Simon Lewin (* 3/9/1863 in Labischin in Posen, ✝ 8/14/1919) came to Guttentag to work as a teacher. There he married Regina Freund (* 7/22/1864,✝8/23/1913). The couple had 6 children:
Margot Lewin was the best friend of Alice Meyerstein, even Margot was a few years older. They were like sisters.
Margot fled to London and when Alice heart that she was in the UK she contacted her and Margot came to Bedford and lived with Alice and his son in one room during the time Alices husband and father were detained on the Isle of Men.
In Bedford Margot made a further friend, Hella Heilbut. She had a son, Klaus. In 1946 Hella emigrated to America. There Hella Heilbut became Hella Hale and Klaus Heilbut became Kenneth Hale.
Margot first worked as a domestic servant, but she learnt English quickly that she could work as a bookkeeper.
Margot also tried for many years to gain admission to the US. Finanally she was successful and immigrated on May 4, 1953 into the US. There she revived her friendship with Hella. And when Alice many years later visited her son in Canada she always made a detour to Margot, too.
Margot died on January 18, 1978 in New York.
Max was a traveling salesman for women's hats. In 1921 he engaged to Lisbeth Tockuss (*02/15/1897).
The couple lived in the 1930ties with their children Franz (*3/27/1925) and Ilse (* 9/19/1929) in Breslau. Because of the bad education opportunities for Jews in Germany Lisbeth asked in June 1938 the wife of his late uncle in America if she could send her son Franz to her. She refused because she were an old woman and not able to care for a 13 year old boy. But she proposed that the whole family should come to the US.
For the authorities in Germany Bertha proofed that she was wealthy enough to cover all the families’ expenses but the consulate signalized that it could take several years to get an admission because of the low immigration quotas for the US and the long list of German applicants.
At the Reichskristallnacht Max was on a business trip and didn't notice what was going on. Back home he didn't believe that he was in danger to get arrested because he was a WWI veteran. But the next night (11/12/1938) the Gestapo came, arrested him and brought him - like Ludwig Meyerstein und Lothar Eisner - to Buchenwald. His wife went to the police station several times and asked when her husband would come home. The police told her that this is only possible when she could proof that her husband would leave Germany as soon as possible.
In a state of utter desperation she purchased a ship ticket to Shanghai, the only place on the world which didn't ask for a visa for Jews. Max was released on 12/19/1938.
Finally the family was able to purchase tickets for Cuba, where they wanted to wait for their admission for the US. On March 24, 1939 they left her home in Breslau. On March 1938 they entered the Hapag ship MS Oninoco in Hamburg. The tickets cost 633 $ and the visas for Cuba another 1,000 € which Bertha paid directly from the US. The reached Havanna on April 16.
They had to wait for their US admission for 13 month. In Cuba Max was arrested again. When Franz who already spoke Spanish very well wanted to help him he was also arrested. Money, which Berth sent, helped to get them free. Bertha sent 65 $ a moth to the family. On Juli 6, 1940 they could finally leave Cuba and immigrate into the US and live further on in New York. Franz lived with the son of Bertha and the rest of the family had a shabby room. When it became clear in Germany that they had to go, Lisbeth made a course in sewing. Now she could make a living by sewing for the US army.
Max worked for a garment manufacturer, ultimately he became in charge of the shipping department.
Max got the following restitutions: 150 DM for the detainment in KZ Buchenwald, 5,685 DM for the expatriation-costs, 838 DM for the loss of his contents, furnitures and fixtures und 900 DM for a lost life-insurance.
Max died in 1973 in New York, his wife already on March 3, 1969.
Read here the detailed story of the flight narrated by Irene.
Franz who renamed himself to Frank, became a successful composer for film music. He was a professor at Yale School of Music and at Columbia University School of Art. He died in 2008.
Read here his CVi.
His sister Ilse named herself Irene when she came to America. Because of the friendship of her ant Margot to Hella she came into contact with her son Kenneth. She fall in love, married him and had a beautiful marriage lasting 53 years. Ilse died on July 2, 2006 in Westbury, Nassau. Kenneth Hale and his son Rabbi Kevin Hale, sent me a lot of information and pictures. I would like to say thank you for that!
Georg (* 2/26/1899) , the brother of Margot and Max, went to school from 1905 to 1913. Then he made an apprenticeship in the draper's shop "Albert Schaefer A.G" in Brelau. From 1917 to 1919 he joint the army. In 1929 he became selfemployed as a window-dresser. From 1928 to 1931 or 1932 he worked as a bookkeeper in a draper's shop. In 1932 he changed to the company "Julian Rosenthal", also a draper's shop. In the evenings and at the weekend he still decorated shop-windows. So he could increase his salary of 130 RM per month by an average of 250 RM per month.
In 1935 or 1936 Julian Rosenthal couldn't pay him no longer. The prosecution of the Jewish family was so heavily that the business broke down.
Georg then worked as groundskeeper for the Jewish tennis club of Breslau but in 1938 the club was closed because the most members emigrated.
He lived at Goethestraße 8, Brelau, when he was also detained in Buchenwald. He was jailed from 11/09/1938 until 12/16/1938 (Georg himself said that he was released on Dezember 1).
At August 8, 1939 he managed to flee to England. There he lived in the Kitchener Camp in Richborough.
Read here the information about Georg given by the ITS International Tracing Service.
This Camp was built by the Council for German Jewry on the pressure of the Reichsvertretung der Juden in Deutschland due to make it possible for German Jews to flee Germany after the Reichskristallnacht an the following mass detentions. Admission got who was between the age of 18 and 40 and had a perspective to emigrate to the US.
Read here more about the Kitchener Camp or watch here a short documentary.
In June 1940 he was arrested as a "foreign enimy" and brought to a detention camp in Australia. He was released in July 1942 and brought back to England.
At 6/2/1943 Georg married his wife Hildegard (* 7/27/1911 in Bochum, nee Heilbronn).
Back in England he work as a laborer at a sawmill for a salary of 3 Pounds per week.
In 1950 he immigrated to the US. In New York he worked as a painter. Until the end of the 1950ties he had work only for some hours a month. In 1963 he got a restitution of 15,000 DM for the damage of his career.
He died in November 1966. His wife Hildegard died on May 2, 1975.
