Daniel Abraham

Mates Katz - family tree.

Mary Katz, Jakob Frankel Max Frankel

Mates KATZ

Alternate spellings: Mathes, Mathias, Matteas

Mates was born on October 19, 1875, in Sokal. He was the eldest child of Herz Wolf KATZ and Sara Cheine GRUBER.

In 1902 or 1903, Mates married Margule PFEFFER, from Radziechow (today: Radekhiv, Ukraine), the daughter of Juda Hersch and Chane Pfeffer. The civil marriage was only recorded in the town register on August 30, 1904 as was common at the time in the Jewish communities.

In September 1904, their daughter Mary was born.

Mates left Sokal and came to Gera in Thuringia before WWI. It is unclear whether he emigrated with Margule and Mary or first came alone, with his wife and daughter joining him later. In 1914, his brother Aron Selig would join him there, followed after the war by Leo.

Max Frankel:

"As far as I know (Mathes) dealt in rags or anything else he could acquire and resell, in Gera."

While it is likely that Mathes, like other immigrants from Galicia, started as a peddler when he first arrived in Gera, he eventually established a store there.

On December 8, 1924, Mates and his brothers Leo and Aron registered a joint venture named "Katz Brothers" ("Gebruder Katz OHG"), a store that sold linen and clothing articles ("Wäscheversand und Handel, Bekleidungsartikel"). His younger brother Leo was the manager. The store was located on Margarengasse, on the ground floor of the building where Leo Katz's family lived.

The partnership lasted officially until December 31, 1933, at which point Leo continued to run the business on his own. Matthis and Aron then registered a separate business on January 20, 1934.

Aron and Matthis both registered a new business on January 20, 1934.

(Gera City Archives)

Mathes and Margule Katz were rounded up during the Polenaktion on Thursday afternoon, October 27th, 1938, and were deported to Poland.

Max Frankel:

The "Polish" Jews [...] were literally dumped on the Polish border, where we spent rainy and frightening nights on No-Man's land until the Polish government was finally persuaded to admit us all destined for "camps" in the East.

[...] I [do not] remember my own grandparents (Mates and Margule) in Krakow, though I know my mother [Mary] found them there in late 1939. So I suspect Leo and Frida and Mates and Margule and others who were deported [from Gera] actually went to eastern Poland and only gradually found their way back west, to Krakow.

Mathes died in Krakow in 1939 of a heart attack. He was 64.

Max Frankel, p 31:

"...The Jews in Krakow stumbled around the city with large yellow stars... For what she knew was the last time, Mary hugged her mother goodbye..."

In July 1940, Margule Katz filled out the following registration form in the Krakow Ghetto:

Margule Katz - Krakow Ghetto 1940.

Jewish Association of Krakow.

July 18, 1940

In the office of the Jewish Association of Krakow appeared Margule Katz, no profession, from Gera, Thuringia, residing 5 Targowa sreet, Krakow, and the witnesses Matias and Scheindel Gäensel.

The witnesses state the following:

We are personally acquainted with Margule Katz, born in 1872 in Radziechow, widow, with no profession, from Gera, Thuringia, currently living 5, Targowa street, Krakow, under the juridiction of Sokal.

On May 11th, 1942, Leo Katz sent a Red Cross message from Tuchów, a small town 60 miles east of Krakow, in which he mentioned Margule.

Red Cross Card, Leo Katz's last message, 11 May 1942

"We are in good health, and so is Aunt Margule."

Why or when she was moved from Krakow to Tuchów is not known. It is assumed that she shared the presumed fate of Leo and Frida Katz, and was most likely transported to the Belzec death camp where she would have been murdered on arrival in October 1942.