ELAINE GORDON’S MATERNAL ANCESTORS 2

MATERNAL GRANDPARENTS AS YOUNG ADULTS,

END OF NINETEENTH CENTURY

ETKA POSTAWELSKI (BEFORE MARRIAGE) SUVALKI, POLAND ELIAS ABRAHAM GITTELSOHN (AS YOUNG ADULT)

GRANDFATHER ELIAS GITTELSOHN AND HIS YOUNG FAMILY

ELIAS A. GITTELSOHN (OSNABRÜCK, GERMANY, 1920S) ETHEL AND ELIAS GITTELSOHN AND CHILDREN, (TOP LEFT) MY MOTHER, DORA (OSNABRÜCK, 1915)

4/24/2003 42 THE GITTELSOHN (STANDING, FAMILY LEFT TO RIGHT) GITTELSOHN CHILDREN: GRETEL (GRETE) BORN IN 1909; MIRIAM, 1913; OSCAR, 1903; RÖCHEN (ROSE), 1907; DORA, 1906 (DAUGHTER LORI, 1904, THE FAMILY PHOTOGRAPHER MISSING FROM PHOTOGRAPH)

MYRA POSTAWELSKI, ETHEL (SEATED) MY GRANDPARENTS, ELIAS ABRAHAM AND ETHEL GITTELSOHN GITTELSOHN’S (NÉE POSTAWELSKI); (CENTER FRONT) ELIAS’S BROTHER-IN-LAW, HILLEL MOTHER, MY LEVINE, TRAVELING FROM SUVALKI TO PARIS FOR RADIATION TREATMENT GREAT- OF HIS BLADDER TUMOR GRANDMOTHER (OSNABRÜCK, GERMANY, 1930) (SUVALKI, POLAND, ABOUT 1900)

NEGATIVE OF MYRA POSTAWELSK (LEFT) ETHEL GITTELSOHN (SHANGHAI, 1940) I IN ABOVE (RIGHT) ELIAS ABRAHAM GITTELSOHN (OSNABRÜCK, ABOUT 1930) PHOTOGRAPH (SUVALKI)

43 4/24/2003

PAINTING OF ELIAS GITTELSOHN (LEFT) IN OSNABRÜCK SYNAGOGUE. ARTIST FELIX NUSSBAUM PAINTED MY GRANDFATHER ELIAS IN 1926. HE WEARS THE TRADITIONAL WHITE PRAYER SHAWL WITH BLUE STRIPES AND IT SWAYS AND BENDS AS HE PRAYS AND 1 LOWERS HIS HEAD IN INTENSE SUPPLICATION. The observance of Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement, is portrayed. The figures of my grandfather and of the younger man at right represent a conflict between the generations. The old man looks inward contemplating tradition. The smooth-shaven young man looks outward to world culture. Elias’s image also appears among the minute figures standing before the ark containing the Torah. A parchment scroll of the Pentateuch in Hebrew is mounted on wooden rollers. From the ceiling hangs a large, crown-shaped candelabra. A colorful aura exudes around the Star of David symbolizing the everlasting light. On the pulpit are two seven-armed candelabra. Above the arch holding the Torah is the Hebrew inscription, “From the rising of the sun until the setting the name of the Lord shall be praised.” The Torah consists of the five books of Moses, the law of God, and rules for the Jewish faith. Torah scrolls are written on lamb skins and the ink is a type of vegetable oil. The reader uses a pointer called a “yad,” meaning “hand.” It is usually a metal or wood “stick” with a hand and a pointing finger on the end to avoid smearing the ink. The variety of head coverings worn by the men in the pews mirrors the community. The men cover themselves with shawls, called tallit. The women sit on the side balconies.

4/24/2003 44 FOREWORD The Gittelsohn family history in the context of the twentieth century begins with my

mother’s parents, my maternal grandparents. They were born in Poland, a part of the

Russian Empire, and then migrated to Germany.

What was life like for these grandparents from Poland who lived in Germany during

both the Weimar and Nazi periods? This can best be understood in retrospect by

using documents that have survived them.

ELIAS My maternal grandfather, Elias Meierovich Abraham Gittelsohn, was born on GITTELSOHN’S A BIRTH, February 22, 1872, in Bakalarzewo, 114 kilometers north by northwest of Bialystok in

1872 the Russian Empire.2 That date is in the old-style Julian calendar and March 5 on the

modern Gregorian calendar.3 My grandfather’s birthplace today is in Poland.4

In Russian, Elias’s middle name meant “son of Meier.” Elias’s birth certificate noted

that his father was Meier Gittelsohn, thirty-two, a homeowner in Bakalarzewo, and his

mother was Inda Yankelevna Shilobolsky, twenty-eight. Her middle name meant

“daughter of Yankel.” Elias’s birth certificate was signed in the presence of Shmuila

Borowsky, forty-five, and Mordechaie Martinshe Kronberg, forty-six, both

homeowners in the town. Their relationship to the Gittelsohns has not been

determined.

Jews were buried in the cemetery at the south edge of the Bakalarzewo village, near

Lake Sumowo.5

ELIAS’S EARLY LIFE Little is known about Elias Gittelsohn’s early life. It is known that fathers who wanted AND MILITARY SERVICE, their teenage sons to learn a skilled trade often contracted with a master craftsman to

1893–1897 train the boy. In exchange the boy would serve the instructor without wages for a

number of years while learning the trade. Sometimes the family even paid the

craftsman for the training. Elias apprenticed as a bookbinder.

Russia maintained soldiers in the area near the Polish Border where Elias lived, and

45 4/24/2003 disturbances frequently occurred. Historically, the borders moved, depending on which country controlled the area.

On November 4, 1893, Elias was twenty-one, draft age. He was recruited into the

Tsar’s Russian Army to serve as a private first class and was assigned to serve in

Wilmanstrandski’s Eighty-sixth Old Russian infantry. The regiment was stationed in

Staraya, western Russia, near Lake Ilmen. Elias’s military service began on

January 1, 1894,A2 and he was transferred to the first squadron as a musician and

3 junior officer nine months later.6 A

Elias’s military book stated that he had “general rights” and “originated from the class of common dwellers.”A4 The village of Bakalarzewo was in the province of

Volchansky; religion was Jewish, marital status single, and occupation was bookbinder.B

Soldiers were required to keep a record of their personal data, service history, and military training. This record showed how much they were paid and was presented to the division commander. Elias’s military record was signed by the official called the

Voyt.

In addition to Elias’s salary as a soldier he was also paid as a musician each time he performed. Soldiers were paid 80 kopecks for two-months of service. In 1897, Elias earned a ruble and half a kopeck each time he played music.B1 The amount varied monthly. In 1896, he earned 12 rubles and 89 kopecks as a musician.B2 We do not know what instrument or what music he played.

In January 1896, Elias was promoted to the rank of “junior officer.” As customary when soldiers completed four years of service, Elias was awarded a certificate in the name of Emperor and Tsar Nicholas II, commemorating the crowning of his imperial majesty. The document stated Elias performed his military duties honorably and in an exceptional manner.B3 He received a Silver Medal attached to a ribbon to be worn on

4/24/2003 46 his military jacket. On August 31, 1897, Elias was discharged from the military in

Staraya.C A double-headed eagle and arrow stamp, the official seal of the division,

was applied to Elias’s certificate.7 The stamp symbolized the Russian Empire and

Tsarist order.C1

Russia was not involved in military conflict on land when Elias served. However, the

war with Japan was ongoing until in 1905 when the Japanese and Russian fleets

fought a one-day naval battle. Elias did not participate in any battles but performed

“nursing skills” in the army.

MILITARY Elias Gittelsohn served his military term satisfactorily, and after he completed his RESERVES active duty in the Tsar’s army at age twenty-five, he was assigned to the reserves.8 C2

Persons lower than officer rank and those who were discharged dishonorably were

not admitted to the reserves.9 Young Jewish men often pursued intellectual activities

and were rarely deemed sufficiently strong to train as commanding officers.10

Elias’s discharge card, signed by the commanding officer, stated that his assignment

to the reserves meant he did not have permission to settle anywhere other than at his

residence.C3 Elias was instructed to report to the local military authority when he

returned home in 1897. If he were drafted again as a reserve officer, he was required

to appear in the town of Suvalki within twenty-four hours, and bring, ready-to-use,

high boots, no lower than a specified length, two shirts, and two pairs of long

underwear C4 These items if used by the soldier were not a donation to the military,

but would be reimbursed at January 1889 prices, no more than specified in the

military regulation book: boots were valued at 5 rubles, two shirts at 50 kopecks each,

and long underwear at 35 kopecks each. If the man was drafted between the winter

months of September through February, he was required to bring a short fur coat for

which he would be reimbursed 4 rubles.C5

Elias was drafted again into active duty in 1901, the year he married.C6 His total

47 4/24/2003 tenure in the military would have been seventeen years, including the time assigned

to the reserves from August 1897 to December 31, 1911.C6 However in 1904, before

completing his reserve military tenure, he left Russia. With the Russo-Japanese War

in progress, the Japanese won the naval conflict the following year, and Russia tallied

heavy losses.

ETKA My maternal grandmother was named Etka (in Russian) Postawelski. She was the POSTAWELSKI’S BIRTH, daughter of a landowner, according to family hearsay.11 This was unusual since Jews

1881 predominately leased or managed land for Gentiles.12 Etka was born on

January 6, 1881, in Kaletnik.D It was a Polish village twenty-six kilometers east of

Lodz in the Suvalki province near the East Prussian border and the city of

Königsberg, a town now called Kaliningrad.13 The birth was recorded in 1884 when

her mother, Mina, was twenty-four.

In the year of Etka’s birth, a series of pogroms, violent assaults on Jews, occurred

throughout the Russian Empire.14 The pogroms were a turning point for many Jews in

the empire, causing them to consider a strategy for reform and become politically

active.

The elite favored Russian rather than Polish control. Jews in the empire in the late

nineteenth century had seen the emergence and increasing dominance of concepts

of Jewish self-identification, in particular Zionism and Jewish Socialism, Bundism.

At this time, a little over ten million Jews were living in the area of many small villages

in western Russia.

GRANDPARENTS’ Etka’s father, Jankel Postawelski, earned his living as a merchant. He likely MARRIAGE, welcomed as his daughter’s husband, the learned and pious Elias who knew the AUGUST 1901 (5661 ON THE Jewish law. HEBREW CALENDAR) Jews valued scholarship, and a father who could provide a generous dowry sought a

4/24/2003 48 successful student from a Yeshiva (a religious school) to marry his daughter. These

young men not only studied the Torah, the written law “handed down to the Jews by

God,” as most boys did, but also the early scriptural interpretations, the Mishnah, and

the later commentaries on them, the Gemara, both found in the Talmud.

The impending marriage of Elias and Etka was announced at the bride’s and groom’s

respective synagogues for the three weeks prior to the wedding.E This custom was

meant to provide a sufficient interval if someone objected to the union or if either party

was already married.

Etka, twenty, and Elias, twenty-eight, were married on August 28, 1901, in Kaletnik.F

Prior to their marriage, Etka lived with her parents, Jankel and Mina (née Pinkowski)

Postawelski in Kaletnik; and Elias lived with his parents, Meier and Inda Yankelevna

(née Shilobolsky) Gittelsohn in his hometown, Bakalarzewo.15 Unmarried persons

customarily lived with parents or, if parents were deceased, they lived with relatives.

As newlyweds Elias and Etka observed the traditional Jewish religion.

The medium-height Elias had black hair, brown eyes, and an oval face with touches

of red in his short neatly trimmed beard and mustache.G On the occasion of his

wedding he wore a dark coat with a velvet collar.

The bride stood nearly five feet, three inches tall with brown hair and a light

complexion.H She treasured a long gold necklace, which was a gift from her mother.16

She wore such a necklace in a family photograph taken years later.

The merchant Hirsch Postawelski, age sixty-three, was a witness to the marriage, as

was Jossel Chemiowitsch Abramski, fifty-eight, both living in Kaletnik. Hirsch was

forty-four years old in 1881, when he was listed as a witness on the bride’s birth

certificate and may have been Etka’s grandfather.I A rabbi from the Jewish town of

Krasnapol east of Suvalki, officiated at the union. Krasnapol means beautiful field.17

49 4/24/2003 The text of the Gittelsohns’s Ketubah (marriage contract) was written in Aramaic, the language of the ancient world and the legal language of the Talmud.K The contract was written in the Middle Ages and has not changed substantially over time.

When asked to sign the marriage document, Etka abstained and explained she was not “knowledgeable about writing.”L Women rarely attended school to learn to read and write.

Jewish children went to religious schools, but if they were to succeed in society they had to attend a Russian secondary school. In the district where my family lived, among every twenty Russian students, only about two or three students were Jewish.

They looked and dressed differently from the Russians and they were often teased and beaten.

Two years after the wedding, Elias’s young wife had their first child, a son, Oscar, born on July 14, 1903,18 and a year later she gave birth to a daughter, named on her birth certificate, Fruma Lore and known as Lore/Lori born on August 27.19 Both children were born in Kaletnik. Place names on Lore’s birth certificate indicated the province of Volchansky in the village of Bakalarzewo, region of Kaletnik and Jewish community of Seyva in Suvalki. The birth certificate was signed by Abram Gibyanski, age sixty-four, and Jankel Kharlyae, age forty.

Elias was now a married man with two children. He deserted the military, perhaps because he wanted to avoid mobilization into the Russo-Japanese War, which began in February 1904,20 or he wanted to experience a better life in a more advanced and less restrictive country.21

Elias went to Sweden without his family, probably by train to the northern coast of

Germany or Russia, then by boat across the Baltic Sea to his Aunt Rachel Abramski in Göteborg/Gothenberg.L 22 She may have been related to Jossel Abramski, a

4/24/2003 50 witness on Elias’s marriage certificate.

In the Swedish town, Elias attended a small Jewish synagogue. The rabbi supported

Elias’s desire to become a chazzan (cantor) for which his strong voice and strict

religious observance were well suited. The position required a high moral character

and knowledge of the prayers and melodies to lead the congregation. Much of the

Jewish service was expressed in melodious chants.

The young Elias disapproved of Rachel’s failure to properly observe of the traditional

Jewish dietary laws, and he did not want to stay there, so he left Sweden for

Germany.23 On May 2, 1905, his wife and their two children joined him in Osnabrück,

a medium-sized city in northwest Germany, located 100 kilometers west of southwest

of Hannover. When Elias’s wife moved to Germany she became known by the

German name, Ethel.

STEPS TO It is not clear how and when Elias left Sweden. However, in 1904 he began studies to BECOMING A CANTOR, become a cantor at the center of Jewish Orthodoxy, in the town of Fulda in central

JULY 1904 Germany. In 1905, its Jewish community numbered six-hundred seventy-five, and it

had a renowned Yeshiva. Nor is it clear whether he could afford the training or if his

aunt or the community supported him.

