More Pictures from Dresden

Photos
The Fine Art Museum
The New Synagogue
Restaurant “Carolaschlossen”
Reception with the Deputy Mayor
Brewery-restaurant “Zum Geisser” in Pirna

Here are some more pictures from Dresden.

The retun to Dresden, Conclusion

Photos
The ship and view from the ship
Bastei
View from the Bastei

On Wednesday morning we had an early start. Up to now the weather has been wonderful, sunny and cold, typical southern Germany and Eastern US fall weather. We were on the bus by 8:30 and were taken to the River Elbe and boarded a steamer for a 5-hour trip upstream to Pillnitz, Pirna and Konigstein. This is the “Sachsische Schweiz” (Saxony Switzerland) an area of steep sandstone cliffs, gorges and small canyons rising from the banks of the river. Schweiz/Switzerland is a bit of a misnomer since the cliffs rise a mere 182 feet! The boat ride was very relaxing and as the group had a private section of the boat we talked among ourselves and got to know each other. Lilli was on the trip and we talked a lot. I took many pictures from the boat and eventually we disembarked at Konigstein. While on the boat we were served lunch, the very worst meal of our entire trip; chicken with a horrible cream sauce and rice so salty nobody ate it. From Konigstein our bus took us through the countryside to Bastei, a large hotel and restaurant on the top of a cliff overlooking the river. At Konigstein we were very close to the border of the Czech Republic and one of the city staff caught the train back to Dresden. She said the train ride would take half-an-hour! At Bastei, which was quite crowded, we walked around, admired the spectacular views and had ‘Kaffee und Kuchen’ in the restaurant. Then it was back on the bus to Schloss Pilnitz, a lovely baroque castle on the river. From Pilnitz we went to a brewery-restaurant called “Zum Geisser” in Pirna where we had a marvelous dinner. I had “ein grosses Schwein Schnitzel” (a large pork cutlet) that covered the plate and fried potatoes and red cabbage hiding underneath. We also had fresh, homemade pretzels to go with the house-brewed beer. By now the group had really bonded and I was pleased to see Suzanne spend time with the other second-generation people.

During the boat ride I was interviewed by Andrea Ponisch from MDR 1 Radio Sachsen. She promised to send me a CD. Eventually it was back to the hotel and I staggered to my bed.

Thursday was the last day of our official program. After an early breakfast… Did I tell you about the Breakfast Buffet in this hotel? Magnificent do-it-yourself fresh orange juice, eggs and waffles cooked to order, many different cereals and yogurts, a huge selection of cold meats, sausages, salamis and many different cheeses plus at least 6 different types of breads, rolls and such plus pizza and cream cakes. The bus left at 9 o’clock for Meissen to visit the famous porcelain factory. I decided to skip the factory visit and walked into town to see the church with a carillon of porcelain bells! Then the bus took us to Moritzburg for lunch in the castle dining room where we had a private room and an excellent lunch. This time I had venison goulash with dumplings and red cabbage. Dessert was “rotte greutze” a fruit compote of red berries, a local specialty. If I take nothing else back from Dresden, it will be a few extra pounds! We were back at the hotel early enough that I could exchange some money ($300 got me 203 Euros) and buy a 10 Euro phone-card.

At 7 o’clock the bus took us to the Westin Bellevue Hotel for a farewell dinner hosted by Deputy Mayor Koggel and his wife. Dinner was in a private room on the “Elbterrasse”. This time it was much more of an American dinner in an American operated hotel. That is to say dinner was normal size portions and not the huge portions that German restaurants usually serve. There were speeches and many farewells before we got back to the hotel at about midnight.

