Dad's Memoirs:
Then in early 1930 a very traumatic event affected the whole family. My father became desperately ill with a sepsis (blood infection) - in those days essentially a fatal condition. Half a dozen or more physicians took care of him at home. Hospitals were not highly prized then. of course, antibiotics or chemotherapy were still undreamed of, and the physicians used supportive means only. But their unbelievable dedication and skill made a great impression on me and changed my future plans. Father recovered fortunately and eventually resumed his dental practice.
...
Father would have liked me to go to England where he had spent some happy years as a young man.
Birth: January 20, 1873
Cosel, Germany
Death: May 26, 1952 (79)
New York, New York, United States
Place of Burial: Woodbridge Township, New Jersey, United States
Immediate Family:
Son of Siegmund Silbermann and Coelestine Silbermann
Husband of Grete Silbermann
Father of Dr. Henry Kurt Silberman
Brother of Vally Mayer and Toni Rosenthal
This may not be the best place for this, but it trying to grasp the relationship of the Silbermans and the Apts, I decided to get some information about the town in which he was born. This also links up with the children's book that Amanda Sonnefeld wrote presumably based on him and his siblings and cosuins living in Cosel in the 1870's.
From Wikipedia:
It fell to Prussia by the 1742 Treaty of Breslau. Frederick II converted it into a fortress which held against Austrian sieges in 1758, 1759, 1760 and 1762. In 1807 it almost withstood a siege by the Von Deroy brigade of the Bavarian Army, which was allied with Napoleonic France. From 1871 it was part of the German Empire.
From M. Bronn, Geschichte der Juden in Schlesien (1896–1917), passim; fgw, 103–4
"KOZLE (Kosel ; Cosel ), town in Silesia, Poland. Jews lived in Kozle long before the first documentary evidence of their presence in 1373. In 1563 Emperor *Ferdinandi decreed, on the urging of the municipality, that none might reside there any longer. According to an imperial decree of 1713, Jewish merchants were prohibited from even entering the town, although in 1750 two merchants were recorded as living there. The number of Jews in the town increased from 30 in 1766 to 112 in 1782. In 1820 a community was organized and a school opened, and five years later a private home was converted into a synagogue. A new synagogue was consecrated in 1884 when the community numbered 236 persons (4.7% of the total population). The community subsequently declined to 119 in 1910 and 80 in 1932. By 1939 only 24 remained. The community was destroyed during World War ii and not reestablished since."
From Lustige Kameraden (ChatGPT translate), which was published in 1916:
So it was no wonder that the farewell became a hard one when, one day after her fourteenth birthday, Adele was to be sent to a boarding school in a distant, large city. That had already become fashionable among all well-to-do families! And though it was only a small village where her parents’ house stood, it surely could do such a young child some real good to see a bit of the world outside. Adele’s parents were certain of this, and they had also told their daughter so. ...
For her birthday, however, Adele had this time had a very special wish, and this of course was connected to her departure for the boarding school. She wanted an autograph album—an album bound in red leather! And on it should be printed in gold letters: “In Remembrance”; and inside, all her little and big playmates from home should write their names …
But Adele did not laugh; she was delighted—her whole little face shone—when she saw all the dear familiar names together. There, right at the front, Kurt and Lenchen had signed, then came Lilli and Sendel and Tripsirille and Franz and Vitor and Friede and Grete and little Mülle and Pfeiferfranz and the Nordmacherspöhlschen and Karlemann and the little baker’s Franz and München and Trinken and many, many others whose names I have forgotten. ...
All the dear little ones who had written their names long ago in her red book, and who were now scattered all over the world—they came together again, just as in Adele’s childhood years! They danced, they sang, they made noise, they rejoiced in Adele’s eyes and ears, and a thousand happy hours, a thousand funny little pranks awoke to fresh, new life.
So the little Adele of those days sat down at her big writing desk of today and wrote down all the funny pranks that whirled through her mind. For every name that the little children’s hands had once scribbled into her little book, she knew a story to tell. And she did not stop writing until all her paper was used up, until she saw that no more would fit into a storybook. For a storybook for you—for all you happy children— was what she had in mind while she wrote.
So, taking Amanda ("Adele") at her word for this. She was born July 4, 1868, and thus was 14 in 1882. She had three silbings and three cousins who were also all born in Cosel. [It would appear as the Sonnenfelds left Cosel sometime in the 1880s, as Amanda's mother died in Breslau in 1885.]
older than her:
Hugo Sonnenfeld, born October 02, 1863
Waly Sonnenfeld (later Apt), born October 20, 1864
younger than her:
Vally Silberman (later Mayer) born October 15, 1870
Eugene Silberman, born January 20, 1873
Julius Sonnefeld, born June 04, 1875
Toni Silberman (later Rosenthal), born May 04, 1877