Note: This is only part one, as it was getting a bit long for one post. I will also edit it as I find more information or corrections; edits will be noted at the end of the post. All photographs without source citations come from my family archives and have been watermarked as such. I will provide a list of sources used at the end of the part 2.
My great-grampa was a bad-ass.
No, seriously. My great-grampa (who for the sake of brevity shall henceforth be referred to as my GGP) survived 5 years as a front-line army field doctor in World War I, persecution for his ethnic descent, the seizure of his fortune, and two years in a Nazi concentration camp, and you know what he did after? He published a case study in a major German medical journal as a giant “%&$@ you! I survived!” to all of his anti-Semitic colleagues who’d conspired against them.
See that? Total. Bad-ass.
But I am getting far, far ahead of myself. Let’s backtrack a bit, shall we?
Siegfried Peltesohn was born on the 13th of August, 1876, in Berlin, Germany to Dr. Emil Peltesohn and his wife Klara, née Meyer. He grew up the middle of five children (Julius, Therese, Siegfried, Ernst, and Martha) in a large house in Tiergarten, a neighbourhood in Berlin home to the Reichstag (completed in 1894, when he was 18 years old), the Brandenburg Gate, Potsdamer Place, and Royal French High School, where he attended primary and secondary school. Martha died in 1908 during childbirth; of the rest of his siblings, my GGP is the only one to survive Shoah.
Upon graduating, my GGP went on to study medicine in Berlin and Würzburg, and received his license to practice medicine on 25 January 1901 in Freiburg, Germany. During his studies he also enlisted in the Royal Bavarian Army as a medical doctor; from 1867 through 1919 some well-qualified university students could enroll as an Einjährig-Freiwilliger or Annual Volunteer (literal translation: one-year free-willer) in their choice of branch of and capacity in the military in lieu of the standard 2-3 years of conscripted service. [See below for his military record sheet. Unfortunately when it was scanned the side got cut off so I'm missing parts of information, but I'm filling it in as best as I can.] From 1 October 1898 to 31 March 1899, my GGP served part of his Einjärig-Freiwilliger time as a regular trainee in the 6th Company of the 9th Infantry Regiment, and then from 1 March to 31 August 1901, after finishing his medical degree, he completed his required service as a doctor with the 1st Company of the Prussian Railway Regiment. He was promoted four times; on 31 August 1901 to Under Doctor, on 27 January 1902 to Assistant Doctor of the Reserve, on 18 August 1904 to Senior Doctor of the Reserve, and on 23 May 1911 to Surgeon of the Reserve.
After receiving his medical license, my GGP worked for about five years at Urban Hospital in Berlin before going on to become a senior physician at the Royal Surgical Polyclinic. While there he served under the renowned orthopedist (and his brother-in-law) Georg Joachimstal, who was married to my GGP's older sister, Therese. After Georg died in 1914, my GGP became the Acting Head of the Department of Orthopedics.
I'm very sad that I (currently) do not have any background information whatsoever for my great-grandmother (GGM), not even where she was born, though I plan on rectifying that when I write up her entry. In any case, Siegfried and Alice (ɛliːzə or eh-LEE-zuh) were married in 1908. In 1909 their first daughter, Gertrud, was born, followed by my grandmother, Edith, in 1914. Edith and Gertrud were raised in a spacious apartment in Charlottenburg, Berlin, not far from where my GGP had been raised and just blocks away from the Belin Zoo.
Not even two months after my grandma was born, Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria was assassinated in Sarajevo, heralding the start of World War I. My GGP, having previously trained as an army doctor, was enlisted and went to war as a front-line trauma surgeon.
Paraphrasing rather than directly translating, and possibly with some errors as I am extrapolating from acronyms and abbreviations I sourced from a declassified list of German Military Abbreviations [PDF], his service is listed thusly:
For his military service, my GGP received the Iron Cross, Second Class, on 4 October 1914 and the Friedrich Cross of the Duchy of Anhalt on 8 May 1916.
Following the war, my GGP came back home to his home in Charlottenburg, Berlin. He and my GGM provided a sheltered, safe environment for my gramma and great-aunt Gertrude, filled with a love of German music and literature. While they were Jewish, their religion was a very minor part of their lives; when I was young my gramma told me they even had a Christmas tree in their living room. For a while my GGP went back to work in academia and was a leading member of the Berlin Orthopedic Society who gave frequent lectures. However, 1919 saw the founding of the German Workers' Party (Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (DAP)), which in 1920 evolved into the National Socialist German Workers' Party (Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (NSDAP)), or "Nazi Party" for short, which rapidly grew in power over the next decade under the power of one Adolph Hitler. Most likely due to the increased pressure on major institutions to bar Jews from employment, or at least from attaining high-level positions, my GGP was unable to secure a faculty position at the hospital and set up his own, very modern private practice in the front of his home on Rankestraße, while the family moved to live in the back. His practice continuted peacefully until 1933 when the Nazi Party brought an end to the Weimar Republic and took control of the German government.
Following the death of President Hindenburg in 1934, Hitler became the Führer (leader) of Germany. For a while, my GGP was able to maintain his practice despite losing his health insurance license, as his patients were very loyal to him and his military distinction was such that even NSDAP members continued to see him. He still published in medical journals, but was no longer invited to give lectures because of his being a Jew. During this time, his older daughter, Gertrud married Dr. Bernard Samter, but tragically died of scarlet fever shortly afterward in 1935.
On 30 September, 1938, my GGP lost his approval to continue his practice; given the increasingly constrictive laws against Jewish employment this meant probable unemployment, and he filed an application for approval as a "medical practitioner" to continue treating the local Jewish population. Realizing that the situation of the Jews was becoming dire, and just weeks after their wedding, my gramma and grampa, along with his parents and brother and sister-in-law, were able to secure passage from Hamburg to Southampton, England, on 22 March 1939, and from Southamptom to New York City aboard the S.S. Manhattan departing 24 March and arriving 30 March, 1939.
Conditions for the Jews in Germany rapidly declined, and on 15 August 1939 my GGP received a letter from the Reich Medical Council informing him that his medical license was revoked, but that he was still authorized to provide some treatment provided he wear a badge showing a blue Star of David in a yellow circle on a blue background, and that he not describe himself as a doctor or medical officer. There was one small "blessing" in that, as a physician in good standing for the Jewish community, he was granted extra time to do necessary shopping (in 1939 a curfew was put on the Jewish community, including only allowing them to do their shopping during certain hours), but given the plight of their community I can only imagine that it felt more like having salt rubbed in the wound than it did a privilege.
Hopefully a decent translation:
The culmination of the persecution of the Jews and particularly against my GGM and GGP came on 15 March 1943 when they received notification of the seizure of all of their wealth and possessions.
Translation:
The next day, they were deported to Theresienstadt.
My great-grampa was a bad-ass.
No, seriously. My great-grampa (who for the sake of brevity shall henceforth be referred to as my GGP) survived 5 years as a front-line army field doctor in World War I, persecution for his ethnic descent, the seizure of his fortune, and two years in a Nazi concentration camp, and you know what he did after? He published a case study in a major German medical journal as a giant “%&$@ you! I survived!” to all of his anti-Semitic colleagues who’d conspired against them.
 |
| Siegfried Peltesohn c. 1945 |
See that? Total. Bad-ass.
But I am getting far, far ahead of myself. Let’s backtrack a bit, shall we?
Siegfried Peltesohn was born on the 13th of August, 1876, in Berlin, Germany to Dr. Emil Peltesohn and his wife Klara, née Meyer. He grew up the middle of five children (Julius, Therese, Siegfried, Ernst, and Martha) in a large house in Tiergarten, a neighbourhood in Berlin home to the Reichstag (completed in 1894, when he was 18 years old), the Brandenburg Gate, Potsdamer Place, and Royal French High School, where he attended primary and secondary school. Martha died in 1908 during childbirth; of the rest of his siblings, my GGP is the only one to survive Shoah.