Return to Dresden, Continued (Revised)

Photos
The Zwinger & Fine Art Museum
Semper Opera House
The cemetery
The New Synagogue
Speaking at Hatikva

Monday was the first real day of the tour and a very hectic one. I met Suzanne at breakfast in the hotel buffet and at 9 o’clock we were on a bus for a city tour. Our guide was Mr. Matthias Lerm, City of Dresden officer of sustainable development and member of the UNESCO World Heritage Foundation for the Dresden Elbe Valley. It was a great tour; first to the Semperoper (the opera house originally designed by Otto Semper, a famous Saxon architect, who also designed the original Dresden synagogue) and the adjacent Zwinger, the fine arts museum. Then it was across the Elbe and through Neu Stadt to the Weissen Hirsh (White Deer) a hillside area overlooking the Elbe valley. I remember that it was at the Weissen Hirsh, that my Mother took me skiing at age 5 or 6 and I cried a lot, hating the cold and the wet and the snow. The guide told us that due to climate change there was no longer enough snow to ski on the Weisse Hirsch – good! We were told that Dresden has 40,000 vacant dwellings.

Next was a visit to the Fiedlerstrasse Jewish Cemetery. The cemetery staff was very well organized and I was taken to my Grandfather Leopold’s large double grave (row 4, grave 7) Obviously he had expected his wife Selma to join him! Suzanne and I each placed a stone on his grave; a Jewish custom to indicate that we had been there. By the way, there was a concrete urn full of stones near the entrance so that one did not have to look for a stone! I also found the grave of Felix and Francesca Berlowitz (new section, left 26, grave 26) the parents of Roy Calder of Marin County and formerly of Dresden. Then it was lunch at “Carolaschlossen” (Carola, little castle) a rather fancy place beside a lake in the Grosse Garten. Lunch was delicious and a bit of a disaster since the restaurant was not really prepared for our group of about 34.

We arrived at the New Synagogue about an hour late. First we visited the synagogue where Nora Goldenbogen, President of the Dresden Jewish Congregation welcomed us, gave us a tour and explained the building. Then it was to the Community Center where Heinz-Joachim Aris, of the Jewish Community Center, welcomed us. Over coffee and cookies Mr. Aris showed us the “Gedenkbuch”, the book of memories, which lists about 7,000 names of former Jewish residents of Dresden and what became of them. The book is in 17 volumes plus a summary. My Mother, Father, Grandmother and I are listed and there is a picture of me in the summary. We were told that 5000 school children visit the new synagogue and community center each year. From the new synagogue it was back to the hotel for a rest. Later Suzanne and I walked down to “A Ha” the organic restaurant where Lilli took us on our first day. The restaurant was crowded with only one large empty table upstairs. As a German couple walked in Suzanne asked them to share the table with us. I asked them if they were from Dresden or were visitors and so started a most delightful conversation. The couple were in their 50s; she was Susanna and I don’t think he gave his name. They were from Frankfurt, had come by train to Dresden and then rented a car. He was an investment advisor and worked with some non-profit groups including the Catholic Diocese. We spoke mostly German with some English. I told them that I was born in Dresden and went to England on the Kindertransports. I was surprised at my openness and the easy conversation that we had. Dinner was very good; I had a noodle and vegetable “Auflauf” (casserole), very organic and delicious plus an organic beer. Then back to the hotel and to bed.

On Tuesday morning I spoke at “Hatikva” (10 Polsnitzer Strasse in Neu Stadt) a Jewish educational organization and a partner with Friedman Bringt’s group arranged by Friedman and Nora Goldenbogen. I was welcomed and introduced by Friedman and Nora and Alex Lorenz, a volunteer. There were 14 students aged from 18 to about 22; some were connected with ‘Rotenbaum’ (Red Tree) a communist organization. None of the students were Jews. I spoke in English and they listened politely. I felt that they were engaged however when it came to Q and A they were very reluctant. I checked frequently if they understood me. Two or three of them asked all of the questions. Their interest was mainly political. Did I think that Germany should have remained divided? I said, that I was not in a position to answer that. I should have asked them what they thought! Was I aware of the difference between the East and the West today? Yes, I had some idea and they filled me in. Today unemployment is much higher in the East and the wages are only about 60%. Retirement benefits are also lower in the East than the West. I felt the meeting was very productive and I was presented with a small book about the Dresden Jewish Community.

