Gerst family

Gerst family

Frankenwinheim - Kitzingen -- England - USA - Netherlands - Uruguay - France - Theresienstadt - Izbica - Krasnystaw - Palestine/ Israel

The Jews of Kitzingen live*

In the fall of 2018, Michele Herman from Rockville, Maryland, USA, will travel with her two children, children-in-law and four grandchildren to Kitzingen and the Rödelsee Jewish Cemetery - descendants of Nathan and Jette Gerst and their children in the 3rd, 4th and 5th generation...

On May 19, 2023, Michele Herman and her granddaughter Eliza Fletcher will attend the laying of the Stumbling Stones for Siegfried, Bruno and Moritz Gerst in Kitzingen.

Pioneers

The brothers Nathan (9.6.1843-1917) and Aron Gerst (19.1.1832-1905) from Frankenwinheim were among the first Jews to move to Kitzingen after the Emancipation Edict of 1861, which opened up all towns in Bavaria to Jewish settlement.

When they applied for the right of residence and a license to trade in grain in Kitzingen in 1864, the municipality of Frankenwinheim certified that they were "not only diligent but also well versed in economics".

At that time, Aron Gerst already had an impressive balance of 15,000 guilders.

In 1874, Nathan Gerst opened a business at Landwehrstrasse 17 and expanded it into a grain and wine wholesale business, which he passed on to his sons Gustav (1871-1944) and Louis (1874-1935).

They were builders - and yet committed to the faith of the fathers*

From 1881, Aron and Nathan are part of the eleven-member synagogue building committee, and Aron becomes the first chairman of the newly founded Orthodox Jewish community in 1865. In addition, the brothers were active in the poor relief council and on the board of the Chewra Kadischa (burial brotherhood), where Aron was chairman for 30 years.

The family

Aron Gerst marries Karolina (née Sonder; 7.2.1835 - 8.11.1872) in his first marriage and Babette (née Hahn; died 1916 and buried in Rödelsee) in his second marriage. None of his eight children remained in Kitzingen (Eduard, born 1865; Jenny Rimpel, born 1876; Berthold, born 1878; Alfred, born 1882; Helene, Dinah and two others, who were buried on 10.7.1874 in Rödelsee. Aron dies in 1905 and is buried in Rödelsee.

When Nathan Gerst moves to Kitzingen in 1864, he is already widowed once and marries Jette (née Frank; May 30, 1848 in Burghaslach - November 21, 1908). They have 10 children and live at Würzburger Str. 6. From 1874, Nathan Gerst runs the later grain and wine wholesaler "Bayerische Gersten-Aktiengesellschaft Nathan Gerst und Sohn" at Landwehrstr. 17.

Gustav Gerst (14.11.1871 - 24.2.1944 in Theresienstadt) has owned another wine shop at Bismarckstraße 7 since 1907.

He already bears the title of "Purveyor to the Court" awarded by the Duke of Anhalt.

In Kitzingen, he founds the "Central Association of German Citizens of the Jewish Faith", which he also heads.

From March 1942 until his deportation in September 1942, Gustav Gerst was the last board member of the Jewish community in Kitzingen. His wife Bertha (3.6.1878 in Darmstadt - 1959 in Cincinnati/ USA) survived deportation to Theresienstadt. After liberation on March 8, 1945, she returns to Kitzingen for a short time to get an overview of the whereabouts of the other family members. She then moved to Palestine and later to the USA. The couple's four daughters emigrated in time.

A stumbling stone for Gustav Gerst has been lying in front of the property at Bismarckstr. 7 since 2018.

Helene Klugmann (14.10.1872 - ca. 1940 in Cuba)

Louis Gerst (1.8.1874 - 11.11.1935), married to Gunda Karoline (née Löwenthal; 1885 - 1934). Both are buried in Rödelsee. Their children, Claire and 15-year-old Karl, emigrate to the USA).

