Brick Wall People Redux – Part 4 – Feige Golda Reich

Name: Feige Golda Riech
Birth: about 1868
Death: November 26, 1932
Marriage: Before 1890
Location(s): Czudek, Galicia (Poland); Frankfurt, Germany
Relation to me: Feige Golda Reich is my paternal grandfather's maternal grandmother, which makes her 5th generation before me.
Alias(es): none known
Parents: unknown
Spouse(s): Benzion Kresch
Children: Naftali Mendel, Dora, Minna, Hiam (uncertain of the spelling at this time), Esther/Erna, Aaron
Other Family: No other direct family known.

Details:
I have a bit more about Feige than I did the last time I posted these. For once, I actually have a death record for her. Other than that, though, I have no Birth or Marriage information on her aside from what I have gotten from family, so those dates for her are vague at best. I do know she lived a good deal of her life in Czudek, and raised her children there, then moved to Frankfurt after her husband's death. I also know that she lived until the early thirties. But other than raising possibly five children in a small town in Galicia, I know very little else about her life.

Proof:
1) Like the rest of my Jewish great-grandparents, I got all my information on Feige from my grandfather. Up until my sister and I started a book about our family, this was most of the information I had on her.
2) As stated above, I also have one photo of her with a note on the back from my great grandmother stating that this was her mother during her time in Frankfurt, and that she died sometime in the late twenties.
3) Like Benzion, she is also mentioned in the Hillinger Family book. It mentions Benzion was a teacher, and at least two place names: Czudek and Czendei in Galicia. Unfortunately, I don't know where Czendei might be, but I have at least found Czudek on a map.
4) She is also listed on her son's immigration record to Brazil. She is only mentioned on it, but it gives Mendel's birth as Czudek, so that is confirmed, at least.
5) My last piece of information is the wedding invitation in the Hillinger family book. It lists her as inviting people to attend her daughter's wedding. She and Leon are the two parents on the invitation, so that has led me to assume that they were the only parents the couple had alive at the time.

New Proofs I have found of Feige:
6) I now have the death record for Feige. It is in German, but after going through it, I am fairly certain it doesn't list parents or a birthplace. Still, it gives me an absolute date and location for her death.
7) She also appears on the record for her son Mendel's wedding.
8) And she is listed on her daughter Dora's Social Security record.
9) She is also listed on Mendel's Brazilian Immigration record.
10) The last record I have for her is that she is listed on Dora's death record.

Needed:
Except for her death record, I have almost no great new records for Feige. Aside from her death record, I still need her birth and marriage dates, as I can only speculate at those dates at this moment. I have no clue where to even start looking for information for her, as most of the paperwork recording her life events was likely destroyed by the Nazis. If there were any records for her in Czudek, those are likely long gone, too.

Like with Benzion, I would also love better records about her children. I am lucky to have what I do, but I would love to know more, despite the difficulties that finding such records will cause. I would love to learn about her family as well; parents, siblings, and ancestors. I speculate that she was born in Czudek, as most people didn't travel far from home, especially women at that time and in that area. They tended to move in family groups or not at all. But unless I find records, I am unlikely to find out more.


That's everything I have. I'd love to know more about her, especially about her ancestors, but I am pleased with the small amount of new information I have found for her. As always, any help would be greatly appreciated.

Original Post
Other Posts about Feige Golda Reich:

• Brick Walls - A Different Listing
• Advent Calendar: Feige Golda Reich
• Matrilinial Monday - Feige Golda Reich
• Saturday Night Genealogy Fun Your Best Genea-Prize in August 2014
• Visual Family Tree 1 - Hillingers and Ancestors

Brick Wall People Redux – Part 3 – Benzion Kresch

No Known Photo

Name: Benzion Kresch
Birth: unknown
Death: before 1919
Marriage: Before 1890
Location(s): Czudek, Galicia (Poland); Czendei, Galicia (Poland) (location not found)
Relation to me: Benzion Kresch is my paternal grandfather's maternal grandfather, which makes him 5th generation before me.
Alias(es): none known
Parents: unknown
Spouse(s): Feige Golda Reich
Children: Naftali Mendel, Dora, Minna, Hiam (uncertain of the spelling at this time), Esther/Erna, Aaron
Other Family: No other direct family known.

