Alexander Schmidt

Gustav Metzger. A Jewish artist from Nuremberg-Gostenhof

The national socialists destroyed the family of Gustav Metzger in their annihilating fury. He himself escaped the Holocaust. For the remainder of his life, he felt without a home and was stateless.

The historical black-and-white photo shows 12-year-old Gustav Metzger in Nuremberg.
Gustav Metzger in Nuremberg, August 1918 (StadtAN F 14 Nr. 42)

Gustav, his older brother Mendel, and the two sisters Esther and Klara were born in the apartment of their parents on Fürther Straße 27 in Nuremberg-Gostenhof. Gustav saw the light of day on April 10th 1926. Only the oldest of the siblings, Chaim (Heinrich), had been born while still in Poland.
The Polish-born father Juda Metzger came to Nuremberg from the city of Przemyśl, located at the border to Ukraine. The mother Fanny (born Turner) had already moved there at the beginning of the first world war with Chaim and her mother. The father fought in the Austro-Hungarian army and received the iron cross.

The black-and-white photo shows Fanny Metzger with her son Chaim and a wooden sled.
Chaim and Fanny Metzger in Nuremberg, 1917 (StadtAN F 14 Nr. 42)

Juda Metzger operated a kosher food store in Nuremberg. The Jewish family lived according to Orthodox rules. It was considered part of the ‘Ostjuden’, Eastern Jews, and thus not eligible for German citizenship. Eastern Jews were already in the Weimar period explicitly part of the enemy conjured up by national-socialists. Already in May 1927, the anti-semitic hate rag Der Stürmer had published a caricature that took aim at the so-called ’Jewish district’ of Gostenhof.
After 1933, life became increasingly difficult for the Metzger family, as it did for all Jews in Germany. Only few photographic records of that time were preserved.

The historical black-and-white family photo shows Fanny Metzger sitting in the middle with her four children.
From left: Gustav Metzger’s sister Esther, brother Mendel, mother Fanny, Gustav, and his sister Klara Metzger in Nuremberg, August 1938 (StadtAN F 14 Nr. 42)

During the so-called “Polish Action” [Polenaktion] in October 1938, which was directed against stateless Eastern Jews in Germany, the father Juda Metzger was deported along with his two daughters and his son Chaim to the camp Zbąszyń (Bentschen) in the German-Polish border area.
In January 1939, Mendel and Gustav Metzger were able to escape to England on a Kindertransport.
In April 1939, the mother Fanny decided out of her own volition to leave Nuremberg for the camp Zbąszyń to stand by her husband. Her maiden name suggests that she possessed the English citizenship.

The black-and-white outdoor photo shows Juda Metzger, with daughter Esther and his wife Fanny standing to his left.
From left: Gustav Metzger’s sister Esther, mother Fanny, and father Juda Metzger in the transit camp of Zbaszyn, Poland, July 1939 (StadtAN F 14 Nr. 42)

Shortly thereafter, the daughters Esther and Klara also managed to flee to England and took this photograph with them. The parents and Chaim were murdered at Auschwitz in 1942–43.

All of the above photographs were in the possession of Mendel Metzger who made them available to the city archive of Nuremberg for the production of a memorial book and penned handwritten comments to the photographs.