Dear Family!
Another 20 months has passed since my last letter (April 9, 1997). Weíve had a tremendously eventful and exciting year.
The biggest news (for my very immediate family) was of course the birth of our daughter Dora Susanna Schoenberg on March 31, 1998. Sheís a terrific baby -- smiles all the time and eats and sleeps well. Sheís also very precocious in the walking department (something she must get from Pamís side of the family). Dora has blue eyes, like her parents, and is ìpetite,î as the doctor politely noted when taking her measurements (although he said he was not surprised, given who the parents are). We are having a blast learning how to take care of her, although itís lots of work. Like any self-respecting girl of the fin-de-siecle she has her own internet home page at http://www.primenet.com/~randols/dora, where you can go to see recent pictures and other fun stuff.
We also moved to our new home in August. Please note the new address! Itís a nice two-story home with three bedrooms (two upstairs) and three baths. We converted two other small rooms into a large den and a darkroom for Pam to do her photography. The best feature of the house is the back yard, which features a steep hill, terraced on one side with fruit trees (orange, tangerine, peach and lemon). Our bedroom looks out onto the green hillside. The neighborhood is quiet and secluded, almost like being in the country. You can see pictures from our internet home page at http://www.primenet.com/~randols.
Pam has already used the darkroom to complete a 50-photo project on the communities of Vermont Avenue (a 30-mile street running North-South through Los Angeles) for which she obtained a grant from the City of Los Angeles. Pam hopes to be able to publish her work after it is exhibited at various venues early next year. Pamís home page is http://www.primenet.com/~randols/pam/pamhome.html
My brother Ricky also had a great year. He received his PhD in statistics from University of California, Berkeley and then was appointed an associate professor at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). (Ricky joins two other statistics mavens from the Schwarz tree, Feri Molat and Francis Freidlander.) He also got engaged to Jean Paik and will be married next year. When Pam, Dora and I moved to our new home, Ricky moved into the Montana house. My sister Marlena also moved her family back down to Los Angeles and lives nearby. She got a job in the genetics department at UCLA, while her husband Zoran works at a company designing sound systems for movie theaters. Their son Marko is exactly one year older than her cousin Dora, and they enjoy playing together or going over to their grandparents, who live nearby. My father finished his 20th year as a judge and is thinking about retirement this year, as is my mom who is finishing her 10th year as a German Professor at Pomona College. Sister Melanie is finishing up her senior year at Yale University, and has applied to graduate schools to study musicology (with perhaps some composition on the side). You can visit the internet home pages of most of the immediate family by following the links at the bottom of my own home page at http://www.primenet.com/~randols. Ricky has a particularly good home page, with pictures of his many trips with Jean.
Besides the baby and the move, the next biggest event for us was the opening of the Arnold Schönberg Center on the Schwarzenbergplatz in Vienna in March, 1998. Most of the Schoenberg clan was able to attend (poor Pam had to stay home and wait for the baby to come, which she did just two weeks later). A number of more distant relatives attended the opening, including Gerard, Francis, Maïtia, Emmanuelle and Clara Friedländer (Schwarz tree), Lilly and George Field and their daughter Rachel Gould (Kolisch tree), Dick and Joan Hoffmann (Hoffmann tree), and Wolfgang and Elisabetta Hartl, Hanna Hirsch and Erich and Eva Arthold (Jontof-Hutter tree). The opening of the Center culminated several years of difficult work, in which I was very honored to assist my father, uncle and aunt. When you next go to Vienna, I hope you will visit the Center. I have developed a web site with links to Schoenberg-related sites, which you can see at http://www.primenet.com/~randols/schoenberg/schoenlinks.html.
