OTHER JEWISH FAMILIES IN FALKENAU

The following section was compiled with the kind assistance of my late

father, Joseph Hoenig, and the following now-deceased other family members and friends, Dr. Joseph Budlovsky, Karl Budlovsky, Gretl

Hoenig, Dr. Julius Hoenig, Otto Hoenig, Walter Kropf, Werner Löwy, Frieda Hoenig Rupp and John H. Steiniger. Special thanks, also, to

David Binhak and Dieter Kühnl. As mentioned previously, several dozen Jewish families lived in Falkenau soon after the turn of the 20th century. There were six Jewish families who lived in houses on the Ringplatz . Family Fischer lived in number 12, Theodor Steiniger’s family resided in number 14. Number 19 was inhabited by Adolf Herrmann and his family. Anna Ruczek and her family owned number 30, and Otto Anna and Marie Bloch’s home was at number 37.

Adler

The Adler family was involved in the tobacco traffic and Mrs. Adler's niece was from the Pleyer family. The name Adler means eagle.

Auerbach Dr. Ignaz Auerbach was the Hönig's family physician. He had an office on Schrammstrasse --- the second house from the corner [Family Kohn, "Federkohn," the feather dealer, lived in the house on the corner.] --- two blocks from Eger River and one block from the street where the railroad to Eger operated. Dr. Auerbach's wife's name was Hermine (born Zentner) and they had two sons. Kurt, the oldest, was my father's classmate. He studied philosophy in Prague and then fled to London where he was unable to find suitable employment, according to John H. Steiniger, and worked as a security guard in a museum prior to his death. The younger son, Erich, who was born in Falkenau on December 12, 1911, was educated in Karlsbad and Prague Uiversity Collegium Musicum. He worked part-time as a music critic for the German language daily Prager Tagblatt to gelkp defray the cost of his studies. He eventually switched to a career in journalism and photography, although music remained his lifelong passion. His first professionbal camera --- a gift from his father --- enabled Erich to document the land and people of Czechoslovakia. He said the great German photojournalist, Erich Salomon, was the inspiration behind his work. Erich Auerbach said Erich Salomon “taught me though we never met.” Erich Auerbach was already well established as a journalist and photographer long before World War II began. He worked for major Czech newspapers in Prague and his photographs were published throughout Europe.

In the summer of 1939he escaped on foot from Czechoslovakia into Poland and from there his contacts in the British press helped him get to England. He worked for the Czechoslovak government in exile in London during the war.

On February 8, 1946, Jan Masaryk, Czechosxlovak Minister for Foreign Affairs, wrote the following recommendation about Erich Auerbach:

TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN

This is to certify that Erich Auerbah worked in the Photographic Division, Department of Information, Czechoslovak Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as chief government photographer from April 1941 to July 1945. His duties comprised taking pictures of the President, Government activities and the war effort. Mr. Auerbach built up the Ministry’s Photographic Library from a few odd prints to comprise almost 300 files with several thousand photographs and negatives. He showed Czechoslovak photographs at the London Salon and the Royal Photographic Society, which made him an Associate; and he had a one-man show of 50 photographs “People of Czechoslovakia” at the Ilford Galleries, London, which later toured the country Mr. Auerbach left when the Ministry of Foreign Affairs closed down after the liberation of Czechoslovakia.

In a letter to a friend, Erich Auerbach wrote, “With all its setbacks and eternal struggles, photography is a lovely thing, and I feel a warm satisfactionafter such a day’s work.” After the war he did not return home to Prague and Falkenau. He settled in London where in 1946 he gave up his Czech citizenship, married in 1946, became a British citizen in 1947, and became a famous photographer and published books with character studies. From 1955 until 1977 Erich Auerbach combined his love of music and photograpohy as a freelance, taking photographs of most of the great composers, conductors and musicians. In 1971, his first book, An Eye for Music, was published. He died in London in 1977 at the age of 65, survived by his widow, Lizzy, and their daughter, Monica Beaumont. His daughter has been the caretaker of her father’s photographs, and in 1996 an additional volume of Erich Auerbach’s photographs, Images of Music, was produced by the Hulton Getty Picture Collection Ltd, which holds the copyright to his musical archive.. In 2005, his newly discovered collection, “London Calling – Czecholovak Government in Exile, 1939-1945,” was exhibited inb Prague as part of its commemoration of the 60th anniversary odf the end of World War II.

Benda

The Benda family had a business in the Markt Platz (Staré Namesti).

They lived two houses away from Kurt Steiniger. The Benda's son, Rudolph, went to school in Falkenau with Dr. Julius Hoenig. There was also a younger daughter.

Binhak The Binhaks were a large family related to my grandmother, Hermine Adler Hoenig; David Steiniger of Falkenau (who owned a pearl button factory in Bleistadt and whose eldest son was named Hans); Uncle and Tante Rösie Holzner in Karlsbad; the Steiners in Falkenau; Mathilde Hirsch and her mother, Bertha in Karlsbad; Tante Babette and her son, Sigmund Veit, in Tetschen; a cousin Hansel and son, Tony, and cousins Rosa and Frieda in Franzensbad. Strangely, in asking relatives and others about the Binhak family in Falkenau, only my late father and my late aunt, Frieda Hoenig Rupp, recalled that there were two unmarried Binhak sisters in Falkenau, and one of them was named Hermine. They had a store and my grandmother, Hermine Hoenig, used to clean their house which may have been on Lauterbach Strasse. No one else, aside from two members of the Binhak family and Walter Kohn, who lived in London, could recall this family. I must therefore assume that after Mrs. Binhak died, the remaining family members moved elsewhere in Bohemia. The Binhak family, headed by Siegmund Binhak, owned the building at Ringplatz 20 in Falkenau in 1869, which was later sold to the Heller family in 1899 or 1900, and then was inherited by their daughter and son-in-law Hannah and Karl Ruczek. Siegmund Binhak and his wife, Wilhelmine, had at least nine children in Falkenau. They were Carl (born January 28, 1873), Hugo (born ????? 3, 1882), Otto (born May 30, 1868), Anna, Emma, Helene, Marta, Olga and Paula. Siegmund Binhak was the second chairman of the Falkenau Jewish congregation and, under him, the congregation actually began to function in the late 1800s. Carl Binhak, a violinist, was married to his second cousin, Emma Binhak (her maiden name may have been Lieber, and she was born in Newark, New Jersey, according to her grandson, David Binhak)and they moved to New York in the 1880s or 1890s. He kept a detailed log of a trip he took from the United States to Karlsbad, Falkenau and other places in Europe in the summer of 1904. David L. Binhak, a retired stockbroker who was born on November 18, 1930 to Stephen J. and Elyse Binhak, and who lives in Purchase, New York (in Westchester County, north of New York City), is in possession of his grandfather's log, a large section of which appears as another chapter of this book. Otto Binhak arrived in the United States in 1890 and was naturalized in New York in 1896. Hugo lived in Lodau-Karlsbad. Otto, his wife and their four children

resided in Teplitz-Schönau. Wilhelm Binhak, Otto's son, who resides in Laguna Hills, California once lived in Karlsbad. Anna and her husband, Jacob Kohn, the parents of Walter Kohn (who lived in London until his death in the early 1990s), once lived in Komotau where they had a very prosperous tailoring business which he continued after moving to London. Walter and his wife, Mina, owned a very successful export-import business in London, where they lived in a "lovely flat," according to his cousin, John H. [Hans] Steiniger (Theodor Steiniger's son). Walter donated funds to purchase an ambulance from Israel. Mina died in a home in Switzerland around 1992, a year before Walter. In 1976, Walter Kohn gave testimony to the Yad Vashem Archives in Israel about his nephew, Hugo Binhak, who was murdered by the Nazis. Emma apparently was unmarried and lived with her widowed mother in Falkenau in 1904. At that time, Helene lived in Seestadl with her husband, Ignaz.

