Eva Freundlich and Olga, Max Günter and Eva Weisner

Eva Freundlich

née Feldenheimer, was born on March 21, 1862, in Hengstfeld in Baden-Württemberg. Her parents were Joseph Bernard Feldenheimer, born on February 19, 1817, and his second wife, Fanny Feldenheimer, née Levisohn, born on September 7, 1832. Eva had four brothers and one sister. It is not known where Eva went to school. Her father died in 1888 at the age of 71 in Portland, Multnomah, Oregon, USA. Her mother died on January 30, 1910, at the age of 77 in Mergentheim.

On November 22, 1881, at the age of 19, Eva married 35-year-old Max Freundlich from Kassel in Mergentheim. They initially lived together at Mittalgasse 50 in Kassel. Max Freundlich was a merchant and ran a business at Grüner Weg 8 at the time. Eva and Max had four children: Henry born in 1880, Hugo in 1883, Berthold in 1891, and Olga, their daughter, who was born on November 11, 1892. The family lived at Bismarckstraße 7 from 1885. In the same year, Max became a partner in the company Zimmermann & Co. In 1890, the family moved to Dörnbergstraße 16. As of 1895, they lived at Hohenzollernstraße 73.

Their son Henry died in 1901 at the age of 21. As of 1905, they lived in their house at Hardenbergstraße 16. It is not known where their children Berthold, Hugo, and Olga went to school. Their son Berthold died in 1908 at the age of 17. This meant that two of their four children had already died by then. In July 1909, her husband Max also died at the age of 64. Eva was 47, her son Hugo was 18, and her daughter Olga was 17. The family had suffered three deaths within eight years. After her husband's death, Eva became the owner of the house at Hardenbergstraße 16. This house initially provided a home for Eva, her husband, and their children Hugo and Olga. It is not known when her son Hugo began his further education or when he moved out of the family home. It is also unknown when her daughter Olga moved out of the family home and where she apprenticed as an opera singer. The Weisner brothers' family chronicle (USA) shows that Olga was a talented opera singer in her younger years.

Eva remained a widow until her death. It is known that her son Hugo survived the Shoah, but where and how is unknown. He was married to Renate Roth and died in 1951. Whether Hugo and his wife Renate had children and where they lived is unknown. It can be assumed that Eva remained in contact with her son Hugo after the Shoah. Her daughter 

Olga

married Moritz Josef Max Weisner, a banker who was the managing director of his father's company, Gerson Weisner. The young couple was financially well off. Olga took care of the household and the servants and enjoyed her free time as a wealthy German housewife. She often met up with friends to play skat or tennis. Max and Olga lived at Kronprinzenstraße 2 from 1918 onwards. Their son Günter was born in Kassel on April 14, 1919, and their daughter Hannah was born there about two and a half years later on December 16, 1921. In October 1923, the family moved into the house belonging to Olga's mother Eva at Hardenbergstraße 16. On February 1, 1924, Hannah died suddenly, which was very sad for everyone in the family. On August 31, 1927, Olga had her third child, Eva Renate. The Weisners were practicing Jews and members of the local synagogue in Kassel. Olga was also secretary of the women's circle of the Jewish B'nai B'rith Lodge in Kassel (called Bnei Briß, one of the largest international Jewish associations focused on promoting tolerance, humanity, and welfare) and kept the records and cash box at home.

Life changed dramatically for all Jews in Germany after the nazis came to power in 1933. This was also the case for the Weisner family and their relatives in Kassel. As the mother of Günter and Eva, Olga had witnessed the brutal threats, discrimination, and open hatred of Jews in Kassel since 1930, and she was very concerned about her family and relatives. The Weisner, Schwarzenberger, and Bachrach families were related to each other in Kassel. 1933 was a stark and abrupt turning point in the lives of Jewish families and other citizens not tolerated by the Nazis. Eva Freundlich, the Weisner family, and their relatives experienced brutal, violent anti-Semitism in Kassel. This led to terrifying and frightening experiences. With the boycott slogan “Germans! Defend yourselves! Don't buy from Jews!” – under this slogan, a Reich-wide boycott of Jewish shops, doctors, and lawyers began at 10 a.m. on April 1, 1933. Jewish Business People, lawyers, and doctors had already been subjected to similar boycott measures several times in Kassel before 1933. Because of these experiences, Olga and Max's nephew Heinrich Schwarzenberger left Kassel with his wife Claire and their two daughters Hannelore and Inge in early 1933, hoping to find protection from anti-Semitism in Netherlands.

