Johanna Richheimer née Weil (1895 - 1942)

Johanna Weil was born in Steinsfurt on September 27, 1895. Her parents were the trader Gustav Weil (*1864 in Steinsfurt, ✡1921 in Karlsruhe) and his wife Mathilde Menges (*1870 in Michelfeld, ✡1947 in Johannesburg, South Africa) ◊. The couple had married in 1892. They had 6 children: Regina (*1893), Johanna, Siegfried (*1900), Julius (*1902), Gertrud (*1907) and Max (*1911) ◊.

Johanna probably attended the school in Steinsfurt for 4 years, but we don't know whether she had some further school education: At that time girls were not yet admitted to the Realschule Sinsheim and there are no pupils' lists of the "Höhere Mädchenschule", a private school for girls in Sinsheim, where she could have got further education.

On December 29, 1920 she married the widower Ferdinand (Tauber) Richheimer (1875 - 1942/3) ◊. The couple and Johanna's stepchildren lived in Karlsruhe where Ferdinand had a whole sale business for leather. On December 3, 1928 their son  Adolf was born.
In 1933 the family emigrated to Spain and after the beginning of the Spanish Civil War they moved to France. Johanna and her son Adolf were seized in Paris at the beginning of July 1942, where her husband Ferdinand was arrested in September 1942, too.

Johanna was deported with transport 14 from Camp Pithiviers to Auschwitz where she died on September 4, 1942, about a month after her arrival. The cause of death is given as „complete exhaustion” ◊. Her husband and their son Adolph died in Auschwitz, too. Adolf was

Johanna and her sister Regina are remembered on the Weil memorial plaque in the synagogue.

There is a more comprehensive article about the family's fate.

Memorials

There is an entry in the Memorialbook for Johanna: Number 949467.

Johanna Kirchheimer is remembered in the Central Database (Yad Vashem) entry number 3211887.

Johanna's name is on the common gravestone which was unveiled in Karlsruhe in 2001.
In the Gedenkbuch für die Karlsruher Juden entry 3509 is for Johanna Richheimer. (Our article on the history of the family Richheimer is a translated extract of that.)