מקור השם פרנקל

Adolf Frankl (1859-1936),rabbi, banker and communal leader, born in Debrecen, Hungary (then part of Austria-Hungary). He was recognized as a brilliant Talmudic scholar at the Yeshiva of Pozsony (now Bratislava, in Slovakia), and also that of Nagyvarad (now Oradea, in Romanian,). He was ordained as a rabbi in Pressburg although he had no intention of pursuing a rabbinical career.

His chose banking as a career but almost immediately upon leaving school Frankl became involved in communal service. He was involved in public affairs both inside and beyond the Jewish community. For eighteen years he served as member of the Budapest municipal council. In 1888 he was made Nasi of the Hungarian Kolel in Jerusalem. Frankl was a lifelong student of Jewish history and traditions. Proficient in several languages, he became an inspiring leader of the Orthodox Jews in Hungary, and corresponded with Orthodox leaders in several countries

In 1905 he was unanimously elected national head of the Orthodox Union. After the death of Rabbi Koppel Reich, Frankl was chosen to be chief rabbi of the Orthodox community. As such he became a member of the upper chamber of the Hungarian Parliament. He played a significant role in helping to resolve disputes between the Orthodox and Neologs, and was respected by all sections of the Jewish community. Frankly wrote articles for many publications mainly on Jewish themes such as Halachah and responsa.

Adolf Frankl (1903-1983), painter and Auschwitz survivor, born in Pressburg (then part of Austria-Hungary, now Bratislava, in Slovakia), the son of an interior designer. He studied at the school of Applied Arts in Pressburg and subsequently at the Technical University of Brno, Czech Republic, where he worked on a part time basis designing advertising posters and as a caricaturist.

In 1937 he established his own interior decoration business but in 1941 the company was expropriated (Aryanized) and he and his family were forced to live in a ghetto. In November 1944 he and his entire family were arrested and deported. His wife and two children succeeded in escaping from the transport while he continued to Auschwitz. He survived there until January 1945 when Auschwitz was evacuated and he joined a death march in the direction of Gleiwitz. He escaped to a forest and hid until liberated by the Soviet Army. April 1945 he made his way back to Bratislava where he was reunited with his family and reestablished his company. In 1950 he moved to Vienna, Austria, then to New York, USA, and finally to Germany.

It was only after the war that the full horror of what he had lived through began to trouble him in the form of recurrent nightmares. It was suggested that he paint as a way of working through his horrific experiences. The result was a series of pictures, painted in 1945 and later, which made up a cycle entitled Visions of the Inferno-Art Against Oblivion. A picture donated to Yad Vashem is entitled Distribution of food in Auschwitz-Birkenau. ‘Being an eye-witness, a sufferer myself,” wrote Frankl, “ I want to conjure the indescribable fear and the undeserved fate of millions of Jews, of other fellow prisoners, of children and of those unborn. In such moments, I am seized with righteous anger and with memories carved indelibly on my mind, I seek to capture them with my hands, to express them in such a way that this tragedy become a warning testimony to future generations. Through my paintings I have created a memorial for all nations of the world,” he concluded. “No one, regardless of religion or political convictions, should ever again suffer-such or similar- atrocities”.

Other paintings produced by him between 1930 and 1982 depict scenes from Jewish life, coffee houses, railway stations, courtrooms and auction houses.

Ludwig August Frankl (1810-1894), poet, journalist, born in Chrast, Czech Republic (then in Bohemia part of the Austrian Empire). He attended secondary school, and then went on to study medicine at the Universities of Vienna and Padua, Italy.  He developed a strong interest in literature and music and moved in that direction. Dedicating his life to literature and music. Frankl’s first collection of ballads the Habsburgerlied (1832) brought him a reward from the Austrian Emperor Franz Josef I. His second volume Morgenlaendische Sagen (1834), dealt with Jewish themes and for his third volume Christoforo Colombo (1836) he was awarded Honorary Citizen of Genoa.

Frankl became involved in Jewish communal activities and took the position of secretary and archivist of the Vienna Jewish Community in 1838. In 1876, he founded the Jewish Institute for the Blind. During his work as archivist, Frankl published various works including a history of the Jews in Vienna (1853). He was named editor of Sontagsblatter in 1842 and his reputation in the field of literature grew enormously. Frankl supported the young Jewish poets Moritz Hartmann and Leopold Kompert, and published the works of his new friends Franz Grillparzer and Nicolaus Lenau. During the 1848 Revolution, Frankl served in the students’ legion as an officer and won fame as the writer of the song Die Universitaet, of which half-million copies were circulated. In 1856 Frankl went to Jerusalem as a representative of Elisa Herz. There he founded the Laemel School, where children received both secular and religious education. The rabbis of the ultra-Orthodox Ashkenazi Jews in Jerusalem were opposed to the project and excommunicated Frankl. In his memoirs Erez Israel and Nach Jerusalem(1858-1860) he described his experience and presented an excellent picture of the life of the Jews in the Holy City. His book was translated into English The Jews in the East (1859). For all his philanthropic work, Frankl was ennobled as Ritter von Frankl-Hochwart.