Ernst’s internment at Gurs ended on the 15th of May 1941. Whether Ernst was released or escaped from there is unknown though clearly he returned to his farm in Fayence, where the file claims he was last interned from the 26th of August 1942 until the 7th of September 1942. These latter dates are in error. The last three “postcards” written by my aunt following her and Ernst’s arrest on the 26th of August 1942 confirm this. Her cards were dated and/or postmarked, respectively, from Draguignan on the 26th of August, from Les Milles in Aix-en-Provence on the 29th of August, and from Avignon on the 2nd of September. For whatever bureaucratic reason, Ernst’s stops on his way to Drancy, outside Paris, were all recorded as part of his incarceration in Fayence. 

Ernst Mombert was incarcerated twice in Les Milles in Aix-en-Provence, the first time supposedly beginning on the 4th of September 1939 until the 25th of October 1940, then briefly a second time simultaneously with my aunt around the 29th of August 1942. I can only imagine how Kafkaesque it must have seemed to Ernst to be returned to a concentration camp he thought he’d escaped from. 

Except for the period between the 15th of May 1941 and the 26th of August 1942, Ernst was almost continuously incarcerated in France from September 1939 until he was deported to Auschwitz in September 1942. First, following Germany’s invasion of Poland on the 1st of September 1939, as a German Jew refugee living in France, he was incredulously perceived and incarcerated as a possible quisling. Then, after Germany conquered France, he was interned as a Jew which led to his untimely death in September 1942. (Figure 16) Though my aunt’s route to Auschwitz followed a different pathway, her fate was identical. (Figures 17)

 

Figure 16. Commemorative plaque at Camp Les Milles bearing the names of deportees killed, including “Ernst Mombert”

 

Figure 17. Commemorative plaque at Camp Les Milles bearing the names of deportees killed, including my aunt “Suzanne Muller née Bruch,” with the surname misspelled

 

REFERENCES

Berest, A. (2021). The Postcard. Europa Editions.

Fontaine, André. Quelques camps du Sud-Est, 1939-1940 [réfugiés allemands], Recherches régionales. Centre de documentation des Alpes-Maritimes, 1988, 29e année, n° 3, p. 179-206.

(https://criminocorpus.org/en/tools/bibliography/bibliography-copy/ouvrages/97683/)

Webster, Paul. “The Vichy Policy on Jewish Deportation,” BBC, February 12, 2011.

BBC – History – World Wars: The Vichy Policy on Jewish Deportation

POST 161: FATE OR COINCIDENCE? THE FLEA MARKET FIND OF FEDOR LÖWENSTEIN PHOTOGRAPHS

Note: In this post, I briefly consider the philosophical question whether the chance discovery of family photographs of my father’s first cousin Fedor Löwenstein found in a Paris flea market was fated or coincidental. The circumstances under which the event occurred was so improbable that a small part of me wonders if it was not predestined.

Related Posts:

POST 21: MY AUNT SUSANNE MÜLLER, NÉE BRUCK, & HER HUSBAND DR. FRANZ MÜLLER, THE FIESOLE YEARS

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

POST 105: FEDOR LÖWENSTEIN ‘S NAZI-CONFISCATED ART: RESTITUTION DENIED

POST 160: UPDATE ON COMPENSATION CLAIM AGAINST THE FRENCH MINISTRY OF CULTURE INVOLVING NAZI-CONFISCATED FAMILY ART

 

In several earlier posts, I’ve mentioned my friend Ms. Madeleine Isenberg (Figure 1) who volunteers at the Jewish Genealogical Society of Los Angeles assisting members doing ancestral research. Madeleine once wrote an article for a periodical entitled “Avotaynu” detailing one of her research endeavors. She quoted her English uncle who claimed there is no such thing as coincidence, it’s all “beshert,” a Hebrew word for predestination or fate. My father Dr. Otto Bruck would have agreed with him.

 

Figure 1. Madeleine Isenberg and me in 2016

 

While I claim no adherence to this notion, I’ve come across several instances while doing ancestral research that make me think there may be an element of fate at work. Or, could it be as Branch Rickey, the brainy former General Manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers, once said that “Luck is the residue of design?” That’s to say, by planning and knowing where opportunities lurk, perhaps one is more apt to find oneself in a place where a coincidental find may be made. I don’t pretend to know the answer.

Buried in Post 21, published in February 2018, I recounted the story of a similar coincidental or fated event related to my family. Before moving to the subject of this post, I’ll review that earlier incident as it may have been overlooked by readers. Interestingly, it involves two elements of chance.

I estimate my uncle Dr. Franz Müller and aunt Susanne Müller, née Bruck, arrived in Florence, Italy in the early part of 1936, following their emigration from Germany to escape Nazi authoritarianism. Thanks to a friend my uncle knew in the Tuscan hill town of Fiesole, above Florence [Italian: Firenze] by the name of Dr. Gino Frascani, he and my aunt leased one of his villas, the Villa Primavera. (Figure 2) Eventually, in collaboration with an Austrian Jewish woman, Ms. Lucia von Jacobi (Figure 3), who’d also emigrated from Austria via Germany, my aunt Susanne and Lucia turned the Villa Primavera into a bed-and-breakfast. In Post 35, I discussed some of the guests who stayed there between 1937 and 1938 and their eventual fates.

 

Figure 2. Photograph of the Villa Primavera in 1938 taken by my father

 

 

Figure 3. Ms. Lucia von Jacobi in 1936-1937

 

In connection with my ancestral research, my wife Ann and I visited Fiesole and Florence in 2014, 2015, and 2016. Prior to our initial visit in 2014, I contacted the then-town archivist, Ms. Lucia Nadetti (Figure 4), at the “Archivio Storico Comunale,” the “Municipal Historic Archive,” and arranged to review pertinent documents. I’ve detailed the results of those archival investigations in Post 21, so refer readers to that post.

 

Figure 4. My friend Ms. Lucia Nadetti, the former archivist at the Municipal Historic Archive in Fiesole in 2014

 

Curious whether my uncle and aunt had purchased the Villa Primavera when they arrived in Fiesole, Ms. Nadetti directed us to the “Conservatoria Dei Registri Immobiliari” in nearby Firenze (Florence) to check ownership records.  Here, we learned the descendants of the former obstetrician/gynecologist Dr. Gino Frascani currently own two houses along Via Del Salviatino, the street where the Villa Primavera is located. However, the family no longer owns the villa though my uncle never purchased it.

The visit to the “Conservatoria,” however, resulted in the first of the two chance events mentioned above. In 2014, my wife and I were staying at a bed-and-breakfast on the outskirts of Fiesole, but rather than deal with Florence’s traffic to get to the Conservatoria, we took the bus.  While trying to ascertain where to catch the return bus at the end of the day, an English-speaking Italian woman, Ms. Giuditta Melli (Figure 5), noticed our confusion and confirmed we were in the right place. Giuditta was headed on the same bus, so we exchanged pleasantries on the ride, and she invited us to visit the ceramic shop near the Conservatoria where she teaches. Two days later we dropped by and mentioned our reason for visiting Fiesole. Giuditta was literally moved to tears because she’d recently learned that her great-uncle was Jewish and had been deported to Buchenwald from Firenze by the Italian Fascists and murdered there; the house where Giuditta currently lives was once owned by this great-uncle.  It should be noted that Giuditta is very familiar with the Villa Primavera as it’s located a stone’s throw from her home. Regardless, as we prepared to leave, we exchanged emails and promised to stay in touch.  This has turned into an exceptionally warm and productive friendship, one that led to the discovery of the second chance event.

 

Figure 5. My good friend, Ms. Giuditta Melli, in 2024 who my wife and I first met at a bus stop in Florence in 2014

 

Following our visit to Fiesole in 2015, my wife and I had not anticipated returning in 2016.  However, Giuditta made a surprising discovery while doing a casual online search of Lucia von Jacobi, the Austrian lady with whom my aunt ran the Pension Villa Primavera. As a result our plans changed. She learned of a professor, Dr. Irene Below (Figure 6), from Werther, Germany, who’d written a full-length book about Ms. Jacobi. Giuditta immediately contacted her, explained her interest in Lucia, told her of my aunt and uncle, and mentioned she was in touch and assisting me. Dr. Below was surprised to learn of Giuditta’s interest in people she’d studied and knew about, including my aunt and uncle.  Consequently, Giuditta invited Irene and my wife and me for a get-together at her home in 2016.

 

Figure 6. Dr. Irene Below at Parco di Monte Ceceri in Florence, Italy in 2016

 

Dr. Below explained how she came to write a book about Lucia von Jacobi.  She arrived in Firenze in 1964 as a student intending to write about the history of art.  While researching this topic, however, she happened upon magazines and diaries of an unknown person who turned out to be Ms. von Jacobi, a woman with very famous friends (e.g., Heinrich Mann and Thomas Mann, Gustaf Gründgens, etc.), and decided instead to write about her.  Then, as fate would have it, in 1966, Dr. Below walked into an antiquarian shop in Firenze (Figure 7) and discovered the bulk of Ms. Jacobi’s personal papers, which she soon purchased with her parents’ financial assistance.  For those unaware of events in Firenze in 1966, great floods along the Arno in November resulted in countless treasures being swept away and destroyed; if not for Dr. Below’s fortuitous discovery, the same would likely have happened to Ms. Jacobi’s papers.

 

Figure 7. The antiquarian shop in Florence where Dr. Below discovered Lucia von Jacobi’s personal papers

 

Readers may rightly wonder how or why Lucia’s personal papers wound up in an antiquarian shop in Florence. A little bit of historical context is necessary to explain how this likely happened. In May 1938, Hitler paid his second visit to Italy since becoming Chancellor of Germany in 1933 and the first since the two countries signed the Axis agreement in 1936. Over the course of seven days, Hitler and his extensive entourage were treated to a massive display of fascist spectacle in three cities: Rome, Naples and Florence. Hitler’s tour of Florence took place on May 9, 1938.

Soon after on July 14, 1938, Mussolini embraced the “Manifesto of the Racial Scientists.”  This Manifesto declared the Italian civilization to be of Aryan origin and claimed the existence of a “pure” Italian race to which Jews did not belong.  Between September 2, 1938, and November 17, 1938, Italy enacted a series of racial laws, including one forbidding foreign Jews from settling in Italy. Ms. Jacobi had just returned to Firenze from Palestine, but after passage of the racial laws, she escaped in October 1938 to Switzerland, forced to leave all her possessions behind. As a related aside, this corresponds with the same time that my aunt and uncle emigrated from Italy to France. Dr. Below surmises that Lucia’s personal papers remained in the Villa Primavera until Dr. Frascani’s descendants sold the house, after which they were sold to an antique dealer.

As to belongings among Lucia’s personal papers that relate to my aunt and uncle, there were several relevant items. Dr. Below discovered a photograph of Ms. Jacobi with my Uncle Franz seated on the same chairs as a photo I possess showing my aunt and uncle. (Figures 8-9) Another picture shows my aunt and uncle in their Sunday best. (Figure 10) Irene also found a card written by my Aunt Susanne to Lucia on July 31, 1938, from Champoluc in the Aosta Valley of Italy, where my aunt and uncle had gone on vacation. Most interesting is the surviving second page of a letter my Aunt Susanne wrote to Lucia when Lucia traveled to Palestine for three months in the latter half of 1938.

 

Figure 8. My uncle Dr. Franz Müller and Lucia von Jacobi at the Villa Primavera sometime between 1936 and 1938 seated at the same table and on the same chairs as my aunt and uncle as seen in Figure 9

 

Figure 9. My aunt and uncle at the Villa Primavera in 1938 seated at the same table and on the same chairs as seen in Figure 8

 

Figure 10. Photo of my aunt and uncle discovered by Dr. Irene Below in 1966 at an antiquarian shop in Florence

 

Thus, a chance encounter with an Italian lady Giuditta Melli on the streets of Florence in 2014 led to learning about Dr. Below who in 1966 walked into an antiquarian shop in Florence where she happened upon Lucia von Jacobi’s personal papers, the Austrian lady with whom my Aunt Susanne co-managed the Pension Villa Primavera in Fiesole between 1936 and 1938. Dr. Below then wrote a book about Lucia von Jacobi that my dear friend Giuditta stumbled upon. Included in this stash of papers are several items related to my family. Is this coincidence or predestination? I’ll let readers decide.

This brings me to a discussion of another more recent chance discovery. This involves a cache of photographs portraying my father’s first cousin, Fedor Löwenstein (1901-1946), that were found in a Paris flea market by a man named Nicolas Neumann (Figure 11) from Somogy Éditions d’Art; this is a French art book publishing house founded in 1937. Readers will recall that Fedor Löwenstein is my father’s first cousin who was most recently discussed in Post 160 and is the subject of my restitution and repatriation claim involving the French Ministry of Culture. Readers are invited to peruse my earlier post. However, let me review a few salient facts.

 

Figure 11. Nicolas Neumann from Somogy Editions who purchased documents and photos at a Paris flea market ca. 2015 belonging to Doris Halphen, Fedor Löwenstein’s onetime girlfriend

 

As mentioned in Post 160, I originally filed my claim for restitution and repatriation of Fedor Löwenstein’s artworks in October 2014. This was filed with the French Ministry of Culture’s (Premier Ministre) Commission pour la restitution des biens et l’indemnisation des victims de spoliations antisemites (CIVS), Commission for the restitution of property and compensation for victims of anti-Semitic spoliation. In May 2015 I traveled to Paris to discuss my claim with the CIVS and met staff members Mme. Muriel de Bastier and her intern Mlle. Eleonore Claret. (Figure 12)

 

Figure 12. In May 2015, me with Mme. Muriel de Bastier and her intern Eleonore Claret, CIVS staff

 

Several months later, Eleonore sent me photos of Fedor Löwenstein (Figure 13) from an exhibit on spoliated art that took place at the Centre national d’art et de culture Georges-Pompidou (“National Georges Pompidou Centre of Art and Culture”) in 2015. The origin of these photos was not explained so I sent an email to the Centre Pompidou requesting copies of the images and an explanation as to their source; I never heard back from them. I eventually ascertained the photos of Fedor Löwenstein that had been part of the 2015 museum exhibit at the Centre Pompidou originated from Nicolas Neumann’s find at the Paris flea market.

 

Figure 13. A page of photos showing Fedor Löwenstein originating from Nicolas Neumann’s find at a Paris flea market

 

Mr. Neumann determined the documents he’d found probably belonged to Fedor’s onetime girlfriend, Doris Halphen. (Figure 14) Mr. Neumann loaned the documents and photos he had purchased for the 2015 exhibit to the Centre Pompidou. Nicolas is friends with the retired Director of the Kandinsky Library, M. Didier Schulmann, who convinced him to donate the materials in February 2017 to the Kandinsky Library which is part of the Centre Pompidou.

 

Figure 14. Photograph from Doris Halphen’s album showing her with Fedor Löwenstein in Mirmande in the Drôme

 

The eclectic body of documentation is referred to as the “Corposano Archive Fund-Doris Halphen.” The archival collection comprises three significant groups. The first, the most substantial, is composed of documentation from the Corposano dance studio; the second is about Fedor Löwenstein; and the last is made up of biographical photographs and family albums.

The Kandinsky Library provides the following description about Doris Halphen, the Studio Corposano, and Fedor Löwenstein:

“Doris Halphen was born in Prague and co-founded the Corposano studio with her Finnish collaborator Marianne Pontan in 1932 in Paris. They taught a very innovative dance method at the time: the Hallerau-Laxenberg method. (Figures 15-18) The documents in the collection, mostly photographs, are both portraits of dancers in the studio and advertising items. Press articles and dance magazines provide an overview of the context of dance in the 1930s and 1940s and an understanding of the Hallerau-Laxenberg method and its principles.

 

Figure 15. Dancers from the Corposano Studio in Mirmande in the Drôme dancing the Hallerau-Laxenberg method

 

Figure 16. Dancers from the Corposano Studio in Mirmande in the Drôme

 

Figure 17. Doris Halphen, Fedor Löwenstein’s onetime girlfriend, dancing at Mirmande

 

Figure 18. Doris Halphen, Fedor Löwenstein’s onetime girlfriend, dancing at Mirmande

 

A second part of the collection consists of documentation on Fedor Löwenstein (1901-1946). Born in Munich on April 13, 1901, he studied at the School of Decorative Arts in Berlin, then at the Academy of Fine Arts in Dresden, where Oskar Kokoschka taught from 1919 to 1924. He joined France in 1923 and settled in Paris, attracted by the artistic influence of the capital. A lover of Doris Halphen, the painter’s Jewish and Czechoslovak condition forced him to leave Paris at the beginning of the war and take refuge in Mirmande in the Drôme. (Figure 19) The couple separated shortly afterwards, and Fedor Löwenstein lived a tumultuous passion with the artist Marcelle Rivier until October-November 1943.”

 

Figure 19. Postcard of Mirmande in Drôme in southern France, where Fedor Löwenstein went into hiding during part of WWII

 

The collection includes unidentified biographical photographs of Doris Halphen that were probably taken at the beginning of the twentieth century in Prague. Additionally, there are two photographic albums that retrace the memories of two summers in Mirmande in the Drôme, including one from 1938. Fedor Löwenstein and Doris Halphen are the recurring characters.

My April 2024 visit to Paris to attend a CIVS committee meeting where my compensation claim was being discussed provided a perfect opportunity to visit the Kandinsky Library where the Doris Halphen collection is archived. Appointments must be scheduled in advance. With the grateful assistance of Mme. Florence Saragoza, who originally helped me file my claim in 2014, I was able to make last-minute arrangements to examine and photograph the collection.

Fortunately, Mme. Muriel de Bastier, whom I first met in 2015 and who still works at the CIVS, accompanied my wife and me to the Kandinsky Library; I say fortunately because the line to enter the Centre Pompidou extended for blocks, and I otherwise would never have been able to view the Doris Halphen Collection before the museum closed. Muriel graciously also arranged for us to meet M. Didier Schulmann, the former Director of the Kandinsky Library, who gave me an extremely useful orientation to the collection. (Figure 20)

 

Figure 20. From left to right: Didier Schulmann, former Director of the Kandinsky Library, me, and Muriel de Bastier at the Centre Pompidou in April 2024

 

During my all-too brief visit, I concentrated on photographing the album with pictures of Fedor Löwenstein and Doris Halphen. (Figure 21-23) Among the images unlikely to have been recognized by any other researcher were two of Fedor with his sister Jeanne “Hansi” Goff, née Löwenstein (1902-1986) that were taken in Mirmande. (Figures 24-25) Unlike Fedor who died in 1946 before I was born, I met Hansi in Nice, France on multiple occasions as a child.

 

Figure 21. Fedor Löwenstein in Mirmande

 

Figure 22. Fedor Löwenstein in Mirmande

 

Figure 23. Fedor Löwenstein and Doris Halphen in Mirmande

 

Figure 24. One of two photographs of Fedor Löwenstein with his sister Jeanne “Hansi” Goff, née Löwenstein in Mirmande

 

Figure 25. Second of two photographs of Fedor Löwenstein with his sister Jeanne “Hansi” Goff, née Löwenstein, seated next to him, in Mirmande

 

An out-of-place picture I discovered in the collection was of the famous African American, Paul Robeson (1898-1976). He was an American bass-baritone concert artist, actor, professional football player, and activist who became famous both for his cultural accomplishments and for his political stances. Among the few pictures in Doris Halphen’s collection that is captioned it reads “Robeson at Wo-Chula.” (Figures 26a-b) I think this picture was taken in Chowula, Ghana, but the circumstances for its inclusion in Doris’ album is a complete mystery.

 

Figure 26a. Photo from Doris Halphen’s album of Paul Robeson at Wo-Chula, believed to be in Ghana

 

Figure 26b. Caption on picture of “Robeson at Wo-Chula”

 

I’ve never met nor communicated with Nicolas Neumann so am in the dark regarding the precise circumstances under which he found Doris Halphen’s collection. Regardless, I imagine he’s one of the few people who would have realized the significance of what he’d found and had connections with the Kandinsky Library to ensure the materials wound up in an archive where they would be properly cared for. From a personal standpoint, what is gratifying is that I was able to track down a previously unknown to me cache of Fedor Löwenstein photographs. The more existential question is that Nicolas Neimann even found Doris Halphen’s surviving papers and photographs. Again, I ask whether this was fated or coincidental?

 

 

REFERENCES

Isenberg, Madeleine. (2012). The Rotter Relic. AVOTAYNU, Volume XXVIII (Issue 4, Winter 2012), pp. 27-31.

Studio Corposano – Doris Halphen. Circa 1900-1950, Centre Pompidou, Paris, Kandinsky Library – Documentation and Research Centre of the National Museum of Modern Art – Centre for Industrial Creation, Call number: COR 1 – 4.

Studio Corposano – Doris Halphen, 1900-1950 | Funds and sub-funds | Union Catalogue of France (CCFr) (bnf.fr)

 

 

 

POST 142: “STOLPERSTEINE” COMMEMORATING THREE HOLOCAUST VICTIMS FROM RACIBORZ

FOOTNOTE ADDED ON 10/17/2023 

Note: Three “Stolpersteine” or commemorative brass plaques commemorating Holocaust victims were recently installed in Racibórz, Poland, my father’s birth place when it was part of Germany; these are the town’s first-ever “stumbling stones.” In this post, I look briefly into the Kochen family whom these Stolpersteine memorialize and discuss a surprising discovery I made on my journey.

