Residence of Elisabeth Neumann and family

Elisabeth Neumann's mother Helene Neumann, born on July 3, 1876 in Frankfurt am Main, was related to the long-established Frankfurt Jewish family Hirschhorn.

Helene and Paul Neumann lived in their own house at Grüneburgweg 103 in Frankfurt's Westend district. Elisabeth Neumann grew up there together with her three younger siblings in well-off circumstances.

Elisabeth Neumann was born Jewish on 29 April 1900, but her parents had her baptized in the Frankfurt German Reformed Church on 6 September 1900. Like her three younger siblings, she was baptized "liegen", a phrase intended to emphasize the conversion from Jewish to Christian faith out of conviction, and it was only after her four children were baptized that Elisabeth Neumann's parents also converted to Protestantism in 1907 in the Frankfurt German Reformed Church.

Elisabeth trained as a nurse at Offenbach am Main Municipal Hospital. From 1925 to 1939, she was a parish nurse at the Frankfurt Protestant Reformed parish.

In 1933, Elisabeth's youngest sister Gertrud emigrated to Palestine, where she returned to the Jewish faith, following the Nazi takeover. In 1936, Elisabeth's sister Annemarie also left Nazi Germany and found refuge in the USA.

Elisabeth herself was persecuted by the Nazis as a "racial Jew", despite her baptism and Christian lifestyle. She was no longer allowed to care for non-Jewish patients from 1938 onwards, lost her job of many years on October 1, 1939 and had to do forced labor at the Osterrieth book printing company from May 1941.

The family had sold the house in Grüneburgweg around 1935 during the Nazi era. They had moved into the old people's and nursing home of the Bethesda Deaconess Institution at Körnerwiese 6, which they were forced to leave in 1941 as a "non-Aryan" couple and under pressure from the Nazi authorities in November 1938.

They were accommodated in the Hirschfeld boarding house, where Elisabeth Neumann's father died at the end of 1939. After the Hirschfeld family, who were also threatened by the Nazis, gave up their boarding house in favor of a kindergarten run by the National Socialist People's Welfare Organization, Helene Neumann moved into a "ghetto house" (Nazi jargon: "Jews' house", collective accommodation before deportation) at Beethovenstraße 21 in September 1941 together with her son Richard and possibly also Elisabeth. Two of Helene Neumann's cousins, who committed suicide before deportation, also lived there: Ella Ottilie Marckwald, née Hirschhorn, and Marie Nanny Hirschhorn.

From September 1941, Elisabeth Neumann also had to wear the yellow star and on September 19 of the same year, Helene and Richard Neumann were deported from Frankfurt am Main to the Litzmannstadt ghetto (Lodz in occupied Poland) as "racial Jews". Their Christian congregation in Frankfurt was apparently unable to help.

Elisabeth Neumann's brother Richard died on January 14, 1942, presumably in the Litzmannstadt ghetto (Lodz, Poland) and 
a few days later on January 22, 1942, Elisabeth's mother Helene died - presumably in the same ghetto.

It was only when Elisabeth Neumann realized that she could no longer help her mother and brother and that she herself was threatened with deportation that she decided to emigrate. In May 1942, she fled to Switzerland - dressed as a nurse - with the help of Christian friends. The de Quervain pastors in Laufen welcomed her with open arms.

After the end of the war, Elisabeth Neumann returned to her native city of Frankfurt, where she worked as a parish nurse for the Protestant Reformed congregation from 1946 until her retirement in 1963. Elisabeth Neumann died on August 31, 1988 in Frankfurt am Main and was buried in the main cemetery.

On June 20, 2020, 6 "Stolpersteine" were laid for Elisabeth Neumann and her family at Grüneburgweg 103. The "Stolpersteine" were initiated and financed by the Cäcilienchor Frankfurt.