Dear Edel,
Further to this email I have a few additional questions to please add to the existing list.
Would you be able to send me the actual English document from the 2015 Exhibition as I would love to have it for my files.
My postal address is 33 Bellevue Road, Bellevue Hill, NSW 2023, Australia.
The other questions relate to my paternal grandfather Moses Schneeweiss, who I know is buried in Hannover. I can’t recall the name of the cemetery. In any case I am wondering if any records exist of his entry into Germany and settling in Hannover around the turn of the century (1900), the birth of two his four children in Hannover, name and any details of his first and second wives, where he lived, any school details of my grandfather Jakob, the address of his business in Hannover, which my grandfather later ran, any details you may have regarding this business particularly after Kristallnacht. Lastly, the Lindenbaum cousins also had a similar, but larger business. Again, I am wondering its address, any details regarding it, their various Hannover addresses.
I thank you once more.
Regards,
Geejay
GJ’s Computer & IT Services
0412 201 201
From: Geejay Schneeweiss
Sent: Friday, 8 October 2021 1:54 PM
To: Sheridan-Quantz, Edel (41.03) <Edel.Sheridan-Quantz@hannover-stadt.de>
Subject: RE: [SPAM] WG: RE Stolpersteine Hannover
Dear Edel,
Of course, you may! Btw my name is derived from the initials of the names of my two grandfathers Gerald & Jakob.
Many thanks for the information you sent, most of which is new to me. I shall happily be sharing with Rita when I hopefully see her next week as our Covid restrictions in this respect change from next Monday. I have log been the archivist/genealogist in the family and arguably the one most interested, and it never ceases to amaze me that even now in 2021 new information and records turn up, shedding some light into the not so distant past.
There is no issue in any time delays. Aside from being a patient person I completely understand. I also think that often the worthwhile things in life are worth waiting for. I also know from my own search of archives in Australia how much time is involved to dig out information.
It is interesting that the information written for the Kindertransport catalogue, as my father and siblings were not like Rita Strassman who did indeed go on one. As you know the entire Schneeweiss family left together in May 1939 for Australia. No problem re Rita; she will understand as do I. She is now remembered!
The story re Dad and Ismar going to Holland was not a Kindertransport. In fact the boys hid in a toilet on the train at the German/Dutch border and a relative of my grandfather’s Toni Fruchter (I believe born in Duisburg, killed in the Holocaust; other than she being a relative on my grandfather’s side I have never been able to establish how), https://www.joodsmonument.nl/en/page/186290/hanni-toni-czyzes-fruchter, who had fled Germany after Hitler came to power as a young communist and got permission from the Dutch government for the boys to stay. My grandfather then collected them just prior to the family leaving Germany in 1939. I have Dutch documents which I am yet to have translated that may shed some more light. They stayed at a Jewish children’s refugee home in Ter Heijde. During this period Dad and a group of friends met Kaiser Wilhelm II who lived in the area.
Dad did indeed go to school, a famous Jewish one whilst in Frankfurt, called the Samson Raphael Hirsch Schule.
Here is the link to Spielberg Tape 1 https://drive.google.com/file/d/19QX1PBeHXNx_2vXBpPwFiZCzjdOcrsQi/view?usp=sharing
which from memory covers Hannover. I will listen to Tape 2 some time and if relevant also send it. N.B. There are 10 tapes!
I have also included an audio recording of my father’s address to the 50th Kristallnacht commemoration in Sydney in 1988 https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qHfOgSigWJB5eE3PnI-sNmHQ8FgqhEFk/view?usp=sharing. I think I have covered pretty much everything for now. I would like to ask if in addition to previous questions would the death record exist for Jenta Rosy (who died from diptheria)? And also birth certificates for the four kids, death certificate for my great-grandfather Moses Schneeweiss and marriage certificate for Brucha & Jakob?
