Oppenheimer Family Archive Gemmingen · 1520 — present
Oppenheimer Archive
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Siegfried Michelbacher

Holocaust Victim
b. 06.09.1923, Mannheim — d. 08.02.1945, KZ Dachau
Profession Cook (trained at Jewish hospital in Mainz)
Religion Jewish (father)
Address Hauptstätter Str. 92, Stuttgart (1933-1942)
Address Hospitalstr. 36, Stuttgart (1942-1943)

Family

Parents
Max Michelbacher 1874– Emilie Michelbacher 1890–
Spouse
Margit Bernstein 1922–2006
Siblings
Gabriele Michelbacher

Persecution

Ghetto Theresienstadt 17.04.1943 — 29.09.1944
Transport: Transport Nr. XIII/2 (same transport as Margit)
Work: Cook
Met Margit in camp. Worked as cook. They planned to marry at the rabbi's place in Theresienstadt but rejected the idea.
KZ Auschwitz 29.09.1944 — 10.10.1944
Margit followed him voluntarily on 01.10.1944
KZ Dachau 10.10.1944 — 08.02.1945
died

Location Trail

  1. Mannheim Born · 06.09.1923
  2. Hauptstätter Str. 92, Stuttgart Resided (1933-1942) · 1933
  3. Hospitalstr. 36, Stuttgart Transferred to Jewish school · 1935
  4. Mainz Trained as cook in Mainz · 1939
  5. Hospitalstr. 36, Stuttgart Resided (1942-1943) · 1942
  6. Ghetto Theresienstadt Interned · 17.04.1943
  7. KZ Auschwitz Interned · 29.09.1944
  8. KZ Dachau Interned · 10.10.1944
  9. Israel Letter · 1963

Timeline

  • 06.09.1923 Born in Mannheim
  • 1933 Family moves to Stuttgart
  • 1935 Transferred to Jewish school
  • 1939 Trained as cook in Mainz
  • 1942 Family moves to Hospitalstr. 36
  • 17.04.1943 Deported to Theresienstadt (same transport as Margit)
  • 09.1944 Sent from Theresienstadt in transport of 600 men
  • 29.09.1944 Deported to KZ Auschwitz
  • 10.10.1944 Sent to KZ Dachau
  • 08.02.1945 Died in KZ Dachau

Correspondence

Margit Bernstein Memoir (1963) 1963

Notes

Attended Fangelsbachschule in Stuttgart from 1933
From 1935 transferred to Jewish school at Hospitalstr. 36
From 1940 worked for Jewish community in Stuttgart
Wanted to become a doctor
Margit followed him to Auschwitz voluntarily
'M. E. Bernstein' (Margit) later testified about him
Memoir: His mother (Emilie Michelbacher) and Margit's mother tried to cancel the transport to Theresienstadt.
Memoir: In Theresienstadt, said to his mother 'If they release me from the shipment and Margit not what do we have?' His parents lived separately; stepfather was Christian.
Memoir: September 1944, included in shipment of 600 able-bodied men sent from Theresienstadt. Margit had to say goodbye.
Memoir: Margit learned after liberation that he died 14 days before Dachau was liberated, of typhoid, from starvation and exhaustion.

Sources

  • Stolpersteine Stuttgart
  • Margit Bernstein Memoir (English Translation) — 11-page English translation of Margit Bernstein's Hebrew memoir/autobiography. Written in 1963. Title: 'The biography of Margit Edith Bernstein born Oppenheimer'. Covers childhood, father's arrest and imprisonment, Jewish orphanage in Esslingen, Kristallnacht, forced labor, deportation to Theresienstadt, Auschwitz, factory camp in Silesia near Czech border, liberation at Nachod, emigration to Palestine via Belgium, post-war life in Israel. Ends with 'I Accuse.'
Research completeness
100%