Armin's eldest brother
Dr. Erich Gerechter
Berlin, 30 October 1885 – Tel Aviv, 15 September 1949
aged 63
Erich Gerechter was born in Berlin on 30 October 1885, the first child of Wilhelm and Cäcilie.
He studied law and became a judge at the Kammergericht, the Prussian court of appeal. He was also a Zionist, and in the last months before the war he helped run the office in Berlin that organised emigration to Palestine.
He reached Palestine himself in September 1939. He died in Tel Aviv on 15 September 1949. He was sixty-three.
“Here lived Dr. Erich Gerechter. Born 1886. Fate unknown.”
The Stolperstein in the pavement opposite Freienhufener Straße 2, Großräschen, laid on 22 March 2011. All nine stones
Before 1933
Erich finished school in Liegnitz in 1906, studied law at four universities and took his doctorate in 1911. He became a public prosecutor in Berlin, then a judge in Potsdam, and in 1929 a judge at the Kammergericht.
In 1919 he had trees planted in Palestine for his mother, who had died the year before, and for his brother Georg, lost in the war.
He married Editha Krotoschin in 1922. Their son Kurt was born in 1924. Editha died in 1927, soon after the birth of a second son. In 1931 Erich married Toni Felsenthal, née Stein; the marriage did not last.
1933 – 1938
At the end of 1935 he was forced to retire, as all remaining Jewish officials were. He lived in Charlottenburg and served the Berlin Jewish community; in 1938 he joined its assembly for the Zionists.
1938 – 1945
In May 1939 his youngest sister Irma was living with him. That August he was a director of the Palästina-Amt in Berlin. In September 1939 he left for Palestine with his third wife, Emmi, née Wallach.
His household goods were left behind in the free port of Hamburg. In 1941 they were auctioned off.
After
Erich died in Tel Aviv in 1949. Emmi lived until 1978, in Holon. His son Kurt came to see Armin's family in Toronto every so often. A photograph shows Kurt and Armin together in the snow.
Close family
- FatherWilhelm Gerechter 1860 – 1926
- MotherCäcilie Gerechter, née Schiller 1862 – 1918
- WifeEditha, née Krotoschin 1897 – 1927
- WifeEmmi, née Wallach 1899 – 1978
- SonKurt Georg Gerechter b. 1924
- SonA second son b. 1927
- SisterMargarete Lewinsky, née Gerechter 1887 – 1943
- SisterElse Meyer, née Gerechter 1888 – 1941/42
- BrotherGeorg Gerechter 1892 – 1915
- SisterHedwig Gerechter b. 1894
- BrotherRobert Gerechter 1896 – 1936
- SisterFrida Gutmann, née Gerechter 1898 – 1943
- BrotherArmin Josef Gerechter 1899 – 1955
- SisterEdith Bernhard, née Gerechter 1901 – 1943
- SisterIrma Kassel, née Gerechter 1904 – 1943
In Armin's films
- Film 5, überlebt in Kanada1943 – 1955, Toronto
In Erich's films
- Film 1, Jg. 1886Berlin, Liegnitz, the war, trees for his mother
- Film 2, Dr. Erich GerechterPotsdam, Editha, the Kammergericht
- Film 3, Hier wohnteDriven from office, the community, the Palestine Office
- Film 4, Schicksal unbekanntWhat they took, Tel Aviv, Israel
What we don't know
We don't know how Kurt came to be in Toronto. We don't know when the marriage to Toni ended.
