LINHARDT BREUER SIMON FISCHMANN MAHLER SALZBERGER Genealogy Page

The BREUER family is from Újfehértó, a small village in Szabolc county in Hungary (pop. 14,694; 19 miles N of Debrecen; 123 miles E of Budapest). My mom's uncle Sandor once boasted to her that BREUERs of Újfehértó went back 300 years. However, this is no doubt an exaggeration as Jozsef Buczko's book Újfehértó Zsidosaga lists only 2 Jewish families living in Újfehértó in 1746. This number jumped up to 102 Jewish families in 1785 and 511 families in 1818^[1] . The growth of the Jewish population roughly corresponded to the migration of Jews from the Pale Settlement as a result of the pogroms that happened when Russia annexed part of Poland. Once when I was in my Uncle George's splendid library, I spied some notes scribbled on the inside of a random book. The notes were from my Grandmother Cila and it said that the BREUERs were originally from Sopron in Western Hungary. While it is certainly possible, but there is no evidence to collaborate her claim. Nonetheless, there was a high concentration of BREUERs in that region at that time.^[2]The photo above is may be the Újfehértó mill that the GRUNBAUMs supposedly passed on as a dowry to young Ferenc BREUER and his brother-in-law Ignatz KATZ.

Origin of Name

BREUER is the German word for brewer (of beer). Prior to 1787, Jews in the Austrian Empire did not have family names, but in 1787 they were required to adopt (and often randomly assigned) German surnames. Thus, there are many unrelated Jewish and gentile families named BREUER in Germanic speaking countries. Nonetheless, BREUER is a relatively uncommon Jewish name in Hungary. Jews were often involved in inn-keeping and distillery as one of the few professions allowed them in the Austrian Empire. One famous Jewish BREUER, Sigmund FREUD's mentor Dr. Jozsef BREUER of Vienna, is likely unrelated.

Religion

The BREUER Family were Jewish but not overly strict. Of the BREUERs, Fani BREUER GRUNBERGER appears to be Orthodox cemetery. According to Kato Neni, "the family was not religious. Just ordinary people. We kept a kosher home because of my [GRUNBAUM] mother. My father who came back from the United states didn't care too much about religious things."

Oldest Ancestor

Currently, the BREUER Tree traces back to my great, great grandfather Karoly (Aharon) BREUER, who was born some time prior to 1844 and married Katalin (Gitel) KANDEL (1837- 1908). Kato's father was Mozes (Dov) KANDEL who is technically the reigning grand patriarch of the BREUER Clan. Katalin whose tombstone is in the Ujfeherto cemetery may have been from nearby Bokony as records show many KANDEL in Bokony and/or buried in adjacent Gezstered (whose Jewish cemetery is now n ruins).

Circumstantial evidence suggest that Karoly's parents may have been Bernat (Dov Baer) (1806-1878) and Fani (1811-1869) BREUER.^[3] Bernat and Fani were registered godparents at the birth of Karoly and Kati's oldest son Adolf in (1860). After Bernat died, Karoly named the next born son Bernat (David Baer). After Fani died, they named their next born daughter Fani (albeit they had to wait 6 years). ( It was common Jewish custom to name babies after a recently deceased grandparent; for instance, no less than 4 grandbabies were named after Katalin KANDEL in the years after her death.) We know that Bernat and Fani did have a daughter Mali in 1852, but nothing else is known about her or any of their other children. According to Bernat (Dov Ber) BREUER's tombstone in the Ujfeherto Cemetery, his father's Hebrew name was Yitzchok.

