Hedwig Zebrak

Hedwig Zebrak, first daughter of Josef Zebrak and Jenny Zebrak née Slon, was born on 9.5.1925 in Augsburg-Oberhausen, Mendelssohnstr. 1. She then lived at Pestalozzistr. 16 and finally at Ulmer Str. 228.

She was the same age as Liese Fischer, née Einstein, who remembers how, in preparation for Passover, the Zebrak children gathered with Liese Einstein and her brother Siegbert to collect Chametz bread [leavened bread] from the Jewish families in Kriegshaber and then burn it under supervision in a bonfire behind the synagogue in Kriegshaber.

On February 5, 1941, Hedwig's move as a 16-year-old to the Gut Winkel/Spreenhagen retraining camp, Brandenburg, was reported. This was a Hachshara camp for agricultural vocational training of young Jews in preparation for emigration to Palestine. How did Hedwig get there? Perhaps there was an Augsburg connection to the former owner and manager of the Gut Winkel institution, Simon Schocken, who had been co-owner of the department store chain "Schocken", which also had a branch in Augsburg in Maximilianstraße until 1939. On June 19, 1941, the camp in Gut Winkel was closed. From September 1, 1941, Hedwig was registered as an unmarried housemaid at Remboldstr. 1, with Benno Arnold, the former owner of the NAK (Neue Augsburger Kattunfabrik) and chairman of the Augsburg Jewish community. On April 1, 1942 she was considered de-registered and evacuated.

On April 3 or 4, 1942 she was deported to Piaski with her mother and sisters Rosa and Paula under transport number 669 in deportation list 37 - then she probably suffered the same fate as her mother. The official date of death is given as April 1942 which is unlikely because of the departure date of the transport on the following day.

Claudia Huber – translated by Wolfgang Poeppel