Four areas of West Germany --- one in Bavaria, the other three reasonably close to each other in the lower Rhineland-Eifel-Mosel area --- are the starting points for the detailed story of our related families, including the Hirschs, Herzs (of Polch), Herzs (of Schweinheim and Flamersheim), Friesems, Fabers, Wolffs, Levys, Anschels, Haimanns and Benders.

Augsburg, Bavaria

Loeb Hirsch of Augsburg, Bavaria was the father of Michael (Levy) Hirsch, who was born in that city around 1763 and who died in Polch on July 7, 1848 at the age of 86.

Augsburg, according to tradition, had one of the earliest Jewish communities in Germany, dating back to the time of Jesus in Roman times. The first written reference to Jews in Augsburg dates back to 1212 and there are records of a viable community, including a synagogue, cemetery, ritual bath, and a wedding and dance hall by 1290.

Mainly restricted to money lending and meat and wine trading, the Jews lived amicably with the other Augsburg residents and, therefore, were not persecuted. However, only a few of the city's Jews managed to escape from the massacres of the Black Death panic which hit the city in 1348.

From that time until 1806 the history of the Augsburg Jews is one of repeated persecutions, expulsions and readmissions to the city. They were forced to wear the "Jew badge" from 1434 to 1436. After 1540 Jews could stay in the city no longer than a day and a night and they had to pay one "sechser" to the officer who accompanied them. Beginning in 1751 they could purchase for 1,100 gulden each year the privilege of free admission to the city in order to trade.

Only during times of war could they remain in Augsburg for protection. So it was towards the end of the Seven Years War (1756-1763) that Michael (Levy) Hirsch was born in Augsburg. However, after the war Loeb Hirsch and his family probably had to wander about the surrounding countryside once more.

I do not know anything about any other members of Loeb Hirsch's family at this time, but Michael (Levy) Hirsch settled in Polch, near Koblenz and Mayen, around 1790 and, according to family tradition, was the first Jew in the town. He was nicknamed "Loeb's Michael" or "Loeb's Levy." He married Adelheid Salomon (also known as Adel Schlaum) from Lehman on the Mosel (c. 1764-1838). They lived in the Stammhaus on Kloppel Strasse.

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Polch

The village of Polch dates back to Roman times and the many findings of archeological treasures on the Trier-Koblenz Roman road confirm this. The town's name comes from the Celts. It first appears in 1052 when Trier's Archbishop, Eberhard, and Count Walram from Arlons mentioned Polch in a property exchange designed to improve the condition of the Maifelder Cloisters. The Trier city government donated new property in Policha in Bago Meneueldensi to the nearby village of Münstermaifeld in the same year.Polch is also mentioned in documents as Policho, Pulch, Polche, Polesha, Polichas and Bulicha.

There were disputes between the church and the nobility over tribute to be paid, visiting rights and taxes. At this time the seat of power appeared to be in Münstermaifeld and then by the lord of Kobern and later by the Counts of Virneburger.

Like many other settlements at that time, Polch was fortified with a wall surrounded by moats filled with water. The present Lasporte Strasse is a remnant of the western exit. Besides the church's possessions, many prominent people owned property in Polch, including the Knights from Eltz, Pyrmont, Bassenheim, Schoneck, Girsenach, der Layen, Naunheim and Mertloch. Two members of a Polch family --- Johannes and Theodorich --- were knighted in 1263. The Burg Strasse begins at the site of their castle.

The main building in Polch is the Pfarrkirche (Church) with its twin spires and clock, located on the Marketplace opposite the twice-enlarged City Hall.

Prior to about 1790, the small number of Jews in the area had lived under the protection of the nobility, particularly the Duke of Eltz, who lived in a castle on Burg Eltz by the Elzbach River. Graf [Count] Hugo Philipp zu Eltz was treated as an emigrant during the French occupation of the area from 1794 to 1815. His property was confiscated by the French commander of Koblenz and he was called "citizen count Eltz." However the Graf was able to hide in Mainz and regained his estate in 1797 and became sole owner of the castle in 1815. Meanwhile, the newly emancipated Jews lived at first in the villages and hamlets around Burg Eltz --- in Wierschem and Münstermaifeld (and, possibly, in Keldung and Lasserg) and then in Mertloch. Finally, with the arrival of Michael (Levy) Hirsch, they lived in Polch as well. Jews could only settle in a village where they would be admitted by the Mayor and the townspeople.

Before we continue with the family story, let us take a look at each of the villages surrounding Polch in which our ancestors lived.

Wierschem

The earliest known information about the town of Wierschem dates from about the year 1100 and has been gathered from ancient living quarters and remnants of Roman fortifications excavated in 1966.

During the Middle Ages Wierschem belonged to the Eltzer reigning lords, who always mentioned the town. The town priest also represented the residents. In 1372 the knight, Johann von Eltz, bequeathed an eternal light in memory of a relative who was slain in anger by another relative. The knight proposed that Wierschem should obtain a Papal letter of reprieve for the killing.

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In 1680 twelve families lived there. By 1858 the population rose to 350, and of these 17 were Jewish, one was Evangelical, and the remainder were Roman Catholics.

Bordering on Wierschem is the Eltzer property with the beautifully located romantic castle of the old noblemen --- a powerful fortress, bustling with towers and pinnacles above the trees. During the Middle Ages many prominent people, including priests, lords of the castle, deacons, archdeacons, lords of the tower, abbots, bishops, archbishops, knights, marshalls and probst managers came from their ranks. It is today a popular tourist site.

For many years Jews lived in Wierschem and areas near the castle, paying tribute to the nobility in return for their protection and safety.  The ancient Jewish cemetery was located on the castle property and several gravestones which survived the Holocaust are located on the mountain slopes of Burg Eltz. The Marx family lived in Wierschem and the gravestones of at least two of them --- Simon Marx [Pinchas ben Kolonymus] (born in Wierschem in 1820 and died in Münstermaifeld in 1914) and his wife, Ottilde Marx, born Benedickt [Odel bat Meir]  (born in Kirchberg around 1826  and died in Münstermaifeld in 1894)

--- are inscribed in Hebrew in the Mertloch cemetery.

Münstermaifeld

The old town of Münstermaifeld is located on a high plateau in the upper Maifeld.

Relics from the Stone Age and the Celtic culture have been found, indicating previous civilizations lived there. The Romans had a community there because skeletons and many other relics were excavated in Münstermaifeld in 1966 and 1967. The tower of the Münster Church was originally part of the town's fortifications.

The Celts named their settlement Ambitivum, or those who lived around the mountain slopes. The Catholic clergy who lived in the monastery gave the town its present name. A few buildings containing the offices and living quarters of the clergy and a big hall with a wine cellar still stand from the old cloister. One structure was destroyed by fire in 1914.

Münstermaifeld still has the beautiful Münster Church, which was built in 1225 and was consecrated by Archbishop Balduin in 1322.

The records of the high court in the Middle Ages, which had the power over life and death, tell of the severe and cruel penalties for lawbreakers. Included are the sad disposition of 24 cases of witchcraft involving eight men and 18 women who, after a lengthy trial, were executed. Eight came from Münstermaifeld, and the rest from Hatzenport, Löf, Lehmen, Mayen, Metternich, Wierschem, Kuttig, Kalt and Neuhof.

The town saw destruction several times during the past few centuries. Very little is left from the riches of the monastery, which was dissolved by the troops of the French Revolution, who then auctioned off its contents.

Many prominent people, including artists, doctors, lawyers and scientists, were born in Münstermaifeld.

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Cover of a book written by Max Herschel from Münstermaifeld.

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Among the Jews who lived in Münstermaifeld was Salomon Herz, a dealer, who was born there in 1750, later married Sara Binnes of Cochem, and lived with his family in Polch until his death on August 4, 1836. Other Jewish families living in the town were the Bender, Dewald, Oster, Kaufman and Marx households. Many of their gravestones are in the Mertloch cemetery.

Julie Oster (1822-1850), the daughter of Isaac Oster and Juliane Leib (or Loeb) Oster of Münstermaifeld married the bookbinder, Moses Herschel of Bonn. Their son, Julius Franz Herschel (born in Münstermaifeld in 1844), was a great merchant in Bonn, where he died in 1920. Julius Franz Herschel's son was Max Herschel, president of the Bonn synagogue and a political writer. The cover of a book he wrote appears on page 24.

There is a story about the Dewald children in the 1991 Heimatsbuch des Kreises Mayen-Koblenz (Page 140), It tells that little Joseph Dewald from the Münstermaifeld was one of two brothers --- the other one was Fritz Dewald --- who were called the "Wasserturmsjuden" (water tower Jews]. Both were bachelors and cattle dealers. They would have loved to have another brother. One day, shortly before 1900, they went to a midwife for a little brother and they asked her if they could have another child. She replied, "I'm sorry. At the moment we have only Christian children." "Oh," Joseph replied, "that doesn't make any difference. Bring us one of them and we'll make a Jew out of him!"

The Münstermaifeld synagogue on hilly Severus Strasse was destroyed by the Nazis on Kristallnacht in November, 1938. Today, only the stone walls and twisted metal frames still stand --- a stark reminder of Hitler's brutality.

The late Felix Kaufmann, son of Alexander Kaufmann and Selma Treidel Kaufmann, emigrated to Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1939, where he was the co-founder of a community, "Nueva comunidad Israelita." In 1990 he became the organization's First Vice President. It's a small community of "more or less 600 families" founded in 1940 by German Jewish refugees.

"A month ago," Felix wrote to me on September 13, 1994, "we had a meeting of the group which emigrated to Argentina 55 years ago, as a part of a program of the youngsters' association "Bund." This was quite an outstanding event within the black history of Nazism, by which the life of 60 young Jews (I was among them) was saved, by coming to Argentina."

Mertloch

Mertloch, where the Jewish cemetery is located, had town walls erected in the 12th century. The discovery of remnants of stone tools in 1936 as well as Franco Roman burial grounds and a fifth century Frank settlement indicate how old the village is.

Records from the year 934 show the town referred to as Martiliacum, Mertilacha  and  Mertelec.  After  many  years  of  fighting, it  became  free  from Münstermaifeld in 1318. Many Mertloch citizens are named in the land records of the Middle Ages.

After the Black Death pestilence and war, Mertloch had but 19 families in 1638, living near its one muddy street. Today, about 1,000 people live there.

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Several Jewish families lived in Mertloch before the Holocaust. They were the Faber, Minkel, Wolff (Wolf) and Platz families. The Faber name was given to the family by their employer, a Gentile farmer named Faber in the nearby village of Einig. The farmer gave the Jew Faber an extra 1,000 hafers for taking on the name, according to family~tradition. The Minkel name comes from the Minkelfeld near Polch, Mrs. lnge Kahn, daughter of the late Ludwig and Sophie (born Faber in Mertloch) Hein, today lives at Maifeld Strasse 2 in Polch with her husband, the veterinarian, Dr. Heinz Kahn. Mr. and Mrs. Hein, now both deceased, and Dr. and Mrs. Kahn miraculously survived the horrors of the concentration camp.

The Mertloch synagogue was sold in 1928-1930 to a Mr. Pauly and today it is an apartment house. The Jewish population had declined so much at that time that the community could no longer maintain it. Following the sale of the synagogue, Mertloch's Jews prayed in the Polch synagogue, two kilometers away.

Gappenach

There are a lot of stories about the history of Gappenach, a little village located in a valley between Polch and Münstermaifeld. The Celtic name, Gappiniacum, comes from the name of the Roman, Gappius. It was also called Gappinus and Roman villas and Frankish graves have been unearthed in a number of places.

In 1257 a large herd of sheep was left by its owner to his heirs. In the early 1300s a noble family, which had a crest of three silver lillies, lived in Gappenach.

Variations of the name --- Gapinacha, Gabnach, Gappnach and Gabbenach --- are found in documents.

During the Middle Ages Gappenach was recognized as a free village which was declared independent from any court because the emperor was named high judge. A well-known bell foundry was located here at that time, where metal utensils were also manufactured. Emperor Ludwig, the Bavarian, gave control of the village to Count Heinrich von Virneburg in 1338. In 1589 it came under the rule of the high court in nearby Münstermaifeld.

There were 49 houses in Gappenach in 1830 with 260 inhabitants among them were the family of Isaak (c.1801-1863) and Rosa Wolff Levy (c. 1803-1875). Their narrow, three story house with orange brick facing around front doors and edges of the cement-finished structure, today bearing the number 6, still stands. In 1980, 221 people lived in the village.

Ochtendung

In Ochtendung, where a Jewish family Wolff lived, records date back to 963. It is known that Julius Caesar destroyed the Usipeter and Tenkterer tribes who lived there before he crossed the Rhine River near Urmitz.

The Frankish king, Theodorich (511-553), supposedly lived there at Castellum Octinya.