From Hatikva I went by taxi to “Gansedieb” (Goose Thief) to meet the group for lunch. This was one of the better meals in Dresden. I had Sauerbraten (a very fancy pot-roast) with red-cabbage and dumplings; dessert was a kind of latkes (potato pancakes) served with applesauce. After lunch there was another reception, this time in Der Rathaus (City Hall) with Herr Lehman, another deputy mayor. The original Dresdeners from our group sat round a very large table and this time it was our turn to speak. The meeting became very emotional as we each told our story of being forced out of Dresden and being scattered around the world. The deputy mayor hoped that we could, one day be able to return to the city as ordinary visitors. I told him, for me ‘no’; Dresden would forever remain the city that forced me out. Andreas Rentsch a freelance reporter for the Sachsische Zeitung interviewed me and the following day there was a nice article about the group with a picture. In it I was correctly quoted as saying, “one of the main reasons for accepting the City’s invitation was to show them that I was still alive.” I asked Suzanne to address the meeting and she spoke very well saying that I had neglected to say that my Father died in Auschwitz and my Grandmother in Theresienstadt. After the reception many people congratulated Suzanne and me on our presentation.

From the reception it was back to the hotel for a short rest and then the bus took us to the Semperoper for “The Marriage of Figaro” by Mozart. The opera house is a small, gold leaf and red plush jewel box with no balconies and 4 tiers of boxes lining the walls. Some of Wagner’s operas and many by Richard Strauss had their first performance here! The production was very modern with abstract scenery and singers in modern dress. But what singers? Of the 10 main characters all had magnificent voices and the ensemble singing was breathtaking. The Dresden Staats Oper (State Opera) is a repertory company so they are much used to singing together. When my Mother used to go to the opera in San Francisco, her highest accolade would be, “In Dresden it could not have been better” and now for the first time I understood exactly what she meant!

Friedman Bringt is with the Kulturbuero Sachsen, an organization supported by the State of Saxony whose main purpose is information on right-wing extremism and daily racism in Saxony. Hatikva is an organization for Jewish Culture and History, which works with a group for Christian – Jewish cooperation and is funded by the City of Dresden.

The Return to Dresden (revised)

Photos
Henzestrasse #015 and 017
Regensburger Strasse
Herr Samuel und seine Tochter at the opera

My return to Dresden started on Saturday, 13 October when I met Suzanne at Frankfurt airport for our flight to Dresden. We arrived at Dresden airport and were disappointed that no one was there to meet us as we had been told. No matter we took the train, which goes right into the airport and were soon at Dresden Hauptbahnhof (main station) and saw the hotel about two blocks away. We checked in and as soon as we were in our rooms Frau Jadwiga Schoene (the City’s representative and our tour leader) phoned from the lobby very apologetic that we had missed each other at the airport. She welcomed us and gave us a tour packet. Suzanne and I had adjacent room on the 12th floor with floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the old city. Later Suzanne and I met and at the front desk’s suggestion took the tram to Neu Stadt (New Town), which is actually older than Alt Stadt (Old Town) and was not destroyed in the February 1945 bombing. Neu Stadt has crowded narrow streets with many, many restaurants. At the hotel staff’s suggestion we picked ‘Planwirtschaft” on Louisenstrasse, a sort of beer cellar and had a great dinner of three appetizers, which we were not able to finish. Then it was back on the tram to the hotel and so ended our first day in Dresden.

