Anna Braunhart was the second girl (and the third child of Alexander and Helene Baszynska Braunhart) to immigrate to America. She was born in Schubin,  Germany on January 22, 1890. At age 19, by herself, she made the voyage from Germany to America. As her sister Martha did earlier, she worked in the home of Max Markheim and Cecelia Braunhart Markheim, Anna's cousin.  She met her future husband, house painter Harry Airman Tulman, in a paint store owned by her sister Martha and her husband Bernard Sternbach as he shopped for supplies. They were married in 1915 and stayed together for 43 years until Harry's passing in 1958.

Together, Anna and Harry opened a hardware store. While Harry continued painting houses for a living, Anna ran the business while raising 4 children. Anna taught herself English by reading newspapers. She learned the real estate business and went on to buy and manage several apartment buildings while also making money in the stock market. Overall, Anna was very accomplished for a self-taught immigrant.

The following quotes from her children and grandchildren describe this remarkable woman:

• A contributor to a Jewish organization, she traveled frequently to Washington, DC in her efforts to bring German relatives to the US.
• Anna taught herself English by reading the New York Times, Post, and Daily News. She continued reading them daily until July 1, 1986, when she was hospitalized. One month later, on August 1, she passed away at age 96-1/2 in her home of more than 60 years at 8411 21st Avenue in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, an apartment building she once owned. She passed away peacefully in her sleep, with her daughter Mildred and granddaughter Martha at her side.
• She made sugar cookies from scratch. While she often overcooked or burned them, her appreciative family and friends still found them to be delicious. Instead of a cookie cutter, she used the lid of a mayonnaise or instant coffee jar.
• She always served fruit, insisting that every visitor eat one, even if it was close to overripe.
• Anna owned several apartment buildings, including one with 37 units and another with six. Three of Anna's children lived with their own families in the apartments for years.  She also provided German family members who immigrated to America with units from the time they arrived until they found jobs and established their new lives. Anna and Harry also purchased a family summer home near Monroe, NY in the 1940's, which provided many years of enjoyable country life for their children, grandchildren, and extended family.
• After Anna's husband Harry passed away in 1958, Anna lived another 38 years, always sharing memories of what a good person Harry was. She kept to herself and was very family oriented. She enjoyed knitting, reading and had a love for nature, especially birds.
  

A few years before she passed away, Anna summed up her philosophy of how to live an honest life when she said in a taped interview:

"I believe that you have to live a good life and enjoy as much as you can and be honest and fair and square to everybody. You should honor your father and mother and everybody belonging to you. Don't take anything that's not yours. If you can't do good for somebody, don't ever do them any harm. That's the best way to be."

From granddaughter Martha Lesnitzer Zucker’s interview with Anna B. Tulman, taped in Brooklyn on August 31, 1983:

Early Days in America

My father had to go to the mayor, they call it "to give consent" that I could go to America because I wasn't old enough to go without it. I think it must have been in 1909.

One day Harry Tulman came for a can of paint and asked me for a date and that was that. When I had my bunions removed, he came every day to see me in the hospital. We went to City Hall and got married. The Goldsteins, who were friends of Harry’s, made a wedding party for us in their house at 33 Chestnut St., in Brownsville. 

My husband was a painter and didn't make much. One day I said to him, "let's look for our own store." I had $200.00; we looked for a store and found one on 18th Ave. The walls weren't finished and it was wet from the plaster but we had nowhere to go so we slept across the street. There was a shoe store, the name was Horowitz, so we slept over there and we paid them rent. When our store was finished, the walls still wet, we moved in over there, behind the store.   Whenever anybody came and they asked for something, I wrote down what they asked for and then I ordered it.  I have a big story to tell.

Anna’s Parents
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My mother was a very good woman who had a hard life. She had 11 children, including a baby boy who died. My father was well educated.  I used to send money home to them. They didn't need it too much because my father used to be like a lawyer. People came to him who were in trouble of some kind - with their husbands or they had money problems. My father used to go right to court with them. He was like a lawyer here. He was very much educated.  

His brother, Samuel Braunhart, was a state senator in San Francisco who was often in the newspaper. There was a big fire in San Francisco in 1906. My brother Jacob, who came to America with Martha, was there with my uncle when the fire broke out. Jacob carried my uncle out but he died after in the hospital.  My father had another brother. His name was Bernhard. He had a wife and a son.  

​Child Rearing

I hope you have the best life anybody could have, and after a while you'll have a family. You make your children to order, not by accident. I didn't know at that time how happy I was when I had those twins at the same time. I would wish it to anybody if they want to. So maybe if I had them at the beginning, maybe I wouldn't have any more children, but it's better it happened that way. 