Eva Weisner

Eva attended the girls' high school on Ständeplatz Jacob-Grimm-Schule) until the end of 1937. In 1957, she described her school experience in her resume as follows: “As a Jewish child, she was subject to numerous restrictions in general school life. She suffered greatly from the hostile attitudes of her teachers and classmates.”

(In the group photo, she is standing in the middle at the bottom—with a headband—and her brother is at the top left.) 

Eva Freundlich

lived with Max and Olga until the end of her life. She was unable to learn English. She was the “grandmother” of the Weisner family and shared a bedroom with her granddaughter Eva Renate until she moved out. For years, she was supported by her grandson Gilbert (who had changed his name from Günter to Gilbert in the US) and later, when Max, her son-in-law, succeeded in starting his own small business, also by his company's income.

From 1949 onwards, Eva Freundlich had tried to have her real estate in Kassel transferred back to her, but this was no longer possible for various reasons. She was granted compensation of only DM 3,000 for the properties sold at that time. For the Reich flight tax paid in 1938 and the emigration costs (transportation costs for furniture and her ship passage), she was granted compensation of only around DM 2,330, which, however, was not awarded to her daughter Olga as sole heir until 1955, two years after Olga`s death. She lived to see her third great-grandchild. Eva Renate, who had married Stanley Blackfield in 1948, had her daughter Susan in 1951. Eva Freundlich died on May 15, 1953, in San Leandro at the age of 91.

Max und Olga Weisner

The family chronicle reveals how things continued for them in the USA: "Olga and her husband Max both had difficulty adapting to the American way of life. Both had to undergo an enormous change: from the German upper class to unemployed bankers. Their son Günter, who had changed his first name from Günter to Gilbert in the US, was able to support them financially, as he spoke the best English in the family and found good working conditions in local industry during the war years. Eventually, her husband Max was able to use his knowledge of the textile industry to start a small business selling handkerchiefs and napkins to local drugstores and clothing stores, such as Woolworths and other discount stores. Olga was soon able to obtain a California driver's license and drive Max to his growing customer base in the East Bay. Eventually, her husband was able to start his own business, which he and Olga ran for several years under the name “Weisner Textile Company” from a small office in San Leandro. Olga was someone who saw the positive side of things and often spoke with great pride and joy about those years—in her new role as a full and active partner in the business. She also spoke of her new, fulfilling life in America, as a woman no longer confined to her duties as a German high society wife. Olga and Max entertained family guests on many holidays and celebrations with matzo ball soup, roast meat, and delicious homemade cakes. Olga and Max soon moved into a new house on Thomas Avenue in San Leandro after Eva graduated from high school. When Max died of cancer in June 1970 at the age of 87 and her son Gilbert died just four days later, she lost her husband and her only son within a few days. Olga eventually moved into an apartment in Oakland, where she lived independently until her death in 1979 (at the age of almost 86).

In 1948, Max had filed claims for compensation for his property losses with the relevant restitution authorities in Hesse. He claimed a loss of approximately 170,000.00 RM. The compensation authority calculated a total compensation amount of approximately 11,400 DM. It is shameful how Eva Freundlich, Max, and especially Günter Weisner and Eva Hauser had to fight for years for their compensation, for such ridiculous sums and under great obstacles. They not only had to come to terms with the brutal, Jew-despising, destructive Nazi apparatus, but also with a post-war Germany that humiliated those affected with bureaucratic nitpicking and minimal compensation payments.

Eva Hauser

lived with her parents Max and Olga and her grandmother, attended Emerson School in Berkeley, and graduated from high school in 1945. She then studied for four years at the University of California, Berkeley, graduating with a teaching qualification. In 1948, she married Stanley Blackfield, who had not yet completed his law studies at that time. During his further three years of study, she worked as a teacher in a preschool kindergarten to help support the family. She had two children with Stanley: Susan in 1951 and Bruce in 1955. The marriage later ended in divorce.

In 1957, Eva applied to the German compensation authority for a grant to finance her studies. She was awarded a grant of DM 5,000. A grant of up to DM 10,000 would have been possible. She applied for a further DM 5,000. The authority rejected her claim in 1961.

A good brief overview of her life can be found in her obituary.

