For Gerda — The Search for Israel BACH

This week, a 17-year puzzle had a happy solution.

In 1997, after my project to update the Falk Stammbaum had brought me into contact with Gerda OPPENHEIM geb. PETROVER (1910-2007), I heard many interesting stories about Gerda’s life and her recollections of her family — my family.  She was a great lover of “mischpochologie”.  I had searched for Gerda because her grandfather Lippmann Meyer FALK (1841-1909) was a first cousin of my paternal grandfather Dr. Hermann FALK (1875-1932).

It may have been in our first telephone call when I directed the conversation to her grandmother Fanny FALK geb. BACH (1850-1831).  I was curious if Gerda knew anything about her BACH family since my mother’s mother was a BACH, and great granddaughter of R. Moses Aron BACH (1809-1879), rabbi in Raschkow, Schwarzenau, Myslowitz, Breslau and Schildberg.  As soon as Gerda said her grandmother was the daughter of a rabbi, I knew what was coming next: Fanny’s father was R. Moses Aron BACH.

At that time, I did not know much about my own BACH family; I did not know of any children of R. Moses Aron BACH other than my great great grandfather Jakob BACH (ca.1838-1924).  In addition to the daughter Fanny (Gerda’s grandmother), Gerda recalled another sibling of Jakob and Fanny.  She remembered knowing about a brother who had lived in Berlin and was a tailor.  She did not recall his name or when he lived.

In 1997, I did what I could to try to figure out who this great great great uncle BACH was.  Through a genealogy acquaintance in Berlin, I learned about a family in London descended from BACHs of Berlin.  That led to some interesting correspondence, but no connection to the unknown ggg uncle.

In 1998, review of the Myslowitz Jewish community records from the mid 19th century uncovered new children of R. Moses Aron BACH and Mathilde geb. GOLDMANN:  Julie (d.1850), Heymann (b.1848) and Sarah (1851-1854).  Heymann was a possible candidate for the ggg uncle in Berlin, but I was not able to find any trace of Heymann in Berlin.  In 2010, I finally learned more about Heymann:  he married Rosa SCHOEPS and lived in Breslau.  So, Heymann was not the tailor in Berlin.


In 2006, I learned about a series of books prepared by Stefi JERSCH-WENZEL which catalogue Jewish historical materials in archives all over Germany and also in former German parts of Poland.  One of those books, “Quellen zur Geschichte der Juden in Polnischen Archiven;  Band 2 – Ehemalige preußische Provinz Schlesien”, includes items in the archive of the Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw.  The archive is in Warsaw, but it contains materials from former German areas, such as Breslau, other towns in Silesia, and towns in Posen and East and West Prussia.


One of the catalogued items that put Warsaw on my research travel agenda has this description:
“Privatkorrespondenz der Familie Bach.  Korrespondenz des Rabbiner Bach aus Schildberg (Posen) an seine Familie in Myslowitz”


I had a chance to visit Warsaw in August 2007, but the archive was closed.


In early 2012, I learned about an initiative among archives in Europe to make Jewish historical materials available on the internet.  One of the participating archives in the Judaica Europeana project was the Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw.  And, most amazingly, they selected their Breslau materials to scan and put online.  Since the BACH family correspondence had apparently been in a Breslau Jewish community file before the War, it was part of the Breslau materials and was included among the materials put online.  (Those files mysteriously disappeared from the internet later in 2012, and only came back online a few weeks ago.)


The BACH family correspondence consists of letters from the 1870s from R. Moses Aron BACH and his wife and children in Schildberg in Posen Province to the oldest son Jakob BACH who was living with his family in Myslowitz.  Most of the letters are written in Hebrew; whether in Yiddish, or in German written in Hebrew letters, I am still not sure.  Most of the notes from the children to their brother Jakob are in German.


