The history of the Brackman family, known formerly as Brachmann, is a story of Eastern European Jewish history, tragedy and revival. This article aims to offer for the first time a chronological outline of the history of the Brachmann family of Latvia, as its broader extended family, providing a sketch of its past up to the present, which will hopefully serve as the basis for further research and memorial. The history of the Brackman family can be traced back to the end of the 18th century with the presence of Jews in Kuldīga, known also by its Germanic name, Goldingen, Latvia. The family seems to have had a substantial presence in the city with many related family members. The end of the Brachmann family in Latvia, as with millions of others in Eastern Europe, tragically ends in 1941 with old and young slaughtered in the Holocaust at the hands of the Nazis and Latvian collaborators. This took place, amongst other nearby places, in the dunes on the Baltic Sea, in what constituted one of the most open and horrific killings during the Holocaust. To understand the history of the Brackman family one needs to attempt to understand the history of the Jews of Kuldiga.[1]
History of Kuldiga
Kuldiga is an ancient town in western Latvia that is mentioned for the first time in 1242. In 1368, Kuldiga (then known in German as Goldingen) became a member of the Hanseatic League of trading cities by virtue of its location as a river port with an outlet to the Baltic Sea. From 1596 until 1616, Kuldiga was the capital of the Duchy of Courland, and enjoyed its most prosperous period in the 17th century. During this economic boom, a shipyard and a nail and anchor forge were established. The town was captured and damaged by Swedish armies during the Great Northern War in 1702. The town was incorporated into the Russian Empire in 1795 and suffered some stagnation until the Imperial "Rule on Trade and Industrial Freedom" in 1866 that allowed economic opportunities and some commensurate growth.
Arrival of Jews and founding of Jewish community in Kuldiga
Jews had been scattered without legal status in Courland from as early as the late fourteenth century. It is believed that the first Jewish settlement in Kuldiga began at the end of the seventeenth century. However, it was only from 1795, after Courland was annexed by Russia, that Jews in the region were granted civic rights and Jewish communities in Kuldiga and elsewhere grew quickly. In 1800, there were 658 Jewish merchants and craftsmen living in the Goldingen district, fifteen percent of the total district population of 4350. In approximately 1801, the first official synagogue was built and a burial society (chevra kadisha) was founded. A short while thereafter a "Talmud Torah" school was built and a society for help to poor brides (Gemilut Chassadim) and other Jewish social organizations were formed. The first rabbi assumed office in 1826. One illustrious rabbi was the father of the founder of the Musar movement, Rabbi Israel Lipkin, known as Yisrael Salanter. The first state school for Jewish boys was organized in 1850.
Jews who had the means also sent their children to the local German high school. By 1901 there were three private Jewish schools in the town; one for boys and the other two for girls. The languages of instruction at the schools were German and Hebrew. The first Jews to settle in Kuldiga were strongly influenced by German culture and by the Jewish enlightenment movement, the Haskalah. A later influx of Jews from the Pale of Settlement in Russia and from Lithuania consisted in large part of "shomrei masoret" (religious observers), and they organized a group of Chassidim. Kuldiga's Jews earned a living through small scale commerce, peddling, the sale of second-hand clothing, the leasing of inns, production of strong liquors and as middlemen. From the end of the 19th century their economic situation began to improve and the Jewish merchants in some cases supplanted the Baltic German businessmen. Jews, for example, built a flour mill and factories for the manufacture of matches and needles and established a credit fund for Jewish merchants and tradesmen.
By 1835, the total Jewish population was 2330, fifty-seven percent of the population. In 1850, there were a total of 2534 Jewish residents, of whom 112 were merchants and 1137 working craftsmen. In 1840, 171 of Kuldiga's Jews (22 families) left for agricultural settlements in the southern Russian province of Cherson, to take up a Czarist offer of land and exemption from military service and certain taxes in return for settling these territories bordering the Ottoman Empire. In the second half of the century a large number of Latvians came to the town and the Jewish community lost its majority status. In 1897 there were 2,543 Jewish residents, twenty-six percent of a total population of 9,720.
Jewish migration from Kuldiga to Liepaja and beyond
Along with difficult economic and political times in the later half of the nineteenth century, Kuldiga's Jews began to emigrate. Some stayed in Latvia but moved to the larger port cities of Libau, also called Liepaja, in the south, and Windau in the north, where there was greater economic activity. Others, either using these cities as jumping-off points or leaving directly from Kuldiga, emigrated to the U.S. or South Africa. One of the causes that allowed for emigration was the development in maritime transportation that both increased the number of emigrants and pointed them in specific directions. Not only did steamship services become more affordable, more regular and safer, but agents of large European shipping lines posted in Russia encouraged potential emigrants to travel to destinations according to the economic needs of the shipping companies. "Package deals" for Baltic Jews to South Africa, travelling via England, were one such incentive; passage to the U.S. via Hamburg was another.
Evacuation of Jews during First World War
By 1935 the Jewish population had declined to only nine percent of the town's 7000 inhabitants. Much of this decline was due to the fact that during the First World War, the Jews of Courland were banished to the interior of Russia as suspected German sympathizers. During the course of the war many community buildings and Jewish houses were destroyed. After the war about a third of the Jews returned to the town and the community was rehabilitated with the help of the "Joint" (a relief agency of American Jewry). The Jews gradually re-consolidated their position and in 1935, of the 205 shops and businesses in the town, 95 were owned by Jews.
The Holocaust in Kuldiga and end of the Jewish community
On August 23, 1939, the Soviet Army established bases in Latvia and in the summer of 1940 a Soviet regime was installed. Jewish public institutions were gradually liquidated. After the Nazi invasion of Russia in June 1941, about one-tenth of the Jews of Kuldiga succeeded in escaping to the interior of Russia. The young men among them were conscripted into the Soviet Army. On July 1, 1941, when the Nazis occupied the city, the majority of the Jewish community were still there. Immediately thereafter Latvian fascists began rioting against the Jews and murdered several of them, instigated by Nazi propaganda. The remaining Jews were ordered to perform forced labor. During 1941-2, Jews were concentrated and were systematically murdered in pits which they had been forced to dig in various places in the city. Some were taken to be murdered in the Padura Forest, a few kilometres from the town. The Kuldiga Jews were thereby destroyed by the beginning of 1942, the property of the Jews was divided among their murderers and the Torah scrolls were put into the municipal archives.
Several Jews, hidden by farmers, survived. The town was liberated by the Soviets in 1944. After the war a number of families returned to the town. Some of these Jews were killed by opponents of the Soviet regime. The survivors brought back the remains of those murdered for a Jewish burial and the Torah scrolls were returned to the Jews who organized services. The synagogue however, which had been converted into a movie house, was not returned (and remains today a cinema). Over time the survivors left the town, many of them made aliyah to Israel and the community ceased to exist, ending the approximately 150-year history of the Jewish community of Kuldiga.
The Brachmann family of Kuldiga
As mentioned, the modern settlement of Jews in Kuldiga can be traced to 1795 when Kuldiga was annexed by Russia and Jews were given civic rights to live there as citizens. It appears that it was during this first wave of Jews settling in Kuldiga, circa 1800, when the Brachman family arrived, though it is possible they had been in the area since 17th century or earlier. The first mention of the name Brachmann residing in Kuldiga is found in the 1842 family register in the State Historical Archives in Riga that shows the names of Jewish families then resident in Goldingen (Kuldiga), together with first names, father’s name, occasionally age and some comments. The list was transcribed and donated by Dr. Martha Lev-Zion of Ben Gurion University.[2] In this register, it lists two Brachmann names: Baruch son of Heyman Brachmann (no. 227) and Chaim son of Baruch Brachmann (no. 5).
It seems clear from this list that the name Brachmann came from the name Baruch, similar to the other names on the list, whose surname is a derivative of their first name.[3] As, for example, the Hirsch’s family name is Hirschberg and Ahron is Ahronsberg, similarly, Baruch would have become Brachmann. The father of Baruch Brachmann is Heyman. The only Heyman on the 1842 list is a Heymann son of Salomon Nogaller (no. 125), who may have been the grandfather. It seems that Nogaller comes from a name of nearby district in Courland with a similar name. From the Kuldiga register of 1842, it appears that Heyman had an extensive family, in addition to his son Baruch, as one can see many of them associated their family names with the patriarchal name Heyman. It is possible that the following list of people in the 1842 register were sons of Heyman: Salomon son of Heyman Glatzmann; Levin son of Heymann Heymansohn; Behr son of Heymann Weinberg; Daniel son of Heymann Braneburger; and Abraham son of Heymann Shachter.
The following could have been his grandchildren: Josel son of Salomon Heyman; Behr son of Abraham Heyman.In addition, there is an Isaac Blumberg son of Samuel, listed as nephew to Heymann Salomon Nogaller, and Levin son of Samuel Blumberg, also nephew to Heymann Salomon Nogaller. Finally, there is also a Levin son of Michel Heymansohn; Salomon son of Chaim Heymann; and Levin son of Chaim Heymann. Although it can’t be proven with certainty, they were all related, it is likely they were, as would have been typical to life of a Shtetl. The family would thus have appeared to have been well settled in Kuldiga, as the Heyman/Brachmann family.
1799 tax register of Jews of Kuldiga
There is also an earlier register of Jews of Kuldiga that is dated 1799, called the “Goldingen Oklad (tax) 1799” and is among the earliest of the Courland archival records. It was microfilmed in 1940 and is now held by the Herder Institute at the University of Marburg, Germany. The copies were made from a set held by the Family History Library of the Mormon Church, and is used with the permission of the Herder Institute. In the Goldingen Oklad (tax) 1799 register (www.jewishgen.org/courland/goldingen.htm), there are two listings with the name Heymann. This could have been Baruch’s father, Heyman, mentioned in the 1842 census. One is listed as Heymann son of Salomon Marcus and Rive. His brother was also called Marcus. Another listing is Heymann Salomon, whose mother was Mine and brother Boroch and sister Dewora.
If this is so, it would then appear that the Brachmann family was one of the earlier families to arrive in the 18th century in Kuldiga and grew to be a sizable family in the town with many relatives. We can derive from the above the following possible lineage from 1799 to 1842: Salomon, Heyman, Boruch Brachmann and Chaim Brachmann. Other related Brachmann's are listed in the Courland register, as army recruits, including Fabian Brachmann son of Henoch, born in 1819, and Baruch son of Henoch, born in 1816, both residents of Kuldiga.[4] They appear to be brothers, both sons of Henoch. Other Brachmanns found in Kuldiga are Abraham Brachmann and Meta Brachmann.[5]
Aron son of Chanoch Brachmann
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The next Brachmann family member of the 19th century listed to be born in Kuldiga is Aron Brachmann son of Chanoch. As Aron was likely born around 1850, he is not recorded in the 1842 register. Aron Brachmann married Clara Danziger (or Fitelson), born in Kuldiga on 11 January, 1857. Aron and Clara had three children: Freide (born 12 December, 1892), Golda - Paula (19 September, 1882 -1962) and Shalom Shachna - Sasha (Sidney), born 1896.[6]
(Picture of Aron Brachmann, thanks to Hugo and Chava Agmon. On the back of the picture, it states: "A C Brachmann, d. 1938 Libau". It is unclear what the C stands for. It is possible he had a second name or alternatively it refers to his father, Chanoch)
It is likely that Chanoch, father of Aron, was the son of Chaim Brachmann. Chanoch must have then been about fifteen years old in 1842, and had Aron in 1850’s, as Aron later married Clara, who was born in 1857. The youthfulness of Chanoch in 1842 (around 15 years old) is the reason for omission of his name in the 1842 census. We would then have a clear line of the Brachmann family of Kuldiga from 1799 to 1938, as follows: Salomon, Heyman, Baruch, Chaim, Chanoch and Aron.