Next day, Sunday; after a huge breakfast at the enormous hotel buffet Lilli met us in the lobby and we started our rediscovery of Dresden. First we took two trams to Grossen Garten (Dresden’s Central Park) and walked to Henzestrasse (Lilli bought us a Family Day Pass, which became very useful) We found where #15 used to stand. This is the house that my Grandfather had built and where my Mother, Father and I lived as well as my mother’s sister (my Aunt Hilde) and her family, and my Grandmother. We took pictures including some of the neighboring buildings. This is still a very desirable area to live. Then two more trams to Munchener Platz and walked to Regensburger Strasse #15. This is where I lived before moving to Hensestrasse and is the site of the picture “8 children in Dresden, November 1935”. Lilli checked with a friend and found that the apartment buildings on this street were destroyed and replaced with buildings of a very similar size and style. Lilli also confirmed that behind the buildings there used to be a fountain or small pond because I remember playing with toy boats.

In the evening there was a reception and dinner in the hotel hosted by Deputy Mayor Tobias Kogge. He told us that he was born near Danzig and had relatives that died in Theresianstadt. He also told us that we were the 14th group of former residents invited back to Dresden; that the Dresden Jewish community now numbers about 750 of which 650 are from the former Soviet Union and the Leipzig Jewish community numbers about 1,200. On Kristalnacht (the night of broken glass) the Dresden synagogue was torched by members of the police and, at that time the City vowed to rebuild it. In 2001 a new synagogue was built with 40% of the cost from the City and almost 60% from the Province of Saxony. Many contributions came from non-Jewish members of the community. I spoke with other members of the group, mostly the same age as myself and was told that in September 1936 at the age of 5, I would have gone straight to the Jewish school located next to the old synagogue. I have a vague memory of going to a Jewish school.
Frau Schoene introduced all of the group members and the rest of the evening was spent on dinner and socializing. Suzanne was a big hit and got to know almost everyone by name. There were several young people, sons and daughters of former residents that Suzanne spent time with.

Lilli Ulbrich is a long-time member of the ‘Arbeitskreis Gedenkbuch’ an organization of Christians and Jews that produced the Dresden Gedenkbuch’ (Book of Memories) which contains 6000 names and some of the details of former Jewish residents of Dresden. The book consists of 17 volumes plus a Summary. My Mother, Father, Grandmother and I are listed in the Gedenkbuch and I’m in the Summary with a picture. The Summary is available from Amazon Books and other Internet booksellers.

Jadwiga Schoene is Landeshauptstadt Dresden, Amt für Presse- und Öffentlichkeitsarbeit (City of Dresden Press and Public Relations Department) She has been tour guide for all 14 of the annual groups of former residents. This group of 35 is the largest ever because one family – the Reizes who brought brothers, sisters, cousins and their children from Israel, the US and Argentina. This family made up about half of our group.The City of Dresden has 11 elected deputy mayors presently running the city; the Lord Mayor is at home having been suspended for financial improprieties in connection with city funds received for disaster relief after the devastating floods of 2002.

Life After the War (Conclusion)

Photos
KTA 1991 newspaper
KTA 1991 picture
Suzanne & Lysa in France
and in Israel

In November 1990 I went to my first Kindertransport reunion in Ellenville, New York, which is in the Catskills. It was a wonderful reunion giving me the first opportunity to talk about my experience as a young child coming alone to England to escape the Holocaust. We the Kinder, as we call ourselves, were no longer the ones to whom “nothing had happened”. We had lost our childhood and were Holocaust survivors. The following year in April 1991 my buddy Alfred Cotton, who was also on the Kindertransports and I decided to hold the first Northern California Reunion. On a Sunday afternoon almost 100 people met in Emeryville (next to Oakland and Berkeley) of which about 45 were on the Kindertransports and we formed the NorCal chapter of the Kindertransport Association (KTA) During these years before my retirement I also started traveling extensively. In 1992, I took my daughters to London and Dresden and the following year we went to Israel. In October 1994 I visited New York and Washington DC to see the US Holocaust Memorial Museum. In October 1995 I went to England and France and in 1996 to Cuba with Berkeley Congregation Netivot Shalom to set up sisterhood relations with the Jewish congregation in Santiago de Cuba.