Details:

I know very little about Benzion. He lived and died in Galicia, and made a living as a teacher of some sort, but I do not know what sort of teacher. He and his wife likely lived in Czudek most of their married lives, as I know at least two of their children were born there. They had five children, and I now know all their names, if not the full details of their lives.. As for his death, I found a report on Jewish Gen about an attack on the town shortly before his daughter left for Frankfurt, so it is possible he may have died in that attack, or because of it.

Other than that, I know nothing about the man, other than my great grandmother named her eldest child for him.

Proof:
1) Like the other branch of my Jewish heritage, I got all my information originally from my grandfather, who never met his grandparents except for his grandmother Feige. Up until recently, that information was all I had on Benzion.
2) Benzion is also in the Hillinger Family book. It mentions Benzion was a teacher, and at least two place names: Czudek and Czendei in Galicia. Unfortunately, I don't know where Czendei might be, but I have at least found Czudek on a map.
3) The last bit of information I have on Benzion is one of the most recent records I have found: his son's immigration record to Brazil. He is only mentioned on it, but it gives Mendel's birth as Czudek, so that is confirmed, at least.

New Proofs I have found of Benzion:
4) I found a record for his son's marriage in 1919 that lists him and his wife. I don't believe this proves he was alive at the time. I think it is just listing them as his parents. I can't be certain, as it is in German, but it seems the most likely.
5) He is also listed in his daughter Dora's Social Security record.
6) And there is another listing of her on Dora's death record.
7) And one final record listing him is Mendel's immigration record to Brazil.
8) The final proof I have of him is actually the strongest. I was contacted by a woman who said she was his granddaughter, and therefore my grandfather's first cousin. She told me a little about what he was life, and gave me the names of all of his children, so I finally have all their names, though Haim vanished right after the First World War, so her father, who was the youngest, left her very little information about him.

Needed:
Like Alex's parents, I have no BMD information on Benzion, so I can only speculate at those dates. Unlike them, I don't even have speculations on dates. I have no clue where to even start looking for information on him, given he lived in Galicia around the time when Jews were under attack by the gentiles around them. Likely few records existed even before the Nazis came to power, and the ones that did likely didn't after their regime.

I would also love better records about his children. I was lucky enough to find Mendel, and I know a great deal about Dora's life, but Minna I have only a couple of photos and a story of how the two sisters came to Frankfurt together from Czudek. I have more information on his other children now, though still very little in comparison to Mendel and Dora. I do need to say that I discovered I was right to fear what I might find here, between Haim's disappearance after WWI, and the fact that we lost Esther. However, I am glad to say that out of my whole Jewish Branch of my family tree, the only person in my immediate ancestral family we lost to the Nazis was Esther, who did not manage to escape with her husband and children, though we do not know exactly what happened to her. She is listed on Yad Vaschem, in a record written up by her son.

I would love to know about his parents, siblings, and the people he came from. Was he an only child? Was his father a teacher too? What kind of life did they lead? I tend to speculate that he was from the vague Rzeszów area, just north of where Czudek is located in Poland, but as of yet, I have no real proof he was from Galicia at all, and he could have just settled there because Rzeszów was a center for Jewish learning at the time.


And really, for now, that's it. Despite almost tripling the number of records for Benzion, I still have so little about Benzion. Any help here finding more on him would be greatly appreciated.

