 1908 - 1994 (86 years)
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| Name |
Nellie “Omi” Hortense Bruell |
| Born |
3 Sep 1908 |
Lyon, France  |
| Gender |
Female |
| Biography |
Nellie Friedrichs Strasse in Braunschweig is named after her.
Recipient of the Braunschweig Civic Medal, Nellie H. Friedrichs, Has Died at 86
A NOSTALGIC LOVE FOR BRAUNSCHWEIG
By Peter Lufft
From New York comes the news that Nellie H. Friedrichs, nee Nellie Bruell, a woman who was held in highest regard both there and in Braunschweig, has died at the age of 86. Through her loyalty to Braunschweig, a city which was not even her birthplace, she came to be part of our local cultural history. She wrote her personal recollections of this city, which were published by the city archive and city library as memoirs of her life between 1912 and 1937.
These simple, effective recollections, very personal and not at all pretentious, tell the story of a child who, raised in a protective atmosphere in Braunschweig, matured emotionally and physically into a young woman here. It was at the Baltic resort town of Grömitz that, eighty years ago, on August 1, 1914, she heard the word "war" for the first time.
She was born in Lyon, where her father was the head of a silk export firm. After her parents were divorced she came with her mother to Braunschweig to live in the house where her grandmother Auguste Herxheimer lived across from the city park; she attended the Lyceum Kleine Burg right through to graduation, studied at the Technische Hochschule (TH), got engaged to the youngest mathematics professor at the TH, thus experienced a highly dangerous attachment to an "Aryan," and then, separately from him, emigrated in 1937 via Prague and Paris to the USA where they were able to marry. He, Kurt O. Friedrichs, became one of the most eminent mathematical scientists in the world, received countless honors, and was the member of numerous academies, including the Braunschweig Academy of Sciences. They had five talented and successful children and seven [sic] grandchildren. President Carter awarded him the National Medal of Science. Friedrichs died in 1983 in New Rochelle, NY, were they had lived for half a century.
Nothing -- no amount of honors or family happiness -- could diminish the closeness, indeed the nostalgic love, that Nellie Friedrichs felt for Braunschweig.
Her memoirs demonstrated this. In 1989 she received from Mayor Gerhard Glogowski the civic medal of the city of Braunschweig. Her son Christopher, a historian in Vancouver, and Dr. Garzmann of the city archive, the publisher of her memoirs, were present. In her memoirs she wrote that once some village children in the Liineberg Heath with whom she wanted to play, incited by an older child, ran away from her. "This was the first and also the only time during my childhood when I explicitly experienced anti-semitism." She was an impressive personality. She reached out to others. Her spirit and her attitude contributed to the reconciliation of Germans and Jews in her old hometown. |
| Hebrew Birth |
7 Elu 5668 |
| Immigration |
1912 |
Braunschweig, Germany |
| Residence |
1908-1912 |
Lyon, France |
| Residence |
1912-1937 |
Braunschweig, Germany |
| Immigration |
11 Jun 1937 |
New York, NY, USA [1] |
| Residence |
1937-1994 |
New Rochelle, NY, USA |
| Hebrew Death |
4 Kis 5755 |
| Occupation |
Nursery school teacher |
| Social Security Number |
113-38-8562 |
| Died |
7 Nov 1994 |
New Rochelle, NY, USA |
| Person ID |
I5666 |
Blank Family |
| Last Modified |
10 May 2009 |
| Father |
Emil Bruell, b. 14 May 1870, Lichtenfels, Germany , d. 8 Jan 1944, Lyon, France (Age 73 years) |
| Mother |
Ella “Didi” Pauline Herxheimer, b. 6 Nov 1882, London, England , d. 28 Apr 1978, New Rochelle, NY, USA (Age 95 years) |
| Married |
27 Aug 1907 |
Dresden, Germany |
| Divorced |
1913 |
| Family ID |
F1970 |
Group Sheet | Family Chart |
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| Event Map |
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 | Born - 3 Sep 1908 - Lyon, France |
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 | Immigration - 1912 - Braunschweig, Germany |
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 | Residence - 1908-1912 - Lyon, France |
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 | Residence - 1912-1937 - Braunschweig, Germany |
|
 | Immigration - 11 Jun 1937 - New York, NY, USA |
|
 | Married - 11 Aug 1937 - Plattsburgh, NY, USA |
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 | Residence - 1937-1994 - New Rochelle, NY, USA |
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 | Died - 7 Nov 1994 - New Rochelle, NY, USA |
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| Pin Legend |
 : Address
 : Location
 : City/Town
 : County/Shire
 : State/Province
 : Country
 : Not Set |
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| Sources |
- [S171] New York Passenger Lists, 1820-1957 , Ancestry, SS Champlain from Le Havre.
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