Dr. and Mrs. Arthur Brill

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We called our Grandparents Omama and Opapa. When we first came to New York from Switzerland, we lived with them in their tiny Kew Gardens apartment. Later, sometime in the early fifties, they followed us from New York City to Parishville and lived throughout my childhood, in a little unpainted house on Catherine Street, just a few houses down from ours. The grass in front of it was high. I don't think it got mowed. Anyhow, it was a rental. They didn't expect to live long enough to bother buying. It was unpainted, because, again, why bother? But it had a marvelous garden in back. Our Opapa loved growing tomatoes. Not eating them, but growing them. And corn. I remember the corn... Inside, the house, in the living room, was a big cozy fireplace and oil paintings on the walls. One, I remember, was called the Blue Boy: A very handsome young man with pink cheeks, red lips, long black hair, all dressed in blue satin,. There was a staircase leading up to a couple of tiny rooms... bedroom, parlor... One door, I remember, had a brass knocker, a lion head with a ring in the nose. The lion head fascinated me.

DR. ARTHUR BRILL
Every Sunday we had Sunday lunch with the grandparents. That was the one day our grandfather cooked. Mostly I remember omelets or Quiche or something like that. And, I remember sitting in front of the cozy fireplace enjoying the Sunday funnies while lunch was being prepared,our mother and grandmother setting the table. Summers our Uncle Bobby, his wife, Toni, and their two children, Peggy and David came up from New York and lived with them too. Every Sunday, after the family lunch, while the women cleaned up, our Opapa went up to his bed for a nap. After a while we were allowed to go up and bounce on his bed to wake him up. I loved those times climbing all over Opapa until he'd finally get up. I remember pretending we were horses in a pasture.

Another thing I remember about Opapa is that in town he was known as "Papa Brill" and he always carried lollipops in his pockets to give to the town kids. Also, in his later years, he was a terrible driver. His car, as I remember it, was an old Pontiac (Chevy?) Anyhow, it was green. Whenever we took trips together, we in our car, they in theirs, my mother would worry and panic, the old pontiac close in front of us, weaving all over the road.

Omama was very heavy, and she had to wear special shoes with holes in them to let in the air. She alsways had a cane, and wore dark dresses with white polka dots. And, I believe she was usually sad, sometimes bitter. Omama never learned to speak English very well, and I remember her speaking to me in German, and me answering in English. And, if I was sick, I remember her sitting by my bed telling me Viennese folk tales in German. I especially remember one about a goose who laid golden eggs. But they couldn't have been solid gold, because they were cracked open and stirred up into a wonderful bread-pudding sort of thing without the bread. It was called "Kaiser schmalz" and was the King's favorite dish. The way you make it is: Take 4 or so eggs, add a little milk, a few table-spoons of flour, a good deal of sugar, vanilla and raisins. Bake it in the oven for about 15 minutes. Then stir it up and let it cook another few minutes. Until it's solid. Something like that. The goose was rescued from slaughter again and again because the king needed his favorite dish.

(Article in the Watertown Daily Times, November 25, 1959

Austrian Masonic Leader of 1930's is Parishville Resident
by Louise E. Blake

Potsdam, Nov. 25— Arthur Brill, a man of unusual quiet and dignity and with a kindly twinkle in his eyes. reminisced yesterday of his former happy life as a lawyer in Vienna, Austria, and as a man especially active in free and accepted masonry, before the iron heel of Hitler destroyed everything worthwhile in that beautiful city of more than two million people, and he and his wife fled to America.

Now Dr. Brill and his wife have a cozy home in Parishville where they live on the same street with their only daughter and her family. It is a far cry from Vienna where terror reigned under the Nazi regime from which the couple luckily escaped with their lives. These memories the couple is trying to put behind them and forget. Their daughter is Mrs. Angela Thaler, wife of Dr. Max Thaler, who came from the old country to America where residents of Parishville were instrumental in establishing Dr. Thaler as resident doctor through an agency for displaced persons.

Dr. Brill may be considered famous in masonic circles, for he is the founder of several groups of young men from the ages of 16 through 22; young Masonic groups known as "dei kotto" meaning the chain. These young Masonic organizations were started by Dr. Brill in Vienna, Prague and other nearby cities and continued to be active until the reign of Hitler.

In relating the work of the founding of these organizations, Dr. Brill, former master of a masonic lodge in Vienna, said it was 1928, during a jubalee of the grand lodge held in that city that he... concerning the founding of an order of young men. He recalled that masons from all over the world attended the Jubilee, including many from the United States. The officers of the grand lodge attempted to establish a society for young masons, but were discouraged when they received little cooperation from the boys. Dr. Brill then received permission from the grand lodge officials to attempt to contact the youth groups and get them interested.

Dr. Brill was more successful when the young men found that they could have their own masonic order without having it under the jusisdiction of the grand lodge. As a result, about a 100 young men between 16 and 22 organized their own lodge, wrote their own bylaws and rituals with the assistance of Dr. Brill and held their meetins once weekly. "I only remained in the background to help when they needed me," Dr. Brill explained yesterday. A young man of 18 was the lodge's first president.