My other grandfather Eric Zeisl also had great success this past year. Two recordings were issued on cd: the cello sonata issued by ASV on its Quicksilva label, and the ìRequiem Ebraicoî issued by Decca/London records as part of the ìEntartete Musikî (degenerate music) series dedicated to works of composers who suffered during the Nazi terror. The ìRequiem Ebraicoî is a terrific work, composed in 1945 in memory of Zeislís father, Sigmund Zeisl, who was sent to Theresienstadt and perished in Treblinka (as I recently learned from Alisah Schiller at Terezin Martyrs Remembrance Association, Givat Haim-Ichud, 38935 Israel, bterezin@inter.net.il). The Requiem was performed in Vienna for the first time at a commemoration of Kristallnacht on November 9, 1998 at the site of the old Neudeggergasse synagogue (where cousin Joe Feitler grew up -- Joe was featured in a video presentation as part of the commemoration). Zeislís Brandeis Sonata for violin and piano will be presented at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. on January 10, 1999. For more information on Eric Zeisl, see my Zeisl web site at http://www.primenet.com/~randols/zeisl/zeisl.html.
When I last wrote, I had just changed jobs. I am still working at Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson. It has been an interesting year, but perhaps my most interesting work is yet to come. I was just retained by an old family friend to investigate the possibility of recovering artwork and other property stolen by the Nazis that belonged to her uncle, Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer. The artworks in question include seven paintings by Gustav Klimt that are hanging in the Austrian Galleryís Belvedere Museum, the most famous of which is the ìgoldî portrait of my clientís aunt Adele Bloch-Bauer. The family also would like to recover the Bloch-Bauer palais at Elisabethstrasse 18 in Vienna (which has been occupied by the railroad since the war) and their castle near Prague, Schloss Panenske Brezany in Odolena-Voda (which was stolen by the Nazi Heydrich). The case has received substantial news coverage in the United States and Europe, most recently on National Public Radio and in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Los Angeles Times. Although the case does not involve my primary legal skills, the elements of law, politics, art, Viennese culture and even genealogy are certainly ìup my alley.î
Along these lines, some of the family may be interested in recent efforts in Austria and other countries to return property stolen by the Nazis. At a conference in Washington, D.C. earlier this month 42 countries pledged to make efforts to restore property taken from Jewish families during the Nazi era. One recent effort of note is the work done by Viennese hostorian Oliver Rathkolb for the Austrian Postsparkasse. If you have access to the internet, check out the list of 7,000 dormant accounts at http://www.psk.co.at/report/index.html. I also have a hard copy of the report, which includes a number of members of our family tree. The amounts in the accounts are relatively small, but I find it incredible that it has taken over 50 years for the banks to recognize that the funds should be returned.
The efforts to return stolen art may also affect our family. A Viennese journalist published a report on stolen art this past year that included the names of Irma Reichfeld-Feitler and her brother Alfred Feitler (Patsy Kumekawaís grandfather). Irma and her family perished in the Holocaust, and no one knows what happened to her property. Cousin Joe Feitler has taken up the task of tracking down more information on his aunt. Another cousin whose name has reappeared is Bertha Egger von Moellwald, whose extensive art collection is included in a list of ìmissingî art by Oliver Rathkolb, which can be found on the internett at http://members.vienna.at/kreisky/naziartloot. Both the bank and the art reports are in English.
Speaking of the internet . . . more and more of the family is coming ìon lineî and I have been able to keep up with a number of you with email. The internet has also allowed me to track down some ìmissingî relatives and some relatives have also ìfoundî me.
We have a number of new members of the family tree to report. Joining our daughter Dora is Leah Rachel Field, born October 27, 1998, daughter of Alan and Sharon Field (Kolisch family) and granddaughter of Lilly and George Field (whose letter ten years ago re-awakened my interest in genealogy). Gal Erez was born to Amir and Dorit Erez of Israel (Schwarz family) in September 1997. Esther Kardos was born to Miklos and Katalin Kardos (Schwarz family) of Hungary on December 20, 1997. Jennifer Kyra Knipper was born to Tamas Knipper and Barbara Molat (Schwarz family) in March 1998. Danile Györky was born to Zoltan and Beata Molat (Schwarz tree) on July 30, 1997 . Congratulations to all the new members of the family tree (and their parents and grandparents)!
In preparing this letter, I have dug up a mountain of correspondence (by letter and email) that I have had with so many of you over the past year-and-a-half. I will try to summarize as much news as possible, but please forgive me if I miss something. (Not everything survived the move, or at least I havenít found everything yet!)
First, we welcome a great number of ìnewî members of the greater family tree.