Original Post
Other Posts About Benzion Kresch:

• KRESCH (German/Prussian)
• Brick Walls -- A Different Listing
• Advent Calendar: Benzion Kresch
• Brick Wall Update 2012
• Surname Saturday 2.0: The Kresches
• Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - Your Best Genea-Prize in August 2014

Brick Wall People Redux – Part 2 – Mindel Hilinger

No Known Photo

Name: Mindel Hilinger
Birth: about 1851, likely in Germany, Austria or Galicia
Death: 1913, London, England
Marriage: about 1871, probably in Galicia
Location(s): Galicia; London, England
Relation to me: Mindel Hilinger is my paternal grandfather's paternal grandmother, which makes her 5th generation before me.
Alias(es): According to the grave entry I found for her, it seems she may have gone by the name Minnie. But Mindel is a very Jewish name (I have the male version on the other side for one of my great-grandmother's brothers), and Hilinger/Hillinger (the English spelling) is very common in Austria, and there is a Jewish branch of that family, according to someone I spoke with on the Hillinger Name facebook page.
Parents: unknown
Spouse(s): Leon Seneft
Children: Isaac, Annie, Alex, Jennie, Jack
Other Family: A nephew Lewis, either her sister's son, or her husband's sister's son, as the young man's surname was Greenbaum.

Details: While I have a few details for Leon, I have even less on Mindel. But I do have more exact dates for her, unlike him. I am uncertain where she was born, but I do have a likely source of information for her birth and death dates, so I have that, at least. Unfortunately, beyond that, I have little else about her. I know that she came to London with her husband when he emigrated from Galicia, and that she died there, but beyond her having at least five children, I have almost nothing else about her.

I would probably know even less if it weren't for the fact that my great-grandfather, her son Alex, was forced to take her maiden name by the German government when he moved to Frankfurt after the war because they did not recognize Mindel and Leon's marriage because it was a religious ceremony. So since my great-grandfather, the family surname has been Hillinger (the English spelling) instead of Seneft.

There is one last possibility here that as of yet means nothing, but I suspect there may be a strain of Sephardic heritage on this branch of my family, as when I looked up the name Hilinger on a site that gives origins, the largest collection of people with that name spelling were all in northern Spain. It may mean nothing, but my initial Ancestry DNA test came back with some slight Iberian heritage. That has since vanished, but I still believe it could be a possibility, and this name of the four Jewish Surnames I have seems the most likely.

Proof:
1) Like Leon, Mindel has always been part of my family tree that was given to me by my grandfather. Unfortunately, aside from the name-change story, she was still just a name on a chart to me.
2) My second piece of proof on Mindel is in the letter my grandfather wrote to Belgium. She is mentioned even less than her husband, but she is mentioned, reinforcing the information I have from the family tree.
3) She is also mentioned in the Hillinger family book, though far more than her husband, given she is considered his only legal parent by the German government. She is not one of the entries in the book any more than her husband was, but it gives details of her life as reference for Alex.
4) The last piece of proof I have of Mindel's life is a gravestone marker for a Minnie Seneft. While not an exact match, I am fairly confident it is hers, because the writing on the stone says "Loving daughter Jennie," and is in a Hebrew cemetery. I think it likely that this is my Mindel, as it fits the other facts I have of her life.

New Proofs I have found of Mindel:
5) Mindel is listed on the same Census as Leon. She is listed as Millie, but I am fairly certain this is her. She's also listed as blind, which is very interesting, especially since she died around two years later, leading me to believe this may be complications of diabetes.
6) And also like Leon, she is listed on her son Alex's Social Security forms, once as Mena, and once with the name I know for her. Because her name is listed on one as Mindel, which seems a more formal name, this leads me to believe Leib is her husband's Hebrew name, as this is the only time I see him listed this way, with her formal name.
7) Again, like Leon, she is listed on her son Jacks' death record.

Needed:
While I have a vague birth and an exact death date for Mindel, I cannot be certain they are right until I receive more exact BMD information. The information from her grave seems right, but I've no other way to determine those dates, so they are still only tentative until I can find something more on her. I imagine her birth records are either non-existent or in Hebrew, but I keep looking. I also need to know her emigration information, just like Leon. I imagine those records must be somewhere, in England if nowhere else.

Beyond that, I have no clue where to even start looking for Mindel. I don't know if she worked or not. It seems unlikely, but then again, they were immigrants, so you never know. She did have five children, and I imagine most or all were quite young, so a job seems unlikely to me, but I'm not going to assume anything until I have more info.

