Hugo Epstein

Hugo Epstein was born in Breslau on November 23, 1872, the son of David and Emilie Epstein, née Schifhan. Almost nothing is known about him. The sources do not show which schools he attended or what his profession was. From 1916 to 1918, Hugo Epstein fought in the First World War. On April 20, 1921 he married the widow Betty Rothstein, née Wallach, in Munich. Since her first husband’s death in 1919, she had owned and run the jeweller’s shop J. Bernhard Rothstein at Sendlinger Straße 21 and had two daughters from her first marriage, Anna and Marie Luise. The Jewish family lived at Westermühlstraße 7.
From 1933 on, Hugo and Betty Epstein experienced exclusion, persecution and expropriation. They were forced to deregister the jeweller’s shop in 1938. Hugo Epstein was interned in Dachau concentration camp from November 10 to December 28, 1938 in the course of the “Kristallnacht” pogroms. The Epsteins tried in vain to emigrate to the USA via England. In September 1940, Hugo and Betty Epstein had to leave their home and move to Germaniastraße 36. On February 16, 1942 the Gestapo (Secret Police) placed them in the camp for Jews in Milbertshofen. Hugo Epstein died there on May 20, 1942. Betty Epstein was deported to Theresienstadt ghetto on July 15, 1942. On October 13, 1942 she died of the catastrophic conditions there. Her daughters were able to emigrate and survived the Shoah.(text Barbara Hutzelmann, editor C. Fritsche, translation C. Hales)