The Mayers and the Marxes |

Harriet Mayer, Renata Levy, Natalie Green Giles

„Wie kann nor e Mensch net von Frankfurt sein!“ (Friedrich Stoltze)

(Friedrich Stoltze: A famous local poet from the 19th century. He is asking a rhetoric question: “How can it be that there are people who are not from Frankfurt?”)

from Martina Faltinat Natalie Green Giles, Renata Levy and Harriet Mayer

*Harriet Mayer, Renata Levy and Natalie Green Giles from the United States of America are descendants of the families Mayer und Marx, who had lived since generations in Frankfurt. Stoltze’s declaration of love to the city by the Main river was certainly spoken from their hearts.
Frankfurt was more for them than work and income. Here Frankfurt’s Westend and Eastend came together because of the love between Martin Mayer und Aenne Marx, here arose a home for both families, which got lost for all forcibly 1933.*

The descendants of the Mayers visit the homestead of their ancestors

Harriet Mayer, born in 1942, Renata Levy, born in 1938 and Natalie Green Giles, born in 1965, are descendants of those two families from Frankfurt. Renata Levy took part in the visiting program of the Magistrate in 2014, Harriet Mayer and Natalie Green Giles in 2016.

Harriet Mayer, née Glickman, is the daughter-in-law of Martin and Aenne Mayer, née Marx.
Harried was married to Richard Mayer (1934 Frankfurt – 2010 New York), the son of Martin and Aenne.

Renata Levy, née Lewy, born in Genoa, Italy in 1938, is the niece of Martin and Aenne Mayer. Renata is the only child of Hilde Lewy, née Mayer, Martin’s sister (1909 Frankfurt – 1956 USA).

Natalie Green Giles, née Green, born in New York in 1965, is the grand-daughter of Martin and Aenne Mayer and the daughter of Marguerite Mayer, born in New York in 1940, daughter of Martin and Aenne Mayer.

The Mayer Family

Family Mayer in Frankfurt: 1870 to 1938

The beginnings of the Mayer family in Frankfurt go back to about 1870, when Isaac Mayer founded the company “E & I Mayer Game-Poultry-Featherbed products”, together with his sister Elise in Heusenstamm, county of Offenbach and in Frankfurt.

The founders – Isaac and Mathilde – 1870 to 1918

From Neuleiningen/Frankenthal into the metropolis of Frankfurt

Isaac Mayer, Martin Mayer’s grandfather, born in 1837 in Neuleiningen/Frankenthal (then: Bayern; today: Rheinland-Pfalz) probably moved to Frankfurt in the 1860s. Like many Jewish citizens in this area and at this time he moved for economic reasons, e.g. to Frankfurt on Main river. He founded the company mentioned above, together with his sister Elise, first in Heusenstamm, where they raised poultry. Gradually there came into being several halls for selling and storing the main goods, namely game and poultry for the ex- and import business in Frankfurt’s Kleyerstrasse, in the Neue Mainzer Strasse and in the Mainzer Landstrasse.

“Game dealer”

On the birth certificate of the oldest son of Isaac and Mathilde Mayer, Jacob, the profession of the new father Isaac is noted as „game dealer“. Mathilde Mayer, née Güldenstein, came from Buchau in Württemberg, a village with a large Jewish population. Mathilde and Isaac married 1875 in Frankfurt. He was divorced before and 16 years older than Mathilde. Their first-born son Jacob was born in the Grosse Bockenheimer Strasse 13 in 1876, and four more children were born in the following years.

Elise and Isaac are planning the future

The Wöhlerschule had been founded in 1870 as a „Realgymnasium“ (grammar school) for boys , six years prior to Jacob Mayer’s birth. „Realgymnasiums“ were schools for further education with a modern concept. Different from the traditional grammar schools, the main subjects were not Latin and Greek, but modern languages such as English and French, natural sciences and economics; that was also the concept of the Wöhlerschule which had also had a „Trading/dealing department“.

Jakob was transferred to the „Obertertia“/OIII in 1890 which can be compared with form/grade 9 of today, but he left the school at Easter 1890 in order to continue his training in the company of his family. He was 14 years old then.

