Wolf Hermann

WOLF (Willie) HERMANN, grandfather of Mindy Hermann-Zaidins

My name is Wolf Hermann. I was born on August 23, 1898 in Unterpertestie, Bucovina, a part of the Austria-Hungary Empire near Rumania. I was the fifth child of Hersch and Itta (nee Kreisling) Hermann. In constant fear of pogroms and unable to earn enough to support our family, my father and oldest brother moved to Hannover, Germany, where we had relatives who sold furniture. I stayed in Bucovina with my mother, two brothers and two sisters until we received documents to travel to Hannover. We were among a small number of Jews in the neighborhood and in school. I participated in sports organizations for Jewish youth.

I apprenticed to become a pharmacist and attended pharmacy school until World War I broke out. I enlisted with the German Army, served in Austria, and later was accepted into officer training. I married my cousin, Gittel, who came from Kolonya, Ukraine. We had two sons, Julius (Judah), born in 1922 and named after my older brother who died in World War I, and Friedel/Fred (Shalom), born in 1925. My wife died in the mid-1930s from leukemia.

The 1930s severely affected our family. I sold my drugstore and changed jobs several times as it became harder for Jews to earn a living in Germany. My brother Moritz moved to Palestine, became ill, and passed away. My sister Rosa and her family were deported to Poland in 1938, and my mother moved to Poland during the war, and we never heard from them again.
I was tried and convicted by the Gestapo for employing an Aryan woman; I served a six-week sentence.

After my release, I was ordered to leave the country and contacted relatives in Brooklyn regarding moving to the United States. Because my birthplace belonged to Rumania, I had to apply for a Rumanian Quota Number. Only one was available so I left my boys in Germany. A Jewish organization selected Julius to travel to Australia. My son Fred received a visa to travel to the United States on a steamer ship. Shortly after his arrival, he read Torah in honor of his bar mitzvah, which passed while he was on the ship.

We settled in Trenton and I worked as a bookkeeper and shipping clerk first of a distillery that was acquired by Seagrams and then for Cointreau. In the mid-1960s, I moved to Southern California with my third wife, to join Fred and his family.

FRIEDEL (Fred) HERMANN, father of Mindy Hermann-Zaidins

My name is Fred Hermann. Both my Hebrew name Shalom and my German name Friedel mean peace. I was born on November 7, 1925, in Hannover, Germany. I was the second son born to Wolf and Gittel Hermann; my older brother Julius was three years older. Our extended family included my Uncle Harry and Aunt Paula (Hermann) Enis and my Oncle Hans and Tante Gusti (Hermann) Pomeranz. One of my favorite activities was to go on business calls with my Uncle Harry – he would seat me at a table in a café and tell me to order whatever I wanted while he was out conducting business. I also liked to make noise while my brother was trying to listen to opera.
My mother died of leukemia when I was 12 years old. I became even closer to my aunts and uncles after that.

In 1938, my father received permission to move to the United States on a Rumanian Quota Number. Only one number was available so he left me and my brother in Germany with our grandmother. Later that year my brother was selected to study in Australia and I received a German Quota Number for passage to join my father in the United States.

My Aunt Paula gave me a lot of money for my journey on the ship and I traveled by myself, at 12 years of age, from Hannover to Hamburg, where the ship was boarding. When I was in line waiting to board, I heard a rumor that the German guards were examining all passengers and taking their money. I was so nervous that I pretended to relieve myself next to the ship and dumped all my money into the water.

The occasion of my bar mitzvah passed while I was on the ship so I was called to the Torah several weeks after I was reunited with my father in the United States. My favorite aunts and uncles eventually arrived in the United States; my Uncle Harry had been on the SS St. Louis.

Most people didn’t know that I came from Germany because I worked hard to lose my accent. I didn’t like it when my classmates called me Fritzy.
I served in the US Army and helped liberate concentration camps in Germany. After the war, I went to college at Rutgers University and studied mechanical engineering. I married my wife Ruth (Fortgang), a German Jew from Stuttgart, in 1949.