Alfred Minden: "Every Large Family Has a Black Sheep"

ALFRED MINDEN 1902-1952, generation 1, eighth child of Max Minden and Sophie Feitler

A number of pieces of Alfred's life have now come together, with special effort from Phillip Minden (gen. 3) and some help from Australia. And what a story it is! It begins while the Minden family lived in Hamburg. Recall that Max and Sophie lived in Hull, England, from 1894 to 1904, so it was here that Alfred was born in 1902. Max's death in 1914, when Alfred was just 12 years old, must have had a powerful effect on all 11 children.

In Alfred's case, the future soon turned difficult We can see by steamship manifests that Alfred traveled by ship to New York City from Hamburg in both July 1923 and September 1924, at ages 21 and 22, respectively. He was living in Australia by the time  he was 25, in 1927, and in that year two things happened: He married Rieke Goldman (also known as Rieke Cohen), and he was arrested for embezzling from her company!


The marriage was clearly difficult. One point of controversy, as exposed in this newspaper article describing a family fight at the cemetery for the dedication of Rieke's mother's stone there, may have been that Alfred lied about his family of origin. Although he said truthfully that part of the family was engaged in banking, his father was actually a business owner, deceased, and his mother Sophie was still living -- which he may have changed into having lost his mother, as he told his story in Australia.

By 1933, Alfred had become a habitual petty criminal (court cases can be found using this link: http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/result?q=%22Alfred+minden%22), and his "mug shots" are the only photos so far that we can be sure are his:

His marriage to Rieke was,  we hope, over by 6 November 1934, when Alfred married again, this time to Veronica Mary Schweida or Sweida. She was one of three sisters, shown in the photo here. The couple soon had a  daughter, Frances Sophie Minden, born 1935, died 1941, with a coroner's inquest that found "Injuries accidentally sustained by being run over by a motor lorry."

In 1939 he was interned for about three weeks, as a German in Australia, despite his official British status. The internment documents show that the police collected him and that he "refused to sign" something, so evidently he resisted being collected.

Arrested in 1940 for burglary with a young woman companion (Sydney Morning Herald, Friday 22 March 1940, thanks to the National Library of Australia), Alfred by then had a reputation for womanizing, and according to the newspaper, two children, although only one -- the child who died -- can be found documented.

However, Alfred must have made some sort of peace with Australia and his second wife, as he entered the armed service there in 1941 and served until 1943, with his wife Veronica listed as his next of kin. One wonders what changes he experienced during this time.

We know only that in 1951 he returned to England, and died there at age 50.

His niece Ruth says that she never met him and never knew he returned to England, but that she remembers knowing that he had been "sent away to Australia" because he was an unmanageable teen who had done something "bad."

Although Alfred's documented life was often dishonorable, Ruth said that Alfred's presence in Australia saved the life of his younger sister Claire and her family, who also emigrated to Australia. Claire married Herbert Goldfeld, and they changed their surname to Gore; they had a son Werner Goldfeld, born about 1931. Claire appears on one of the internment documents as Alfred's next of kin. I think this son's name may have become Sydney Gore. We hope to connect with this part of the family later, and add to this story of how Alfred's "black sheep" status may have had some positive aspects, after all.

Photos: Hertz Minden and Sophie (Behrens) Minden and Descendants

These photos are provided by Inbal Jaffe, whose father Uri Jaffe is the son of Herbert Jaffe, who is the son of Franziska (Minden) Jaffe. Franziska was the daughter of Iwan Minden, brother of Max Minden (Generation A). The parents of Iwan and Max were Hertz Simon Naftali Minden (1818-1887) and Sophie (Behrens) Minden (1834-1906) (Generation B).

So, here are Hertz (here labeled Henry) and Sophie of Generation B, and their son Iwan, at left.

Inbal also provided these three photos, in which the man with the heavy moustache at lower left is her great-great-grandfather Iwan; we look forward to more identifications:

Also from Inbal's collection is this photo of three of the family's Henrys:

At left is Henry Minden who was living in Hannover, Germany, at the time of the photo; at the center, Dr. (of law) Henry Minden of London (Generation 1); and Henry Minden of New York. (The German word "jetzt" means "now" in English.)

