| Notes |
- RESEARCH_NOTES:
1. Per email of 17 Jul 2007 from Nina Kossman www.ninakossman.com . Nina is a descendant of Klara/Robert/Joseph/Lemchen/Joseph Herzenberg. Note that Mitau, Courland was part of the tsarist empire, but later it became known as Jelgava, Latvia.
A. "A photograph of Klara Herzenberg (daughter of Robert Herzenberg) can be seen at <http://www.ninakossman.com/leonidkossman/brenson_herzenberg.html> [underscore between brenson and herzenberg]. It should also be noted that in Piltene, where our 18th century Herzenbergs lived, there is an old Jewish cemetery in which almost all are Herzenbergs." Nina is coordinating an effort to restore the Piltene cemetery and please contact her if you are able to assist financially.
B. Children of Robert Herzenberg and Emilie Kahn:
a. Daughter Rosete (Rosa), b. 14 Apr 1854 in Mitau, d. 2 Nov, 1862 in Mitau.
b. Daughter Seba, b. abt. 1856, d. 1859 in Mitau.
c. Daughter Feige/Fanny, b. 26 Jul 1857 in Mitau, d. 31 Oct 1862 in Mitau.
d. Daughter Klara, b. 4 Dec 1859 in Mitau, m. 12 May 1883 in Mitau, d. 17 Jun 1939 in Riga. Husband Isidor (Isac-Aisak, Itzig), son of Isak-Aisik (Itzig, Isidor) Brensohn, b. 27 Sep 1854 in Mitau, d. 31 Dec. 1928 in Riga. (Photo of Isidor and Clara on file with me.) Of Isidor's and Clara's four children - Ruth, Ellen, Theo, and Robby, only one - Theo - survived the war as he was not living in Latvia at the time (photo of the four children on file with me).
i. Ruth Brenson (1889-1941) was born in Yelgava, Latvia. While temporarily staying in Moscow she met Stephan Kossman, whom she married around 1910. she had two children: Nora (b. 1911) and Leonid (b. 1915). Ruth was killed by the Nazis in Riga, Latvia. (Photo of Ruth on file with me.) The family lived in Moscow, at Chistye Prudy 11, in a ten-room apartment in a five-story building; later they moved to an apartment on First Meschanskaya. Since Stephan Kossman was a merchant of the Frist Guild, it was no longer safe for his family to live in the city after the Bolshevik takeover. The Brenson-Kossman family left Moscow for Riga - where Ruth's father lived - in the beginning of 1918. Stephan Kossman was born in 1877. When he was about seven years old his father, Leontii Kossman, took him to live in London where Leonitii had started a fur business. After Leontii's death, Stephan took over the business. His job took him all over Europe and in the very beginning of the 20th century he lived in Leipzig for several years, in Berlin, in London, etc. He married Ruth Brenson in 1909 and came back to Moscow to live. Eight years later, following the October Revolution, the family left Russia. He died in Riga, Latvia, in 1928. This couple had two children: Leonid and Nora.
1. Leonid Kossman is a philologist, writer, and teacher whose language textbooks have helped millions of people. Born in Moscow in 1915, as a child in Riga, Latvia, he spoke German and Russian at home and Latvian in the neighborhood. After graduating from a German high school he studied law at the University of Latvia and worked as a drama critic for a Latvian Newspaper, Tsinia. When the Nazis occupied Riga he escaped into Russia, soon joined the Soviet army, and was severely wounded. He spent the rest of the war in Kazakhstan where he slowly regained sight and movement. After the war he studied English and western literature at Moscow State University, graduated, and taught English and German at the Maurice Thorez Linguistics Institute (which later became the Moscow State Linguistics University, or MGLU). During this period his two textbooks for Russians learning German were published. With his wife and two children he emigrated to the US via Israel in 1972, and worked here as a college languages teacher and as a writer for the German-American Daily Staatszeitung and for the German-Jewish American weekly, Aufbau. In the late 1970s he started writing books to help other Russians in learning English. In authorized, and pirated, editions of these books have circulated very widely, and have even been adopted by American university Russian courses. Most recently he has been writing short stories and he published a historical novel "Above Water" in 2003 (the book deals with he effects of Nazism on the life of a Harry Rosen, a Latvian Jew).