But that means I still have nowhere to even start, really. I have no clue how long they lived in England, so I'm not even sure where to begin to look. I can look for a death certificate, but that might be in Hebrew, too. And who knows if anything else on her exists at all?


And that is all I have on Mindel. Again, if you've any information on her that is not listed here, please contact me. I'd love to get further on this branch of the family.

Original Post
Other Posts on Mindel Hilinger:

• Brick Walls--A Different Listing
• Advent Calendar: Mindel Hilinger
• Brick Wall Update 2012
• Matrilinial Monday - Mindel Hilinger
• Brick Wall Update 2018

Brick Wall People Redux – Part 1 – Leon Seneft

From the collection of S Smith

Name: Leon Seneft
Birth: between 1849 and 1854, likely in Germany or Galicia
Death: I believe September 1931, Stepney, London, England
Marriage: 1871, probably in Galicia
Location(s): Galicia; London, England
Relation to me: Leon Seneft is my paternal grandfather's paternal grandfather, which makes him 5th generation before me.
Alias(es): His first name I have also seen recorded as Leib, Lewis, and Louis. His surname, I have seen spelled as Senft and Senefft.
Leon seems quite unusual for a Jew, so I lean towards the probability that Leib was his Hebrew name.
Seneft also seems unusual for a Jewish family, though I know that in the mid 18th century, they began to force Jews German sunames, so the name, which is distinctly German (it means "mustard seller") may come from this period, which would have been Leon's father or grandfather's time. Which also means that he may have another, more Jewish surname. I believe they used a Patrnonymic system, but I do not know enough about it or about his family at the time to guess what that other surname may have been.
Parents: unknown

Spouse(s): Mindel (aka Minnie) Hilinger

Children: Isaac, Annie, Alex, Jennie, Jack
Other Family: A nephew also named Lewis Greenbaum, so possibly his or his wife's a sister's son.

Details: Leon Seneft was a Rabbi at some point. I'm not sure if this was when the family was living in London, or before, or both. According to the 1911 UK Census, he and his wife had five children. I believe those children were all born before leaving Galicia and taking their family to settle in London. I have an address that puts him living in London's south-east side, south of the Thames, though I am uncertain how long he lived there. According to most records, it lists them at living in "Mile End Old Town," though I am uncertain how these two correlate, so I need to look and see if that address would have been in that area. He and his family lived in London until the war, when Alex was sent to Camp Douglas, and many of his children left the country, which saw them as enemies at the time because they were German. Leon and Isaac stayed in England after the war, and one of his daughters did return as well after her husband died, but the others left England and never returned.

Proof:
1) Leon has always been part of my family tree that was given to me by my grandfather. Though he never met the man, he knew of him, and had a few pictures of him while growing up.
2) My second piece of proof on Leon came from a letter my grandfather wrote to someone of the name Hillinger in Belgium, who was hoping our lines might be somehow connected. It only briefly mentions him, but reinforces the information I have from the family tree I got from him. In it, he mentions that he never met the man, as Leon died before he was born, which was in 1922, giving me the outside edge of his possible death date, though I no longer believe this to be accurate--see below.
3) The next is the Hillinger family book. With my grandmother's death, I received the Hillinger Family book my grandfather got from Germany to confirm his birth date for the US government, which contained information on all of his family, including both Alex and Dora's parents. Again, he is not one of the entries in the book, but it refers to him tangentially as Alex's father, though the information is minimal as the German government did not recognize his marriage to Mindel because it was a Jewish ceremony.
4) We also have a copy of Alex and Dora's wedding invitation from the Hillinger family book, which does mention Leon, and makes it clear that he was still alive in 1919 when they married in Frankfurt. Because he's listed on the invitation, I assume he was also in attendance at the wedding, though that is only speculation at this time. This also gives my specific proof of his name as Leon.
5) I also have an Ellis Island record for Jennie Seneft, one of his daughters. It lists him as her next of kin back in England, and gives his address at the time.

