Stumbling Stones in Chemnitz

Johannes Paudler
Born: 17 August 1901
Died: 14.08.1985

Nanny Paudler,
née Fröhlich, gesch. Arnsdorf
Born: 23.05.1908
Died: unknown

Mr and Mrs Paudler were among the countless families in Chemnitz who were classed as living in a "mixed marriage" according to Nazi racial doctrine. Due to their status, the spouses categorised as "Jewish" were spared deportation until shortly before the end of the war. Nevertheless, they were often subjected to abstruse harassment, as Nanny Paudler's ordeal testifies.

Nanny Fröhlich came from Ratibor (Upper Silesia) and was, as she herself wrote, "fully Jewish by birth". She attended primary school and grammar school up to upper secondary school. She then learnt the tailoring trade, passed her journeywoman's examination and graduated from Professor Lange-Schlaffke's School of Arts and Crafts in Breslau. She then joined the fashion house Willy Gerichter in Breslau, where she remained for two years until her marriage to the doctor Dr Nathan Selmar Arnsdorf in Grüna in September 1930. The marriage soon fell apart.

Nanny Arnsdorf entered into her second marriage in April 1933 with the publishing agent Johannes Wilhelm Ferdinand Paudler (known as Hanns), who came from Bohemia. As a result, she acquired Czechoslovakian citizenship. She also converted to the Roman Catholic Church. When the break-up of Czechoslovakia (1939) meant that she no longer had the protection of foreign citizenship, she faced imminent arrest due to her "racial affiliation" and her husband's anti-fascist stance.

In order to protect her life, Nanny Paudler, with the help of the lawyer Dr Heinrich Emmerich, obtained the initiation of descent proceedings with the intention of no longer being considered a "full Jewess" on the basis of the Nuremberg racial legislation. These descent proceedings dragged on for two years. During this time, she was subjected to the greatest humiliations and mental stress through investigations and interrogations by the NSDAP's Racial Policy Office in Berlin and the public prosecutor's office in Chemnitz. In May 1940, she was actually declared a "first-degree half-breed".

In the meantime, the couple had given up their flat on Kaßberg (Helenenstraße 60) and moved to the Reichenhain neighbourhood. When one of the Nazi functionaries there learnt of Nanny Paudler's Jewish origins, he tried to continuously instigate intrigues against the couple.

Months of fear and worry began again. To escape further persecution, the couple were forced to leave Chemnitz in January 1944. They went into hiding in Silesia and on the Baltic Sea. As a result of the turmoil and nervous crises, Nanny Paudler lost her expected child in the 6th month due to a miscarriage.

The couple found refuge in Berlin with Nanny's sister Leni Mendel under a false name. As a result of the miscarriage, Nanny Paudler had to undergo an operation at Buch Municipal Hospital. During this time, her husband was arrested by the Gestapo in her sister's flat. Nanny Paudler now also expected to be arrested. Her attempt not to fall into the hands of the Gestapo alive was thwarted by a doctor, who first kept her under morphine and then assured her that he would find ways and means to keep her out of the Gestapo's grasp.

As the Gestapo unit that had arrested Hanns Paudler was only interested in Jews and had failed to enquire about him in Chemnitz, he was released. As Leni Mendel had also been arrested and sent to Ravensbrück, the couple then went completely into hiding.

When Hanns Paudler was warned that he had been denounced by a neighbour for refusing to serve in the Volkssturm, the couple left Berlin at night in February 1945 and fled to Wernsdorf in the Erzgebirge. The mayor there took the couple in without the required registration with the relevant labour office and military registration office. On 7 May 1945, Hanns Paudler and his friend, the paediatrician Dr Otto Jäger, were supposed to appear before the court martial in Marienberg, as they had expressed their joy at Hitler's death too openly and had created a defence organisation in Wernsdorf. They were not brought before the court martial because the Red Army liberated Wernsdorf on the night of 6 to 7 May 1945.

The marriage was divorced according to a ruling by the Chemnitz district court on 1 July 1948. Nanny Paudler had already left for Groß-Glienicke (Osthavelland) in May 1948. Hanns Paudler, who had actively campaigned for the demolition of the town, entered into another marriage on 20 October 1948. The couple later moved to Düsseldorf.

Author: Dr Jürgen Nitsche

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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