The ISAAC Family, Langenbrücken
Hans-Georg Schmitz, Jan. 2017
The Isaac family:
Theodor & Betty sitting to the left;
to the right may be daughter Eugenie and son Fritz;
center sitting daughter Selma;
standing son Artur with wife Frida and probably Friedrich’s wife Johanna.
Golden Wedding celebration, 1933
source:
Messmer p. 137
Theodor Isaac was born on July 9th 1857 in Grünstadt-Sausenheim, Rheinland-Pfalz.
In 1883 he married Betty Buttenwieser, born on November 8th 1859 in Odenheim as daughter of Jacob Buttenwieser and his wife Friederike née Wertheimer; they had a draper’s shop there.
In about 1890 the family moved to Östringen. Theodor Isaac traded tobacco and hops: depending on the season he bought tobacco or hops from the farmers and sold them to the processing industries, or he worked for them as a commissioner. Because of the train station, he had his business in Langenbrücken; so in about 1900 they all moved there.
They were a very religious family. Even before WW I there was no more Jewish teacher in Mingolsheim (who also served as hasan/cantor); now Theodor often voluntarily took over as singer. When more and more members had left for the cities they only occasionally could have a service in the Mingolsheim synagogue; now they had to go to Malsch. That was not foreign to them as Betty’s sister lived there, and her husband Isaak Hilb was head of the community there.
In 1927, when only one daughter was still living with them, the smaller family moved to the attic level of the house at Dammstrasse 2. Theodor Isaac died in Langenbrücken on December 17th 1935, deeply concerned about the Nazi terror. Five weeks later on January 21st 1936 Betty also died. Their joint grave is the last in the second to last row of the Mingolsheim Jewish cemetery. The tablet with the inscription was destroyed, probably during the Hitler Youth rally of vandalism in about 1939. In 1951 Artur requested that the municipality pay for and install a new tablet. When that was rejected he and Fritz had a new inscription mounted that also commemorates their two deceased sisters:
The first son, Artur Isaac, was born in Grünstadt in 1884. He qualified as an auto mechanic, locksmith and electrician. In 1908 he opened a shop in Langenbrücken for car repair, locksmithery, and electric equipment. In a number of houses he may have installed the first electricity, and he maintained the first automobiles. During WW I he was awarded the Iron Cross. In 1922 he moved his business to Heidelberg. In 1925 he married a Christian girl from there, Frida W. Seitz, and they lived in Heidelberg; obviously there were no children. Artur was very successful in his business, and he furnished his shop with the latest and most sophisticated machinery. Soon he also established a taxi enterprise running four cabs plus a private vehicle for superior customers. His brother Friedrich Isaac was employed by him driving cabs and working in the shop. He also lived with them up to his emigration. Artur kept supporting his parents and sister Selma in Langenbrücken, as well as his father-in-law who lived with them for several years.
From October 1935 Artur’s license for the taxi business was revoked; he received very little compensation. For a while he could continue the auto repair shop; due to the boycott however, there were very few customers and only a tiny income. By the beginning of 1938 he also was banned from his craft, as were all Non-Arians. All the fixtures, tools, and cars were taken away from him; there was no income left. Also he had been excluded from the public health insurance so that they had to pay for all the doctor’s bills. Frida now had to go ironing to be able to buy food. In 1943 the Gestapo (secret police) sold the equipment of Artur’s shop for much less than it was worth.
Pic Arthur Isaac.
From the photocopy of his 1939 Kennkarte (identity card) Artur was arrested on „Kristallnacht“ 9th of November 1938 (his 54th birthday) and by December 23rd transferred to Dachau concentration camp. Due to the physical and emotional stress there he was ill for years, often in bed or even in hospital. Even worse than all the physical aftermath of the abuse was the mental trauma with severe states of anxiety, agitation, and persecution complex. It was only thanks to his wife’s devoted care and the consideration of all the other occupants that he was able to remain in his apartment. The severe illness and his wife’s faithfulness (she refused to be divorced from him) prevented him from deportation. Soon after the war ended, his psychosis diminished, but Artur now was fully disabled; he never recovered. Frida, too, was disabled as a result of all the hard work she had had to do to nourish them and care for her husband. From 1953 Artur got a small pension; later he also received some restitution payments. Up to this day his file includes the Yellow Star he had to wear for several years. Artur Isaac died on June 9th 1963 in Wiesloch (probably in the psychiatric clinic).
There is almost nothing we know about the daughter Eugenie Isaac born in 1886. She was reportedly married to a Luxemburg SS-man. The inscription on the parental headstone gives her year of death as 1939 but the place and circumstances remain unclear.
The second daughter, Selma Isaac, was born in Frankfurt on July 2nd 1888. She remained unmarried and cared for her parents. During the harvest and at other times she often helped out in the household and kitchen of the neighboring Johann Zolk family who were terrorized as “Jews’ friends”. Yet Selma never had a meal in their house as the kitchen was not kosher. Her brother, Fritz, gave her a ticket to come to America but she gave it away saying she was not afraid and wanted to stay in her home country. On October 22nd 1940 she was deported from Dammstrasse and Germany and taken to camp de Gurs in the foothills of the Pyrenees in France. She survived the disastrous conditions of the first year there. When the German occupation forces had the camp cleared in 1942, she was transferred to Drancy transit camp near Paris, and from there she was shipped on transport no. 18 to Auschwitz. In all likelihood, she was sent directly from the tracks to the gas chamber.
A cook book once given to Selma still exists. The deportees had to leave all their belongings behind; soon after, these were sold by state agents. Among them must have been this 1897 book with the dedication to Selma:
Friedrich “Fritz” Isaac, born in Östringen on November 12th 1890, was the youngest child of the family. As mentioned above, for some years he worked for his brother and also lived with him in Heidelberg. In 1930 he emigrated for America on the SS Hamburg. In 1933 he came back to Germany to marry Johanna Paulus (born about 1902 in Erlangen, Central Franconia, Bavaria) and to participate in his parents’ 50th wedding anniversary. In October the newlywed couple left for the US and lived in Brooklyn for many years. Friedrich Isaac died in Ulster Park NY on September 20th 1971. So far, we doubt they had children – they would be the only descendants of the Langenbrücken family.