 |
| Magdeburger Straße 3 in Berlin. Not sure if this is the same building or if the original was destroyed and then rebuilt after the war. |
Upon graduating, my GGP went on to study medicine in Berlin and Würzburg, and received his license to practice medicine on 25 January 1901 in Freiburg, Germany. During his studies he also enlisted in the Royal Bavarian Army as a medical doctor; from 1867 through 1919 some well-qualified university students could enroll as an Einjährig-Freiwilliger or Annual Volunteer (literal translation: one-year free-willer) in their choice of branch of and capacity in the military in lieu of the standard 2-3 years of conscripted service. [See below for his military record sheet. Unfortunately when it was scanned the side got cut off so I'm missing parts of information, but I'm filling it in as best as I can.] From 1 October 1898 to 31 March 1899, my GGP served part of his Einjärig-Freiwilliger time as a regular trainee in the 6th Company of the 9th Infantry Regiment, and then from 1 March to 31 August 1901, after finishing his medical degree, he completed his required service as a doctor with the 1st Company of the Prussian Railway Regiment. He was promoted four times; on 31 August 1901 to Under Doctor, on 27 January 1902 to Assistant Doctor of the Reserve, on 18 August 1904 to Senior Doctor of the Reserve, and on 23 May 1911 to Surgeon of the Reserve.
After receiving his medical license, my GGP worked for about five years at Urban Hospital in Berlin before going on to become a senior physician at the Royal Surgical Polyclinic. While there he served under the renowned orthopedist (and his brother-in-law) Georg Joachimstal, who was married to my GGP's older sister, Therese. After Georg died in 1914, my GGP became the Acting Head of the Department of Orthopedics.
I'm very sad that I (currently) do not have any background information whatsoever for my great-grandmother (GGM), not even where she was born, though I plan on rectifying that when I write up her entry. In any case, Siegfried and Alice (ɛliːzə or eh-LEE-zuh) were married in 1908. In 1909 their first daughter, Gertrud, was born, followed by my grandmother, Edith, in 1914. Edith and Gertrud were raised in a spacious apartment in Charlottenburg, Berlin, not far from where my GGP had been raised and just blocks away from the Belin Zoo.
 |
| Rankestraße 9 in Berlin. I am highly doubtful that this is the same building. Most of this area was bombed during the war, and the building looks fairly new. |
Not even two months after my grandma was born, Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria was assassinated in Sarajevo, heralding the start of World War I. My GGP, having previously trained as an army doctor, was enlisted and went to war as a front-line trauma surgeon.
 |
| My GGP's official military record. |
Paraphrasing rather than directly translating, and possibly with some errors as I am extrapolating from acronyms and abbreviations I sourced from a declassified list of German Military Abbreviations [PDF], his service is listed thusly:
2 August 1914 - Mobilized into an ambulance service as part of the I. Armee-Korps (I. Army Corps)
14 August 1914 - Moved as a batallion doctor to, I believe, the II Corps Grenadier-Regiment zu Pferde Freiherr von Derfflinger (Neumärkisches) Nr. 3 (Horseback Genadiers)
27 December 1914 - Sent to field hospital 11 of the I. Army Corps
19 April - 15 May 1915 - Sent to field hospital 5 of Reserve Guard [end cut off, assuming it should be Command]
19 December 1915 - Commanded field hospital 8/II in Chelm
15 February 1916 - Sent to field hospital 2/XXII
18 March 1916 - Sent to the patient transport department of the Army of the Bug
17 April 1916 - Sent to army hospital section 3/VI
21 December 1918 - Not completely sure. My best interpretation is that he was sent to district command to set in motion the replacement of military troops.
For his military service, my GGP received the Iron Cross, Second Class, on 4 October 1914 and the Friedrich Cross of the Duchy of Anhalt on 8 May 1916.
Following the war, my GGP came back home to his home in Charlottenburg, Berlin. He and my GGM provided a sheltered, safe environment for my gramma and great-aunt Gertrude, filled with a love of German music and literature. While they were Jewish, their religion was a very minor part of their lives; when I was young my gramma told me they even had a Christmas tree in their living room. For a while my GGP went back to work in academia and was a leading member of the Berlin Orthopedic Society who gave frequent lectures. However, 1919 saw the founding of the German Workers' Party (Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (DAP)), which in 1920 evolved into the National Socialist German Workers' Party (Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (NSDAP)), or "Nazi Party" for short, which rapidly grew in power over the next decade under the power of one Adolph Hitler. Most likely due to the increased pressure on major institutions to bar Jews from employment, or at least from attaining high-level positions, my GGP was unable to secure a faculty position at the hospital and set up his own, very modern private practice in the front of his home on Rankestraße, while the family moved to live in the back. His practice continuted peacefully until 1933 when the Nazi Party brought an end to the Weimar Republic and took control of the German government.
