The Missed Connection in Berlin

I have given it some thought and have decided that I don't want this blog to be like other genealogy blogs that tell everything matter-of-factly. I want to put some artistry in it. So some of these may have my embellished take on them.

It is, of course, interesting to do research about people who have passed away. But for me, there's always the hope to find survivors or very remote relatives, who may have pieces of the story I don't have.

As the story goes, my great-grandmother Alice (born in Berlin) and my great-great-grandfather Moscha Farkitsch (later Moša Farkić) moved from Berlin to Belgrade most likely between January and May of 1939.*

He arranged a marriage for her, which she refused to go through with (this will be a story for another post), so he disinherited her. The Nazis occupied Yugoslavia in 1941, so she escaped with her husband shortly thereafter.

As far as I know, Moscha stayed behind. There's an address for him at Pariska 3 in Belgrade. Most of his family died in the Sajmište concentration camp. His brother Josef Farkitsch - probably the only one who survived - left Berlin and went straight to Palestine. I'm still not sure how Moscha survived. Rumour has it that he was filthy rich, so he paid the Nazis to leave him alone. Not sure if that's how things worked...

In any case, Moscha moved back to Berlin in the 1950's and bought the garage again. He ran it until the late 1960's, when he sold it once more and supposedly retired. The telephone books say that there was one Rosalija/Rosita Farkic-Altarac living with him, supposedly his new wife. Another Serbian Jew probably.

In the 1970's my great-grandmother Alice came to Berlin to pay him a visit and discovered he had remarried (supposedly she was the governess) and had two children, a girl and a boy. My grandmother remembers the name "Tamara" without much more context. Alice and Moscha had an ugly fight and the severed relationship never healed, until his death in 1980 at age 93.

A side thought on this matter: many of my family members died quite old, even at times when it wasn't very commons to live past 70. I'm starting to confront the fact that I may live for a long time and I'm not sure what that means. I always assumed I would die before 50.

Here's where the story gets interesting:

Who are these children of Moscha?

With a little help from Anja and Christoph we have found out that Rosalija's name keeps appearing in the phone books until the very last one, which is from 1991/1992. She's probably not alive anymore, though.

Another name that keeps showing up is one Michael Farkic, a gynecologist who worked (or works?) at the Charité Hospital in Berlin. I can't find much information about dr. Michael, but we did find a newsletter from a sports club which congratulates him on his 70th birthday in 2015. Another newsletter also welcomes him and his two daughters into the club.

The spooky part of this is that this sports club is a mere 700 meters from my house and looking up the daughters' online I can see that the high school they attended is also in my neighborhood. Which means that if dr. Michael is Moscha's son, I have some distant family members living right here in my neighborhood!

The other name that appears often is Brigitte Farkic, but I can't find anything about this person.

Coincidentally, there's another gynecologist with the last name Farkic whose office is - you guessed it - also around my neighborhood. This doctor is a woman and, while I was telling this story to my pregnant neighbor, she said "Oh my God! I know her! I was almost her patient!"

I went to this doctor's office today and delivered a letter to her secretary, who seemed very confused about my whole deal. One of my friends - oblivious to the fact that she is a gynecologist - suggested that I schedule a visit and drop the bomb in the middle of the consultation. The thought of doing that during a gynecological examination cracked me up.

"Speaking of reproductive systems..."






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* The reason I know this is because his name disappears from the address books at the end of 1938 and his family was not included in the minorities census of 1939, which can be found here. Thanks to Anja and Christoph's research we also know that he sold the garage in January 1939, although the money only came in 1941.