(Picture of Clara Brachmann, thanks to Hugo and Chava Agmon. On the back of the picture, it states: "d. 1941. Killed by the German Nazis")
Brachmanns leave Kuldiga for Liepaja
Many of the Brachmann family did not stay in Kuldiga, however; they moved further west to Liepaja, a port city on the Baltic Sea and third biggest city in Latvia. There is evidence that Aron and Clara both died in Liepaja. In a Holocaust person sheet it states Clara was born in Kuldiga and was killed by the Nazis in Liepaja in 1941.[7] Aron died on 30 November 1938 in Liepaja and is buried in the Jewish cemetery in Liepaja. His burial is listed in the Liepaja Jewish Cemetery book 1935-1941 with the name Aron son of Chanoch Bruchman, passed away 30 November, 1938 / 8 Kislev, 5699.[8] Another entry in the Liepaja Jewish Cemetery book 1935-1941 is Abram son of Chanoch Bruchman, passed away 4 January, 1935 / 1 Shvat, 5695. It is likely that Aron and Abram, who died in Liepaja 2 years apart, were brothers, both sons of Chanoch. The name that appears in Liepaja Jewish Cemetery book 1935-1941 is spelled however Bruchman. As it explains in the introduction to the cemetery book, the names are recorded from the Hebrew without concern for precise spelling in the English.
The former president of the Jewish community of Liepaja, Ilana Ivanova, found listed in the Jewish cemetery of Liepaja the following Brachmann names:
1. Itzig – sector C-row 12- grave 13
2. Chane Beile- sector F-row 15-grave 37- grave No.1076
3. Dawid –sector M-row 6- grave 3- grave No.127
4. Itzik –sector N-row 21-grave 14
5. Dwore-sector M-row 7- grave 41- gvae No. 992
6. Riwke-sector M- row 4-grave 58- grave No.636
7. Abrahm –sector N-row 21- grave 11-grave No.154C
8. Aron –sector F-row 6- grave 47- grave No. 568C
When did Brachmann’s leave Kuldiga?
It is not known with certainty when the Brachmann family left Kuldiga for Liepaja. However, it could not have been before 1897, as Shalom was born in Kuldiga in 1897. There were three waves when Jews left Kuldiga. The first was during the 19th century, when Jews were looking for greater economic opportunities and they moved to the major strategic port cities of Liepaja (Libau) and Windau, where there was greater economic activity. The second wave was the evacuation of the Jews during the First World War, when the Jews of Courland were banished to the interior of Russia as suspected German sympathizers. During the course of the war many community buildings and Jewish houses were destroyed and after the war only about a third of the Jews returned to the town. The third wave was after the Nazi invasion of Russia in June 1941, when about one-tenth of the Jews of Kuldiga succeeded in escaping to the interior of Russia and many were conscripted. The majority of those who stayed were rounded up and shot by the Nazis. As the Brachmann's moved to Liepaja, rather than the Russian interior, it would seem the migration of the Brachmann family from Kuldiga was in the 19th or beginning of the 20th century, due to economic reasons, rather than political, not long after the birth of Freide.
Brachmann's Liepaja home
The Aron and Clara Brachmann home in Liepaja, in December, 1938, was at Uliha iela 58-1 (pictured), a wooden exterior apartment building, located on the corner of Leona Paegles street.[9] This can still be seen almost without any changes today. This was located with the help of Liepaja Holocaust survivor, Professor Ed Anders, who lived two blocks north on the same street. In 1941, the building contained three apartments with a total of 23 people. In apartment 1 lived the Brachmann and Glaser family, 6 people; in apartment 2 lived the Schalmann family, 8 people; in apartment 3 lived the Sadowitz, Westermann and Finkelstein family members, 8 people.
(Picture: Freide with her sister, Paula, together with Paula's son Henry Alperstein on a visit to Libau from South Africa before WWII)
The list of people in the building was as follows:[10]
Brachmann Clara 11 Jan 1857 Kuldiga Ulicha 58-1 1941 Killed
Glaser Freide 12 Dec 1892 Kuldiga Ulicha 58-1 abt 1941 Killed
Glaser Hena 3 Apr 1927 Liepaja Ulicha 58-1 1941 Killed
Glaser Henoch 1 Jan 1932 Liepaja Ulicha 58-1 abt 1941 Killed?
Glaser Josef abt 1892 ? Ulicha 58-1 abt 1941 Killed?
Glaser Selma 8 Feb 1930 Liepaja Ulicha 58-1 1941 Killed
Sachs Chaja 14 Jul 1886 Grobina Ulicha 58-2 abt 1941 Killed
Schalmann Abram 1900 ? Ulicha 58-2 abt 1941 Killed
Schalmann Eda 25 Mar 1931 Liepaja Ulicha 58-2 abt 1941 Killed
Schalmann Esther 27 Sep 1924 Liepaja Ulicha 58-2 abt 1941 Killed
Schalmann Feige 7 Mar 1897 __ LT Ulicha 58-2 abt 1941 Killed, NoHusband?
Schalmann Mordechai 15 Aug 1929 Liepaja Ulicha 58-2 abt 1941 Killed
Schalmann Pnina 3 Jun 1921 Liepaja Ulicha 58-2 abt 1941 Killed
Schalmann Schifre 1 Mar 1926 Liepaja Ulicha 58-2 abt 1941 Killed?
Finkelstein Scheine 15 Feb 1936 Liepaja Ulicha 58-3 abt 1941 Killed
Sadowitz Jankel-Jakob 1 Feb 1906 Grodno/PL Ulicha 58-3 Feb 1942 Killed
Sadowitz Josef-Naftali 13 Feb 1936 Liepaja Ulicha 58-3 Feb 1942 Killed
Sadowitz Kalman 17 Jun 1932 Grobina Ulicha 58-3 Feb 1942 Killed
Sadowitz Mascha 28 May 1902 Grobina Ulicha 58-3 Feb 1942 Killed
Westermann Aron 1882 Liepaja? Ulicha 58 23 Jul 1941 Killed
Westermann Daniel 1922 Liepaja Ulicha 58 23 Jul 1941 Killed
Westermann Scheine 19 Dec 1883 Palanga/LT Ulicha 58-3 abt 1941 Killed
Zibul Motke 15 Jan 1922 Rezekne Barenu 34-2 abt 1941 Killed?
Brachmanns leave Liepaja
On the Liepaja Jews' "Person Sheet” where it lists the death of Clara Brachmann, it mentions in a footnote that her daughter, Paula, moved to South Africa and Shalom (Sacha) moved to England. Incidentally, it was when they left Latvia, they would have changed the name from Brachmann to Brackman.[11] The information that Paula moved to South Africa and Shalom to England is true but incomplete, as Shalom also moved to South Africa, most likely together or around the same time as Paula, before Shalom moved to England. They both lived in King William's Town in South Africa, where there was a small Jewish community and synagogue. Paula stayed however in King William's Town and married Chazkel Alperstein (11 Feb 1882 - 17 Aug 1951) from King William's Town on 4 August 1913. Chazkel was one of four children: Gutman (married Keila Zaarchi), Sarah (married Aaron Ogus), Nochum and Chazkel. Their father was Solomon Halevi Alperstein, married to Chaia Vadoniski (b. 1851) and grandfather Yankel Alperstein.
They had five children: Henry (20 June 1914 -17 Jan 1967), Clara Chaye (Dolly) Kassowsky (6 Jan 1916 -22 April 1978), Selma (b. 7 March 1920), Mendel (22 Oct 1921 - 9 Dec 1984) and Hugo Chaim (Hagai Agmon) (22 March 1924 – 25 Nov, 2013). Chatskel was a Town Councillor for over 20 years, as well as a member of the Divisional Council as well. He was also the president of the Hebrew Congregation in 1948. His son Henry Alperstein was mayor of the town for several terms of office and also the secretary of the Zionist Association in 1948.[12] There is a street named after the Alperstein's in the town, Alperstein Road. A son of Henry, Alan Alperstein, is a professor at University of Cape Town (Oxford student from East London, South Africa). Selma married Mr. Solly Furman and she lives today in Johannesburg at 93 years old with her daughter Avrille Miller (Chava Agmon).
Hugo Alperstein studied at Dale College in Kingswilliamstown, and served as a South African Air Force (SAAF) pilot. He immigrated to pre-state Israel on 4 January, 1947, and alongside 12 South Africans, founded northern Israel kibbutz, Ma'ayan Baruch. Hugo married German born Chava Miriam (Eva Marie), who descended from the great 16th century Jewish legalist Joseph Caro.[13] Hugo changed his name to Chagai and surname to Agmon. According to Chava,[14] this was proposed by Ben Gurion, who reasoned that as Alperstein begins with the Hebrew letter 'Alef' and ends with 'nun,' they should choose ‘Agmon’ which has the same beginning and end letters. As Hugo served in the South African Air Force in WWII,[15] he went on to fight as a pilot in Israel’s War of Independence, regarded as one of the founders of the Israeli Air Force.[16] As the first head of the Israel Air Force Flight School, he served as Chief instructor commander of IAF flight Sorkin (Israel’s first pilot training school) and Chief pilot and director of operations Arkia.[17] Chava and Hugo have two children. Yael (b. 14 May, 1952) lives in Israel and Edna (b. 9 July, 1949) in the UK.[18]
A possible reason why Paula and Shalom moved to South Africa, rather than the US, was due to fact that the large European shipping lines posted in Russia were encouraging potential emigrants to travel to destinations according to the economic needs of the shipping companies. It appears that "package deals" for Baltic Jews to travel to South Africa, via England, were one such incentive. Shalom seems to have changed his name to Sidney when he arrived in South Africa and served in the First World War in South Africa until he was discharged on 5 February, 1919, at 22 years old. Sidney became a naturalized citizen of the Union of South Africa a year earlier on 27 October, 1918. On the Certificate of Naturalization, it registers him as a native of Russia and Russian. The place of residence mentioned is Kings William's Town, province of Cape of Good Hope - the same city where, as mentioned, Paula marries Chazkel Alperstein. Not long after Sidney was discharged from the army, he moved to Manchester, England, while Paula and her family remained in South Africa.
Manchester
As mentioned, Sidney moved to Manchester, while his sister and four children remained in South Africa. The reason Sidney moved to Manchester and not to London or another country is that George Fitelson also from Courland had immigrated to England around 1850, got married to Rose Danziger in 1886, and had a daughter Grace Annie (Chaya). The Brachmann and Fitelson families were close relatives. In fact, Grace and Sidney were first cousins and their families would have likely known each other from Kuldige. Sidney's mother, Clara, would have been either a Danziger or a Fitelson, before she married Aaron Brachmann. There is indeed a mention of a Danziger family on the 1842 census in Kuldige. Alternatively, Clara was a Fitelson. Although there is no listing of Fitelson on the census in Kuldige, on the British census where George Fitelson's name is mentioned, it records his country-of-origin Courland in Russia, the same place where the Brachmann's hailed from. Accordingly, whether Clara Brachmann was a Danziger or a Fitelson, when the daughter of Yitzchak Danziger, Rose (Reizel), born in 1862, married George (Gershon) Fitelson from Boston, Lincolnshire, formerly Courland, in 1886, in the Great Synagogue in Manchester, their daughter Grace would have been first cousin of Sidney Brackman, whether from the Danziger side or the Fitelson side. This would have explained Sidney's choice at the age of about 20 to leave South Africa for Manchester, England, where he married his wife and first cousin, Grace.
