THE DAUGHTER OF A GERMAN JEWISH BANKER, ARRIVED IN 1937 AND FIRST FOUND WORK AS A SEAMSTRESS AT $7.50 AN HOUR, LATER BECAME A NANNY. THE CHILD SHE RAISED IS NOW IN HER 70S AND WAS HER CAREGIVER. UP UNTIL LAST YEAR, SHE SWAM LAPS THREE DAYS A WEEK BUT TOLD ME THAT HER FAILING HEALTH NOW ONLY ALLOWED HER AEROBIC EXERCISE IN THE POOL. MRS. FULD PASSED AWAY 2011
Eleanor Flud Interview
January 27, 2009
INTERVIEWER: This is an interview with Eleanor Fuld. And the date today is January 27, 2009. Mrs. Fuld is 100 years old.
Mrs. Fuld, tell me where you were born; tell me about your parents and your family and how you grew up.
ELEANOR FULD: I was in Düsseldorf, Germany, born on July 15th 1908, and ‘til I was six years old, I don’t remember much. But I remember 1914, when the war started, World War I. And my father had to march, and I saw him and how proud he was to go to war. And he was four years at the war. I mean, he had – what you call it? – leave Once in a while he came home, but –. Anyway, those years, they’re so hard. We had to stand in line for food, for potatoes. There was no butter; there were no eggs. There were really terrible years for my mother and for my sister and myself, very, very difficult. And I remember my piano teacher, who came regularly to the house, with a little roll and he kept on telling us, “This is medication I have to take.”
So in 1918, my mother had a cousin in Amsterdam. And she wanted to fatten up my sister and myself a little bit. So we went to Amsterdam for a vacation. And I saw those little rolls and they were chocolate.
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But he didn’t tell us, naturally. We haven’t seen chocolate for four years.
When my father was home, he was a banker. Everything changed, naturally. We moved to a big house, and had help, and had plenty to eat. I mean, not everything was available, but they were good years. And 1923 came the first [UNINTEL]. When we were on vacation, at the elevator door was a sign, which each day [UNINTEL] – you know the price.
But then, after that, everything went beautifully. We went to school, naturally. And when we finished school, we went to Lausanne to learn French. And we traveled with my parents, and, I mean, we went skiing and skating, horseback riding and all the luxury you can imagine. And I got married 1930. My sister got married ’29 and had a big wedding, and my brother-in-law invited all his friends. One of them was my future husband. So my sister was in Nuremberg already. When I visited, oh, very often, and went out with this and that – anyway, went out a lot with my future husband, his name was Fred. Fuld, . Friedrich but everyone called him Fritz.
And’33, Hitler came. We were living in Nuremberg And no park, no movie, no swimming. Everything was out for us. And by that time, I had a little girl. ??? And we arranged a garden outside Nuremberg, because we couldn’t go in the park anymore. So we had at least that. And then Christmas, ’36, my husband had cousins who lived in Wolfsburg, it’s an hour away from Nuremberg. And she came, Christmas, and said to my husband, “Do me a favor. I have no more passport. My husband is in America. Try to make a connection.” He was in the wine business in America and lived in the Greystone Hotel on 91st and Broadway across the street from my apartment here. That was Christmas 1936 She asked my husband, “Do me a favor. Go to America, see what my husband is doing. I have no passport. I have no connection,” because with the mail and with – you never knew who opened your mail. So my husband went to America. We did have passports
INTERVIEWER: And you had them from traveling to Lausanne and Paris?
ELEANOR FULD: Yes sure. They were not taken yet. And my husband went to America. And I went skiing in Switzerland. And on his way back to Deutschland, he called me at the hotel and said, “You better come home. We are ready to go to America.” But two years before that, we had visited Israel., Palestine, at that time.. And by boat, naturally, not by plane. My husband was not made to be a chicken farmer. That’s all you could do, at that time.
INTERVIEWER: What was your husband’s business?
ELEANOR FULD: Hops and malt.Hops, yeah. He’d visit breweries and –: So by July, end of June, we went to America. And my parents –we went by boat
INTERVIEWER: Were there many others on the boat that were fleeing from Germany?