The recordsthe archive's notes, dates and sources
Life events
| Date | Place | Event |
|---|---|---|
| Easter 1906 | Liegnitz | Abitur, Gymnasium Liegnitz DISS |
| 1906-1910 | Freiburg, Leipzig, Königsberg, Berlin | Law studies (Freiburg leaving certificate 27 Aug 1906) DISS, WGA |
| 1911 | Erlangen | Dr. jur.; dissertation on railway liability for spark damage DISS |
| 11 Jul 1914 | Berlin | Appointed Gerichtsassessor, Kammergericht district RA |
| Jul 1917-Jul 1918 | Ghent (BE) | "Unteroffizier Erich Gerechter", court section of the Etappen-Kommandantur; Zionist (KJV) contact for Jewish soldiers (identity probable) JPER |
| 16 May 1919 | Cottbus | "Dr. Gerechter, Cottbus" plants JNF trees for his mother and his fallen brother Georg JPER |
| 1922 | Berlin | Staatsanwalt (public prosecutor) PRESS, BT |
| 3 Apr 1923 | Potsdam | Appointed Landgerichtsrat RA |
| Nov 1929 | Potsdam, Friedrichstr. 4 | Appointed Kammergerichtsrat (judge at the Prussian appeal court) PRESS, JPER |
| 1931-1933 | Berlin-Steglitz, Hohenzollernstr. 2 | Home address PRESS, ADR-B |
| 1930, 1931 | Bad Gastein | On the Wildbad-Gastein spa guest lists as Kammergerichtsrat (1930 with a bank director, Ludwig Büchler; 1931 with his wife) GENI, citing the Kurlisten |
| 1933-34 | Berlin | Out of office by 6 Nov 1934: the Karlsbad spa list of that date has him as "Kammergerichtsrat i. R." (retired). So he was retired well before the general retirement of Jewish officials on 31 Dec 1935, probably under the 1933 civil-service law. (This replaces the earlier guess that he stayed in office as a front-line veteran.) [Kurliste Karlsbad 1934, via GENI and spurenimvest.de] |
| by Nov 1936 | Berlin-Charlottenburg, Fritschestr. 78 | "KGR. i. R." (retired; Jewish officials were forcibly retired on 31 Dec 1935). Candidate for the Berlin Jewish community assembly GBL |
| 21 Sep 1937 | Charlottenburg, Synagogue Schulstraße | Bar mitzvah of a son JPER, GBL |
| 20 Oct 1938 | Berlin | Enters the community assembly as substitute for the Zionist group GBL |
| 17 May 1939 | Berlin-Charlottenburg, Fritschestr. 78 | Census address; his sister Irma lives with him MTL |
| Aug 1939 | Berlin | Co-director of the Palästina-Amt of the Jewish Agency with Dr. Ludwig Jacobi JPER |
| 1939-41 | Berlin | Declared assets RM 70,636; owed RM 60 to his sister Edith Bernhard for a gravestone border, probably for a parent's grave in Cottbus. Konsulenten Marcuse, Werthauer, Friedeberg BLHA-11092 |
| 18 Sep 1939 (his own 1946 letter: 13 Aug 1939) | Berlin → Palestine | Emigrated with Emmi LIFT, BLHA-11092 |
| 25 Apr 1941 | Berlin | Gestapo proposes his Ausbürgerung. Last address Bamberger Str. 55 c/o Wittenberg. One liftvan in the Hamburg free port to be auctioned. No published Ausbürgerung found; overtaken by the 11th Verordnung of 25 Nov 1941 BLHA-11092, RA |
| 30 Oct 1941 | Hamburg | Liftvan auctioned (probably by Andreas Huck): RM 4,099.60 LIFT |
| 15 Sep 1949 | Tel Aviv | Died |
| 1951-61 | Berlin / Holon | Restitution cases 22 WGA 881/51 (emigrant account, Bank von Heinz, Tecklenburg & Co.), 22 WGA 49/54 (sent to Hamburg: Staatsarchiv Hamburg 213-13_13446, "Erben"), 24 WGA 1723/55 (gold, silver, jewellery; Emmi and Kurt Georg). Compensation claim by "Emma Gerechter" (Reg. Nr. 52636), probably his widow BLHA-11092, WGA, LIFT |
| today | Berlin, Kronenstraße 73-74 | Named on the memorial plaque for the Jewish judges, prosecutors and lawyers of Berlin who were "persecuted, deprived of their rights, driven from office" GT |
| 22 Mar 2011 | Großräschen | Stolperstein: "JG. 1886, Schicksal unbekannt", which is wrong on both counts STOL |
Sources
- BLHA Rep. 36A (II) 11092 (73 pp., in documents/blha)
- Reichsanzeiger; Berliner Tageblatt; Berliner Börsen-Zeitung; Bochumer Anzeiger; Gemeindeblatt Berlin; Jüdische Rundschau; Der jüdische Student; Jüdische Weltrundschau (
_downloads/official-lists/) - Landesarchiv Berlin B Rep. 025-02 catalogue
- LostLift database
- Memorial plaque "Jüdische Juristinnen und Juristen", Kronenstraße 73-74, Berlin: https://www.gedenktafeln-in-berlin.de/gedenktafeln/detail/juedische-richter-und-staatsanwaelte/2502
- Spa guest lists (Gastein 1930, 1931; Karlsbad 6 Nov 1934), as cited on Geni and at https://spurenimvest.de/2024/12/08/felsenthal-walter/ (the second page also gives Toni's first marriage, to Walter Felsenthal of Bochum, d. 1924, and her daughter Lore, b. 1921)
- Not named in the Kammergericht's 500th-anniversary history (checked 5 Nov 2026)
The small letters after an entry name its source: GB the German Memorial Book, JM the Joods Monument, AROL the Arolsen Archives, GENI the family tree on Geni, STOL the stones.