BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
Abraham Isaak Kleinmann was born to Jewish parents Mordechai and Itta Kleinmann in Lezajsk, Poland on September 7, 1891.
On March 18, 1925 A.I. Kleinmann married a German woman, Frieda Maria Anna Schmidt, in Berlin. Frieda Schmidt was born in Berlin on August 9, 1896.
On June 25, 1935 A.I. Kleinmann was awarded the Austrian War Remembrance Medal, commemorating his service in the Austrian army.
A.I. Kleinmann owned and operated a paint/varnish factory in Berlin. In compliance with the Nuremberg Laws of 1935, he was forced to sell the factory and transfer the proceeds into a bank account in his wife's name.
The Kleinmanns had two daughters. Ruth Sara Kleinmann was born on July 23, 1929 in Berlin. Eva Kleinmann was born on July 10, 1938, but died the following day. She was buried in a cemetery in Berlin.
The Kleinmann family immigrated to the United States, arriving in New York City on April 15, 1941 on the boat, Guiné, from Portugal. When A.I. Kleinmann came to America, it was on an Austrian passport, as the German quota for immigrants to the United States had been filled. The Kleinmanns became American citizens on December 3, 1946 and changed the spelling of their last name to Kleinman. The family took up residence on Ocean Avenue in Brooklyn.
A.I. Kleinmann's extended family in Poland, including his mother, sisters, nieces and nephews, did not survive the war.
Ruth Kleinman attended Brooklyn College, receiving her BA in 1952 and
her MS in 1965.
Frieda Kleinman died in 1967. Abraham
Isaak Kleinman died in December of 1975. Ruth Kleinman died on November
7, 1995.