The rich history of the Bruell and Briess extended families

A Family Story of Survival

In writing these books I aimed to show how the lives of one large extended Jewish family intersected with history. 

My interest began in 1979 when my father died and left me amongst his papers, a small drawing of a squiggly line showing his father and his father’s siblings and thus planted the idea of a family tree in my fertile head. My mother, started me even earlier at age six with Holocaust stories leading me down another track. Who were these people, where were they and what happened to them?  

These four books go some way towards answering these questions. They show the results of my research in archives, in Vienna, Prague and smaller towns and at Yad Vashem, as well as collaborating with widespread family members.

I collected data and above all, stories, spoke at gatherings and networked with others doing similar research. Finally, in 2023 my good friend Mike Regan, a retired editor in Wellington, rashly offered to help me put my work together in a book. We didn’t know when we began that we would end up with not just one, but four books. I am immensely grateful to Mike. His keen eye, technical wizardry and attention to design detail made the books better than I could have imagined. 

Searching for Identity

Book 1: Writing the past into life

General history of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Taking each set of our great grandparents, I have researched the towns and villages they lived in and tried to imagine, in conjunction with written accounts, to visualise how their lives might have been.

Book 2: Our parents’ new lives

Accounts of Frank and Alice Briess, (Franz and Lizzie Briess) their lives in Moravia, Czechoslovakia, escape and new lives in New Zealand. Accounts of Fred and Lilly Bruell (Fritz and Lilly Brüll), their lives in Austria, escape from Europe, journey to New Zealand and new lives they made for themselves and their children.

Book 3: Bearing witness

First hand accounts, transcripts and stories from those in our families who survived the Shoah, either by overcoming the horrors of the concentration camps, Theresienstadt, Auschwitz, Sobibor, Majdanek and more, or by Kindertransport resulting in lives of disruption, displacement and acculturation.

Book 4: Family footprints

A miscellany of writing about personalities who stood out for their contribution to the societies in which they were born, talks given at Jewish learning weekends, commemorations, publications, articles on genealogy published in Avotaynu (The International Review of Jewish Genealogy) and elsewhere as well as more histories and subjects of interest to our family.

Testimonials

“When I first suggested I could paginate Claire’s memoir/family history we already had some experience of working together. I had edited and composed a number of her written works for various publications over many years. I knew her research and writing would be well constructed and thoughtfully composed. We began work and though at first I feared we may not have enough content for each book, a steady stream of photographs, maps, graphics and charts came alongside the text to fill the books.”
– Mike Regan, Journalist, editor & collaborator

“Claire Bruell’s four remarkable volumes entitled Searching for Identity, tell the story of one moment in time which turns out to be a story for all time. It is a story of the very worst human beings, and the very best. She shows in personal detail how, in spite of every effort of the Nazis, the threads of family have spread triumphantly across the globe. Her books are a heartfelt tribute and memorial not only to her own family, her ancestors, but to all human beings who have encountered prejudice and horror and somehow survived and thrived. It is an impressive undertaking which adds not just to her own family history but to the history of the 19th and 20th centuries. “
— Penelope Hansen, Writer & editor

“The four volumes of “Searching for Identity” are such a treasure trove of information, stories of survival and success in the new country, sad stories of those lost in the holocaust, the history of the period and, above all, a wonderful family history for Claire’s grandchildren. Claire’s talent as an historian, and also her drive to find out what happened to the wider family, is very evident in these volumes. Claire has spoken virtually annually to the Auckland Second Generation Group about research she has undertaken on Holocaust topics, such as the Kindertransport stories of children who eventually ended up in New Zealand. Much of this research appears in the fourth volume. Congratulations Claire for such an amazing piece of work and to her friend Mike for his skilled work in presenting the material in book form. It was a mammoth task but so worthwhile.”
– Naomi Johnson, Co-Leader of the Auckland Second Generation Group

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My Story

My family has lived in Auckland, New Zealand since my parents fled from Czechoslovakia as refugees in March 1939.  My schooling was in Auckland and I completed a BA in history and languages at Auckland University. I have been actively researching my family history since 1987 and have contributed articles to publications such as Avotaynu: The International Review of Jewish Genealogy, (unfortunately no longer published), Kosher Koala, the journal of the Australian Jewish Genealogical Society, Identity and Involvement Volumes 1 and 3, edited by Ann Gluckman and The New Zealand Jewish Chronicle. Czech Jewish history and Holocaust studies are my particular areas of interest. Involvement in creating a programme recording oral history interviews with Holocaust survivors in Auckland, saw the programme later extended to the wider Auckland Jewish community. 

Today, books and stories written, travel done, my time is taken up with the ebb and flow of family life, reading and continuing research.