I never thought of my Jewish great grandmother Lotte (Charlotte) Thannhauser as a holocaust victim. I thought she had just died, long widowed, of old age at 70 (which now seems young to me!). It turns out that she probably lost interest in living after her beloved only child, son Siegfried, was put on leave from his professorship because he was Jewish in April 1933, and so succumbed to her illness.
I have just returned from a trip to Munich where she was honored with a plaque on the current building at the address where she once lived, along with her sister and niece Josie. Many of my American and Israeli cousins were there too. Click here for the story about this on the Münchner Wohnen website. Lotte and her sister Lina’s descendants could be found because I keep a web site with our family history which I have been researching for many many years.
Charlotte Langermann Thannhauser, perhaps her brother Max, and Lina Langermann Thannhauser playing cards
I received an email this past January from a German historian, Dr. Christiane Fritsche, who was researching the residents of the building my great grandmother Lotte lived in. She found me online. The Munich housing authority (Münchner Wohnen) was planning on adding plaques to the buildings there. They provided Dr. Fritsche with a group of interns who were assigned to do the research. I forwarded her email to my double third cousin Nava in Israel because her great grandmother Lina, the sister of Lotte, was truly a holocaust victim. She did not want to leave Germany until it was too late.