Letter from Lydia K. Mansbach born Kahn, New Jersey, United States

Despite all the commercial difficulties for us Jews, which have increased noticeably in 1938, my father still went on business trips.
When the 8 November 1938 from Würzburg to Lauda drove the train home, he heard well into his compartment, that the Nazis Jews attacked and beaten. But in the meantime, our house was visited in Bad Mergentheim by an SS man who asked my mother where my father is, and she said that he has made a business trip, he was satisfied and left. My mother lost no time and went straight to the next train to Lauda, where they just encountered when transferring my father and told him, what had happened in Mergentheim. So they got out in Edelfin conditions and Moses went to our friend Frank, who hid my father for the night in a haystack. Until the following night, after everything was quiet again, my mother went with a friend to walk to Edelfingen and took my father home.
From my mother, both brothers Ludwig Jonas and wife Clare and Jacob Jonas and wife Martha were killed in concentration camps.
My father's brother Benno born Kahn with his wife Therese and daughter Marianne, who had already fled to Holland, have also been killed by the Hitler gangs.
It's so hard to remember, and I can not write about it.

Letter from Jacob Fröhlich, Israel, 22 November 1964

The financially and emotionally very difficult years in our immigration in August 1938, all my powers have exhausted prematurely and undermine my earlier indestructible translucent health. What Hugo is concerned, unfortunately this kind brother has been snatched from over 9 years ago in the middle of full activity after a heart attack suddenly us. Hugo's daughter from his first marriage to Maya, Gizella Miriam, who had inherited the great grace and loveliness of her mother, has achieved a certain notoriety as Israel's first beauty queen. Our beloved mother Bertha born Neuhaus is in Theresienstadt on 29 Shevat 5703 died. My sister Sophie was killed with her husband and four children in Lodz, my sister Flora Weil, were rescued by the two daughters with her husband and other children in Izbica perished, and Rosel Eldod is, with her husband and four been shot very young children in Riga.

Miss Israel (Miriam Yaron [Jaross]) 1950 and her runner-ups

November 1918 Hermann starts drawing classes

After a leg amputation, as the result of a grenade explosion at the Battle of Passchendaele, which opened the way for Hermann Fechenbach to start his eagerly awaited artistic training. He took as a hospital inmate drawing classes at a school and visited the wounded in Stuttgart from November 1918 to the fall of 1921, the School of Applied Arts in Stuttgart (including Prof. P. Haustein). Then for two semesters studying at the Academy of Fine Arts in Stuttgart (Prof. R. Pötzelberger and Prof. C. Landsberger), which in 1922/23 at the Munich Academy of Art (Prof. Franz von Stuck).

Synagogue demolished November 1938

A first Mergentheimer synagogue was established in 1658, 1762, 1837 and 1912 respectively rebuilt and renewed. On 9h November 1938 demolished, but still survived the war years. After another renovation and consecration 1946 it was closed in 1957 and fell victim to the pickaxe.

Current commemoration plaque of site of synagogue, Bad Mergentheim

Letter from David Fröhlich about Kristallnacht, November 1938

David Fröhlich, Brooklyn, N.Y., My childhood memories, especially the last terrible years in Bad Mergentheim, I will never forget. Before Kristallnacht, November 8th-9th 1938, everything was bearable, although the Hitler Youth used every opportunity to harass us Jewish children. My father was very ill with a high fever, so that he could not meet their planned work. The Jewish doctor Dr. Hirnheimer was already in the Dachau concentration camp, and all the other doctors in Mergentheim were too timid and cowardly, to help the sick Jewish fellow citizens. My parents and we three children were completely without knowledge of what atrocities where to happened in the Kristallnacht, because we slept undisturbed exceptional that night. When I look back now, it was like a miracle that we were spared. The next day was a lot of shouting in the street, so we stayed at home scary, because we already felt that something terrible had happened, which was then also confirmed the radio. The neighbor of our grandmother, Mrs. Stern-Herzog, who lived in the Holzapfelgasse, came to us and told us that they had destroyed all in the synagogue and school. Many of the Jewish men, especially those who were on the blacklist, had beaten half to death, including our honorable Rabbi Dr. Moses Kahn. Those who could still walk were arrested that morning and taken to prison, and transported to the concentration camp of Dachau. My father asked my mother that she should go into the Holzapfelgasse to check on the Fröhlich’s grandmother, and how had she survived everything, since they all lived near the synagogue. We moved into a terrible anxiety and fear, so that I fell helplessly and I hid in the kitchen on the ground and prayed. Suddenly there was silence again, and I heard that the policeman had left the house without my father, because he saw that the Nazi doctor Dr. Weiß (White) treated him as he was seriously ill in reality. So my father had the good fortune to be spared from all the raids. Nevertheless, we did not dare to go out on the streets, until we heard the next morning, that the action was over. In contrast, an order came from the mayor's office that the Jewish community had to put everything back in order, which the Nazis had broken and bruised. And we children were taken to the cleanup service, I could not understand that you can be so thoughtless and wildly smashed everything. All chandeliers and lamps, prayer books and Torah scrolls, benches and galleries, as well as all the windows were shattered one after the other in the synagogue. Even the holy ark was not spared, in which we found pork skin. At school the harmonium (musical instruments), and all benches were smashed, torn books and notebooks and all smeared with ink. It was a cruel and horrible sight. When the war broke out in August 1939, we were allowed to have only one hour a day for any purchases outside, but this provision was changed again. We were able leave Bad Mergentheim on 28 0f August 1939, but not until we felt free and safe, and on the 1st of October 1939 crossed the Dutch border. A rewarding feeling came over us that we have come out of this hell even with their lives.

