Hal Lindes
Birth Name: Harold Andrew Lindes
Place of Birth: Monterey, California, United States
Date of Birth: June 30, 1953
Ethnicity: German
Hal Lindes is an American guitarist, musician, songwriter, and film score composer. He was a member of rock band Dire Straits. The band’s members also included brothers Mark Knopfler and David Knopfler.
Hal is the son of Olga and Harald Lindes. His father was born in Leningrad/Saint Petersburg, Russia, and was likely of German descent. His mother was born either in Odessa, Ukraine, or Riga, Latvia. She was taken to a labor camp in Hamburg during WWII. Members of her family died in the siege of Odessa during WWII.
He has three children, Misha, a musician, Staz Lindes, a model and musician, and Evangeline, an actress.
Hal’s maternal grandfather was named Alexei Pohl. The surname Pohl in Odessa is usually associated with German ancestry.
Hal’s maternal grandmother was named Helen.
Sources: U.S. Naturalization petition of Hal’s father – https://www.familysearch.org
Obituary of Hal’s mother – https://www.burbagefuneralhome.com
I would appreciate it if someone can help me with this.
On one hand, I find people with the surname “Lindes” in St. Petersburg, and they were all buried in the Smolensky Lutheran Cemetery, so that’s a clue. On the other hand, I thought on the possibility that Olga Pohl was Jewish, given her history in the siege of Odessa and later labor camp in Hamburg, but Pohl is usually a non-Jewish German surname, and the Pohls that I find in Odessa seemed very German to me, with names such as Johann, Wilhelmine and Ludwig. Also, most of them were somehow associated with Tarutyne, a settlement founded by Germans in Bessarabia.
Let me kwon your opinions
Also, I find this paragraph a bit confusing:
“Hal’s maternal grandmother was named Helen. Olga was taken to a labor camp in Hamburg during WWII.”
Hal’s maternal grandparents were Alexei and Helen Pohl, and the one who was taken to a labor camp in Hamburg was Hal’s mother Olga. Both Alexei and Helen perished in the siege.