100 Years Ago Today

One hundred years ago today my father's first cousin Ellen was born. Several years ago, when I visited her in LA, she shared some childhood photos with me, as well as her memories of my father's home in Berlin. I also loved hearing stories about her experiences on Hollywood sets, and remember how thrilled she was when her home was scouted as a location for a Coen Brothers movie.

This is what her family shared about her life in the Cottage Grove Sentinel in 2013:

"As a Jewish girl, Ellen had a scary adolescence under the Nazis. She and her parents barely managed to escape Germany, arriving in New York by ship on Aug. 11, 1939. (Her videotaped memories of Berlin, and of relatives who perished, ar din Steven Spielberg's Shoah project on Holocaust history.)

Ellen went to Reno and then Los Angeles, where she worked at a bank and married Ben Kilston on June 7, 1942. Ben passed away on June 12,1991.

Ellen realised a childhood dream of acting in the movies, meeting Cary Grant, Marlene Dietrich, Barbara Stanwyck and many other famous stars. She eventually got to return to school, earning her A.A. at Santa Monica College. She gave German lessons through Berlitz and was a receptionist. Ellen traveled extensively and loved parties and to sing and dance, with great spirit."

And Another Anniversary Comes Rolling Along ...

This is Sara Dina bat Shmuel Zaynvill u'Feige. I think the photo must have been taken in the 1900s. She was born in Teschen in 1890, and grew up to become Salome Hoschander Friedlander, my grandmother, aka Mutti. She died in Appleton, WI on 23rd June 1965.

I can't say that I remember her, although this fuzzy photo my father must've taken is proof that we did actually meet:

From what I've been able to deduce, Mutti was the source of what was sweet and kind and loveable on that side of the family, as evidenced by all three of her children. May she rest in peace.

Cousin Heinrich

My late father had a great love for the work of Heinrich Heine. He would joke that one of the reasons that he married my mother was because she had an ancestor in the Von Geldern family, and since Heine was also in that family, this marriage made him a relative of Heine.

Thanks to my new Geni.com friend, I had a look at the Heine family tree today and I have news for my father:

Albert Hoschander F

son of Sali Hoschander

daughter of Samuel Hoschander

son of Anna Wertheimer

daughter of Emanuel Wertheimer

son of Shimshon Wertheimer

son of Sara Wertheimer

daughter of Behrend Lehmann, R' Yissacher HaLevi Bermann

father of Moses Kossmann Lehmann (Sara's brother - now we go down the tree)

husband of Recha Heine

mother of Herman Heine

father of Sigmund Heine

father of Heinrich Heine

technically that is his 5th great aunt's great grandson. Thus it would seem that R' Yissacher HaLevi Bermann is a direct ancestor of both men.

I may have misread the information. I hope not! Meanwhile, for my father who dragged my mother to the cemetery every time they went to Paris so they could put stones on Heine's grave, 

ef in Paris c. 1962

I do hope this is correct. That he has a direct connection of his own, rather than by marriage. I also hope that somewhere, somehow, he finds out about it and it makes him as happy as I am imagining it would!

ahf in Paris c. 1968