RICK LANDMAN'S FATHER'S FAMILY: ZASLAW TO MUNICH TO AUGSBURG TO NYC

SUMMARY OF THE LIFE OF HENRY LANDMAN

This is a picture of Henry Landman during the war as an American soldier. It was part of the exhibit at the Jewish Heritage Museum at Battery Park City in New York City. HENRY LANDMAN (HEINZ LANDMANN): WAS AN 18 YEAR OLD JEWISH BOY FROM AUGSBURG WHO WAS SENT TO DACHAU ON "KRISTALLNACHT"; THEN RELEASED AND GETS TO LONDON AND THEN NEW YORK; WHERE HE BECOMES A U.S. SOLDIER IN THE THIRD INFANTRY WHICH LIBERATES DACHAU AND IS WITH THE FIRST AMERICAN SOLDIERS TO ENTER MUNICH AND AUGSBURG... My father Henry Landman was arrested in his hometown of Augsburg on November 10, 1938 (Kristallnacht) and was sent with his father to Dachau Concentration Camp. His number was 21250 and his father's number was 21234. My grandfather Joseph was able to get a visa to America and then Henry was released from Dachau in the spring of 1939 and at 18 was able to get a transit visa to England, where he survived alone for several months as an "enemy alien". In England, he met the lawyer who processed his transit visa paperwork who invited him to attend a Sabbath dinner. That night my father showed him the photograph of his family and the attorney's in-laws recognized my great-grandparents who lived in Munich. It seemed that when their family was fleeing to England from the pogroms in the East, my great-grandparents allowed his family to stay in their house in Munich until their boat tickets were finalized. As a result, the attorney (Charles Aukin) helped my father while in London that year. After getting the American visa and landing in New York on the day after Thanksgiving Day 1939 on the S.S.Harding (which was hit by a Nazi submarine on its return trip), he joined the Army in 1942 and went back to Europe to fight as an American soldier. Several Augsburger Jews served in the U.S. Military and as coincidences do happen, they bumped into each other throughout the war. Henry was part of the Third Infantry that liberated Dachau. While riding on the main street of Dachau he also met the Administrator of Dachau who surrendered to him for protection. So he drove the Administrator as a prisoner of war to the US side on the hood of his jeep. Henry was with those who first entered Munich and was the first American to re-enter Augsburg at the end of the war, where he went to see if his family members survived. None survived. 17 members of his family were killed during the Holocaust. The Lederhosen that he wore on Kristallnacht and his U.S. Army uniform were on exhibit in the Jewish Museum in Augsburg. You can read more about this on the Augsburg Site. Here are some pictures that illustrate this era of his life.

Here Henry is taking a picture of a fellow soldier in an army jeep in front of his former house in Augsburg on the day that the Americans entered the City. Henry was the first American soldier to enter his hometown of Augsburg that day.

Here is where Henry met Arnold Metzger in Africa, a fellow Augsburger.

Here is where he met Walter Sturm in Rome, a fellow Augsburger.

Henry in the winter of 1944-45.

Henry Landman and the Palestinian Brigade in Italy. Photo taken in Sorrento, Italy.

Henry Landman and the Palestinian Brigade in Italy.

Henry Landman and the Palestinian Brigade in Italy. Notice the Jewish star on the truck. Photo taken in Sorrento, Italy.

Henry Landman and John C. Squires. The photo was taken right after the landing in Anzio Beach. Pfc. Squires received a Citation for the Medal of Honor for "conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at risk of life above and beyond the call of duty, in action involving actual conflict." Unfortunately, he was killed a few days after this picture was taken.

Towards the end of the war, my father's battalion liberated Dachau and my father was the first American soldier to enter his hometown of Augsburg Germany.

This is a picture of the Augsburg Synagogue taken right after the end of the war. The signs say Entry Forbidden for the general public, but also mentions a Jewish Service on Friday and Sunday. Henry Landman was in Salzburg at the time, but he received a pass to attend that first service in the synagogue after the war. The chaplain who led the service gave him an aliyah that day.

His sister Irma (Landman) Avery was also in the military and served her country as a WAC (womens army corp).

While my father was the first American soldier to enter Augsburg at the end of the War, the American army stayed in Augsburg for decades. The last American Soldiers to leave were CPT Don Wyler and Sergeant Wayne Box (Military Police) from 66th Military Intelligence. They went 1998 to Darmstadt, but are now probable situated in Wiesbaden, because the barracks in Darmstadt closed. I gave them my father's phone number in case they wanted to call him.

Website for the Last American Soldiers to Leave Augsburg

Click here to read a story written about Henry Landman as part of a project by Veronika Stumpf.
It was read at Dachau as part of a memorial service in 2004

HISTORY OF THE LANDMANN (LANDMAN) FAMILY

Around the turn of the 20th century Gerson and Sofie Landmann left towns of Husiatyn, Zaslaw and Rzeszow, in what was then Galicia (and now is in Poland or Ukraine) and moved to Munich (around 1902). When their son Josef grew up he moved to Augsburg, where he met his wife Regina and had three children.

