The Family of Johanna Mayer, née Krämer

On 26 September 2023, a Stolperstein will be laid to commemorate Johanna Mayer, née Krämer, in Lich at Kolnhäuser Str. 15 (earlier Butzbacherstr. 19). Johanna lived in Lich from September 1932 until October 1936 at the home of her daughter, Irene, and son-in-law Julius Bamberger.

We can trace Johanna’s ancestors back to at least the late 1700s in the area around the small town of Nieder Weisel in Hesse, about 21 km to the west of Lich. In 1880,  just as Johanna was in her infancy,  Nieder Weisel was a small town of about 1330 people; the Jewish community numbered 83.1https://www.alemannia-judaica.de/nieder-weisel_synagoge.htm

Johanna’s great-great-grandfather, Samuel Krämer I, was born about 1770. Samuel and his wife, Rebecka, gave birth to son Liebmann in 1803. In turn, Liebmann Krämer married Bettchen Lazarus, who was known as “Bule”, and they lived in Nieder Weisel, forming a family of four: Zerline, Samuel, Abraham, and Löb.  In the Jewish cemetery of Nieder-Wiesel, one finds the gravestones of Liebmann (right)  and Bule (née Lazarus) Krämer (left).

Bule Kraemer gravestone, Nieder Weisel Jewish cemetery.

Courtesy: Bamberger family archive

Johanna’s father, Samuel Krämer II, b. 1837, was the second child and first son of Liebmann and Bettchen. In 1864, Samuel married Regina Strauss, and between June 1865 and 1878, they formed a family of six children: 4 daughters and 2 sons. Johanna, b. 1878,  was the youngest daughter and the last child. In 1914, Samuel and Regina celebrated their “Golden Wedding Anniversary.” In the early 1920s, they died: Samuel in 1921 and Regina in 1923. Both are buried in the Jewish cemetery of Nieder Weisel.

Johanna lived in Nieder Weisel until 1902 when she married Hugo Mayer. She then moved to his hometown of Wohnbach, about 12 km to the east of Nieder Weisel as the crow flies. Johanna and Hugo had two children, both girls: Irene, b. 1903,  and Paula, b. 1907.

In 1926, Johanna’s eldest daughter, Irene, married Julius Bamberger and moved to live in Lich, about 15 km north of Wohnbach. Between 1927 and 1931, a series of deaths clouded the family. In 1927 and again, in 1928, Irene and Julius lost two children, the first was probably a stillborn birth; the second, a daughter, whom they named Inge, lived but a few short weeks in 1928. Then, in January 1931, Johanna’s  husband, Hugo Mayer, died; four months later, Johanna’s daughter and Irene’s sister, Paula, died.

On 14 September 1932, Johanna Mayer, age 54, moved from Wohnbach to Lich to live with Irene and Julius. She  joined a lively household: a third child, Renate Bamberger, b. 19 July 1930, had reached her second birthday, and her brother, Hugo, was four months old.

Hugo & Renate Bamberger, Lich, 1932. Courtesy: Bamberger Family

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Johanna’s daughter and son-in-law realized early on in the Nazi Regime that they should leave Germany and seek refuge elsewhere. In August 1936, Julius Bamberger was able to leave Germany for South Africa. In October 1936, Johanna left Lich with daughter Irene and grandchildren, Renate and Hugo, and moved to Frankfurt a/Main to be ready to emigrate as soon as possible. They lived in an apartment at Rotteckstr. 10.

In January 1939, Irene, Renate, and Hugo were able to leave Germany with assistance of the Red Cross, but, for reasons unknown, Johanna was unable to accompany them. She moved into Tiergartenstrasse 28 where she lived until November 1941. On 22 November 1941, Johanna was deported from Frankfurt a/Main with a transport of about 990 Jews to Kaunas in occupied Lithuania. The transport arrived on 25 November 1941; the men, women, and children were immediately taken to Fort IX and murdered by the Einsatzkommando. Johanna Mayer, née Krämer, was 63 years old.

The fate of Johanna’s siblings was mixed: Her sister Berta died in 1871; her eldest sister, Rosalie, died of natural causes in 1925. Of those alive when the Nazi Regime began, one sister, Süda, managed to escape from Germany and immigrate into Uruguay.  Her brother,  Adolf (Abraham) shared Johanna’s fate. A widower since 1928, Adolf moved to Bad Nauheim in July 1938. He was arrested in the Kristallnachtpogrom of 9/10 November 1938 and imprisoned in Buchenwald for five weeks. In March 1940, he left Bad Nauheim and moved  to Frankfurt a/Main, possibly hoping that his emigration plans would turn out but, as with Johanna, they did not. Whether he and Johanna lived near each other in 1940 and 1941 is unclear; in 1942, he was living at Hapsburger Alle 16. On 1 September 1942, Adolf was deported  from Frankfurt to Theresienstadt Ghetto and from there to the Treblinka Killing Centre on 29 September 1942.

The fate of Johanna’s other brother, Isaak Leopold, is not clear. In 2018, when Stolpersteine were laid for him and his wife, Auguste (née Schwarz), the state of knowledge in Nieder Weisel was that the couple had left Germany in 1938 for France and any trace had been lost by 1942. The Stolpersteine state that their “fate was unknown/Schicksal unbekannt.” The assumption was that they were deported to Auschwitz and murdered. But to date, no records have been found in the German National Archives Memorial Book, Arolsen Archives, or Yad Vashem.

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The Descendants List below outlines the family of Samuel and Regina (née Strauss) Krämer. The notice re: their 50th wedding anniversary comes from a scrapbook in the family archive of the Irene (née Mayer) and Julius Bamberger family.

“Golden Wedding Anniversary
Mr. Samuel Krämer and Mrs. Regina, née Strauss, joyfully celebrated today their Golden Anniversary in the circle of their grandchildren and great-grandchildren. He is 79 years old, she 72.”

Sources:
Familienbuch Butzbach Band V: Judenfamilien in Butzbach und seinen Stadtteilen. Von Hanno Müller, Dieter Bertram, Friedrich Damrath und Dieter Wolf. Butzbach 2007. S. 59, 112, 119, 121f., 125, 131, 229 (NW-60).