Stumbling stones for Isaak, Berta, Simon, Max and Herrmann Fuchs

Isaak Fuchs was born in Bendzin, Poland, in 1888. He came to Germany in 1905 and settled in Offenbach in 1906, where he founded a leather shop. In 1910, he married Berta Mitbreit, born in 1888, who had also come to Offenbach from Poland with her parents in 1906. Three sons were born in Offenbach: Simon in 1912, Max in 1920 and Hermann in 1921.

The family lived in various places in Offenbach, but from 1930 they lived continuously at Lilistraße 19, in a residential building that was destroyed at the end of the Second World War. The leather store was located in Domstraße.

The family experienced its first break in 1914 after the outbreak of the First World War, when Isaak Fuchs was interned in a prison camp as an enemy alien from Poland until 1917. He was then released due to a shortage of labor and worked at the Ülzen power plant near Hanover. The rest of the family - at this time mother Berta and son Simon - also came to Ülzen and lived there until 1919, when they returned to Offenbach, where Isaak Fuchs continued to run the business. In Offenbach, the family mainly maintained contact with families who had also immigrated from Eastern Europe and were involved in the Jewish welfare organization.

According to statements made by Simon Fuchs in 1985, the family did not experience any anti-Semitism in Offenbach during the Weimar period, but they saw the National Socialists as a threat. Simon graduated from the Oberrealschule am Stadthof in 1931, but had to give up his studies in economics after the Nazis came to power. He became a member of the Zionist Association in Frankfurt and began preparing for emigration to Palestine. By training as a portefeuiller and in horticulture, he acquired the certificate for admission to Palestine in 1936. With his wife Katin, whom he had met at the Jewish organization and married in spring 1936, he left Offenbach in August 1936: relieved, but also wistful.

The family members who stayed behind were exposed to the increasing discrimination by the Nazis in Offenbach, but could not decide to emigrate. The parents still believed that the persecution by the Nazis could not be that bad.

Their son Hermann, who was born in 1921 and trained as a locksmith, decided to emigrate. In March 1938, with the support of the Jewish organization as part of the so-called Youth Aliyah, he succeeded in being admitted to a kibbutz in Palestine, for which no special certificate was required.

In October 1938, Jews with Polish citizenship were ordered by the Nazi government to leave Germany. Father Isaak Fuchs was the first of the family to be affected by the deportation. He had to return to Bendzin on October 29, 1938. Berta and Max Fuchs were deported in February 1939. However, the deportees were not accepted by the Polish government in Poland and were sent back to Germany. In August 1939, Berta Fuchs was again deported to Poland. The registration card shows her place of residence as Częstochowa. According to her son Simon, she met her husband Isaak there, where they were both imprisoned after the invasion of the German Wehrmacht until their deportation. According to the entry in theMemorial Book for the Victims of National Socialism (opens in a new tab), Isaak Fuchs died in Bendzin and Berta Fuchs in Auschwitz. The date of their murder is unknown.

Max was able to escape the second deportation to Poland. His registration file states: 18.2.1939 deportation to Poland. However, with the help of the Palestine Office, he managed to flee to England in April 1939 due to his professional qualifications. He quickly found work as an editor, but was interned on the Isle of Man after the outbreak of war. After the war, he worked in England for some time and then went to Israel. He did not stay there, however, but emigrated to America.