When Elias Gittelsohn completed his training on July 5, 1904 (5664 on the Hebrew

calendar), the music director at the Yeshiva provided this testimony about him: “Elias

sings all sorts of melodies in a beautiful baritone voice as I accompany him on the

piano. His delivery is noble and full of feeling and he has unique musical qualities,

which will be valuable in assuming the role of cantor. Elias completed the examination

for cantor and passed it well. He brought positive testimonials from his community,

and while he was living here, he made a most favorable impression. Nothing stands

in the way of furthering his desired career.”M

51 4/24/2003 Among Elias’s papers, written in Yiddish, was a list of persons including the

distinguished Landrabbiners (overseers of synagogues in the rabbinical district),

R. Ephraim Carlebach of Leipzig and Dr. Löb Hoffman of Emden. They were well-

known among German Jewish scholars. These men could provide credible

references on Elias.

Wealthy merchants in Osnabrück, Germany, had built an elaborate sanctuary to

serve the local Jews.24 The head rabbi of Fulda, recognizing Elias’s vocal talent and

religious fervor, recommended the young man for the position as cantor at the new

synagogue.25 In 1901, Osnabrück already had fifty thousand residents of whom four

hundred were Jews identified as Israelitischen in the census. The Synagogen-

Gemeinde of Osnabrück, the center of the Jewish community, was consecrated in

1906.26

GOVERNING My maternal grandparents had moved to Germany during the reign of Kaiser PARTIES IN GERMANY Wilhelm II.27 The civil and economic conditions of German Jews improved around the

turn of the twentieth century as the country became increasingly industrialized. Jews

were emancipated and allowed to own land, although the government still restricted

them from holding important positions. Many Jewish households revered the German

monarch, as did non-Jews. German Jews fought proudly in World War I in support of

Germany. In 1919 after World War I, when the Kaiser abdicated, the country’s

Weimar Republic replaced the monarchy.28 After the Weimar government signed the

Treaty of Versailles, the government suffered from burdensome requirements for

reparations and lifted restrictions on Jews. Previously, Jews could not serve as

officers in the army and now they could. Life for Jews became better, although anti-

Semitic attitudes persisted among some of the German population and its

bureaucracy. During the Weimar Republic, Jewish students were permitted to attend

public schools and most professional schools.29 Besides the usual academic subjects,

4/24/2003 52 physical education and the study of English were emphasized.

TRADITIONAL My grandparents observed traditional Judaism. It was similar to Orthodox JUDAISM observance, as we know it in the United States. Traditional Judaism was a way of life,

observing its religious laws without question. It was based on the Torah, the written

law, the first Five Books of Moses, and the Talmud, the oral interpretations of the

written law. In response to the Jewish Reform movement, already founded in

Germany between 1810 and 1820, Orthodox Judaism gained strength.

As a traditional Jew and leader of his congregation, Elias strictly observed the 613

mitzvot, laws required of traditional Jews. The Jewish calendar with its ceremonies

and holidays and weekly Sabbath, determined Elias’s and his family’s daily lives.

Details on how the Gittelsohns and other traditional Jews celebrated the Sabbath and

holidays were described in the previous section of this ancestral history.

Elias chanted the liturgy and was the religious leader of the town’s Jewish community.

His authority was based on the halakha, the Jewish law.

Each morning Elias and other devout men laid tefillin, strapping small boxes

containing the ten commandments on their non-dominant arm and over their

forehead.30 They bound a leather pouch containing words of Torah to their arms and

between their eyes.

Prayer books were written in Hebrew, with specific prayers for every occasion.

Observant Jews prayed three times daily: at evening Ma’ariv, in the morning

Shacharis, and in the afternoon Mincha.31 Elias’s life was grounded in prayer.

53 4/24/2003 ELIAS’S BEGINS The Synagogen-Gemeinde of Osnabrück outlined an CAREER, agreement with Cantor Gittelsohn on July 25, 1904, AUGUST 1904 regarding his employment beginning August 4 of that

year.N The synagogue board hired Elias Gittelsohn as ELIAS GITTELSOHN’S cantor and ritual slaughterer, slaughtering animals for SIGNATURE IN HEBREW

kosher meat. Synagogues in Germany commonly employed the cantor for both

functions, responsibilities he held for twenty-seven years until his death in 1931.

THE HISTORY OF In the early 1900s the area where the synagogue was built and the Gittelsohn family OSNABRÜCK lived was bounded by what had been walls of the Schloss Iburg, the later of two

castles located near town centuries ago. The other castle was Königliches Schloss.32

Osnabrück was of historical interest. The Treaty of Westphalia that concluded the

Thirty Years War in 1648 between the Holy Roman Empire, France, and its Allies was

signed in Münster and in Osnabrück, two towns sixty miles apart.33

The Gittelsohns’s home was located at Rolandstrasse No. 5, a short street in the

center of the Medieval section of old Osnabrück. A government building stood at the

end of the street. (See Appendix, “Maps of Places our Ancestors Living in Europe” for

1901 and 1939 maps of Osnabrück.)

4/24/2003 54

(Drawing left, Photograph right) The 1906 Sanctified Synagogue on Rolandstrasse No. 5, Where Elias Gittelsohn Served as Cantor and His Family Lived (Osnabrück, Germany, 1906–1931)

THE FAMILY HOME The photograph of the synagogue exterior was copied from Die Jüden in Osnabrück, AND SYNAGOGUE a town history of the Jews.34 An image of a painting of the synagogue interior is

shown in the Frontispiece after the cover of this book.

Homes and businesses were often combined in large buildings.35 Elias and Ethel

Gittelsohn and their children lived on the third floor in the building above the

synagogue. A Hebrew school occupied the second floor as well as the synagogue’s

rental apartment, perhaps the home for the facilities caretaker.36

When the Gittelsohns came to Osnabrück, they already had two children, a son,

Oscar and daughter Lori. Eventually they had six children, four were born in

55 4/24/2003 Osnabrück. Dora, the oldest daughter born in Germany, became my mother. The

other daughters were Röchen, Grete, and Miriam, the youngest. The four daughters

slept in a long hallway.

It is reasonable to assume that as a respected member of the community, Elias

wanted his home to look its best, especially for the interior photographs in succeeding

pages. The tables inside each living area were adorned with fresh irises, gladiola, or

tulips in vases on cloths, some embroidered or lace.

VIEW OF OSNABRÜCK

VIEW OF OSNABRÜCK AND A ZEPPELIN FROM THE ROOF OF THE GITTELSOHN HOME (BOTTOM RIGHT) PEOPLE LOOK AT A ZEPPELIN, A RIGID AIRSHIP CONSISTING OF A CIGAR-SHAPED, TRUSSED, AND COVERED FRAME

4/24/2003 56 ETHEL AND ELIAS GITTELSOHN AND THEIR YOUNG CHILDREN

GITTELSOHN FAMILY: (BACK ROW, MY MOTHER DORA AND HER FATHER ELIAS (FRONT ROW, GRANDMOTHER ETHEL, BABY RÖCHEN/ROSE, LORI (CALLED LORE OR FRUMA IN RUSSIA), OSCAR (OSNABRÜCK, GERMANY, 1908)

CHILDBIRTH Both of my grandmothers, Ethel Gittelsohn and Devorah Trivash, became pregnant PRACTICES, CLOTHING AND HAIR one and a half years after marriage. The most common method of birth control was

breast-feeding; other methods were either not widely known or used. A generation

later, in the 1920s, birth control clinics began to emerge in the Weimar Republic.

When my grandmothers were pregnant they were advised to refrain from exertion.

Grandmother Gittelsohn bore six children between 1902 and 1913 and Grandmother

Trivash had ten between 1887 and 1909.37 She gave birth at the Midwife Teaching

Place in Osnabrück, Germany.O As the children grew, they assumed household

responsibilities and assisted in the care of younger children.

My grandmothers wore long skirts as it was customary for women to cover their legs

and they rarely cut their hair and in public wore it secured in a bun. Elias Gittelsohn

was upset when his daughter Dora cut her hair and wore a short fashionable bob.

57 4/24/2003

FIVE INTERIOR VIEWS OF THE GITTELSOHN HOME

ELIAS’S AND ETHEL’S BEDROOM

LIGHT FROM THE CURTAINED TALL WINDOW SEEPS INTO THEIR BEDROOM, THREE SLATTED

CHAIRS WITH PILLOWS SURROUND A ROUND SITTING TABLE, PERSONAL OBJECTS LINE A DRESSING TABLE WITH A MIRROR THAT REFLECTS WINDOW LIGHT, DECORATIVE FRINGED CLOTH COVERS A WIRE SHADE OVER A LOW-WATTAGE CEILING LIGHT FIXTURE, AND DECORATIVE WAINSCOTING, WALLPAPER, AND AN ORIENTAL RUG ADD FANCIFUL ELEMENTS TO THE BEDROOM SPACE. (OSNABRÜCK, GERMANY, 1905–1933)

My grandmother, Ethel Gittelsohn sits before the vanity mirror to comb her hair. She runs the wooden teeth through her long hair, twists and coils it at the nape of her neck and secures the bun with hairpins to her scalp. She rearranges her personal

belongings on the tabletop, and lifts her favorite ornate perfume bottle to her nose inhaling the sweet fragrance. Stealing a glimpse of her face in the mirror, she sees her husband entering their bedroom. She joins him at the table for two. The afternoon sun’s rays light up through the sheer curtained window and Elias and Ethel bask in the warmth of this moment together alone. The world outside the window uncertain, husband and wife breathe in the sanctity of their home.

4/24/2003 58

DINING ROOM

ART ON WALLS, FLOWERS IN VASE, PATTERNED TABLECLOTHS ON SURFACES, AND MATCHING FABRIC ON PILLOWS

(OSNABRÜCK, GERMANY, 1905–1933

I imagine the Gittelsohn dining room filled with family, friends, conversation, and food. At night, the ornate chandelier exudes rays of light shining over the paintings hanging on the walls and the mirror reflects comfort and blessedness permeating the room. Ethel steals a moment to recline in the stately cushioned chair, admiring her husband, her children, her guests, her home, with a deep sense of gratitude.

59 4/24/2003

STUDY

PICTURES ON WALL, BOOKCASE WITH BOOKS, AND VASE WITH FLOWERS

(OSNABRÜCK, GERMANY, 1905–1933)

Perhaps one day while the children are at school, Ethel walks to the market, Elias closets and immerses himself in the quietude of his study, sits with his back against the hard wooden chair, stares out the window and contemplates the future. He pushes the chair along the rug and walks to the bookshelf to find support for his vision. He returns to the table with Talmud in hand, rereads the Hebrew passage he has memorized and interpreted one hundred times, settles and soothes his tired body, filled with the awe of God’s words as embodied in the oral tradition.

4/24/2003 60

LIVING ROOM

(OSNABRÜCK, GERMANY 1905–1933)

In the cold winter, heat from the fireplace warms the livingroom, window light illuminates the paintings on the wall, imbues the family relics with cherished memories and drifts through the lace table coverings. My unmarried mother, Dora Gittelsohn, sits in the chair reading a book, luxuriating in the hearth of her German home, dreaming of her journey to the New World.

61 4/24/2003

UPRIGHT PIANO IN LIVING ROOM

(OSNABRÜCK, GERMANY, 1905–1933)

TOP OF THE PIANO, PHOTOGRAPHS OF ELIAS IN SYNAGOGUE WEARING HIS RITUAL TALLIS; SCROLLWORK DECORATES THE WOODEN PIANO; FRINGE COVERS THE STOOL

My grandfather, Elias Gittelsohn, the cantor, sits on the fabric-covered stool before his piano, the most precious possession in his home. With his back to the room, he lowers his head in supplication and flutters his fingers along the black and white piano keys like sparrows’ wings. His wife and children, standing behind him, open their hearts to the melodious words flowing from his mouth. The luminous glow from the incandescent light bulbs shines upon the music sheets and the photographs of Elias in synagogue. He is shown shrouded in his tallis performing God’s work. The harmonious outpouring of music and words offer solace to the Gittelsohn family in the confines of their beloved, safe home.

4/24/2003 62 INSIDE THE HOME OTHER VIEWS OF THE ROOMS IN THE GITTELSOHN HOME

(LEFT) VIEWS OF LIVING ROOM

(BOTTOM RIGHT) KITCHEN SET FOR FAMILY MEAL

(OSNABRÜCK, GERMANY, 1905–1933)

While the Gittelsohns were not wealthy, as cantor of a large synagogue Elias

received a salary that permitted an adequate standard of living. His secure economic

status contributed to the community’s respect for him and to his own self-esteem. The

family afforded middle-class amenities as shown in their comfortable home

furnishings. They owned well-crafted artifacts for religious ceremonies: brass

candelabrum for the Sabbath, a menorah that held eight candles for Chanukah, the

festival of lights, and decorative covers for challah (braided egg bread) and matzoh

(unleavened bread) for ceremonial meals of the Sabbath or Passover.

Textured wallpaper covers the walls.

63 4/24/2003 EXTERIOR AND INTERIOR VIEWS OF OSNABRÜCK SYNAGOGUE

FAMILY HOME ON THIRD FLOOR IN CENTER FRONT OF ABOVE AND ADJACENT TO THE SYNAGOGUE, A PLAQUE AS SYNAGOGUE A MEMORIAL FOR JEWISH (OSNABRÜCK, 1919–1931) VETERANS OF WORLD WAR I

BALCONY IN THE SYNAGOGUE STAINED-GLASS WINDOW IN WHERE WOMEN AND GIRLS SIT LIAS S YNAGOGUE E ’ S , DURING RELIGIOUS SERVICES (OSNABRÜCK, GERMANY)

ELIAS’S TALENTS For Sabbaths, religious holidays, and daily morning and evening services, Elias AND SKILLS chanted the liturgy that had been heard with regional and national variations in

synagogues for almost two millennia. His tallis, a large fringed prayer shawl, covered

his head, and he swayed as he prayed. His voice was strong and expressive.

4/24/2003 64 Elias was a fine violinist as well. His family and others who knew him admired him.

Although Jews were rarely accepted into non-Jewish organizations, Elias participated

in performances with the town’s teachers’ singing group, an association of a national

organization.P

In elegant script, he copied sheet music and sewed the pages by hand into books.38

(See Appendix, “Hand-scripted Music from Grandfather Elias Gittelsohn” for a section

of his music, “Mischmor Hajardein,” Guardian of the Jordan River, an inspirational

melody in G minor.)

Equally skilled manually, he repaired objects for his house and synagogue, and even

worked with electrical wiring. Exceptionally neat and clean, he refused to walk past a

thread on the floor without picking it up and insisted his children do likewise. His

cantor position was overseen by the landrabbiner in the rabbinical district of Emden in

Hannover, as well as by the synagogue’s executive committee. “Elias Gittelsohn is

valued as a servant of the community and generates full harmony,” the synagogue

president wrote. “He does not involve himself in public doings other than music and

singing and he sticks to his responsibilities.”Q

The landrabbiner stated by letter, “Elias possesses a well-sounding voice, a loud and

distinct presentation, and is capable of singing with the [synagogue] choir. His

religious life is beyond reproach. As a schächter (German) or shohet (Hebrew),

performing the ritual slaughtering of animals for meat, he shows talent, correctness,

and deftness.”R According to prescribed religious law, the work of a shohet, the ritual

of slaughtering of animals for consumption, carried out an honorable and necessary

profession.

