Background
Lotte Cohn Fairbrook (1898-1996) was the daughter of a well-to-do banker
in Hamburg, Germany. She attended Gertrud Baumer's Women's School of Social
Work in that city. In 1920 Lotte Cohn married Alvin Schoenbach, a banker of
Hildesheim, Hanover. The Schoenbachs had four children (1922-29), Erika,
George, Paul and Helmut. In 1924 they moved to Berlin. There Alvin Schoenbach
collected miniature paintings. With the rise of anti-Semitism in Germany, the
Schoenbachs resolved to emigrate to Palestine. The sale of one of Schoenbach's
miniatures financed their trip and they arrived in Tel Aviv in 1933. The
parents found that Palestine's climate and social conditions were not to their
liking, however, and they soon planned to emigrate to America. During this
period, Alvin began collecting postage stamps and the sale of a portion of his
collection helped finance their perilous trip to America via Yugoslavia (1938).
After their arrival in the United States, the Schoenbachs translated their
German name as "Fairbrook." Alvin Fairbrook continued in the stamp collecting
business in New York City. He died in 1962. Mrs. Fairbrook remained in New York
until 1982, when she moved to Stockton (Calif.) to be near her sons, George, a
computer programmer with Atkinson Computer, and, Paul, Director of Auxiliary
Services at the University of the Pacific and, later, Commissioner of the Port
of Stockton (Calif.).