Benno Arnold

Benno Arnold was born in Augsburg on November 21, 1876, as son of Kommerzienrat Albert Arnold (1844-1913) and his wife Hermine Arnold, née Vogel (1841-1919). His parents’ house stood at 5 Bahnhofstrasse 1. He attended the Royal Bavarian Realgymnasium Augsburg (high school with focus on modern languages, maths and natural sciences) up to the “Single Year” graduation. (This is an Intermediate Maturity graduation after the 6th grade, “Single Year” meaning that students with this degree had to serve only one year in the army, instead of the standard three years.) The Royal Bavarian Realgymnasium had been existing since 1864. The class rooms were initially accommodated in the former Saint Catherine’s monastery. In 1878/79, the school moved into a new building on Blaue Kappe. In 1965, the high school was renamed to Peutinger-Gymnasium after Konrad Peutinger. ¹

Subsequently, Benno Arnold went through commercial training in Augsburg and in Paris. On November 11, 1902, he married Anna Kahn in Augsburg.² In January 1907, he joined the family business “Spinnerei und Weberei am Sparrenlech Kahn und Arnold”. When the two founders Aron Kahn (1841-1926) and Albert Arnold (1844-1913) resigned, he, the co-owners Alfred and Berthold Kahn and his brother Arthur Arnold managed the company.

Through an auction in 1885, Aron Kahn and Albert Arnold, founders of the spinning and weaving mill, existing since 1869, had become owners of a predecessor plant. The owners commissioned the construction company Thormann und Stiefel to erect three plant buildings in the style of the “Fabrikschloss” (“factory castle”) on the plot on Provinostrasse, acquired in 1885.³

In 1908, the company was already number eight of the biggest Augsburg textile mills by number of workers. The enterprise grew from initially 80 employees in 1885 to 940 in 1938. The staff was well taken care of. The company was very much aware of its obligation towards its employees. Welfare facilities for the workers existed, among them four company apartment buildings. In addition, a Savings Bank for the workers was established (without compulsion to join). The interest rate for deposits up to 500 marks was 5%, up to 1000 marks 4.5% and above 1000 marks 4%. In 1902, the voluntary deposits had reached an amount of 45’000 marks. Furthermore, a special invalidity pension fund was set up for the workers. Particular appreciation deserves the foundation of a fund dedicated to the support of female married workers who gave birth to a child.⁴

After World War I, the company contributed significantly to the rescue of the “Neue Augsburger Kattunfabrik (NAK) – with 80 percent, it became a major shareholder. Not only did the company produce cotton fabrics of all kinds, it also traded cotton fabrics and had an affiliate in Berlin. “The company is reliable, performs well and enjoys a very good reputation”, a statement of the Chamber of Industry and Commerce in 1930 says.⁵ The spinning and weaving mill reached from Provinostrasse to Prinzstrasse. According to the family document, the headquarters of “Spinnerei und Weberei am Sparrenlech” was located at 8 Provinostrasse. Benno Arnold acquired the property at 7 Prinzstrasse for 310’000 marks. There, a further spinning mill, parts of the wool warehouse, the factory yard, a car shed, a residential building, a greenhouse and a garden were located. The site was organized “strictly according to traditional German principles”, Henry Waterman remembers after World War II. Waterman continues:

“A man by the name of Turtur and his family lived on the company premises, so that he could be summoned day and night, whenever something was not in order, and that either he himself could take the necessary steps or, in special cases, inform Mr. Arnold, e.g., after normal working hours after 6 p.m. I only mention this to show that the site kept strict discipline. On the other hand, in their private lives, the owners were extremely fine people, always ready to help less affluent people. Part of the Synagogue was funded by them.“ ⁶

Benno Arnold’s commitment for less well-to-do people was also reflected by the fact that he was a member of the “Johannisverein” (a predecessor of the Diakonische Werk, the welfare organization of the Protestant Church). In addition, he was a member of the “Jüdische Winterhilfe” and regularly supported relatives and Jewish fellow-citizens in need.⁷ In World War I, from September 2, 1915 to April 4, 1919, Benno Arnold had served as Landsturmmann (auxiliary forces) at the Munich Pension Office (2nd Infantry Regiment).⁸

