Jakob Ascher papers

Jakob Ascher (later Jacob, 1882-1970) was born in Poland where he worked as a merchant and married Feiga Storch (later Fanny, 1882-1949). They had four children: Heinz Israel (later Harry, b. August 31, 1921), Max Leo (Motke or Mordechai, b. May 23, 1922), Esther (b. February 21, 1924), and Isidore Abraham (b. August 26, 1928). Jakob served in the Austro-Hungarian Army during WWI and settled in Breslau, Germany (currently Wrocław, Poland) after the war. The Ascher home was Jewish Orthodox and the children attended Jewish schools in Breslau.

In 1938 the family started to seek ways to leave Germany. They tried to immigrate to Palestine, but the restrictions of the British Mandate didn’t make it possible. Cousins in the United States sent invitations and affidavits and finally, at the end of September 1938, a United States visa for Jakob was approved. At the end of October 1938, Polish nationals residing in Germany since the end of World War I were forced to leave. A friend of the Ascher family forewarned them about the upcoming action and they hid in the Polish consulate in Breslau and later with Jewish friends in town.

In early November 1938 Jakob left Breslau for his voyage to the United States, leaving behind his wife and four children. A few days later, during Kristallnacht, stores run by Jakob’s relatives were demolished. Esther was finally issued her Polish passport in February 1939 and went to the offices of Youth Aliyah and applied to go to Palestine. In April 1939 Esther left Breslau through Trieste, Italy and immigrated to Eretz Israel. Max also immigrated to Palestine with Youth Aliyah and Heinz left for England in March 1939.

Heinz was able to obtain a work permit for his mother which allowed Fanny and her youngest son Isidore to leave Germany for England in July 1939. In 1942 Jakob was able to bring Fanny and Isidore to the United States. Max was sent to a kibbutz and later transferred to Kibbutz Sarid, near Haifa. After arriving in Palestine, Esther was sent by the Youth Aliyah to a non-religious school in Petach Tikvah for six months before attending Beit Z’erot Mizrach, a girls’ school in Jerusalem. In 1941 Esther graduated from high school and decided to join a kibbutz. After trying to join a religious kibbutz, her brother Max made a decision for her and brought her over to his kibbutz.

For the next few years Esther was transferred a few times to different locations. She joined the Socialist Zionist Youth movement, Ha’Shomer Ha’tsair. Esther lived in kibbutz Ma’abarot, close to the Mediterranean Sea. In 1946 Esther met Hanan Scheuer, another German refugee in the kibbutz and the two were married. Both of them had parents in the United States and decided visit them because Fanny’s heath was decreasing. In March 1947 they boarded the SS Marine Carp and while crossing the Atlantic, Esther met and fell in love with Siegbert Shimon Adler. Shimon, born in November 1921 in Germany, left for Palestine in 1936. He spent three years in kibbutz Yagur. Later he served in the British Army, while his parents immigrated to the United States. Shimon was on his way to visit his parents just as Esther. Hanan Scheuer returned to Israel right after his visit and he and Esther divorced. On January 2, 1949 Shimon and Esther married in New York and had three children: Andy, Jerry and Faye.