A Good Chat with Tante Ruth Novice, December 29, 2021

Ruth, Judi, Meir.

Ruth's two sets of grandparents, maternal and paternal (the Heilbuts and the Mindens), were good friends. As a result, her father Henry and his wife Anna Sophie Heilbut grew up practically next door to each other -- and then they married.

Henry was the oldest of the 11 siblings (10 surviving); he was born in 1890.  When his brother Ernest (Ernst) would come to visit his "big brother," there was always a lot of joking, because Henry was relatively short, and Ernest was very tall -- so, who was the "big" one? Because Ernst was so tall, he often bent down to listen or speak with people who were shorter than him.  Henry's wife Anna would often say to Ernst "you must keep your back straight!" 

Before World Ware II, Henry and his family were living in Germany.   Because Henry had lived in England for several years in the early 1900s, he was a British subject and was able to ensure the status of "British by Birth" to his wife and children.  Just before Kristallnacht, they feared for their lives and had to flee from Germany.  Being British subjects allowed them to escape from Germany.  In addition, Henry was easily able to get a new job when he arrived in England in 1938 because he was already British.

When the war began, Ernest and his family lived in Woking, outside London and practically in the country. Henry and family lived in London, without a car, but would visit when they could. Henry and Ernest's mother Sophie lived for some time with Ernest and family, another reason to visit. Henry was born in England so did not need a visa when he moved there, and was able to get a job right away.

When Ernest's sons were bar mitzvah, this was in the Reform tradition, so it took place on Sunday, not on Shabbes, and Ruth (from the Orthodox part of the family) could be there.

Ruth's parents lived in northwest (NW) London, in Golders Green; Ernest's wife Lena moved there after her divorce, and they were able to walk to shul. 

When Henry and Anna first arrived in England, they had very little money -- Ruth's recollection is that when they escaped from Germany, each person could carry 20 marks, or about 20 dollars today. So at first their home in Alba Gardens (see document below) was a rental, and later they moved. They had used furniture, including a dining table that could be expanded with a leaf that didn't fit very well. When the children, including cousin Nucu (Nicholas Minden, son of Richard), would play pingpong on the table, the misfit portion made the game unique!

Nucu was born in Bucharest (his mother was Romanian). Ruth recalls that her own grandmother went to Bucharest for a while (before and during the war?) and brought home very pretty things.

We also chatted a bit about Henry and Ernest's brother Alfred, who was sent before World War II to live in Australia "because he had behaved badly." Later, when it became necessary due to the danger from teh Nazis for their sister Claire to leave Germany, she was able to go to Australia because Alfred could sponsor her there. This changed the family narrative to saying that it was beshert (meant to be by G-d) that Alfred be there, to save Claire. [See http://minden-family.blogspot.com/2016/03/alfred-minden-every-large-family-has.html]

BK, 12-29-21 (phone conversation, Judi Roth also present at Ruth's end)

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.

Generation A: Max and Sophie (Feitler) Minden and the Hamburg (Germany) Temple

Much of this information is very new to me -- my research was prompted by a fragment in a letter this week from Georg Iggers (Generation 2; his name was originally Georg Gerson Igersheimer), son of Lizzie (Minden) Iggers of Generation 1, and grandson of Max Minden (Gen. A).

Georg and his wife Wilma wrote alternating chapters for a compelling book on their lives, Two Lives in Uncertain Times, published in 2006. (Note: We have two more copies arriving here next week, one of which is already going to Judi Roth; if someone wants/needs the other, let me know. -- BK) On page 25 in the book, Georg writes of his father, from a very observant Orthodox family in Frankfurt, and his mother's father, Max Minden, who "was the son of the cantor of the central Liberal synagogue, the Temple, in Hamburg. I supsect that my grandmother Sophie also came from a Liberal family in Oppenheim. My grandfather Max seems to have been religiously indifferent but was active in Jewish philanthropy. He helped to resettle Russian Jews in the United States and made at least two trips to the United States to see how they were doing. He became a prosperous businessman, with a firm with branches in Hamburg and Hull, England, that imported eggs and other agricultural products from Russia. There is speculation that his sudden death in February 1914 may have been a suicide due to financial difficulties."

Georg also specifies that the Minden family -- Max and Sophie and children -- lived in Hull, England, from 1894 until 1904, and then returned to Hamburg.

Hamburg city hall.

Georg sees the family as having no formal Jewish religious instruction, and goes on to count that "Of the ten of my grandparents' children who grew to adulthood, four married non-Jews and broke all ties to Judaism. Two became Christian Scientists. Others remained loosely Jewish, which the oldest son, Henry, became an observant Orthodox Jew."

I recommend Georg and Wilma's book for the rest of the story of Georg's family line, as his parents (Lizzie and Alfred) emigrated to Richmond, Virginia.

But that is about all of Max and Sophie's story that Georg recounts in those pages.

I will pull together a few other details later that I've gleaned from reading some Warburg histories. Meanwhile, Cousins, what say you -- do you have more to add on Max and Sophie? I'd also like to know -- Sophie's Feitler family of origin came from Frankfurt. There are other Feitlers in our family as well; do any of you know whether they came from that same family?

Last but not least: I was intrigued by the Wikipedia article on the Hamburg Temple (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamburg_Temple), where Max's father was a cantor. I note that the Warburg family is mentioned here, too.

Former Temple of Reform Judaism in Hamburg, built 1844.

New Temple Oberstrasse, 1931-1938.

One more note: I hope those of you who know more about all this will feel free to correct any errors or misstatements here! As I mentioned ... I am new to much of this. I'll explain that in another post, at another time.

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

Max Minden, 1859-1914

Max Minden is in Generation A. Here's what I have so far for dates for him:

Born 1859, 22 May, Hamburg, Germany.

By 1901, at age 42, he is mentioned as residing in Sculcoates, Yorkshire, England.

I have evidence that in 1906, on 26 January, at age 46, he visited New York, New York.

• And his death is recorded as taking place in 1914 on 21 February at age 54 in Hamburg.

  
  

  See the newer post on his egg company in Hull, England, Max Minden & Company Ltd.

  
  

  -- BK