The Arolsen Archives Archives - bruckfamilyblog.com

POST 147: THE GRÜNBERGER FAMILY TIE TO RATIBOR IN THE YEARS 1812-1815

Note: In this post, I draw a connection between a query I received from a reader on the process for installing Stolpersteine in Racibórz, Poland to a fleeting reference about one of this reader’s earliest ancestors from the second decade of the 19^th century.

POST 146: MY GRANDFATHER FELIX BRUCK’S (1864-1927) FINAL MONTHS OWNING THE BRUCK’S HOTEL IN RATIBOR, GERMANY

Having previously boasted that blog stories can be found on any street corner, I am discomfited if I don’t have at least 5 to 10 topics in my hip pocket awaiting future exposition. This sets off alarms and makes me think I’m not being sufficiently imaginative.

Sometimes what I think will be one post morphs into two, while other times two or more topics get condensed into one. The current post is an example of the latter.

Chronologically, this story begins with the publication of Post 142. To remind readers that post was about the installation of the very first so-called Stolpersteine in Racibórz, Poland, the town in Silesia where my father was born when the town was named Ratibor and was part of Germany. A Stolperstein is a ten-centimeter (3.9 in.) concrete cube bearing a brass plate inscribed with the name and life dates of victims of Nazi extermination or persecution. In the case of the ones recently installed in Racibórz, they commemorate three members of the Kochen family deported in 1938 to the Łódź Ghetto, namely, Szyja Kochen (1897-1944), Ester Bajla Kochen (1898-1944), and Natan David Kochen (1935-1944). (Figure 1)

Figure 1. The Stolpersteine recently installed in Racibórz, Poland for three members of the Kochen family deported to the Łódź Ghetto

Following publication of Post 142, I was contacted by a Barrister from Toronto, Canada, Perry H. Gruenberger, asking about the process for obtaining permission to install a Stolperstein. Perry explained that his grandparents had last freely lived in Ratibor and been deported and murdered during the Holocaust. Like the Kochen family, he is interested in commemorating his ancestors at their last place of residency in Racibórz.

Ignorant of the city’s requirements, I contacted Ms. Magda Wawoczny, a student acquaintance of mine from Jagiellonian University in Kraków, Poland who hails from Racibórz and first told me about the Stolpersteine installed there, asking her about the process. She checked with Mr. Nadav Kochen from Israel who’d initiated the installation of the so-called “stumbling stones” in Racibórz for his ancestors.

In brief, Nadav explained that the consent of the Road Department or other administrator or city official of the area where the Stolpersteine are to be installed must be obtained. It goes without saying that the consent of the land owner is required. The “Institute of National Remembrance,” which has apparently been a major impediment to the placement of Stolpersteine in Poland for reasons discussed in Post 142, is seemingly not required. Polish officials Mr. Kochen contacted in Wrocław told him that because Stolpersteine are treated as artistic installations, as the German artist Gunter Demnig intended when he initiated the project in 1992, rather than monuments, the approval of the Institute of National Remembrance is not required.

The person who initiates the installation of the stumbling stone must somehow prove the person(s) lived there and died during the Holocaust and finance the production and installation of the stone. The requirement that the person died may be specific to Poland because based on personal experience in Germany a target of Nazi persecution need not have died to be commemorated by a Stolperstein. If a Stolperstein is proposed in an area designated as a national monument, the consent of the conservator of monuments is also required. And, finally, one must coordinate with the special office in Germany that handles Stolpersteine matters.

Mr. Perry Gruenberger initially contacted me towards the end of September telling me he wants to commission Stolpersteine in honor of his grandparents, Fritz Grünberger (1893-1944) and Henriette Grünberger, née Nesselroth (1897-1944), who had lived and worked in Ratibor. (Figure 2) His grandparents were initially deported to Theresienstadt, then later transported to Auschwitz. Perry explained that his father Günter Grünberger grew up in Ratibor until age 19 (1939) but survived the Holocaust. He escaped to Palestine via Italy.

Figure 2. Weidenstrasse, today known as ulica Staszica, the street in Racibórz along which Perry Gruenberg’s grandparents lived before they were deported to Theresienstadt and Auschwitz

When readers contact me asking about their ancestors who were victims of the Holocaust or are associated with places where my own relatives may have lived, typically, I check on ancestry.com, MyHeritage, the Arolsen Archives, the Yad Vashem Victims’ Database, as well as in my personal files for documents and images that may make these people’s relatives come to life.

I was quickly able to find Perry’s grandparents in Yad Vashem. (Figures 3a-b; 4a-b) I next checked an Excel database with the names of people formerly interred in the Jewish Cemetery in Ratibor, which no longer exists, for any Grünbergers. Initially, I found four names with pictures of their headstones which I shared with Perry. (Figures 5-8) He was elated.

Figure 3a. Page 1 of documentation from the Yad Vashem Victims’ Database for Fritz Grünberger, Perry’s grandfather

Figure 3b. Page 2 of documentation from the Yad Vashem Victims’ Database for Fritz Grünberger, Perry’s grandfather

Figure 4a. Page 1 of documentation from the Yad Vashem Victims’ Database for Henriette Grünberger, Perry’s grandmother

Figure 4b. Page 2 of documentation from the Yad Vashem Victims’ Database for Henriette Grünberger, Perry’s grandmother

Figure 5. List of four Grünbergers and one Grünberg from the Excel database listing the names of Jews once buried in the now destroyed Jewish Cemetery in Ratibor

Figure 6. Former headstone of Alice Grünberger, née Steiner (1892-1932) from the now destroyed Jewish Cemetery in Ratibor

Figure 7. Former headstone of Karl Grünberger (1865-1920) and his wife Alma Grünberger, née Loebinger (1867-1921), Perry’s great-grandparents, from the now destroyed Jewish Cemetery in Ratibor

Figure 8. Former headstone of Marie Grünberger (1847-1918) from the now destroyed Jewish Cemetery in Ratibor

Later when I reexamined the Excel database, I noticed a “Siegfried Grünberg (1863-1930)” listed (see Figure 5) and figured out this was Perry’s great-grand-uncle. (Figure 9) I also realized in searching the Yad Vashem Victims’ Database for Perry’s family I would need to check not only “Grünberger” and “Gruenberger,” but also “Grünberg” and “Grunberg.”

Figure 9. Former headstone of Siegfried Grünberger (1863-1930), Perry’s great-grand-uncle, from the now destroyed Jewish Cemetery in Ratibor

Combined, in the Yad Vashem and the Arolsen Archives online databases, I discovered a total of five Grünbergers that had been deported to Theresienstadt or Auschwitz from Ratibor. (Figures 10-13)

Figure 10. List of deportees on transport XVIII/2 headed from Oppeln [today: Opole, Poland] to Theresienstadt on the 20th of November 1942 with the names of three Grünbergers from Ratibor (source: Arolsen Archives)

Figure 11. Deportation card for Emma Grünberger, née Herzka, departing Oppeln {Opole, Poland] aboard transport XVIII/2, showing she died on the 17th of December 1942 in Theresienstadt (source: Arolsen Archives)

Figure 12. Deportation card for Perry’s grandfather, Fritz Grünberger, deported from Thereseinstadt aboard transport XVIII/6 on the 29th of September 1944 (source: Arolsen Archives)

Figure 13. Deportation card for Perry’s grandmother, Henriette Grünberger, deported from Theresienstadt aboard transport XVIII/6 on the 6th of October 1944 (source: Arolsen Archives)

Let me briefly digress and share with readers a related discovery I made at about the same time. Long-term followers of my blog know that connections I make between seemingly unrelated documents and contacts most excite me.

