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Meta Hartog

Meta Hartog was opera singer and a first cousin of Edith Frank-Holländer.

Person

Fofotgraaf onbekend. Privécollectie Eugen und Monika Manhart
  • Meta Hartog
  • Born on: Dec. 20, 1898
  • Born in: Aken, Duitsland
  • Died on: Sept. 25, 1968
  • Died in: New York, NY, USA

Meta Hartog

Fofotgraaf onbekend. Privécollectie Eugen und Monika Manhart

Rechthebbende(n) onbekend

Meta, or sometimes Metha, Hartog was a daughter of Eva Holländer, a sibling of Abraham Holländer, Edith's father. Eva Holländer was married to butcher and cattle trader Albert Hartog.[1] Not only was Albert Hartog Abraham's brother-in-law, he was also his stepcousin. Gudula Mencken, second wife of Moses Hartog and Albert's stepmother, was a sister of Sara Mencken, Abraham's mother.[2] In 1894, after the death of Albert's first wife, Johanna Holländer,[3] her younger sister Eva moved in with Albert to care for his four motherless children: Goldine, Emil, Martha en Eugen. Albert and Eva married a year later and had seven more children together: Selma, Gustav, Metha, Bert, Curt, and twin daughters Ewalda and Johanna.[1]

The life story of some of Meta's brothers and sisters is quite remarkable: they were active in the communist resistance against the nazis, for which they sometimes paid a high price. Four of the six sisters - Golda, Selma, Ewalda and Johanna - emigrated to the Sovjet-Union, where they suffered from the arbitrariness of Stalin's regime of terror.[4] Three of the five brothers served in the German military during World War I. Emil served in the German Navy until the end of the war. Gustav and Eugen were called up for army service. Both of them were awarded military decorations: Gustav with the "Iron Cross 1st Class" (EK-I), Eugen with the "Iron Cross 2nd Class" (EK-II).[5] Eugen was killed on te battlefield in August 1916. After an eventful life, Gustav was murdered in Auschwitz, as was his brother Emil.[6]

Little is know about Meta's early life, except that she was one of the cousins Edith went to school with in Aachen.[7] She was one of the three Hartog children that emigrated to the United States in the late 1930s. Another sister, Martha, had moved to Budapest shortly before World War I. She started a family there and died in Hungary in 1995, 103 years of age.[8]

Meta made her debut as an opera singer In 1920 in the Aachener Stadttheater. After 1927, she worked in several opera houses, such as the Landestheater Darmstadt, either as a soloist or as a member of the opera chorus. Following the Nazi power takeover, Jewish artists were no longe welcome and Meta was fired subequently. She returned to Aachen to help her mother in caring for her father Albert.

In 1937, Meta succeeded in leaving Germany with the financial support of younger brother Bert. She arrived in New York Harbour on 17 July 1937 on board passenger liner SS President Harding. Youngest brother Curt, who, already lived in the US, as did Bert, had vouched for her. Shortly after arriving in NewYork, Meta was engaged by the Metropolitan Opera, where she continued singing until 1966.[9] Her mother Eva emigrated to the US in January 1939, aided by her three children already established there, and moved in with Meta. Her husband Albert, had passed away in January 1938. In 1949, Eva returned to Germany and settled in East-Berlin (GDR), joining her daughters Selma, Johanna and Ewalda.[8] She died there in 1956. Meta visited her relatives in East Berlin several times in the 1950s. After her death, her brothers Bert and Curt published a short notice in Aufbau.[10]

Source personal data.[11]

Footnotes

  1. a, b Familienbuch Euregio: Eva Holländer.
  2. ^ Familienbuch Euregio: Moses Hartog.
  3. ^ Familienbuch Euregio: Johanna Holländer.
  4. ^ Zie het portret van Golda Hartog en haar zussen door Curt H. Hartog op de website van het Gedenkbuchprojekt für die Opfer der Shoah aus Aachen e.V. 2002-2020 Zie ook: Stefan Kahlen, Die spannende Genealogie der jüdischen Familie Hartog aus dem Rheinland, Website Hans-Dieter Arntz, 3 juni 2014.
  5. ^ The Iron Cross was awarded for bravery in battle as well as other military contributions in a battlefield environment. The Iron Cross, 1st class, and the Iron Cross, 2nd class, were awarded without regard to rank. One had to possess the 2nd Class already in order to receive the 1st Class (though in some cases both could be awarded simultaneously). Wikipedia: Iron Cross.
  6. ^ Zie de portretten van Emil Hartog en Gustav Hartog door Curt H. Hartog op de website van Gedenkbuchprojekt für die Opfer der Shoah aus Aachen e.V. 2002-2020. Zie ook: Kahlen, Die spannende Genealogie der jüdischen Familie Hartog aus dem Rheinland.
  7. ^ Melissa Müller, Anne Frank: de biografie, 5e geh. herz. dr., Amsterdam: Bert Bakker, 2013, p. 65.
  8. a, b Kahlen, Die spannende Genealogie der jüdischen Familie Hartog aus dem Rheinland.
  9. ^ Deutsche Friedensgesellschaft - Vereinigte KriegsdienstgegnerInnen Gruppe Darmstadt - Lexikon: Hartog, Meta.
  10. ^ Aufbau, 4 October 1968.
  11. ^ Familienbuch Euregio: Metha Hartog.