Related Posts:

POST 121-MY FATHER’S ENCOUNTERS WITH HITLER’S MENNONITE SUPPORTERS

POST 121, POSTSCRIPT: MY FATHER’S ENCOUNTERS WITH HITLER’S MENNONITE SUPPORTERS—FURTHER HISTORICAL OBSERVATIONS

 

On May 26, 2023, a coaster-sized brass plaque commemorating a victim of Nazi persecution in Nuremberg, Germany became the 100,000th “Stolperstein” installed. Literally meaning “stumbling stone,” Stolpersteine commemorate all victims of Nazi oppression, including Jews but also Roma, Sinti, the physically or mentally disabled, homosexuals, and other persecuted groups (e.g. Communists, members of the anti-Nazi Resistance, Christian opponents, etc.). So far, they have been placed in 27 European countries. The names and fates of the victims are engraved on the brass plaques, along with information on where and when they were deported.

Initiated in 1992 by the German artist Gunter Demnig (Figure 1), his idea was to place a cobblestone-like memorial outside a Holocaust victim’s “last address of choice.” By placing a Stolperstein on a sidewalk or in the middle of a pavement, Demnig hopes people happening upon them will stop, curious to know whom it commemorates and what happened to them. He is convinced “there’s a difference between a teenager opening a book and reading about 6 million murdered Jews, and them learning about the fate of family while standing where they lived.”

 

Figure 1. Gunter Demnig, artist who developed the idea of “Stolpersteine” in 1992, holding two commemorative brass plaques

 

Placement of Stolpersteine in the middle of pavements has not been without its detractors. Interestingly, Munich, the historic home of the Nazi movement, banned the implementation of Stolpersteine until recently. The reason for Munich’s opposition actually stems from a member of the city’s Jewish community, a Charlotte Knobloch, herself a Holocaust survivor. Ms. Knobloch argues that it is disrespectful for people to walk over the names of Holocaust victims, allowing the victims’ lives to figuratively be desecrated.

The Munich City Council recently decided to move ahead with plans to commemorate the last known addresses of Holocaust victims in their city but stopped short of allowing the installation of Stolpersteine. The compromise allows plaques on private property with the owners’ approval and on top of posts on public property. While sidewalk plaques remain against the law, there will be a central memorial with a list of the Holocaust victims’ names.

Elsewhere, for example in some places in Poland, such as Szczecin, city authorities have refused to install memorial stones for Holocaust victims because the country’s “Institute of National Remembrance” fears that visitors to the city might think the perpetrators of the crimes were Poles.

Notwithstanding the concerns some people and jurisdictions have expressed about Stolpersteine, it came as a pleasant surprise to learn that several had recently been placed in the town where my father was born, Ratibor, Germany [today: Racibórz, Poland]. An acquaintance, Magda Wawoczny, a Jewish studies student from Jagiellonian University in Kraków, Poland who hails from Racibórz, recently sent me photos of the first ever brass plaques installed in her hometown.

They were for three members of a family deported in 1938 to the Łódź Ghetto (Figure 2), namely, Szyja Kochen (1897-1944), Ester Bajla Kochen (1898-1944), and Natan David Kochen (1935-1944). (Figure 3) The family once lived in an apartment at 10 Breite Strasse, also known in German times as Brunken; the building still stands today (Figure 4), and the address today is ulica Londzina 10. The Stolpersteine were placed in front of this building. And, Gunter Demnig, who initiated the project in 1992 installed the brass plaques himself. (Figures 5-9)

 

Figure 2. Map showing distance between Racibórz and Łódź

 

Figure 3. Ester Bajla Kochen (1898-1944) and her husband Szyja Kochen (1897-1944) (Yad Vashem)

 

Figure 4. The apartment building as it looks today at Breite Strasse 10, today Londzina 10, where the Kochen family once lived

 

Figure 5. Gunter Demnig preparing to install the first ever Stolpersteine in Racibórz, Poland

 

Figure 6. Gunter Demnig beginning the installation of the Stolpersteine in Racibórz, Poland

 

Figure 7. The installed Stolpersteine for three members of the Kochen family

 

Figure 8. The installed Stolpersteine for three members of the Kochen family, surrounded by peonies and roses

 

Figure 9. Gunter Demnig with the Kochen family descendants from Israel in front of their family’s “last address of choice”

 

While multiple members of my family died during the Shoah, my family had departed Ratibor no later than 1926, therefore, no Stolpersteine are located there. Stumbling stones have been placed at two separate locations in Berlin for my beloved aunt Susanne Müller née Bruck (1904-1942) (Figure 10) and my great-aunt Franziska Bruck (1866-1942). (Figure 11) From personal experience I know that a target of the Nazis need not have died to have a commemorative stone placed at their last address of choice; two members of my Mombert family by marriage have Stolpersteine placed on the pavement in front of their last residence in Giessen, Germany. (Figure 12)

 

Figure 10. Stolperstein for my beloved aunt Susanne Müller née Bruck (1904-1942) placed in front of her “last address of choice,” Kastanienallee 39 in the Charlottenburg borough of Berlin

 

Figure 11. Stolperstein for my great-aunt Franziska Bruck (1866-1942) situated in front of her apartment building at Prinzregentenstrasse 75 in the Wilmersdorf borough of Berlin

 

Figure 12. Four Stolpersteine for my Mombert family by marriage located at Molktstrasse 18 in Giessen, Germany; only Ernst Mombert was murdered in the Holocaust, arrested on the same day in Fayence, France as my aunt Susanne, and both murdered in Auschwitz

 

In the case of the Kochen family from Ratibor, I have no concrete evidence that they interacted with my family, although I’m certain the Kochen family would have been familiar with my family’s establishment, the Bruck’s “Prinz von Preußen” Hotel. Szyja Kochen, the patriarch of the family, is believed to have been a salesman, possibly a “stepper” (i.e., dancer), so unless he dealt in a service required by the hotel, it is unlikely our families’ paths ever crossed. Still, one can never be certain given that Ratibor was a relatively small town with a small Jewish population. Also unknown is how long the Kochen family was associated with Ratibor; my Bruck family was there since the early 19th century.

Aware that three members of the Kochen family had perished in the Holocaust, I checked the Yad Vashem Holocaust Remembrance Center’s victims’ database. As expected, I found all three listed along with Pages of Testimony that have been submitted by a Nadav Kochen, who I surmise is a grandson or a grandnephew of Szyja and Ester Kochen. Nadav also included two photographs of his ancestors. (see Figure 3)

According to the Stolperstein for Szyja Kochem, he was deported to Łódź, and purportedly murdered there on the 7th of March 1944 in the Łódź Ghetto. By contrast, his wife Ester Bajla Kochen’s Stolperstein and that of his son Natan David Kochen indicate they were murdered in August 1944 at Auschwitz [Oświęcim, Poland]. Obviously, at some point they were moved from the Łódź Ghetto to Auschwitz. (Figure 13)

 

Figure 13. Map showing distance between Łódź and Auschwitz

 

Among the documents I found for Szyja, Ester, and David Kochen was a list with their names showing their address when they were locked inside the Łódź Ghetto, Pfeffergasse 14, Flat 25; this information comes from a so-called “Jewish Ghetto Inhabitant List.” (Figure 14) The dates of birth on this list match the dates on the Pages of Testimony submitted by Nadav Kochen. Yad Vashem also includes Szyja Kochen’s Łódź work permit with his photo confirming his address (Figure 15); boldly stamped across this document is the word “GESTORBEN,” died.

 

Figure 14. A page from the “Łódź Ghetto Inhabitant List” showing four members of the Kochen family were living at Pfeffergasse 14, Flat 25, including the previously unknown to me Frida Kochen born on the 28th of December 1925

 

Figure 15. Szyja Kochen’s Łódź Ghetto work permit with his photograph, place of residence, and the word “GESTORBEN,” died, boldly stamped across it

 

What immediately caught my attention on the Łódź Jewish Ghetto Inhabitant List was the name of another family member, Frida Kochen, shown as being born on the 28th of December 1925. (see Figure 14) Obviously, no Stolperstein has been placed in her honor in Racibórz, so I assumed her fate might have turned out differently. And, sure enough, I found another list in Yad Vashem, entitled “Stutthof survivors who had been on a barge that was stranded in the bay of Eckernförde in Schleswig-Holstein (Northern German)” with Frida listed under her married name, “Frieda Ben David Cohen,” born in 1925 in Ratibor. (Figure 16) Again, in contrast to her mother and brother, this list makes clear that at some point she had been transferred from Auschwitz to the concentration camp in Stutthof [today: Sztutowo, Poland], located about 370 miles north of Auschwitz. (Figure 17)

 

Figure 16. A list from Yad Vashem, entitled “Stutthof survivors who had been on a barge that was stranded in the bay of Eckernförde in Schleswig-Holstein (Northern German)” with Frida listed under her married name, “Frieda Ben David Cohen”

 

Figure 17. Map showing the distance from Auschwitz to Sztutowo (Stutthof)

 

I next turned to ancestry.com trying to untangle this surprising finding. I quickly found information for “Fridah Ben David” who I ascertained was the Frida Kochen in question, born on the 28th of December 1925 in Ratibor, and learned she had done an interview with the USC Shoah Foundation on the 5th of February 1998 in Tel Aviv, Israel; unfortunately the dialogue is in Hebrew and no transcript nor translation has been done of the two-hour long testimonial. (Figure 18)

 

Figure 18. Screen shot from the USC Shoah Foundation Visual History Archive with information on the testimonial Fridah Ben David née Kochen did in 1998

 

Obviously, Frida avoided the fate of her parents and younger brother, although I’m still trying to understand the circumstances of how she accomplished this. Separately, in ancestry, I discovered Szyja and Ester had two additional offspring, Shoshonah Rozah Fayvel née Kochen (b. 1920 in Ratibor) and Me’ir Maks Kochen (b. 1921 in Ratibor), both of whom also survived the Holocaust. (Figure 19) I’m trying to contact Nadav Kochen who submitted the Pages of Testimony to Yad Vashem hoping he might shed some light on his ancestor’s ordeal. Watch this space for a future postscript.

 

Figure 19. Page from ancestry.com showing the names of Frida Ben David’s three siblings, two of whom survived the Holocaust

 

Even though Frida’s testimonial contains no transcript nor translation, the USC Shoah Foundation’s website includes very brief one-line annotations for the 137 segments of the two-hour interview. These notations provide clues to the places where Frida was held during the war and moved to following the war though in no chronological order.

I know from the document I found in Yad Vashem of Stutthof survivors who were stranded in the bay of Eckernförde in Schleswig-Holstein that Frida was moved from the Stutthof concentration camp to mainland Germany. Let me reconstruct what may have happened based on the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum’s historical accounts of this concentration camp.

The Germans established the Stutthof camp in a wooded area west of Stutthof [today: Sztutowo, Poland], a town about 22 miles east of Danzig [today: Gdansk, Poland] in September 1939. Stutthof was secluded. To the north was the Bay of Danzig, to the east the Vistula Lagoon, and to the west the Vistula River. The land was very wet, almost at sea level. As a related aside, Danzig is where my father apprenticed as a dentist; the Bay of Danzig where he sometimes went sailing; Stutthof where he often went to the beach; and the Vistula Lagoon where he engaged in winter sports.

Originally, Stutthof was a civilian internment camp under the Danzig police chief. In November 1941, it became a “labor education” camp, administered by the German Security Police. Finally, in January 1942, Stutthof became a regular concentration camp.

Tens of thousands of people were deported to Stutthof, mostly non-Jewish Poles, Polish Jews from Warsaw and Białystok, as well as Jews from forced labor camps in the occupied Baltic states, which the Germans evacuated in 1944 as the Red Army was approaching. I can find no clue as to why Frida would have been transferred all the way from Auschwitz to Stutthof.

Conditions in the camp were brutal. Typhus epidemics regularly swept the camp and many prisoners died. Those too weak to work were gassed in the camp’s small gas chamber. Camp doctors were complicit in killing many injured or sick prisoners by injection. Purportedly, more than 60,000 people died in the camp.

The Germans used Stutthof prisoners as forced laborers. Some prisoners worked in SS-owned businesses while others labored in local private industrial enterprises. In Post 121 and Post 121, Postscript I discussed Gerhard Epp’s use of forced laborers from Stutthof in his nearby metal working and munitions workshop; Gerhard was the brother of two close friends of my father from Tiegenhof [today: Nowy Dwór Gdański, Poland], 10 miles to the south of Stutthof, when my father had his dental practice between 1932 and 1937.

The part of the story I want to focus on is the evacuation of prisoners from Stutthof, which was barbaric. By January 1945, there were nearly 50,000 prisoners in the 105 subcamps of Stutthof, mostly Jews. Beginning at around this time, about 5,000 prisoners were marched to the Baltic Sea, forced into the water, and machine gunned. The remainder of the prisoners were marched towards eastern Germany but were cut off by advancing Soviet forces. The Germans forced the survivors back to Stutthof, thousands of whom died en route on account of the severe winter conditions and brutal treatment by SS guards.

By late April 1945, because Stutthof was completely encircled by Soviet forces, the remaining prisoners were removed by sea. Again many prisoners were forced into the sea and gunned down. Over 4,000 were sent by small barge to Germany. (Figure 20) The list of survivors includes Frida’s name showing she made it to Eckernförde in the German state of Schleswig-Holstein and was incarcerated in an adjacent concentration camp in Kiel. She was finally liberated by British Army troops in May 1945. It is estimated that of the 50,000 prisoners held in Stutthof in January 1945, 25,000, or one in two, died during the evacuation. This makes Frida’s survival even more remarkable.

 

Figure 20. Forcible evacuation by barge of Stutthof concentration camp inmates in 1945 from Danzig (from the United States Holocaust Museum website)

 

The annotated interview the USC Shoah Foundation conducted with Frida lists a host of places connected to her presumed movements following her liberation, including cities in Germany (i.e., Schafstedt) Austria (i.e., Innsbruck, Bad Gustein, and Klagenfurt), and Italy (i.e., Udine Displaced Person’s Camp, Savona). Absent translation and chronology, it is mere conjecture whether these movements were by choice or necessity.

Knowing Frida eventually emigrated to British Palestine, I theorize she boarded the ship named the “Josiah Wedgewood” in Savona, which she specifically mentioned in her testimonial. Savona is a seaport community in the west part of the northern Italian region of Liguria and is known to have been one of the embarkation ports for this ship boarding Jewish refugees attempting to reach Palestine. There exists a June 1946 photography by Emil Reynolds showing some of the 1,300 European refugees aboard the former Canadian corvette Josiah Wedgewood after it was fired upon and captured on June 27th by British warships after the corvette tried to land illegally in Palestine. (Figure 21) It’s unknown whether Frida was aboard the ship at this time. What is conclusive is that unlike so many of her fellow inmates in the Łódź Jewish Ghetto and in the concentration camps of Auschwitz, Stutthof, and Kiel, Frida survived and thrived. (Figure 22)

 

Figure 21. June 1946 Emil Reynolds photograph taken aboard the “Josiah Wedgewood” ship with some of the 1,300 Jewish refugees who attempted to escape British authorities and land illegally in Palestine (from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum website)

 

Figure 22. Frida Ben David née Kochen surrounded by her granddaughter and daughter in an undated photograph taken in Tel Aviv, Israel

FOOTNOTE: A Polish reader of my blog was dismayed and pained by my failure to specifically mention that non-Jewish Polish victims of Nazi German crimes should be among the groups recognized through installation of Stolpersteine in Poland. I wholeheartedly agree. While acknowledging the importance of commemorating innocent victims of the Holocaust, the reader stressed that I was “. . .distorting the historical truth by saying ‘Nazi crimes’ instead of ‘Nazi German crimes’” The reader emphasized that Nazism was a creation of German culture and it was supported in a democratic vote by Germans, and by failing to make this clear I avoided distinguishing between victims and executioners.

I don’t use the term “Nazi crimes” in this post. I was talking about German war crimes based on the extermination policies of Germany’s National Socialist regime. I acknowledge mention should be made of the millions of non-Jewish Polish citizens killed by the Germans during WWII. According to the Holocaust Encyclopedia, “It is estimated that the Germans killed between 1.8 and 1.9 million non-Jewish Polish civilians during World War II. In addition, the Germans murdered at least 3 million Jewish citizens of Poland.” My blog post was in no way intended to minimize the enormous number of non-Jewish Polish victims of Nazi aggression, which should most assuredly be commemorated, but rather was to indicate the efforts that some Polish towns and cities are making to recognize some of their Jewish victims.

REFERENCES

Ben David, Fridah. Personal interview with USC Shoah Foundation. 5 February 1998.

Ben-Tzur, Tzvi and Aryeh Malkin. “The Voyage of the ‘Josiah Wedgewood’.” http://www.palyam.org/English/Hahapala/hf/hf_Wedgwood.pdf

Dege, Stefan. “’Stolpersteine’: Commemorating victims of Nazi persecution.” DW, 30 May 2023. https://cc.bingj.com/cache.aspx?q=stolpersteine%3a+commemorating+victims+of+Nazi+persecution&d=4770772662747258&mkt=en-US&setlang=en-US&w=NjbMU3Tw6fh5fwT1QFxwCDfU2uG9SmRu

Markusz, Katarzyna. “Polish city refuses to install memorial stones for Holocaust victims.” 23 December 2019, The Times of Israel. https://www.timesofisrael.com/polish-city-refuses-to-install-memorial-stones-for-holocaust-victims/

Rafter, Catherine. “Munich compromises on Holocaust Memorial Plans.” Observer, 5 August 2015. https://cc.bingj.com/cache.aspx?q=munich+compromises+on+holocaust+memorial+plans&d=4994802452810164&mkt=en-US&setlang=en-US&w=MqJZbPJj4z_fX5-uIPDyOAtbDaiFWg_J

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. “Jewish refugees wait aboard the Josiah Wedgewood after British navy fired at the ship.” Photograph Number: 37543

 

 

 

 

 

 

POST 119: THE FRENCH CONNECTION, ERNST & FRANZ MOMBERT

 

Note: In this post, I supplement what I have learned about the French brothers who owned the fruit farm in Fayence in the Vars region of France. This is the last place where some of my family, including Ernst Mombert and my beloved aunt Susanne Müller née Bruck, took refuge before they were arrested by the Vichy French in late August 1942; from here, they were transported to Drancy, outside Paris, and deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau on September 7, 1942, a trip on which they likely killed themselves, or, upon arrival, were murdered. I also provide some historic and geographic context for some of the events that affected my family.

 

Related Posts:

POST 22:  MY AUNT SUSANNE, NÉE BRUCK, & HER HUSBAND DR. FRANZ MÜLLER, THE FAYENCE YEARS

POST 23:  MY AUNT SUSANNE’S FINAL JOURNEY

In Post 22, I explained to readers the circumstances that led my uncle and aunt Dr. Franz and Susanne Müller to depart Fiesole, Italy, a Tuscan village located outside Florence, around September 16, 1938, in favor of France. Adolph Hitler visited Florence on May 9, 1938, escorted by Italian Duce Benito Mussolini. On the heels of this visit and at the bequest of Hitler, Fascist Italy began to enact racial laws directed primarily against Italian and foreign Jews resulting in many leaving the country, including my aunt and uncle.

My uncle Dr. Franz Müller’s first marriage resulted in two children, Peter Müller-Munk and Karin Margit Müller-Munk. Peter, who dropped the umlaut in his surname upon his arrival in America in 1926, went on to become a world-renowned silversmith and industrial designer in Pittsburgh. Peter’s sister Margit Müller-Munk departed Germany, probably in around 1933 or 1934, and wound up getting married to Francois Mombert on December 4, 1934, in Fayence, in the Vars region of France.

The Mombert family originally hailed from Freiburg, Germany, and in Germany Francois was known as Franz, hereinafter referred to by his German name. The circumstances that led Franz and Margit to settle in Fayence was the result of Franz’s younger brother Ernst (known as Ernest in France) buying a fruit farm there. Archival records from the Archives Départementales du Var (www.archives.var.fr) in Draguignan, France, place Ernst’s acquisition of the property in December 1933 (Figure 1), which suggests that Ernst departed Germany soon after the Nazis seized power on January 30, 1933. It’s unknown why Ernst purchased property and settled in Fayence, since there’s no evidence he knew or had family living there. He could not envision the lengths to which the Nazis would eventually go to eradicate Jews, so probably felt that purchasing a property in a small town in France and eventually becoming a French national offered some security and would afford him some level of protection. As a related aside, there is no evidence Ernst Mombert ever obtained French citizenship.

 

Figure 1. Archival record from the “Archives Départementales du Var” in Draguignan, France placing Ernst Mombert’s acquisition of his fruit farm in Fayence on the 1st of December 1933

 

Little is known about Ernst Mombert. I came upon a fleeting reference to him in an obscure French publication entitled “quelques camps du sud-est 1939-1940,” “Some Camps in the Southeast (of France) 1939-1940,” by André Fontaine. I initially misconstrued who was being detained in these internment camps thinking they were established by the Vichy French to imprison Jews following Germany’s conquest of France in June 1940. While in fact many Jews were interned in these camps, they had been established by the French authorities for a different reason.

