Research Tip: Even when you talk with your oldest relatives on a regular basis, and remind them frequently that you are interested in family history, they will still surprise you with new information after 18 months of weekly Zoom calls.
1920
My great grandfather Siegmund Bodenheimer was a banker for Danatbank and Dresdner Bank in Berlin. Upon the the birth of his third child Helga in 1920 he purchased a large villa at Jagowstrasse 29-33 in the beautiful residential district of Berlin-Grunewald.
Jagowstraße 29-33 in Grunewald |
1927
Many family photos feature the large garden and grounds of the villa's estate.
There was at the end of the lot was a garage and behind the garage was a flower garden which... with a gold... a little pond with goldfish. And it was all really very pretty, very peaceful, and it was quite an elegant setting. —Gerda Blau geb Bodenheimer, 1979
Helga with cousin Ruth Maass at goldfish pond, c1927 |
Cook and chambermaids at Jagowstrasse 29-33, c1928 |
Tello
Now also in this garden there was something very important. There was a... quite a... a fenced-in area. quite large, for our dog. We had three dogs, one who was chained to a dog house at the garage, because he... It was kind of a punishment, because he had bitten my cousin Hans into his behind, and it was quite a bite that he took, and from that time on he was chained to the garage... to the dog house at the garage.Now the one in the... I don't know how you call it in English... it was called Zwinge like, like the the bears in Bern.It was an enclosure and this, in this enclosure was Tello, who was our favorite a big German shepherd, who was very, very good-natured and very devoted. and he spent his day there.But we used to take walks, most of the time after dinner, my father and my brother, Edgar. and I took a walk with Tello. And at night Tello came into the house, but he was not allowed to run around free, but was chained to a kind of fencing of the upper hall, and was on a big chain. And that was right in front of my door. So it was kind of a cozy feeling. Tello was really watching me.
—Gerda Blau geb Bodenheimer, 1979
1931
About 1931 a family film was taken of the family in the garden. Siegmund's grandson Ron Blau later complied the footage with voiceover by his mother Gerda to produce Our Time in the Garden (1981). This short film features a lot of great footage of the Bodenheimer villa.
Now this villa in the Grunewald was a big house. It had 24 rooms and it had a quite a large garden. I felt like a free... I was as free as never before. I spent a great deal of time in the garden. There was a gym set and I could for hour do gym on this gym set, even by myself. The garden was... I remember when we first moved into this house the garden was so that you could ride a bicycle around the paths of the garden. But later on it was kind of fancied up and there were steps put in and from that time on we could not ride a bicycle anymore. But it was very, very beautiful and we spent a great deal of our time in the garden. —Gerda Blau geb Bodenheimer, 1979
Family on bench from Our Time in the Garden |
Siegmund with wife Rosi in the garden, c1931 |
After 43 years of arduous work, on 20 Sep 1933 Siegmund's work and business career came to an end with his resignation from Dresdner Bank.
Siegmund's only son Edgar left Germany in October 1933 for New York, and Siegmund himself started making preparations to leave the country.
1934
In March 1934, Siegmund shook the dust of Germany from his feet and traveled to a resort in Switzerland with his wife and youngest daughter.
Siegmund did not sell the house at Jagowstrasse, expecting to return to it someday after the Nazi craziness had blown over.1936
Siegmund Bodenheimer arrived in New City on 29 Sep 1936 aboard the SS Berengaria.
While attending Vera's school at Jagowstraße, there were often times when a ball would go over the fence into the gardens of the neighboring villas. One of the neighbors just happened to be the Reichsführer of the Nazi SS, Heinrich Himmler, who had the SS guarding at his residence 24 hours a day. It was quite strange to have SS Nazi guards return the ball, ruffle our hair, and kindly tell us Jewish children to not kick the ball so high.
In checking the veracity of this improbable family rumor, I did in fact find that Himmler lived directly next door during that time. So... plausible.
1938
Kristallnacht, 9 November 1938.
1939
By 1939, the situation for Jews in Berlin was intolerable. In April 1939 the Frankfurther children left Berlin for England with their parents following on one of the last flights out of Germany in late August.
Vera Lachmann abandoned her school at Jagowstraße for the United States in November 1939, assisted by friends in both countries. In 1944 Vera established Camp Catawba in the Blue Ridge mountains of North Carolina.
1943
1943 naturalization of Siegmund Bodenheimer |
1944
1944 aerial photograph |
1945
398th bomber group over Germany |
1953
Siegmund's son Edgar visited the divided Berlin in 1953, and walked the old familiar streets of his youth. Edgar’s visit to the wrecked Bodenheimer family home on Jagowstrasse produced just this comment: “Only the back wall and back balcony remain of the house, and the rubble lies around messily. The garden is entirely overgrown and wild.”
2021
2021 aerial photograph |
Thank you for your very interesting story with photographs of your family's beautiful home in Berlin. My late mother, Eva Bergmann, was one of the pupils at Vera Lachmann's school, and she also told me about the football often being kicked over the wall into Himmler's garden and being returned by the SS guards (although without the friendliness of the SS mentioned here). Being a classicist, the education Vera Lachmann offered her pupils centred around the Greek myths. The November 1992 edition of the Association of Jewish Refugees Information featured an articlle abour Vera Lachmann and can be found at this address https://ajr.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/1992_november.pdf.
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