Marta resided in Petschau. She may have been married to Hermann (based on a "process of elimination" from the diary), who had a store in Leitmeritz, according to Carl Binhak's diary. Uncle Moritz lived with or near Marta.

Olga was married to Leo and they and their son lived in Leitmeritz.

Paula was the wife of Adolf and they lived in Brüx with their two sons (one of whom was named Paul) and daughter, Erna. Paula lived, and apparently worked in the Fischer house in Moldau. If Siegmund Binhak had any other children, they either were not alive in the summer of 1904 or they lived far from Bohemia, as there is no mention in Carl's diary of any other brothers or sisters.

Bloch

Jachim Heinrich and Bertha Bloch had a prominent building on the corner of the market square where they sold woolens and material. During the 1920s, according to Werner Löwy, Mr. Ludwig Lederer's toys and housewares shop was located in the Bloch's corner house. The Blochs were the parents of five children: Otto, Karl, Marie, Anna and Louise. Carl was born before 1899, according to Frieda Hoenig Rupp in 1992. The sons were bachelors, Marie and Anna remained single, while Louise married a religious man from Poland who lived in Eger. The five Bloch children were aunts and uncles of Gretl Fischer Hoenig. Otto Bloch was one of the Presidents of the Falkenau Jewish Congregation. Jachim Heinrich Bloch apparently had a brother who had a son named

Karl, who lived in Franzensbad with his wife. Their son, Dr. Ferdinand Bloch, also lived in Franzensbad with his wife, Alexandra, and their son, Dr. Kurt Bloch. Anna Bloch visited her relatives in Franzensbad in 1896 and that is where she signed the autograph and poetry album of my grandmother, Hermine Adler. Anna Bloch, who was born in Falkenau on March 1, 1873, and who never married, died in the hospital in Eger on September 5, 1938 and her body was cremated in Karlsbad on September 9, 1938. Her brother, Karl Bloch, who died from tuberculosis in 1913, was buried in the Falkenau Jewish cemetery.

The Bloch house at the market place was given back to the family heirs in Prague end of the 1940s or early 1950s, who sold it some years later, according to Dieter Kühnl.

Bondy

Karl Bondy was born on January 31, 1863 in Moldauthein, South Bohemia and he came to Falkenau in 1911, according to Dieter Kühnl (who was born in Lanz in 1943 and lived there until 1946 and now resides in Munich, Germany). At that time Karl Bondy took over Karl Pollak’s liquor shop and production. He was married twice. His first wife was Rosa Weinstein, who died on July 20, 1920 following a long illness. Karl Bondy’s second wife's name was Steffi. She was nicknamed "Heureka," the Greek expression meaning "I have got it!"* because she was very energetic. They had two sons. Steffi had a grown up son who lived in Leipzig, Germany and often visited them in Falkenau. Karl and Rosa had three children: Franz was killed during World War I on July 11, 1916. Elly died in Falkenau in 1932, and Frieda, born on September 24, 1890, perished during the Holocaust. Frieda was sent by the Nazis with transport AAu from Prague to Theresienstadt on July 27, 1942, and on August 20, 1942 from Theresienstadt to Riga, Latvia, where she was murdered. Karl Bondy was very active politically. He was the President of the Israelite Kultusgemeinde (Congregation) in Falkenau from 1923 until 1933. He was an active member of the right wing Jewish party in Czechoslovakia, and he was nominated, but not elected, in 1927 for the Gemeindevertretung of Falkenau on the list of the “Höchsbesteuerten” (highest taxed), accoridng to Mr. Kühnl.

According to Dieter Kühnl, Karl Bondy died in 1933, was buried in

Klattau (Klatovy), and was survived by his wife and his daughter, Frieda. He also owned houses in Falkenau, one at Rosengasse 4 and the other at Sommergasse 5. Both were destroyed by American bombs in 1945. Mr. Kühnl believes that follong Karl Bondy’s death in 1933, his chief employee, Josef Bäuml, probably led the business for Frieda Bondy until 1938, when the Sudetendeutsche Partei (SdP) and then the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (NSDAP) took over the firm. Josef Bäuml ran the business until his death in 1940. *[Archimedes was in his bath when he discovered how to measure the volume of an object and the purity of gold by applying the principle of specific gravity. He jumped out of the bath and ran naked through the town shouting "Heureka!"]

Braun Frank Braun's parents had a farm in Theussau (Tisova) near Falkenau. His wife, Hilda Loewy Braun, is the daughter of Richard and Rosa Zentner Loewy. Frank Braun's father's name was Josef. Frank's sister married a German architect and builder, Mr. Greiner, and his firm's name was Bauer and Greiner. When the Nazis occupied the Sudetenland, Mr. Greiner divorced Frank Braun's sister and she perished during the Holocaust. Frank now lives near Hamilton, Ontario, Canada and is a prominent member of the Czech Canadian community.

Buxbaum The Buxbaum family had a little store in Lobstal Strasse. [Lobs is the name of a little brook, and tal refers to the valley.] Annie "Bertel" Buxbaum , born in 1898 or 1899, was a classmate of Frieda Hoenig Rupp in Falkenau. She married Ernst Heller, who was born in 1893 or 1895. Her sister, Ida, married a Jewish man from Koenigsberg, a little village near Falkenau. Mathilde was the youngest of the three Buxbaum girls. She married a Mr. Baumgarten, a Christian from Falkenau. William Buxbaum was killed in action during World War I.

Ehrlich

There is a gravestone of an Ehrlich which appears in a 1929 photograph taken at the Falkenau Jewish cemetery. It is behind and to the left of the grave of my father's sister, Gretl Hönig (as one faces the grave).

Feuerstein

Falkenau's Jewish spiritual leader was Rabbi Solomon Feuerstein. Cantor Lippmann Kurzweil "committed suicide long before the Nazis came," according to Werner Löwy in Prague, "leaving Rabbi Feuerstein as the only Jewish clergyman in Falkenau. Rabbi Feuerstein was very angry about this type of economy."

Rabbi Feuerstein was born on December 25, 1869 in Podgorze near Krakow in Poland, according to Dieter Kühnl. At that time the region belonged to Austria. He studied at Krakow University where he earned a doctorate degree. In 1897 he met Gertrude Chodowski, a school teacher, whom he married. She died in the 1930s. They were the parents of one son, Edmund Heinrich Feuerstein, a lawyer, whom my father always called Eddie. Edmund was born in Falkenau on December 7, 1902. Before World War II, the Feuerstein family lived on Schrammstrasse in Falkenau. Rabbi Feuerstein served the Falkenau Jewish community as its spiritual leader for 41 years until the Anschluss.

In 1938 he left Falkenau for Prague. He was transported by the Nazis to Theresienstadt on July 3, 1942 and on October 15, 1942 from Theresienstadt with the so-called “Alterstransport” to Treblinka, where he persihed., according to Mr. Kühnl. According to another story, told to me by Werner Löwy in Prague in 1996, Rabbi Feuerstein perished during his escape on a ship from Menton in southern France trying to get into Italy with refugees from Czechoslovakia.

Edmund Feuerstein attended Gymnasium in Karlsbad and then attended the German Karls University in Prague where he was awarded a doctor of rights degree. He worked as a lawyer in Prague and, in 1934, he married Marianne ("Mizzi") Rudolfine Robitschek, who was born on November 10, 1913. Their daughter, Dorrit (whose birth name was Adele), was born on February 18, 1936. In 1939 the family obtained a Gestapo visa and left Czechoslovakia via Italy to France, where Edmund joined the Czech foreign army on November 13, 1939, according to Mr. Kühnl. After the defeat of France, they fled to England and there again Edmund joined the Czech army in exile. During World War II he was awarded the Czech Medal of War Merits Second Class and the Czech Rescue Medal. Returning to Czechoslovakia at the end of the war, he intended to remain in the army but he was dismissed in 1946 because he was of German, not Czech ethnicity.

