21st May 1933
Lörrach
Postcard depicting 'Adolf Hitlerstraße' in Lörrach (postcard difficult to scan). Ref: 21.05.1933 (Note: Date on postcard cannot be read. On 21st May 1933 this street in Lörrach (Reichsstraße?) was renamed 'Adolf Hitlerstraße. The 15pf Hindenburg Medallion post-dates the re-naming (Mi.488, Aug. 1933; Mi.520, Apr.1934).
Lörrach
Lörrach is a city in southwest Germany, in the valley of the Wiese, close to the French and the Swiss borders. It is the district seat of the district of Lörrach in Baden-Württemberg. It is the home of a number of large employers, including the Milka chocolate factory owned by Mondelez International. The city population has grown over the last century, with only 10,794 in 1905, it has now increased its population to 49,382.
1945: Air raid on Brombach and Lörrach: On 24th April, French troops occupied the city.
Source: Wikipedia
One October morning in 1940, Nazi authorities in the small German town of Lörrach notified Jewish inhabitants that they had two hours to pack. The town’s Jewish residents were then deported to the Gurs internment camp in France.
This photograph (see website below) shows Nazi officials carrying out the deportations. Children peek from behind the line of deportees. Onlookers watch from a balcony above.
Most of the 65 Jewish people deported from Lörrach that day were later transported to Auschwitz, a killing center in occupied Poland. Few survived.
After the deportations in Lörrach, ads appeared in local newspapers promoting an auction of deportees’ property. Residents showed up to buy the belongings of their former neighbors.
In auctions across Germany, auctioneers, Nazi authorities, and the German state collected large sums from the sale of Jewish people’s possessions.
The people watching these auctions could not have known that most of those deportees would later be murdered. However, the auction signaled that they would not return to the town.
Many reading the newspaper in Lörrach on 22nd November 1940, would likely have seen this announcement for an auction of goods at 29 School Street. The apartment had belonged to two Jewish German women, Fanny Grunkin and her daughter, Marie. German officials had already deported the two Jewish women to a detention camp in France.
A neighbour later recalled: 'The Grunkin family had a beautiful apartment on School Street; the apartment was very well furnished. Nicest of all was Marie’s sewing machine.'
With the help of French authorities, German officials sent Marie to the Auschwitz killing center about two years later. She did not return. Fanny survived.
The advertisement read:
Movables – Auction By order I will auction the following items in Lörrach on Saturday, November 23, 1940, at 10 AM in the house at 29 School Street:1 bedroom suite consisting of 2 complete beds (steel), 1 wardrobe with double doors, 1 nightstand, 1 washstand, 1 table, chairs, 1 console, 1 two-door cupboard, 1 rolltop desk, 1 small table, 1 large table, 1 rattan chair, 1 rattan table, 1 couch, a dressmaker’s sewing machine, 1 dress form, mirror, fire screen, ironing board, 1 shoe rack, 1 dresser, 1 clothing rack, 1 kitchen buffet, 1 kitchen table, 2 stools, 1 gas range, 1 heating pad, 1 table clock, bedside lamps, 1 boucle rug, household and kitchen appliances, and ceiling light fixtures. Officially appointed and sworn auctioneer: W. Pfister Lörrach. 22 Palm Street. Telephone number: 2884
Source: https://exhibitions.ushmm.org/
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