An article by Regina Haubold on 20 April 2016 in Freies Wort, the newspaper covering most of south Thuringia, reviewed a publication by Karl-Heinz Roß about Jewish families from Gleicherwiesen who had migrated to Hildburghausen. It highlighted the Stern family, who came to play a significant role in the life of the Jewish community of Themar.
“… Specifically,” Regina Haubold wrote, “the booklet describes the fate of seven Jewish families who are exemplary for many others. They are individual families who came from Gleicherwiesen to Hildburgh and lived here, the author explains: ‘These are families with larger connections, families with names such as Stern, Birkenstein, Rosenthal, Michaelis, Simon, Bachmann and Weißmann, who lived here, went to school and practiced their profession here.’ As a rule, the families were members of the Jewish religious community, mostly merchants, and took part in the social life of the town. They were often sponsors of municipal and humanitarian activities and respected citizens of the city.
One of the families that Roß focuses on in his publication goes by the name of Stern.
The history of the Sterns
The family comes from Gleicherwiesen. The forefather was Hirsch Stern. He was married to Fradel, the daughter of Gump Khan from Simmershausen. The marriage produced three children, Hannachen, Löser (Lazarus) Hirsch and Max Hirsch. The latter went to Coburg, and Löser Hirsch came to Hildburghausen in 1865, where he lived in Schlossgasse.
He married Marianne Gutmann and they had seven children. Their son Abraham, born in 1851, continued his father’s business when his father died. Abraham married Karoline Lang, but she died in 1886. His second marriage was to Hedwig Bär from Marisfeld, who had five children, three of whom died in infancy. Abraham Stern died in 1906 and his wife Hedwig in 1920. One of the sons, Hermann Stern, attended grammar school in Hildburghausen, became a merchant and moved to Themar. He had to serve in the First World War, lost a leg and finally died in 1933.
His daughter, Martha Stern, married the shoemaker and merchant August Gerau from Mühlhausen, who had a store in Untere Marktstraße in Hildburghausen. In 1911, the Geraus had a daughter Anneliese, Margaretha, Elly, Agnes, who married Adolf Rehbock, an authorized signatory of the Friedmann business and head of the Jewish religious community. Martha Gerau, however, was taken into protective custody in January 1943 and sent to Suhl prison, from there to Breitenau in March and finally to Auschwitz concentration camp, where she died in the same year under ‘unexplained circumstances.’
August Gerau also spent a short time in prison. His second marriage was to Elsbeth Gellert. He remained a merchant after the war and died in Hildburghausen on July 8, 1963. Gerau’s daughter, Anneliese Rehbock, her husband and young son Makal (Peter) perished on the transport to Theresienstadt in 1942. Adolf Rehbock died in Theresienstadt in March 1944.
Karl-Heinz Roß believes that the new booklet may also provide an incentive for other amateur historians to use it as the basis for further research into the fates of Jewish families.”