Stumbling stone for Theodor Leopold and Fanny Burckhardt, née Strauß

Fanny Burckhardt, born on June 22, 1877 in Helfersdorf, and Theodor Leopold Burckhardt, born on November 29, 1873 in Karlsruhe, lived in Offenbach from 1903. Fanny was of the Mosaic faith, Theodor was Protestant. They had five sons who - with the exception of the eldest - were born in Offenbach.

From 1912, the couple lived at Moltkestraße 26 (today: Marienstraße). One of the sons died in childhood. Nothing is known about the whereabouts of another son. The three remaining sons, who had already left the family home before 1933, were able to emigrate, while the parents remained in Offenbach. The older generation often hesitated or was no longer able to emigrate for various reasons.

In the course of researching the history of Offenbach's Jewish community, the incumbent Lord Mayor Dr. Walter Suermann (*1939) received a letter from the eldest son Leopold Burckhardt, who had lived in Stuttgart until 1939 and was able to emigrate from there to New York.

In his letter he reports: "My unforgettable mother, who saw her whole life's work as ensuring the well-being of her boys, was picked up one day in 1943 from her apartment at Moltkestraße 26 by Nazi bandits and sent to the Auschwitz concentration camp, never to be seen again. I then found out from the Swiss consulate that my mother had "died" there. ( ... ) A few weeks after my mother's abduction, my father, who was not Jewish but belonged to the Protestant denomination, voluntarily committed suicide after more than 40 years of marriage".

Fanny Burckhardt was murdered in Auschwitz on 28.06.1943.