Raugasse 4 (laid 2014)

The Schneider Family

Imprisoned in the „Transit Ghetto“ Rejowiec in Poland

Ernst Schneider, born March 1, 1893, in Brno.
Helena Hella Schneider, born April 4, 1895, in Stanislau,
Alfred Schneider, born August 26, 1925, in Vienna.
In 1938, the family emigrated to Brno. They were deported on March 31, 1942, to Theresienstadt and from there on April 18, 1942, to Rejowiec („Transit Ghetto“). Murdered during the executions carried out there or in the nearby extermination camp in Sobibor.

Ernst Schneider had not only completed commercial college but also a school for electrical engineering. He had also enjoyed musical training and played the cello and piano. Professionally, he worked as a civil servant in the War Grain Society and worked both as an electrical merchant and in the textile industry.

The family probably entered from Czechoslovakia, then lived in Vienna in the 20th district, and moved to Wiener Neustadt in 1930 to Gymelsdorferstraße 1. In the 1930s, Ernst Schneider lived with his wife and child in Raugasse 4/7 and worked as a merchant.

In 1938, Ernst Schneider wanted to emigrate and gave the emigration office of the Israelitische Kultusgemeinde Vienna a detailed account of his professional qualifications in order to increase his prospects of emigration. Any work in exile was acceptable to him. He described his wife in May 1938 as a „bookkeeper capable of preparing balance sheets,“ „independent correspondent,“ and „perfect cook.“ About his son, who was still a student at the time, he stated that he was „very intelligent“ and „particularly suitable for tutoring.“

His efforts bore no fruit, and so the family of three left Wiener Neustadt at the end of June 1938 to move to Vienna (or Brno). The family did, in fact, manage to emigrate to Czechoslovakia, but further plans for emigration never materialized. All three were deported from Brno to Theresienstadt on March 31, 1942, and from there transported to Rejowiec in Poland on April 18, 1942, where a ghetto (a so-called „transit ghetto“) and a forced labor camp existed. If they did not die there – for example, during the executions carried out – then they may have been taken to a nearby extermination camp, such as Sobibor, and murdered. Ernst, Helena, and Alfred became victims of the Shoah.

Werner Sulzgruber