Stumbling Stones in Chemnitz
Vera, Charlotte and Franz Philipp Schreiber
Franz Philipp Schreiber
Born: 30 May 1885
Died: after 27 March 1944
Sponsorship: Förderverein Industriemuseum Chemnitz e. V.
Charlotte Schreiber, née Bie
Born: 25.04.1896
Died: after 27.03.1944
Godparents: Tina and Martin Böhringer
Vera Schreiber
Born: 11.02.1930
Died: after 27.03.1944
Godfather: Andreas Nitschke
Installation location:
Marianne-Brandt-Straße 8Stumbling stone laying on:
6 May 2021
Life path
Franz Philipp Schreiber grew up in a long-established Jewish family of factory owners in Chemnitz. His father was Saul Schreiber, who lived in the city from 1874. He was co-owner of the mechanical weaving mill Seidler & Schreiber, which was one of the oldest Jewish companies in the city. Franz Philipp Schreiber's mother was the factory owner's daughter Henriette Dickmann. He had two older brothers, Bruno and Ernst.
When Franz Philipp was born, the Schreiber family moved into the house at Platanenstraße 8, which had been built at the time. He witnessed how his father and his partner Salomon Seidler expanded the company, located at Zwickauer Straße 60/62, into one of the most important companies in the upholstery fabric industry in the city. In addition to upholstery and carriage fabrics, they also produced embroidered curtains, blankets and borders.
In the spring of 1904, Saul Schreiber handed over the management of the company to his eldest son Bruno due to illness. In the autumn of 1910, 25-year-old Franz Philipp Schreiber finally became co-owner of the company.
He married Charlotte Bie on 2 November 1921 in Breslau. The couple had three children: Konrad, Klaus and Vera. The National Socialists' "boycott of Jews" hit the Seidler & Schreiber company with full force. The weaving mill was shut down in March 1939. Franz Philipp Schreiber recognised the danger his family was in from the Nazi state. Thanks to the support of the Einstein family of entrepreneurs from Chemnitz, who had emigrated to Manchester in 1937, their 16-year-old son Konrad was able to emigrate to England in April 1939. With the help of a Kindertransport, 14-year-old son Klaus also arrived there in July 1939.
On 20 July 1939, Franz and Charlotte Schreiber emigrated to France with their daughter Vera. A few weeks after their arrival in Paris, they were arrested and imprisoned in the "de Colombes" camp (Seine).
On 29 January 1940, the French authorities transferred them to a camp for foreigners near Vichy as "enemy aliens". Franz and Charlotte Schreiber were able to flee from there to Nice on 19 May 1940. They brought their ten-year-old daughter Vera to safety. She was supposed to grow up carefree in a nearby convent, but one day she betrayed herself. In 1944, Franz and Charlotte Schreiber were discovered underground and sent to the Drancy collection camp together with their daughter Vera. From there, they were deported to Auschwitz on 27 March 1944 and murdered.
Stumbling Stones in Chemnitz
It is a project against forgetting: stumbling stones have been laid in Chemnitz every year since 2007.
Embedded in the pavement, the memorial stones commemorate the tragic fates of fellow citizens who were persecuted, deported, murdered or driven to their deaths during the National Socialist regime.
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