Some brief history. WWII began with the German invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939. The next day, France decreed a national mobilization. Internment sites for the nationals of the German Reich (i.e., German, Austrian, and Czech emigrants) were planned and requisitioned in every French département, the administrative divisions of France. By the 3rd of September, the French Minister of the Interior sent a telegram to each prefecture concerning the “concentration of foreigners from the German empire.” Immediately notification about the planned roundups were circulated and posters put up in the town halls. All male nationals of the German Reich over 17 and under 50 years of age were required to report for incarceration. Male nationals from the department of Var were initially detained in le camp de la Rode near Toulon. Toulon is a city on the French Riviera and a large port on the Mediterranean coast, with a major naval base, located 74 miles southwest of Fayence, France. (Figure 2)

 

Figure 2. Generalized map showing the distance from Fayence, France, where Ernst Mombert owned his fruit farm, to Toulon, where he was initially incarcerated in “le camp de la Rode” in 1939

 

Judging from André Fontaine’s publication, it appears the gathering and detention of nationals of the German Reich took place in short order. Swept up in this roundup were many Jewish refugees, incredibly, a handful of French legionnaires, siblings of soldiers who were in the French Army, and even an Alsatian who had never been to Germany and spoke no German (i.e., Alsace–Lorraine is a historical region, now called Alsace–Moselle, located in France. It was created in 1871 by the German Empire after the region was seized during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870. It reverted to French ownership in 1918 following WWI). Very quickly, the legionnaires were released, and the Austrian and Czech nationals were separated from the Germans resulting in the Germans being more closely guarded. The irony is not lost on most readers that many of the German nationals that continued to be detained were Jewish refugees and anti-Nazis, many more anti-Nazi than the French.

André Fontaine includes a short description of Ernst Mombert, which I quote here mostly because of the physical characteristics he describes: “MOMBERT Ernst, philosophe de valeur. Il est très brun et atteint de strabism; il vient de Fayence où il a une plantation d’arbres fruitiers. Son frère Franz n’est pas au camp.” (1988:184) Translated: “MOMBERT Ernst, a noted philosopher. He is very darkly complected and is cross-eyed; he comes from Fayence where he has a fruit tree plantation. His brother Franz is not in the camp.”

The duration of the German nationals stays in the camp de la Rode in Toulon appears to have been a short one. André Fontaine reports that on September 16, 1939, a train carrying the prisoners departed Toulon in the direction of Camp des Milles, outside Aix-en-Provence. (Figure 3) The latter was a French internment camp, opened in September 1939, in a former tile factory near the village of Les Milles, part of the commune of Aix-en-Provence. I will have a little more to say about Ernst Mombert’s connection to Camp des Milles later.

 

Figure 3. Generalized map showing the distance from Toulon, where “le camp de Rode” was located, to Aix-en-Provence where Camp des Milles is situated and where Ernst Mombert was moved to around the 16th of September 1939

 

André Fontaine describes (1988:185-186) the detainees’ arrival in Camp des Milles: “Le 16 septembre 1939, on annonce le départ de Toulon: un camion prend les bagages à 18 h et le train part à 21 h. L’arrivée n’a lieu que le lendemain matin à Aix-en-Provence, soit après 15 h de train pour effectuer 90 km. Deux camions attendent à la gare. Les soldats ardéchois se montrent accueillants, serviables et souriants, surtout quand ils comprennent qu’un Allemand vient de les prendre comme les Millois pour des Arabes en raison de leur teint basané et de leur chéchia rouge; l’un d’eux s’exclame: ‘des Arabes de l’Ardéchiou !’

Arrivés à la tuilerie, ils trouvent la grande cour vide car les internés se sont barricadés ; ne leur a-t-on pas annoncé des prisonniers nazis !… Les officiers et les sous-officiers sont en train de déjeuner. A 14 h, c’est l’ouverture des bureaux où sont employés des internés. E.E. Noth, devenu homme de confiance, dit à propos de Kantorovicz : ‘Celui-là, c’est vraiment un réfugié !’

Lorsqu’un nouveau convoi est attendu, une forte effervescence règne dans le camp. Très tendus, les militaires recommandent aux internés de se méfier des arrivants, membres de la cinquième colonne : ‘Restez dans vos dortoirs, fermez les volets; la grande porte sera close.’ Ils doublent la garde, installent des chevaux de frise devant le poste de police. Au début les détenus se demandent quels nazis ils vont devoir affronter. Et à chaque détachement ils guettent derrière les volets et voient arriver au loin des pauvres hères, amaigris, courbés, pâles, assoiffés. Ils n’ont rien d’ennemis redoutables. Parfois même ils reconnaissent certains d’entre eux. Mais il est interdit de pousser les volets pour leur parler.”

Translated: “On September 16, 1939, the departure from Toulon was announced: a truck took the luggage at 6 pm and the train left at 9 pm. The arrival was only the next morning in Aix-en-Provence, after 15 hours of train to cover 90 km. Two trucks were waiting at the station. The soldiers from the Ardèche were welcoming, helpful, and smiling, especially when they understood that a German had just mistaken them, like the Millois, for Arabs because of their swarthy complexion and their red fez; one of them exclaimed: ‘Arabs from the Ardéchiou!’

When they arrived at the tile factory, they found the large courtyard empty because the internees had barricaded themselves; had they not been told that there were Nazi prisoners! The officers and non-commissioned officers were having lunch. At 2 p.m., the offices where the internees were employed opened. E.E. Noth, who had become a trusted man, said of Kantorovicz: ‘This one is really a refugee!’

When a new convoy was expected, the camp was in an uproar. The soldiers were very tense and advised the internees to be wary of the arrivals, who were members of the Fifth Column: ‘Stay in your dormitories, close the shutters; the main gate will be closed.’ They doubled the guard and set up frieze horses in front of the police station. At first the prisoners wonder which Nazis they will have to face. And with each detachment they watch behind the shutters and see poor, emaciated, bent, pale, thirsty men arriving in the distance. They are not fearsome enemies. Sometimes they even recognize some of them. But it is forbidden to push the shutters to talk to them.”

Just a few observations about Mr. Fontaine’s description of the German nationals’ arrival at Camp des Milles. The French clearly sought to have the current detainees believe the new arrivals were hard-bitten Nazis of the German Reich living “underground” in France as members of a Fifth Column even though the current detainees were also Germans; the truth is that many of the new arrivals were foreign refugees, including Jews who’d sought to escape the Nazis. One of the existing detainees even recognized one of the new arrivals as a real refugee, not a Fifth Columnist. Curiously, the new German arrivals were guarded by soldiers from the Ardèche department of southeastern France who had been mistaken as Arabs because of their swarthy complexion and the red fez hats they wore; the existing detainees had also mistaken them as Arabs.

Mr. Fontaine tells us that the nationals of the German Reich were held in various camps in the southeast of France including Fort Carre (Antibes); Camp de Forcalouier (Forcalquier); Volx Camp (near Manosque); Camp des Mées (Les Mées); Camp de Marseille (Marseille); Camp des Garrigues (north of Nimes); Le Brebant (in Marseille); Camp de Carpiagne (south of Marseille); and Camp de Loriol (department of Drôme). While not entirely clear, it appears that detainees from some but not all of these camps were transferred to the larger camp at Camp des Milles, the former tile factory. Such was clearly the case with Ernst Mombert. (see Figure 3)

I was particularly interested in learning when or if the German nationals were released from detention to try and get an understanding of when Ernst Mombert might have been liberated. A little more history is relevant.

The Battle of France began on May 10, 1940. The Battle of France, also known as the Western Campaign, the French Campaign, and the Fall of France, was the German invasion of France, Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands during the Second World War. It ended just six weeks later, on June 25th, when the French government capitulated to Nazi Germany after a disastrous, humiliating defeat. By that time, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg had also fallen to the Germans, leaving Adolf Hitler in complete control of Western Europe. On June 22nd the French signed an armistice with the Germans, near Compiègne. The armistice provided for the maintenance of a quasi-sovereign French state and for the division of the country into an occupied zone (northern France plus the western coast) and an unoccupied southern zone referred to as Vichy France. France was made responsible for the German army’s occupation costs. The French army was reduced to 100,000 men and the navy disarmed in its home ports.

According to André Fontaine, almost all the former detention centers were dissolved in May 1940; this would roughly correspond with the beginning of the Battle of France. The former detainees incarcerated in Antibes, Camp des Milles, Les Mées, Manosque, Marseille, and Forcalquier were taken to the camp of Albi (Figure 4), where most were liberated, under the pretext they had been part of the French army. From supposed Fifth Columnists to members of the French Army is very much a stretch. Are we meant to understand that the German detainees were released and immediately mobilized into the French Army at the beginning of what is called the “Phoney War?” The Phoney period began with the declaration of war by the United Kingdom and France against Nazi Germany on the 3rd of September 1939, after which little actual warfare occurred, and ended with the German invasion of France and the Low Countries on the 10th of May 1940.

 

Figure 4. Generalized map showing the distance from Camp des Milles (Aix-en-Provence) to Albi, where Ernst Mombert may have been released from detention in around May 1940

 

Other former detainees fell into the hands of the Germans at the end of the Battle of France. If they were not of Jewish descent and volunteered to return to the Reich they were not mistreated. The Jews, however, were transferred to the Dachau concentration camp.

Again I quote André Fontaine (1988:205-206) on the fate of some of the other detainees: “L’émissaire d’Eleanor ROOSEVELT, Varian FRY, et son “Comité américain de Secours (CAR)” permettent l’émigration d’environ 1500 personnes et les Oeuvres juives “Hicem” beaucoup plus. Les Etats-Unis font appel aux grands savants comme les prix Nobel MEYERHOF et REICHSTEIN. Le Mexique accueille les communistes. Mais à partir du 3 août 1942, la “solution finale de la question juive” décidée par la conférence de Wannsee en janvier 1942 trouve son application après les déportations de la zone occupée dans tous les grands camps de la zone sud. Le Vernet (Ariège), Gurs, les Milles, Rivesaltes (Pyrénées orientales). Des rafles ont lieu dans villes et campagnes. Des milliers de familles entières de juifs étrangers (pauvres ou riches mais souvent érudits ou tout au moins de valeur) arrivés depuis 1936 sont transférés à Drancy (puis Auschwitz) et ce dans la France dite libre du maréchal PETAIN. On livre des enfants de deux ans, d’anciens militaires français; tous s’étaient placés sous la protection de la France, dite terre d’asile. On ne peut que déplorer ces faits sans s’empêcher de penser au mot de Romain ROLLAND : “Intelligence – Amour !“

Translated: “Eleanor ROOSEVELT’s emissary, Varian FRY, and his ‘American Rescue Committee (CAR)’ allowed the emigration of about 1500 people and the Jewish Works ‘Hicem’ many more. The United States called upon great scientists such as the Nobel Prize winners MEYERHOF and REICHSTEIN. Mexico welcomed the communists. But from August 3, 1942, the ‘final solution of the Jewish question’ decided by the Wannsee conference in January 1942 found its application after the deportations from the occupied zone in all the big camps of the southern zone. Le Vernet (Ariège), Gurs, les Milles, Rivesaltes (Pyrénées orientales). Roundups took place in towns and countryside. Thousands of entire families of foreign Jews (poor or rich but often educated or at least valuable) who had arrived since 1936 were transferred to Drancy (then Auschwitz) in the so-called free France of Marshal PETAIN. Children as young as two years old, former French soldiers, were handed over; they had all placed themselves under the protection of France, the so-called land of asylum. One can only deplore these facts without stopping oneself from thinking of Romain ROLLAND’s words: ‘Intelligence – Love!’”

Ernst Mombert did not meet his fate at Dachau. The circumstances and timing of Ernst Mombert’s liberation or escape from a detention center are unknown. What is clear is that he returned to his fruit farm in Fayence probably sometime in early to mid-1940, before he was again arrested in August 1942, this time by the French collaborators, the Vichy. Ernst was arrested at the same time as my Aunt Susanne in late August 1942, probably on the 26th of August. According to a brief reference I found on the home page of “AJPN.org,” “Anonymous, Just, and Persecuted during the Nazi period in the communes of France,” “the roundup of foreign Jews by the Vichy police in the Alpes-Maritimes, the Basses-Alpes (54 people) and the Principality of Monaco” took place precisely on the 26th of August 1946. (Figure 5) These roundups took place in one of the 18 administrative regions of France known as “Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur” which includes the department of Var and the commune of Fayence. (Figures 6a-b)

 

Figure 5. Screen shot from the “AJPN.org” website stating that “the roundup of foreign Jews by the Vichy police in the Alpes-Maritimes, the Basses-Alpes (54 people) and the Principality of Monaco” took place on the 26th of August 1942

 

Figure 6a. Map showing the 13 administrative regions of metropolitan France including “Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur” in the southeast of France

 

Figure 6b. The administrative region of “Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur” circled where the department of Var and the commune of Fayence are located

 

Ernst Mombert’s fate mirrors that of my Aunt Susanne. They were arrested on the same day, taken briefly to Draguignan (Figure 7), detained for some days at Camp des Milles (Aix-en-Provence) (Figure 8), transported to Avignon (Figure 9), then to Drancy (Figure 10), outside Paris, before being deported to Auschwitz on the 7th of September 1942 (Figure 11); on Serge Klarfeld’s list of deportees their names appear on the same page. (Figure 12) There is perverse irony that Ernst Mombert having been held in Camp des Milles for being a citizen of the German Reich in 1939 and a supposed Fifth Columnist would again find himself interned here in 1942, this time for being Jewish, on the way to his ultimate fate.

 

Figure 7. Generalized map showing the distance from Fayence to Draguignan, the first place the train carrying Ernst Mombert and my Aunt Susanne stopped for half-an-hour after being arrested by the Vichy French on the 26th of August 1942

 

Figure 8. Generalized map showing the distance from Draguignan to Camp des Milles (Aix-en-Provence), Ernst and Aunt Susanne’s second stop on their way to Drancy, outside Paris, and ultimately to Auschwitz-Birkenau

 

Figure 9. Generalized map showing the distance from Camp des Milles (Aix-en-Provence) to Avignon, Ernst and Susanne’s third stop on their way to Drancy

 

Figure 10. Generalized map showing the distance from Avignon to Drancy, outside Paris, Ernst and Susanne’s final stop before being deported and murdered in Auschwitz

 

Figure 11. The original Nazi list of deportees to Auschwitz from the 7th of September 1942 with “Ernest Mombert’s” name (from Arolsen Archives)

 

Figure 12. Serge Klarfeld’s recreated list of Jewish deportees to Auschwitz from the 7th of September 1942 with the names of “Ernest Mombert” and my aunt “Suzanne Muller” on the same page; my aunt is incorrectly shown as having been born in “Ratisbonne” rather than “Ratibor”

 

Contemporary witness accounts from the day Ernst and Susanne were arrested in Fayence indicate that my aunt was in hiding when the Vichy French showed up. She might have been able to escape had she been willing to forsake the older inhabitants of the fruit farm that included Ernst and Franz Mombert’s mother, as well as my grandmother and uncle. By my count, seven people were living on Ernst’s property at the time, though some of the younger ones may have joined the French Resistance. Regardless, this is not who my aunt was, and she would never have allowed anyone to be deported in her stead, so she turned herself in. It is an enduring mystery why all the Jewish residents at the fruit farm were not arrested simultaneously, though it is self-evident they would all eventually have been murdered had the Nazis prevailed during WWII.

As I related in Post 22, my wife Ann and I visited Fayence in 2014, then again in 2015, to learn more about my family’s connection to the town. Ernst Mombert’s brother, Franz survived WWII. Ownership of the fruit farm his brother had owned passed to him on September 6, 1947. (Figure 13) In 2014, my wife and I showed up unexpectedly on the doorsteps of the current owner of the property, a Mme. Monique Graux, who has since passed away. She related that she and her husband had purchased the farmhouse, which dates from around 1740, in the early 1960’s from a gentleman who bought it from Franz Mombert but owned it just briefly. Franz Mombert’s first wife, Margit Mombert née Müller-Munk, died in Fayence on the 22nd of March 1959, and sale of the property seems to have occurred after her death. Following disposal of the estate in Fayence, Franz remarried and moved to Switzerland, living first in Ascona (Figure 14), then to nearby Muralto (Figure 15), on the outskirts of Locarno. Franz passed away there on the 29th of January 1988.

 

Figure 13. A French real estate record showing that exclusive ownership of the fruit farm in Fayence was transferred to Franz (Francois) Mombert on September 6, 1947, slightly more than five years after Ernst Mombert was deported to Auschwitz

 

Figure 14. The apartment building in Ascona, Switzerland where Franz Mombert lived with his second wife after he sold the fruit farm in Fayence in around 1960

 

Figure 15. The apartment building in Muralto, outside Locarno, Switzerland, where Franz and his second moved following their departure from Ascona

 

While Ernst was the only member of his immediate family who was a direct victim of the Nazis, there are Stolpersteine, concrete cubes bearing a brass plate inscribed with the name and life dates of victims of Nazi extermination or persecution, for Ernst, Franz, and their parents in Giessen, Germany (Figure 16), the last place the Mombert family lived in Germany before emigrating to France. Interestingly, there also exists a memorial in the administrative region of Île-de-France, centered around Paris, bearing the names of “Ernest Mombert” and other victims of the Shoah, “a structure erected in honor of someone whose remains lie elsewhere.” (Figure 17)

 

Figure 16. The “Stolpersteine” for Ernst and Franz Mombert and their parents in Giessen, Germany, the last place they resided before emigrating to France

 

Figure 17. The memorial in the administrative region of Île-de-France, centered around Paris, bearing the names of “Ernest Mombert” and other victims of the Shoah

 

 

REFERENCES

AJPN.org. “Anonymous, Righteous and Persecuted during the Nazi period in the communes of France”

Fontaine, André. Quelques camps du Sud-Est, 1939-1940 [réfugiés allemands], Recherches régionales. Centre de documentation des Alpes-Maritimes, 1988, 29e année, n° 3, p. 179-206.

POST 105: FEDOR LÖWENSTEIN’S NAZI-CONFISCATED ART: RESTITUTION DENIED

Note: In this post, I discuss my own attempt to obtain compensation and damages from the French government on behalf of my family for works of art seized by the Nazis in December 1940 from my father’s first cousin, Fedor Löwenstein, a noted painter. I also touch on the multiple occasions France has wronged my family during WWII, following WWII, and continuing to the present.

Related Posts:

POST 15: BERLIN & MY GREAT-AUNTS FRANZISKA & ELSBETH BRUCK

POST 16: TRACKING MY GREAT-AUNT HEDWIG LÖWENSTEIN, NÉE BRUCK, & HER FAMILY THROUGH FIVE COUNTRIES

POST 71: A DAY IN THE LIFE OF MY FATHER, DR. OTTO BRUCK–22ND OF AUGUST 1930

 

Figure 1. My great-aunt Franziska Bruck (1866-1942)
Figure 2. My great-aunt Elsbeth Bruck (1874-1970)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This story begins in 2014. This is the year my wife and I took a 13-week trip to Europe traveling from northeastern Poland to southeastern Spain following the path of my Jewish family’s diaspora. It included a stop at the Stadtmuseum in Spandau, on the outskirts of Berlin, where the personal papers of two of my accomplished and unmarried great-aunts, Franziska Bruck (Figure 1) and Elsbeth Bruck (Figure 2), are archived. The family items at the Statdtmuseum include academic papers, diaries, numerous professional and personal letters, family photographs, awards, and miscellaneous belongings. (Figures 3a-b) During my visit, I photographed all the articles and artifacts for later study.

 

Figure 3a. Entrance to the Stadtmuseum in Spandau, Berlin, Germany where my great-aunts’ personal papers are archived
Figure 3b. Archival boxes at the Stadtmuseum containing my great-aunts’ personal papers

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The letters and photographs turned out to be most informative. The letters were written in four forms, Old German Script (known as die Kurrentschrift or Kurrent for short in German); an updated version of Kurrent called Sütterlin developed in the early 20th Century; normal German script (deutsche Normalschrift); and typed normal German. Suffice it to say, that the three forms of German script are completely indecipherable to me, so I depended on German-speaking friends and relatives to translate these letters. However, in the case of letters typed in German, using a good on-line translator, called DeepL, I was able to make sense of the content of some of these missives.

One letter I translated provides the basis of much of this Blog post. (Figures 4a-c) It contains astonishing information that led to the seven-year odyssey I embarked upon to obtain redress from the French government for an injustice perpetrated upon my father’s first cousin, Fedor Löwenstein, by the Nazis. The letter was written by Fedor’s younger sister, Jeanne “Hansi” Goff née Löwenstein, to her aunt, my great-aunt, Elsbeth Bruck. It is dated the 30th of October 1946, and was sent from Nice, France to Berlin, Germany. What makes the letter so astounding is not that it mentions both my paternal grandmother ELSE Bruck and my father OTTO Bruck, since both had connections to Nice and France in 1946, but rather to Hansi’s declaration that one of her brother Fedya’s (named Fedor but also called “Fidel”) paintings had sold posthumously in 1946 for 90,000 French Francs. Using a Historic Currency Converter, I determined this would be worth more than $16,000 as of 2015, obviously even more today. Given the enormous amount that one of Fedor Lowenstein’s paintings had fetched in 1946 convinced me that he was no run-of-the-mill painter and that I needed to learn more about him.

