Forkheim.ca

The Hoffmann Family Story

All I know of the Hoffmann story comes to me from my Grandmother. Her baptismal certificate lists her grandparents as Phillipp Hoffmann and Catharina Heller. They had at least one son, Heinrich Hoffmann. He was born around 1860 in the northern part of Galizia, possibly in a town sounding like Bruski. He married Maria Kollinger, who probably lived in the same area. Together they had 5 children; John, Josephine (Juju), Angela, Anne and Anthony. Anne was born in Angelowka, a small town near Brody NE of Lemberg. Heinrich was a blacksmith and traveled a lot for work. He and his son John worked as far as Germany, but mostly in Romania. In WW1, John was part of the Austrian army, but he was not part of the front line. During this time Heinrich was working in Canada, but came back home just before the end of the war.

Catharina was still alive at this time as Anne remembers learning a lot from her grandmother. She also remembers what happened after WW1. As the Russian soldiers were going home, they would go through the villages and round up all of the Jews. Then they would shoot them into an open pit. One of the Russian soldiers wanted to rape Juju, but she managed to get away. Later the soldier was walking behind Maria swearing up a storm. One of her neighbors didn't like the language he was using in front of a lady. So he confronted the soldier. Unfortunately for him, the soldier gave him a good whipping

Anne and Juju immigrated to Canada around 1926. Heinrich and Maria continued to live in Angelowka and died there during WW2. Anne was married to John Forkheim in Winnipeg in 1931.