New Proofs I have found of Leon:
6) I have one Census record listing Leon. In it his name is listed as Lewis, which estimates his birth year as 1849. The family is listed as Lewis, "Millie," Jinny (Jenny), and Lewis Greenbaum, who is listed as his nephew. They are living in Stepney, London, in Mile End Old Town. The Census lists his occupation as a greengrocer hawker.
7) From Grumpy's letter above, I assumed Leon had died sometime between 1919 and 1922, but if I have found the right record, apparently he died in 1931. I found his death listed in the England & Wales Death Index, which lists him as dying in the third quarter of 1931 in Stepney, London, which is definitely the right area. His name is listed here as Louis, and his birthdate as about 1854.
8) Then I have two versions of their son Alex's SS Application in the US, which lists his parents as Lewis and Mena in one version, and Leib and Mindel in another. I assume one is the original application, and the other is his claim on that money.
9) I also have a record of his son Jack's death in New York that lists his parents as Louis and Minnie.

10) My final proof comes from a cousin who is descended from Leon's son Isaac. He gave me lots of information about him. Isaac was a tailor, and owned a clothing shop in London. From him, I get the spelling of Senefft for the family name, as well as conformation of Leon and Mindel's son's name, Isaac, who was previously unnamed for me. He also sent me a new picture of our mutual ancestor that was so reminiscent of my grandfather that I literally teared up when I saw it. So I now have two pictures of Leon. I've added both to this post just so you can see them both, and see what living in London probably did to the man.

Needed:
I have no absolute birthdate for Leon, and would love confirmation of his marriage and death. I imagine if those records exist in strong form, they're likely in Hebrew, if they weren't destroyed during the war. I also don't know when he emigrated to England from Galicia, though I know it was in the late 1800s, after my great-grandfather was born. I do know that his son served in the UK military in 1899, according to a record from his grandson, so I have an upper edge of how long they had been there, but they would have been arrived sometime between 1884 and 1899. I imagine those records must be somewhere, in England if nowhere else. I don't know if he was ever naturalized in England (was that even possible at the time?), but if he was, that may be a good place to look.

Complicating things is the information on his name above. Unfortunately for this time period, especially for immigrant Jews, variations on their names are common, so I will just have to be very careful to check each record, and make sure to use correlating information to verify what I find in the future.

I would love to determine whether Lewis Greenbaum is his biological nephew or his wife's, as this might give more information on another generation back on either side, but so far, this is the only listing I have found of him. He is listed as a tailor on the census form, which means he likely worked with his cousin Isaac, but beyond that, I know nothing about him.

I know he was a Rabbi from family stories, but have absolutely no idea where even to start looking for that kind of record, particularly something that might tell me when and where he was trained, and if he was a Rabbi his whole life, or where he would have practiced. I also don't know what synagogue he might have worked at (is that even the right phrasing?) or if there were more than one.

I do know that his wife died many years before him, as I believe I have found her gravestone, though it lists only her name and her daughter's, so I am not 100% sure. It does lead me to wonder why his name is not on the stone, and where he might be buried as well.

The last piece of information I am currently missing is about Camp Douglas. I know that Alex was sent there, but I am uncertain if he was the only one, if perhaps one or both of his brothers were sent with him, or if Leon or even the whole family were sent as well. I believe there was some sort of arrangement where so long as one member of the family went, the others could stay where they were, but it is possible that meant all the male members of the family had to go. I will need to write to the Red Cross to get this information. Hopefully they will have a bit more than just names for me when I do.


That is all I have on Leon Seneft. Obviously, what I know now has grown, but it is still not nearly enough, and hasn't gotten me any further back on this line. As always, if you have any information on this man not listed here, or if you can answer one of the questions I've listed, please contact me. I'd love to get further on this branch of the family.

Original Post
Other Posts on Leon Seneft:

• Brick Walls -- Another Listing
• Advent Calendar - Leon Seneft
• Hillinger Family History
• Brick Wall Update 2012
• Brick Wall Update 2018
• Visual Family Tree I - The Hillingers and Ancestors

Brick Wall People Redux

So a few years back, I did a series called Brick Wall People. These were all posts on the people who are brick walls in my family tree, and the evidence I have for that person and their name. Well, since then I have had an almost constant subscription to Ancestry, and have done a lot of work. I've also learned some things from more distant family members who had more information than I did. Which means that many of these people have far more information than they used to. To the point where I felt that it was time to redo those posts.