Over time, the Kahn and Arnold families also acquired 80 percent of another important Augsburg textile mill, the “Neue Augsburger Kattunfabrik (NAK)”.⁹ Even during the world economic crisis, the company was not threatened to go bankrupt and still had almost 1000 employees.¹⁰ In 1938, in the course of the “Aryanization”, the expropriation of Jewish citizens, the Kahn and Arnold families were forced to sell their shares of “Spinnerei und Weberei am Sparrenlech Kahn und Arnold” and those of NAK. The price was settled in new NAK stocks which however, as instructed by the Reichswirtschaftsministerium (Ministry of Economy), had to be sold again immediately in order to buy state bonds. These remained blocked till the end of the war. “Spinnerei und Weberei am Sparrenlech Kahn und Arnold” became an affiliate of the „Neue Augsburger Kattunfabrik“.¹¹ After the lost war, however, the Third Reich had ceased to exist. After 1945, the newspaper “Schwäbische Landeszeitung“ concluded: “Caused by these instructions, the Kahn and Arnold families had not received anything for the assets of their spinning and weaving mills.” ¹²

Back then, the owners of large enterprises preferred to live close to their plants, Benno Arnold not being an exception. Together with his wife Anna (1882-1942), daughter of co-founder Aron Kahn and wife Flora, née Farnbacher (1852-1898), he lived at 1 Remboldstrasse.¹³

Benno Arnold was not only active in his company and in the Jewish community whose vice president he had been since 1930.¹⁴ From the same year on, he was member of the Augsburg City Council for the “Democratic Economic Association”. Before 1933, he was a valuable consultant for the then Mayor in financial and economic questions, Else Eckert writes.

Else (Elisabeth) Eckert, née Kahn (1898 Augsburg – 1978 New York), was the youngest sister of Benno Arnold’s wife Anna Arnold, née Kahn. Else Kahn was closely connected to the Arnold’s until their deportation on August 12, 1942. From July 21, 1942 to January 10, 1944, she herself had to serve as forced laborer in the Augsburg balloon factory and was deported to Theresienstadt on January 13, 1944. She experienced the liberation of the camp and returned to her daughter in Augsburg. In 1948, together with her daughter Eva, she emigrated to New York. She died there in August 1978.¹⁵

Since its accession to power on January 30, 1933, the NS regime had been pushing the expulsion of Jews from public life with ever new measures and regulations.¹⁶ They were excluded from clubs and associations.¹⁷ Early on, also the expulsion of Jews from the economy began. The competitive envy of the commercial middle class which had been stoked for years discharged in wild actions against Jewish business people. In the context with the action for the “defense against atrocity propaganda abroad” initiated nation-wide on April 1, 1933, the National Socialist paper “Augsburger Lokalanzeiger” listed forty-three Jewish companies to be boycotted.¹⁸ Armed SA posts prevented customers from entering stores, law offices and medical practices. Even after the action was finished, the slogans “Germans, don’t buy from Jews!” and “Wenn Du ein guter Deutscher bist, kauf nicht beim Jud, kauf nur beim Christ!“ (If you are a good German, don’t buy from a Jew, buy only from a Christian!) continued to work. They were so effective that non-Jewish company owners had to emphasize their “Christian” descend in advertisements in order not to be harmed as well. Inflammatory articles and defamation stoked the increasing boycott of Jewish businesses.¹⁹

Benno Arnold and his wife Anna owned a house on the shore of Lake Ammersee, which they made available also to their friends in these times so difficult for Jews. Else Eckert remembers: “Together with his spouse he ran a house that was open for his family and for a wide circle of friends, (…) a house in the country open and hospitable to his friends. During a time, in which staying in a restaurant or simply in nature was hardly possible any longer for Jews, the house and the shore of the lake and the lake itself provided a place for the close-knit friends on Sundays and often longer.”Benno Arnold was a generous person and a great friend; he and his subtle wife made this place a sanctuary for their family and their friends.²⁰