Before I had Mildred we didn't plan to have any children yet because it wasn't our time. So then the war came and they said, "Mrs. Tulman, you have a business and you have no children, so your husband's gonna be first to go to war." That's what they told me. So I thought to have children because I didn't want my husband to go..... I had to start to have children before they would take my husband. And then, I had Mildred.

​My husband loved us and he took Mildred everywhere. Wherever he went, they know her better than him. Then I worked hard and he worked hard painting. He used to come home all sweaty from work and give me the money to buy material that the people wanted. He worked hard. Maybe if he didn't work so hard he would have lived longer. 

But then we had to be in the store, I had servants for the children. My husband went to Pennsylvania to pick up the servants. To Cementon I think it was. I used to order, I used to pack, I used to climb up and put the stock away and all and my husband used to work and bring in the money. I like to sleep in the morning so my husband opened up the store and he used to holler, "ANNA, where's this? where's that?” because he had to work and I put it away, so I used to tell him I know upstairs where the things were. 

I had Mildred and Muriel about 3 1/2 years apart. I said to my husband that I must have another child and name it after my mother. I want my mother's name, so he obliged me and God blessed me with twins. I didn't know that was a happy day. That was the happiest day of my life. Helene and Stanley. But Helene was alright. She was a beautiful baby. But Stanley, I think he must have weighed a pound and a half. So at that time they had home nurses. My husband got one for me and she used to take care of me and take care of the children. I couldn't nurse. I never nursed my kids. Helene took the food but Stanley was so weak that he couldn't even take the food so the woman said to me, "the girl eats but the boy don't wanna eat," so I went up and I stood there with a spoon about a half an hour and I fed him till he took it down. So when the doctor came and he saw Stanley, he laughed to beat the band. He couldn't get over that Stanley's living. That's how weak he was. And I think you should have a son like Stanley.

Raising a Family

I believe in having a family. You don't want to be without children. Have them while you're young. You have friends and you have patience and you have everything. When they grow up, you take a rest. 

God
​
I believe there's a God in heaven, I do believe. And He watches over you.

Acknowledgements: With great thanks to Martha Lesnitzer Zucker for writing and providing the majority of this article.

I have just updated the Family Tree Charts for the first four generations of the Braunhart family, It is intended for readers to "keep the names straight".  Dates and locations have been deliberately removed. 

Below you can download a pdf of both pages individually. All new updates will be available in the future via the "Family Trees" tab in the Menu Bar above.
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Julius Braunhart was captured in 1941 and taken to Theresienstadt, which was a concentration camp and ghetto established by the SS in the town of Terezín, located in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia.

His death date is recorded as March 23, 1943. He was 58.

His daughter Lilly, son Lothar, and ex-wife Dorka had escaped to Shanghai around 1940. This approximate date is calculated based on a letter from Lilly, where she referred to "10 long years in Shanghai", and the fact that she arrived in New York as "stateless" on September 5,1950. Lothar and Dorka arrived in New York on January 31, 1951, also designated as "stateless". It is unknown why the three of them stayed in Shanghai for a few years after the war ended. In any case, they ended up finally locating in San Francisco, where all three of them lived out their lives.

For an unknown reason Lilly had contacted the authorities in Terezin, and received Julius' cremation certificate, displayed above.

Here is the translation:

Date: Sept 29, 1948

From: 
Ministry of Social Welfare
Sadova, Czechoslovakia

To:
Lilly Hoorin
c/o American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee
119/121 Wayside Rd.
Shanghai, China

Re: Search for Julius Braunhart

In response to your inquiry from July 23, 1948, regarding the search for Julius Braunhart, we would like to inform you that after a search of records, we found only the following:

Julius Braunhart (no personal data found) was cremated in the Terezin Concentration Camp on March 23-24, 1943 (#14174).

Signed by,

Minister (of Social Welfare)

Julius and Dorka were divorced on February 16, 1927 in Berlin. It is believed that Julius deserted the family, and that likely was a cause of the divorce - pure conjecture. It also explains why he did not join his ex-wife and family in their escape to Shanghai. There rarely is a good reason to desert one's spouse and family, but in this case it was fatal for Julius.

Salo Brunn, was the husband of Freida Braunhart.  We have more about Salo below, but first let's present his recently discovered Birth Certificate, followed by the translation:
​

​And here is the translation, thanks to our translator. Matthias Steinke:

Nr. 2164

Hamburg, the 26th September 1898
To the signing registrar came today, the by marriage-certificate identified
Rahel Brünn (Bruenn) born Levin,
residing in Hamburg, Margarethenstreet 6,
house 2, Jewish religion, and reported, that by herself,
wife of the tailor
Moritz Brünn, Jewish religion,
residing also there,
in Hamburg in the residence of her husband
at the 14th September of the year
1898 pre midday at 8:30 o'clock a child
of male gender was born, who got the first name
SALO.
Read, confirmed and signed
Rahel Brünn born Levin
the registrar
in representation
Kellner
The correctness with the main register is herewith certified:
Hamburg, at the 26th September 1898
The registrar
Kellner

So, September 14, 1898 in Hamburg, Germany was the magic day and 8:30 AM was the magic hour!

