Frida Hahn

Tue Apr 29 14:36:17 UTC 2008

Rory,

My mom said Frida was Jewish from Germany.

There was also rumor (unsubstantiated) that many German linguists were 
sent to Native American communities in the early 1930s (as Hitler was 
coming to power). Their work was well funded and given high priority. 
Hitler was aware of the U.S. using Shawnee and Choctaw speakers in 
W.W.-I and was trying to document other Native Languages. Most of the 
German scholars were unaware of the manipulation at play and nearly all 
were recalled back to their universities before 1939.

I have heard this story from several different people over the years, 
including - oddly enough - two Comanche Code Talkers from W.W.-II. But, 
I have never seen empirical evidence to substantiate the tales. Nearly 
every tribe in Oklahoma, however, has stories of German linguists 
"visiting" amongst their tribe in the early 1930s.

Could be a myth...could be true. It would be interesting to find 
additional info on this chapter.

TML

Rory M Larson wrote:
>
> I'm confused.  What "holocaust" are we talking about here?  Were the 
> Hahns Jewish or non-Jewish Germans?  If they were Germans from Russia 
> who had come to America before Frida was even born, what authority 
> would Third Reich Germany have had to call Frida "back" to Germany? 
>  Why only her, and not the rest of her family?  If she was Jewish, why 
> would they want to at a time they were trying to expel the Jews?  If 
> she was non-Jewish, she might have moved there voluntarily, and 
> perhaps died there in the following decade.  There were probably about 
> three million or so German civilians that died during or after the war 
> from Allied bombing or in the massive population expulsion of Germans 
> from the eastern parts of their country by the Russians, Poles and 
> Czechs.  Would on-line "holocaust" lists include these people?
>
> Rory
>
>
>
>
> *"Rankin, Robert L" <rankin at ku.edu>*
> Sent by: owner-siouan at lists.colorado.edu
>
> 04/28/2008 11:25 PM
> Please respond to
> siouan at lists.colorado.edu
>
>
> 	
> To
> 	<siouan at lists.colorado.edu>
> cc
> 	
> Subject
> 	RE: Frida Hahn
>
>
>
> 	
>
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>
>
>
> Thanks for adding that information.  We were afraid something like 
> that had happened.  The Hahns of Lincoln were Germans from Russia 
> (like many of the Germans of western KS and other midwestern states), 
> so she would have known the language since both parents and an older 
> sister had been born abroad and her father was not yet a citizen.  I 
> guess it might pay to check in Lincoln in any event.
>
> The holocaust lists that are on-line give at least three Frida Hahns 
> and a number of others with spelling variants.  The late '30s would 
> have been a particularly bad time to go back to Germany.  
>
> Thanks again for the info.
>
> Bob
>
> ________________________________
>
> From: owner-siouan at lists.colorado.edu on behalf of Tom Leonard
> Sent: Mon 4/28/2008 5:15 PM
> To: siouan at lists.colorado.edu
> Subject: Re: Frida Hahn
>
>
> Thought I'd add a bit regarding Freida Hahn.
>
> My Ponca mother, Josetta Rush was friends with Freida. She had many 
> stories about her. To my best understanding, as mom told it, Freida 
> was German. She actually told a story about how they (Poncas) were all 
> amazed that Freida could "i'e with those German ukhi'te at Miller's 
> 101 Ranch" (German WWI POWs that never went back).
>
> Some time in the late 30s Freida was called back to Germany and she 
> went. Mom said that all the Ponca boys that went to Europe in WWII 
> tried to find her, but to no avail. Mom and her sisters tried to 
> locate her through the Red Cross, but they never found her. The fear 
> has always been that she had been killed in the holocaust.
>
> TML
>
> Rankin, Robert L wrote:
>
>                 I did a little more checking on Frida Hahn, the 
> student of Franz Boas who wrote the Ponca grammar found in the Gordon 
> Marsh Collection of the APS.  There was a Frida Hahn listed in the 
> 1920 US Census from Lincoln, Nebraska, daughter of one William Hahn 
> who had emigrated from Russia.  At the time our Frida was exchanging 
> correspondence with Franz Boas she would have been 23-27 years old -- 
> just about right for a graduate student.  And she might have been 
> naturally attracted to study Ponca since she was from Nebraska. 
>  According to the Census figures, below, she apparently had a brother 
> and possibly three sisters.  
>                  
>                 Those of you living in the Lincoln area might want to 
> make some phone calls to the Hahns in the Lincoln phone directory and 
> see if any of the names below rings a bell.  There may be some 
> children or grandchildren still around, and we could clear up the 
> question "What ever happened to Frida Hahn?" once and for all.  They 
> might appreciate the information we have about her too.
>                  
>                 Her father and mother were both born in Russia
>                  
>                 NAME                     STATUS   AGE     FATHER       
> BIRTHPLACE
>                 Hahn, Emma               Married  43  F   William (H9) 
>   Russia
>                 Hahn, Emma                Single  11  F   William (H9) 
>  Nebraska
>                 Hahn, Frida               Single  13  F   William (H9) 
>  Nebraska
>                 Hahn, George              Single  22  M   William (H9) 
>  Nebraska
>                 Hahn, Hazel               Single  9m  F   William (H9) 
>  Nebraska
>                  
>                 I also checked the listings of names of persons who 
> died in the holocaust.  There were at least three Frida Hahns from 
> various places in Silesia and Hungary, but they were all born in the 
> 1880s.  Let us hope she was not one of them.
>                  
>                 Bob
>                  
>
>
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