tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8762674434623075554.post4473862547941696619..comments2024-03-29T04:20:44.056-04:00Comments on Royal Musings: King Alfonso XIII dead at 54Marlene Eilers Koenighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14984860671065161997noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8762674434623075554.post-82006438684263647282018-07-25T00:20:23.444-04:002018-07-25T00:20:23.444-04:00My grandmother told me a story about King Alfonso ...My grandmother told me a story about King Alfonso XIII on the day before my wedding on 2-11-89. My grandmother Archduchess Assunta Habsburg Lothringen had married my grandfather Joseph Hopfinger (known as Dr. Joseph Hoppin in NYC, USA ) and he was from Boryslav, Poland area before WWII. Well, I noticed numbers up her arm while playing scrabble in the garden at St. Theresa's Academy in San Antonio, TX one day. She told me our people were from far, far away and that I didn't know them every time I asked her where our people were. The night before I was married in Corpus Christi, Texas my Assunta told me that she had been in a concentration camp with Joseph. Her mother, Infanta Blanca of Bourbon told the camp that it was a mistake. The camp said, "no, she married a Jewish man." Joseph was Jewish indeed, but grandma said that a large stipend was paid to a guard and her and Joseph were extracted from the camp. I said, "what?" Assunta told me that her mother was related to King Alfonso XIII and he had contacted the camp on behalf of Assunta's mother. Grandma said that the German guards were frightened by the idea of the war not going their way and what King Alfonso XIII would do to them if they didn't release his relative. So, thank you from the bottom of my heart King Alfonso XIII. Thank you for getting involved with the release of my grandmother and grandfather. Because of you, Assunta had two daughters and 5 grandchildren, and 10 great grandchildren here in the United States of America. We will be forever grateful. Grandma Assunta used to talk about how proud her mother Infanta Blanca was of her Spanish heritage. My mother Maria Theresa was born in Barcelona, Spain before their immigration to NYC, USA in 1940. She told me that the camp started with the letter D and she would tell nothing else. Years later a cousin of one of grandpa Joseph Hopfinger contacted us and said that only two of grandpa's female cousins survived the holocaust other than her grandfather and mine. I am grateful to be a descendant of my brave grandmother Archduchess Assunta Habsburg Lothringen. She loved her father and mother and siblings very much and spoke about them often. She was the last surviving child of Archduke Leopold Salvator & Infanta Blanca of Bourbon. In the end, she whispered to me that she was the only one left from her time. I didn't want her to go, but it was her time. She lived a long life past age 90. Thank you King Alfonso, thank you. Victoria R. McCrackenVictoriahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00934209896694880738noreply@blogger.com