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Mrs. Renate Severin, who lives in Ochtendung today and with whom I met in 1987, wrote an article,"Verwehte Spuren - Die Geschichte der Ochtendunger Juden," in the 1993 Heimatsbuch des Kreises Mayen-Koblenz. In her article, she states that there were two social groups of Jews in the Maifeld. The western group had their ancient graves in the forest of the Counts of Eltz ("Eltzer Wald") near their castle, Burg Eltz. Until 1879 the eastern group buried their dead in the forests of the Counts of Bassenheim ("gräflich Bassenheimer Wald"). After that year the allotted land became overcrowded so that new Jewish cemeteries were established in Bassenheim and Ochtendung.

After World War II, Herbert Hermann Süssmann, Jakob and Ida (Froehling) Süssmann's son, returned from the concentration camp as Ochtendung's sole Jewish survivor. He moved away in 1957.

Pillig

Family Haas lived in Pillig, near Naunheim and Mertloch. Queen Richeza from Poland bequeathed the cloister Brauweiler on July 18, 1051, on an estate in Puleco, which today is called Pillig.

Nearby is Castle Pyrmont, which came into the possession of the Eltz family following the death, in 1526, of the last Pyrmont knight. Later, Waldbott von Bassenheim took it over and the French destroyed the castle in 1800. It served as a quarry until two architects from Düsseldorf restored the castle around 1960.

During World War I, Albert (Avraham) Haas of Pillig was killed in action while fighting against Russia. [The Haas family of Pillig is not related to the Haas family that lived in Polch.]

Naunheim

Naunheim, near Mertloch, was named for the first time in 1210 as Villa Neuenheim. My great great grandmother, Johanna "Selma" Hirsch (born Wolff), was born there in 1806 and died in Polch on February 4, 1852, although her parents --- Josef Wolff (c. 1770-1837) and Maria Anna Samuel (c. 1780-1837)   --- lived in Gappenach. In 1880 Viktor and Riffke (Rebekka) --- a brother and a sister --- lived in Naunheim.

The next-to-the-last house in Naunheim on the road to Mertloch [Maifelderstrasse] was the residence of Alfred Gärtner's father, Meyer. Flowers and plants were in front of the house in 1987. Once, when the Bishop from Trier visited the little town, the Gärtners put up a sign in front of their home which read, "Bin ich auch nur ein Israelite, ehr ich doch den Bischof mit." ("Even though I am a Jew, I also honor the Bishop [on his visit to Naunheim]." It will be noted later in this chapter that Hermann (Chaim) Friesem did the same thing when the Bishop visited the town of Burgbrohl. Today, 609 people live in Naunheim.

Burg Eltz and Mertloch Jewish Cemeteries

Religious services were held in a Jewish home in most villages and the Jews buried their dead in a cemetery on the slopes of Burg Eltz, outside of Wierschem. No one of the current elder generation of Jews --- and my mother is the oldest living Jew from the area --- had ever been to that cemetery, which was said to be a rather large  and ancient one.  Dr. Heinz Kahn  of Polch  and I

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searched the muddy slopes of the mountain for this cemetery on the rainy morning of Tuesday, October 27, 1981 until we finally found, in a clearing, a single gravestone, inscribed entirely in Hebrew, which neither of us could decipher.

Back home in New York, I asked four rabbis and several other religious Jewish neighbors to study photographs I had taken of the single gravestone. Prior to taking the photographs, Dr. Kahn and I had spent quite a bit of time cleaning off the gravestone so that ~: the Hebrew letters would be as clear as possible. Nevertheless, because there were no spaces between the words and because some of the letters have been worn out with age (the stone must date from before 1860), no one could translate all of the 15 lines. There was general agreement that this was a stone for a prominent Jewish woman from Polch named Sara bat Yehudah, who died on the day before Passover 5624 [1844]. However, in checking through the names of the few Jewish women from the three Jewish families which lived in Polch between 1790 and 1860 (the Hirsch, Herz and Anschel families), there is no way at that time to identify whose gravestone this is.

On a subsequent visit to Burg Eltz and its museum in 1987, Dr. Kahn, my daughters, Gail and Helene, and I, located several more gravestones there and I took many photographs of the tombstones. Back home in New York, several rabbis and my cousin, Josef Friesem, who lives in Israel, translated most of the epitaphs. The late Klaus H.S. Schulte also visited the ancient cemetery with Dr. Kahn. Lists of the Burg Eltz and other gravestones appear in the cemeteries section of this book.

A newer Jewish cemetery, opened around 1860 in Mertloch, replaced the older one in Burg Eltz. During the Holocaust it was vandalized. Many of the gravestones were overturned and damaged. Many nameplates were removed or destroyed by the Nazis. Today it contains 118 gravestones, 76 of which had legible epitaphs in 1981. The cemetery is nicely maintained by a local caretaker from Mertloch, who relocated some of the gravestones "to make it look neater" in 1971 (and this greatly angered Sophie Hein when she visited the cemetery with me in that year and discovered the rearrangement).

More About the Jews of the Maifeld (Polch, Mertloch, Münstermaifeld...)

Let us return now to Polch, where Michael (Levy) Hirsch settled with his wife, Adelheid, and became a dealer (handelsman). They had three children --- the cattle dealer Jakob (Jehudah) Hirsch ("Loeb's Jakob') (c. 1800-1882), the shoemaker Abraham "Baer" (Tzvi) Hirsch ("Loeb's Baer"), born May 20, 1808, died January 1, 1883, and Lisette Hirsch, who died at 7 p.m. on May 6, 1810 at the age of 17. [Abraham Hirsch's birth certificate is on page 12 and Lisette Hirsch's death certificate is on page 13.] Jakob Hirsch married twice. His first wife, to whom he was wed on November 2, 1830 --- and the mother of their five children ---was Johanna "Selma" Hirsch, born Wolff (c. 1806-1852). Thus the Hirsch family of Polch and the Wolff family of Mertloch are linked.

Strangely, and particularly because they are so closely related to my mother's family, the details of two of Jakob Hirsch's five children are incomplete. The oldest child was Salomon Hirsch, my great grandfather (November 26,1831-June 28, 1893).  Regina Hirsch, the second child,  was born

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on August 18, 1834 and she died 22 months later, on July 1, 1836. Isaac Hirsch, their second son, was born in Polch on May 16, 1836 and he died as a bachelor in New York on March 1, 1890. Josef Hirsch was born on August 3, 1839. He lived in Richmond, Virginia, where he worked for his older brother, Isaac, and he returned to Polch, where he died of a liver ailment on October 17, 1877. Eva Hirsch, the youngest child, was born in Polch on November 23, 1842.  Nothing more is known about her. I suspect she may have migrated to the United States and probably was the mother of the children in the photograph mentioned below.

Isaac Hirsch, the second of Jakob and Johanna's three sons, came to the United States in the 1860s, probably to New York City, where an extensive check of census records and city directories indicates five Isaac Hirschs, including one who was in the fancy goods business at 427-1/2 Eighth Avenue from about 1864 until 1866.

We know for sure that Isaac Hirsch went to Richmond, Virginia. There, on January 2, 1866, he was granted a deed of trust by Henry Klaber and Louis Zeimer, who were "merchants and partners" in Henry Klaber and Company, a firm consisting of two stores dealing in fancy dry goods. According to the deed, on file in the Richmond Chancery Court's record room in the Court House basement at 800 East Marshall Street, the firm could not pay its debts ten months after the Confederates fled the city at the end of the Civil War. So, Isaac Hirsch agreed to pay $5 for the deed to sell the stock of the two stores, listed on 34 handwritten pages, amounting to $14,735.02 at 106 Main Street and $21,173.22 at 227 Broad Street, and debts of $1,920.87 owed to the business by 36 firms and individuals. The total value of the inventory and accounts receivable, therefore, was $37,829.11, As part of the agreement, Isaac Hirsch was to pay off Henry Klaber and Company's debts of $25,600.69, owed to 29 individuals and businesses. Isaac Hirsch further agreed that if he should sell the merchandise for a sum greater than its retail value, that additional money would be given to Mr. Klaber and Mr. Zeimer. So, for a payment of $5, he was able to earn up to $12,228.42 a large sum of money in those days! Among the stores' items listed in the inventory were cloaks, cotton tape, shirts, scarfs, soap, gloves, sewing silk, butterflies, "crape," pin cushions, hoods, "shaws," rack pins (various sizes) and black velvet. The items were "...at this time, for the most part, unseasonable and unsalable, and if imposed to sale now by public auction, would not bring more than twenty-five per cent upon their cost..."

Isaac Hirsch operated his own trimmings, millinery and fancy goods business in Richmond at 831 East Broad Street (corner of 9th Street) in 1869, at 1208 East Main Street from 1874 until 1878, and at 6 Governor Street in 1879. His younger brother, Joseph, is listed in old city directories as a clerk in the business from 1875 to 1878.  [City directories were always a year behind the date they were printed.] He returned to Polch, where he died on October 17, 1877, and he is buried in the cemetery in Mertloch.

In 1870 Isaac Hirsch wrote a letter of congratulations to his brother, my great grandfather, Salomon Hirsch, on the birth of his son, Gustav Hirsch, in the Stammhaus on Kloppel Strasse in Polch on March 9, 1870. Isaac asked his brother to come to the United States where he could become wealthy, rather than remain in Polch and deal in cattle. That letter and all other items dealing

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with Isaac Hirsch --including a picture of the family (there were three children --and one or two of them were boys --- sitting on a stoop, wearing high button shoes) which used to hang in Adelheid and Klara Hirsch's house on Oster Gasse --- were burned when the Hirschs fled Polch for the United States in the late 1930s. On the basis of what is known about Jakob and Johanna Hirsch's five children, the three children in that photograph had to be Eva's children. However, her married name is not known --- she did not marry in Polch --- nor does the Polch Standesamt have any other records for her. So, the identity of these three "cousins in America" probably will remain a mystery forever.

Mr. Meyer Greentree III, archivist of the Beth Ahabah Congregation in Richmond, has records which show that Isaac Hirsch was a dues paying member of the reform synagogue from October 1, 1876 until September 1, 1879.

After 1879 no record of Isaac Hirsch was located by me anywhere in the United States in a five-year search in various archives. He apparently left Richmond, for he is not buried in its Hebrew Cemetery, nor does his business appear in later city directories. Although he lived in Richmond in 1870, neither Isaac Hirsch nor any members of his family were listed in that year's census, and I checked the actual census for that city in its entirety several times.

On July 11, 1985 --- a week after my wife and I were forced to cancel our European trip because my 88-year-old mother had fallen and suffered a fractured leg --- I decided to search for Isaac Hirsch's grave in various old Jewish cemeteries here in New York City. I decided to visit Salem Fields Cemetery in the Cypress Hills section of Brooklyn when the office personnel there told me that four Isaac Hirschs were buried there. I could not find the first one's tombstone. When I went to the second plot I found a large horizontal gravestone covering the grave. On it was written:  "In Memory of  Isaac Hirsch, born in Polch, Prussia. Died on March 1, 1890. After a five year search I had found him!

The cemetery office informed me the only information they had on file was that he died at the Montefiore Home for the Chronic Invalids on Grand Boulevard [now called Amsterdam Avenue] and 138th Street in Manhattan, which is now Montefiore Hospital in the Bronx, New York. I found Isaac Hirsch's death certificate in the New York City Hall of Records on Chambers Street in Manhattan. His death certificate indicates he died of tuberculosis of the lungs and tuberculosis and peritonitis of the abdominal cavity at 11:30 pm on March 1, 1890. His physician was Dr. Max Rosenthal, who had treated him since January 5, 1890, last saw him alive earlier on the date of death. Isaac Hirsch is listed as being a salesman, single and his age, 40, is incorrect --- it was actually 53 --- perhaps because no next-of-kin is indicated and Dr. Rosenthal estimated it. Isaac Hirsch's resdience, prior to having been admitted at Montefiore, is listed as 240 East 62nd Street (between Second and Third Avenues) in Manhattan. The death certificate indicates he had lived in the United States for 35 years [since approximately 1855] and in New York City for ten years [since about 1880]. Isaac Hirsch was buried at Salem Fields Cemetery on March 4, 1890 and K. Reis, 525-27 East 11th Street in Manhattan was the funeral director.

The April 1, 1890 New York City Police Census --- the only one available since the 1890 U.S. Census was destroyed in a fire --- indicates six people lived at 240 East 62nd Street:  Frederick, Caroline, Augusta, William and Elfrida Nahr, and Magie Mahoney. No one named Eva is listed.     

