Hermine Kleemann, or Mina, was born in Werneck on July 5, 1886, the daughter of Salomon Kleemann, a horse and grain merchant in Würzburg, and Sara Kleemann, née Klau. She had four brothers and sisters: Gustav, Lucie, Max and Johanna. In 1910, Mina Kleemann married the businessman Max Engländer, who was seven years her senior. The couple had no children. After the death of her first husband, the widow Mina Engländer married my great-great uncle Jakob Maier, himself a widower, in Munich on March 17, 1925 and moved in with him and his fifteen-year-old son Alfred at Hermann-Lingg-Strasse 16. From 1932 to 1938 the family lived at Uhlandstrasse 4.
In July 1938, Jakob and Mina Maier were forced to leave their home and move to Reitmorstrasse 52. Less than three years later, the Gestapo moved them to a so-called “Judenhaus” (“Jews’ house”) at Landwehrstrasse 44, where they were lodged with many other people in extremely crowded conditions. In March 1942, the Gestapo transferred the couple to the “Judensiedling Milbertshofen” (“Milbertshofen Jews’ Colony”), a barracks camp at Knorrstrasse 148. On April 4, 1942, the Gestapo deported Jakob and Mina to the Piaski Ghetto. Their relatives Dorline Springer, Arnold Springer and Emma Springer were on the same transport. To this day, we have no information about when or where Jakob and Mina Maier were killed.
Mina’s stepson Alfred was also a victim of the Holocaust; the SS murdered him in Auschwitz on September 12, 1942. The Gestapo deported her brothers Gustav and Max from Würzburg to Riga, where they were likewise murdered. Only Mina Maier’s sister Johanna Bensinger survived, having managed to emigrate to Palestine.(Text and translation: Judith Rosenthal; editor: C. Fritsche)
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