Leo print by Hermann Fechenbach

Leo's ruler is the Sun at the centre of the Solar System and that is where Leo's see their place in the world. Leo's are a powerhouse of energy, and few star signs have the same level of drive and motivation. At the heart of this Leo energy is the fire element, which is recognisable in every aspect of Leo's life—work, love or play.

Special price on all Hermann Fechenbach sign of the Zodiac Posthumous Prints

Gemini image from Hermann

Geminis are known as eternal students, always wanting to learn—and they don’t mind what the subject is. They are good at assembling a multitude of facts and then turning them into their next ’great idea’. However, they don’t always stay with this idea to the end, but it doesn’t concern them too much. What would concern them is not having the ‘great idea’ in the first place!
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Special price on all Hermann Fechenbach sign of the Zodiac Posthumous Prints

Lazarus Fechenbach died on 9th July 1903

Hermann’s Grandfather Lazarus Fechenbach died on 9th July 1903 at the age of 84. A crowd lined Mühlwehrstraße on both sides, people lined up several deep to pay their last respects to the departed. The funeral procession moved slowly through the town and stopped before the Tauber Bridge to speak a last farewell to the departed.

Photo of one end of Mühlwehrstraße 2015 Patrick Mooney

Sinking of the Arandora Star July 1940

The British Government was sending a relatively small number of aliens to the British Dominions, but when the tragedy on the 2 July, 1940 with the sinking of the liner Arandora Star by the German submarine U-47, the British Government had to re-think its policy of transferring aliens. the Arandora Star was taking 754 Italians and 479 Germans from Liverpool to St Johns, Newfoundland for internment, many of whom had either been briefly interned in the Isle of Man or had relatives interned on the Island. 486 Italians and 175 Germans were drowned. This ended the British Dominions being used for internment and instead concentrated on internment within the British Isles, and so the Isle of Man became one of the main interment camps.

May 1940 Hermann Fechenbach is interned in England

In May 1940 Hermann Fechenbach was interned in various camps and finally in the “Hutchinson Camp’ in Douglas on the Isle of Man, released in February 1941. It was while at the Hutchinson Camp that Hermann started “My impressions as a Refugee” as set of 21 linocuts as a record of the years of persecution in Germany under the Nazi party and his interment in England.

Hermann's Print "Interned" this is one of the most used of Hermann's images. It is of Bury and not of of the Isle of Man, but was cut while there, thus the confusion.

May 1903 Hermann starts school

May 1903 Hermann starts his first day at school in Bad Mergentheim. It was a Catholic primary school and Hermann was one of three jewish children in first class. It was here right from the start the Hermann’s drawing talents where recognised.

Print of children going to school in Bad Mergentheim by Hermann Fechenbach (from our the posthumous prints)

Some of the Fechenbach family born in April.

Noe, born 11th April 1859, in Würzburg, son of Lazarus and Jetta Fechenbach, married Rosalie Weikersheimer from Gaukttnigshofen. did three year's active military service in the cavalry. Later on he ran the bakery in Mergenthelm. Rosalie died in April 1935 and Noe on 24th November 1935. Both ill-fated parents were spared the further worry over their other sons. Moritz died on 24th December 1939 in Berlin. Max, the seriously disabled soldier, survived the concentration camp and Jacob, who was deaf and dumb, was murdered in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp in 1940. Other April births include, Auguste, born 28th September 1862, married Samuel Ldffel and moved to Augsburg. Abraham, born 4th April 1865, was for years a gymnastic demonstrator and teacher in Mergentheim's gymnastics club. He served as a soldier for two years and settled down as a baker in Mergenthelm. Therese, born 14th April 1867, married Morltz Ettlinger and moved to Karlsruhe.

