Themar For update of this post based on new research, see: 1945: Liberation of Auschwitz. On Saturday 27 January 1945, Soviet forces liberated Auschwitz. Of the 7,000 remaining prisoners, one man had a direct connection to Themar. His story â although we know little of it â gives us a glimpse into the life of one of those who … Read more
On 1 August 1914, Germany declared war on Russia; on 3 August 1914, Germany declared war on France and marched into Belgium. On 4 August 1914, when Germany did not withdraw from Belgium, Britain, supported by its Commonwealth countries, declared war on Germany. “The War that ended Peace” â the title of Canadian historian Margaret … Read more
We have made significant progress in finding the ‘founding families’ of the Jewish community of Themar in the late 1800s â Baer, Frankenberg, Gassenheimer, GrĂŒnbaum, Kahn, Katz, MĂŒller, Schloss/Sachs, Schwab, Walther, and Wertheimer. All these families share two defining characteristics: first, they were German Jewish families, with roots deep in German history; second, the roots were … Read more
On 10 May 2013, four Stolpersteine were laid before Bahnhofstrasse 7. The Stolpersteine honour the Rosengarten family â Paul and Berta (nĂ©e Schwab) Rosengarten and their two sons, Manfred and Erich â who lived in this house in the early 1920s. After the Nazis came to power in the 1930s, the Rosengartens left Themar, hoping … Read more
The pogrom of Kristallnacht, the 9/10 November 1938, transformed Nazi policy towards German Jews from encouraged emigration to forced emigration. The burnings of synagogues, smashing of shop windows, incarcerations of men over 16 years of age, were all warnings to get out â fast. German Jews had been emigrating steadily in the six years since … Read more
Between June 1942 and February 1949, 67 Jews connected to the families of Themar were transported to Theresienstadt. The first were Georg and Rudolf Gassenheimer, both born in Themar, with their wives, sisters Selma and Thekla (nĂ©e Schwab). The last was Doris Lorenzen, nĂ©e Frankenberg, born in Themar. On 19 September 1942, eight (8) Jews were … Read more
by Fred Michael Brick Amram Iâm an only child. It was customary for young German adults during the Holocaust to have only one childâoften none at all. âWhy bring more Jewish children into a world like this?â my mother, Mutti, would often ask. Why, indeed. Papa had an older sister, Tante Beda, who married Ernst … Read more
On 12 November 1941, Martha Hahn, nĂ©e Katz, b. 1889 in Themar, was deported from Frankfurt am Main to Minsk Ghetto in Belarus, 1672 km to the east. Martha was a member of the Adolf & Meta (nĂ©e Schwab) Katz family. Martha probably lived in Themar until the early 1900s. We do not know much about her life once she … Read more
16 October 2011 â It is 70 years since the first deportation of members of Themar’s Jewish community to the ‘east.’ On this day in 1941, Hugo and Eva (nĂ©e Kahn)  Friedmann were deported from Luxemburg-Trier to the Ghetto in Lodz, or Litzmannstadt as it had been renamed by the Nazis. The Friedmanns lived in Themar in … Read more
15 December 2023: This post has been updated with documents made available online in the Arolsen Archives. Initial post, 26 June 2011: Ever vigilant to discover any new traces about Themarens, a recent google search for “Meta Krakauer” brought lots of news! Six months ago [2010], Anne Prior of Dinslaken published a book about the … Read more