Women's Aid Society of the Jewish Community

On Kunnerwitzer Stra;e, at the house number 17 will be laid at the end of the year another Stolpersteine.
In memory of Amanda Hannes (1861-1942). Amanda was the chairwoman of the women's auxiliary club of the jüdische Gemeinde. She had to leave her apartment and spent with other remaining Görlitzer Jews in the "Judenhaus" on Jakobstra;e until the deportation to Tormersdorf. 

Amanda was the chairwoman of the Women's Aid Society of the Jewish community, and her letters show us that this charity extended not only to Jewish women in Görlitz, but throughout Silesia.

When the Nazi party came to power, Amanda's world was turned upside down. Amanda's grandchildren begged her to leave Görlitz with them for America, but Amanda replied that "you can't replant an old tree". Amanda remained in Görlitz during the Third Reich. She was humiliated and disenfranchised by the Nazis. She was kicked out of her beautiful apartment here and moved with other remaining Görlitz Jews into a so-called "Judenhaus" on Jakobstraße. In June 1942, the remaining Jewish people (most of whom were older than Amanda) were rounded up and paraded in a demoralizing manner down Berliner Stra&szlig to the train station, where they were deported to the Tormersdorf concentration camp.

Amanda was murdered in Tormersdorf by the Nazis. Her body was smuggled back to town by her decades-long caretaker, Martha Kunze. Martha helped to bury Amanda secretly with her husband Max and her son Ernst in the Jüdische Friedhof in the Biesnitzer Stra;e. This information was only recently discovered by studying correspondence with Martha Kunze and Wolfgang Hannes. A memorial plaque will mark Amanda's final resting place. Amanda was survived by Flora, Wolfgang and Gerhard.

Wolfgang and Gerhard went on to found families of their own in America, and so the Hannes legacy lives on to this day.