us-005578-irn555278-irn593638
type: RecordSet
physical characterisitics and technical requirements: Book; 132 p; 13 cm. Prayer book with a cardboard cover and spine that is covered with black imitation leather. The front and back covers have rectangular frames of impressed lines, and the front cover has impressed floral designs in the upper left and lower right corners. The front cover has the German script title in gold-colored foil, and the page edges have gold-colored gilding. On the interior of the front cover is a white sticker with a former owner’s name and address. The pages have yellowed with age and there is wear on both covers and spine. interior cover, upper left corner, stamped, black ink on white sticker : Musketier / Roer / 5. Kompagnia.
conditions of access: No restrictions on access
conditions of use: No restrictions on use
date: after 1937-1939 May
has or had holder: us-005578
has or had identifier: 1
has or had some members with language: deu
has or had subject: 683
has or had subject: 819
has record set type: Item
history: Ilse Brilling (1927-2016) was born to Hedwig (nee, Finkenstein, 1891-1959) and Isidor (1895-1939) Brilling in Rastenburg, Germany (now Kętrzyn, Poland). Hedwig was born in Molthainen, East Prussia (now Mołtajny, Poland), and had four brothers and three sisters. Isidor was also born in East Prussia, and had at least two brothers and six sisters. Following World War I, Isidor received an iron cross for his service in the German army. He began selling raw materials, such as furs and metals, which he grew into a successful business with employees. Ilse had one sister, Hildegard or Hilde (later Baum, 1923-2010), whom she was not close to as a child. The family lived a comfortable lifestyle in a two-bedroom apartment above stores that they rented out. They also had two maids and a car, which they used often to visit her paternal grandmother. As a child, Ilse was extremely shy and very close to her mother, but had a distant relationship with her father. Although Rastenburg was a small town, it had a large Jewish congregation. Hedwig prepared a big Shabbat dinner every week, and Ilse would often help her in the kitchen. Ilse’s parents regularly entertained friends in their home, and one year hosted a Christmas and Hanukkah party for their employees. On January 30, 1933, Adolf Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany. Anti-Jewish decrees were passed that restricted every aspect of Jewish life. Almost immediately, the 117 Jews in Rastenburg were barred from movie theaters, swimming pools, and businesses, including the stores Ilse’s parents rented out. Ilse lost her only friend, a girl from a gentile family who joined the Bund Deutscher Mädel (League of German Girls), a Nazi girls’ group. On November 9, 1938, during the Kristallnacht pogrom, stores run by Jews were destroyed and their synagogues were burned down. Isidor was arrested by the SS and imprisoned in Mitgeten. A relative living in the United States sent him an affidavit, which Hedwig took along with the Iron Cross …
history: The prayer book was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2016 by Ruth Abraham, the daughter of Ilse and Horst Abraham.
identifier: irn593638
is or was included in: us-005578-irn555278
record resource extent: overall: Height: 5.125 inches (13.018 cm) | Width: 3.375 inches (8.573 cm) | Depth: 0.375 inches (0.953 cm)
results or resulted from: 1
scope and content: Die Psalmen Davids book, owned by a member of Ilse Brilling or Horst Abraham’s family, and carried from Germany to Ecuador in the late 1930s. Following Adolf Hitler’s appointment as Chancellor of Germany in January 1933, anti-Jewish decrees and persecution made life in Germany increasingly difficult. Horst Abraham immigrated to Ecuador from Leipzig, Germany, in 1937, after hearing a rumor that he might be arrested. His parents, Nanette and David, and one of his two brothers, Kurt, joined him there later. In 1939, Ilse Brilling left Rastenburg, Germany and immigrated to Chambo, Ecuador with her parents, Hedwig and Isidor, and older sister, Hilde. Ilse’s father died that same year, and the family moved to Quito, where she met Horst. The couple married on March 3, 1944, and they had their first child in 1946. Ilse, Horst, and their other family members living in Ecuador immigrated to the United States in the mid-to-late 1940s and settled in the New York City area. Horst changed his name to Harry, and got a job working in a meatpacking factory owned by his distant relatives. Many members of their extended families were not able to escape from Europe and died during the Holocaust.
title: The Psalms of David German prayer book, carried to Ecuador by a German Jewish refugee family