In Post 146, I introduced readers to Mr. Kamil Kotas a gentleman formerly from the Racibórz District of Poland, now living in Münster in the German state of Westphalia. Kamil not only directed me to files archived at the State Archives in Wrocław Branch in Kamieniec Ząbkowicki with information on my family’s establishment in Ratibor, the Bruck’s “Prinz von Preußen” Hotel, as previously discussed, but he also sent me links to two articles he’s written about Ratibor. Translated, one is entitled “Preliminary list of Jews from Racibórz deported to death camps,” and the second is “Jews with Prussian citizenship in the Racibórz region in the years 1812-1815.” Serendipitously, both contain information on the Grünbergers.

Through extensive research Kamil has compiled a comprehensive list of Jews from Ratibor deported to death camps. Quoting as to the method he used to draw up this list:

“The list presented below is based on transport lists of people deported from Silesia to the Auschwitz death camp and to the ghetto and Theresienstadt camp. Scans of the lists are publicly available on the German website “Statistik des Holocaust”. Listed below are people whose last place of residence before deportation was Racibórz. In addition to the names and surnames, other information about the victims available on the lists was also seized. The types of information overlap for most of the people included and usually include: first name, last name, for women also maiden name, date and place of birth, occupation before capture, last address of residence. For some people, the dates of death were also written by hand on the typed letters, as well as short markings, the meaning of which could not yet be fully explained (it is assumed that these were identification numbers or transport numbers). As for the people who did not have a date of death inscribed, it does not mean that they survived the capture. It could happen that, for various unknown reasons, information about their deaths was not considered – the war and the Holocaust brought with them many missing and anonymous victims, and even meticulous German keeping of records did not guarantee the creation of gaps in the death register.

The list was prepared according to the order of transports (only brief notes were made about two transports, as there are no specific lists of people for them).”

As just mentioned, five of Perry Gruenberger’s ancestors were deported to Theresienstadt on two separate transports per the information Kamil Kotas has assembled, including Perry’s grandparents. Below is the information related to the Grünbergers, some of which replicates or augments information I found in the online Arolsen Archives and Yad Vashem.

Transport XVIII/2 from Opole to Theresienstadt (Terezín, today in the Czech Republic), dated 20 November 1942.

Grünberger Max, born 22.3.1870 in Gniew in Pomerania, merchant, residing in Racibórz at Weidenstr. 15 (Staszica Street), date of death: 15.7.1943.

Grünberger Emma, née Herzka, born 18.12.1876 in Sedlnice (Sedlnitz) in Moravia, no profession, residing in Racibórz at Weidenstr. 15 (Staszica Street), date of death: 17.12.1942.

Grünberger Flora, née Toczek, born 28.4.1867 in Daniec near Opole, no profession, residing in Racibórz at Friedrichstr. 4 (Głowackiego Street), date of death: 27.11.1942.

EDITORS’ NOTE: I’m uncertain how Max and Emma Grünberger are related to Perry but given the years they were born I suspect that they were Siegfried Grünberger’s younger brother and sister-in-law, in other words Perry’s great-great-uncle and -aunt. Flora Grünberger, née Toczek, I know was Siegfried Grünberger’s wife, another of Perry’s great-great-aunts. The three Grünbergers on the November 20, 1942, transport were among 50 Jews deported from Oppeln, Germany [today: Opole, Poland], 38 of whom came from Ratibor. (see Figure 10)

The second transport with Grünbergers from Ratibor that arrived in Theresienstadt on the 3^rd of August 1943 included Perry’s grandparents:

On August 3, 1943, two people sent from Racibórz arrived in Theresienstadt outside the transport (XVIII/6 “Ez”):

Grünberger Fritz, born 2.9.1893, accountant, residing in Racibórz at Horst Wessel pl. 11a (Wolności Square), no information about death.

Grünberger Henriette, born 29.6.1897, seamstress, housewife, residing in Racibórz at Horst Wessel pl. 11a (Wolności Square), no information about death.

According to the Arolsen Archives deportation cards, Fritz and Henriette Grünberger were deported from Theresienstadt, presumably to Auschwitz, on different transports leaving on two closely separated days, respectively, on the 29^th of September 1944 (see Figure 12) and on the 6^th of October 1944. (see Figure 13)

Turning now to the second article Kamil Kotas has written, which as noted above includes the names of Jews with Prussian citizenship living in the Ratibor region in the period between 1812 and 1815. Relying on a website run by the Museum in Gliwice [German: Gleiwitz], Kamil has compiled and published a list of Jews who were citizens of the Silesian part of the Kingdom of Prussia in the years 1812-1815. The census is based on lists that were published in the years 1814-1815 in the official newspapers of the day in Breslau [today: Wrocław, Poland].

Some brief history. The lists were a result of the emancipation edict of 1812 affecting Jews in the Kingdom of Prussia, to which most of Silesia belonged to at the time. Under the edict, Jews were granted citizenship on the condition that they use permanent, immutable family names, as the rest of the inhabitants of Prussia had already done. Previously Jews had only used their first names and so-called patronymics, that’s to say, a variation of their fathers’ names. Without permanent surnames, the identification of Jews and administrative and legal proceedings involving them was complicated.

Based on the 1812-1815 censuses, the Museum of Gliwice was able to identify 67 Jews from the area of today’s Racibórz County. Notably, the list included the name of Ascher Grünberger from Annaberg, Kreis Ratibor, Prussia [today: Chałupki, Poland]. Chałupki is located along the current Polish-Czech Republic border about 15.5 miles south-southeast of Racibórz. (Figure 14) Interestingly, as Kamil perceptively notes in his article, only eight of the 67 Jewish citizens residing in the county at the time lived within the city’s limits.

Figure 14. Map showing the distance from Racibórz to Chałupki, Poland where Perry’s distant ancestor Ascher Grünberger came from according to censuses from 1812-1815

Perry shared his Grünberger family tree with me but regrettably Ascher does not show up on it.

Intriguingly, Kamil has researched and written about an Adolf Grünberger, born in around 1842. He was a Jewish merchant from Ratibor who received Hungarian citizenship on the 10^th of October 1886, and emigrated to Timișoara, Romania after he became widowed, eventually remarrying Sharlote Schmidt in 1889 and building a house in Timișoara that still stands. How Adolf is related to Perry Gruenberger is entirely unclear.

As a related aside, my family’s earliest known association with Ratibor dates to 1819 when the names of my great-great-grandfather Samuel Bruck (1808-1863) and his brother Jonas Bruck (1813-1883) are included among the names of students who attended the inaugural class when the city’s gymnasium, or high school, opened. Thus, it was disappointing not to see my family’s surname included among the list of original Jewish inhabitants of Ratibor County. Possibly it’s an omission or my family lived in a different town outside the county’s borders at the time?

In my ensuing post, I will return to the two articles Kamil Kotas sent me, as they not only include members of the Grünberger family, but, astonishingly, also include distant ancestors of a childhood friend from New York. In contrast to Ascher Grünberger to whom Perry cannot draw an unbroken linear connection, in the case of this childhood friend we are able to make a direct connection to his earliest forebear. In collaboration with my friend’s daughter, an avid genealogist, we will briefly explore this connection.

REFERENCES

Kotas, Kamil. Casa Adolf Grünberger. www.ziemiaraciborska.pl/wstepna-lista-raciborskich-zydow-deportowanych-do-obozow-zaglady

Kotas, Kamil. (2022, March 2). Żydzi z obywatelstwem pruskim na ziemi raciborskiej w latach 1812-1815. Ziemia Raciborska.pl.