Danziger
Yitzchak Danziger was born in Russia (most likely Courland, as mentioned, then a part of Russia) about 1830 and immigrated to England, settling in Durham, Sunderland, before 1861. He first appears on the 1861 census as living at 13 Sans St., Sunderland, working as a furniture broker. On 20 March, 1855, Yitzchak married Rachel Leah Friedlander, who was born in Prussia about 1834. They married in the synagogue in Durham, Sunderland. Yitzchak and Rachel Leah had together eleven children, all born in Durham: Samuel, born 1875; Blanche, born 1878 (did not marry, passed away 1960);[19] Dora, born 1866; George (Gershon), born 1864, got married, no children; Levin, born 1869 (d. 10 April 1904, 4 Pentworth St, Cheetham); Theodore (Teddy), born 1861 (moved to Australia, became important part of the Melbourne Jewish community – got married to daughter of Wolf Davis – lived at 'Danehurst,' Barkly street, St. Kilda. They had a son, Dr. Ernest Danby/Danziger (b. 1894),[20] who married Sylvia nee Harris (d. 1982), second daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Goodman Harris, of 'Barnoolet,' Waiora road, Caulfield, whose marriage in 1929 was celebrated by Rabbi Brodie and the Rev. Solomons, at The Synagogue, Bourke street.[21] They had one daughter: Dawn Caroline (surname changed to Danby) (b. 1930), who married Warsaw born Anthony Hayden[22] (born 1921, as Abraham Hershman, d. 1984), who lived in Manchester, studied architecture, before migrating with his brother, Benjamin, to Australia in 1949, where Anthony designed many buildings, including the Synagogue for Caulfield Hebrew Congregation, 572 Inkerman Street, Caulfield in 1959, Synagogue for Kew Hebrew Congregation (Bet Nachman), 53 Walpole Street, Kew in 1962 and a Holocaust memorial monument in the Melbourne General Cemetery.[23] From 1975, his firm was called Anthony A Hayden & Associates. Anthony and Dawn had two children. Theodore died at age of 82 on 19 Aug, 1942/ Elul 5702, Fawkner cemetery);[24] Anna, born 1855; Rose, born 1862; Rebecca, born 1867 (d. 15 March 1904, 4 Petworth St, Cheetham); and Jacob Joseph, born 1856. By 1881 they had moved to 107 Bury New Rd., Cheetham, in Manchester - the address on the wedding invitation of Rose and George Fitelson in 1886, and in 1901 census it states they had moved to 4 Petworth Street, Cheetham. Yitzchak and Rachel Leah celebrated their Golden Wedding in 1905 (Jewish Chronicle announcement) and she passed away 14 June, 1917, living then at 79 Elizabeth St., Manchester, Lancs.[25]
(Picture: George and Rose Fitelson with their daughter Grace)
Fitelson family in Boston, Linconshire
As mentioned, George Fitelson was born in Courland, part of Russia, and immigrated to England and settled in Boston Lincolnshire. He married Rose Danziger in 1886 in Manchester, where Rose was born after the Danzigers had moved from Durham to Manchester. After their marriage, George and Rose Fitelson, continued to live in Boston, Lincolnshire, where they had five children: Sigmond, Bert (Albert), Phillip, Eddy and Harry.[26] They moved to Manchester sometime between 1895 and 1899, where they had their sixth child, Annie Grace - Chaya.
(Picture: George (Gershon) and Rose (Reitzel) Fitelson with their daughter Grace - Chaya)
It is likely that as Boston was a port city, George Fitelson arrived at that Eastern port of England and remained there. In the Jewish Chronicle it is recorded (compiled by Anglo-Jewish historian Harold Pollins, Oxford) that George Fitelson played an important role in the Jewish community of Boston, Lincolnshire. He lived or worked on Emery Lane and is recorded as having served as the President of the Boston Hebrew Congregation in 1892. It records also during that year he was raising funds for the community. On 2 October, 1892, it's recorded he was unanimously re-elected as president of the synagogue. In his capacity as president, he was authorised by the Board of Deputies in November, 1892, to certify for the first time, in the person of a Mr Marks Goldstein, a Registrar for Marriages for the Boston Hebrew Congregation. On 24 February, 1893, it is recorded that Mrs. Rose Fitelson was involved in raising funds for the Sefer Torah for the synagogue from friends in London. Evidently, this was successful as later the donation of a mantle is recorded. On 25 Aug, 1893, it states that the congregation was advertising for the hiring of a single young man as a Shochet for £30 per annum. From all the above, it would seem George and Rose Fitelson were pillars of the Jewish community while they lived in Boston. On 30 March, 1894, the Jewish Chronicle mentions that a new president was elected, Mr. A Canin, as part of a reorganisation of the congregation. On 22 February, 1895, there is an entry that the Board of Deputies transfers one of the Marriage Register Books of the extinct congregation at Boston (Lincolnshire) to the Board. It would seem then that by 1894/5, the Fitelson had already moved to Manchester due to the decline of the Jewish community in Boston. though it appears Jews continued to live in Boston up until the First World War.
The fact that Boston was a place for the arrival of Jews from Russia is evident from the following entry in the Jewish Chronicle on 22 February, 1895 (page 13): ‘Thirty-five Russian Jews arrived at Boston (Lincolnshire) in a more or less destitute condition on Tuesday evening They were, in the first instance, expelled from Russia, travelled to Egypt, and were there sent to Alexandria, from which port they were despatched by a local Committee in a cotton vessel, the “Palatine” to Boston. They were landed on Wednesday morning, and received by Mrs. L. Szapira, who provided them with food and clothing. One family possessed sufficient money to proceed to America, but the rest were totally destitute, and in accordance with their wish were forwarded to London. One woman is left with seven children, her husband having remained in Alexandria, and a girl sustained a fractured arm on the voyage. There was practically no accommodation for the party on the vessel, and many of them slept among the ship’s coal supply enroute’.
On 8th March, 1895 it continues: 'After a fortnight’s stay in Boston the last of the immigrants who were brought by the steamer ’Palatine’, with the exception of two, left Boston on Tuesday for Liverpool, enroute for America. During their stay in Boston they were provided by food by Mrs Szipire [sic] and Mr Robinson, of with the help of other kind friends. The two remaining in Boston (man and wife) are to be started in business.' On 8 March, 1895, the Jewish Chronicle states: 'Meeting of Russo-Jewish Committee on 8 February. ‘Letters of acknowledgement were … ordered to be sent to Mrs Szapira, and the mayor of that town in recognition of the humanity with which the refugees had been treated at Boston.’ Finally, on 22 March 1895 (page 7), in concludes: Refers to the court case at Newcastle upon Tyne Police Court. Swift and condign punishment has overtaken the captain who brought 38 Jewish passengers from Alexandria to Boston (Lincs) in the “Palatine”, under circumstances which are most discreditable.’ Whether this was an isolated incident or not is impossible to know from this single story in the Jewish Chronicle, but one can seemingly deduce that the city and port in Boston served as a point of entry for Jews from Russia to England.
Fitelson family
The Fitelson had five sons: 1. Phillip married in 1920 Leah Kahan and had two children: Ruth and Arnold. 2. Eddy (Edward) married Eva Kaminsky and had three children: Harry (2 children), Louis and Lila. Lila married in 1931 David Levy (3 children: Yevonne, b. 1972, Helen and Benjamin). 3. Sigmond married Leah Bertlestein, daughter of Harris and Annie (Hanah) Bertlestein from Bolton.[27]
Brackman family in Manchester
Sidney, born in 1897, immigrated to Manchester, where he opened a Kosher bakery in 1921 called 'Brackmans Bakery' at 43 Leicester Road, Salford, M7 4AS - the same time when the row of shops was being built - while living nearby on Northumberland Street.[28] In addition, ‘Brackman’s caterers’ opened at 7 King Edward Buildings, Bury Old Road, Salford, 7. He employed Sydney Addleman at the bakery for a number of years and when it was time for retirement in 1964, Mr. Addleman bought the bakery from the Brackmans, current run by his son Andrew. The original 1930s brick oven (Tom Chandley brick oven) and traditional methods remain in use.[29] As the bakery was established and its name had a good reputation, the family name was retained and Brackmans Bakery is currently the longest standing Kosher bakery in Manchester, operating for over 90 years with the same name. Sidney married his first cousin Grace (Chaya) Fitelson (Filson), originally from Boston, Lincolnshire, and on 22 March (2 Nissan), 1928 had a son Derek Samuel. They also had a second son Harry, who passed away at a young age.
In 1946-47, 1947-48 and 1948-9, Derek was a full-time student in the Honours School of Chemistry of the University of Manchester. 1st. year courses was in chemistry (general and organic), physics, mathematics and German (June, 1947). 2nd year courses and Part I Honours was in inorganic, organic and physical chemistry, physiology and German (June, 1948). 3rd year courses and Part II Honours was in inorganic, organic and physical chemistry and German (June, 1949). M.Sc. course was completed in 1949-50. PhD course was completed 1951-52, with the thesis presented in October, 1952. The title Ph. D. theses was: “Oxidation and Reduction Teactions in Solition.” When submitted, the title was: Part I. Studies in the Polymerisation of Stilbene. Part II. The Reaction of Hydroxylamine Hydrochloride With Sodium Sulphite in Aqueous Solution. He received a post-doctoral research fellowship in April, 1953, at the School of Chemistry, University of Minnesota.
Publications
Amongst his publications are several foundational papers he co-authored in the 1950s alongside scientists P.H. Plesch and W.C.E. Higginson. Notable publications include:[30]
1. "The reaction between hydroxylamine and sodium sulphite in solution in dilute acid" (with W.C.E. Higginson, J. Chem. Soc. (1953) 156: 3896–3898)
2. "Some reactions of the stilbenes in the presence of metal halides" (with P.H. Plesch, J. Chem. Soc. (1953) vol. 156: 1289–1292)
3. "The cationic oligomerisation of the stilbenes" (1958).
In 1956, he co-authored, with I. M. Kolthoff and E. J. Meehan while at University of Minnesota: A redox system utilizing N-nitrosoacetanilide for the emulsion polymerization of styrene and of butadiene-styrene,’ carried out under the sponsorship of the Federal Facilities Corporation, Office of Synthetic Rubber, in connection with the Synthetic Rubber Program of the United States Government. It was published in Journal of Polymer Science (Wiley), Volume 21, Issue 99 (Sep, 1956). He is also named as the inventor on industrial polymer chemical patents from the 1970s, including U.S. Patent 3,840,512 (1974), focused on the oxidative degradation of polyolefins.[31]
In addition to the above publications, he filed sixteen patents, between 1962 and 1977, while working at ICI (Applicant ICI Ltd). They included:[32]
1. Process for the production of thermoplastic materials (DE2812152 (A1) ― 1978-10-05)
2. Photodegradable Polyethylenes (AU2326877 (A) ― 1978-09-21)
3. Heat Exchanger (DE2719273 (A1) ― 1977-11-10)
4. Joining Method – (DE2634139 (A1) ― 1977-02-24)
5. Degradable Thermoplastics Composition (AU7386974 (A) ― 1976-04-08)
6. Degradable Plastics Composition (AU7387074 (A) ― 1976-04-08)
7. Shaped Artivles (AU7387174 (A) ― 1976-04-08)
8. Heat Exchanger and a Solar Heater (DE2505015 (A1) ― 1975-08-14)
9. Degradable Polyolefin Composition (AU5765973 (A) ― 1975-01-09)
10. Thermoplastic Compositions (AU4608072 (A) ― 1974-03-07)
11. Plastics Composition (AU4306172 (A) ― 1973-12-13)
12. Polyvinyl Chloride Compositions Polyvinyl Chloride Compositions (DE2325390 (A1) ― 1973-11-29)
13. Plastics Composition (AU4263172 (A) ― 1973-11-29)
14. Polyvinyl Chloride Compositions and Packaging Material (DE2326593 (A1) ― 1973-12-06)
15. Plastics Composition (DE2257730 (A1) ― 1973-05-30)
16. Improved method for compounding additives into synthetic thermoplastic materials (GB1049773 (A) ― 1966-11-30)
In November 1988, having completed five years at BICC, and a search for a new research position, including with the help of Sir Walter Bodmer, brother of his close lifelong friend, Arnold Bodmer, he completed a course for Postgraduate Certificate in Education at the Centre for Educational Studies (King’s College, University of London), granting him the award of Qualified Teacher status from the Department of Education and Science. On the 1st of August, 2001, after more than three years of being an Associate Member, he was admitted as Member of the Royal Society of Chemistry (MRSC), entitled to use the designatory letters MRSC (membership no. 245811). In June, 2004, he completed over a year two period (2002-04) a diploma in practical astronomy. The subjects included: foundations of astronomy, and the solar system, the sun, the stars and the search for life, the interstellar medium and multi-waveband astronomy, and high energy astrophysics and cosmology. Derek would recount how he would assist in the family bakery before Pesach and busy periods, while he went on to study at Manchester University and received a PhD in chemistry. He got married at Kinloss synagogue, in North London, to Sora Angyalfi, who had also studied at Manchester, before they moved to London, where he worked at the Research Department at ICI (Imperial Chemical Industries) Plastics Division in Welwyn Garden City for twenty years, followed by BICC for five years. In 1966, they bought a three-bedroom house at 9 Snaresbrook Drive, Stanmore, Middx, until 1977, when they moved to 12 Fernhurst Gardens, Edgware.
