The original German document of “Happy Childhood in the Village” (Fröhliche Kindheit im Dorf) is kept at the Leo Baeck Institute; the 2nd part, “Between Two World Wars”, “A Family in times of Storm” and the rest of the document: (Durch Zwei Weltkriege, Eine Familie in Sturmzeiten) is kept at the Institut für Stadtgeschichte, Karmeliterkloster, Frankfurt am Main (and WAS NEVER PUBLISHED before). It was written by the writer for her granddaughter Liora Bernstein, and translated for Liora from German into English by Liora`s mother, Eva Marianna. The manuscript describing the writer`s adult life, was abridged by the translator. Both are now joined here, for the first time, nearly 50 years after the author`s demise,in Eva Marianna`s English Translation.
Few Personal words
Johanna Harris (née Brandes) was my maternal grandmother. She wrote me letters and sent photographs and small gifts. She wrote the story of her life for me, her only bloodline grandchild. I met her only once. She passed away in 1965. What most strikes me, as I read her biography from my place in the future, is her lack of hatred for her motherland Germany or for its people. I do not, however, read German, and have no way of knowing what or how my mother, the translator, may have edited or abridged the biography. My late father, who brought me up in Israel (my parents divorced in my infancy), banned all books about the holocaust from the house. ”You are too sensitive,” he used to say.
Johanna was brought up in a family of eight living siblings (originally there were 12 children born) in a small 19th century community, Oberaula, where *everybody* knew *everything* about *everyone* else, no matter their status, livelihood, religion, and so on. I believe this was the energy that drove her to revive and resuscitate her childhood memories and her adult life on double spaced typewritten sheets of paper, when she was near the end of her life, in the loneliness of her old age in a small room in Massachusetts. I was told she lived on a small pension from the City of Frankfurt, where my grandfather, Leopold Harris, had once been Chief of Police.
Johanna wrote what she saw and did not display her thoughts. That is how I read about her life and see my other family through her exploits.I admire her. The second part of her biography describes her life as an adult, her escape from Germany in the 25th hour, before the holocaust, and continues to describe her stay in England and eventually her final home, America. There is a gap, of about 10-15 years, in the description of her life, from the time she left Oberaula till the time we meet her in Frankfurt, managing her workshop, where she manufactured special material for corsets and girdles. Nothing is told us or known to me of the time she spent in France (where she had learned how to manufacture the [probably] elastic fabric) or where she had learned French and English or got the money for her business, information mentioned very curtly and casually in the manuscript.
Johanna was married Leopold (Eliezer ) Harris, who became Frankfurt`s Polizierpraesident in 1919. She passed away on 9 August, 1965, in USA. Her Husband, Leopold Harris died a natural death on 9th August, 1933, in Strasbourg.
The "Megilla" also contains a HUGE family tree, courtesy of Mr. Aubrey Mendelow. who wrote: You will notice that the Brandes family is one of several families who we believe are related.
In 1807, Napoleon's brother Jérôme became king of Westphalia (1807–13) and in 1808 mandated that the Jews of the Westphalian Kingdom take steady names. The six brothers took on differing surnames:- Brandes, Sommer, Tannenwald, Nusbaum and two others which at this stage are unknown.
Also relevant are:
https://sites.google.com/site/lunamillenium/
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0054KJJEO
http://www.jewishmag.com/154mag/grandparents/grandparents.htm