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There are three links between the Hirsch family of Polch and the Friesem family of Burgbrohl. Salomon Hirsch, my great grandfather, was married to Johanna (Händel) Friesem (1836-1908). My grandfather, Hermann Hirsch ("Loeb's Hermann")(1864-1929) was married to Henriette Friesem (1866-1905) and they and their eight children lived in a two-story  house at Pastoren Strasse 180 [now Pastoren Strasse 7 and occupied in 1981 by Heinz-Peter and Ursula (born Weckbecker) Gerhard]. Johanna Hirsch was Henriette Hirsch's mother-in-law as well as her cousin. My mother's yougest sister, born Selma Hirsch in Polch on October 4, 1901, was the wife of Walter Friesem (1900-1970), who was also her distant cousin. Gustav and Paula Simon Hirsch, Hermann's brother and sister-in-law, lived in the Hirsch Stammhaus  on Kloppel Strasse with their five children until they fled to New York in 1938.

Many stories about my grandfather, Hermann Hirsch, are still told on the streets and in the taverns of Polch. I heard "Loeb's Hermann said this.~.." or "Loeb's Hermann did that...." several times during my visits to Polch. Other residents told me about my cattle dealer grandfather's business dealings.

My mother's older brother, Dr. Moritz Hirsch, PhD., wrote his thesis, Das Dreistadiengesetz Auguste Comtes und die Religion (Auguste Comte's Law of the Three Stages and the Religion), at the University of Köln in 1922 (volume 24, February 1922, 117 pages, 4°, typewritten). In 1914, Moritz Hirsch was a teacher in Munstereifel. In the 1930s he fled Polch and settled in Rio de Janeiro, where he died in 1962. Unfortunately, he did not keep in contact with his sisters and brothers from 1937 until his death, and all efforts to reestablish communication with him --- including one of my attempts --- proved futile.

My mother, born Sibilla Hirsch in Polch on April 17, 1897, migrated to New York in 1928 (two years after her brother, Max, and one year before her cousin, Claire --- daughter of Gustav and Paula Hirsch --- with whom my mother lived in New York), where in she met my father, Joseph Hoenig (born October 17, 1900), a tailor from Falkenau, Bohemia, at a Simchas Torah party in 1935 at the German Jewish club in the Yorkville section of Manhattan. They  were introduced by Otto Lederer (who had been Bar Mitzvahed in Falkenau),  and his wife, Helen Wolf Lederer from Mertloch. My parents were married  on March 31, 1936.  My mother died in New York on December 26, 1987 and my father passed away in New York on January 22, 1991, both at the age of 90. I was born on May 19, 1937 in the Bronx, New York City, and I have earned a bachelors degree in history and a masters degree in history and education, both from Queens College. I was a social studies teacher at Parsons Junior High School 168 Queens from September, 1958 until July, 1991, when I retired, and I worked as a reporter in the summers for the now-defunct Long Island Press of the Newhouse chain. I met my wife, Doris Lovett (born October 5, 1942),at my school, where I she taught French. She later taught French at William Cullen Bryant High School in Queens and English as a Second Language at Eastern District High School in Brooklyn and Seward Park High School in Manhattan, from where she retired in 1999. We have two daughters, Gail Sharon (born May 27, 1972), an attorney who married Richard Cutler on March 23, 2002,  and Helene Michelle Hoenig (born March 20, 1975), a social worker in California. Our grandson, Max Joseph Cutler, was born in New York on January 8, 2004.

The other branch of the Hirsch family in Polch, the descendants of the shoemaker, Abraham "Baer" Hirsch of Langegasse 222, did not all remain in the town. His son, Leopold (Jehudah) Hirsch (1854-1926), married Rosetta Anschel (1848-1923) on February 8, 1882, thus linking these two Polch families. A copy  of  their marriage  certificate, both in German and in  Hebrew,

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Page from 1922 Doctoral Thesis Written by my uncle, Dr. Moritz Hirsch of Polch.

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Birth Certificate of My Mother, Sibilla Hirsch.

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Prior to the mid-19th century, most German Jews signed their names in Hebrew as they could not write in German. This letter, dated December 28, 1828, contains the Hebrew signature, Yaakov ben Simon, Jacob Kaufmann of Schiefbahn (1782-1857). See page 1253 for his place in the family tree.

Courtesy:  Klaus H.S. Schulte

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Leopold (Jehudah) Hirsch (1854-1926) - Rosetta Anschel (1848-1923) Marriage Certificate page 1 from February 8, 1882 

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Leopold (Jehudah) Hirsch (1854-1926) - Rosetta Anschel (1848-1923) Marriage Certificate page 2 from February 8, 1882

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appears on pages 35 and 36, courtesy of the late Harry L. Simon. Leopold and Rosetta Hirsch lived on Viedel Strasse, opposite Krantz's bakery, with their four children. Meier Hirsch, a son of Abraham "Baer" Hirsch and a half-brother of the aforementioned Leopold Hirsch, was born in Polch in 1838. He married Emilee "Amalie" Berghoff (born December 4, 1833) and they lived in Kempen with their three children. Two of Meier Hirsch's grandchildren fled to New Zealand before the Holocaust, two others escaped to England, and two others perished. One of those who perished, Dr. Walter Hirsch (born September 6, 1906), had a doctorate (PhD.) in mathematics from the University of Freiburg. Ernst Hirsch [he later spelled his name Hirsh], the son of Meier Hirsch who fled to New Zealand, settled in Dunedin, where he became the lay leader and teacher to the Jewish community for 40 years until his death of a heart attack on February 17, 1978, a month shy of his 74th birthday.

Ernst Hirsh gave religious instruction to children and adults and visited the sick and elderly in the southernmost Jewish community in the world. He was secretary of the United Nations Association. His widow, Margot, and their sons, Fred and Walter, and their families, friends and relatives planted 495 trees in Israel in his memory. A plaque in the Dunedin synagogue reads: "Ernst Hirsh, who as lay minister from from 1939 until his death in February, 1978, led the community and gave tireless service to Judaism and Israel."

A friend, Mrs. Tybe Isaacs of Dunedin, eulogized Ernst Hirsh as "keeping together a community that was apathetic about keeping itself together ... He was an angel who did not fear to tread, who knew when his presence was required and who gave of himself with humility and compassion ... If everyone in the world had one friend like him, what a wonderful world we would have."     

Paul Hirsch (born August 2, 1909), Ernst's brother, retired as a partner in Bilham Farms, Ltd. in Mersham, Kent, England (near Ashford). He now lives in Seattle, Washington, USA, with his second wife, Lore. His late brother, Leo Hirsch (1905-1974), also was a partner in the farm. The 400-acre farm provides poultry for the kosher trade and has many acres of wheat, barley and other crops.

In 1992, Paul Hirsch completed a 111-page (plus photographs)  autobiography, My Life and My Family (©1992 by Paul Hirsch), which presents detailed descriptions of how the family tried to escape from the Nazis and those who were successful got to England, Ireland and New Zealand. Here is a  selection from his book that describes the members of this branch of the Hirsch family:

"Ernst got married in 1932," Paul writes. "The wedding took place in Dortmund at the house of Margot's parents, Rathenauer-Alle. Rabbi Dr. Wilhelm officiated.

"A wonderful relationship existed between the Machutonim and lots of visiting was done. Fred, the first grandchild for our parents, was born in 1933 and Walter followed in 1936. The visits to Gladbach from Kempen, only about 35 kilometers, became pretty regular. It was great naches for the grandparents on both sides to share in the joy which the grandchildren gave them. However, the time had come to think earbestly of immigration. So Ernst left the office to learn the practical part of weaving since he was given this chance at his present employment [until 1938].

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"With the help of a cousin in Australia he got the permit to enter New Zealand. He was the first of our family taking the step to go overseas, hoping to be the pioneer for our large family. He left Germany in September, 1938 with his wife Margot and their two boys, Fred and Walter, who were about five and two years old. He lefty the country full of hope to see our family reunited in this distant part of the world.

"Our brother Walter also spent four years at the Jewish local school and then entered the Gymnasium till the year 1926, having made the Arbitur after nine years. Since he was a very good scholar, our parents were pleased with his decision to carry on to study at the University. He was very interested in music too, and also went to the Konservatorium in Krefeld for a good few years. He suffered very much with asthma and had to miss many days of the year in school. But in spite of this his reports were always first class. In fact he was always top man in class. Mathematics and Naturwissenschaft were his choice. He studied two semesters at the University in Freiburg and the following seven semesters at the University in Berlin. He was promoted to Doctor of Philosophy October 6, 1931 at the Humboldt University in Berlin. He was then sent, to work as Referendar for two years to Schulfarm Insel-Scharfenberg near Berlin. However, as soon as the Nazis had come to power his career had come to its end and he was no longer allowed to teach and stood no longer any chance in Germany.

"He emigrated to Italy where he worked as teacher at the Landschulheim Florence (a boarding school of immigrants' children). They had to leave Ita]y when Hitler and Mussolini became allies. The boarding school carried on in Nice (then unoccupied France) but they soon fell into the hands of the Vichy government and were trapped again.

"In spite of great efforts of friends and collegues from the U.S. to save him and bring him over to the U.S., he did not get the exit visa to leave France. For severa]. years he went through various camps:  Les-Milles De Gurs and finally to Auschwitz in August 1942.

"Professor Albert Einstein had agreed to assist Walter should he arrive in the U.S. He had read a manuscript by Walter regarding the Theory of Relativity to be understood by young scholars. Letters from Walter and my correspondance with Dr. Peiser and Professor Kahane" are all attached to bound edition of this Life Story and "will save me the painful task of going into further details.

"Both sisters, Martha and Emmy, also spent four or five years at our Jewish school with Lehrer Sommer and from there it was "Die Hoehere Toechterschule" right in our next neighborhood. It was a Catholic secondary school which was mainly run by Nuns. They both left this school when they reached the age of fourteen or fifteen to help at home and in the business. This was expected by our parents and had to be accepted by our sisters, but it was only for some years.

"Kempen being a small town with very few young Jewish people surely was not the right. place for young girls to be tied down too long. They both wanted to meet people of their age and also developed other interests.

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"Martha spent one year at the Webeschule Krefeld, learning sewing and other useful crafts. Some years later she worked at the Jewish Kinderheim Köln joining up with her friend Erna Servos. Martha was always very interested to make herself useful in social fields and working with children. Generally she took life more seriously than her younger sister Emmy did. This did not always help in every way, but I dare say they got on pretty well.

"They both were never short of boyfriends as time went on. The year was 1938 when it happened, a serious friendship developed with Joe Horn, only seven kilometers away from Kempen. The Horn family living so close to us were not only our well known neighbors from Vorst, but also old good friends of the family. So both families were very pleased when the engagement of Martha and Joe was announced. Vorst became even closer than.it was already. 'Warum in der Ferne Schweifen Wenn das Gute liegt so nah."

"On March 18, 1939 Martha and Joe got married, which was officiated by Dr. Bluhm, Rabbiner of Krefeld.

"Emigration was the only chance to hope for; it was the only subiect to talk about. The Nazis were already in power since l933. Since Joe's profession as auto mechanic qualified so well for immigration to New Zealand, Ernst was very soon successful to get a permit for Martha and Joe to enter New Zealand. In fact, a job was also secured with it. On July 29, 1939 they left via Rotterdam. Whilst travelling on the ocean, the war had broken out and they were stranded on Ceylon waiting for a boat to take them to New Zealand. They finally arrived there late in November, exhausted but saved.

"It is a different story with a very sad ending as far as sister Emmy was concerned. She too, after having done her share at home, accepted a position as ''Haustochter'' in the home of the Watermann Family in Bunde, Ostfriesland. She was meant to be the right hand of the mother of the family while enjoying all the comforts of the house and being treated as a daughter of the family. This was 1934~35. Though Bunde was a small town, Ostfriesland was the home of many lively Jewish communities and since Emmy was a very lively person, fairly easy going, she enjoyed her stay with this family very much, and more and more as time went on. The son of the house, Hans Watermann, fell in love with her and it did not take long before the engagement was announced. The family Watermann were corn merchants and did run a well established business in Bunde right by the Dutch border. A branch of their business was in Winschoten only a few miles away, but which was in Holland.

"They married in 1937. The wedding took place in Rotterdam, where Ben Koppel and his family resided. They were the sister and brother-in-law. Emmy's and Hans' residence was Winschoten, Holland, a very small town with very large rural and agricultural surroundings. Once I visited, but I cannot remember much of this anymore. When a boy was born on November 17, 1939, he was called Fred. The joy in both families was great. It was the third grandchild for our parents. However the happiness did not last long. Hitler marched into Holland and disaster struck most Jewish families; very few had managed to go into hiding. Emmy, Hans and Fred were taken to the concentration camp, Westerbork, and from there to the extermination camp, Sobibor, in Poland on March 2, 1943.

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"Now let me tell you more about myself. I was p]eased with my choice to work in our butcher business and it seemed to agree with me. During all my years at school I was always the boy on the far left wing, which meant I was the smallest in class. But now suddenly I had started to grow.