Solar energy
On 25 April, 1977, while living in Stanmore, an application was made for ‘Erection of detached garden room at rear of dwelling house incorporating solar heat collector.’ Formal refusal of planning permission for the solar garden room was however received on 23 June, 1977, due to: ‘The structure by virtue of its excessive size, siting and appearance in the curtilage represents an uneighbourly and obtrusive development with consequent loss of outlook and amenity to neighbouring properties.’ The council, however, informed:[33] The council would give consideration to a revised proposal which offered substantial improvements in the siting and finish while significantly reducing the height and bulk of the structure and its effect on adjoining properties. An issue was the height. The original proposal was for a 45o attitude, 14ft high. When lowered to 30o it would be 12ft high. Both were considered a massive structure. Harrow Planning department however, in their policy, only allowed extensions of up to 10ft high. This height limit was applied also to the solar garden room. The suggested height necessary was 12ft heigh, which would allow a useful height in the garden room itself (7.6-8f), and collectors to be used which are large enough and would not need to be double banked.[34]
The structure attracted the local press, the Harrow Observer, entitled ‘the offending solar structure,’ to the untidy finishings, deemed unfair, as the work was stopped after the refusal was received, and letters were received from a Mr. Dominic Michaelis (Bay 10, 16 South Wharf Road, London, W2 1PF), on 15 July, 1977, asking to visit, as well as from Member of Parliament Hugh Dykes, on behalf of him and his wife, on 11 July, 1977: ‘My wife and I were very interested to read in the local press of your solar energy system. We wish your work in this field continuing success. Yours sincerely, MH. Dykes.’
In a correspondence, he mentioned that they planned to move house, with the growing family, and planned to build the solar garden in the mew house. Upon moving to Fernhurst Gardens in Edgware, the house was extended to allow for four bedrooms (eventually five with the loft extension) and a garden room was built with a concrete floor, plastic for its walls, and a sliding roof. The sliding roof would have been with the potential for a solar collector to be installed in mind. This however never materialised and instead was well used for the purpose of a Sukkah each year.[35]
The Bodmers
A lifelong friend of the Brackman family in Manchester were the Bodmers, a German Jewish refugee family from Frankfurt. Mr. Bodmer was the family dentist of the Brackmans in North Manchester and the son, Arnold (1929-2002), a theoretical physicist, was very close friend of Derek. His younger brother was Sir Walter Bodmer, head of British Cancer Research and later Principal of Hertford College University of Oxford. The following is about the life of Arnold, taken from an obituary by his son:[36]
My father, Arnold Bodmer, who has died aged 90, fled Nazi Germany as a child refugee. In Britain and later in the US he was a scientist renowned for formulating many innovations in nuclear physics, notably through his work on the behaviours of nuclei. His pioneering work, which he completed while on sabbatical at Oxford University in 1970-71, suggested the possibility of collapsed nuclei – a crucial part of the study of quark matter, known as the “strange matter hypothesis”. His ideas continue to have relevance in theoretical physics and are used to explain the behaviours of neutron stars. Born in Frankfurt, Arnold was the son of Ernst Billigheimer, a physician, and his wife, Sylvia (nee Bodmer), a dancer. When the family emigrated to Manchester in 1938, just before Kristallnacht, they changed their surname to the less Germanic Bodmer, and Arnold attended Manchester grammar school. After gaining a degree and then a PhD in physics from Manchester University, he worked for the Royal Armament Research and Development Establishment in London (1953-56) before going back to do postdoctoral research at Manchester, where he in 1958 became a professor. Five years later he moved to the US, where he worked in Chicago as a physicist at the Argonne National Laboratory and as a professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago, remaining there until he retired in 1994. He continued to publish until 2008, and travelled extensively, working with physicists all over the world. In retirement he established a foundation that continues to award students grant money to help them with costs of travelling abroad. In 1956 Arnold married Doris Zerbe, a fellow refugee from Germany whom he had met in London. Her family had fled to Switzerland in 1935, and she later became a Swiss national figure skating champion. Arnold was passionate about opera, art, history and nature. He was also an animal lover, and until the day he died he fed his 15-year-old dog, Ricky, ice cream and beer. Doris died in 2007. He is survived by their children, me, Sylvia, Richard and Anne, 10 grandchildren, five great-grandchildren and his brothers, Gerald and Walter.
Grace Brackman passed away 19th February, 1960, while living with Sidney, at 97 Park Road, Prestwich, Lancashire, formerly at 99 Leicester Road, Salford. Sidney remarried on Sunday, 25 June (11 Tammuz), 1961 to Milly (Malka) Carason. Derek raised a large family of seven boys and two girls, spread out in different communities in England, France and the US, including the author of this research, who lives in Oxford with his family.
Fitelson family
Grace (Chaya) Fitelson was the daughter of George (Gershon) and Rose (Raisel) Fitelson. As seen on the wedding invitation, George and Rose got married at the Great Synagogue, York Street, Cheetham, Manchester, on Wednesday, 7th April / 2 Nissan, 1886. George’s father's name was Chaim. Rose's parents were Yitzchak and Mrs. Danziger, who lived then in Manchester at 155 Bury New Road. The Fitelson family, as mentioned on the wedding invitation, lived in Boston, Lincolnshire. The Fitelsons and Danzigers thus lived in England at least since 1886, though most likely earlier.
Elderly Brachmann family stays in Liepaja with young family
Aron and Clara and their daughter Freide unfortunately never left Liepaja, perhaps due to old age of Aron and Clara and Freide not wanting to leave them alone or for economic reasons. Freide married Josef Glasser, also originally from Kuldiga, born around 1892, most likely a descendent of Schmuel ben Juddel Glasser, who is mentioned in the 1842 register of Kuldiga. Freide and Josef had three children: Hena, born 1927, Selma, born 1930, and Henoch, born 1932.
Liepaja (Libau) and the Holocaust
The tragic end of the Brachmann family who remained in Liepaja was in the Holocaust in 1941 when Clara, Freide, her husband Josef, and their three children under 15 years old were murdered by the Nazis with the assistance the of Latvian auxiliary police. With the conquest of Liepaja by the Germans on 29 June, 1941, the Jewish population counted over 7,100 people and immediately the systematic extermination began. The killings took pace principally in three places: in "Rainis Park" in the city centre, where there were trenches dug by Latvians for the defence of Liepaja; a small fishing port near the Lighthouse at the entrance of the Port; in trenches dug in the dunes near Shkeden on the beach, where most of the shootings took place.
On 30 June, the day after the invasion, there were random shootings of Jews who showed up to work in Liepaja by German soldiers. About 100 Jews were killed in these shootings. On 3 and 4 July, 1,430 Jews were killed in the park in the centre of Liepaja. However due to complaints of the locals, this location was no longer used for executions. Another supposed revenge mass shooting took place on 7 July. Between 8th and 10 July, around 600 were shot, shooting ten at a time. According to testimony, around 200 were killed each day. Shootings of small groups of Jews continued after 10 July, occurring every evening. This was a pattern particular to SS-Untersturmführer Wolfgang Kügler’s administration in Liepaja. A major execution took place on 24th and 25th of July, when about 1,100 men were assembled on the "Hauptwachplatz" and after their papers and valuables were taken from them, were transported to the port near the lighthouse and killed. This was done by the urging of German naval commandant in Liepaja, Fregattenkapitän Dr. Hans Kawelmacher, to accelerate the killings. The killings continued in August but on a lesser scale. From 30 August to 10 December, 1941, there were a large number of shootings, in which about 600 Jews were killed near the harbor and the light house during this period.[37]
The largest killings took place on the beach near Shkeden. On three days, 15-17 Dec, 2,731 Jews were shot on the beach. By the end of June, 1942, the Ghetto of Liepaja was founded, where the remaining 816 people including 175 males were settled. The Ghetto lasted for 18 months, before being dismantled on 18 October, 1943, when all the inhabitants were transported to the "Kaiserwald" Camp near Riga. Of those who were sent there, 360 people were sent to Auschwitz. When Liepaja was liberated by the Russians, only 40 Jews were found alive. In one of these many shootings, Clara Brachmann, who was a widow of 84 years old, her daughter Freide, 49, as well as husband Josef Glasser, and three of Freida's children, Hena 14, Selma 11, and Henoch 9, were all killed into mass graves in Liepaja. May their memory be a blessing and live on in the lives of what is now many children and grandchildren who survived.
PART 2
The Angyalfi Family of Budapest
The history of my grandfather's family of Budapest, the Angyalfi family, provides a window into the history of Jewish life in Budapest at the beginning of the 20th century. This essay will aim to give a context to this Jewish family and insight into the kind of life they would have maintained in pre-war Hungary. A reference to the Angyalfi family can be found in an autobiography of Ervin Gyorgy (George) Raphael Patai, ‘Apprentice in Budapest: Memories of a world that is no more’ (Lexington Books 2000). Upon reading the autobiography one learns that he was a classmate and high school friend of Imre Miklos (Moshe) Angyalfi (12 July, 1910 – March, 1988), my grandfather, to Karoly or Carlos, later Charles (Yitzchok Zev) Angyalfi (1883 - 3 Aug, 1953). The Angyalfi family lived in Budapest at 8 Jokai Street, from 1929, named after and near the statue of Hungarian poet and dramatist Mor Jokai.
Angyalfi name
The name Angyalfi may have likely been previously Engel or Englert before it was Magyarised around in 1886. This occurred after the establishment of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1876 when Jews were given equal rights as citizens once they became recognized as a religion rather than a nation. The family thus changed the family name, as countless others did, to the Hungarian, noble sounding, name Angyalfi. This is evident from a list of names that exists in Kislod, Hungary, where an Angyalfi family name was previously Englert.[38] Similarly, in a book by Anton Tressel it implies that the name would have been previously Englert.[39] There is also a strong possibility the name was formerly Engel as is found in other lists of Hungarian Jewish names from that time.
Another direct descendent of Angyalfis of Hungary is George Schnader, who may be related. He claims the German last name his Angyalfi ancestors used was Engel. In the Kozma Street Jewish Cemetery database, one gets about four results for Angyalfi. Try a variation of Engelsman (Engelmann is more common; it simply means "Angel Man") and you will get quite a few results. When searching the Jewish cemetery in Balaton, where the Angyalfi family lived, before moving to Budapest, one finds a number of people by the name Engel, including relatives, suggesting the name was previously Engel.
