Julius Kissinger

Julius Kissinger was born in Urspringen in Franconia on November 7, 1894. His father, Simon Kissinger, was a teacher and leader of prayer in the Jewish community. In 1913, Julius Kissinger passed his state examination at the Israelitische Lehrerbildungsanstalt (ILBA, Jewish Teacher Training Institute) in Würzburg and then worked as a teacher. In 1927, he followed his brother Ferdinand to Munich to work at the Jewish elementary school, an educational establishment of the Ohel Jacob orthodox community. To differentiate him from his brother Ferdinand Kissinger, whom they called “fatty Kissinger“, the schoolchildren called him “skinny Kissinger“. Julius Kissinger was heavily involved in the life of the orthodox community and was a member of the Agudas Israel, an organisation of orthodox Jews. When there was no more kosher meat to be bought in the Nazi period, he decided not to eat meat at all anymore. On April 22, 1930 Julius Kissinger married Jenny Schuster. The couple lived at first in Tattenbachstraße in Munich-Lehel, moving to Bürkleinstraße 16 (today 20) after the birth of their first son, Albert, in 1931. Their son Manfred was born in 1932. A year later, the family moved into a larger apartment in the same house. Ferdinand Kissinger lived with them. Their father, Simon Kissinger, also subsequently moved in; he died of influenza in 1939. The situation for the Munich Jews became ever more difficult following the Nazi seizure of power. In the course of the “Kristallnacht” pogroms, the Gestapo (Secret Police) deported Julius Kissinger’s brother Ferdinand to Dachau concentration camp on November 10, 1938 and interned him until December 12, 1938. In 1940, the family tried in vain to emigrate to the USA. On November 20, 1941 the Gestapo took Julius Kissinger with his family away from their apartment and brought them to the “Judensiedlung” (“Jewish Quarter”) Milbertshofen at Knorrstraße 148. Together with around 1,000 other Jewish children, women and men, he was deported to Kaunas in Lithuania. There, SS mobile killing squads shot Julius Kissinger on November 25, 1941 together with his wife, his sons and his brother, and had them buried in a mass grave. (text Felicia Englmann, editor C. Fritsche, translation C. Hales)