Jeanette Reichenbach
Owner of J. Reichenbach. Deported to Theresienstadt at eighty-two; died there on 25 October 1942.
Read Jeanette’s biography →One family · two Harz cities
The Wernigerode branch
Salomon Gustav Reichenbach was Jacob and Helene’s son and Adolf’s brother. The family line from Halberstadt to Jeanette, Fritz, Martha and Werner at Breite Straße 7 is documented in civil records.
The record that joins the branches
Not a surname match—a son named in a civil record
On 4 June 1883, the Göttingen registrar recorded the marriage of Salomon Gustav Reichenbach and Jeanette Rosenbaum. The entry identifies Gustav as a Halberstadt-born son of the late merchant Jacob Reichenbach and Helene née Heynemann.
That sentence makes Gustav the documented brother of Adolf Reichenbach and connects the Wernigerode household directly to the same family shown throughout this archive.
The decisive family line · German and English
„Salomon Gustav Reichenbach … geboren zu Halberstadt … Sohn des zu Halberstadt verstorbenen Kaufmanns Jacob Reichenbach und dessen Ehefrau Helene geborene Heynemann.“
“Salomon Gustav Reichenbach … born at Halberstadt … son of the late merchant Jacob Reichenbach of Halberstadt and his wife Helene née Heynemann.”
Source: Stadtarchiv Göttingen, Heiratshauptregister 1883, C 39 Nr. 164. The spelling Heynemann is the form used in this record.
Breite Straße 7
Jeanette’s name above the windows
The large “J. Reichenbach” sign did not stand for an abstract firm. It carried the initial of Jeanette Reichenbach.
Wernigerode had long barred Jewish residence. A regional history based on municipal records places Gustav among the first Jews admitted under Prussian authority in 1874. By 1876/77 he was listed at Breite Straße 697, today No. 7.
Jeanette’s dowry helped establish the business. The surviving research emphasizes that she—not Gustav—owned the shop and remained its proprietor, sitting at the till into the 1930s. Gustav registered the firm and served as managing director. Their only son Fritz eventually took over its operation.
The 1938 storefront photograph remains linked in the source list but is not reproduced while publication permission and the Dieter Oemler credit are being confirmed.
The address across time
A surviving building, four names
The licensed 2017 exterior and Daniel’s present-day research image keep the commercial address visible while the 1938 storefront photograph remains off-site pending permission.
Four lives at Breite Straße 7
Jeanette, Fritz, Martha and Werner
They belonged to one household but did not share one fate: two were murdered, one death remains disputed in the records, and one branch survived in Brazil.
Fritz Reichenbach
Gustav and Jeanette’s only son. Arrested on 10 November 1938 during the November pogrom; killed at Buchenwald on 22 November 1938.
Read Fritz’s biography →Martha Reichenbach née Pohly
Fritz’s wife and Werner’s mother. Forced into labor in Berlin; the surviving accounts of her death conflict.
Read Martha’s biography →Werner Reichenbach
Born in Wernigerode in 1914. Escaped with his wife Margarete in 1939 and rebuilt life in Brazil.
Read Werner’s biography →26 August 1938
The forced sale in the instrument’s own words
Fritz’s deed does more than record a change of owner. Clause 7 states that he “is a Jew” and that the transaction required higher approval under the April 1938 regulation governing Jewish property.
„… dass der Erschienene zu 2 Jude ist und dass … die Genehmigung der höheren Verwaltungsstelle für dieses Rechtsgeschäft notwendig ist.“
“That the person appearing as no. 2 is a Jew, and that the approval of the higher administrative authority is required for this transaction.”
Eleven weeks later Fritz was arrested; he died at Buchenwald four days before Dolf wrote the St. Moritz letter.
Persecution and divergent survival
The family did not leave Germany together
Fritz was murdered at Buchenwald in 1938. Jeanette was deported to Theresienstadt in September 1942 and died six weeks later. Martha was subjected to forced labor; her ultimate fate remains disputed between an Auschwitz account and a Berlin air-raid account.
Werner and his wife Margarete escaped in 1939. Their survival in Brazil belongs to the same continuing family history as Dolf’s reconstruction of life in the United States.
Principal sources
Follow the evidence
- Stadtarchiv Göttingen, Heiratshauptregister 1883, C 39 Nr. 164.
- Peter Lehmann, “Spurensuche — Jüdische Familiengeschichten in Wernigerode,” in Harz-Forschungen, vol. XXXVI (2023), pp. 107–115.
- Notarial deed, Urkundenrolle Nr. 79/1938, Wernigerode, 26 August 1938.
- Archived copy: Wernigerode in Jahreszahlen, J. Reichenbach at Breite Straße 7
Original address: www.wernigerode-in-jahreszahlen.de/content.php?data-id=422&datum=1902.00 - Wikimedia Commons: Wernigerode Stolpersteine