Melitta Elisabeth (Melly) Holländer was born in Darmstadt on January 8, 1894, the daughter of the physician Dr. Julius Holländer and his wife Emilie, née Landsberg. Nothing is known about her childhood and adolescence. On August 14, 1923 she married Max Wallach, who managed a weaving and fabric printing works in Dachau for the fashion store Trachtenhaus Wallach at Residenzstraße 3, which was run by his brother and well-known far beyond Munich. It is possible that Melitta Wallach met her future husband in the art gallery Volkskunsthaus Wallach established by him and his brother at Ludwigstraße 7, where she worked. On May 22, 1924 their son Franz Julius was born in Munich. The young Jewish family lived in Dachau. Close family and business ties also took them frequently to the Bavarian capital. They could be found especially often in the fashion store at Residenzstraße 3, where the fabrics produced in Dachau were sold.
The Nazis “aryanized” the Trachtenhaus Wallach and the weaving works in Dachau. In the course of the “Kristallnacht” pogroms Melitta and Max Wallach were driven out of Dachau with their 14 year-old son on November 11, 1938. They now lived in Munich with Max Wallach’s sister, Betty Epstein. Melitta and Max Wallach were able to send Franz to England in August 1939 on one of the last children’s transports, and so to save his life. They themselves went to stay with relatives in Paderborn in 1939. Their relatives who had escaped to the USA made every effort to enable them to join them, but in vain. On July 21, 1942 the Gestapo (Secret Police) deported them together with Melitta Wallach’s mother, Emilie Holländer, from Münster to Theresienstadt ghetto. Emilie Holländer died there. On October 28, 1944 the SS deported the Wallachs to Auschwitz extermination camp and murdered them both.
Melitta Wallach’s son Franz anglicised his name and called himself Frank Wallace. He became a professor at the University of Bath and was a recognised expert on diesel engines. Prof. Frank Wallace died in Bath in 2009. (text Barbara Hutzelmann, Jamie Hall, editor C. Fritsche, translation C. Hales)