"After some years of training and having learned the practical parts of the business and the manufacturing of all kinds of sausages, I was allowed to spend some time assisting in the shop and serving customers on busy days. This proved quite difficult at times. Customers were used to being served by Tante Hannchen only, and were not too pleased to see me. But as time went on I was accepted.

"Our mother also served in the shop when needed, but was mainly active running the house with the help of a domestic who was also 1iving in. Of course my two sisters also did their share as long as they were at home. It may sound extremely strange to learn that only once every month the Great Washing Day came around, which lasted no less than three days. The washing machine and outdoor boiler were put in place in our yard, and then the work began. There was always extra help on these days. The names and voices of Mrs. Tissen and Mrs. Kuppers still sound vividly in my ears. Bleaching, ironing, of course mending, were very regular jobs never ending. Strange enough, we still hear so much of 'the good old days.'

"Our house was run on a strictly kosher basis, but in our shop kosher and non-kosher meat and meat products were sold. Since 95% of our customers were not Jewish, this was the only way to make a living. We were open six days a week, and even on Sunday half a day. Friday and Saturday were the busiest days. On High Holidays our shop was closed, but our clients knew and watched for this . I don't think that much trade ever was lost in doing so.

"In spite of all this, Sabbath was observed in a very traditional way. Our father never missed going to shul on Shabbath and neither did any of us children who were at the house and free to do so. Lighting candles to bring in the 5abbath, singing zemiraus, making Havdoloh, were kept up all our lives. Especially enjoyed by all were the good meals with either kartoffel kugel or gefuellte miltz. Without this, I don't think 5habbath would have been the same.

"When Pesach came with its enormous preparations, the house was almost turned upside down. But the wonderful seder nights which followed were enjoyed by all and made up for all the work which had been done.

"As time went on it was decided for taxation ard various reasons to separate the two businesses, so the Viehhändel remained in the name of Isidor Hirsch, and the butcher business was run by Geschwister Hirsch. However both were run on the same premises as before. So business went on for some years yet without much interference from the ruling Nazi government.

"Whilst anybody who was in an academic profession or engaged in state-run enterprises lost his position or was no longer allowed to practice, we, the small business people, could carry on for some time undisturbed. The area we lived in was about 90% Catholic and only under pressure did the people give in and accept the new regime.

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"In fact it was as late as June, 1934 when Leo and myself had to make the Meisterpruefung (professional exam) at the Handwerkskammer in Düsseldorf which enabled us to carry on in bussiness as before.

"But it was not long after this when the cry came out to boycott shops run by Jews. Customers were photographed by the Nazi party when entering our shop and then summoned to the Party office. Official boycott days with uniformed Nazis by the front door of the shop also took place.

"When the allocation of cattle for slaughter came into the hands of the Party, only very inferior and poor quality cattle, if any, were allocated to us. This brought the high standards of our quality products right down and it was hopeless to carry on much longer. It was 1937 by then. It was no use to stay any longer but where to go and what to do? This was the great question.

"To go as a family was impossible, where to find the high guarantees which were required? Our parents who never had tried to stop us from emigration, now were convinced that the only way was to get out of Germany. Unfortunately we had no money anywhere abroad to provide the guarantee needed.

"In September, 1936, with the help of Ben Koppel of Rotterdam, I had the opportunity to emigrate to South Africa. A lady in Cape Town had offered to give the necessary guarantees. However since new immigration laws in South Africa were coming into force on November 1st, I had to arrive there prior to this date. I was left with five weeks which included packing, formalities, and traveling time. The only person who encouraged me to accept the offer was my brother Ernst, but otherwise I was neither encouraged nor discouraged by any member of our family. I declined. Was I not ready for such a step, or was I not man enough to take this challenge? Maybe it was one of the biggest mistakes in my life, a question which will be unanswered forever.

"When in 1937 the Jewish press in Rome was looking for an experienced person to manage a kosher meat and sausage factory, I corresponded and negotiated with the firm. Things sounded quite interesting on paper and since Italy was not so far, I decided to go and find out. Fortunately I did not go as an

emigrant, just on the basis of travel or holiday.

"It was a most disappointing experience."

As time went on Paul Hirsch learned English and then, in 1938, a Nazi law closed all Jewish businesses  and prohibited Jews from carryng on any business activity. Jews left Kempen. He then met Renate Meyer, 18, who had come to Kempen from Kleve. Eventually he and his brother Leo were arrested by the Gestapo and were put on a train to Dachau. They were eventualy released from "the hell of Dachau" on the pretext that they would return to Kempen and then emigrate to New Zealand, Instead, they were allowed to leave Kempen for Holland, each with one piece of hand luggage and ten Deutschmark, and on to London and work on a farm. Paul and Renate were reunited there and they were married in the Oxford Synagogue on Richmond Street on Friday, August 8, 1941 by Rev. Jacov Weinberg..

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The second child of Abraham "Baer" Hirsch (the first one was Meier) and Sprinz Schuster in Polch was Jakob Hirsch (Jehudah bar Tzvi). Sprinz Schuster Hirsch died in childbirth on August 25, 1839 and, on May 18, 1840, Abraham "Baer" Hirsch, at the age of 26, married his second wife, Margareta Muller (c. 1810-1885). Besides Leopold Hirsch, they had five other --- and older --- children. Johanna Hirsch (born January 19, 1845) married Simon Nathan in Köln in 1874 and they lived in Bonn. [Nothing more is known about them.] Regina Hirsch (born January 12, 1843) became the second wife of the tinsmith Philipp Marx of Köln in 1872. [Likewise, nothing more is known about them.] Martin Hirsch (born January 26, 1847) married twice and lived in Wasserdrudingen. Nothing more is known about Hermann Hirsch (born February 1, 1849), and Adelheid Hirsch died in Polch on June 12, 1843 at the age of two.

The aforementioned Anschels of Polch were horsedealers and Moises Anschel came to the town from Idstein in the early 1790s. His wife, born Helene Mayer, may have been the sister of Salomon Mayer of Gondorf. In any event, Salomon's daughter, Anna Maria (c. 1790-1844) married Moises and Helene Mayer Anschel's oldest son, Michael Anschel (c. 1787-1855). Salomon Mayer's other daughter,  Helena,  married Isaack Herz  of Polch  on February 6, 1827 in Münstermaifeld and they lived in Gondorf. Their daughter, Rosetta Herz (1828-1899) married Salomon Wolff (1819-1853) of Ochtendung. Wilhelmine ("Hermine") Herz (born September 24, 1878), the granddaughter of Josef Anschel (c. 1795-1855) --- the middle son of Moises Anschel --- and daughter of Benjamin Anschel (1844-1912), married Jakob Herz, the grandson of Isaack Herz's brother, Jakob. Wilhelmine Herz's husband, Jakob, was killed in action in World War I at Metz, France on March 15, 1915 at the age of 39 and she died 40 years later, on September 12, 1955, in Kew Gardens Hills, Queens, New York. The Anschels and Friesems of Burgbrohl are also linked by the marriage of Michael (Machool) Anschel (1829-1908) --- another of Josef Anschel's sons --- and Johanna ("Jenny") Friesem (born November 17, 1836) in Polch on June 20, 1860. Two of Josef's other sons, Meier and Nathan (died April 29, 1887), migrated to the United States in 1863 and lived in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania before moving to Ellsworth, Kansas in 1885. While Meier was a bachelor, Nathan married and his family still lives in Wichita, Kansas, where they once owned an automobile dealership.

Isaak Anschel (c. 1803-May 16, 1876) married Veronika Gottschalk, who was born in Kottenheim around 1804. Their house in Polch was in the small alley where the "zuckerbäckerin" had her house, not on Kirch Strasse, where  Josef and Magdalena Gottschalk Anschel lived, then where Moses and Rosa Anschel  and their children, Arthur, Eugene and Carola Anschel later lived.

The Herzs of Polch were cattledealers like the Hirschs. Siegmund Herz's family lived on Kloppel Strasse, Jakob Herz had a house on Kirch Strasse, and Salomon Jakob Herz (1853-1908) lived on Vormai Strasse. The earliest known member of the Herz family was Salomon Herz, who was born in Münstermaifeld in 1750. He came to Polch in the early 1790s and lived there with his wife, Sara Binnes from Cochem on the Mosel. [The Binnes family name was changed to Hayn by Napoleon's edict of July 20, 1808. See chart on page 132.]

Mrs. Jacqueline Edith Flem (born Esser), a descendant of Salomon Herz, was born  in Köln in 1921,  and was  deported as a  resistor  to Auschwitz from

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Wedding Certificate of Isaac Herz and Helena Mayer of Gondorf in Münstermaifeld on  February 6, 1827. This is page 1 of the document; the second page appears on the following page. 

Courtesy:  Jacqueline E. Flem

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 Wedding Certificate of Isaac Herz and Helena Mayer of Gondorf in Münstermaifeld on February 6, 1827. This is page 2 of the document; the first page appears on the preceding page.

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Birth Certificate of Markus Herz in Gondorf, November 18, 1829

Courtesy:  Jacqueline E. Flem

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France, where she had lived with her parents since 1933. A concentration camp survivor, She has resided in Brussels, Belgium since 1949. She is the widow of Boris Flem, and they have a daughter, Lydia, and a granddaughter, Selma, who was born in 1987. Jacqueline Flem visited Polch in August, 1990 to research the Herz family, and she visited Dr. Heinz and Inge Kahn at that time. They showed her the original edition of this book, which put her in contact with me and other relatives. Lydia Flem has written several books, including L'Homme Freud [Freud, the Man], which is written in French and has been translated into Spanish and Portuguese. Lydia's husband, Maurice Olender, is a professor at the Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales in Paris and an editor. One of his books is Languages of Paradise - Race, Religion and Philology in the Nineteenth Century, published by Harvard University.

During World War I, Jakob Herz of Polch, the oldest child of Hermann and Johanna Bender Herz, was killed in action in Metz, France, on March 15, 1915 at the age of 39. He left his 36-year-old widow, Wilhelmine (Hermine) Anschel Herz, and three young children, ranging in age from six to almost two, Theodore, Caroline and Benno. The four of them eventually migrated to the United States, and Hermine Herz ("Frau Herz" as my parents and others always called her) died in Flushing, New York on September 12, 1955, a few days shy of 77 and a widow for 40 years.     

While serving in the German army, Jakob Herz sent letters home from the battlefront.

"Ive been away from Polch for five months," he wrote in one letter to his sister, Adelheid ("Addie") Herz Mayer. "It makes me happy to hear from my wife, Mina, that all of you think of me. Siegmund [his younger brother, who married my mother's sister, Hannah] is also in the army, but I didn't think I would have to do so much at my age [38-1/2].

"How are your children, Addie? Beatrice, Selma, Sabina and their husbands and children.......Send them my love. God will keep all of you well. Many greetings to all who ask for me.

"Don't forget me.

"Your brother, Jakob.

"I can't always write because it is not always quiet here."

Shortly after Jakob Herz's death on the front, his sister, Elsa, wrote a short letter to Addie on March 28, 1915 in which she described the war as "terrible."

Johanna Bender Herz, Jakob's mother, wrote with a heavy heart to her daughter, Addie, and other family members: 

"My dear children,

"With a sad heart I am writing to you today. I see from your letter, dear Addie, that you didn't get my previous letter. I enclosed a picture of Siegmund. Then my heart was dull, yet I had a feeling that now it's so heavy and I think I can't  carry it.  Think  what  happened  -  our  beloved  Jakob died in  Metz in a

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Portion of a Letter Written by Johanna Bender Herz, to her daughter, Addie Herz Mayer, and Other Family Members on March 28, 1915 Announcing Jakob Herz's Death in World War I.

Courtesy:  Inez Morrison 

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military hospital. Addie, et. al, you can imagine how I feel. Mina took it better than I did. She is not in need. Jakob had an insurance policy. Bertha and Frieda are at home and they are helping Mina (with the three children, Theodore, Caroline and Benno]. Siegmund is serving in Ghent, Belgium.

My late mother, Billa Hirsch, in 1987 recalled the day when Jakob Herz's body was returned to Polch. "It was one of the saddest days of my life. All of the elected officials and the townspeople --- Jews and Gentiles --- gathered in the synagogue on Ostergasse, and the rest stood outside for the funeral services. It was pitiful to see Frau Herz and young Theo, Lienshen [Caroline] and Benno. Everyone was crying."  

