Monday, June 01, 2020
How Oster Is An Important Line On Our Goldfoot Tree
Nadene Goldfoot
A recent familyfinder on an Oster cousin showed that her parents had been distantly related. This happens a lot in Ashkenazi Jewish families. Science has discovered this has boosted IQ. We're an endogamous people.
My paternal aunt, Anne Goldfoot, had married Werner Oster on September 1, 1939 at Neveh Zedek Synagogue in Portland, Oregon where we all lived. Werner was a German Jewish refugee sponsored by my great uncle Max "Himmel" I Turshinsky Turn of LaGrande, Oregon. He was given Werner to sponsor whose background was that he came from a family of sausage-makers in Germany, so Max thought of my father who was just starting up his own butcher shop which later turned into a wholesale meat packing business. My dad, Maurice Goldfoot, hired him, a young and extremely strong(Arnold Schwarzenegger type) 23 year old fellow, and as good looking as can be! This worked out so well, as Dad had a single sister, Anne, who was 26 going on 27. They hit it off and the marriage produced 5 daughters.
Back then, immigrants coming in to the USA had to have sponsors; at least the Jewish one did. At a time when WWII was about to be declared, a war which had already started in Europe, this was hindering Jewish immigration that had continued in the early 20s. Besides that, Jews as you see, had the problem of even getting out of the country they were escaping due to anti-Semitism.
Werner was lucky. The ship, the St Louis which left in June 1939, was turned back by the USA as they didn't have permission to land in Florida. 1/3 of 937 Jews died.
Werner's family might have entered the Rhineland of Germany in the 300s CE. Cologne was a major Jewish center then. Emperor Constantine introduced laws pertaining to Jews then in 321 CE. They came in from Jerusalem when the City and Temple were burned down by the Romans in 70CE. Jewish soldiers may have been in Roman garrisons, from evidence found. The German Carolingian royal house in the 8th-9th centuries had a pro-Jewish policy and encouraged the settlement of Jews with the purpose of devoloping trade. By the 9th century, Jews settled in Metz, and in the 10th century in Worms, a very important center as well as in Mainz, and in Magdeburk Ratisbon, etc.
In 1096 the Crusaders massacred the Jews throughout the Rhineland and the adjacent areas. Jews were attacked in Germany from then on. "Some of the larger cities in the Rhineland are Aachen, Bonn, Cologne, Duisburg, Düsseldorf, Essen, Koblenz, Krefeld, Leverkusen, Mainz, Mönchengladbach, Mülheim an der Ruhr, Oberhausen, Remscheid, Solingen, Trier and Wuppertal.
By the 20th century we find Werner came from Westerburg, Hildesheim, Niedersachsen, Germany. (brown area north). He had already had a taste of Auschwitz prison in late 1938 or early 1939 as he was picked up by the Gestapo for walking a cow along the cow path and tapping it with a stick to guide it. They called it "hitting the cow." He was hit a lot in Auschwitz, and forced to do things he wouldn't talk about, but I had a feeling it was something like eating raw pork. His parents sold things and then had enough to give to one person to get out of Germany as the fare was extremely expensive, and there may have been taxes involved as well. They chose Werner because they all thought he could get out and work and get enough money to bring them all out. Little did they know he might become the last Jews to get out of all of Germany as the door was already closing. Werner had a terrible time dealing with all this as he got older.
Hitler marched into Prague, Czechoslovakia on March 15, 1939 and Werner may have been the last Jew to get out of Germany as he took the ship,George Washington from Boppard to Hamburg on May 4, heading for New York. They landed May 12, 1939. Werner wound up going from New York to Texas.
His Passport was issued from Stuttgart. (Gold in south - Wurttemberg)
Werner's father was Ferdinand Oster b: 1881 in Oberfell, Offenbback an Glan, Hesse, Germany. His mother was Rosa Ullmann b: 1891 in Westerburg, Germany. They died in the Holocaust, at Krasniczyn Concentration Poland Camp Holocaust KZ, not being able to leave sooner.
Werner's grandparents and great grandparents were:
. 1 Arnold Oster b: June 08, 1851 in Oberfell, Offenbback an Glan, Hesse, Germany d: February 06, 1941 in Koblenz, Germany
..... +Sibilla Roos b: 1851 in Oberfell, Offenbback an Glan, Hesse, Germany d: March 25, 1930 in Koblenz, Germany m: 1878
2 Salomon OSTER b: Abt. 1830 in Germany d: in Germany
.. +Sibylla Wolff b: Abt. 1830 in Germany d: in Germany m: Abt. 1850
I notice that right hand bottom corner(yellow) is OSTERREICH is Austria on map above it. Could they have come from there originally?
