Tears From My Tree

I became passionate, desperately passionate, to share with family, friends, researchers, genealogists and generations to come, the names of my maternal grandmother’s family murdered by the Nazis in the Holocaust. This intense drive was ignited after loving voices and gentle hands guided me back to the time when my ancestors and family lived in the tiny German villages of Sien and Odenbach. After reading and studying the work of Sien and Odenbach historians and genealogists Ruth and Ulrich Eckhoff, the late Alfred Wendel, Eva Kappesser, and the late Alfred Moritz, I could do very little else but pursue my passion.

I have always been interested in family folklore and family history, but was not able to become a serious genealogist until the spring of 2012, when I was 62 years old. Soon after I began my journey, I met Sue Hackl Bosman, a fourth cousin on my maternal grandmother’s side of the family, who has been a genealogist for over thirty years. In June, 2013, Sue and I met our fifth cousin, once removed, Pat Brumback Gore, who, like Sue, has been a serious genealogist for many, many years.

The day we met Pat, she introduced us to Sien historians and genealogists Ruth and Ulrich Eckhoff’s book written in German, Die ehemalige Jüdische Gemeinde Sien – Spuren und Erinnerungen, ©1998, and partially translated into English by Alfred Moritz in 2005, as The former Jewish Community of Sien – a township in the German State of Rhineland, Palatinate. It was through Ruth’s and Ulrich’s dedication to preserve the memory of the former Jews of Sien that I first learned I had family murdered in the Holocaust.

My dear friend and sister in my heart, Ruth Eckhoff, introduced me, Sue and Pat to the not-for-profit organization, Förderverein ehemalige Synagoge Odenbach e.V., translated into English as Friends of former Synagogue of Odenbach. It was here that I learned about the book, Chronik Odenbach, Band III, Jüdisches Leben, ©2008, translated into English as Chronicle Odenbach, Volume III, Jewish Life. The book was researched and written by the late Odenbach historian and genealogist Alfred Wendel and his granddaughter, Eva Kappesser, who began working on the book with her grandfather in 2003. After Alfred Wendel’s death in 2007, Eva, a historian and genealogist in her own right, selflessly and intensively worked on weekends with her grandfather’s friend, Dr. Joachim Soffel, and completed the book. Through the work of Alfred Wendel and Eva Kappesser, whom I consider to be one of my own children, I would learn about my Odenbach family who were murdered in the Holocaust.

Remarkably, in 1994, my cousin, Sue Hackl Bosman, corresponded with Alfred Wendel while searching for her/our Odenbach, Germany, family roots. Alfred Wendel responded to Sue’s questions by sending her pages from the 1808 Odenbach Jewish Civil Register that pertained to our family. Not long after, he completed his publication, titled, Juden in Odenbach, ©1995, a bound compilation of the entire 1808 Odenbach Jewish Civil Register.

Years earlier, after the discovery of the former Jewish Synagogue in Odenbach, Alfred Wendel published a paper for the Department of Geography and Regional Research at the University of Mannheim, Germany, Pfälzische Juden und Ihre Kultuseinrichtungen, ©1988, translated into English, Palatinate Jews and Their worship facilities.

The discovery that I lost family in the Holocaust seemed surreal. I was in shock. No one in my close or extended family knew we had lost family in the Holocaust. All I had known prior to 2013 was that my mother’s mother’s family emigrated to the United States from Germany in the mid 1800s. Until I met Sue, I did not even know where in Germany they had lived.

I remained in shock for months until early 2014, when my children told me they were taking me to Europe in July, and our first stop in Germany would be Sien and nearby Odenbach. I quickly came out of my stupor and went into fast gear, trying to learn and absorb as much information as I could about my Sien and Odenbach family before my trip. Thanks to my cousin, Pat Brumback Gore, I already had a hard copy of The former Jewish Community of Sien – a township in the German State of Rhineland, Palatinate. I did not as yet have a copy of Chronik Odenbach, Band III, Jüdisches Leben.

My dear German sister, Ruth Eckhoff, who began researching the former Jews of Sien in 1996 and who has never stopped, shared stories with me, Sue and Pat, that she had been told first hand about our Sien family. She sent us family trees, birth records and death records. She sent us photos of former homes and land once owned by our family, as well as photos and drawings of the former Jewish Synagogue of Sien. Years earlier, Ruth took a photo of the Mikvah that is in the basement of the former home of one of our family members, and sent us a copy of the photo. Today, the Mikvah remains untouched by the current owner of the home.

