N.B. I had done an earlier post on Josef Emil Roos in 2020, available here.This current one expands on his life story. Across four decades, Josef Emil Roos turned paper into power—until the paper stopped moving. In 2020 I traced the path of Emil Josef Roos as a shadowy swindler orbiting the likes of Hans […]
Emil Josef Roos, Revisited: New Swiss, German, and Dutch Files (1901–1941) Read More »
This is Part 5 of a five-part series on the Sommerfeld family, tracing the later life of Yvonne Sommerfeld and her son Edgar.Part 1 is here. Part 2 is here. Part 3 is here. Part 4 is here.N.B. An Addendum can be found here, touching on Yvonne’s French military connections. We now turn to the
Yvonne Sommerfeld: The Chaos of a Borderless Life Read More »
This is Part 4 of a five-part series on the Sommerfeld family, focusing on Margarete Sommerfeld and her daughter Evelyne,who spent a decade caught in the Swiss welfare system.Part 1 is here. Part 2 is here. Part 3 is here. Part 5 is hereN.B. An Addendum can be found here, touching on Yvonne’s French military
Evelyne and Margarete Gundelfinger: A Childhood in the Files Read More »
When I first tried using ChatGPT for historical research, I called it a complete waste of time. It invented sources, botched facts, and turned one MI5 officer into a Frankenstein composite of random facts. I closed the tabs and went back to sifting through archives. Two years later, the Swiss Archives dropped a mountain of
Working with Swiss Archive Documents: Human + AI in the Trenches Read More »
I’ve been absent from this blog for almost a year but I am now back in the blogging saddle! I hope. It is amazing how times flies! Life can get hectic and sometimes choices have to be made. I am slowly learning that I cannot do “everything”. For the past year, other life projects took
Back in the Blogging Saddle Read More »
I interrupt this series on Yvonne Sommerfeld for just a moment… Digging through the Swiss Archives online…. I have been a bit like a child in a candy shop. Stunned and gobsmacked… staring around me with wide-eyed wonder and glee. I’ll have this one… and this one… oh, and this one too! Oh heck… I’ll
This blog is Part 2 of a 4-Part Series on German Jew Werner GoldsteinPart 1 is here, Part 3 is here & Part 4 is here. I never thought I would find any information on Josef’s gold counterfeiting buddy. To me, the name “Goldstein” (Goldstone) seemed too utterly made-up to be real. But, it would
The Jewish Chemist Turned Gold Counterfeiter – Werner Adolf Goldstein Read More »
This blog is Part 1 of a 4-Part Series on German Jew Werner GoldsteinPart 2 is here, Part 3 is here & Part 4 is here. A follow-up post can be found here. I burst into tears the other day. Now, this is not an unusual occurrence when I am researching the lives and deaths
German Spy Josef Jakobs’ Gold Counterfeiting Story Confirmed by Swiss Archives Documents Read More »