Anna Pelteson: World's First Jewish Institute Leader - My High School Bio-Sketch

While digging through mountains of genealogical information I have stored in the depths of my computer in order to write an account of my great-grandfather (including historical context), I came across the following. It's the biographical sketch I wrote in high school for our social studies genealogy project. I present it to you sans any editing, so I must apologize that it is very much written by a fifteen- or sixteen-year-old. Also, there may be some inaccuracies that I will try to clear up in a future, more thoroughly researched post; as is, the only thing I can directly point to now is that it's just as likely that her birth date was used as her date of death for convenience as it is that she actually died on her birthday.

Without further ado,

Transcription

I wanted to post something so nobody thinks I've suddenly given up on my search. Far from it! I'm in the midst of writing up a post about my great-grandfather, Siegfried Peltesohn, for whom I have a wealth of information. The problem is that most of the primary sources I have are in German with somewhat squiggly handwriting:

As you can see, I've been hard at work deciphering documents in order to write what is destined to be a long and amazing post. Hopefully it will be up in the next day or three.

Small Victory

An email I just received from Yad Vashem:

Dear Ms. Grishman,

Thank you for your letters about the records commemorating Siegfried and Alice Peltesohn of Berlin, Germany.

We are, of course, always pleased to discover that Jews designated as “perished” by our documentation notes actually survived the Holocaust, and we deeply regret any distress caused by our listing your great-grandparents as the Holocaust victims.

Please note that according to the documents existing at Yad Vashem stating that Siegfried Peltesohn and Alice Peltesohn nee Maas are survivors, we will update our database to this effect.

As a result of this change, the records regarding Siegfried and Alice Peltesohn will no longer appear in our online database, which is defined as a database of those who perished.

Please note that as the Internet version of the Central Database of Shoah Victims' Names is only updated every few months, it may be some time until you can see the corrections we have made in the online database.

In order to update our records and to have all details of your great-grandparents' Shoah experiences documented at Yad Vashem, we would appreciate your filling out the Shoah Survivors' Registration Forms for them. Blank Form please find attached.

Please fill out a separate Form for each person, sign and date, attach the survivors' photos and mail them unfolded to:

Yad Vashem
Hall of Names
P.O.Box 3477
Attention: Rimma Lerman
Jerusalem 91034
Israel

The names of survivors are removed from the Central Database of Shoah Victims’ Names and are entered into the Shoah Survivors Database, which is now being compiled, but is not yet online.

Thank you for your assistance in improving our database.

Sincerely,

Rimma Lerman
Hall of Names

After all the sorrow I felt while going through the Shoah Names Database over the last two days, it is so, so amazingly gratifying to be able to remove them from that horrible list.

I'll fill it out tomorrow.

"God must have been on leave during the Holocaust." - Simon Wiesenthal

source

TRIGGER WARNING:

GRAPHIC IMAGES BEHIND JUMP

My Grampa Was A Hunk

My Grampa Is Hotter Than Yours.

I just had to share this, because it's awesome. I think the date on the bottom says '60 which puts him at about 47 in this picture.

Is it just me or does he look like a young Jerry Orbach?

Then again, Gramma was quite the looker herself. This is a photo of her in medical school:

Passing Encounter

Alice Herz-Sommer: pianist and oldest known Holocaust survivor dies aged 110

Tributes have been paid to Alice Herz-Sommer, a renowned concert pianist who was believed to have been the world's oldest known Holocaust survivor, after she died in London at the age of 110.

She was born into a German-speaking Jewish family in Prague at a time when it was part of the Austro-Hungarian empire, and endured the city's ghetto following the Nazi invasion of Czechoslovakia. She then spent two years in Theresienstadt (Terezín) concentration camp, where nearly 35,000 prisoners perished.

How strange it is to me that, mere hours after writing about my family, I see this as a headline in the news. She was in Theresienstadt, like Alice and Siegfried. I wonder if they ever met...

The Diamond Necklace

(Update: For any would-be thieves, as of ten minutes ago my necklace is safely back in its safety deposit box. Don't even.)

Dear Reader,

When I turned 18 years old, my grandmother gave me a diamond necklace.

Cat fur is the most luxurious background for a necklace.
Unfortunately cats are wont to squirm during the process,
causing the photo to be rather blurry.

The significance of this is not in the type of gift - my family was affluent and gifts like that for momentous occasions were common - but in the history of it and its relation to who I am.