Kurt Sonntag and a mystery Jewish connection

[fiddlerslass]

Hi,
I recently put my DNA and tree on Myheritage in the hope of finding new cousins. A record hint was found for Kurt Sonntag, date and place of birth and residence all seem correct, so I am sure it is the right person, in the 1939 German minority census .

 The explanation of the record is
" individuals listed in the 1939 census of Germany who lived in a household where at least one person in the household had a Jewish grandparent. Many of these people were killed in the Holocaust and this census is the last written trace of them. These approximately 410,000 individuals come from the supplement census cards that recorded each person’s Jewish background. Information listed may include: name, maiden name, birth date, birthplace, residence, death date, death place, place of imprisonment, deportation or emigration, and whether they were a Holocaust victim. Some of this information comes from the original census cards, and some of this information was researched and annotated much later. "

The puzzle is I can find no Jewish forbears in Kurt's ancestry and have gone beyond grandparents. They all have RC baptisms. The only missing record is his parents marriage which supposedly took place in Bodenbach in 1912, there is a note of it on his mother's baptism record.

Here are some records for Kurt and family

1921 census shows his parents Viktor and Anna nee Fritsch, all Roman Catholic

https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33S7-9GY6-TRW?i=35&wc=Q67C-RYB%3A226978101%2C227249001%2C226974303%2C227265201&cc=1930345

His mother's baptism top of page which gives all his grandparents names.

http://vademecum.soalitomerice.cz/vademecum/permalink?xid=09ddd7cea03b9b8d:30bdd2c7:1201ea2ef5b:-7aad&scan=a45f919589c94214b1929f8f9b83757c

The Fritsch family were from Güntersdorf, now Huntirov and go back to the 1700's in that place. The mother of Anna's father's maiden name was Böhm, all go back as Catholics in Dobern. The Ritschels were from Dobern now Dobrna and again go back centuries as Catholics in that village. Dörre family on the Ritschel side again from Dobern all documented as Catholic . Also I descend from these forbears of Anna via her brother Wenzel, and there is no Jewish component in my DNA profile.

The Sonntags were from Schonau now Sanov Moravia and again go back to the early 1800's in that place. The Beschorner family came from Herautz now Heroltice Moravia, again all seem to be Catholics as I have checked the baptisms.

Here is Viktor, father of Kurt with his parents Sigmund and Sofia nee Beschorner,family again

all Roman Catholic in 1890 Schonau

https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-89F3-C2W9?i=216&cc=1930345&cat=2317644

Parents of Sigmund Sonntag, Johann and mother Viktoria nee Wagner all Catholic 1857 census

https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-89XJ-RQYF?i=185&cc=1930345&cat=2317644

Sofie Beschorner with her parents 1869 census Herautz Heroltice Moravia, all Catholic

https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QSQ-G9XN-54H?i=358&wc=Q67Z-KQ5%3A226979201%2C1291789902%2C226974803%2C1291789901&cc=1930345



I did find another Sonntag in Tetschen who was Jewish, but I cannot find a link between him and my Sonntags. This was Jakob Herman Sonntag who was a policeman turned banker and became prominent in the local Jewish community. He died in Tetschen Bodenbach in 1899 and came from Kolomyia  in Galicia according to his burial record and also this book

https://www.hugogold.com/bohemia/tetschen.pdf

So I am totally confounded. Has anyone any idea why Kurt should appear in this 1939 list?
He was in the German army and died in Italy in 1945.
Thanks

[TreeSpirit]

 "a census ...  that required the head of each household to fill out a supplementary card, or Ergänzungskarte, which mandated marking the Jewish background of each of the resident's four grandparents. By 1942, the cards of households with one or more residents with a Jewish grandparent marked on their card, the so-called "Minority Census," were collected and and sent to the Reich Genealogy Office" (source: https://www.ushmm.org/online/hsv/source_view.php?SourceId=42011)

I would interpret this as follows: Anyone - whether Jewish or non-Jewish- would be included in this minority census if they were sharing a household with one or more Jewish individuals.

This theory is confirmed via: "The database contains the names of all of the people who lived in the household where one or more people in the household had a minimum of one Jewish grandparent. This means that there are also a number of non-Jewish individuals in the database, making it excellent source material for finding more biographical information on non-Jewish spouses. The specifics as to the racial/religious background of the individuals are not part of this database."

i.e. Have you seen the actual card or only the index?

[fiddlerslass]

No, I haven't seen the actual card, I presume that it's information from an index. This is it, if this link works, but you may have to be a member to see it

https://www.myheritage.com/research/record-10901-362126-/kurt-sonntag-in-german-minority-census?indId=individual-1623424126-2000198&s=1623424126

I did wonder if it also had non Jewish people included, but it sort of implied that these had been removed. Kurt was unmarried at this point, but I don't know who else would have been in the household.

[TreeSpirit]

I'd assume that in those days a single young man would have been living with family, friends or boarding i.e. part of a larger household.

You'd have to visit a Family History Center, but maybe you can find the answer in the collection https://www.familysearch.org/search/catalog/444883?availability=Family%20History%20Library. Film 7992009 seems to contain the images for Starnberg.

[TreeSpirit]

That FS collection page mentions something reg non-Germanic minorities ... Maybe Kurt wasn't Jewish, but was considered to be of some other non-Germanic background.

[fiddlerslass]

Thanks for this. Maybe because he was born in Czechoslovakia he wasn't considered German, despite being an ethnic German and German speaker.
As far as I know the rest of the family remained in Decin/Tetschen running the family business until expulsion in 1945, and Kurt was listed with his father and brother in the 1942 directory despite being in the army.
 He married in Weßling in 1941 according to his wife who registered his death in the list of Germans killed abroad in 1950. She was called Hildegard Else Stertz, but that is all I know about her.

[TreeSpirit]

In 1939 a Hildegard Stertz (b 4 Oct 1918 Wroclaw) and her probable parents Georg Stertz (b 19 Dec 1878 Wroclaw) and Gertrud Alzheimer (b 11 Mar 1895 Frankfurt) resided in Weßling too. Maybe they had something to do with Kurts minority registration?

[fiddlerslass]

Many thanks.
Perhaps if he was staying with them that is how he met his future wife. I shall have to see if I can find out more about the Stertz family. Perhaps they were in the paper/ printing business like the Sonntags.

[fiddlerslass]

Georg Stertz was a psychiatrist and professor who had worked with Alois Alzheimer so perhaps his wife was related to that Alzheimer family

https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-540-74017-9_10