Jewish life in Harxheim: Herta Mayer
Herta Mayer, born in Harxheim on July 17, 1913, was the youngest of the three Mayer sisters. After attending elementary school in Harxheim, she transferred to the secondary school for girls (today’s Frauenlob-Gymnasium) in Mainz. There she graduated from high school with top grades in March 1933. 1) 2)
The author Angelika Rieber has dealt in detail with the life and work of Herta Mayer in connection with the organization of Kindertransports to rescue Jewish children from Frankfurt and has written a documentary about this. She had the opportunity to meet and interview Herta Mayer in person in 1994. Much of the information and photos below are taken from the article “I couldn’t leave the children alone” written by A. Rieber. 3)
Harxheim elementary school, ca. 1920, grades 1910 to 1913. Herta (1913, 2nd row, 3rd from right) and Johanna (1910, 3rd row, 3rd from right, with hands on Herta’s shoulders).
Image source: Collection Rüdiger Gottwald
Herta had considered studying mathematics and science because of her excellent high school diploma. She combined this with the chance to even receive a scholarship due to her very good performance. The Nazi restrictions limiting university access for Jewish students to 1.5% of the student body forced Herta to change her career plans.
She first began training at a home economics school. In 1934, the opportunity opened up for her to attend the Israelite Teacher Training College to begin studying to be a teacher in Würzburg. This was one of the few institutions that still offered young Jewish women and men the possibility of an academic education. After completing her studies in 1936, Herta worked for about a year as a teacher in Höchst/Odw., then transferred in 1937 to the Jewish district school to Bad Nauheim. 3) 4)
This school had been opened only in the same year in the premises of the former Israelitische Kinderheilstätte. The need for such an institution arose from the repressive measures of the National Socialists, who increasingly restricted the access of Jewish children to schools. After November 9, 1938, Jewish students were generally denied access to public schools. 3)
Herta Mayer (2nd from left) with fellow teachers, spring 1939
Image source: Collection Monica Kingreen
Jewish District School Bad Nauheim; teacher Herta Mayer dressed as a schoolchild as part of Purim celebration, 1938.
Image source: Collection Monica Kingreen
The school experienced a break with the pogrom night on November 9, 1938. The male teachers were arrested and sent to the concentration camp, including Herta’s oldest brother Fritz, who lived in Frankfurt. The following day, the remaining teachers and all the children were driven out of the school by Nazis and the inventory and premises were destroyed. Later, teachers and children were able to return to the devastated buildings. The fact that Bad Nauheim was also visited by foreign spa guests probably played a role in this. 3)
From this point on, at the latest, it was clear to all teachers and support staff working at the school that it was no longer possible to maintain orderly and safe teaching operations. The window of opportunity to leave or escape began to close. With this in mind, the teachers began to prepare transports of children by trains to Switzerland, Holland and England. Herta Mayer was instrumental in these preparations and in organizing these rescue operations, which proved to be very difficult. Foreign countries were reluctant and hesitant to accept Jewish children. For many children and parents, the rescue abroad should turn out to be a goodbye forever. 3)
According to estimates, about half of Nauheim’s schoolchildren could be saved in this way. Herta, aware of the danger to her own life, put her personal well-being behind that of her schoolchildren until the day of her escape. 3)
Shortly before the start of the war, she left her residence in Bad Nauheim on August 20, 1939, and traveled by train first to Holland and before that to England. She had already obtained her visa a year earlier. She had purchased a passage from Southhampton for September 7 from the German Llyod. Due to the outbreak of war, this trip no longer took place. Herta rebooked onto the Canadian liner Athenia. At September 2, the day after the Wehrmacht invasion of Poland, she boarded in Liverpool bound for Quebec and Montreal. There were 1,102 passengers (including 39 Jewish emigrants) and 315 crew members on board. At September 3, the Athenia was torpedoed by mistake by a German submarine, the ship sank, 112 people lost their lives. Herta spent about two days in a lifeboat before she was rescued. She made it back to England. In the sinking, Herta lost not only her personal possessions but also all mementos and photos from her time at the Bad Nauheim school. 3) 4) 5) 6)
Herta then spent four weeks in London. She was wired $250 by her relatives in New York to buy a ticket for a new ship passage. On October 8, 1939, Herta began her crossing in Southhampton on the American cargo steamer American Trader, arriving in New York on October 18, 1939. In the apartment of the Halle couple on Audebon Av. Herta was reunited with her mother, Simon and her sisters. Meanwhile, Fritz Mayer and his family were still waiting in England for their onward journey to the USA. 4) 7)
Herta, initially without a job, took up studies again, as did her brother Fritz later. She completed this at the Columbia University School for Social Work in New York. She later worked as a social worker for a private welfare organization in New York. 3) 4)
Herta Mayer remained unmarried; she died in New York on September 1, 1995. 5)
Herta Mayer, New York 1994
Image source: Angelika Rieber
References:
1) Archiv der Verbandsgemeinde Bodenheim, Personenstandsregister der Mairie Harxheim-Gau-Bischofsheim; Standesamtsregister Harxheim.
2) Frenzel, Reinhard: Abiturjahrgänge am Frauenlob-Gymnasium in Mainz; private archive R. Frenzel.
3) Rieber, Angelika u. Till Libertz-Groß, eds.: Rettet zumindest die Kinder – Kindertransporte aus Frankfurt am Main. Frankfurt 2018, pp. 246-257.
4) HHStA Wiesbaden 518-77557.
5) Information from Thomas, Sara and Bernie Mayer, (1/2022; 1/2023).
6) wikipedia.org: Athenia (Schiff,1923).
7) United States of America, Bureau of the Census. Sixteenth Census of the United States, 1940. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1940. Taken from www.ancenstry.de. (02/2023) via Stadtarchiv Mainz.
