When it comes to my mother’s family, the topic of military service is fraught. I’ve written before about the fact that my grandfather Herman Rosenbaum served in World War I but was not rewarded for his service by such basic decency as not being deported from Austria and sent to his death. I’ve also written… Continue Reading
Author Archives: Edie Jarolim
This American Life (in Vienna): Parallel Playlists & Professions
Since I started exploring my family stories on the pages of this blog, I’ve often wondered what my life would have been like had my parents not been forced to leave Vienna. Several Hypotheticals There are many variables I’m ignoring here, of course. My mother liked to say that my father fell in love with… Continue Reading
Survival in Vienna: My Badass Cousin Bruno
Here’s another long-time-coming post from my blog archive, this one dating back to July when my cousin Andreas Oberndorfer first discovered this blog and contacted me. I wrote about Andreas’s fascinating past, the missing links in his family — and mine — in the post Redheads, Resisters, & Red Light Districts, 1: Valerie Oberndorfer-Kornmehl. I… Continue Reading
Rolled Beef, Wolf Blitzer & More Buffalo Kornmehls
In my backlog of unfinished posts, this one — started in November 2019 — seemed the most timely for this pandemic Passover. It’s partly elegiac, which fits the current mood, but it’s also about finding new family. And about endurance. A deli-denying newscaster plays a part in the narrative too. Fake news! Rolled Beef, Redux… Continue Reading
Redheads, Resistors & Red Light Districts, 1: Valerie Oberndorfer-Kornmehl
Freud’s Butcher is the gift that keeps on giving. Just when I think I’m about finished with the story of my maternal grandparents’ family, another member turns up. This time it is Andreas Oberndorfer, grandson of Valerie Oberndorfer-Kornmehl and nephew of my second cousin once removed, Bruno Oberndorfer-Kornmehl. My newfound Viennese relative appeared out of… Continue Reading
Dayenu: A Kornmehl Reunion in Vienna
Dayenu: It would have been enough. That phrase, repeated as a refrain in a Passover song that offers a litany of thanks for blessings piled upon blessings, has been going through my head sporadically since last October, when I gave a talk at the Freud Museum in Vienna. It’s been an amazing journey, albeit one… Continue Reading
The Wedding Photo
It all started on a Facebook group I belong to: A posted photo of a Holocaust victim who had committed suicide rather than be captured by the Nazis led to a larger discussion of the topic. Somehow, I hadn’t realized that many Jewish women and men took their lives, either to avoid being taken or… Continue Reading
Mystery Adoptions & Cryptic Crypts: Finding Cousin Erika
UPDATE: I was wrong. I hate that — especially since it means the mystery of Erika remains unresolved. What happened? Sometimes I think that if I wait long enough, relatives will turn up to resolve all my genealogical issues — or at least clarify them. The original post, below, posited that two childless members of… Continue Reading
Freud’s World & A London Reunion
There’s been a lot going on behind the scenes in the Freud’s Butcher universe, but it’s like the proverbial tree falling in the forest: If a blogger doesn’t post about events, did they really happen? They did, and they will–and here’s the proof. Psychology Today I’ve made many forays into discussions of Freud’s life —… Continue Reading
Martha Solonche (1948-2018), May Her Memory Be a Blessing
This blog has become the occasional home for memorial pages of the recently departed who are not necessarily related to me, as well as the long departed who are. Its Jewish focus makes it particularly apt for the tributes to my friend Martha, who was a rabbi’s daughter and went to the Stern College for… Continue Reading
