Amazing (III), the Context - Familie Emanuel Falk

Today, Don and I received two amazing photographs from the head of the "Cemetery Art Museum", a division of the Municipal Museums of Wroclaw (Muzeum Sztuki Cmentarnej, Oddział Muzeum Miejskiego Wrocławia) -- see the two preceding blog entries, Amazing (I)  and Amazing (II).

For almost 40 years, I have known about the family grave of my part of the FALK family in Breslau., the family of my great grandparents Emanuel FALK (1832-1906) and Johanna FALK geb. KALISCHER (1845-1929).  It is in the Lohestrasse Jewish cemetery in Breslau; now the Stary cmentarz żydowski in Wroclaw, Poland -- under the control of the Municipal Museums of Wroclaw.

My family had two photographs that accompanied a trip report by our cousin Hertha MENDELSON (originally MENDLOWICZ) (1893-1988) from her visit to Breslau in the early 1960s.  The photograph she took during her visit looked a lot like this one that I took on my first visit to Breslau in 1996 (except this photo was taken after we had pulled down all the ivy off the wall):

The other photograph was one that Hertha had taken before she left Breslau in 1941, so some time between 1936 and 1941(the family graves include that of my half great uncle Loebel FALK (1862-1936)):

In the late 1970s, there was an article in a German newspaper or magazine, or perhaps in the German Jewish weekly "Aufbau", that came to our attention, probably through Hertha or my aunt Eva WULKAN geb. FALK (1911-2005).  The article was about the efforts of the German Democratic Socialist party to find and renovate the grave of Ferdinand LASSALLE (1825-1864), a founder of the precursor to the political party.  From that time on, I have wanted to have the "Familie Emanuel Falk" graves renovated with new gravestone plaques and a metal fence.

In May 1996, on my first visit to Breslau with my mother and my brother Don, I finally got to see the Lohestrasse cemetery and the grave site for myself.

In January 2002, I learned that the Museum Director Maciej Lagiewski had had the missing gravestone plaque of my mother's grandparents Wilhelm Salomon FREUND (1831-1915) and Clara FREUND geb. IMMERWAHR (1845-1914) replaced with a new one, based on a pre-War photograph I had sent him a year and a half earlier.

That made me think, again, about replacing the lost tablets of the Familie Emanuel Falk gravestones for (from left to right):
Loebel FALK (1862-1936), Louis FALK (1864-1897), Johanna FALK geb. KALISCHER (1845-1929), Emanuel FALK (1832-1906), Hermann FALK (1875-1932), Martin FALK (1876-1927).

But, I could not have the center plaques replaced if I did not know what the text was.  The old photograph was great, but it was taken at an angle and the Hebrew text of the central panels was not in focus.  In 2004, with the help of Photoshop, I took a very high-resolution scan of the old photograph and tried everything I could think of to make the text more legible -- particularly to someone who could read Hebrew.  I played with the brightness and contrast.  I tried reversing black and white.  I skewed the image to try to simulate a straight-on photo.

When I thought it was as good as I could make it, I sent the image to a genealogy internet acquaintance to see if he could make any headway.  I do not recall all he came up with, but I do know that he was the first to tell me that Emanuel FALK's Hebrew name was "Secharja Mendel".  (This has mainly served to put me back into uncertainty about my father's Hebrew name.  He was originally named Hans-Ludwig Emanuel FALK, though by the time I knew him he dropped the hyphen and the Emanuel.  Dr. Hermann FALK's first and only son, I assumed that his middle name Emanuel was his Hebrew name.  Learning that his grandfather, his namesake, Emanuel FALK had the Hebrew name Secharja Mendel, has left me wondering whether my father's Hebrew name was Secharja Mendel...)

In March 2007, when I was going to London, I had the "enhanced" versions of the gravestone inscriptions with me.  I was hoping to be able to meet with my third cousin once removed R. Elyokim SCHLESINGER (b.1921), whom, I had read, was a leader of a project to protect and restore Jewish cemeteries in Central Europe.   I arranged a meeting with Rabbi SCHLESINGER and he seemed to enjoy trying to figure out the blurry text.  He kept a print and later sent me his transcription of the Hebrew texts, with some bits undecipherable.

In January 2008, I got some additional input from one of my favorite cousins in London (not from the FALK family).  Still not feeling that I had the definitive transcription of the Hebrew texts, I could not proceed with the project to restore the family graves.

On each visit to Breslau -- in 1996, 1998, 2003, 2007 (solo), 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012, Don and I visited the Erbbegräbnis Familie Emanuel Falk.  We trimmed the ivy and the misshapened juniper bush, and took photos.

Before our visit to Breslau (Wroclaw) in November 2013, I arranged for us to meet with Renata Wilkoszewska-Krakowska, the new head of the "Cemetery Art Museum", the current name for the Lohestrasse Jewish cemetery.  We had a very nice meeting, learning about the ongoing efforts to clean up the cemetery, erect fallen gravestones and create a complete index of the cemetery burials.  During our conversation, we told her about a few family graves, include the memorial along the north wall, not far from the entry gate, for the Familie Emanuel Falk.  With a handy thumb-drive, I was able to leave her with a copy of the old photograph from the 1930s.

Earlier today (21 January 2014), Ms Wilkoszewska-Krakowska sent us the news that her team had uncovered broken gravestone fragments in an area of the cemetery quite far from the Familie Emanuel Falk graves, and that, thanks to the photograph we left with her, she had identified two fragments as being from the gravestone tablet of our great grandmother Johanna FALK geb. KALISCHER.  Just amazing.

Of course, now we wonder whether more fragments may exist on the grounds of the Lohestrasse cemetery. 

And we ponder, again, when and how to restore the gravestones of these closest family members.