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Allan, Mindel und Shula Schwarz etwa 1924, Foto: Familie Schwarz -
Paula, Mindel und Jacob Schwarz im Jahre 1938, Foto: Familie Schwarz
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Stolperstein Mindel Schwarz, Foto: OTFW
Mindel Neugewirtz Schwarz
Mindel Neugewirtz Schwarz was born in Krościenko (pronounced Krohshenko), Poland, on November 24, 1894, the fifth of ten children to Yehuda Neugewirtz and Paye Amster. As a young woman, she moved to Berlin, Germany seeking better opportunities and met Jacob Schwarz. Mindel and Jacob married in Berlin in 1920 and set up their home in an apartment on Lothringer Strasse, where they raised three children – Allan, Shula, and Paula. Though short in stature, Mindel was a mover and shaker and made sure that even on their modest budget, her children were well dressed, educated, and given music lessons. She was known to be an excellent cook and even took French cooking classes.
By 1935, the new Nuremberg laws limiting Jewish civil liberties made it very difficult for the Jewish community. Emigration was almost impossible. Wanting to protect their children, Mindel and Jacob applied for visas for them. Allan was granted a Student Visa to the United States in October 1938 and Shula left for Palestine in July 1939 on Youth Aliyah. Feeling that their youngest, Paula, who was 8-years-old, was too young to send away on her own, Mindel and Jacob decided that she would stay with them in Germany.
Their hope for their family to remain together was dashed when Jacob was arrested by the Gestapo in late 1938 on some pretense and taken to Sachsenhausen, a Labor Camp outside Berlin. Not long after, Mindel and Paula were forcibly moved from their home to the opposite side of the city where Mindel was made to work as a Slave Laborer for Siemens Corporation.
Though Mindel had heroically been able to free her husband from Sachsenhausen in 1940, she was not able to save herself. On March 6, 1943, Mindel and a 12-year-old Paula were among 692 people sent to the Auschwitz Concentration Camp from a gathering place (sammelplatz) at a former kindergarten at the Levetzu Strasse Synagogue, on one of the last transports out of Berlin. Neither Mindel nor Paula survived.
An iron monument with the inscription of the number of victims, dates of the transports, and their final destinations marks the spot. Since it is unknown the exact date that they perished at Auschwitz, Mindel and Paula’s family recites the Mourners Kaddish for them on Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement.