[Ger-Poland-Volhynia] names

[Vera-Lynne Benson]

Ok, so we Germans and Jews had the SAME surnames.  We lived in the same
general area.  How could the Nazi soldiers tell the difference
between the "wandering Jew" and the "wandering German"?
Thru the religion they practised? 

What type of paperwork did our families have to prove 
that we were ethnic Germans....especially
after many of us escaped Siberia?   Didn't we escape with nothing?
Did we have to re-apply for "german paperwork"?  How did it work
back then?

Wasn't it a scary thing to share the same name as a family about to go
to the death....and us, who were saved.  Weren't we vulnerable
back then to share the SAME names?     - vl  


Jerry Frank <FranklySpeaking at shaw.ca> wrote:

>At 04:46 PM 22/04/2006, Günther Böhm wrote:
>>Lloyd Friedrick schrieb:
>>
>> >Here are two family names...........Hartmann .....  Kupferstein
>> >Would these be common Jewish family names in Poland - Volhynia ?
>> >
>>Lloyd,
>>yes, definitely. HARTMANN has more than 1000 records in the
>>www.yadvashem.org database, KUPFERSTEIN 783 records.
>>
>>Guenther
>
>
>
>However, to reiterate a discussion that took
>place here a year or so ago, this does not mean
>that Lloyd's family has any Jewish
>connections.  My Frank surname also has more than
>1000 hits on that database but they were not
>Jews.  Jews did not use surnames until forced to
>do so in the late 1700s.  It is therefore far
>more likely that they adapted or adopted your
>surname than that we descend from them.
>
>I am not, by the way, anti Jewish.  I just don't
>think we should get side tracked into Jewish
>research unless documentation leads us there.
>
>
>
>
>Jerry Frank - Calgary, Alberta
>FranklySpeaking at shaw.ca
>
>
>
>
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