"The times here are terrible" is one of the phrases that Alexander Braunhart writes in this long letter to his daughter Anna in Brooklyn. Primarily because of war between the Poles and the Germans in and around Schubin, the Braunhart "homeland."

His most chilling sentence is "But one gets used to everything and one owes only the death."

His family is strewn everywhere. Jakob is nowhere to be found - daughters Martha and Anna are in Brooklyn. His sister Sara is in Oakland, California. Son Theo is in Bromberg, Moritz in Leipzig, and the rest are either still in Schubin or in Berlin.

The war and the cost of goods is wearing on he and his immediate family at home in Schubin. Looting and internment camps are part of the distress reported by Alexander. Yet wife Helene is ever positive as is daughter Frieda in this letter to their beloved Anna.

With many thanks to our translator Matthias Steinke, here is the English translation:

Szubin, street of the 3rd May Nr. 31, 3rd September 1919

Beloved daughter Anna, good son-in-law and sweet grandchildren!

First of all deepest congratulation for your little daughter, and for the coming new year. We got a message from Martha about 14 days ago and we also waited since year and day for yours. All, who have relatives over there are getting letters only we don´t, except the one from Martha, which we directly answered in detail. Hopefully is our answer, which was addressed to you all already in your hands.

We were glad to see, that you are doing well; but it was nothing mentioned about Jakob, Aunt and the bank. I will also write today to San Francisco and Oakland.

How we were doing and will do in future is impossible to describe in a letter. Schubin and the whole county is now Polish and it will probably be. In front and in the city were huge battles with many losses of people. In the beginning the Polish and German soldiers were looting, and Karl had over 15.000 Mark stolen from him. We had been spared of paying contributions and bails.

One day they wanted to intern us, but did not start. All German and Jewish men, who haven't fled were interned or had to pay high bails.

Now they are quite all at home.

Karl is not among those at home, because he had already fled to Berlin before the internments began. And Hedwig moves with both children in the middle of the month to Berlin to Karl. After the children we will longing for, because they were always around us.

We live in a house. Our boys have been soldiers during the war and came back safe and healthy.

Only Theo got an attack of malaria. Coming from the Ukraine he came to Bromberg (Bydgocz). He couldn't come to Schubin and fled to Berlin, where he had a profitable job.

His stuff will Hedwig bring when she moves.

Philipp is doing well, so as Moritz in Leipzig.

Julius and wife and child visit us often. Julius became in the internment camp very serious ill.

We were treated by the military authorities very good. With the people are many problems. In Schubin, which became Polish, the people are being treated fairly, unlike the people in Germany. Nine Jewish families are already away and others will follow. We also don't stay here.

The livelihood is very expensive, but its here better than in Germany, here you can get something for the money at least. A pound meat costs 4 Mark, 1 ... eggs 4-5 Mark, 1 bread 1,70 Mark; 10 butter 5 Mark and more; 1 box old matches 30 Pfennig; 1 cigar 3,50 Mark, coffee 30 Mark, rice 3,30 Mark; 1 package chicory 3 Mark and so on. 

We hadn't any distress so far and we still have some money.

As far as there is something in the stock, we will hold out. We don't expect anything from you, because you also
have hard times. If the bank would pay, it would help us, because the Dollar costs here 14 Mark.

Write your opinions and make inquiries. Write me also the address of Jakob and Aunt. Cylli had against our sake in Graudenz (Grudziądz) a war-wedding with a man who is still in British war-captivity. His name is Horst Eilenberg and he is a finely educated man. Cylli is since 8 days in Berlin and awaits her "Saxon". She was and is very hysterical. 

Selma is and was during the war here and helped Mum. But will probably soon go to Berlin, because here it has no purpose. 

Frieda, who is tall and strong writes for 60 Marks per month. At the moment for shoes which cost 130 Mark the pair. A strikingly beautiful girl.

Mum and I are getting tottery. The times here were terrible.

We spent the nights in the cellar as protection against the grenades. But now its calm and orderly and give God that now everything will be settled soon. Bromberg is still German and every traffic to there closed. We have here always soldiers, that is to say now Polish. We are afraid for the next winter due to a deficit of heating-material. A fathom timber costs 100 Mark and peat, timber and coal are not available. The electric light is limited.

