Antoinette Marie THORNE

Antoinette was known as Toni in the family. She was born in Pest which is part of Budapest in Hungary. Her father was in the antique furniture business. She married her first husband Wilhelm SCHLESINGER in 1913 and they married as Lutherans in Vienna. She is listed in the resignations from the Jewish Community on 10 May 1929 on Gen Team. They changed their name to a less Jewish sounding name of SCHELLER in 1919. In 1923 she divorced Willi , converted back to Judaism and married Fritz THORSCH a bank colleague of her first husband's. It was a Jewish marriage by Rabbi Abeles in June 1923 three months after the divorce from Willi. She took their daughter Erica into the second marriage. Toni had a second daughter Inge Susan with her second husband Fritz. Known to her family as Toni she lived with her husband Fritz in Vienna until the Nazis took over and fled to London with their daughter Susan through Belgium. Toni and Fritz both worked in England as domestic servants until they obtained a visa to USA. Susan was fostered to a Jewish family for two years while they waiied for their American visas. Toni and Susan had left Vienna the day Fritz was arrested waiting for a visa outside the British Embassy and transported and imprisoned in Dachau. At first he was locked up in the Rossauer Barracks. This was on Kristallnacht, November 9, 1938. After a few months in Dachau Fritz was then released and was able to leave Vienna after recuperating from his suffering at Dachau and beating during the arrest in Vienna. He joined Susan and Toni in England and also worked as a butler until they were able to leave by ship for New York in 1940 on the Britannica. The visas to America were arranged with the help of Joe BRANDMANN, his brother in law who lived in NYC. Joe BRAND as he was known in Manhattan was a fur trader in the Garment District in NYC along with his two brothers Wolf and Sam. Their younger brother Max BRANDMANN was married to Fritz's older sister, Olga BRANDMANN nee THORSCH. Erica and her first husband Jules helped get Toni and Susan and Fritz out of Vienna to the UK. The whole family ended up in America where Toni was naturalised and became a US citizen. Fritz also became an American citizen. Toni had an older sister Elsie (Elizabet) whose son became a Lutheran pastor in Sweden.

Erica Toni's first child married a Belgian called Jules Tapfelband who dealt in diamonds. Erica and Jules escaped Europe for London where they helped Toni and her family get visas so they could escape the Nazis in 1938. In Budapest Toni lived with her parents Emanuel and Adele Herner at VI Terez korut 43. In December 1939 she lived at Muscombs, Great Easton Dunmow, Essex. (from visa application for USA) She and Fritz with Susan arrived in New York at Ellis Island on the ship the Britannic February 19, 1940. The ship was attacked and sunk on its next voyage across the Atlantic. Susan told me that her mother's first job in America was as a cook but she had to learn to cook on the job. She also worked as a night nurse for babies in wealthy families after they landed in New York. When they landed they were met on the dock by Joe BRAND and his wife Dorothy. BRAND was Fritz's brother in law via his older sister Olga THORSCH who married Max BRANDMANN in Krakow. Joe was Max's older brother and he shortened his name in the USA. He and his wife helped Fritz and Toni find a place to live and also work on the upper westside.. Fritz worked sweeping diamond dust off the floor in the Jewish diamond shop area of Manhattan. They lived on the upper Westside in an apartment on the river and they sub let to earn money to pay the rent. Susan did voice overs for radio with accents and she worked with the famous actors Orson Welles and Eve Marie Saint. She told me she earned more than her parents! Toni's grandson Ramsey FADIMAN told me that Toni was very playful and he remembers her playing with him when she was about 75. He also remembers her playing cards- canasta- with her sister Elsie for hours. Toni was quite witty he said.

https://data.matricula-online.eu/de/oesterreich/wien-evang-dioezese... This is the marriage record in the Protestant books of marriage for the inner city of Vienna. Thanks to Frau Irma Wulz for finding this.

• Reference: FamilySearch Family Tree - SmartCopy: Sep 7 2016, 18:21:05 UTC