In August 1997 I retired from BART and from then on spent my time traveling, organizing events for the NorCal Chapter of KTA and speaking to local schools about the Holocaust and my experience.

NOTE

For more information on the Kindertransport Association

go to their website:

www.kindertransport.org

Life After the War (Continued)

Photos
Appraiser 1963
Wedding 1966
With Denise Epstein 1993

Through my professor at CCNY I had an interview with Larry Smith a real estate consultant with offices in Seattle and Washington DC. He hired me for the Washington office and I moved to the District of Columbia. Once there I loved it; I loved the work and made many friends. Many of who are still close friends.

Larry Smith did economic studies for proposed shopping centers and estimated the gross sales for the centers after they were open 5 years. I traveled throughout the eastern half of the country doing the original field research on which the estimates were based. I got to know the country and had a wonderful time. Larry Smith also did reuse studies for redevelopment agencies and I did the original fieldwork for those too.

After the job came to an end, I could not find another job in Washington for love or money. I decided to head west and seek my fortune. I had answered ads in the San Francisco and Los Angeles newspapers and was headed for LA. I had bought my buddy Irwin’s car and was driving Route 66 from Chicago to LA. In the middle of the Mojave Desert in Barstow I said to myself, “Why am I going to LA, when everybody tells me that San Francisco is so beautiful?” So when Route 66 met Highway 101 instead of turning left, I turned right and north to San Francisco.

Once is San Francisco I went to the Jewish Community Center on California Street and was advised to find a residence club. It was November and the weather was sunny and gorgeous. I moved into ‘Baker Acres’ on Washington Street in Pacific Heights and when I first saw the Palace of the Legion of Honor and the Golden Gate Bridge I thought that I had died and woken up in heaven. After about two weeks I met David Simmons, a real estate appraiser and became his assistant. Later Big Dave helped me become a US citizen and I never looked back! I was Dave’s assistant for about 3 or 4 years and then decided to take a job with the Richmond Redevelopment Agency. I went back to see my Mother several times and it was during this period that I convinced her that she should give up her house in Guildford and move to Oakland. My Mother had been right about “the land of savages” because the day that she arrived in America was the day that President Kennedy was assassinated! After Richmond I worked for several local public agencies doing appraisals and sometimes land acquisition and also married Jean in 1966 and we had two daughters; Suzanne was born in 1968 and Lysa in 1971. Eventually I worked for the Real Estate Services Division of BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit District) After 25 years in public agency real estate including 7 years with BART, I retired. By this time I was also divorced.

Life After the War

Photos
The manor house at Newlands Corner
Valley View, Kent - a camp where we went on weekends

As the war slowly came to an end the other children moved back to London and my Mother and I decided to stay in Guildford. There was a close-knit group of Jewish refugees living in Guildford, mostly German and Austrian and also some from Poland and Czechoslovakia. And Mother had many close friends including the Goldsmith’s, whose son Philip I see when I’m in France and the family Dukasz, whose daughter Sue lives in Canberra, Australia. I visited Sue in March 2000.

My Mother had started a ‘well baby clinic’ for the Borough of Guildford using exercise equipment originally developed for the treatment of polio. My Mother learnt these exercise techniques to help me overcome the effects of my polio, which I contracted at age 5 or 6.

At first we lived in other people’s houses where my Mother kept house and cooked in return for two rooms. Eventually my Mother bought a house on Lincoln Road in the Stoughton area of Guildford and took in boarders. I attended Woking Grammar School for Boys and eventually matriculated. My Mother wanted me to be a scientist and I went for one year to Guildford Technical College studying Chemistry and Physics and hating it. I was a terrible student and eventually my Mother took me to a career councilor who suggested that law or real estate would be a more suitable field for me. I enrolled in the College of Estate Management of the London School of Economics taking a mix of day and night classes. My first job was as an apprentice with Charles Osenton, Estate Agents in Guildford. It was here that Mr. Smith, one of the owners would come downstairs from his office and say, “Samuel, get your hat and coat on and come with me”. And we would go inspect and measure a house that Mr. Smith had been instructed to sell. I soon decided that I needed more opportunities and moved to London, where I became a property bookkeeper for Goddard & Smith a very large (real) estate management company. While continuing with my studies I became assistant property manager at Swears & Wells, a chain store company with retail shops in London and many other English towns.

