The
glorious history of the Pollack dynasty
from 1844 till modern time.
The earliest Pollack we know of is Heinrich Pollack, born 14.4.1844 in Glogau, Prussia. Nowadays Glogów, Poland. Married to Rudolfine Pauly born 5.1.1852 in Breslau, Prussia. Heinrich died 6.10.1911 in Berlin and Rudolfine 19.4.1925. They are the grandparents of my grandfather. Heinrich fought in the German-French war of the 1870s, and even earned a medal. He worked as a judge, a proffession prohibited for jews. The reason for this exception is probably his heroic achievements in the war.
Their son, Karl Friedrich Walter, my grandfathers father, had four siblings, three brothers, two older and one younger, and one younger sister. Walter lived to the age of almost 35, when he tragically died because of the cure he had been given to an undangerous sickness. The cure had been given by his older brother Kurt, who died two months before Walter. Walter was born 7.12.1880 in Köslin, Germany, and died 30.8.1915 in St. Moritz, Switzerland. His older brother Kurt lived to the age of 39, he was born 10.8.1876. Their father had already died then, but their mother survived two of her own sons. My great grandfather's other older brother was named Franz, born 9.12.1878 in Dramburg, just like Kurt. No one knows what happened to him nor his wife Helene Lauda. We strongly suspect they were murdered in the holocaust. Walter's younger brother, Erich, heritaged Walter's juridic firm that he had started by himself, since Walter's son, Heinz, my grandfather was only 1½ years old when his father died. Naturally, that firm was confiscated by the nazis later on. Erich, born 27.10.1882 was married to Else Ziesche and had a daughter. When his wife died in 1929 he remarried Hilde Klose who was catholic, he converted to catholisism for her, and that's what saved his life. He survived the holocaust, but had to do very hard work which totally destroyed his health. We dont know what happened to his daughter, Lotte van Sauberzweig, who had married a dutch and moved to Amsterdam. Last time anyone heard of her was in the 40s. Most likely she was one of the Holocaust victims. Walter's youngest sister, Erna, born 13.2.1890 made Aliyah to Israel before WWII and became one of the early pioneers. She died in 1975 in Haifa.
Walter himself, was married to Ida Perlmann, my great grandmother. Daughter of Saweli Maximilian Perlmann, born 7.2.1850 in Sagan, Schlezien, and Taube Selde Jeanette Blidin, born 27.7.1851 in Sagan, Schlezien. Ida Perlmann also had seven siblings. Except for herself, only two of them have descendants living today, as far as we know.
Before we go into my own family, I wanna focus on her background. Her father, Saweli, was a fur dealer, travelling a lot between Russia and Germany. His two oldest daughters were born in Moscow. Sadly enough, he declared bankrupcy in the 1880s and moved to London. Some of his children moved with him. His wife, who after Saweli's death in 7.2.1850 was a widow in 12 years moved back to Germany and lived with my grandfather and his mother, her daughter, until her death in 17.3.1928.
Now, to Saweli's eight children:
1. Cacilie (Sonja), born 23.9.1871 in Moscow. Married to Leon Toker. She died in London 1949, and had a daughter, Annemarie. We know that she had two children, Robert and Ian Campbell, but thats all we know about that branch of the family tree.
2. Annie, born 14.2.1876 in Moscow, committed suicide 13.2.1942 in Leipzig because of her husband, Hugo Pevsner's death two years earlier in asthma. They had two children, The oldest, Heinrich Wolfgang died in a boat accident in 1919 before his 19th birthday. The second, Nikolai, or Nikolaus Pevsner, moved to London. He was a very important person, and if you wanna know exactly who he is and what he did, search for his name on the internet. I guarantee you will find more than enough. He was born 30.1.1902 in Leipzig, and died 18.8.1983 in London. His descendants still live in England unto this day, although Ive never met them. Nikolaus' son, Thomas, for example, born 2.10.1926 has produced many James Bond movies. Nikolaus great grandson, Alexandre David Hodgshon-Ancel is in my age, and Ive never met him. Ive been trying to find om the internet, without results.
3. Bernhard born 20.4.1879 in Leipzig, died in 1902 in Port Arthur, and thats more or less all we know about him.
4. Else born 4.7.1880, dead 29.6.1907 in Berlin. She only lived to the age of 27. She was known to be the most beautiful of all the Perlmann sisters, and people used to turn around in the street when she went by. Those genes still live in my family. Just look at my sister. Else was very sensitive to infections, and it was a throat infection, which finally killed her in 1907.