 

Figure 4a. First page of typed letter dated the 30th of October 1946 sent by my father’s first cousin, Jeanne “Hansi” Goff née Löwenstein, to her aunt, my great-aunt, Elsbeth Bruck
Figure 4b. Second page of typed letter dated the 30th of October 1946 sent by my father’s first cousin, Jeanne “Hansi” Goff née Löwenstein, to her aunt, my great-aunt, Elsbeth Bruck

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Figure 4c. Translation of letter

 

One place my wife and I visited in 2014 attempting to obtain copies of original death certificates for ancestors who had died in Nice was la Mairie de Nice, City Hall. There, I was able to obtain death certificates not only for Fedor Lowenstein (Figure 5) and his mother, Hedwig Löwenstein née Bruck (Figure 6), but also for his sister, Jeanne Goff née Löwenstein. (Figure 7) I was fortunate to even find Fedor Lowenstein’s name in the death register. In German, his surname was spelled “Löwenstein,” with the “ö,” that’s to say with an umlaugh over the “o,” transcribed in English as “oe”; in the French death register, Fedor’s surname was spelled simply as “Lowenstein” (Figure 8), so I nearly missed finding his name among the 1946 deaths. I would later discover that Fedor’s surname was variously spelled “Lowenstein,” “Löwenstein,” and even “Loevenstein.”

 

Figure 5. Fedor Lowenstein’s death certificate from Nice, France indicating he died there on the 4th of August 1946
Figure 6. Fedor Löwenstein’s mother’s death certificate from Nice, France showing Hedwig Löwenstein née Bruck died there on the 15th of January 1949; the name on her death certificate is “Edwige Bruck”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Figure 7. Fedor Löwenstein’s sister’s death certificate from Nice, France showing Jeanne “Hansi” Goff née Löwenstein died there on the 5th of May 1986; the name on her death certificate is “Jeanne Loewenstein”
Figure 8. Death register listing dated the 5th of August 1946 for Fedor Löwenstein listing his name as “Fedor Lowenstein”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Having obtained the death certificates, I was dispatched to a different administrative office in Nice, le Service Administration Funéraire, the Funeral Administration Office, to locate their tombs. While Fedor’s sister I learned had been cremated, the Funeral Administration Office directed me to the Cimetière Caucade, the Caucade Communal Cemetery (Figure 9), on the outskirts of Nice to find Fedor and Hedwig’s tombstones. (Figures 10-11) It was providential that I was assisted at the Funeral Administration Office by a Mme. Jöelle Saramito (Figure 12), who would later render me a great service.

 

Figure 9. Reception Bureau at Cimitiere Caucade where Fedor Löwenstein and his mother were once interred

 

Figure 10. Hedwig Löwenstein née Bruck’s surviving headstone though her bones were removed to a charnel house
Figure 11. Fedor Loewenstein’s headstone correctly transcribing the “ö” as “oe”; the headstone survives though his bones were also removed to a charnel house

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Figure 12. In 2015, me standing alongside Mme. Jöelle Saramito from Nice’s Funeral Administration Office, who helped track down valuable information about Fedor Löwenstein

 

 

Jeanne Goff née Löwenstein’s translated 1946 letter convinced me her brother was no ordinary painter. Knowing this, I became curious whether I could obtain an obituary from a contemporary newspaper that might lead me to living descendants. Hoping Mme. Saramito might be able to track it down for me, or at least point me in the right direction, I contacted her. What she provided surpassed my expectations.

In what can only be characterized as a fortunate occurrence of serendipity, Mme. Saramito sent me links to several articles about an exposition featuring three of Fedor Löwenstein’s paintings seized by the Nazis that had been displayed at the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Bordeaux. Unbeknownst to my wife and me, this exhibit had taken place there between the 16th of May and the 24th of August 2014, overlapping our extended stay in Europe that year; needless to say, had we known about this exposition, we would have detoured there.

Among the links Mme. Saramito sent me was an article naming the art curator for the exhibition held at the Musée des Beaux-Arts, a lady named Florence Saragoza; the article also mentioned the French government was looking for legitimate family members to whom Fedor Loewenstein’s artworks could be returned.

 

Figure 13. March 1946 photo of Fedor Loewenstein (seated) with his sister Hansi, his brother Heinz, and his mother Hedwig in Nice, France, taken several months before his death in August 1946
Figure 14. Photo of Fedor Loewenstein with his brother Heinz in military uniform taken in Nice, France on the 24th of October 1945

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

While I had several photographs of Fedor Löwenstein with his family in Nice (Figurse 13-14) found at the Stadtmuseum in Spandau, and a copy of his acte de décès, death certificate, obtained from la Mairie de Nice, there was much I did not know about my father’s first cousin. Hoping to learn more, I tried to contact Mme. Saragoza, and quickly discovered she was affiliated with the Ministère de la Culture et de la Communication as a conservatrice du patrimoine, curator of heritage. My initial email to her at the Ministère de la Culture “bounced.” I eventually learned that she was also the then-Director of the Musée Crozatier in le Puy-en-Velay, France (Figure 15), where my subsequent email reached her. I will always remember her response dated the 16th of September 2014, “What a surprise to read your e-mail! (To be honest I cried) . . .I’m so glad to read about someone from Lowenstein’s family!” Logically, Mme. Saragoza had assumed that Fedor’s family had been murdered in the Holocaust, emigrated, or would be unlikely to learn about the exhibition in Bordeaux and the resurfaced paintings. More on this later.

 

Figure 15. Mme. Florence Saragoza, former Director of Musée Crozatier in le Puy-en-Velay, France

 

 

Almost immediately after connecting with Mme. Saragoza, she sent me the Journal d’exposition, the exhibition catalog, for the Fédor Löwenstein (1901-1946) trois œuvres martyres exposition. (Figure 16) Most of Fedor Löwenstein’s biography and the history behind the works of art confiscated by the Nazis is drawn from this reference.

 

Figure 16. Cover page of the 2014 exhibition catalog from the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Bordeaux that featured Fedor Löwenstein’s three orphaned paintings

 

 

Wilhelm Fédor Löwenstein was born in Munich, Germany on the 13th of April 1901, and is often characterized as a Czech painter because this was his family’s country of origin. He first studied at the School of Decorative Arts in Berlin and then at the Academy of Fine Arts in Dresden. In 1923, Fédor Löwenstein settled in Paris (Figures 17a-b), attracted by the artistic influence of the capital. An artistic movement dominated there, designated in 1925 as the École de Paris, the School of Paris; in reality, this name does not refer to any school that really existed, but rather to the École de Paris, which brought together artists who contributed to making Paris the focus of artistic creation between the two world wars. It was in this rich artistic context that Löwenstein painted and drew.

 

Figure 17a. Undated photo of Fedor Löwenstein as a young man
Figure 17b. Back of undated photo of Fedor Löwenstein indicating he was the first cousin of my aunt Susanne Müller-Bruck, my uncle Fedor Bruck, and my father Otto Bruck

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In Paris he mixed with and became a student of the painter André Lhote from Bordeaux and joined the “Groupe des Surindépendants” in 1936. Löwenstein’s early works were marked by the influence of cubism, whose main representatives worked in Paris, although his subsequent productions evolved towards abstraction, probably under the influence of André Lhote. In 1938, he painted “La Chute” (The Fall), inspired by the signing of the Munich Agreement that dismantled the Czechoslovakia that had been created in 1918. As is noted in the 2014 Bordeaux retrospective exhibition catalog, “The composition and iconographic vocabulary of the work are reminiscent of the convulsed and screaming silhouettes of Picasso’s Guernica, exhibited a year earlier in the Spanish Pavilion at the Paris World’s Fair.” The comparison to Picasso’s famed work speaks volumes about Löwenstein’s remarkable talent. 

When France entered the war in September 1939, Löwenstein, like many artists, had to leave the capital. As a foreigner, he had to hide to escape France’s exclusion laws. He went to Mirmande (Drôme) on the advice of Marcelle Rivier, a friend and another of André Lhote’s students. The two artists probably met in Paris shortly before France entered the war. At that time, Mirmande, a village in ruins, welcomed a few painters who lived there. But most of them came there to work alongside André Lhote during his summer academy. The village became a place of refuge for many Parisian artists of foreign origin, all of whom led a relatively peaceful life, free from military operations and repression, contending mostly with the difficulty of obtaining art supplies.

This ended abruptly when the Germans occupied the whole of Metropolitan France in November 1942. Until then, the French Demarcation line marked the boundary between the occupied part of France administered by the German Army in the northern and western part of France and the Zone libre in the south. The suppression of the Demarcation line marked by the invasion of the southern zone by the Germans put an end to the peaceful life the artists in Miramande had enjoyed.  This caused the group gathered there to break up.

From then on, it was the French Resistance network that worked to protect the refugees of Mirmande, thus allowing many Jewish painters to flee. Marcelle Rivier, Fedor Löwenstein’s friend who had enticed him to move there, somewhat amusingly described her involvement in his evacuation in 1943 from Miramande: “That night I put on Lowenstein one of these vast peasant skirts that we wore then and by a night of full moon in this month of February 1943, we left for Cliousclat. . .With his skirt, Lowenstein had the air of a horse disguised and the ground left no other means than to take the traced road. There I entrusted him to Ména Loopuyt, a Dutch painter living in Cliousclat. Charles Caillet had gone by bicycle to the abbey of Aiguebelle to get along with the abbot and gave us an appointment at his house. The next day at midnight, Doctor Debanne disguised the Jews as wounded, and they were taken to Aiguebelle.”

As the exposition catalog goes on to describe, “They [the Jews] were in possession of false identity cards made by Maurice Caillet, the curator of the Valence Museum. In agreement with the bishopric and the superior of the community, the monks of the abbey of Aiguebelle in the Drôme welcomed refugees at the end of 1942 and sheltered Jews whom they employed in the various works of the abbey. Löwenstein decorated tiles without enthusiasm.”

In the fall of 1943, ill, Fedor went to Paris, under the pseudonym of Lauriston, to consult at the Curie Institute and at the Broussais Hospital in the south of Paris, where Dr. Paul Chevallier, a French pioneer in hematology, was practicing. However, his disease was not diagnosed, and he continued to deteriorate. Löwenstein would eventually return to his family in Nice, where he was hospitalized and would die on the 4th of August 1946. It was determined he died of Hodgkins Lymphoma.

Fedor’s association with the “Groupe des Surindépendants” from 1936 onward resulted in him exhibiting regularly with them until the outbreak of WWII. The group even organized a personal exhibition for him in 1939. At some point in 1940 during his stay in Miramande, Fedor returned to Paris where he selected small format works as well as six watercolors that he brought to be shipped to New York City. There is little information about the circumstances surrounding this project, but the paintings were sent to a harbor warehouse in Bordeaux for shipment to an American gallery. Unfortunately, the crates never left Bordeaux but were instead “requisitioned” by German military authorities on the 5th of December 1940, the date of a major seizure operation.

A special commando unit affiliated with the “Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg (ERR)” (Reichsleiter Rosenberg Taskforce) raided the warehouse where Fedor’s crates were stored, seized them, and had them shipped to Paris where they were stored at the “Jeu de Paume.” The ERR was a Nazi Party organization dedicated to appropriating cultural property during WWII and was led by the chief ideologue of the Nazi Party, Alfred Rosenberg, ergo its name. The Jeu de Paume was the seat of ERR’s processing of looted art objects confiscated from Jewish-owned collections.

Owing to the abstract cubist nature of Löwenstein’s works, the ERR staff at the Jeu de Paume deemed them as “degenerate” and consigned them to the store room for condemned art, the “Salles des Martyrs,” Martyrs’ Hall. They were marked for destruction, in German “vernichet.” In total, 25 paintings by Fedor were seized and brought to the Jeu de Paume to be disposed of for ideological reasons.

Almost seventy years after the Liberation of Paris in August 1944 three of the purportedly destroyed Löwenstein paintings resurfaced in French museum collections. French Ministry of Culture officials were able to match the resurrected paintings with information contained in the ERR database for three works labeled by the Germans as Löwenstein 4 (“Paysage” or Landscape), Löwenstein 15 (“Peupliers” or Poplars), and Löwenstein 19 (“Les Arbes” or The Trees). In the official catalogue of unclaimed works and objects of art known as “Musée Nationaux Récupération (MNR),” the works are assigned MNR numbers R26, R27, and R28. These three paintings correspond to Löwenstein’s works of art that were displayed at the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Bordeaux in 2014 for which I would later file a claim for restitution. As an aside, all three paintings were signed “Fedor Loevenstein.” I would later learn from a French reader of my Blog, who purchased several of his works at auction, that Löwenstein also signed some with his initials in reverse, “LF.”

In connection with researching and writing the catalog for the 2014 exhibit of Fedor Löwenstein’s three resurrected paintings, Florence Saragoza and her colleagues uncovered the notes of the curator at the Jeu de Paume, Rose Valland. Her notes from July 20, 1943, confirm the fate of artworks destined for destruction: “Scholz and his team continue to choose from among the paintings in the Louvre’s escrow and stab the paintings they do not want to keep. This is how they destroyed almost all of Masson’s works, all of Dalí’s. The paintings in the Loewenstein, Esmont (sic), M[ichel]-G[eorges] Michel collections are almost all shredded. . .” On July 23rd, she added “The paintings massacred in the Louvre’s sequestration were brought back to the Jeu de Paume. Five or six hundred were burned under German surveillance in the museum garden from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. . . . The paintings that remained in the Louvre were classified by category. . .”. It appears that Löwenstein’s three works that escaped destruction had been classified by the Louvre as “paintings of lesser importance,” while the remaining works were likely stabbed, shredded and/or incinerated.

As a side note, since virtually all the images of Fedor Löwenstein’s paintings as well as the historic images of the Martyrs’ Hall at the Jeu de Paume are copyrighted, I refer readers to the hyperlinks to view photos.

As a mildly interesting aside, Florence Saragoza and her colleagues, using the notes left behind by Rose Valland, then curatorial attaché at the Jeu de Paume, were able to attribute most of the paintings exhibited there. They did this using a detailed digitization of the negatives, work by work, accompanied by anamorphosis. This was a new term to me and is defined as: “. . .a distorted projection requiring the viewer to occupy a specific vantage point, use special devices, or both to view a recognizable image. It is used in painting, photography, sculpture and installation, toys, and film special effects. The word is derived from the Greek prefix ana-, meaning ‘back’ or ‘again’, and the word morphe, meaning ‘shape’ or ‘form.’ Extreme anamorphosis has been used by artists to disguise caricatures, erotic and scatological scenes, and other furtive images from a casual spectator, while revealing an undistorted image to the knowledgeable viewer.” In the case of the historic photos on display in the Martyrs’ Hall, I take this to mean that since the paintings in the photos look somewhat distorted, some digital manipulation was required to identify and attribute the works of art.

As previously mentioned, Fedor Löwenstein’s 25 paintings were seized from État-major administratif du port, hangar H, Bordeaux, the “Port Administration Headquarters, Hanger H, Bordeaux.” They were seized at the same time as a set of Dali’s works were taken from another collector, which were described under the acronym “unbekannt,” “unknown.” This was intended to indicate that the history of the works had been lost during the various transfers from their seizure in Bordeaux to their shipment to Paris, the inventories being drawn up only belatedly by the historians of the ERR. Again quoting from the exhibition catalog, “But the fact that these collections were made anonymous was also part of the ideological policy of the Third Reich, which aimed at cultural appropriation, an affirmation of superiority inscribed in a historical connection and a rewriting of art history.” As in the case of Dali’s works, the provenance of the three orphan paintings by Löwenstein was lost and they were described as having been donated anonymously in 1973. Only in 2011 were they were reclassified as stolen works. This brings me to where things stood when I learned all the above.

Soon after connecting with Florence Saragoza, she asked me whether I wanted to file a claim with the Commission pour l’indemnisation des victimes de spoliations (CIVS) for the return of Fedor Löwenstein’s three orphan paintings, as well as payment of damages. CIVS is the commission established in 1999 under the French Prime Minister to implement the policy of the State regarding the reparation of the damages suffered by the Jews of France whose property was looted during the Occupation, because of the anti-Semitic measures taken by the German occupier or by the Vichy regime. This seemed like a logical next step. Given my intimate familiarity with my father and his first cousins’ family tree, I immediately realized that I am Fedor’s closest living relative. (Figure 18) That’s to say, because neither Fedor nor either of his two siblings had any children or surviving spouses, as a first cousin once removed, I am their closest surviving blood relative.

 

Figure 18. My father Dr. Otto Bruck (1907-1994) standing alongside his first cousin and the sister of Fedor Löwenstein, Jeanne “Hansi” Goff née Löwenstein, on the 2nd of March 1947 in Fayence, France, the town from where my aunt Susanne Müller-Bruck was deported to Auschwitz

 

 

With Mme. Saragoza’s gracious assistance, I filed a claim with CIVS in October 2014. CIVS acknowledged receipt of my claim in November 2014, assigning it a case number, “Requête 24005 BROOK,” noting that considering the numerous claims pending before their office and the multiple archives and offices that would need to be consulted, it could take some time to render a decision. In fact, it took more than 6 ½ years.

In June 2015, my wife and I met with the staff at the CIVS in Paris (Figure 19) to discuss my claim, whereupon I provided them with a written account of the chronology detailed above and my ancestral connection to Fedor Löwenstein. In February 2017, I was eventually contacted by a genealogist contracted by CIVS to investigate my claim. I shared an updated written account of what I had sent to CIVS in 2015, and included an extensive array of historic documents, photos, and exhibits, along with a detailed family tree. In essence, I did the genealogist’s work for him.

 

Figure 19. In June 2015, meeting in Paris with Mme. Muriel De Bastier and Mlle. Eleonore Claret from CIVS, the Premier Ministre’s office handling my restitution claim

 

Between February 2017 and June 2021, when CIVS rendered their written decision, I was never contacted by the Premier Ministre’s office. The decision letter from the Premier Ministre along with the attached report by Le Rapporteur Generale arrived on the 17th of June 2021. It included much of the same information discussed above. The final decision is that my claim was rejected.

Beyond the disappointment and anger I feel about this determination, I was curious about the merits and legal basis of this ruling. Inasmuch as I can ascertain, it appears that because France is governed by principles of civil law rather than common law, my rights have been supplanted. Civil law has its features compiled and codified into a collection for ready reference. It is inspired by the Roman law. Common law, on the other hand, has its rules and regulations administered by judges and vary on a case-to-case basis. Civil law was framed in France. Common law was started in England. Common law varies from case to case depending upon the customs of the society whereas civil law has a predefined written set of statutes and codes for reference. Judgment in common law varies whereas in civil law, the judges must strictly follow the codification written in the book.

In the case of my claim for restitution, CIVS concluded there are what are called “universal legatees,” an element of civil law, whose claim to Löwenstein’s property and damages supersede my own. France considers property left in a will a “universal legacy,” so the person who inherits the rights, obligations, possession, and debts of an ancestor’s title in property through a testamentary disposition is called a “universal legatee.”

These universal legatees in the case of Fedor Löwenstein’s estate are descendants of individuals, merely friends, who inherited from his brother and sister. They and their descendants were not and are not related by blood to Fedor Löwenstein, as I am. Were it not for my efforts to uncover information about Fedor’s orphaned works and file a claim for repatriation and damages, these individuals would have no knowledge of their existence. Furthermore, had it not been for my own extensive genealogical research into Fedor Löwenstein’s spoliated works and ancestry, the CIVS genealogist contracted to undertake the forensic investigation into my claim likely would not have uncovered all the information I provided in 2017. Notwithstanding the stated wishes of CIVS and the Musée National d’Art Moderne housed in the Centre Pompidou in Paris to restore Fedor Löwenstein’s to his family, this is emphatically not happening.

Figure 20. My father Dr. Otto Bruck standing on la Promenade des Anglais in Nice, France in 1946

In retrospect, I would say I should not be surprised by this outcome. France has a long-standing tradition of having wronged my family going back to when the French were complicit in helping the Germans deport my aunt Susanne Müller née Bruck in August 1942, from Fayence, France to Auschwitz, where she was ultimately murdered. Then, following the war, in 1948, they arrested my father, Dr. Otto Bruck (Figure 20), in Nice, France for allegedly practicing dentistry illegally, simply for managing the practice of a dentist who had no interest in her business. My father was arrested only because he was “apatride,” stateless. Rather than offer French citizenry to a man who spoke fluent French and who offered a service much-in-need following WWII, they detained and intended to prosecute him had he not decamped for America. And this although my father served France nobly and honorably for five years during the war as a soldier in the French Foreign Legion. Arguably, France may have met its legal obligation with its decision regarding my claim, but they most assuredly have not fulfilled their moral obligation by handing over my ancestor’s paintings and awarding damages to so-called “universal legatees.” Family of Fedor Löwenstein they are decidedly NOT!!

 

 

REFERENCE

 

Fédor Löwenstein (1901-1946) trois œuvres martyres. 16 May-24 Aug. 2014. Musée des Beaux-Arts de Bordeaux, Bordeaux.