The new site of the company E&I Mayer: Neue Mainzer Straße 75

Apart from the poultry raising business on their own sites in Heusenstamm, in the Kleyerstrasse and Mainzer Landstrasse in Frankfurt the European Import-export-business for game and poultry grew continuously. The Mayer company was the leading business in that area in Germany. A large cold storage facility was built for storing their own products and for renting to other companies that dealt with meat, butter, eggs and other perishable goods. And a factory for making artificial ice came into being to make use of the by-products of the poultry raising.

The 3rd generation – Martin and Aenne – 1906 to 1970

“… in order to dedicate oneself to the commercial profession…“

7 January 1934: Martin Mayer and Aenne Marx get married

On 7 Jan 1934, Martin Mayer married Fanny Anna Marx, called Aenne, from Frankfurt. She came from a strictly religious family who lived in the Wittelsbacher Allee in the east of Frankfurt. They belonged to the IRG-Israelitische Religionsgesellschaft, the neo-Orthodox group, which, as their founder Samson Raphael Hirsch once described it, „…wanted to combine the learning of the Tora with middle-class business activity.“ The Jewish citizens of Frankfurt should above all else be accepted and at the same time be able to practice their Jewish faith openly and actively. Aenne attended the Samson-Raphael-Hirsch-School „Am Tiergarten“ as elementary pupil and afterwards changed to the „Elisabethenschule“, then a College/High School for girls in the northend of Frankfurt.

Martin and his family who lived in the westend were not religious. Therefore the scepticism of both families about the partner choice of their children was great. Dr. Lion Marx and his wife Martha, Aenne’s parents, feared that Aenne would distance herself from her religious ties and Jewish traditions by this marriage.

1933 and the consequences

1933 was not only the year in which Martin and Aenne were planning their wedding, but also the year of Hitler’s takeover and the beginning of boycotting and suppressing the Jewish population of Frankfurt.

What is to become of Mathilde?

„We lived together, we lived well, we were assimilated Jews, fully integrated members of the middle-class society.“ (Hilde Mayer about her life in Frankfurt before 1933)

What is to become of Martin, Aenne and Richard?

The Marx Family

Marx-Schames Family in Frankfurt: 1809 to 1938

The story of the Marx family that is told here, begins in 1809 with the birth of Isaac Schames.
The family had settled in Frankfurt generations before his birth. 41-year-old Isaac Schames, according to the registration lists of the council of Frankfurt a „trade’s man“, had married Jeanette Dinkelspiel, born in Mannheim in 1823, in Bockenheim, then still an independent village, on June 23rd, 1850. They lied in Brueckhofstrasse 8 in the centre of Frankfurt and founded a family there. Between 1851 and 1859 six children were born. Their son Ludwig is the grandfather of Aenne Mayer, born Marx, wife of Martin Mayer.

The grandparents: Ludwig Schames 1852 to 1922 and Fanni Lewisohn 1859 to 1895

In 1880 he married Fanny Lewisohn from Hamburg in Paris. Their first child Leon was born in Paris in 1882. In 1885/86 the family returned to Frankfurt where their daughter Martha was born in the Ostendstraße 12 on February 3rd 1886. Ludwig travelled frequently, to Paris and Hamburg amongst various other places. Between 1885 and 1895 he lived in various places in Frankfurt, but always in the east end of town: Ostendstrasse, Rückertstrasse, Uhlandstrasse, Seilerstrasse, Hanauer Landstrasse, to be near the Orthodox synagogues. Here his wife Fanny died at the age of 35 in 1895.

In the same year Ludwig moved to Baumweg with his children , then 13 and 9 years old, and in 1913 to Wittelsbacher Allee 7. There he lived with Leon, with his removed daughter Martha and her husband Lion Marx and their children, Aenne, born in 1910, and Gretel Clara, born in 1914. Ludwig died here on July 3rd 1922.

When Ludwig Schames had returned to Frankfurt from Paris in 1895, he knew that he wanted to be active as an art dealer. In the same year he had founded the art trading gallery „Posen & Schames“, together with a colleague, at Opernplatz 10.

From 1906 on he ran the gallery on his own which he now called „Art Salon Schames“. In 1913 he moved to Boersenstrasse 2. Ludwig Schames first showed French Impressionists. From early on he supported Picasso and Max Beckmann who worked in Frankfurt from 1915 onwards.

Lion Marx had been born in Darmstadt in 1879. His parents were the Rabbi Asher Lehmann Marx and his wife Riekchen, née Bodenheimer, who came from Biblis. They had four other children. Rabbi Marx was the orthodox rabbi in Darmstadt and the area around it, and headmaster of the Jewish school there.

