Leopold "Leo" Gerechter

Leopold Gerechter Obituary

Leopold "Leo" Gerechter Died - February 25, 2013 Brookline, MA - Leopold "Leo" Gerechter of Brookline, MA formerly of Norwich, on Monday, February 25, 2013. Beloved husband of the late Goldie (Weisman). Devoted father of Hugh Gerechter & his wife Ellen Sisco of Cambridge, MA, Marsha Abramovich & her husband Jon of Virginia and Judy Flad & her husband David of West Roxbury, MA. Loving grandfather of Tal Gerechter, Maeve Bennett and her husband Jason, Sam Abramovich and his wife Miriam, Jessica Rosenthal and her husband Andrew, Benjamin and Rebecca Flad. Great grandfather of Zelda Zahava and Oz Abraham Abramovich. Dear brother of the late Hilda, Lisbeth and Paula who perished in the Holocaust. Services at The Levine Chapels, 470 Harvard Street, Brookline, MA on Tuesday, February 26, 2013 at 11:00 A.M. Burial at 2 P.M. at the Norwich Hebrew Benevolent Association Cemetery, 60 Middle Rd., Preston, CT. Shiva at the home of his daughter Judy Flad with Minyanim at 7:45 A.M. Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Sunday, and Monday and 7:30 P.M. Wednesday, Thursday, and Sunday with visitors received throughout the day. Remembrances to Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society at HIAS.org.

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Published by Norwich Bulletin on Feb. 26, 2013.

Memories and Condolences
for Leopold Gerechter

4 Entries

Anna Pixa

March 25, 2013

Leo and I came into contact through Amelie who is a common friend of us and a researcher. For a couple of years we enjoyed a vivid conversation
via internet and telephone. Leo was a wonderful person with a big heart and a great sense of humour. We both had a similar taste in music: Puccini, Verdi, Chopin, Richard Tauber, Joseph Schmidt...I still cannot really believe that we will never talk to each-other again. I miss Leo a lot and I will always remember him. Anna Pixa (Berlin-Schöneberg, Germany)

Amelie Döge

March 12, 2013

I know Leo since the end of May 2007 through the research for the jewish family , who had been deported out of the apartment in Berlin , district Schöneberg , where my family and I were living in since a couple of years. I found out, one son of this family could escape. Never in my life I had imagined, this son would respond to my letter himself .It was Leo , he was at the age of 86 then. The following years an intensive contact and a wonderful friendship grew . Leo did not know many details about the fate his murdered family members. He had left Germany in late October of 1939. He had a lot of questions and I sent to him the answers- if there was an answer from the several archives.The communication with me must have been very painful for him .None of the news I sent to Leo were ever good news. It was not to find out, what happened to his brother in law in Tarnow , we could not find out ,what happened to his sister Lisbeth after Nov. 28 th in 1941 - when she was transferred from gestapo prison in Tarnow to an unknown destination.It can be any place in Europe, where the Germans committed their crimes.
Leo grew up in the region, where I am still living today. He is in my mind, when I pass the Münchener Street, the Freisinger Str., the bayerischer Platz, when I see the memorial of the synagogue, where Leo and his family attended the services. And , when I see his fathers gravesite in Weissensee, he is around me as well.His father is the only of Leo´s nuclear family , who passed away naturally in 1933. There is no grave for Leo´s murdered family members . But they are remembered here. Four Stolpersteine, stumbling blocks , are placed in front of the house Freisinger 6 : for Helene Gottschalk -his grandmother, Martha Gerechter- his mother, Diethild Reis and her husband - his eldest sister and her husband, who had lived in that house until October 1942 . And an album, a biography about Leo and his family was issued for the exhibit : We were neighbors - jewish life in the bavarian quarter in town hall of section Schöneberg.
I cannot ring up Leo anymore . I miss our exchange of nearly daily emails .I miss his humor , his affection and his friendship . But Leo will always be in my heart.
Amelie Döge, Berlin

Melinda Powers

March 6, 2013

We will miss Leo very much.

February 28, 2013

About five years ago, I first got to know something about Leo. I read in the Berlin Aktuell magazine that he wanted to know if anybody knew anything about his family who had been deported to concentration camps. In his search for family members, a young German woman, Amelie Doege, was trying to help also.
I remembered the name "Leopold Gerechter" as it was inscribed in one of my books I brought with me many years ago when I left Berlin in 1939. His sister, Liesbeth, had given it to me.

I contacted Leo and eventually sent him the book and even a photo of Liesbeth, who had worked for my father, as X-ray technician and nurse. Leo was overjoyed to know that I could tell him something about her.

I was fortunate to meet him a few years ago when a neighbor drove me to Brookline, Mass. He made a wonderful cup of coffee for me on his special machine and also showed me how he managed to do emails with a gadget to help him see as his eyesight was extremely bad.
Now and then, he would email me a beautiful video of German or Austrian scenes. The last time was a video about a Cruise on the Blue Danube on Feb. 5th of this year.

I am glad that I had an opportunity to get to know Leo. He has left me with beautiful memories.
Ilse Grant

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