Lederergasse 1 / Langegasse 5 (laid in 2010)
The Pollak Family
Via Brno and Theresienstadt to Auschwitz
Friedrich Pollak, born November 21, 1893, in Vienna, commercial representative,
Charlotte Pollak, née Adler, born February 28, 1896, in Eisenstadt,
daughter Gertrude, born 1920, and son Kurt, born 1923, both in Neunkirchen,
daughters Inge, born 1930, and Edith, born 1931, both in Payerbach.
The family went to Brno in 1938. From there they were deported on December 5, 1941, to Theresienstadt, and on June 13, 1942, further to Auschwitz, where they were murdered in the concentration camp.
The two older children, Gertrude Pollak (1920) and Kurt Pollak (1923), survived in exile in Palestine.
Friedrich Pollak had been born in Vienna and moved to Neunkirchen through his marriage to Charlotte Adler, where he worked in his wife’s shop. Even before their marriage, Charlotte had run a hat shop on Wiener Straße in Neunkirchen, where the couple lived for several years and where their first two children were born. The family then moved to Payerbach, where Mrs. Pollak ran a costume rental business and her husband worked as a representative for Eternit sheets. As a travelling salesman, he rode his motorcycle all over Austria. Their two youngest daughters were also born in Payerbach.
In 1931, the Pollak family, now with four children, moved to Wiener Neustadt, first to Kammangasse 5 and later to Lederergasse 1. Their eldest daughter Gertrude, who survived the Holocaust, still remembered well that her father was friends with cantor Moses Vogel and that the family was invited from time to time to the Vogel home for the Passover celebration. Since Friedrich Pollak did not hold Austrian but Czech citizenship, the family left for Brno in 1938. From there, Friedrich and Charlotte, along with their two younger daughters Inge and Edith, were deported on December 5, 1941, to Theresienstadt and on June 13, 1942, to Auschwitz, where they were murdered.
The two older children, Gertrude and Kurt, managed to flee from Vienna by Danube steamer as far as Tulcea, Romania, and then onward aboard the ship Milos to Israel, then still called Palestine.
Based on accounts from the daughter Gertrude Rosenberg (née Pollak), Tel Aviv, and The Jewish Community of Wiener Neustadt by Werner Sulzgruber.
Photos: Charlotte Pollak (© Gertrude Rosenberg, Israel)
The children of the Pollak family (© Gertrude Rosenberg, Israel)