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About Margarethe Trude Neumann
YAD VASHEM document:
Margarethe Gertrude (Trude) Herzl Neumann
(Daughter of Dr. Theodor Herzl)
Among the deportees on transport No. 40, (train “Da 513”), which departed from Vienna on 10 September 1942 at 21:00 and arrived at Theresienstadt the following day, was Margarethe Gertrude (Trude) Herzl Neumann, the youngest beloved daughter of Benjamin Zeev Theodor Herzl. Upon the train’s arrival, the transport was marked as IV/10.
Born into the Zionist Dream and Died on the Eve of its Fulfillment
Trude has been described as an innocent soul. She was a gifted writer and possessed irresistible personal charm. She wrote to Churchill demanding him to make peace with the Germans and also to Hitler with a rebuking letter stating her dissatisfaction with the manner in which things were being carried out." She asked him in the letter, “Don’t you understand that you are ruining all of human civilization?" Hitler did not respond.
Tragically, like her two deceased siblings, Hans and Paulina, Trude suffered from episodes of depression and was admitted at different time to various psychiatric institutions in Vienna. In 1942 she was residing at the Shteinhoff Institution from where she was taken along with the rest of the patients to Theresienstadt where she singled herself out by saying,
“I am the youngest daughter of the late Zionist leader Dr. Theodor Herzl, I would like to inform the Zionists of my arrival and request their help and support in these hard times.”
Trude Groag, a nurse at the Theresienstatd hospital, referred to Trude Herzl in her memoirs: “On a nice autumn day, a new Transport packed with sick people from Vienna stopped in front of the Schleosenspital, the hospital for new arrivals) [%E2%80%A6] and among them was an elegant young woman that drew my attention [%E2%80%A6] she did not appear sick [%E2%80%A6] I turned to talk to her [%E2%80%A6] she immediately said that she was the daughter of Herzl and that she wanted to contact the Ghetto leadership.” Excited upon learning that Herzl’s daughter is in the ward, the nurse then rushed to Jacob Edelstein (Chairman of the Ghetto Council) and asked if the daughter of the leader of the Jewish state could receive favored medical care. Edelstein, however, was not impressed with the news.
Based on her acquaintance with Edelstein, Groag knew that there was no use in arguing with him. She decided to look after Gertrude with the help of the medical staff. Gertrude was furious that she didn’t receive favored attention and wrote as quoted about. The nurses, however, did their best to care for her. Trude survived six months in the Theresienstadt hospital where she gradually weakened and died on 15 March 1943.
Leo Baeck, the famous Berlin Rabbi, eulogized her: “If we had listened to the father of this unfortunate lady we would not have been here today. Trude’s husband, Richard Neumann, a textile industrialist and 27 years her senior, was deported on same transport and died two months later. Stephen-Theodor, the couple’s only child, and Herzl’s only grandson was appointed in September 1946 to serve as commercial representative to the British embassy in Washington, D.C. When he learned about the fate of his parents he committed suicide by jumping off the Massachusetts Avenue Bridge on 26 November 1946.
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Trude, Herzl's youngest daughter, eventually married and had one son – Stephan. Trude was mentally crippled with repeated bouts of depressive illness until she was finally murdered by the Nazis and her body burned in Thereisienstadt Concentration Camp, during the Holocaust. The return and reburial of Pauline and Hans Herzl was completed in near secrecy and obscurity. They were brought to rest with their family only out of the deepest respect for their father. A memorial plate for Trude was placed in the Herzl Family burial site on Mount Herzl, Jerusalem, israel, in 2006. None of Herzl's children were Zionists. None had ever been to "Palestine"
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Richard and Trude, in her more lucid moments, worried for their only child's safety, as would any parent. It was clear that evil times were ahead for the Jews of Austria. What to do? They turned, as many Jews did, to the Jewish relief efforts to find safe shelters. Some turned to the Ezra Society to get Jews out of Austria and Germany into other parts, safer parts, of Europe that would have them. Most places did not want Jews. The Neumann's turned to the Zionists to get their only child out of Austria to England. Financially the Zionists had been helping Hans and Pauline while they lived. They agreed to help Stephan. He would go to school in England. Thus was Theodor Herzl only grandson survived the Holocaust.
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The Holocaust - Martin Gilbert Page 551
Trude's son Stephan had been educated in a British Public School and was, in 1943, an officer in the British Army.
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Margarethe Trude Neumann's Timeline
| 1893 |
May 20, 1893
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Paris, Paris, Île-de-France, France
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| 1918 |
April 21, 1918
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| 1943 |
March 15, 1943
Age 49
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Theresienstadt Concentration Camp
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| ???? |
No grave. A memorial plate placed in the Herzl family burial site, Mount Herzl, in 2006., Jerusalem, Israel
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