Personal
Notes: |
Personal
Notes: According to my mother, Sandra Lind Enzweiler, this recipe came from Maria Leitermann Kocher, my great-grandmother's great-niece. She was born Oct. 11, 1914, in Hungary. Her parents were Peter Leitermann and Maria Barbie Leitermann, daughter of Nicklaus Barbie, my great-grandmother’s (Maria Magdalena Barbie Lind) brother..
During the war against Russia, Maria's husband was killed in Russia (1942). Evidently, Maria's and her two young sons were able to flee to Austria to escape the labor camps. Mary told my mother that her sister, Francisca, was separated from her two children and taken to Russia to do forced labor: “building houses, hauling brick, pulling wagons like horses would, doing any kind of work men would have done.” She died there. Her other sister, Ana Wirth, whose husband and son were also killed during the war, was forced to labor in the coal mines. My mother vividly remembers the tattoos the Russian work camp guards had engraved on her.
Sometime after the war, Mary, her two sons, and her sister Ana ended up in a displaced persons camp in Bremerhaven, Germany. On June 2, 1951, with the help of the charity of Roman Catholic churches, Maria (36) arrived at Ellis Island with her two sons, Bartholomaeus (14) and Stefan (12), and with her sister, Ana (30). They settled in Cincinnati to where my great-grandparents and their children had previously immigrated. They lived with Philipp and Magdalena Barbie Fellens,( most likely another niece).
Although Maria stayed in Cincinnati for the remainder of her life doing domestic work for wealthy families, Ana only stayed for a few years, but then returned to what was once home. Maria told my mother that Ana (Frouzwa) remarried and had a couple more children.
My mother also remembers learning how to make these cookies as a teenager from her grandmother, who used Maria's (Mary) recipe. My mother made these cookies each Christmas. She always used a cookie press and pressed them in the shapes of Christmas trees, wreaths, ornaments, and stars, and she sprinkled red and green sugar on them.
I have made these cookies for my family for several years, and Zachary as an adult has made them a time or two. On Nov. 18, 2012, I helped Rachel to bake her first batch of Mary's cookies, or as she calls them "a heart attack waiting to happen."
|
This recipe for Mary's Butter Cookies is from