But one gets used to everything and one owes only the death.

As soon as the boys find an apartment for us we will move. At the moment there aren't any apartments available and we pay here 300 Mark yearly. Martha's advised parcel didn't arrive so far, and as soon we will get a message from you we will tell it to you.

What's the name of the little daughter? Has Harry a job? Do you still have the business? Do you live with the Sternbachs and Markheims in harmony?

Greet all, and also you are hearty greeted from your you loving parents.

[from Helene] 

Dear children!

We got Martha's letter and are very concerned being without message from you, my beloved and we expect with huge longing a letter from you. Hopefully you are healthy, so as also the little one to whom we hearty congratulate.

We are doing well, we want to move away. No hope? and inflation is raising.

Martha should wait sending the parcel, it doesn't arrive up to today.

For today farewell and be hearty greeted and kissed by your you heartfelt loving mother Helene

Please greet also Martha, Benny and the lovely children as well as all relatives

[from Frieda]

The heartiest greetings and kisses is sending you your sister and sister-in-law Frieda.

The earliest photos of Braunhart babies and children are from 1900 on. Just for fun, here is a selection of some of them:

Some families are quite open about talking about all of their relatives and ancestors. Unfortunately on my father's side of the family - they were not. I do not have any idea why that was the case. For example, of my 4 great grandparents on that side, when I started my family history research, I only knew the name of one of my great grandparents - Isidor Heyman. I do not recall at all the mention of any of the other three.

However, I do recall the mention of my grandmother's cousin - Eric Brock. All I remember from the few short verbal snippets is that he was an attorney living in New York.

So for this inaugural edition of "Ancestor of the Month" we will salute Eric Brock. Fortunately, because of successful genealogy research, a bit about Eric's life has been discovered in the past 10 years.

Elkan Eric Brock was born in Brooklyn, New York on October 27,1906.  Eric as he was called, was the son of William Broch and Amalie (Molly) Bernstein Broch. Amalie was a younger sister of my great grandmother - Ernestine Bernstein Heyman, Isidor's wife.

The surname Broch was sometimes spelled Brock and after the early 1900s it appears that the family settled on the latter version. Eric was named after William Broch's father Elkan Broch from Austria. Both William and Amalie immigrated to America in the late 1890s, and married in New York City in 1899. From census records we find that William was a translator, language teacher, magazine writer, and calligrapher. Family lore states that Amalie was also a magazine writer, yet there is no proof of that yet.

Eric graduated from Brooklyn Law School in the late 1920s. He is cited as a lawyer in the 1930 and 1940 censuses; his older sister Regina a shoe designer, and oldest sister Teresa a stenographer in a bond house. 

He married later in his life and was devoted to his mother, caring for her in her later years at their home at 780 Riverside Drive in Manhattan, a place where they resided for many many years. The senior Brock, William it appears was estranged from the family as he is not living with the family in neither the 1930 or 1940 censuses, choosing a different residence. William died in 1943. Amalie passed in 1965 in Manhattan. William is buried at Beth El Cemetery in Westwood, New Jersey. Coexisting in Westwood is the Cedar Park Cemetery, where Amalie and Eric are buried side by side.

Eric was the one and only of the New York Braunharts and Bernsteins who traveled to Northern California frequently to visit his relatives. The bulk of the family had moved to the San Francisco area, starting in the 1860s when Bernhard and Samuel Braunhart had initially located after immigrating. The Heyman families and Bernstein families moved to Oakland starting in 1910, and others made the move over the next 30 years.

Here is Eric with some of his cousins and other relatives in the late 1930s while he was visiting them in Oakland. Eric is the balding man with the suit and tie just behind the older woman in the center - his Aunt Ernestine.

Eric focused primarily on estate law. We know from the will of his first cousin, once removed - Selma Braunhart Gandel, that he was the attorney of record.

Eric met his wife Edith Sternberg Walker in a law office. Twelve years Eric's junior, she was a Holocaust survivor and was divorced from her first husband, with one son and one daughter, who provided me with the information about Eric's last twenty years of life, as well as details about his marriage to Edith. Edith was quite interested in getting married, however Eric, in his 60s, was reluctant. Eventually love won out and they were married in Maryland. Unfortunately the specific location and exact date have not been discovered as yet.