It is wonderful that Lea (the granddaughter) attended the ceremony. If I had known maybe I would have gone as well. When I found out recently that Lea, Angela’s daughter, has this interest in her family’s Jewish past, and assuming she is called after her maternal great-grandmother brought tears to my eyes. Like me being called after my grandfathers who I did no know there is something connecting the past with the present and I feel through this naming that more than the genetics live on in the named person. I hope this ramble makes sense. I only met Angela, Leah’s mother online recently. A dear friend of mine is translating a mountain of correspondence (in German) from my late grandfather Jakob, and has become fascinated with the Schneeweiss family story, of which she knew some basic details prior, and through this and the Lindenbaums family history (have you seen/read this?) If not I can send you a copy), she came across Rita McNeil and decided to do a Google Search. From this she passed on to me this interview with Rita https://gatheringthevoices.com/rita-mcneill-life-before-the-war/, and I then met Angela through the website and I now have two new third cousins, and a number of third cousins, once removed, all seemingly living in Scotland. My parents did meet Rita & Jim in either the late 1960s or 1970s, we presume having got their address from one or other of Dad’s relatives then living in Israel. So, all in all it is a rather small, and certainly connected world.
Thanks very much again.
Regards,
Geejay
GJ’s Computer & IT Services
0412 201 201
From: Sheridan-Quantz, Edel (41.03) <Edel.Sheridan-Quantz@hannover-stadt.de>
Sent: Thursday, 7 October 2021 7:07 PM
To: Geejay Schneeweiss <geejay@geejay.net>
Subject: AW: [SPAM] WG: RE Stolpersteine Hannover
Dear Geejay (if I may),
Thank you for your emails – and I am very sorry I left your aunt Rita out in my first reply.
We are moving office at the moment, so it will take me a few days to put together a detailed reply to your questions. Your parents married in the registry office in Hannover on 10 February 1927. I will ask a colleague at the City Archives to send me a scan of the record, this may take some time.
Your grandfather Jakob Schneeweiss first lived at Knochenhauerstrasse 64 in the old town. He was in Peine near Hannover from December 1912 to November 1917, when he returned to the address on Knochenhauerstrasse. He moved to Lange Laube 25 ion 2 June 1924. Your grandparents moved to Goetheplatz 6 with Rita, your father, Jenta and Ismar on 9 December 1930. A month before their emigration they moved to Bergmannstrasse 10 – this may have been a sublet after their cleared out their apartment prior to emigration.
Your father went to Frankfurt/Main on 8 October 1937 when he was ten years old – do you know if he attended a school there?
If you have a digital copy of the Spielberg interview with your father I would be very interested to hear/see it – it is difficult for us to access these interviews here.
This is what I wrote about your family for the Kindertransport catalogue – it is only a brief entry, as we didn’t have a lot of information at the time.
and here is the English translation:
“Joachim Schneeweiss (born 3 June 1927 in Hannover) and Ismar Schneeweiss (born 5 August 1930 in Hannover) and their older sister Rita (born 1924) lived with their parents Jakob Schneeweiss (1894-1962) and Brucha née Brand (1896-1995) at Goetheplatz 6. Their parents came originally from Poland. A fourth child, Jenta Rosy Reizel, died in Hannover shortly before her sixth birthday (1929-1935). The Schneeweiss family was related to the Lindenbaums, Rita McNeill’s (Rita Strassmann) mother’s family. Joachim and Ismar were sent to the Netherlands on 23 November 1938 with one of the first Kindertransports. Their parents brought them back to Hannover not long afterwards and the entire family emigrated to Australia in May 1939.”
There are longer entries for Kinder that we were able to contact – I am attaching the chapter from the English edition of the catalogue about Rita McNeill née Strassmann, whose mother Lea Lindenbaum was related to your father’s family, as this may be of interest to you as a (distant) relative. Rita’s granddaughter Lea was at the opening of the exhibition on 28 October 2015.
More soon.
