My name is Ruth Tindley and I was born in England in 1943. My parents were both born in Vienna, Austria although they met in London. My father, Siegfried Muhlstein, was both a Jew and a political activist. He served terms of custody in both Dachau and Buchenwald and was released from Buchenwald in August 1939, and came immediately to London. To the best of our knowledge all his relatives were exterminated by the Nazis.
My mother, Ida nee Rausnitz, came to England as a domestic servant in 1938. Her father, Josef Leopold Rausnitz (or Rausnicz) was believed to have been born in Pápa, now in Hungary. He had a brother Henry (or Henrik or Heinrich) who emigrated to America in the 1920's. My mother's brother, Wilhelm, was still alive at the outbreak of World War II. After the war all efforts to discover his fate were to no avail.
I am now trying to find out more about my family and whether there are
any surviving relatives of my mother's. In May 1999 my daughter,
Gail, and I travelled to Vienna and Hungary to research our family history.
The following is an account of our research. The main
purpose in posting this information is to prevent others from ploughing
the same furrow, however I should be pleased to hear from anyone who would
like to comment or provide further information. Feedback may
be sent to ruth.tindley@ntlworld.com
OUR RESEARCH
This is an account of our search for anyone called Rausnitz in Vienna,
Austria and Hungary. One of the problems we encountered is
the variant spellings of the name including:
RAUSNITZ
RAUSNICZ
RAUZNITZ
RAUSCHNITZ
and others. We found documentary evidence showing that
the spelling can change within the same family.
We began in Vienna at the central cemetery (Zentralfriedhof).
The Jewish section of the cemetery is located at gate (Tor) 4 on Simmeringer
Hauptstrasse (tram 71 stops directly outside the gate). At
the office there is a card index of all buried in the Jewish section; these
are stored in roughly alphabetical order. The contents of the
cards are also stored on a computer that can be searched. The
man in charge had to go to a stone laying ceremony so we searched the computer
ourselves for every name we were interested in. We found a
record of the grave of Rausnicz, Josef Leopold (Ruth Tindley’s grandfather)
which we knew was there, but were very surprised to learn of other Rausnitz
buried there. We printed all the details from the computer
and photocopied the card entries. We found it difficult to
find most of the graves, despite having area, row and grave numbers for
each person. The ground was very wet and most parts of the
cemetery are very overgrown making it very difficult to find graves.
Even where the area was clear, sometimes the graves
appeared to be missing.
Link
to "Graves in Central Friedhof".
In the Vienna phone book there are 2 Rausnitz listed who have been contacted previously but who did not wish to be involved in searching for relatives. They are:
Rausnitz, Charlotte: Wien 1100, Weldengasse 28, Stg 4b
Rausnitz, Ingeborg: Wien 1020, Franz Hochedlingergasse 18.
We then travelled to Pápa in Hungary where Rausnicz, Josef Leopold and his brother Rausnicz, Henrik/Henry were believed to have been born. Before we left we obtained microfilms of the Jewish birth, death and marriage records for Pápa sent to us by the National Archive in Budapest. We could find no Rausnicz listed for the years we believe the Rausnicz brothers were in Pápa. We went to the Reform College in Pápa located at Március 15. ter. They have a library containing records of all the pupils who attended the school and the librarian spoke a little German. The pupils are listed in Year Books. Apparently, Jewish children were taught at the college up until 1895, they then went to a Jewish school. We searched the Year Books from 1875-1901 but found no entries for Rausnicz. The library did have a book about the Jewish population in Pápa which had a summary in English.
The book listed the Jews from Pápa who in 1944 were sent to the ghetto and from there to concentration camps; no Rausnicz listed.
The librarian contacted Kiss, László (the leader of the
Jewish community in Pápa). His address is Vásár
utca 10, tel. no. 323050. We went to see him and his wife.
