Bendix Landau memoirs

Bendix Landau (1880-1960) was born on 16 March 1880 in Lembeck, Germany to Asher (1833-1886) and Wilhelmina (née Humberg, 1845-1910) Landau. Bendix had several siblings, including a younger brother Alex (1882-1942). Asher Landau, a grain merchant, died in 1886 leaving Wilhelmine to raise their children among extended relatives. In 1904 Bendix, then employed as a baker, married Minna Bloch (1881-1963) in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. The couple went on to have 3 children, Herta (1905-1997), Greta (1907-1942?), and Walter (1911-?). Upon the outbreak of the First World War Bendix was mobilized with German forces and sent to France. He later returned to his family and settled back into his life in Frankfurt. In the course of the Nazi rise to power, and the increasing persecution of German Jews, two of Bendix's adult children chose to emigrate from Germany. Walter Landau eventually settled in England while Herta immigrated to the United States. Greta, who married Bernhard Levi (1895-1942?) in 1939, remained in Frankfurt with her parents. At the end of May 1942 Greta and Bernhard were ordered to be deported to the East. Although Bendix and Minna had intended to volunteer to go with their loved ones, they were convinced to remain. The following September Bendix and Minna were among more than 1,300 Jews from Frankfurt and the surrounding area deported to Theresienstadt. For two years Bendix and Minna struggled to survive the harsh conditions of daily life in Theresienstadt and to avoid deportation to an extermination camp. For a time the couple lived in a block where they were tasked with the care of blind women, though later they took on other work. Bendix and Minna remained in Theresienstadt until their liberation by Soviet forces in 1945. Thereafter the couple returned to Frankfurt. After the war Bendix and Minna made occasional visits to their loved ones in England and the United States. While in Dover, England in 1949 Bendix wrote his memoirs. He later returned to Germany where he died in 1960.

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Herta Frankel donated the Bendix Landau memoirs to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 1996.