Flora Schmidt was born in Giebelstadt on July 3, 1885 to Bella and David Schmidt. She had three siblings. Nothing is known about her childhood. On March 11, 1911 she married the merchant Siegfried Wilmersdörfer. The couple moved to Landshut, where in 1912 Flora Wilmersdörfer gave birth to their daughter Anna Lina. Her husband ran a business there. During the First World War he served at the front. Flora Wilmersdörfer spent those years at her parents’ home with her daughter. In 1919 the family moved to Amberg, where Siegfried Wilmersdörfer had opened a textile goods shop. In 1922 the shop was relocated to Senefelderstraße in Munich. From 1925 to 1935 they lived at Haimhauserstraße 19 (today 1). The family regularly attended the main synagogue in Herzog-Max-Straße. Flora Wilmersdörfer was a housewife and worked in the shop when necessary. Life changed radically for all of them with the Nazi seizure of power. In September 1938, the Thuringian knitted goods factory owner Martin Ringelmann “aryanised” the firm for far below what it was worth to. Flora and Siegfried Wilmersdörfer were stripped of their assets. Flora and Siegfried Wilmersdörfer had visa for Cuba and left Germany on May 13, 1939 on board the MS St. Louis. But a decree by the Cuban president forbade the more than 900 Jewish passengers from entering the country and the ship had to return to Europe. On June 14, 1939 Belgium, Great Britain, France and the Netherlands said they would be willing to take in the desperate people. Flora and Siegfried Wilmersdörfer moved to Brussels. Following the German occupation of Belgium, they once again found themselves under the control of the Nazis. Siegfried Wilmersdörfer died of a heart attack on May 1, 1941. Flora Wilmersdörfer stayed in hiding from September 1942. She was betrayed and arrested. On May 18, 1943 the SS deported her to Mechelen assembly camp, and on July 31, 1943 from there to Auschwitz. The SS probably murdered her straight away when the train arrived. Her daughter Anna Lina managed to emigrate to the USA with her family. (text Barbara Hutzelmann, editor C. Fritsche, translation. C. Hales)