Caroline Herz, an artist who studied at the University of Heidelberg, came to New York with her widowed mother in 1934. In 1956, she married Theodore Newhouse, one of the three Newhouse brothers (the others were Samuel I. and Norman) who were in the newspaper and magazine publishing business based in New York. Today, her nephews, Samuel I. Newhouse's sons, Samuel I. Newhouse Jr. and Donald Newhouse, are at the helm of this vast media business, which includes the New Yorker and Vogue and other Condé Nast magazines, and newspapers in major United States cities (including New Orleans, LA, Portland, OR, Springfield, MA, Cleveland, OH, Harrisburg, PA, Newark, NJ and Staten Island, NY). Many younger members of the Newhouse family --- the second and third generation   --- are executives in the business. Caroline Herz Newhouse, a philanthropist who was a board member for Career Transition for Dancers, died in her weekend home and sculpture studio in Roxbury, Connecticut on April 26, 2003 at the age of 93. 

During my visit to Polch in November, 1981 one of the neighbors of Franciska Herz (born February 13, 1888), daughter of Salomon Jakob Herz, recalled that when some Christian children informed her of the torching of the Polch synagogue in November, 1938, she told them, "Pass auf dass euere kirche nicht brennt." ("Watch out that your church doesn't burn.'') She died in the Holocaust, but most of the others managed to escape.

Three Jewish families lived on the Marktplatz (Marketplace) in Polch. They were the Fabers --- related to the Fabers of Mertloch --- and the Haas and Levy families, who were partners in a textile machinery and shoe business. In addition to being business partners, the Levy and Haas families were closely related to each other.

Isaak Levy moved from Wettwig to Gappenach in the early 1800s. He was married to Rosa Wolff of the family from Mertloch. One of Isaak's sons, Bernhard Levy (1835-1906) lived in Polch and one of his sons, Simon Levy (born September 26, 1870) married Blondine Haas (born January 1, 1873) from Ruelzheim/Pfalz in 1902. Meanwhile, Simon's sister, Rosa Levy (born November 5, 1875), married Blondine Haas' brother, Max Haas (born December 23, 1873) in the same year. Simon Levy and Max Haas were the business partners and both couples perished in Auschwitz. Simon and Rosa's sister, Karoline Levy (1868-1928), married Jakob Wolff (born September 2, 1863) from Mertloch. After Jakob Wolff's death, Karoline married her cousin, Simon Levy II (1868-1932) and they, too, lived in Polch. The members of this family who were able to flee from the Nazis migrated to the United States or to South Africa.

Ferdinand Faber (born c. 1784), son of Jakob Faber and Klara Haimann of Mertloch,  died in Polch on  May 11, 1866.  One of Ferdinand's sons,  Haimann

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Faber (born August 26, 1825) and his wife, Yetta Friesem (born December 29, 1833) from Burgbrohl died of pox in Polch within 19 days of each other in late 1871. This was one of several links between the Fabers and the Friesems. Jakob

Faber (1833-1912), another son of Ferdinand Faber, married Susanna Kaufmann from Binningen (1841-1908) and they also lived in Polch. Their son, Ferdinand Faber (born October 8, 1866), was the leader of the Polch synagogue congregation until his death on October 16, 1930. He was succeeded by his son, Benno Faber (born March 22, 1903), who fled to Israel before the Holocaust and lived in Tel Aviv. Benno Faber's brother, Karl (born May 26, 1901), later named Karl Notea, died in Israel. The Fabers owned a large seed, farm products, potatoes and work clothes business next to the Levy-Haas store.

Other Jews in Polch included Leopold Haimann (1846-1913), a horse dealer who lived in an alley off of Vormai Strasse, and Salomon Kahn (1832-1918), second husband of Helena Kaufmann Anschel, who operated an inn on Lasporte Strasse. Most of the Haimanns migrated to the United States. Dr. Theo Lilienstein, who was born in Grevenwiesbach (north of Frankfurt) in 1882, served as a family physician and urologist in Polch from about 1909 until about 1914. His daughter, Ruth Lilienstein Liepman, was born in Polch in 1909 and died in Zurich, Switzerland in April, 2001, Ernst Lilienstein, a long-time friend of mine from the United Federation of Teachers in New York, is Dr. Lilienstein's nephew.

The Polch synagogue on Ostergasse was built in 1877, between the church square and Pastoren Strasse, down the street from Isidor Anschel's house and two doors away from Adelheid and Klara Hirsch's house on the east side of the street.

Before it was built, religious services were held in Benjamin Anschel's house on Kirch Strasse. Eugene Anschel recalled to me on September 18, 1982 that  his father,  the  horse dealer  Moses  Anschel  (Grosse  Moses"),  who later served as President of the congregation,  had told him that before the Polch synagogue was built, the Jewish men from the town traveled up and down the Rhineland by foot to collect money to erect the building.

On August 15, 1868 the Mayor of Polch sent a notice to the county government in Mayen "about the formation of a Synagogue Community in Polch as proposed by St. George's Church."

The Mayor wrote: "In order to get this project finished, I called into my office [yesterday] the leaders and the representatives of the local synagogue congregation. Everyone but one, who has moved away, appeared. They listened for about two hours to my proposition about its status and then they declared that they do not agree and they want to leave everything as it is. The county council was not satisfied with these comments and wanted to know the reasons for rejection by the Jewish congregation.

"On August 21, 1868 the Mayor of Polch made another effort as on the 14th of the month. The council and the representatives left my office. I had no means to hold them back and have a written explanation for it. I beg the royal state council to accept my position instead of their explanation.

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"The good will and sense of the congregation is missing and I am convinced that nothing will come of it. Because of this, the High Presidium in Koblenz accepted my efforts to convince them, and for the time being no attempts will be made to build a synagogue in Polch."

The synagogue, built with black stone, had a little garden with four big trees at its entrance. Above the entrance door (which has been drastically altered) there still is an engraved stone in Hebrew with an inscription from Psalms  XCV,  which  reads:  'Come,  let us  bow  and  bend  and  kneel  in  the presence of the Eternal, our Maker. 56_7" [The third digit, probably a 3, has been chipped away and looks something like a 2. 5637 is equivalent to 1877, while 5627 would be the year 1867.] (In Hebrew: B'Ansches Oohnihvaray Nivrechohr Lifnay Yitoch Hashaynu). This section of the Old Testament is chanted by the congregation at the conclusion of the afternoon services on Sabbath eve.

The Hebrew teacher came to Polch twice a week from Andernach. The teachers were Rabbi Hirsch (1909-1914), Dr. Weiss (1915-1927) and then Rabbi Stiebel. [Rabbi Dr. Wolf from Köln received permission from the government in 1911-1913 to be the first rabbi to teach religious subjects to Jewish children in Ahrweiler, Münstermaifeld, Niederzissen and Vallendar.]

In 1927 the synagogue held a gala 50th anniversary celebration which the rabbi from Andernach, many Hebrew teachers, and many Jews from the entire region attended. Special services were conducted and there was dancing and dinner.

Eleven years later the synagogue was burned on Kristallnacht (the Night of the Broken Glass). The inside was destroyed, but the structure stands intact.

During my visit to Polch in November-December, 1981, I was informed by the Burgermeister (Regional Mayor) of Maifeld in Polch,  Mr. Hans Baulig, that the synagogue was being restored and would be made into a memorial and a museum. Following my two lengthy and friendly meetings with Mr. Baulig, the Polch Town Mayor, Mr. Leo Nell, owner of the Maifelder Hof guest house and restaurant on Lasporte Strasse, went with me into the synagogue and discussed the rebuilding plans with me. Workers were already busy rebuilding the leaking roof. I was asked by Mr. Baulig and Mr. Nell to assist them with information, pictures and other materials --- including this family tree --- which could be used to complete this project. Residents of Polch with whom I spoke know about, and are keenly interested in this effort, and I am happy to be of assistance.

Three of the four Jewish families in the nearby village of Mertloch --- previously mentioned --- are closely linked to the family tree.

Jakob Faber (died in 1815) and his wife, Klara Haimann Faber (died in 1840), are the earliest known members of the Faber family. Their daughter-in-law, Veronika Jacob (c. 1798-1841) was the sister of Judit Herz of Polch. Veronika and her husband, Ferdinand Faber (c. 1784-1866), were the in-laws of Henrietta ("Yetta") Friesem (1833-1871) of Burgbrohl. Bernhard ''Baer" Faber (1793-1884) another son of Jakob Faber, was married to Ernestine (Juliana) Friesem (c. 1803-1847) from Burgbrohl. Jeanette (Jetta "Hannah") Faber, daughter of Jakob Faber, was the wife of Moyses Friesem (1796-1850) of Burgbrohl. Marx (Mordechai) Faber (c. 1799-1881), another of Jakob Faber's sons, was married to Elisabetha (Ester) Wolff  (1805-1884) of Mertloch.  Regina

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(Reichel) Faber (1818-1885), daughter of Daniel Faber (another son of Jakob Faber), was married to Salomon Wolff (1816-1892) of Mertloch. Juliana Faber (born October 6, 1881) granddaughter of Bernhard "Baer" Faber, was the wife of Moritz Minkel (born June 29, 1879) and both of them perished in the Holocaust.

Jeanette (Ester) Minkel (1794-1862) was married to Benjamin Wolff (1785-1833) of the Ochtendung family.

Rosa Wolff (c.1803-1875), daughter of Josef Wolff and Maria Anna Samuel, was married to Isaak Levy (c. 1801-1863) and they lived in Gappenach. Josef and Maria Anna Wolff's son, Salomon Wolff (1816-1892), was the husband of Regina (Reichel) Faber (1818-1885) of Mertloch. Johanna ("Selma") Wolff, daughter of Josef and Maria Anna Wolff, was the first wife of Jakob Hirsch of Polch.

Moses Wolff, son of Jakob Wolff (c. 1775-1851) [and Josef Wolff's brother] and Sprinz Mendel (1785-1860) married Johanna Cahn (born February 21, 1835 from Niederzissen. Helen Wolf Lederer, granddaughter of Johanna Kahn Wolff, recalls that her grandmother wore a sheitel (wig), which is common among very Orthodox Jewish women. Several members of this Cahn family from Niederzissen appear on the family tree charts. Jakob Wolff, son of Moses and Johanna Wolff, was the first husband of Karoline Levy of Polch. Two of Moses and Johanna Wolff's children --- Julia (1865-1928) and Samuel Wolff (1869-1949) --- married  a sister and brother, Emilia Kaufmann Wolff (1870-1934) and Moses Kaufmann (1865-1952) --- children of Simon and Karoline (Falkenstein) Kaufmann from Schiefbahn near Krefeld.

Samuel Wolf was a butcher and cattle dealer in Mertloch and he was very Orthodox. On the Sabbath he used to walk to the Polch synagogue for services.

Thekla Wolf (1905-1978), daughter of Samuel and Emilia Kaufmann Wolf of Mertloch, was the wife of Carl Daniel, who was born on August 12, 1896 in Kirchheim near Euskirchen. Thekla's sisters, Helen and Rose, left Mertloch for New York in the 1920s  since they had no money to pay dowries and there were no men in the area they wanted to marry. Helen and Rose returned to Mertloch on a visit in 1933 and told Erna, Samuel and Leonie to leave Germany, but they would not listen. In 1936 Leo Wolf was taking a bull to a farmer and was arrested because a Nazi law forbid Jews from transacting any business. The farmer, Miscel Mauer, told the police the cow did not belong to Leo but was being sold on the his behalf. That night, when Leo was released from jail, three farmers came to see him and Samuel. All three told them very clearly, "We know more than you do. Get out. Go to America." It took the Wolfs 18 months to convert money and sell their assets. Samuel, Leo and Leonie, Thekla and Carl and their children, Henry and Jerry,  arrived in New York on January 6, 1938 with $3,000 they smuggled out with Leica cameras.

Otto Lederer, Helen Wolf's husband, arranged for 40 people to come to the United States, posting $2,000 security for each immigrant he sponsored, money he borrowed from Gentiles at the Hotel Astor in Manhattan, where he worked as the paycheck master. Helen and Otto Lederer had a son and a daughter. Dr. Robert Lederer, is a retired orthodontist, who lives with his wife, Christina, in Naples, Florida. Elaine Lederer had two children with her first husband, Craig and Wendy Tuckman. Elaine and her second husband, Arnold Forsch, live in Montvale, NJ.

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Leo Wolf worked in a rendering plant in New York for five years. After leaving that job, he and his son, Manfried ("Manny") went to Flemington, NJ and bought a small farm. It has no plumbing or running water and they struggled with it until the end of World War II. Things got better. They started a successful cattle business. Manny said his father was "the most astute cattle buyer and he bought only the best." At the peak of his business, Leo sold 100 cows a month.

Leo's wife, Leonie Kaufmann (from Münstermaifeld), "kept peace in the family." Many people came to her  for help in solving their problems. She became very involved in the Flemington synagogue, to which she donated a kitchen. The congregation consisted of 50 members in 1948 and today has 250 families. During World War II, Leonie worked as a waitress in Neshanik, NJ. One of her favorite customers on the weekends was Professor Albert Einstein. He was also a good friend of Otto and Ernst Kaufmann of Skillman, NJ, who were descendants of the Kaufmann family from Schiefbahn.