Biographical details about Raphael Patai
The autobiography of Patai offers us a partial biography of the Angyalfi family during the 1920s in Budapest and in particular the high school years of Imre Angyalfi. George Raphael Patai was born on 22 November, 1910, at home at Munkacsy Street, not far from where his mother’s parents lived, near the City Park. Before that, they lived on Lovag Street in a very poor apartment (p. 111) until the family grew and they had to move for more room. His younger sister was called Evi and younger brother Guszti.
George went on to become a renowned Hungarian-Jewish ethnographer, historian, Orientalist and anthropologist. Upon graduating from the Rabbinical Seminary of Budapest, he lectured at Hebrew University and held numerous professorships in the US, known as Raphael Patai. His father, József Patai (d. 1928), was born in 1855 in Gyongyos Pata. The family name was Klein before it changed its name in 1904 to Patai after the name of the village Pata. Jozsef is known to have done research in the Bodleian library at the University of Oxford in 1909, the year before George was born, on unpublished manuscripts of Hebrew poets to be translated into Hungarian.
Jewish community of Budapest in 1920
In 1920, 215,000 Jews lived in Budapest. They had formed no less than five separate congregations, the largest of which was the Neolog community of Pest. Its official name was Israelite Congregation of Pest. Pest and Buda were two separate congregations and Pest was confined to the left (Pest) bank of the Dunabe. It maintained hospitals, orphanages, institutions for the blind and the handicapped, old people’s homes, cultural institutions, numerous synagogues, and a network of elementary and lower secondary schools. The more orthodox Jews in Buda had a separate network of schools and synagogues, and there would be very little interaction between the two communities. Some of the Neolog synagogues in Pest would have organs played on the Shabbat as part of the Shabbat morning service, though by non-Jews, as Jews are forbidden to play a musical instrument on the Shabbat. Amongst the synagogues in Pest was the Great Dohany Street Temple, which was the largest synagogue in Europe.
While Orthodox Jews in Buda would never attend a Neolog synagogue in Pest, the families were 'mixed'. In the case of the Patai family, the family would attend the Dohany Temple while their grandfather Ehrenfeld was an adherent of the Chasidic Szatmarer Rebbe from Buda. The Neologs were mostly however observant. George Patai relates (p. 181) that he would pray every morning with a Talit, wear Tefilin, recite the blessings before and after food and say the prayers in the synagogue on the Shabbat and festivals. However, his morning prayers were reduced to the Shema and Amida, whereas, as he related, his grandfather Ehrenfeld would pray the whole morning prayers and the afternoon and evening prayers also. On the Shabbat afternoon, every week, George's father would ensure he received an advanced level of Jewish study by studying with him the Talmud for a few hours every Shabbat. He also received this instruction through a private Hebrew tutor. There appears to have been different levels of observance amongst the families in his class. George Patai writes (p. 182) that his family would keep the Kosher dietary laws and that this caused that he was unable to eat in some of the houses of his classmates in school.
School
The elementary school George Patai attended was the Szemere Street elementary school until 4th grade when he was 9 years old and then attended the Lovag Street elementary school. In the Hungarian school system, the structure was elementary school lasted four years, for ages six to ten, after which one would go to Polgari School, which was like a higher elementary or lower secondary school, for another four years. A minority would instead enter at ten years old an academic high school, which awarded after eight years of study at eighteen years old a ‘maturity certificate’ after a rigorous final exam, entitling the student to seek admission to a university.
First Jewish High School of Budapest
Just in time for completion of elementary school in 1919, the Jewish Congregation of Pest began to admit students to its first grade of the new Jewish high school of Pest for those who chose to pursue a more rigorous education, while receive instruction also in Jewish studies. This class was located in the building of the Polgari (civic) School of the congregation on Wesselenyi Street, not far from the Patai home. This new Jewish high school was to be a realgimnazium. The difference between gimnazium and realgimnazium was that in the former the emphasis would be on the humanities and the latter on science. This high school, as a Jewish realgimnazium, therefore, would have had courses in Latin, mathematics, chemistry and physics, as well as Hungarian, German and English. As a Jewish school, Hebrew was taught also, as well as Torah and the Jewish religion (Halacha) (p. 147).
The first similar high school of the Jewish Congregation of Pest that was to be a realgimnazium opened in 1919 just in time for George Patai, Imre Angyalfi and their friends to apply to for their first grade. It was housed as mentioned in the building of a polgari school of the congregation located in Wesselenyi Street. The high school had class from 8am until 1pm three days a week and until 2pm the other three, to accommodate the Hebrew and Jewish studies. As a Jewish school, it was closed on Shabbat and open as usual on Sundays. On Shabbat however the students were required to attend morning service at the school synagogue, which lasted (p. 199) from ten to twelve. Many of the prayers were sung; those boys who had a good ear and a good voice sang solo pieces, while the rest of constituted the choir. The curriculum in the Jewish schools was the same as the municipal schools. The only difference was that in the municipal schools three hours were set aside for religious studies, divided into three groups: Catholic, Protestant and Jewish, each one receiving instruction from a clergyman of their own faith. The teachers of Jewish religion were given by graduates of the Jewish Teachers Institute of the Rabbinical Seminary of Budapest. The Jewish congregational schools had five hours a week dedicated to Jewish studies, the maximum weekly hours that was allowed to be dedicated to any particular subject.
In about 1924 the school moved into its new though as of yet unfinished building; a modern, spacious structure with a large yard, located on Abonyi Street, not far from the City Park. As the new Jewish high school first admitted students in the autumn of 1919, George Patai prepared with a private tutor, his mother’s first cousin, Rabbi Denes Friedman, for his entrance exams, which he passed in August, 1920. The class he entered was the (graduating) class of 1928. That class consisted of two parallel forms, IA and IB, each with some forty of fifty students in. George was placed in form IB. At the end of the fourth grade in 1924, many students left the school and the two forms were merged into one to continue for another four years until graduation in the spring of 1928. Two years after the establishment of this new Jewish High School for boys, the Jewish Congregation of Pest established a high school for girls as well. George’s younger sister, Evi, became a student there, as most likely Imre's younger sister Eva also.
Friends
George Patai writes that he was rather shy, while many of the boys were aggressive and some outright hostile. They did name calling to him referring to him as Lopata (horse hoof in Hungarian) instead of Patai, as well as also making mockery of his Zionism, which he received from his father, Joseph Patai. George however also had some good friends, whom he would visit, invite or take walks in the many attractive places in the city. His friends (p. 149), amongst others, included Dezso Stern, who became a doctor and was killed by the Nazis, Laszlo (Laci) Schwartz, Laszlo Salgo, who remained his colleague at the Rabbinical Seminary of Budapest and later became Chief Rabbi of Budapest in the 1970s, and the brothers Sandor (Shanyi) and David (Duci) Rappaport, who lived in Buda and later emigrated to America, where Shanyi worked as a businessman and Duci became a famous psychologist. Another friend mentioned is a Fleichmnann, who was from a wealthy family, and a Jewish primary school class mate was a Varosy (family name), whose father was in the government (P. 131).
It doesn’t appear that Imre Angyalfi was one of his close friends that he remembers from his first years at the Jewish high school. With forty or fifty boys in a form and separated into two classes it doesn’t seem he was close friends with Imre Angyalfi at that point. In the autumn of 1924, however, after many boys had left the school and the two classes were merged into one, George Patai recalls (p. 228) that when he was two months short of fourteen he began to play tennis, as an addition to his private lessons in Hebrew and Talmud, and he and Imre Angyalfi became tennis partners together, as well as Imre’s sister Eva. Imre and George were of similar height, 6 ft, at 15 years old and they had much fun together as they were proudly entering into physical adulthood. They remained close friends until graduating from High School, when it seems they lost track of each other, though George later became aware that Imre had moved to England, got married and had a child.
George Patai relates that the high school was deeply polarised when it came to nationalism (p. 239). In about 1925 while at High School he became a member of the Zionist youth group called Techelet Lavan (Blue - White) and made no secret of his Zionist convictions. This aroused the antagonism of several of his classmates, some of whom persecuted him. Amongst his friends, he relates, remained Laci Schwartz and Imre Angyalfi, though they didn’t share his Zionist convictions and enthusiasm. In 1920’s Budapest, George Patai was somewhat a maverick and had almost daily confrontations with his Jewish friends who were proudly Hungarian and saw Zionism as a possible contradiction to being Hungarian.
Teachers
The principal of the Jewish High School was Dr. Bernard Heller, who later became a member of faculty at the rabbinical seminary of Budapest. The form master was a stern Dr. David Rafael Fuchs (b. 1884), who was also the Latin teacher, and subsequently changed his name to David Fokos. He went on to become a renowned Finno-Urgic philologist and a member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. The gym teacher was called Zoltan Duchstein. The Hebrew teacher at the school was Solomon Widder and he was later replaced by Dr. Mr Fenyes, who was a graduate of the Budapest Rabbinical seminary, recognized Jewish scholar and author of a textbook on Jewish religion and an introduction to the Bible (p. 240). It is suspected that Widder was replaced due his Zionist convictions, influenced by anti-Zionist Samu Glucksthal, who was one of the five vice presidents of the Israelite Congregation of Pest and a member of upper house of parliament due.
Bar Mitzvah
In 1923, preparation for George Patai, Imre Angyalfi and their friend's Bar Mizvah would have begun. George Patai writes (p. 172) that in preparation for his Bar Mitzvah that was to take place in November, 1923, he had to be prepared for the reading of the Maftir and Haftara in the synagogue. The designated teacher in the school for teaching the ‘Maftir boy’ was the teacher of Religion and Hebrew, Solomon Widder, who was also the teacher of German and Hungarian. All the boys liked Mr. Widder and due to this he was able to keep them quiet and disciplined, as the much sterner Dr. Fuchs. George Patai is however critical of the limits of the Bar Mitzvah instructions they received (p. 176), as it consisted of only how to recite their Bar Mitzvah Torah reading with the cantillation, however neither in school nor at home was anything taught about the Jewish faith and duties that should be shouldered when one reaches the age of Bar Mitzvah in Jewish tradition. It seemed as if one was expected to reach one’s own conclusion.
The religious education that was important was primarily to learn and recite the prayers, to observe the religious dos and don’ts and understand the prayers. The conclusions however what to be drawn from the prayers concerning G-d was entirely left to the boy. The basics of Jewish belief were indeed taught as part of the study of the book of Genesis that G-d created the world but not as a subject on its own. As part of the Bar Mitzvah instruction, one was also taught how to put on the Tefilin for the weekday morning prayers. George writes (p. 178) that the Bar Mitzvah occasion had a great impression on him and he continued to wear the Tefilin daily, never missing a single day, for the following ten years until he went to Palestine, where he became influenced by friends in Jerusalem. According to Imre’s daughter, Sora, Imre would also put on Tefilin every morning, and was very knowledgeable and any questions she haf, she would ask him due to his wealth of knowledge.
Enjoying Budapest in 1920s
George recalls his fascination with Budapest with its stately buildings, monuments, broad boulevards, and hills of Buda with the grandiose royal palace. He recalls Vaci Street, lined with stores, and Andrassy Avenue, where very wealthy people lived, paved with brick shaped wooden blocks to diminish the noise of the vehicles. This street led to the city’s greatest monument, erected for the 1,000th anniversary of the conquest of Hungary by the Magyar tribes led by Arpad. Near the monument there was a lake on whose shore stood a replica of the castle of Vajda-Hunyad, the ancestral seat of another great Hungarian royal family, the Hunyadis, whose most outstanding ruler, Matthias Corvinus, was the great Renaissance king of Hungary, and who appointed the Jewish prefect – an ancestor of the Patai family - to represent the Jews of the country.
