Compiled by Dominik Hoff und Michael Glas
Free translation by Susanne Eisen

 The Story of the House at Marktplatz 16

Photo of the house as it looks today

The story of the Rosenfelder Family

Announcement on the September 13, 1912 “Gunzenhauser Anzeigeblatt”

Nathan Rosenfelder was born November 23, 1881 in Aufhausen, the son of merchant Moses Rosenfelder and his wife Therese, born Obermeier. He was trained as a merchant and banker. In the neighboring community of Oberdorf he married Selma Heimann on January 28, 1909. Selma was the sister of the merchant David Heimann, and their parents were Urias and Clothilde Heimann of Bopfingen. David Heimann was married to Bertha Rosenfelder, the sister of Nathan Rosenfelder. Unfortunately we do not know where this couple lived. Neither do we know birth- and death dates of David Heimann. Although Nathan Rosenfelder moved from Noerdlingen to Gunzenhausen in 1907, he was not granted citizenship till January 10, 1919. Visitors to the Church Parish Fair Fill your needs here during D. Heimann’s FINAL YARDGOODS  WAREHOUSE CLEARANCE SALE. in Gunzenhausen. 25% discount during the Church Parish Fair. Discount applies to all Merchandise.

Photo of “Bankhaus Heiman” about 1920
© Helene Vered, Holon/Israel

In 1920 Nathan’s Sister Lina Rosenfelder of Noerdlingen married the banker Karl Weinmann of Altenmuhr. David Heimann bought them the house at Luitpoldstrasse 1 (see the story of that house), and the brother-in-law is added to the bank, which became the “Heimann-Rosenfelder-Weinmann” Bank.

Picture of an inflation banknote for 10,000,000 Marks.

Temporary Emergency Bank note 
Nr. 1588                  MK.10,000,000.--
The D.Heimann Bank, Gunzenhausen
will honor this check in lieu of cash money
until the shortage of cash is over, and should be
honored by all .
Ten Million Marks
Gunzenhausen, September 18th, 1923
Stamped by D.Heimann, signed by S. Rosenfelder

The Arold family lived in the attic apartment of the same house with their three children, who grew up with the Rosenfelder children.

The daughter of the Arold family, who is now Mrs. Kleinschmidt, told us about that time:

 “The Rosenfelder family was very well-to-do. When Mrs Selma Rosenfelder went shopping and noticed a needy person, she always added something for these people to her purchases.

Both brothers and their families were registered in the “1939 German Book of wanted felons” by the Stuttgart prosecutor’s office as “wanted for tax evasion.

A warrant for tax evasion from the Department of Revenue Augsburg against Max and Nathan Rosenfelder in the in the Gazette of the Government’s Revenue Administration Nr. 35 of October 26, 1939.
(Kerstin and Frank Wolf kindly made this information available to us by e-mail in December 2002.)

b) Max Rosenfelder, born June 7, 1889 in Aufhausen, District-A. Regensburg, last known address Charlottenstrasse 12, Stuttgart, currently in America.
(Reichsfluchtsteuer) Tax debt owed 10,8 73.50 Reichsmark, overdue since May 17, 1939, plus penalty.  A warrant for tax evasion from the department of     revenue in Augsburg of September 26, 1939 was published in the “German Reich’s Gazette” Nr.242 of   October 16, 1939.

c) Nathan Rosenfelder, born November 23, 1881 in Aufhausen, District-A. Regensburg, last known Address Vogelsangstrasse 11, Stuttgart-West,   currently in America.
(Reichsfluchtsteuer) Tax debt owed  11,304.25 Reichsmark, overdue since May 17, 1939 plus penalty. A warrant for tax evasion  from the department of    Revenue in August of September 26, 1939 was published in the  “German Reich’s Gazette” Nr. 242 of October 16, 1939.

The citizenship of one brother, Max Rosenfelder and his family was revoked April 1, 1940 (RAZ NR. 84, dated 10. April 10, 1940). According to this source he was married to Martha, born Guckenheimer * July 23, 1901 in Dinkelsbuehl. Their children were

Manfred,
born November 19, 1925 in Nuremberg
Ernst,
born May 27,1927 in Nuremberg

Nathan Rosenfelder and his family  lost their citizenship on November 10, 1939 (RAZ Nr. 267, dated November 14, 1939.