He and Mizzie and Dorrit then emigrated to the United States in 1946, where they lived in the house of his Aunt Franziska and Uncle Samuel Chodowski in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, which is where my parents and I visited them in the 1950s. Eddie worked as a lawyer and Mizzie was a homemaker. Later they moved from the house to suburban Upper Darby, where he died on June 26, 1978 at the age of 75. About four years before his death, Eddie Feuerstein related information about his father’s death to the Yad Vashem museum and archives in Jerusalem, Israel. Mizzie continued to reside in Upper Darby and, in the 1990s, moved to a senior citizens’ facility in the Philadelphia area, where I spent a delightful afternoon visiting and reminiscing with her prior to her death on February 22, 1999 at the age of 85.

Their daughter, Dorrit, in 1956 married Ezra Kohn, a speechwriter for President Lyndon B. Johnson and speechwriter for Esther Peterson, a

member of President Lyndon Johnson's White House staff, in the mid 1960s, and they had three children, Jonathan Kohn of Osaka, Japan, Rachel Bloom of Baltimore, Maryland, and Eva Kohn of West Hartford, Connecticut. Ezra Kohn passed away in 1976 and Dorrit worked as a secretary for the Rouse Co. In 1986 she married Julius (“Westy”) Westheimer, a widower, banker, financial advisor, owner of a brokerage firm, and television commentator. They lived in Baltimore, and then Pikesville Maryland, where he died on August 31, 2005, a few days before his 89th birthday. Dorrit passed away on November 29, 2009 at the age of 73. A member of Beit Aviv Congregation in Columbia, Maryland, she is buried in Shaarei Zion Cemetery.

Fink The Fink family lived in Falkenau. Luisa Löwy was a saleslady at Adolf Herrmann's store until her marriage to Leo Fink. Then they opened a shoe store in the corner house in Brückenstrasse at the corner of Mauerteich Strasse, where Hugo and Rosa Löwy resided. In 1932 the Löwys rebuilt their house and the Fink's moved to the town of Leitmeritz (Litomerice). Leo Fink worked in the insurance business in Leitmeritz. The Finks had a daughter, Gerta "Gertie" Bor, who lives in Prague, and a son, Hans Georg Fink, who perished during the Holocaust. Gerta is married to Pavel Bor (formerly Pavel Edelstein). "Mr. Fink," recalls Werner Löwy, "all the time had a newspaper notice in his pocket stating that his daughter [Gerta] was the first Jewish child in the Czech school in Falkenau." Before that, everyone in the Jewish community had attended the old German school in Falkenau.

Fischer Alfred and Ida Bloch Fischer were prominent members of the Falkenau Jewish community and he was President of the Congregation (Kultusgemeinde) until his death on April 12, 1923, when Emil Rosenzweig took over the helm. Ida, who was born in Falkenau on April 7, 1865, was the co-founder in 1910 of the Israelite Women’s Organization, which she led until 1938. “This organization earned merits,” noted Dieter Kühnl, “in taking care of the 350 Jews of Galicia who came during World War I into the district of Falkenau when Austrian authorities distributed throughout the country the people who fled the Russians at the eastern front.” The Fischers had a big corner house, Ringplatz/Martplatz 12, and they owned a large store and warehouse --- a wholesale grocery, sugar and flour business which supplied small stores in the mountainside surrounding Falkenau --- across the street from the railroad station. The Fischers sublet the top floor of their house to the government police [not the local police]. The ground floor, recalled John H. Steinger in 1997, "was let to a small fruit shop and to the Schlesingers who had an umbrella repair shop." After the Anschluss, Dieter Kühnl stated, “the house at Ringplatz 12

was confiscated by the Reich. After the building was refurbished it was used from 1939 on as Landratsamt. In September 1940 it was sold by auction to the Landwirtschaftliche Bezirksvorschusskasse Falkenau at a price of 63.000 Reichs Marks and in 1941 it was sold to the Landkreis.” According to a death notice, Alfred Fischer died in Falkenau on April 12, 1923 at 3 pm in his 60th year, which means he was born c. 1863. The burial took place from the Trauerhause at Ringplatz 12. Ida Fischer was murdered in the Theresienstadt concentration camp on July 7, 1942 at 3:30 pm. Her death certificate indicates she was born in Falkenau on April 7, 1865 and that she was married in Falkenau on September 14, 1886. Prior to being deported on June 20, 1942 on Transport AAe, c.27 to Theresienstadt by the Nazis, she lived at Manesova 80 in Prague. They had three children. Margaret (Gretl) Fischer married Otto Hoenig, and they resided in the family house at Ringplatz/Marktplatz 12, where they ran the business until they left for England and then emigrated to Canada. Gretl and Otto resided in Hamilton, Ontario until her death on December 16, 1995 at the age of 96. Gretl and my aunt, Frieda Hoenig, were classmates in school. "We were good friends and Gretl was about a month older than I was," my aunt recalled. Gretl’s older sister, Emma, married Heinrich Zentner, and both perished in Treblinka on October 22, 1942 during the Holocaust. They had a daughter, Liesl (Lieslotte, Elizabeth) Behal, who was born in Falkenau on July 4, 19.. and lived in Toronto, Canada until her death in the summer of 2011. She was the widow of Victor Behal, who was born on March 2, 1922 in Prague and died in Hamilton, Ontario on December 11, 1988.

Alfred and Ida also had a son, Paul Fischer, who, with his wife, Frieda Pollak, had a daughter, Doraliese "Dorli," who married a newspaperman, Mr. Winter, and they have a daughter, Sonja Winter. Sonja's grandfather was Karl "Schnaps" Pollak and his wife's name was Veronika. Paul Fischer apparently committed suicide when Dorli was a young child, according to Werner Löwy, and Frieda Fischer and Sonja Winter and her husband migrated to London in the 1950s. Alfred Fischer had a brother, Rudolf, and a sister, Berta Heinrich, who were living in 1923.

Geiger

Leo Geiger worked in Adolph Herrmann's store and in 1923 he and his wife, Ida Greenberger ((from Frauenthal, Bohemia), opened an underwear and textile store in Kreuzgasse. They perished in Auschwitz, but their son, Egon, born in 1923, survived the concentration camp and death march. He now resides in Lawrenceville, New Jersey, with his wife, Martha Goldberger (from Prague), whom he met in Auschwitz and who passed away on April 4, 2014, and their daughter, Hannah.

Dieter Kühnl of Munich informs me his information on the Geiger family “comes from Geiger´s neighbor, the late Christine Scheitler-Schimmer. She

died this spring (2013) and went to school with Egon in Falkenau. She told me that in Geiger´s new house Kreuzgasse 19 (built in 1935) also lived Mrs. Geiger widowed brother Karl Grünbaum, a former rabbi, with his handicapped son, Erich. In 1938 Geigers and Grünbaums fled to Rest, Czechoslovakia. On July 17, 1939 , in the Protectorate in Prague a so-called Central Organization for Jewish emigration was established in the Petschek Palais, that enabled in total, against payment, 12.000 Jews to leave the country. As Mrs. Geiger had two wealthy sisters in America and only two persons of a family were allowed to emigrate, Mr Grünbaum and his son emigrated to the United States via Helsinki, Finland against the payment of $30,000. The Geigers stayed back.

“Contrary to his parents,” notes Mr. Kühnl, “Egon survived the concentration camps because he was chosen as a violinist for the Lager-Kapelle (camp band) that had to entertain the SS guards. In 1944 he was transferred to the Brabag factory in Schwarzheide/Brandenburg where he had to work until the Russians came. From 1,000 Jews sent to Schwarzheide only 600 survived until the Schwarzheide KZ was dissolved. These 600 were sent back to Theresienstadt but only 200 survived the journey. When he came back to Falkenau in June, 1945, Egon Geiger got a National Administration-Ship for his parents’ house. He was authorized because his family had declared in the 1930 Census that they were of Czech nationality. I suppose he continued the textile business. Maybe he left Czechoslovakia like many others in 1948 as a consequence of the seizure of power by the Czech communists.”

