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© Archiv Rolf Hocke, Waldkappel
Gustav Kron * 1878
Eppendorfer Baum 34 (Hamburg-Nord, Eppendorf)
1941 Lodz
1942 Chelmno
ermordet
further stumbling stones in Eppendorfer Baum 34:
Alfred Blumenthal, Katharina Blumenthal, Margreth Graetz, Selma Kron, Jacob Minska
Gustav Kron, born 23 Apr. 1878, deported 25 Oct. 1941 to Lodz, murdered 1942 in Chelmno
Gustav Kron was born on 23 April 1878 in Wolfhagen. He was the youngest son of the cattle dealer Isaak Kron (1832–1891) and his second wife Hannchen Löwenstein from Obervorschütz. After his father’s death, the gifted pupil was not able to continue his schooling, as had been planned. A former teacher, however, took a special interest in him and gave him private lessons, and he was eventually accepted at the Israelitic Teachers’ Seminary in Kassel after passing the entrance examinations. There he trained to become a teacher and cantor. He did his compulsory military service from 1 April 1900 to 1 April 1904 in Arolsen with the 83rd Infantry Regiment. During that time he found his first job as a teacher, cantor, religious community official, and shohet (kosher butcher) for the local Jewish community. He taught at the Jewish school and led Saturday morning religious services twice a month in Arolsen and twice a month in Mengeringhausen. He was later a teacher in Westhoffen in Alsace until the outbreak of the First World War, and after the war from 1916 until 1919.
He served in the First World War from 1914-1916, first on the Western Front in the First Battle of the Marne, and was then transferred to the Eastern Front immediately after the Battle of Tannenberg. He was stationed in Koblenz after a severe case of dysentery, and was then discharged as he was considered unfit for service on the front.
"If you don’t leave this house at once, I’m calling the police!” This is the greeting he received from his mother when he returned home to Westhoffen. She only recognized her son, who weighed only 90 pounds, when he spoke to her.
The lack of teachers after the war must have been so severe in Alsace that Gustav Kron travelled by bicycle between three schools in three local villages. He also became the cantor in Balbronn in 1917. When Alsace-Lorraine was annexed by France and Gustav Kron was dismissed from his teaching position, he returned to Hesse, although he had no immediate job prospects.
While filling in for Viktor Blumenkrohn, a teacher who had become ill, he met Blumenkrohn’s daughter Selma, whom he married in 1921. After a temporary substitute position in Momberg near Marburg, Kron was a teacher and cantor in Harmuthsachsen from 1919–1924, until the Israelitic School had to close due to the lack of pupils.
Beginning in 1924, Gustav Kron was a teacher and cantor in Fritzlar. There he also taught Hebrew to Protestant and Catholic seminary students. At the same time he taught business German at the Fritzlar Vocational School, where former soldiers who had served for 12 years were preparing for a position in the civil service. He also taught geography and French at another school in Fritzlar.
After his son Walter left Germany for the US on a children’s transport, Kron also considered emigrating. He applied for positions as cantor in several Jewish communities in the US, but without success. He, his wife, and his elderly mother moved to Hamburg in 1937. In November 1938 he was temporarily held in the Oranienburg Concentration Camp. His mother must have died in Hamburg. In late 1941, he and his wife Selma were deported to Lodz, and from there to Chelmno, where he probably died in May 1942.
Translator: Amy Lee
Kindly supported by the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung, Hamburg.
Stand: October 2016
© Rolf Hocke, Waldkappel
Quellen: Staatsarchiv Marburg, Akte "Anstellung der Religionslehrer und Kultusbeamten der jüdischen Gemeinde zu Mengeringhausen 1872–1912"; Signatur: STAM 180 L.A. Arolsen 167; Walter Kron, Sommer 2004; Staatsarchiv Marburg, Akte "Israelitische Schule zu Harmuthsachsen"; Signatur: STAM 180 Witzenhausen 514; Das Todeslager in Chelmno war für die Juden aus dem Lager Lodz bestimmt. Ab dem 08.12.1941 hatten dort die ersten Tötungen begonnen, die mit Auspuffgasen von Lastwagen stattfanden. Die Menschen wurden in präparierten Gaswagen zusammen gepfercht und erstickten schon kurze Zeit nach Fahrtbeginn.
Gustav Kron, born 23 Apr. 1878 in Wolfhagen, deported 25 Oct. 1941 to Lodz, 1 May 1942 to Chelmno
Selma Kron, née Blumenkrohn, born 6 Apr. 1890 in Spangenberg, deported 25 Oct. 1941 to Lodz, 1 May 1942 to Chelmno
Eppendorfer Baum 34
Gustav Kron
"Gustav Kron was born on 23 April 1878 in Wolfhagen. He was the youngest son of the cattle dealer Isaak Kron (1832–1891) and his second wife Hannchen Löwenstein from Obervorschütz. After his father’s death, the gifted pupil was not able to continue his schooling, as had been planned. A former teacher, however, took a special interest in him and gave him private lessons, and he was eventually accepted at the Israelitic Teachers’ Seminary in Kassel after passing the entrance examinations. There he trained to become a teacher and cantor. He did his compulsory military service from 1 April 1900 to 1 April 1904 in Arolsen. During that time he found his first job as a teacher, cantor, religious community official, and shohet (kosher butcher) for the local Jewish community. He taught at the Jewish school and led Saturday morning religious services several times a month. He was later a teacher in Westhoffen in Alsace until the outbreak of the First World War, and after the war from 1916 until 1919. He served in the First World War on the Western Front in the First Battle of the Marne, and was then transferred to the Eastern Front. After a severe case of dysentery, he was discharged as he was considered unfit for service on the front.
