19 1 BERNHEIM Moritz und Emelie

Apart from the common grave stone in the cemetery, the childless couple Bernheimer left no traces in Laupheim, in Buttenhausen, Lautertal where Moritz Bernheimer came from, it's different. In 1904, the Bernheimer Secondary School was opened. It is a municipal historical monument located in the middle of the town of Buttenhausen. In an arrangement very much atypical for the area, the school was built from an endowment established by the family business of Lehman Bernheimer (1841-1918)

With this endowment to his home town, he wanted to create a memorial to his family. This certainly warrants the inclusion of photograph of the school below. Today, the school contains a permanent exhibition on the history of the Jewish community. Unfortunately, there are no photographs or further information about Emilie or Moritz Bernheimer.

(From: Jews in Buttenhausen Series, Stadtarchiv Münsingen, Volume 3, page 67.)

Moritz Bernheimer operated a business, selling livestock and meat, textiles, and oil and fat products and lived in a rented house at 30 Konig-Wilhelm-Strasse located on the corner of Schillerstraße, starting insince 1925. Two older brothers of his, Josef and Heinrich Bernheimer, both single, came to Laupheim toward the end of the 19th century. They died between 1919 and 1920 and are buried in Laupheim.

In 1933 Moritz and Emilie Bernheimer moved to Kapellenstrasse 17. The Bernheimers were probably very ordinary people who never made any lasting impressions. As Nazism began to change their lives, their working careers ended, and both lived into their seventies. A merciful fate protected them from losing their home at an old age, to be dragged out of their house and deported by an inhuman system to be murdered. In the mid 1930’s, at the ages of 69 and 73, they died of natural causes, and were buried in Laupheim.