The official name of my grandfather was Theodor and his Jewish name was Tuvia (Tobias), born on 13 January 1891 in Sanok and killed 4 February 1945. It is possible that he had themselves registered in Germany and Holland officially as Tobias, based on the documents from the Jewish Congregation from Sanok.
Those days, Sanok was located in the Austro-Hungarian empire of Emperor Franz-Joseph, between Cracow and Lvov, near de Czech border. He was the eldest son of Avraham Yaakov Hirschman (1864-1930) and Gittla Sprecher, who ran a grocery store there. (source: Sanok archives).
Theodor left Sanok at the age of 18 in 1909, because otherwise he would have served in the Austro-Hungarian army. (the same reason why I left Holland for Israël in 1971, after having finished my studies!). He had a passport with the maiden name of his mother, because his parents only were married before a rabbi. Those days, it was rather costly having yourself registered for a marriage. Later, his parents were officially registered as husband and wife, which is why Avraham Yaakov Hirschman and Gittla Sprecher’s younger children are all surnamed Hirschman. Later, also Theodor was officially legalized by his father as his son.
Theodor came to Lübeck in Germany, because he probably had family or acquaintances there. Later he arrived in Dortmund, where he met Cilly Redner, who was there visiting. (probably “schadchend”). They married in Dortmund on 4 February 1914, and there Robert (Bob) Isidor Sprecher was born on 16 October 1915. Theodor opened and ran a clothing store there.
My grandfather Theodor had 4 younger brothers and one sister:
- Aryeh (Leib) Hirschman (1892-1977), emigrated to Israël and married to Frieda Lieber
- Naftali (Tulek) Hirschman (1894 - 1932), married to Sabina.
- Daughter Perla (Pepi) Hirschman (1898 – 1943), married to Eliezer (Luzer) Korach. They lived in Holland and were killed during the Shoah with their daughter Jetty.
- Fishel Hirschman ( 1900-1944), married to Vita Rauch.
- (Elek, Eliasz) Eliyahu (1911-2001); during the war he named himself Joseph Dvorzak, after the war emigrated to Israël and married to Ilana.
The official name of my grandmother was Cilly Redner, her Jewish name was Tsippora (Cipra), born on 7 May 1889 in Kniazdwor (Romania) near Kolomeyya (Ukraine) in the Bukovina region. Her mother was Friederike Sara Redner, born 14 January 1862. Her father has died early and Friederike was married again. Cilly’s parents were farmers and had their own farm.
The children Cilly and Adolf Redner were descending from Friederike and her first husband. (here the same story: only married before a rabbi), and from her 2nd wedlock were the children Moses Redner (born 25 May 1896) who we knew as “Onkel Moosje”, and Jetty Redner, who we called “Aunt Jetty from Paris”.
During the Great War, Theodor served in the German Army, and had an office job as he could read and write. After Bob was born, he was able to send his wife to the Netherlands because of the food scarcity, while Holland was neutral. Later he heard that his army unit would be sent to the trenches and then he deserted, which was life-threatening in wartime, and arrived to the Netherlands too with help of smugglers.
In Holland, Theodor started to work in the dairy factory “De Sierkan” in the Prins Willemstraat at Scheveningen. Later, he went to Delft to buy used clothing from students, who were in need for money. (He was known there as the man with the golden tooth). Cilly refurbished those clothes and sold them from Bob’s stroller at the second-hand clothing market.
About 1918 they rented a shop in the Hemsterhuisstraat 199 in Den Haag and started selling second-hand clothing. (Buying and Selling second hand goods). Later, in 1924 the shop moved to Witte de Withstraat 20 (Maison Sprecher, Heeren Kleeding 1e Klas, Kleeding reparaties & persen, spoedig en billijk, Kleeding naar Maat") (translated: Maison Sprecher, Men’s clothing 1st Class, clothing repairs, pressing, soon and fairly, Clothing to Size), where they started selling new clothing. In 1926 they moved to Piet Heinstraat 68 (Gentlemen’s House).
For some time then, they had two stores, but they closed down the store in the Witte de Withstraat and bought the house at Piet Heinstraat 27-29 in 1933.(“Sprechers Kleeding – Gentlemen’s House”). And meanwhile, their 2nd son was born in 1920, my father Jozef Sprecher, usually called Joop.
My great-grandmother Friederike Sara Redner was in Holland from 3 January 1927 til 15 May 1929 and she stayed among others with my grandparents in Den Haag, who already came to Holland in 1914 (stateless). Only 8 October 1925 they have sent a letter to the Queen with a request to get the Dutch nationality, which they received in the end of 1931/early 1932. (I think they were only registered in 1920 at Hemsterhuisstraat, as it was necessary to open a shop; until then they were probably “illegal”).
After all German regulations, starting with the mandatory “Aryan-declaration” of October 1940 and with the reporting obligation for Jews on 10 January 1941 – which they had no intention of meeting – Joop’s parents understood that the time had come to go into hiding. In the meantime, they had to “sell” their business to a “Verwalter”, who took care that the store was just emptied.
Cilly and Theodor were betrayed in Den Haag on 14 July 1944, (the son of the landlady bluffed in a cafe, that his mother hided Jews). They were transferred to the prison in Arnhem, interrogated, probably under torture, to find out where the children were hiding and then carried off to Westerbork, where Theodor ended up in a penal barrack. On 3 September 1944 they were put on transport to Auschwitz with one of the last transports from Westerbork. There, Cilly ended up in the women’s camp and died there soon after – according to the Dutch Archives - on 6 September 1944, probably to frozen limbs after the terribly cold 3-day train ride in cattle wagons in winter, or killed in the gas chambers immediately upon arrival in Auschwitz.
Cilly’s halfbrother Moses Redner emigrated to Israël in 1924 and on its way he learned cheese making in Holland (between 26 November 1924 till 5 January); he was married to Lea and was a member of the agricultural moshav Balfouria in what was then Palestine. Cilly’s halfsister Jetty Redner was married to Jacob Lips, lived in Paris and lived from their textile workshop. They had two sons, Harry and Ady Lips.
Cilly’s cousin Julius Redner lived in Germany, who managed to escape to Holland in 1939. However he was not allowed by the Dutch authorities to live in with Theodor and had to go to a shelter camp for German immigrants near Hoek van Holland. After the German invasion, the inhabitants of that camp were transferred by the Germans to Westerbork to build the camp. He wrote Theodor from the camp, that he understood that they were building a transit camp for the Dutch Jews. He still saw an opportunity to get married in Westerbork but thereafter he was deported to the East and never came back.
After the war, my parents were informed by among others Annie Kupferschmidt, who survived, that Cilly, who always was a strong and energetic woman, perished on frozen limbs.
From doctor Eddy de Wind, who survived the Holocaust too, they heard that he had met Theodor in Auschwitz, early 1945. He described Theodor as apatic and his only hope was that his sons would get through. There was also a testimony that Theodor would have survived Auschwitz, but perished on 4 February 1945 on a death march, which began on 18 January 1945 from Auschwitz towards Germany.
My uncle Robert (Bob) Isidor Sprecher (1915-2002) married Vera Paygin. They managed to escape Holland during wartime and via Southern France, Spain, Portugal and Surinam finally ended up in Arlington VA in America.
My father, Jozef (Joop) Sprechter (Den Haag 26 Februray 1920 – Amsterdam 8 October 2001) married my mother Julie (Jetty) Kattenburg on 20 February 1946. She was born 16 May 1922 in Amsterdam and died in Amstelveen 5 February 2019. They called their parents Pappa and Mutti.