Ferenc BREUER

As a penniless young man from Újfehértó's, my great grandfather Ferenc BREUER (1870) managed to beat the Austrian draft by hopped a steamship in Hamburg bound for America in 1893. Once in New York, resolving to make his fortune, Ferenc worked as a laborer and waiter known as "Franz". Having taken his first step towards US citizenship, he instead returned home in 1901 to marry Mali GRUNBAUM whose mother, the Widow GRUNBAUM had been the steam mill owner. In a seemingly complicated arrangement made between the GRUNBAUMs, the BREUERs and the KATZs, Ferec and his brother-in-law Ignatz KATZ took over the mill and two adjacent prominent houses on old Train Station Road. Everything went splendidly for many years and everyone had lots of babies. Finally, one day while Mali was giving birth to her youngest Erzsebet (1915), someone came running in shouting the mill was on fire. After the mill burned down, they had to live more humbly while Ferenc went through a series of dubious moneymaking plots such as raising agora rabbits, selling gasoline (in a one-car village) and renting burlap sacks to peasants. Despite his change in fortunes, Ferenc continued to play the part of the country gentleman using the aristocratic airs he had picked up as a gentleman's gentleman (butler) in New York. He frequented Újfehértó's town casino where he enjoyed drinking and playing cars with his bigshot friends. Ferenc was very stubborn man. He was capable of holding a grudge for a long time. Sometimes he wouldn't to a family member for years. This included his partner and brother-in-law Ignatz KATZ and his out-of-work communist son Laszlo who lived at home, a constant irritation! Once while interviewing my eighty-year old great aunt Kato about her her father, she suddenly burst into tears, still feeling the sting of his stern disapproval. Nonetheless, Ferenc loved his wife Mali dearly. And he especially adored his little granddaughter Agi. Even without money, Ferenc lived an idealic country family life for many years until the obscenity of Nazi-fanaticism swept through Europe. Tragically, Ferenc and many of his loved ones ended up in the ovens of Auschwitz.

Children of Ferenc BREUER

(A) Julianna BREUER (1902): As young women, Jutka-neni and her sister Kato sewed lingerie in Debrecen. In the mid 1930's, Jutka moved to Milan, Italy (where her brother Erno lived) to find a husband. Even though they were attractive and intelligent, it was difficult for the BREUER girls to find husbands as Jews with no dowries. When the Italian Fascists began deporting Jews around 1938-39, Jutka moved to Barcelona and sent for her sister Erzebet. Jutka married John Hutter (a good man but not as educated as she was, but more importantly a gentile). In '44, Jukta and Erzebet moved to Toronto because of more difficulties with the Franco's Fascists. She later moved to Los Angeles for the climate. After John Hutter died, she remarried briefly Istvan KALLA.

(B) Miklos BREUER (1904): My grandfather Miklos met my grandmother Cecilia FISCHMANN when she was visiting her step-mother's parents, the KUPFERSTEINs, in Újfehértó. Miklos fell promptly in love with the beautiful Cila and serenaded her with gypsies to the tune of "Csak egy kislany van a vilagon..." (There is one girl only in this world). Miklos had to wait 5 years until Cila's older sister Sari married before he married Cila and moved to Budapest. One of his father's card playing buddies got Miklos a job as a clerk in a textile company, but he lost his job when the first anti-Semitic laws forbid companies from employing too many Jews. Miklos and Cila then went into business for themselves in the lingerie business with Miklos being the main salesman and met with some success. They had two children, Agnes (1931) and George, before poor Miklos was called up to the forced labor camps. He survived a couple years in a work camp in Loello, Ukraine before he disappeared, presumed dead, in 1943.

(C) Laszlo BREUER (1906): Laszlo was Újfehértó's town communist and advised peasants on legal matters. He lived at home with his parents and was often feuding with his father. He disappeared the same day as his brother Miklos from a labor camp in Ukraine at the Russian front after the collapse of the 2nd Hungarian Army. No photo survived.

(D) Erno BREUER (1907): Uncle Erno married Rosza Steiner and had a daughter named Elvira. Erno and Rosza went to Milan around 1935 where he ran a business managing dancing girls leaving Elvira in Újfehértó with her grandparents. When the fascists kicked the Jews out of Italy in '38-'39, Erno and his wife returned to Hungary and died in the Holocaust.

(E) Katalin BREUER: Kato-neni was the last of Ferenc & Mali's children to pass away in February 2002. Around 1929 she moved from Újfehértó to Budapest. For several years, she lived with Miklos & Cila and was sort of second mother to little Agi. She survived the Holocaust in a Spanish "safe house". Her first husband Dezso SZANDEL died in 1945 after her daughter Anna was born. Kato and Anna moved to Toronto in 1948. She married Bela ROSZA in 1952 and lived together in around 1980 when he died.