Shortly after my last letter, I managed to find (via the internet) a mailing address for cousin Feri Hoffmann in New Zealand (Hoffmann tree), whose father was my great-grandmotherís half-brother. (It gets even more complicated -- my great-grandmotherís step-mother Cilli Reif, was probably closely related to her mother-in-law Amalie Reif -- so, if you are following me, the descendants of Adolf and Amalie Kolisch are all probably related to the descendants of Theodor and Cilli Hoffmann.) Feri has a large family in New Zealand and at least one of his sons-in-law, Hans Baaker, has email. Another son-in-law, Hilary Hunt, telephoned me twice, once while on a trip to the US. An old letter from Feriís father to my grandmother gave me the information that my great-great-great grandmother was Marie Sofia Biedermann, a fact I confirmed using microfiche of old Jewish records from Vienna. The Biedermann family was an important banking family in Vienna in the early 1800ís. Michael Lazar Biedermann was principally responsible for building the first synagogue in Vienna. Since this is the ìnon-Jewishî side of my family, I was very interested to learn that my great-great grandfather Theodor Hoffmann is buried in the Jewish section of the Zentralfriedhof. I visited his grave, and many others, last March.
In January, I tracked down a long-lost cousin Ivan Halasz in Belgium (Schwarz tree). Unfortunately, Ivan was the first person I have contacted who told me he would rather be left alone and not have any connection to his distant relatives. (Although weíre only related through Rosa Schwarz, the sister of my great-great grandfather Max Schwarz, the family was close enough to my great-grandmother Ilona that I have pictures of Ivanís grandparents Deszö and Rosa Halasz, his father Tibor, his aunt Blanka and even Ivan himself. Coming as I do from a family of packrats, I even have a card that Rosa wrote to my great-great grandmother Clementine Funk in 1882 congratulating her on her engagement to Max Schwarz!) However, Ivan did put me in touch with more relatives in Budapest, the Sarmany family (descendants of Maxís sister Jenny Schwarz). It turns out that the Molats knew that the Sarmanys were relatives, but did not know that they were related to the Schwarz family. So we welcome a great number of our new cousins in Hungary.
I also discovered, by accident, a long-missing member of the Schoenberg family, Michel Ernst Schönberg. In researching the fate of Klimtís portrait of Amalie Zuckerkandl which was once in the possession of Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer, I called Emile Zuckerkandl in Palo Alto, California. After I introduced myself, Emile told me that we had a common relative, Else Schönberg, who passed away recently in Paris. I had been trying to find Else for years, after finding a letter she wrote to my grandfather Arnold Schoenberg in 1946. She and her nephew were the only members of her immediate family to survive the war. Elseís father Arthur Schönberg was Arnold Schoenbergís first cousin. Arthurís wife Eveline Bach was the sister of Arnoldís childhood friend David Josef Bach. Arthur was a noted electrical engineer and directed the firm that supplied the electricity to the city of Munich, but that could not save him from the Nazis.
I was not the only one doing the searching on the internet. Peter Greissle found us when his daughter Michele was doing a report on her great-great-grandfather Arnold Schoenberg for her fifth grade class. Peter says he has been practicing martial arts for 10 years and was ìpreparing for my second degree black belt test in Kenpo Karate and am also practicing Wing Chun Kung Fu.î His mother died in October, 1997, but his nephew Christopher has made a recovery from cancer and was engaged to be married. His uncle Arnold Greissle recently published a book of memoirs of growing up in Mödling near Vienna.
Wouter Steiner of Holland found his grandparents on my on-line family tree (Kolisch tree). His aunt Sabine has the great Kolisch family tree that I obtained from Victor Gurewitsch. Wouterís uncle Julius also sent me an email, as did another cousin of theirs, Ayelet Sheffy in Israel. This opened up a whole new branch of relatives that were previously unknown to me (although Lilly Field says her mother knew the Steiners and Henschels very well). I am hoping that the Steiners will also get me in touch with more Kolisch relatives, including the Vollenhovens.