(Pictures of the Angyalfi Budapest home at 8 Jokai Street from 1929)
Summary
In conclusion, the Angyalfi family would have formerly been called Englert or Engel until 1886, when they changed the family name to Angyalfi, as many Hungarian Jews did at that time, though the Patai family only changed their name in 1904. As the name Engel or Englert indicates, they most likely came from Germany. At the same time, Jews of Pest in 1920 were proudly Jewish and many families, as the Angyalfi and Patai families, would have sent their children to a Jewish primary and high school rather than the municipal school. Though there were various degrees of observance of those attending the Jewish school, they all would have received Hebrew instruction, learnt about Jewish observance, kept the Shabbat and attended Shabbat morning and festival services, affording them proficiency of the prayers. Jewish observance continued after Imre immigrated to England, where he would continue to recite the daily prayers with Tefilin, read the weekly Torah portion on Shabbat and lead the services at the local synagogue, where they lived in Amersham. An entry in the London Gazette 17 January, 1947 states that Imre Miklos Anyalfi (12 July, 1910 – March, 1988) became naturalized as a British citizen on 6 November, 1946. He worked as wholesale and manufacturing Jeweller and lived at Little Intaglio, Chartridge Lane, Chesham, Buckinghamshire.[40]
Little Intaglio
According to the Chesham Museum: ‘The home is notable for its connection to World War II history. Following the events of Kristallnacht in 1938, the Chesham, Amersham & District Refugee Fund was established to help house incoming Jewish refugees. From 1939, Chesham Youth Hostel at Colwyn, 331 Chartridge Lane, housed the Angyalfi family, originally from Budapest, until April 1940, when they moved to Little Intaglio, Chartridge Lane. In February 1941, around 5,000 evacuees arrived in the Chesham area, although many returned to London after the Blitz.[41]
Angyalfi family in Hungary
Imre Miklos (Moshe) Angyalfi’s father was Karoly or Carlos (Yitzchok Zev) Angyalfi, born in Balatonfokajar in 1883, before moving to Budapest in 1899. Karoly moved to England with his wife Janka, where he established a second-hand watch strap business. He passed away at Oxford in the Radcliffe Infirmary (closed in 2007). The father of Karoly is József Engel Dutesch. József Engel (1848-1928) married Mina Deutsch (b. 1849-1923) on July 26 1874, in Székesfehérvár, Fejér, Magyarország. Parents of Jozsef are Philip Engel and Magdalena Rozenspitz. Parents of Mina Deutsch are: Samuel and Johanna Deutsch. Joszef was a merchant born in Balatonfőkajár. Mina was from Székesfehérvár, born in Lovasberény. Witnesses or signees at their wedding were: Simon Deutsch and Johanna Deutsch; Adolf Krausz and Magdalena Rosenspitz. Imre Miklos (Moshe) Angyalfi’s mother was Janka nee Grunhut, born in Budapest, in 1885-1955. Karoly and Janka had three children: Imre Miklos (12 July, 1910 – March, 1988), Eva and Erszi (Elizabeth). On Eva’s birth certificate, it states her address was Budapest VIl Arena ut 11/a.[42] This suggests that the family address was this address before moving to 8 Jokai St in 1929.
Eva married Shani Mandell and had a child called Veronica. Veronica married Mr. Smith. Eva arrived before the war, settling first in Belfast, before moving to England. Shani, Veronica’s father, worked for a Jewish textile company, and when they saw how things were going in Hungary, they decided to transfer business to the UK. At the time, Northern Ireland had a major unemployment problem and was offering generous incentives to new employers - added to which it already had an established textile industry with experienced workers - so Shani, who spoke fluent English, was sent over to set up the new company, which was called Ulster Silks and Woollens. Veronica was therefore born in Belfast and was where they lived until Shani died and Veronica had finished her education, after which Eva moved to Wembley Park to be near her sister, Imre.[43]
The youngest sibling of Imre, Erszi, escaped to Sweden - possibly thanks to Raoul Wallenberg although this is just speculation. She must have had papers to show she was Catholic, as her son Jan-Peter Jansson always vehemently denied any Jewish connection.[44] Veronica has two sons: Peter and Stephen.[45] Erszi (Elizabeth) lived in Stockholm and married Knut Janssen. They had Jan Peter. Karoly and Janka first stayed with Erszi, before moving to London to stay with Imre and Lotte.[46]
Family in Balatonfokajar
The Angyalfi – Engel family came from Balatonfokajar, before moving to Budapest. A number of extended members of the family are buried in the Balatonfőkajár Jewish cemetery. As the family subsequently moved to Budapest, one can find also members of the family buried in the Kozma Street Cemetery, the largest in Budapest and one of the largest in Europe with 300,000 people, active still today. It was opened in 1891 by the Neolog Jewish community of Budapest. The family members at the Balatonfőkajár Jewish cemetery include the following from the Engel, Deutsch, Kohn families:
1. Lajos Engel (1844-1925) married to Lajosné Deutsch Engel. Lajos Engel was an innkeeper. His parents were Pál Engel and Lidia nee Herczfelder.
2. Lajosne (1851-1923) was born Róza Deutsch. Her parents were Ábrahám Deutsch and Katalin nee Mauthner.
3. Ábrahám Deutsch (1823-1895) -
4. Katalin Mauthner Deutsch (1824-1913). Her parents were Mózes Mauthner and Johanna nee Kohn.
5. Pal Engel (1885) - lived 3 months. Parents: Mihály Engel and Lina Polllak.
6. Gizella Engel (1873-1883) - School student, parents: Mihály Engel and Helén Pollák. (Same as Mina Pollak?)
7. Lina Pollak Engel (1847-1888) - wife of Mihály Engel, butcher
8. Katalin Engel (1812-1893) - merchant's wife, widow, place of birth in the registry book: Jenö, Zala county
9. Maria Deutsch (1860 - 1894) - Entry in the registry book, previously married to Mrs. János Kun, Mrs. János Kun is the surviving spouse, and in the comment section, "they have lived separately since ancient times, otherwise converted to the Reformed faith by János Kohn"
10. Izsák Deutsch (1820-1896) - independent peddler, his wife is the late Katalin Krausz, his father is Ignácz Deutsch; his mother is Háni Hirschel.
11. Gizella Deutsch (1881-1889), born in Füle, Székesfehérvár district, Fejér, Hungary - parents Herman Deutsch; Spitzer Mari
12. Jónas Kohn (1816-1855)
13. Lina Kohn (1857-1889) - seamstress, single
14. Mari Luria Kohn (1802-1887) - husband Mátyás Kohn
15. Mátyás Kohn (1799-1890) - master tailor, widow, born in Szemnitz? maybe it could be Körmöcbánya
Grunhut
The Grunhut family tree goes back a number of generations. Lipot (Leva) Grunhut (1820-1890) (publican), married Razalia (Zali) Frommer (d. 1896). Lipot was born in 1820 in Galicia, by 1847 had migrated to Radava, Slovakia, where their son, Moric, was born, before migrating further to Budapest, where he died. They had seven children: 1. Nathan (b. 1843); 2. Philip (1845-1888); 3. Moric (Moritz) (1847-1905); 4. Adolf (b. 1849); 5. Maria (b. 1852); 6. Bernat (b. 1854); 7. Janka (b. 1856).
1. Nathan married Josephine Frommer (cousin?) and had three children: 1. Oskar – changed name to Gal from Grunhut, married, had one daughter (d. 1922). 2. Olga – married Henrik Kalmer and had two daughters Magda and Bozsike. 3. Janka married and had one daughter.
2. Philip (1845-1888), doctor, married Lotti (1851-1932) and had five children: 1. Bela (b. 1875 – alive in Budapest in 1964). 2. Etel – married Kalman Halasz. 3. Vilmos – William (dentist) – married Edith Zimany and had son Dr. Vilmos Gyenes (surgeon) who had a son Vilmos (age 18 in 1964). 4. Margit – married Ignac Kende (architect) and had two children Edith Grof and Klara Boros. 5. Lajos (married and children unknown). The family changed their name to Gyenes.
3. Moric (Moritz) (b. 1847-1905), born in Radava (Rendve), Slovakia, married Cecilia (Cili) Eisler (1856-1945), daughter of Samson Eisler (b. c. 1800, Papa, Veszprem, Hungary, family originally from Eibenschutz, Germany) and Regina Pollack. Cecilia’s sister was Fani Frisch (source: Geni). Moric and Cecilia had six children:
1. Iren (b. 1877 – d. Sao Paulo) – married Janos Erdelyi (d. Sao Paulo) and had five children: Katinka – had one married son Paulo (?); Gyorgi (d. Sao Paulo) – married twice, several children; Piroska – son lives in Sao Paulo; Agnes (d. Sao Paulo) – married Gyorgy Stein and had two children: Minaly and Iris. Bozsika (d. 14 yrs old in Budapest from Diphteria).
2. Jolan (1878-1939) – married Lajos Frank, had two children: Istvan (died in the war); Klari (b. 1916) – married Gyorgi Gati, has son in Budapest.
3. Paula (1880 - 1949) – married Albert Fenyves and had two children: Lili (b. 1907) – twice married; Marta (b. 1909 - Budapest) – twice married.
4. Etel (1882-1949) – married Adolf Schlesinger (post official and had three children: Endre, Edith, Geza (all died in the war).
5. Janka (Johanna) (1885-June, 1955) - married Karoly Angyalfi (1883- 3 Aug, 1953) and had three children, Imre Miklos - my grandfather (12 July, 1910 – March, 1988), Eva and Erszi (Elizabeth) (b. 1919).
6. Istvan Leib (1890), changed name to Lorand – married Luisa Steiner, moved to Israel, and had three sons: Janos (1922 – 1946); Andras Antal (b. 1932) – married Janine Waldman (b. Paris 1934) – had two children - Ayala (b. 1956) and Michael (b. 1960); Peter Minaly (b. 1933) unmarried in Tel Aviv.
4. Adolf (b. 1849) - married Bertha (source: Deri Balazs) and had three children: 1. Miklos - married Ludmilla. 2. Ilda – married Rzso Zsoldos (teacher) and had two children: Magda and son. Ilda ? and daughter Magda died in the war. 3. Elsa – married Josef Sever and had two children: Laszlo and Josef (wine engineer).
5. Maria (b. 1852) – married Antal Kohn and had four children: 1. Henrik (Kalmar) – married Olga Grunhut, daughter Magda and husband died in the war. 2. Bozsike – married Istvan Muller (brings up orphan Eva). 3. Malvin – married Lipot Krausz and had two sons Antal and Imre. 4. Lipot (Kalmar) – married Margit. Son killed by the Nazis.
6. Janka (Johanna) (b. 1854) – married Miklos Lichtman (Lichtner: source: Deri Balazs). Janka Angyalfi nee Grunhut was named after her, as she had no children.
7. Bernat (b. 1856) – married Laura and had four children: 1. Dezso – married Ibi Gal (widow of Oskar) – no children. 2. Ferenc (changed name to Tibor) – died in the war. 3. Ilona – Mrs. Tauber lives in London, 145 Station Road, N3. Zsuzsi and Peter (?). 4. Jozsa.
Other Grunhut family
The Grunhut family seems to have been a large Jewish family in pre war Hungary. There was a Rabbi Lazar Grunhut (Eliazar Halevi) born in Gerenda, Hungary, on 10 May, 1850, and died in Petah Tikva, Israel, 2 February, 1913. He is renowned for his research & publications in the field of Midrash and Saadia Gaon. Receiving his diploma as rabbi while a mere youth, he went to Berlin, where he attended the lectures of Dr. Israel Hidesheimer at the rabbinical seminary, as well as those at the university. For eleven years he officiated as rabbi at Temesvar, Hungary.
