A treasure trove from Alice - Pictures from Beuthen

Alice and I spent several hours at the snack bar in Bloomingdale's a couple of weeks ago, going through some old photos that Alice had from Regina and Charlie.  We only left when the fire alarm went off and they threw us out. (We, of course, had long since finished our frozen yogurts.)  I wound up in temporary custody of a treasure trove of pictures and stories to go with them.

Here is the first batch -- these are of Charlie in Beuthen and some of other members of the family.

Charlie and a friendly bear

We don't think he was doted on, do we?   When he was older, Alice said, his father traveled to Berlin and brought back toys for Charlie, who played with them for a half an hour and then took them apart to see how they worked.  An early indication of his engineering aptitude!

Notice the sign behind Charlie.  This is probably a sign advertising the Ch. H. Hochbaum wholesale fruit and vegetable business.

Here are other pictures of a young Charlie:

Charlie and Gina

This picture is small and very dirty which accounts for what might look like bruises on Charlie's face.  (I did some cleanup but decided not to push my Photoshop skills.)

That's an unhappy looking Charlie with his Aunt Regina.  This picture is dated September 18, 1934.

And a somewhat older Charlie with most of the  Hochbaum family.

From the left (standing): Henry and Erna Hochbaum, David and Marta Green, Lily Green
Front row:  Sam and David (Dago) Hochbaum, Charlie, Henry Hochbaum

The Hochbaum siblings in the picture are Daddy, Sam and Henry, Marta and Erna.  Only Gina is missing.   The standing Henry Hochbaum is Erna's husband (and a cousin).  Lily Green is David Green's sister (and, of course, Charlie's aunt).

Notice the picture on the wall in the background.  It's actually a needlepoint, and today it hangs in Alice's house in Matawan.  I think it was made by Marta, but Alice couldn't confirm that.  The amazing thing is that it is here.  How did it get here?  I asked Alice. 

After the war, she said, Charlie went back to the apartment in Prague where he and his parents had lived before the war.  They had gone to Prague after the family was forced to sell the business in Germany for almost nothing.  Whereas they had lived well in Beuthen ("they went to the Opera"), in Prague they didn't have a lot of money.  They made a living folding boxes in their apartment.  When the Germans rounded up the Jews in Prague they left their valuables with someone in the apartment building.  When Charlie returned, the people said they had nothing left -- they had been forced to sell everything. Which certainly may have been true. In any case, we are surmising that the needlepoint may have survived that process.  There's a second needlepoint that also made it to Matawan.

Here's a picture of Erna, looking very much like a Hochbaum, and her baby, Chaim Hirsh Hochbaum.

And here's an undated picture of Erna and her husband and their son, David and Marta, and Uncle Henry.