Annotations
Kulmbach
04/23/1942
The Flörsheim couple on the evening before their deportation.
Annotations
People
2
Keywords
2
Historical context
Deportation von Kulmbach nach Krasnystaw
On the morning of April 24, the seven Jews who were still living in Kulmbach were forced to leave their homes and march to the freight depot. It is unclear who guarded them. After arriving at the station, they were given pre-numbered “Anhängezettel” (a sort of label or tag) and got on a train bound for Bamberg which took a swide arc, passing through Cronach, Coburg, and Lichtenfels, where further deportees boarded.
A total of one hundred and three Jews were accommodated in the crowded community center “Weiße Taube” (white dove) in Bamberg. On the next morning, the Gestapo drove the people like cattle to the train station where they had to board the special train DA 49 which took the route to Krasnystaw via Saalfeld, Kalisz, Radom, and Lublin.
In July 1942, the Franconian Jews were taken from there to Belzec and murdered.
None of the 955 people deported survived.
About the image series
A man and a woman stand in a modestly furnished room, facing the camera. The man tilts his head to his right and looks straight into the camera. He wears a collarless shirt, a jacket with a watch chain and yellow star of David that catch the light. His right hand - with a wedding ring on his ring finger - rests on a backpack placed on a chair. It seems properly equipped for a field march. Carefully wrapped in a pillow are a rolled-up blanket, a cooking pot, and nailed boots. The woman in a dark dress - possibly with an apron - wears earrings and carries a handbag. She smiles.
In view of the yellow star of David and the typical “Marschgepäck” (field pack), it is highly likely that they were a married Jewish couple that would be deported shortly afterwards.
Photographer
Unknown,
The photograph was obviously taken with the consent of the persons depicted, maybe even at their request.
As the photograph was developed and preserved, the photographer must have been someone who was not deported. It is likely that he or she was a non-Jewish neighbor who, despite years of discrimination the Flörsheims suffered, was still acquainted with them and took the risk of paying them a visit before they were deported.
As the possession of a camera had been forbidden for Jews since November 1941, the unknown photographer probably brought a camera with them.
Provenance
It is unclear how the single picture found its way to the archives of the World Holocaust Remembrance Center Yad Vashem. It is not improbable that the photograph was handed in there by one of the surviving children of Selma and Gustav Flörsheim. All the three children Vera Käthe Flörsheim (born 1914), Ilse Flörsheim (born 1915), and Herbert Flörsheim (born 1920) managed to escape from Germany. It is unknown, though, how the photo may have come into their possession.
Alternatively, the photograph may have been given to the former synagogue scribe who returned to Kulmbach for a short time in 1953. An argument in favor of this option is that the photograph was included in a memorial booklet for the community of Kulmbach, which was published by the World Holocaust Remembrance Center Yad Vashem.
Call number at source archive
103F08/FLO47
Title at source archive
Kulmbach/Kronbach
Acknowledgements
This information is based on years of research carried out by Wolfgang Schobert, a Kulmbach-based historian.
Text and research by Christoph Kreutzmüller.
Kooperationsverbund #LastSeen. Bilder der NS-Deportationen Dr. Alina Bothe Projektleiterin
c/o Selma Stern Zentrum für Jüdische Studien Berlin-Brandenburg
Freie Universität Berlin
Habelschwerdter Allee 34A
14195 Berlin
lastseen@zedat.fu-berlin.de
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