Lion Marx studied medicine at the University of Würzburg, where he concluded his studies in 1902. From 1905 on he worked in Frankfurt as a general practitioner in his own practice and soon was well-known in Frankfurt and successful. The family Marx lived modestly in accordance with their religious beliefs. They were active members of the IRG (Israelitische Religionsgesellschaft) in Frankfurt, cultivating their religious ties and traditions, but were open for other influences from the patients of Lion Marx who came from all social levels and walks of life and from their connection to art by Martha’s father Ludwig. Lion Marx had fought as a soldier for the German Reich in World War I and was decorated with the Iron Cross for this. It was not imaginable, neither for him nor for his family to be excluded from this society.

The children: Aenne Marx (1910 to 1992) and Martin Mayer (1906 to 1970)

On February 3rd, 1910, Fanny Anna Marx, called Aenne, was born. As her parents were religious and belonged to the Israelitische Religionsgesellschaft in Frankfurt, Aenne was educated in the Jewish-orthodox tradition. She attended the Samson-Rafael-Hirsch-School „Am Tiergarten“ (at the Zoo) as primary pupil and then changed to the Elisabethenschule which then was a secondary school for girls in the Nordend.

As open as Aenne was, established with a solid education and a strong tie to the Jewish tradition, Martin Mayer, the handsome, well-travelled, young business man, who considered himself part of the Frankfurt society, was a good match.

1933 and the consequences

Lion Marx and his wife Martha felt the changes after the takeover of the national socialists (Nazis) in 1933. Jewish doctors’ practices as well as Jewish lawyers, business people, shop owners were affected by the suppressing measures of the Nazi regime. From September1933 on more and more Jewish doctors lost their health insurance accreditation and after september1938 the Jewish doctors were allowed treating only Jewish patients.

Patients of the Marx practice were increasingly confronted with intimidations when consulting Dr. Marx. Patients decreased as many started leaving Frankfurt. When others had been planning to leave, Dr. Marx felt that he didn’t want to abandon his patients, and that at his age it would be difficult to move. After Reichspogrom Nacht he obviously had no choice.

Reichspogrom Night, also called Kristallnacht

On November 10th, 1938 Dr. Lion Marx was arrested and taken away from his flat in Wittelsbacher Allee 7 by the Gestapo (Geheime Staatspolizei/Secret State Police) and, together with other Jewish men, was taken to the Frankfurt „Festhalle“ (Festival Hall) on a lorry. During that day many Jewish inhabitants of all ages, exclusively men, were taken to that place and, on the same day deported to the concentration camp (CC) of Buchenwald.

The Gestapo spread fear and terror from the beginning. In the Festhalle the Gestapo officials picked out prisoners for some kind of running the gauntlet. They forced the intimidated men to perform exercises according to military drill, made them to run around, do knee bends, until the prisoners could not go on or broke down. The Gestapo took great pleasure in picking out older and unhealthy men.

Lion Marx who was 59 years old and had a weak heart was tormented until he broke down. In spite of that he was deported to the CC Buchenwald on the same day. There he suffered another heart attack after he had to stand in the yard for roll call (Appellplatz) for hours without water and food and afterwards had again been forced to do jogging and knee bends. When he returned home after four weeks – he was dismissed early because he had fought in World War I and received the Iron Cross – he was so ill that he had to stay in bed until his emigration in January 1939 to London and also after his escape to the USA he did not fully regain his health.

Emigration? No, flight!

The arrests and deportations to CCs after the pogrom night on November 9th, 1938 were aiming at further intimidating the Jewish population, especially the wealthy class. Those who survived the terror as Dr. Lion Marx were impressed upon at their dismissal from the CC to leave Germany immediately.

The Marx couple arranged to get out of Germany at once in the weeks after Lion’s return from Buchenwald. They could escape to the USA, to their family in New York, with a stop in London with other relatives there until passage to New York could be arranged. Lion and Martha Marx wanted to leave Germany as quickly as possible, but not leave everything behind. They wanted to take their furniture, their objects of value, especially the equipment of Lion’s practice. It was unimaginable for them to leave their home with only two suitcases, not to take along anything of all they had created and to start in a foreign country at their advanced age.

