In this reading of notes, Philip Maier tells us of a conversation he had with his uncle in 2004 of the story of their family’s history in Europe and immigration to the United States, as well as the untimely passing of his uncle’s sister.
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I’m going to read an oral history that was given to me by my great uncle, Monty Oringer, in the summer of 2004, when he was 99 years old. It’s about his sister, Rose Oringer, who died in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire.
Today is February 20th, 2024. So I spoke with Monty about this in 20 years ago. He died maybe four or five months after he related this story to me. Rose was born in Galicia, in the town of Sniatin, the third oldest daughter of Louis and Gertrude Cynthia Oringer. The oldest was Philip, then George, Rose, Ada, Ben, and Pauline.
Monty, the youngest addition to the family, was the only one born in America. They were raised in an Orthodox Jewish household. Lewis, short and sturdy, was a quiet man who worked as a furrier. The Oringers and Galicia were in that business, and one, Harry, was very successful when he came to this country.
Gertrude was a beautiful woman with dark hair and light skin. She was a daughter from a family of rabbinical scholars of great renown, and her maiden name was Tromer. When she met her relations in this country and other rabbinical scholars, she was treated as royalty and shown the utmost respect. The Jewish population at the time was experiencing the benign rule of Emperor Franz Joseph of the Austro Hungarian Empire.
It was rumored that he had a Jewish mistress. While the emperor himself was tolerant and protective of the Jewish population, Galicia had been part of Poland, and the Galicians themselves were not kind to the Jews. These basic elements led to this side of my family coming to America. Gertrude caught the attention of a local petty Polish nobleman who tried to force himself on my great grandmother.
She was able to fight off his sexual advances, but the nobleman was unable to avoid my great grandfather. Louis tried not to raise a hand to his children due to his great strength, but when forced, a mere backhand smack would send them flying across the room. The nobleman landed in the hospital beaten beyond recognition.
Incident was a great deal of consternation for the Jewish population. They thought that his actions would provoke a pogrom, a not infrequent event in which the polls would participate. As a result, the Jewish population collected money, so was to send him out of the country, and he went first to London and then to the lower East side.
He was joined there by my grandfather, Philip, for whom I’m named, and they were both able to earn enough money to send for the family to join them in the early 19 hundreds. Monty was born in June 1905, June 18th, 1905, and the family lived around Rivington Street. On March 25th, 1911, Rose went to the Triangle Shirtwaist She looked like her mother, a beautiful 19 year old girl with dark hair and light skin and dark round eyes, very lively and vivacious.
She was engaged to be married shortly and still lived at home. The doors were locked to prevent anyone from trying to steal any company property. 146 workers died in the ensuing fire, one of which was Rose, who was forced to jump to her death below. She died at St. Vincent’s and her mother never stopped mourning her loss.