Grünwald Wilhelm Grünwald was a banker, according to Dr. Julius Hoenig. The Grünwalds had a son, Walter, and a daughter, Marieschen. Mr. Grünwald moved to Falkenau from Göding, Moravia (the same town where Siegmund Freud lived) because of a bank assignment. Later, he was involved in a scandal when he was accused of committing fraud. The charge was upheld and he lost his job and went to prison.

Hansl Mrs. Emma Hansl was a born Steiner and she outlived her husband, Fred, by many years. There were three children. Arthur Hansl was the oldest, followed by his sister, Hedwig (who married a very rich man and who had a granddaughter also named Hedwig), and Karl (the youngest). Arthur worked for a coal firm while Karl, my father's friend, became a banker.

Heller Sigmund Binhak owned the building at Ringplatz 20 in Falkenau starting in 1869, which was sold to the Heller family about 30 years later. It was inherited by their daughter, Hannah Heller, and son-in-law, Karl Ruczek, whom Hannah married on September 21, 1936. Hannah was born in Falkenau on August 26, 1894 and she and her husband, Karl Ruczek, were transported by the Nazis from Prague to Theresienstadt on August 10, 1942 and from there

to Auschwitz on January 26, 1943.

Herrmann No one in Adolf Herrmann's family survived the Holocaust, according to John H. (Hans) Steiniger of London. Adolf Herrmann owned a large wholesale and retail households and textiles store and my grandfather, Leopold Hönig, worked there. Ida Herrmann, born Kohn, was Adolf's wife and they had three children: Gretl (whose birthday was on September 21), Karl (a friend of my father's), and Julius ("Jussl") (a friend of Hans Steiniger). All three Herrmann children were musically inclined. "Adolf Herrmann used to sing at Jewish affairs," according to my late father, Joseph Hoenig, "and Gretl, who also had a good singing voice, played the piano very well." According to Werner Löwy, Gretl also performed in the Reichenberg Theatre in northern Bohemia and used to sing in the Falkenau synagogue on holidays. Adolf Herrmann was, according to John H. (Hans) Steiniger, "a well-respected town councilor for the then 'Social Demokrat Party.'" "Karl was an especially good friend of mine," recalled Joseph Hoenig, "and he had two violins. He wanted me to have one and he wanted to teach me how to play the violin, but I was not musically inclined, although I love music. Unfortunately, Karl died from meningitis when he was about 15. "Adolf Herrmann had a heart attack and died during Hitler's time. I proposed to send the two children an affidavit to come to the U.S., but they sent me back a reply that their mother was in an instiution and they didn't want to leave her alone, and I suppose they perished with their mother." "Both Julius and Gretl," notes John H. Steiniger, "could have enjoyed successful careers in the musical field if only they would have left, but they did not want to leave their mother behind. Ida Herrmann had some mental problems from time-to-time, which was a matter one tried to keep a secret." Adolf Herrmann had several brothers and they owned a big wholesale food business. One of his brother's sons, Max, lived in Eger and married Berta Schwarzbach, an immigrant. Another of Adolf Herrmann's nephews, Hans Herrmann, migrated to the United States and worked for Gage Brothers a firm in Chicago. My late father said he visited him once and received a letter from him. My father said Hans Herrman also had a brother who worked for Adolf Herrmann in Falkenau. According to John H. Steiniger, this nephew of Adolf Herrmann could hardly speak German because he had been living in the Czech speaking part of Czechoslovakia.

***

Dr. Herrmann, a pediatrician from Falkenau was married to Lilli Steiniger, one of the two daughters of the lawyer, Dr. Ludwig Steiniger, and his wife

Hannah from Teplitz. Lilli and her pediatrician husband lived in Dr. Julius Hoenig's mother's house, as did Dr. Mohr.

Huebsch/Hübsch Leo Huebsch and his wife owned a drug store in Falkenau and they were the parents of two children. According to research by Dieter Kühnl, “the Hübsch family did not live in Falkenau during the 1920s. I have no idea as to where they moved.”

Kohn

There were apparently several Kohn families living in Falkenau. Lehrer [Teacher] Jonas Kohn, the Hebrew teacher in Falkenau in the late 1800s, was related to the Adler and Heller families, thus making him my grandmother's [Hermine Adler Hoenig] distant relative, and she often spoke about him. My father often told me that whenever a member of the Kohn family died, my grandmother received some of their furniture. Lehrer Kohn died in 1898.

Anna, the mother of Walter Kohn (he lived in London) was a born Binhak from Falkenau. She and her husband, Jacob, who had a very prosperous tailoring business in Komotau, ended up in London in 1941 where he continued his business. Anna and Jacob died there. He had died suddenly in the street while Walter was in the movies, so Walter never went to the movies again until he went to Florida to vacation with David and Edith Binhak. Walter's nickname was "das Pferd" [horse], which referred to his tremendous energy. He and his wife, Mina, owned a very successful export-import business and lived in a "lovely flat" in London, notes John H. Steiniger. Walter Kohn donated funds to purchase an ambulance for Israel. Mina died in a home in Switzerland around 1992, a year before Walter. Ignatz Kohn and his mother, Katherine ("Katel"), owned a shoestore in Brückenstrasse (opposite the Löwy house) in Falkenau, according to my aunt, Frieda Hoenig Rupp. According to Werner Löwy, Ignatz Kohn was married and had a son, Walter. Bertha Pfeffer Schwarzova said the Kohn family moved to Salzburg. According to John H. Steiniger, this Walter Kohn emigrated to London and moved to Bath, England where he had a typewriter shop until he passed away some years ago. His wife's name was Greta.

Kropf

Family Kropf lived in Unterreichenau (Dolny Rychnov), a village near Falkenau, and he was the director of the Reichenau glassworks factory. They had an unmarried daughter, Liesl, who died on Long Island, New York in 1994, and a son, Walter, who was born in Falkenau on July 15, 1917, resided in Harrison, New York and then Hallandale, Florida, USA, where he died on Deember 16, 2004. Walter Kropf taught Dr. Julius Hoenig how to play chess in Falkenau and he was a good tennis player.

“My father, Felix Kropf,” noted Walter Kropf when I visited with him in Florida in 2001, “had the title of inspectopr. He worked for the Montan und Industrialwerke, formals Johann David Stark, a huge glass factory employing nearly 2,000 people in Unterreichenau. It belonged to the Petschek family of Prague, the richest people in Czechoslovakia. They also owned most of the soft coal mines in the Sudeten region. He managed the company on a daily basis while the Petscheks put in a ‘parade goy’ ahead of him.” Walter Kropf added, “I graduated as a diplom engineer in chemistry after having studied in the Prague Technical University before and after my three-year service in the Czechoslovak until of the British Army during World War II on the Middle Eastern and French fronts, having been wounded in action.” Felix Kropf, based on information provided to me by Dieter Kühnl, was born on February 26, 1879. He was sent on February 8, 1942 with his wife, Irma (born October 20, 1883), in Transport W from Prague to Theresienstadt/Terezin and from Theresienstadt on March 17, 1942 in Transport Ab to their deaths in the Izbica/ Lublin ghetto in Poland. Mr. Kühnl writes that Felix Kropf was an inspector and not a director of the Reichenauer Glassworks.

Kuh

The Kuh family lived on Schrammstrasse. Mrs. Marie Kuh had a washery (laundry) on Bahnhofstrasse. There were three children: a daughter, Gretl, and two sons. Gretl, who died of cancer, was a nurse at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto, Ontario. One of her brothers owned a radio store in Pilsen. According to Dieter Kühnl, the washery was located at Schramstrasse 17.