It has been very difficult to find the descendants, because both sons had changed their names drastically. The daughter Herta married in the USA and became Herta Katten. However she, as well as her brothers, have  passed away in the meantime.

Manfred changed his last name to “Rost” in the USA, and the family resided in Princeton, New Jersey.

Ulrich lived in Holon, Israel and changed his name to Uri Vered.

Frau Kleinschmid who maintains a friendly relationship with the families gave us the new names and addresses.

The widows and children of the brothers are still alive. We are delighted to have contact with Mrs. Helene Vered in Holon, Israel. We thank her for her willingness to share the history of her family so freely with us. Without Mrs Vered’s kind assistance and the following letters we would never have known the various paths this family took.

She wrote:

I am glad to be able to help you sort out the events of that terrible time.

On March 24 1934 the Nazis entered the home of the Nathan Rosenfelder family with the intention of killing him. But he just happened to be away from home, thank God. Nathan Rosenfelder realized that the situation was becoming very serious. He sold the house and he and his family immediately resettled in Stuttgart. There he went to the American Consulate and told them about the situation and what had taken place in Gunzenhausen. He wanted to share his knowledge with countries outside Germany, and he wanted it to mobilize help from SOMEONE in fighting the injustices. The consul asked if he could be of help. Nathan Rosenfelder responded with a plea to have him sponsor his daughter’s emigration to America, since at that point he had no relatives there, and the consul agreed to it. 

So Herta Rosenfelder went to New York and took a job in a nursing home. After a while she sponsored her brother Manfred’s immigration, and after another year the two were able to have their parents and their brother Ulrich/Uri  join them too. 

 Nathan Rosenfelder made it possible for many more relatives to come to America, thereby saving their lives.

 In New York the brothers Nathan and Max opened a textile business and the whole family had to help and worked there.

Photos of Ulrich Rosenfelder with his uncle Max in front of the Store in New York.  © Helene Vered, Holon/Israel

 
Friday August 20, 1948 – Aufbau
Death notice for Nathan Rosenfelder, died 1948 in New York.

On August 17, suddenly and unexpectedly
my dear husband, our devoted father, grandfather
father-in-law, brother, brother-in-law, and uncle
passed away

NATHAN ROSENFELDER
(formerly of Gunzenhausen)

In the name of all the bereaved
Selma Rosenfelder, born Heimann
2034 Honeywell Ave. New York 60, NY
Please refrain from personal visits.

Max Weinmann of Argentina, the son of Karl and Lina Weinmann, and cousin of the three Rosenfelder children wrote to us:

“I know that Ulrich left the USA for Palestine in 1939 to volunteer in the war. His father was not aware of it at the time. In 1948 he also participated in the fight for freedom in Israel, while he raised a family there.”

That explains why, after the war, part of the family lived in the USA, and one son in Israel.

Mrs. Vered, widow of Uri (Ulrich) adds this:

“Uri, the youngest son had already wanted to leave Stuttgart and emigrate to Palestine, but because he was still a minor, he could not do it without his parents’ permission. So he spent six months in Stuttgart as an electrician’s apprentice, until he joined his parents when they went to New York. There he additionally learned to be a radio technician, and took courses in graphics and shorthand. When in 1939 there was talk of a war, he took all his savings from odd jobs, and bought a ticket for passage to England on the “Queen Mary”. From England he went to Marseille, and from there to Haifa, Palestine. He had only a tourist visa, because that was the only thing available at the time. That was in 1939, at the very last moment before the war (WWII) began. Fortunately he had an aunt there, the sister of his mother, and also some cousins, who welcomed him. The police in England were looking for him, because his visa had expired, They wanted to extradite him. He had no choice but to change his name and became Uri Vered (Vered means “rose” in Hebrew). After living with his aunt for a month, he moved to a Kibbuz, and after a year, in 1940, he joined the British army, and was discharged in 1946. Uri Vered passed away in 1985.”