And just to prove that he knew his own birth date, below is the first page of his Naturalization Application:
​

Salo and Frieda owned a dry cleaning business in Brooklyn where they lived.

What do his family members say about Salo?  Here are a few quotes from some of his family members:

• "Uncle Sol" was good-natured and jovial.
• Had 2 children,  Miriam & Henry. Henry married Doris Bauer (non-Jew). Henry, Doris, & 4 children disappeared & broke Frieda's heart. Frieda apparently hired detectives to find Henry but they were unsuccessful.
• Frieda & Sol owned a dry cleaning store on E. 2nd & Avenue P in Brooklyn. When they lost their business, they moved into the apartment building that Frieda's sister Anna owned at 8411-21st Ave., Brooklyn. All the relatives came to the dry cleaning store on Saturdays - Martha & family (Harold & Kitty, Leo & Ida), Anna & family, etc. They came to do their clothes & visit.

• According to his grandson - He was a gentle, generous, and happy go lucky guy, a decorated war hero (Iron Cross) in WWI with full tattoo sleeves on his arms, and though he owned a laundry in Germany, then in Brooklyn, was a lifelong gambler and bookie, which didn't please my grandmother.
• Salo died of a heart attack in his apartment at 8411 21st Ave.

I have tons of certificates that pertain to Salo. I think the Germans liked certificates. A while back Salo's daughter Miriam sent me a ton of documents and photos and we agreed that I would do some research into the Brunn family, which I am doing.  Anything pertaining to Salo, or Salo and Frieda I will post here in additional Articles.

A piece of information that fellow Braunharts may not know - Miriam is the last remaining of the 4th generation of Braunharts. In essence, she is the matriarch of the family. Betcha didn't know that!
​

​Salo and Frieda Braunhart were married on May 12, 1926 in Berlin, and to prove that there was a wedding, below is my favorite Braunhart wedding photo. Isn't it great that everyone was so happy at such a joyous occasion?

Just four months after the wedding, Salo and Frieda immigrated to America. They were detained for a week because of what I can gather was Salo's illness during the trip across the Atlantic. Below are the three immigration documents pertaining to their trip.

With all the documents that Miriam has loaned me to research and the requisite translation, it will take me awhile to see what treasures about Salo are revealed.

As you well know, the Holocaust directly affected several Braunhart ancestors, especially those who were murdered - Philipp (July 6, 1942, Sachsenhausen). Hanna (February 19, 1943, Auschwitz), and Julius (March 23, 1943, Theresienstadt).

And those who escaped - Selma, Theo, Lilly, Lothar, and Selma's future husband George Gandel.

And Else, Horst, Gisela, and Bernhard, the wife and children of Philipp, whose forced divorce because of the Nuremberg laws delivered an unknowable pain and suffering to the family. Not to mention their descendants, who remain in Germany to this day.

And what about Cilly, who married a Christian, but likely had to hide out during that time?

And Karl and Hedwig, who left their daughter Hanna, and immigrated to America, but must have felt enormous guilt as she remained and was killed in Auschwitz.

How about Alexander himself, who was hidden in a basement until he died in 1941?

And countless other Braunhart ancestors and relatives who lost part of their family.

Martha recently attended a Kristallnacht Commemoration and returned with a very nice summary chart of a Holocaust timeline.  It is below.

Regarding Kristallnacht, Philipp and Else's tailor shop was destroyed during that night.

You can read more about Kristallnacht in Kristallnacht - Wikipedia
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(Please click on the following image to enlarge; you may have to save the image and open it in an Image reader that will allow you to display even larger)

There have been several Braunhart men who have served in the military. And yes, some served in the German army in World War I.

In honor of all who served, no matter the country, here are a few photos of them in uniform.
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Of Alexander and Helene Braunhart's children, Julius and Moritz were the "mysteries".  We know that Moritz married a woman named Clara (don't know maiden name yet), and that Julius married Dorka (Doris) Asch.

We suspect that Moritz committed suicide, as he suffered from severe depression. As far as we know, Clara and Moritz did not have any children.

We also know that Julius and Doris had two children, Lilly and Lothar, both born in Labischin.

​In January, 1959, Lilly wrote a letter to the German Consulate in San Francisco, where she, Lothar and Doris had resided after they left Shanghai, where they escaped during World War II. Lilly had married Jack Rains (and subsequently divorced).  We don't know Lothar's (who changed his name to Leslie) marital history,
.... yet.

Julius had died at the hands of the Nazis in Thereseinstadt concentration camp in 1943. That camp was in Czechoslovakia.

