The Engel Family from Cieplice Śląskie-Zdrój

The Engel family lived in the building at Hermsdorferstrasse 2 in Bad Warmbrunn, now at Pl. Piastowski 31 in Cieplice Śląskie Zdrój. The living quarters were upstairs, and downstairs is where Joseph Engel, a Jewish merchant from Rawicz (Rawitsch), ran a textile shop established in 1868. His wife’s name was Johanna, née Wermer, and she hailed from Ziębice (Münsterberg).

The tenement at Pl. Piastowski 31 in Cieplice Śląskie Zdrój / Photo by Marta Maćkowiak

Joseph and Johanna had 7 children: two sons, Walter and Otto (the first passed away at the age of one, and the second son would later inherit his father’s textile business), and five daughters: Gertrud, Rosalie, Elsa, Henrietta, Margarethe, and Paula.

Otto and his unmarried sister, Elsa, lived in their Cieplice apartment until the war. The remaining sisters got married and moved to larger cities: Henriette married Siegmund Schiftan and settled in Wrocław (Breslau), Rosalie moved to Żytawa (Zittau) with her husband Hermann Seiler, Gertrud lived with Gustav Schlesinger, and Paula with Willy (Wilhelm) Engel in Berlin. Margarethe, about whom the most is known, also moved to Berlin. On February 6, 1906, she married Georg Basch, a veterinarian from Wolsztyn (Wollstein), and they lived at Grosse Frankfurter Strasse 118 (now Karl-Marx-Allee). Their first son, Martin, was born on August 7, 1907.

Photos from the building at Pl. Piastowski 31 in Cieplice Śląskie-Zdrój / Photo by Marta Maćkowiak

Advertisement for Joseph Engel’s store in Warmbrunner Nachrichten from 1910

During World War I, Georg Basch decided to volunteer for the army as a veterinarian, leaving Margarethe alone for four painful years. In 1915, her father passed away, and two years later, she lost her son Martin, who died in Cieplice due to blood poisoning.

Georg returned from the war as an officer decorated with the Iron Cross. He continued his work as a veterinarian, and in 1918, along with Margarethe, they welcomed their daughter Ilse, and two years later, their son Josef Martin. Due to the economic crisis, life became financially challenging, and to maintain their previous standard of living, Georg had to conduct additional inspections of slaughter animals and meat at the nearby municipal slaughterhouse, a task he, as an animal lover, found difficult to bear.

Margarethe, on the other hand, assisted him in everything. Their daughter, Ilse, later recalled:

„My mom helped in the veterinary practice in Berlin, wrote reports and invoices in the evenings, enjoyed listening to my dad playing the piano, cello, or flute for relaxation. She had time and patience for many people to ease their troubles. A school friend with marital problems was immediately invited to stay with us for some time. In winter, she brought coal to a poor cobbler. She visited tuberculosis patients in sanatoriums. Playfully, they called her the community nurse.”

The first page of Margarethe Engel’s marriage certificate with a note regarding the adoption of the name Sara in accordance with the Nazi law – you can find more information about it in this article

On August 29, 1930, Georg passed away due to kidney disease. The veterinary practice had to be leased. In November of the same year, Margarethe’s mother, Johanna, who lived in Cieplice, also passed away.

When the Nazis came to power, Margarethe Basch moved to Sybelstraße 18 in the Charlottenburg district of Berlin. Her son, Josef, fled to London and then to the United States. Her daughter, Ilse, remained in Berlin. She married interior designer Werner Rewald and managed to survive the war in hiding.

Margarethe Basch continued to live in the apartment on Sybelstrasse with her sister Paula and her husband Wilhelm. Wilhelm died there on May 19, 1941, and less than a year later, on January 13, 1942, both sisters were deported to the ghetto in Riga. Ilse received the last sign from her mother on November 23, 1943. Of the transport, 15 people survived, but Margarethe Basch and her sister Paula never returned. Their sister Elsa was murdered in Theresienstadt in 1942, and the fate of the remaining siblings—Otto, Hedwig, Henriette, and Gertrud—is unknown.

Stolpersteine were placed in front of the house on Sybelstrasse in Berlin as a memorial for Margarethe and Paula.

Margarethe’s daughter, Ilse Rewald, passed away in 2005.