Dr. Elsbeth Danziger (1904 - 1942)

Elsbeth Danziger, née Herschkowitsch, was born in Jena on 10 April 1904 as the daughter of Mordko and Anaeta Herschkowitsch. Mordko Herschkowitsch (1868-1932) came from Russia and worked as a chemist at the Schott factory in Jena from 1898. Anaeta Herschkowitsch (1877-1973) was a piano teacher who managed to emigrate from Germany to the USA in 1940.

Elsbeth Herschkowitsch studied physics, mathematics and mineralogy in Zurich, then in Jena. In Jena she was the second woman to receive a doctorate in physics. In 1931 she obtained a position as an assistant at the Mineralogical Institute in Jena. On the basis of the "Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service" she was dismissed in 1933. She emigrated to Holland, where she met her future husband Hans Danziger. Together they built a boarding school for Jewish children, which Hans Danziger ran. In 1934, Elsbeth Danziger gave birth to her daughter Evelijn Esther in London, hoping that British citizenship would protect her. This was followed in 1936 by the birth of their son Harry Mordechai. A planned departure did not materialize; shortly before, the Danziger family was arrested. Elsbeth Danziger and her two small children were murdered in Auschwitz immediately after their arrival on 5 October 1942. Hans Danziger had to do forced labor in a camp near Katowice, where he lost his life on February 28, 1943.

The four Stolpersteine for the Danziger family were set on 19 March 2015 in Scheidlerstraße (initiative of the Jenaer Arbeitskreis Judentum).