ELEANOR FULD: No. But Governor Smith ,. He was on the boat with the Rotary Club. And this was 1937. Oh, yeah, beginning of July.: Mm-hmm. Yeah, it took a little time to get ready to sail all the things we knew we couldn’t use here.
INTERVIEWER: But did you feel in danger at that time in Germany?
ELEANOR FULD:, No, not real danger yet. ’37, you could still walk on the streets and go to stores and so forth. Kristallnacht was a year later. Anyway. And we came in July, and my sister came in December.: And took an apartment in the same house we were, one flat up.
INTERVIEWER: Where was that?
ELEANOR FULD: 193 rd street, Riverside Drive, opposite Fort Tryon Park. It was beautiful. I mean, we lived across the Park, and we had very, very little money. And I remember. In February ’38, my parents came to visit us, and when they saw the way we had to work, and how little we really had, and we begged my father and my mother to stay. And my father said, “This trouble in Germany will be over in one year, and I can help you from Germany. And here, I’m a nobody.” And they went back, maybe beginning of March or – I think it was the beginning of March. 1938 and I asked my father, “Does Mommy leave some jewelry?” My father said, “Where Mother is, is her jewelry.” So they went back. And very interestingly, on the same trip where Kennedy going to England as ambassador. And his children were lined up on the deck to be photographed. We had no idea who Kennedy was I mean –Anyway, later on, I know, naturally. And then came the Kristallnacht.
INTERVIEWER: Were your parents living in Nuremberg?
ELEANOR FULD: No, in Düsseldorf. Everything was destroyed. Everything was taken. My father had to go to prison. And my mother went to Stuttgart to get a number to come to the United States. And when a Christian friend heard that Mr. Elkin my father is in prison, he said, “Then I’ll go, too.” And that way he got my father out.
I mean, it was the luckiest thing in the world. And those people emigrated to Canada. They could not take it, very religious, Catholic people. And my parents’ number was very, very high. So they had to spend a year in England, where my father had a banker friend who guaranteed that he wouldn’t be to any burden to the English government. And my parents came to America 1940, in a blackout British ship already. And naturally, the war was on already. And you never knew whether the ship would make it, with all the submarines. But luckily, they came. And we moved to a larger apartment. So the first couple of weeks, my parents lived one upstairs with my sister and one with me.
INTERVIEWER: in Inwood, the same neighborhood?
ELEANOR FULD: Yes yes. and we took a larger apartment in 181st Street, and I had worked in different things: as a cleaning woman, in a factory. The first year I was here, was in America, I did home work, knitting for Christmas. It was just a temporary job, where I earned 7.50 a week.,working at least ten hours, knitting or whatever I had to do.
INTERVIEWER: What did your husband do during this time?
ELEANOR FULD: He did terrible, heavy work in a factory that made raspberry syrup. I mean, really difficult times
INTERVIEWER: And your parents, were they too old to work at that time?
ELEANOR FULD: Mm, no. My mother kept house for us, and my father, that comes later. For my father, it was very, very difficult. To go shopping with my mother and feeling he’s a burden to us. My brother-in-law gave us 25 dollars a month, because my parents lived with us. And we had to take a larger apartment. It was really – I mean, you didn’t know my father.
INTERVIEWER: Do you remember what your rent was for the larger apartment at that time?
ELEANOR FULD: Oh, yes. $62.50.Oh, sure. Listen, my memory is very good. I remember – you can ask me any number; I remember. Anyway, I put my name into the Jewish Counsel if there would be anything for me. And somebody got a message from a Mr. Loewy that, when they come they needed somebody to take care of their four-year-old child.So I went for an interview on a Friday afternoon. And I felt that he’s a Viennese and she was from Düsseldorf, Mrs. Loewy. And the little girl – they came from France – spoke French and German. So since I spoke both languages fluently, I was obviously the right person for them. Mr Loewy was big in machinery. So I came home and told my parents, and my father said, “Are you sure this is not the Mr. Loewy from Düsseldorf?” I said, “No.” Out of any question. He talks like Viennese.
INTERVIEWER: [LAUGHS] Well, tell me, there was a Mr. Loewy that your father knew in Düsseldorf?
ELEANOR FULD: Yeah, yeah. That comes later. So on Monday, they called. They would like me to start. And I earned 7.50 a week from two to seven in the afternoon.