The German name of Austria, Österreich, derives from the Old High German word Ostarrîchi "eastern realm", recorded in the so-called Ostarrîchi Document of 996, applied to the Margraviate of Austria, a march, or borderland, of the Duchy of Bavaria created in 976.
Another remoter possibility is that the name comes from the Ostrogoths, who had a kingdom in what is now Austria and northern Italy.
Resource: The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhineland
https://www.history.com/news/wwii-jewish-refugee-ship-st-louis-1939
 |
| Left) my father, Maurice Goldfoot, in 1943 on right, Werner Oster in middle is Uncle Kenny Robinson my cousins from maternal and paternal side Werner's 1st daughter, Harriet is standing in front, and he's holding his 2nd. |
A recent familyfinder on an Oster cousin showed that her parents had been distantly related. This happens a lot in Ashkenazi Jewish families. Science has discovered this has boosted IQ. We're an endogamous people.
Back then, immigrants coming in to the USA had to have sponsors; at least the Jewish one did. At a time when WWII was about to be declared, a war which had already started in Europe, this was hindering Jewish immigration that had continued in the early 20s. Besides that, Jews as you see, had the problem of even getting out of the country they were escaping due to anti-Semitism.
Werner was lucky. The ship, the St Louis which left in June 1939, was turned back by the USA as they didn't have permission to land in Florida. 1/3 of 937 Jews died.
Werner's family might have entered the Rhineland of Germany in the 300s CE. Cologne was a major Jewish center then. Emperor Constantine introduced laws pertaining to Jews then in 321 CE. They came in from Jerusalem when the City and Temple were burned down by the Romans in 70CE. Jewish soldiers may have been in Roman garrisons, from evidence found. The German Carolingian royal house in the 8th-9th centuries had a pro-Jewish policy and encouraged the settlement of Jews with the purpose of devoloping trade. By the 9th century, Jews settled in Metz, and in the 10th century in Worms, a very important center as well as in Mainz, and in Magdeburk Ratisbon, etc.
In 1096 the Crusaders massacred the Jews throughout the Rhineland and the adjacent areas. Jews were attacked in Germany from then on. "Some of the larger cities in the Rhineland are Aachen, Bonn, Cologne, Duisburg, Düsseldorf, Essen, Koblenz, Krefeld, Leverkusen, Mainz, Mönchengladbach, Mülheim an der Ruhr, Oberhausen, Remscheid, Solingen, Trier and Wuppertal.
Hitler marched into Prague, Czechoslovakia on March 15, 1939 and Werner may have been the last Jew to get out of Germany as he took the ship,George Washington from Boppard to Hamburg on May 4, heading for New York. They landed May 12, 1939. Werner wound up going from New York to Texas.
His Passport was issued from Stuttgart. (Gold in south - Wurttemberg)
Werner's father was Ferdinand Oster b: 1881 in Oberfell, Offenbback an Glan, Hesse, Germany. His mother was Rosa Ullmann b: 1891 in Westerburg, Germany. They died in the Holocaust, at Krasniczyn Concentration Poland Camp Holocaust KZ, not being able to leave sooner.
Werner's grandparents and great grandparents were:
. 1 Arnold Oster b: June 08, 1851 in Oberfell, Offenbback an Glan, Hesse, Germany d: February 06, 1941 in Koblenz, Germany
..... +Sibilla Roos b: 1851 in Oberfell, Offenbback an Glan, Hesse, Germany d: March 25, 1930 in Koblenz, Germany m: 1878
.. +Sibylla Wolff b: Abt. 1830 in Germany d: in Germany m: Abt. 1850
I notice that right hand bottom corner(yellow) is OSTERREICH is Austria on map above it. Could they have come from there originally?
The German name of Austria, Österreich, derives from the Old High German word Ostarrîchi "eastern realm", recorded in the so-called Ostarrîchi Document of 996, applied to the Margraviate of Austria, a march, or borderland, of the Duchy of Bavaria created in 976.
Another remoter possibility is that the name comes from the Ostrogoths, who had a kingdom in what is now Austria and northern Italy.
Resource: The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhineland
https://www.history.com/news/wwii-jewish-refugee-ship-st-louis-1939
Labels: Ashkenazi, endogamy, genealogy, Germany, holocaust survivor, Koblenz, Oster, Rhineland, USA