Ruth and Ulrich Eckhoff were our hosts when my children and I visited the villages where my maternal grandmother’s family once lived. They graciously welcomed us into their home. Their Church parish loaned them its church seniors’ van during our entire stay to transport us from place to place. With loving hands and gentle hearts, Ruth and Ulrich guided us back in time to when our family once lived in Sien. As we walked through their village, they showed us where our family had lived and worshipped. They showed us where our family members had been rounded up and taken by the Nazis. They brought us to the Sien Jewish Cemetery that had been desecrated by the Nazis and later repaired by compassionate hands. They took us to the nearby Kirn Jewish Cemetery that had not been found and destroyed by the Nazis. Ruth prepared folders filled with documents, photos and sketches that represented every word and sight she and Ulrich shared with us.

Ruth planned our visit to nearby Odenbach with Friends of the former Synagogue of Odenbach board members, Chairwoman Ursula Woehl, Secretary Rupertus “Rupert” Woehl, and Treasurer Friederike Kappesser, who is the daughter of the late Alfred Wendel. Our visit began within the walls of the former Odenbach Synagogue, where we were seated for a presentation. Rupert introduced himself and all guests in attendance, which included a local newspaper reporter. We were told about the history of Odenbach and its Jewish population, the discovery of the synagogue and its restoration. The synagogue, built in 1752, was where my Odenbach ancestors and family once worshipped. The interior was destroyed during the Night of Broken Glass; however, the structure survived. After WWII it was used as a storage building. Historian Bernhard Kukatzi discovered rare mural paintings on the buildings’ interior walls in 1985. The Protestant Church community of Odenbach and surrounding villages founded a group to save and restore the paintings. Soon after, the Förderverein ehemalige Synagoge Odenbach e.V. was founded.

We were then treated to a beautiful concert performed by Rupert, Ulrich and Loni Kroenert. Rupert played the keyboard; Ulrich, his violin; and Loni Kroenert, the clarinet.

Ursula and Friederike had prepared copies of my Odenbach family trees for me to take home. They also sent me home with a copy of Alfred Wendel’s and Eva Kappesser’s book, Chronik Odenbach, Band III, Jüdisches Leben, with pages bookmarked to help me easily find my family, as well as those who perished in the Holocaust, in the book, within its 490 pages.

When we left the Synagogue for a walking tour of Odenbach, Friederike warmly invited us into her home to see where her late father and daughter worked on their book. The walls in Alfred Wendel’s room were lined from the floor to the ceiling with boxes and binders filled with his research papers.

Rupert and Ursula took us through the tiny village of Odenbach. As in Sien, we were guided by gentle hands and loving voices, as we were shown homes where our family once lived, and where our family members were taken by the Nazis.

We were taken to visit the Odenbach Jewish Cemetery and the old, large Meisenheim Jewish Cemetery that was untouched by the Nazis. Rupert had mowed the path up the steep hill to the Meisenheim cemetery the day before, so that we could easily walk the path.

It was not until I returned home to Texas and began dissecting the Ulrich’s book, and Alfred Wendel’s and Eva Kappesser’s book, that I realized virtually every Jew who ever lived in the tiny villages of Sien and Odenbach was a member of my family, or had married into my family. And it was not until I began entering names into my own personal family tree from trees compiled over years of work and research by Ruth and Ulrich Eckhoff, Alfred Wendel, and Eva Kappesser, that I realized I lost a significantly large number of family members in the Holocaust.

Ruth and Ulrich Eckhoff, Alfred Wendel, and Eva Kappesser spent countless years researching “my” family so that the Jews who lived in the tiny villages of Sien and Odenbach, and those who perished in the Holocaust, would never be forgotten. To them, I am eternally grateful.

This book is a compilation of the research done by Ruth and Ulrich Eckhoff, Alfred Wendel and his granddaughter, Eva Kappesser, Pages of Testimony and lists of my family found on Yad Vashem, my personal research, and most recently, information I found in Alfred Moritz’s book, Survival 1933-1945, ©2000. What began as modest memorial to my family murdered in the Holocaust, became a large, detailed memorial that includes the names of victims who are distantly connected to me through marriage, as they are also part of my family.

I have dedicated a page or series of pages to the memory of each member of my family who was murdered in the Holocaust. Memorials are listed in alphabetical order by last name. Under each name, I have noted how each person is related to me. I have provided an index in the back of the book to assist family, friends, historians and researchers in finding memorial pages. In the back of the book, I have also included a list of suggested reading.

I have devoted almost every day and night since my return from Europe to this book. My heart aches. I have shed many tears. I have gone to bed and woken up with headaches and tight, painful shoulders and neck. I have gone to bed only to get up again and work until I can no longer keep my eyes open. I have spent both day and night grieving for my family. When I was not familiar with the camp, ghetto or location where my family member died, I researched the location to better understand what my family member may have gone through before his or her death. I carry the name of each victim in my heart.

When I first met my dear German sister Ruth Eckhoff, I was moved by how she spoke of my family members buried in the Sien and nearby Jewish cemeteries. She spoke of them as “sleeping”.