"Eva Hauser, resident of Castro Valley (CA)

„Eva Renate Hauser died peacefully at the age of 85 on March 31, 2013, at her home in Castro Valley. She was born in Kassel, Germany, in 1927 and had a happy childhood. Increasing hostility and danger due to Hitler's rise to power in Germany made life unsafe for the Jewish family in Kassel. In 1938, the Weisner family (father Max, mother Olga, and brother Gilbert) and other extended family members were fortunate enough to be able to emigrate to America. Although Eva did not know English, she learned quickly and enjoyed her education, which culminated in her graduation from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1949. After marrying Stanley Blackfield, their children Susan and Bruce were born and the family moved to Hayward, CA. Eva worked as an elementary school teacher in the San Leandro School District for over 25 years, where she was able to incorporate her love of music and her piano skills into her lessons. After her divorce, Eva met Vic Hauser at a dance in 1975, and they married in 1978. Eva and Vic traveled extensively, enjoyed playing golf and bridge with friends, and attended the local theater. She will be sorely missed by her devoted husband Vic, to whom she was married for 35 years, her son Bruce Blackfield, his wife Lanny, her grandchildren Kimberly and Michael Blackfield, Rebecca and Danielle Crawford, her nephews Tom, Stan, and Ken Weisner, their wives Susan, Connie, and Kit, and their children and grandchildren. She was preceded in death by her daughter Susan and son-in-law Al, her brother Gilbert and his wife Ruth. We will remember Eva for her warmth and compassion, her sharp intelligence, and her sense of humor.“ 

Günter Weisner

took the first name Gilbert in the United States. On October 28, 1940, the Third Reich revoked his German citizenship. In 1942, Gilbert married Beatrice Ruth Ullman, a Jewish refugee from Vienna. Due to his diabetes, Gilbert was unable to enlist in the US armed forces. Gilbert became a US citizen in August 1943. Gilbert and his wife Ruth bought a house in Oakland and started a family. They had three sons: Tom (1943), Stan (1946), and Ken (1955).

In San Leandro and later in Oakland, California, Gilbert initially worked as a laborer in a steel mill and then moved to Bethlehem Steel Corporation in 1943, where he worked until 1946. In 1946, Gilbert and two partners founded a small company called Tri-Metals in Oakland. From then on, his income steadily improved. After 18 months, he and his two partners were running a very successful business that provided everyone with a sufficient income, enabling him to support his parents and grandmother. In the 1950s, Tri-Metals developed into the successful wholesale company Northwest Wire Rope Company. In the 1960s, Gilbert sold his share to a partner and founded his own special steel import company, Weisner Steel Products, which also flourished. At the end of the 1960s, due to declining health and increasing work-related travel, he planned to reduce his activities and hire a partner.

Gilbert suffered throughout his life from the injustices he experienced during his youth in Germany. In the US, he struggled with considerable anxiety and stress caused by his life-saving escape and the horrors he and his family had to endure and experience during the Nazi era. The need to support both his own family and his parents on his own – as a young refugee and non-native speaker who had been denied a good school education in Germany – put him under great pressure and demanded a great deal of effort on his part. Gilbert's wife Ruth, a Jewish refugee from Vienna, was able to go back to school as an adult, but Gilbert could never afford the luxury of further education.

Gilbert submitted several applications to the compensation office in Hesse starting in 1957. In 1958, he received DM 5,000 because he had been unable to complete his school education or vocational training during his time in Kassel. In 1959, he received additional compensation of DM 3,226.00 for being employed only as a laborer in the United States until the end of 1942 without having completed his education. In 1959, he traveled to Kassel specifically to make a sworn statement about what had happened to him before and after his escape to the United States and testified in court. From 1960 to 1967, he fought with his lawyers and several expert opinions to gain recognition that he had suffered health damage (diabetes) and psychological damage (trauma) caused by the horrors of the Nazi era, which still severely affected him. In 1967, he received compensation of DM 5,000. The compensation files show that it must have been a very long, exhausting, and humiliating ten-year journey for him to have to fight for his rights for so long.

Gilbert's sudden death in June 1970 at the age of 51, three days after the death of his 88-year-old father Max, came as a shock to his family and all who knew him. His sons Tom (28), Stan (25), and Ken (16), as well as his mother Olga, had now lost their father and grandfather within three days, and Olga had lost her husband and only son.

Despite his severe diabetes and the trauma of his earlier life experiences, Gilbert was somehow resilient and successful in business and as a devoted and loving son, husband, and father in the decades after the war.

Gilbert's three sons consider themselves living testimonies to his life. Thanks to Gilbert, all three sons valued their education and became very successful professors and loving parents themselves. They all have loving, successful spouses, children, and grandchildren. It is an honor for Gilbert's sons to carry on and pass on his family name. Many members of the Weisner clan came to Kassel for the Stolperstein laying ceremony, primarily to honor Gilbert for his courage in overcoming adversity in his life and achieving so much in his professional career, all with warmth, good humor, and passion—in the 51 years he was granted. It is a wonderful honor and opportunity for all living Weisners to share the story of Gilbert and his relatives in Kassel with their children and grandchildren.