Samuel Rosenau
In the archives we can trace the founder of the Rosenau family, namely David Löw Model, born 1778 in Gunzenhausen, hop merchant and money trader. He and his wife Kahla, née Seeberger, had two children.
Daughter Elka (or Elkan), born in 1800, married Model Nathan Stettheim. After his death in 1858 she signed over to nephew Jakob Moses Gerst their house Rathausstrasse 8 , where he founded a banking house.
Son Model David, born 1802 in Gunzenhausen, was married to Jette Kreglinger. The two of them moved to Obernzenn and had 10 children. Six of the children, aged at that time between 15 and 25 years old, emigrated to America in the middle of the 19th century.
Two sons, Joseph and Jacob, remained in Germany and returned to Gunzenhausen with their parents in 1850. They still owned his father’s house at Auergasse 4, but later they lived in Hafnermarkt 18.
Son Joseph, the ironmonger, married the nine years older Rosa Rauh from Friesen.
In 1866, when Joseph was 23 years old, he and his wife Rosa had the very fine house at Burgstallstrasse 7 built. Their seven children were born there, five daughters and two sons. Look at Rosenau, Max
The ironmongery business must have prospered, as some years later Joseph also purchased the house at Hensoltstrasse 7. The business premises were probably located there. There is still a footpath between the two houses.
The two sons of the family, Max, born 01.11.1869 and Samuel, born 26.10.1870, registered their own business at this address on 13.07.1905, a month after their mother’s death. They dealt in hardware, cement, pitch and cutting tools. They ran the business together with their father, who had building work done in 1902 to put up a warehouse. There was a barn adjacent to the three garages opposite, and this was used for storage.
The family owned another warehouse with garden, located opposite the district court on Luitpoldstraße, now the site of the former agricultural college.
On their father’s death in 1917 Samuel Rosenau inherited the ironmongery and the house at Hensoltstrasse 7, while Max took the parents’ house at Burgstallstrasse 7.
Samuel and his wife Selma, born Nebel, from Harburg now ran the ironmongery business without their brother Max. They had three daughters,
Rosa *16.06.1905 in Gunzenhausen, married merchant Justin Lamm *21.01.1900 in Nürnberg. They had the son Max Lamm/bzw. Lamb and emigrated to England. Son Max Lamm moved to USA.
Toni *16.03.1907 in Gunzenhausen, married engineer Alfred Levy *06.03.1903 in Nürnberg.
Ilse *21.04.1908 in Gunzenhausen, married on 3. Juni 1933 merchant Adolf Rindsberg *18.11.1901 in Ühlfeld. They lived Marktplatz 5.
As of 1933 the youngest daughter Ilse ran the business with her husband Adolf Rindsberg from Ühlfeld and took over the house at Hensoltstrasse 7.
On Bloody Palm Sunday 1934 their brother Max Rosenau was killed. Shortly afterwards Samuel and Selma moved to Stuttgart.
They were probably afraid that it would be dangerous for them here too. Their daughter Ilse stayed in the town with her husband, as the family was looking for a buyer for the house and the business. In fact they also went on fact-finding trips to Palestine and to the USA, looking for a new home, as Walter Reed informed us.
And the Burgstallstraße house also needed to be disposed of. It was purchased by the lawyer Amrhein in 1935.
Georg Degenhart from Nürnberg bought the Hensoltstrasse property on 30th June 1936. He was a qualified ironmonger and hardware dealer and wanted to start up on his own.
However at this time funds were not allowed to be paid to Jewish house owners, the money becoming the property of the German Reich. However in order to enable the family to emigrate, Mr Degenhart sent the full purchase price as a postal transfer to Stuttgart, where Samuel and Selma Rosenau had already set up home as of 22.9.1934. The family was able to receive the money and so leave the country. The parents Samuel and Selma emigrated to Palestine, where Samuel died in 1940 in Tel Aviv.
Ilse and Adolf Rindsberg emigrated to Brooklyn New York on 16th March 1937. Widow Selma Rosenau moved to the USA to be with her daughter at some later date.
It is not known whether the two other sisters, Rosa and Toni and their husbands Justin Lamm and Alfred Levy were still living in Gunzenhausen at this time.
Walter Reed, Adolf Rindsberg’s nephew, who lived in a suburb of Chicago, wrote to us:
'Rosa Lamm and her husband Justin Lamm emigrated to England, their son Max Lamm to New York City'.
Walter Reed often met Selma and Ilse in New York at family reunions, together with Lazarus Eisen’s family from Burstallstrasse 4. He later took on the care of the childless couple Ilse and Adolf Rindsberg.
He wrote to us about other aspects of family life:
Adolf first worked in Brooklyn NY as a shop assistant, later as a sales representative in hardware and then they moved to Meriden Connecticut. There they took on an agency for shipping and deliveries to retail ironmongers and hardware dealers in Connecticut. Adolf died in March 1987 in Meriden and Ilse’s death followed on 23. 09.1991. As they had no children, I, as their nephew, was their only relative and looked after them a lot in their old age and when they were ill.
Mr. Reed visited us in Gunzenhausen several times since summer 2002 and was able to tell us a lot, for which we are very grateful.
The Degenhart family still owns the property.
After the war, they too were faced with financial claims, resulting in their more or less having to pay the purchase price once again. Georg Degenhart’s son told us that his father had met up with survivors of the Rosenau family again in Nürnberg, while they were on a trip to Europe. As he is no longer alive, we do not know who he met, but we suppose it could have been the widow Selma or her daughter Rosa, as Samuel Rosenau had already died by then and according to Mr. Reed his aunt Ilse Rindsberg never wanted to see Germany gain.