They lived happily together for about 15 years. He retired from his law practice in the mid-1970s.

Eric's final days were traumatic for he and his wife. Suffering from dementia and other mental problems, sadly Eric became abusive, which was not his nature. He had to be institutionalized. Eric died at Marlboro Psychiatric Hospital at age 77 on April 9, 1984. Edith survived for another 24 years.

In the course of discovering one's ancestry - it certainly is a journey and many times a trek (a journey with obstacles). If we consider Lewin Jacob Braunhart and his wife Wilhelmine Zadek as the first generation of Braunharts; and Bernhard, Samuel, Sara, and Alexander as the 2nd, then the 3rd generation would be the seventeen surviving children of Bernhard, Sara, and Alexander. These I have previously written about as quite an admirable group of ancestors in The Memorable Seventeen.  The 3rd generation was exemplified by immigration and escape.  Half of the 17 immigrated to America, and half escaped from Schubin to Berlin, and many of those escaped Germany from the Nazis, although two were unsuccessful.

So what about the next generation - the fourth? There were a total of 35 children born to the 17 grandchildren of Lewin and Wilhelmine.  Who were they and what makes them special? These 35 were exemplified by the majority being born in America as a result of their parents immigrating. However, holdovers from the 3rd generation still occurred, as a few of these 35 had to also escape Nazi Germany. 

The birth years range from 1892 to 1936 - quite a span. Here is a list, followed by names and photos. Truly an impressive bunch:

• 5 died in childhood (4 via illness, 1 by drowning)
• 2 spent several years in the Shanghai Ghetto
• 1 was murdered at Auschwitz
• 1 escaped to Palestine
• 1 was a vaudeville pianist
  
• 1 was a statistician
• 1 served in both World War 1 and World War 2
• 7 were housewives
  
• 1 broke the record for typewriting speed and broke one of the first electric typewriters
• 1 designed clothing and was an award winning smoothie dancer
• 1 built clocks, watches, and custom furniture
• 3 were attorneys
• 1 was a jazz musician
• 1 was a singer
• 1 was a shoe designer
• 1 was a captain at a world famous hotel
• 2 were successful amateur boxers
• 1 owned a bicycle shop
• 1 was a legal secretary - her sister a secretary
• 1 was a school teacher
• 3 served in the US Army
• 2 were stenographers
• 1 owned a luncheonette for 40 years
• 1 was a track star in high school and college
• As of the date of this publication, 3 are living

And here they are:

On this Father's Day we remember our deceased Braunhart fathers. Some of us knew you and all of us wish we had met you. 

Alexander Braunhart - Father of Moritz, Jakob, Anna, Martha, Theodor, Carl, Selma, Cecelia, Julius, Philipp, Frieda, Caesar, and one unknown 

Harry Tulman (Husband of Anna Braunhart) - Father of Mildred, Muriel, Stanley, and Helene 

Bernard Sternbach (Husband of Martha Braunhart) - Father of Leo, Harold, and Regina

Carl Braunhart - Father of Hanna and Heinz

Jacob Braunhart - Father of Erna, Margaret, and Herbert

Philipp Braunhart - Father of Horst, Gisela, and Bernhard 

Salo Brunn - (Husband of Frieda Braunhart) - Father of Henry and Miriam 

Max Markheim (Husband of Cecelia Bernstein) - Father of Arthur, Robert, Minnie, Pauline, Leo, and Edith

Isidor Heyman (Husband of Ernestine Bernstein) - Father of Celia, Martha, Arthur, Robert, Leo, and Mynette 

Julius Braunhart - Father of Lilly and Lothar 

Unfortunately we do not have photos of the following Braunhart fathers: 

Bernhard Braunhart – Father of Harry

Aaron Bernstein (Husband of Sara Braunhart ) - Father of Amalie, Ernestine, Cecelia, Hattie, Max and 2 others unknown

William Fried (Husband of Hattie) - Father of Leo

William Brock (Husband of Amalie) - Father of Teresa, Regina, and Eric 

On this Mother's Day we remember our deceased Braunhart mothers. Some of us knew you and all of us wish we had met you. 

