genealogical mystery
Frank came in and asked me was he related to Johann Trollmann, the German boxer. I said "Heck if I know. There's a lot of Johann Trollmanns around." So we went looking and well I don't know about being related to the guy, but his story was a punch in the gut. In the pictures he has that Trollman mouth, but that could just be a coincidence, because if they are related, it's probably pretty distant. The Trollmans of which Frank is a member left Glogon just in time for the patriarch of that family to run to San Francisco to participate in the rebuilding after the 1906 Fire and Earthquake. There is no family rumor about being Sinto (a word I had never encountered for German Gypsy), but a lot of people will suppress Romani heritage if they can.
If you don't like to follow links, here's Johann's story in brief: he was a boxer, born in 1907 in Hanover. You can see where this is going. He ran into a lot of discrimination in amateur boxing circles so he went pro in 1929. He beat two of the Nazi's favorites and they took his title away from him both times, to the disgust of the boxing fans. Finally, amid rising death threats (so fierce that he divorced his wife so she could take another name and get away from him), he agreed to the conditions forced on him for a fight to retain his title: he agreed to abandon his dancing style that the Nazis called "gypsy unpredictability." He showed up with white makeup all over himself and his hair dyed blond and caricatured "Aryan" fighting style by standing totally still while the Nazi favorite pounded him for 5 rounds until he collapsed.
It goes downhill from there. He died in Neuengamme.
This man was my brother, whether or not he was a cousin.
If you don't like to follow links, here's Johann's story in brief: he was a boxer, born in 1907 in Hanover. You can see where this is going. He ran into a lot of discrimination in amateur boxing circles so he went pro in 1929. He beat two of the Nazi's favorites and they took his title away from him both times, to the disgust of the boxing fans. Finally, amid rising death threats (so fierce that he divorced his wife so she could take another name and get away from him), he agreed to the conditions forced on him for a fight to retain his title: he agreed to abandon his dancing style that the Nazis called "gypsy unpredictability." He showed up with white makeup all over himself and his hair dyed blond and caricatured "Aryan" fighting style by standing totally still while the Nazi favorite pounded him for 5 rounds until he collapsed.
It goes downhill from there. He died in Neuengamme.
This man was my brother, whether or not he was a cousin.