She speaks very good German. Mr Kiss (pronounced "Kish")
told us that his records had been sent to Slovakia for safe-keeping during
the war and have not been seen since. Exactly what kind of
records these were, we do not know. There are now only ~15
Jews in Pápa. He told us of a large orthodox community
in Brooklyn, NY that originated in Pápa. We were given
the names of two leaders in Brooklyn;
Arez Meneze and Lipot Rubinstein,
Congregation Kehilath Yakov Pápa, Brooklyn NY 11211.
If we contact them and mention Kiss, László then they
may be willing to help us.
These men visit Pápa regularly.
We went to the records office in the town hall (városháza) on Fö ter and were told that they only have records after 1885. The receptionist took us to the old synagogue on Petöfi Sándor utca, in the hope that they may have some records; they don’t. The building is accessed via a gate bearing stars of David. There is no longer a Rabbi in Pápa but the building still seemed to be used as a meeting hall for Jews despite it’s poor state of repair.
We attempted to find the new and old Jewish cemeteries in Pápa. We obtained a map from the tourist office on which is marked a cemetery located on Külsö Veszprémi utca, near the lake, but we could not find it. We went to the main cemetery and after finding a visiting mourner from USA who spoke English and Hungarian explained to the undertaker that we wanted to know if there are any Rausnicz buried in Pápa. They took us to the new Jewish cemetery which is on Külsö Veszprémi utca but you have to knock at gate no. 27. The man who lives there has the new Jewish cemetery behind his house. He holds a list of all buried there together with the key to the prayer hall in front of the cemetery which contains memorial plaques. No Rausnicz were listed. We looked round the cemetery which is in good condition and is still used. It has been in use since 1900. It also contains a memorial to those who died in the holocaust. There is an old Jewish cemetery in Pápa which was used prior to 1900. We believe that this is at the rear of the main cemetery but it is apparently very overgrown and entry is not permitted. The older gravestones in the new cemetery were in Hebrew so we believe that the grave stones in the old cemetery would also have been in Hebrew, and we can’t read Hebrew!!
We went to Veszprém, the capital of the county that Pápa is in. We went to the Levéltár (archive office) situated at Vár utca (Castle Street). This is a pedestrianised area accessed through Ováros tér. There are two doors marked Levéltár on the right hand side. The second door is the one needed. We spoke to an archivist who spoke very little English. He tried to find birth records for Jews in Pápa in the year Rausnicz, Josef Leopold was born (1880); the records were missing. He did find records for the surrounding area; no Rausnicz listed.
We tried to find Wollak, László , reportedly the head of the Jewish Community in Veszprém. Bob Kornspan told us that he owned a travel shop at Ováros tér 26 but we couldn’t find it. A woman in a nearby Tourist Information Office spoke English and was very helpful. She told us that the travel agency had closed and put us in contact with two women who are members of the Jewish community in Veszprém; Máthé, Éva home tel. no. 429996, work tel. no. 426055 and Dr. Wittmann, Zsuzsa, Pap István u. 16., 8248 Nemesvámos, home tel/fax no. (36) 88-265232, tel. no. (36) 30-9465256. They both speak English and we met them.
They have some records e.g. the ghetto lists for Veszprém. There were no Rausnicz on the small ghetto list which listed people from the surrounding area. We did not see the list of names from the large ghetto which held people from the town. There used to be two synagogues in Veszprém, both have been knocked down and built on. They gave us a copy of a chapter from a book about Jews in Veszprém; it is however, in Hungarian!!
We went to the Jewish cemetery in Veszprém situated on Mártirok utca. The building at the front of the cemetery is going to be made into a memorial in June by the Jewish community, in addition they are setting up an exhibition in the town museum. In the cemetery we found the grave of “Rausnitz, Ignácz 1877-1942” as reported by Bob Kornspan. It is located directly behind the cemetery building. We walked further into the cemetery and were met by a dog!! Up a path on the left hand side is a house. The owners had a photocopied list of all the graves in the cemetery in semi-alphabetical order. The grave was listed as “Rausnitz, Ignácz 1942 Nov 17 age 65, 16, 5 sor, 10 sir” (the last numbers are location identifiers). Under the entry were ditto marks indicating that the grave was a double grave but that his wife was not buried with him, presumably lost in the holocaust.