Buy Only German April 1933

The boycott of Jews was called for Saturday 1st April 1933. It was represented as a defensive action against the Jewish pests among the population, who, according to the government, were conducting a gruesome propaganda war against Germany.

April 1910 Hermann leaves school to start his apprenticeship

Hermann Fechenbach was allowed to leave school on 1st April 1910 to take up his first apprentice position. His father's parting words where, "Whoever does not hold out through his apprentice time will be a failure all his life".

Arts Review, 1 March 1985

Arts Review
1 March 1985 Volume XXXVII No 4
Guy Burn writes about Hermann Fechenbach at the Blond Fine Art Gallery

Blond Fine Art has at last found a suitably spacious new gallery in Princes Street, the lease at Sackville Street having ended. His first print show is a one man exhibition, a discovery of long hidden talent. Herman Fechenbach is now eighty eight years old, and has had a long frustrating career as a wood engraver and linocutter. The abundant work forms in a way a diary of his sadly disrupted life, where success and fulfillment have evaded his grasp by force of circumstances. His early work in his home town of Bad Mergentheim shows great promise; fairy stories and Jewish life are portrayed. But the loss of a leg in the 1914-18 war was a cruel setback, with years of convalescence. His illustrations for the Hagadah and the plague won him recognition in Germany, only to be snatched away by the advent of the Nazis. Caricatures of Himmler, Goebbels etc., are redolent of hatred. The Children's Train is an emotional record of the long line of trucks on its way to Belsen, crammed with French children who spill out on to the tracks.

He was forced to flee to Israel, and some constructive work was done, notably Call to Lunch showing a Kibbutz girl beating a large iron ring. But Israel did not suit him and he emigrated to England in 1939. Hardly settled here, he was summarily interned in 1940, eventually arriving in the Isle of Man. His delicate wood engravings were no longer feasible and from then on lino was the only medium obtainable. Arrested, Police Station, and Interned are disturbing records of unhappiness in hostile surroundings. The Isle of Man series involving intricate interweaving patterns of barbed wire with the sun shining hopefully through, record a happier time. He starts to use colour blocks: there are blue birds flying in a blue sky, Release found him looking for subjects rather than being dominated by them. His lyrical nudes and peaceful subjects like children in the playground, are brave attempts to grasp normality.


Police Station By Hermann Fechenbach

Felix Fechenbach Jailed 11th March 1933

On 11 March 1933 Felix Fechenbach, Hermann's cousin, was jailed by the new Nazi government for his anti-fascist activities, and was shot on 7 August by members of the SS and SA in a forest between Detmold and Warburg while being transported to the Dachau concentration camp.

Letter form Getta Kellermann born Fröhlich, Israel, on 16 March 1965

Dear Mr. Fechenbach,,

First, I must introduce myself. I am the youngest of the twelve Fröhlich children from Bad Mergentheim. You will not be able to remember me as I was born when we have to "thank the German fatherland for the certainty of war,"-

During a visit with my brother Jacob the request came as a war party to the First World War on your work, a to write book about the last Mergentheimer Jews, and your request, if possible, to contribute material to this topic After reading about Italy until 1940 (the last legal time before declaring war between Italy and England). Many student with certificate emigrated from Mergentheim, there are few things I still remember from that time on.

We sold all our belongings in 1939 and after living in Germany could no longer live as Jew (the Nuremberg Laws), my dear mother and I, we are looking for accommodation we found a room at Miss Westheimer (Ochsengasse or Wettgrass next to City Hall). I admire today, as then, my almost 70 year old mother in a barely heated room (no one dared for us to repair the old stove, and it was a bitterly cold winter) and to get used to the primitive sanitary facilities. (She had probably used later on far worse.) Our "march" on the Holzapfelgrasse we taken with Jacob Fisch, who had tried shortly before to commit suicide by taking a large dose of sleeping pills but was rescued by hospital treatment. Cynical, mocking laughter accompanied our kids wagon march with all the things-most. Miss Miltenberg woman who had sold the Fechenbach Inn to a greengrocer, had shortly before accounted that she had just found Miss Sara Rothschild shot on Holzapfelgrasse.

We held our last small simple service of worship of Jom Kippur and Rosch Haschonoh – in a very depressed mood after the evil which had either destroyed or closed the synagogues in Germany.

When the food cards where tossed around I was never been accosted and even got an extra ration of eggs instead of meat ration even for my suffering mother. A farmer's daughter Rüdenauer (former neighbors) at night had secretly brought my mother some necessary food, even then a dangerous proposition.

