An Update On The Braunharts - Wow!

Thanks to the persistence of my newfound 2nd and 3rd cousins - Martha Zucker, Miriam Matranga, and Laraine Sweberg, we have now connected all the Braunhart "stragglers" that I referenced in a couple of earlier posts regarding the Braunhart family.

We knew that Bernhard Braunhart, Sara Braunhart Bernstein, and Samuel Braunhart were siblings. As I stated, there were several "stragglers" who were named Braunhart and who immigrated from Germany, some from the family "town" of Schubin.

As Paul Harvey would say - "Now we know the rest of the story!"

There is indeed another sibling who ties it all together - Alexander Benedict Braunhart is the fourth sibling. He was the youngest (born in 1853) and married Helene Baschinsky. They had count em' - 13 children who are summarized below:

• Jacob Braunhart immigrated in 1904, settled in San Francisco and was there when Samuel died shortly after the San Francisco earthquake and fire. He joined the US Army prior to World War 1, traveled to Alaska, was investigated by the FBI as a German sympathizer, got married and divorced, stayed in the Army, changed his name to Walter Hart and married a woman Ilse, with whom he had three children, settling ultimately in Wilmington, Delaware.
• Martha Braunhart immigrated with her older brother Jacob in 1904. She married Bernard Sternbach, and had three children, Leo, Harold, and Regina. She stayed in New York after her immigration to America.
• Julius Braunhart married Doris Asch and had two children, Lothar and Lilly. Lothar and Lilly changed their last name to Hart. Lothar changed his first name also, becoming Leslie B Hart. Doris and the two children, now adults, immigrated to America in the 1950s, passing through New York and ultimately residing in San Francisco. Julius' fate was not so positive, He was captured and murdered by the Nazis in 1943 in the Theresienstadt Comcentration Camp. It is unknown as to how Doris, Lothar and Lilly survived the war.
• Carl Braunhart married Hedwig and had two children, Hanna and Heinz. Carl and Hedwig immigrated in 1939 and 1940 respectively. Hedwig stayed behind because of a broken leg and her daughter Hanna tended to her. Money was left for Hanna to travel to America, but she was turned in to the Nazis by an ex-boyfriend. She was killed in Auschwitz in 1943. Carl changed his name to Carl Hart and opened a bicycle shop in Brooklyn, New York. The bicycle shop still exists today as "Carl Hart Bicycles" in Long Island, New York, although no longer owned by the family.
• Cecelia Braunhart, nicknamed Cilly, married a German WW1 POW veteran Horst Eilenberg. It appears that they stayed in Berlin during the war and died there in the late 1950s and 1960s respectively. They had no children.
• Anna Braunhart immigrated in 1909. She married Harry Tulman in 1915 and had four children - Mildred and Muriel, and the twins Stanley and Helene. She was a successful business woman - she owned several apartment buildings in Brooklyn as well as a hardware store and taught herself the English language by reading 3 newspapers daily. Ultimately she lived a very full life of 96 years.
• Philipp Braunhart stayed in Europe and married a non-Jew and had three children - one named Horst Braunhart. He met the same fate as his brother Julius and niece Hanna though, killed by the Nazis at Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp in 1942.
• Sara Selma Braunhart immigrated in 1946 from England. She married George Gandel and had no children.
• Theodore Braunhart married Lucie with no children. He escaped to Shanghai, China and was transported to Israel because of the Japanese blockade. Sadly he suffered from TB and malnutrition while in Israel. He then traveled to Berlin to find his wife but succumbed there to his illnesses. Lucie immigrated to America in 1956.
• Frieda Braunhart was the youngest child of Alexander and Helene. She married Salo Brunn in Berlin in 1926. Later in 1926 they immigrated to America, staying in New York the rest of their lives. They had two children, Henry and Miriam.
• Moritz Braunhart lived to adulthood yet little is known of his history.
• Ceasar Braunhart died as a young child and the 13th child was stillborn.

So it appears that the Braunhart family is now complete - except - there may be Braunhart relatives still in Germany who descended from some of Alexander and Helene's grandchildren who survived and stayed there. Here's hoping we will find them some day.