24T08 Blieskastel’s Oppenheimer families

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E07, outside Saarbrücken

My visit to Blieskastel’s city archives taught me there were many who shared the surname Oppenheimer. As future immigrant to Canada and becoming Vancouver’s 2nd mayor, David Oppenheimer (1834-1897) grew up in the house at Kardinal-Wendel-Straße 58. Seeing in-person at the city archives the book containing Oppenheimer’s birth certificate was “historic.” A number of David’s relatives including his mother are buried in the city’s modest Jewish cemetery.

Not related to David’s family was Anna Oppenheimer who once lived in the house at Kardinal-Wendel-Straße 62 in the early 20th-century. The Stolperstein (stumbling stone) embedded in the cobblestone outside the latter address tells us Anna was deported by NS-forces in 1940 and died on the way to Theriesenstadt.

With a total population of about 20-thousand, Blieskastel is served by hourly-frequency regional-trains with a 30-minute trip from Saarbrücken (SB).

Kardinal-Wendel-Straße 58, where David Oppenheimer spent his childhood.
Kardinal-Wendel-Straße 60-62: another Oppenheimer family, not related to David’s.
Book containing David Oppenheimer’s birth certificate (Stadtarchiv).
David Oppenheimer, born 1. January 1834 in Blieskastel (Stadtarchiv).
Entering the city of Blieskastel in the rural district of Saar-Palatinate (Saarpfalz-Kreis).

I made the images above with an iPhone15 on 15 May 2024. I couldn’t have done this research without the help of R. Berger at the city’s archives. This post composed with Jetpack for iOS appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins DOT com.

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