Hello
My name is Barbara. I am the granddaughter of Berta [Beile] Ornstein, born Alpern, who was a sister of Sigmund Alpern.
Excuse me for writing in English. I don't know Dutch, but I believe one or two details about the Alpern/Rothschild families may be inaccurate.
Sigmund Alpern, who married Therese [Resi] Rothschild, was born in 1893 to Yitzhak [Eisig] and Rachel Alpern. Yitzhak was known in Yiddish as Eisig: Eisig was not their surname! Sigmund was born in Kolomiya, a town which is now in the Ukraine, but then it was in Poland, so he was born in Poland not the Ukraine!
Resi's sister, Alwine Rothschild, married Mozes Koekoek. Her name was never Alpern!
Sigmund was deported to Buchenwald where he was probably murdered (not "died"), and Resi was deported to Ravensbrück.
Naturally, I never knew any of these people, as I was born in the UK in 1948 to a mother who had fled Vienna while many of her relations (including her parents, Eliezer [Leiser] and Beile Ornstein) did not survive the Shoah. However, I have done a lot of research, so I believe the above amendments are correct.
As a postscript, I would like to add that Resi, who had been born in Germany but escaped with Sigmund in Holland, was extremely helpful to her siblings (including my grandparents in Vienna). Before the German invasion made life difficult, she was the intermediary for correspondence between the siblings, and I have several letters which came to the UK from Vienna via her in Holland. I read that she often stayed up late into the night for this purpose. She also sent provisions to her siblings who could not lay their hands on enough food. In short, she seems to have been a "Mensch."
I hope this has been helpful. Please feel free to contact me [b.deanat1@gmail.com] if you want to discuss anything or I can be of any further assistance.
Sincerely
Barbara Dean [Birmingham, UK]