PERFORMING Not only was Elias skilled with the knife as a schächter, but also as a möhel, RITUAL CIRCUMCISIONS, performing the bris milah (Yiddish) or brit milah (Hebrew), removing the foreskin of

1915–1930

65 4/24/2003 newborn Jewish males when the infant was eight days old to bind the baby boy’s

entrance into a covenant with God. The male members of the community attended

the ceremony, which was performed in the synagogue. For the ritual circumcision

ceremony a two-seated bench was placed in the sanctuary. The infant’s godfather,

usually the paternal grandfather or the most senior male member of the family, sat on

one side holding the baby and the other side was left empty as a place of honor for

the prophet Elijah. The cantor chanted the prescribed benediction at the ceremony.39

It was an honor to serve as the community möhel.

Physicians who observed Elias performing the ritual circumcisions at their clinics

testified to his skill and cleanliness. According to their testimonial letters, he not only

circumcised infants born to members of his congregation but also babies born in

Hamburg and in Bielefeld, Nordhorn, Quackenbrück, Münster, Melle, Schüttforf, and

Hannover in the province of Niedersachsen.40 (See Appendix, “Maps of Places in

Europe,” showing an image of the towns where Elias served.) Since performing

circumcisions was not in his job description, he presumably did so on his days off and

earned additional compensation.

Since Germany was engaged in World War I between 1914 and 1918, Elias, as a

Russian citizen, was legally an enemy alien and had to obtain a pass from the Tenth

Army Corps in Hannover each time he traveled out of town to perform a

circumcision.S

PREPARING Traditional Jews were required to eat meat that was slaughtered, prepared, and KOSHER MEAT served according to strict religious laws. Animals had to be slaughtered in the ritual

manner called shehitah by cutting the throat to let the blood drain. Religious

regulations governed how a hoofed animal or a bird was to be slaughtered for

consumption. The underlying ethic was that the animal should suffer as little as

possible. Jewish law prohibited unnecessary pain to any living creature. The knife

4/24/2003 66 was examined before and after use to determine that it was smooth, without a notch

that could tear the flesh. The cut severed the arteries to the animal’s head, thereby

stopping circulation to the brain and rendering the animal unconscious and unable to

feel pain.41

The second basis for koshering meat was the prohibition in Jewish law of the

consumption of blood. Soaking and salting the meat within seventy-two hours of

slaughter or roasting it over an open flame drains the blood before it is cooked. The

process includes deveining.

Regarding kosher meat, Elias’s supervisor, the landrabbiner specified in a letter to

him, “Meat that has been slaughtered ritually is forbidden if the fat and blood veins

have not been removed. The removal of veins requires special care.”T He insisted that

the cantor implement the 1844 instructions of the district rabbis of East Friesland,

Germany. This required that Elias go to the local butchers twice weekly, cut off the

appropriate pieces of meat, pack and seal them in paper, before labeling them as

kosher for butchers to sell to the Jewish customers.U

EXTREME INFLATION At this time during the onerous years of World War I, Germany faced serious AND MATERIAL SHORTAGE IN problems. Food and consumer goods were in short supply due to the British blockade GERMANY and embargo on German imports. Germany had been supplying its army to fight on

both the western front against France and England and on the eastern front against

Russia. Consumers waited in long lines to buy bread.42 The shortages led to riots in

1916. After the war the government limited the allotment of butter, margarine, coffee,

lard, and other needed goods by ration stamps.

Between 1920 and 1922, the resources and reserves of the Weimar Republic

government decreased. Taxes increased to pay for World War I reparations. Imports

and exports had dropped, and financial demands of the government were great. By

67 4/24/2003 1921 the cost of reparations equaled 80 percent of the German government reserves; the following year they exceeded 100 percent. Inflation climbed slowly from the beginning of the war. Goods that had cost 1 Reichsmark in 1914 were for one year hyperinflated to 7 million Reichsmarks by 1923. Germany went into a decline because of hyperinflation. A kilogram of bread cost 428 million Reichsmarks, and a kilogram of butter more than 5 billion. A bank account of 60,000 Reichsmarks, the interest from which in 1913 would have enabled a person to lead a comfortable retirement, would not even buy a newspaper.

The hyperinflation affected salaried persons in general and pensioners in particular. It cost more to print the Reichsmark notes than the notes were worth. Inflation began to improve after the United States and British governments offered the Dawes plan, a loan program to Germany in April 1924. Reparations did not cause hyperinflation.

However, the government’s response to it did. They printed an overabundance of currency and thereby drastically devaluated it.

This inflation of the Reichsmark led to a new currency for the Germans, the

Rentenmark in 1923. Germany started over with the new currency.43 One billion

Reichsmarks equaled one Rentenmark.44

4/24/2003 68

Elias’s salary as

cantor, though

adequate, seemed

meager when

supplying the needs

of his six growing

children during the

war years of short

supply and inflation.

To fill the disparity, GITTELSOHN CHILDREN PLAYING DRESS-UP IN DONATED CLOTHING (OSNABRÜCK, GERMANY, 1918) wealthy members of

Elias’s congregation gave the Gittelsohns their cast-off clothing, a charitable gift they

considered a mitzvah.45 As children, Lori, Grete, Miriam, Oscar, and Dora played

dress-up in the hand-me-downs. Already in her teens, Dora mended clothing for her

parents and siblings. In her later years, skilled with a needle and thread, Dora

fashioned these into wearable garments.

MANAGING Wastefulness, whether it was clothing or food, was considered a sin in the Gittelsohn HOUSEHOLD AND CHILDREN home. Fruit grown in the warmer climates was scarce during the Weimar Republic.

My mother said that as a child, she rarely tasted a section of an orange.46

Although by the dawn of the century many German homes had gas and electricity,

bread could be prepared at home and sent to the baker for baking in a proper oven or

bought at the bakery. Homemade decorations brought style to households—tatted

lace tablecloths, furniture covers, pictures on walls, glass-door bookcases, and

brocade fabrics.47

German Jewish women aspired to be tüchtig, an enterprising, efficient, and capable

69 4/24/2003 hausfrau, manager of home. The kitchen was out-of-bounds for men.48 The Sabbath

meal was prepared a day in advance since work in the Jewish household was

prohibited on that day.

After the German day school, Elias’s children attended Hebrew school. He made

certain they learned to read and recite the Hebrew prayers and observe traditional

rituals. Religious parents wanted their children also to be observant men and

women.49 Elias had only one son to carry on the man’s beloved religious practices

and possibly follow in his honorable line of work. However, much of the German

Jewish population was intent on assimilating into the national culture, as was Elias’s

only son, Oscar.

Since the Gittelsohn children only spoke German, their parents spoke a “secret”

native language, Yiddish, when they did not want their children to understand them.50

CERTIFICATES FOR The issue of German citizenship arose for Elias’s children. Perhaps anticipating the GERMAN CITIZENSHIP, rising nationalist fervor, in December 1928 he paid 140 Marks to obtain birth

1928 certificates for their children, Grete, born in 1909, and Miriam, born in 1913. Miriam

was called Martha on her certificate. These documents stated the children were

citizens of the German Empire and the state of Prussia and as such were Germans.V

ONSET OF NAZISM, The Gittelsohn family lived comfortably between 1924 and early 1930 during the

1930S Weimar Republic’s “golden years” of democracy. There was renewed optimism for

the present and hope for the future. Antidemocratic extremes seemed to be ebbing.

Remarkable productivity and brilliance reigned in Germany’s cultural and artistic life.

These endeavors flourished, largely because of the interaction of three factors: the

technical and stylistic originality of the works produced; the importance of Berlin as a

center of cultural modernism; and the eclecticism of the German artistic scene. In the

1920s, Germany became a welfare state and one of the most technologically and

4/24/2003 70 culturally advanced countries in the world.

The Weimar Republic was not strong enough to overthrow the monarchs and push

out Communist and socialist elements trying to make trouble for the government. The

Weimar culture ended abruptly in 1933 as the National Socialist Workers Party (Nazi)

took over. The Nazi party, formed in 1919, had grown by the 1930s to become a

beating heart of hatred.51 In 1930 and 1931, Germany was in an economic

depression, creating a fertile climate for Adolf Hitler’s ambition. He was the leader of

the National Socialist German Workers Party, a right-wing anti-Semitic political party.

Hitler capitalized on German resentment of the terms of the Treaty of Versailles.52 The

Nazis came to power, in part, because it was difficult to meet reparation payments

and maintain restrictions on the size of its armed forces. On January 30, 1933, the

German President Hindenburg named Hitler chancellor of Germany, and on

March 23, 1933, the enabling act gave Hitler dictatorial power over the German

Republic. The Nazis had a tremendous propaganda machine that played upon the

insecurities of many elements of German society.

LOSS OF GERMAN As the Nazis gained power, they announced a law by their dictatorial powers to CITIZENSHIP, restrict the rights of persons of Jewish ancestry. In a letter addressed to Miriam 1933 Gittelsohn of Osnabrück on July 14, 1933, the Office of the President of the Prussian

government wrote, “According to the certificate of December 11, 1928, you have

acquired Prussian citizenship and thereby have become a citizen of the German

Reich. I hereby dissolve your naturalization. With the delivery of this decision, you

have lost your Prussian citizenship and its concurrent German citizenship. This

revocation also includes any citizenship you may hold in other German lands. This

revocation cannot be contested in a court of law.”W A few Jews contested the ruling

through administrative channels and connections with persons of influence.53

An identical letter was addressed to Miriam’s sister, Grete Gittelsohn, and on

71 4/24/2003 November 21, 1933, to their mother, Etka Gittelsohn.X

NAZIS ABOLISH Almost immediately, the Nazis began to abolish the civil rights of Jews, Communists, CIVIL RIGHTS OF JEWS, Socialists, and others. On April 1, 1933, Hitler called for the boycott of Jewish shops.54

Mid-1930s Since the late 1920s, before the Nazi takeover, my father’s oldest sister, Erna/Esther,

and her pharmacist husband, Soli Engel, had owned and operated an extensive

medical supply business in the center of Berlin. When the Nazis confiscated his and

other Jewish businesses in 1935, desperate and despondent Soli ingested poison

and killed himself. That same year the Nazis burned books and declared their political

party the only one in Germany.

Julius Streicher, a leading Nazi politician who specialized in anti-Semitic incitement,

founded and edited Der Sturmer, a weekly which promoted outlandish malice against

Jews.

ANTECEDENTS OF Jews were a minority in danger of being persecuted wherever they lived. This made it ANTI-SEMITISM easy for the majority influential group to discriminate against them.

Anti-Semitism arose centuries before the National Socialist German Workers Party

and Hitler’s Nazism. The cause of prejudice against the Jews is complex. Many

scholars, Jews and non-Jews, have tried to explain its roots. Anti-Jewish sentiment

predates Jesus. Jews were blamed for the death of this fellow Jew, Jesus. He was a

good man, and according to Christian scripture, he performed miracles and cured

sickness. His followers considered Jesus the Messiah, a long-awaited figure of

Jewish prophecy. Jesus’ tragic death served to rally his admirers who proclaimed him

the Son of God. They formed a new religion, Christianity. Those Jews who chose not

to consider Jesus as their God were believed to be unredeemed.

Throughout the ages, Jews distinguished themselves as different from their non-

Jewish neighbors through religious observance, dietary habits, and dress. Some

4/24/2003 72 people misunderstood these differences and attributed destructive motives of Jews

toward non-Jews.

Our son, Peter, an assistant professor of Modern European History and Social

Sciences at Harvard University, says: “As Christianity broke away from the Jewish

fold between 100 and 300 [C.E.], Christian self-understanding demanded that

Judaism be portrayed as incomplete. Eventually this theological necessity took the

form of popular chauvinism and promulgated the idea that the Jews were collectively

responsible for the Crucifixion. In this fashion, what had begun as a theological rivalry

wholly within the Jewish community grew into a theologically reinforced antagonism

between socially distinct religions. The social and political reinforcement of Christian

hostility toward Judaism was therefore responsible for creating most of the barriers

and discriminatory practices from which modern, ostensibly secular, anti-Semitism

was born.”

CAPITALISM’S Many centuries later, Jews were not allowed to own and farm land in Europe. Instead CONTRIBUTION TO ANTI-SEMITISM a disproportionate number earned their living by lending money and charging an

interest as profit, work that was forbidden by some Christian denominations and other

groups. Owning capital rather than land allowed the Jews to be mobile and benefit

from developing capitalism more than peasants and workers. As the nobility declined

and industrial expansion proliferated, mobile capital became an asset in Europe.

During the nineteenth century, many Jews gained wealth by financing the new

technology. While most Jews remained quite poor, the relative wealth of a handful of

Jews was an object of some resentment and fueled anti-Jewish prejudice.

GROWTH OF NAZISM What filled the Nazis’ hearts with hate? Was it defeat in World War I and the harsh

conditions of the Treaty of Versailles and the high unemployment, poor economic

conditions, and national pride? Or was it that weaknesses were inherent in the

73 4/24/2003 Weimar Republic and many political players did not support the Republic?

In the 1920s, a majority of German Jews considered themselves assimilated in the

majority culture. Yet as the Nazi party gained power, their adherents tormented

assimilated Jews as well as practicing Jews by carrying out Hitler’s plan to make

Europe Jüdenrein, free of Jews.

In 1927, already before the Nazi regime, anti-Semites desecrated the synagogue

where Elias worked.55

NEGOTIATIONS Elias sought support from the Jewish community for which he worked. In June 1927, REGARDING SALARY, in response to his request, the synagogue board increased Elias’s salary by 25 Marks

1927–1928 per month. In December, the board supported his application for naturalization as a

German citizen although there is no record that he obtained German citizenship.

In 1928, Elias was fifty-six and faced issues of aging. In October 1928, after several

delays, the synagogue board finally agreed to provide him eldercare (old-age and

disability insurance). They stipulated that this insurance would only apply if he was

more than fifty percent disabled and the government unemployment insurance lacked

the required 150 Marks. While Elias’s salary was provided by the synagogue board, a

portion was paid into the social security of the Weimar government as savings for his

pension.C C The synagogue board agreed to compensate for the difference, deducting

Elias’s other earnings and source of income from the total insurance the synagogue

offered. They stipulated that the synagogue pension did not apply if Elias’s children or

other relatives could support him without a burden to themselves or if the synagogue

community became impoverished.Y

Aliens Require On December 8, 1930, Elias went to Berlin to attend the funeral of his supervising Travel Permits, district rabbi, Dr. Loeb, and to consult a medical specialist.Z Elias had been suffering 1930 from abdominal pain, blood in his stool, and weight loss.56 Since he was not born in

4/24/2003 74 Germany and had not obtained naturalization he was considered an alien and

required to register when he traveled. For the trip to Berlin, he had to apply to the

police and obtain a permit to leave home and retain his residence. Upon his return, he

again had to report and obtain a declaration certifying he returned.

