Berman, Margaret Strauss, 1922-

Margaret Strauss Berman was born as a daughter of Flora Behr and Karl Strauss in Speyer, Germany in 1922. In later years the family moved to Neustadt an der Weinstraβe, where Karl Strauss taught mathematics and physics at the local school. After 1935 he had to leave school because of a new Nazi legal measure. In 1938, when Margaret was no longer allowed to attend school, her parents sent her to Newark, New Jersey. In the very same year her father Karl Strauss was arrested during the Kristallnacht and sent to Dachau. After his release the family moved to Mannheim. In 1941, they were deported to Gurs and in 1942 to Auschwitz, where they perished.

Margaret Strauss Berman's paternal grandparents Klara and Ludwig Strauss lived in Bad Dürkheim. Her grandfather, a teacher at a Jewish school, was president of the Jewish community in the Palatinate, president of the synagogue in his hometown and the conductor of a local chorus. He also was the head of the local Democratic Party and a member of the city council but in 1933 he was forced to renounce his public offices at the instigation of the regional Gauleiter . After Kristallnacht he and his wife Klara moved to Mannheim from where they were deported to Gurs, where they died in 1942.

Erna Behr, a sister of Margaret Strauss Berman's mother, was married to Sigmund Weinberger. He had a medical practice in Heidelberg for 30 years, before he immigrated to the United States. One of Margaret Strauss Berman's other relatives, Alma Behr, married Jacob Simon who was wounded in World War I. The couple lived in Homburg until they immigrated to New York. Alma's brother, Isidor Behr, also served in World War I. He perished with his wife and three children in Auschwitz.

In the United States Margaret Strauss Berman became a microbiologist. She married and had three children: Charles, Eve and Anne Berman.

From the guide to the Margaret Strauss Berman Family Collection, 1898-2005, (Leo Baeck Institute)