A few known cousins also found me on the internet. John & Bridget Neschling in Switzerland (Jontof-Hutter tree) wrote to correct some information on his section of the tree, which includes our relatives in Brazil. John is a conductor (see http://members.aol.com/Dcm5/osesp.html) , following the footsteps of his close relative Artur Bodanzky, conductor of the Metropolitan Opera (if Iím not mistaken), whose brother married Arnold Schoenbergís first cousin, Malvine Goldschmidt (Jontof-Hutter tree). Johnís wife Bridget (originally from Australia) has chosen to use the name Bodanzky as her stage name for her burgeoning singing career as a lyric soprano. Monica & Christian Locher in Aachen, Germany (Schwarz tree) wrote to ask about Monicaís family history, as part of her training in Family Therapy. Bjorn Paree in the Netherlands used the internet terminal in his local library to send me two nice messages about the goings-on in his family.
In other news . . . Klaudia Molat (Schwarz tree) spent 5 months in 1997 on a Kibbutz in Israel. Tomas Navratil (Kolisch tree) spent a few months in Australia with Ronnie Jontof-Hutter in 1998. His sister Karolina Navratilova graduated in December 1997 (and played the saxophone at her graduation ball) and wants to study law. Her mother Michaela works for the High Court in Prague. Jeanne Feldman (Kolisch tree) has written an internet shopping guide to Paris, which can be found at http://www.wfi.fr/bestbuys. Nicole Davitz (Kolisch tree) has decided to make a business out of her two loves: her family of animals and photography. You can see and order her adorable greeting cards at http://www.fieldofdreamsfarm.com or email sales@fieldofdreamsfar,.com for more details. Another published member of the Kolisch family, Steve Stoliar, is the author of ìRaised Eyebrows,î his memoirs of his time as Groucho Marxís assistant.
George Teller (Schwarz tree) was honored for 30 years of service by the Society for Christian-Jewish Cooperation in Düsseldorf, and succeeded in persuading the planners to program Eric Zeislís ìSonata for Viola and Piano.î The event was recorded and ìpublishedî on a cd. Georgeís son Nick Teller writes that he will be transfered from Prague to Hamburg to manage the German Commerzbankís largest area office. He and Linda are expecting a second boy in May.
Ronnie Jontof-Hutter and his son Daniel in Melbourne, Australia keep me informed regularly by email of their goings-on. Daniel is studying law and physics, and has also helped me in researching the possibility that the Jontof-Hutter line is somehow descended from the famous Prague rabbi Yom Tov Lippmann Heller Halevy (1579-1654), who is known by the name of his most famous book, ìTosefot Yomtov.î Ronnie reported that Daniel represented his university and won an important moot court competition. Older brother Shaul has graduated with a law degree and is seeking work in a law firm. Ronnie has been the source of numerous inter-family contacts and must win the hospitality award for hosting a number of visitors, including some who are not even his direct relatives (only related through me). The Molats in Budapest (Schwarz tree) have also had frequent vistors, as Iíve heard from a number of people who have seen them since the reunion in Vienna.
Sharon Kleinhandler (Schwarz tree) operates a Muzak franchise with her husband Mitchell and son Aaron. Her youngest son Zacharay was bar mitzvaed in 1997. Her daughter Rebecca works for an art gallery in SoHo, and son David is finishing up at Colgate University.
Ruth and Stacy Cromidas visited from San Diego. I gave Ruth a number of pictures that her father, Peter Gilbert, had sent to my great-grandmother. Ruth told me that her father worked as an oiler on one of the ships that smuggled Jews to Palestine, the Paducah. He later came to America and was a free-wheeling businessman, with more than his share of ups and downs. At one time, he even ownde a hockey team.
Maureen Reed (Schwarz tree) became District Judge at Bromley County Court which is postally the County of Kent but covers South East London. Her daughter Charlotte competed in the fencing world championships in Cape Town in 1997.
John and Gina Bauer (Zeisl tree) have their own internet business selling health supplements. You can visit them at http://healthlifestyle.com/.
Hanna Klaus (Schwarz tree) has a web site devoted to her successful teen sexuality education program: http://www2.dgsys.com/~hklaus.
