Stumbling stones in Chemnitz

Louis Goldschmidt
Born: 06.01.1888
Died: 08.01.1962

Immediately after the transfer of power to the NSDAP on 30 January 1933, murderous violence against Jews also began in Chemnitz. Some of them were deported to the notorious "Hansa-Haus" restaurants in the city centre. The "Brown House", as the Nazi pub was known to the public, was one of the many places in Saxony where the "prisoners" were helplessly at the mercy of the guards. An "interrogation room" was set up in the upper rooms of the rear building.

One of the most notable victims was the factory owner Louis Goldschmidt, who came from a respected Jewish family from Eldagsen near Hanover. He was the co-owner of Textil-Syndikat Gesellschaft mbH, which had been based in the imposing industrial building on the corner of Glockenstraße 1/Dresdner Straße since 1930. A former senior employee went on record 15 years later:

"In late February or early March 1933, my boss at the time, Mr Louis Goldschmidt, who was in the 'Chemnitzer Hof' with business friends in the evening, was lured into the street on the pretext that he was wanted for questioning at the police station, which was located nearby. Mr Goldschmidt unsuspectingly complied with this request as he had nothing to accuse himself of. Instead of taking him to the police station, he was taken to the notorious Hansa-Haus cellar, where he was brutally abused and seriously injured for no reason at all. After the abuse was over, the injured man, who was bleeding profusely from numerous wounds, was forced to 'pluck tow' in a corner of the cellar for a while ... Mr Goldschmidt's family managed to get him to Switzerland after this bestial attack, where he hovered between death and life in a hospital for months."

Louis Goldschmidt was never to set foot on Chemnitz soil again. After he was brought back to the realm of the living thanks to the Swiss doctors, he stayed for a few weeks at the Hotel "National" in Lucerne, where he found the rest and regeneration he needed. He then lived for a while at the "Baur au Lac" hotel in Zurich, where he had also convened a shareholders' meeting for 27 October 1933.

Goldschmidt then returned to Berlin, where he had lived until the end of 1921. From there, he continued to manage the business of Textil-Syndikat GmbH and "Tesyra" Verkaufsgesellschaft mbH. According to the resolution of the shareholders' meeting on 30 September 1935, he resigned as managing director two days later, but remained the main shareholder.

At the beginning of September 1936, Goldschmidt moved his residence to London (Prince Albert Road). From there, he applied to the foreign exchange office in Chemnitz to take over the general agency for all of the textile syndicate's activities. Nevertheless, Goldschmidt was unable to avert the forced sale of his shares in Textil-Syndikat GmbH. The "Tesyra" sales company had already been liquidated at the end of 1937.

When the Second World War began, Goldschmidt was living in Leek, a market town in the county of Staffordshire. In the meantime (1937), he had founded a new hosiery factory in Leicester. With the help of the P.A. Bentley company, he had previously developed a modern hosiery machine with which he was able to produce high-quality men's and women's socks under the Pantherella brand.

As a foreign national, Louis Goldschmidt was interned in autumn 1939. He was granted British citizenship on 3 May 1947. He lived in London again in 1961/62. Two days after his 74th birthday, the former Chemnitz entrepreneur died on 8 January 1962 in the Marylebone district of London. In accordance with his last wishes, he bequeathed half of his fortune to two Jewish retirement homes and a foundation for cancer research (Imperial Cancer Research Fund).

Relatives of Louis Goldschmidt visited the city of Chemnitz last year.

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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