On Kristallnacht Josef and his 18 year old son Heinz were arrested for being Jewish and sent to Dachau. Since the town where Josef was born (Zaslav) in the 1890's was under Russian control, he was able to get a Visa to come to America as a "Russian living in Germany". The rest of family (siblings and parents)could not get visas and died in the Holocaust. Josef could then get his immediate family out of Germany in mid 1939.

He received visas for his wife, son and two daughters. Minna Wolf (Regina's sister) lived with the Landmann family in Augsburg after her husband Gustav died of natural causes. Her daughter Auguste (Anne) was able to come eventually to America (Kindertransport child) and lived with the Landmans until she married Eric Weil. Minna Wolf was one of those Jews who was deported from Augsburg to her death in Auschwitz. We have learned that Sofie and Gerson Landmann were transported from Munich to their deaths in Theresienstadt.

FROM MY FATHER'S FATHER'S SIDE OF THE FAMILY:

Zallel Landmann was Gerson's father. Gerson (born on May 15, 1858 (in Husiatyn) was one of his sons. He married Sophie (Hochbluet or Horowitz or Chhojkelewna)(born on May 1, 1868 also in Hustiatyn) and they had 5 children. They then moved to Zaslaw (now Iziaslav in Ukraine) and then to Rzeszow before moving to Munich. Their last residence was at Klenzestrasse 4, Munich where they were picked up by the Nazis for deportation in Transport II/2. They were sent to Theresienstadt on June 4, 1942 and Sophie was killed on June 19, 1942, while Gerson was killed on July 13, 1942. One daughter (Ethel)died as a child and the other two daughters Rosa and Paula died in the camps. Their two sons were named Josef (my grandfather) and Heinrich. Josef was able to get a visa to come to America, while Heinrich died of natural causes before the war. My father Heinz (Henry) was named after his uncle.

Josef Landmann (born March 31, 1895 in Zaslaw, and died July 7, 1964) had three children with his wife Regina (born August 7, 1891 and died April 24, 1955). Henry (born June 12, 1920), who married Lisa (born April 6, 1927) had two sons Robert (born May 2, 1949) and Richard (born June 15, 1952). Robert married Bonnie (Phillips)(born February 18, 1950 and have three children, Jaimee (born July 5, 1975), Darra (born January 12, 1978) and Michael (born March 2, 1985).
Joan (Hanni - was born December 30, 1921 and died August 9, 1970), was Joseph's oldest daughter who married Sol Weinstein and had one daughter named Lynn who married Peter Feller. His other daughter Irma (born June 20, 1923 and died January 13, 1985), married Guy Avery and had one daughter named Renie, who married John Cervone and has two twins named Jason and Eric.

Heinrich Landmann had three sons, Beno (who married Esther), Stanley (who married Sadie) and Freddy Landman. Freddy had no children, but Stanley had two children (Harris and Nancy) and Beno had a son named Howard.

Rosa Landmann married Heinrich Rodoff and had 8 children. Three came to America (Max, Mia and Ruth) the rest died in the camps with Rosa and their father Heinrich Rodoff. The other siblings's names were Bella, Jutta, Thea, Irma, Eva and Dora. Max married Senta and had no children, and Mia died shortly after coming to America, and Ruth married Moe and had 3 children (Beth, Rachel and Helen).

Paula Landmann married Isodore Frydmann and had four children who left Germany with the Kindertransport. Leo, married to Ruth, has three children,(David, Paul and Wendy) Heinz who married Sylvia and lives in Florida and has two children Judy and David, and Sigi who married Connie has two sons, Ken who married Liz and have a son Beau; and Michael who married Beverly and have three children Danny, Katie and Josh. The fourth child is Mia Heifler, who has three daughters Malcha, Penina and Rachel who now live in Israel.

FROM MY FATHER'S MOTHER'S SIDE OF THE FAMILY:

Regina Landmann, the wife of Josef and mother of Henry, was born on August 7, 1891 and died in New York on April 25, 1955. Her father was Moses Gruenebaum and her mother was Johanna of Hellstein. Moses died while in a Jewish ghetto in Frankfurt during the war and Johanna died earlier of natural causes. The Gruenebaum Family lived for generations in Hellstein, and Moses was a kosher butcher in that town.

Regina's other sister Else Aretz (born in Hellstein on June 19, 1896 and was picked up by the Nazis in Frankfurt from Grunestrasse 9, in Transport XII/3 on September 15, 1942 and died in the Theresienstadt on December 29, 1942), along with Else's husband Max and their two daughters Valerie (born on December 25, 1923) and Martha (born on December 1, 1924 in Hellstein and after Frankfurt was sent to Berlin-SW 68, Kommandantenstrasse 58 and was sent to Auschwitz on March 3, 1943).

Jonas, her brother, survived and moved to America where his daughter Marian Samokow still lives.