I add here what I know of Henry Minden of New York, on the right. He was a grandfatherly presence in my life when I was a child (1950s, 1960s). My parents said he was a "cousin" of Ernest. Ruth (Minden) Novice said he was adopted by one of the Minden men of Generation A, but she was not sure which; Inbal suggests that it was Siegfried who adopted him. At the time when I knew him, he lived in the town of Great Neck on Long Island, which extends eastward from New York City; his wife, whom he outlived, was Betty Fishman (it was her second marriage; she had a son Alan). Henry of New York married second Lore (of Holland I think). According to a book of history of the Warburg banking enterprises, Henry Minden of New York was instrumental in bringing the Warburg business to America. My parents also told me that Henry and Betty had escaped Europe via Holland. I have been unable to find birth, marriage, or death documents for them so far.

After some work with the family tree, I wonder: Could the Henry/Henri Minden on the left be Iwan's son Henry?

Photos: Max and Sophie Minden and Their 10 Children

Many thanks to Judi (Novice) Roth for providing these wonderful photos! Here are Max Jechiel Minden (1859-1914) and Sophie (Feitler) Minden (1867-1949) (Generation A by our counting here). Max was born in Hamburg, Germany, and Sophie in Oppenheim, Germany; their first child, Henry, was born in 1890, so at a guess, they may have married around 1888.

Sophie gave birth to 11 children, but one, Siegmond, died at age 8 or 9 (1894-1903).
Here are the remaining 10 children:

The boys are (from oldest) Henry, Robert, Ernest, Hans, and Alfred.
The girls are (from oldest) Anna, Frances, Babette, Lizzy, and for the fifth daughter I have two names, without dates of birth: Claire and Sophie -- Judi or Ruth, can you help on this, please?

Scattered Wide and Far: Generations 1, 2, 3 ...

Ruth and Meir Novice, 2015

Dave and I were honored and very, very glad to meet Ruth (née Minden) and Meir Novice in Brookline (part of greater Boston) last month. I will write more later about the gathering, brought about graciously by Ruth and Meir's daughter Judi Roth (generation 3). Meanwhile, here is a photo of this amazing couple.

One question I had hoped to resolve during this get-together was the reason that the Mindens of Generation 1 scattered so definitively -- not just geographically but also in terms of how the family in the next two generations (including mine) has not stayed very much in contact. Ruth confirmed that the embrace of very different religious paths among generations 1 and 2 contributed significantly to this pattern. We are fortunate to have among us those who have taken their Judaism to heart in many ways; those who found a home within Roman Catholicism, Protestant faiths, and Christian Science; and others who felt most drawn to rational moral living, without a particular religious belief underpinning it.

In our Vermont home.

Now, in a modern culture that allows us to gently connect via social media, e-mail, and of course letters and visits, I am pleased to find the re-connections in some ways easier than they might have been a hundred years ago.

Dr. Henry Minden, Lawyer (Generation 1)

I am still trying to pull together the experiences of my childhood with the information I'm learning now. Dr. Henry Minden (Generation 1), a lawyer, was a brother of my grandfather Ernest Minden; I see from his great-grandson David Roth's article (see previous post) that he lived for decades in Golders Green, London. I'm adding here a notice from the February 1972 issue of AJR Information, published by the Association of Jewish Refugees in Great Britain. It acknowledges Dr Minden's death in December 1971.

I met Dr Henry Minden and his wife Anna once when I was a child -- a meal was provided for their visit at the home of yet another Henry (Henri) Minden, this one living in Great Neck on Long Island, New York. I'm guessing it was around 1964. I also visited my grandmother Lena's home in England in 1959 and 1967 (after her divorce from Ernest Minden), and I believe that too was in Golders Green. I don't think I met Henry and Anna during those visits; probably the varied styles of Jewish life did not encourage such a visit at that time. But I met Lotte Gore there, I'm sure -- when I figure out how she connects to all this, I'll annotate this mention. UPDATE: Lena's home was at 56, Clifton Gardens, London NW 11.


Onward!

Henry Minden's Chumash

I was delighted today to discover this thoughtful examination of the chumash and siddur of Henry Minden (Generation 1), by his great-grandson David Roth (Generation 4):

http://onthemainline.blogspot.com/2014/08/guest-post-my-great-grandfathers.html

Generation 1: The children of Max and Sophie Minden (more details later)

Henry Minden.

Anna Minden.

Siegmund Minden.

Robert Minden.

Frances Minden.

Ernst / Ernest Minden.

Babette Minden.

Alfred Minden.

Lizzie Minden.

Hans Minden.

Claire Minden.

-- BK