So twice a week, I will be posting a re-examination of them, and after that, I will add a few new people who I also feel I need to look into more. If you have any more information on these people, I hope you will get in touch. I look forward to hearing from you. And thank you all so much for reading.

Happy Birthday, Nana

My grandmother would have been 100 on the 23rd of August this year. She's been gone almost ten years now, and I miss her all the time. She was a great lady, and had a pretty amazing life. In fact, she was one of the first people I wrote about on this blog. I wrote about her mother and how she lost her, and about her war experience, and her husband and children. Her father's family tree is the most extensive line on my family tree. She's just always been a very solid presence in my life.

Margaret Hansen was the eldest of three children born to her parents in Cleveland, Ohio. She grew up there, and seemed to have a wonderful life, with her mother sewing lots of clothes for her, and her father building houses and making a good living at it. Both of her parents were from Denmark, and so she grew up surrounded by friends and family who were also Danish.

Then, in 1929, her mother died, and Nana's life changed. She and her younger brother and sister went to live with her aunt and uncle and a young cousin. Their father built a new home for them, unable to stand the idea of living in the home his wife had died in. He married soon after, and Nana's family went from a small family of five, to a larger family of seven, with two new step sisters. As the one of the two eldest, she was expected to do a lot of chores around the house and take care of the younger children. Between that and the onset of the Great Depression, life became very difficult for her. Her father had a great of difficulty selling his homes, even with the help of his new wife, and fighting was common.

So the moment she got a chance to get away and go to boarding school, she took it. The school was one that trained girls in office skills, and at the end of their schooling, the school and the school trustees would help the girls get a good job. So as soon as Nana ended her schooling, she went directly into a clerk job. She held that job until shortly after the US entered World War II, when she signed up for the army, and became a WAC. When I interviewed Nana about her mother for my paper about her mother, I asked her about how she'd felt about being so important. Being a WAC was something new and unusual. She responded that she hadn't felt special or unique. It was just something she'd felt she had to do. For her, she was so intent on helping the US in the war efforts, she never saw her own role as anything specifically important. But I will always see her as someone very special for that. It wasn't the only special thing she did, but it definitely showed what kind of woman she was, and definitely changed her life.

Later, as a married woman across the country from the rest of her family, she found a new way to make a difference. She got involved with the mothers of several of the children in her kids' schools. First it was just a way to help each other out, but as they grew older, they found ways to help their community as well. They created garage sales, where the proceeds would all go to a charity that helped children of troubled homes. I remember the garage sales growing up, but it wasn't until I was an adult that I realized how much of an organization they had made. They'd bought a storefront in their neighborhood, and used it to sell the goods they collected in between garage sales. Though she has been gone for so long, the shop she helped to create is still there, at least, according to Google Maps. It seems fitting that her good has existed so long. She was a great lady.

It is also because of her that I have such a love for genealogy. After her father's death, her sister became more and more interested in finding out more about their family tree, particularly their mother's side, as they'd lost complete contact with anyone on that side of the tree. They contacted everyone they knew that might have information, then looked into the records they could access to find out more. My great aunt wrote to Denmark in the area that she was listed as coming from, and because of them, we have a much more complete tree than we'd had. I remember my father helping to write up the family trees for all sides of my family in the 80s, and I have also since written up some of Nana and her siblings' search for their mother's family, including visiting with their uncle near the end of his life, who they had not seen since their mother's funeral. I've learned so much more about this line since her death. I do wish I could have shared it all with her.

Nana's father died in 1977, and her husband in 2000, but Nana lived long enough to meet two of her four great-grandchildren. This year, to honor her, the family is gathering as best we can to celebrate her life again, and to remember everything she brought into our lives. She has four children, six grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren. So much has happened with our family since she's been gone. I hope, wherever she is, she is smiling down on us.

