This is a picture of my uncle Gottfried Freudmann, the husband of my father's sister Paula Freudmann [nee Schischa]. The photo was taken in Vienna in the 1930s.
I had eight uncles and aunts on my father's side. Paula [Pauline] Schischa married Gottfried Freudmann on 8th December 1904 in Neudorfl, near Wiener Neustadt. I often go to Café Teitelbaum in the Jewish Museum [in Vienna], which also has a library. I think it was there that I came across the book, Heilige Gemeinde Neunkirchen. Eine judische Heimatgeschichte von Gerhard Milchram' [The Holy Community of Neunkirchen. A Jewish local history by Gerhard Milchram]. I browsed through the book, and all of a sudden I saw a wedding announcement. It said, 'Josef Schischa announces the marriage of his daughter Paula to Dr. Gottfried Freudmann'. I was very curious about how the wedding announcement of my aunt and uncle ended up in that book. I called Mr. Milchram, we met and it turned out that a certain Mrs. Vogel from the US, was a descendant of the Loewy family and thus also my family. She did a lot of research and also sent me our family tree.
Gottfried was a doctor of philosophy and worked as a civil servant with the Vienna Kultusgemeinde [Jewish Religious Community]. They lived in Viennas 9th district. Both were very pious, and Aunt Paula also wore a sheitl. My uncle was religious but a social democrat at the same time. I don't know how that worked, but that's the way it was. They had five children: Karoline, Walter, Erich, Selma and Armin.
When we still lived in Wiener Neustadt, that was before March 1938, we sometimes visited my aunt and uncle in Vienna. in Vienna. I remember visiting Schoenbrunn Palace and Schoenbrunn Zoo.
Aunt Paula and Uncle Gottfried were murdered. [Pauline Freudmann, nee Schischa, born 26th December 1880, and Gottfried Freudmann, born 17th November 1875, were deported to Izbica Lubelska from Vienna on 12th May 1942 and killed.]