2. Nora.
ii. Ellen was born 188? and died 1941; she was an orthopedic phsysician and he rhusband, Yakov Meltzer, was a pianist; they had a son Anatol and all three were killed by Germans in Nazi-occupied Latvia (photo of the three with son at age 6 on file.)
e. Son David, b. 17 Jul 1864 in Mitau, m. 7 Jan 1890 in Mitau, d. bef 1935. Wife Sophia, dau. of Abram Herzenberg, b. 20 Aug 1869 in Mitau, d. 1941 in the "ghetto."
f. Son Alexander, b. 16 Apr 1866 in Mitau.
g. Son Leonhard, b. 24 Jul 1868 in Mitau.
2. Website of Peter Bruce Herzenberg of London, England (since relocated to South Africa). Website is no longer functioning as of 7 Aug 2007. Copies of much of his data from the website in my possession. He indicates references by codes, which pertain to the original source and file held in his database, which I have not seen. I have no key to the sources except HL is Leonardo Herzenberg, HG is Gail Herzenberg, PC is probably Piltene Cemetery records, LA is probably Latvian Archives, FA is probably Aleksandrs Feigmanis (Latvian researcher hired by Harold Hodes), and YL is Len Yodaiken (Israeli researcher hired by Harold Hodes); however, he lists the main researchers and their contributions in a lengthy report which I include in full in the notes of the earliest Herzenberg of this database. In regards to this individual:
YL 014 notes Isadore Brewsohn, d. Riga, with four children: Ruth, md. Stephen Horsaie; Ellen, md. ___ Meltzer; Robert, Theo.
3. Received 30 Apr 2009 a copy of the following from Irene Gottleib Slatter entitled "Archival Reference about Brenson Family. It was prepared for Nina Kossman Dec 2006 and is report no. 3-K-7622; 7794N by Latvijas Valsts Vestures Arhivs (Latvian National Archives), Slokas iela 16, Riga, LV-1007. The following is only a partial transcript concerning this individual; please see the notes of Isidor Brenson within this database to see full and complete transcript including sources and documentation:
" - daughter Ruth Paulina, born on March 28 (Julian calendar) of 1885 in Mitau (however later in the house register her date of birth - April 9 (Gregorian calendar of 1886 in Mitau). In 1909 in "Riga she married to Schebsel Kosman (entry No. 59 in the marriage records of the Jewish community in Riga). Their children:
- son Leonid Kosman, born on September 24 of 1915 in Moscow. His wife Tereza, nee Yacoby (daughter of Johan/Janis, son of Adolph Yacoby and Jenni, nee Heiman) was born on July 5 of 1918 in Moscow (see her photo form the Latvian passport for 1935). Since September 14 of 1935 a widow Ruth Kosman and Leonid lived in Riga at Lacplesa Street 9, apt. 1. Leonid was struck off the house register on June 30 of 1940 as moved to Elizabetes Street 27, apt. 1. Tereza was struck off the house register of Elizabetes Street 27 on August 14 of 1941 as moved to Maskavas Sttreet 171, apt. 4 together with her parents and two sisters. Obviously later they were sent to ghetto. According to the records of the Soviet Extraordinary State Commission for 945 Jenny, Tereza and Ruth Yacoby, living in Riga at Elizabetes Street 27, apt. 1 were killed in 1941.