Kurzweil

Cantor Lippmann Kurzweil sang in the Falkenau Synagogue. He and his wife, Regina, were the parents of two daughters. Alice married a relative in Prague, while her younger sister, Wilma, was married in Vilna, Lithuania, long before the outbreak of World War II. Cantor Kurzweil, according to Werner Löwy in Prague, "committed suicide long before the Nazis came leaving Rabbi Feuerstein as the only Jewish clergyman in Falkenau. Rabbi Feuerstein was very angry about this type of economy."

Lang

Josef Lang and his wife lived in Falkenau. Their son and daughter-in-law, Victor and Alice Lang, had a big shoe business and they lived near the church, and, according to my aunt, Frieda Hoenig Rupp, "Alice was a very fine woman." They had four children, Gerhart, Ella, Valerie ("Wally") and Irma. Dr. Julius Hoenig says Gerhart, who migrated to Israel in 1933, was "absolutely brilliant and strong. He won all the prizes in school and he beat up all the goyim who hit the Jewish children." Ella, who had an illegitimate child, died

during the Holocaust. Valerie lives in England and Irma died prior to the Holocaust.

Lappert

The two Lappert brothers, Alfred and Josef, were cattle dealers who lived across the street from Bertha Hönig's business on Bahnhofstrasse (Nadrasni). Later, they moved to Vienna. One of the brothers had a daughter named Louisa. Josef Lappert, the cattle dealer, according to Dieter Kühnl, left Falkenau in 1905 for a job in Vienna with the newly founded "Erste Wiener Großschlächterei AG." He was responsible there for the purchase of cattle. The "Erste Wiener Großschlächterei AG" was the largest meat exporter on the European continent. The company supplied all the first-class Hotels in Egypt.

Lederer

Ludwig Lederer and his wife, Ottillie, came to Falkenau in the late 1920s, just before Hitler's time. They lived in the Bloch house with their daughters, Irma and Helen, and they had a little toys and housewares store. Helen died of tuberculosis in the 1920s. Later, the Lederers merged with Karl Ruczek, who owned a store with ready made clothing and shoes, called Lerufa, also on the Marktplatz, but opposite the Bloch house. Karl Ruczek married Hanna Fischer, but they had no children.

Löv

There were eight children in the Löv family. One of them, Ernst Löv, was my father's friend. The other children included Otto, Tony, Paul (the youngest), Emma, Helen and Marie. Otto worked for a coal mining firm. Emma, Helen and Marie worked in their father's ladies' store and they also had a store in Karlsbad, which Helen eventually managed. Later, Marie moved to London. They were forced to go to Prague when the Nazis took over Bohemia, where they were given one room in the center of the city in which to live. Because the others did not want to leave Prague, they perished during the Holocaust.

Löw

Anton Löw was employed by the Pollaks in the liquor business. He and his wife, Adelheid, had a daughter named Helene and they resided at Sommergasse 10. Helene Löw, who was born on October 4, 1897, perished in Auschwitz. She had been transported by the Nazis from Prague to Theresienstadt on December 22, 1942, and from Theresidenstadt to Auschwitz on January 23, 1943, according to information provided by Dieter Kühnl.

Löwy Hugo and Rosa Löwy often visited my parents and me after they migrated to the United States after being released from Theresienstadt to Switzerland on January 5, 1945 by the International Red Cross via a railroad train with sealed cars. Hugo --- the son of Leopold Löwy and Julie Buchsbaum, both from Schüttüber --- was born in Giesshübl/Karlsbad on September 25, 1875 and died in Queens, New York on April 2, 1957. Rosa, the daughter of Simon Schwarz and Katti Bloch, both from Kollautschen (Kolovec), was born in Kollautschen on February 28, 1884 and died in Queens, New York on February 12, 1970. On July 5, 1906, Hugo Löwy and Leopold Mohr, representing the Chevra Kadische, met with Falkenau's mayor, Dr. Peter, about enlarging the Jewish cemetery. Hugo and Rosa Löwy had two sons, Robert and Werner. Robert Lowy, born in Falkenau on October 28, 1906, was vice

37 president of the ASOMA Corporation, an international import-export steel business in New York. He died in the Franklin Nursing Home in Flushing, New York, where he was a resident, on October 1, 1995. He and his late wife, Mathilde ("Tillie") were the parents of Dr. Joan Lowy Postow, a gastroenterologist in Washington, D.C., and Steven Lowy, a surgeon who lives in Larchmont, New York. Robert was a talented cello player who performed with chamber music groups in New York City. One day, around 1985, he mentioned to me on the telephone that he had just performed with a pianist, Esther Ostroff, who lived in an apartment three stories directly above my parents' apartment. "Why didn't you take the elevator down to the 17th floor to visit my father --- your lifelong friend from Falkenau --- and mother?" I asked him. He said he would, "the next time" he played at her apartment, but he apparently never did so again. Tillie used to work at the office of the Jewish newspaper, Selbstwehr, in Prague.

Werner Löwy, a retired economist and chief of the supply department for the Skoda Works who was born in Falkenau on November 27, 1915, resides in Prague with his second wife, Maya Svata, from Nova Paka in northern Bohemia. During World War II Werner escaped to Poland and then managed to cross the closed border to Romania and with the occupation of Bessarabia by the Soviets he came to the Soviet Union where he worked as a clerk in a sugar factory near Chernowitz. Every time the German army advanced, the factory --- and Werner --- moved further east into the Soviet Union's interior, until they reached the Kirghiz S.S.R. There, in 1942, he married Natalia Stolarowa, a Russian. He remained in the Soviet Union until 1949 when he returned to Czechoslovakia with Natalia. After some time she demanded that they should return to the USSR, but Werner refused and they were divorced. Werner has two children from his first marriage. His son, Peter Löwy, is married to Lenka and they have two sons, Ian and Adam. Werner's daughter, Vera, is married to Kohak and they are the parents of a son, Jacob.

All live in Prague. I am grateful to Werner and Maya for their gracious hospitality while I was in Prague in October, 1996 to complete the research for this book. Werner went with me all over the city to visit with family members and he provided me with a great deal of additional information. "Werner and Maya," said John H. Steiniger in 1997, "were very good to my sister, Gretl Novak, prior to her death in Prague in the spring of 1995." All of Leopold and Julie Buchsbaum Löwy's children --- including Oscar, Pavel, Frieda, Marta and others --- perished at the hands of the Nazis. Only Hugo survived.

Loewy Moritz and Regina Loewy were the parents of Fred, Hilda (who moved to Prague) and Erna (the youngest). Moritz's father lived in a house on the road from Falkenau to Prague. Regina Loewy, an aunt of the Brauns and a cousin of Rosa Budlovsky through the Beer family, was "famous for her marinated herrings in sour cream," according to Karl Budlovsky, "which she always prepared on Sundays. I was always her first customer, only I always forgot to pay her. As the saying goes, 'Love comes through the stomach,' and I loved especially those of our mishpoche who were good cooks, including Aunt Regi." According to Dieter Kühnl of Munich, “Fred/Alfred Löwy got a National-Administration-Ship. He emigrated in 1938 via England to Canada, went back to England in 1942, joined the British Army and fought against the Germans. In September 1945 he got a National Administrator of a butchery on Lange Gasse in Falkenau. He also left the country and went back to Canada. His descendants live in Westmorland, New Brunswick, Canada.”

Mendl The Mendl family was very poor, as were my grandparents, and they had a little greengrocery store in Falkenau. There were six children, including Emil (the oldest and my father's friend), Max (the middle son), another son, Martha (the oldest daughter), Berta and Hermine (the youngest daughter).

Mohr

Dr. of Jurisprudence Arthur Mohr was a judge. He lived in Dr. Julius Hoenig's mother's house on Bahnhofstrasse and was married to Flora Pollak. Dr. Mohr's daughter, Kaethe, was taken by the Nazis, who worked her to death during the Holocaust. “We knew her,” Walter Kropf told me in 2001, “as an exceptionally beautiful and gracious person.”

Newman [Neumann?]