Following the death of President Hindenburg in 1934, Hitler became the Führer (leader) of Germany. For a while, my GGP was able to maintain his practice despite losing his health insurance license, as his patients were very loyal to him and his military distinction was such that even NSDAP members continued to see him. He still published in medical journals, but was no longer invited to give lectures because of his being a Jew. During this time, his older daughter, Gertrud married Dr. Bernard Samter, but tragically died of scarlet fever shortly afterward in 1935.
On 30 September, 1938, my GGP lost his approval to continue his practice; given the increasingly constrictive laws against Jewish employment this meant probable unemployment, and he filed an application for approval as a "medical practitioner" to continue treating the local Jewish population. Realizing that the situation of the Jews was becoming dire, and just weeks after their wedding, my gramma and grampa, along with his parents and brother and sister-in-law, were able to secure passage from Hamburg to Southampton, England, on 22 March 1939, and from Southamptom to New York City aboard the S.S. Manhattan departing 24 March and arriving 30 March, 1939.
Conditions for the Jews in Germany rapidly declined, and on 15 August 1939 my GGP received a letter from the Reich Medical Council informing him that his medical license was revoked, but that he was still authorized to provide some treatment provided he wear a badge showing a blue Star of David in a yellow circle on a blue background, and that he not describe himself as a doctor or medical officer. There was one small "blessing" in that, as a physician in good standing for the Jewish community, he was granted extra time to do necessary shopping (in 1939 a curfew was put on the Jewish community, including only allowing them to do their shopping during certain hours), but given the plight of their community I can only imagine that it felt more like having salt rubbed in the wound than it did a privilege.
 |
| The official document giving my GGP to shop outside of Jewish curfew hours. |
Hopefully a decent translation:
Dr. Siegfried Israel Peltesohn, living in Berlin W 50 , Rankestrasse 9 is employed in an Registered Establishment of the Jewish Community of Berlin.
Due to the new police regulation on the shopping OPENING HOURS for Jews from 07.08.1940 (AZIV.4204 H.37.10 - IV.Kr.4500) I authorize, as official Operation Leader appointed by the Work Rights Trustee, that after an examination of personal circumstances, the Above Named can shop in the time from ½ 12 to 1 o’clock for food and goods for personal use.
The Operation Leader,Dr. O. F. Grawert
The culmination of the persecution of the Jews and particularly against my GGM and GGP came on 15 March 1943 when they received notification of the seizure of all of their wealth and possessions.
 |
| Decree robbing my family of their wealth and possessions. |
Translation:
Decree
Secret State Police
State Police Monitoring Station Berlin
On the basis of §1 of the Law of Confiscation of Communist Assets of 26 May 1933 – RGBI. I S. 293 – in conjunction with the Law on the Confiscation of Anti-Volk and Anti-State Assets from 14 July 1933 – RGBI. I S. 479 –, the Regulation on the Confiscation of Anti-Volk and Anti-State assets in the country of Austria from 18 November 1938 – RGBI. I S. 1620 –, the Regulation on the Confiscation of Anti-Volk and Anti-State assets in the Sudetenland from 12 May 1939 – RGBI. I S. 911 –, and the Regulation on the Confiscation of Anti-Volk and Anti-State assets of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia from 4 October 1939 – RGBI I S. 1998 – used in conjunction with the decree of the Führer and Reich Chancellor for the recovery of confiscated property from the enemies of the Reich from 29 May 1941 – RGBI. I S. 303 – all the assets of __________ born __________, born on __________ in __________ last residing in __________ Street/Place Number __________ are confiscated for the benefit of the German Empire.
The next day, they were deported to Theresienstadt.
Badass!
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