EMPLOYMENT When Elias was already fifty-eight, approaching retirement age, the synagogue CONTRACT MODIFIED community modified his employment contract. On December 12, 1930, they specified

the following:AA

“He assumes the position of cantor and the function of schächter at the local

slaughterhouse according to the regulations adopted by the community. His salary

was fixed at 300 Reichsmarks a month. The letter specified that for the use of the

residence assigned to him including heat, 75 Reichsmarks a month would be

deducted. If necessary, the community would pay the 75 Reichsmarks instead of

providing the residence. The executive committee will determine the fee for

slaughtering at his home for private clients [other than his religious congregation].

“At the discretion of the executive committee, Elias may retire when he completes his

sixty-fifth year or when his health in the opinion of the committee requires. At sixty-

five, if he retires, he will receive a monthly pension of 150 Reichsmarks of which

50 Reichsmarks will be deducted for the free residence.

“On request of the committee, Mr. Gittelsohn may also be asked after retirement to

assume certain duties appropriate to the 150 Reichsmarks pension. He has the right

to request a leave of absence once a year, the beginning and length to be determined

by the committee.”BB

75 4/24/2003 ELIAS’S DEATH, Elias Gittelsohn died of colon cancer on January 23, 1931, at fifty-nine.57 His early

1931 death spared him from experiencing the Nazis’ systematic annihilation of the Jews of

Europe, to which his daughter Miriam fell victim

in 1940 or 1941. Elias was buried in the Jewish

cemetery in Osnabrück.58 The epitaph on his

gravestone was written in Hebrew. Birth and

death records for the town are in the Jewish

Museum at Frankfurt.

Some of Elias’s sisters and all of his children,

except Miriam, had

immigrated to the

United States in the

early 1930s.59 ELIAS ABRAHAM GITTELSOHN (OSNABRÜCK, GERMANY)

SEGMENT OF THE OTHER SIDE OF ELIAS’S GRAVESTONE

ETHEL’S WIDOW On April 22, 1931, the synagogue board agreed to provide Elias’s widow, Ethel, a PENSION monthly pension of 110 Reichsmarks until January 1940.

When she became a widow, 50 Reichsmarks from her pension were set aside for her

current home and “the state pension she would receive was under this amount,”

according to the German document. If the state pension was greater, the excess

would be deducted from the synagogue pension. There would be an additional

36 Reichsmarks for Ethel’s youngest daughter Miriam, age twelve, for three years to

pay for the child’s schooling. If the synagogue community’s situation took a downturn

and the pension was too difficult to provide, the community maintained the right to

reduce it. The board stipulated that in the event that Ethel’s children could support her

4/24/2003 76 without a burden to themselves or the synagogue was itself no longer financially

solvent, the pension would no longer be required.60

IMMIGRATION TO THE UNITED STATES

SAM TRIVASH Already in the 1920s, my father, Sam Trivash, and his IMMIGRATES TO UNITED STATES, brothers, Harry, Oscar, and Bill Trivash had sought a better life

1920S in the United States and established themselves in business in

Chicago.61

From 1924 through World War II, the U.S. government

restricted immigration, especially of people from certain parts

of southern and Eastern Europe. My father, then living in SAM TRIVASH PASSPORT PHOTOGRAPH Berlin, traveled to the United States on an Austrian passport in (GERMANY, 1922) 1922,62 although he was born in Marijampole, Lithuania.63

Passports were extremely valuable, and people purchased them for large sums of

money. Prior to World War I, Europeans, except Russians and Turks, did not require

passports to travel within the continent. However, a passport was required for travel

to the United States.

Most newcomers were funneled through the port of New York, disembarking at Ellis

Island, sometimes called the “Island of Tears.” 64 Immigration was a trying experience,

embracing both sorrow and joy. Often immigrants assumed an anglicized name when

they came to the new country. Sam’s family surname, Trivash, changed to Travis.65

Legal documents listed his given name as James, rather than Sam. It is not clear

how, why, or when he adopted the name.

TRIVASH BROTHERS Upon arrival, Sam proceeded to Chicago, where his older brothers owned a OWN TAVERNS combination café and pub on State Street and worked there as bartenders.66 The

77 4/24/2003 taverns were in the blue-collar industrial area near Dearborn Station and Polk

Street.67 The establishments had a steam table from which mashed potatoes and soup were served. A spittoon crock was located near the long bar with backless stools. The business was familiar to the brothers. When the Trivash family had lived in Eastern Europe, they owned an inn and served liquor.

The Eighteenth Amendment for prohibition was ratified in 1919, and the nation went dry January 16, 1920. In 1924, despite prohibition, there were at least fifteen breweries and twenty thousand retail alcoholic beverage outlets operating illegally in

Chicago. Mounting criminal activity accompanied the trafficking of illegal liquor.DD On

December 5, 1933, Illinois became the thirty-sixth state to repeal the National

Prohibition Act. After prohibition, mobs still controlled well-defined territories, with their take reportedly running into millions.

Tavern owners were respected by their customers who saw them as an authority on everything from the rules of card games to world affairs. The Travis tavern owners, like other Chicago businesspeople, most likely had to pay protection money to stay in operation and avoid being hurt by gangsters. Criminal activity accompanied the traffic of liquor. This must have frightened the Travises.

After learning the business, Sam purchased a small store and became proprietor of the Manhattan Grill at 807 South State Street, an ideal downtown location a few blocks from the railroad Dearborn Station. To buy the store he may have brought money from Europe or obtained a loan from his brothers.

Economic conditions in the United States were such that a person with a small amount of money could invest in real estate and securities, as my father did, and in time gain wealth. The resulting funds allowed my parents to bring their remaining family members to America at various times in the late 1920s and early 1930s before the Holocaust.

4/24/2003 78 SAM In 1930 at the onset of the Great Depression in the United States, TRIVASH/TRAVIS MEETS DORA Sam crossed the ocean again by steamship and visited his family in GITTELSOHN, Berlin. 1930 Sam Trivash was over thirty, and his mother suggested he go to

Osnabrück and choose a wife from among the five daughters of the

68 SAM TRAVIS Gittelsohn second cousins. (CHICAGO, 1929) When a young person reached marriageable age, usually between

twenty and twenty-seven, parents tried to make the best possible match for their

child. Matches for Jews were usually made using personal contacts and even an

official shadkhan (matchmaker) over a wider geographical area. The search was

based on the financial situation of the potential partner and the parents. Important

factors included the family status and character. Most matches and engagements

were made during the holidays, particularly Shavuot in the spring and Sukkot in the

fall, when relatives and friends visited one another.69

Sam’s mother, Devorah, and Inda, the mother of Dora’s father, were both members of

the Shilobolsky family. At one time, both families had lived in the Suvalki province of

Poland. The two towns were about twenty-five kilometers or fourteen miles apart,

nearly a day’s walk or half of a day by horse. The roads were narrow and primitive.

79 4/24/2003 AREAS IN POLAND In the nineteenth century in WHERE GRANDPARENTS Old Russia Jews were LIVED AND FAMILY restricted to live in an area CONNECTIONS, of western Russia, called NINETEENTH CENTURY “the Pale of Settlement.”

Shown here are towns in

the Suvalki province where

my ancestors and most

Jews resided. 70

The map of the Polish sector of the Russian Empire shows Bakalarzewo, where my

maternal grandfather, Elias Gittelsohn and his parents (my maternal great-

grandparents) Meier Gittelsohn and his wife, Inda Shilobolsky, had lived.71 It also

shows Przerosl where Jacob Eliezer Shilobolsky (my paternal great-grandfather) and

his daughter Devorah and husband, Meische Zundel Trivash, lived in the 1850s and

1860s.

A generation later my paternal grandmother Devorah Trivash sent her son Sam, who

later became my father, to meet Elias Gittlesohn’s daughters who were now living in

Germany.

DORA’S EDUCATION Sam went to Osnabrück and met the woman who would become my mother. He AND TALENTS chose as his wife the second daughter, Dora Gittelsohn—a beautiful woman with

warm dark eyes, and thick black hair, she once wore in two thick long braids and now

wore in a stylish bob. Dora, later called “Doris” or “Dori” in America, was born

February 14, 1906, in Osnabrück.

At an early age, Dora showed a creative flair for design and removed beads from a

decorative pillow to make something more to her liking. This destroyed a precious

family possession for which she received a severe spanking.EE

4/24/2003 80 After completing the German public school in 1922, Dora,

at sixteen, entered the women’s trade school, M. Conitzer

and Söhne-Osnabrück. She apprenticed in the shop for

three years and became certified as a seamstress. The

school taught not only sewing, mending, and handiwork,

but also bookkeeping and mathematics. Dora learned

fabric selection, specialty drawing, cooking and home

management, as well as caring for the sick and newborns.

DORA GITTELSOHN When she was twenty, she graduated with good grades (OSNABRÜCK, GERMANY, 1929 and advanced to a specialized school.FF

DORA EARNS For another three years she gained additional skills necessary to become a CREDENTIAL AS PROFESSIONAL professional seamstress. She prepared for her career by apprenticing with a master SEAMSTRESS tailor. In December 1929, at twenty-three, she earned a Meister Brief certificate as a

master craftsman from the Chamber of Handicrafts (der Handwerkskammer) in

Osnabrück. The Meister, the master craftsman of tailoring, was the highest title within

the craft. It was unusual for a woman to earn it. The certificate was awarded upon

completing the courses and producing an original dress from scratch. Deemed as an

independent worker, the document permitted Dora to open her own tailoring shop and

employ apprentices and journeymen to carry out the work under her supervision.GG

Proud of her accomplishment, Dora hung her framed certificate on the wall of the

successive homes where she lived. It read, “Dora Gittelsohn, born on

February 4, 1906, passed the examination and therefore has the right to have her

own shop and carry the title of master in tailoring.”HH Three witnesses and the

director of the Chamber of Handicrafts signed the diploma. The following year she

studied tailoring at Kaufmans where she learned advanced dress designing, pattern

making, and fabric-cutting techniques. This occurred in an era prior to the advent of

ready-made clothing.

81 4/24/2003 DORA GITTELSOHN DESIGNED AND PRODUCED THIS DRESS AT THE HANDWERKSKAMMER FOR CERTIFICATION CERTIFICATE DORA EARNED (OSNABRUCK, GERMANY, 1929) (OSNABRÜCK, 1929)

Skilled as a dressmaker, Dora was able to earn her living. Years later, her husband

Sam, a practical fellow, not blinded by sheer romance, said he chose her from among her sisters because he believed her trade would be an asset in helping him become financially secure in the United States.72

4/24/2003 82 The original drawing and the sample of turquoise silk cloth from which she had

fashioned the dress is in my archives. On an accompanying document Dora

explained that the decorative binding material on the low waistband is the same as on

the hemline. The tiny pearl-like beads sewn on the binding around the neckline are

reminiscent of Dora’s childhood admiration for beads.

Dora’s hand-sewn dress shown here has flattering vertical lines. For most of her life

she was concerned about her stocky frame and the style was well suited for creating

a slimmer appearance.73 She models this dress in the photograph below.

Even when wealthy and middle-class people could buy ready-made work clothes, if a family member did not sew,

for special occasions they had clothes custom-made by

dressmakers and tailors. Usually men’s suits were made by

tailors rather than purchased in stores.

DORA GITTELSOHN (OSNABRÜCK, GERMANY, 1929)

DORA’S SOCIAL As an adolescent daughter of religious Jews, Dora would not have had more than a EXPERIENCE WITH MEN passing contact with males other than her father and older brother, Oscar.74 Men and

women were segregated in social situations outside of the home, and even in the

synagogue married couples sat separately with others of their own gender. There was

no gender equality in traditional Judaism, and all women, including Elias’s wife and

83 4/24/2003 daughters, were relegated to the balcony in the synagogue.

Once during Dora’s teens, her father caught her talking and laughing with a non-

Jewish boy. He brought Dora home and gave her a severe spanking, which she

described to me in later years. It was improper for an unmarried woman to be with a

man without a chaperone. Dora schooled herself for a relationship by reading

romance stories. From these she imagined her life as a married woman. She hid the

book under her pillow and masked it inside the prayer book, which her father required

her to study.75

SAM PROPOSES Germans sometimes MARRIAGE, considered Jews who lived in 1930 Eastern Europe as less

cultured and yet they regarded

them also as more authentic

and learned in Judiasm. They

looked down upon them.

However, Sam’s family had

moved from the East and were

living in Berlin. Speaking in Elias Gittelsohn and Sam Trivash Talking in a Local Park (Osnabrück, Germany, 1930) their common language,

Yiddish, Sam presented himself to Dora’s father as the suitor for his daughter’s hand.

Sam’s knowledge of Jewish rituals would have assured the older observant Jew that

the younger man would be an upstanding and law-abiding husband.

The Jewish law, the halakha, defined a man’s financial, sexual, and emotional

responsibilities toward his wife and her responsibilities to him. The husband must

care for his wife, honoring, supporting, and maintaining her with “food, clothing, and

lodging, and cohabiting with her.” In return, the husband manages his wife’s property

4/24/2003 84 as long as they are married and is entitled to any income from it. If she dies before

him, he inherits her property. Any income which the woman earns belongs to her

husband as well as any possessions she accumulates such as gifts.

Laws prescribe proper conduct for a married couple. Sam’s knowledge of the laws

and the fact that Sam came from a known respectable family, would have persuaded

Dora’s father that she, the first of his five daughters to marry, was entering a good

match.

The young suitor proposed to Dora, and provided funds for steamboat passage to

meet him across the ocean in America. In the intervening months, Sam returned to

Chicago and applied for citizenship.76

It must have seemed like a fairy tale to young Dora, in which a prince charming had

rescued her from the confines of her father’s home and the country’s economic

depression and growing Nazism.

VISIONS OF Tall, and slim, Sam was the hero of Dora’s romantic MARRIAGE fantasies. However, he had a different vision of

marriage, in keeping with the times. He would earn a

good living, and his wife would manage the

household. If he failed financially, she would work for

wages, although married women rarely did.

Dora’s impending matrimony and move to America

was likely the envy of her four sisters. Dora

SAM TRIVASH/TRAVIS promised to help them secure passage to join her. In (ABOUT 1929) time, with Sam’s financial resources, she did.

85 4/24/2003 DORA PREPARES TO An affidavit was required from a U.S. citizen who showed he had sufficient assets, if IMMIGRATE, needed, to support the immigrant. Dora’s aunt, Bertha Gittelsohn married Max 1931 Goldsmith, a wholesale candy jobber and father of three children. Max provided the

affidavit showing Dora would not become a financial liability to the state. Her training

as a seamstress and the growing business of her fiancé could comfort Max that Dora

would not become financially dependent on him.JJ

Dora packed a steamer trunk with two feather quilts and a trousseau of fine linens,

which as a young woman she had prepared for her married life.KK

In 1931 following instructions from her fiancé, before leaving for America Dora visited

her fiancé’s mother and siblings in Berlin. They were impressed with her skills as a

seamstress and for two weeks kept her busy mending and restoring their old clothing.

She redesigned them to the changing styles. This work left no time for Dora to see

the local sights before she left Berlin, a disappointment about which she later

expressed regret.77

THE VOYAGE Dora may have embarked on a steamship at

Hamburg, possibly the Hamburg-American Line.

However, it would have been less expensive to

go by train to Holland, and leave from the Dutch

port to Liverpool, England. Each night spent on

a steamship was more costly than on a train.

