The Heidingsfelder family was one of the most influential Jewish families in Hüttenheim.
From around 1880, some of its members moved to Kitzingen - including Max, born 20.03.1857 in Hüttenheim, deceased 26.12.1925 in Kitzingen. 26.12.1925 in Kitzingen, buried in the Rödelsee Jewish cemetery. They earned their living mainly in the wine trade.
Under the influence of Enlightenment ideas, a wine trade developed in Bavaria from the beginning of the
19. Century, a more Jew-friendly legislation developed. The revision of 1861, which granted free choice of profession and place of residence, freed Bavarian Jews from a crippling shackle. The revision offered Kitzingen mayor Andreas Schmiedel (1859-1881) the opportunity to invite Jewish businessmen to help the declining wine trade, which had traditionally been the town's flagship and key industry, to flourish again. The large number of wine merchants and büttners doing business in Kitzingen shows the extraordinary importance of this industry for the town, but it also sheds light on the organizational form of business operations at the time. The address book of 1835 lists 20 wine merchants, the one of 1906 already 102, with the Israelites making up the majority with 52, which they expanded in the following years. This earned Kitzingen the nickname "town of 100 wine merchants".
Max's wife Kathi Heidingsfelder was a member of the Kitzingen Jewish Women's Funeral Society - the Chewra Kadischa, which took on the role of guardian of the sick for women, supported families in the event of death and accompanied mourners to the cemetery. Participation in it is recognized by respected women and is considered to be of great religious merit. In the group photo, she is sitting third from the right in the front row.
Kathi Heidingsfelder moved to Frankfurt am Main on December 18, 1940 together with her daughter Frieda Neumann and her granddaughter Stefanie Lebermann due to Nazi reprisals. According to the Koblenz Memorial Book, Kathi Heidingsfelder was deported from Frankfurt to Theresienstadt, where she died on November 30, 1942. Her daughter Frieda Neumann's foreign currency file contains the evacuation note that she was deported to the "East" on May 15, 1942. According to an entry in the biographical handbook of Würzburg Jews, her granddaughter Stefanie Lebermann is also said to have been a victim of the Holocaust. Her husband Dr. Ferdinand Lebermann committed suicide on October 7, 1938, as the Nazi authorities had banned him from practicing medicine.
