Karoline Katharina HOFMANN

5. Kind von Heinrich Hofmann Schumacher aus Bretten /Baden geboren rund 1832 Karoline Hofmann Gog was born on May 25, 1876. She married Jakob Gog in 1901 at age 25. In 1917 at age 41 she became a widow. The oldest daughter, Louise, was then 15, Mina, the second daughter was not quite 10 , Frieda, the youngest daughter was six , and little Karl was 4. Already feeling the effects of semi-starvation because of the Allied blockade, Germany was soon to be plunged into political, social, and economic chaos culminating in the runaway inflation of 1923. The three youngest children continued in school while Louise worked as a trusted employee in a jewelry firm and Karoline bartered pre-war goods for food from farmers in the outskirts of Karlsruhe. Providential help came in 1923 when Karoline’s sister, Wilhelmine or Minnie, sponsored the immigration of Louise to the United States. As had so many immigrants before and after her, Louise sent home regular remittances from her wages as a domestic in the San Francisco area. Louise married William Gissler of San Francisco in 1935. Their first child, William, was born in 1936 and their second child, Caroline, named for her grandmother, was born in 1937. In June, 1939, Karoline arrived in the United States for a six month visit with the Gissler family. In March, 1939 Germany completed the occupation of Czechoslovakia which had begun with the Sudeten Crisis of September, 1938. On September 1, 1939 Hitler invaded Poland and the general European war began with the entrance of France and England. The sea lanes to Germany were closed. Karoline remained in the U.S. becoming officially an “enemy alien” when the United States entered the war in December, 1941. After the war William escorted his mother-in-law to Vancouver from whence she re-entered the United States as Resident Alien number 3778783 according to her “green card.” She was 71. Karoline had always hoped to return to Germany to see her other children and meet her third grandchild, Sieglinde Gog. Her declining health along with the onset of the Cold War and economic dislocation in Europe made it virtually impossible for her to return. She died on Dec. 5, 1949 in the family home in San Francisco.

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