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The Margulies - Remenyi Family
Snippets and Stories
This is a collection of stories (hearsay, "vaguely remembered", unconfirmed oral history)and some snippets I have found, here and there.
- The Spanish Rabbi
- The Royal (Habsburg) Connection
- Habsburg, Shmabsburg ! King David Rules, OK !
- Telegrams from Krakow - 1908
- Margulies & Sussmann ! - but not ours !!
- Zug der Erinnerung / Train of Commemoration
The Spanish Rabbi
One of Hanns' ancestors was a/the (?) Head Rabbi in France at the time of Cardinal Richelieu (1585-1642). He then moved to Spain, to be the Head Rabbi there. He and his family 'disappeared' without trace.
The Royal (Habsburg) Connection
A female of the family (her mother's side ?) was a Lady in Waiting at the spanish court. She had an affair with a courtier there and had a child, born 'on the wrong side of the blanket'. She was sent home (to Hungary ?, Austria ?, it was probably all Habsburg, then) in disgrace.
Does this mean that we are illegitimate Habsburgs ???
Habsburg, Shmabsburg ! King David Rules, OK !
If you think that was something, wait till you hear this !
In the U.S.A. it is the big thing to claim descent from one of the original 99 "Came over on the Mayflower" settlers. If you believe all claims, then there must have been several thousand people on the Mayflower !
But a mere 350 years ?? This is nothing in jewish genealogy ! Among jews it is the big thing to claim descent from one of the famous rabbis or torah scholars. One of the most famous of these was
Rabbi Shlomo ben Yitskhak (1040-1105),
usually known as
Rashi.
The Margolioth family is said to be descended from Rashi.
If anybody is interested, there is plenty to read on this subject on the Internet:
see: "Can We Prove Descent from King David ?" by David Einsiedler (Search in text for "Margoliot")
and: The Rashi Descent (Search in text for "Margolis")
Both open a seperate window. Close the window, to return here ...
We have a family tree of the Margulies, which starts with a photocopy of the family tree of Samuel Margolioth, dayyan (rabbinical judge) in Posen in 1550. This continues down to Ephraim Zalman Margolioth (1762-1828). It is then continued by hand through Elyakim Getzel Margolis to Moritz Margulies and his childen.
So, if you believe that Samuel Margolioth was descended from Rashi
and if you believe that Rashi was descended from King David, ....
then we have another(!) connection to a royal family,
compared to whom, the Habsburgs were mere "Johnny-Come-Latelys" !
P.S. Could it be, that you also believe in Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny ?
P.P.S. I'm afraid I don't know anymore where the picture came from, and who to attribute it to.
Whether Rashi actually did look like that picture is anybodies' guess,
It could just be an artist's impression of what a learned jewish Rabbi would look like !
In the U.S.A. it is the big thing to claim descent from one of the original 99 "Came over on the Mayflower" settlers. If you believe all claims, then there must have been several thousand people on the Mayflower !
But a mere 350 years ?? This is nothing in jewish genealogy ! Among jews it is the big thing to claim descent from one of the famous rabbis or torah scholars. One of the most famous of these was
Rabbi Shlomo ben Yitskhak (1040-1105),
usually known as
Rashi.
The Margolioth family is said to be descended from Rashi.
There also exists a large body of scholarship, proving or disproving,
that Rashi was descended from
King David !
If anybody is interested, there is plenty to read on this subject on the Internet:
see: "Can We Prove Descent from King David ?" by David Einsiedler (Search in text for "Margoliot")
and: The Rashi Descent (Search in text for "Margolis")
Both open a seperate window. Close the window, to return here ...
We have a family tree of the Margulies, which starts with a photocopy of the family tree of Samuel Margolioth, dayyan (rabbinical judge) in Posen in 1550. This continues down to Ephraim Zalman Margolioth (1762-1828). It is then continued by hand through Elyakim Getzel Margolis to Moritz Margulies and his childen.
So, if you believe that Samuel Margolioth was descended from Rashi
and if you believe that Rashi was descended from King David, ....
then we have another(!) connection to a royal family,
compared to whom, the Habsburgs were mere "Johnny-Come-Latelys" !
P.S. Could it be, that you also believe in Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny ?
P.P.S. I'm afraid I don't know anymore where the picture came from, and who to attribute it to.
Whether Rashi actually did look like that picture is anybodies' guess,
It could just be an artist's impression of what a learned jewish Rabbi would look like !
Telegrams from Krakow - 1908
In 1908, the wedding of Jacques MAHLER and Anja MARGULIES took place in Berlin.
Since the bride was from Krakow, and the groom - who was born in Krakow - was
from Antwerp, they married halfway, in Berlin.
They received hundreds of telegrams from family and friends, most of them from Krakow and Brunn (Neu Bruen). These sentimental telegrams were bound in two leather books. Years later, they were saved by a neighbor when the Germans threw them away after deporting the family to Auschwitz. Their son managed to retrieve these two books after the war.
The telegrams contain many names of Krakauers, among them several doctors and lawyers. Many of the Antwerp names are also originally from Krakow. There are also a few original KKL telegrams - one of them from Emil Margulies the well known Zionist.
They received hundreds of telegrams from family and friends, most of them from Krakow and Brunn (Neu Bruen). These sentimental telegrams were bound in two leather books. Years later, they were saved by a neighbor when the Germans threw them away after deporting the family to Auschwitz. Their son managed to retrieve these two books after the war.