Best wishes, Edel
Von: Geejay Schneeweiss <geejay@geejay.net>
Gesendet: Donnerstag, 7. Oktober 2021 07:36
An: Sheridan-Quantz, Edel (41.03) <Edel.Sheridan-Quantz@hannover-stadt.de>
Betreff: FW: [SPAM] WG: RE Stolpersteine Hannover
ACHTUNG: Diese E-Mail stammt von außerhalb des Netzwerkes der LHH. Besondere Vorsicht beim Klicken auf Links oder Öffnen von Anhängen!
Dear Dr. Sheridan-Quantz,
Further to email below I have now had confirmed the addresses of the Schneeweiss family in Hannover.
The first apartment was at 25 Lange Laube, and the second the one I suppose is the more important was 6 Goetheplatz.
I don’t suppose in addition to questions below that any records exist of when the family moved from Lange Laube to Goetheplatz. My Aunt does not remember.
The other thing I am reminded of is whether any civil papers exist of my grandparents wedding which took place after their Jewish wedding, I am thinking around 1924/1925?
Thanks again.
Regards,
Geejay
GJ’s Computer & IT Services
0412 201 201
From: Geejay Schneeweiss
Sent: Tuesday, 5 October 2021 1:13 PM
To: Sheridan-Quantz, Edel (41.03) <Edel.Sheridan-Quantz@hannover-stadt.de>
Subject: RE: [SPAM] WG: RE Stolpersteine Hannover
Dear Dr. Sheridan-Quantz,
Thank you so much for your reply. I am so glad that my email went to the correct address.
I was not aware that there was an exhibition in 2015 that included a paragraph on my father and my uncle. Would it be possible for you to send me further details about this exhibition and more importantly a copy of the paragraph you mentioned?
After Dad passed away in March 2017 I contacted Peter Schultz, who I assume you know, seeking further details from his historical research, and despite his promise to get back to me after some ill health I never heard anything further. Together with my father and my brothers we met in 1990 in Hannover.
It is wonderful news that the stumbling stones are funded, and please let me know where I can send a donation.
I will get together the various details of Dad’s life and some photos – there are not many unfortunately. You should know that Dad and his brother (Ismar) also had an older sister Rita (born in 1924), who is still happily alive and well. My uncle too is also living.
With this to be done in 2023 I suppose that in due course you will have an exact date, as if it permits I, possibly together with my siblings would like to attend.
I also have a Spielberg Interview that Dad gave in December 1995 that details some of his life in Hannover, and from memory the address that they lived at the time of Kristallnacht was 39 or 36 Goetheplatz? I know I have it somewhere. They also lived nearby at an earlier address (lange lauer or similar); this however I can’t recall. I will check with my Aunt. Please let me know if you are interested in the Spielberg tape(s)
I do have a few questions that at different times I have asked the Hannover archives, but maybe you might be able to assist and maybe (I am for ever hopeful) some documents may yet exist.
The questions are:
- My paternal grandfather Jakob Joseph Schneeweiss migrated from Galicia to Hannover at the turn of the 20th century, my paternal grandmother migrated from Poland to marry my grandfather after WW1. They were never German citizens according to as I understand it Nazi racial laws, thus the question why were they not deported in 1938 together with other Polish Jews. It has always been a mystery, as other cousins (part of the Lindenbaum family) were. With paternal only citizenship I had my application for restoration of German citizenship rejected many years back. Of course, they were lucky not to have been deported, but the question remains why e.g. was there a difference in the view of the regime between those who came pre WW1 or after, although I doubt it, for example the ‘infamous’ Grynzpan family I think migrated prior to WW1?
- My grandfather was taken to Nazi headquarters after Kristallnacht where he was forced to sign over his business. I believe any Gestapo records that may have existed no longer exist.
- Would the Hannover archives have any information as to when the Schneeweiss family applied to leave Germany. My father always believed the decision was taken after Kristallnacht, however my Aunt disagreed and believed it was much earlier. Strangely, I have never been able to locate either via the British or the Australian Government archives anything to do with the successful application to come to Australia.