POST 128: A TALE OF TWO DOTS: THE BRÜCK FAMILY FROM NEAR FRANKFURT

Note: This represents another reader-inspired post. While responding to a query from an American reader named Michael Bruck, whose surname is now spelled the way my family’s surname was once spelled, I learned his family’s surname was originally Brück, with two dots over the “u.” I helped this reader confirm family rumors and identify and track down pictures of some of his family members who were victims of the Holocaust.

I was recently contacted by an American gentleman from Virginia named Michael Bruck asking whether I have any Brucks in my family tree from a spa town named Bad Kreuznach in the west German state of Rhineland-Palatinate, located about 50 miles west-southwest of Frankfurt, Germany. (Figure 1) I explained to Michael that most of my family originated from Silesia, the historical region of Central Europe that now lies mostly in Poland, with small parts in the Czech Republic and Germany. I further added that while I have sometimes come across Brucks in my ancestral research who lived in the western part of Germany, I have never found any direct connection between them and my family.

Figure 1. Location of Frankfurt in relationship to Bad Kreuznach, where Michael Bruck’s German family originates, showing they are about 50 miles apart

I expected my response to be the end of our exchange. However, Michael provided additional information in his initial email that caused me to do some further investigation. He mentioned that his grandfather Arthur Bruck had been born in Bad Kreuznach in the late 19^th century and had immigrated to the United States in the early 20^th century. Most intriguingly, Michael mentioned that his grandfather Arthur had an unnamed brother who was a judge who disappeared in the 1930’s during the Nazi era; Arthur Bruck apparently never spoke of this brother to his family, ergo his name and fate were unknown to them.

With this scant information, I set out to see what, if anything, I could learn about Michael’s German ancestors. In the process, I made a few discoveries specific to Michael’s ancestors, but more interestingly on a historical level I made a surprising discovery that I will tell readers about in this post.

Certain of Michael’s family’s connection to Bad Kreuznach, I began by searching in ancestry.com for his grandfather Arthur Bruck. I immediately discovered Arthur’s “Declaration of Intention” to become a citizen of the United States and renounce his allegiance and fidelity to The German Empire. (Figure 2) This document is dated the 25^th of May 1925 and confirms he was born in Kreuznach, Germany on the 11^th of March 1885; his surname is incorrectly spelled “Bruch.” His 1928 “Petition for Naturalization” shows his surname correctly spelled. (Figure 3)

Figure 2. Arthur Bruck’s 1925 “Declaration of Intention” to become a citizen of the United States; note surname is incorrectly spelled “Bruch”

Figure 3. Arthur Bruck’s 1928 “Petition for Naturalization”

His wife’s name is given as “Ella” on the 1925 Declaration of Intention form. A New York State Marriage Extract confirms that Arthur and Ella Gerber got married on the 12^th of January 1919 in Manhattan. (Figure 4) The 1920 (Figure 5) and 1940 (Figure 6) U.S. Federal Censuses show them living together in New York (Bronx and Manhattan) with their son, Charles Bruck, Michael’s father. The recently released 1950 U.S. Federal Census (Figure 7) expectedly shows that Charles is no longer living with his parents, but that Ella’s sister, Bertha G. Schack, is now living with Arthur and Ella in Los Angeles.

Figure 4. Arthur Bruck and Ella Gerber’s New York State marriage extract showing they got married on the 12th of January 1919 in Manhattan

Figure 5. The 1920 U.S. Federal Census showing Arthur Bruck lived with his wife Ella and son Charles in Manhattan at the time

Figure 6. The 1940 U.S. Federal Census showing Arthur Bruck then lived in the Bronx with his wife and son

Figure 7. The 1950 U.S. Federal Census showing Arthur Bruck was by then living in Los Angeles with his wife and his sister-in-law, Bertha G. Schack

A 1913 Hamburg Passenger List confirms that Arthur Brück departed Hamburg, Germany on the 7^th of August 1913, and was ledig, single, at the time. (Figures 8a-b) Of all the documents I found on ancestry, this is the first one showing Arthur’s surname with an umlaut over the “u,” obviously the way the surname was spelled before his arrival in America.

Figure 8a. Cover page for a Hamburg Passenger List bearing Arthur Brück’s name showing he departed Hamburg on the 7th of August 1913

Figure 8b. Hamburg Passenger List bearing Arthur Brück’s name showing he departed Hamburg on the 7th of August 1913 and was single at the time

For information, an umlaut is often thought of as the two dots over letters, usually vowels, in the German language. Referred to as a diacritic, a sign written above or below a letter, when discussing German umlauts, there are three in use within the alphabet including Ä, Ö, and Ü. Rather than implying an accent or emphasis, German umlauts are independent characters with variations that represent both long and short sounds. In the case of “Brück” the word would be spelled out as “Brueck.”

The spelling of Michael’s current surname is like the way my father formerly spelled his name in Germany. However, just like my family’s surname changed upon their arrival in America from “Bruck” to “Brook,” so too did Michael’s family’s transform, from “Brück” with an umlaut to “Bruck” without an umlaut. In both instances of our respective German surnames spelled with and without an umlaut, the word translates to “bridge.”

Neither Michael nor I know how long his Brück family was associated with Bad Kreuznach but a quick Wikipedia search reveals the spa town is most well-known for its medieval bridge dating from around 1300, the Alte Nahebrücke, which is one of the few remaining bridges in the world with standing structures on it. This is wild speculation on my part, but possibly his family adopted their surname because they owned a business along the bridge. In the case of my own family, which originally came from Hungary and was named “Perlhefter,” they became toll collectors in an Austrian town named Bruck an der Leitha, “Bridge on the Leitha,” on the Austro-Hungarian border. Upon their relocation to Vienna, Austria, the “Bruck” surname was adopted.

The California U.S. Index tells us that Michael’s grandfather died in Los Angeles on the 5^th of November 1972. (Figure 9) The Find A Grave Index further informs us that Arthur Bruck is buried in Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California, and even shows his headstone. (Figures 10a-b)

Figure 9. The California U.S. Grave Index showing that Arthur Bruck died on the 5th of November 1972 in Los Angeles

Figure 10a. The Find A Grave Index confirming Arthur Bruck died on the 5th of November 1972 and is interred in Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California

A particularly useful document found on ancestry for Arthur Brück was the so-called “Geneanet Community Tree Index.” (Figures 11a-b) It confirms the original spelling of Arthur’s surname and provides the names and vital data of his parents, siblings, and half-siblings. This was the first evidence I found that confirmed Arthur had a brother named Max Brück, Michael Bruck’s previously unnamed great-uncle, who was born in 1884 and died in 1942. A similar “Geneanet Community Tree Index” for Max Brück established he indeed was a victim of the Holocaust. (Figure 12)

Figure 11a. The cover page for Arthur Brück’s “Geneanet Community Tree Index”

Figure 11b. Arthur Brück’s “Geneanet Community Tree Index”

Figure 12. Max Brück’s “Geneanet Community Tree Index”

As in the case of his younger brother, I uncovered numerous documents for Max Brück. Like my own uncle Dr. Fedor Bruck who was a German WWI veteran but was nevertheless hunted down by the Nazis, Max was also a veteran of The Great War. Multiple personnel registers from WWI record his name. (Figure 13)

Figure 13. One of a dozen WWI personnel rosters bearing Max Brück’s name

Max’s “Geneanet Community Tree Index” (see Figure 12) indicates he was murdered in Auschwitz on the 16^th of August 1942 at the age of 58. It also shows he was married to an Elsa Neumayer, born in 1890 in Munich, with whom he had three children; unlike her husband, Elsa survived the Holocaust and died at 103 years of age in Georgia. The oldest of Max and Elsa’s children, Eugen Kurt Brück (1920-1942), I found was also murdered in Auschwitz.