- daughter Eleonora Kosman, born on April 15 of 1911 in Moscow. Her husband Wilhelm (Wolfram), son of Eduard Gottlieb, born on June 6 of 1907 in Riga (see his photo from the Latvian passport for 1925). His occupation - journalist. They were registered as living in Riga at Dzernavu Street 64, apt. 4 since July 20 till August 12 of 1935 when they arrived from London to visit their relatives. Wilhelm's father was the candidate of commerce Israel/Eduards, son of Shanis Gottlieb was born on January 16 of 1870 in Riga. His wife Haja Sara (Sora), daughter of Mowscha. Mosus Kaschdan, a watch-maker from Borisov, and his wife Lina, was born on January 27 (Julian calendar, February 7 - Gregorian calendar) of 1880 in Riga (see her photo from the Latvian passport for 1924). Their marriage was registered in 1906 in Riga (entry No. 2 in the marriage records of the Jewish community in Riga for 1906. They had also daughter Herta Gottlieb, born on November 1 (Julian calendar, 14 November - Gregorian calendar) of 1909 in Riga. In 1924 the family of Israel/Eduard Gottlieb lived in Riga at Dzernavu Street 66, apt. 52. Before the Second World War they lived in Riga at Brivibas Street 33 (unfortunately, the house registers for the time period before October of 1939 have not survived, therefore we cannot trace fate of Haja and Herta. The museum "Jews of Latvia" keeps the lists of Central prison's inmates, set up on August 4 of 1941, where Eduards, son of Zhanis Gottlieb was registered under Nr. 67."
BIOGRAPHY:
1. 28 Jul 2007 Http://www.herzenberg.net/leo/htmlrh/Content.html copyrighted by Leo Herzenberg:
"An meinen Sohn (To my son) Leonhard Herzenberg von (from) Robert Herzenberg. Memoirs written during the 1940's." Translated during the 1990's by Leonardo (Leonhard) Herzenberg. The entire memoir is quite lengthy and included in its entirety in my notes with Joseph Herzenberg, the original known ancestor, in this database. The following is only the portion dealing with this part of the family:
"Great Uncles on Mother's Side
[60] Of the great uncles, the siblings of my grandmother on my mothers side, I can report very little. The oldest, Robert, after whom I was named, I could not know, because he died on my parents' wedding day, but I knew most of his children.
Great Uncle Robert lived in Mitau, neighbor of his brother in law, great uncle Abraham. He was married to Emilie Cahn. The firm continued still long after the world war. I knew the children David, Alexander, Leo, Clara and Helene; Fanny, Seba, Sara died early from smallpox. of David I wrote already on p 54-55. Leo was a lawyer in Russia. I met him in Germany after the war. He was already quite white-haired when he married the piano virtuoso Jenja Rappaport. He then lived [61] as a lawyer in Riga and died there a few years ago. There the sisters Clara and Helene also lived and died before the second world war.
Clara was married to Isidor Brensohn, and had children Ruth, Ellen, Robert, and Theo. Theo has a pretty good calling as a painter and etcher, having exhibited in Paris and Rome."
2. Provided 8 May 2012 by Nina Kossman from writings of her father Leonid Kossman concerning his recollections of his parents:
"Recollections
My Parents
I remember my father before 1924 when he became blind. He was a slender elegant man. He spoke fluently three languages - Russian, German, and English.
In his youth he spent many years in London. It was my paternal grandfather who had left Russia with his big family for England. Father attended school in London. As a young man, father went to Leipzig which was a center of fur business. There he got experience in it. Finally he settled in Moscow. He had customers in London who ordered Russian furs. My father bought them wholesale from the Tartars and exported them to England. He was a "merchant of the first guild" and was therefore permitted to reside in Moscow though being Jewish.
In prerevolutionary Moscow, my family led a sumptuous life. My mother had three servants - a cook, a housemaid, and a governess. The family had a big apartment. My maternal uncle Theo lived in our apartment for a long time while he studied architecture in Moscow. My father had several brothers and sisters whom he assisted financially.
In 1918, after the Bolshevik Revolution, father and his family left Russia for Latvia, my mother's native country. My parents rented a five-room apartment in the center of Riga. Father tried to go on with his fur business. He used to do business by meeting his trade partners in a coffee house. In Riga he also succeeded in earning rather good money.
I was happy when my father took me, a boy of seven years, to the old town of Riga where we went to a stamp store. He bought an album and numerous stamps for me.