The voyage from Liverpool to America took

about five days, less than from Hamburg.

Dora sailed to Toronto, Canada, as it was easier

DORA GITTELSOHN for European immigrants to enter the United (OSNABRÜCK, GERMANY, 1931) States through its northern neighbor. Sam met

her in Toronto and they went directly to a local justice of the peace to be married.

4/24/2003 86 Also it was improper for an unmarried man and woman from a family such as theirs to

travel alone together.

A HORRIFYING In the meantime in 1933, Hitler had assumed full control of Germany and the Nazi YEAR IN NAZI GERMANY, party ended the Republic. He employed propaganda that espoused the concept of a

pure Aryan race superior to all others, especially to Jews. Hitler gained popularity and 1938 suppressed critics of his party through the Gestapo, the Nazi secret police. Germany

became a police state. During Hitler’s first six years in power, he initiated policies

against all persons he considered inferior.

In 1935, the Nazis’s Nuremberg Laws introduced a wave of legislation against Jews.

Intermarriage and sexual relationships between Germans and Jews were prohibited.

Jewishness had been defined by a maternal blood relationship, but the Nazis

extended the definition in their anti-Semitic legislation to include most converts to

Judaism and children of converts. Jews who tried to fight the discriminating legislation

placed themselves in serious jeopardy and punishment by the Nazis in control.

In April 1938, Hitler issued a decree for Jews to register their wealth and resources in

excess of 5,000 Reichsmarks according to established rules. Jews were pronounced

third-class citizens on June 14 of that year and were required to register their

remaining enterprises. The Gittelsohn family complied.

Previously convicted Jews were arrested again. The Nazis excluded Jews from civil

service, secondary schools, and certain professions, further ostracizing them

economically. In late summer 1938, Jews were required to add a second name to

their documents: Israel for males and Sara for females. Thus my grandmother

became Ethel Sara and her daughter, my aunt, Lori Sara.LL 78 (My grandfather was

deceased and the other members of the immediate family had already immigrated.)

87 4/24/2003 MORE ANTI-JEWISH On September 5, 1938, all professions were forbidden to Jews in Germany, and a LEGISLATION month later, it was mandated that Jewish passports be stamped with a red letter “J.”

Three months later it was decreed that Jewish enterprises and shops were to be

boycotted and taken over by non-Jews. Ordinary German citizens benefited from

assuming the positions and shops left by Jews.

Jews were required to surrender their drivers’ licenses. They were banned from public

places as well as certain streets and sections of towns, and it was ruled that they had

to give up their financial assets, including shares of stock shares bank accounts.

Years later after the war, the Nazi legislation was memorialized in the Schoenberg

district in Berlin where many assimilated Jews had lived. Telephone poles listed the

dates and Nazi decrees, becoming one of Berlin’s so-called memory walks. The area

was marked with signs quoting Nazi anti-Semitic legislation of the period, located in

places appropriate to the topic. (See Chapter 12, “Postwar West Germany” for

description of memory walk.)

WHY JEWS STAYED Despite of the government-sponsored harassment and legal discrimination, Jews IN GERMANY remained in Nazi Germany. Most Jews had been culturally, linguistically, and

psychologically integrated in the German society during the Weimar Republic. Before

the 1930s, few Jews left Nazi Germany. Over half could not leave since they did not

have funds or contacts in other countries to assist them. Some Jews, especially older

persons, chose to help their children emigrate but did not join them for fear of being a

burden in a new country. Others did not believe, understand, or know what was

coming. Perhaps some did not accept the reality of what was happening.

In 1924, the United States already had restricted immigration from Europe by national

quotas. In 1941, they tightened the allocation further and rejected a proposal to

change it. Canada had similar quotas. During this time Germany limited visas for

emigration.

4/24/2003 88 LORI GITTELSOHN’S My Aunt Lori wrote in her memoirs: “November 10, 1938, I recall the courtyard of the MEMOIRS, police office where 500 Jews all stood waiting there.” Her words describe the 1938 rounding up of Jews before transporting them to the internment camps. Well-known

documents and sources indicate that the Nazi government arrested Jews [usually

ages sixteen to sixty] and sent them to concentration camps. About thirty thousand

Jews from Nazi-controlled territories were deported to camps in Dachau,

Buchenwald, and Sachsenhausen near Berlin.

THE HOLOCAUST The Holocaust, the systematic, bureaucratic, state-sponsored persecution and

genocide program ultimately killed six million European Jews under the leadership of

the Nazis and their collaborators. The Nazis targeted Jews and other groups they

considered “racially inferior.” They also persecuted the Roma people (Gypsies), gays

and lesbians, Communists, Socialists, and Jehovah’s witnesses, as well as some

Poles and Russians. In 1933, before the Nazi actions, approximately nine million

Jews lived in the twenty-one countries of Europe that were ultimately occupied by

Germany during the war. Two out of three were killed as part of the Nazi’s “Final

Solution” to eliminate all Jews in Europe.

THE GITTELSOHN Dora’s siblings, Oscar, Röchen, Grete, and Lori Gittelsohn emigrated to the United SIBLINGS States to escape the Nazis. They came separately beween 1930 and 1941. Miriam,

the youngest, had left her home in Germany to live and work in the Netherlands, then

thought to be free from Nazi domination. Tragically, she could not avoid deportation

and her murder after the Nazis invaded the country.

ROSE GITTELSOHN Röchen, called “Rose” in America, was the first of Dora’s sisters to immigrate to the IMMIGRATES TO THE UNITED STATES United States. The girls had been best friends and even shared the same bench in

their class at German public school.79 In her first year in America, Rose lived with our

family in Chicago. My redheaded aunt with a fiery disposition was the most diligent of

89 4/24/2003 Elias’s children in observing the Jewish faith and prodded my mother in this respect.80

Rose joined the Young Israel movement, an organization of Orthodox young single

Zionists. There she met and later married Joseph Bachrach. They never had children

and Rose acted as my surrogate mother during my preschool years.MM (See

Chapter 5, “Surrogate Mother.”)

JOSEPH BACHRACH Joe, who became my uncle when he married Rose, related this story about his life in IN CONCENTRATION CAMP, Germany: “I was arrested the day after Kristallnacht in 1938.81 The Nazis arrested [at

1938 least thirty thousand] Jews and sent them to concentration camps in Germany,

blaming them for the event of which they were victims. I was confined in

Sachsenhausen camp near Berlin.” Many synagogues were set on fire, windows

broken, and Jewish shops and homes were looted.

A fellow Jew in the camp who was watching Joe’s observance of the Jewish rituals

said to him, “Because of you religious Jews, we have to suffer; without you, Judaism

would have been long forgotten.” A week later another [unidentified] prisoner said to

him, “I envy you because you show hope and belief. I wish I had it.”

Five weeks later, early in 1939, Joe was released from the camp, as were most Jews

arrested after Kristallnacht.82 The three camps Sachsenhausen, Buchenwald, and

Dachau were not ready for so many new prisoners, nor did the camps have the

needed infrastructure. They were not equipped to intern all the Jews arrested and

they were released for pragmatic reasons. The government accomplished its

objective of scaring the Jews to double their efforts to emigrate from Germany.83

ROSE AND JOE Joe was a lifelong scholar of Judaism. In his final years he suffered with Alzheimer’s SHARE RELIGIOUS LIFE TOGETHER and lived at Buckingham Pavilion, the Orthodox nursing home near Lincolnwood in

Chicago, where his wife, Rose now lives.84 At Joe’s request, he was buried in the

cemetery in Israel in the town of Beit Shemesh, a beautiful location between

4/24/2003 90 Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.85

NOW ALONE Rose turned ninety-five on May 13, 2002. She retained her mental capacities, but, like

many Jewish immigrants from Nazi Germany, she is reluctant to talk about her past.

She claims she has never missed a religious day of fasting. Although osteoarthritis

makes it impossible for her to stand to light the Sabbath candles, she has an electric

candelabra, which she can turn on with a switch. She recites the ritual blessing before

eating and is intolerant of Jews who are not equally fastidious in observing religious

rituals.

OSCAR GITTELSOHN In 1936, Mother’s brother, Oscar, left Germany. After living under Nazi tyranny for IMMIGRATES TO THE UNITED STATES three years, he boarded the SS Bernegaria at Cherbourg, France, and came to the

United States and joined his sisters, Dora and Rose.

Here Oscar shortened his surname to Gilson and

settled in Philadelphia, a city whose place in

American history and size appealed to him. He then

married Margaret (maiden name not known), a

Quaker, and pursued that faith. As a boy in

Germany, he had already rejected the Jewish

religion.86

For my fourth birthday, my uncle Oscar visited

Chicago and brought me a net bag of brightly

colored balls. Later he introduced me to Quaker ELIAS’S SON, OSCAR GITTELSOHN (OSNABRÜCK, customs and beliefs. GERMANY, SUMMER 1931)

The Gilsons had one child, a daughter Charlotte,

born on June 11, 1943, in Philadelphia. Unfortunately, my cousin Charlotte and I were

never in contact nor do I not know what happened to her mother, Margaret Gilson. I

91 4/24/2003 believe Oscar and Margaret were divorced. I secured a national search to find a

Charlotte born on her birthday, but none of the respondents were my cousin.

In a magazine article, “An Immigrant Looks Back,” Oscar related his experiences in

his early years in America.NN

In order to afford to buy a house and support his wife and daughter, he worked two

eight-hour jobs each day, one at Philco Electronics, a manufacturer of radios and

home appliances and the other, as a night security guard. He studied English at night

school. In later years, he returned the letters I had written him with my grammar

corrected.

For centuries, Jews had dreamed of returning to the Land of Israel, Palestine. In

1917, Britain’s Balfour Declaration promised the Jews a “national homeland” in

Palestine in exchange for support in World War I.87 It was not until the Nazis gained

control of Germany that some of my German family’s friends made an aliyah,

immigration to Palestine. However none of the immediate Gittelsohn family then

made this choice.

AFTER WORLD WAR II

The Jews in Europe who survived after World War II were grateful for their existence.

Most families lost at least some of their members. My family was more fortunate and

atypical in this regard.

GERMANY PAYS The suffering and loss of Jewish life and property was broadcast to almost all the BACK RESTITUTION TO JEWS Western world. Three months after the end of World War II, on behalf of the Jewish

Agency, Chaim Weizmann, the man who was to become the first president of Israel in

1948, submitted a memorandum on behalf of the governments of the United States,

the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, Britain, and France demanding reparations,

4/24/2003 92 restitution, and indemnification for the Jewish people from Germany.88 He appealed to

the Allied powers to include this claim in their negotiations with Germany. The claim

specified the “mass murder, the human suffering, the annihilation of spiritual,

intellectual, and creative forces, which are without parallel in the history of mankind.”

For three years until March 1951, no action took place on this request until Israel’s

Foreign Minister Moshe Sharett submitted a note to the four Allied governments

claiming global recompense of $1.5 billion from the German Federal Republic (West

Germany) to the state of Israel. In September 1952, German Chancellor Konrad

Adenauer signed an agreement that the German Federal Republic provide direct

reparations to most German Jews over a twelve-year period.89

After the collapse of the Nazi government in World War II, the Western occupying

powers obligated the holders of property which had come into their possession by

unlawful means to restore it to the rightful owners. There was no access to most of

the plundered property. As a result of the Ueberleitungsvertrag (the transfer or

restitution agreement) with the Western powers on the establishment of the German

Federal Republic, the republic worked to provide a plan for restitution and reparations

in May 1952.90 It took many years of negotiations to arrive at this federal restitution

law in July 1957.91

In 1945, the U.S. military government and the Allied Control Council abolished all

Nazi laws discriminating against groups and restored German citizenship to Jews

including those who had lost their German nationality because of emigration.

In June 1997, the New York State Holocaust claims-processing office helped people

seeking to recover assets deposited in European banks between 1933 and 1945,

monies never paid in connection with insurance policies issued by companies and art

that had been lost or looted. Claims were settled through a postwar government

restitution program.

93 4/24/2003 OSCAR GILSON Oscar returned to Germany and settled in Munich after World War II. His Orthodox (NÉE GITTELSOHN) RETURNS TO sister, Rose, considered this an affront to the millions of Jews who had died as GERMANY victims of Nazism.

Many victims of Nazi persecution who worked in Germany before or during World

War II were eligible to receive social security payments. Oscar was entitled to

reparations from which he could take a lump sum payment or a monthly pension for

the duration of his life. The latter would provide economic security for his later years

and may have been a reason for returning to Germany, although less than two

percent of German Jews returned to the country after the war.

As a former German citizen who paid into its state pension system, he benefited from

government reparations paid to Jews whose property and financial security were

destroyed by Nazi crimes. When Hitler came into power, Oscar Gittelsohn had been

forced to leave his executive position with a prestigious German firm and his

severance pay was confiscated.

According to Germany’s restitution law, Oscar was entitled to funds at the level he

would have earned in Germany had he not been forced to flee. In addition to this

pension, he would be compensated, as a goodwill gesture, for coming back to live in

the country after the war.

Oscar’s claim for reparations was based on the social security he had paid to the

Weimar government. It is likely he was also compensated for the Gittelsohn property

and his father’s synagogue which was confiscated by the Nazis.92

In 1970, my husband and I visited Oscar, who now lived in a suburb of Munich at

Friedrich-Hofmann-Str.2 in Ottobrunn. 93 We have no recollection of our

conversations except that Oscar had a passion for classical music and he liked living

in Munich where he could hear excellent concerts.

My mother believed that at age forty-five, Oscar began a new life in his former

4/24/2003 94 homeland and married a German woman. Did he also pursue a career at this

relatively young age, or did he devote himself to volunteer service? Was a child born

from that union? My letters to the German government in pursuit of this information

brought no response. Oscar died in Munich in April 1981.94

GRETE GITTELSOHN Fortunately, the middle Gittelson sister, Grete, obtained a visa to enter the United IMMIGRATES TO UNITED STATES, States and left Nazi Germany in November 1938 at a critical final moment before the

1938 Nazis rounded up all Jews. Steamship tickets were still affordable and some people

got help from the Hilfsverein, an organization that helped Jews obtain the needed

money to come to the United States. Perhaps Grete’s visa resulted from the efforts of

her sister Dora, who had already been in this country for eight years and the efforts of

a cousin Max Goldsmith married to her father’s sister, Bertha Gittelsohn. Grete’s

passport indicated that she was born on March 25, 1909, in Osnabrück, was

“unmarried, a homemaker by profession, without nationality, and of the Jewish

religion.” Women considered homemaking an honorable occupation.

After settling near her sisters in Chicago, Grete supported herself by clerking at the

Fair Department Store. Her older sister Rose worked at another department store

nearby, Carson, Pirie, Scott and Company. Their European accents added an

ambience of class when selling merchandise.

On February 8, 1942, Grete married Sol Yurman, a German Jewish immigrant born in

Lübeck. Their only child, a son, Elliott, born in 1944, is the father of two daughters,

Jennifer Joy and Lauren Michelle. Currently, Elliott and his wife Judie live in

Homewood, Illinois, south of Chicago.95

The experience of living in Nazi Germany left Grete fearful and reticent to socialize

with strangers. But the most economical apartment in Chicago was in a neighborhood

of mixed nationalities, and she lived among strangers grappling with her fears.

