Julius Abrahamsohn kam am 6. Januar 1862 in Lengerich, Steinfurt zur Welt. Er war zuerst mit einer Schwester oder Cousine von Rosalia Berghausen aus Hohenhausen, Lippe verheiratet. Deren Tochter Bertha Johanna kam am 25. März 1891 in Köln zur Welt. Ihr Sohn Gustav (* 10. Oktober 1894) fiel 1917 im 1. Weltkrieg. Sohn Josef Levi wurde am 3. November 1897 geboren und Sohn Hermann am 13. August 1900. Nachdem Julius‘ erste Frau verstorben war heiratete er 1902 Rosalia Berghausen (* 17. Januar 1868).
Julius und Rosalie lebten an der Elsaßstr. 16 in Köln, südlich des Severinstors. Julius war ein Altmetallhändler. Ihre Tochter Emmy kam am 13. August 1902 zur Welt und Sohn Heinz am 24. Oktober 1905. Julius starb am 29. April 1934 im Israelitischen Asyl in Köln-Ehrenfeld an einer Blasenentzündung (Cystitis) und wurde auf dem jüdischen Friedhof in Köln-Bocklemünd beerdigt.
Die Kinder von Julius änderten nach dem Ersten Weltkrieg ihren Familiennamen in Bramson. Bertha Johanna heiratete Mathias Bergmann aus Aachen. Hermann heiratete Mathilde Ploetz und bekam einen Sohn Karl-Heinz (3. Dezember 1930). Josef heiratete Johanna Tobias aus Hamm an der Sieg am 27. März 1932. Ihre Tochter Margot wurde 1934 geboren. Sie lebten bei Josefs Familie an der Elsaßstr. 16. Josef war gelernter Schuhmacher aber arbeitete wie sein Vater als Altmetallhändler. Johanna arbeitete bei der Metzgereo Carl Katz an der Severinstraße. Im September 1938, kurz vor der Kristallnacht, emigrierte die Familie mit ihrer dreijährigen Tochter via Rotterdam in die Vereinigten Staaten. Sie bauten sich in Hartford, Connecticut ein neues Leben auf. Josef arbeitete als Maschinist für die Royal Typewriter Co. Johanna begann für ein Damenbekleidungsgeschäft zu arbeiten und engagierte sich im Hartford Jewish Community Center.
Im April 1945 bekam Josef die Nachricht, dass sein Bruder Hermann und seine Schwester Emmy den Krieg in Köln überlebt hatten, ebenso wie Emmys Tochter Eva Margarete und ihr Sohn Kurt Heinz. Ihr Mann Martin Fritz, ein Kürschner, war schon vor dem Krieg verstorben. Der Hartford Courant berichtete am 17. April 1945 von diesem Ereignis.
Bramson Is Notified Family Safe in Germany
Joseph Bramson, 20 Cabot Street, a native of Cologne, has learned of the safety of his family in Germany through letters from two American soldiers, one of whom is Staff Sergeant Julius Yellen, son of Mr. and Mrs. Benjamin Yellen, 6 Acton Street.
Mr. Bramson, who came to America in 1938, had received no word of his brother and sisters since 1939 and believed they had been killed or placed in concentration camps. Sergeant Yellen, however, wrote that a comrade, Staff Sergeant Henry Schueftan, had attended Passover Services and met a Herman Bramson who said he had relatives in Hartford. „Being a Hartfordite myself, it was really thrilling news,“ Yellen wrote.
Sergeant Schueftan also wrote Mr. Bramson here, and stated in part: „It so happened that our chaplain conducted Pesach Services in a place which is now under the control of the American Army and it was there that I happened to meet your brother, Herman. He wants me to tell you that he and his sisters are well.“
Hermann Bramson, dessen Frau Mathilde Christin war, war einer der Mitbegründer der neuen jüdischen Gemeinde von Köln. Er war Vorsitzender des Vorstands, verantwortlich für den jüdischen Friedhof und für den ersten Rücktransport der Überlebenden aus Theresienstadt nach Köln. Außerdem war er zum Leiter des Israelitischen Asyls ernannt worden, das zu dieser Zeit als Flüchtlingsunterkunft für heimatlos gewordene Juden diente.
Auch seine Schwester Bertha Johanna hatte in Köln überlebt und lebte nach dem Krieg an der Roonstr. in der Nähe der Synagoge.
Josefs Bruder Heinz war 1938 nach Buenos Aires ausgewandert. 1966 fand ein großes Familientreffen in West Hartford statt. Wieder berichtete am 29. Mai 1966 der Hartford Courant.
Family Separated by War Comes To a Happy Reunion
By BARBARA CARLSONAbout a dozen people sat down to a big turkey dinner Saturday at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Bramson, 18 King Edward Rd., West Hartford.
The turkey dinner seemed fitting: the guests of honor were Mr. and Mrs. Heinz Bramson who arrived in Hartford Saturday from Buenos Aires, Argentina. It was the first time Bramson had seen his brother, Joseph, and his sister, Mrs. Emmy Fritz since he left Germany in 1935, escaping the Jewish pogroms.
Mrs. Fritz, who is 64 and lives with [her] daughter and son-in-law at 114 Baltimore St., was among the family members who met Heinz at New York’s Kennedy Airport Saturday morning.
„You should see the crying at the airport,“ she said. „All we could do was cry. I’m still shaking.“
As it was with many German Jewish families, the end of World War II found the Bramsons scattered. The Bramsons, though, were luckier than some.
Mrs. Fritz and her daughter, Mrs. Eva Oken, hid out in Cologne cellars during the war. Mrs. Fritz’s son, Kurt, survived the Dachbau concentration camp, and lives now in Hartford with his family. Joseph and Heinz Bramson left Germany before the war. Mrs. Fritz’s mother, who was 71 at the time, died at the Bergen-Belsen camp.
This was not forgotten at the reunion, but it was shoved into the background. It was a time for laughter and good food and talk—the youngsters speaking in English and their elders in German or Yiddish.
Heinz Bramson, 60, now retired, could tell of his years with the Philharmonic Orchestra in Buenos Aires. He is a bassonist and his talent with the basoon was what enabled him to get out of Hitler’s Germany. He had been playing in Germany and had an offer to join the Philharmonic in Argentina. He took the offer.
Joseph Bramson, 68, left Germany in 1937 but Mrs. Fritz and her two children (her husband died a year before the war began) stayed in the country.
Mrs. Oken, about 6-years old when the war broke out, remembers living in a home for Jews for a while.
„Then one night it got really bad,“ she said, „and we packed our two-by-four nothing and went over the railroad tracks near the home. The station man hit us out until we could escape. After that it was one cellar after another.“
Kurt Fritz, a teenager, was picked up by the Gestapo on the street in 1941 and shipped to Dachau.
„But,“ said Mrs. Oken, „I’ve been here for 17 years now and it’s made up for everything. Everything is A-OK now.“
Heinz Bramson will be staying with his brother for a month.
There are no definite plans for his stay but „we want to show him the beautiful countryside, and maybe Mystic and New London,“ Mrs. Oken said. „We want him to see all the things we love.“
Josef starb am 18. Dezember 1973 und Johanna am 28. November 1995.
Emmy Fritz starb am 15. Januar 1998 in Orange, New Haven. Ihre beiden Kinder waren bereits 1993 verstorben.
Hermann Bramson verstarb 1981.