INTERVIEWER: This was during the war years? This was ’41, maybe, ’42?
ELEANOR FULD: Yes, they came also in 1940. My parents came in the summer. They came in November. And, I mean, I took her for a walk; they lived in a hotel. They came just off the boat, had no apartment yet. I’m not used to talking so much.
INTERVIEWER: [LAUGHS] You’re doing very well.
ELEANOR FULD: Then they were looking for an apartment, and they found an apartment on Central Park West, 104th Street, corner of 104th Street. And I had to work from eleven to seven. And we took this apartment at 215 West 91st Street in 1941, we’re in now.
INTERVIEWER: What was the rent here in 1941?
ELEANOR FULD: $85 dollars.
ELEANOR FULD: Oh, I forgot to tell you. When I worked downtown for the knitting men, everybody told me, “You have to go for unemployment when this is over.” I said, “I don’t know what unemployment is.” And somebody said, “You go there and there and there.” So when I got the first check, it was $13 dollars a week, when I made 7.50 for working. It was heaven, absolute heaven.
INTERVIEWER: [LAUGHS]
ELEANOR FULD: Now we go back to 1940, and then they moved into this apartment. And Mr. Loewy had his older brother at the same – from Düsseldorf. He went ’34, already, to England, and established the same big business there. And we were talking, Mrs. Loewy and I, and she said, “My brother-in-law wrote this and wrote that,” and I said, “It’s strange; my uncle wrote the same thing.” She said, “Who is your uncle’s name?” And I said, “Dr. Elkin.And she was shocked that I am a born wealthy and did the cleaning. but it didn’t matter. I mean, I was never jealous. Whatever, I didn’t care. I had to earn money. And I earned $15 dollars a week.
INTERVIEWER: Did you speak English before you came? Had you studied English?
ELEANOR FULD: Yes, we had four years of English in school, real school English. My husband spoke fluently; he was a year in London as a young man.
And my sister, after she was in Lausanne, went to England.I hated English.I just didn’t want to speak English. But naturally, I mean, here, you couldn’t speak German in the street at that time. Impossible. Anyway, I was talking with Mr. Loewy one day, and I said, “I really have to leave. I have to do something with my husband, a luncheonette or anything.” So Mr. Loewy said, “Mrs. Fuld, wouldn’t it be possible that your husband and my brother do something together? And he would finance it, and you stay with us.” And they bought a cigar store where Zabar’s is now, 80th Street and Broadway
INTERVIEWER: And did they sell newspapers and cigars and so forth?
ELEANOR FULD: Exactly. And that went fine for many years. And then my husband got very sick.
INTERVIEWER: What year was that, Eleanor?
ELEANOR FULD: When he was very sick was ’67. : Yeah. And I was not with the Loewys anymore. Kiki was grown up, didn’t need me. And Mr. Loewy, they had a house in Lake Placid.and I went with them all summer to Lake Placid. And when I am not working with them anymore, I was the first bed and breakfast in Lake Placid. I rented a big house and did that.
I advertised in the Jewish paper. It was always full. By that time, 1946 or ’47, there were plenty of Jewish people who didn’t have much money for a hotel. But my price was very little, and that was fine.
INTERVIEWER: Now, did you own it, or – no, you rented it?
ELEANOR FULD: No, I rented the house. . And I got very friendly with the owner of a big hotel in Lake Placid. I played bridge with them, and since I only gave breakfast, I was free in the evening. And then, at the end of the season, Mr. Gilbert said, “Eleanor, you have to help me. All the young people, they’re for college, and I have a big convention. You have to help me out.”
I said, “Edgar, come on. I’ve never done anything like this.” “Oh, you can do it.” So I did. And the next year, when I wanted to rent the bed and breakfast, which I had for ten years, he said, “Nothing doing. You stay with us. I need you in the dining room.” I said, “No, I can’t do that.” I did. And I enjoyed it.
I enjoyed it tremendously. I mean –
INTERVIEWER: This was for how long?
ELEANOR FULD: For the summer. For the summer of ’56 and ’57.
I had the bed and breakfast for ten years. That was ’56 and ’57. And then Mr. Gilbert got sick, and sold the hotel. And at the same time, there was a terrible accident here on Kennedy Airport, and the owner of a little hotel in Lake Placid was in that crash.
