Heinrich Freundlich (27.6.1863 Weisendorf/Höchstadt district – 14.3.1943 Theresienstadt Concentration Camp), Pauline Freundlich (6.5.1873 Fellheim – 16.10.1942 Theresienstadt Concentration Camp), Leo Freundlich (22.1.1902 Munich – 25.11.1941 Kaunas/Lithua

Heinrich Freundlich came from Middle Franconia and moved to Munich in 1894. In 1901, he opened a fabric trading business on the third floor of the building at Nußbaumstraße 12, operating under the name Heinrich Freundlich OHG. In 1894, he married Pauline Heilbronner from Fellheim in Swabia. The marriage produced three sons, two of whom, Julius and Hugo, died in childhood. The youngest son, Leo, was born in Munich in 1902 and worked in his father’s fabric business in Nußbaumstraße.

After the November Pogrom, Jews were forbidden to engage in trade, which meant that the Freundlich family had to find a new way to earn a living. For a short time, they were able to do so by renting out rooms, until the trade office intervened and took away this source of income on September 16, 1939. The family had to leave the apartment at Nußbaumstraße 12 where they had lived since 1901; from July 18, 1939, they lived at Georgenstraße 99. In 1941, Leo Freundlich married the widow Hilde Klebe, née Zunz, who was 13 years his senior. Couples were still getting married immediately before the deportations since they hoped that they would be better able to withstand the extreme pressure of persecution if they were together.

However, on November 20, 1941, it was the turn of Leo and Hilde Freundlich to be deported to Kaunas, where they were shot five days later like all the other Jews from Munich on this transport. On February 27, 1941, Leo’s parents Pauline and Heinrich Freundlich were forced to move out of the apartment in Georgenstraße to the barracks at Knorrstraße 148; from November 18, 1941, they lived at the internment camp at Clemens-August-Straße 9. The Freundlichs were deported to Theresienstadt on June 23, 1942. They soon succumbed to the abysmal living conditions there: Pauline Freundlich died on October 16, 1942, Heinrich Freundlich on March 14, 1943.