Knowing Max Brück and his oldest son Eugen were Holocaust victims, I turned to the Yad Vashem Victims’ Database and predictably found both listed. Periodically, a surviving family member will complete what is termed “A Page of Testimony” remembering their loved ones. In the case of Eugen Brück, two such testimonies were submitted to Yad Vashem, one by Eugen’s mother Elsa Brück (Figures 14a-b) and another by Eugen’s younger sister Hilda Ruth Nathan née Brück (1925-2018). (Figures 15a-b) Both testimonies include pictures of Eugen, which, in my limited experience, is unusual.

Figure 14a. “A Page of Testimony” for Eugen Brück submitted by his mother Elsa Brück to Yad Vashem in 1971 along with his picture

Figure 14b. An enlarged photo of Eugen Brück attached to his 1971 “A Page of Testimony”

Figure 15a. “A Page of Testimony” for Eugen Brück submitted by his sister Hilda Ruth Nathan née Brück to Yad Vashem in 1996 along with his picture

Figure 15b. An enlarged photo of Eugen Brück attached to his 1996 “A Page of Testimony”

According to the Page of Testimony completed by Eugen’s mother, his places of residence during the war, euphemistically speaking, were Mondorf-les-Bains in Luxembourg; Gurs internment camp in southwestern France; and Les Milles, a transit and internment camp for Jews in Aix-en-Provence. As I discussed in Post 23, my beloved Aunt Susanne, also murdered in Auschwitz in September 1942, was likewise briefly detained in Camp des Milles on her final journey to Auschwitz. At the time Eugen’s mother submitted her testimony in 1971 she lived in Huntsville, Alabama.

After sharing my findings with Michael, he and his family sent me unidentified pictures found among their grandfather Arthur Bruck’s surviving papers. One of them is a picture-postcard mailed in around 1934 from Munich showing his brother Max’s three children, Eugen along with his two younger siblings, Werner Alexander Brück (1922-1936) and Hilda Ruth Brück (1925-2018). (Figures 16a-b) The elaborate postmark “Besucht die deutsche Siedlungsausstellung München 1934 (Juni bis Oktober),” “Visit the German settlement exhibition Munich 1934 (June to October),” suggests it was mailed in 1934, and the 6 Pfennig stamp of Paul von Hindenburg issued between 1933 and 1936 would seem to confirm this.

Figure 16a. A picture-postcard from around 1934 showing from left to right Eugen Brück, Hilda Ruth Brück, and Werner Alexander Brück, Max and Elsa Brück’s three children

Figure 16b. The text side of the picture-postcard signed by Else Brück and her three children sent to her sister- and brother-in-law in Saarbrücken

As a brief aside, according to German Wikipedia, the “German Settlement Exhibition” of 1934, presented shortly after the Nazi regime took power was “. . .part of an exemplary embodiment of the National Socialist idea of settlement. Within a very short time, 192 single-family houses with 34 different building types were built under the direction of housing consultant and architect Guido Harbers. The ensemble is self-contained and has numerous green areas in accordance with the garden city idea.”

I asked my German friend Peter Hanke, “The Wizard of Wolfsburg,” to translate the postcard. Though the handwriting was difficult for Peter to decipher, enough could be discerned to know the card was written by Max’s wife Elsa Brück to her sister- and brother-in-law, Selma Daniel née Brück and Albert Daniel, thanking them for sending candy to her children; all three of the children signed the postcard. The card was mailed to the corset factory in Saarbrücken owned by Albert Daniel.

Aware of the fact that Max’s daughter had submitted “A Page of Testimony” for her brother Eugen, I assumed she might also have completed one for her father. Further digging proved this was in fact the case, and likewise yielded a picture of Max Brück. (Figures 17a-b)

Figure 17a. “A Page of Testimony” for Max Brück submitted by his daughter Hilda Ruth Nathan née Brück to Yad Vashem in 1996 along with his picture

Figure 17b. An enlarged photo of Max Brück attached to his 1996 “A Page of Testimony”

In Yad Vashem, I also discovered three personal documents attached to Max’s entry, including a Bestätigung, a confirmation, issued by the “Administration du Culte Israelite Luxembourg” dated the 15^th of November 1948 acknowledging that Max Brück and Eugen Brück had both been deported to Auschwitz. (Figure 18) Both were on the same transport departing Drancy, France on the 14^th of August 1942. The cause of Max Brück’s death is not given, but I assume he was gassed immediately upon his arrival in Auschwitz, which the “Geneanet Community Tree Index” stating he died on the 16^th of August 1942 corroborates.

Figure 18. A 1948 confirmation issued by the “Administration du Culte Israelite Luxembourg” affirming Max and Eugen Brück’s fates

The cause of Eugen Brück’s death, which took place on the 23^rd of September 1942, is stated as “Darmkatarrh bei Phlegmone.” According to Peter Hanke, “Darmkatarrh” is an obscure expression, that today might more appropriately be described as an “inflammatory bowel disease” or “purulent bowel disease.” According to Wikipedia, “A phlegmon is a localized area of acute inflammation of the soft tissues. It is a descriptive term which may be used for inflammation related to a bacterial infection or non-infectious causes (e.g. pancreatitis). Most commonly, it is used in contradistinction to a ‘walled-off’ pus-filled collection (abscess), although a phlegmon may progress to an abscess if untreated. A phlegmon can localize anywhere in the body. The Latin term phlegmōn is from the Ancient Greek (phlégō, ‘burn’).”

After learning of Eugen’s existence from the Geneanet Community Tree Index and his fate, I rechecked ancestry.com for additional documents. Astonishingly, I found his death certificate!! (Figures 19a-b)

Figure 19a. Cover page from ancestry.com with Eugen Brück’s Death Certificate

Figure 19b. Eugen Brück’s Death Certificate showing he died in Auschwitz on the 23rd of September 1942 of an inflammatory bowel disease

Having never previously found such a document for a Jewish inmate murdered in Auschwitz, I asked Peter Hanke about this. Apparently, this is not unprecedented according to the information Peter sent me from the Arolsen Archives in a section entitled “Death register entry for deceased concentration camp prisoners,” which reads as follows:

“This document is officially known as a death register entry or death book entry. It is a form that was officially filled out not only for concentration camp prisoners but others as well. As a formal act that still applies today, deceased persons must be registered at a German registry office. Deceased concentration camp prisoners were therefore also supposed to be listed in a death register – though there were major differences here depending on the prisoners’ nationality and whether they were considered Jews. The form was basically identical in all camp and civil registry offices. This is why the entries for Spanish, German and Polish deceased prisoners from different concentration camps are similar. They differ only in their typeface and the handwriting of the respective registrars.”

The only death certificate I’ve previously found for an ancestor murdered in a concentration camp was from the Theresienstadt Ghetto. (Figure 20)

Figure 20. The death certificate for one of my distant cousins Ilse Herrnstadt who died in the Thereseinstadt Ghetto on the 21st of July 1943

In closing I would make a few observations. Though Michael Bruck’s German relatives’ surname was originally spelled Brück with two dots over the “u” and are unrelated to my own family insofar as I know, helping Michael learn about his forefathers confirmed rumors he heard about growing up. The Geneanet Community Tree indices I found for Arthur and Max Brück allowed us to connect names with photographs. Personally speaking, finding pictures of one’s ancestors, particularly those who were victims of the Holocaust, makes a statement that these people once walked among us and are not forgotten. Without fail, whenever I help others learn about their ancestors, I too learn and come away with something and nothing is more important to me.