It's possible that the Grunhut family originally came from Frankfurt-on-the-Main, where there was a German rabbi of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries called David Grunhut. His father was secretary of the congregation, and his maternal grandfather, Simon Günzburg, was a member of the rabbinate. In 1682 Rabbi David Grunhut edited Hayyim Vital's book on transmigration, "Gilgulim", which brought upon him the censure of the rabbinate, which was opposed to Shabbetai Zvi and, therefore, to the Kabbala, but he nevertheless reprinted this work in 1684. He also published "Tov Ro'i," rules on shechitah together with "Migdal David," homilies on the Pentateuch, and notes on some Talmudic treatises (Frankfurt-on-the-Main, 1712), and a commentary on Abraham ibn Ezra's grammatical puzzle in the 1712 (Frankfurt) edition of the "Sefer Hasidim," which commentary was reprinted in the 1713 edition of Samuel Uceda's commentary on Avot entitled "Midrash Shmuel." He served as a rabbi in Aue, Hesse-Nassau, and perhaps also in Heimerdingen.
Eisler family
The Eisler family came to the Hungarian town Papa from Eibenschutz in Germany. Samson Eisler was born at the beginning of the 19th century at Papa and married Ragina Pollack, the daughter of a well known engraver employed by the Prince Eszternazy. They had six children: Moritz (b. 1843); Samuel (b. 1845); Hannah (b. 1847); Jeanette (b. 1852); Cecilia (b. 1856); Fanny (b. 1858).
1. Moritz Eisler married Rosalin Olan and had five children: Sandor, Odon, Frieda, Gizella, Gyula.
1. Sandor (changed name to Elek) (b. 1865) – married Jusztin Hollosy and had two children: Ilona Elek - Schacher Olympic fencing champion; daughter (?). Margit married Dr. Muller.
2. Frieda (b. 1870) married Tivadar Fleischman – children: Ilona died at 1 years old; Laszlo (Meszaros) – architect; Ella Mrs. Papai; Margit (b. 1904) married; Meszaros Laszlo - had two children Paul and Ella – had a daughter Marrian (b. 1923) - married; Lia – married.
3. Odon (b. 1872), solicitor – married Julia Dudas and had son: Dr. Janos Eisler (b. 1906) – university professor, daughter artist.
4. Gyula (b. 1874) – married Anna Grunwald and had three children: Lajos (b. 1874) – married his brother’s widow, had a son Bandi (b. 1948); Endre (b. 1904), unmarried died in war; Istvan (b. 1909), landowner, died in war, widow married Lajos. Istvan had two children: Peter (b. 1937) – unmarried; Eva (b. 1940) – married and had a son Meir (b. 1952).
5. Gizella – married Lajos Wald (merchant) and had five children: Mihaly (b. 1899 – lived Buenos Aires) – married Magda Weiss, had son Lajos; Gyorgy (b. 1901 - lived in Buenos Aires) had children: Zsuzsi and Janos; Imre (b. 1902) – has two daughters; Dr. Bela (b. 1904) – married Katalin Pinter, had two children: Paul and Panni; Laszlo (b. 1908) – married and had one daughter.
2. Samuel (b. 1845) – married Katalin Bohm – no children.
3. Hanna (b. 1847) – married Jacob Furst and had three children: Mrs. Iren, Lax – has three children, including Dr. Henry (doctor in the USA) – married a doctor, had two sons; Lili – married Dr. Scheiber, had two daughters; Baby married A. Groszman – had no children.
4. Jeanette (b. 1852 - 1870).
5. Cecilia (b. 1856 - 1945) – married Moric (Moritz) Grunhut, and had six children: Iren, Jolan, Paula, Etel, Janka, Istvan.
5. Fanny (b. 1858) – married Bel Frish (merchant) and had four children: Margit – married Pinter, had two daughters; Aranka – married I. Dery, had one daughter. All three died in the war; Vilma – married A. Sugar (dentist), had one daughter and one son, both died in the war; Bozske – married Csetenyi (journalist), had one daughter and one son.
Summary of family - Eisler: 1. Samson Eisler (b. Papa, family originally from Eibenschutz) and Regina Pollack. 2. Cecilia Eisler (1856-1945) and Moric Grunhut (1847-1905). 3. Janka Grunhut (1885-June, 1955) and Karoly Angyalfi (1883 - 3 Aug, 1953). 4. Imre Miklos Angyalfi (12 July, 1910 – March, 1988) and Charlotte Rosenbaum (17 Jan 1914 – 1995)…
Summary of family - Grunhut: 1. Lipot (Leva) Grunhut (d. 1890) and Rosalie Frommer (d. 1896). 2. Moric Grunhut (1847-1905) and Cecilia Eisler (1856-1945). 3. Janka Grunhut (1855-June, 1955) and Karoly Angyalfi (1883 - 3 Aug, 1953). 4. Imre Miklos Angyalfi (12 July, 1910 – March, 1988) and Charlotte Rosenbaum (17 Jan 1914 – 1995).
Charlotte Angyalfi - Rosenbaum
Imre Angyalfi (12 July, 1910 – March, 1988) met Charlotte Rosenbaum (17 Jan 1914 Breslau – 1995) in Budapest around 1933, when she worked as a German Jewish governess with a Hungarian family. She was born in Breslau, which was then part of Germany, currently Poland, and her father passed away when she was twelve. In a brief introduction to her catalogue of paintings and sculptures 'Eloquence Silences: A collection of drawings and sculptures' (1985), she writes that when she was ten, she realised she was an artist and drew portraits of most of her school friends. Over the next few years, despite restraining efforts from her family, she strayed into Life Classes during High school at the Breslauer Kunstschule (Breslau Art School) - later became the Breslauer Kunstakademie (Breslau Academy of Arts) - instead of attending classes and her teachers at that time were expressionist painter Otto Mueller, a German painter and printmaker of the Die Brucke expressionist movement, and Professor Kowalski. This would have been in the late 1920's as Otto Mueller died in September 1930.
Despite bleak predictions from her headmistress, she succeeded to matriculate from high school and got into Art School and university (The Staatliche Akademie für Kunst und Kunstgewerbe Breslau - State Academy of Art and Applied Arts in Breslau). On 1st April 1932, however, as a result of the second Prussian Notverordnung (emergency powers), the Breslau Art School closed. After that closure classes continued in masters' studios for about a year.[47] When Hitler came to power in 1933, she was chased out of university and realised that if she wanted to pursue art, she would have to leave the country. Her first stop was Budapest, where she learnt useful techniques of watercolour fashion drawings, which she showed to an interesting young Hungarian. He in turn introduced his self-portrait to her over a game of chess in a little cafe and a year later they got married in London.[48] This young Hungarian man was Imre Angyalfi, 23 years old, when they first met, after having studied at the LSE for three years in London, between 1928 and 1932. They were married a year later in London.
The reason Imre came to London to study, instead of remaining in Budapest, as did his friend Patai, was because of the numerus clausus.[49] Hungary adopted the Numerus Clausus Law on September 23, 1920 (Act XXV of 1920), making it the first explicit anti-Jewish racial and educational quota law in post-World War I Europe.[50] Numerus clausus (Latin for "closed number") officially claimed to address university "overcrowding" and intellectual unemployment, but it explicitly restricted university admissions based on national and racial/ethnic quotas.[51] It mandated that the proportion of students from any "race or nationality" enrolled in institutions of higher education must match that group's proportion within Hungary’s overall population. For Jewish applicants, this effectively capped their admission rate at roughly 5% to 6%.[52] Before the law, high Jewish enrollment (nearly 30% by 1910) reflected historical exclusions that pushed Jews into intellectual and professional careers. Following the law, Jewish student enrollment dropped sharply (falling to around 8% or lower depending on the institution).[53] Passed during the regime of Regent Miklós Horthy, the law dismantled 19th-century legal emancipation, set an interwar precedent for state-sanctioned antisemitism, and laid the legal groundwork for subsequent anti-Jewish laws in Hungary leading up to the Holocaust.[54] This led Imre to study abroad at the LSE in London. He had studied previously, as mentioned at the Hungarian Realgymnasium, and also records on one of his student records an entry for the Hungarian Royal Pazmany Peter University, Faculty of Law, Budapest. It is unclear when he studied at this university – before, after or at the same time as his studies at the LSE.
Imre had been offered a place to study the Bachelor of Commerce (B. Comm.) degree (now phased out) at the London School of Economics (LSE) in London between October, 1928 and June, 1932, when he completed his studies.[55] In 1929, he also attending classes in Spanish, English and accounting. In the remarks on his academic record, it states: ‘Likes writing essays in the journalistic style.’ In January, 1929, he was using an address for his correspondence at 19 Shawfield Street, Chelsea, SW3. When he completed his degree, he requested the alien office to allow to re-enter England, but was refused by the Ministry of Labour. Support was obtained from Nicholas Kaldor to assist him by asking the LSE to write a letter in support of him being allowed to re-enter. This was sent in a letter of 4th November, 1932, but was further rejected in a letter of 14th November, 1932, headed: The Aliens Order 1920 – Article 1 (3) (b). The letter was in response to a letter from the LSE of 4th November clarifying that Imre is a student with a good record and had studied at the school for three years, to June, 1932, and had graduated with a degree of B. Comm. He desires to return to the school as a postgraduate student for special research, and that the school is prepared to admit him, but he wishes to supplement his theoretical work in Finance by taking up employment as a volunteer clerk with a bankers office, at Messrs. Leopold Joseph and Sons, 10 and 11, Austin Friars, E.C.2. The letter concludes that he will not be in paid employment and will not be keeping any British national out of a post. This further petition was however refused, and the refusal was communicated in a letter from the college registrar to inform N. Kaldor of this on 15th November, 1932.
Unable to re-enter England, Imre was thus residing indefinitely in Budapest after his studies in 1932. It was during that time, in 1933, he met Charlotte Rosenbaum (17 January 1914 Breslau – 1995) – his wife to be, with whom he moved to London and married around a year later in Islington in 1935, most likely helped by the fact she was fleeing persecution, after the rise of the Nazis to power. She writes the streets of London were not paved with gold. She painted for a living, occasionally designing postcards for a printing firm, dresses for fashion houses and helped her husband make a living, while always with a sketch pad under her arm.
Chess remained a favourite activity throughout his life, as Imre would play long chess games with Lotte every Shabbat afternoon in almost silence. This would be the case when the grandchildren would visit them for Shabbat, as was the case for many years earlier, as told by his daughter, Sora, recalling her year growing up. Other Hungarians who were visiting students at LSE – some to return to Hungary, while others stayed in London, included Ferenc Rajniss (1927-1928), Francis Albert Váli (1929- 1931) and Nicholas Kaldor (1927-1930). Kaldor married Clarissa Goldschmid, studied at Somerville College, Oxford, and had a daughter Francis Stewart, currently professor at Oxford.
Art exhibition
She held an exhibition for her drawings, paintings and sculpture in 1985, and in 1983, her paintings and sculptured pieces were sold at the Ben Uri Art Gallery annual open exhibition, on 26 September, 1983 a d. Her oil painting Flowers was displayed for £90 and sculptured piece of Lot’s Wife for also £90.[56] Some of her painting and sculptures were inspired by Jewish and Biblical themes, as well as Chassidic thought. This includes the days of creation, Israel, Lot’s wife, among others.
