Jewish life in Harxheim: Family Moritz and Katharina Gutha Mayer
In Untergasse 13 lived another family named Mayer: Moritz (born on 17.10.1879 in Harxheim) and wife Katharina Gutha, née Reinheimer (born on 05.05.1879 in Reinheim near Dieburg) and the two sons Julius and Friedrich.
Moritz and Ferdinand Mayer, who lived at Untergasse 19, were cousins. Moritz’s father Gottschalk (24.12.1852 – 04.09.1941) was the brother of Ferdinand’s father Jakob III (13.11.1850 -15.10.1921). Gottschalk Mayer was a merchant by profession and married Babette, née May (01.03.1851 – 18.08.1914) married. His brother Jacob III married Babette’s sister Sara, née. May (10.04.1841 – 07.07.1903). The May sisters came from Geinsheim.
Moritz himself was the only one to outlive his five siblings. The latter all died within the first two years of life. 1) 2)
Moritz, his wife Katharina and father Gottschalk lived in a small, modest property that was demolished in the 1970s. Like his father, he was a merchant and ran a wine and grain business. In addition, he sold fabrics, haberdashery and other daily necessities as a traveling salesman. 3)
As a German soldier, Moritz Mayer fought in World War I as a Landsturmmann in Inf.-Reg. 42 on the Eastern Front. He was severely wounded for the first time near Bucharest on December 20, 1916. After his recovery in the Israelite military hospital in Frankfurt, he was again at the front in Romania, where on July 26, 1917, according to the Records of the Reverend Würth of September 14, 1917, during a nighttime mission, he fell into a 30-meter deep ravine and broke both arms. 4) He probably lost an arm in the process. He was a bearer of the Iron Cross. 5)
Various contemporary witnesses from Harxheim and Lörzweil told Rüdiger Gottwald that Moritz Mayer regularly visited his customers on foot after the First World War, shouldering several bales of fabric, and despite his handicap, deftly handled the heavy fabrics. Moritz was described as a rather simple, but always friendly and helpful person.
The eldest of his two sons, Julius (10.06.1907 – 11.06.1923) went to business school in Mainz. He died as a result of a traffic accident. 6)
The second son Friedrich (22.05.1908 – 11.12.1997) moved to Frankfurt after finishing school, where he married Gertrude (Sara) Strauß (17.06.1912 – 09.12.1997), a native of Trebur, on August 18, 1938. Friedrich and his wife were registered there at Sandweg 40. He stated his profession as merchant. 1) 2) 7)
Due to the pressure exerted by the National Socialists on the Jewish population, father Moritz tried to sell his real estate to fellow citizens of Harxheim as early as 1938. It was about his modest farmstead and a few parcels of arable land. The project was initially unsuccessful. Moritz, Katharina and the father Gottschalk were forced to move to Mainz to a so-called Judenhaus in Walpodenstraße 17 at the beginning of September 1939. The Jewish houses were notorious quarters characterized by massive overcrowding and devastating hygienic conditions. From Mainz, Moritz continued to seek potential buyers for his Harxheim property. According to the documents evaluated, the sales took place between December 1939 and March 1940. This was too late to finance an escape abroad with the proceeds. With the start of the war on September 1, 1939, this was no longer possible due to border closures. The couple spent the following years until their deportation in Walpodenstraße under inhumane conditions. 8) 12)
Residence of the Mayer couple between 1939 and 1942, Walpodenstraße 17 in Mainz
Image source: Siegfried Schäfer
Former. Judenhaus, commemorative plaque, Walpodenstraße 17, Mainz
Image source: Siegfried Schäfer
Moritz’s ailing father Gottschalk died in the Jewish Hospital in Mainz on September 4, 1941. He is buried in the New Jewish Cemetery in Mainz. 17)
Contemporary witness Hans Kessel from Harxheim reported in an interview in 2016 that his father often met with Moritz Mayer during visits to Mainz in the years 1939 – 1942. The latter had always been interested in news from his home community and the exchange of information had taken place in whispers and at a greater distance. This was done out of fear of denunciation and spying, since contact between “ethnic Germans” and Jews was strictly forbidden under threat of draconian punishments.
Moritz and Katharina Mayer were deported from Mainz via Darmstadt to the Theresienstadt ghetto on September 27, 1942. The deportation was carried out in a collective transport with a total of 1,288 people of Jewish faith. Moritz Mayer and his wife did not survive Theresienstadt. The date of death of Moritz Mayer is given as 17 May 1944, the date of death of his wife Katharina is 21 September 1944. 8) 15)
Excerpt from a deportation list issued by the Gestapo Darmstadt, September 1942 (transcript)
Image source: LA Speyer, J10 No.1969
After their deportation at the end of October 1942, the remaining assets of Mr. and Mrs. Mayer were transferred by the account-holding banks in Mainz to the special account H (home purchase) at the Hesse district office of the Central Office of the Reich Association of Jews in Germany with headquarters in Berlin. This authority was controlled by the Reich Security Main Office. Under pressure from the Gestapo and with the pretext that the transferred assets would be used, among other things, to finance their stay in the “Old Ghetto Theresienstadt,” the Mayers, like many other Jewish fellow citizens, were fraudulently deceived about the true situation. As a result of this step, the funds were finally removed from the reach of their rightful owners and the latter were deprived of their assets. 12) 15) 16)
After the pogrom on November 9, 1938, Moritz’s son Friedrich Mayer was arrested on the 13 November in Frankfurt as part of a large-scale wave of arrests directly “as an action Jew” by the SS and taken to the collective camp in the Frankfurt Festhalle. According to eyewitness accounts, the conditions prevailing there and the way the SS guards and the Gestapo treated their prisoners were indescribable and unsurpassable in terms of brutality and contempt for human life. From there, Friedrich Mayer was transported with a total of 534 men in two collective transports on the 14 November transported from Frankfurt to Dachau concentration camp. He was “classified” as SchJ (Schutzhaft, Jude) and bore the prisoner number 25707. 9) 10) 11) 12)
Access book of Dachau concentration camp, prisoner number 25707, Friedrich Mayer
Image source: Copy of 1.1.6.1 / 130429599 in conformity with IST Digital Archive. Arolsen Archives. Access books concentration camp Dachau.