REFERENCE

“Mustersiedlung Ramersdorf.” German Wikipedia, https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mustersiedlung_Ramersdorf

“Phlegmon.” Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phlegmon

POST 123 (GUEST POST): IN MEMORY OF THE JEWISH FAMILY LIEB-LIB FROM STUTTHOF [SZTUTOWO, POLAND]

EDITOR’S NOTE: For the first time on my Blog, I’m hosting a guest post by a gentleman named Mr. Uwe Sager, a longtime contributor to the German-language Forum.Danzig.de. Members in this Forum post articles about people, places, events, etc. associated with the former Free City of Danzig [German: Freie Stadt Danzig; Polish: Wolne Miasto Gdańsk] and investigate and try to answer queries posted by participants and fellow researchers. The Free City of Danzig was a city-state under the protection of the League of Nations between 1920 and 1939, consisting of the Baltic Sea port of Danzig [today: Gdańsk, Poland] and nearly 200 other small localities in the surrounding areas. Because my father, Dr. Otto Bruck, lived in Danzig and nearby Tiegenhof [today: Nowy Dwór Gdański, Poland] in the Free City of Danzig between roughly 1930 and 1937, several years ago I posted multiple queries on the Forum hoping members might help me determine the fate of several of my father’s friends from his time living there, to little avail. However, this is how Uwe and I became acquainted. At the time, Uwe was already researching the fate of the Jewish family “Lieb” or “Lib” from Stutthof [today: Sztutowo, Poland] that is the subject of this guest post, although he’d not yet worked out most of the details presented below. Uwe’s research into the Lieb’s was prompted by one of the Forum’s readers who’d formerly lived in Stutthof, a woman named Irmchen Krause, asking about them. What follows is what Uwe and a fellow Forum member, Rainer Mueller Glodde, have unearthed about the Lieb family’s fate. Since I’ve mentioned the notorious Stutthof Concentration Camp in previous posts, including my father’s encounter with Gerhard Epp who relied on Jewish inmates from there to produce munitions in his converted Stutthof machine factory, it seems appropriate to include a guest post discussing the fate of one Jewish family from Stutthof.

Stutthof-Sztutowo

In memory of the Jewish family Lieb/Lib in Stutthof

By Uwe Sager – Forum.Danzig.de

With Contributions by Rainer Mueller Glodde (Administrator of momente-im-werder.net)

April 2020

When I was informed at the end of 2016 by Irmchen, née Krause, former Stutthof resident, of a Jewish family that had once lived there, I wanted to learn more about their history and whereabouts. The family’s name was Lieb. I hope my findings may remind the town’s current inhabitants that Jews once lived there, even though the family itself may not have attached much importance to it. Yet, the family was part of the community at one time and represents a segment of the town’s dark past.

Irmchen recalls a Jewish family by the name of Lieb that lived in Stutthof in the 1930’s. They ran a clothing store located on the corner of Schulstraße and Poststraße. (Figure 1) The family had a young daughter named Antonia, affectionately called “Tania.” Only a few Stutthöfer dared to shop at Lieb’s. As Irmchen notes, “Whoever bought from the Lieb’s had fingers pointed at them.” Additionally, customers were threatened by telling them their names would be published on the “Stürmerkasten” (EDITOR’S NOTE: Stürmerkasten is a kind of wall newspaper, that was erected in every village during the Hitler era in Germany) (Figure 2), situated directly opposite the Lieb store.

Figure 1. The corner of Schulstraße and Poststraße in Stutthof where the Lieb family store was once located

Figure 2. Example of a “Stürmerkasten” or a wall newspaper where, among other things, the Nazis posted the names of people who continued to frequent Jewish businesses despite the ban against such interactions (Credit: Bundesarchiv_Bild_133-075, Worms,_Antisemitische_Presse,__Stürmerkasten_)

The boycott measures against Jewish businesses and businesspeople are well known. Despite these measures, ironically, some Stutthöfer secretly shopped with the Lieb’s in the evening. According to Irmchen, the talk at the time was that Mr. Lieb was taken away with his wife and child in what is referred to as a “Nacht und Nebel aktion” (EDITOR’S NOTE: German for the “night and fog action” of abductions and disappearances decreed by Nazi Germany). Irmchen is not aware of any community support on behalf of the Lieb’s. According to another witness, some members of the community were still in contact with Mrs. Lieb who was supposedly then living in Danzig [today: Gdansk, Poland]. Mrs. Lieb is said to have warned comers against contacting her, saying it was too dangerous. Not unexpectedly,it was reported that she wore a Jewish star.

Following the Lieb family’s abduction or departure, their business was taken over by the Antony family who ran a grocery and dairy store next door. The textile portion of the Lieb business was assumed by Heinrich Thiessen, who ran his own textile store on Poststraße.

My own research, as well as that of colleagues from Forum Gdansk, led to several documents from which the life of the Lieb/Lib family can partially be reconstructed.

Zalman Lib (Salomon Lieb) was born on the 21^st of December 1891. The difficult-to-read place of birth, combined with the possibility that the place name was incorrectly spelled by the registrar, is by appearances Dziewienszki (Polish), Dieveniškės (Lithuanian) (Figure 3), Divenishok (Lithuanian), or Jevenishok (Yiddish) (see Wikipedia and Jewish Gen KehilaLinks (English), including pictures of the town). Family surname listings for Divenishok show no Lieb or Lib; the closest is the surname “Leyb.”

Figure 3. Location of Dieveniškės, Lithuania, presumed birthplace of Salomon Lieb

Around 1928 Salomon Lieb opened his clothing store at the corner of Schulstraße and Poststraße. However, the “Adreßbuch Danzig-Land von 1927/28” does not have him listed in either Stutthof nor elsewhere in the Free City of Danzig. Presumably he was living in the region but without his own household.

The existence of the Lieb clothing store is documented in two places:

Günter Rehaag, “Ostseebad Stutthof” Band 2, Einwohnerverzeichnis Stutthof (Volume 2, Register of Residents Stutthof).

Number 1445:

Name: Antony, Walter, born 1908

Place of Residence: Stutthof, Schulstraße 2

Occupation: Merchant, Milk Butter Groceries, Schulstraße/corner Poststraße

Other: Besitz Fr. Löwner, tenants Rathke and Antony (early merchant Liep)

Info: Hermann Rohde

Deutsches Reichs-Adressbuch für Industrie, Gewerbe und Handel, 1934, Stutthof, Manufakturwaren (German Reich Address Book for Industry, Trade and Commerce, 1934, Stutthof, Manufactured Goods)

Dau, G. – Gerber, Fritz – Glodde, Alfr. – Lieb, Sal., – Thiessen, Heinrich (Figure 4)

Figure 4. Listing in the “Deutsches Reichs-Adressbuch für Industrie, Gewerbe und Handel, 1934, Stutthof, Manufakturwaren” documenting Solomon Lieb’s manufactured goods store. Readers will also note below the listing of manufactured goods retailers, the machine factor of “Epp & Co. GmbH”

(EDITOR’S NOTE: Readers will notice that immediately below the list of manufactured goods merchants on Figure 4, there is a single “Maschinenfabrik,” Machine Factory, with the merchant “Epp & Co. GmbH” listed. This would refer to Gerhard Epp who was a middle brother of two of my father’s friends from Tiegenhof [today: Nowy Dwór Gdański, Poland]).

In 1929 Salomon Lieb got married in Danzig. (Figures 5a-c).

Figure 5a. Cover page from ancestry.com of Sarra Woloweleski’s marriage to Salmon Lib on the 16th of July 1929 in Danzig, Free City of Danzig

Figure 5b. Page 1 of Sarra Wolowelski and Salmon Lib’s 16th of July 1929 marriage certificate

Figure 5c. Page 2 of Sarra Wolowelski and Salmon Lib’s 16th of July 1929 marriage certificate

The marriage certificate records the following information:

Registry Office Danzig I, Certificate Number 528 dated 16^th of July 1929

The merchant Salmon Lib, Jewish religion, born on the 21^st of December 1891 in Dziewienszki, district Oszmiany, Lithuania, living in Stutthof, Danziger lowland.

