Hans Jungmann

Hans Jungmann was born in Berlin on 18 March 1916. His parents were Selma and Oskar Jungmann. His father ran a cigar shop. His sister Gerda was three years older. The family lived at Bochumer Straße 15 in Berlin-Moabit.
Hans attended a grammar school and worked as a salesman in a menswear shop. He lost his job because he was Jewish. A friend whose father was a Nazi officer had advised him at the time to leave Germany as soon as possible.
In spring 1938, he left Berlin and travelled via Italy to Shanghai, where entry was possible without a visa. A year later, his parents also came to Shanghai. Hans survived with various odd jobs, including as a drummer in a band. After the end of the war, he worked in the US army motor pool until 1948. With the help of a letter of recommendation from a US officer, he managed to immigrate to the USA, where he built a new existence. He settled in Cleveland, Ohio where he met and married Illein Ellin.  They had two children, Allen Youngman and Susan Youngman Simmons.  His parents moved to Israel, where Gerda and her husband lived. Hans only saw his family  3 times after he left Germany in 1938.  His parents, Selma and Oskar visited him in Cleveland in 1958, 10 years after they all left Shanghai. His father, Oskar, died on that trip of a heart attack and is buried in Cleveland, Ohio.  Eight years later, In 1966, Hans and Illein traveled to Israel to see his mother and Gerda and Mase.  Selma, his mother visited Cleveland one more time the following year, in 1967 for his son Allen’s Bar Mitzvah.  Hans lived in Cleveland for the rest of his life and passed away on March 29, 2007 at the age of 91.