[Cz-L] Personal Introduction

Hello, here I am , just back in Berlin, and having received ca. 140
e-mails, almost updated with the latest informations and memories. Am
subscribing again to the Czernowitz list, after a memorable trip to our
common roots.
I was born in Bucharest, Romania, in 1945. My parents, Ria Meerbaum came
from a large family of 6 children, two boys and four sisters. Her
father, Abraham had come to Czernowitz from Galicia as a young child
from a very poor family, was taken apprentice in a dairy, and later
opened his own dairy in the Dreifaltigkeitsgasse/Sfanta Treime. It was
well-known for its butter and every day there was a basket in the dairy
with 250 fresh bread-rolls for everyone to take.
My grandfather managed to get orders from all hospitals in the city to
deliver milk to them. He was doing well and in
   1938 he opened a milk-powder factory in Suczka, imported all machines
from Denmark and the youngest son, Martin, was to be the manager. It
cost almost a million lei and was the first of the kind in Bukowina or
even in Romania. In 1940, when the Russians invaded the town, the
factory was confiscated, all machines dismantled and taken to Russia.
In 1940, under the Russion occupation, my grandfather obtained 3
authorizations to stay in Czernowitz and not to be deported. He had a
cousin also called Abraham and gave him one of the authorizations, which
saved this cousin's and his family's life.
My grand-father was also a cousin of Max Meerbaum, the father of Selma
Meerbaum-Eisinger. Max used to come often to visit them, he was a thin,
quiet,
introverted person, unlike his brother who was handsome, well-built and
optimistic.
My grandmother, who had been very beautiful in her youth, came also
from a poor family of 10 children, her mother having been left a widow
in World War I, with very little means. And yet, all the ten children
grew up to be healthy, and nine survived the second World War.
On my paternal side, my father came from a very different family, the
Golds. Dr. Gold, a gynaecologist, of Czernowitz, married a very educated
banquer's daughter from Lemberg. She was very interested in the arts,
read and spoke several languages, sang and played the piano, and kept a
"salon" where she encouraged young Czernowitz artists in their career.
Margul-Sperber, the pianist ........
They had a son, Edwin Richard Gold who became my father. He also studied
medicine, in Vienna, did his assistantship in Switzerland,
and returned naively to Czernowitz a short time before the Russians
invaded the city. On one of his visits home, at the Cafe Habsburg, he
met my mother, a
sporty, good-looking young woman who came in tanned, in a white dress
and noticing she was trying to get her jacket, he got up and helped her
into it,
asked her name, introducing himself, and so it started. Next morning a
huge bouquet of flowers was delivered to the Meerbaum's home.
My mother in her youth had one passion - sports - she was out all day,
skating in winter skiing on the Cecina (1st prize in the Bukowina for 4
years),
swimming in summer, running, handball, was in the Jask and Maccabi
sports-clubs, etc.
All these beautiful memories were stopped when the war began in Czernowitz.
I was born in Bucharest in 1945. Like many others, my parents came to
Bucharest after the war. They tried all the time to emigrate and
eventually we left
for England in 1959. I had to learn English, but since we had spoken
German at home, Romanian in school and outside, and with French lessons,
it was not
so difficult, just that pronounciation!!! Bristol, England, was a very
different place from Bucharest, the mentality was so different, but we
were happy to be in
a really free world. My father an immunologist, who wrote the first book
on immunology in Romania in 1957, helped build up the South-Western
Transfusion Centre, then worked at the Bristol University. I then went
to London to study (main subject-Spanish), and in 1967, after finishing
my studies, I left England for Geneva, where I spent 5 happy years,
working at various international organizations, including a year at the
Sohnut.

Gabriele Weissmann
Kaiserdamm 18
D- 14057 Berlin

Tel./Fax: +49.30.321 15 38
E-Mail: G.Weissmann_at_gmx.de

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