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Dresher Holocaust Survivor
Unites with Family
SASHA ROGELBERG | STAFF WRITER
T he recent meeting of Franklin
Lewinson and his second
cousin Klaus Manzel has been
about 80 years in the making.

Lewinson, an 87-year-old Holocaust
survivor living in Dresher, and Manzel,
an 80-year-old native Berliner, united
on Oct. 13 at Lewinson’s home. The
two shared the story of the Lewinson
family’s survival during the Shoah and
Manzel’s plan to have a Stolperstein
— a brass plate honoring victims of
Nazi extermination — installed at the
address of Lewinson’s family home in
honor of Lewinson’s father Hans, who
was murdered in Auschwitz.

Until a few years ago, neither knew of
the other’s existence.

“I was shocked,” Lewinson said.

“Because I didn’t even realize there was
anybody still alive.”
Born in 1935 in Berlin, Lewinson,
originally named Wolfgang, and his
younger sister Renate spent most of
their early childhood in Blumenstraße,
the neighborhood where most Jews
were relegated under Nazi rule. The
family relocated from their Tempelhof
home, where they were evicted,
to Charlottenburg, and then to
Blumenstraße in the same year. They
were required by law to mark their
doors with a Magen David.

Lewinson’s mother converted to
Judaism in 1930 after marrying Hans,
having grown up Christian. Her
Christian maiden name, Ruckheim,
and paperwork helped her find a job at
a time when employment for Jews was
scarce. While most Jews were assigned
limited evening hours to shop — when
Betsy (left) and Franklin Lewinson
with Klaus Manzel and Julia Flood at
Lewinson’s Dresher home on Oct. 13
 Courtesy of Betsy Lewinson
TOMANDLINDA PLATT
most of the food was already gone —
Lewinson’s mother was able to buy
groceries during regular hours.

Her Christian paperwork was what
saved her and her children’s lives, but
Hans Lewinson was not as lucky. In 1943,
after multiple arrests and imprisonments
at Nazi labor camps, he was deported
to Auschwitz on a train car carrying
more than 1,000 prisoners. He was killed
shortly after he arrived at the death camp.

The Lewinson children spent the
years of 1940-1945 inside at their
mother’s behest. She received no sup-
port from her Christian family, who
all but abandoned her and joined the
Nazi Party.

“I can remember leaving the house
two times,” Lewinson said.

On a rare outing, Lewinson’s mother
removed the yellow Magen David from
her children’s clothing. They hid peri-
odically at convents and farms, but
only for brief windows of time.

Fortune continued to be on Lewinson’s
side. The family came to the U.S. in
November 1946 on a troopship. His
mother’s status as a single woman with
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two children allowed the family
During the war, Manzel’s fam-
to immigrate early. The American
ily was afforded some protection
Jewish Joint
Distribution by their Christian status, but
Committee helped the family set-
Manzel’s father was anti-govern-
tle in Jackson Heights in Queens.

ment, and the family was never
After a two-year stint in the
affiliated with the Nazi Party.

Army stationed at Fort Dix and
The dedication of a Stolperstein
Poitiers, France, Lewinson moved
was a way for Manzel to memori-
with his family to Lakewood,
alize Lewinson’s father and do his
New Jersey. He met his wife Betsy
part in continuing the Shoah’s
there, and the two married in
legacy of “never forget.” The stone
1982, moving to Blue Bell in 2000,
will be installed in January.

and to Dresher 15 years later.

Though Lewinson can no lon-
Lewinson’s lack of family
ger travel to Berlin to visit where
knowledge was not through lack
his childhood home once stood,
of trying, Betsy Lewinson said.

Manzel plans on attending its
“Wherever we have been —
dedication. we’ve been to Auschwitz, to Yad
“The stone will be right smack
Vashem in Israel, elsewhere ... no
in the middle of a completely
one could ever trace his father,”
new complex, where you would
she said.

never know [a Jewish family lived
Across the sea in Germany,
there],” Manzel said. “That street
Manzel’s grandmother had A mock-up of the Stolperstein honoring Lewinson’s father Hans, which will be installed at their has a new name, but the whole
Photo by Julia Flood point of the memorial stone is that
kept in touch with Lewinson’s family’s old address in January
mother until her death in 1987.

you wonder, ‘What is this?’. What
Manzel knew that Hans had been
will be useful is to stumble upon
arrested and that the Lewinsons were and contacted her and Lewinson in band, or they didn’t have children,” it and pause and consider and hope that
living in America. With the help of his 2020. The family exchanged letters, Manzel said through Flood’s trans- something like that will never happen
daughter Julia Flood, who’s now a ther- emails and WhatsApp messages.

lation. “So [I] was just curious to see again.” JE
apist in San Jose, California, Manzel
“For that generation, everyone had if there was anybody left and what
was able to find Renate in New Jersey died out because they lost their hus- became of them.”
srogelberg@midatlanticmedia.com JEWISHEXPONENT.COM
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