The parents are the merchant David Lib and his already deceased wife Tony, née Katz, both residing in Dziewienszki.

Married to Sarra Wolowelski, accountant, Jewish religion, born on the 31^st of August 1898/ 10^th of September 1898 (Julian/Gregorian calendar) at Pinsk-Karolin, Belarus (Figure 6), living in Danzig.

The parents are the merchant Josef Wolowelski and his wife Lea, née Menzel, both living in Pinsk-Karolin, Belarus.

Figure 6. Location of Pinsk, Belarus, birthplace of Sarra Wolowelski

In 1932, presumably in Stutthof, Salomon and Sarra’s daughter Tania was born.

The exclusion, harassment, and persecution of the Jew Salomon Lieb in Stutthof, supporting what Irmchen previously noted, is confirmed in the following account:

“Kurt Gutowski, son of a local blacksmith and later poet, has given anecdotal evidence in his short memoirs of the growth of fascism and racist ideologies in his home village (Gutowski, Kurt: Aus meiner Stutthöfer Kinderzeit, p. 66). Gutowski attributes the everyday fascism to his school principal Reinhold Zube, who asked students to damage deliveries to the Jewish department store Lieb to make them unusable. Zube pulled out of the ordered district council elections in November 1934 as a firebrand in the Kreistag. . .” (Zimmermann, Rüdiger: Friedrich Rohde (1895-1970), Danziger Volkstagsabgeordneter, Fischer und Sozialist, Bonn 2020, S. 44)

In 1936, the Lieb family left Stutthof. Whether they were, as Irmchen postulated, picked up in a “Nacht und Nebel” action, or they left Stutthof quietly and secretly on their own remains unclear. The latter is supported by the above-mentioned meeting with Mrs. Lieb, who was apparently living in freedom in Danzig. (EDITOR’S NOTE: After all my father’s dental clients had abandoned him, he left nearby Tiegenhof in around fall 1937 in favor of Berlin where the anonymity of a larger city temporarily provided Jews like him more freedom of movement and economic opportunities. For the same reason, the Liebs may have felt that Danzig as a larger city might similarly and temporarily provide haven.)

The likelihood that the Liebs were living in Danzig is also supported by another written account: “. . . at the home of the Danzig merchant Salomon Lieb, officials of the Tax Investigation Office discovered 30,000 Danzig guilders in gold which they confiscated along with his savings account balance of 3,000 guilders, even though Lieb no longer ran a commercial business. Nonetheless, the Financial Authority claimed he had tax debts and seized the gold coins as an alleged tax liability and tax penalty.” (Sopade 1938, p. 770f.) (Banken, Ralf: “Hitlers Steuerstaat: Die Steuerpolitik im Dritten Reich”, 2018, S. 555, Fußnote 256)

These monetary assets suggest that Salomon Lieb had successfully sold his business and stock of goods in Stutthof to the merchants Walter Antony and Heinrich Thiessen.

Where the Lieb family then lived between 1936 and 1942 remains unclear, possibly Danzig? The Liebs are not listed in Danzig Address Books of 1937/38 and 1939, although this is not definitive proof that they did not stay in the city. Alternatively, they may have returned to Dziewienszki, Salomon’s place of birth. There is documentary evidence from a 1942 Ghetto List that Salomon Lieb and his daughter Tania, without the wife/mother Sarra, were in the Woronów Ghetto.

From a Ghetto-List – https://www.avivshoa.co.il/pdf/Ghetto-List-1.8.2014.pdf (Figure 7)

Figure 7. Link to source of 1942 Woronowo ghetto list

COLUMN 1: Nr. 5288

COLUMN 2: Woronowo (Voranava [Bel], (Voronovo [Rus], Woronów [Pol], Voronova [Yid], Voranova, Voronov, Voronove, Werenów, Woronowo)

COLUMN 3: until 1941: Poland, Gebiet Nowogrodek; until 1944/1945: Reichskommissariat Ostland (White Ruthenia); today: Belarus, Gebiet Grodno (Hrodna) region

COLUMN 4: Opening 1^st June 1941

COLUMN 5: Liquidation 30^th September 1943

COLUMN 6: Deportations Lida

COLUMN 7: Remarks: on the 11^th of May 1942, 1,291 persons were shot

COLUMN 8: Handbook of Detention Centers Belarus (1941-1944), 2001; Encyclopedia of Jewish Life, 2001 [EDITOR’s NOTE: The specific ghetto list with Salomon and Tania’s name on it appears in one of these publications.]

COLUMN 9: Date of Addition: 1^st of August 2014

The map shows that the distance from the Woronów Ghetto [today: Voronovo, Belarus] to Dziewienszki [today: Dieveniškės, Lithuania] is only about 15.4 miles or 25km. (Figure 8)

Figure 8. Map showing distance from Dieveniškės, Lithuania, where Salomon Lieb was born, to the Woronowo (Voronovo) ghetto in Belarus where he and his daughter Tania were murdered

Following a request to the “Arolsen Archives International Center on Nazi Persecution,” they sent a file about the Liebs. This file does not indicate when and from where the Lieb family was taken to the Woronów Ghetto. Salomon Lieb is arrested in the ghetto on the 19^th of May 1942 and shot during an “action.” (Figures 9a-d) In the case of the 10-year-old daughter Tania the date of her arrest is given as the beginning of June 1942; she too is shot during an “action.” (Figures 10a-c)

Figure 9a. Page 1 of Salomon Lieb’s file from the Arolsen Archives

Figure 9b. Page 2 of Salomon Lieb’s file from the Arolsen Archives; circled question indicates he lived on Weidengasse in Danzig

Figure 9c. Page 3 of Salomon Lieb’s file from the Arolsen Archives

Figure 9d. Page 4 of Salomon Lieb’s file from the Arolsen Archives

Figure 10a. Page 1 of Tania Lieb’s file from the Arolsen Archives

Figure 10b. Page 2 of Tania Lieb’s file from the Arolsen Archives; circled question indicates she lived on Weidengasse in Danzig

Figure 10c. Page 3 of Tania Lieb’s file from the Arolsen Archives

[EDITOR’S NOTE: In Figure 9b of the questionnaire in Salomon Lieb’s Arolsen Archives file, under question 9, and on Figure 10b. of Tania Lieb’s file is written in German the following: “9. Letzte Anschrift vor der Inhaftierung: Stutthof bei Danzig bis etwa 1936, dann Danzig in der nähe der Weidengasse,” translated as “9. Last address before imprisonment: Stutthof near Danzig until about 1936, then Danzig near Weidengasse.” (Figure 11) This confirms that Salomon and Tania Lieb lived in Danzig after leaving Stutthof, although there is no indication for how long.]

Figure 11. Pre-WWII map of Danzig with arrows pointing to location of Weidengasse where the Liebs lived, and to Mäusegasse where the Jewish ghetto in Danzig was located

[UWE SAGER’S HISTORICAL NOTE: At today’s ulica Owsiana in Gdansk, Poland (formerly Mäusegasse pointed out on Figure 11) there was a granary (Figure 12) with the charming name “Red Mouse” at number 7. In 1939 it served as a Nazi gathering point for Jews imprisoned in Danzig and was thus a kind of Danzig ghetto. The Germans were able to gather in it about 600 people who, for one reason or another, had not left Danzig when the Jewish community emigrated before the outbreak of war. The ghetto existed until 1943, when the remaining Jews were taken to the Auschwitz and Theresienstadt concentration camps. The fact that Salomon and Tania Lieb were murdered in the Woronów Ghetto rather than in Auschwitz or Theresienstadt suggests that they returned to Dziewienszki, Salomon’s place of birth, before being deported and murdered.]