Around 1956 my Mother came to America to visit her sister and attend my cousin’s wedding in New Jersey. This is the first time the two sisters had seen each other in 17 years! While there my Aunt asked my Mother if, “Ralph would like to come to America” because my Aunt was willing to provide my affidavit. My Mother answered, “Of course not, who wants to live in a land of savages”.
When Mother came home and told me the story I said, “Wait a minute”. Somehow I knew that if I did not go I would regret it for the rest of my life. So at age 27 I came to New Jersey and hated it! I got a job as a bookkeeper in Manhattan and did some post-graduate work at City College of New York in the field of Land Economics.

Porschendorf

Photos
Porschendorf photos 1 thru 4

In Summer 1938 a group of about 20 Jewish children were sent from Dresden to Porschendorf for a summer holiday. Porschendorf is in the Sachsische Schweiz (Saxon Switzerland) about half an hour from Dresden. Frau Lesser and my Mother cared for the children; I was the youngest. These pictures are from a photo album made by Hildegard Burgheim, a professional photographer in Dresden and later in Guildford, England and New York.

The Descendents of the Four Sons of Joel and Betty Nussbaum

Photos
Aunt Hilde & family Shanghai 1945
My mother and her granddaughters Oakland 1973
Steffi and Larry Block, Hilde, Harry and Kay 1984
Steve, Helen, Helmut & Alice, 50th wedding anniversary London 1991.

LEOPOLD, the eldest son and SELMA had two daughters Ella and Hilde.
Ella had one son Ralph - me, who married in 1966 and had two daughters both born in Walnut Creek, California: Suzanne 1968 and Lysa 1971. Lysa has a daughter, Araceli born 2003. Both daughters live in the San Francisco Bay area.

Hilde had one son Hanns (now Hank) born 1930 in Dresden. Hank married in 1956 and has two daughters both born in New Jersey: Ilene 1957 and Audrey 1961.
Ilene married in 1984 in Miami, Florida and has three children all born in Miami:
Michael 1987, Lauren 1990 and Rebekah 1994. Audrey married in 1989 in Miami and has two daughters Hillary 1990 and Rachel 1992.

SIGMUND never married.

JULIUS married Sophie Meinrath in 1904 and had two children:
Hede born 1905 in Berlin; married Jack Goldsmith in 1930 in Berlin and lived to a ripe old age in New York. They had one daughter Steffi, born 1933 in Berlin. Steffi married in 1953 in New York and had three daughters:
Lisa 1957 married with two sons: David 1983 and Benjamin 1987.
Susan 19__ married with two sons Aaron 1989 and Jesse 1992.
Andrea 1962. I met Steffi once in London and a few times in New York.
Helmut born 1908 became a physician left Berlin when Jewish doctors could only treat Jewish patients, settled in London and in 1941 in London married Alice; they had one daughter Helen b. 1945 d.1995. I often visited Helmut in London; he was the family historian and produced a Nussbaum family tree. He lived to be 95. Helen died quite young of cancer; she had two children Julia 1970 and Philip 1971. Philip married in 2000 and has one daughter.

EMIL married Alfreda in Berlin in 1920 and had one son Harry born 1921 in Berlin, died 2000 in Philadelphia. Harry married Kay Gorlitz in 1943 in New York and had three children:
Steven 1948 a physician with three children; Mathew 1973, Brian 1977 and Stacy 1981.
Linda 1952 has two children Daniel 1986 and Sarah 1992
Diana 1957
Harry was in the waste paper and packaging business in New Jersey. I met him and Kay several times in New Jersey and when they came to California.