 

 

VITAL STATISTICS OF WILHELM FÉDOR LÖWENSTEIN & HIS IMMEDIATE FAMILY

 

NAME EVENT DATE PLACE SOURCE
         
Wilhelm Fédor Löwenstein (self) Birth 13 April 1901 Munich, Germany Munich Birth Certificate
  Death 4 August 1946 Nice, France Nice Death Certificate
Rudolf Löwenstein (father) Birth 17 January 1872 Kuttenplan, Czechoslovakia [today: Chodová Planá, Czech Republic] Kuttenplan, Czechoslovakia Birth Register Listing
  Marriage (to Hedwig Bruck) 17 September 1899 Ratibor, Germany [today: Racibórz, Poland] LDS Family History Center Microfilm Roll 1184449 (Ratibor)
  Death 22 August 1930 Iglau, Czechoslovakia [today: Jihlava, Czech Republic] LDS Family History Center Microfilm Roll 1184408 (Danzig)
Hedwig Löwenstein Bruck (mother) Birth 22 March 1870 Ratibor, Germany [today: Racibórz, Poland] LDS Family History Center Microfilm Roll 1184449 (Ratibor)
  Marriage (to Rudolf Löwenstein) 17 September 1899 Ratibor, Germany [today: Racibórz, Poland] Ratibor Marriage Certificate
  Death 15 January 1949 Nice, France Nice Death Certificate
Elsbeth Bruck (aunt) Birth 17 November 1874 Ratibor, Germany [today: Racibórz, Poland German Democratic Republic Passport
  Death 20 February 1970 East Berlin, German Democratic Republic  
Jeanne “Hansi” Goff née Löwenstein (sister) Birth 9 September 1902 Danzig, Free State [today: Gdansk, Poland] Danzig Birth Certificate
  Marriage (to Georges Goff) UNKNOWN    
  Death 5 May 1986 Nice, France Nice Death Certificate
Heinz Löwenstein (brother) (died as “Hanoch Avneri”) Birth 8 March 1905 Danzig, Free State [today: Gdansk, Poland] LDS Family History Center Microfilm Roll 1184407 (Danzig)
  Marriage (to Rose Bloch) 22 October 1931 Danzig, Free State [today: Gdansk, Poland] Danzig Marriage Certificate
  Death 10 August 1979 Haifa, Israel Haifa Burial Certificate
Otto Bruck (first cousin) (died as Gary Otto Brook) Birth 16 April 1907 Ratibor, Germany [today: Racibórz, Poland] Ratibor Birth Certificate
  Marriage 22 October 1949 Manhattan, New York  
  Death 14 September 1994 Queens, New York New York City Death Certificate
Richard Alan Brook (first cousin once removed) Birth 27 December 1950 Manhattan, New York  

 

 

 

POST 80: DR. OTTO BRUCK IN THE FRENCH FOREIGN LEGION

Note: In this post, I discuss the five years my father was deployed in the French Foreign Legion in Algeria between November 1938 and November 1943. This installment provides an opportunity to discuss some of the Legion’s history, explore the “conflicted” role the Legion played during WWII and, by extension, explain how my father was able to travel from North Africa to France in 1941 during the war, seemingly across “enemy” lines.

Related Posts:

Post 79: Dr. Otto Bruck’s Path to the French Foreign Legion

 

 

Figure 1. My father Otto Bruck on leave in Constantine, Algeria, December 1941, attired in his French Foreign Legion uniform

 

 

My father voluntarily enlisted in la Légion étrangère, the French Foreign Legion, in Paris on the 9th of November 1938, for a required five-year stint. The French Foreign Legion is a military service branch of the French Army that was founded in 1831 and was initially stationed only in Algeria, the largest country in Africa. During the 19th Century, the French Foreign Legion was primarily used to protect and expand the French colonial empire throughout the world. It is unique in that it is open to foreign recruits willing to serve in the French Armed Forces; enlistees serve under the command of French Officers. Given the limited options available to people of Jewish extraction in the lead up to WWII, my father heeded the advice of one of his first cousins and decided to enlist in la Légion. (Figure 1)

Sidi Bel Abbès, located in northwestern Algeria less than 50 miles from the Mediterranean, was the headquarters of the Foreign Legion until 1962. Named for the tomb of the marabout (saint) Sīdī Bel ʿAbbāss, it was established as a French military outpost in 1843; from this time on the city was closely associated with the French Foreign Legion. The city was the location of the Legion’s basic training camp and the headquarters of its 1st Foreign Regiment. After Algerian independence in 1962, all French troops and legionnaires were evacuated from Sidi Bel Abbès and transferred to Aubagne, France.

 

Figure 2a. Page 1 of my father’s “Livret Matricule,” military file, in the name of his nom de guerre “Marcel Berger, showing his service date, the 9th of November 1938, and his assignment to the “Dépôt commun des régiments étrangers (D.C.R.E.)” First Foreign Regiment

 

Figure 2b. Page 2 of my father’s “Livret Matricule,” military file, listing the dates to which he was assigned to different companies and Legion units

 

Figure 2c. Page 3 of my father’s “Livret Matricule,” military file, showing the different campaigns in which he participated

 

Figure 2d. Page 4 of my father’s “Livret Matricule,” military file, showing he participated in the Battle of Tunisia from the 19th of February 1943 until the 16th of April 1943

 

As nearly as I can tell from my father’s “Livret Matricule,” military file (Figures 2a-d), he reported to the 1st Foreign Regiment, 1er Régiment étranger (1er RE), to which he’d been assigned in Sidi Bel Abbès on the 18th of November 1938. He was incorporated into the Dépôt commun des régiments étrangers (D.C.R.E.), the Communal Depot of the Foreign Regiments (D.C.R.E.), which was administratively dependent on the 1st Foreign Infantry Regiment. For reasons that will become clearer, I’m uncertain whether upon enlistment my father was originally issued dog tags under his birth name, Otto Bruck, or under his nom de guerre, “Marcel Berger.” Among my father’s remaining personal effects, I have French Foreign Legion D.C.R.E. dog tags under both names. (Figures 3a-b; 4a-4b)

 

Figure 3a. Front side of my father’s French Foreign Legion dog tag under his given name, Otto Bruck, identifying him as a member of the “Dépôt commun des régiments étrangers (D.C.R.E.),” the Communal Depot of the Foreign Regiments
Figure 3b. Back side of my father’s French Foreign Legion dog tag under his given name, Otto Bruck, showing his actual date and place of birth

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Figure 4a. Front side of my father’s French Foreign Legion dog tag under his nom de guerre, Marcel Berger, identifying him as a member of the “Dépôt commun des régiments étrangers (D.C.R.E.),” the Communal Depot of the Foreign Regiments
Figure 4b. Back side of my father’s French Foreign Legion dog tag under his nom de guerre, Marcel Berger, with his fictitious date and place of birth

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

According to the history of the 1st Foreign Regiment, the Dépôt commun des régiments étrangers (D.C.R.E.), the Communal Depot of the Foreign Regiments, was created on the 1st of October 1933 in Sidi Bel Abbès. The Depot was under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Azan, whom, interestingly, my father once photographed. (Figure 5) According to my father’s military dossier, upon his arrival in Algeria, he was initially assigned to the D.C.R.E.’s Compagnie de Passage No. 3, a logistics operation company, on the 19th of November 1938; then, to the D.C.R.E.’s Compagnie d’Instruction No. 2, a training company, on the 4th of December 1938; and, subsequently, to the D.C.R.E.’s Compagnie de Passage No. 1, a different logistics operation company, on the 2nd of April 1939.

 

Figure 5. Lieutenant-Colonel Azan, far-right, commander of the Dépôt commun des régiments étrangers (D.C.R.E.), the Communal Depot of the Foreign Regiments, in Ouargla, Algeria

 

A word about the role of a “Compagnie de Passage.” This group seemingly provided logistical support for soldiers in those rare moments of relaxation during the war related to housing, library services, general information, reading or writing rooms, barber shops, sports venues, cinemas, etc. It was also used to perform banking operations for the soldiers, such as withdrawing money to pay for their purchases. My father’s specific job(s) during these assignments is unknown to me.

On the 1st of October 1939, my father was transferred to the Compagnie Automobile de Transport du Territoire des Oasis (C.A.T.T.O.), the Saharan transport unit of the Legion. C.A.T.T.O. was merged into the Batterie Saharienne Portée de Légion (B.S.P.L.), Saharan Battery Legion Range, on the 29th of June 1939, the date the B.S.P.L. was created in Ouargla, Algeria; my father was assigned to the 1st B.S.P.L. on the 1st of November 1940 (Figure 6), which may correspond with his relocation to Ouargla from Sidi Bel Abbès, though I’m uncertain when this took place.

 

Figure 6. Insignia of the Batterie Saharienne Portée de Légion (B.S.P.L.), Saharan Battery Legion Range, to which my father was assigned on the 1st of November 1940

 

A word about the French Military term “Portée” as in “Batterie Saharienne Portée de Légion.” Technically, the term translates into English as “mobile,” although that’s inaccurate; the old Montées, the mule-mounted units from which the Portees originated, were also considered highly mobile. Therefore, the term Portée is supposed to mean “motorized” to distinguish the modern vehicle-mounted motorized infantry companies from the old Montées, the mule-mounted ones. (see “French Legion Mounted Companies“)

So far, I’ve related dry details on the military units to which my father was assigned, their presumed function, and when these assignments took place. Let me turn now to the Legion’s history during WWII for context. Initially, I was narrowly focused on trying to specifically understand how my father was able to travel from Algeria to mainland France for a two to three month stay between September and November 1941 to visit friends and family living there. (Figures 7-8) This visit in the middle of the war seemingly involved travel across “enemy” lines, and on the face of it was baffling. In looking into this, I stumbled upon a fascinating article by Edward L. Bimberg, entitled “World War II: A Tale of the French Foreign Legion,” that originally appeared in the September 1997 issue of “World War II” magazine. Below I summarize some of this author’s findings.

 

Figure 7. Photo of my father’s sister Susanne Müller née Bruck in November 1941 in Fayence, France, taken during my dad’s leave from the French Foreign Legion while stationed in Algeria

 

 

Figure 8. Photo of my father’s first cousin Jeanne “Hansi” Goff née Löwenstein in Monte Carlo, Monaco in October 1941, taken during my dad’s leave from the French Foreign Legion while stationed in Algeria

 

According to Mr. Bimberg, the Legion had always had a large complement of Germans in its rank. In the late 1930’s, intelligence officers at the headquarters of the French Foreign Legion in Sidi Bel Abbès, however, were puzzled by an even greater number of Germans pouring in, despite the Nazis’ widespread campaign to discourage them from enlisting. In this period, the German press was violently attacking the Legion, and the Nazi government demanded that recruiting be stopped. Still the Germans kept coming until half the privates and 80 percent of the non-commissioned officers in the legion were German. Eventually, it became clear that this influx had been orchestrated by German intelligence, the Abwehr. The goal was to destroy the Legion from within, which the German legionnaires nearly succeeded in doing.

According to my father, the Legion attracted its share of unsavory types, such as ex-convicts, criminals, murderers, pederasts, etc. More importantly, however, the French Foreign Legion had always attracted the dispossessed, such as Spanish Republicans who’d fought on the losing side of the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939); Jews, such as my father, escaping Nazi persecution; then, later Czechs and Poles who’d fled as the German Army began its march across Europe. Obviously, these refugees did not mix well with the new Germans in the Legion; the German non-commissioned officers terrorized the non-Germans resulting in frequent fights and courts-martial. The French officers could not trust their own non-commissioned officers, and morale in the Legion plummeted, almost to the point of disbanding the entire corps.

WWII is generally said to have begun with the German invasion of Poland on the 1st of September 1939, and the subsequent declarations of war on Germany by France and the United Kingdom. With the declaration of war, the situation in France became critical, but the questionable loyalty of the Germans in the Legion made shipping them to fight in Europe too risky. Instead, four more foreign regiments were raised in France and trained by veteran Legion officers from North Africa. These newly created regiments garrisoned the Maginot Line, the line of concrete fortifications, obstacles, and weapon installations built by France in the 1930s to deter invasion by Germany. These legionnaires remained inactive during the so-called “phony war,” the period of comparative inaction at the beginning of World War II between the German invasion of Poland (September 1939) and that of Norway (April 1940).

Despite the general reluctance of sending entire Legion units to France, the French authorities decided something had to be done with the loyal elements of the Legion marking time in North Africa but anxious to fight. So, in early 1940, volunteers were called for, and two battalions of 1,000 men assembled, one in Fez, Morocco, and the other in Sidi Bel Abbès, Algeria; the volunteers were carefully vetted. The remaining German legionnaires of unquestioned loyalty were given non-German names and false identity papers to protect them in case they were captured by the Germans. Possibly, my father acquired his alias, Marcel Berger, at this time.

The two battalions were joined into the 13th Demi-Brigade (13e Demi-Brigade de la Légion Étrangère) and put under the command of a Lieutenant-Colonel Magrin-Verneret, a WWI veteran apparently typical of military eccentrics who often turned up in the Foreign Legion. When the 13th Demi-Brigade arrived in France, these desert-trained veterans were surprisingly issued a new type of uniform and skis, trained to fight in the Arctic, and outfitted as mountain troops with heavy parkas, boots, and snow capes. They were initially bound for Finland, but after the capitulation of the Finns to the Russians when the latter were still in league with the Germans, thus before the brigade could be deployed there, the war in Finland ended.

Instead, the 13th Demi-Brigade was shipped to Norway to capture the northern port of Narvik from the Germans to prevent ore shipments from neutral Sweden needed by the Nazi regime. After bitter fighting, the legionnaires captured control of Narvik on the 28th of May 1940. For the next few days, they pursued the retreating Germans through the snow-covered mountains toward the Swedish border; their aim was to capture General Edouard Dietl, who’d led the German garrison at Narvik, and his remaining troops and force them into Swedish internment. Regrettably, when the 13th Demi-Brigade was only 10 miles from the Swedish border, they were ordered to return to France where they were needed in defense of France. The “phony war” was over with the German invasion of the Low Countries a few weeks earlier.

Edward Bimberg picks up the narrative: “The 13th Demi-Brigade returned to France from Norway, sailing into the harbor at Brest on June 13, almost at the same time the Germans were marching into Paris. Colonel Magrin-Verneret was ordered to form a line as part of a proposed last-ditch Breton Redoubt, but it was no use. The Germans had broken through.

While on a forward reconnaissance mission to determine what could be done to delay the enemy, Magrin-Verneret and some of his officers became separated from the main body of the 13th Demi-Brigade, and when they returned to Brest they could not find any trace of the unit. The reconnaissance party assumed that the main body had been over-run, and the colonel determined that he and his companions should try to get to England, where the British planned to fight on. Every boat seemed to have been taken over by fleeing British and French troops, but the Legion officers finally found a launch that took them to Southampton. Miraculously, most of the 13th Demi-Brigade had already found a way to get there.”

The point of relating the above history to readers is to explain why from this point forward the French Foreign Legion was so sharply divided during WWII. On June 18, 1940, the French General Charles de Gaulle, leader of the new Free French movement, was now also a refugee in England. Magrin-Verneret immediately offered the services of the 13th Demi-Brigade to de Gaulle, and soon they were training at Trentham Park near Stoke-on-Trent.

On June 25, 1940, the Franco-Italian armistice went into effect, which ended the brief Italian invasion of France during WWII. This followed by a few days the Franco-German armistice of June 22, 1940, which divided France into two zones: one under German military occupation and one left nominally under full French sovereignty, referred to as “Vichy France.” These armistice agreements meant war was over for now for the French Army, which was reorganized into the Armistice Army. That’s also why in, November 1940, a major reorganization took place within the Legion. Not coincidentally, as mentioned above, my father was reassigned to the 1st B.S.P.L. on the 1st of November 1940 in Ouargla, Algeria.

With the implementation of the armistice agreements on June 25, 1940, the men of the 13th Demi-Brigade were given a choice, fight on with de Gaulle, or return to North Africa, which was now under the control of Marshal Henri Philippe Petain’s newly formed Vichy government. The 1st Battalion, strongly influenced by Captain Dimitri Amilakvari, a 16-year Legion veteran who’d fought valiantly to capture a key hill in the battle of Narvik, elected to stay with de Gaulle. The 2nd Battalion went back to Morocco and was disbanded.

Edward Bimberg resumes the story: “The French Foreign Legion, like the rest of the French empire, was now sharply divided. The 13th Demi-Brigade had given its allegiance to the Free French, while the rest of the Legion, scattered throughout North Africa, Syria and Indochina, remained under the thumb of the Vichy government, which meant being under the sharp watch of the German Armistice Commission.

The Germans demanded that the men that had been planted in the Legion be returned to the Reich, and the Legion was not sorry to see them go. But the Commission had other, not so welcome demands. They had lists of refugee Jews, Germans, Poles, Czechs, Italians, and others they wanted back, to send to concentration camps.

There were many men in the French army in North Africa, particularly in the Legion, who had no sympathy for the Vichy government and hated the Germans. Besides, the Legion had a reputation for taking care of its own. Its intelligence system usually discovered the Armistice Commission’s visits well in advance and knew the names of the legionnaires on the lists. The wanted legionnaires were given new names, new papers and new identity discs. When the Germans came too close, the refugees would be transferred to far-off Saharan outposts where the Commission seldom took the trouble to visit.”

Edward Bimberg’s story provides some context about my father’s time in the French Foreign Legion. Obviously, after the Franco-German armistice went into effect in June 1940, Algeria, where my father was stationed, was under the control of the Vichy government. According to Bimberg, while many of the Legion’s officers and men in North Africa would have liked to join de Gaulle’s forces, they were hesitant to desert; also, the surrounding mountains and desert prevented them from reaching the Free French in large numbers, so they were forced to bide their time. Still, because the Legion looked after their own, they probably gave my father a new identity after the establishment of the German Armistice Commission. Some of my father’s pictures, which I will feature in my next Blog post, were taken in remote outposts in the Saharan desert, places I presume he and fellow at-risk legionnaires were sent to put them outside the Commission’s reach. My father’s two to three-month trip to mainland France between September and November 1941 was clearly possible because the Legion units in North Africa were under the control of the Vichy government, so technically his travel did not involve crossing enemy lines. Additionally, his lengthy stay may have been orchestrated to distance him from planned visits by the German Armistice Commission.

The 13th Demi-Brigade, which rallied to Charles de Gaulle’s Free French forces following France’s capitulation to Germany in June 1940, was incorporated into the British Eighth Army as the 1st Free French Legion. It spearheaded the Gaullist conquest of French colonies in sub-Saharan Africa and Syria, where it actually fought against Legion units loyal to the collaborationist Vichy government. The Allied invasion of French North Africa in November 1942 reunited the fractured branches of the Legion. Still, political rancor was slow to dissipate on account of confrontation between the opposing units in Syria. The feuding between the pro-Gaullist and ex-Vichy legion units continued in Italy, where the Legion participated in the breakthrough at Monte Cassino in 1944. By this time, my father was no longer a member of the French Foreign Legion, having by then enlisted in the British Army, a subject of a future Blog installment.

The reuniting of the legion units in November 1942 explains why my father was able to fight against the Germans in the Battle of Tunisia between February and April 1943, likely the only combat action he ever saw. (Figure 9)

 

Figure 9. My father preparing for the Battle of Tunisia in January 1943 in Touggourt, Algeria

 

Stumbling upon Mr. Bimberg’s article on the history of the French Foreign Legion during WWII was instrumental in helping me understand why my father was in certain places during his five years in the Legion. The story also explains why the Legion’s morale was so low: “The Vichy Legion in North Africa was not only constantly harassed by the German Armistice Commission but was short of weapons, gasoline and sometimes even food and tobacco. Legion strength fell to less than 10,000 men, and the German authorities continually urged the Vichy authorities to disband it altogether. Morale was at rock bottom, and the rate of desertions and suicides was rising.” Given the Legion’s tenuous position, I can imagine the situation for Jewish men like my father must have been nerve-wracking, even with French aliases.

The following post will be a photo essay of images from my father’s years in the French Foreign Legion.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Bimberg, Edward L. “World War II: A Tale of the French Foreign Legion.” World War II, September 1997.

 

POST 79: DR. OTTO BRUCK’S PATH TO THE FRENCH FOREIGN LEGION

Note: Beginning with this post, I shift to the timing and chain of events that led to my father’s enlistment in the French Foreign Legion in November 1938, followed in an upcoming post by a discussion of my father’s time in this French military unit.

Related Posts:

Post 22:  My Aunt Susanne, née Bruck, & Her Husband Dr. Franz Müller, The Fayence Years

Post 71: A Day in The Life of My Father, Dr. Otto Bruck—22nd of August 1930

 

Figure 1. My father’s first cousin, Jeanne “Hansi” Goff née Löwenstein, daughter of Rudolf and Hedwig Löwenstein, in Zoppot, Free City of Danzig [today: Sopot, Poland] on the 8th of March 1929
Figure 2. My father’s first cousin, Jeanne “Hansi” Goff née Löwenstein, daughter of Rudolf and Hedwig Löwenstein, in Danzig [today: Gdansk, Poland]
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My father received his dental accreditation from the University of Berlin’s Zahnheilkunde Institut, Dentistry Institute, on the 31st of May 1930. Soon thereafter, he moved to the Free City of Danzig, Freie Stadt Danzig in German, where he apprenticed with a Dr. Fritz Bertram. I think his relocation to Danzig may have been related to the fact that he was very close to his aunt and uncle, Rudolf Löwenstein and Hedwig Löwenstein née Bruck, and two of their three children, Jeanne (Figures 1-2) and Heinz Löwenstein, who all lived there. In Post 71, I described the tragic circumstances of Rudolf Löwenstein’s death in a plane crash in then-Czechoslovakia on the 22nd of August 1930, when my father resided with him and his family.

By April 1932, my father had gained enough technical expertise to strike out independently, and open his own dental practice in the nearby town of Tiegenhof [today: Nowy Dwór Gdański, Poland]. While this was undoubtedly a signature achievement in my father’s life, slightly more than eight months later, on the 30th of January 1933, Hitler was appointed Germany’s Chancellor by the President Paul von Hindenburg, and then became Führer in 1934. An October 1934 picture of the office building in Tiegenhof where my father lived and had his practice was festooned with Nazi flags (Figure 3), clearly demonstrating the predictable impact of political developments in Germany on the Free City of Danzig and the looming danger. By April 1937, my father was devoid of clients, so he shuttered his practice. Judging from the dates on his photos, he appears to have stayed in Tiegenhof until fall of that year.