The telegrams contain many names of Krakauers, among them several doctors and lawyers. Many of the Antwerp names are also originally from Krakow. There are also a few original KKL telegrams - one of them from Emil Margulies the well known Zionist.
Apart from Emil Margulies, Isidor, Hanns and Clara Margulies are also mentioned.
The name Margulies is fairly common, so we cannot say for sure that these are "our" Margulies family, but as Emil, "the well known Zionist" is definitely "family", it is a definite possibility.
As they only sent telegrams, rather than going to the wedding, it suggests that Anja Margulies was just a distant relation.
Update Jan. 2007:
We are now in touch with Charles, a descendant of Jacques Mahler and Anna Margulies, and we now know that Hanns and Anna were first cousins. Charles has supplied me with copies of the telegrams, which I am reproducing here, with his kind permission.
-
- Isidor Margulies
-
- Emil Margulies
-
- Hanns Margulies
-
- Heinrich Margulies
-
- Clara Margulies
Both Isidor and Emil sent KKL-Telegrams. KKL is Keren Kayemeth L'Ysrael, the Jewish National Fund (Jüdische Nationalfonds, JNF). It was founded by Theodor Hertzl at the Fifth Zionist Congress in Basel, Switzerland in 1901, with the goal of collecting money to buy and develop land in Palestine.
Apart from donations, one could also buy stamps, which were attached to official documents and private papers. The proceeds of the stamp sales were also put in the JNF.
Each of the KKL-Telegrams has a JNF stamp attached.
http://www.jnf.org/site/PageServer?pagename=history
Margulies & Sussmann ! - but not ours !!
An Internet search for 'Elyakim Getzel Margulie' (my GG-Grandfather ??) found a website with a Margulies family from Krakow ... http://www.shoreshim.org/Trees/display.asp?ID=I04554
In this family Getzel Margulies had a son Moses (Maurycy), born 1849, who married a Kaila (Karoline) Sussman, born about 1851.
They had two children: Alan and Harold Kessler.
In our family, Elyakim Getzel Margulies had a son, Moritz (Moses, Maurycy ??), born 1849, who married Clara Sussman, born 1852
They had eight children: Anna, Isidor, Julius, Siegismund, Bella, Emil, Hanns and Heinrich
Probably just a coincidence . . . . but . . . two Getzl Margulies, each with a son, Moritz / Maurycy, of similar age, and both sons married a Sussman w ??
I have been in touch with the webmaster of this site, but all he can say (in 2006), is that it was contributed to the site about 4 years ago and he can't remember from whom.
So, if that contributor should see this page:
Please, please, get in touch with me, I would love to hear from you.
Zug der Erinnerung / Train of Commemoration
In April 2008 a train drove through Germany. Not a regular train service, but a special train to commemorate the many trains which, in the Nazi-era, took many thousands of jews, gypsies, communists, and other "un-people" from their homes and families and deported them to concentration camps. .... And in particular, to commemorate the children, who were deported on these trains.
The Train of Commemoration : Press Release in english
In April 2009 the train stopped in Berlin and I went to see it. I didn't want to go on my own, so so I put a topic on the genealogy forum and asked if anyone else wanted to come. After we managed to agree on a time, we ended up as a group of seven.
On 18th. April we met up at Westhafen Station and walked down to the siding, where the train was parked.
Four coaches on a a railway track, an old steam train was gently steaming nearby.
First of all, get in line and wait. The queue was alongside the coaches, and we could see flowers and small mementos, that earlier visitors had hung from the door knobs and other projecting bits.
Good, that we weren't alone there: as we slowly shuffled nearer to to the entrance door, we swapped stories of persecutions, forced emigrations, deportations and deaths of various ancestors.
Finally it was our turn, to enter the coaches.
In the first three coaches we could see large posters on the walls, with photos short biographies of many, far too many, children, who had been ridden on such trains, on their (often) final journey to the concentration camps.
Here and there, visitors had left flowers as mementos, or, sitting under a poster, a child's teddy bear - a memento ? the remains of a life ?
In between the biographies and photos we could see copies of the "official documents", that had preceded these transportations, about the logistics, or excerpts from the "Wannsee Protocols", neatly typed columns of names and numbers:
Region Altmark x-thousand Region Posen y-thousand Region XYZ z-thousand : : Total numbers: 11,000,000
In one coach there were also descriptions of some of the railway employees responsible for the organisation of these trains. Most of these documents ended with "no criminal offence proved" i.e. they were just doing their given jobs.
In the last coach we found a "Holocaust Book", a list of those children who had journeyed on such trains.
Five Margulies names:
Margulies is a relatively common name. We know that Hanns and his siblings and their families were able to flee in time. And we don't know of any specific branches of "our" Margulies, who settled in Germany, but .... were these children distantly related to us ?
Bela 15.03.1939, Leipzig Erich 08.03.1935 Manfred 29.10.1930 Manfred 12.02.1931, Leipzig Thea 19.06.1926, Berlin
On the way out, a request for a donation. The Deutsche Bahn (DB, German Railways) is charging the organisers for the use of it's tracks. This led to many protests in Germany: the DB is the successor to the Deutsche Reichsbahn (DR), the "German Railways" of the Nazi-era, and has always been silent about it's role in the Holocaust. The least they could have done - so the feeling of many - is to allow the train to use the tracks free of charge.
Four coaches, not many, but enough to cause a sad, heart-rendering feeling.
There is a full list of victims here: Gedenkbuch (Memorial Book)
Photos:
http://www.grogevo.com/zde/zde
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