The Family of Rosa Bamberger, née Borngässer

Nathan & Rosa (née Borngässer) Bamberger. Photo: Family archive.
Nathan Bamberger gravestone

Rosa Bamberger, née Borngässer, was born in 1868 in the town of Rodheim vor der Höhe, a village of about 1500 residents, of whom 98 were Jews. She was the second of three children of Zacharias and Bertha (née Aumann) Borngässer.

In May 1897, Rosa married Nathan Bamberger of Muschenheim. They had two sons, Julius, b. 1898, and Ludwig, b. 1902. In 1897, Julius married Irene Mayer of Wohnbach and they made Lich their home. In 1918, Nathan Bamberger, age 50, died; he was buried in the Jewish cemetery of Muschenheim.

Rosa and her son Ludwig continued to live in Muschenheim through the first two decades of the twentieth century. In 1931, however, they decided to leave Muschenheim and move to Lich; they initially lived with Julius and his family in Butzbacher Straße.

Ludwig Bamberger. Courtesy: Bamberger Family

In August 1936, Julius left Lich for South Africa; in October 1936, his wife, Irene, moved to Frankfurt with her mother, Johanna Mayer, and her young children, Renate (b. 1930) and Hugo (b. 1932). Rosa and Ludwig moved into a rented apartment with the Zimmer family at Oberstadt 26 in Lich. In 1938, Ludwig was arrested and imprisoned in Buchenwald concentration camp. In January 1939, Irene, Renate, and Hugo were able to leave Germany and join Julius in Johannesburg. But Johanna Mayer, and Rosa and Ludwig Bamberger all failed in their attempts to emigrate to Johannesburg.

On 14 September 14 1942, Rosa and Ludwig were rounded up by the Gestapo in Lich. According to eyewitness accounts, the now 74-year-old Rosa was brutally pushed onto the truck. They were taken first to Giessen, then to Darmstadt. On 27 September 1942, Rosa Bamberger was deported from Darmstadt to Theresienstadt Ghetto; she died there, age 75, on 03 May 1943. On 30 September 1942, Ludwig was deported from Darmstadt to the killing centre at Treblinka in occupied Poland. He was 40 years old.

In January 2020, Stolpersteine were laid in front of Oberstadt 26 to commemorate Rosa Bamberger, née Borngässer, and Ludwig Bamberger.

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The Descendants List below locates Rosa within the context of her family; it tells the tragic story of how her siblings shared her fate. Her brother, Hermann Borngässer, and his wife, Rosa (née Bamberger, Nathan’s sister) tried to escape the Nazi Regime by immigrating into Holland into 1939. They joined the family of  daughter Bertha and her husband, Alfred Strauss, and their three children, Heinz Albrecht, Ilse and Leo. Alfred’s parents had left Germany in 1933, and Bertha and Alfred joined them in 1936. But the seven were all rounded up in late October/early November 1942 and interned in Westerbork Transit Camp. Deportation began on 29 October 1942  with the deportation of Alfred Strauss’s parents, Samuel and Antoine, followed by Alfred on 16 November 1942  to Auschwitz. On 10 March 1943, Hermann and Rosa were sent to the Sobibor Killing Centre; the index card indicates the authorities’ timeline of Hermann and Rosa (née Bamberger) Borngässer through internment in Westerbork Transit Camp to deportation on 10.3.43. The last to be deported were Bertha and the three children; they were deported on 21 September 1943 and murdered on arrival .

Index card tracking Hermann & Rosa (née Bamberger) Börngasser in Holland. Source: Arolsen Archives.

Rosa’s other brother, Salomon Borngässer, was deported with his second wife, Lisette, on 15 September 1942 from Frankfurt to Theresienstadt Ghetto; he died there; she was transported after his death to Auschwitz to be murdered on arrival.

Descendants List of Leopold and Babette Borngässer

Sources:
Arolsen Archives
About the Alfred Strauss family of Wachenbrunn, see Bruder-Schönfeld Forum
German National Archives, Memorial Book
Joods Memorial
Ursula Sommerlad, 13.01.2020, ,,Die Menschen hinter den Namen,” Giessener-allgemeine, 13 Jan 2020