Sophie Gutmann, geb. Marx

Sophie Marx was born in Heilbronn on May 16, 1878. She was the daughter of the butcher and intestine wholesaler Elias Emil Marx and his wife Fanny, née Ottenheimer. She probably learned a profession and was a businesswoman. In 1901, Sophie Marx married Emanuel Gutmann, who came from Gemmingen, and went with him to Munich. The following year, the couple had a child, who died shortly after birth. Emanuel Gutmann bought Lindwurmstraße 205 in 1910. Sophie and Emanuel Gutmann opened the Lederwarenkaufhaus Gutmann, a leather goods store, in this imposing corner house. Another branch was subsequently opened at Feilitzschstraße 15 in Schwabing. From 1931 Sophie and Emanuel Gutmann lived on the second storey of Tengstraße 25. In 1936 they moved to Elisabethstraße 30, just a few metres away. The Nazi seizure of power brought radical change to the lives of Sophie and Emanuel Gutmann. In 1934, they gave up their leather goods store, probably because they were suffering under the repressive actions being taken against Jewish business owners. In the course of the “Kristallnacht” pogroms in November 1938, the Gestapo (Secret Police) deported Emanuel Gutmann to Dachau concentration camp. He was forced to sign a declaration relinquishing ownership of his house at Lindwurmstraße 205 and the store. The property management firm Carl Sattler Hausbesitz-Verwertung-Verwaltung took over the property and resold it. The ground floor was now occupied by the textiles company Textilwaren Albert Helfferich. Emanuel Gutmann, now seriously ill, returned from his imprisonment on December 1, 1938. In 1939, like all other Jews, Sophie and Emanuel Gutmann had to hand over their valuables of precious metals, gems and pearls to the Städtisches Leihamt (municipal loan office). They were also forced to donate “voluntarily” 500 Reichsmark for the “Judensiedlung” (“Jewish Quarter”) Milbertshofen, a barrack camp located at Knorrstraße 148. On March 16, 1942 the Gestapo relocated them there. A few months later, on June 24, 1942, Sophie and Emanuel Gutmann were deported to the Theresienstadt ghetto on Transport II/8. Sophie Gutmann succumbed to the horrendous conditions there on October 11, 1944. Her husband, Emanuel Gutmann, had already died on October 24, 1943. (text Elisabeth Rosa M. Noske, editor C. Fritsche, translation C. Hales)