Manny Wolf (who changed his legal name freom Manfried to Manfred when he was in the first grade of sachool, attended a one-room school house in Flemington, NJ with his cousins, Henry and Jerry Daniel. After leaving Rutgers University he went into the cattle business with his father. He dabbles in real estate, buying and selling land as a broker or on his own account. He also breeds horses and yearlings. He married his wife, Ruth Seligman, in 1951 and they have three children.

Thekla (Wolf) and Carl Daniel moved to Flemington in 1941 and they purchased a 5-acre chicken farm. Since it was wartime, Carl worked in a slaughter house and Samuel Wolf, Thekla's father, came to live with them and helped them run the chicken farm. She was a hard-working woman who took care of the thousands of chicken as well as their three young children:  Henry, Jerry and Fred. After the war, Thekla and Carl bought a larger dairy farm and, whenever they sold their property in Germany after the war, they purchased more and more land at $100 an acre, until they owned 650 acres and more than 100 cows.

One of their sons, Fred "Freddy" Daniel, became a cattle auctioneer at the age of 19. His first sale was for his cousin, Manny Wolf. At the sale, a farmer yelled out, "Freddy, that cow only has one eye," and Freddy replied, "What she doesn't see going one way, she will see going the other way."

Siegfried Dublon, Erna Wolf's first husband, was last seen in Paris in 1938. He was taken to concentration camps several times starting in 1933 for his outspoken opposition to the Nazis. Finally, it is believed he was deported to Dachau, where he was murdered.

There were several marriages between the Wolffs (Wolfs) of Mertloch and the Kaufmanns of Schiefbahn. The most recent such union took place in London on June 23, 2002 when Richard Jonathan Wolfe --- son of Herbert Martin Wolf (name changed to Wolfe) and grandson of Emanuel Wolff from Mertloch and his wife, Charlotte Baehr --- married his longtime partner, Georgia Louise Kaufmann --- daughter of Gerd Hugo Kaufmann and "Lissie" Lorenz [Elisabeth Michaela Ida Anna Lorenz] and granddaughter of Eugen Kaufmann of Schiefbahn and his wife, Dr. Ruth Schild.    

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MAYEN

Mayen was and is the main town in the Maifeld region. During World War II 98 per cent of the town was destroyed by the Allied forces because a locomotive factory was located there. Today, the center of the old town has been completely restored. In 1995, the late Klaus H.S. Schulte wrote a book, Zeugnisse jüdischen Lebens in der Ost-Eifel, Das Familienbuch der Juden in Mayen bis um 1875, [Jewish Heritage in the Eastern Eifel . A Documentary Account of  the Jewish Families in Mayen  till Circa 1875], Grundlagen zur Heimatkunde, Band 7, which lists the following Jewish families in Mayen:  Abraham, Alexander, Baehr, Baruch, Bender, Berger, Bermann, Blumenthal, Callmann, Emanuel, Friedberger, Gottschalk (two families), Hammel, Hartmann, Haymann, Hersh/Hirsch, Herz, Hirsch (one family in Cochem and another Mayen), Joseph, Josua, Kahn/Cahn, Kaufmann, Knopfmacher, Lichtenstein, Liebmann  (two families), Loeb, Loewenbach (two families), Marchand, Marx, May, Mayer (four families, one of them in Thür), Minkel, Rosenthal, Schaefer (in Niedermendig), Treidel [old name forms:  Treitel, Dreydel], Winter, and Wolff (three families, one in Münstermaifeld).

Some of these families had branches in the little towns and villages where my ancestors  lived and  they are  mentioned throughout  this book and in  the

charts. Many of those in my charts are cited in the Mayen book by my good and departed friend and colleague, Klaus H.S. Schulte. The Minkel and Treidel families are among this group of families.

Another Jewish family that lived in Mayen, the Günther family, however, does not appear in Mr. Schulte's book. Members of ther Günther family were good friends of my late mother and her family. A number of them fled to New York in the 1930s. Among them was the late Ernst Günther, who, together with two other partners, established Mayer-Gunther-Martini, which grew to become the largest manufacturer of high-quality custom-made furniture in the United States. My mother often recalled that Mrs. Herta Gunther (Ernst's wife) and she often wheeled their baby carriages (with me in one and my friend, Jerry Gunther in the other) through the streets of the West Bronx around 1937-38. My parents, as well as my wife, Doris, and I purchased some of our furniture from Mayer-Gunther-Martini.       

THE EUSKIRCHEN AND BURGBROHL AREAS

In the 1600s and early 1700s there lived in the village of Friesheim, near Euskirchen, an Andreas (from Friesheim), whose family would be known as Friesem when family names were adopted by Napoleon's edict in 1808. They were the descendants of a family that had lived in Spain prior to the Inquisition of 1492. Andreas' son, Moses Andreas (Avraham Asher) Friesem, moved to the village of Burgbrohl, which is near Niederzissen and not too far from Sinzig, a much larger town.

Moses Andreas Friesem, husband of Clara Gran, was born in Friesheim and moved to Burgbrohl in 1782, where he became a bookkeeper to the nobleman, Baron Ferdinand von Bourscheid (17661816), who owned the castle of Burgbrohl. Sieglohr, the Baron's secretary, in a manuscript dated May 10, 1797, describes the town as having 29 houses.

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Andreas Friesem (c. 1765-1846), son of Moses Andreas Friesem, who was also born in Friesheim, received a Patent from the French rulers in 1808 to be a cattle dealer in Burgbrohl (page 14). Andreas' son, Markus (Marx/Mordechai) Friesem (1804-1889) had nine children. Among them were Henriette ("Yetta"), the wife of Haimann Faber of Polch (both died in late 1871 of the pox); Hermann (Chaim) Friesem (1826-1900), who had ten children; Jakob Friesem ("Onkel Yankov") (1840-1916), who never married, and who, it is said, looked like the twin brother of the "Weih Bishop" (monk) of Trier (The monk apparently was an illegitimate child of a Jewish woman from Boden, a village on the Ahr River.), and Johanna (Händel) Friesem, my great grandmother, who married Hermann Hirsch of Polch. Clara Friesem (1800-1872), daughter of Andreas Friesem, never married and lived her entire life in Burgbrohl. Ernestine (Juliana) Friesem, the other daughter of Andreas Friesem, married Bernhard "Baer" Faber of Mertloch in 1823, as previously discussed.

Claude Friesem (1772-1847) was Moses Andreas' other son. One of Claude's sons, Alexander Friesem (1814-1896), moved to Sinzig and a large family is descended from him. Moses Friesem, Alexander Friesem's son, owned a large clothing and textile store on Ausdorfer Strasse near the Markt Platz. Today this business is called the Shertzinger Textil store. The Friesems were prominent Jews in Sinzig.  Their synagogue,  bounded by  Rhein Strasse,  Renn Gasse and Eulen Strasse, has been torn down and a park is being built there. The Sinzig Jewish cemetery is extremely well-kept and is surrounded on three sides by the city's Christian cemetery. The person in charge of the cemetery told me that once a year the Sinzig officials come to the Jewish cemetery and place  a wreath at  the memorial at  the end of the cemetery path  which was erected to memorialize the town's Jews who had perished in the Holocaust. Many of Sinzig's Friesems migrated to the United States beginning in the 1860s and up to the 1930s. Prior to my research, the descendants of the Friesems who migrated to the United States in the 1860s were completely unaware of the others!

Moyses Friesem (c. 1796-1850), another son of Andreas Friesem, was the husband of Jeanette (Yetta "Hannah") Faber, daughter of Jakob Faber from Mertloch. Their daughter, Gudula Friesem (1828-1876), married Joseph Friesem (born c. 1819), the son of Moses [sometimes spelled Moyses] Friesem's nephew, Claude Friesem. Joseph and Gudula Friesem's grandson, Walter Friesem (1900-1970), married his distant cousin --- and my mother's sister, Selma Hirsch of Polch.

Joseph and Gudula Friesem had six children. Their daughter, Eva Friesem (born July 5, 1867) married Jacob Stern (1866-1921) and they lived in Meinerzhagen, Westphalia. Joseph and Gudula Friesem's son, the very religious Moses Friesem, lived first in Altena, Westphalia, where he was in the family's metal business, and then moved to Hochst near Frankfurt-on-the-Main. Simon Friesem (1854-1925), another of Joseph and Gudula Friesem's sons, also lived in Altena. Another daughter, Marianne Friesem (1852-1938), married Abraham Levy (1855-1942 [Holocaust]) on December 8, 1880 and they resided in Hohenlimburg, Westphalia. Johanna Friesem (born May 27, 1860) was wed to Levy Lenhoff and they made their home in Plettenberg. The other child of Joseph and Gudula Friesem was Albert Friesem (1862-1926) and he was married to Eva Hava Putz, who perished in the concentration camp. They lived in Solingen, and the aforementioned Walter Friesem was one of their five children.

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Another of Moyses and Jeanette Friesem's sons was my great grandfather, Hermann (Chaim) Friesem (1826-1900). He married Carola ("Billa") Herz (born in 1838) from Schweinheim (my great grandmother) and, after she died in 1867, he wed Rosa Steinberg (1851-1916) from Oberbreisig. They had six more children. Henriette Friesem, my grandmother, married Hermann Hirsch of Polch (whose mother, Johanna Handel Friesem Hirsch, was also Henriette's cousin). As mentioned previously, Hermann and Henriette Hirsch's youngest daughter, Selma, was the widow of Walter Friesem. They lived with their two children, Helga (Judit) and Josef, on Abraham Kay Street, and then in her final years Selma resided in an old age home in Nahariya, Israel.

Moses, Hermann (Chaim) Friesem's oldest son and his first child with Rosa Steinberg, married Rosetta ("Settchen") Lambert. Both of them perished in the Holocaust, They had three daughters,. Hilda, Erna and Alma.

Hilda, who married Wilhelm ("Willie") Nathan from Stolberg on January 28, 1930, had two sons, Fred and Gerd ("Gerry"). Willie, who had a cattle hauling dealing business in Düren, was in north Holland just as the tulips were blooming on May 10, 1940, the day  the Germans invaded Holland. The Nazis confiscated Willie's truck.  A few weeks  earlier he had  bought a hotel in Volkenburg, Holland. One of those who lived next door to the hotel was a young teacher, Johann Kengen. When Willie came back without his truck, he closed down the newly-purchased hotel and went to work for de Valk [the hawk], a bus company in southern Holland. that transported coal miners from their homes  to work.

In 1942 the Germans got tough with the Dutch Jews. Willie and Hilde received a notice to report to the railroad station (across the street). The town constable got on his bicycle, stopped the bus and told Willie not to go home from work. Johann Kengen was contacted and everything in the hotel was emptied over roof into someone else's house at night. Hilde, Willie, Fred and Gerd lived with Hilde's parents. Moses and Settchen Friesem. The Friesems were left behind as the Germans were looking only for Willie, Hilde and the boys. Moses and Settchen told Gerd and Fred to walk along railroad tracks for 6 kilometers to Meerssen, where Johann's fiance Ann's aunt and uncle --- a retired railroad engineer --- lived and where in the 1800s, brothers Hendrik and Alexander Hertog married sisters Johanna and Caroline Anschel from Polch, Germany.

"That couple needed money. Everybody needed money," said Gerd. Johann told the couple the Nathans would stay there only for a short time until the underground was contacted and they would escape to  England. Once in the house, the Nathans lived in an upstairs room. No one tried to contact the underground because that was close to impossible. Willie paid money to the retired couple.

During this time, Johann and Ann were married and they moved in with her aunt and uncle in Meerssen. At the wedding at Ann's parents' house, they picked a fight with the parents and for 25 months put up a front that they were angry at each other. Johann was a fairly new teacher and he was just out of college. A group of his college friends formed the Dutch underground. Most of them were caught and killed, but not Johann. Meanwhile, the Nathans, who were being hidden undetected, needed food, so Johann got himself a position at City  Hall where  the farmers  got  permission  to slaughter  cattle for  meat.

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Johann wrote the permits and he would pick up food and bring it home  to keep the Nathans alive and to see them. After the war, Johann and Ann tried to get divorced, but couldn't under Dutch Catholic law.

Finally able to leave their room in the attic, where they had spent the last 25 months, Willie, Hilde, Fred and Gerd walked to Meerssen. Once there, they found out that a couple in Maastricht, Holland, with two boys had drowned themselves and the townspeople and the Nazis assumed it was the Nathans. They left for the United States by boat and arrived in Hoboken, NJ on July 4, 1948. Due to a stevedores' strike, they had to unload their belongings from the ship themselves and went to Baltimore two days later.

Moses and Settchen Friesem were not so lucky. They were transported to the east and perished in Sobibor, Poland in 1943.

