Gravestone of Dr. Otto Schwabe

He was born on October 2, 1894. Otto was a well-known and popular Jewish doctor in Hanau. His practice was located at Hammerstraße 6. If someone was not in a financial position to pay for treatment, Otto Schwabe waived payment. He even made house calls, which was very unusual at that time, but was gratefully accepted. At Christmas he even gave presents to his poorer patients. It was more important to him to help people than to earn money. His family belonged to one of the older Jewish families of Hanau. The family name first appeared in 1689 under "Haus Zum Schwaben". On September 22, 1937, he died after being arrested by Gestapo. How exactly it came to his death is unexplained until today. Otto Schwabe also suffered under the Nazi regime. His number of patients decreased, he had to quit his chauffeur, his patients were intimidated by the SA and he was accused of insinuations wrongly, which later became his undoing. Before his death, he had already received permission to leave the country. Allegedly Otto Schwabe would have thrown himself out of the window and officials would have wanted to stop him. However, this story is highly doubtful. Otto Schwabe is the first Hanau Jew known to us who died under the Nazi regime. After his death he was buried in the family grave next to his two brothers Joseph (died as a child) and Willy (lawyer, killed as a soldier in World War I) in the Jewish cemetery in Hanau. His burial was attended by an extraordinary number of people.