Gitta Reinhardt (1891 - 1943)

Born on 14 June 1891, Gitta Reinhardt, née Czerwinska, came to Chemnitz with her parents from Lowitsch (now Lowicz in Poland) in 1908. Her father had been head of a Jewish boys' school and cantor at the synagogue. Gitta Reinhardt learned machine embroidery at the embroidery school in Plauen. When she married the non-Jewish printer August Reinhardt in 1920 and renounced the Jewish faith, her family broke off contact with her, which burdened her throughout her life.

After the death of her husband in 1930, she lived in modest circumstances with her daughter Margot, born in 1922. In 1933 she had herself baptized Protestant in order to be able to better protect her daughter. For welfare support she had to do "compulsory work". She suffered from the anti-Jewish laws and from increasing isolation. Several times she was given notice to leave her apartment because of her "Jewish origin" until she was finally able to move into a small garden house behind the building at Brauhofstraße 5. Her daughter was no longer allowed to attend classes at the Aufbauschule.

Like other Jewish women, Gitta Reinhardt was arrested by the Gestapo after the "Reichskristallnacht" in 1938. After a second arrest in December 1942, she did not return home. She was deported to Auschwitz on 2 March 1943 and murdered there on 2 May. Her daughter Margot survived the Nazi era.

The stumbling stone for Gitta Reinhardt was placed at Brauhofstraße 5 on 18 June 2011 (initiative of the Jenaer Arbeitskreis Judentum).

Hier wohnte Gitta Reinhardt, geb. Czerwinska, Jg. 1891, deportiert, Auschwitz, ermordet 2.5.1943.