A few of those notes in German were signed by Israel BACH, a new member of the family of Moses Aron and Mathilde BACH.  I assumed he was the youngest and was born about 1860, since his grandfather Israel GOLDMANN was said to have died in 1859.  With a name for another son, I went back to the Berliner Adressbücher and other resources to see whether he was the missing brother who had settled in Berlin and had been a tailor, as Gerda had recalled.  Even with a name, I still did not make any progress.


Back in 2010, in one of my periodic visit to the archive of the Centrum Judaicum in Berlin, I had copied the Todesanzeigen for R. Moses Aron BACH and for Mathilde BACH geb. GOLDMANN.  Those death records showed that they left 5 children, 3 sons and 2 daughters when they died.  From Mathilde’s Todesanzeige from 1888, I saw that these children were living in Breslau, Myslowitz and Strelno.

For some reason, I
think because of being distracted by learning about an EHRLICH branch
of the BACH family, I did not focus on those residences for the
surviving children.  (The distraction came from the fact that the
document was signed by Emanuel EHRLICH, a previously unknown grandson of
Mathilde.  That clue led to learning about the daughter Johanna BACH
(ca.1844-1913) and her husband R. Kaufmann EHRLICH (1840-1888).)

In April 2014, I finally decided to name the unknown son in the family tree (tailor in Berlin) as Israel BACH, since he was the only available candidate, even though I had never been able to find any trace of him in Berlin.


In early June 2014, I looked again at the Todesanzeige for Mathilde BACH geb. GOLDMANN.  After 4 years of reading right past it, the locations of her 5 surviving children in 1888 finally made the right impression.  They were in Breslau, Myslowitz and Strelno.   I knew that my great great grandfather Jakob BACH lived in Myslowitz, and that Gerda’s grandmother Fanny FALK geb. BACH was living in Breslau at that time.  I had learned in recent years that Johanna EHRLICH geb. BACH and Heymann BACH lived in Breslau.   That only left Israel BACH to have been living in Strelno in 1888.

The information that Israel BACH had been living Strelno finally gave me something to work with.  After trying a Google search on Bach and Strelno (any search with “Bach” gets swamped with music-related results), I searched the online Deutsches Gedenkbuch and found Moses M. BACH, born in Strelno in 1884, who was deported from Berlin in 1942 and murdered in Auschwitz.  I then did a search on Yad vaShem’s online database and found Pages of Testimony submitted in memory of Mor Moses BACH, his wife and son, and in memory of Margarethe FUSS geb. BACH, born in Strelno in 1894, and her husband.  These Pages of Testimony had been submitted in 1999 by the nephew of Moritz Moses BACH and Margarethe FUSS geb. BACH; Ezra, living then in Givatayim.  This also meant there was at least one other son in that BACH family from Strelno; Ezra’s father.


A tantalizing clue was that Ezra identified his uncle Mor Moses BACH as having been a tailor in Berlin.


I could not find an e-mail address for Ezra, but I found him in the Israeli online “white pages” — at the same address he had in 1999.  So, I had to resort to a postal letter.   When I had not had a response after a couple weeks, I telephoned and reached Ezra.  He had received my letter and he seemed positive about my theory that we were BACH family cousins.  He said he would ask his son to write me.  Another two weeks later, I had an e-mail from Ezra’s son and daughter-in-law.  The initial indications were all positive.  Ezra’s grandfather whom they knew as Isaak was apparently also known as Israel.

A few days later, they sent me a photograph of Isaak’s gravestone from the Weissensee Jewish cemetery in Berlin — with no mention of the name Isaak:  Israel BACH — Israel ben R. Mosche Ahron

There was the final proof that I wanted to confirm that I had found the family that Gerda had mentioned in 1997.  Israel was not a tailor, but his son Moritz (Moses) BACH (1884-ca.1942) had been a tailor in Berlin.  It must have been him that Gerda had heard about from her mother Friederike PETROVER geb. FALK (1879-ca.1941), or her grandmother Fanny FALK geb. BACH.


I wish I could have found this BACH family in Israel when I could have shared the news with Gerda.  But I am happy to remember Gerda as I continue to correspond with our newly found cousins.