After the lodge was established, the grand lodge gave them a room in the grand lodge building for their meetings and assisted financially in many ways. These weekly meetings were for lectures and discussions. Then on each Sunday the lodge entertained the young girls as their guests with activities such as trips to the mountains and other out-of-door events.

Dr. Brill explained that in Austria a man must the age of 24 before he can become a member of the masonic order. The young lodge had a camp in Kristendorf where the girls were entertained on Sundays as their guests.

The newly organized lodges for young men visited each others' lodges once a year and also entertained their fathers, most of whom were master masons.

It was in March 1938 that Hitler came and destroyed all masonic lodges by taking all books and furniture from the buildings and burning them in the streets. "I was arrested for one day by the Gestapo," Dr. Brill recalled. After continuous questioning for ten hours he was allowed to go free.

Dr. Brill was a director of the immigration department and although he wished to leave with his wife, he was not allowed to go, as they claimed "he was indespensible." In May 1939 he was finally allowed to depart with his wife and the couple sailed from Italy to New York.

During the years in Vienna, after he founded the young men's lodges, he was called "Uncle Brill" by all the young men of the lodges as their term of affection for the man who had helped them so greatly.

Dr. Brill recounted one incident that might have meant death to him during the Gestapo. He said the Nazi officials had rounded up a large crowd of Jewish people in the main streets whom they were going to take to some unknown destination. An officer came after him and asked him if he was Jewish. Admitting that he was, the officer took him to the large group, when suddenly the Nazi officer said, "Are you Dr. Brill?" When the lawyer said that he was, the officer said to him, "You did some legal work for me a few weeks ago and would not take any pay for it. Now I am going to repay you. Come with me." The officer ordered the lawyer to walk directly back of him and led him out of the crowd to an isolated street. Here the officer set him free and left him.

After reaching America,Dr. and Mrs. Brill lived in New York where Dr. Brill worked at any job he could find for a few years. Then, after his son-in-law and daughter were sent to Parishville to live, they soon followed. There Dr. Brill worked as secretary (accountent) for his son-in-law.

Dr. Brill has a nephew, Mark Altman, who is Master of the Humanities F & A M of New York. a masonic lodge for members of former lodges in Austria. Mr. Altman and his family will spend Thanksgiving in Parishville with Dr. and Mrs. Brill and Dr. and Mrs. Thaler. It will be a truly Thanksgiving for a life of peace in our United States.

Dr. Arthur Brill May 14, 1881- April 3, 1964

Parishville man was Retired Lawyer — Rites Sunday

Watertown Times (?) or Potsdam Courier Freeman(?) Obituary April 4, 1964

Arthur Brill, 82, a retired lawyer of Parishville and a native of Vienna, Austria, died yesterday at his home. He had been in poor health recently.

The body will be at the Garner funeral home, Lawrence avenue, where friends may call.

A Masonic service will be held tonight at 8:40 p.m. at the funeral home with officers and members of Amber lodge F & A.M., Parishville officiating.

The funeral will be Sunday afternoon at 2pm at the funeral home with Rabbi David Kozak, Ogdensburg, officiating. Burial will be in Anshe Zopen cemetery, Ogdensburg.

Mr. Brill is survived by his wife, Mrs. Martha Brill, Parishville, one daughter, Mrs. Max (Angela Thaler, wife of Dr. Max Thaler, Parishville, a son Henry L. Brill, Long Island, a sister, Mrs. Thelophi Jawtt, Kew Gardens, New York City, and six grandchildren.

Mr. Brill was born May 14, 1881. He was graduated from the University of Vienna with a doctor of law degree. For years he conducted his own law firm in Vienna until 1939 when he and his family came to New York City. He was associated with a law firm in New York until he moved to Parishville several years ago. Since then he had been an active accountant until last year.

He had been especially active in the youth movement of the Masonic order, both in Vienna and in Parishville. He was a life member of the order and a member of Amber Lodge.

In World War I he served his country as Captain in the Austrian army. He was decorated several times. On June 30th 1912 he married Martha Bloch.

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MARTHA (BLOCH) BRILL OBITUARY NORTH WOMAN DIES AT 87

Martha Bloch Brill, 87, of Parishville, widow of Dr. Arthur Brill, lawyer and accountant, died Thursday in Flushing Hospital where she was a patient one day.

She had been spending the winter with her son, Henry L. Brill. The funeral will be at Nichols Funeral Home at 2:30pm Sunday with Rabbi David Kozak officiating. Burial will be in Anshe Zopen cemetery, Ogdensburg. Surviving, besides her son, a daughter, Mrs. Max (Angela) Thaler and six grandchildren.

She was born February 22, 1892 in Vienna, Austria, daughter of Ludwig and Sophie Reiss Bloch, and was the last survivor of their three children. A brother and sister died in England years ago.

She was married to Dr. Arthur Brill May 2, 1919 in Vienna. They came to the U.S. in 1939. They came to Parishville in 1950. Dr. Brill died in 1964. Mrs. Brill was a membr of the Beth El Congregation, Potsdam.