Despite surviving the near tragedy in Germany, Grete died a needless death in

95 4/24/2003 Chicago. In 1956 she was hit and killed in a crosswalk by an underage motorist who

ran the traffic light.

KRISTALLNACHT, Grete and her two sisters, Rose and my mother, Dora, and her brother Oscar were

1938 already living in America, but their mother and oldest sister remained in Osnabrück

when the Nazis torched synagogues on Kristallnacht, the “Night of Broken Glass,” 96

on November 9, 1938.97 The Gittelsohn’s synagogue was also destroyed. Fortunately,

Grandmother Ethel Gittelsohn and her oldest daughter, my Aunt Lori, escaped

injury.98 According to Lori’s memoirs, the Nazis forced her and her mother to stand

across the street and watch the burning of their home and synagogue. They may

have lived with friends while waiting one year and a half years to leave Germany for

good.

Despite the threatening conditions, Lori saved the family archives which provided

documentation for much of this history. She must have intuitively perceived the

impending danger to take such great measures to preserve the documents.

REGIME On February 8, 1939, the mayor’s office in the city of Osnabrück wrote widow CONFISCATES GITTELSOHN HOME, Gittelsohn, “We’re telling you what will become of the [your] house on

1939 Rolandstrasse No. 5. I’m letting you know already today that the house which belongs

to the synagogue property is to be demolished and I urge you for that reason to be

looking for another residence. The municipal savings bank of the City of Osnabrück

will acquire the house which manages the compulsory sale [where grandmother and

her daughter Lori were living]. The synagogue property shall be sold on March 2,

1939, at auction and I advise you to find another place to live.”OO

On March 31, 1939, the Savings Bank of the City of Osnabrück wrote widow

Gittelsohn, “We are telling you that we have become the owners of the house on

Rolandstrasse No. 5 and all the payments for the rent and so forth and debts are to

4/24/2003 96 be paid to us. Everything is due to us and we’ve reached an agreement that you are

to clear out and the rooms are to be cleared at the end of the month or the soonest

possible time. At the same time we notify you that the existing rent agreement is

terminated at the next period and by April 30th you must be out. It is your

responsibility to take care of any debits by the fixed closing date and leave the

property. Signed, Savings Bank of Osnabrück.”PP

OSNABRÜCK, Years later, I visited Osnabrück with my husband when he was working at the Max REVISITED Planck Institute for Biochemistry in Tübingen. We saw the outline of my grandfather’s

synagogue on an adjacent structure marked by a commemorative plaque.

LORI GITTELSOHN The Gittelsohn sisters considered Lori, the oldest, the

smartest and most capable among the five daughters. She

was born in Poland before her parents settled in Germany.

She took care of her mother, managed the family

correspondence and business records, and never married.

Lori and her mother, my grandmother, Ethel Gittelsohn, were

the last of the Gittelsohns to emigrate from Europe to the LORI GITTELSOHN United States. (OSNABRÜCK)

LORI’S FRIEND, Lori maintained her friendship with the artist Felix Nussbaum, an Osnabrück ARTIST FELIX NUSSBAUM classmate, who in 1926 painted the famous picture that showed Lori’s father, Elias

Gittelsohn, in his synagogue.QQ Lori said she watched the work in progress. Felix, his

parents, Phillip and Rachel, and his older brother, Justus, attended the synagogue

where Elias was cantor. A photocopy of Nussbaum’s painting of Elias and

Nussbaum’s self-portrait in the sanctuary is shown in this book.

Like many German Jews, Felix’s father was a proud German veteran of World War I.

97 4/24/2003 His name was listed on the plaque in the center of the Osnabrück synagogue with

other German Jewish veterans.

Felix was arrested by the Nazis and taken to the camp of Saint Cyprien and Gurs in

southern France, which was operated by the Vichy French in 1940. He escaped and

lived in hiding in Brussels until Nazi collaborators found and deported him to

Auschwitz in 1944, where he perished along with many others of Jewish ancestry.99

In Nussbaum’s memory, the city of Osnabrück built Das Felix-Nussbaum-Haus, a

wing of the art museum.100 The Jewish museums in New York City and

Washington, D.C. exhibited Nussbaum’s painting of my grandfather in his Osnabrück

synagogue.

LORI IMMIGRATES In 1938, Lori and her mother applied for visas and were among the many people who TO UNITED STATES VIA SHANGHAI wanted to leave Nazi Germany. They waited for official endorsements authorizing

them to enter the United States. By first going to an intermediate country and

transferring their visa application to the United States consulate in Shanghai, they

were able to leave Germany more quickly.

Lori orchestrated a route out of Germany by way of England to Shanghai. The U.S.

government had restricted immigration from Europe by a quota system and visas

were almost impossible to obtain. In contrast, China admitted six thousand Jews, who

added to the Shanghai population. My grandmother and aunt were elated when their

names finally came to the top of the waiting list to receive visas. Mother and daughter

had to travel halfway around the world by way of England and for two years settle in

Shanghai.

The Japanese, who controlled the Shanghai port, welcomed Jewish immigrants

believing they would stimulate the economy. Passports were not required nor were

immigration quotas imposed. Shanghai was the only place where Grandmother

4/24/2003 98 Gittelsohn and Aunt Lori could find refuge from Nazi Europe while waiting entry to the

United States. The American Joint Distribution Committee and the Jewish Agency

helped German refugees settle in Shanghai.101

REQUIREMENTS FOR Before leaving Shanghai for the United States, Lori and her mother surmounted the IMMIGRATION required hurdles—a formal application, a medical examination from an approved

physician, an affidavit guaranteeing they had financial support in the new country, as

well as certified papers, and the required amount of landing money in hand.102 In

January 1940, my mother, living in Chicago with my storeowner father, guaranteed

the Gittelsohns’ financial support so they could obtain visas.103 Certain professions

received priorities and Lori’s application showed she was a nurse. (She eventually

worked as nursemaid for children in New Rochelle, a suburb of New York City.)

BAGGAGE Emigrants from Germany were required to list their baggage with an estimated value, CONTENTS date of purchase, and description of items. The Gittelsohns’ baggage held clothing,

kitchen and dinnerware, and linens for bath, bed, and table, and pillows and blankets.

Most items were purchased between 1933 and 1940. They meticulously accounted

for smaller items, a sewing kit and fabric scraps, hygiene, grooming, and business

supplies.SS The most expensive item was Lori’s Rollei, a traditional twin-lens Rolleiflex

camera, valued at 60 Reichsmarks, which she had used to photograph the interiors of

her family home shown in this chapter.RR

LORI’S While in Shanghai from 1939 to 1941, Lori wrote this letter [the date of this letter is PREMONITION uncertain] to our family in the United States: “I interrupt my thoughts of Buchenwald

[concentration camp] that makes my own destiny seem almost insignificant. The news

from here is that the English and French invasion is taking place and that Darlan of

the German Quisling politics [a pro-Nazi, Vidkun Quisling played that part in Norway

during German occupation 1940–1945] in France, has fled to Africa and been caught

99 4/24/2003 there. I have a premonition that Hitler’s star is beginning to sink. It looks that way as

America has entered the war and this will make a decisive change with her resources.

. . . I tell you what I’ve seen with my own eyes because I hope that day will come

when we Jews who were martyred in Buchenwald and elsewhere will overcome the

Nazis and we can present to the collective German people the things they allowed to

happen and we will sit in judgment over the Nazi criminals.”UU

PASSAGE TO THE In April 1941, Lori and her mother left Shanghai as second-class passengers on the UNITED STATES, Japanese Ship, SS Nitta Maru.TT They arrived in San Francisco several months 1941 before the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.

GRANDMOTHER Upon arrival in Chicago my grandmother lodged with my parents and me in our GITTELSOHN, apartment before moving nearby with her daughter Lori.104 I remember my MARCH 1941 grandmother as a short stout woman with brown eyes and frizzy hair pinned in a bun,

shrouded in long dark dresses. We spoke German and I entertained her by reciting

German nursery rhymes. Grandma had difficulty seeing as she suffered from

glaucoma, an inherited eye disease that steals sight often without warning or prior

symptoms by damage to the optic nerve.

GRANDMOTHER’S I was eleven on April 9, 1943, when Grandmother Gittelsohn died at age sixty-two DEATH AND ORTHODOX from arteriosclerosis. PROTOCOL, It was traditional for the burial to take place soon, even on the day of death, but no 1943 longer than two nights afterward. Only under special circumstances can the burial be

delayed. Not to bury the body promptly was considered disrespectful because the

soul was believed to return to God while a body was left on earth. Orthodox Judaism

specified that the immediate family sit shiva, observing a mourning period of seven

days following the funeral.

The mourners sat on low stools or on the floor. They must not wear leather shoes, or

4/24/2003 100 use makeup and perfume, shave, cut their hair, bathe, or engage in sex during the

period. Mirrors in the house where the family sat were covered as mourners were not

to indulge in vanity. I recall the covered mirrors and visitors sitting on low stools.

LORI’S WORK Lori Gittelsohn, mother’s oldest sister, had worked as a bookeeper for the synagogue HISTORY where her father was cantor and for firms in Osnabrück, Shanghai, and Chicago. She

left a collection of glowing testimonials as to her competence from former employers.

These are documented in my archives.

In Chicago Lori worked in an uncle’s business and attended night school. In 1943

after her mother died, Lori settled in Merrick, New York, where she was a nanny for a

Jewish family. Later, between 1956 and 1963, Lori cared for Alfred and Ann

Goldstein’s three children in New Rochelle, New York. Their oldest son, Steven

became an attorney and managed Lori’s affairs.

After the Goldstein children were grown, Lori again worked as an accountant, this

time at the New Rochelle Hospital. I visited her while I studied and lived in New York

City. Lori resided in the hospital’s staff apartment. She retired at sixty-seven with a

pension and continued living in the staff apartments until her last day of life.

As a child Lori had contacted rickets which her sisters believed was caused by

inadequate nutrition during infancy in Poland where she was born. In Lori’s final

years, her arthritic legs no longer supported her.

Lori Gittelsohn died in New Rochelle on December 23, 1989, at age eighty-five.105

MIRIAM The youngest Gittelsohn sister, Miriam, left home in Osnabrück in July 1933 to find GITTELSOHN LEAVES HOME safety in Amsterdam from the Nazis’s state-sponsored anti-Semitic legislation. The

Netherlands border was only about forty-eight miles west of her home, a short train

ride, and Amsterdam about 200 miles or four hours by train.

101 4/24/2003 Miriam worked as an au pair for a family with young children, an arrangement by

which young women provided domestic services and childcare in exchange for room

and board. The photograph shows pensive Miriam wearing a white pinafore and a

long-sleeved dark shirt.

In 1935, Miriam’s oldest siblings, Oscar and Lori, visited her in Amsterdam. (The

other siblings had already left Germany for America.) Lori’s photographs show that

the three who remained in Europe toured the Dutch cities of the Hague, Westerbork,

and Leugeruch, and the northern part of the country, Helder. They visited Miriam

again in 1936 and toured Delft, Apeldoorn, Zaandam, Amsterdam, the Hague, and

Scheveningen, a seaside resort.VV They bought vegetables and flowers in the

markets, hiked and picnicked in the countryside, and visited city landmarks.106 This

was the last time they would see Miriam.

THE NETHERLANDS, At the outbreak of World War II in 1939, the Dutch maintained neutrality, although A NEARBY HAVEN FROM NAZI their sympathies lay chiefly `with the Allies. Nonetheless, when Nazi Germany GERMANY? attacked France in the spring of 1940, it sent its forces not only against Belgium, in

order to outflank the French defenses of the Maginot Line, but they also struck

Holland. The Nazis overwhelmed the Dutch armies in less than a week. The Dutch

government, accompanied by the Queen and the royal family, withdrew to England

and Canada, where they formed a government in exile.

The Dutch organs of state continued even under German occupation. They made an

effort to minimize German political repression, the deportation of Jews, and the use of

forced Dutch labor in Germany. Only a few Dutch collaborated with the Nazis. A

resistance movement sprang up, which, with the exception of a small number of

Dutch Nazi collaborators, included Conservatives, Communists, and others. The

Germans retaliated by executing Dutch citizens imprisoned for resistance, such as

the strike of Amsterdam dockworkers protesting the seizure and deportation of Dutch

4/24/2003 102 Jews to extermination camps in Germany.107 Some Jews went into hiding with the

assistance of friends, but most Jews were taken away to their deaths.

In the war’s final phase, after the Allies failed to capture bridgeheads across the rivers

at Nijmegen and Arnhem, the Dutch suffered from severe food shortages, and during

the months before liberation in May 1945 they were near famine.

When the Nazis invaded the Netherlands, according to later official communications,

Miriam Gittelsohn and other Jews were taken to Hamburg.WW Documents located at

the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam stated that on July 1942 the Jews were sent to

Westerbork. This was a preliminary processing transition camp for deportation by

train to the Nazi camp at Auschwitz or other places.108 The train passed through

Osnabrück.

It is interesting to note that during the war, the Van Pels, who lived in hiding in the

house with Anne Franks’ family, came from Osnabrück. It is speculated but without

any concrete evidence that Miriam Gittelsohn might have cared for the Van Pels’ son,

Peter, who was probably age six at the time Miriam first arrived in Amsterdam.

103 4/24/2003 MIRIAM, VICTIM OF After many anxious months, my NAZI MURDER family’s worst fears were realized

when they received a report from the

American Red Cross that the Nazis

had shipped Miriam to Germany.109

Many women were put into forced

labor to make ammunition for the Nazi

war effort.

MIRIAM GITTELSOHN (OSNABRÜCK, GERMANY)

MIRIAM GITTELSOHN (THE NETHERLANDS, 1930S)

The International Tracing Service Records of the Red Cross in Arolsen, Germany,

indicated that Mirjam [sic] Gittelsohn, born on August 4, 1913, in Osnabrück, was

deported from Hamburg in 1940 or 1941. On September 30, 1942, Miriam was

committed to Auschwitz in Poland.XX Her name was listed in the Memorial Book of

Holland which is located at the Anne Frank Museum in Amsterdam.

Believing they were going to win the war, the Nazis kept meticulous records. The

Allied forces obtained those records when they took control of the “death” camps.

When possible, Red Cross workers and others interviewed survivors to help identify

4/24/2003 104 camp victims. The copious records of Nazi acts of genocide listed people who were

incarcerated, sent to work in extermination camps, and were killed.110

Miriam remained alive in the camp for a year, most likely because she was a healthy

attractive twenty-nine-year-old woman and probably forced to work for Nazi munitions

production. She was murdered by the Nazis on November 5, 1943.111 Her death

occurred less than a year before the United States and Allied troops landed in France

on June 6, 1944, to begin the liberation of prisoners held in Nazi camps.

After the Nazis realized they were losing the war, they killed the remaining prisoners

or marched them westward away from the approaching Russian Army. Some former

Nazi guards stripped off their uniforms, cloaked themselves as prisoners or peasants,

and fled the sites where they committed murder.112 Other Nazis committed suicide.