In February 2003 Mrs. Vered added the following:

“After the death of my father-in-law Nathan Rosenfelder in 1948, his brother Max and his wife Martha and my mother-in-law Selma Rosenfelder continued to run the business in New York. When Max Rosenfelder also died, his wife (widow) Martha , together with Selma Rosenfelder ran the business a while longer, until it become too much for them. So they gave up the business.

Manfred Rost - Rosenfelder had studied law in Wuerzburg, but in the early 1930s he had to give it up. So he learned to be a precision tool maker instead, which would be more useful in America. He found employment in the laboratory at Princeton University and stayed there until his retirement. His wife Annie (Annelisa) still lives in Princeton. They have four children.

My husband Uri Vered had been an electrician’s apprentice in an electric company in Stuttgart, and later in the USA he continued his training/education. In 1946, after his discharge from the military, he got a job with the Israeli electric company. Unfortunately he could not continue his studies at the technical institute, because he had to earn money to support his family. We had married and soon had a son and then two daughters. Then my husband My husband Uri started taking correspondence courses to get an engineering degree at the “British Institute”. All citizens of the British Commonwealth had the opportunity to do this, for example, people from India or Australia etc,  Palastine was under British Jurisdiction at the time too. It took him several years to get his engineering degree. He worked at the electric company for 30 years.

The daughter Herta Rosenfelder married Julius Katten in New York, who came from Halsdorf in Hessia. They had one son, Elmer Menachem, who came to Israel in 1978 and lives in a settlement. He arrived with his wife Hanna and two children, and they had four more children. Two daughters are married already. His mother Herta stayed alone in New York after her husband had died. When she became ill and could no longer live alone,  she too went to Israel. She lived a few more years in Jerusalem , where she later died and is buried. Elmer called me last week to tell me that he saw everything (the website about the Jews in Gunzenhausen)  in the internet. He was very happy about that and thanks you all very much.

Hertha Katten located Fred Dottenheimer after the war and told him about the suitcase at Frieda Wiedmann’s. Perhaps we should introduce this house briefly too. Karl Heimann supposedly still lives in New York.

It was interesting to find out more about David Heimann, although we still don’t know when and why he left Gunzenhausen to return to Oberdorf. His family had a textile business there. It seems that he sold products from the Heimann company in Oberdorf through the business in Gunzenhausen, as did his father Urias before him. After the textile business (in Gunzenhausen) was closed and a bank was opened in the house, he appears to have resettled in Oberdorf in 1910, even though he was still co-owner of the bank building.

Today the Thora roll of the David Heimann family is one of the most valuable pieces on exhibit in the renovated Synagogue in Oberdorf.

Photo of Thora roll Chiam Loeb Heimann had this Thora made In Vienna in 1872. It accompanied David, Berta , and Karl Heimann from Oberdorf to the USA in August 1939. During WWII the Heimanns decided to let the Synagogue at Fort Dix use the Thora roll for the Jewish soldiers there.  In 1993 on the occasion of the dedication of the  memorial and meeting place of the Thora bearers in Oberdorf, Karl Heimann presented the Thora roll to them on permanent loan. Photo and comments by Felix Sutschek

Mrs. Vered wrote the following about the history of her  family:

After he had been freed from Dachau, David Heimann and his wife Berta emigrated to America. Together with his youngest brother Hermann he built a chicken farm in Lakewood New Jersey. David Heimann (and his wife) had three sons. Heiner, the oldest, went to Palestine in the early 1930s.First he lived in a Kibbuz, and after he got married he lived in a village, where he raised chickens. He died a few years ago. Two of David Heimann’s sons lived in New York: Udo-Martin and Karl Heimann. Udo-Martin has also passed away, but Karl still lives in New York. David Heimann lived well into his 90s.

The Commerce and Agriculture Bank of Ansbach acquired the house at Marktplatz 16 in 1934 for 34,000 RM. They opened a bank branch there.

Photo of Marktplatz 16 in 1934
© Helene Vered, Holon/Israel

In 1982 the house became the property of the Stingl Company, who opened a Jewelry business there. Today Ralf Troester is the owner and also runs  a Jewelry and Optical business.

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	Last updated 2008-03-01 by Franz Müller