15. “Judenhaus”
June 26th 1942 – July 27th 1942
Yewish women were interned
one month before their
deportation.
From 26/06/1942 to 27/07/1942, five Jewish women awaited their transportation to the concentration camp in the “Jewish House”. All of their family members had already fled or been deported. Banished from their homes in the neighbourhood, without relatives, they had to persevere without hope for one month. These were the women: Bertha Kaufmann (89 years), murdered in Theresienstadt, Setta Diewald (78 years), murdered in Theresienstadt, Amalie Marx (72 years), murdered in Treblinka, Jannchen Wolf (86 years), murdered and Johanna Bender (65 years), murdered in Treblinka.
"The last remaining Jewish women are now housed in a house in Schweizstraße, so that they are hardly noticeable in the townscape".
This is what we read in the official chronicle of Münstermaifeld under the date 26.06.1942. The house had been inhabited by the cattle dealer Karl Marx I, who was able to flee to the USA with part of his family in 1938. On 27 July 1942 we then find the following entry in the Amtschronik: "The last Jews moved out here today. They are going to Theresienstadt. This means that our homeland is finally free of Jews. For about 200 years these pests sat on the Maifeld to the detriment of our people. Now we are rid of them and no one cries a tear for them."
For a month, 5 women had been waiting in the "Judenhaus" to be transported to Theresienstadt, as they and the public were told. Theresienstadt was allowed to be spoken of as a model camp. The women who had been expelled from their homes in the surrounding area had to hold out for a month without hope, in the dark about the fate of their deported or escaped relatives.
Transport X/1, from Trier via Koblenz and Cologne, brought 1079 Jews, mostly old people, to Theresienstadt on 27 July 1942. Among them were also the 5 women from the "Judenhaus" in Münstermaifeld.
On the deportation list of this train we find: Amalie Marx, 72 years old, widow of the cattle dealer Karl Marx II. She had to leave her house, Krimmgasse 5, after 1940 and was housed for some time in the "Judenhaus" at Bornstraße 3, the house of Moritz Diewald, before her internment. Her and her daughter Gerda's attempts to obtain a passport for France had failed in 1939. Setta Diewald, 78 years old, widow of the cattle dealer Samuel Diewald, also had to leave her house at Frankenstraße 13 after 1940 and lived together with Amalie Marx in the house at Bornstraße 3, which was presumably already empty. Johanna Bender, 65 years old, widow of the textile merchant Rudolf Bender, had no children. She had to give up her house at Untertorstraße 11 after 1936 and lived in the house of the Samuel Kaufmann family, Untertorstraße 9, before her internment in the "Judenhaus". Samuel's mother, Bertha Kaufmann, last lived in this house. She was 88 years old, widow of the butcher Hermann Kaufmann. Bertha Kaufmann had unsuccessfully applied for emigration to England in 1939. Bertha Kaufmann was the oldest of the women imprisoned in the "Judenhaus". For Jannchen Wolf, only Münstermaifeld is given in the deportation list as the place of residence before her imprisonment in the "Judenhaus". Jannchen Wolf was 86 years old, widow of the butcher Bernhard Wolf in Mertloch. After the death of her husband, she lived in the house of her daughter Berta Kaufmann, Pilligertorstraße 10. Setta Diewald and Bertha Kaufmann survived the arrival in Theresienstadt by only a few days. Setta Diewald's death was reported on 6 August 1942, Bertha Kaufmann's on 3 August 1942. Amalie Marx and Johanna Bender were transferred from Theresienstadt to Treblinka on 19 September 1942 and murdered there. The further fate of Jannchen Wolf in Theresienstadt is not known.
Glossar