They also provided extensive practical support: In a March 1, 1940 property declaration, Benno Arnold states that in 1939, he has altogether donated 4’400 Reichsmarks to the Jüdische Winterhilfe (“Jewish winter help”).²¹ Jüdische Winterhilfe supported the Jews who were excluded from public welfare with clothes and food donations; organization and distribution happened in the Synagogue. As late as in 1937, the Jewish community planned to build a gym, a retirement home and to open a restaurant – an indication that until the end, many Jews believed in a future in National Socialist Germany. While the restaurant was never approved, the retirement home could be implemented, thanks to a generous donation from the brothers Otto and Oskar Heymann. Benno Arnold was entrusted with equipping and managing the home. The Jewish Community was appointed heir; and after the brothers’ death, it received the patrician house on Maximilianstrasse. The Gauleitung (regional NSDAP party office), however, forbade the transaction with the justification, that in this street, used for parades and festivities, no building must be transferred to Jews – according to the “Nuremberg Laws” which had become effective on September 15, 1935, Jews were not allowed to hoist the swastika flag. After a property swap with 21 Frohsinnstrasse, thirty-two elderly people of Jewish belief found a home there. Photographs show, how lovingly Benno Arnold had it equipped with solid antique furniture, silver cutlery and precious porcelain, despite the times that were so difficult for Jews. At the inauguration ceremony in 1937, Alfred Neumayer, president of the Jewish Communities in Germany, called it exemplary.²²

The National Socialistic system was ready with yet a new series of regulations determined to restrict further rights of Jewish citizens and to deprive them of their economic existence. Marking the passports²³ and the mandatory first names Israel and Sara²⁴ represented a further step of escalation.²⁵

The 1938 November pogrom became a fanal for the Jews in Germany. In summer 1939, Dr. Eugen Strauss, President of the Jewish Community from the early thirties on, could leave National Socialistic Germany and emigrate to England. Benno Arnold, his deputy until then, took his office. Ludwig Friedmann (1880-1943), a very well-respected textile manufacturer, became his deputy.

About 400 Jews remaining in Augsburg were confronted with harassments getting worse from day to day. After the tenant protection was lifted in spring 1939 ²⁶ , many of them were quartered in so-called “Jews’ houses” or in a Barracks camp at 14 Geisbergstrasse, their homes taken over by Aryan “Volksgenossen” (people’s comrades). In many cases, whole families had to make do with only one room. Even in the rooms of the Synagogue which had remained untouched, numerous Jews had to live. And always, in this situation getting worse from day to day, Benno Arnold was needed. Else Eckert remembers: “In this context, Benno Arnold constantly tried to settle minor and major disagreements of the families crammed closely together.” ²⁷ But these are by far not all problems the Chairman of the Jewish Community was faced with: After the assassination of Ernst vom Rath on November 15, 1938, the regime ordered, that Jewish children must no longer attend public schools, since “after the nefarious Paris murder, it can no longer be imposed on German teachers to instruct Jewish pupils” and since “it is unbearable for German students to sit in one classroom with Jews.”²⁸ So, lessons for Jewish students had to be organized.

In 1941, the deportations to the East began. Augsburg served as a hub for the Swabian rural communities. These people also had to be taken care of. In order to escape the impending deportation, some members of the community committed suicide. Else Eckert noted: “During this whole time, he (Benno Arnold) had personal sorrows. His brother and co-owner Arthur Arnold was arrested twice; the second time, his ashes were sent from Dachau.” ²⁹ In July 1941, Arthur Arnold’s wife Grete, née Landauer, (born in 1889), put an end to her life. On August 12, 1942, Benno Arnold and his wife Anna were deported to Theresienstadt. It was a transport with altogether forty-five people leaving Munich for Theresienstadt with the transport code II/24). There, they were accommodated at 19 Badhausgasse, complex O3.³⁰ In December 1941, Anna Arnold had had to undergo a difficult surgery. She died in Theresienstadt on September 10, 1942. On January 13, 1944, Else Eckert, too, was deported to Theresienstadt. There, she met her brother-in-law Benno. He was half-starved and so emaciated, that she hardly recognized him.³¹ He died on March 3, 1944.³²

This is an excerpt from the biography compiled by Georg Walther, Augsburg University, during the 2013/2014 winter term. He attended Dr. Benigna Schönhagen’s proseminar at the chair for European Ethnology “National Socialism in Augsburg; history of persecution in the mirror of biographies of Augsburg Jews”. (Translation by Michael Bernheim)