On the first weekend of November 2015, twenty members of the former Jewish families of Themar came to the small city. The occasion was the laying of eleven Stolpersteine for two families: the Samuel & Jette Baer family at Markt 8 in the city center and the Max and Clara Müller family at Meiningerstrasse 17, at the north end of the city, outside the wall. The Stolpersteine were laid on 9 November, the 77th anniversary of “Kristallnacht.” As well, the families visited the villages from which their ancestors had come to Themar — Marisfeld, Sondheim vor der Rhön and Oberwaldbehrungen — and Hildburghausen where branches of both families had settled.
The links below take you to further detail:
Carole Karlsruher, “The Bär/Plaut Family at Markt 8,” 9 November 2015
Richard Stern, “Remarks,” 9 November 2015
Achim Hess, “Jewish Life in Themar,” rennsteig.tv (15 min)
Wolfgang Szwietek, “Stolpersteine keep the memories alive,” Freies Wort, 10 November 2015
Steffen Standke,
There were more than 40 members of Themar’s Jewish families who were still alive in Europe at the end of the war, for example Charlotte Rosenbaum, née Gassenheimer with her son in Spain, Mira Sommer, née Grünbaum, in Italy, and Ernst and Johanna Mayer with daughter Renate in Cologne. Dr. Sharon Meen (Vancouver, Canada) and Renate Mayer-Merkl told about these and other stories of former residents of Themar on June 3, 2015 in the Amtshaus Themar.