INTERVIEWER: Oh. What was the name of the hotel?
ELEANOR FULD: The Grandview.
INTERVIEWER: And the owner of that hotel was in the plane crash?
ELEANOR FULD: No, the owner of the hotel was Mr. Gilbert. The owner in the crash was the Regent House. In Lake Placid. It was for sale
And I said, “Oh, I would like to do that.” So we bought that. with my husband. My husband was still working in New York.
In an office. No more the store. He worked in an office from something Mr. Loewy owned and recommended my husband for doing this.
INTERVIEWER: And how much did it cost to buy the hotel?
ELEANOR FULD: 29,000 dollars. 11 dollars a day was the rent for a room.
INTERVIEWER: So you’d saved up all that money? Well, it was 1957, you said?
ELEANOR FULD: Yeah. no mortgage. And as I said, 11 dollars for three meals and coffee.
How many rooms did the hotel have?
ELEANOR FULD: About 12. I had about 20 guests And the cook stayed with me. , I mean, I couldn’t cook for 20 people, no. I couldn’t lift a pot like that.
No, that I didn’t want to do. The cook stayed with me, and the chambermaid from the hotel stayed with me. She lived in Lake Placid, and the cook was from New York, but, I mean, she was a Viennese cook, marvelous cook. And my cleaning lady went with me also. And we had a boy for dishwashing. So I had that hotel when my husband got a heart attack. And the doctor said, “Eleanor, you can’t do this anymore. Fred needs all the attention he can get.” He was very sick, very, very sick. And we sold it for the same price that we paid for it. I owned it 13 years. And then we went, in the winter, to Florida, because my husband couldn’t take the cold. We went to Petersburg Beach. on the west side. The less expensive side. And you could swim in the Gulf. I mean, I could not swim in the ocean, even if I was a good swimmer. And in December, my husband went to Mt. Sinai Hospital and had a biopsy done on his lungs. And he needed a lung operation. That was in January ’68.And he was really very, very sick. And he lived ‘til ’74.
My husband died ’74.
INTERVIEWER: Dr. Druson said you still swim.
ELEANOR FULD Yes. He’s a wonderful doctor.
He came for my birthday.
ELEANOR FULD: Yeah. And since then, I mean, I was a saleslady at Lord & Taylor and at Altman’s. I did all different things. You know how it is on Christmas, they needed all this extra help. And at Lord & Taylor, they begged me to stay after Christmas. You know, we Germans are very friendly, and I enjoyed it. But in the summer, I always went to Lake Placid.
INTERVIEWER: So after the hotel was sold and after your husband passed away, in the summers –
ELEANOR FULD: No, when the hotel was sold, we rented an apartment. in Lake Placid. In ’69 Fred was still alive. And as I said, Fred lived ‘til ’74. And I kept the apartment for a couple of years, and then I had a back operation. At Roosevelt.Where Dr. Lintz was a dentist, an oral surgeon. So they pushed me to Roosevelt Hospital. I mean, there were good doctors, nothing against Roosevelt Hospital. And after that, I had made a lot of friends in Lake Placid. And one of them had a beautiful hotel on Lake Placid, Placid Manor
Beautiful, gorgeous. And I played bridge with them, and I still had my apartment. They called early in the morning, 7:00, “Eleanor, you have to come, somebody got sick in the dining room. Can you come over and help?” And I enjoyed that very much. I mean, I had nothing better to do. And then, after I had the operation, 1980, they said, “Come on, you don’t have to rent an apartment. We have a room for you. And you come and stay with us.” And I only had to pay for the room, not for –And I enjoyed being there, and then, “Can you do this, Eleanor? Can you come a little bit and help there?” So I became hostess in their dining room, which I liked. I mean, I really liked it. And I was with them from ’80 to ’84, when Mrs. Lintz’s mother –
INTERVIEWER: Mr. Lintz was the owner?
ELEANOR FULD: No, Mrs. Loewy was the owner.
INTERVIEWER: Of the hotel?
ELEANOR FULD: No, of their house, no. They had nothing to do with the hotel. She had bought a beautiful house on Mirror Lake, changed from her house up on the hill. But unfortunately, she never lived there but Mrs. Lintz, her daughter, who had –
INTERVIEWER: The little girl that you took care of.