Plundering

The regulations of the authorities strictly ruled which objects and how much was allowed to take along, e.g. only basic consumer goods, utensils that had been acquired before the year 1933, only exactly numbered quantities. Instructions by the Foreign Exchange Office S Frankfurt for Jewish emigrants said for example: „It is inadmissible to state a collective term such as „One lot of laundry“ in the list. There are rather exact details required such as 5 table cloths, or, 12 kitchen towels etc.”

No objects of luxury as for example musical instruments, and only little precious metal and jewelry, e.g. a little table silver and the wedding ring were allowed. After the approved removal goods had been packed, there was an after inspection in order to test, whether the regulations had been obeyed. This happened through a firm ordered by the authorities which also had to be paid for by the Marx spouses. They also had to hand in a detailed list to the foreign exchange office on which you can see that all pieces of jewelry had been crossed out and had to remain in Frankfurt.

Rosalie Strohmeier

Their jewelry, the table silver, the whole surgery practice equipment remained in Frankfurt. Lion and Martha Mary had entrusted everything to Rosalie Strohmeier, their longstanding household help and appointed her as their representative. She had to deliver table silver and jewelry to the foreign exchange office and got about 10% of the value that was 475,- Reichsmark for the silver; for the jewelry she also got 2000,- Reichsmark less than its value.

The surgery equipment stored in Frankfurt, its low estimated value being 20.000,- Reichsmark, had been sent to Hamburg in order to be shipped, but this did not happen because of the war. In 1941 the Gestapo confiscated everything, allegedly to take it to a hospital.

New York

Lion and Martha Marx were able to safely join their family in New York and lived with Martin and Aenne and the children there. Lion Marx tried to pass the very difficult and extensive examinations to practice medicine in New York, but because his English skills were poor and his health was too bad he was unsuccessful. His many Frankfurt patients in New York continued to consult with him informally and relied on his advice.

He died of a heart attack in 1948. His wife Martha, also badly strained psychically and physically, died in 1957 at the age of 71 in New York.

New start in exile

The „gudd Stubb“ (good lounge in Frankfurt dialect) of Frankfurt in New York

Jakob and Julia Mayer were able to take most of their possessions with them when they left Frankfurt for Italy in June of 1938. Aenne and Martin left in summer 1938 with all of their belongings in the “lift”, which arrived after they had settled in New York City. Lion and Martha Marx could take little to New York, but they lived with Martin und Aenne.

Thus there was something close to them in the foreign country. The furniture, maybe it was just the living room that reminded them of their old home in New York, the „gudd Stubb“ of Frankfurt. By „gudd Stubb” the Frankfurters not only mean their best, most comfortable room in their flat, but also the Römerberg (the ancient town centre) and the Festhalle (festival hall). This intimate, almost tender relationship to Frankfurt that is expressed by this term, was destroyed forever by the enforced exile, the discriminations experienced, the deportation from the Frankfurt festival hall to Buchenwald, the excesses of violence and the consequences for these people.

1941 – Expatriation and plundering the emigrants

These documents show that the national socialistic authorities in Germany further oppressed the persecuted and escaped citizens. The background of this was the ”Eleventh regulation to the Imperial German Civil Law from November 25th, 1941” by which each Jew lost his/her citizenship with the transfer of his usual residence abroad. This meant that all German Jews who had already settled abroad in this way were later deprived of their citizenship and their whole possessions which had remained in Germany went to the German Empire.

This regulation concerned a quarter of a million emigrated Jews to which also Jakob Mayer and his family belonged. In their case the authorities had obviously been unsuccessful as far as the withdrawal of their possessions is concerned as Jakob Mayer had saved his family and their possessions in time. The loss of the complete medical practice equipment of the Marx family that was stored in Hamburg because of the beginning of the war and confiscated by the Gestapo in 1941 can presumably be put down to the tightening of the Imperial Civil Law.

Expellees, displaced persons we are, banned.

The US authorities treated the Mayer family and Marx family and all the other refugees from Germany like immigrants of their own free decision according to the “Immigration Act“ of 1924. That meant that only a fixed quota of applicants from each country got an entry visa, and in addition they had to have an affidavit or had to prove their financial security. Immigrants could apply for the American citizenship after five years. Martin, Aenne and Richard became citizens in 1944.