Rosenbaum family of Germany / Poland
(Picture: Pszczyna, Poland - Synagogue and cemetery)
Charlotte (Lotte) Angyalfi, nee Rosenbaum, was born in Breslau, 17 January 1914 (passed away 22 October 1995 – 28 Tishrei, 5756). Her father was Max (Moshe) Rosenbaum, born in Pleb/Pszczyna, Poland (8 Feb 1883), and mother Elise or Liesel (Mietze) Laura (Breslau 18 Oct, 1890) nee Krimke. The family history in Pszczyna can be further explored through the Jewish cemetery, bought on 2 August, 1814, containing 740 people. The cemetery survived the Second World War virtually intact but was used as a defensive position by the Germans in early 1945, and engaged Soviet soldiers in shelling, resulting in the destruction of the children section of the cemetery. Approximately 400 tombstones are preserved in an area of 0.6 hectares. The cemetery is divided into five sections and bear inscriptions in Hebrew and German. The last tomb is from 1922.[57]
Elise lived at 45/47 Menzelstrasse (Göringstrase),[58] now ul. Wieczysta, Breslau. Elise and Max Rosenbaum had two children: Charlotte (Lotte) and Suzi. Suzi married Rudi (Rudolph) Wayne (formerly Wagner) and had a son Peter Wayne. Elise became widowed when Charlotte was twelve. Elise’s brothers were Hans Krimke (Breslau 18 July 1895), who lived at 19 Woelfistrasse, before moving to London, and Fritz Krimke. Fritz Krimke married Bertha (Bertel).[59] Fritz was a draughtsman and designer and, recorded in March, 1948, lived at 51 Grove St, Leamington Spa, Warwickshire.[60]
Hanz Krimke was a singer and married Nanny, who converted to Judaism in Breslau. They had a daughter, Ursula, called Ulle. Ursula had a half-brother, Dietz-Ulrich Schwarz, who had two daughters (older daughter is Iris-Corinna Schwarz) and lived in Munich. Ulla married Wolfgang Erich Sachs and lived in an apartment near Wembley stadium (no children). Ulle and Lotte stayed close all their life. Elise’s parents were Salo Krimke (Breslau 5 April 1863 – c. 1890) and Franziska (Breslau 15 Sep, 1867- Breslau 19 Oct 1937) nee Lappe. Elise and Franziska were both widowed and lived at Menzelstrasse 45/47. Salo Krimke’s father was Hermann Krimke and mother, Esther nee Littauer.[61] Franziska’s parents were Moritz Lappe and Eleanore nee Friedlander.[62]
(Pictures – sketches by Lotte: 1. Hans Krimke playing the violin. 2. Hans Krimke sitting next to Sora at the piano)
One of Lotte’s close friends from school in Breslau was Ida (Adi) Freyhan, who married Rabbi Josef Hirsch Dunner (1913-2007). Joseph Hirsch was born in Cologne and served as Chief Rabbi of East Prussia before World War II. He moved to England after Kristallnacht with Solomon Schonfeld via the Netherlands in December 1938 and served as Rabbi of the Union of Orthodox Hebrew Congregations in London from 1960 to 2007. Ida Dunner nee Freyhan was the daughter of Dr. Wilhelm (Zev) Freyhan, a leading member of the Jewish community of Breslau, and one of the original founders of Agudat Israel at the Kattowitz Conference of 1912. The Angyalfi and Dunner families remained friends after moving to England and Lotte would recall how they helped provide them with basic furniture, despite their own difficulties, when they arrived in England almost penniless in 1938.
[1] The brief history in this article has been compiled by Eric Benjaminson with material provided by Latvian genealogist Aleksandrs Feigmanis.
[2] www.jewishgen.org/courland/goldingen_1842.htm.
[3] An earlier theory of the origin of the name Brackman/Brachman was an acrostic for Ben Reb Kalman, as was the case with other families with similar names, as Berkman. Upon the finding of this Goldingen Oklad, the this is not the case here.
[4] http://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?gl=39&gsln=Hennoch&gsln_x=XO.
[5] http://unclaimedpoliciesswissre.org/.
[6] www.liepajajews.org/ps03/ps03_289.htm.
[7] www.liepajajews.org/ps03/ps03_289.htm.
[8] www.liepajajews.org/cem/1935_41.htm.
[9] www.liepajajews.org/ps03/ps03_289.htm.
[10] Ed Anders.
[11] www.liepajajews.org/ps03/ps03_289.htm.
[12] Markowitz, SA Jewish Times 1948; Rybko W. “A Zionist Lecture Tour Zionist Record. 25 June 1948; jewishgen.org/safrica/communities.
[13] https://www.jpost.com/opinion/columnists/why-cant-everyone-be-allowed-to-play-his-part-309978.
[14] Conversation with Eli Brackman.
[15] https://www.jwmww2.org/soldier.aspx?id=23046.
[16] South Africa’s 800. The Story of South African Volunteers in Israel’s War of Birth. Henry Katzew 1998.
[17] http://test.saii.org.il/alphabetical-list.html?sobi2Task=sobi2Details&catid=28&sobi2Id=71.
[18] First cousin (once removed) of Hugo and Chava, Rabbi Eli Brackman, visited them around 2010, when Hugo was already very unwell. Upon arriving, Chava handed the only two surviving portraits of Aaron and Clara Brachmann, presented in this article, saying it is time to pass on these for safekeeping.
[19] There is newspaper scrap book with short clippings from newspapers referencing practical knowledge and wisdom, granted as a birthday present from Blanche Danziger in 1904 to her older sister, Rose. This was subsequently gifted from Rose to her daughter Grace. Dates of clippings come from The Manchester Evening News, The Sunday Chronicle, between 1914 and 1923. A clipping includes an article about the conferment of the mandate for Palestine on Great Britain, entitled: Jewish Joy. “The Day of Glory Has Arrived.” Palestine Future. Vision of a greater New State. Another article is titled” Palestine Future. Manchester Zionists Elated by Report of British Mandate and that a national home for the Jewish people may be at last established. This refers to The San Remo Conference - an international meeting held from April 19 to April 26, 1920, at Castle Devachan in Sanremo, Italy, following World War I, at which the 1917 Balfour Declaration into the Palestine mandate was incorporated, tasking Great Britain with establishing a national home for the Jewish people while safeguarding the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities. Another article is entitled: After 19 Centuries, The National and Political Resurrection of the Jews, By Dr. J. Dulberg, late Capt, R.A.M.C. April 25 1920 will henceforth rank as one of the happiest days in the history of the Jew, for on that day it was agreed that Great Britain should take over the mandate for the newly constructed Palestine as a Jewish National Homeland.
[20] https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/261392715?searchTerm=theodore%20danziger.
[21] https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/165009561?searchTerm=theodore%20danziger.
[22] https://www.myheritage.com/names/sylvia_danziger.
[23] https://www.builtheritage.com.au/dua_hayden.html.
[24] https://www.mck.org.au/search/27434. Melbourne Chevra Kadisha. Children: Earnest and Dawn (?)
[25] Danziger family: www.british-jewry.org.uk/leedsjewry/getperson.php?personID=I26433&tree=1.
[26] The granddaughter of Harry is Sarah Donner, who studied at Oxford and lives in Edgware with her family.
[27] BERTELSTEIN/BERTLESTEIN, Annie (Hannah), Mrs, born Poland about 1854, wife of Harris Bertelstein, a watchmaker and jeweller. They had ten children. The youngest, Rachel, married Leon Lanzetter of Bolton. The Bertelstein family appear in 1901 census living in Bury New Rd, Salford. Harris died in 1907. In 1911 census, the family were still living on Bury New Rd, and Annie is described as a financier. Annie moved to live in Bolton with Leon and Rachel in her later years. She died there in 1942. 161 (Find my past 1901 Census ref RG13/3767 Folio142, p 9; 1911 Census schedule for 214 Bury New Rd Salford; Ancestry Death index). https://jscn.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/An-Industrious-Minority-Bolton.pdf. Private Henry Bertlestein number 243099 Overseas 13 Jun 1915 Killed in action 30 Nov 1917 Previously served as 12234 Private King’s Own. http://www.kingsownmuseum.com/rolls-1914-15-Star-b.htm.
[28] On Grace’s death certificate, it says Sidney and Grace were living at 97 Park Road, Prestwich, Lancashire, formerly at 99 Leicester Road, Salford. It is unclear when they lived at Northumberland Road.
[29] https://jlifemagazine.co.uk/news-manchester/brackmans-accolade.
[30] The Royal Society of Chemistry.
[31] https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF01458027.
[32] https://worldwide.espacenet.com/searchResults?submitted=true&locale=en_EP&DB=EPODOC&ST=advanced&TI=&AB=&PN=&AP=&PR=&PD=&PA=&IN=Brackman+Derek+Samuel&CPC=&IC=.
[33] This was also detailed in a paper prepared by DS Brackman on 5 July, 1977, for a meeting with Harrow Planning Department (Mr. Roxby).
[34] The structure was built but subsequently denied planning permission.
[35] An interesting juxtaposition of using a structure built for potential solar collection for the purpose of a Sukkah, which has as one of its main criteria in Jewish law to be valid: ‘the shaded part must exceed the sun lit area (Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim 631).
[36] https://www.theguardian.com/science/2020/mar/06/arnold-bodmer-obituary.
[37] Ezergailis, The Holocaust in Latvia, at page 33, n.81.
[38] www.ungarndeutsche.de/de/cms/uploads/Kischludt_Magyarisierung%20der%20Familiennamen_Tabelle.pdf.
[39] www.ungarndeutsche.de/de/cms/uploads/Magyarisierte%20Familiennamen%20I.do.
[40] http://www.london-gazette.co.uk/issues/37855/pages/342/page.pdf.
[41] https://cheshammuseum.org.uk/blogs/cheshams-wartime-jewish-refugees/.
[42] Email from Veronica Smith (19 Oct, 2015).
[43] Veronica related: my mother didn't reminisce much, never wanted to visit Budapest again.
[44] Email from Veronica Smith (3 May, 2019).
[45] Email from Veronica Smith (19 Oct, 2015).
[46] Email from Veronica Smith (6 May, 2019).
[47] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Staatliche_Akademie_f%C3%BCr_Kunst_und_Kunstgewerbe_Breslau.
[48] They got married according Jewish law, under the auspices of Rabbi Dunner, before their daughter, Sora (Caroline) married Dr. Derek (Baruch Samuel) Brackman.
[49] Email from Veronica Smith (3 May, 2019).
[50] https://www.jstor.org/content/oa_book_monograph/10.7829/j.ctv2vdbvg5.
[51] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Numerus_clausus.
[52] https://simon.vwi.ac.at/index.php/simon/article/view/143/65.
[53] https://autocracyanalyst.net/100-years-ago-hungary-adopted-the-first-racial-law-in-europe/.
[54] https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/the-holocaust-in-hungary.
[55] http://www.ulrls.lon.ac.uk/resources/degrees_awarded_1932.pdf.
[56] https://www.buru.org.uk/archive/571.
[57] https://sztetl.org.pl/pl/miejscowosci/p/449-pszczyna/114-cmentarze/29657-cmentarz-zydowski-w-pszczynie-ul-katowicka-36.
[58] Breslau synagogue community archive - Address list (ca 1930) - http://gen.scatteredmind.co.uk/Breslau_addresses/.
[59] Converted. In the Breslau synagogue community archive, Berta Krimke is listed as born 7 May, 1893, living at 106 Augustastrasse.
[60] https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/38289/page/2949/data.pdf.
[61] A further family member listed in the Breslau synagogue community archive is: Dorothea Krimke nee Littauer (born 24 Nov, 1901) – married, living at 9 Elfenweg (Bischofswalde). It’s unclear if this is possibly the same person as Esther Krimke nee Littauer, or a family member.
[62] http://gen.scatteredmind.co.uk/Breslau_addresses/ and https://ofb.genealogy.net/famreport.php?ofb=juden_nw&ID=I52244&lang=no