Julius Bär was born on April 21, 1896 in Windsbach in Central Franconia. His parents, Joseph and Julia Bär, née Weinschenk, were merchants. Julius Bär fought in the First World War and won the Iron Cross 2nd Class. After the War, he studied law at the University of Erlangen, where in 1923 he passed his State Examination and gained his doctorate. In the same year he was admitted to practise as a lawyer in Munich. From August 1922, Julius Bär lived at Schubertstraße 2 as a lodger, and it may be there that he met Fanny Haas. She lived with her family in the same house. Julius Bär and Fanny Haas were married on December 6, 1923. From 1924 the couple lived at Liebigstraße 39, and in 1936 they moved to Tengstraße 26.
The beginning of Nazi rule brought radical change to the life of Julius Bär. Following the emigration of his colleague, Wilhelm Levinger, Julius Bär carried on their law firm alone from 1938. In the course of the “Kristallnacht” pogroms on November 9, 1938 the Nazis deported him to Dachau concentration camp, not releasing him until December 10, 1938. A few days previously, on December 1, 1938, the Nazis had taken away his licence to practise as a lawyer. Julius Bär was now only permitted to work as a “Konsulent” (“consultant”) for Jewish clients. He moved his law firm from Neuhauser Straße 29, firstly to Weinstraße 11 and later to Tengstraße 26. On April 4, 1942 the Gestapo (Secret Police) deported Julius Bär and his wife Fanny to the Piaski ghetto in German occupied Poland. The conditions there were catastrophic. Life was dictated by the violent excesses of the SS, extreme hunger and indescribable hygienic conditions. It is not known whether Julius and Fanny Bär died there or were murdered in an extermination camp in the course of “Operation Reinhardt”. In 1956 and 1992, Julius Bär’s sister-in-law Ida Bär and his brother Moshe Bär created a “Page of Testimony” for him in Yad Vashem. (text Barbara Hutzelmann, editor C. Fritsche, translation C. Hales)