At any rate, Lilly wrote this letter... a declaration to the German Consulate in SF, CA (Jan 1959) regarding Julius Braunhart's birth, marriage, children, divorce, deportation and death.

Here is the letter. Unfortunately some of it is cut off.  We are trying to obtain a better version:

And thanks to our friend Matthias Steinke, here is the translation:

"January 1959

To the signing, seized for certifications consul Dr. Walter Fröwis, 
came today to the office of the German consulate in San Francisco, California:

Mrs. Lilly Rains born Braunhart, divorced, born on the 19th May 1916
in Labischin/Poznan, residing 793-37 Ave., San Francisco, Cal.

The identity of the appears was determined.

She declared:

My father was the German citizen Julius Braunhart, born on the 6th January 1885 in Schubin/Poznan.

About 1941, he was deported from his last residence in Berlin to Theresienstadt where he,
according to the 1948 information received from the ministry of social affairs in Prague,
on the 23rd or 24th March 1943 was deceased.

He was in first and only matrimony (married on the 23rd Dec. 1913 in Labischin) married
with Doris Braunhart born Asch, born 18th October 1886 in Labischin, residing 793-37 Ave., San Francisco, California.

This matrimony was divorced, by judgment of the district court I Berlin, and the divorce became legal on the 16th February 1927.

From this matrimony emerged the following children:

• Ruth Braunhart, born on the 2nd November 1914 in Labischin, deceased on the 1st January 1915 in Labischin,
• Me, the applicant
• Lothar Braunhart, unmarried, born on the 27th February 1920 in Labischin, residing 793-37 Ave., San Francisco, California.

The deceased hasn't left a will."

Wait - what? Julius and Doris were divorced?  That's new!

And another discovery - Ruth Braunhart - a NEW Braunhart, was the first born of Julius and Doris, born in Labischin, and unfortunately died in Labischin 14 months later.

So that's two new discoveries in ONE Letter! Both from the Friedrichshain Kreuzberg Museum in Berlin

Thanks to Andrea for this. Good news - she has discovered many more documents that will be translated and presented only here at https://www.braunhart.com

As we all know, Phillipp was taken to the Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp, where he lived his final days. For your information, the camp was located at the edge of Oranienburg, 21 miles (34 km) northwest of Berlin. He sent a postcard to Lucie Braunhart, Theo's wife.

Note; A newly discovered piece of info about Lucie - her maiden name was Cartheuser.

At the date of the postcard, Lucie was the only relative left alive that he could communicate with.

• His mother Helene, died much earlier, in 1925.
• His father Alexander had passed just a year earlier, in 1941
• Anna, Carl, Martha, and Frieda had immigrated to New York City
• Jacob had immigrated to Delaware.
• Selma had escaped to England
• Theo had escaped to Shanghai, along with Dorka (Julius' wife) and her children Lilly and Lothar.
• The whereabouts of Moritz and his wife Clara, were unknown at that time, although likely in Leipzig.
• Julius was at Theresienstadt Concentration Camp, which is now in the Czech Republic.
• Carl's daughter Hanna was at Auschwitz.
• Cecelia was likely in Cottbus, married to Horst Eilenberg, but since she was Jewish (don't know about Horst), it is likely that she was in hiding.

So that leaves Lucie, who was likely a Christian, although we have no evidence of that claim.

We don't know how long they had been communicating.

At any rate, below is the original postcard, followed by the translation

Many thanks to Andrea for finding this wonderful source material.

And thanks to Matthias Steinke, our German translator friend, below is the translation:

stamp:

Oranienburg, 4th July 1942
written from the concentration camp Sachsenhausen

address:

Mrs.
Lucie Braunhardt
Berlin O17
Holzmarktstrasse 50a

written text:

My very beloved children, Mum and 
all relatives. I am healthy and hope the
same from you. I hope that you 
received my wages. If it's possible,
be so kind and send me wool socks.
Stay healthy and let hear from you soon.
Be hearty greeting by your loving father.

printed text:

Concentration camp Sachsenhausen
Oranienburg near Berlin
Excerpt of the camp regulations.
Every prisoner is allowed to receive and send
2 letters or postcards per month.
Incoming letters shall not have more than 4 pages
with not more than 15 lines each and have
to be clear and good readable. Parcels with any
content are forbidden. Sending money is only allowed
via money order addressed to the prisoner: first name and
surname, date of birth and prisoner number and no
further messages. Money, photos and pictures in letters
are forbidden. Letters that don't correspond with these rules
will be rejected. Confusing or hard readable letters will
be destroyed. In the camp can be bought everything.
National socialist newspapers are allowed, but have to be
ordered by the prisoners.

The camp commander


If you have forgotten, the reason he is not communicating with his wife Else and his three children directly, was because Philipp and Else had a "forced" divorce. Since Else was a Christian and the children were half Jewish, if they did not divorce, the children would have been taken away by the Nazis.