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Hermann Geiershöfer

Hermann Geiershöfer was a cousin by marriage of Otto Frank.

Person

  • Hermann Geiershöfer
  • Neurenberg, Duitsland May 11, 1876
  • Cinqfontaines, Luxemburg Aug. 17, 1942

Hermann (Armand) Geiershöfer was a son of Jakob Geiershöfer, wood merchant in Nuremberg, and Minna Rosenberg. He had three older brothers: Karl (1868-1943), Siegmund (1869-1944) and Ernst (1871-1942). Hermann Geiershöfer was married to Otto Frank's cousin Irma Reinhard. She was a daughter of Albert Reinhard (1853-1924) and Caroline Frank (1854-1930), a sister of Otto's father.[1] Hermann and Irma had two children: Fredy Albert Geiershöfer (1907- unknown) and Charlotte Thyes-Geiershöfer (1911-2006).

Together with his brother Siegmund, married to Irma's sister Lucie, he ran his father-in-law's glove factory Manufacture de Gants Reinhard in Luxembourg.[2] He was naturalised by law on 26 August 1912 as a Luxembourger and changed his nam to Armand.[3] In April and May 1934 Geiershöfer transferred a total of thirty-five hundred guilders to Otto Frank, who confirmed receipt of the transfer on 9 July.[4] 

All four brothers had emigrated from Germany to Luxembourg. During the German occupation of Luxembourg, they were interned in the camp of Cinqfontaines (Pafemillen or Fünfbrunnen).[5] In 1941, the Cinqfontaines monastery was used to temporarily incarcerate Luxembourg Jews. From there they were gradually deported in smaller groups to the ghettos and later directly to the camps.[6] Hermann (Armand) Geierhöfer died in Cinqfontaines on 17 August 1942.[5] Like his three brothers, he was to be deported to Theresienstadt in July 1942, but was deemed unfit for transport. His wife Irma was deporterd to Theresienstadt on 6 April 1943 to be murdered five monts later in Auschwitz concentration camp in September 1943.[7] 

Siegmund Geiershöfer, along with his brothers Karl and Ernst, was deported from the Cinqfontaines camp to Theresienstadt on 28 July 1942, before finally being murdered in Auschwitz on 15 May 1944, as was Ernst.[8] Karl was murdered in Theresienstadt on 19 April 1943;[9] his wife Ella had ended her own life on 1 May 1940.[10]

Fredy and Charlotte, the two children of Hermann and Irma, had emigrated to the United States in 1940. They returned to Luxembourg in 1944-45 and took over the factory again, which had been confiscated by the German occupiers during World War II.[11] Their daughter, Marie-Louise, met with Otto Frank frequently after the war.[12]

Source personal data.[13]

Footnotes

  1. ^ Geni: Family tree Albert Reinhard. Anne refers to him as Hermann in Luxemburg. Anne Frank, Diary Version A, 8 May 1944, 1st, in: The Collected Works, transl. from the Dutch by Susan Massotty,  London [etc.]: Bloomsbury Continuum, 2019.
  2. ^ Wikipedia: Händschefabréck Reinhard am Stadgronn; D’Industriegeschicht vu Lëtzeburg: Händschefabréck Albert Reinhard am Gronn.
  3. ^ Journal officiel du Grand-Duché de Luxembourg, Loi du 26 août 1912 accordant la naturalisation à M. Armand Geiershofer, industriel à Luxembourg.
  4. ^ NIOD Instituut voor Oorlogs-, Holocaust- en Genocidestudies, Amsterdam, inv. nr. 292, N.V. Nederlandsche Opekta Maatschappij (Archief Opekta): Losse map ‘belangrijke zaken Otto Frank’.
  5. a, b Das Biografische Gedenkbuch der Münchner Juden 1933-1945: Dr. jur. Karl Joel Geiershöfer.
  6. ^ Wikipedia: Pafemillen.
  7. ^ Bundesarchiv - Gedenkbuch: Opfer der Verfolgung der Juden unter der nationalsozialistischen Gewaltherrschaft in Deutschland 1933 – 1945: Geiershöfer, Irma.
  8. ^ Das Biografische Gedenkbuch der Münchner Juden 1933-1945: Dr. jur. Karl Joel Geiershöfer; Bundesarchiv - Gedenkbuch: Geiershöfer, Siegmund Sigmund Siegmond Karl; Geiershöfer, Ernst.
  9. ^ Bundesarchiv - Gedenkbuch: Geiershöfer, Karl; Das Biografische Gedenkbuch der Münchner Juden 1933-1945: Dr. jur. Karl Joel Geiershöfer.
  10. ^ Bundesarchiv - Gedenkbuch: Geiershöfer, Ella.
  11. ^ Ingrid Schmit-Thomas, Die Handschuhfabrik im Grund, Revue: d’Lëtzebuerger Illustrëiert, no. 34, 21 August 1986, p. 42-44 (via eLuxemburgensia).
  12. ^ Anne Frank Stiichting, Getuigen, Interview met Marie Louise Donarski, 2 september 2012.
  13. ^ Journal officiel du Grand-Duché de Luxembourg, Arrêté grand-ducal du 21 janvier 1948 autorisant le sieur Fredy-Albert Geiershöfer et sa fille à changer leur nome patronymique conre ceui de Storm; Yad Vashem, Central Database of Shoah Victims: Hermann Geiershofer.

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