There is a gravestone of Charlotte Newman Ehrlich which appears in a 1929 photograph taken at the Falkenau Jewish cemetery. It was immediately to the left of the grave of my father's sister, Gretl Hönig (as one faces the grave).

Pfeffer

The Pfeffer family lived on Elbogener Strasse. After Mr. Pfeffer's first wife passed away, he married a Viennese woman. A Pfeffer family (it may have been this same family or another one, according to Werner Löwy) lived in Schönwerth (a part of Falkenau on the road to Zwodau) where they operated a grocery shop.

Pleyer Betty Pleyer worked in the tobacco shop for Mrs. Adler in the Hönig house in Falkenau.

Pollak Karl "Schnaps" Pollak and his wife, Veronika, owned a liquor store in Sommergasse, which they purchased from Johanna Binhak in 1906. They had three daughters --- Irma, Frieda and Marta --- and a son, Walter. Frieda Pollak was the wife of Paul Fischer and they had a daughter, Doraliese "Dorli," who has a daughter, Sonja Winter. [Karl and Veronika Pollak may also have had two sons, Hans (who died many years before World War II) and Louis.] One of those employed in the Pollak's liquor store was Mr. Loewy. Eventually the Pollaks sold the liquor business to Karl Bondy in 1911.

Reichler Family Reichler owned a flour and groceries store in Falkenau. Their son, Rudolf, was born around 1900. He got married after World War I and moved to Craiova, Romania. Rudolf had a son, Fredi, who migrated to Israel before World War II. The Reichlers also had three daughters. Ella married Josef Schlesinger, who owned an umbrella store in Falkenau, and they also moved to Craiova, Romania, where Werner Löwy visited them in 1937. They had two daughters, Lia and Ruth, who may now be living in Israel. The two families in Craiova were in the grain trade business. Olga was married to the son of Adolph Schlesinger (not related to Josef Schlesinger) and then later was married to a Czech, Mr. Chaloupka, and it is presumed they perished during the Holocaust, according to Werner Löwy.

Rosenbaum

Bernard Rosenbaum, an engineer, was the druggist in Falkenau. He was married to Ida Steiniger, daughter of the grocer, Bernard Steiniger, from Falkenau, and they were the parents of a child.

Rosenzweig

Emil Rosenzweig was the last President of the Falkenau Jewish Congregation. He owned a coal mine and his house was opposite the railway station. He and his wife had a little daughter, Mirka, in the early 1930s who was slightly retarded. Mr. Rosenzweig refused to leave Falkenau when the Germans occupied the Sudetenland in the autumn of 1938, so the Nazis took the entire family and transported them to Pilsen to a concentration camp or prison. "He was," noted Werner Löwy, "a peculiar man. In 1928-30 he built a very nice smaller chapel with heating facilities inside the Temple. It was used for services during the winter and was appropriately called 'the Wintertempl.'"

Ruczek

(also spelled Ruzek) Karl Ruczek married Hanna Heller, Karl and Emma Zentner Heller's daughter, on September 21, 1936, and they had no children. He came from Jihlava/Iglau, Czechoslovakia, where he was born on July 7, 1892. Hannah (Anna) was a born Heller and was obviously the heir of house Ringlatz 20. Prior to the Heller family owning that house, Rigplatz 20 was owned by the Binhak family. They owned a store on the Marktplatz opposite the Bloch house with ready made clothing and shoes, called Lerufa. The Lederers, who owned a little toys and housewares store on the Marktplatz merged their store with the Lerufa firm. The Ruczeks perished in the Holocaust when they tried but failed to emigrate to Ecuador. Hannah was born in Falkenau on August 26, 1894 and she and her husband were transported by the Nazis from Prague to Theresienstadt on August 10, 1942 and from there to Auschwitz on January 26, 1943. After the "Anschluss" in 1938, the house was taken by over by the NSDAP-Kreisleiter Fridolin Breitschädel who established a uniform shop there. On March 31, 1941, according to Dieter Kühnl, Fridolin and Theresia Breitschädel bought the house for 45,600 Reich Marks from the German Reich. The house was restituted to the Ruzek family in 1951. However, the store was used as a textile factory, “Textil Plzen.”The structure was renovated in 2008. Today it ís owned by the Vietnamese married couple, Van Thang Nguyen and Cam Lan Vu, who operate a store there called Central Shop Asia and Children World.

Schlesinger

Two unrelated Schlesingers married two of the three Reichler daughters. Ella Reichler married Josef Schlesinger, who owned an umbrella store and repair shop on the ground floor of the Fischer's house on the Markt Platz (called Masarykovo namesti in Czech) in Falkenau, and they moved to Craiova, Romania, where her brother, Rudolf Reichler, and his family moved after World War I. Werner Löwy visited them there in 1937. They had two daughters, Lia and Ruth, who may now be living in Israel. The two families in Craiova were in the grain trade business. The above information seems to conflict with what Dieter Kühnl discovered: “According to the Adressbuch für Stadt und Bezirk Falkenau 1931, a Berta Schlesinger owned an umbrella shop in the house of the Fischers on Ringplatz 12 and lived there with her husband, Moritz. I do not know more. My speculation is that Moritz Schlesinger was the son of Josef and Ella.” Olga was the wife of Adolph Schlesinger's son (not related to Josef Schlesinger) and then later was married to a Czech, Mr. Chaloupka. They, too, may have perished during the Holocaust, according to Werner Löwy.

See

There was a Family See that lived on the corner of Kreuzstrasse behind the Marktplatz, according to John (Hans) Steiniger of London in December, 2005. There were three children. Leo See, the oldest, was a banker who went to the Far East; Otto, a lawyer; and Paula See, who married a Mr. Herzog. Otto was born in Falkenau on September 7, 1899 and he died in California on March 17, 1990. The only additional information about the See family came to me in January, 2013 from Dr. Siegfried Traeger, a Christian physician who was raised in Falkenau but who now resides in Frankfurt, Germany. He indiates that the only reference to a Family See is in the book Verstreut unter allen Voelkern [Scattered Among All the Peoples], by Werner Pollmann, and that it appears in the Jewish cemetery in Steingrub, Bohemia, now known as Lomnicka.

Steiner Emma, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Johann Steiner married Fred Hansl and she outlived her husband by many years. There were three children. Arthur Hansl was the oldest, followed by his sister, Hedwig (who married a very rich man and who had a granddaughter also named Hedwig), and Karl (the youngest). Arthur worked for a coal firm while Karl, my father's friend, became a banker. Johann Steiner was a member of the committee which worked with the architect, Emil Lifka, on plans for and the construction of the Falkenau synagogue in 1896 and 1897.

The Steiners in Falkenau were related to the Binhak family.

Steiniger

There were several Steiniger families in Falkenau.

David Steiniger had moved from the small village of Steinbach to Falkenau in the 1840s or 1850s and in 1852 bought the house at Ringplatz 20. Salomon Steiniger was the owner of Torahs and Siddur (prayer) books in Steinbach, near Falkenau, and he had died prior to 1860. His son, also deceased at that time, was Abraham Steiniger, and his son-in-law, Joachim Kohn, claimed he purchased the holy items from the deceased Abraham Steiniger. On August 6, 1860, Joachim Kohn was asked by local officials to explain why he had refused to turn over the items to the Falkenau Jews who were trying to form a congregation. Mr. Kohn maintained he had paid and fed men on the Jewish holidays in order to have a minyan, for services in a room in his own house with the Torahs and Siddur books. On August 22, 1860 David Steiniger and others answered Mr. Kohn's remarks and their arguments were presented to the Regional Rabbi. A crisis was averted since Mr. Kohn died shortly thereafter and the Steinbach Jewish community disappeared. Markus Löw Steiniger, on April 29, 1884, lived in the village of Chodau and was present at discussions of the possibility of the Chodauer Jews joining together with those of Falkenau. The heirs of Franz Steiniger and David Steiniger also appear as some of the ten congregants of the Steinbach-Schönlind Jewish community [Chevra Kadishe] which was taken over by the Falkenau community on April 24, 1895. David Steiniger owned a pearl (perlmutter) button factory in Bleistadt at the turn of the 20th century, where he lived during the summers. His eldest son was named Hans. He was related to the Binhak family. David Steiniger was a member of the committee which worked with the architect, Emil Lifka, on plans for and the construction of the Falkenau synagogue in 1896 and 1897. Franz Steiniger lived in Falkenau with his wife, Berta, and their son, Walter, who studied medicine.

