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Sarah And Maurice

Tell Me Why: Whatever became of the descendants of Sarah Bernhardt?

Maurice married Princess Maria
Teresa Jablonowska (whom all her
friends called Terka) in 1887. Maurice
had his famous family connection —
Q: I was reading a book about the life
so did Terka.
of Sarah Bernhardt. I know that
Terka was the daughter of Prince
Bernhardt, though not a practicing
Karol Wladyslaw and Louise von
Jew, was halachically Jewish, which
Mohr. Karol was the son of Prince
means that her children would be, as
Maurycy and Anna Maria Jouberthon
well. Did Bernhardt have children
de Vambertie. Anna's mother was
and, if so, what became of them?
Alexandra
A: Bernhardt
Bleschamp, whose
(1844-1923), born
second husband was
Rosine Bernard (her
Prince Lucien
mother, Judith,
Bonaparte, brother
changed the spelling),
to Napoleon
had one son, Maurice
Bonaparte.
Bernhardt, with
Maurice and Terka
Prince de Ligne of
were married in the
Belgium.
church of Saint-
The prince had lit-
Honore d'Eylau.
tle to do with his
Among
the famous
son's life until
guests who attended
Maurice was set to
the wedding, along
wed. Then he offered
with notable royalty,
Maurice all his for-
was artist James
tune — which was
Abbot McNeill
substantial — and
Whistler.
asked Maurice to
Sarah Bernhardt
According to
CNS photo courtesy J. Paul Getty Museum
take his name.
Heydel-Mankoo,
Maurice, however, in
Sarah spent many happy summers with
honor of his mother's single-handed
her son and daughter-in-law and "was
dedication to him all those years, pre-
very fond of Terka." Bernhardt's book
ferred to remain a Bernhardt.
Adrienne Lecouvreur was dedicated to
Rafal Heydel-Mankoo is a descen-
"my dear daughter-in-law, Terka."
dant of Maurice's bride, Maria Teresa
Maurice and Terka had two daugh-
Jablonowska, and has tracked the fami-
ters, Simone and Lysianne, who are
ly genealogy. He recounts this story
both alive. Lysiane married playwright
about Maurice:
Louis Vernieul and has no children; but
"[Soon after the prince finally
Simone, whose husband is British, has
acknowledged his son], Maurice
a son and a daughter, Alan and Terka,
accompanied his father to la Gare du
and five grandchildren.
Nord to catch his train. There was an
unusually long queue and his father
Q: I just came across a book that says
refused to wait.
Nostradamus predicted the rise and
"The Prince de Ligne demanded
fall of Hitler. Is that true?
entry stating: 'I am the Prince de
A: Michel de Nostradamus was born
Ligne.' The platform controller was
in France in 1503 and died in 1566;
rather unimpressed, stating he had
but, amazingly enough, his books have
never heard of him and told him to
never been out of print. His Centuries
take his place at the back of the line.
is, after the Bible, the oldest continu-
Maurice then came forth and declared
ously published book.
he was the son of Sarah Bernhardt.
Queen Catherine de Medici was so
They were immediately ushered
impressed by Nostradamus' predictions
through."

ELIZABETH APPLEBAUM
AppleTree Editor

that he became a regular at her court,
where he offered advice on political
decisions — based on his astrological
readings.
There are many mysteries and leg-
ends surrounding Nostradamus (sup-
posedly, for example, his tomb bore
"1700" when he was exhumed in 1700,
so as to resettle the remains elsewhere).
He's also credited with being the
greatest fortune teller in history, and
certainly there are some interesting
items in Nostradamus' Centuries, pub-
lished in 1558 and comprising 1,000
quatrains, or four-line verses, that claim
to predict the future until 3797.
Much of Nostradamus' success is
actually due to the fact that he's widely
open to interpretation. The Centuries
pronouncement: "The great man will
be struck down in the day by a thun-
derbolt" proves, unequivocally, that
Nostradamus predicted John Kennedy's
death, according to author John Hogue
in Nostradamus and the Millennium.
Right.
Anyway, Nostradamus did write of a
"Hister," which many have, under-
standably, thought to be Hitler.
Scholars, however, point out that hister
is actually an ancient Latin term for the
Danube River. Again, much is open to
interpretation.
Consider this quatrain from

Centuries:
Liberty will not be recovered
A bold, black, base-born iniquitous
man will occupy it
When the material of the bridge is
completed
The Republic of Venice will be
annoyed by Hister.
Unfortunately, history is filled with
"base-born" figures who have destroyed
liberty. Yet according to author Stewart
Robb, writing in Prophecies on World
Events, this quatrain proves that
Nostradamus correctly predicted the
rise of Hitler. The bridge mentioned
here, Robb says, is a bridge the Nazis
constructed in 1941, while the refer-
ence to the "Republic of Venice" means
Italy.
(Apparently, Robb forgets that while

Italy certainly was not as vociferous in
its persecution of Jews during World
War II, Mussolini was an ally of the
Nazis, hardly a country "annoyed" by
them.)

Q: The founder of Lionel Trains was
a Joshua Cowen. I know that many
Jews originally called Cohen tried to
Americanize their names by changing
them to Cowen or Cowan. Was
Joshua Cowen Jewish?
A: Yes. Joshua Lionel Cowen (1877-
1965) was born Joshua Lionel Cohen.
He was the cofounder of Lionel
Corporation, which made model rail-
roads and toy trains.
Cowen was the eighth of nine chil-
dren born to Jewish immigrants, who
settled in New York. When Cowen was
a mere 7, he built his first train, which
featured a steam engine attached to a
wooden locomotive. The engine
exploded and the family kitchen was
severely damaged.
Cowen dropped out of college twice,
then started inventing. In 1898, he
attached a few small canisters contain-
ing lights, powered by batteries, to a
flower pot (the idea was to illuminate a
plant). Cowen tried to sell his -idea, but
it was hardly a success.
Then a man named Conrad Hubert
stepped forward and offered to buy
rights to the design. Cowen agreed.
Hubert stuck with the canisters and
batteries but dumped the flowerpot.
Then he renamed his product the
Eveready Flashlight and became a mul-
timillionaire.
Cowen received his first patent in
1899 for a tool that started a camera
flash. Later that year, Cowen was
awarded a $12,000 contract from the
U.S. Navy to produce mine fuses. In
1900, Cowen cofounded the Lionel
Corp.
Lionel trains were an immediate hit,
but became especially popular after
Cowen convinced department stores to
feature his trains in their Christmas
window displays. The trains went
around and around the trees, and the

SARAH on page 38

8/27

2004

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