Grets (Gretz)(née Brin; first married Haas) Bluma Izrailevna (17 May 1899, Riga) — office clerk.
Bluma Grets was born to shoemaker Izrael Sharievich Brin (b. 1860, Lithuania – d. 1930, Riga) and housewife Mery Abramovna Brin (b. 1867, Lithuania – d. 1937, Riga). She graduated from the Draudze Gymnasium in 1917 and then worked as a cashier at the Levin department store (1918–1922).
Marriages & family:
In 1923 Bluma Grets married Ernst Emmanuel Haas (b. 1894, Germany – d. 1930, Königsberg); they lived there until his death in 1930. Their son, Werner Ernest Haas (b. 1925, Germany), was sent to England via a child refugee train in 1939, aided by the Jewish community.
In 1934 she married Robert Iosifovich Grec (b. 1889, Germany – murdered by the Nazis in Ljubljana ghetto in 1942) ; they divorced in 1940 after he refused to move to Latvia with her. His children from a previous marriage—Hilda Robertovna Rush (b. 1914, Germany) and Helmut Robertovich Grec (b. 1916, Germany)—emigrated to Argentina in 1939 at her insistence.
During this time Bluma Grets remained a homemaker.
Evacuation & Career:
Bluma Grets was evacuated to Kiyma, Kazakh SSR (1941–1946), where she worked on a collective farm.Later, she moved to Akmolinsk (today Astana) and worked as a newspaper sorter at the local communications office (1946–1948).
In 1948 she relocated to Armenia: registry clerk at Abavan District Hospital (1948–1949), later lab assistant at Kanaker Hospital (1949–1950).
In 1950 she returned to Latvia in 1950 and served as a dietary nurse in Jūrmala sanatoria until 1967.
Emigration:
In 1968, Bluma Grets received permission to emigrate to Argentina, where her stepchildren Hilda Grets (née Rush) and Helmut Grets had been living since 1939.
Immediate family:
Brin Izrael Sharievich (1860–1930) — father
Brin Mery Abramovna (1867–1937) — mother
Brin Philipp Izrailevich (1890–d. in Riga ghetto) — brother
Brin Moishe Izrailevich (1895–d. in Riga ghetto) — brother
(Brin) Leyah Izrailevna Gotlib — sister (killed in Riga ghetto)
(Brin) Sheina Izrailevna Jakobson — sister (killed in Riga ghetto)
Ernst Emmanuel Haas (1894–1930) — first husband
Werner Ernest Haas (b. 1925) — son
Robert Iosifovich Grec (1889–1942) — second husband
Hilda Robertovna Grec (née Rush, b. 1914) — stepdaughter
Helmut Robertovich Grec (b. 1916) — stepson