Figure 12. Photo of the “Rote Maus,” the “Red House,” a granary that served as a Nazi detention center for Jews in Danzig until 1943 when the remaining Jews were deported and murdered in either Auschwitz or Theresienstadt

Nothing is known about the whereabouts of the wife/mother Sarra, not even on the list of survivors of the Woronów Ghetto. It cannot be ruled out that Sarra died between 1936 and 1942.

In the unpublished English-language manuscript written by Moshe Berkowitz entitled “Woronow, Voronova (Voranava, Belarus) 54°09′ / 25°20′,” Chapter XIII describes how the Jewish inhabitants of Diveneshok and neighboring villages were taken to Voronovo. Before their deportation, a delegation from the villages tried to negotiate with the Germans: “The delegation was as follows: LIEB; Hirsh SCHMID; YUTAN; and KOTLIAR from Diveneshok. . .” (Figure 13) Unfortunately, the first name of LIEB is missing so it is not clear whether it refers to Salomon Lieb.

Figure 13. Chapter XIII of Moshe Berkowitz’s unpublished manuscript with the names of the Jewish residents from Divenoshok and surrounding towns who “negotiated” with the Nazis before being deported to the Voronovo ghetto, including a man with the surname of “LIEB”

Chapter XV of the manuscript describes the massacre in Woronow, which took place on the 11^th of May 1942, shortly preceding Salomon Lieb’s own death.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to thank the subscribers from the Danzig Forum, as well as the Arolsen Archive for providing the file on the Lieb family. My goal was not to write a book but as mentioned at the outset, to give the Lieb family a place in our consciousness. Therefore, I ask for your understanding that I have kept my post short.

The following is the file from the Arolsen Archives.

Copy of 6.3.3.3/82889670 through 82889675

In conformity with IST Digital Archives

With kind permission of the publication by above mentioned archive.

REFERENCES

Banken, Ralf. Hitlers Steuerstaat: Die Steuerpolitik im Dritten Reich (Hitler’s Tax State: Tax Policy in the Third Reich). De Gruyter Oldenbourg, 2018.

Berkowitz, Moshe. Woronow, Voronova (Voranava, Belarus) 54°09′ / 25°20′. https://www.jewishgen.org/Yizkor/voronovo1/voronovo1.html

Gutowski, Kurt. Aus meiner Stutthöfer Kinderzeit (From my Stutthöfer childhood). J. Pinnow, 1999.

Rehaag, Günter. Ostseebad Stutthof: Band 2, Einwohnerverzeichnis Stutthof (Volume 2, Register of Residents Stutthof).

Zimmerman, Rüdiger. Friedrich Rohde (1895-1970). Danziger Volkstagsabgeordneter, Fischer und Sozialist (Friedrich Rohde (1895-1970) Danziger Volkstag, fisherman and socialist). Bonn, 2020.

POST 114, POSTSCRIPT—EDWARD HANS LINDENBERGER, A DISTANT COUSIN: DID HE SURVIVE BUCHENWALD?—HIS FATE UNCOVERED

Note: In this postscript to Post 114, I discuss supplementary documents I obtained from The Arolsen Archives that tragically confirm precisely when and where my distant cousin Edward Hans Lindenberger died.

In Post 114, I posed the rhetorical question of whether my remote cousin Edward Hans Lindenberger, born on the 27^th of July 1925 in Bielitz, Poland [today: Bielsko-Biała, Poland], might somehow have survived the barbaric, brutal, and inhumane internment in a Nazi Konzentrationslager (abbreviated in German as KL or KZ). As I explained to readers in my original post, while researching various Holocaust databases, I discovered an online 10-page file on him in The Arolsen Archives. From this I learned or confirmed a few things, namely, that Edward Lindenberger had survived at least through the 27^th of January 1945; that he had been interned in KL Mittelbau-Dora, formerly a subcamp of KL Buchenwald; that his occupation in the KL was “mechaniker,” a mechanic; and that his father was the merchant, “Kaufmann. Mauricius L.,” and his mother “Alzbieta L. geb. Strausz.” I reviewed the contents of this file in my original post.

What the materials failed to indicate is what might have happened to Edward Lindenberger following his arrival in KL Mittelbau-Dora. As implausible as it seems, I held out hope that he might have outlasted the unsurvivable. Knowing he’d arrived there in January of 1945, likely transferred in pitiable condition from KL Auschwitz-Birkenau, but aware that US troops had freed the inmates who’d not been evacuated by the Nazis on the 11^th of April 1945, there seemed a very remote possibility he might have hung on long enough to be rescued. Historic accounts describing the final hectic days of inmates who’d been incarcerated in Mittelbau-Dora and the Nazis’ efforts at ensuring none survived made this improbable; still, I was determined to ascertain his fate, if possible. This is an ongoing attempt to document the fate and remember my ancestors, as unimportant as their lives may seem to some.

The Arolsen Archives website implied additional documentation on the Häftlingen, inmates, at the Buchenwald and Mittelbau-Dora concentration camps might be available. I sent them an email inquiring about such records with scant expectations that relevant materials might still exist. Thus, it came as a surprise when after several weeks The Arolsen Archives sent me 50 pages of supplementary materials, including six lists with Edward Lindenberger’s name!

The first ten pages of the file include a series of letters from 1974 and 1980. A letter dated the 7th of Febuary 1974 was sent from the Staatsanwaltschaft, the Public Prosecutor’s Office for the German State of North Rhine-Westphalia in Köln, Germany (Cologne, Germany) to the International Tracing Service of the Red Cross (ITRC), predecessor of The Arolsen Archives. (Figure 1) In this letter, the Public Prosecutor’s Office attached a typed list with the names of some prisoners who died at the Rottleberode subcamp (KZ-Außenlager Rottleberode – Wikipedia) of KL Mittelbau-Dora, requesting any documents related to these individuals. (Figure 2) The names were derived from Todesbücher, death books, presumably from Buchenwald and Mittelbau-Dora. In the case of Edward Lindenberger, his name was found in Totenbuch Nummer 7931, Death Book Number 7931; it included his name, a prisoner number, “Häftlingsnummer 105715 Jude,” and date of birth, 27^th of July 1925, confirming this was my distant cousin; this list established that Edward never reached his 20^th birthday as I surmised in Post 114. On this list, Edward is recorded as having died on the 29^th of March 1945 (more on this below).

Figure 1. Letter dated the 7th of February 1974 from the Public Prosecutor in the German State of North Rhine-Westphalia to the International Tracing Service of the Red Cross, later The Arolsen Archives, to which was attached a list of Jews who died at a subcamp of KL Mittelbau-Dora named Rottleberode

Figure 2. One of several pages attached to the Public Prosecutor from North Rhine-Westphalia’s letter of the 7th of February 1974 with the list of internees who died in Mittelbau-Dora, including Edward Lindenberger’s name, date of birth, and date of death

During WWII, the Rottleberode subcamp (KZ-Außenlager Rottleberode – Wikipedia) in which Edward Lindenberger was interned was initially a subcamp of the Buchenwald concentration camp from March 1944 until October 1944, at which time it became a subcamp of the Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp, along with another subcamp in Stempeda. Following Edward’s arrival in Rottleberode (KZ-Außenlager Rottleberode – Wikipedia) he along with the other concentration camp inmates appear to have been tasked with assembling components of the Junkers Ju 88 and Junkers Ju 188 aircraft in an expanded gypsum cave that had been converted into an underground factory for the production of these aircraft and placed under the command of the SS. Conditions, as I explained in Post 114, were brutal.

