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The Jewish Community of Laupheim and its Annihilation

Book Pages 39 - 41

ADLER, Julius,  

 

Livestock trader, 4 Synagogenweg

 

 

Translated by: Laura Beach
 Supervisor: Renee Remy, M.A. Deutsche Linguistik
 Staatlich geprüfte Übersetzerin für Englisch und Technik
 Fremdspracheninstitut der Landeshauptstadt München

KARL NEIDLINGER /  DR. UDO BAYER

Julius Adler, farmer and rancher, born October 17, 1882 in Laupheim, died 1958 in the USA. Married Paula née Obernauer, born  February 8, 1890 in Laupheim, died 1987 in Louisville, USA. Emigrated to the USA in August 1938.

– Erich, born  February 24, 1913 in Laupheim, emigrated to the USA  January 25, 1937, died 1982,

– Lore, born June 19, 2015  in Laupheim, emigrated to the USA  October 18, 1937, married Jack Silverman in 1948.

 

Of the “Judenberg Adlers” (a large family that had been based in Laupheim since the middle of the 18th century) this was the only family to live in the city in 1933.

 

The family of Julius Adler in the year 1936, shortly before their paths diverged and

son Erich became the first to emigrate. (Photo: Lore Silverman, Louisville, USA)

   

Julius Adler had sixteen siblings who were born between 1873 and 1894. Only seven of the children reached adulthood. Most of these later married abroad, as did Julius‘ niece Erna. She became the wife of Ulm’s well-known Alfred “Friedl” Moos, who was one of the few Jews to return to Ulm after the war.

Paula Oberauer – also of old Laupheimer lineage – and Julius Adler married in 1912. From 1916 to 1918 he served in the First World War as an artilleryman and driver in an artillery regiment. When he was drafted in 1916, he was already 34 years old, and he listed his civilian occupation as “farmer and trader.” He had a cattle, horse and meat trading business and ran a small farm right next to the synagogue. He wasn’t the only one to have done this: In the 19th century a number of established Jewish families had taken advantage of the equal rights offered them and acquired land for agricultural use, which the traditional cattle trade naturally complemented and facilitated.

The 1928 advertisement in the Laupheimer Verkündiger is one of few written sources which could be found about the family. The text sounds unintentionally ironic to today’s readers; it certainly doesn’t  say that the Adlers were among the less affluent families. This wouldn’t have been correct. Beginning in 1931 his daughter Lore attended the Laupheimer junior high school, which poorer families could not afford at that time.

 



[Since April 15, Seeking a diligent, honest maid, who has experience serving in better homes.  Mrs. Julius Adler, next to the Synagogue]

Lore Silverman, née Adler, was among the former residents of Laupheim who returned in 1988 when the city first invited its former Jewish citizens to visit their birthplace. Later, she gave her memoirs to the Museum of the History of Christians and Jews. In it she says the following about her family and her own destiny:


 

“I attended the Jewish elementary school in Laupheim for five years; then I went to the junior high school for three years. In the last year all Jewish students were excluded. I had to go to school in Herrlingen near Ulm. There was nobody left who would speak with one. Everyone turned away from us. The situation was getting worse, so I decided to leave Germany.”

“While waiting for my visa I attended a cosmetology course in Berlin. In October 1937 I left Germany for the USA. My brother Erich had gone there in January. Carl Laemmle, a distant relative of my mother, furnished us all with affidavits so we could come to the US. My parents left Germany in August 1938.”

“I saw Laemmle for the last time in New York shortly before his death. Of course, we all have warm memories of him. He was a “crusader” for all Laupheimers. I settled in New York and took classes at a beauty school. After graduating I worked in a salon. I met my future husband in 1947; we were married in 1948. My brother Erich worked in a scrap metal company and gradually became self-employed. He was drafted into the Army, where he served until 1946. After his return to civilian life he resumed his business, married, and had two children. In 1982 he died. My father fell ill in 1941 and died in 1958. I went with my husband in 1951 to Louisville, Kentucky; after my father died, my mother moved in with us. She died at the age of 97 years.”

“I had very mixed feelings in 1988 when I was invited to visit the city of Laupheim and its citizens again. The suffering that had been inflicted on us, the uprooting from our place of birth, was very difficult to overcome. I was among those favored by fortune, for whom life in the United States was very pleasant. We have two beautiful sons who are both very attached to us. They are married; one has twins.”




Lore and Jack Silverman in 1989 during a reunion of the Bayer family in Chicago. Jack Silverman, who died in 2002, came from Tarnopol in Galicia. He worked in the furniture industry in the US, where he became prosperous. Lore, née Adler, now lives at an advanced age in Cleveland, Ohio.

(Photo from the archive of Dr. Bayer)


 

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