The livelihood of Jakob and Julia in their New Yorker exile were guaranteed. They could lead a good life, comparable with their standard of living in Frankfurt, although they had many relatives living with them at various times, including Julia’s mother Frederika, and then Jacob’s sister Selma. They had known very early that they had to leave Germany and had prepared themselves well.

On the other hand, quite differently Lion and Martha were physically and psychically badly impaired by the persecutions after November 9th, 1938 and their complicated escape via London in the last minute. Lion and Martha had very little with them when they came to America, and very little financial resources. They lived with Aenne and Martin and the children, Richard and Marguerite, in a two-bedroom apartment. It was very crowded and stressful for everyone, and a big change from the comfortable, upper middle class lifestyle they were accustomed to in Frankfurt.

Richard – a “Frankfordder Bubb“ (“boy from Frankfurt“ in Frankfurt dialect) in New York

Martin and Aenne also had made provisions. On their flight in summer 1938 they didn’t know how they should live in future. How would life be in America, for Richard, their 3 and-a-half year-old son? A child grows quickly. They didn’t know whether they would be able to care well for him in USA. Therefore they had bought clothing for little Richard, who would roam the New York streets as a genuine „Frankfordder Bubb“, large enough for him to grow into, before they left Frankfurt.

The suitcase with the children’s clothing was approved by the customs investigation department in Frankfurt at the departure of the Mayers in 1938. For this the family had to pay an amount to the Dego, the German Gold Discount Bank that was exactly as high as the value of the goods.

Marguerite

On November 15th, 1940 Marguerite Mayer, Richard’s sister, was born. An American was born into a family that had been driven out of their German home country and had not yet found a new home in their exile country. With the new family member Marguerite, a genuine American, the family settled into becoming an American family.

Working

The family of six had to be provided for. Martin tried to use his knowledge and experiences in the Mayer’s firm in Frankfurt and founded a food trading company of which he was the sole owner. „Farmella Food Products Corporation“dealt with the cleaning, packaging and sale of honey.

The company was not successful and didn’t bring in very much income. The buying power of the dollar had sunk strongly especially in the city of New York and the American customers didn’t know much about honey. Under these conditions Martin Mayer gave up the firm in 1949. Later he worked as an employee, but couldn’t achieve the position and the income that he could have expected in the company of his father in Germany.

The financial circumstances eventually compelled Aenne, who had never worked or planned to work in her previous life in Frankfurt, to enter the workforce to help the family cover the basic expenses. After attempting a series of ill-suited jobs, including working in a bakery, Aenne found her true calling as a salesperson at the very glamorous Saks Fifth Avenue, one of the fanciest department stores in New York City, located on the famed Fifth Avenue.

Saks was owned by the Gimbel family, a wealthy Jewish family of German origin that had emigrated to America in the 19th century, and who hired many European immigrants in the post-war period. Aenne, who loved fine things, proved to have a natural gift for selling luxury items, and eventually worked for Saks, primarily selling luxury handbags for more than 30 years, retiring when she was in her 70s. She died 1992, when she was 82 years old.

Compensation

Martin as well as his father Jakob and his mother-in-law Martha, she died in 1957 and his father-in-law Lion already had died in 1948, applied for compensation in 1957 “for damage in economic progress” to the German Federal Republic of Germany. The application procedures were complicated, lengthy and involved costs for legal expenses. They afforded written evidence about the living and income situation before the escape that were difficult to come by because of the war.

In 1961 after the procedures of four years the application was decided positively: Martin got barely 10.000 Marks as compensation for insurance obligations not paid, pension back payments and a monthly pension of barely 100,- DM for life, at the time $ 25,-. Since 1957 he needed medical treatment and died already in 1970, at the age of only 64.

Atlanta, Georgia

He studied United States law and passed the difficult examinations (Bar Exam) to practice, but his German accent at the time of World War II limited his career possibilities. As a result he also pursued additional business ventures in order to provide for the family. The Lewy family eventually enjoyed a comfortable economic existence, and were able to buy a small house, take trips and take advantage of cultural and social opportunities, such as they were at that time in Atlanta. Hilde died in 1955 when Renata was just finishing high school.