When I emigrated in 1940 (with only hand luggage), I had brought my mother to Nüremberg with the best hope that soon my good mother would get, as her parents had applied for, a certificate to English for my mother and my siblings. The possibility of inhumane deportations would then, in 1940, no one would have believed. Maybe you can from Mrs. Carlé (drugstore at the Town Hall), which until recently had a friendly relationship with his wife Annette Rothschild, learn about the last Mergentheim Jews. Perhaps the butcher Adam Lochner (Hozapfelgrasse) may have seen a large part the last events of the Jewish community in Mergentheimer.

Perhaps some of this above material is suitable for your work.
Sincerely yours

Getta Kellermann
born Fröhlich

March 1933 Hitler Comes to Power

Hermann Fechenbach wrote.
"On 5th March 1933, as the result of demoralization of the majority of the population, Hitler came to power in Germany. I had to ask myself where was the remnant of the influence of our greatest Germans - Goethe, Schiller, Beethoven?

Within myself I heard the melody always sounding:

Joy, beautiful divine spark,
Daughter of Elysium,
Dazzled with fire we greet
Your holiness
Your magic ties together,
Once again what fashion has unbound.
All men will be brothers,
Where your gentle wings remain.
You embrace millions.
This kiss for the world entire.
Brothers! Over the starry tent
The great Father must dwell.

I had to work on a woodcut of Beethoven's head the whole night through, so that I would not forget that there was still a true German spark alive somewhere.



Image from Penelope Smith, thank you.

Haifa 1938

This is one of Greta's photographs taken between February and May 1938, it shows the city of Haifa in northern Israel (then Palestine). After the Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel on 14 May 1948, Haifa became the gateway for Jewish immigration into Israel.

To see more of Greta photography visit: http://www.hermannfechenbach.com/greta_photos1.html

February 1983 Hermann Fechenbach marries Mary Burne

February 1983 Hermann Fechenbach, now at least 87 years old,marries his housekeeper and secretary, the Irishwoman Mary Burne.

 

Palestine 1938

Hermann Fechenbach wrote of his hopes to move to Palestine, "My wife and I also had certain plans to emigrate, and had already registered to go to Palestine in 1936. Since I was a 70% disabled war veteran and also could not raise the necessary capital funds, I continued to wait in hope for my certificate to arrive. Even a three month trip in February 1938 to Palestine could not accelerate the emigration process, although everyone appeared ready to help out and gave us the good advice simply to remain illegally in Palestine. Since we had too many responsibilities to leave behind, we returned home in the middle of May. On the ship we made the acquaintance of an English Quaker lady, who gave us her address so that we could call on her in any emergency for help when required."

 

This chance meeting on their return to Germany was to prove a lucky one as it paved the way for Greta, and later Hermann, to escape to England.

 

 

One of the many photos taken by Greta (February to May 1938)

February 1941

Hermann Fechenbach from May 1940 to February 1941 was one of many emigrant, known as "enemy alien", interned in various camps. His final interment was in the "Hutchinson Camp", Douglas on the Isle of Man, at least wife Greta was housed nearby during this period.

 

Birth of Marie Helene Margarethe Batzke (Greta)

Born on this day 20th February 1894, Marie Helene Margarethe Batzke, know as Greta, in Straiipitz. She was not Jewish but Evangelical (Protestant). She became Hermann’s second wife in 1930, she was a professional photographer, his first marriage was a rash and unhappy one to Luba Lowinski in January 1926, they divorced in April 1928, a Jew, and as far as I can work out was from a Zionist background, but I have no other real information. If anyone reading this has any information, photographs etc. to add it would be of great interest in building a more complete picture.

 

 

Photo of Marie Helene Margarethe Batzke (Greta)

1936 prohibited from exhibiting

In January 1936 because of being Jewish Hermann Fechenbach, along with all other Jews, where prohibited from exhibiting in public buildings and excluded from the "Reich Chamber of Fine Arts".

 

 

Hermann Fechenbach painting in 1937.

Remembering Dr. Kahn who died 2nd January 1946

During the so-called "crystal night”, 8th November 1938, a victorious NAZI mob broke into Max Kahn's house, where they cut off the beard of the widely respected Rabbi, Dr. Moses Kahn, harshly maltreated him and threw him down the staircase. Dr. Kahn with his wife emigration to Palestine in August 1939, where he died on the 2nd January 1946 in extremely poor conditions.

January 11, 1897, birth of Hermann and Rosel Fechenbach

On the night of the 11th January 1897 Hermann Fechenbach was born shortly after his twin sister Rosa ("Rosel"), the third child of the Jewish couple M. Max and Sophie Fechenbach, born at Gänsmarkt 8 in Bad Mergentheim, Germany.