According to the literature the cloth factory of the town of Parchim belonged to the brothers Leo and Rudolf Gumpert from 1910 [1][2], whose family had lived in Parchim since the early 19th century and had been active in the cloth trade [2][7]. According to Doreen Frank the brothers leased the factory in March 1938 to its technical manager Friedrich Wöhrle and sold it to him under duress on 22 December 1938 in the course of the "Aryanization" [1], which further sources confirm for December 1938 [5]. Rudolf Gumpert's villa at Buchholzallee 7 became the town's "Judenhaus" (house for forcibly housed Jews) after 1939 [1][2][6].
The family and the factory
Schlomann Gumpert, who was born in Parchim in 1804, received a grand-ducal writ of protection in 1836 that allowed him to trade from an open shop [2], and the trade directory of 1862 lists in Parchim, in Lindenstraße, a drapery and dry-goods business ("Manufacturwaarenhdl.") of Schlomann Gumpert [7]. According to the Jewish Museum Berlin, his grandsons Rudolf and Leo Gumpert bought a cloth factory in the town in 1910 and named it "Tuchfabrik Schlomann Gumpert" [2], and Frank and the Stolpersteine list likewise give the year 1910 for the start of the brothers' ownership [1][4]. Leo Gumpert was born in Parchim on 16 June 1877 [4][8], while Rudolf Gumpert lived from 1880 to 1940 [2]. Joods Monument names Gustav Gumpert and Helene née Müller as Leo's parents [8], and the Jewish Museum Berlin states that Gustav Gumpert died in 1930 and that his sons Leo and Rudolf expanded the business as far as Hamburg [3]. In 1937 a branch was founded in Hamburg [2].
1933 to 1938
On 1 April 1933, the day of the boycott of businesses owned by Jews, Rudolf Gumpert had the Israelite Community of Parchim certify that his family had lived in the town for generations [2]. According to Frank the brothers continued to receive state orders for fabric production during the National Socialist period, since Mayor Prestin, among others, supported this, so that at the time of the "Aryanization" the factory was 90 percent occupied with state orders [1].
1938: lease and forced sale
| Date | Event | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 1937 | Branch in Hamburg; the family of Leo Gumpert moves to Hamburg in August | [2][1] |
| March 1938 | The factory is leased to its technical manager Friedrich Wöhrle | [1] |
| November 1938 (pogrom) | Rudolf Gumpert is arrested and held in the prison at Alt Strelitz; Leo Gumpert is taken to Sachsenhausen concentration camp and held there until 23 November 1938 | [3][4] |
| 22 December 1938 | "Aryanization": forced sale (according to Frank to the lessee Wöhrle [1]) | [1][5] |
After the forced sale the family's assets were confiscated [2]. The Jewish Museum Berlin writes that the brothers became entangled in an "agonizing legal battle" with the buyers, but gives no details on the buyer or the price [3][2]. The community website lists the factory among the businesses "Aryanized" before 1939/40 [6].
The fate of the owner families
- According to the Stolpersteine list Leo Gumpert lived at Lindenstraße 38 [4], while Frank gives Buchholzallee 16 [1]. He moved to Hamburg in August 1937 [1] and emigrated with his wife Gertrud to the Netherlands (Winterswijk) on 15 July 1939 [1][4][5]. He died on 24 March 1945 in Bergen-Belsen concentration camp [4][8], and his son Ernst-Otto, who had been born in Parchim in 1920, died there on 2 April 1945 [1][4]. His daughter Frieda, born on 6 April 1913, was in the Bendorf-Sayn care institution in 1939/40 and was deported in 1942, Frank naming Izbica as the destination and the Stolpersteine list and the family chronicle naming Sobibor [1][4][5].
- Rudolf Gumpert lived with his wife Margaretha and their daughter at Buchholzallee 7, and after 1939 the villa became the "Judenhaus" into which the remaining Jews of Parchim were assigned [1][2][6]. He died in December 1940 [1]. Margaretha Gumpert was arrested on 11 November 1942 and, according to Frank, deported from Parchim to Theresienstadt, but according to the Stolpersteine list and the Jewish Museum Berlin to Auschwitz in November 1942, where she died in 1942 [1][2][4]. The daughter Lieselotte and Rudolf's sister Paula survived [2].
- Stolpersteine for Leo, Margarethe and Ernst-Otto Gumpert were laid in Lindenstraße in Parchim [4][6].
After 1945
The Claims Conference lists under no. 76047 an asset of "Gumpert née Sabatzki, Margaretha", Lindenstr. 38, Parchim [9]. No verified information is available yet about the factory's later fate or a restitution procedure.