Philipp and Charlotte Steiniger had three sons: Ernst (the oldest), Dr. Ludwig, and Theodor (the youngest, born on October 18, 1871), and a daughter, Emma (born February 8, 1877). They were well-to-do, according to my father, and employed young women to take the little children outside in their baby carriages. Philipp died in Falkenau in July, 1932 and Charlotte passed away in Falkenau before 1938.

Ernst Steiniger, whose wife's name was Klara, was born on March 18, 1868. He owned a large house at Ringplatz 20 in the Marktplatz and worked in the wholesale beer trade (Bier-Steiniger) and had the sole agency of the Pilsener and Egerer breweries. Ernst was the "potato commissioner" during World War I and afterwards. He also owned a tailor shop in the back of his large property at Marktplatz 20, as well as a restaurant, which was more like a beer hall, which he rented to "Caffe Mein," part of a chain of stores in Czechoslovakia. They were the parents of four sons --- Philipp (born May 4, 1900), Fritz (Friedrich, born June 20, 1905) , Paul and Otto --- and a daughter, Molly, who was married to an engineer in Germany. Philipp, the eldest son, managed the beer enterprise and later had a chemist shop on the site of the old restaurant. He married Wilma Bloch from Tachau (Tachov) (born there on January 7, 1911) in the 1930s. They had a young daughter, Lucie (born October 9, 1935) and they and Wilma's mother, Hermine Bloch (who was the wife of David Bloch from Tachau and the sister of Rosa Schwarz Löwy and thus Werner and Robert Löwy's aunt), perished in the Lodz, Poland concentration camp. They were all transported by the Nazis from Prague to Lodz on October 21, 1941, and Philipp died on May 18, 1942. [David Bloch was the only son of Nathan Bloch of Tachau.] Fritz, who did not marry the daughter of the owner of a hardware business in Reichenberg (Liberac), as planned by their parents, instead wed his old girlfriend, Helly [Helena Ehrlich, born in Prague on July 15, 1913], in Prague. He was also sent from Prague to the Lodz camp on October 31, 1941, where he died when a Nazi beat him to death because he went on line for a second bowl of soup. Helly also perished in Lodz during the Holocaust). Paul, who was a sick child, died from infantile paralysis as a teenager. Otto escaped to Israel on a ship, the Sakaria, by way of Danubis-Sulina, Romania, and the Black Sea. Later he moved to the United States where he lost a leg in a traffic accident. He died in Los Angeles. His wife's name is Helen and they had two sons, Michael and Fred Steiniger. Michael is an attorney in Los Angeles, and Fred is a successful architect and developer in Tucson, Arizona. He and his wife are the parents of three children. Dr. Ludwig Steiniger, a lawyer in Falkenau, was born about 1872 and he was married to Hannah (Johanna) Eisler, born October 29, 1882. She was from Teplitz, was very short, and walked with a limp. "She was always hanging on to Ludwig's arms. and after a while," some townspeople explained, "she became a little crooked." Ludwig and Hannah had a good-looking son, Kurt, who was born in 1904-06, became a lawyer like his father, and died in Rhodesia. Kurt married Ms. Becherfrom Teplitz (her first name is unknown), who was the daughter of Mr. Becher, a well-known manufacturer of plows who had a business connection in Rhodesia, which enabled the two of them to emigrate to that former British colony in Africa. Kurt and his wife had a son who lives in Los Angeles. Kurt's wife died suddenly from a heart attack while visiting London and her husband passed away in Rhodesia a few years later. Dr. Ludwig and Hannah Steiniger had a daughter, Lilli, who was born in Falkenau on June 15, 1906. She was the wife of the pediatrician, Dr. Walter

Herrmann, from Falkenau. They lived in Dr. Julius Hoenig's mother's house, as did Dr. Mohr before them. Dieter Kühnl indicates Lilli Becher Steiniger was deported from Prague to Theresienstadt on July 27, 1942 and from there to Auschwitz, where she perished on May 18, 1944. Lotte Steiniger was the second daughter of Dr. Ludwig and Hannah Steiniger. She was born in Falkenau on February 24, 1909 and she was married to Fritz Küchler from Teplitz. They had a son named Hans who was born February 16, 1938. Fritz was deported from Prague to Theresienstadt on December 4, 1941 and Lotte and Hans were deported from Prague to Theresienstadt ten days later, on December 14, 1941. All three were deported from Theresienstadt to Siedliszcze/Chelm, a labor camp for 200 people in eastern Poland on September 5, 1942. When, where and why the Küchlers died is not recorded anywhere. Dr. Ludwig and Hannah Steiniger lived in the house at Ringplatz 20 with their children. She was deported by the Nazis from Prague to Theresienstadt on December 14, 1941 and from there to Siedliszcze/Chelm in eastern Poland on May 9, 1942. It is not clear when Dr Ludwig Steiniger died. In the “Falkenauer Adressbuch 1931" Johanna Steiniger is called "widow of a lawyer" but on the other hand, according to Dieter Kühnl, “ there exists a Gedenkblatt by his son in law Kurt (?) in the Yad Vashem database saying that Ludwig Steiniger perished in the Holocaust.”

Theodor Steiniger, the youngest of the three Steiniger brothers, had a tobacco, paper and book store on the Marktplatz ("Tabac-Hauptverlag"), which still exists. Tabak, in the old Austro-Hungarian monarchy was a monopoly and the product could only be obtained from the central supply firm. Earlier, in May 1912, he bought the Kremling Inn at Ringplatz 14, that had burned down in 1911. Theodor Steiniger had paid 46.000 Kronen to Mr. Kremling’s widow for the property.. In 1918 there was anti-Jewish rioting and looting in Falkenau and the rioters attacked Theodor Steiniger's tobacco business. In 1919, after World War I, when the Czechoslovakian Republic was formed, Theodor Steiniger lost this concession which he had inherited from his mother, Charlotte. A new Czech law gave the state owned tobacco "Trafiks" to the Czech war veterans ("legionaries").Theodor then started a paper and book store, but their main income was from the angros paper business, supplying the porcelain and textile industries with industrial paper. He and his wife, Malchie (Marie, who was born on June 24, 1879), both of whom were deported from Prague to Terezin on Juy 6, 1942, and then to Treblinka in the east on October 19, 1942 by the Nazis perished in the Holocaust. They were the parents of two daughters and a son. Gretl, who died in Prague in the spring of 1995, was the widow of Vaclav Novak, a Christian who predeceased her. Hans became John H. Steiniger and he resides in London with his wife, Sonja. His younger sister, Erna, was married to Paul Karpeles, the owner of a glass factory in Teplitz. After a brief marriage they divorced and she changed her name to Erna Stein, and she lives in London. Shortly before my father died in 1991, Hans Steiniger wrote a letter to him. The house at Ringplatz 20 was restituted to the family after World War II, according to Dieter Kühnl - but he does not know to whom - in 1949. Later it was sold to MPBH and today it is owned by the Vietnamese, Bac Ngo Ha.

Emma Steiniger married Rudolf Nohel (born January 14, 1862 in Mcely/Prague)and they lived in Prague before 1938. Emma and Rudolf were transported from Prague to Thersienstadt on July 13, 1942. She was deported to Treblinka on October 15, 1942 and her perished in Theresienstadt on August 30, 1942. Their daughter, Anne Lovidt (Lowidt), was able to escape to Toronto, Ontario, Canada. A Lovidt Foundation exists today in Toronto, but whether it is connected with Emma Steiniger’s daughter is unclear.