TESTIMONY OF I submitted Miriam’s name for a page of testimony at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem. This MIRIAM’S LIFE testimony is intended to serve as a memorial for victims of the Holocaust. The pages

of testimony are a “symbolic tombstone” in the Hall of Names. Inscriptions are an

attempt to return the identity and dignity to victims which the Nazis and their

accomplices tried to obliterate.

The Yad Vashem remembers Holocaust martyrs and heroes who fought and rebelled

against Nazi tyranny, often at the sacrifice of their lives. It perpetuates their names

and those of the Jewish communities, organizations, and institutions destroyed.

THE GITTELSOHNS The Gittelsohn family illustrates the influence of the surrounding German culture in IN THE EARLY TWENTIETH the first decade of the twentieth century, their attachment to traditional Jewish CENTURY heritage, and their fortunate circumstances in leaving Nazi Germany by whatever

means were available to them.

Through this family history we can identify important themes about the Gittelsohns:

Political events affected the emotions and migration patterns of two generations of my

105 4/24/2003 family, grandparents and parents. My grandfather, Elias Gittelsohn, and his wife left

Poland in response to both the pogroms against the Jews and the Russian Civil War.

He, his wife, and children went to Germany. Their adult children came to the United

States to escape the Nazi terror.

Compared to the millions of Jews who could not leave Nazi-controlled territories and who died in the Holocaust, it is striking how many of my family were able to flee safely abroad. Their situation is not representative of other families.

The socially and culturally advanced German Weimar Republic differed vastly from the barbaric German Reich in the late 1930s when the comfortable and well-ordered

Gittelsohn home life was thrown into chaos. Observance of the traditional Jewish rituals provided a unifying focus for the Gittelsohns who adhered to the precepts and remained steadfast in their religion even after the Nazis came to power. The two world wars of the twentieth century caused immense economic hardship for people living in the war zones. The Nazi events in Germany were likewise distressing for those who were safe in America but largely helpless to effect any significant difference for family members who could not immigrate.

The troubles preceding and during World War II illustrate the inherent good and inherent evil that exist in human nature. The behavior of some seemingly good

Germans became evil under the influence of the demagogue and his collaborators.

On the other hand, the evil Nazi activities gained the attention of people of unusually noble character, who from sheer goodness helped, even when it meant sacrificing their own lives to save others. At the same time, many people throughout the world dismissed the problems in Nazi Germany until these atrocities became too large to ignore. It is unthinkable that hideous crimes against humanity are again committed in many parts of the world. Can the people of the world overcome indifference to terrible events and join, fight, and work to make the world safe for all people?

4/24/2003 106 Despite these outrageous political events, the rhythms of life in each generation

continued with marriage, birth, education, and remunerative work. Most often, the will

to live prevailed beyond extraordinary political circumstances.

The Nazi regime affected the safety and freedom of my maternal grandparents and

their children, the Gittelsohns, then living in Osnabrück, and my paternal

grandparents, the Trivashes living in Berlin.

CONCLUSION Elias Gittelsohn’s watchword, “You have two hands; Use them both” and by his

example of making the most of his abilities, he passed on some of his powerful

undefeated principles to my mother and me. Our youngest son, Peter Gordon,

impressed by his grandfather’s legacy, took the shortened version of Elias’s name,

Eli, as his own middle name and became a scholar of the Weimar period

philosophers. Thus the memory of Elias Gittelsohn persists in this third generation.

Location of Supporting Documents in Elaine Gordon’s Archives. (They are written in German unless otherwise indicated.) Book I—Oversize Documents Book II—Letters in German Book III—Photographs Book IV—Russian, Hebrew, and Yiddish Documents A Book II, No. 1, Elias Gittelsohn’s Birth Certificate in Russian A1 Book IV, No. 713, Elias’s Military Record in Russian A2 Book IV, No. 703, Elias’s Military Record in Russian A3 Book I, No. 400, Elias’s Military Record in Russian A4 Ibid. B Book I, No. 2, Elias’s Military Service Personal Identification B1 Book IV, No. 701, Elias’s Military Record in Russian B2 Book IV, No. 700, Elias’s Military Record in Russian B3 Book I, No. 325, Elias’s Military Discharge Certificate C Book 1, No. 2, Elias’s Military Service Personal Identification C1 Book I, No. 401, Elias’s Discharge Certificate C2 Book IV, No. 700, Military Record in Russian C3 Ibid.

107 4/24/2003 C4 Ibid. C5 Book IV, No. 703, Military Record in Russian C6 Book IV, 702, Book I, No. 406, Marriage Certificate C7 Book IV, No. 705 C8 Book IV, No. 706 C9 Book IV, No. 713 D Book 2, No. 3, Etka Postawelski’s Birth Certificate E Book 1, No. 2, Passport Photograph and Description F Book I, No. 7, Marriage Certificate G Book I, No. 1, Marriage Certificate H Book I, No.1, Passport I Book I, No. 9, Marriage Certificate J Book I, No. 402, The Gittelsohns’ Ketubah, Marriage Certificate in Hebrew K Book I, No. 9, Marriage Certificate L Book III, No. 234, Photograph of Rachel on Her Fortieth birthday M Book II, No. 7.5, Letter N Book I, No. 25, Elias’s Employment Contract with the Osnabrück Synagogue Community and His Job Description O Book I, No. 12; Book 2, No. 27, Birth Certificate P Book III, No. 26, Handwritten Letter Describing Elias’s Musical Activities Q Book III, No. 25, Letter of Reference Describing Elias’s Responsibilities R Book III, No. Letter of Reference Describing Elias’s Responsibilities as a Ritual Slaughterer S Book III, Nos. 1–6, Travel Passes for Performing Circumcisions T Book I, No. 30, Typewritten Letter of Instruction Describing How to Slaughter Large Animals U Ibid. V Book I, No. 3 Document Regarding German Citizenship W Book I, No. 4 Document Revoking German Citizenship X Book I, No. 5 Document Revoking German Citizenship Y Book I, No. 6 Document Regarding Pension Z Book I, No. 7 Document AA Book I, No. 8 Document BB Book I, No. 9 Document CC Book I, No. 10 Document DD Document in Chicago Historical Society EE Told to Me by My Mother, Dora Gittelsohn FF Book I, No. 11 Dora Gittelsohn’s School Reports GG Book I, No. 12 HH Book I, No. 13 II Book I, No. 14 JJ Book III, No. 100 Photograph of Max Goldsmith, his wife, Eleanor, and children Selma, Thelma, and Bram KK Dora’s Steamer Trunk, Now Painted White, Sits in My Living Room LL Book I, No. 15 Document

4/24/2003 108 MM Book III, No. 101 Photographs of My Early Life with Aunt “Gogi” and Uncle Joe NN Book III, No. 102 Oscar Gilson’s Magazine Article OO Book I, No. 16 PP Book I, No. 17 QQ Book I, No. 18 Letter RR Book I, No. 19 SS Book I, No. 20 TT Book I, No. 21 UU Book III, No. 1, Letter VV Book III, No. 103 Photographs WW Book I, No. 22 Letter XX Book I, No. 23 Document

1 Eva Berger, et al, Felix Nussbaum: Verfemte Kunst, Exilkunst, Widerstandskunst: Die 100 Wichtigsten Werke. (Bramsch: Rasch, 1990). Nussbaum lived from 1904 to 1944. 2 Russian spelling of Baklarzewo is Bakalarszewo. 3 The copies of each birth certificate cost Elias Gittelsohn 75 kopecks. 4 Miriam Weiner, in cooperation with The Polish State Archives, Jewish Roots in Poland: Pages from the Past and Archival Inventories. (Secaucus, N.J.: YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, 1997). 5 The local authority is Czeslaw Labecki-wojt, Urzad Gminy w Bakalarzewie, 16-423 Bakalarzewo, Phone: 23, ulica Rynek 3. The earliest Jewish community dates from the second half of the eighteenth century. In 1927, there were 212 Jews in the town where Elias Gittelsohn was born. The Jewish cemetery was established in the fourth quarter of the eighteenth century. No other towns or villages used this cemetery, landmarked number: near rej.zabytkow woj.suwalskiego-741, decyzja K1.WK2 534/741/d/89 z, 27.11.1989 (November 11, 1989). The isolated rural site by water has no signs or markers. Reached by turning directly off a public road, with no walls, fences, or gates, access is open to all. The pre- and post-World War II size is about 0.9 hectares. Twenty to one hundred gravestones date from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries with perhaps twenty in original locations and less than twenty-five percent toppled or broken. The location of removed stones is unknown. The granite and sandstone finely smoothed and inscribed stones, flat stones with carved relief decorations, and sculpted monuments have Hebrew inscriptions. The cemetery contains no known mass graves. The regional or national government agency owns the property used for animal grazing. Adjacent to the cemetery are agricultural properties and the lake. Occasionally, Jewish and non-Jewish private visitors stop. The cemetery was vandalized during World War II. There is no maintenance. Within the limits of the cemetery are no structures. Moderate threat: vegetation. Dr. Janusz Mackiewicz, 16-400 Suvalki, ulica 1 Maja 27a/47, tel. home: 663756, Phone: office: 663741 Survey was completed on September 22, 1994. 6 Elias Gittelsohn terminated his military service in Russia on October 6, 1894. 7 The stamp #164911 on the document meant it was genuine. 8 Elias’s discharge ticket stated that according to his achievements in the military he could be drafted in the reserves. 9 Svelana Inozemtseva, a native Russian woman who lives in my condominium in unit 104, surmised this information from the discharge military record she reviewed. 10 Ibid. 11 This was told to me by my Aunt Gretchen Yurman (née Gittelsohn) of Osnabrück.

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12 Jews were often prohibited from owning land and had to live by trading, artisanship, and their wits in the small shtetl. It would have been unusual for a Jew to own land in the Pale in the 1880s, according to UW Professor Jon Bridgman. At times a proposal was made to allow Jews to own land, according to Edith Bloomfield, Russian Jewish scholar and professor emeritus ([email protected]). 13 A. Scott Berg, Goldwyn: A Biography. (New York: Knopf, 1989). Berg describes life in Warsaw, Poland during my maternal grandparents’ era. 14 My maternal grandmother, Ethel (née Postawelski) Gittelsohn, was born on January 6, 1881, the year when Alexander II was killed and Alexander III became tsar of the Russian Empire. 15 The spelling of Etka’s mother’s name appears to be Jnda on the marriage certificate. This is odd as the combination of letters “Jn” does not exist in Eastern European languages. More likely the name is Inda as indicated on other documents. 16 This was told to me by my mother Dora, Etka’s daughter.

17 Dr. Marlene Silverman has researched the history of Suvalki residents. Since 1990 she publishes a quarterly, Landsman, which contains information about former residents. Silverman can be contacted at the Lomza Interest Group, 3701 Connecticut Avenue North West, Apartment 228; Washington, D.C., 20008-4556. Online: http://feefhs.org/jsig/frgslsig.html. 18 Oscar Gittelsohn was born on August 21, 1903, on the old calendar. The birth was registered with the signatures of Krasnapol merchant Hirsch Postawelski, age sixty-five, and merchant Jossel Abramski, age sixty, subcontractor. The document was signed by the clerk of civil acts to certify the copy as correct. (The spelling of names differed because of transliterations.) 19 Lore in Russia was spelled Lori in German. 20 The Russo-Japanese War began on February 8, 1904, when Japan attacked Port Arthur in Manchuria. The war increased the ongoing discontent in Russia. The war, which ended on September 5, 1905, brought recognition to Japan as a major world power. With the signing of the Treaty of Portsmouth, Russia’s defeat was cemented and the Russian people’s dissatisfaction with the Tsarist government grew. This led to massive social upheavals. The principal causes of the war were the conflicting ambitions of Japan and Russia, primarily over increasing Russian acquisitions of commercial and military positions in Manchuria, and the desire of the Japanese to control Korean trade and industry. Political and social discontent expressed by demonstrations and violence existed before the war. One of the war’s aims was to distract the popular discontent. As it turned out, the war, especially the Russian defeat, made things worse for the government. The pogroms were part of the government’s response to the revolution. 21 Elias and Ethel Gittelsohn’s temporary separation spread the timing of successive babies. In the traditional Jewish religion the husband and wife were required to cohabitate. 22 Elias Gittelsohn had considered living in Sweden with a member of his family. This person may have been one of Ethel Postawelski’s siblings since her father had sent some of his children to Sweden for their education. However, Postawelski siblings went to Stockholm and Elias’s aunt Rachel lived in Göteborg. Elias’s daughter Rose (née Gittelsohn) Bachrach said Elias refused to remain with this Swedish family because they did not maintain a sufficiently kosher household. Rose said that a rabbi recommended Elias for the cantor position in Osnabrück. 23 This was told to me by Elias’s daughter Rose (née Gittelsohn) Bachrach. 24 Encyclopaedia Judaica. Vol. 12, p. 1,502. 25 This was told to me by Elias’s daughter Rose (née Gittelsohn) Bachrach. 26 Encyclopaedia Judaica. Vol. 12, p. 1,502. 27 Kaiser Wilhelm II became emperor of Germany on June 15, 1888. 28 Golo Mann, translator, Marion Jackson, The History of Germany Since 1789. (New York: Praeger, 1968).

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29 Neal Gabler, An Empire of Their Own: How the Jews Invented Hollywood. (New York: Crown Publishers, 1988). Gabler includes an account of Jewish life in Hungary and Germany before 1914. 30 The word tefillin is etymologically related to the word tefilah (prayer). 31 Daily prayers are assembled in a book called a “Siddur” from the Hebrew root meaning “order.” The Siddur shows the order of prayers. The oldest fixed daily prayer in Judaism is the Shema, “Here O Israel, the Lord Our God, the Lord is One.” According to Orthodoxy, Judaism revolves around the unchanging, eternal, mutually binding covenant between God written reverently with out the letter “o” as, G-d and its people. 32 Friedrich I, King of Prussia was born in 1668 at Iburg Castle in Osnabrück, Hannover, Prussia. He died in 1904/1905. The other castle in Osnabrück was Königliches Schloss.

