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Bella Levy is Alfred Samuel Erlebacher’s nine year elder sister, whose biographic summary is shown in the previous article.  She was born on  January 6, 1888 in Diedelsheim, as the oldest of four children, to Abraham and Pauline Erlebacher, née Heilbronner.  She spent the first years of her life in her birthplace, together with her younger siblings Hermine (* August 4, 1891), Sophie (* October 22, 1894) and Alfred Samuel (* August 10, 1897). At the beginning of the 20th century, the family moved to Laupheim, where Abraham Erlebacher took over his father-in-law’s soap works company after his death. Little is known about Bella’s life.  On  July 17, 1914 she married Lucien Benjamin Levy in Laupheim, who, according to the family’s register, was a tailor in Heidelberg.  On 5 August 1914, the „newly-wed” husband had already enlisted in the back-up infantry regiment number 250 in Freiburg im Breisgau, a city in Baden-Wuerttemberg.  According to the „Listing of Belligerent of the Jewish Community” by Jonas Weil, Lucien Benjamin Levy was wounded in March 1916 in Russia and had gone missing since then.  Their only son Ernst was born on  June 22, 1915 in Laupheim and, therefore, was never able to meet his father.

Bella Levy stayed near her relatives in Laupheim where she and her son lived on Kapellenstreet 2.  At that time the pub “Bären” existed, which the older citizens of Laupheim may still remember.  What she did for a living was unascertainable.  Finding a picture of her was equally difficult.

There is a picture of her son Ernst who attended the Jewish primary school and later the Secondary Modern School here in Laupheim. This picture is from 1928 and shows him when he was a member of the harmonica orchestra.  At this time he was nearly 13 years old.  Ernst was likely to have finished the Secondary Modern School in Laupheim and an apprenticeship.  However, detailed information is missing.  Both Bella and Ernst were members of the „Zionist Union of Germany, Laupheim branch,” whose fundamental aim was the creation of a homestead governed by public law for the Jewish nation in Palestine, formulated at the first Zionist Congress in Basel in 1897.

 

 Ernst Levy, Bernhard Kästle and Lothar Lewin (v. l.).

 

On the  January 1, 1937 Ernst Levy went to Munich where he prepared himself for emigration to Palestine. On the  April 27, 1939 he got married to the Jewish cook Anneliese Wachtner from Berlin, who lived in Charlottenburg -a district of Berlin.  As part of the left-wing youth movement 'Hashomer Hazair', he emigrated to the British mandated territory of Palestine with her.  There they joined the kibbutz Hazore'a located in the Jezreel Valley.  On 24 February 1940, their son Uri Levy was born in the kibbutz Hazore'a.  The wife and mother Anneliese Levy already died at the tender age of only 26.  While developing the new territory for the prospective Jewish state (Israel), which was declared on the  May 14, 1948, Ernst Levy, now called Ephraim Levy, provided valuable work.  This was due to his having become a purposeful farmer in the kibbutz.  Years later he met Martha Hofheimer there.  Originally from Laupheim, she had already been widowed twice. He spent some years in a long-term relationship with her.

 

Belly Levy succeeded in emigrating to the USA on  December 29, 1939 due most likely to the help of her brother Alfred Erlebacher. After 1948, she lived temporarily with her son Ephraim Levy, in his house in the kibbutz Hazore'a in Israel, where she died in the 1970s.

 

Ephraim Levy suffered a massive stroke in May 1981 which confined him to a wheelchair and this proved to be a big burden on his life. At this point, they were referring to a picture in an article about the Wertheimer family, showing him sitting in a wheelchair.  Despite his disability he accepted an invitation, extended to all the former citizens of the city of Laupheim, to visit his hometown.  Ephraim Levy died at the age of 88 on  February 25, 2004 in the kibbutz Hazore'a in Israel.  His son Uri Levy and daughter-in-law Imra have 4 sons and several grandchildren.

 

 

Sources:

 

Address and business manual for the official city and county councils Laupheim 1925. E-mail from Rolf Emmerich of 31 July, 2008.

 

Erlebacher family Papers, 1937-54.  Milwaukee Small Col.  59.1 cubic ft., the Milwaukee Urban Archives

 

Hüttenmeister, Nathanja: The Jewish cemetery Laupheim. 1998. Laupheim 1998

 

Kohl, Waltraut: The history of the Jewish community in Laupheim 1965. Standesamt Laupheim. Familienregisterband V. S. 262.

 

Weil, Jonas: Register of combatants of the Israelite community of Laupheim. Laupheim 1919.

 

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