I was going to return to blogging with a post on rolled meat -- and, don't worry, I'll get to that -- but then Manfred Wolf, whose moving memoir I excerpted here, sent me a link to a wonderful film called the Return of the Violin. Directed by Haim Hecht, it's a documentary that tells the story of a 1731 Stradivarius that was once owned by Bronisław Huberman, the founder of the
Nathan Kornmehl (1916 – 2013)
I was saddened by the recent news that Nathan Kornmehl had died, initially in the way you are saddened by the passing of a historical figure -- almost a fictional one. As Linda Chalmers Zemel, who interviewed him for the Buffalo Jewish Review in 2004 -- see Nathan Kornmehl's Story -- said of Nathan, who died last week at the age of 97: His life is the stuff authors draw upon
Flee, Fight — or Hide? Bruno Bettleheim, Anne Frank & My Family
Of the many discoveries I've made about my extended family lately, one of the most startling was that several relatives spent the war in an attic in Holland. According to the Yad Vashem site, Johannes van den Berg and his wife, Anna, hid 14 people in their home in the town of Velp, Gelderland. Among them were Nina and Ferdinand Schmerling, their daughter, Stella Schmerling
The Kornmehl-Schmerling Connection, Past & Present
I have a tendency to be a bit long winded. I can't quite make this a Wordless Wednesday -- or even an (Almost) Wordless Wednesday -- but I'm going to try to keep my foray into the past and present of the Kornmehl and Schmerling families as brief as possible. Kornmehls and Schmerlings, Past I wrote last week about how I was planning to participate in the family histories that
Tarnow Calling
I've gotten used to people contacting me through this blog because they've come across the Kornmehl name on it. Now, for the first time, Freud's Butcher has grabbed the attention of an entire city: Tarnow, Poland. Or at least the attention of Jerry Bergman, the Vice-Chairman of the Committee for the Protection of Monuments of Jewish Culture in Tarnow, a committee that I didn't
Freud’s Butcher, Year One: Five Highlights
It's hard to believe that a year has passed since I wrote my first post here, a speculation on whether Freud ate kosher. It's been quite the wild ride since then -- a statement that might surprise those who think that genealogy is boring. But if you use the term family history -- emphasis on family -- and realize that family historians deal with people who are alive and/or who
(Almost) Wordless Wedding Wednesday
Flora Selwyn, one of my newfound cousins, sent me these pictures, writing: "I thought you might like this wedding photo of my grandparents, Barnet Goldsmith & Flora Plan, in London in 1896. I'm named after this grandmother, who died in London in childbirth when my mother Lily was 5. Both were refugees from Poland in the 1800s and met in London." Flora added,
My Family’s Butcher Shops
When I started this blog, I knew that my mother's uncles in Vienna had butcher shops, plural, and that one of them sold meat -- kosher meat, my mother said -- to Sigmund Freud's wife. It wasn't until I did a lot more research that I was able to put names to the butchers, however, and to learn just how extended the family meat connection was, and how far back it went. The
Survival in Paradise: Southern France
Get a cup of coffee or tea and settle in. I've got a great read for you today, courtesy of one of my talented relatives. I introduced Manfred Wolf briefly last week when he added information about his uncle Paul to an earlier post about the far-flung Kornmehl family. Today the spotlight is entirely on him, with an excerpt from an unpublished memoir tentatively called
Losing Freud, Finding Stella
It's been nearly a year now since I started Freud's Butcher, and what a roller coaster ride it's been! I'll talk more about that in August, the actual one-year blogiversary. It's just a fortuitous coincidence that these last few weeks have made me re-examine one of the blog's basic premises, while reminding me why I started writing here. My Mother's Story -- and She Stuck to
Geography Lessons: Wandering Jews
Did you know that, for a significant period of time (1795-1919), the country we now know as Poland ceased to exist, that it was divided up between Prussia, Russia, and Austria-Hungary? And did you know that, before 1795, approximately half the world's population of Jews lived in the region that was thus divided up, some 750,000 out of 1.5 million? The Southern Arizona
Fish, Fungi & Funny Jewish Words: The Schmerling Name, Revisited
I thought that my recent post about the origin of the Schmerling name had laid the topic to rest. After going through a series of logical steps, I was certain that the source of the name, handed down matrilinealy, was "loach fish," chosen from a list provided by the Austro-Hungarian Empire to the Jews in 1787 when they mandated the taking of Germanic surnames. I subsequently
Of Photo Identification & British-to-American Translation
I often feel deficient in the genealogy department. When it comes to tracing documents, I have been spoiled by help from others, by getting gifts of fish, as the old saying goes, rather than fishing lessons. But I recently discovered that I've learned quite a bit about my mother's family in the past year -- which was, after all, what I set out to do. So forgive a little
Was My Mother Reincarnated As My Dog?
I have e-met many new relatives this past week, which is very exciting. And so far they have known me as the (more-or-less) rational researcher of my mother's family. Today they meet Frankie and realize I am a crazy dog lady. Frankie's Birthday Frankie is a rescue so I have no firm idea of when he entered the world, but I designated the 4th of July as his birthday because
Wordless Wednesday: My Great Grandfather
Of all the pictures I've found or received from various family members in the course of my research, I don't think any one has moved me quite as much as this sketch of my maternal great grandfather. It's not only the fact that I viewed for the first time an image of the patriarch of the family of the eight brothers and sisters on whom my research has been focused; it's the man