Living, learning … feeling at home

Both Martin and Aenne spoke fluent English. Martin already had proficiency in English when he arrived in America; for Aenne it was more difficult, but eventually she both read and wrote English well, in addition to speaking. Aenne and Martin spoke only German at home with their children, Richard and Marguerite, but Richard in later years spoke mostly German with his mother and mostly English with his father. Marguerite did not teach her children, Natalie and Jonathan, to speak German, even though she continued to speak always in German with her mother, Aenne. Richard’s children, likewise, were not taught to speak German.

The Future begins in the past

The next generations

New York and Atlanta

Martin and Aenne Mayer’s children Richard and Marguerite, grew up as New Yorkers, went on to university and settled in New York.

Richard went to Harvard University, won a Fulbright Scholarship, and returned to study at the University in Frankfurt. He lived on Schwindstraße, Westend with his family’s former housekeeper, Rösl. He spoke very fluent but a very “Frankfurterisch” Deutsch, and finally learned some formal German.

After law school, he entered the field of “Patent Law”, where his command of German became an asset. He went on to write a widely-used textbook on American patent law in German, which had several editions, and represented major German companies. Richard married Harriet, née Glickman, in 1971. They had two daughters, now both married and two grandsons, Richard died in the year 2010.

Marguerite married William Green in 1960. They had two children, Jonathan and Natalie. Natalie is married to Doug Giles, and they have two daughters. Jonathan is married to Hilary Thomas, and they have one son.

Renata Levy, the daughter of Hilde Mayer and Walter Lewy, grew up in Atlanta/Georgia. There she married Ted Levy, who died in 2014. They had three children and four grand children.

Thus the former Frankfurters Martin and Aenne Mayer had five great-grandchildren who all are American citizens and live in America.

Visits in the home country of grandparents and parents

June 2016: Harriet and Natalie on the tracks of the Mayer and Marx ancestors in Frankfurt

Wöhlerschule

Letters from America

Natalie, 2th of June 2016

“Harriet and I have both been very slow to adjust to being back—a combination of the jet lag, as well as the physical and emotional exhaustion of the trip. I don’t think anything could have prepared me for the profound impact of my week in Frankfurt. Just to try to explain what it all meant to family and friends back in NYC has been such a challenge. To fully capture everything—from the personal understanding of my ancestors and their daily life, to the historical context of Frankfurt from 1933-1945, to … the passionate commitment to the Project, to enjoying the vibrant, progressive, sophisticated city of Frankfurt today -it is almost impossible to convey to anyone who wasn’t on the program.

In some ways the experience seemed almost magical. I feel as though I truly traveled back in time, … For being my guide on that journey, I am forever indebted to you. And for your unmatched kindness and sensitivity, and your ability to balance our experience by also bringing us into the current world—in your home, in the Rheingau, at the Monastery, and at the Woehlerschule – …
… you have opened up a whole new world of understanding for me and a deep desire to return to Frankfurt, which now feels like a second home. And for the ultimate expression of the success of our visit … I am now encouraging my college-age daughter to consider studying in Frankfurt when she chooses a place to study abroad for a semester next year …

My many many thanks to you, once again, for everything you gave to us, did for us, and meant to us. Your friendship is the greatest gift we took from Frankfurt.

All my best,
Natalie“

Harriet, 6th of June 2016

“… We are still recovering from our wonderful trip to Frankfurt; I came back with laryngitis and a sinus infection but I am finally better now. I was very unhappy because I had no voice, and could not continue to tell other people about our adventures in Germany.

… Many thanks again for your friendship and warmth and all that you did for us while we were there. Your presence made the trip so memorable.

… I went through a lot of the papers I had, and found more with the address for Martin and Anne Mayer at Raimundstraße 109. So I guess we really “lucked out” in that find. I still find it interesting that I don’t recall ever hearing from my mother-in-law that the building was still standing; perhaps she never went to that neighborhood when she was in Frankfurt in 1986. If she had reported that the building was still there, I am sure that Richard would have visited it on one of his many trips to Frankfurt… So a Puzzle!!!

All the best
Harriet”

Renata, 2th of September 2016

“I loved the leisurely stroll through the Westend to see the houses and locations where my family lived and where my mother grew up. The meal at Isoleta was delicious and a lovely introduction to Frankfurt dining out style. Despite the heat, the visit to Darmstadt was extremely meaningful; even the architecture building where my mother was student still existed. Needless to say, the archive was absolutely amazing – unbelievable the material they have there all carefully stored and documented. It will take me some time to absorb all these wonderful experiences….”

All my best
Renata”