The Jewish Community of Laupheim and its Annihilation

Book Pages 570 - 572 

ZIEGLER, Karoline, nee Gideon,

Untersulmetingen

Translation by: Richard Oppenheimer

ROBERT ESS

Karoline (Berta) Ziegler nee Gideon married Benno Ziegler on February 2, 1914, an electrician, residing in Untersulmetingen. The family moved to 24 Mur Street near the stream. The retired teacher Hans Beth, who was born in Untersulmetingen, and still lives there, recalls conversations with his parents, "Benno Ziegler came to Untersulmetingen as a young man around 1914. On behalf of a company located in Augsburg, he installed the newly arrived electricity in local houses and stables.

He made the acquaintance of Jewess Karoline Gideon, from Rexingen, who already had a three-year old illegitimate son, whom he adopted after their marriage on February 2, 1914."

Their marriage was held in Bernloch. It is the only known inter-faith marriage of the Jewish community in Laupheim. While Benno Ziegler belonged to no religious denomination, Alexander was raised in the Jewish faith and also visited the Israelite School in Laupheim. Since he was born before the marriage of his mother, he was considered a Full Jew by the Nazis.  

Berta Ziegler was excluded from deportation according to the Nuremberg Laws of September 1935, because of her marriage to Benno Ziegler who was not affiliated with the church. 

On October 3, 1942, the district administrator of Biberach wrote to the State Police outpost at Ulm: " All Jewish residents in Laupheim as well as in the nursing home Heggbach, the community Maselheim, have been evacuated, and are located in the district of Biberach, except the two Jews living in Untersulmetingen, Israel Alexander Ziegler and Caroline Ziegler nee Gideon. "Apparently the District Office in Biberach did not know  that Alexander Ziegler was already deported on 24 April 1942 to a labor camp near Lublin. Shortly after the second World War, on 19 July 1945, Benno Ziegler wrote to the Military Command to Biberach, among other things:

 "Under the Nuremberg Laws we had to endure many hardships. Our son, born June 5 1911, brought up in the Jewish faith, worked in a factory near Rheda, Westphalia from 1932 through 1938. In the general assault on the German synagogues on November 9-10, 1938 all of his possessions were burned; and was sent to the concentration camp of Buchenwald. After 5 months, he was released, came home, and worked in a pebble and gravel yard, and he was taken to a labor camp near Lublin on April 24, 1942. Since August 1942 he has been missing without a trace. By the time he reached Stuttgart, all of his clothes and undergarments were confiscated by agents of the Gestapo. (...)

I had given my son various articles of my own clothing when he was deported. Since I have not been able to make new purchases of clothing, the quantity of my own clothes is very modest. I therefore ask the competent Commander for an allotment of clothing as offered to newly arriving immigrants. 

The application for an allotment from confiscated clothing was rejected. Benno Ziegler was considered a communist in Untersulmetingen. He also wrote to the Military Command at Biberach:

"On 26 March 1936, I described the so-called parliamentary elections to be held on March 29 as a farce and declared that the reoccupation of the Rhineland with German troops was a prelude of upcoming events leading to war. For this I was sentenced to 6 months in prison because I had allegedly defamed the Führer."

Benno died on June 16, 1957 at the Laupheim hospital. Since he was non-denominational, he was buried along the inner cemetery wall, left of the entrance, at Untersulmetingen-Niederkirch.

Karoline (Berta) Ziegler nee Gideon moved on February 6, 1960 to the Holy Spirit nursing home in Laupheim. She died in October 1979 at the age of 96 years and was the last Jewish citizen to be buried in the Jewish Cemetery.

Mistakenly on her grave stone (S 30/12), Berta is engraved instead of Karoline, her correct first name, as is the incorrect birth year of 1912 instead of 1883. The funeral expenses were borne by the Israelite Cultural Association in Stuttgart, as part of her health insurance. According to Nathania Hüttemeister it was the last burial in the Jewish cemetery in Laupheim.¹

sources:

1) Nathania Hüttemeister: The Jewish cemetery Laupheim: page 535