Leopold HEILBRUNN 1885 - 1941

Tuesday, 06 November 2007

Leopold was born in  1885 in Osterode, near Neustadt and Nordhausen in the Harz Mountains, Germany, to cattle dealer Cappel Heilbrunn and his wife Bertha Amran. He married Margrete Karliner in Berlin in 1919 and was living in Oschersleben, Bode and worked as a cattle dealer and owned his own house and land when Werner was born in 1921. Leopold fought on the german side in WW1 and was sent an Iron Cross in the mail, but sent it back as he wanted to be presented with it. He was interned in 1938 by the Nazis for being Jewish, but because he fought for Germany in the 1914/1918 war he was released and came Australia on the Malaja with his wife, Grete and daughter Herta on 16th February 1939.
Leopold's visa for Australia was granted in Berlin on 9rd Dec 1938, departing from Berlin on 30 Dec 1938. The family arrived in Harwich, England on the 3rd of January 1939, Colombo, Ceylon 29th Jan 1939 and Freemantle WA on 7 Feb 1939. On arrival he worked on a farm at Bundanoon, in the Southern Highlands, then through the Jewish Welfare Society the family leased a dairy farm in Jilliby Road opposite the Jilliby School on the Central Coast of NSW. There are photos of their container of household goods that came out from Germany. Contents included a hand carved stag, an office chair and a black cupboard on four turned legs. Leopold died from stomach cancer in 1941 at the age of 55 years and was buried in the        Jewish cemetery, Rookwood, Sydney, Australia, grave 196, section 10.

 © Marie Heilbrunn 2007