- On the night of Kristallnacht my grandfather was contacted by a Nazi/business associate to disappear, which he did for a few days. This ‘friend’ was known by the children as Lange Erich. I have always wondered who he might have been, his family name etc. All tantalising snippets of the past.
- The only other thing I would love some more information concerning was after Kristallnacht my grandfather contacted a cousin of his (I have never been able to work out exactly how they were related), Toni Fruchter, who had left Germany for Holland soon after Hitler’s ascent to power, as a young communist. She agreed to come over the Dutch/German border to collect my father and uncle and smuggle them into Holland, which they did after a standoff on this border where they were caught and then eventually allowed in. I don’t suppose any information would exist about this. The reasoning of my grandparents was that three less two young boys would be better able to move around in those uncertain times. They then stayed at a Dutch Jewish refugee home for several months, until being united and then onwards to Australia.
- Lastly, if you have any suggestions for possibly still getting birth/death/medical or any other records of the Schneeweiss/Lindenbaum families. There was a family history written about the Lindenbaums some years back.
Having written this reply I think I will try and contact Peter again. In the meantime, if you have any contact with him please remember me to him.
I thank you again and look forward to further contact with you.
Regards,
Geejay Schneeweiss
0412 201 201
From: Sheridan-Quantz, Edel (41.03) <Edel.Sheridan-Quantz@hannover-stadt.de>
Sent: Monday, 4 October 2021 11:12 PM
To: Geejay Schneeweiss <geejay@geejay.net>
Subject: [SPAM] WG: RE Stolpersteine Hannover
Dear Geejay Schneeweiß,
thank you very much for your email – and yes, you wrote to the right address! Our department used to be called “Städtische Erinnerungskultur” (Municipal Culture of Remembrance Office), we are now called ZeitZentrum Ziivilcourage after our new education centre opened this March, but the old email address still works.
There is a paragraph about your father Joachim Schneeweiss and his brother Ismar in the catalogue of for our 2015 exhibition about children from Hannover who were sent on the Kindertransport. I tried to get in touch with your family before the exhibition to expand on the information we had been able to research, but nothing came of it at the time.
To have a Stolperstein laid for your father, all you need to do is to request it in writing – which you have done in your email. We fund the stumbling stones through donations from members of the public – we don’t ask families to pay for them.
We will need to correspond to fill out the details of your father’s life story and the story of his family (brother, parents etc.). And it would be good if you could share any photographs from their time in Hannover that you may have. We always create an information sheet for every individual or family – these are distributed at the ceremony, given to the families and later used for reference or for interested neighbours living in the locality today.
The actual process is quite slow: the artist Gunter Demnig comes to Hannover once a year to lay stumbling stones, but the corona pandemic has meant that there was no ceremony in 2020 or 2021. This means we have a backlog for 2022. So the earliest possible date for your father’s stone would be 2023.
Looking forward to hearing back from you!
Best wishes
Edel
Dr. Edel Sheridan-Quantz
Landeshauptstadt Hannover
Zentrale Angelegenheiten Kultur (41.03)
ZeitZentrum Zivilcourage
Theodor-Lessing-Platz 1a
30159 Hannover
Büro: Rundestr. 6
30161 Hannover
Tel. 0511 / 168-31678
Von: Geejay Schneeweiss <geejay@geejay.net>
Gesendet: Freitag, 1. Oktober 2021 09:09
An: 41.03 Erinnerungskultur <43.E@hannover-stadt.de>
Betreff: RE Stolpersteine Hannover
ACHTUNG: Diese E-Mail stammt von außerhalb des Netzwerkes der LHH. Besondere Vorsicht beim Klicken auf Links oder Öffnen von Anhängen!
Good day,
I do not know if this is the correct email address for arranging a Stolpersteine in honour of my late father and his family who lived in Goetheplatz until May 1939. If so, could you please email me details of how I go about arranging this to be done, cost etc.
I thank you in advance.
Regards,
Geejay Schneeweiss
Sydney, Australia
0412 201 201