The Family of Moritz Eichbaum

From the Gunzenhauser Anzeigeblatt June 1880
From the Gunzenhauser Anzeigeblatt June 1880

Moritz Eichbaum, the brother of Leopold, was born on 30.4.1853,  the youngest son of the merchant Mendel Eichbaum.  Moritz became a hop trader and together with his brother Leopold Eichbaum started their own business.  He married Sofia Levi from Archshofen near Rothenburg.

The couple had two children:

Martin Eichbaum *03.05.1882 He married Elsa Bauer, *01.07.1891. In 1939 he was registered in Nürnberg, Kaulbachstrassse 13. In 1958 his address was 3236 A Street, Lincoln, Nebraska USA
Adolf Eichbaum *06.07.1884 in Gunzenhausen In 1939 he was living in Brussels, Belgium

We have been able to find several registrations and cancellations in the property register of  businesses that Moritz Eichbaum ran together with his brother Leopold and then later alone.  He also registered a branch of his business in Nürnberg. This would perhaps explain why several of the Eichbaum children lived in Nürnberg.

When Moritz Eichbaum died in February 1911, his widow Sofia sold the house to Johann Andres Hummel, which means that it didn’t go to either of her sons. 

Probably both widows, Rosa and Sofia, moved to their children in Nürnberg, as neither of them is registered in Gunzenhausen after the death of their husbands.  All surviving children had left the town before the Third Reich.

We know that Martin Eichbaum was able to emigrate to the USA.  His address in 1958 was 3236 A Street, Lincoln, Nebraska. 

His younger brother Adolf was living in Belgium in 1939, registered in Brussels.  We do not know what became of him.

We received the following information from the City Archive, Nürnberg on 22.12.2003 .

  • Zion Eichbaum, merchant, born 10.10.1883 in Gunzenhausen.  Parents Leopold and Rosa, née Hecht, in Nürnberg since 1908, unmarried.  Death through suicide on 16.11.1938, probably in connection with the “Reichskristallnacht” (source C21/III No 1979)
  • Martin Eichbaum, hop broker, born 03.05.1882 in Gunzenhausen.  Parents Moritz and Sophie, née Levi, in Nürnberg since 1912, married, 1 daughter, left for London on 06.09.1939 (source : C21/III No 1979)
  • Friedrich Eichbaum, merchant, born 16.12.1888 in Gunzenhausen, parents Leopold and Rosa, née Hecht, in Nürnberg since 1919, married, 1 son (left for London 31.07.1939), deported with his wife on 24.03.1942 from Nürnberg to Izbica, missing.  (sources: C21/III no 1979 and the Memorial Book for the Nürnberg victims of the Holocaust, Nürnberg 1998 and 2002)
  • Adele Lebrecht, née Eichbaum, widow of a factory owner, born on 25.05.1887 in Gunzenhausen, parents Leopold and Rosa, née Hecht, in Nürnberg since 1909, moved to New York on 11.08.1941 (source C21/III No 1982)