Moving Encounters

A group of adults is standing next to a hedge in front of a modern building. Trees can be seen in the background. — Group photo in front of the Jewish Museum Berlin in May 2013: Ralph Brill with his three children Micah, Wade, and Loren, with Theresia Ziehe (curator, Jewish Museum Berlin) to their left; photo: private

I first met Ralph Brill at the Jewish Museum Berlin in 2009. He was accompanying a donor, and it was only incidentally that I learned of his own interesting family history. Some months later he sent me copies of family photographs and documents, and I immediately realized that this impressive material was of historical importance. We were in frequent contact since then. In early 2013 Ralph Brill decided to donate all of his family holdings to the Jewish Museum Berlin. It was a most memorable day in May, when he visited Berlin with his children, Micah, Loren and Wade. The three young Brills had just obtained German citizenship, in addition to their American nationality. Present legislation assures this option to all, whose lives were affected by National Socialist persecution, as well as their descendants. The trip to Berlin was motivated by Micah, Loren and Wade’s interest in learning about their ancestors. It was the first time any of the three had set foot on German soil.

Hugo Brill, Ralph Brill’s grandfather, once owned a slaughterhouse and later a furniture factory in Herzebrock. In this same small town in Westphalia, his son Walter Brill was raised and trained as a cabinet-maker. In 1938 he married Irmgard Levy in Munich. Both a civil and a religious marriage ceremony are recorded in the surviving family register. In 1939 the young couple was able to escape to England, where Ralph Brill and two younger sons were born. In 1949 the family migrated to the United States.

The remarkably well-preserved 125 photographs and documents cover three generations, from the early twentieth century to the present, although the majority relate to Walter and Irmgard Brill.