We returned to the Levéltár to find out more information about this man but they could not help and sent us to the town hall. (This is contrary to what Bob Kornspan was told – he managed to find more about this man ). A woman called Maria at window 8 spoke German and entered the names Rausnitz, Rausnicz, Rauznitz and Rauznicz on her computer. She could find no records but we do not know exactly what records she was searching.
We then travelled to Budapest. In the Budapest phone book
we found;
Rausnitz, Endréné 1074 Dob u 3 ,I, 12a. tel. no.
1427244 (3427244) and
Rausnitz, Peterné 1119 Hengermalom Koz 3. tel. no. 2042162
We rang both numbers but neither was answered. We went to the address of the first person listed but there was no reply. Interestingly the door bell stated Rauznitz. We rang the bell of a neighbour who was very unhelpful. Another neighbour spoke a little English and gave us the phone number of Rauznitz, Tamás 3194822. We rang him and he spoke very good English and we arranged to meet. He is the grandson of Endréné who was in hospital, and Peterné is his mother. The number listed for Peterné is a flat that they rent out but is currently empty. Peterné and Tamás lived at Olt u. 19, I/3, Budapest 1112. Tamás Rauznitz can be contacted by email: laaten@yahoo.com
We also searched virtually every entry in the Hungarian phone directories. The numbers are ludicrously listed under town or village so it takes a long time to look at every town and village in each of the 19 directories covering Hungary. We could not search directories for the following areas because they were missing; 6 -Fejér, 9 – Heves, 10 – Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok, 13-Pest (outer). We found an entry for Rauznitz, Endre, Szent Imre u. 8, Bekessent András, tel. no. (66) 217412. He is a relative of Tamás who died last year. Directory enquiries (198) can find an operator who speaks English but can only search for names in a specified town.
Link to "The family of Rauznitz, Tamás".
Interestingly there was a Rausnitz, Henrik in his family of the same generation as our Rausnicz, Henrik and the Rausnitz, Henry in NY. Tamás’ family were Jewish and their name was Rausnitz, now changed to Rauznitz. His father and brother live in Columbus, Indiana, USA, and Tamás has recently moved there also. We were taken to his grandmother's house and shown lots of family photos and certificates.
We went to the Jewish museum associated with the central synagogue in Budapest (located at Dohány u.). A man there told us to go to the “JOINT”?? “CHEVRA KADISA”. We think this is the spelling of Hebrew words for Jewish records office. The office is located at VII Sip ut. 12 and is under security surveillance. A policeman answered the doorbell and the office was closed. We did not return.
The Jewish cemetery is located out of town in area X, off Jaszberenyi ut.. We were warned not to ask locals there for directions. Tamás went with us to the cemetery. They have an office which has record cards and a computerised system much like they had in Vienna. They unfortunately did not have a printer or a photocopier so we had to write down the details of over 40 Rausnitz’ buried there. Some were from Tamás’ family, including Rausnitz Henrik his great-grandfather. We did obtain a paper and pencil rubbing of the plaque placed there in memory of Rausnitz Endre, Tamás' grandfather, but this proved impossible to reproduce with sufficient clarity.
(Link to "Graves in the Jewish cemetery, Budapest").
We went to the Hungarian National Archive situated at Bécsi kapu
tér 2-4, Budapest 1014. The archivist there spoke English
but said that we did not have enough firm information and he could do no
more than tell us to go to the office where microfilms are held; Szovjet
Laktanya – old Soviet Ministry, off Bécsi ut. (see page 6 A3 of
Freytag & Berndt Atlas of Budapest). The archivist said
that they only held church records (we doubt this). We did
not visit the microfilm office because we already had microfilms of the
relevant records.
In summary, we did not manage to find any evidence that our Henrik and
Josef Rausnicz ever existed in Hungary nor the Henrik Rausnicz the ancestor
of Joan in NY. We did find many Rausnitz buried in the Jewish
cemeteries in Vienna, Veszprém and Budapest. We will
probably never know whether all the Rausnitz families are related but we
had fun trying to find out!!