Leopold Gelb

“As regards the Jewish Property Tax, I request most politely that the capital value of my pension, 128 Reichsmark per month, be disregarded. This pension is my claim on the basis of my services to the Reich Railway in St. Pölten in the period from 1 May 1896 to 31 December 1923. Sincerely, Reich Railway pensioner Leopold Gelb”. At first glance, Leopold Gelb’s request submitted to the Vermögensverkehrs­ stelle (Property Transaction Office) in Vienna in December 1938 to have his pension excluded from his “Jewish Property Tax” is incomprehensible. Five months previously, on 14 July 1938, he had registered this pension along with his life insurance with the “Allianz und Giselaverein Wien I.” in his property register. In the meantime, however, the Reich Railway had discontinued his pension and Leopold Gelb had moreover never received any of his insurance. He was not in possession of any other assets. Leopold Gelb was born in St. Pölten on 1 March 1870, the eldest son of Samuel Gelb and Barbara, née Löbl. After retiring from his career at the Reich Railway, he presumably worked as a tobacconist, though it is not known whether he owned his own store. He had three children with his wife Franziska, née Fantl. When their youngest son Berthold died in 1919 at only 12 years of age, his parents dedicated the following gravestone inscription to him: “The wound that his early death left in us is incurable. The hour in which we carried you to your grave is unforgettable.” Franziska died in 1930 aged only 56 and, like her son, was buried in the Jewish cemetery of St. Pölten. The two older children, Hugo and Frieda, were able to flee to the USA together on 5 December 1938. Leopold moved in with his brother Heinrich and the latter’s wife Hermine in Kremser Gasse 9, presumably as a result of indigence and loneliness. Leopold was later forcibly relocated to Vienna along with his second brother Wilhelm, a merchant in Ratzersdorf, and the latter’s wife Mathilde. They initially lived in the second district before being relocated to Hans Sachs­Gasse 17/8 in the eighteenth district. All three were deported to the Ghetto Lodz (Litzmannstadt) in Poland on 23 October 1941, where they lived in Richterstraße 4–6/24. More than 43,000 people died there between April 1940 and August 1944 from hun­ ger, cold, typhus, and tuberculosis. Between 143,000 and 145,000 people were moreover murdered from January 1942 onwards in gas vans in Kulmhof/Chelm­ no, from 1944 onwards also in Auschwitz. We do not know how Leopold died on 19 May 1942. His brother Wilhelm survived until 7 August 1942, Mathilde was murdered on 11 September in Chelmno. Heinrich and Hermine Gelb as well as his sister Franziska, married name Weiss, were deported to Opole near Lublin in February 1941, where they were murdered. A Stone of Remembrance was plac­ ed for them in 2018.