Erna, who I met in 1996 at her residence in the Nelly Sachs Jewish Senior Citizens Home in Düsseldorf, Germany, married Hugo Rolef from Kirchheim. Their daughter, Helen Rolef, resides in Tannay, Switzerland, while their son, Martin Rolef, lives in Krefeld, Germany with his wife, Hanna, and their children. Before World War II, Erna and Hugo Rolef fled to Cape Town, South Africa, where he died in 1960.

Alma, Moses and Settchen Friesem's youngest daughter, married Ludwig Wolff and they also escaped from Germany to Cape Town. Their children, Rosalie Wolff Rogow and Dr. Lionel Wolff, an otolaryngolost, live in South Africa. After Ludwig's death on June 28, 1980, Alma and Erna became neighbors until Erna moved to Germany to live near her children.                                                                         

Adolf Friesem (1874-1963), son of Hermann (Chaim) Friesem and Rosa Steinberg, was hidden during World War II in the Hamburg area by a local Nazi and he died in that city in 1963. His son, also named Adolf, lived in the United States but I have been unable to trace him due to a lack of information. Johanna Friesem (1876-1919), daughter of Hermann Friesem and Rosa Steinberg, was married to Leopold Berger (c. 1874-Holocaust), who had a tailor shop in Burgbrohl next to Moritz Friesem's butcher shop. Leopold Berger taught tailoring to his son, Hermann Berger (1904-1971) and to my mother's brother, Max Hirsch (1898-1951) of Polch. Both Hermann Berger and Max Hirsch migrated to the United States, the former to Selma, Alabama (where his daughter, Hanna Berger, still resides) and the latter to New York.

When the bishop came to Burgbrohl one day on a visit, all the Christian houses were decorated with flags and bunting. It is said that Hermann (Chaim) Friesem put a large sign in front of his house which said, "Bin ich auch nur ein Israelite, ehr ich doch den Bischof mit." ("Even though I am a Jew, I also honor the Bishop [on his visit to Burgbrohl].")

Burgbrohl's Jews attended religious services in the Niederzissen synagogue,  at 101 Haupt Strasse,  which has been  partially abandoned  since the November, 1938 Kristallnacht. The other part has been converted to a blacksmith's shop. All the dead were buried in the Niederzissen Jewish cemetery (several kilometers from Burgbrohl), located on Sauerbrunnen Strasse near the foot of Rotenberg Strasse. It contains 87 gravestones plus three post World War II memorials, erected by Richard Berger, who was born and lived in Niederzissen before the Holocaust and who is now a New York City resident, and his relatives. According to Mr. Berger, the Niederzissen Jewish community

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dated back perhaps a thousand years or more. A Memorbuch which his father kept but which was lost in the Holocaust, had as its last entry the signature of a rabbi from Amsterdam who visited Niederzissen in 1250.

Two other Jewish families lived in Burgbrohl. They were the tinsmith Bernard Meyer and his son, Max Meyer, and Arthur Berger, who was related to the Bergers of nearby Niederzissen. Arthur Berger's wife, also born Berger, came from Mayen, near Polch. The Feit family also lived in Niederzissen.

Most of the Jews in Niederzissen and Burgbrohl were cattle dealers and butchers because their work opportunities were restricted prior to 1867.

"My grandfather, Simon Kahn, was called Seligman," 95-year-old Frieda Kahn Berger recalled to her daughter, Hanna, in April, 1997, a year before she died in Selma, AL. "My grandmother, Dosilla, lived in Niederzissen. They celebrated their diamond wedding anniversary in 1911. It was a great event for the whole village. Every house had the flag out and the Gesang Verein came in the evening and serenaded them. There were fireworks, poems and toasts. The festivities were in our house [the home of Joseph and Mina (Gottschalk) Kahn]. We had the largest rooms in the family.  There was a wedding ceremony in the synagogue conducted by Rabbi Dr. Wolf from Köln. There were a lot of good things to eat. All the sons and daughters who lived out of town were there with the grandchildren and great grandchildren. Pictures were taken in front of our house of the four generations. None of us thought to take them along [when we fled Germany]. Our grandmother died three months after the diamond wedding, and three months later, grandfather was gone too."

Schweinheim, Flamersheim, Kirchheim and Merzbach --- near Euskirchen --- also have long Jewish histories.

The late Klaus H. Schulte in May, 1986 discovered a historical excerpt about the nearby town of Rheinbach which indicates that a Jewish man named "Hiertz" was living in Schweinheim during the last quarter of the 16th century (1575-1600), about 150 years earlier than previously published Jewish histories about Schweinheim.

In 1723 government officials of Julich village detained the Jew, Manasse of Schweinheim at the request of the authorities in Bonn, who were acting on the advice of the Dutch city of Zwolle.

The Hofrat Court, in 1738, denied an application to extradite Salomon from Schweinheim, who had difficulties meeting his obligations. There apparently also was a disagreement as to whether Schweinheim belonged to the village of Julich.

Salomon's son-in-law, Hirz Josef, also seems to have been a horse dealer who was born in Schweinheim in 1773. In 1794 he sued Mathias Gross in the Commons Court for non-payment of 6 krontalers.

Salomon's grandson, Salomon (Shlomo ben Yosef) Herz of Schweinheim (1827-1911), was also a horse dealer.

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In 1818 Meyer (Meir ben Jehudah) Herz (originally named Hirz Josef) (1805~1891) and Josef Heimbach were destitute.

The physician, Dr. Karl Herz of the Bronx, New York, was Meyer Herz's grandson.

In the year 1750 the dealer, David Süsmann, also lived in Schweinheim. His sons were the window maker, David (Dovid ben Aleichem nadar ha-Cohen) Rolef (1828-1896) in neighboring Kirchheim, and the cattle dealer, David Billig, who also lived in Kirchheim, the home of three Jewish families in 1780.

Joseph (Juda Joosel) Herz, the Stammvater (literal translation: tribe or trunk father, i.e. from whom the family --- tribe --- branches out) of the Herz family of Schweinheim and Flamersheim, was born in the village of Satzvey in 1735. (All three villages are near each other and are today part of the city of Euskirchen.) Nothing more is known about Joseph Herz's life in Satzvey or of his ancestors because the well-kept old Jewish cemetery located near the Satzvey-Obergartzemer Strasse was destroyed during World War II. After 1945 lime was removed from a neighboring quarry and not a trace remains from the old cemetery. Also, by 1914 no more Jews lived in Satzvey.

The aforementioned Joseph (Juda Joosel) Herz from Satzvey moved to Schweinheim in 1759, when he was 24 years old. In 1794 he was the only one in town who made Jewish contributions. He died in Schweinheim in 1816, His son was the horse dealer R. Jehudah, also named Leib Herz (1772-1810), who, in 1792 at the age of 20, brought suit against Franz Koerner of Mechernich in Arensbergischen court for five reich dollars. In a similar suit over horse dealings against Franz Lambrechts of Gehn, Leib Herz sued him for four reich dollars. He was involved in similar proceedings in 1798, when he sued Josef Moringen of Kommern.

Leib Herz had two sons, R. Meir --- named Meyer Herz (18051891) --- and R. Mordechai --- named Gustav Herz (1803-1878), and a daughter, Eva (Ester) Herz (1801-1881), who was the wife of Isaak Oster, thereby linking the Herz and Oster families of Schweinheim and nearby Flamersheim.

Gustav Herz was one of the least wealthy of Schweinheim's Jews. His son, Eduard Herz  (born in 1843), was a  horse dealer  like his  father.  Eduard Herz married his cousin, Berta Herz, the daughter of Meyer Herz. Eduard and Berta Herz were the parents of twins --- Emil and Sophie Herz --- born in Flamersheim on April 14, 1883. The twins married Emma and Siegmund Salomon,  sister and  brother from Opladen;  Isaac and Eva  Metzger  Salomon were cousins as well. Eduard and Berta Herz's grandchild, Herbert Herz (born September 2, 1916), lived with his two sons, David (Dov) (born August 2, 1948), Amnon (born November 28, 1946) and Michael (born November 8, 1954) in Jerusalem, Israel. Herbert Herz and his wife, Bruria Becker Herz, died as a result of an automobile accident in Israel in September, 1972. Herbert Herz's two sisters live in Israel: Erna Herz Herzberg (born September 13, 1913) lives in Haifa and Lotte Herz David (born April 16, 1925) is a resident of Doar na Oshrat.

Gustav Herz's son-in-law, Josef Daniel, was a butcher in Kirchheim. Leopold Daniel  (1856-1917)  of Kirchheim,  the son  of Josef  (1823-1860)  and

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Henriette Herz Daniel (1826-1887), married his cousin, Sarah Berlin (1860-1938), the daughter of Michael (1801-1897) and Gudula Daniel Berlin (1817-1900). Sarah's sister, Helene Berlin (1851-1920),  married her cousin, Michael Daniel (1847-1918), son of Leopold (1819-1896) and Veronika "Verona" Wendel Daniel (born in 1813). Leopold and Josef Daniel were brothers. Leopold Daniel's son, Carl Daniel (who was born in Kirchheim in 1896) married Thekla Wolf of Mertloch, thereby linking these two families in this family tree.

The heirs of Leib Herz included Isaak Oster (1801-1863) from Wittlich, who was married to Eva (Ester bat Jehudah) Herz, mentioned previously. Isaak Oster owned houses at Putzgasse 7 and 8 in Schweinheim, where religious services were held. In 1852 he was added to the other Schweinheim Jews who were allowed to get wood from the forest near Flamersheim.

Another grandchild of Meyer Herz also married into the Hirsch family of Polch. Paula Simon (1876-1970), one of the two daughters of Martin (1837-1928) and Regina Herz Simon (1842-1933) of Berrendorf, married Gustav Hirsch (1870-1955), a brother of the aforementioned Hermann Hirsch.

Salomon Simon (born May 6, 1871), a son of Martin and Regina Herz Simon,  married  his cousin,  Rosa  Herz  (born May 18, 1877),  a  daughter  of Eduard and Berta Herz. Both Salomon and Rosa Herz Simon were murdered by the Nazis in Auschwitz.

Karl Simon, another son of Martin and Regina Herz Simon, married Selma Salomon on the same day as his parents' golden wedding anniversary in 1920. Martin and Regina Simon's other son, Leo, died in World War I combat in August, 1914, after being hit in the head by a bullet.

Hilde Sperber (born September 3, 1907), granddaughter of Salomon (1841-1872) and Billa Roer Herz (born in 1840) [Billa Roer Herz later married Hermann Weber], and daughter of Philip and Rosa Herz Sperber, married her second cousin, Ernst Meyer (born December 13, 1911), grandson of Eduard and Berta Herz and son of Daniel and Pauline ("Lina") Herz Meyer (1881-Holocaust). Ernst and Hilde were divorced while living in China during World War II. She later married Curt Leveson and they lived in Southfield, Michigan. Ernst Meyer married twice more and died in California on May 6, 1968.

The Horn and Marx families moved to Schweinheim in 1820. It is believed that the last members of the Horn family died around 1920, but Jakob Marx still lived in Schweinheim in 1936.

The hard-to-find Schweinheim Jewish cemetery is located off the road on the left side, next to a house, following a sharp right turn beyond Schweinheim on the way to Queckenberg. There are 14 gravestones in two neat rows.

Two Jews from Flamersheim, Jacob Wallich and Wolff Judt, in 1659 paid an annual tribute of two goldguldens. Wolff's only son, Josef, was married in 1670 in Euskirchen, where he worked as a Torah teacher. Wolff himself was last named in the records in 1668, together with Mr. Sussman, who also settled in Flamersheim.

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From 1699 until 1729 Salomon was a small merchant in Flamersheim. Mencken Wolff (1699-1744) seemed to be the first leader of the Jewish congregation. In 1731 he shared the leadership with his son, Wolff Mencken (1719-1771).

In 1731 Mencken Cain and his sons, Michael Mencken (1729-1784) and Voes Mencken --- who later lived in Niederdrees and Kuchenheim --settled in Flamersheim. Michael's grandsons, Josef and Jacob Wendel, were well-to-do business people in Flamersheim around 1820.

Abraham Wolff was listed in Flamersheim for the first time in 1769. In 1785 he was poor and in need. Abraham's great granddaughter was the wife of the businessman, Nathan Ulmer, in Kirchheim (1870). Their grandchildren still had a wholesale and retail cattle business in Kirchheim in 1938.                                    

Heymann Israel lived in Flamersheim in 1790, the same time as the aforementioned Abraham Wolff. In 1808 Heymann Israel was a teacher in the nearby town of Rheinbach. His only daughter was the wife, in 1810, of the textile salesman, Jakob Meyer of Kirchheim (R. Meir), who lived to be 101 years old.