In 1924 our family went to the cinema. I was sitting beside my father. When the lights went on again, he said to me, "I can't see anything." That was the beginning of my father's blindness. My parents went to Berlin and Moscow for consultations with famous eye specialists. The German doctor concluded that the reason for my father's blindness was his smoking habit - he used to smoke about 50 cigarettes per day. According to the Moscow specialist, the reason for the blindness was a brain tumor (at that time there was no way to discover a tumor.)
My mother accompanied father on his trip to Germany and went with him to the Latvian border station near Russia. Father's brother Vladimir expected him on the Russian side and went with him to Moscow.
My father used to do business with other traders at Reiner, a coffee house in the old part of Riga. But now he was rejected by his colleagues. "Go to your doctor. We don't need you here." That was too much for my father's self esteem. He couldn't overcome this blow. Before his blindness, he was very vivacious and active. But after his colleagues stopped accepting him, he became taciturn and was very sad.
My mother was brave after this calamity had occurred. Now she had to earn money to support the family. She went to Paris to attend a beautician's school. After receiving a French diploma, she opened a beautician's salon in Riga. She had also learned how to prepare various skin creams which she sold to her customers. For our family, hard times had begun.
My sister Nora was invited by our paternal grandfather to live with him and grandmother. Because of a fever, there was a suspicion of TB. Since grandfather was a doctor, it made sense for Nora to live in his house. She moved to our grandparents' and stayed there for several years. Grandfather paid for all private tutors Nora needed for graduating from high school. Luckily the suspicion of TB was unfounded.
When mother needed money for the trip to Paris, she asked her father for it, but his condition for lending it was her diamond ring as deposit.
I used to read to my father the German daily "Rigasche Rundshau." I spent a lot of time with my father. Once I witnessed a tragic scene when my father's old friend Krupnikov visited him. When Krupnikov touched in his conversation on father's blindness, he started laughing while father was crying. Krupnikov couldn't stop his nervous fit.
In January 1930 father passed away. He was buried according to the Jewish tradition. After his death, I went to a shul to say kaddish for him. For a month I went there daily. Between the prayers, people discussed their business. Praying was a sheer formality. I told my mother about it and stopped going to shul." [KP note: death date is in error and was probably just an inaccurate memory considering Leonid wrote his recollections late in life.]
The writings at this point become about Leonid himself and Nina Kossman should be contacted in case more information is desired.
MARRIAGE:
1. Ancestry.com's "Latvia, Riga, Jewish Marriages, 1854-1921" in association with JewishGen: Schebsel Kosmann and Ruth Paulina Brenson, 1909."
DEATH:
1. I'm sending the Pages of Testimony which we, i.e. my father and I, filled out and sent to Yad Vashem a couple of years ago. They are for Klara Herzenberg's children and their families. (They are all Herzenbergs even if their last names are different. The family name was not passed on, as they descended from the Herzenbergs through the maternal line.) The genealogy for Klara Herzenberg is Robert, Yosef, Lemchen, and Joseph. Unfortunately, when filling out the forms, I did not put their professions: Ellen was an orthopedic physician; her husband Yakov was a piano teacher; Robert worked in a law firm, Ruth was a cosmetologist. I'm sending these so that the names of these family members, and what happened to them, would be part of the family history, as a way of preserving their memory. I had stones with their names installed at the site of the mass murder in the Rumbuli (or, Rumbula) forest in Riga, as I did for Sophie Herzenberg, her daughters Yevgenia and Flora, and the daughters' husbands, Nikolai and Leo. A lot of info about the Rumbuli (or, Rumbula) memorial is here: <http://www.rumbula.org/riga_jewish_history.shtml>. The website supplies a list of books; one of them, "The Murder of of the Jews in Latvia, 1941-1945" by Bernhard Press, mentions Ellen, Klara Herzenberg's and Isidor Brenson's daughter, as one of the physicians the author knew in the Riga ghetto not long before it was 'liquidated'. Here are the POTs (Pages of Testimony) from the Yad Vashem website:
Brenson, Ruth; Father: Isidor Brenson; Mother: Klara Hertzenberg; Gender: Female; Date of Birth: 9/4/1885; Age: 56; Place of Birth: Yelgava, Jelgavas, Zemgale, Latvia; Citizenship: Latvia; Marital Status: Widow; Spouse's First Name: Stephan Kossman; Permanent residence: Riga, Rigas, Vidzeme, Latvia; Place during the war: Riga,Ghetto; Wartime Address: Ludzia 3; Place of Death: Rumbuli, Rigas, Vidzeme, Latvia; Date of Death: 1941; Cause of Death: Shot; Submitter: Kossman, Nina; Relationship to victim: Granddaughter; Registration date: 16/04/2005.