"If you don’t leave this house at once, I’m calling the police!” This is the greeting he received from his mother when he returned home to Westhoffen. She only recognized her son, who weighed only 90 pounds, when he spoke to her.
The lack of teachers after the war must have been so severe in Alsace that Gustav Kron travelled by bicycle between three schools in three local villages. He also became the cantor in Balbronn in 1917. When Alsace-Lorraine was annexed by France and Gustav Kron was dismissed from his teaching position, he returned to Hesse, although he had no immediate job prospects.
While filling in for Viktor Blumenkrohn, a teacher who had become ill, he met Blumenkrohn’s daughter Selma, whom he married in 1921,” writes Rolf Hocke.
Gustav Kron was also mentioned in an obituary for Viktor Blumenkron in the magazine "Der Israelit” from 2 March 1922.
After a temporary substitute position in Momberg near Marburg, Kron worked as a teacher and cantor in Harmuthsachsen from 1919–1924, until the Israelitic School had to close due to the lack of pupils. Beginning in 1924 he was a cantor and taught at various schools in Fritzlar.
After his son Walter (*1922) left Germany for the US on a children’s transport, Kron also considered emigrating. He applied for positions as cantor in several Jewish communities in the US, but without success.
He, his wife, and his elderly mother moved to Hamburg in October 1937, and lived at Eppendorfer Baum 34. The five-room apartment was on the fourth floor. His mother is assumed to have died in Hamburg. Kron’s tax records with the Jewish Religious Community show that he registered in Hamburg on 13 May 1938. He was temporarily held in the Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp after the 1938 November Pogrom.
In Hamburg, Gustav Kron taught from 14 June to 25 November 1940 at the elementary and secondary school for Jews at Carolinenstraße 35. He taught 10 lessons per week at the secondary school, and seven hours at the elementary school and in the class for children with learning disabilities.
Gustav Kron turned down another teaching job so that a colleague who was in need of employment could have it. He offered his time to children who wanted extra lessons.
In May 1940 a security order was issued on Kron’s accounts, denying him access to them. Requests for even the smallest costs not covered by the meager cost of living allowance granted him had to be submitted in duplicate. The surviving documents show that he requested access to his accounts to finance the emigration of an uncle who was ill. It was very important to him to help others in need.
Gustav Kron and his wife Selma were deported to Lodz on 25 October 1941. On 5 January 1942 they were assigned to live in a room in Apartment 6 on Tizianstraße 12. Their previous address had been Mühlgasse 25. According to the records from Lodz, the couple was "re-settled” on 1 May 1942, i.e. they were sent to the Chelmno Extermination Camp and murdered.
Selma Kron
"Selma Kron, née Blumenkrohn, was born on 6 April 1890 in Spangenberg. After eight years of lessons at the Jewish elementary school with her father Viktor Blumenkrohn, she took private lessons in art history, and then worked as a chemical laboratory technician. In January 1921, she married the teacher Gustav Kron in Spangenberg. She lived in Harmuthsachsen from 1921 to 1924, in the building where the Jewish school was located (house number 32, present-day Bilsteinstraße 12). Her son Walter was born in 1922. In the summer of 1924 the family moved to Fritzlar.” (Rolf Hocke)
She moved with her husband and mother-in-law to Hamburg on 28 October 1937. Selma Kron and her husband were deported to Lodz on 25 October 1941, and from there to Chelmno on 1 May 1942, where they were murdered.
Selma and Gustav Kron’s son was the only family member to survive the Holocaust. He was able to leave Germany for the US on a children’s transport in 1938. On 26 June 1957 he commemorated his parents with a Page of Testimony at Yad Vashem.
Translator: Amy Lee
Kindly supported by the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung, Hamburg.
© Ulrike Graubner
Quellen: 1; 2; 5; 8; 9; StaH 314-15 OFP,R 1940/321; StaH 361-3 A 760 Schulwesen-Personalakte; StaH 332-8 Meldewesen, A 51/1 (Kron, Gustav und Selma); www.alemannia-judaica.de/hartmuthsachsen_synagoge; Hocke, Rolf, Biografie über Gustav Kron im Internet, eingesehen am 2.9.2009; "Den Himmel zu pflanzen und die Erde zu gründen". Die Joseph-Carlebach-Konferenzen Hamburg 1995, S. 225–237.
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