| Notes |
- "My Mother, Eveline Rosa Rosengarten, (Born on May 12,1928 in Berlin, Germany and Died on February 17, 1996 in Walnut Creek, California), also went to Shanghai, China after Kristalllancht, as a child. Her Aunt Grutrude and Uncle Max supplied passage to different parts of world, to seventeen families of friends and direct family members.
Uncle Max was quite well off and had the ability to help others all that he could. He gave my Grandparents, Charlotte Berger (Bock) and my Grandfather, Oskar Berger tickets, money, and gems for a passage to Shanghai, China. My Mother said of her remembrance of that evening when my Great Uncle and Aunt came to visit them with their way out of Germany.
She said that Uncle Max offered them, tickets to Cuba, Argentina, Trinidad, and some other place that I do not remember.
Apparently, my Grandfather said lets go to China, we have never been there before. The Mother said that they never went anyway except to the Black Sea or the Black Forest. I remember that she also said that Shanghai was hot and humid in the summer, and very cold in the, Winter.
My Mother, Grandmother and Grandfather left for Shanghai, China on May 17,1939 aboard the Japanese Passenger/cargo vessel “M.S. Yasukuni-Maru???.
This ship was an 11,930 g.t. vessel. It was built in 1930 and could carry 189 passengers at a speed of 16.5 KN. Length was 160.5 meters and had a beam of 19.5 meters. In 1941 she became a submarine tender for the Japanese Navy. On January 31, 1941 she was torpedoed and sunk by the US submarine “Trigger??? off the island of Truk, Japan in a position 09 degrees 12 minutes north – 147 degrees 13 minutes east.
My Grandmother was a dress designer and seamstress by trade, and my Grandfather was a hat maker. My Grandmother had worked in the industry since she was 14 years old. She had her own shop and employed four people including at one time an older sister. She had worked for some big name stores in Berlin, and even did work for the Berlin Theater. They carried on with their respective trades while in Shanghai.
My Grandfather had a heart condition, so Grandma became the major supporter of the family, while in Shanghai. My Mother served her apprenticeship as a dressmaker with my Grandmother. She earned her diploma from the Guild of Craftsman of Shanghai, China on June 01, 1947, with the mark of excellent.
My mother was very good at the trade, but preferred to cook over sewing and dress designing. On the other hand, my Grandmother was very good at dress making and sewing, and hated to cook.
I know very little about their life in China. On July 15, 1947 my Mother (To be), Grandmother and Grandfather boarded the converted troop carrier “S.S. Marine Adder???, and traveled to San Francisco, California. They arrived on July 27, 1947.
My parents met on that ship, as they sailed away on to what would become their new country, and a new life filled with hope and promise. A life of freedom unfretted by the constraints of anti-Semitism, a fear for ones survival, and afforded a person the opportunity to be able to build something upon.
During this voyage, my Father made his move on the yet unsuspecting and innocent young fro line. They met where ever they could. My Grandmother would go out on the deck of the ship and call out my Mother’s name in her in vein attempt, to save her Daughter from the fog hidden embrace and hot smoldering kisses of the man who would become her Husband for almost forty years.
Upon arriving in San Francisco, my Mother and Grandparents prepared to go to Detroit, Michigan. My Grandmother had a Brother by the name of Ernst Bock, who had immigrated to the United States before the war and had established himself as a house/commercial painter. In his own right, Ernst was a fairly gifted artist.
Once they arrived in Detroit, my Grandmother found work in a department store and began to work as a seamstress once again. She worked in one store, until she retired and moved to Martinez, California in the early 1960’s to live in my parents house. My Grandfather died in the fall of 1958.
When my Mother left for Detroit, my Father told her he would come to Detroit in one year and marry her. She waited. At the end of December off 1948, my Father and a few of his Buddies drove up in front of the apartment building that my yet to be Mother lived in with her parents. The top was down, on this early sedan convertible, as the music played and the snow fell by soon to be Father hooked the horn and yelled for the world to hear, “Eveline I love you and I have come to marry you???.
Well, my Grandfather apparently didn’t care for such language, and yelled back at him through the now open widow of the third floor apartment, “Go away you bum, you are not good enough for my Daughter???. Not to be daunted by such words from a man who was to become his father in-law(whether he liked it not), Manfred with hat in hand, heart pounding a full speed clamored up those narrow stairs and pounded on the door. As my future Grandfather held his head between the palms of his hands, nearly crushing his knees with grief, Manfred and Eveline left for the day to prepare for their union of wedded bless the was cemented on January 01, 1949.
Their honeymoon was spent on a Greyhound bus, traversing the landscape between Detroit and San Francisco. When at an early age how her honeymoon was on a bus, Mother deftly replied “very interesting???. My Father’s apartment on Richardson Street, Became their apartment, and as they could afford it, they made purchases of household hold goods. They lived close to the Martinez Community pool. When friends that they new from, Shanghai would come and visit, they would go to the local pool or go for picnics in the local park.
With Manfred working two jobs, he soon was able to afford to move to a much larger house that, not only provided room for an expanding family but also a place to work on his manufacture of jewelry. As time moved on and in 1955, they bought the house on Oak St.
It was a house that always welcomed people from many walks of life. They had such people as Judy Chicago, Willy Mays, and Shlomo Carlebach. They did not just come for a visit or to do business, but often would stay the night or share one of my Mother’s finely cooked meals. After my Sister, Linda and I left home to go to University, my Mother Eveline, started her own business. She called it Shoshanna’s Unusual’s. She took a few business courses and fulfilled her dream, of owning an oriental boutique store. She did this, while dealing with the adverse effects of Parkinson’s Disease.
Manfred suffered from Heart Disease. They effects of the War, smoking, to much drink, and working for so many years in a chemical factory, without proper safety equipment greatly helped to dissolve his health. He also worked night and day to support his family. In addition to this he was shot with a shotgun in the back of his upper right shoulder during an attempted robbery on June 07, 1980. He was shot in the living room of his home, where his Jewelry Shop was located. He fought the would be robbers and sent them on their way with nothing to show for their efforts except a prison sentence which resulted in the deaths of both convicted assailants during the time of their incarcerations."
-from Andrew Rosengarten 2004
|