Brenson, Robert; Father's First Name Isidor; Mother's First Name Klara; Place of Birth: Riga, Rigas, Vidzeme, Latvia; Permanent residence: Riga, Rigas, Vidzeme, Latvia; Place during the war: Riga, Rigas, Vidzeme, Latvia; Place of Death: Riga, Rigas, Vidzeme, Latvia; Date of Death: 1941; Cause of Death: Killing; Submitter: Kossman, Leonid. Relationship to victim: Nephew. Registration date: 16/01/2004.
Brenson, Ellen; Father: Isidor Brenson: Mother: Klara Hertzenberg; Date of Birth: 1890; Place of Birth: Yelgava, Jelgavas, Zemgale, Latvia; Citizenship: Latvia; Married; Spouse: Yakov Melzer; Permanent residence: Riga, Rigas, Vidzeme, Latvia; Place during the war: Riga, Ghetto; Place of Death: Riga, Ghetto; Date of Death: 1941; Cause of Death: Shot; Perpetrator: Nazis; Submitter: Kossman, Nina: Relationship to victim, Great-Niece. Registration date: 17/04/2005.
Brenson, Erik; Father: Robert Brenson; Date of Birth: 18/12/1917; Age: 24; Place of Birth: Riga, Rigas, Vidzeme, Latvia; Citizenship: Latvia; Marital Status: Single; Permanent residence: Riga, Rigas, Vidzeme, Latvia; Profession: Worker; Place during the war: Riga, Rigas, Vidzeme, Latvia; Wartime Address: 64 Dzirnavu Iela, apt. 4; Place of Death: Riga, Rigas, Vidzeme, Latvia; Date of Death: 7/1941; Cause of Death: Shot; Submitter: Kossman, Nina; Relationship to victim: Family; Registration date: 17/08/2006.
Melzer, Anatol; Father: Yakov; Mother: Ellen Brenson; Gender: Male; Date of Birth: 1938; Place of Birth: Riga, Rigas, Vidzeme, Latvia; Marital Status: Child; Permanent residence: Riga, Rigas, Vidzeme, Latvia; Place during the war: Riga, Rigas, Vidzeme, Latvia; Date of Death: 1941; Submitter: Kossman, Leonid; Relationship to victim: Relative; Registration date: 16/01/2004.
Nina's note: I also sent a page of testimony for Enar Brenson (Robert's second son), who was 17 yrs. old when he was killed in 1941, but for some reason only his name is listed on the Yad Vashem website, without the POT (page of testimony).
I have pictures of all of them, except for Erik and Enar, at <http://www.ninakossman.com/leonidkossman/brenson_herzenberg.html> and <http://www.ninakossman.com/leonidkossman/brensons.html>.
2. Death mentioned in detail in biography provided by Irene Gottlieb. See her notes for full biography. Irene notes that Ruth committed suicide rather than accept her life and death being controlled by the Nazis. Other family members contest this statement and are not so sure of death by suicide considering the times and circumstances of life in the Riga ghetto.
Nina Kossman, another grand-daughter of Ruth Brenson, questions whether Ruth actually ever committed suicide even though she evidently contemplated it. Nina recounts: "My father talked about his meeting, right after the war, of a woman who used to work for his family. This woman, whose name was Lena, told him that the last time she saw Ruth (my father's mother) was when Lena came to the fence/wall of the ghetto and Ruth was there. Lena asked: "Is there anything you'd like me to bring you?" Ruth said she wanted Lena to bring her poison. That's all we have as far as what was said."
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Chris & Julie Petersen's Genealogy
1885 - 1941 (55 years)