Irma Leib (1903 – 1944)
Irma Leib was born on 10 February 1903 in Junglinster. Irma Leib's parents were Moritz Leib and Johanna Rischard. The latter died already in 1928. Moritz Leib, her father, was also deported to Theresienstad, survived the Holocaust and died in Junglinster in 1948. Before the war he lived as a respected citizen in Junglinster, he was a butcher and fireman.
Irma's husband was the Bochum civil servant Mathias Wilhelm Vorkötter. Both were married on 1 October 1931 in Junglinster. The couple lived together in an apartment in Bochum from then on. Irma became German by marriage. In the middle of 1937 Mathias Vörkötter received the order to file for divorce, because his wife was Jewish. If not, he would lose his civil servant status. According to the Nuremberg Race Laws, enacted on September 15, 1935, marriage between Jews and non-Jews was forbidden.
After the pressure increased, the marriage was finally divorced in 1940, whereupon Irma returned to Luxembourg, but as a German citizen. Under the German occupation regime, Irma Leib was taken with her father to Fünfbrunnen on 25 October 1941, to the so-called Jewish old people's home, which, however, served as a collection camp for the later deportations to the concentration and extermination camps. Both were then taken by train to Thereseienstadt on 6 April 1943. The transport in these wagons took place under inhuman and cruel conditions. This train was then on the way for almost a week, water and food were scarce. Irma was deported from Theresienstadt to Ausschwitz on 9 October 1944, where she was gassed. Unfortunately, the exact date of her death is not known.
Picture: Irma Leib in front of a hairdressing salon in Junglinster with her best friend and hairdresser Martha Bauer-Pflücke.
Picture: Transport map out of Theresienstadt.
Sources: Archives nationales Luxembourg, Arolson Archives, picture by Gast Thommes
Text: Lea Laugs and Charlotte Schroeder (both 3GPS)
Image: Irma Leib's timeline