Stumbling stone for Antonie and Elisabeth Grosch

Antonie Grosch, née Fernkorn, was born on August 17, 1871 in Offenbach. She married Franz Bernhard Grosch on August 13, 1892. The couple lived for a long time at Sprendlinger Landstraße 9. They had 2 sons. Gustav Ernst, born on May 29, 1893, died just one year later on August 8, 1894, and Robert was born on September 28, 1895. Franz Bernhard Grosch died on July 30, 1922.

On March 24, 1921, Robert married Elisabeth Lövi, who was born on September 7, 1894 in Heßloch/Krs. Worms. Jews had already lived there in the 15th, 16th and - after expulsion - again since the beginning of the 17th century. At the beginning of the 20th century, 46 of the 953 inhabitants were Jews. They were fully integrated into community and club life. After 1933, the majority of the 30 Jewish inhabitants counted in that year were able to emigrate, but a whole series of Jewish people born in Hessloch and/or who had lived there for a long time - including members of the Lövi family - perished during the Nazi era.

The couple also lived at Sprendlinger Landstraße 9. On March 31, 1938, the Grosch family moved into the so-called Judenhaus at Bahnhofstraße 20.

In November 1938, Germany-wide pogroms spread fear and terror among the Jewish population. Fires were set in synagogues, Jewish businesses were destroyed, Jewish citizens were taken to concentration camps, humiliated, ridiculed, abused and even killed. There were also massive attacks on Jewish people and Jewish property in Offenbach. It was therefore not uncommon for Jewish people to take their own lives in the wake of the pogroms of November 9 and 10, 1938.

On November 13, 1938, Antonie and Elisabeth Grosch, together with the married couple Friederike and Robert Boley, killed themselves with gas in the first floor apartment of the house at Bahnhofstrasse 20. The next morning, the milkman Adam Theobald Jakoby triggered an explosion by ringing the doorbell. Falling pieces of wall killed him in the doorway. Nothing more is known about Robert's fate.