A second undated handwritten list included among the documents sent to me by The Arolsen Archives revealed Edward Lindenberger’s name as one of the prisoners who died on the 29^th of March 1945 in Rottleberode (KZ-Außenlager Rottleberode – Wikipedia). (Figure 3) His prisoner number on this list, namely 105715, coincides with the number on the attachment to the letter dated the 7^th of February 1974, discussed above.

Figure 3. Undated handwritten list with Edward Lindenberger’s name, date of birth, date of death, showing he died in subcamp Rottleberode (top of the last column)

A third list, this one dated the 30^th of March 1945, confirmed that Edward Lindenberger died at 5am the preceding day of “Pleurit.de.” (Figures 4a-b) More on this below.

Figure 4a. The first part of a list dated the 30th of March 1945 with the names, dates of birth, dates of death, and cause of death of internees who died in the days preceding the 30th of March

Figure 4b. The second part of a list dated the 30th of March 1945 with Edward Lindenberger’s nams, date of birth, date of death, and time and cause of death

A fourth list with Edward Lindenberger’s name is dated the 17^th of January 1945, identical to the date he is presumed to have arrived at KL Buchenwald based on forms on file at The Arolsen Archives; this register gives his date and place of birth, and his occupation. Interestingly, his prisoner number on this list “114883” corresponds with the number he was assigned upon his arrival at Buchenwald, that’s to say, when he was still living. (Figure 5)

Figure 5. One page of a much longer list with Edward Lindenberger’s name dated the 17th of January 1945 when he is presumed to have arrived in KL Buchenwald, possibly transferred from Auschwitz-Birkenau

On a fifth list dated the 22^nd of January 1945 from Weimar-Buchenwald, Edward’s name appears among a group of 2740 Jews newly arrived in so-called “Lager II,” Camp 2. (Figures 6a-b)

Figure 6a. Cover page of a longer list dated the 22nd of January 1945 bearing the names of 2740 prisoners who arrived in so-called “Lager II,” Camp 2

Figure 6b. Edward Lindenberger’s name found on Page 16 of a list dated the 22nd of January 1945 with the names of 2740 prisoners who arrived in so-called “Lager II,” Camp 2

The final list with Edward Lindenberger’s name, titled “Häftlingsschreibstube K.L. Buchenwald,” Prisoner’s Office KL Buchenwald, has two dates, the 27^th of January 1945 and the 23^rd of January 1945. Insofar as I can determine, this appears to be a list of the inmates who were transferred from KL Buchenwald to KL Mittelbau during this period. (Figures 7a-b)

Figure 7a. Cover page of a list with two dates, January 23 and 27, 1945, with the names of inmates seemingly transported from KL Buchenwald to KL Mittelbau

Figure 7b. Page 4 of the list dated the 23rd and 27th of January 1945 bearing Edward Lindenberger’s name, possibly corresponding to the period when he was transferred from KL Buchenwald to KL Mittelbau

The final document included in the file of papers sent to me by The Arolsen Archives, amazingly, is tantamount to a “death certificate” for Edward Lindenberger. Given the literally millions of Jews the Nazis murdered, it is stunning they ever took the time to complete death certificates for any of their victims. I have only ever once previously come across such certificates for Jews who died in concentration camps, in the instance of Jews murdered in Theresienstadt in then-Czechoslovakia; those forms, however, appear to have been completed posthumously.

Edward Lindenberger’s death certificate is difficult to read, so I have transcribed and translated it for readers, as best as I can. (Figures 8a-c) It is informative in several respects. The date of Edward’s death is given as the 28^th of March 1945 in contrast with the date of the 29^th of March 1945 written on a few of the lists mentioned above. Edward’s time of death, 5am, again is specified; the fact the Nazis would note the hour he died, stunning as this is, speaks to Germans’ penchant for exactitude.

Figure 8a. The poor copy of the document that is tantamount to Edward Lindenberger’s “death certificate” derived from The Arolsen Archives indicating that he died at 5am on the 28th of March 1945 in the prisoner infirmary in KL Mittelbau of pleurisy

Figure 8b. The German transcription of Edward Lindenberger’s death certificate

Figure 8c. Translation of Edward Lindenberger’s death certificate

Edward Lindenberger’s Häftlings-Personal-Bogen (Detainee Personnel Sheet) discussed in Post 114, was the most informative record of those completed upon his arrival at KL Buchenwald. (Figure 9) On this form, above the printed word Konzentrationslager, is handwritten “Pol. Jude,” signifying Edward was a Polish Jew. As I stated in Post 114, the Nazis assigned each concentration camp inmate to a category, making it clear why he or she had been arrested. Assignment to a detention group, like nationality, led to a hierarchy in the camp, since the groups were subject to different rules, among these the amount of food or the hardship of the work. Therefore, prisoner category and nationality had an impact on one’s chances of survival. Readers will note that on his death certificate, the abbreviation “PJ” (i.e., Polnischer Jude) is used showing that Edward’s classification followed him to his death.

Figure 9. Edward Lindenberger’s “Häftlings-Personal-Bogen” (Detainee Personnel Sheet) upon which is written above “Konzentrationslager” “Pol. Jude” for Polish Jew

What is equally surprising is that his death certificate specified his cause of death, “Pleuritis dextra,” pleurisy. This corresponds to his cause of death cited on the list of deceased internees dated the 30^th of March 1945 as “Pleurit.de.” Pleurisy is a condition in which the pleura — two large, thin layers of tissue that separate your lungs from your chest wall — becomes inflamed. Also called pleuritis, pleurisy causes sharp chest pain (pleuritic pain) that worsens during breathing. A variety of conditions can cause pleurisy including a viral infection such as the flu; bacterial infection such as pneumonia; tuberculosis; rib fracture or trauma; etc. Given the arduous and unhealthy conditions to which camp internees were exposed one can only assume this was the cause of Edward’s illness.

The final thing I would note about the information on Edward’s death certificate is the title of the individual who signed the form:

“Der SDG im Häftlingskrankenbau

SS Uscha.”

From this we learn that Edward passed away in KL Mittelbau-Dora’s Häftlingskrankenbau, or prisoner infirmary. I was eventually able to determine that “SDG” (Sanitätswesen (KZ) – Wikipedia) is the abbreviation for “Sanitätsdienstgrad,” or “medical rank,” and that “SS Uscha.” is an SS-Unterscharführer, a Sergeant in the SS. Putting all this together, we learn that camp doctors in concentration camps were assigned so-called SS medical ranks, “SDG,” as auxiliary personnel. These auxiliary personnel acted as SS members in the prisoner infirmaries as nurses. These medical ranks typically had no or only short nursing assistant courses (i.e., paramedics), and practically no medical knowledge. It’s clear that even if the Nazis had had any interest in restoring Edward to health, the SDG that staffed the prisoner infirmary at Mittelbau would have been unable to competently perform this function.

In closing, I would remark on a few things. It’s unclear to me to what extent The Arolsen Archives retain records on concentration camp inmates who were interned and/or murdered in the various concentration camps. I typically access Yad Vashem and similar Holocaust databases to try and determine the fate of my Jewish ancestors whose fate is unknown to me or who I suspect may have been murdered during the Shoah, with mixed results. The extent of information I was able to track down on my distant cousin Edward Lindenberger came as a surprise. For readers in a similar situation, having perhaps found some mention of one’s ancestors in The Arolsen Archives, I suggest sending them an email inquiring whether additional information exists which has not been automated. The results of such inquiries may be sobering, but it may allow readers to find some closure. While it should come as no surprise to me, the further I delve into my family’s ancestry, sadly the more family members I learn were victims of Nazi atrocities.