We are pleased to present a 3D matzevah model along with the history of Gertrud Oyres (1876 – 1923) based on archival research. The matzevah can be found in the New Jewish Cemetery near Lotnicza Street in Wrocław.
We know that Gertrud Krimke was born in Breslau. The date inscribed on a marble – Ark of the Covenant shaped – matzevah is confirmed by indices from the Civil Registry Office in Wrocław. The birth certificate has unfortunately not survived (we only know its number: 4548), and her Death Certificate from the year 1923 does not list her parents.
We are thus left only with conjectures, ones which are nonetheless founded on relatively solid premises. For at the time that Gertrud came into the world on 1 December 1876, the Breslau address ledgers specify only a single family with the name Krimke.
They were Jews – master glassmaker Heimann Krimke and his wife Ernestine née Littauer. They resided at what was then Goldene Radegasse 26 (today the southern stretch of Kazimierza Wielkiego Street between Ruska to Krupnicza Streets). The glassmaking facility was located on the ground floor of a tenement house and the family lived above it.
If this indeed was Gertrud’s family, then it is likely that she was born in the family home – as was her older brother Alfred (born 13 November 1875) as well as her younger brother Hermann (born 20 April 1878). The birth intervals between the siblings likewise increase the probability that Gertrude came from this particular family. Another bother, Salo, was born much earlier on 5 April 1863.
Gertrud’s Marriage Certificate could offer insight into the identity of her parents. However, having sifted through over two thousand Marriage Certificates from the years 1900—1903, in both of the Breslauer Civil Registry Offices, the search ended in a fiasco. The extant indices from the years 1888-1900 likewise show no record of Gertrud’s marriage. Perhaps the two were married outside of Breslau?
Nonetheless, based on the documentation of the Jewish Religious Community we know that Gertrud Krimke was married to the merchant Gustav Oyres. We assume that the marriage took place at the beginning of the twentieth century, because the first son of Gustav and Gertrud, Karl, was born on 26 September 1903. At the time, the young couple lived in an apartment on the first floor of the then Augustastr. 118 (after the war, this street was divided into three streets: Szczęśliwa, Pabianicka, and Wesoła). Subsequently, they moved to a third-floor apartment on Höfschenstr. (Zielińskiego) 30. It is at this time that Gustav Oyres – along with his father – managed the fashion store “H. Oyres und Sohn,” located on the first floor of Tauenzienstr. (Kościuszki) 7, in which they sold women’s garments.
The subsequent record of housing registration that exists for Gustav and Gertrud is in the very center of town – the fourth floor of a tenement at Schmiedebrücke (Kuźnicza) 48. In 1907, “H. Oyres und Sohn” disappears from the Breslau address ledgers, but Gustav is still listed as a merchant. Residing on a higher floor may signify a financially challenging time for the Oyreses, as the first two floors were usually more expensive.
However, soon thereafter, on 25 September 1909, Gertrud gives birth to a second son, Hans Rudolf, on the second floor of Augustastr. – though this time in tenement number 15. By then, the Oyreses had been in possession of a telephone for at least a year. It was possible to call them by dialing the number 7442. Gustav develops a furniture business. By his name the profession “furniture dealership” appears with a headquarters listed on Frankfurterstr. (Legnicka) 93.
During WWI, Gertrud’s older brother, Alfred, dies in a hospital in Duisburg as a result of injuries.
About eight years later, on Thursday, 8 March 1923, Gustav reports the death of his wife. Gertrud died on this day at three in the morning in her apartment at Augustastr. 15. The cause of death is not indicated on the Death Certificate. She passed away at the age of 46.
Gertrud’s body was delivered to the funeral home at Jüdischer Friedhof an der Flughafenstraße (the Jewish cemetery near what today is Lotnicza Street) on Friday at 9:30 AM. With equal scrupulousness, the graveyard book of this necropolis records the time of burial as Sunday, 11 March at 4:00 PM. From these documents, we also know that a fee was paid to decorate the funeral home for the ceremony, as well as for the hire of a harmonium player and a singer.
The matzevah that stood on Gertrud’s grave has the shape of the Ark of the Covenant. Its top was decorated by an ornament, which was torn off. The top front features the common matzevah acronym ת נ צ ב ה TNCBH, a verse from the first Book of Samuel (25:29): “May his soul be bound up in the bond of eternal life.” Below the inscription, the space is divided into two parts. Gertrud’s information can be found on the right, and the left was surely intended for the future inscription of information about Gustav Oyres.
How is it that this never happened? We cannot be certain, but we have a few hypotheses. The first of which is that Gustav Oyres remarried. His chosen one was Johanna Bernstein with whom, until 1939, he shared the same apartment as the one in which Gertrud died (Augustastr. 15). After 1939, Gustav disappears from address ledgers. It is possible that he departed with his son and nephew. The files of Hans Oyres and Herbert Oyres (the son of Gustav’s brother Siegfried), located in the Wrocław State Archive contain an assortment of documents, which mention their immigration as early as 1939. The secret police attempted to ascertain the state of their assets in order to seize them and block the transfer of funds into foreign accounts. On 3 July 1939, Hans’ German citizenship was revoked. They both died in England – Herbert in 1982 and Hans in 1984. However, thus far we have not been able to find additional information related to the ensuing fate of Gustav.
Perhaps it will be possible to establish contact with their descendants.
Author: Alan Weiss, “Spod Ziemi Patrzy Breslau” Initiative
Sources:
- Wrocław State Archive (AP Wrocław), Wrocław Civil Registry Office Ledgers
- Documents of the Jewish Religious Community in Wrocław
- com
- Family Search