 

Figure 3. Office building at Markstrasse 8 in Tiegenhof in 1934 where my father had his dental practice and living quarters, festooned with Nazi flags

 

 

I think my father then briefly went to Berlin to “lose” himself in the relative anonymity of a larger city. His adored sister Susanne and her husband, Dr. Franz Müller, had already fled Berlin in favor of Italy by March 1936. However, his older brother, Dr. Fedor Bruck, who would ride out the entire war in Berlin hidden by friends and family, was still practicing dentistry in Berlin in 1937 under the auspices of a non-Jewish dentist when this was still feasible. Perhaps, my father stayed briefly with his brother, but, regardless, by March 1938, his dated pictures place him in Vienna, Austria between the 5th and 9th of March. (Figure 4) His ultimate destination though was Fiesole, Italy, where his sister and brother-in-law were then living. His entered Italy on the 10th of March 1938 but arrived in Fiesole only on the 26th of March (Figure 5), spending the intervening period skiing in the Dolomites.

 

Figure 4. Series of photos my father took between the 5th and 9th of March 1938 in Vienna, Austria, after he’d fled Germany that month

 

Figure 5. Page from the registration log archived at Fiesole’s “Archivio Storico Comunale,” the “Municipal Historic Archive,” showing my father’s arrival in Italy on the 10th of March 1938 and in Fiesole on the 26th of March for a planned two-month stay

 

During Italy’s Fascist era, all out-of-town visitors were required to appear with their hosts at the Municipio, City Hall, provide their names, show their identity papers, indicate their anticipated length of stay, and complete what was called a “Soggiorno degli Stranieri in Italia,” or “Stay of Foreigners in Italy.” The surviving records for Fiesole are today kept at a branch of the Municipio called the “Archivio Storico Comunale,” the “Municipal Historic Archive.” (Figure 6) These registration logs and forms, while highly intrusive, are enormously informative for doing genealogical research, uncovering names of visitors, and establishing timelines for these guests. (Figure 7)

 

Figure 6. My friend, Ms. Lucia Nadetti (left), Director of Fiesole’s “Archivio Storico Comunale,” with another friend, Ms. Giuditta Melli, in June 2015 at the Municipal Archive
Figure 7. My wife, Ann Finan, researching historic records at Fiesole’s “Archivio Storico Comunale” in June 2014

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

While 1938 was hardly a serene time, by June or July, my father nonetheless decided to tour parts of Italy and adjoining Switzerland, including Florence, Rome (Figure 8), Pompeii (Figure 9), Naples, Sorrento, the Island of Ischia, and Ascona; his travels lasted until September. By the 15th of September 1938, he was back in Fiesole according to a surviving immigration register on file at Fiesole’s “Archivio Storico Comunale.” This record indicates an anticipated two-week visit, though it’s not clear how long my dad actually stayed. (Figure 10)

 

Figure 8. My father’s August 1938 photo of the Colosseum in Rome

 

Figure 9. My father’s August 1938 photo of the “Dancing Faunus Statue of Pompeii”

 

Figure 10. Page from the registration log archived at Fiesole’s “Archivio Storico Comunale,” the “Municipal Historic Archive,” showing my father’s return to Fiesole on the 15th of September 1938 for a planned two week stay

 

 

Let me briefly digress and provide some historical context for what was happening in Italy at the time. On the 9th of May 1938, Adolph Hitler had visited Florence escorted by Italian Duce Benito Mussolini, and toured some historic sites. Soon after, on July 14, 1938, Mussolini embraced the “Manifesto of the Racial Scientists.” Basically, this Manifesto declared the Italian civilization to be of Aryan origin and claimed the existence of a “pure” Italian race of which Jews were no part.  Between September 2, 1938 and November 17, 1938, Italy enacted a series of racial laws, including one forbidding foreign Jews from settling in Italy.

It quickly became apparent to my father, his sister, her husband, and my grandmother, Else Bruck née Berliner, also living in Fiesole, that remaining in Italy was no longer possible. Again, according to records on file at Fiesole’s “Archivio Storico Comunale,” my aunt and uncle are deleted from the population records of the city, in Italian “Data dalle quale decorre la cancellazione dal Registro di popolazione,” beginning on the 16th of September 1938. (Figures 11-12) Thus, my father’s arrival and registration in Fiesole the day before was likely timed to help his relatives pack up and leave, though he may have stayed longer.

 

Figure 11. Emigration record from Fiesole’s “Archivio Storico Comunale,” the “Municipal Historic Archive,” showing my aunt and uncle, Susanne and Franz Müller, were deleted from the population records of Fiesole on the 16th of September 1938

 

Figure 12. My aunt and uncle, Susanne and Franz Müller, standing by the entrance to the Villa Primavera in Fiesole, where they lived, perhaps around the time they permanently moved to France in September 1938

 

The next stop along my family’s odyssey was Fayence, France, roughly 42 miles west of Nice, France; Fayence is one of the “perched villages” overlooking the plain between the southern Alps and the Esterel massif. My uncle Dr. Franz Müller’s daughter by his first marriage, Margit Mombert née Müller, lived there with her husband, brother-in-law, and mother-in-law on a fruit farm the family owned. I discussed this in Post 22 so refer readers to that publication. I place my aunt, uncle and grandmother’s arrival in Fayence towards the end of September 1938. While the collaborationist government of Vichy France would not be established in the southern part of metropolitan France until July of 1940, my ancestors’ recent displacements and the reach of the Nazis would have made them extremely nervous. Clearly, in the case of my father, riding out the impending storm in France or elsewhere in Europe was not a viable option at the age of only 31.

Coincidentally, by 1938, but likely years before, his widowed aunt Hedwig Löwenstein née Bruck and her two children, discussed above, with whom my father had lived in Danzig between 1930 and 1932, had relocated to Nice, France. (Figure 13) Hedwig’s daughter, Jeanne “Hansi” Goff née Löwenstein (1902-1986), was close to my father throughout his life. Realizing the danger he was in, she advised him to enlist in the French Foreign Legion, which is precisely what my father, Dr. Otto Bruck, did.

 

Figure 13. In March 1946, my father’s widowed aunt Hedwig Löwenstein née Bruck with her three grown children, Hansi, Heinz and Fedor (seated), after she’d immigrated to Nice, France

 

In one of my father’s surviving post-WWII letters, dated the 7th of January 1946, he requested a Carte d’identité, an identify card, from the Department of Alpes-Maritimes in southeast France, where Nice is located. In this letter, my father provides some dates that help establish where he was at various times before and during the war. According to this correspondence, by October 21, 1938, my father had arrived in Paris, France, where he applied for admittance to the French Foreign Legion, to which he was conscripted on the 9th of November 1938 for a five-year hitch. So far, I’ve been unable to determine my father’s whereabouts between September 16, 1938, when he was in Fiesole, Italy, and October 21, 1938, when he arrived in Paris.

The French Foreign Legion is a military service branch of the French Army established in 1831. The Legion is unique in that it is open to foreign recruits willing to serve in the French Armed Forces. My father was given a French nom de guerre,  an alias, “Marcel Berger.” (Figures 14a-b) From the French Foreign Legion, I was able to obtain my father’s “Livret Matricule,” military file, which states that Marcel Berger was born on the 6th of January 1907 in Strasbourg in the French Department of Bas-Rhin, and that his profession was “Chirurgien dentist,” dental surgeon. (Figure 15) While my father’s profession is correctly indicated, he was in fact born on the 16th of April 1907 in Ratibor, Germany [today: Racibórz, Poland]. My father’s fluency in French would have afforded him a measure of protection had he been taken prisoner.

 

Figure 14a. Front side of my father’s dog tag from the French Foreign Legion with his “nom de guerre,” “Marcel Berger”
Figure 14b. Back side of my father’s dog tag from the French Foreign Legion indicating he was supposedly born in Strasbourg, France on the 6th of January 1907

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Figure 15. The cover page of my father’s “Livret Matricule,” military file, from the French Foreign Legion showing, among other things, his “nom de guerre,” “Marcel Berger,” and his enlistment date, the 9th of November 1938

 

Readers may think the title of this post somewhat odd, as though to imply that my father’s enlistment in the French Foreign Legion was somehow preordained. While my father was very much inclined to believe in kismet, fate, I am a strong believer that you control your own destiny. That said, realistically, without an exit visa to a “sanctuary” country a Jewish person’s options would have been extremely limited in the lead-up to WWII, so my father was fortunate the French Foreign Legion was open to him and that he was unmarried and had no children to look after.

In the following post, I will provide substantially more background on the history of the French Foreign Legion during WWII to account for the Legion’s “conflicted” role at the time and explain how my father was able to travel to France in 1941 “across enemy lines” to visit his beloved sister Susanne one final time.

POST 49: GUIDE TO THE “LANDESARCHIV BERLIN” (BERLIN STATE ARCHIVE) CIVIL REGISTRY RECORDS

Note: In this Blog post, I provide a brief guide on searching the on-line registry of vital records and statistics at the “Landesarchiv Berlin,” the Berlin State Archive.  This may be of interest to the small percentage of readers whose forebears are German and may once have lived in Berlin.

Civil registration is the system by which a government records the vital events (births, marriages and deaths) of its citizens and residents.  The resulting repository or database has different names in different countries and even in different states in America (e.g., civil registry, civil register, vital records, bureau of vital statistics, registrar, registry, register, registry office, population register). In Berlin, the records of births, marriages and deaths are stored at the “Landesarchiv Berlin,” the Berlin State Archive, and can be accessed on-line, specifically, in registers of births between roughly 1874 and 1907; in registers of marriages from about 1874 to 1935; and in registers of deaths from around 1874 to 1987.

It is quite challenging to use this on-line database, so in this Blog post I will share a few hints with interested readers on possibly finding their ancestors’ names. I need to alert readers that finding your ancestors in a registry does not immediately give you access to the underlying historic document; this entails sending an email to the Landesarchiv, and, at present, waiting up to four months to have the historic certificate mailed to you.  If you do all the research yourself, identifying the specific register, Berlin borough (see below), and document number, the Landesarchiv typically does not charge you for their services and copies of records.

At the end, for those who enjoy working through puzzles, using my own grandfather Felix Bruck, I will challenge readers to find the specific register in which his death was recorded.  In a week, I will tell and walk readers through the steps that I went through to find his name.  No doubt readers will be considerably more adept and quicker than I was at finding the proper register.

Before introducing readers to the civil registration database, let me provide some brief historic context.  According to the Landesarchiv’s website, the establishment of the archive in the modern sense of the term is 1808.  During WWII the collections of the archives were dispersed, to avoid destruction; following the war, during the 1950’s and 1960’s, the surviving collections were reunited.  In 1991 the Landesarchiv merged with Stadtarchiv in Berlin; the latter was the municipal archive and the place where the civil registration records were stored until the merger. In 2000, the Landesarchiv also integrated collections from the “Archivabeitlung der Landesbildstelle” and the “Archiv der Internationalen Bauausstellung,” including audio-visual archives.

The portal to access the civil registration records on file at the Landesarchiv Berlin can be found at the following URL:

http://www.content.landesarchiv-berlin.de/labsa/show/index.php

I can no longer recall how I became aware of this database, but given my family’s deep-seated connections to Berlin, it was only a matter of time before I would eventually learn of its existence.  Figure 1a is a screen-shot of the portal page, very simple in its presentation; Figure 1b is the same portal page translated, although the database cannot be queried from here (i.e., queries must be done from the German-language page).  There are three categories of records that can be searched in combination or individually (i.e., you can check one, two or all three boxes) for any area of Berlin: Sterberegister (Death Records); Heiratsregister (Marriage Register); and Geburtenregister (Birth Registers).

Figure 1a. “Landesarchiv Berlin Standesamtsabfrage” portal page (German)

 

 

 

 

Figure 1b. “Landesarchiv Berlin Standesamtsabfrage” portal page (English translation)

 

 

 

 

 

Figure 2. Map of Berlin’s 12 existing Boroughs and the neighborhoods in each

 

One of the keys to searching the civil registration records for Berlin is understanding Berlin’s system of boroughs.  The German capital Berlin is divided into 12 boroughs (German: Stadtteile/Bezirke), that have political rights like a town but are not legally cities. (Figure 2) On January 1, 2001, Berlin instituted a reform of its boroughs reducing their number from 23 to 12 to cut down on administrative costs.  Below is a table showing the old and new borough names, an understanding of which is critical to querying the civil registration records:

 

NUMBER NEW BOROUGH NAME OLD BOROUGH NAMES
I Mitte Mitte, Tiergarten, Wedding
II Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg Friedrichshain, Kreuzberg
III Pankow Prenzlauer Berg, Weißensee, Pankow
IV Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf Charlottenburg, Wilmersdorf
V Spandau Spandau (unchanged)
VI Steglitz-Zehlendorf Steglitz, Zehlendorf
VII Tempelhof-Schöenberg Tempelhof, Schöenberg
VIII Neukölln Neukölln (unchanged)
IX Treptow-Köpenick Treptow, Köpenick
X Marzahn-Hellersdorf Marzahn, Hellersdorf
XI Lichtenberg Lichtenberg, Hohenschönhausen
XII Reinickendorf Reinickendorf (unchanged)

 

Each borough is made up of several officially recognized subdistricts or neighborhoods (Ortsteile in German), that can be distinguished in Figure 2.  These neighborhoods typically have a historical identity as former independent cities, villages or rural municipalities that were united in 1920 as part of the “Greater Berlin Act,” which established the current configuration of Berlin; when first established in 1920, Berlin was organized into 20 boroughs, most often named after the largest component neighborhood, often a former city or municipality, sometimes named for geographic features (e.g., Kreuzberg, Prenzlauer Berg).  Today, Berlin is both a city and one of the 16 states of Germany and is referred to as a city-state (Stadtstaat in German).

On the portal page, in the box labelled “Standesamt,” one must enter the name of the borough one is seeking birth, marriage or death records from.  One begins by typing the first few letters of a borough, for example “Ch” for Charlottenburg, and, often, multiple listings for that borough will come up (e.g., Charlottenburg: Standesamt Charlottenburg; Standesamt Charlottenburg I; Standesamt Charlottenburg II; Standesamt Charlottenburg III; Standesamt Charlottenburg IV, etc.); select one, then select death, marriage, and/or death records you wish to see for that borough, then do a “Suchen” (i.e., search). A new page with the list of registers available for that borough or municipality will appear (e.g., Standesamt Charlottenburg IV) (Figure 3). Scrutinize the list until you find the register covering the year(s) you’re seeking; some years may have more than one register for them, while other registers may cover multiple years.

Figure 3. Portal page for “Standesamt Charlottenburg IV (Namensverzeichnis Sterberegister)” listing three death registers

 

 

A brief aside about “Standesamt” (German plural: Standesämter); this is a German civil registration office, which is responsible for recording births, marriages, and deaths.  Readers will recall my mentioning above that in 1991, the Landesarchiv merged with the Stadtarchiv in Berlin, the latter being where the civil registration records were kept until that time.  Soon after the German Empire was created in 1871 from the previous collection of German states (kingdoms, duchies, etc.), a universal system of Standesämter, register offices, was established, taking effect on January 1, 1876. The system had previously been introduced in Prussia on October 1, 1874, so it is no accident that the civil registration records at the Landesarchiv begin in this year. Today, those register offices (Standesämter) are still part of the administration of every German municipality (in small communities, they are often incorporated with other offices of the administration).  Since 1876, Germans can only enter a legal marriage in a Standesamt, and every marriage takes place before the local registrar (called Standesbeamter); similarly, every birth must be registered at a register office, as must every death.

I’ve gone into detail about the history on the establishment of Berlin following the Great Berlin Act of 1920, and the organization of the civil register offices, because it partially informs us of the extent of the historic documents they contain as well as the tedious steps that must be followed when querying the civil registration database.

In the time I’ve used the Landesarchiv Berlin database, I’ve only ever found seven documents I was researching. Virtually all my Jewish relatives lived in the well-heeled borough of Charlottenburg, so I ALWAYS begin my searches here, as I would suggest readers looking for their Jewish ancestors also do. Remember that today, the borough including Charlottenburg is named Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf, so the civil registers for “Wilmersdorf” should also be examined.

Regrettably, the empty box entitled “Standesamt” that you must complete does not provide a complete pull-down menu of all Berlin boroughs or neighborhoods when you start typing so I have no idea how many different boroughs, municipalities, and places are to be found in the civil register, likely dozens if not hundreds.

Figure 4. My uncle and aunt Dr. Franz Müller and Susanne Müller in Fiesole, Italy, 1938

 

Figure 5. Dr. Franz Müller & Susanne Bruck’s Marriage Certificate I (“Bescheinigung der Eheschließung” Nr. 263) showing they got married on 18th April 1931
Figure 6. Dr. Franz Müller & Susanne Bruck’s Marriage Certificate II (“Heiratsurkunde” Nr. 263) showing they got married on 18th April 1931

 

 

 

 

 

 

The first time I used the Landesarchiv database, I was searching for the register listing of my Aunt Susanne Bruck’s marriage to her husband, Dr. Franz Müller. (Figure 4) Because I have the original marriage certificate in my possession, two different ones, I knew they’d gotten married on April 18, 1931 in Berlin-Charlottenburg. (Figures 5-6) Obviously, I began searching the registers that cover this borough, and eventually found their marriage listed in “Standesamt-Charlottenburg III No. 605 (Namensverzeichnis Heiratregister 1924-1933) (name register to the marriage index 1924-1933).” (Figures 7a-b) If readers look carefully at the seal in the lower left corner of the two marriage certificates, you can see where it is stamped “Charlottenburg III.” The “Registernummer 263/1931” in the upper left-hand corner matches the number associated with my aunt and uncle’s names on the register page, so I knew I had located the correct certificate. Even though I have two marriage certificates for my aunt and uncle, I still requested a copy of the official document from the Landesarchiv, and much to my surprise it was different and included two pages, the second of which listed witnesses. (Figures 8a-b) For this reason, even if readers have originals of vital documents for your ancestors, I still recommend you request copies of any documents you may find in the Landesarchiv database; you never know what surprises may await you.

Figure 7a. Cover of Landesarchiv Berlin civil register book, “Standesamt-Charlottenburg III Nr. 605 (Namensverzeichnis Heiratsregister 1924-1933),” where my aunt and uncle’s 1931 marriage was recorded
Figure 7b. My uncle and aunt’s surnames, “Müller” and “Bruck,” recorded in Landesarchiv Berlin civil register book, “Standesamt-Charlottenburg III Nr. 605 (Namensverzeichnis Heiratsregister 1924-1933),” listing their marriage certificate number as 263

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Figure 8a. Dr. Franz Müller & Susanne Bruck’s Marriage Certificate page 1, certificate number 263
Figure 8b. Dr. Franz Müller & Susanne Bruck’s Marriage Certificate page 2, certificate number 263, with the names of witnesses

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Figure 9. My great-aunt Franziska Bruck (1866-1942)

The next person I researched in the Landesarchiv database was my great-aunt Franziska Bruck (Figure 9), who I knew had committed suicide on January 2, 1942; she too had lived and died in Charlottenburg, and I found her name listed in “Standesamt-Charlottenburg Nr. 713 (Namensverzeichnis Sterberegister 1942) (name register to the death index 1942).” (Figures 10a-b) I similarly requested a copy of my great-aunt’s death certificate and learned she had gruesomely committed suicide by hanging herself (Figure 11); obtaining poison to kill oneself may have been easier for Jews who were once in the medical profession, such as Dr. Ernst Neisser discussed in Post 48, unlike my great-aunt who was a renowned florist.

Figure 10a. Cover of Landesarchiv Berlin civil register book, “Standesamt-Charlottenburg Nr. 713 (Namensverzeichnis Sterberegister 1942),” with my great-aunt Franziska Bruck’s death recorded in January 1942
Figure 10b. My great-aunt Franziska Bruck’s name circled in the Landesarchiv Berlin civil register book, “Standesamt-Charlottenburg Nr. 713 (Namensverzeichnis Sterberegister 1942),” listing her death certificate number as 81

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Figure 11. My great-aunt Franziska “Sara” Bruck’s death certificate, “Nr. 81,” stating she committed suicide by hanging herself on the 2nd of January 1942

 

Figure 12. Dr. Ernst Neisser with his future wife Margarethe Pauly ca. 1895 in Posen, Germany

I’ve recently returned my attention to the Landesarchiv database in connection with writing Post 48 dealing with Dr. Ernst Neisser, who was the husband of my first cousin twice-removed, Margarethe Neisser née Pauly. (Figure 12) To quickly review. According to Susanne Vogel née Neisser, Ernst and Margarethe Neisser’s daughter, Margarethe was institutionalized for the last three years of her life and committed suicide on October 12, 1941. Ernst lived with his first cousin Luise Neisser in Charlottenburg, and the two of them committed suicide the following year after they were ordered to present themselves for deportation to Theresienstadt. In the previous Blog post, I told readers both took poison on October 1, 1942; Luise died that day, but Ernst lingered for four days and succumbed on October 4, 1942.