5. Paula, born 13.7.1881 in Leipzig, dead 1949 in London, married to Eric Graddon.
6. Ida Pollack, my great grandmother. Born 2.10.1882 in Leipzig. Married to K.F.Walter Pollack. More about her later.
7. Georg, born 11.3.1884 in Leipzig. Married to Ilse Stein. Fought in WWI in Austria, was once taken captive in India. Saved my great grandmother's life by taking her to Afghanistan in 1939. Emigrated to USA and died 24.1.1966 in New York. Married to Ilse Stein. Their descendants are still alive in the states somewhere. My aunt and her family knows them, and have visited them.
8. Woldemar, born 5.7.1887. Went to the states, and no one knows what happened to him. My grandfather heard rumours he had gone to Alaska to search gold, and was killed in a bar, and often dreamt of him comming back with sacks of gold. That never happened.
My grandfather grew up with his mother. The once wealthy family Pollack had now lost most of it's savings because of the inflation after WWI. They started to rent out rooms in the big house they owned, and that way, they earned enough money to live. Until 1928 Ida's mother lived with them too.
After the rise of Hitler it became forbidden to rent rooms from jews. Ida and her son Heinrich Günther Israel Pollack, born 14.12.1913, were forced to get rid of their furniture and move to a smaller apartment. Instead of selling it, they gave it away to friends and family, since they as jews couldnt get any decent price for them.
My grandfather had several times tried to get to Sweden, where he had a girlfriend, but without success. In 1938 he got permission to leave Germany for England. In 1939 he finally got permission to enter Sweden. Not as a fugitive, but as a student.
Ida's life was saved by her brother Georg, and she arrived safely to Afghanistan. She was just about to go to Sweden to see her son again for the first time after ten years, when she died in Kaboul 30.9.1949
Heinrich later married Gullan Rooth, my grandmother, and they had three children: Mats (Ulf Mattias), born 9.4.1950 Ester (Ester Edla Inga-Lill) born 22.4.1954 and Peppe (Heinz-Peter Josef), my father, born 8.8.1956.
In the beginning of the 70s my grandparents divorced, and Heinrich made aliyah and moved to Israel. My father came with him, but soon decided to go back to Sweden. Mostly because of longing to his mother.
When he came back to Sweden he went to study at a residential college for adult education in Mellansel, northern Sweden. He lived with a family of 6 children there, and fell in love with the oldest, who happens to be my mother, Hannah Pollack born 2.6.1959.
They got married in 1977, and lived at the beginning in Kumla, later they moved to Upplands-Bro. Thats where I was born. On a bright day March 16th 1982 8.25 in the morning on the Löwenströmska hospital. I lived some time alone with my young and unexperienced parents, and got a sister 31.12.1983 named Annalill. When I was 2½ years old we moved to Växjö in Småland. That's where my younger brother, Jonathan was born 2.6.1986. In march 1989 we moved to Uppsala, where we stayed until the emigration 1995. My youngest brother Josef was born there, 22.6.1990. I went to school in Uppsala from 1st to 6th grade, and then we emigrated. I had been prepared for this my whole life. I always knew we would once move, my dad had told me so. One day we would move home to our homeland Israel, where our grandfather already lives. I had already been there twice, and I thought I was ready, at least in part, for what would come.
The plane landed. I stepped out. The heat, that I wasnt used to, struck me. I looked around. It was not the first time I was at the Ben Gurion Airport, but it was the first time I came to Israel to stay. Stay forever. My first words in Israel were (and I had practiced this): "A small step for mankind, but a giant leap for a man". My new life had begun. I was home. After 2000 years I was finally back home where I belonged. This was my country and my people, and it took some years, but I now speak fluent hebrew, know the israeli culture well, have political opinions (where there are two jews there are three opinions). The only distinguished israeli thing I lack is the hutzpah.
In october 2000, the Al-Aqsa intifada broke out. As a result, both my parents were laid off from work, since they both worked in tourism. Therefore, my entire family has been forced to move back to Sweden. I, on the other hand, have decided to stay. So far, only my father is left here in Israel with me, but he will also leave to Sweden when I have finished high school. Then I will join the israeli army.
This is the country I love, this is the country of my people, the eternal country, this is where my home is, and this is where Im going to stay whatever happens. My Swedish citizenship and the Swedish language are the only Swedish things that are left in me. I am a jew, an israeli. The star of David is carved into my heart, and I am glad and proud to soon be joining the israeli army, to protect my beloved homeland.