The Jews of Flamersheim and neighboring Kirchheim combined their religious services in the 18th century. The teaching and prayer room was in the home of the Wendel family, located in the vicinity of the Flamersheim Markt (Marketplace) at Putzgasse 118 in 1813.

Flamersheim's first known teacher and preacher was Israel Beer (1719). It is said he pursued his teaching and preaching without doing anything else.

The Jews of the nearby town of Schweinheim participated in Flamersheim's religious services until 1874 as the teaching and prayer room was adequate for both groups.

The synagogue at Valdergasse 2a (next to Emil Herz's house at the corner --- "Geh in die Gass ") was built in 1876 and dedicated in 1878. The Flamersheim synagogue had 60 seats and cost about 7,500 marks to build. In November, 1938 the local Nazi S.S. Gestapo insisted on having it demolished and only the foundation remains below a garden behind the former home of Emil Herz.

The congregation charged membership dues of six talern in 1850, a sum arrived at at a membership meeting. In 1856 Lazarus Ulmer lost a court case in Rheinbach which challenged the dues.

In 1877 some members of the original congregation in Flamersheim split away from the Jewish congregation in Schweinheim. In 1886 the congregation in Kuchenheim also wanted to break away from Schweinheim's and in 1878 the congregation in Kirchheim also wanted to break away.

Jacob Weiss, Lazarus Ulmer, David Rolef, Abraham Julich and Leon Appel signed a petition asking the courts to declare Kirchheim's Jews to be independent of Flamersheim. They claimed that as far back as people could remember there had always been a Jewish cemetery in their town. The court rejected the petition,  however,  because the  Kirchheim  congregation  was too

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weak financially to be independent. In 1883 the Kirchheim congregation's petition to have a separate school was also rejected. The Oberpräsidium (higher court) in Koblenz proposed that the Flamersheim and Kirchheim congregations should   remain   together    and   all   the    Jewish   children   of   Kirchheim, Grossbüllesheim and Kuchenheim should receive their education in Flamersheim. Beginning in 1899 the children from Grossbüllesheim and Kuchenheim attended the Euskirchen Jewish school. The only Jewish school in Flamersheim was closed in 1907.

From 1852 to 1918 the Flamersheim congregation belonged to. the community synagogues of Kreis (County) Rheinbach as a special congregation. Until its dissolution, a court-appointed person was placed in charge, whose expenses were supposed to be paid by the members. In 1854 the Flamersheim Jews had one of the weakest congregations in Kreis Rheinbach, but by 1889 it had as much income as the synagogues in Meckenheim and Münstereifel. More than 100 persons belonged to the Flamersheim congregation in the years 1871-75. They had to make up the expenses from twelve Jewish citizens in Flamersheim and Kirchheim. None of the Jews in the villages of Stotzheim and Niederkastenholz were financially able to pay dues to the Flamersheim synagogue.

Markus Oster, the synagogue's president, was the first Jew to be a member of Flamersheim's town council (1919). Other prominent Jews in the Flamersheim area were Dr. Moritz Herz and Dr. Gustav Wendel, veterinarians; Alfred Oster, the lawyer and notary who died in Israel, and Dr. Ernst Weiss, Dr. Sally Weiss and Dr. Siegfred Weiss (from Kirchheim and Flamersheim), physicians.

Three Flamersheim Jews fell in the wars for Germany and their names appear on a memorial (with a large Christian cross) on the church wall in the Markt. They are Michael Daniel (Austro-Prussian War, 1866) and Leo Daniel and Albert Herz (World War I, 1914-18).

Michael Wendel was a prominent Jewish businessman in the l9th century. In 1857 he belonged to the group that was entitled to get wood from the forest.

Isidor Oster, the cattle dealer, had a very extensive clientele as far away as Saxony in 1900. He bought the cattle in Bavaria, Württemburg and the Rhine Pfalz. He was later killed by the Nazis. David Daniel, the father of the aforementioned Leo Daniel,  also a cattle dealer,  was the  owner of a two-story residence and a storage place with a stable for horses and cows. Around 1920 he established a meat packing house, Godesberg Fleischwarenfabrik. This undertaking was, at the end, managed by his son, Josef Daniel, who serviced large food distributors --- Karstadt and Tietz department stores --- until 1935. Josef Daniel, unmarried, was killed by the Nazis at Sobibor on May 21, 1943.

Those Flamersheim Jews who did not leave the country during the Nazi period were brought to a place near the town of Zulpich where they were forced to labor. From this group, six men, fifteen women, and children were brought to their deaths in Auschwitz.

I found 26 gravesites in the Jewish cemetery "Im obersten Dreifeldchen" --- "a little acreage" --- on my visit there in October, 1981. The cemetery is located in the  middle of a farm away  from the street  in Kirchheim.  About a  block to

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the north is the tiny Kirchheim cemetery with seven gravestones. Both cemeteries were desecrated in 1928.

The last Jew to be buried in the Flamersheim cemetery was Gustav Oster, who died on March 3, 1939. Under the Nazi edicts, Jews could no longer drive vehicles and Gentiles were not permitted to associate with Jews. Nevertheless, a non-Jew, Franz Scheueren of Flamersheim, took the body to the cemetery. Gustav Oster's two children, Richard Oster and Else Oster Nathan Salomon, lived in the United States --- he in Sioux City, Iowa and she in Riverdale [the Bronx], New York City --- with their children and grandchildren.

Dr. Hugo Oster, a son of Meyer and Johanna Sommer Oster, who practiced medicine in Euskirchen, took special care of the poor in that city. He was the last Jew to be deported from Euskirchen by the Nazis.

The Jew, Callman, lived in Kirchheim from 1719 until 1750. His son, Liffmann, lived in Bonn after his marriage in 1757, but moved to Kuchenheim in 1764. At the time Callman lived in Kirchheim, the Jew, Hirz, also lived there. In 1729 they paid tribute of 2.64 goldguldens and they were waiting to receive letters of recommendation which had been promised to them.

Hirz's daughter, Gutgen, had a small business in 1803 in the houses at Lindenburg Strasse 153. Around 1780 there were three Jewish families in Kirchheim: the textile businessman, Jakob Meyer, in Oberkastenholz; the butcher, Arent Wolff, and the windowmaker, David Rolef.

In the entire Flamersheim region the Jews from Kirchheim were the leaders until 1848. This led to the election, in 1853, of Adam Josef Wolff from Kirchheim to be the president of the synagogue community of Flamersheim.

The congregation reached its peak membership of 48 in 1869. Belonging to the community were the Daniel, Julich, Kahn, Rolef, Ulmer, Weiss and Wolff families. Thereafter, the weight of the: Jewish influence in the area shifted to Flamersheim. Only once more, in 1883, with Albert Weiss, did a Kirchheim Jew lead the county synagogue at Rheinbach.

Of the Kirchheim Jews, the four sons of Leopold Daniel --- Jakob, Carl, Max and Josef --- and Gustav Rolef participated in World War I.  Gustav Rolef fell in France in 1918. The brothers Carl and Max Daniel possessed a large cattle dealership in Kirchheim until 1935 which delivered between five and six oxen each week to be slaughtered in the big market in Bonn. After fleeing from the Nazis, Carl Daniel operated a large cattle business in Flemington, New Jersey. Since his retirement, the business has been operated by his three sons, Heinz (Henry), Gunther (Jerry) and Fred Daniel, the latter having been born in New                               Jersey in 1943.

Fifteen Jews still lived in Kirchheim in 1932. Max and Josef Daniel emigrated to New York. Hugo Rolef, who married Erna Friesem from Burgbrohl, went to Cape Town, South Africa, where he died in 1960. Erna Friesem Rolef's sister, Alma Friesem, married Ludwig Wolff and they also fled to Cape Town,  where he died in June, 1980.  Julius and Kurt Weiss  escaped to Israel. The remaining Daniel sisters and the three Ulmer sisters were taken by the Gestapo in 1942 to a Judenhaus --- Jewish home --- in the village of Sinzenich and from there they were deported.      

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The Jewish cemetery in Oberkastenholz was already registered in 1828. Next to the cemetery there was a large pond belonging to a Mr. von Vincke, owner of a castle at Flamersheim. In 1907 the cemetery was closed because it was filled up. It was desecrated twice --- in 1928 and again in 1940. Today it consists of a single row of seven gravestones of Kirchheim's Jews, four of the stones written completely in Hebrew.

Two Jewish families lived in the village of Merzbach in the Surst area since about 1771. They were Samuel Marx, a small storekeeper from Darmstadt, and Michael Wolff from Augsburg, Bavaria. Mr. Wolff, a Torah teacher of the Rheinbach Jews, was the Stammvater of the Metzger family which settled in the county of Rheinbach after 1854.                                               

In 1820, the cattle dealer, Josef Daniel from Gelsdorf, moved to Merzbach. He was the son of Daniel Berlin (Daniel Joosel) and Breile Salm. The Daniel families of Flamersheim, Kirchheim and Ersdorf are descended from them.

In 1840, Josef Sommer from Kuchenheim married a member of the Metzger family in Merzbach. From him are descended the Sommer family in Rheinbach and Wesseling, who were well-to-do business people in real estate and meat handling. Johanna Sommer, born in Kuchenheim, married Meyer Oster, the son of Isaak and Eva (Ester) Herz Oster of Schweinheim.

Eighteen Jews still lived in Merzbach in 1871, but they left the village soon thereafter.

Wormersdorf (with Ipplendorf) near Rheinbach --- where the related Schmitz, Schweitzer and Weber families lived --- had no Jews until 1805, when R. Salomon [known as Salomon Schmitz after the name changes in 1808] from Grossgerau and his wife, Clara Hebgen Herz from Schweinheim, moved to the village from Bodendorf, where their oldest four children were born. They had three more children in Wormersdorf.

CONCLUSION

       So, this concludes the story of a small number of Jewish families from the countryside in the lower Rhineland, the Eifel and the Polch area near Mayen. In these pages we have seen how, through a series of marriages, the families were related to each other and how they stayed together in order to survive as a minority in a Christian society which, for many centuries, openly discriminated against them since they were vulnerable scapegoats.

Having lived through the experience of constant discrimination, forced expulsions, restrictions placed on their ability to get an education and to learn certain trades, and having to pay exorbitant tribute to nobility in return for protection which  did not always last, these  Jewish  families  realized that

the only route to survival was to stick together, practice their religion faithfully and to maintain their traditions.

Thus we find that all of the members of our family who were born and raised in  Germany have  great knowledge  of their ancestors  (thus making the

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gathering of information for this book much easier) Hardly anyone in the family in Europe prior to the post World War II era married a non-Jew, for this was considered a great sin. The families of those who did marry a non-Jew usually would hold a funeral service and then sit Shiva (mourning) for that person, who was then considered to be dead.

There are a great many instances of cousins marrying. Sometimes a brother and sister of one family would marry a sister and brother from another Jewish family. If there were a few Jewish families in the same or neighboring villages, there would be many marriages between them, for there were few Jewish mates to be found in the countryside.

All of these tendencies are found in our family tree.

What about the future? Will we once again face discrimination, forced expulsions and restrictions? Can we survive as a people in Israel --~ our nation --- and elsewhere around the world? Only time will tell and, hopefully, we will all learn to be alert to combat all forms of anti-Semitism.

At the dedication ceremonies of the Holocaust Memorial Sculpture  by Jack Mann in the Rockdale Temple in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1995, 86-year-old Alice Guthmann Dewald, who was born in Aachen, Germany, stood before the congregants and said, "As I stand here on this solemn Ha-Shoah service, it is my hope that "Yom Ha-Shoah" will be observed in all places of Jewish worship forever, lest we forget.

"Since our family has lost many of our closest relatives in the Holocaust, it was my late husband's [Oscar I. Dewald, born in Münstermaifeld on May 11, 1906-arrived in the United States from Holland in 1939-died in Cincinnati, Ohio on June 22, 1991] wish to commemorate them and all who perished, to give a Holocaust memorial sculpture to Rockdale Temple, where he was a devoted member  for 50 years,  and where he had  another wish fulfilled,  when he had his second Bar Mitzvah here in 1989, a first in Rockdale Temple's history.

"...May it be a steady reminder to all who worship at Rockdale Temple, but mainly serve as a 'Learning Center' for the children and generations to come to be taught and 'Never Forget' what happened in this gruesome period of history where Six Million European Jews were so brutally tortured and murdered by the Nazi regime.

"Let us hope and pray that the good in people come to the fore and triumph over hate, prejudice and terror - and let us say:  Amen."

Can we remain united as one family even though we are drifting further apart because we are now dispersed in the United States, Canada, South America, Europe, South Africa, New Zealand and Israel?

The answer is that only all of us together --- with a determination to continue and to update this family tree and to communicate with each other regularly --- can accomplish this goal. It is up to all of us to do our share.

If all of these goals are accomplished, then my more than a quarter century of a labor of love will have been worth it.

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