I was able to locate in the Landesarchiv registers, the death listings for both Margarethe “Sara” Neisser and Luise “Sara” Neisser but, interestingly, for the longest time not for Dr. Ernst Neisser.  Margarethe, I found listed in “Standesamt-Charlottenburg Nr. 712 (Namensverzeichnis Sterberegister 1941)” (Figures 13a-b) and Luise in “Standesamt-Charlottenburg Nr. 713 (Namensverzeichnis Sterberegister 1942).” (Figures 14a-b) I’ve requested both of their death certificates from the Landesarchiv, and await their arrival.

Figure 13a. Cover of Landesarchiv Berlin civil register book, “Standesamt-Charlottenburg Nr. 712 (Namensverzeichnis Sterberegister 1941),” with Margarethe “Sara” Neisser née Pauly’s death recorded in October 1941
Figure 13b. Margarethe “Sara” Neisser née Pauly’s name circled in the Landesarchiv Berlin civil register book, “Standesamt-Charlottenburg Nr. 712 (Namensverzeichnis Sterberegister 1941),” listing her death in October and the death certificate number as 3159

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Figure 14a. Cover of Landesarchiv Berlin civil register book, “Standesamt-Charlottenburg Nr. 713 (Namensverzeichnis Sterberegister 1942),” with Luise “Sara” Neisser’s death recorded in October 1942
Figure 14b. Luise “Sara” Neisser’s name circled in Landesarchiv Berlin civil register book, “Standesamt-Charlottenburg Nr. 713 (Namensverzeichnis Sterberegister 1942),” listing her death in October and the death certificate number as 4325

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Finding Dr. Ernst Neisser’s listing in the Landesarchiv involved some serious forensic work and one I worked out literally as I was writing this post. I knew that Dr. Ernst Neisser lived with his first cousin Luise Neisser in Eichenallee in Charlottenburg; as mentioned above, both Ernst and Luise tried to commit suicide on October 1, 1942, and while Luise succeeded, Ernst lingered until October 4th. Even though they died four days apart, I assumed both their deaths had been registered in Charlottenburg where they lived, but I was unable to find Ernst’s death recorded in any registers for Charlottenburg nor Wilmersdorf.

According to his daughter’s written account of his final days, Ernst died at the Jüdische Krankenhaus Berlin, the Berlin Jewish Hospital, where he’d been taken following his attempted suicide. It occurred to me that Ernst may have had his death registered in the borough where the Jewish Hospital is located; I researched this and discovered the Jüdische Krankenhaus Berlin, which still exists today, is in the borough “Mitte.” To remind readers what I illustrated in the table above, today’s borough Mitte once consisted of three independent boroughs, Mitte, Tiergarten, and Wedding; the registers for “Mitte” and “Tiergarten” yielded nothing, but finally in the last possible register where I thought his name might be listed, in the borough “Wedding,” under October 1942, I found the name “Neißer, Richard Ernst Israel.” (Figures 15a-b) Success at last!

Figure 15a. Cover of Landesarchiv Berlin civil register book, “Standesamt-Wedding Nr. 5 (Namensverzeichnis Sterberegister 1942),” with Richard Ernst “Israel” Neißer’s death recorded in October 1942
Figure 15b. Richard Ernst “Israel” Neißer’s name circled in Landesarchiv Berlin civil register book, “Standesamt-Wedding Nr. 5 (Namensverzeichnis Sterberegister 1942),” listing his death in October and the death certificate number illegible

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Figure 16. Page from Susanne Vogel’s letter to her cousin, Lieselotte Dieckmann, showing she got married to Hans Vogel on the 31st July 1926 in Berlin

 

In order to successfully navigate the Landesarchiv database, it is helpful to have at least the month and year when a vital event in an ancestor’s life may have taken place. Ernst and Margarethe Neisser’s daughter, Susanne Vogel née Neisser, noted the place and date of her own marriage to Hans Vogel in the preface to the memoir she wrote about her father’s final days; it took place on the 31st of July 1926 in Berlin. (Figure 16) Assuming, as I always do, the wedding took place in Charlottenburg, I successfully located the spouse and bride’s names in the “Standesamt-Charlottenburg I Nr. 467 (Namensverzeichnis Heiratregister 1921-1927).” (Figures 17a-b)

Figure 17a. Cover of Landesarchiv Berlin civil register book, “Standesamt-Charlottenburg I Nr. 467 (Namensverzeichnis Heiratsregister 1921-1927),” listing the surnames Vogel and Neißer and their marriage certificate as number 503
Figure 17b. The surnames “Vogel” and “Neißer” recorded in Landesarchiv Berlin civil register book, “Standesamt-Charlottenburg I Nr. 467 (Namensverzeichnis Heiratsregister 1921-1927),” listing their marriage certificate number as 503

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Figure 18. Envelope containing letter mailed to my great-aunt Elsbeth Bruck showing she resided at Prenzlauer Allee 113, which was in the “Pankow” borough of Berlin

 

Figure 19. My great-aunt Elsbeth Bruck photographed in Berlin on 15th of March 1967; she died on the 20th of February 1970, but I could not find a record of her death in the Landesarchiv Berlin

There is one other great-aunt whose Berlin residence (i.e., “Prenzlauer Allee 113” in the neighborhood of “Prenzlauer Berg” in the Berlin borough of “Pankow”) (Figure 18) and date of death are known to me (i.e., 20th of February 1970), my renowned Socialist ancestor, Elsbeth Bruck (Figure 19); she died in East Berlin well before the fall of the German Democratic Republic in 1990.  Still, despite having very specific information for her, to date, I’ve not been able to locate her name in a Landesarchiv register. I assume East Germans were equally meticulous about recording vital statistics, so I conclude I’ve just not worked out the correct parameters as to where she died.  It’s possible that, like Dr. Neisser, she died in a hospital in a different borough of East Berlin and that her death was registered in that borough.  I simply don’t know.

So, to let me briefly recap some suggestions when searching through the Landesarchiv database. If you think you might have an ancestor or know of someone who was born in Berlin sometime after 1874 (but before 1905), got married there before 1935, and/or died there before 1987, it helps if you can narrow down at least one vital event to a specific year or actual date. Next, if you have any idea where your relative or acquaintance lived in Berlin, this may help you determine the borough where they resided. You may know the actual address where they lived without knowing which modern or historic Berlin neighborhood or borough the street was located, so Google the address and try and narrow it down to a borough; be aware that in Berlin there are multiple streets with the same name (e.g., Kastanienallee (=Chestnut Street)). You may be able to locate where your relative or acquaintance lived by using old Berlin Address Books available through ancestry.com.  If you think you’ve finally identified the borough, you can begin your search in the Landesarchiv. As I’ve illustrated through example, Berlin boroughs must be searched by their modern names, as well as by the historic municipalities or neighborhoods that comprised that borough.

I’d be very interested in hearing from any of you who are successful in finding the names of any ancestors or acquaintances in the on-line Berlin State Archive database and obtaining copies of historic documents. Active genealogists know how valuable original vital records can be in establishing precise dates for these events and possibly uncovering another generation of ancestors.

“The Challenge”

Figure 20. My grandfather Felix Bruck, who died on the 23rd of June 1927 in Berlin, whose Landesarchiv death register listing readers are “challenged” to find

Many readers will not have any relatives nor know of anyone who had any association with Berlin yet be interested in “testing” their skills using the Landesarchiv database to find an actual person connected to the city. For such “puzzle-masters,” I’ve created a challenge to find my grandfather Felix Bruck (Figure 20) in a Berlin register.  Figure 21 is a scan of his death certificate (the archaic German word “Todesschein” is used, but the modern German term is “Totenschein”).

 

Figure 21. My grandfather Felix Bruck’s death certificate, archaically entitled “Todesschein” (the modern term is “Totenschein”)

 

Below is a summary of the information on the Todesschein:

Death Register Nr. 971 of the year 1927

First name and surname: Felix Bruck

Husband of Else née Berliner from Berlin-Wilmersdorf at Düsseldorfer Straße 24

Profession: pensioner, 63 years old, born in Ratibor [today: Racibórz, Poland]

Died on the 23rd of June 1927 in Berlin IX

Recorded Berlin on 22nd of July 1927

The Registrar.

All the information readers need to know to locate my grandfather’s name in a Berlin civil register can easily be read on the scan. Good luck!

 

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

UPDATED MAY 18, 2021

(UPDATES IN RED)

 

“I should like someone to remember that there once lived a person named David Berger.” (David Berger in his last letter, Vilna 1941, quoted from www.yadvashem.org brochure)

NOTE:  This post examines the fate of some of the Jewish residents and guests who stayed at the Villa Primavera in Fiesole, Italy, between roughly March 1937 and September 1938, the period during which my aunt Susanne Müller née Bruck co-managed the property as a bed-and-breakfast with a Jewish emigrant formerly from Austria and Germany, Ms. Lucia von Jacobi.  Investigating what became of the guests who stayed at the Villa Primavera during this time wound up upending my preconceived notion that the boarders were all Jewish emigrés permanently fleeing Germany.

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

Surviving historic records archived at the “Archivio Storico Comunale,” the “Municipal Historic Archive,” in Fiesole, place my aunt Susanne and my uncle Dr. Franz Müller’s arrival there in about March 1936, and their departure in mid-September 1938.  Beginning approximately a year after their arrival, that’s to say, in March 1937, and continuing until they left for France in mid-September 1938, registration logs from the Villa Primavera record numerous guests.  I was surprised at the large number of visitors who stayed there, mostly Jewish, and just assumed my aunt and uncle hosted them as they tried to escape Europe and Nazi persecution.  While I eventually came across a reference indicating my aunt and Ms. Jacobi had run the Villa Primavera as a bed-and-breakfast, explaining the multiple boarders, this did not initially alter my view that the Jewish guests had already permanently fled Germany, Austria, Belgium, and Switzerland, never to return.

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

To remind readers, during Italy’s Fascist era, all out-of-town visitors to Fiesole and elsewhere were required to appear with their hosts at the Municipio, or City Hall, provide their names and those of their parents, declare their occupation, state when and where they were born, show their identity papers, give their passport numbers, divulge their anticipated length of stay, and complete what was called a “Soggiorno degli Stranieri in Italia,” or “Stay of Foreigners in Italy.” (Figure 1) As readers will rightly conclude, collecting this information represented a vast invasion of privacy, although forensic genealogists can glean an enormous amount of useful ancestral data.  While virtually all the Soggiorno forms state the reason for the guest’s visit as “turismo,” tourism, I concluded this was a “cover” for their real purpose, planning their escape to America or elsewhere.  There can be little doubt in examining the Soggiorno forms that most guests were educated and accomplished people of means, likely with good personal and professional contacts elsewhere in the world who could sponsor them and help them obtain travel visas.  That said, this did not ensure that Jews were able to obtain such outside help or even intended to leave Europe.

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

With the Soggiorno forms and Fiesole registration ledgers in hand, using ancestry.com, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and Yad Vashem Holocaust victims’ databases, as well as general Internet queries, I set out to try and determine the fate of as many of the guests of the Villa Primavera as possible.  With respect to my own family, I already knew what had happened to them, in particular that my beloved aunt Susanne (Figure 2) and my great-aunt Franziska Bruck (Figure 3) had both died in the Holocaust; similarly, I already knew that one of my first cousins twice-removed, Auguste “Gusti” Schueck (Figure 4), had died in the Theresienstadt Ghetto in Czechoslovakia on May 28, 1943.  But, I was very curious whether other individuals who had passed through the Villa Primavera suffered a similar fate or managed to find sanctuary elsewhere.  The findings upended my preconceived notion that the guests at the Villa Primavera were on a one-way journey out of Europe at the time they stayed in Fiesole.

Below is a table, alphabetically-arranged, of the Jewish residents and boarders who stayed at the Villa Primavera between March 1937 and September 1938, with comments as to their destiny, where discovered. Below the table, I highlight a few individuals, discussing some interesting things I’ve learned about them, including pictures, where found. 

NAME (NATIONALITY) DATE & PLACE OF BIRTH DATE & PLACE OF DEATH COMMENT
       
Argudinsky née Fleischer, Elisabetta (UNKNOWN) 11/24/1873 Reichenbach, Germany Unknown Destiny: Unknown
Bachrach née Bachmann, Elvire (SWISS) 9/15/1872   Karstein Unknown Destiny: Unknown
Baerwald née Lewino, Charlotte Victoria (GERMAN) 8/6/1870        Mainz, Germany 3/16/1966                St. Gallen, Switzerland Destiny: Immigrated to America, died in Switzerland      (Figure 5)
Berend, Eduard (GERMAN) 12/5/1883 Hannover, Germany 1973  Marbach, Germany Destiny: Left Germany in 1939, returned after WWII
Bergmann née Neufeld, Amalie  (GERMAN) 4/16/1881       Posen, Germany Unknown Destiny: Unknown
Brieger née Elias, Else           (GERMAN) 2/19/1888      Posen, Germany Unknown Destiny: Unknown
Bruck née Berliner, Else (GERMAN)(Figure 6) 3/3/1873      Ratibor, Germany 2/16/1957             New York, NY Destiny: Immigrated to America
Bruck, Eva (GERMAN)     (Figure 7) 8/19/1906 Barcelona, Spain 8/15/1977    Ainring, Germany Destiny: Immigrated to Spain, died in Germany             (Figure 8)
Bruck, Franziska (GERMAN) 12/29/1866 Ratibor, Germany 1/2/1942          Berlin, Germany Destiny: Suicide victim of the Holocaust
Bruck, Otto (GERMAN)    (Figure 42)
 4/16/1907   Ratibor, Germany 9/13/1994            New York, NY Destiny: Immigrated to America
Cohn née Pollack, Caroline  (GERMAN) Unknown Unknown Destiny: Unknown
Cypres, Jacques (BELGIAN) 10/29/1904 Antwerp, Belgium Unknown Destiny: Immigrated to America        (Figure 9)
Donath, Ludwig (GERMAN) 3/6/1900      Vienna, Austria 9/29/1967            New York, NY Destiny: Immigrated to America
Donath née Camsky, Maria Josefa      (GERMAN) 8/20/1902    Vienna, Austria 4/21/1975      Vienna, Austria Destiny: Immigrated to America, returned to Austria after her husband’s death
Elias, Dr. Carl Ludwig    (GERMAN) 9/19/1891       Berlin, Germany 1942         Auschwitz, Poland Destiny: Murdered in Auschwitz
Fleischner née Schoenfeld, Gabriele Ann Sophie  (AUSTRIAN)(Figures 10a &b) 10/12/1895  Vienna, Austria 9/22/58 Massachusetts Destiny: Immigrated to America, died Gabriele Anna Fleischner-Lawrence
Fleischner, Dr. Konrad George (AUSTRIAN)(Figures 11a& b) 10/12/1891   Vienna, Austria 9/1963 Massachusetts Destiny: Immigrated to America, died Conrad Lawrence
Goldenring, Eva (GERMAN) 10/29/1906   Berlin, Germany 12/1969 Wilmington, DE Destiny: Left Germany for France & Spain; eventually immigrated to America
Goldenring, Fritz (GERMAN) 9/11/1902 12/15/1943 Shanghai, China Destiny: Left for Shanghai where he died in the Shanghai Ghetto
Goldenring née Hirsch, Helene (GERMAN) 3/25/1880   Ratibor, Germany

 

 1/12/1968     Newark, NJ Destiny: Left for Chile & eventually immigrated to America
Grödel, Emilie (GERMAN) Unknown Unknown Destiny: Unknown
Hayoth HAYDT, Dr. Eugen (GERMAN)

 

 4/19/1906

Metz, France

 Unknown

1/17/1973

Sydney, Australia

 Destiny: Unknown

Arrived in Sydney, Australia on 2/6/1939 aboard the ship “NIEUW HOLLAND”;

Died as Alvin Eugene Werner Haydt or A.E.W Haydt
Hayoth HAYDT née Winternitz, Lilly (GERMAN) 8/12/1908

Vienna, Austria

 Unknown

2/4/1997

Sydney

 Destiny: Unknown

Arrived in Sydney, Australia on 2/6/1939 aboard the ship “NIEUW HOLLAND”

 
Heilbronner, Dr. Paul Milton (GERMAN)  (Figures 12 & b) 11/22/1904 Munich, Germany 4/6/1980           Santa Barbara, CA Destiny: Immigrated to America, died as Paul Milton Laporte
Heilbronner née Wimpfheimer, Sofie         (GERMAN)  (Figures 13a & b) 3/18/1876 Augsburg, Germany 3/26/1965              Los Angeles, CA Destiny: Immigrated to America, died as Sofie Broner
Herz, Dr. Phil. Emanuel Emil (GERMAN) 4/5/1877         Essen, Germany 7/8/1971   Rochester, NY Destiny: Immigrated to America      (Figure 14)
Herz née Berl, Gabriele (GERMAN) 4/26/1886   Vienna, Austria 1957           Rochester, NY Destiny: Immigrated to America
Hirschfeldt née Wolff, Katharina (GERMAN) 4/16/1866      Berlin, Germany Unknown Destiny: Unknown
Jacobi née Goldberg, Lucia von (GERMAN) 9/8/1887      Vienna, Austria 4/24/1956   Locarno, Switzerland Destiny: Fled to Switzerland where she died after WWII
Kleinmann née Lewensohn, Gretchen (GERMAN) 12/31/1894 Hamburg, Germany Unknown Destiny: Unknown
Kleinmann, Dr. Phil & Med. Hans (GERMAN) 9/28/1895     Berlin, Germany Unknown Destiny: Unknown
Kleinmann née Luvic, Sophie (GERMAN) 11/27/1863   Memel, East Prussia Unknown Destiny: Unknown
Kuhnemund née Goldschmidt, Helene Ida (GERMAN) 3/15/1901       Berlin, Germany Unknown Destiny: Unknown
Leven née Levÿ, Johanna  (GERMAN) 6/25/1866 Koenigshoeven, Germany 7/2/1942 Theresienstadt Ghetto, Czechoslovakia Destiny: Murdered in Theresienstadt Ghetto
Leyser née Schueck, Auguste  (GERMAN) 1/26/1872    Ratibor, Germany 10/5/1943 Theresienstadt Ghetto, Czechoslovakia Destiny: Murdered in Theresienstadt Ghetto
Locker, Dine Martha       (POLISH) Unknown Unknown Destiny: Unknown
Maass, Margarete (GERMAN) 2/16/1880 Friedberg, Germany Unknown Destiny: Unknown
Matthias, Julius (GERMAN) 5/15/1857 Hamburg, Germany 5/16/1942 Hamburg, Germany Destiny: Died in Germany during WWII
Müller, Dr. Franz (GERMAN)    (Figure 15) 12/31/1871      Berlin, Germany
 10/1/1945     Fayence, France Destiny: Left for Italy & France, where he died
Müller née Bruck, Susanne  (GERMAN)    (Figure 42)
 4/20/1904  Ratibor, Germany ~9/7/1942 Auschwitz, Poland Destiny: Murdered in Auschwitz
Nienburg née Niess, Emmy (GERMAN) 8/16/1885      Berlin, Germany Unknown Destiny: Appears to have died in Germany after WWII
Oppler née Pinoff, Gertrude (GERMAN) 1/13/1876     Görlitz, Germany 3/9/1952   Frankfurt, Germany Destiny: Died in Germany after WWII; (granddaughter of Marcus Braun, subject of Post 14)
Rosendorff, Friederike Elfriede (GERMAN) 11/28/1872     Berlin, Germany Unknown Destiny: Appears to have died in Germany after WWII
Sakheim née Plotkin, Anuta (PALESTINIAN)(Figure 16) 2/15/1896         Lodz, Poland 8/1939                      Tel Aviv, Palestine Destiny: Suicide
Schoop, Paul (SWISS) 7/31/1907      Zurich, Switzerland 1/1/1976     Van Nuys, CA Destiny: Immigrated to America
Steinfeld née Blum, Jenny       (GERMAN) 10/24/1865 Deutsch Eylau, West Prussia 8/27/1942        Berlin, Germany Destiny: Suicide victim of the Holocaust
Figure 5. Report of Charlotte Victoria Baerwald’s Death in Switzerland in March 1966
Figure 6. My grandmother Else Bruck née Berliner in 1925

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the case of several people associated with the Villa Primavera, including my aunt and uncle (Figure 17), Lucia von Jacobi (Figure 18), and Charlotte Baerwald, their intent had been to stay in Fiesole “per sempre,” forever.  In the case of most guests, however, their anticipated length of stay typically varied between a few weeks and two months.

 

Eduard Berend

 

Figure 19. Eduard Berend in 1939

Eduard Berend (Figure 19) was an eminent editor of the works of Jean Paul (1763-1825), a German Romantic writer.  After fighting in WWI, Berend pursued an academic career, but on account of anti-Semitism, he was rejected as a teacher at three German universities.  In 1927, the Preußische Akademie der Wissenschaften, the Prussian Academy of Sciences, eventually commissioned him with the historic-critical edition of the works of Jean Paul.  By 1938, he had completed 20 of the 32 planned volumes, works that established Jean Paul as one of the most important writers of German classicism, alongside Goethe and Schiller.  Still, he was dismissed by the Prussian Academy in 1938.  Soon thereafter he was sent to the concentration camp of Sachsenhausen, and was only released on the condition that he leave Germany immediately.

Prior to WWII, Eduard Berend had developed an unlikely friendship with a Heinrich Meyer, a Goethe scholar at the Rice Institute in Houston with Nazi sympathies.  Desperate, Berend turned to Meyer for help in December 1938.  In spite of Henrich Meyer’s Nazi leanings, which landed him in prison in Texas in 1943 and ultimately got him fired, Meyer secured an affidavit for Berend to leave Germany for Switzerland where he even supported Berend financially.  After the war, Berend continued his work on Jean Paul.  He went back to Germany in 1957, and by the time of his death in 1973, had completed twenty-eight volumes.