ELEANOR FULD Yes. When Placid Manor closed also, I said, “Kiki, can I rent the boathouse or the little cottage up on the hill?” And she said, “Mimi, you can’t rent anything from me. You can have whatever you want.” So from 1985 to –
INTERVIEWER: She called you Mimi?
: ELEANOR FULD: Yeah, because I told you exactly – when she got her first child, when Peter was about two years old or three years old, and Kiki would say, “Mr. and Mrs. Fuld are coming,” he heard the M and M. And my husband was, for him, Fuld all the time. He never got the Fred. It was Fuld. “Hi, Fuld,” he would say. So I became Mimi
It was fine with me. I mean, I was, in the meantime, naturally, very, very close with her parents and with Kiki and her husband. I mean, and now she takes care of me. Kiki’s 72.
INTERVIEWER: 72. And this was the child that you took care of when you first came. Isn’t that wonderful?
ELEANOR FULD: Isn’t that?
INTERVIEWER: And does she live here in the city?
ELEANOR FULD: Yes
ELEANOR FULD: She just moved from the East side to Riverside Boulevard,
And as I said, we were very close with her parents. Oh, I forgot to tell you: when I said, sometimes, my father really is unhappy here, my mother – was okay. But when we were talking, I said, “But my father is not okay here.”
INTERVIEWER: What year was that?
ELEANOR FULD: I think it was after the war . Maybe it was the last year. Anyway, Mr. Loewy said to me, “Mrs. Fuld, don’t worry. I’ll find a job for your father.” And my father worked in the office for Mr. Loewy until he was 75.
INTERVIEWER Where was their office, do you remember?
ELEANOR FULD: In the beginning, it was at Lexington Avenue and – what building was it? Not General Electric – one of the big companies. They had four or five floors. And then they moved to 42nd Street, to the – father worked there for quite a few years He died when he was 79,
INTERVIEWER:. Did he get adjusted to America?
ELEANOR FULD: He got much better adjusted. Then my parents got their own apartment.
INTERVIEWER: Where?
ELEANOR FULD: On 308 east 79th Street. So it was easy for him. To go to the office. He could go by bus. Yeah, it was off Second Avenue.
INTERVIEWER:. So your father died before your mother? Yeah My father died 1961
INTERVIEWER: Did he ever get back to Germany?
ELEANOR FULD: No. He never visited Germany again
INTERVIEWER: Have you ever been to Germany since then?
ELEANOR FULD: Yeah. Mrs. Loewy had bought an apartment in Paris.
And my husband and I went for the first time before he had the operation, in ’67. We went to visit her. And we visited my uncle and family in England, and one day we went to Switzerland. But my husband didn’t want to go to Germany.
INTERVIEWER: It was a bad memory?
ELEANOR FULD: Yeah. He didn’t want to go. But after my husband died, and Kiki said, “Mimi, come once with us to Paris,” and I did. And before I went to Paris, I had gotten a letter from the Düsseldorf – what you can call it? – government, or whatever it was. They wanted to know whether I know anything about German Jews, what happened to them, and what –
INTERVIEWER: What year was this?
ELEANOR FULD: That was when I went to Paris for the first time with Kiki. I mean, Mrs. Loewy had died already. It must have been in the ‘80s.And I wrote them back that I don’t know very much what happened to the Jews, but I know a lot of the correspondence my father had with the mayor of Düsseldorf after the war. He had letters back and forth constantly. My father sent them. They had nothing after the war.Absolutely nothing. Whatever little things they needed or wanted, my father sent them. And I said, “I have a lot about – many letters.” And I got a special delivery from Düsseldorf that invited me to come to Düsseldorf if I would. I said, “I will gladly send you the letters.” They said, if I would bring them, they would like to talk to me. So I was a couple of days in Paris, and then Kiki had relatives from her mother’s side in Düsseldorf. So she went with me. And I got 500 dollars for each – I mean, I could bring anyone. And free hotel, theater tickets, interviews. I was better then than I am now. And I really had a very good time.
INTERVIEWER: Did you recall – you said early in the interview that there was a Christian family that got your father out of prison.