Mina Wolf, Regina's sister lived with the Landmann family with her daughter Auguste (Gusti or Anne) in Augsburg after her husband Gustav Wolf died of natural causes. Minna Wolf was born in Hellstein November 14, 1890; died in Auschwitz. Anne was able to come to America where she continued to live with the Landmans, but Minna could not. Anne married Eric Weil and had one daughter named Susan. Susan married Stuart Friedman and have two children, Jaci and Michael.
It is purely coincidental but two sets of the family now have the last name of Frydman or Friedman.

Regina was the only member of her family to survive and come to America, as was her husband Joseph, so also lost both of his parents and siblings.

MUNICH

This is the wedding picture of Josef and Regina Landmann taken in 1918 in Augsburg, Germany. [DIC] means "Died in Camps". The top row from left to right, shows Elsie Gruenebaum Aretz (sister of the bride) [DIC], unknown, Paula Landmann Frydmann (sister of groom) [DIC], Sigmund and Alfred Marx (cousin of bride), unknown. Standing in the middle: Waldman, Regina Gruenebaum (bride) and Josef Landmann (groom), Mina Gruenebaum Wolf (sister of bride) [DIC], unknown. Standing next to Josef is Moses Gruenebaum (father of bride), Marie [Lived until 99 yrs old] and Heinrich Landmann (Stanley and Freddy's and Beno's parents). Seated in front: Rosa Gruenebaum Landmann (sister of bride) [DIC], Jonas Hans Gruenebaum (brother of bride), Mr. Waldman, Beno Landmann, Sofie [DIC] and Gerson Landmann [DIC](parents of the groom).

AUGSBURG

It was in Augsburg that Joseph and Regina started their family and Henry (Heinz) was born and went to school until 1935 and the Nurnberg Laws took effect. He then would spend most of his day at the Jewish Sportsplatz (which still exists today as part of a condominium complex.) Joseph was the last president of the Sportsplatz. The Augsburger Jewish Museum presented an entire exhibit on the Sportsplatz in 2008. The immediate family left Augsburg starting with Joseph in early 1939 and the entire family was re-united in New York by November 1939.


This picture was taken in the 1920's in the Landmann home in Augsburg. Moses G is sitting next to his two daughters, Minna Wolf (who died in Auschwitz) and Regina Landmann and her husband Josef. Irma and Henry Landmann are sitting on the floor. Joan must have been away.


This picture shows Josef and Regina Landmann with their 3 children, Henry, Irma and Joan. Irma is to the right. All survived the Holocaust and moved to New York in 1939. This was the photo that he showed the lawyer in London, who recognized Joseph as being the son of the two people who put his in-laws up in their apartment until their paperwork arrived years before Henry got to London.


This was the third and last apartment of the Landmann family on Hermannstrasse, just around the corner from the Synagogue.


This is a photograph of the Augsburg Synagogue from 1989. It was restored in 1985 (except for the missing Jewish Star at the roof of the building and the organ was not returned, but instead the congregation received funds for a new Menorah.)


This is a photo from 1989 with Henry eating his favorite food, namely a Dampfnudle; that was made by a friend of the Bachners.

HELLSTEIN

This is the two family house of the Aretz-G family in Hellstein, Germany taken before the war. Only one of these people survived the Holocaust.

We returned to Hellstein in 1989 and thought that this was the same house. But in 2002 I received an email from one of the inhabitants of the house. The youngest son survived the war by going on a Kindertransport to America and found the website. He corrected me that this was NOT the same house and sent me the following pictures. The power of a website is amazing. For 70 years he did not know that his second cousins were still alive.

This is a picture of the house in 1974 when the current occupants started to add on to it.

This is how it looks today with what both of the current occupants added to the original house. Notice that they couldn't agree on a color, like my greatgrandparents did.

This is a picture of the synagogue from pre-WWII.

This is a streetscape of Hellstein today.

This is a picture of the slaughter house that was part of the two family house.

The grandfather holding the young child is Jakob (Moses's brother) Grunebaum. The young child is Eric Greene (Grunebaum) who is still alive.

I came across my father's Passover Hagadah, and even though it is not part of my family, it was extremely interesting to see. The illustrations are quite informative.

This Hagadah was first published in the 1800's and was the Hagadah used by my family in Germany.


Notice how Moses looks more like a Crusader leading the Jews out of the Rheinland, rather than Eqypt... and what is the bridge doing there?

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Click here to return to the HOME PAGE of THE DESCENDANTS OF THE JEWISH COMMUNITY OF AUGSBURG...

Click here to learn more about what happened to Henry Landman on KRISTALLNACHT in Augsburg...

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TO LEARN MORE ABOUT MY MOTHER'S SIDE OF THE FAMILY WHO CAME FROM NUREMBERG, GERMANY.... CLICK HERE

RICK LANDMAN'S MOTHER'S FAMILY: Uffenheim & Friedberg to Nuremberg to NYC

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