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The passport on which Eduard Berend traveled to Switzerland in 1939 was different than the one on which he traveled to Fiesole in May 1937, comparing the number on the Soggiorno form (Figure 20) with that on his 1939 passport, found on the Internet. (Figure 21)

Franziska Bruck

I was able to procure a copy of my great-aunt Franziska Bruck’s death certificate from the Landesarchiv Berlin. (Figure 22)  The certificate states the gruesome way in which she killed herself on January 2, 1942, “selbstmord durch erhängen,” suicide by hanging, no doubt after being told to report to an old-age transport for deportation. (Figure 23)

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In previous posts, I’ve explained to readers that beginning in 1937-38, all German Jewish men had to be called “Israel,” and all German Jewish women had to be called “Sarah”; these names were added to official birth, marriage and death certificates.  Readers will note that on my great-aunt’s death certificate, the name “Sara” has been added.

My great-aunt Franziska spent two months at the Villa Primavera between September and November 1937.  I’ve often wondered what her fate might have been had she not returned to Berlin. I can only surmise that like many Jews, she was either in denial as to what might happen upon her return, or her options for leaving Germany were limited.

Ludwig & Maria Donath

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

Figure 26. Character actor Ludwig Donath

Ludwig Donath (Figures 24a & b) and his wife, Maria Donath née Camsky (Figures 25a & b), were among the last German Jewish guests at the Villa Primavera, staying for no more than a month in July-August 1938.  Ludwig Donath was a famous character actor (Figures 26 & 27) who’d had a distinguished career on the stages of Vienna and Berlin, before leaving Nazi Germany in 1933.  He and his wife arrived in Hollywood via Switzerland and England, departing from Liverpool for New York in February 1940.  Donath appeared in many American films, with at least 84 credits to his name, and was often typecast as a Nazi in films from 1942. (Figure 28)  He was briefly blacklisted in the 1950’s for alleged left-wing connections, but resumed steady television work in 1957 for the remainder of his life.

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

 

 

 

 

 

Carl Ludwig Elias

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

Carl Ludwig Elias was born in 1891 to a distinguished art critic, Dr. Julius Elias, who was instrumental in promoting French Impressionism in Germany.  Likely because of his father’s connections with the art world, an oil portrait of “Carl Ludwig Elias 7 ¼” by Lovis Corinth was painted in 1899. (Figure 29)  Carl Ludwig was a lawyer in Berlin and immigrated to Norway when the Nazis came to power.  Nonetheless, after the Nazis invaded Norway in December 1940, he was captured and deported with 500 other Jews from Denmark to Auschwitz in 1942, where he was murdered.

Helene Goldenring

Figure 30. 1940 Berlin Address Book listing Helene Goldenring

Helene Goldenring visited the Villa Primavera on two occasions, for about a month between May-June 1937, and, again, between December 1937 and January 1938 for two months.  Both of her children, Eva and Fritz Goldenring, who’ve been discussed in earlier posts, were also guests on separate occasions.  Helene’s name appears in a Berlin phone directory as late as 1940 (Figure 30), indicating she returned to Germany after her sojourns in Fiesole.  At some point, she seems to have joined her brother, Dr. Robert Hirsch, in Chile, before eventually immigrating to America in 1947 after his death, where she reunited with her only surviving child, Eva. (Figure 31)

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

 

Eugen & Lillian Haydt

In May 2021, I was contacted by Ms. Tamara Precek, a most delightful Czech lady who has resided in Barcelona, Spain for the past 20 years. She is researching the Winternitz families that lived in Prague around 1850, of whom Lillian Haydt née Winternitz is descended. Tamara asked me to send her the “Soggiorno degli Stranieri in Italia” forms for Eugen (Figure 43) and Lillian (Figure 44), suspecting I had misread their surnames. Indeed, I had mistaken HAYDT as “Hayoth.”

 

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

 

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

 

Tamara has recently been able to learn what happened to them after their brief stay at the Villa Primavera. They managed to immigrate to Australia, arriving there on the 6th of February 1939 aboard the ship “NIEUW HOLLAND.” Dr. Eugen Haydt changed his named to Albin (Alvin) Eugene Werner (Warner) Haydt (A.E.W. Haydt) but was still generally known as Eugene Haydt. He was a tradesman, and died on the 17th of January 1973; his wife may have worked with him, and passed away on the 4th of February 1997. They appear not to have had any children.

Ms. Precek even found a picture of the apartment building where they resided in Sydney. (Figure 45)

 

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

 

Lucia von Jacobi

Ms. Jacobi co-managed the Villa Primavera as a bed-and-breakfast with my aunt Susanne.  She fled Fiesole in 1938 in favor of Switzerland, leaving everything behind, including her personal papers, which were miraculously found in Florence and saved by a German researcher in 1964, Dr. Irene Below (see Blog Post 21 for the full story).

Johanna Leven

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

Johanna Leven stayed at the Villa Primavera for the first two months of 1938, but clearly returned to Germany after her stay.  She was eventually deported from Mönchengladbach, Germany to the Theresienstadt Ghetto in then-Czechoslovakia, where she perished in 1942. (Figure 32)

Julius Matthias

Figure 33. Julius Matthias’s May 1942 Death Certificate

Julius Matthias was among the oldest guest to have stayed at the Villa Primavera, being almost 80 when he visted there between March and April 1937.  After his days in Fiesole, he returned to Hamburg, Germany, where he died on May 16, 1942, seemingly of natural causes (i.e., senility, broncho-pneumonia).  His death certificate (Figure 33) states he was a non-practicing Jew, although this fact would not have prevented him from being deported to a concentration camp.  His death certificate assigned him the name “Israel” to identify him as a Jew.

Paul Schoop

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

Paul Schoop was born in 1907 in Zurich, Switzerland, one of four accomplished offspring (with Max Schoop (b. 1902); Trudi Schoop (b. 1903); Hedwig “Hedi” Schoop (b. 1906)) of a prominent family.  Paul’s father, Maximilian Schoop, was the editor of Neue Zurcher Zeitung and president of Dolder Hotels.  Paul (Figure 34) came to America in September 1939, and eventually joined his three siblings in Van Nuys, California.  He was an accomplished composer, concert pianist and conductor, first in Europe and later in America.  Paul’s brother-in-law was Frederick Maurice Holländer (Figures 35a & b), the famed composer and torch song writer, who’d once been married to one of Paul’s sister, Hedi Schoop. (Figures 36a & b)

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I surmise the reason the Schoop children came to America is because of greater economic and professional opportunities rather than on account of Nazi persecution.

Jenny Steinfeld

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

Jenny Steinfeld’s tale is a poignant one.  Her name appears with that of her son, Paul Steinfeld, on an April 1937 manifest of boat passengers bound from Bremen, Germany to New York. (Figure 37)  A scant five months later, between September and November 1937, she is a guest at the Villa Primavera, clearly having come back from America.  Jenny eventually returns to Berlin, and on August 27, 1942 commits suicide there, yet another victim of Nazi persecution. (Figure 38)  As with my great-aunt Franziska, who too returned to Berlin from Fiesole, one wonders why Jenny walked back into the maws of death. 

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

This post deals only in passing with my immediate and extended Bruck family.  For this reason, it involved considerably more forensic research, as most of the guests at the Villa Primavera were previously unknown to me.  Still, learning more about these people was important to me.  In some small way, as the Holocaust victim David Berger wrote in 1941, I hope I have honored and recognized a few other Jewish victims of Nazi persecution so they are not forgotten.

SIDEBAR

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

Regular readers will know the enjoyment I derive making connections between people and events related to my family.  One of my German first cousins, once-removed, Kay Lutze, is friends with an Anja Holländer, living in Amsterdam, Netherlands. (Figure 39)  Anja is related to Frederick Maurice Holländer, the brother-in-law of Paul Schoop, who stayed at the Villa Primavera.  In assembling this involved Blog post, I recollected this fact and also that Anja claims a relationship to my Bruck family.  I asked Kay whether he knew the relationship, and he could only tell me that the mother of a Holländer named LUDWIG HEINRICH HOLLÄNDER was a Bruck.   Curious about this, I researched this man on ancestry.com, and, indeed, discovered various historic documents that confirm the distant relationship of the Holländer family to my Bruck family.  Ludwig’s mother was HELENE HOLLÄNDER née BRUCK (1812-1876), who I think is my great-great-great-great-aunt; Helene was married to a BENJAMIN HOLLÄNDER (1809-1884).  I discovered his death certificate (Figures 40a & b), along with that of their son Ludwig (1833-1897). (Figures 41a & b)

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

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

POST 25: DEATH IN THE SHANGHAI GHETTO

Note:  This tale is about another of my father’s first cousins, Mr. Fritz Goldenring.  This post provides an opportunity to explore the fate of a Jewish émigré, who, while he did not perish in a concentration camp or ghetto in Europe, is every bit as much a victim of Nazi persecution as those individuals who were murdered in these places.  How I learned about Fritz does not follow a linear path, although I’ll strive to relate my discoveries in a somewhat chronological fashion.  Like the stories of many of my relatives, there are glaring gaps in what I’ve pieced together.

Figure 1-My father, Dr. Otto Bruck, with two first cousins, Eva Bruck and Eva Goldenring and his sister (right), Susanne Müller, née Bruck, at the Villa Primavera in Fiesole on May 10, 1938

Two of my father’s photos taken in May 1938 in Fiesole, Italy, following his arrival there after fleeing Germany, show a woman identified as Eva Goldenring. (Figures 1 & 2)  I later learned she was another of my father’s first cousins.  Like most of his relatives, Eva and her mother Helene Goldenring, née Hirsch, were rarely mentioned when I was growing up, although I knew they’d survived the war and eventually immigrated to America.  Both daughter and mother stayed at the Pension “Villa Primavera” in Fiesole, Italy, co-managed by my Aunt Susanne Müller, Helene twice in 1937-38 (Figures 3 & 4) and Eva in 1938.

Figure 2-My father with one of his first cousins, Eva Goldenring, after their last tennis match together in Firenze (Florence)
Figure 3-Helene Goldenring’s “Soggiorno degli Stranieri in Italia” (Stay of Foreigners in Italy) form indicating her stay at the Villa Primavera between May 24, 1937 until June 29, 1937, when she left for Rome

 

Figure 4-Fiesole’s registration log showing Helene Goldenring’s second stay at the Villa Primavera between December 1937 and January 1938

 

Figure 5-Larry Leyser, my third cousin, once-removed

In Post 14, I discussed the Tenant Brewer, Markus Braun, from Ratibor, the town where my father was born.  Markus had a dozen children by his first wife, Caroline Spiegel, then two more by his second wife, Johanna Goldstein.  I’m distantly related to most of my American cousins through Markus Braun.  My third cousin, once-removed, Larry Leyser (Figure 5), is one such relative, and, like myself, an active genealogist.  Several years ago, Larry shared a two-page summary written by his grandmother, Katerina Leyser, née Rosenthal (Figure 6), detailing some of Larry’s ancestors.  This document provided the first mention of Fritz Goldenring and identified him as the brother of Eva Goldenring and son of Helene Goldenring; no other information was given.

Figure 6-Larry Leyser’s grandmother, Kate Leyser, née Rosenthal, whose family summary makes mention of Fritz Goldenring
Figure 7-The April 19, 1946 edition of the “Aufbau” newspaper showing Fritz Goldenring died in Shanghai on December 15, 1943

To try and learn more, I turned to ancestry.com, and happened on a tantalizing mention of Fritz Goldenring originating from Aufbau Newspaper, saying he had died in Shanghai; Fritz’s name was listed in the April 19, 1946 edition of Aufbau. (Figure 7)  Aufbau (German for “building up, construction”), I discovered, is a journal targeted at German-speaking Jews around the globe founded in 1934.  From September 1, 1944 through September 27, 1946, Aufbau printed numerous lists of Jewish Holocaust survivors located in Europe, as well as a few lists of victims.  These lists, which have been digitized, contain 33,557 names that are searchable via “JewishGen’s Holocaust Database,” “JewishGen Germany Database,” and the U. S. Holocaust Memorial Museum’s “Holocaust Survivors and Victims Database.”  According to JewishGen, the extent of the information available on any individual varies widely. 

For Fritz Goldenring, I learned he was born on September 11, 1902 and died on December 15, 1943; intriguingly, it gave his last residence simply as “Nizza.”  Coincidentally, Nizza is the Italian name for Nice, France, a place with which my family has connections, as readers may recall.  Mistakenly believing that Fritz may last have resided here before immigrating to Shanghai, I asked an acquaintance at Nice’s l’Hôtel de Ville whether she could find any trace of Fritz Goldenring there, to no avail.  Knowing of the Goldenring family’s travels to Genoa, Italy in July 1926, I looked for a “Nizza” nearby, and discovered a place named “Nizza Monferrato” only 65 miles away; I sent the Comune there an email, received a very gracious reply saying Fritz Goldenring similarly had no connection to this place.

Realizing I was grasping at straws, I resolved to renew my search for Fritz Goldenring from the place he’d assuredly lived, namely, Shanghai.  I turned to my friend, Ms. Madeleine Isenberg, from the Los Angeles Jewish Genealogical Society, who assists fellow “travelers.”  I asked whether she could refer me to someone in the Jewish community in Shanghai, and she suggested I contact “Chabad” centers in Shanghai; Chabad is one of the largest Hasidic groups and Jewish religious organizations in the world.  I emailed three such centers in Shanghai, asking who I should contact about obtaining a copy of Mr. Goldenring’s death certificate, and almost immediately received an email from Rabbi Shalom Greenberg.  He’d forwarded my request to Mr. Dvir Bar-Gal, who leads “Tours of Jewish Shanghai.”

Mr. Bar-Gal, it turns out, is an Israeli photojournalist whose mission of tracking down traces of Shanghai’s Jewish past began by accident, when he discovered a Hebrew tombstone in a Shanghai antique shop in 2001.  He’s become known as Shanghai’s “gravestone sleuth,” tracking down Jewish tombstones scattered around the city’s outlying villages, tombstones used for everything from building beams to washboards.  Between the mid-19th and mid-20th centuries, Shanghai transformed from a small fishing village to China’s largest city and become known as the “Pearl of the East.” 

The Jewish tombstones that Mr. Bar-Gal is racing the clock to save are remnants of Shanghai’s Jewish community that once numbered no fewer than 30,000 Jews.  Jews first arrived in Shanghai in 1845, built their fortunes, and quickly occupied key positions in the city, making significant social and economic contributions.  Russian Jews escaping the pogroms of the early 1900’s represented the next wave of immigrants.  They were followed by the last major group of Jewish immigrants, the most well-known of three waves, European refugees escaping Nazi terror.  At the time, China was the only country in the world where Jews did not require an entry visa, and this is certainly the reason my father’s cousin, Fritz Goldenring, sought refuge here.

Many of the Jewish refugees who arrived in Shanghai were penniless but were assisted by the wealthier and established Sephardic Jews.  After the Japanese occupied Shanghai in 1937, the Nazis applied pressure on them to deport or murder the city’s Jews, an order they refused.  Instead, they confined the roughly 20,000 stateless Jewish refugees to the Shanghai Ghetto, formally known as the “Restricted Sector for Stateless Refugees,” an area roughly one square mile in the Hongkou district.  About 23,000 of the city’s Jewish refugees were restricted or relocated to the area between 1941 and 1945 by the “Proclamation Concerning Restriction of Residence and Business of Stateless Refugees.”  The Shanghai Ghetto was never walled, and Jews were housed alongside local Chinese, who lived in equally deplorable conditions.

The first Jewish cemetery was established in 1862, and by the 1950’s four Jewish cemeteries existed in Shanghai containing 3,700 graves.  As the city expanded, in 1958, it was decided to systematically transfer the graves to a newly constructed international cemetery to the west of the city.  The few Jews who remained after the Communists came to power were supposed to assist in these transfers, but during Mao Zedong’s “Cultural Revolution,” the international cemetery was instead destroyed, and the gravestones scattered.  These uprooted tombstones are the traces of Shanghai’s Jewish past that Mr. Bar-Gal is striving to relocate and preserve.

So, as readers can clearly conclude, referral to Mr. Bar-Gal was fortuitous.  While unable to provide a death certificate for Mr. Goldenring, Mr. Bar-Gal provided two valuable clues.  He told me that before being expelled from Germany, Fritz had last worked in Darmstadt, Germany as a journalist.  He recommended I contact Darmstadt to obtain his death certificate, so I sent the Rathaus (City Hall) there an email.  My request was eventually forwarded to the Stadtarchiv, or City Archive, in Darmstadt, and finally, in October 2017, they responded.  They could find no evidence that Fritz Goldenring had lived in Darmstadt, but they did find a reference to him in on-line directory at the Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv, the Hesse Central State Archive, in Wiesbaden.  They added one additional clue, namely, that Fritz was born in Berlin.

Figure 8-A letter from the International Committee of the Red Cross, dated November 30, 1961, included in Helene Goldenring’s compensation file, confirming the date and cause of her son’s death in Shanghai

With this new information, I next contacted the Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv.  They eventually responded telling me there exists an Entschädigungsakte, a claim for compensation file, submitted by Helene Goldenring, née Hirsch, as the heir of her son Fritz Goldenring. (Figure 8)  After paying a fee, I was able to obtain a copy of this 160-page file, a document that ultimately filled in some holes.

This file includes typed and handwritten pages, all in German, so I convinced one of my cousins to review and summarize the highlights.  The compensation file, while leaving many facets of Fritz’s life in doubt, did answer some questions.  It confirmed Fritz had been born in Berlin; attended grammar and high school there; apprenticed as an office worker in Nordhausen; and worked in Hamburg for Schenker & Co., a transport and logistics company dealing with planes, ships and trucks.  He eventually became a journalist, as I’d learned from Shanghai.  As his situation in Germany became increasingly tenuous, he hoped to parlay his possession of perfect pitch and musical talents into a ticket elsewhere, so in 1938 he went to Berlin.  While there, he was apparently arrested for jay-walking and jailed for three days.  In a classic example of a “Catch-22,” upon his release, he was deemed to have been “previously convicted” and forced to leave Germany.

Knowing Fritz’s sister and mother had both stayed at the “Villa Primavera” in Fiesole, I re-examined the Pension’s guest logs, and discovered Fritz had also stayed there, registering for a month-long visit on May 16, 1938. (Figure 9)  I surmise after he was deported from Germany, Fritz first went to Fiesole before eventually making his way to Shanghai.  While in Fiesole, he even played in a men’s tennis tournament because, among my father’s personal papers, I discovered a newspaper clipping showing my father and Fritz’s results. (Figure 10)

Figure 9-Fiesole’s registration log showing Fritz Goldenring registered for a month-long stay at the Villa Primavera on May 16, 1938
Figure 10-My father and Fritz Goldenring’s tennis results at a tournament both played in Firenze

 

It’s not clear how long Fritz Goldenring stayed in Italy, but like my aunt and uncle, he likely left no later than September of 1938, probably from Genoa aboard a luxurious Italian or Japanese cruise ship headed to Shanghai.  I became curious whether Mr. Bar-Gal could tell me when Fritz arrived there, so I again contacted him.  There exists an Emigranten Adressbuch for Shanghai, dated November 1939, listing Fritz Goldenring, which Mr. Bar-Gal sent me a scan of, proving Fritz was there no later than late 1939. (Figures 11a & 11b)

Figure 11a-Shanghai’s November 1939 “Emigranten Adressbuch” (Emigrant Address Book) listing Fritz Goldenring’s name, occupation, place of origin in Germany and address in Shanghai

 

Figure 11b-Shanghai’s November 1939 “Emigranten Adressbuch” (Emigrant Address Book) listing Fritz Goldenring’s name, occupation, place of origin in Germany and address in Shanghai

 

The Japanese designated the Shanghai Ghetto on February 18, 1943 and compelled those who’d arrived after 1937 to move there by May 18, 1943; many relocated Jews lived in group homes called “Heime,” including Fritz, who lived at “Alcockheim 66,” along with 60 other men.  Helene Goldenring’s compensation file explained Fritz’s cause of death, namely, Sprue and Avitaminose.  Avitaminosis is a disease cause by a deficiency of vitamins, and is closely associated with sprue, a chiefly tropical disease characterized by diarrhea, emaciation, and anemia.  Fritz is recorded as having died on December 15, 1943 at the Ward Road Hospital in Shanghai; apparently, the winter of 1943 in Shanghai was severe, and hunger was widespread.

Figure 12-Passenger list from the S.S. Maipo showing Helene Goldenring sailed from Valparaiso, Chile on July 3, 1947

Fritz’s mother’s compensation file, together with immigration records available from ancestry.com for his family, illustrate how widely the Goldenring family was dispersed during WWII.  Fritz’s sister, Eva Goldenring, for reasons I’m striving to understand, survived incarceration in the notorious French detention center of Gurs at the base of the Pyrenees in southwestern France; Eva would eventually live in Madrid before immigrating to America in 1947.  Fritz’s mother, Helene, made her way to Valparaiso, Chile, where her brother, Robert Hirsch, an engineer, had immigrated in 1939 from Bilbao, Spain.  Robert died in 1943 in Chile, and on July 3, 1947, Helene immigrated to New York (Figure 12), where she was reunited with her daughter. (Figure 13)

Figure 13-Mother and daughter, Helene & Eva Goldenring, Easter 1960, after they reunited in America