ELEANOR FULD: Yes
INTERVIEWER: Did you keep track of them at all?
ELEANOR FULD: They visited us twice in Lake Placid. From Canada,
INTERVIEWER: Now, tell me about your sister, because your sister came here. Did she have children?
ELEANOR FULD: She had two children, But my brother-in-law had sent money to the Netherlands. How he did it, I don’t know. But they had maybe 100,000 marks. I mean, it was 20,000 dollars or something.
INTERVIEWER: This was after the war? Actually, he probably sent it before the war, didn’t he?
ELEANOR FULD: Sure. I mean, Listen, people had money in a ball of cotton and were sitting, knitting. : I mean, dangerous
INTERVIEWER: So your brother-in-law was able to get money to the Netherlands?
ELEANOR FULD: Yes
INTERVIEWER: And then when he came to the United States, he was able to bring it?
ELEANOR FULD: Yes. He had a very close friend,
INTERVIEWER: Are your sister’s children still alive?
ELEANOR FULD: Yes. One lives in North Carolina, and one lives in Santa Barbara.
INTERVIEWER: You were talking about the friendship with the Loewys.
ELEANOR FULD: Yes. : I mean, even if I worked there, sometimes [THEY?] took theater tickets for me, too. And once I lost a very valuable earring, so Mr. Loewy said, “Mrs. Fuld, give me the other one. I’ll have it made”
INTERVIEWER: Tell me a little bit about what this neighborhood was like when you moved here in 1941.
ELEANOR FULD: This neighborhood was very nice, very, very nice. But then it became very much worse. the crime was very bad here. : But now it’s much, much better.
INTERVIEWER: But when you moved in first, do you remember any of the stores or restaurants in the neighborhood?
ELEANOR FULD: No – oh, yeah, there was a restaurant at 86th Street. I forgot the name.
INTERVIEWER: The Tip-Toe Inn?
ELEANOR FULD: Tip-Toe Inn? No, Tip-Toe was a shoe store.
INTERVIEWER: I thought Tip-Toe Inn was a restaurant between 86th and 87th, on Broadway.
ELEANOR FULD: Maybe. This was also a shoe store on 72nd Street
INTERVIEWER: If you and your husband went out to dinner, where would you go in this neighborhood, in those days? There weren’t many nice restaurants?
ELEANOR FULD: We wouldn’t go. No, we didn’t have the money.
INTERVIEWER: Did you ever go to the Éclair? Do you know that?
ELEANOR FULD: Oh, yes.
INTERVIEWER: Tell me about that, because that was a famous because a lot of people from Austria and Germany went there.
ELEANOR FULD: Oh, sure. When I was at the Grandview in Lake Placid –
They were guests there, I mean Mr. – whatever his name was, and his wife. I knew them well. The owners of the Éclair. Listen, the German – in a hotel like this (Lake Placid) Everybody knew everybody else. The same guests would come back year after year and I played Bridge with them. I mean, yes. And his wife and his sister-in-law worked behind the counter. Very good-looking women, both of them.
INTERVIEWER: If you were from Germany or Austria, that was the place to go.
ELEANOR FULD: Yeah. My husband always said, “After my funeral, nobody goes to Éclair.” This was famous for – the funeral home was on 80th Street, and people walked to 72nd.
INTERVIEWER: [LAUGHS] To the Éclair.
ELEANOR FULD: Yeah, to the Éclair. My husband said, “Nobody will do that after my funeral.”
INTERVIEWER: We were talking and I was saying that – tell me a little about the feeling of anti-Semitism that you had between ’33, when Hitler came in, and when you left in’37 or ’38?
ELEANOR FULD: First of all, the worst of all of them was Streicher. was his name.And he was in Nuremberg. So, I mean, not to be able to go to a movie or go to a park or, in Nuremberg, you used to go, you know, in the evenings, sometimes you took a sandwich along and you only bought a beer. There were gardens where you went for sausage and a roll. : I mean, all those things, we couldn’t do
INTERVIEWER: Now, when you said you couldn’t do them, they identified you as being Jewish, or how did they know?
ELEANOR FULD: Oh, you were afraid.
