On the wall of my office is a picture of my great uncle, Richard Stern. He is the man who raised my father – his father in reality if not biology. Uncle Richard is standing in the doorway of his bedding store in Cologne, wearing the Iron Cross he was awarded for valor in World War I. Next to him is a uniformed Nazi – complete with swastika and all. Uncle Richard was protesting the boycott of Jewish businesses, the first official anti-Jewish decree by the Nazi government in April 1933. What you do not see is that he was handing out anti-Nazi leaflets, condemning the actions of Hitler, Frick and Goering as an insult to all the Jewish soldiers who served Germany in World War I.
When we were in Germany last summer, Audrey and I visited the Jewish Museum in Berlin. This is a very large, well done museum tracing the history of Jews in Germany from Roman times to the present. As we reached the section that begins to describe the oppression of Jews by the Nazis, I was shocked to see a huge blowup of the picture of Uncle Richard that is in my office, dominating a section of the wall. Just below and to the side of his picture was a large copy of the leaflet he printed and handed out – a leaflet in which I own a couple of the originals.
Last night cousin Anne hosted us at her apartment for dinner. It was also a time to share pictures and documents with each other. Anne, whose father was my grandfather’s brother, has been doing a lot of family research on the Germany side. She found our great, great grandfather’s grave in Lengerich. She also found a complete record of the family tree through the generations of her father (and my grandfather). I brought with me a number of documents and pictures to show her as well. Some were just to share and enjoy (like pictures of my dad and family when I was a child). Others were to try to get more information about. Anne had lots of pictures of the Romberg side from their life in Germany.
One of the things I showed her was the leaflet Uncle Richard produced and told her his story and about his picture in the Jewish museum. She was moved and fascinated. Then I showed her a small, passport-like booklet, that had Uncle Richard’s name on it and was dated from 1917. I had guessed that this booklet had something to do with his term in the army, but as I do not read German, I asked Anne to confirm this. She paged through the booklet and confirmed. Uncle Richard was a musketeer. He served until 1919. His service had all good marks, no demerits. It is a detailed description of his time in the service. Then as she reached the back, two small folded up pieces of paper fell out. I had not really noticed them. They were the most interesting as they turned out to be from 1937. One was a certification that he was physically fit for service in the German army. The other disqualified him for that service because he was a Jew.
Why is this interesting? Uncle Richard made a point of keeping all the records of his service in the German army and his later rejection on the basis of being Jewish. Yet, when America entered World War II, he purposefully turned in his Iron Cross medal to the scrap metal drive to be made into bullets to kill Nazis. We had connected some dots by learning his complete service record in the German army. But it then raised the interesting question of why did he keep those records, and the official documentation of later German anti-Semitism, yet give up his medal?
That was not the only treasure we speculated over last night. I had found in my father’s collection of papers and pictures, an old photo of a couple dressed in clothes that must be from the 19th century. I did not recognize either person. The woman was not my grandmother. I thought, perhaps they might be my father’s maternal grandparents. The woman in the photo is significantly younger than the man. Anne then pulled out a photo of an older woman she said was her paternal grandmother, my great grandmother. As we looked at the two photos it became obvious that the woman in each was the same woman, just at different ages. If so, then the man in my photo must be my great grandfather, Julius Romberg. This is significant because to the best of Anne’s and my knowledge, no Romberg family member has a photo of Julius. Indeed, if this is him, then how and why would my father, who had almost no contact with the Romberg side of his family, come by this picture of his grandparents? We hope to confirm the identity of the people in the photo when we go to Diepholz, where my great grandparents lived, and talk to an archivist there who has written a book about the Jewish community in Diepholz.
Tomorrow we leave for Esslingen, where I will meet my father’s half sister. I am hoping that she will be able to connect a lot of dots concerning my grandfather’s history. And I know that with each connection will come even more questions.
Exciting to hear your discovers. Best wishes with the rest of your adventure.
Jim Croushorn
Going to put this arltcie to good use now.