33 The peace conference to end the Thirty Years War opened in Münster and Osnabrück in December 1644. The series of connected wars began in 1618, when the Austrian Habsburgs tried to impose Roman Catholicism on their Protestant subjects in Bohemia. It pitted Protestant against Catholic, the Holy Roman Empire against France, the German princes and princelings against the emperor and each other, and France against the Habsburgs of Spain.34 Karl Kühling, Die Juden in Osnabrück. (Osnabrück: H.Th. Wenner, 1983). 35 The schematic drawing is from the Encyclopaedia Judaica. Vol. 14, p. 95. 36 This was told to me by Elias’s daughter Rose. 37 In later years, Devorah Trivash’s children lived in the following locations: Lisa in Rio de Janeiro; Erna in Chicago and Melbourne, Australia; Harry in Chicago; Bill in Chicago; Oscar in Chicago; Betty in Chicago and San Diego; Sonja in Chicago and Los Angeles; Jacob in Chicago and Los Angeles; Sam in Chicago; and Hannah in Knoxville, Tennessee. The children of Elaine Gordon’s aunts and uncles in the next generation mentioned above are: Alexandre and Daniel Lissovsky of Rio de Janeiro; Francine Katz of Tucson, Arizona; Edith Teichman of 15 Bar Harbour Road, Apt. 4 C, Schaumberg, Illinois 60193-1907; Rachel Engel Gould of Ontario, Canada; Suzanne Menzel Allswang of Los Angeles; and Samuel Jacobson of 17337 Ventura Boulevard., Encino, California 91316. The children of Rachel Engel Gould are Rozica and Joji Salzberger of Montréal; and Mordechai Dworsky and Ksar Saba of Israel. 38 This was told to me by my mother, Dora Gittelsohn. 39 Emily C. Rose, Portraits of our Past: Jews of the German Countryside. (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 2001). 40 The passes permitting Elias to travel indicate where he went. 41 The shohet, a skilled professional slaughterer, must kill large animals with a razor-sharp knife in a single slash. This must sever both the trachea and jugular vein to cause the least possible pain. The professional must then remove all traces of blood by soaking the meat in cold water for a half an hour, then sprinkling it with coarse salt and allowing it to drain for an hour before washing it again three times in cold water. 42 Belinda J. Davis, Home Fires Burning: Food, Politics, and Everyday Life in World War I Berlin. (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2000). 43 William L. Langer, Encyclopedia of World History. 5th ed. (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1972). 44 The documents simply say Mark or RM rather than Reichsmark or Rentonmark. 45 This was told to me by my mother, Dora Travis. 46 My mother recalled that she smelled the scent of orange coming from her mother’s room, but she did not receive any. 47 This was how my mother also furnished her first apartment in Chicago when I was a preschooler.

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48 Marion A. Kaplan, The Making of the Jewish Middle Class: Women, Family, and Identity in Imperial Germany. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1991). “Cultivating Family Respectability: A Family Enterprise.” 49 Ibid, pp. 32, 37. 50 This was told to me by Rose (née Gittelsohn) Bachrach. 51 Peter G. J. Pulzer, The Rise of Political Anti-Semitism in Germany and Austria. (New York: Wiley, 1991). 52 Dietrich Orlow, A History of Modern Germany: 1875 to Present. 4th edition. (Englewood Cliffs, N. J.: Prentice Hall, 1995). 53 Testimony reported by Joseph Voss regarding his mother-in-law. 54 “The Rise of Hitler: How did the lives of people change in Nazi Germany? How did Hitler control Germany? What happened to Jews in Nazi Germany?” Online: http://www.bbc.co.uk/education/modern/nazi/nazihtm.htm#q1. 55 Elias’s great-grandson, David Gordon, gathered this information for a history paper he wrote in 1976 at Haverford College. 56 This was told to me by my mother, Dora. 57 Foliage and the ravages of time cover the year on his gravestone. 58 Klaus Schneider, who had worked for the Department of Records in Osnabrück, knew my uncle, Oscar Gittelsohn/Gilson. When my husband and I visited Germany in summer 1974, Klaus showed us the cemetery where my grandfather Elias Gittelsohn was buried and I photographed Elias’s headstone. 59 Elias Gittelsohn’s oldest sister, Sarah, immigrated to the United States and lived in Troy, New York, with her husband Abraham Alexander of Suvalki. Another sister Bertha Gittelsohn married Max Lazar Goldsmith, a wholesale candy jobber, and lived near Sam and Doris Travis on Douglas Boulevard in Chicago until her death in 1945. Goldsmith provided the affidavit guaranteeing the financial support Doris needed to enter the United States. 60 To the financial office, City of Osnabrück. Widow Ethel Gittelsohn: “I hereby petition to be exempted from the property tax of Jews as per the law of 12 November 1938 and base my request as follows: “From my declaration of property of June 6, 1938, it is evident that the listed and capitalized widow pensions come from: the membership of my deceased husband’s state insurance as a result of his employment, the widow’s pension of the Synagogue Community of Osnabrück consequent of my deceased husband’s employment as cantor of the Jewish Community for approximately 30 years. “Since except for the listed widow’s pensions no other property is available to me, I respectfully petition for the exemption from the property tax.” 61 This was told to me by my mother, Dora. 62 Ibid. 63 A passport photograph, dated 1922, suggests my father (Sam Trivash/Travis) immigrated that year. He went to the United States, and then returned to Germany in 1929 when he met Dora, the woman who became my mother. 64 Ellis Island opened in 1892 as the port of disembarkation for immigrants to the United States, and Castle Garden was closed. 65 The family name Trivash was also transliterated, Trivasch and Triwash. 66 Harry, Oscar, and Bill Travis had established themselves in business on State Street in Chicago before their brother Sam came to the United States. 67 This was told to me by Edith (née Travis) Teichman, daughter of Sam’s brother Oscar. 68 This was told to me by my mother, Dora.

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69 Emily C. Rose, Portraits of Our Past: Jews of the German Countryside. (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 2001). 70 Online: http://www.dcn.davis.ca.us/~feefhs/maps/ruse/re-polan.html (2001). 71 Bakalarzewo in Yiddish called Baklerove, is in the Suvalki province at 54º04' N, 22º 39' E, twenty kilometers from Suvalki. The earliest Jewish community there dates from the second half of the eighteenth century. 72 This was told to me by my mother, Dora. 73 Ibid. 74 Mother’s brother, Oscar Gittelsohn, and her oldest sister, Lori Gittelsohn, were born in Suvalki in western Poland. The Gittelsohn family then moved to Osnabrück, Germany, where four younger children were born. 75 This was told to me by my mother, Dora. 76 Sharon D. Masanz, History of the Immigration and Naturalization Service. (Washington, D.C.: Government Publication Office, 1980). There were two steps to becoming a naturalized citizen. First, the applicant applies for citizenship and receives instructions about what to study. Second, the immigrant schedules an appointment to take the oral and written examination. 77 This was told me my mother, Dora. 78 To the registry office Berlin: I inform you herewith that since 1 January 1939, I have added the first name Sara as required by law. I was born 17 August 1904 in Kaletnik, Poland. I have sent the same notice to the local police authority in Osnabrück. Signed, Lori Gittelsohn. The identical letter was sent by Ethel Gittelsohn born January 6, 1881, in Kaletnik, Poland. 79 This was told to me my Gittelsohn aunts. 80 In 2002, Rose lives at Buckingham Pavilion Nursing Home, 2625 West Touhy Avenue, Chicago, Illinois 60645, near Lincolnwood Radisson Hotel at 4500 West Touhy Avenue. Rose Bachrach’s Phone: (773) 274-7744. Margaret Stern owns the nursing home. The home is located a few blocks east of 6800 California and within a half-hour of the O’Hare Airport. At age 95, Rose suffers with arthritis, low thyroid, high-blood pressure, glaucoma, and inflamed tissue in her legs and ankles. She was diagnosed with bladder cancer, but this is in remission. Hearing is difficult. Rose also owns a condominium where she keeps photograph albums, some containing family photos from Osnabrück. Rose’s niece, the daughter of her late husband, Joseph Bachrach, is Naomi Zagha. Naomi’s husband is Moshe Zagha. In 2002, they were living at Harav Berlin 20 Jerusalem, Israel 92503. Phone: 02 5664558. In 2002, Sidney Amdurg, Rose (née Gittelsohn) Bachrach’s accountant, lives at 7536 North Francisco, corner of Jarvis. He handles Rose’s mail delivered to her condominium at the Royalton, 6800 North California. Frances “Franny” Levitsky, also manages Rose’s affairs. She lives at 2757 West Jarlith. Phone: (773) 262-1561); Barbara (surname not known) (773) 761-7869 pays Rose’s bills. Rose has two ten-hour sitters who care for her needs, Cele Schottland (773) 338-9092 during weekends and Jane Ivanoff during weekdays. Jane lives at 35 West Ainslie Street, Chicago, Illinois 60625. Phone: (773) 583-0258. 81 Encyclopaedia Judaica. Vol. 12, p. 1,502. 82 Joseph Bachrach sent this message to Gavriel, the son of his friend Sidney Amdurg. The occasion was the boy’s Bar Mitzvah. Sidney, an accountant, has been a longtime friend of Joe and Rose Bachrach. He and his family live in Chicago at 7536 North Francisco, corner Jarvis, Phone: (773) 761-7869. 83 Encyclopaedia Judaica. Vol. 10. p. 1,263. 84 The nursing home, Buckingham Pavilion in Chicago, is near Lincolnwood, Illinois. 85 This was told to me years later by Rose.

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86 This was told to me by Oscar’s sister, my mother, Dora. 87 Emil Stein, a family friend from Osnabrück made his aliyah to Palestine in 1935. His photograph leaving at the train station in Osnabrück is in my archives. 88 The Jewish Agency is an international body representing the World Zionist Organization created by Chaim Weizmann in 1929 and headquartered in Jerusalem. The Agency became the external arm of the Zionists to obtain financial aid and oversee the settlement of Jewish immigrants in Palestine. 89 Encyclopaedia Judaica. Vol. 14, p. 71. 90 Encyclopaedia Judaica. Vol. 14, p. 95. 91 Since the Reich no longer existed, measures taken were inadequate. The measures did not apply to the Reich as the former legal entity which perpetrated the crimes and was responsible for restitution. 92 Reparation was compensation for war damage owed by Germany as the aggressor and restitution was the action of restoring or giving back something to its proper owner, making reparation for the loss or injury inflicted. 93 Ottobrunn is a suburb of Munich located in postal code 85521. There was no entry for Oscar Gilson in the Munich telephone book showing a telephone line. He is deceased. Oscar’s address was forwarded from the Munich resident’s registration office. 94 According to www.ancestry.com., Oscar died in 1981. 95 Elliott A. Yurman has in his possession the documents on which this chapter is based. Yurman: Corporate Actions, Harris Bank Telephone: (312) 765-8268 Fax: (312) 461-6773 E-mail: [email protected] 96 At midnight on November 8–9, 1938, the Nazis destroyed Jewish houses of worship. This was called Kristallnacht, the “Night of Broken Glass.” The Nazis presented the event as a “voluntary spontaneous outpouring of public sentiment” against alleged Jewish intrigues. Thousands of Jewish-owned businesses, homes, and other properties along with 191 synagogues were looted and destroyed, with deaths and injuries among the German Jewish population. The Nazis arrested twenty-six thousand people and sent them to concentration camps at Dachau, Buchenwald, and Sachsenhausen with their release contingent upon immediate emigration and surrendering of all property and wealth. 97 Marion A. Kaplan, Between Dignity and Despair: Jewish Life in Nazi Germany. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1998). See an account of events of the 1930s and the “Night of Broken Glass.” 98 Lori Gittelsohn, the oldest of the five Gittelsohn daughters, was born on August 27, 1904, in Kaletnik, Suvalki, in western Poland, before her parents moved to Osnabrück, Germany. 99 The Belgians arrested Felix Nussbaum as a “hostile alien” and sent him to a squalid concentration camp in the south of France. He escaped, found his way back to Belgium, and in 1942, went into hiding. In 1944 he was captured by the Wehrmacht and sent to his death in Auschwitz. He was forty years old. 100 Online: http://www.osnabrueck-net.de/Kultur/Nussbaum/fnh_eroeffnung.html. 101 David Kranzler, Japanese, Nazis & Jews: the Jewish Refugee Community of Shanghai, 1938.1945; (New York: Yeshiva University Press, Sifria Distributors, 1976). 102 The documents were facilitated by the Far Eastern Jewish Central Information Bureau for Emigrants, Sufferers of War and other Calamities and HIAS, Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society Online: http://www.hias.org/Find_Family/overview.html. 103 Declaration, Chicago, 18 January 1940, by Mrs. Dora (née Gittlesohn) Travis to “transmit a savings account to my mother, Mrs. Ethel Gittelsohn, who now lives at Moeser Street 43 in Osnabrück.”

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104 Grandmother Gittelsohn lived with my parents and me in our apartment at 1106 East 53rd Street in Chicago. She then moved with her daughter Lori Gittelsohn to a nearby apartment at 3964 South Ellis Avenue in Chicago. 105 As of year 2001, Steven Goldstein’s parents, Alfred and Ann Goldstein, live in Sarasota, Florida. Phone: (941) 365-3033; Fax: (941) 366-7432. 106 Photographs of my visits are in my family archives. 107 Amsterdam dockworkers went on strike in response to Nazi persecution of the Jews. They did so, it was been said, not because the dockworkers loved Jews in general but because foreigners were attacking Amsterdam residents. Dutch Christians who protected Jews during World War II confirmed the faith of the Jews in their countrymen and in the universal values of brotherhood. 108 This information comes from De heer Dr. J. E. A. Boomgaard; Gemeete Archief Amsterdam, Amstedijk 67, 1074 HZ Amersame, Fax: 020 5720202, Work Phone: 0920 5720202. There was no phone listening for Miriam Gittelsohn in Adressboehen 1934-1941 Merwedeplein No. 37. She may not have had a phone in her own name. 109 Buchenwald was one of the first and biggest of the Nazi German concentration camps. It was located on a wooded hill near Weimar, then in Thuringia, Germany. It was established in July 1937 and complemented the camps of Sachsenhausen to the north and Dachau to the south. In World War II it held about twenty-thousand prisoners, most of whom worked for the Nazi war effort. From 1943 on, inmates were ruthlessly exploited for the armament industry in Buchenwald and the 136 external sites. From autumn 1944, women were put to work making ammunitions for the Nazis. At first, Buchenwald was designated for political opponents of the Nazi regime, so-called social misfits—Jews, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and homosexuals. After the onset of World War II, the Nazis sent people from other countries to the camp. 110 Yad Vashem is a memorial dedicated to victims of the Holocaust and includes an archive. Yad Vashem responded to my letter: “We have received your request for a names search. We consulted the records that in our opinion are most likely to give the most extensive information about the name (Miriam Gittelsohn) you requested. In response to your request we have conducted a search through the International Tracing Service Records of the Red Cross in Arolsen, Germany, that are in our possession. They have a general index of persons displaced or killed during World War II. We have found a record of Gittelsohn, Mirjam, born on 04.08.1913, in Osnabrück, deported from Hamburg in 1940–1941 in International Tracing Service collection. If you would like us to send you a copy of the records mentioned above and blank Pages of Testimony so that you can commemorate the names of your loved ones please notify us by E-mail and we will mail them to you. Oxana Korol, Hall of Names, Yad Vashem: “We have located a registry of Gittelsohn, Martha, born on 04.08.1913, Osnabrück, deported to Auschwitz on 30.09.1942 in Memorial Book of Holland. The Hall of Names at Yad Vashem houses Pages of Testimony commemorating the names and biographic details of Jews who perished during the Holocaust. The Pages are filled out by the victims’ family members or friends. Having searched in our computerized databank we have not found the Page of Testimony for the name about whom you inquired.” 111 Online: http://212.143.122.31/search/index_search.html (February 2002); [email protected]: Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles; 1399 South Roxbury Drive, 90035-4709. Online: http://www.wiesenthal.com. 112 Steven E. Ambrose, Band of Brothers E Company, 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne from Normandy to Hitler’s Eagle’s Nest. (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2001).

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