[Ger-Poland-Volhynia] Re: Evangelical Lutheran church records and Ellis Island

[Karl Krueger]

Hi Janine,
It seems you have some interesting work ahead of you researching your ancestors' history. Someone else will probably comment more on the Ellis Island records as they are often riddled with mistakes, particularly the names. Since I had no need to study them much I'll leave that for others to comment on. Maybe only your grandmother's friend was Jewish.
 
What I find surprising is that your grandparents and great uncles were put in concentration camps. This means either they were Jewish, aided Jews, or resisted (or failed to cooperate with) the Nazi regime. After Hitler took over Poland he sought out all people who were ethnic Germans and made them German citizens. Then any healthy men from these new citizens were conscripted into the military. If they did not comply the concentration camps were waiting for them. My father and other close relatives were faced with this decision. It seems your relatives were under the same trial. Maybe your ancestors were on friendly terms with the local Jewish people???
 
It will be interesting to see what you find out. Too bad you don't have anyone surviving that you could probe into this more. It is these kinds of stories that adds so much intrigue into resarching your family history.
 
JanKohl57 at aol.com wrote:
My grandmother Amalia Meissner lived in Zyrardow, Mazowieckie with her 
parents and grandparents who were from that same town. She immigrated to the U.S. 
in 1913 coming through Ellis Island. I have documents, some from the 
Evangelishe church that lead me to believe they were of that religion. Her parents and 
two brothers were put in a work or concentration camp sometime in the 1940's 
but supposedly escaped. It's not known were though. I was always told that 
they were Germans living in Poland. What confuses me is in the Ellis Island 
website it says my grandmother and her friend( who were both 18) were listed as 
Hebrew under "religion". Could this have just been an error because they 
could not speak engish and the name taker just assumed they were jewish. There 
has always been alot missing from the whole story. The older ones always denied 
things when I enquired about that time. Now everyone is gone and no one to 
ask. Grandmother followed the Lutheran religion here in the U.S. Wondering what 
people think of this. Also..where do I look for more church records for this 
family as grandmas parents and grandparents were born and raised in the same 
area? What E.Luth. churches were in Zyrardow in the late 1700s to say 1910? 
Thank you ever so much for your help. Janine jankohl57 at aol.com

_______________________________________________
Ger-Poland-Volhynia Mailing List hosted by
Society for German Genealogy in Eastern Europe http://www.sggee.org
Mailing list info at http://www.sggee.org/listserv

		
---------------------------------
Do you Yahoo!?
 Send a seasonal email greeting and help others. Do good.