The cruel and brutal imprisonment in Dachau was intended to coerce the prisoners by all means – if they survived the imprisonment alive – to sell their material possessions immediately after their release, deducting various special taxes and compulsory levies, and then to leave Germany as quickly as possible. In this constellation, fair prices for the goods and chattels to be sold were hardly conceivable. 12)
Writing room card with prisoner number and date of release of Friedrich Mayer
Image source: Copy of 6.3.3.2 / 93642845 in conformity with IST Digital Archive. Arolsen Archives. Correspondence file T/D-319354.
After his release from Dachau on December 28, 1938, Friedrich immediately took care of obtaining exit documents for his wife Gertrude and himself. The departure was most likely first by train to Amsterdam and from there on to England. From South Hampton, the couple departed for the U.S. on the SS President Harding on November 15, 1939, and the ship arrived in New York on November 24, 1939. The couple initially found lodgings there with George Swanson, a cousin of Frederick. 13) 14)
Friedrich Mayer, who called himself Frederick since his escape to the USA, visited Harxheim several times after the war. Between 1949 and 1952, he conducted six civil lawsuits to obtain compensation, since the sale of his parental home and other real estate had taken place in the course of the National Socialist persecution measures against the Jews. The proceedings all ended in a settlement. 15)
Frederick Mayer passed away on December 11, 1997, two days after his wife Gertrude. Both are buried in Silver Spring, Montgomery, Maryland, USA. 18)
Detention certificate of the International Red Cross of Friedrich Mayer
Image source: Copy of 6.3.3.2 / 93642845 in conformity with IST Digital Archive. Arolsen Archives. Correspondence file T/D-319354.
References:
1) Archiv der Verbandsgemeinde Bodenheim; Personenstandsregister der Mairie Harxheim-Gau-Bischofsheim.
2) Municipal archives Trebur.
3) HHStA. Wiesbaden Dept. 518-775574.
4) Würth, Johannes (1909-1920): Aufzeichnungen in der Gemeindechronik der evangelischen Kirchengemeinde Harxheim. Archive of the Protestant community of Harxheim.
5) Light, Hans. Chronicle of the municipality of Harxheim.
6) Stadtarchiv Mainz. Mainz, death register. Notification of the Public Prosecutor’s Office to the District Court. Deed No. 90, 1924.
7) Copy of 6.3.3.2 / 93642842 in conformity with IST Digital Archive. Arolsen Archives. Correspondence file T/D-319354.
8) The Memorial Book of the Federal Archives for the Victims of the National Socialist Persecution of Jews in Germany (1933-1945).
9) Copy of 1.1.6.7 / 10705805 in conformity with ITS Digital Archive. Arolsen Archives. Writing room cards Dachau.
10) Copy of 1.1.6.1 / 9892713 in conformity with ITS Digital Archive. Arolsen Archives. Access books of the Dachau concentration camp.
11) Copy of 6.3.3.2 / 93642842 in conformity with ITS Digital Archive. Arolsen Archives. Correspondence file T/D-319354.
12) Kingreen, Monica (1999): Von Frankfurt in das KZ Dachau. In: After Kristallnacht – Jewish Life and Anti-Jewish Politics in Frankfurt/M. 1938-45 Frankfurt/NewYork 1999. S. 55-89.
13) Copy of 6.3.3.2 / 93642845 in conformity with ITS Digital Archive. Arolsen Archives. Correspondence file T/D-319354.
14) Source reference: year 1939, arrival: New York, New York, USA, serial number of microfilm: 1715, 1897-1957, company:6, pages no. 6. Taken via Stadtarchiv Mainz. 2/2023
Source information: Ancestry.com.New York, USA, list of arriving passengers and crews (incl. Castle Garden and Ellis Island), 1820- 1957 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT,USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc, 2022.Taken via Stadtarchiv Mainz. 2/2023
15) Speyer State Archives. Stock J10. Civil cases no. 1966-1970 as well as 3896.
16) www.ghetto-theresienstadt.info
17) Stadtarchiv Mainz. Mainz, death register 1941, volume 3; information of the cemetery administration Mainz.
18) Source reference: Social Security Administration; Washington D.C., USA; Social Security Death Index, Master File. Taken via Stadtarchiv Mainz. 2/2023
Source information: Ancestry.com. USA, Social Security Death Index, 1935-2014 [database on-line], Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2014. Retrieved via Stadtarchiv Mainz. 2/2023