(F) Sandor BREUER (1910): Uncle Sanyi had the only car in Újfehértó and offered his services as a chauffeur. He married Piroska ADLER. Both were survivors of the concentration camps. He changed his name to BANYAI (as did his cousin Imre BREUER) in 1949. Sanyi and Piri had a son Ferenc BREUER BANYAI who moved to Toronto and now lives in Los Angeles. Sanyi died in Nyiregyhaza in 1995.

(G) Erzsebet BREUER (1915): The youngest of the BREUER girls, Boszi moved to Barcelona to marry Joseph KLEIN. Her eldest sister Jutka had already moved to Barcelona and had written to her parents that she had found a nice boy who wanted to marry. This was prior to WWII and she was able to escape the worst of the anti-Semitism. Before of the end of the war, She and Jutka and their families moved to Toronto. Boszi & Joseph had a boy in Barcelona and later a girl in Toronto. They had numerous grandchildren in Toronto before Boszi died in 1981. After the war, Boszi & Kato Jutka put an ad in the Budapest paper, found Kato and got her and her daughter to immigrate to Canada too.

Children of Karoly BREUER

(1) Adolf BREUER (1860) owned kitchen utensil store in Tiszapolgar. Had several children in Nyirtass, but perhaps none survived into adulthood.

(2) Ignatz BREUER (1864) married Emilia (Mili) STARK who survived him and later became a shareholder in a winemaking business. Ignatz was the grandfather of Imre BREUER BANYAI (1922-1999) with descendants living in Budapest.

(3) Natzi BREUER (1865) (may be same as Ignatz).

(4) Reli BREUER (1867) married Jakab EHRNFELD. Son Aron died on the Russian front a hero.

(5) Jozsef BREUER (1868) married Lina BOHM. He was a hardware merchant who was an apprentice in Nyiregyhaza for 14 years. He opened his own store in 1899 in Polgar. He was also treasurer and director of Jewish Community.

(6) Ferenc BREUER (1870), mill owner

(7) Izador BREUER (1872) lived in Tolaj and had 3 children Bela, Ilona and Rozsi. All 3 probably died in the camps. Rozsi's husband Jozsef survived, but their child died in the camps.

(8) Fani BREUER (1875) married Jakab GRUNBERGER and had about 7 children. They had a son named Sandor who changed his surname to GABOR in 1946. His sons live in Budapest and have an auto rental business. Sandor's wife wrote a moving account of her Holocaust experience: A Bitter Journey.

(9) Samuel BREUER (1875) had two daughters: Kati & Eva and descendants still living in Debrecen.

(10) Bernat BREUER (1878) married Eszter REICHARDT and had children Erno, Andor and Katalin. Erno changed his name to BARBARAS with surviving descendants in Debrecen. Katalin immigrated to US w/ surviving descendants.

(11) Regina BREUER (1880) married Ignatz KATZ (1871) and had 5 children. Ignatz was a grain merchant since 1925. His father was a farmer. Ignatz had his own business since 1903, formerly dealt in sacks and had a mill. Ignatz KATZ was the business partner of my great grandfather Ferenc BREUER and owned the mill with him. Regina and Ignatz had a son Erno and another Endre (Bandi). Erno's wife and children were killed at Auschwitz. He remarried and moved to Canada (Montreal?) where one daughter, Marisa/Maria, survives. Erno was a "rablovezer".

Sources

The primary source of this BREUER Family Tree is extensive original family tree done by my cousin Frank Banyai. Frank's tree was based on the Újfehértó Temple Registry (1844-1895) available at your friendly neighborhood Mormon Church (LDS FHC Films 0642918 & 0642917 which I transcribed into a database). The Niregyhaza Archives contains post 1895 Ujfeherto Civil Registration. Also of great family historical value are the memoirs and photo album of my mother Agi Linhardt and interviews with her Aunt Kato Rosza.

[1] Újfehértó Zsidosaga by Buczko Jozsef, published in 1998 by the City of Újfehértó. (Jewish family chart on page 24).
[2] 1891 Instrustry and Trade Directory
[3] Újfehértó Temple Registry (1844-1895) , LDS FHC Films 0642918 & 0642917, database)