Meier Langermann
The naturalization document for Meyer Langerman says his former name was Meier Leib Langermann, that he was born 1887 February 7 in Hussakow, Poland, that he married Frederica (born Friederike Passweg) on 1929 January 2 in Vienna, that she was born 1910 December 7 in Rymanow, Poland ('I had just, just turned 18.') They lived at 720 Fort Washington Avenue. He came from Montreal, entered at Rouses Point, NY on the D&H RR (Delaware & Hudson Railroad, I think) on 1941 March 12.
Meier Langermann arrived on the 'Bremen' for the first time 1938 October 23. Note that in the nationality column, someone has written 'Hebrew' over the typed 'Polish'. He was accompanied by Sigmund Spiegel, husband of Joe's mother's sister.
The arrival document for the 'Normandie' of 1939 January 28 lists Meier Langermann and, just after him, Benzion Passweg (Joe's mother's brother).
After multiple attempts Congress passed a special bill to admit the Langermans; FDR vetoed it the first time. He signed it after a second passage.
Eventually he got his wife and Joe, her mother, brother, sister, and their families to America. (His father-in-law, Solomon Passweg, had died in 1936.) His visa from 1941 March 12 places his mother as still in Poland. This document identifies his race as Hebrew, his nationality as Poland.
Meyer Langerman established the Langerman Shoe Company in the US. (He had been a shoe manufacturer in Europe.) Ellen Oppenheimer's memoir, Flight to Freedom mentions it:
'During the Shiva someone had told her about a job at a shoe factory in Brooklyn where she would be able to earn more money than doing housework by doing piece work; also the hours would be more regular. She asked the person about it who made a phone call and was told to have Grete report to the factory in Brooklyn. On Tuesday morning, February 23rd, at 6:00 a.m., she took the long (2 hours) subway ride to Brooklyn. She had a piece of paper in her hand with printed directions on how to get there. First she took the AA train to 145th Street, changed to the A train to 14th Street, to the Canarsie line to Lorimer Street and walked the three blocks, to start her job at Langerman Shoe Corporation, weaving the upper part of ladies' summer sandals. It was piece work and the more you did, the more you got paid. She worked long and hard hours, now facing a future that she had never imagined, but when at the end of the week she got her paycheck, she felt as if her life might just get better. She was able to get groceries and pay the essential bills.'
Records found on JewishGen.org record his divorce on 1928 July 11 from Nechume Glanz. They had married 1914 March 20 in Turka. There is also a record of her subsequent marriage in 1930 in Vienna, at the same temple, to Alexander Rafalovic.
The certificate of his death says that Meyer Langerman died on 1943 October 8 in Manhattan; he was 56. His father was Nachum Langerman, his mother was Batscheva Laugonauer, his wife was Frederica Langerman.
