Trudel Grossman |

Trudel Grossman, née Adler

“Young Jewish people have no future in Germany”

By Gretel Ghamsharick

Trudel Adler is the youngest of three sisters who grow up in a respectable family with a large circle of friends in the Westend district of Frankfurt. From 1933, the family is in mortal danger, and Trudel is the first to leave Germany for the United States.

A niece of Trudel, Mari Ann Schwartzenberg, takes part in the Program of the City of Frankfurt am Main in 2015. She mentions a blog about her aunt called “Trudel´s Truth”. This blog contains letters written by Trudel between 1934 and 1938 to her family in Frankfurt. Many years later, Trudel translates these letters into English. After her death, her son, Leonard Grossman, publishes these letters on a blog called Trudel‘s Truth.

Early decision to leave Germany

In 1933 Trudel writes in her diary: “Young Jewish people have no future in Germany. I think I’ll emigrate to Palestine.” A year earlier, she had lost her job as a milliner because of the poor economic situation. In 1933 the National Socialist government is installed. The same year, her father is fired after 53 years of service at the stock exchange. Her mother dies immediately afterwards, on June 23, 1933.

Given the political situation and the family tragedies, Trudel considers emigration early on. Her elder sister Lotte on the other hand, is tied to the family and cannot leave. She still has a job and takes care of the father, who becomes very ill. Her fiancé owns a successful welding equipment company, which he does not want to abandon at that moment. The family supports and encourages the departure plans of the youngest family member, as one can later read in a letter written by Trudel’s future fiancé.

The ship passage

All beginnings are difficult – work and life

In Chicago she lives crammed in with her aunt and uncle. They had already separated over a year ago. In order to get him to sign the papers necessary for Trudel’s immigration, the aunt agreed to move back to his place. Daily life with the two is difficult as they continue to quarrel. The uncle still speaks no English after 30 years and cannot adjust to life in America. The aunt hopes Trudel will help her run the household and at the same time keep her company. Trudel is therefore worried that she is not going to learn English quickly enough and improve in this environment. In a letter she criticizes her aunt and uncle’s idea of a good time, when they take her to their German singing society.

Trudel immediately looks for work, although the aunt would prefer her to stay at home. In July 1934 she finds work in a hat factory for 14 dollars a week. One of the owners is a nephew of the uncle and also from Frankfurt. The large circle of family and friends whom Trudel can ask for work is worth mentioning. She considers herself very lucky, because she knows many newcomers who have no work.

The wedding – Rabbi Dr. Georg Salzberger

On December 5, 1936 Trudel Adler and Leonard Grossman marry. It is also Trudel’s 24th birthday. They decide to have only a civil ceremony, because Trudel’s family is absent. The situation of Trudel and her family is mentioned in a newspaper article about the wedding. It says that “a young refugee from Germany” has recently opened a hat shop to earn enough money to help her family come over. After the wedding she continues working and Leonard is very active in city politics in addition to his law practice.

In 1937 Trudel’s sister, Erna, comes to Chicago. After the death of their father in Frankfurt in 1938, Lotte escapes just before the war to England on a housemaid visa. A year later, she comes to Chicago.

In 1948 Trudel and Leonard celebrate a large Jewish wedding. Rabbi Dr. Georg Salzberger, who happens to be in Chicago, conducts the ceremony. Her son Leonard is five years and Raymon three years old at the time of the wedding. Between 1910 and 1937, Dr. Georg Salzberger was the rabbi of Frankfurt’s West End Synagogue, which the Adler family attended. The Adler sisters stayed in contact with him over the years. In fact, both of Trudel’s sons visited him years later.

“It breaks her heart that she cannot help.”

In February 1936 Leonard writes letters to her family and tells how Trudel worries about their safety: “It breaks Trudel’s heart that she cannot help.” He also writes that she is frightened when she does not receive letters for a long period of time. He describes their limited resources under the bad economy. “I write you because you should know, if we could, we would do something to help some of you come here. But this is impossible now. (…) She does not know what I am writing. She has written nothing to worry you since coming here, but everything is not easy for her and to get started in a strange country is lonesome work and very hard.”

One can assume that Trudel received many letters for help, and she must have felt despair about her inability to help. In her diary Trudel mentions some letters, including an unfriendly one from Mr. Warburg. Presumably, she sent a help request to the American relatives of the Warburg family, a wealthy banking family, who originated from Frankfurt, but probably received a rejection.

No more letters

Trudel wrote about 90 letters, beginning with her voyage on May 9, 1934 until August 27, 1937. The last letter contains a birthday greeting to her father. That same year her sister Erna comes to Chicago. A year later her father dies, her sister Lotte, who had looked after him until his death, comes to Chicago under dire circumstances in 1940.

One can only guess why Trudel ceases writing letters. The family’s situation is more desperate and Lotte’s letters become scarce. It is probable that Erna brought the letters to Chicago because there exist no letters from the time after Erna arrived in the USA. Any letter Trudel sent to Frankfurt would have not been kept because Lotte was too busy taking care of the father (see Mari Ann Schwartzenberg).

Ginnheim – life in Chicago

The son, Leonard Grossman, remembers his mother as an amazing, warm and humorous woman who worked hard her whole life and was engaged in her community. The letters give an impression of how hard her life as a young woman must have been, yet their tone is lively and cheerful. A few months after her husband’s death in 1956, Trudel buys a small house in a western district of Chicago.