The Meier & Karoline Eisenfresser MAYER Family

 
The Mayer family did not come to Themar in the manner of many other Themar Jewish families, that is, it was not the parents who came first, had children, some of whom remained in Themar, some of whom moved on to other places. With the Mayers, it was one duaghter who first came to Themar, the youngest, Nanett, who married Moritz Levinstein. Levinstein had an appointment as Lehrer to the Themar community and other small places, such as Marisfeld. When Levinstein was called to WWI, his father-in-law, Meier Mayer, came to Themar to replace him for the period. Meier and his wife, Karoline Eisenfresser had lived most of their lives in Schnaittach in Bavaria and raised their family of 9 children there. But by 1914, there were no Mayer families in Schnaittach — they had either emigrated to the United States or migrated elsewhere within Germany — and Meier had retired from his many years of religious service. With no family in Schnaittach to keep them in Schnaittach, the move to Themar was long-term.

After WWI, Frieda Mayer Wolf, whose husband, Heinrich had been killed in the war, moved to Themar to be with her parents and her sister, Nanett. She brought her children with her, Flora, b. 1909 and Albert, b. 1914. Moritz returned from the war and in 1919, the Levinsteins had a son, Heinrich. The Levinsteins, Wolfs and Mayers were much remembered families from the 1920s and 1930s: in 1926, at ninety years of age, Meier Mayer died and was buried in Marisfeld. In the mid-1930s, as the Nazi threat escalated, the 1930s, Albert Wolf was the first of the Themar young people to leave, followed closely by Heinrich Levinstein; both went to Mayer family members living in the United States. Meier died in Themar in 1926 at age 90; Moritz Levinstein was arrested in the Kristallnacht pogrom and it is unclear whether he was murdered in Buchenwald and his body dumped in the Werra River to be found as a suicide, or whether he did commit suicide. From 1938 on, Frieda and Nanett made plans to emigrate: in 1940, their mother, Karoline Eisenfresser Mayer, and her sister, Klara Eisenfresser, moved to Berlin to live in an Altersheim/Old People’s Home. Both old women died in early 1940.

Good Luck favoured Nanett and Frieda and both left Europe on some of the last ships to carry refugees in the summer of 1941: Nanett travelled alone from Barcelona to New York; Frieda travelled with her daughter, Flora, and Flora’s husband, Herbert Müller.

Meier MAYER, b. 1836 Ansbach, d. 1926 Themar

+. Karoline EISENFRESSER, b. 1947 Oberthulba, d. 1940 Berlin

1. Moses MAYER, b. 01 Apr 1867 Schnaittach, d. aft 1926 {Köln]

+. unkn/unbek.

2. Dr. Ernst MAYER

+. unk/unb.

3. Renata MAYER

1. Jacob MAYER, b. 12 Jun 1869 Schnaittach, d. 1928 NY/NY

+. Sophie, b. 1876 Brooklyn/NY

1. Sol MAYER, b. 01 Aug 1871, d. 1953 Brooklyn/NY

+. Beckie STRAUSS, b. 1874 Brooklyn/NY

1. Eva MAYER, b. 15 Apr 1873 Schnaittach, d. 1963 Winthrop/MA.

+. Morris HAMBRO, b. abt 1860 England

1. Abraham MAYER, b.1875 Schnaittach, d. 1972 NY/NY

+. Alma FALK, b. 1892 NY/NY, d. 1980 [NY/NY]

1. Hermann MAYER, b. 1877 Schnaittach, d. 09 Aug 1942 Munich [suicide]

+. Hedwig

2. Ilse MAYER, b. Hof [em]

+. Ferdinand ODENHEIMER, b. Metz/France [em]

1. Infant MAYER, b. 1878 Schnaittach

1. Frieda MAYER, b. 1881 Schnaittach, d. 1949 NY/NY

+. Heinrich WOLF, b. Sulzbürg, d. 1915 WWI

2. Flora WOLF, b. 1909 Sulzbürg, d. 2000 NY/NY

2. Albert WOLF, b. 1914 Sulzbürg, d. 2002 NY/NY

1. Isaac MAYER, b. 1883 Schnaittach, d. 1971

1. Nanett MAYER, b. 1889 Schnaittach, d. 1990 Syracuse/NY

+. Moritz LEVINSTEIN, b. Sontra, d. 1938 Buchenwald

2. Heinrich Henry LEVINSTEIN, b. 1919 Themar, d. 1986 Syracuse/NY