Nanni Morettiís recent film ìAprileî was shown at the Cannes film festival and featured a number of family members, including little cousin Pietro (Schoenberg tree), at age 2 already a budding Italian film star.
Joe and Eleanor Feitler (Zeisl tree) celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary. Joe and I are in very frequent contact over Austrian bank and art claims. Joe has helped research the Feitler line back to the ancestral towns near Budweis.
Joe Franke (Schwarz tree) is teaching biology and ecology part-time at local community colleges, and continues to struggle to find funding for environmental projects working with Buddhist monks in Thailand and indigenous people in Australia and Ecuador. He writes, ìIf you know of anybody who needs to get rid of some money or feels otherwise disposed to make a donation, we have 501c3 status - all donations are tax deductible. We also need computer hardware, laptops, etc. for our communications projects.î His wife Lisa is working on her first book, a guide to the prevention and treatment of sexually-transmitted diseases.
My digging into our common ancestral roots has not stopped. Besides the efforts to find our living relatives, I have also been busy (often with the help of other cousins) researching our ancestors. A recent book by Helen Epstein, ìWhere She Came Fromî traces her maternal line from Bohemia/Moravia and Vienna. Many of the stories are similar to our own family. I corresponded with the Kriegsarchiv (War Archives) of the Österreichisches Staatsarchiv (Nottendorfer-Gasse 2, 1030 Wien, Austria) and received copies of the military records of Moritz (Ritter von) Funk, the brother of my great-great-great grandfather Leopold Funk. Moritz Funk is listed in a book of 140 famous Jewish generals, marshalls and admirals. He was, if you can believe it, an Austrian Battleship Commander, stationed in Trieste, and subsequently Secretary of the Navy. (Austria was not always land-locked.) Heinz Teller has an old photograph of ìRitter von Funk,î of whom the family must have been very proud. Moritz and Leopold Funk were both born in Proßnitz (Prostejov), Moravia, an old Jewish settlement well-known as a center of Jewish learning and Talmudic study, according to Jiri Fiedlerís ìJewish Sights of Bohemia and Moraviaî (which I highly recommend).
I enlisted the help of a ìprofessionalî genealogist in Prague, Eugen Stein (Postovská 3, Prague 9, 190 00 Czech Republic, fax 4202-542-851) to delve deeper into my Prague roots (Jontof-Hutter and Nachod trees). Using old records from the Prague Jewish community, Mr. Stein traced the Nachod family line back to Avigdor Dann Nachod (b. 1722), whose parents were Mosche and Sara Nachod. He also found that Isak Jontofís wife was named Gella Tritsch, daughter of David and Rebecca (1722-1797) Tritsch. Some of the Jontof-Hutter family is also descended from Anna Bachrach, daughter of Isak Bachrach. Franziska Zeimerís family came from Rescholau (Hreshilavy) near Pilsen. Mr. Stein was able to show me maps of the properties the Zeimer family owned in that town.
There has been discussion among the relatives that we should have a second family reunion, perhaps in Prague. I donít have the time to plan such an undertaking (the last one could not have happened without Erich Artholdís organization of the entire event), although it would be a treat to attend. In the meantime, I do enjoy hearing from all of you, and I hope that many of you will forgive me for my laziness in responding sometimes. As you can see, I have a great nmber of correspondents.
Attached to this letter is an updated mailing list. Itís quite a job keeping it accurate, so I hope that you will tell me if there are any mistakes, or if you move. In an effort to save some money, I wonít be sending out all of the family trees anymore. Although I need to update it, much of the information is available from our website at http://www.primenet.com/~randols/family/I1.html. I have also submitted much of the information to the Family Tree of the Jewish People, which can be accessed at http://www.jewishgen.org. If anyone wants a particular branch or branches, just write (or email) and I will gladly send it to you. I have a new computer program that makes very nice print-outs, but unfortunately I cannot yet take advantage of the color possibilities. Maybe next year. . . .
Thatís about all the news. I apologize if I forgot to mention anyone. I did my best combing through the old letters and emails. Please keep me informed of all your family developments. Pam, Dora and I wish you all a very happy and healthy 1999.
Your family genealogist,
E. Randol Schoenberg
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