Divided
The online memorial book for the headquarters of the Jewish Women’s Association (1907 to 1942) in Neu-Isenburg, founded by Bertha Pappenheim, is dedicated to the women and children who lived, worked and cared for there. It commemorates residents who were deported and murdered or who managed to escape during WWII. Through the memorial book there are always contacts with descendants, as is the case today. This is the great-grandson of Helene Krämer, a close companion of Pappenheim.
Neu-Isenburg – In July 2022, while doing family history research, New Yorker Rick Landman contacted Memorial Book Online. Searching for him has gathered more and more information about Helene Krämer and her family. He wants to share his findings about her with the public.
Helene Kramer was born in Höchst in the Odenwald in 1881. When her father died before she was born, her mother was left alone with eight children. Out of necessity, she decided to entrust the seven-year-old to the Israelitische Mädchenorphanage in Frankfurt, then run by Bertha Pappenheim. The latter provided for the education of the talented girl, who later worked as a teacher in Holland, France and Galicia until her return to Frankfurt in 1921. There the two women’s paths crossed again. In 1922 Bertha Pappenheim took her to Neu-Isenburg as her assistant in the management of her house, where Helene Krämer worked for 19 years. At Pappenheim’s request, she took over her management after her death. She at the age of 60 she fled to Cuba on November 9, 1941, one year after she to New York, where she died in 1977. she Helene Krämer was the last Jewish resident of Neu-Isenburg who managed to escape from Germany. A detailed curriculum vitae is available in the online memorial book.
When Rick Landman started tracing his family history during the coronavirus pandemic, he became aware of the article about Helene Krämer in the online memorial book. He himself grew up in New York as the son of German-Jewish refugees and vaguely remembered his grandmother Else telling him about a Bertha Pappenheim necklace he had received from his aunt Helene. In 1996, Rick Landman obtained the necklace and asked Granny to write her story about her. More than 25 years later he undertook research and soon discovered that Helene Krämer and Bertha Pappenheim are important figures in German-Jewish history.
During its research, the New Yorker developed a special bond with Helene, both unmarried, both childless. Through finding her, he says, he keeps her memory alive.
He published his story in The Book of Rick. In it he describes what it was like to be the son of German-Jewish refugees, but also come out as gay in 1965. The results of his genealogy research can be seen in video form on his website: infotrue.com/videos.html
He has held both US and German citizenship since 2007 and discovered during a visit to Munich that he could still speak some German. Rick Landman wants to travel to Germany again and visit the places where his family lived, including Neu-Isenburg.
For further reading
Further information is available at gedenkbuch.neu-isenburg.de. Anna Held is responsible for the Bertha Pappenheim seminar and memorial at Zeppelinstraße 10. Contact: Tel. 06102 241754 or e-mail (bertha.pappenheim.haus @stadt-neu-isenburg.de).
By Holger Klemm
