Frankfurt am Main
A number of people have wished Debbie and me well on our trip to Europe specifically telling us they hoped we find what we are looking for. Others have asked us along way, “so did you find out any new information?” I haven’t known how to respond because I don’t think we were necessarily setting out to to find anything in particular…or to learn anything new. We really just wanted to come see where our ancestors lived. I will however admit two days into our trip that we have learned new things and we have found, in may ways, what we were looking for without even realizing we were looking for it.
Sunday afternoon, we left Minneapolis and flew to Amsterdam. We had a couple of hours layover in Amsterdam and then hopped our connection to Frankfurt.
While I have been only writing about my family and tracing the history back through my four grandparents, Debbie’s grandfather, Fritz Rothschild, was born in Frankfurt and lived here until 1936 when he immigrated to Montreal. It was in Montreal where he met Lotte Kaufman. They married, he brought over his parents (Debbie’s Great-Grandparents) Joseph and Jenny (nee Strauss) Rothschild. They started their family there…both of Debbie’s parents (Beverley nee Cohen and Leslie Rothschild) were born there as were Debbie and her sister Lisa. So coming to Germany was not just about tracing my Grandfather Harry Oster’s story, but also about Debbie’s family story too. We landed here in Frankfurt at noon on Monday and had to be careful to not go to sleep and succumb to jet-lag so we hit the ground running. We checked into our hotel in the center of Frankfurt and set out on foot to see the city.
It is a beautiful city. And even though the architecture is made to look old, most of the city was destroyed in WWII and is therefore new. We went on a walking tour and our guide told us that 80-90% of the city was destroyed in the war, but as we learned, they did a very good job of recreating what had been bombed by the allies. Our first destination was to find the street that Debbie’s Opa, Fritz, had grown up on. We already knew that his family home was no longer there, but the address was, so we saw the building that is there now and the street as he would have known it.
Cornelius Street
22 Cornelius Street. The white building stands on the lot where three generations of the Rothschild family once lived.
We took went up the 50+ stories of the “Main Tower” to see the view. You can see to the horizon in every direction.
The UBS tower, and the park to its left, sit on what had been the Rothschild estate (no relation to our Rothschilds).
Panoramic View of Frankfurt
We spent the entire day today (our second day) walking and exploring Frankfurt. In total we walked almost 25,000 steps. But the highlight was visiting the Jewish cemeteries. We had been told that during Passover, the cemeteries were closed except for funerals. We couldn’t accept that we had come all this way and wouldn’t be allowed to see the graves of Debbie’s Great-Great Grandparents, so we went there planning to do whatever we could to get in. The first cemetery was the “Old Jewish Cemetery” on Rat Beil Strasse. We tried the main gate and it was locked. But after trying a few more gates, we found one that was open and began walking. It is an enormous cemetery. Luckily we had information about the grave location and we were able to find it.
Debbie standing at the grave of her Great-Great Grandmother, Sara (nee Jacob) Strauss
We then walked about a mile to the “New Jewish Cemetery” where we found the main gate wide open. Isaak Strauss was Debbie’s Great-Great Grandfather who died about one month after Kristalnacht, the night of broken glass.
Debbie standing at the grave of her Great-Great Grandfather
We have been discussing for awhile what we would do at these gravesites. We didn’t know any of the people ourselves. In most cases, we didn’t even know their kids who were gone before our births. So we didn’t expect it to be a sad experience, but one of gratitude for those that came before us. We brought colorful stones with us to place atop the headstones which is a Jewish custom. And we said Kaddish, the Jewish mourner’s prayer. It was at times joyful and fun searching through the cemetery, but also surprisingly emotional. We have many cemeteries to go and I know we’ll process it more as the week goes on. In the meantime…below is more of what we saw in Frankfurt.
The Opera House
15th Century tower (across from our hotel) which had been a watch tower in the Medieval wall.
Rebuilt Medieval Town Center
The city planning center sits atop what was once the Jewish Ghetto. They have marked the Ghetto street with black tile and put the family names of the houses that were once there along the sides.
The Holocaust Memorial. That wall in the background has a labeled stone for every Frankfurt citizen who died in the Holocaust (about 12,000).
A remnant of the Medieval Wall that also served as the Jewish Ghetto wall.
An indoor market.
Spiderman.
Locks on the walking bridge across the “Main”. Debbie brought one for us.
A traditional Frankfurt dinner of Shnitzel and Green Sauce.
