God is one

Most days I spend  an hour swimming or exercising at the Jewish Community Center in Marblehead, Masachusetts. If you, dear reader, were by my side, observing the children going  in and out of the the classrooms of the kindergarten and  preschool facilities, you might wonder where the genes for this blue eyed, blond haired throng came from.

The Kalters and the Frenkels are Jewish families having their origins in that part of the Ukraine which is called Galicia and  was once a part of the Austro Hungarian Empire. During the first World War my father, Emil Frenkel, and my maternal uncle, Norbert Kalter, were soldiers fighting for the Austro-Hungarian Empire.After the first world war Galicia became part of the newly independant Poland and after the second world war it was incorporated into the Soviet Union. When the Soviet Union split up into a "Commonwealth Of Nations" Galicia became part of the Ukraine.  Wars,  the rise and fall of empires, and the Holocaust have brought  tragedy and misery into the lives of my ancestors. The Kalter memorial below traces the misfortunes of the Austrian branch of the Kalter family  from the late 19th century to the present. Norbert, fell on the Italien front a few days before the end of the first world war; my grandfather never recovered from the loss. Another son, Ignatz, persecuted by the GESTAPO, eventually committed suicide.

The Schroeders had their origins in the Prussian and East Prussian peasantry and bourgeoisie. Anita Schroeder's paternal grand father was a professional soldier, a petty officer in the famed 24th Regiment of the Prussian Infantry.  Her maternal grandmother was born in her family's mill in East Prussia. Anita's father participated in both world wars. He was gassed in the first and captured in the second.

I,  Lothar Frenkel, am the sole survivor of my family; the rest  fell victim to the Holocaust. My father and paternal grandfather were agnostics and I had no religious instructions. I married Anita Schroeder. We met at the Nuremberg War Crimes Trials where she was Bureau Chief of ADN, the East German News Agency, and I was a court interpreter. Our courtship lasted four hours and our marriage endured fifty four years unitl her death in 2002. We had three children.We brought them up without  religion, but one of our sons married a woman who is serious about her Jewish roots . As a consequence, we have two grandchildren who tend to be part of the Jewish community of the North Shore of Boston and, so,  we too, may, in time, contribute to the gene pool of that group.

Mankind is one

ILLUSTRATED FAMILY HISTORIES

THE FRENKELS             LOTHAR's BIO AND THE HISTORY of  LOTHAR & ANITA
Genealogical Notes                        The Frenkels down to 1800

THE KALTERS                MY MOTHERS FAMILY & IN MEMORIAM OF  NORBERT AND IGNATZ  K.

THE SCHROEDERS        ANITA's ORIGINS

ANITA 1                              SHORT BIO
ANITA 2                              LAST PHOTOS
ANITA 3                              EPILOGUE & OBITUARY

PHOTOS :                

GENERATIONS                  MEMBERS OF 6 GENERATIONS OF OUR FAMILIES
GENERATION6                  THE 6TH GENERATION

GALLERY1                          (Mostly Anita Lothar and the Children with some Cavallis & Schroeders  mixed in)
GALLERY2                          (Nuremberg  1948, My mothers siblings and more of Anita's granparents)
GALLERY 3                         (Frenkel family photos)