Stumbling stones were laid in front of the house at Brückgasse 7 (formerly Bahnhofstrasse 7) on November 20, 2024 for Jakob Hammerschlag, his wife Theresa Hammerschlag, née Bamberger, and for their grandchildren Ernst and Berta Hammerschlag.

Jakob Hammerschlag, born in 1855 in the district of Lumda, married Theresa Bamberger in 1880, the same year in which he was accepted as a local citizen in Muschenheim. Theresa was the daughter of Eisemann Bamberger and his wife, Sara née Bing, and related to the family of Leopold and Jenny Bamberger, who also lived in Muschenheim.

The business he ran was registered with the local court under the company name “Jakob Hammerschlag Kolonialwarenhandlung” until 1933. As a merchant of manufactured goods, colonial goods and livestock, Jakob Hammerschlag was considered wealthy. Theresa, his wife, also ran a small grocery store in the courtyard, where slaughtering was sometimes carried out according to Jewish rites. The Hammerschlag family owned three houses in Muschenheim: Bahnhoftrasse 7, Brückgasse 8 and Schulstrasse 1.

Jakob and Theresa Hammerschlag had a son, Salomon, called Sally, born on March 25, 1881, who also earned his living as a cattle dealer. On July 8, 1908 he married Rosalie, née Eckstein, daughter of Meyer and Bertha (née Frank) Eckstein, from Kesselbach. The couple had two children: Ernst, born on May 04, 1910, and Berta, born on June 02, 1914.

In the year of Berta’s birth, the First World War broke out. Sally became a soldier and was killed in 1916. His death notice appeared in the Giessener Anzeiger on November 28, 1916. It read: “After 20 months of loyal service, he died a hero’s death for his fatherland at the age of 35, shot in the head.” Two years later, in 1918, his wife Rosalie also died. She was only 33 years old and left the two children Ernst and Berta as orphans. Ernst was eight years old and Berta four.

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After the death of their parents, the two of them grew up with their grandparents. They were well integrated into the village youth. “Ernstchen,” the story goes, ”occasionally had to endure the ridicule of the other children because of his awkwardness. When in 1933 the mood was stirred up against the Jews, not all friends broke off contact with the siblings.

On November 29, 1933, grandfather Jakob Hammerschlag died at the age of 78, grandmother Theresa two years later at the age of 77. Both are buried in the cemetery “Bei der Leimenkaute”. Their coffins were made of rough planks, as was the Jewish custom. There are no gravestones for them.

When their grandparents died, Ernst and Berta were 25 and 21 years old. Ernst worked as a cattle dealer in Muschenheim, Berta was an employee of a Frankfurt family.

It is said that even the first attempts at intimidation by the National Socialists were very hard on Ernst. In 1934, an SA man from Bettenhauen was posted in front of the house for a while. In 1938, at the time of the November pogroms, Ernst Hammerschlag was the only Jew still living in the village. From November 8 to January 6, 1939, Ernst was imprisoned in the Buchenwald concentration camp with the prisoner number 23109.

It is said that he returned pale and intimidated and did not tell anyone what had happened to him there. A short time later, Erst had disappeared. In May 1939 he was living in Frankfurt a/Main.¹German Minority Census, 1939 Berta. It is not known whether Ernst lived near Berta in 1939; the last address for him in Frankfurt a/Main is Untermainanlage 6.

Between May and the end of August 1939 (i.e. before the outbreak of the Second World War), with the help of the Frankfurt family where Berta was employed, she managed to escape to England. She worked in London as a “domestic” help for a Mrs. Niekelsburg.

It seems that Ernst tried to immigrate to Palestine – this goal is recorded in a document (below) – but he was not successful.

Ernst remained in Frankfurt until at least May 1942; the exact date of his deportation to the Lublin district in occupied Poland is not known. He was murdered in the Majdanek concentration camp on August 8, 1942.

Berta immigrated to the USA – it is not known when. When and how she and Lothar Michel met is also not known. But on December 14, 1945, Bertha (now with an “h”) married Lothar Michel. Lothar was born in Merxheim in 1913, the son of Moses Michel and Bertha, née Berg. In October 1938, Lothar’s entire family – his parents, one brother, and two sisters – were able to immigrate to the U.S.²1940 U.S. Federal Census In 1943, Lothar became an American citizen. It is not known when Bertha died; Lothar died in February 1984.³U.S., Social Security Death Index, 1935-2014 Descendants are not known.

Descendants List of the family of Salomon and Jette Hammerschlag

• Salomon Hammerschlag
• └ ∞Jette Suesskind, b. circa 1827, d. 2 Nov 1876 Lumda/HE
  • 1. Sara Hammerschlag, b. 31 Aug 1853 Treis a/d Lumda/HE, d. 5 Jan 1935 Groß-Umstadt/HE
  • └ ∞ Loeb Levi Stein, b. 18 Jun 1858
    • 2. Salomon Stein, b. 22 Mar 1885 Lumda/HE
    • └ ∞ Emilie Friedberg, b. 21 Feb 1886, Ruppertshofe/Baden-Württemberg
    • 2. Thirza Stein, b. 27 Apr 1886 Treis a/d Lumda/HE
    • └ ∞ Gustav Loeb, b. 14 May 1879 Obbornhofen, now Hungen/HE, d. 27 Feb 1927 Hungen/HE
      • 3. Ilse Loeb, b. 20 Sep 1925 Hungen/HE
  • 1. Jakob Hammerschlag, b. 27 Sept 1855, d. 29 Nov 1933 Muschenheim/HE
  • └ ∞ (1880) Theresa Bamberger, b. 15 Jun 1858 Muschenheim/HE, d. 11 Feb 1935 Muschenheim/HE
    • 2. Sally/Salomon Hammerschlag, b. 25 Mar 1881 Muschenheim/HE, d. 15 Nov 1916
    • └ ∞ (08 Jul 1908 Kesselbach) Rosalie Eckstein, b. 4 Jul 1885 Kesseslbach/HE, d. 10 Nov 1918 Muschenheim/HE
      • 3. Ernst Hammerschlag, b. 4 May 1910 Muschenheim/HE, deported from Frankfurt am Main to Distrikt Lublin, murdered 08 Aug 1942 Majdanek KZ/Occupied Poland
      • 3. Berta Hammerschlag, b. 2 Jun 1914 Muschenheim/HE, 1939 Germany to Scotland (Domestic Permit Program)
      • └ ∞ (14 Dec 1945 Manhattan, NY) Lothar Michel, b. 28 Mar 1913 Merxheim/Germany, 1938 Holland to NY/USA,  d. Feb 1984 NY/USA

Sources:
Ancestry.de
Arolsen Archive
Hanno Müller, Jews in Lich : Birklar, Langsdorf, Muschenheim and Ettingshausen (2010), vol. 1, ,,Erinnerung wachhalten,” Giessener Anzeiger, November 20, 2024