Some shots of Nana over the years:

 

Margaret and her parents ca 1920

Margaret and her father and little sister ca 1924

Hansen kids with their aunt Helga and cousin Else

Margaret, her cousin Karen, and her sister Marilyn during or right after the war

Margaret and Sam Hillinger at their reception 1948

Margaret with her two boys ca 1953

Me, Dad, Grandpa Hansen, and Nana, ca 1973

Margaret, Marilyn, and their uncle Hans ca 1988

More about Margaret Hansen Hillinger:
• The Gift of Oline
• In Memory of Margaret Hansen Hillinger, 1919-2010
• New Discoveries
• Good Bye, Nana
• A Bit of Genealogy Fun
• Grandmother AKA
• Advent Calendar: Margaret Hansen
• Matrilinial Monday – Margaret Hansen Hillinger
• Saturday Night Genealogical Fun: My Paternal grandmother's Paternal Line
• Hometown Histories – Cleveland – Margaret Hansen
• Visual Family Tree II – Hansens and Ancestors
• Four Generation Photos

The Truths I Know

My family was very lucky. My grandfather was born in Frankfurt am Main, Germany in 1922. He was his parents' third child of six; two boys, four girls. They were Jewish. For so many people he knew, that story ended badly. Twenty years or even less after his birth, friends and family members died at the hands of people who hated them, or worse, ignored them and their suffering at the hands of the Nazi party, thinking them unimportant and beneath their notice. Worse, some allowed the Nazi lies to lull them into believing nothing was wrong.

But my great-grandfather recognized the signs. He had been through something similar before. His family, who had escaped Eastern Europe for "friendlier" climes moved to London when he was still young. He lived there until the Great War broke out, when anyone in England who was "German," that is to say anyone who was from the Austrio-Hungarian empire, became an enemy. They were not only considered foreigners, regardless of how long they had lived in England, but a dangerous foreigner at that. Of course, being German, and worse, Jewish, meant that his family were not seen as possible candidates for citizenship. So he was sent to a camp, where he was sub-divided from the main group due to his religion. The Jews in the camp were kept separate from the Gentiles who felt they were beneath them, and dangerous to be near. After the war, England ejected him from the country, sending him back to Germany. He made his way to Frankfurt, where he met and married my great-grandmother. At the time, this was no great shock. Many Jews made their way to Frankfurt at the time. It was a good place to be Jewish. Many Jews came there from all over the Empire and built a great, strong (or at least what they believed was strong) community, with schools, businesses, synagogues and neighborhoods centered around their faith. They had such power in the city that they were even able to elect a Jew as the mayor of Frankfurt during this time. Unfortunately for him, his time as mayor ended with the Nazis hounding him from office, and hunting him into hiding, where he ultimately died.

So when violence against Jews began to rise in their city, my great-grandfather recognized the signs. He had no way of knowing how bad it would get, but he wasn't about to be separated from his family once again, and the anger against Jews in England was nothing to the anger he saw growing in Nazi Germany. Because of him, my family escaped. First to Paris for a year, and then to America, where the family has lived ever since, except for his youngest, who moved to Israel in her elder years. Aside from the war, we have been safe and protected because of the choice he made. I thank him for it constantly, ever since I finally understood the choice he made for his family, and in a larger sense, for all of us.

I am my family historian. I have been gathering the stories, the threads, the people, since my other grandfather's death in 1991. 28 years of looking for information on my family. 28 years of looking through lists of the dead, both hoping and dreading to find a link to my grandfather's side of my family tree, knowing that in that list were likely relations of mine; people whose names I did not know and could never meet because of other people's hatred, greed, and violence. It is only in the last ten years that I have really begun to understand more about this branch of my family. My grandfather never talked about it. For obvious reasons. Yes, they had escaped, but it had not been a pleasant time they'd lived through before that. It was not something he liked to speak of. He rarely even spoke German around the family. I think he didn't like sharing any of that with us, and probably did all he could to repress the memories. His language skills did stand him in good stead, especially after the war, when knowing French and German was in high demand for the Allies as they tried to deal with the consequences of what had happened. He worked as a translator in Europe well after the surrender, and because of it, met my grandmother, who was also there, helping with the cleanup after the war. But after they returned to America, it was a skill he rarely used.