Siegfried Gerst (born 14.10.1875) works as a wine merchant. He marries Berta (née Badmann; May 7, 1883 in Oettingen). The couple has four children: Otto; Guido (10.3.1907, emigrates from Frankfurt/M. to London); Ida Betty (10.12.1909, moves to Frankfurt/ M. in 1928); Hertha Laubheim (15.3.1913. Hertha lives with her husband Paul in Dettelbach until around 1939/40 and then moves to Frankfurt/ M., from where they are deported to Krasnystaw on 25.4.1942.

Siegfried and his family moved several times in Kitzingen: Würzburger Str. 6 (his parents' house), Bismarckstr. 7 (with brother Gustav), Moltkestr. 15, Moltkestr. 21, Wörthstr. 14. From the last apartment in the so-called Jews' house, Luitpoldstr. 14, the couple was deported to Izbica on March 24, 1042 and murdered.

Meta Münz (born 1877 in Kitzingen) moves to Nuremberg.

Bruno Gerst (19.8.1878, murdered in Auschwitz) lives in Würzburg from 1908 as the owner of a wine wholesale business. He marries Marianne (née Mars, 17.12.1913 in Schweinfurt), with whom he has two sons: Georg (born 14.12.1913) and Alfred (born 29.01.1915). Bruno takes part in the First World War as a non-commissioned officer and is awarded the Iron Cross II Class. In 1923, he moved to Leipzig with his family. He became a member of the right-wing liberal German State Party and became involved in the Jewish community, including as a member of the Chewra Kadischa. In 1935, he was taken into so-called protective custody and sentenced to two years in prison. He was first held in Bautzen prison and then from June 17 to October 20, 1938 in Sachsenhausen concentration camp. Bruno Gerst flees to the Netherlands, is interned in the Westerbork camp, then in Kamp Vught and from there deported to Auschwitz, where he is murdered on February 12, 1943. A Stumbling Stone is laid for him in Oss/NL, where he lived in 1942. His wife Marianne was deported from Leipzig to Riga on January 21, 1942 and murdered.

The two sons are involved in a communist youth organization in Leipzig that is active in the resistance. They were quickly denounced and arrested. Because of their political stance and their Jewish origins, they were persecuted for two reasons.

Georg was able to leave the country on April 15, 1937 after two years and nine months in prison and initially fled to Yugoslavia. He is probably the only one of the family to survive in Uruguay.

Alfred is sentenced to three years and nine months imprisonment for preparation of high treason and four years loss of honor. On 28.6.1934 he is sent to Waldheim prison, on 04.6.1938 to Dachau concentration camp, then transferred to Buchenwald and Sachsenhausen concentration camps. He died there on 22.2.1942.

Sali Gerst (5.2.1880 - 17.6.1917) was killed in action on the Eastern Front during the First World War. According to the inscription on the memorial to the fallen in the Rödelsee Jewish cemetery, his mortal remains were later transferred there from Daisle/Russia and buried with great sympathy.

The widow Ida, née Bretzfelder from Estenfeld, remains in the house near the synagogue with three small children: Henriette (born in 1910), Isbert (born in 1912) and Ruth (born in 1915).

They escaped the Shoah by emigrating to Palestine and the USA. Henriette is the mother of Michele Herman.

Sisters-in-law Ida and Bertha Gerst belong to the last Kitzingen Chewra Kadischa of women.

Moritz Gerst (16.12.1881) was the youngest child of Nathan and Jette. He marries Johanna, née Goldstein, who dies in 1911 and is buried in the cemetery in Rödelsee. Moritz moves to Nuremberg and later marries Olga, née Kahn. The family lived at Breite Gasse 55. Their daughter Margot, born in 1917, was able to emigrate to London in 1939; her parents were deported to Riga-Jungfernhof on November 29, 1941 and became victims of the Shoah.

Two other sons of Nathan and Jette Gerst die in childhood and are buried in a grave in Rödelsee on April 8, 1887.

Claudia Großmann-Gonschorek and Margret Löther