Else Bermann
1897 - 1937

Else Bermann, née Metzger, was the daughter of the merchant Moritz Metzger, born in Mainz-Weisenau (then Hesse) in 1853, and Ida Henriette Kahn, born in Frankfurt on the Main in 1868. Her Jewish parents had married in Frankfurt in November 1894 and had lived at Liebig street 26 in Frankfurt's Westend district, close to the large Westend synagogue, since at least 1896. Else was born in Frankfurt on the Main in January 1897. She had one sibling, but we do not know the name or date of birth at present.

Her father Moritz Metzger died in August 1915 and was buried in the Jewish cemetery on Rat-Beil street in Frankfurt. Else Metzger married the merchant Otto Bermann in February 1921. Otto Bermann first appears in the Frankfurt address book of 1922 with the address Schubert street 25 (also in Frankfurt's Westend district). At that time, Else's mother Ida Henriette Metzger also lived in the same house. Else and Otto had two sons: Fred Bermann, born in 1921, and Frank Bermann, born in 1923.

Otto Bermann was listed in the Frankfurt directory in 1923 as an authorized banker, but in 1927 he was listed again as a merchant. From 1928 onwards, only Else Bermann can be found in the Frankfurt address books with the address Schubert street 25, usually described as a "private individual". As she is not listed as a widow, it can be assumed that she and Otto Bermann had been living separately since 1927 at the latest. In fact, Otto Bermann lived in the USA in the early 1930s and married Eva M. Adams in New York City in November 1932. Else and Otto Bermann had previously divorced. The American census of 1940 also includes the son Fred Bermann, who had probably emigrated to the USA with his father.

Else Bermann joined the Frankfurt on the Main section of the German and Austrian Alpine Club in 1924, as did her husband Otto Bermann. She can be found in the list of Frankfurt members as of 1925. Unfortunately, we currently have no further reference to her activities in the section. We are also unable to say whether she left the section in 1933 or was finally excluded from the section as a Jew after the official introduction of the so-called "Arierparagraf" (Aryan paragraph) in 1934.

Else Bermann died on January 25, 1937 in the hospital of the Jewish community in Frankfurt of the Main at the age of 39. She no longer lived in Schubert street but, according to her death certificate, at (Wilhelm-)Hauff street 7 in the Westend district. She was buried in her parents' family grave in the Jewish cemetery on Rat-Beil street. Her mother Ida Metzger, who died in Frankfurt in June 1934, was also buried there. Her death was announced in the Frankfurt Jewish Community Gazette in July 1934. This demonstrates the family's ties to the Jewish community even during the Nazi era.

As Else's husband Otto Bermann had already emigrated from the German Reich to the USA before the National Socialist dictatorship, he remained unaffected by the persecution of the Jews. Their two sons also went with them to the USA. Otto Bermann, who Americanized his surname to "Berman" in the USA, had at least one more child with his second wife Eva: a daughter born in May 1939 in Cresskill (New Jersey), north of New York City, whose first name we have not yet been able to determine. Fred Berman, the son from his first marriage, last lived in Greensburg (Pennsylvania), about 40 km east of Pittsburgh. He died in May 1997 and was buried in Mount Vernon Cemetery in Elizabeth (Pennsylvania, USA). Grace A. Berman was presumably his wife. She died in 2006 in Greensburg and was also buried in Mount Vernon Cemetery in Elizabeth.