Sara Braunhart Bernstein - Mother of Amalie, Ernestine, Cecelia, Hattie, Max and 2 others unknown 

Helene Baszynska Braunhart - Mother of Moritz, Jakob, Anna, Martha, Theodor, Carl, Selma, Cecelia, Julius, Philipp, Frieda, Caesar, and one unknown 

Anna Braunhart Tulman - Mother of Mildred, Muriel, Stanley, and Helene 

Martha Braunhart Sternbach - Mother of Leo, Harold, and Regina 

Hedwig Bukofzer Braunhart (Wife of Carl) - Mother of Hanna and Heinz 

Ilse Gass Hart (Wife of Jacob) - Mother of Erna, Margaret, and Herbert 

Else Schmalenbach (Wife of Phillip) - Mother of Horst, Gisela, and Bernhard 

Frieda Braunhart Brunn - Mother of Henry and Miriam 

Cecelia Bernstein Markheim - Mother of Arthur, Robert, Minnie, Pauline, Leo, and Edith 

Hedwig (Hattie) Bernstein Fried - Mother of Leo 

Ernestine Bernstein Heyman - Mother of Celia, Martha, Arthur, Robert, Leo, and Mynette 

Dorka Asch Braunhart (Wife of Julius) - Mother of Lothar and Lilly  

Unfortunately we do not have photos of the following Braunhart mothers: 

Rosa Levison Braunhart – Mother of Harry

Amalie Bernstein Brock - Mother of Teresa, Regina, and Eric

Thanks to Martha's persistence and landscaping skills - we now have photos of the gravestones of William Brock, Amalie (Molly) Brock and Eric Brock.  They are in Westwood,  New Jersey at the Cedar Park and Beth El cemeteries.  Eric's sister Regina (Jean) I believe is buried in Florida and his other sister Teresa was cremated (I believe).

Amalie was the daughter of Sara Braunhart and Aaron Bernstein and the granddaughter of Levin Jacob Braunhart and Minnie Zadek.

For some reason I have been "obsessed" with finding out more about the Braunhart family over the last three years. I first found out about the family when reviewing the death certificate of Sara Braunhart Bernstein, my great great grandmother. My cousin Clyde Pound made me aware of Sara's brother Samuel, who was a very successful (and outspoken I might add - but more about that in a future post) politician, when I first talked to him about genealogy about three years ago.

In a recent post I talked about the life of Levin Jacob Braunhart, the "patriarch" of the Braunhart family. So far it appears that he and his wife Minnie Zadek, had at least four children that I can name.


The first, Bernhard Braunhart, immigrated to America in 1857. He married Rosa Levison and had one son, Harry.

Sara Braunhart, my direct ancestor, married Aaron Bernstein, and it appears that after his death, she immigrated to America in 1898. She had seven children, 5 who lived to adulthood. 

They were:

The next Braunhart was Samuel Braunhart, the San Francisco politician - he immigrated to America in 1862. He never married.

The last of Levin and Minnie's children (that I know of) was Alex Braunhart. I do not believe that he immigrated to America - but at least one of his children - Anna did - in 1909. She married Harry Tulman and had at least 4 children - Mildred, Muriel, Stanley and Helene. I have not as yet been successful in tracking this family to find out more about Anna Braunhart. She had a sister Sara Selma Braunhart, who immigrated to America in 1946 at the age of 51. I do not know as yet what happened to her.

There are a few "stragglers" that I know are related but have not been able to place as yet. Brother and sister Jakob and Martha immigrated to America in 1904. I do not know what happened to Martha but Jakob ended up in San Francisco. He was the primary heir to Samuel's fortune when Samuel died in 1906 right after the San Francisco earthquake and fire. I know that he was there from 1910 to 1913 because of Census and City Directory info. He was implicated by the FBI as a German sympathizer during World War I when he joined the U. S. Army. He also was married but that is all I know about him. I do not know who Martha and Jakob's parents are - my suspicion is Alex Braunhart, but that is just a hunch from reading Samuel Braunharts' probate file.

There also was a Carl Gustav Braunhart who was born in Schubin - but I have no info at all as to his relationship to "our" Braunhart family.