***

According to Frieda Hoenig Rupp there was a Filipp and Fannie Steiniger family. He was a tailor for whom my father worked from March 24 until April 22, 1918, and his wife was my grandmother's cousin. They had four or five children. There was a married son, a married daughter, a son [according to my father --- a daughter, according to Frieda Hoenig Rupp] who died of an inflammation of the brain, another married daughter and, possibly, another son.]

*** My father also talked about two other --- unrelated to those already mentioned ---Steiniger brothers: Filipp and Bernhard. Filipp owned a furniture and scrap iron business and he had five daughters (Frieda, Elsa---married in Prague, and three others). [Before her death in 1995, Gretl Hoenig said my father must have confused this family with other Steinigers.] Bernhard owned a large grocery store at #1 Kreuzgasse. Frieda says Bernhard's wife's name was Anna and they had three daughters: Ida (the oldest and unhappily married to a Mr. Rosenbaum, and they had a drugstore, and he was a producer of mineral water), Elsa, and Irma (born February 6, 1898, who got married in Olmitz). Erna, according to Dieter Kühnl, took over her parents’ grocery store and Irma worked in Erna’s household. Mr. Kühnl indicates “I have seen Irma Steiniger in the Death Lists of Yad Vashem: Irma came with Transport S from Pilsen to Theresienstadt (January 20, 1942) and from there with Transport Ab to Izbica (March 17,1942) where she perished. Two conclusions: Erna and Irma left Falkenau in 1938 to the Pilsen area and secondly Irma can´t have been married. I could not identify the Rosenbaums in Yad Vashem´s database.”

Unger

Dr. Ludwig Unger owned a nice house in the wall of the old Tiergarten (zoo). He was a lawyer and he and his wife were the parents of two sons, Hans and Kurt. Hans, the older son, became a lawyer and moved to Tel Aviv, Israel long before World War II. He was married to Erni Kohorn from Karlsbad and he became a judge in Israel. He died after being run over by an automobile.

Kurt was an architect and studied in Prague and Vienna, where he became one of the propagators of the designs of the famous Mr. Loos. He built his father's house in the Tiergarten wall before moving to Israel, where he owned a firm called "The Celebrated Home," prior to his death.

Zentner

Hermann and Julie (born Bloch) Zentner were the parents of two sons, Leopold and Heinrich.

Leopold Zentner, who was once President of the Falkenau Jewish community religious affairs, was born in Luditz in 1871 and he died in 1942 as a result of the Holocaust. He was married to Ida Heller, who was born in Postelberg (Postloprty) near Saaz (Zatec) in 1881. She, too, perished in the Holocaust in 1942. The Zentners lived in a large house on the Rosenplatz (Ruzove Namesti), next to the Löwy's paper and book store. Their names appear on a post- World War II memorial in the Karlsbad Jewish cemetery. Their daughter, Emma, married Rudolf Rindler, an automobile dealer in Karlsbad, and they lived in Seattle, Washington U.S.A., with their daughters, Eva and Susie. Emma Zentner Rindler died in May, 1997 and Rudolf predeceased her. Leopold and Ida Zentner's younger child was Paul, who was born around 1903 in Falkenau. He was married to Lotte Loebl from Karlsbad and the both of them migrated to Israel where they died one week apart in December, 1991. They have a married daughter, Ruth, who lives in Tel Aviv, Israel with her two sons. Once, Paul fractured his ankle while ice skating. The Zentners were neighbors of the Löwys. Heinrich Zentner, born in 1874 in Luditz, was married to Emma Fischer, the older sister of Gretl Fischer Hoenig. Emma was born in Falkenau on March 13, 1892 and she and her husband were deported from Prague to Theresienstadt on June 20, 1942 and from there to Treblinka on October 22, 1942, and they died there in 1943. Their daughter, Elizabeth (Liesl) --- born on July 4, 19... in Falkenau, died in Toronto, Ontario, Canada in the summer of 2011 --- is the widow of Victor Behal, who was born on March 2, 1922 in Prague and died in Hamilton, Ontario on December 11, 1988. Leopold and Heinrich Zentner were the owners of a textile store on the Rosenplatz which was sacked and plundered in the anti-Semitic riots of 1918.

Zuckerl-Zentner

Ernst Zentner ("Zuckerl-Zentner") and his wife, Elsa, sold sweets and candies in their house at Ring 20,. Dieter Kühnl says hese Zentners hat two daughter, Gerda and Hansi (Johanna). He does not know what has happened to Ernst Zentner, but his wife and daughters died in the Holocaust. Elsa Zentner was born on March 6, 1891 in Falkenau and she was transported from Prague to Theresienstadt on December 10, 1941 and from there to Trawniki on June 12, 1942. Gerda was born in Falkenau on January 4, 1916 and transported from Prague to Thersienstad on Deceber 10, 1941

and from there to Riga, Latvia on January 9, 1942. Hansi was born on June 9, 1920 in Falkenau and was transported from Prague to Theresienstadt on December 12, 1941 and from there to Trawniki on June 12, 1942. Hansi was a friend of Gerta Fink Bor.

NAMES FROM MY GRANDMOTHER'S AUTOGRAPH BOOK

After my grandmother, Hermine Adler Hoenig, died on January 11, 1964, four days shy of her 85th birthday, my late father found in her belongings her Poesie (book of poetry and autographs) penned and signed by relatives and friends. Among those who signed their names in her book are the following relatives and friends whose names appear in the text and charts of this family history: Anna Bloch (Franzisbad, 1896). Your Parents, Wilhelm and Anna Heller [Hermine Adler Hönig's mother and stepfather]. Adele [Hönig Waxman] (March 31, 1902). Bernhard Hönig (Lundenburg, November 4, 1897) [my great grandfather] Friedl (January 11, 1908), her daughter, Frieda Hönig, born in Lanz in 1899. Johanna Hönig (Lanz, April 3, 1898). Leopold Hönig, your groom, (April 19, 1897, Falkenau) [my grandfather]; Michael Hönig (Lanz, October 15, 1897, with a quotation from Goethe). Josef Lang (Falkenau, June 1, 1894). Bernard Steiniger (Falkenau, May 1, 1895). Filips Steiniger (May 14, 1894). Bertha Hönig Weiss. [Bernhard Hönig and Bertha Hönig Weiss' writings are on different pages of a separate four-page (folded) letter in the book.] Others whose names appear are: Fanni Bergermonte[?] (Neukirchen). Emma Bergler (Mies, May 13, 1894). Laura Bergler (Mies, May 13, 1894). your friend, Rudolf Bergler, II Cl. [Mies]. (drawing of a heart) Jac. [Jacob] Delion (Eger). your friend, Ferdinand Himmel (Falkenau, May 22, 1894). [His name is signed Himmel Ferdinand.] Emma Himmel. Katharina Himmel (May 25, 1894). L. Honisch.

Anna Klein (Mies, August 22, 1893). Karoline Kohn (Schweising, December 8, 1895). Flora Oestreicher (Königswart, August 25, 1894). Fr. J. Reichenauer. Elise Reitzner (Eger, May 31, 1896). Babette Riedl. your cousin, Johanna Schnaider. [No one knows who she is]. Hedwig Schneider (Neukirchen, June 14, 1896). Bertha Tanzer (Falkenau, September, 1894). Arthur Weil (Mies, March 2, 1893). Eugenia Weil ([Mies,] May 13, 1894). Irene Weil ([Mies,] May 13, 1894). Sophie Weil ([Mies,] May 13, 1894). Theresia Zniedler (August 12, 1894). No one knows how many , if any, of these people were Jewish.

*** Another name mentioned during one of my visits in Hamilton, Ontario with Gretl Fischer Hoenig is that of her uncle, a Mr. Zuckerman, who lived in Eger.