Frieda Treu née Löwenthal

Frieda Treu, née Löwenthal, was born on 14 September 1884 in Stettin in the Prussian province of Pomerania (now Szczecin, Poland). At an unknown point in her life, she moved to Berlin, where she met her husband, Max Treu. He also came from Pomerania. Fourteen years her senior, he had two sons from his first marriage: Paul Max Willi Treu (born on 4 June 1895) and Martin Fritz Karl Treu (born on 13 September 1897). Max and Frieda Treu did not have any children.
While Frieda Treu was Jewish, her husband Max was a Protestant, but he had one Jewish parent. The Nazi regime therefore classified Max Treu as a “Jew by legal validity”, making Frieda Treu and her husband equally vulnerable to the anti-Jewish measures implemented by the “Third Reich”.
At the time of her deportation, Frieda Treu lived with her husband in the home of her elder stepson, Paul Max Willi Treu. He was the main tenant of a 3½-room apartment at Friedenstraße 27 in Friedrichshain, Berlin. He and his brother Martin Fritz Karl Treu, who lived in Koblenz, supported his father and stepmother financially.
On 29 June 1943, Frieda Treu was deported with her husband Max on the 92nd “transport of the elderly” to Theresienstadt. Before being deported, Max Treu had informed the authorities that his elder son was a Protestant and holder of a military passport, and had just recently returned home from the front due to illness. But it was to no avail. Frieda Treu died on 30 November 1943. A short time later – on 20 January 1944 – her husband Max also succumbed to the inhumane conditions in the camp. It is not known what happened to Frieda Treu’s stepsons.