‘Cousin’ Leo Gassenheimer â on the passenger list of the ship Hansa arriving in New York on 16 April 1939 â caught our attention!  He was sponsoring cousin Ruth Gassenheimer’s immigration into the United States. Ruth Gassenheimer was the granddaughter of Samuel & Lotte Gassenheimer of Themar, and anything connected to Themar interests us. And so started the … Read more
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
“My mother used to talk about a small sleepy town. My grandfather’s family lived in this townand here he had success. Then it became reality: everything was taken away and they lost everything.” – Karen Sachs Knauf, daughter of Hilde Sachs, born 1910 in Themar and granddaughter of Moritz Sachs As in all other German towns … 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
Five years ago, I was asked by the Vancouver Holocaust Education Center to read a series of letters in German and summarize them in English. These letters were given to the Vancouver Holocaust Education Center Archives by Andrew Rosengarten, the son of Manfred Rosengarten, the author of the letters. What made the collection of letters … Read more
See also Julius Kahn 1896-1965. On September 6, 2010, it was 70 years since the HMT Dunera had called at the port of Sydney in Australia. The ship had on board at that time about 2,000 Jewish refugees who had fled the Nazi regime in Germany and Austria. There were also about 500 German and … Read more