Siegbert Einstein

Siegbert Einstein was the son of Moriz and Lydia Einstein. Moriz, together with his brothers Isak, Hermann, Heinrich, Ludwig, and Samuel, managed their leading Swabian livestock trading company; Lydia came from a Regensburg merchant family.

The large Einstein family was highly esteemed in Kriegshaber; they were socially and religiously active. Siegbert, born in 1924, grew up in the family home at 185 Ulmer Strasse, together with his sister Liese, who was one year younger. Both children attended the primary school on Ulmer Strasse. They had music lessons (Siegbert learned to play piano and violin) and visited the theater and opera with their parents. The family spent their summer vacations in the Alps or at the Bavarian lakes. The Einsteins observed the religious customs, went to the Synagogue, kept kosher and celebrated Sukkot in an arbor in the courtyard of their home.

After 1933, Siegbert and his sister become more and more socially isolated. The children joined the Private Tennisgesellschaft Augsburg PTGA (Private Tennis Society Augsburg) since, being Jewish, they could hardly participate in any other leisure activities. On February 6, 1937, Siegbert celebrated his Bar Mitzvah in the Kriegshaber synagogue. At that time, many of his cousins had already emigrated. In the night of the pogrom on November 9, 1938, the Kriegshaber synagogue was spared destruction. Only a number of objects were stolen, among them Siegbert’s prayer shawl. After the pogrom, Siegbert was barred from further attendance at his school, the Catholic high school St. Stephan; Liese also had to leave Maria-Theresia high school. The siblings now attended the Jewish school in the synagogue on Halderstrasse which had only one class. Since only inadequate lessons were to be had there, the parents educated their children further at home, as best as they could. Moriz Einstein and his brothers were forced to sell their business at a low price; the Einsteins also had to surrender their valuables.

Eventually, the parents made up their minds to, at least, send their children abroad. On July 25, 1939 Siegbert and Liese Einstein left Germany with a Kindertransport bound for England. From Munich they traveled by train and by boat via the Netherlands and across the Channel to London and, from there, south east to the coastal town of Westgate-on-Sea. The siblings were housed in a home for refugee children and teenagers. They were able to remain in contact with their parents through letters. In late 1939 Siegbert reported proudly that he and Liese had received very good grades in English on their report cards. Shortly after, Siegbert’s life came to a tragic end. In January 1940, he got cardiac inflammation, which also affected his kidneys. At first Liese looked after her brother in their home; later he was admitted to hospital. There, however, it was too late to help him. Only seven months after his emigration, Siegbert Einstein died on February 26, 1940, just 16 years old.

Angela Bachmair