Because of all that, and because he and my grandmother moved away from their families, we grew up with very little knowledge of our family history on his side of the family. We knew we were of German Jewish descent, and where they had lived, but little beyond that. Added to this was the fact that the experience had detached him from the beliefs he had grown up in. His sisters remained in the faith, but he had seen too much to believe religion held much value. At least, for him. So my father and his siblings grew up without religion in their family traditions. As did I. It was not even a part of my consciousness until I was an adult. I now know, thanks to a DNA kit, that I got larger than my natural share of Jewish ancestry. As I have only one Jewish grandparent, by all rights, I should have 25% or less Jewish DNA. Instead, I have discovered that a minimum of 30% of my genetic makeup is Jewish. But it is something I have never practiced or allowed to influence me in any major way. I am Jewish in heritage, but my grandfather's people would not consider me one of them, as my mother is not Jewish, nor was I raised in the religion. Aside from a passing acquaintance with some of the traditions of the faith thanks to my nanny's family when I was young, I know very little about the Jewish faith. This has left me struggling for many years now, trying to decide what my ancestry means, how I can honor it, and what I should take from it for myself.

I have struggled with my family history, from those early searches and even now after learning so much more. Finally, I know the names of both of my great-grandparents' siblings. I know that my great-grandfather's family either stayed in England (how, I still have yet to determine), or left for America rather than going back to Germany. I know that my great-grandmother's eldest brother and two of her three sisters and one of her younger brothers survived. The other brother was lost shortly after the first World War. Her sister is the only one on both sides of the family who was lost because of the Nazis. All of my family on that side made it out aside from her. It's so much less than I expected to hear, knowing they were right in the middle of Poland; right in the middle of the target area. I wish it were none. I wish she'd survived. We don't know what happened to her, only that she failed to escape with her husband and their children. And that there is no record of her after that. I have guesses, but I doubt we will ever know for certain what they did to her. It is a horrible thing, not to know, but in some ways it is a blessing. As much of a blessing as knowing she was the only one lost.

This year, I have made a challenge for myself. To look into the books and movies made about my grandfather's people. I know it will hurt. I've read and seen enough to know. I grew up with Fiddler on the Roof. And even as I worked on my genealogy, I was certain that that was not my family's story. My grandfather was born in Frankfurt, after all. They were from a city. I was wrong. The two towns his parents were born in were exactly like Annatevka. Poor, and surrounded by Gentiles easily riled against them. So much so that I have learned of a pogram against one of those towns, where my great-grandmother's family was still living at the time. And I have a reasonable amount of certainty that her father was wounded or died in that attack. And I grew up knowing Anne Frank's story, too. Of the girl who was just like me. Who wanted nothing but to be free. Who was killed by the Nazis for the crime of being born into the wrong family. I watched a few movies last year towards the end of the year, and realize how many more there are to watch. And I wondered why I was doing this, because each hurts in a whole new and unique way.

Then I started reading Night this morning, and I learned. This isn't about being comfortable. This can't be about being comfortable. This is about knowing. About understanding. About standing witness. Because those who survived are dying. There are few left now who experienced it. And they need to be remembered. Their stories need to be remembered. I thank Elie Wiesel for that. I had always admired him, and the way he spoke out and reminded people of what the Nazis had done. Then 2016 happened. There were so many blows that year. And among them was Elie's death. And then that man came to power, and Elie wasn't here to speak about it. And since that man has been in office, since he has started running even for election, I have worried. I worry more every single day. The phrase "It can't happen here" no longer holds meaning. We have to remember. We have to stand up and we have to stop this. Now. Before it becomes like then. If it hasn't already.

So for my part, I plan to read, and watch, and understand, though the words and the knowledge cut me to the quick. So that when the time comes that I am faced with someone who doesn't understand, or doesn't believe, I will have words to give them. Because I can't let my great-grandfather's choice be in vain.

Mika Karin (Hillinger) Bartroff, 1/24/2019