INTERVIEWER: You were afraid to go on the chance that they would see you were Jewish
ELEANOR FULD: yes.I mean, neither my husband nor I look very typical Jewish. My husband was blond, blue eyes. I mean, but you never know. Then, you know, we used to have a maid, like everybody in Germany. I mean, we could only have a maid over 45 years old, not any young.
INTERVIEWER: If you were Jewish they wouldn’t let you have a young maid?
ELEANOR FULD: Yes, And, I mean, we had a very old woman who came once a week for cleaning. She was so poor that she took, when I made coffee in the filter – And she took the coffee grounds
INTERVIEWER: The other thing I wanted to be clear – you mentioned that you lived in Düsseldorf and Nuremberg.
ELEANOR FULD: Yeah. I was born in Düsseldorf.
INTERVIEWER: Tell me – you were born in Düsseldorf. How old were you when you moved to Nuremberg?
ELEANOR FULD: I got married 1930. We got married in December and went on a honeymoon for four weeks, and –My father was a banker in In Düsseldorf. And the bank was opposite Mr. Loewy’s office. And my father knew the older brother very, very well, who was the btrother to the Loewy who was here in New York, The brother here in was born Czechoslovakia. definitely, Czechs.They came to the United States in November ’40.
INTERVIEWER: but I mean when you came here, you didn’t know that it was the same Loewys?
ELEANOR FULD: I had no idea.And, I mean, when my father said, “Are you sure they are not the Loewys from Düsseldorf?” I said, “Out of any question. He talks like a Viennese.”
INTERVIEWER: So now tell me, Dr. Druson said you swim?
ELEANOR FULD: Yes
INTERVIEWER: Where do you swim?
ELEANOR FULD: Trinity School. I have been sick this winter. Since Christmas
INTERVIEWER: You haven’t been up to swimming?
ELEANOR FULD: No. Otherwise I go five times a week.
ELEANOR FULD: I do exercise. I don’t swim anymore. But I do my exercise in the pool. And I love it.
INTERVIEWER: Now, you used to swim up at Lake Placid, I’m sure.
ELEANOR FULD: Oh, yes, in the Lake.
INTERVIEWER: Now, did you swim in Germany when you were a young girl?
ELEANOR FULD: Yes. We had to learn to swim when we were in school. When I was six years old, and they put you like you go fishing, and I was frightened to death.
INTERVIEWER: With the pole to hold you?
ELEANOR FULD: Oh, terrible. They were holding you like this. Oh, I was so afraid of the water, for a long time. . I swim – I mean, for the last 40, 50 years, I used to go to the Y on 92nd Street Because my husband has bought a house on 89th Street. When he was not able to work anymore, he took a course in real estate. On the East side, near Gracie Mansion off 1st Avenue.It was a house that he bought only for income.It was a brownstone house. And he was sitting here with Mrs. Loewy, and he told her, and she said, “Can’t I join you in this?”
And we buy another one with her money. She had much more than we. And my husband managed the houses; And when he died, in ’74, and I hadn’t written a check myself, when I went to a doctor that gave me a check and said, “Give it to the nurse, she fills it in” – I mean, bookkeeping was not for me – I hated it.
INTERVIEWER: So do you remember – what year did your husband buy the house on 89th Street?
ELEANOR FULD: ’64.
INTERVIEWER: ’64. Do you remember what he paid for it?
ELEANOR FULD: Mm, I mean, the house had a mortgage. And I think my husband put down 20,000 dollars.
INTERVIEWER: Did you sell it after he passed away?
ELEANOR FULD: No, not right away. I kept it. Mrs. Loewy got sick also.
And by 1980, we both decided it’s time to sell. And I remember the lawyer and my accountant went with me, and this lawyer, we went to the Union Club, you know, to a very fancy place for lunch. And I was sitting there; I luckily had an accountant with me. I mean, Mrs. Loewy didn’t want any part of it. I mean, she left everything to my husband. Whatever he did was okay with her. It was very easy. And we sold – I don’t remember the price. And after that, I can live the way I live now.–
INTERVIEWER: What year did you sell it?
ELEANOR FULD: ’80. We sold it for a very, very good price, and I had a friend who was a broker. And when I called him that I sold the house – and he was very discreet – he only – because I called him at home, he said, “Is it a six-number
And he invested my money very, very well.
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