Fritz’s wife and Werner’s mother, driven from Wernigerode into forced labor and persecution.
Martha Pohly was born at Göttingen on 15 November 1889. She married Fritz Reichenbach and became part of the family household and clothing business at Breite Straße 7. Their son Werner was born in Wernigerode in 1914.
After the destruction of the business and Fritz’s murder, Martha was sent to Berlin for forced labor. The Federal Archives records her in Wernigerode and Berlin-Zehlendorf and documents her deportation from Berlin to Auschwitz on 3 March 1943. Berlin’s Stolpersteine biography for Normannenstraße 2 places her at the same persecuted address as Ernst, Rosalie and Jeanette Reichenbach.
A family account instead places Martha’s death during a Berlin air raid in 1944. The Federal Archives record substantially strengthens the Auschwitz account, but it documents deportation rather than an individual death date. The family account remains preserved as conflicting testimony.
Sources
Records and testimony
- Peter Lehmann, Harz-Forschungen XXXVI (2023)
- Bundesarchiv Gedenkbuch en1138520
- Berlin Stolpersteine biography for Normannenstraße 2
- Wernigerode memorial records
- Stolperstein
- Family restitution file
Evidence note
The Federal Archives documents Martha’s deportation to Auschwitz on 3 March 1943 but not a death date. A family account instead reports death in a Berlin air raid in 1944; it remains preserved as conflicting testimony.