Irma Baumann, geb. Bloch

Irma Baumann

Irma Baumann, née Bloch, was from Schmieheim in Baden, where she was born on December 3, 1893. Her husband, the merchant Karl Baumann, born July 28, 1891, was from Schmieheim as well. ¹ They married on January 18, 1934. Her sister’s name was Meta Bloch, born January 21, 1890. ² Her parents were Hannchen Bloch, née Wachenheimer, and Abraham Bloch, who, for more than forty-five years, acted in the Jewish community of Schmieheim as cantor and teacher. ³

The couple raised a family: Hanna Sophie Baumann was born on March 31, 1935, in Lahr in Baden. ⁴

On September 21, 1939, the family moved from Neustadt an der Weinstrasse to Augsburg-Kriegshaber to 185 Ulmer Strasse. ⁵ It could not be traced back, when they had moved from Schmieheim to Neustadt an der Weinstrasse. ⁶ They rented an apartment in Kriegshaber from the Jewish couple Moriz and Lydia Einstein, who, in the subsequent period, took more Jews into their house. The residents managed the household jointly, including using the kitchen. It is not known, whether the Einsteins were forced by the NS authorities to take Jews looking for housing into their home. The number of those had grown, since on April 30, 1939, the tenant protection for Jews living in houses belonging to non-Jews had been canceled. From then on Jewish homeowners could be forced to take Jewish tenants. ⁷

Due to the National Socialistic legislation, Karl Baumann was no longer able to follow his trade. Presumably he had to do forced labor for a construction company. ⁸

On November 20, 1941, Irma, Karl and Hanna Baumann were deported to Kaunas in Lithuania and shot. ⁹

After the deportation of the family, their belongings and their furniture were confiscated by the Augsburg Finance Authority and sold to the National Socialist Welfare Organization. ¹⁰

This is an excerpt of the biography Anna-Katharina Beuter compiled in the summer term 2014 at Augsburg University. She attended the proseminar course “National Socialism in Augsburg. Persecution history mirrored by the biographies of Augsburg Jews” by Dr. Benigna Schönhagen at the department for European Ethnology.

(Translation by Michael Bernheim)