The father, Julius Veit volunteers in 1914 for the war, aged 48 years.  He is deployed in the ‘Badischen Regiment 113’ until 1916 and is decorated with the ‘Badischen Verdienstmedaille’ and the Iron Cross.  The Veit estate agency is one of the most important and respected businesses in Freiburg.  The family businesses perform brilliantly, two daughters Liesel and Toni work together in their father’s estate agency on the first floor of the Kaiserstr. 124 in Freiburg’s town centre.  Julius establishes the Reichsbund Deutscher Makler in the 1920s and from then on is a member of the board of the Ortsgruppe Freiburg.  Business-wise the Veits play a revered and important role in the town.  In 1906 the father establishes the ‘Buergervereinigung’ in Freiburg and is a city councillor until 1918.  His connection to sport and the local environment as well as his inclination to spend his free time sociably with like-minded people as a member of several clubs (shooting club, gymnastics club, Freiburg ‘Harmoniegesellschaft’) is well documented. 

In May 1933 Julius feared he would be shut down due to too little business, Veit writes “struggling due to the strong political movement in the last months.”  As a prominent, Jewish business of Freiburg, he naturally becomes the immediate target of boycott measures from 1933.  His name appears at the top of the German’s boycott list.  In a letter to the tax office Freiburg, 12.3.1936, Julius wrote “I am now without means and have had to fight on the edge, in order to muster up what I need as a living for me and my wife”.  Julius Veit effectively gives up the business on 8.2.1938.  It legally closes on 31.12.1938.  It was no longer possible for him to advertise, which is an absolute requirement to succeed in his industry.

In 1933, my Grandmother, Liesel and her brother Hubert leave Germany for Spain and later emigrate to Palestine. Liesel moved to the UK in 1948.  The eldest son Konrad emigrates to Columbia where he also faces persecution before finally settling in the US.  In 1938 Gretel and her son Peter leave for a new and ultimately very successful life America.

With many other fellow sufferers Julius, Katharina and Toni Veit are deported on 22 October 1940 from their home to Gurs.  Julius Veit dies there as early as 8 December 1940.  Katharina and Toni stay interned together in Gurs until 19 January 1942, then on 20.1.1942 they are transported together to Noe.  Then the paths for mother and daughter are divided.  On 3.8.1942 Toni is transported first to Recebedou, then a few days later to Drancy.  On convoy 18 on 12.8.1942 she is deported together with 1000 other Jewish citizens mostly of German and Austrian nationality to Auschwitz.  She is murdered immediately on arrival.  Katharina’s detention in Noe lasts until 17 August 1943.  After a 2 month stop in Lons-le-Saunier she was relocated for almost 3 years to the Hospice de la Charite in Macon, department Saone et Loire.  Her survival is a tribute to the good care received by the sisters there.  She emigrates to USA in 1946 and lives with her daughter and Grandson Peter L. Veit in Larchmont, NY.  Katharina Veit dies, an American citizen on 18 September 1958 in Mount Vermont, NY.

Stolpersteine or stumbling stones have been laid laid outside the former Family home on Kaiser-Josef Strasse in Freiburg's city centre.  You can learn more about the Stolpersteine project at www.stolpersteine.com        

The family were very active, important and influential members of the Freiburg community.  Through the Stolpersteine project and my friend Marlis Meckel I have found the drive and inspiration that led me to Peter L. Veit and have had the amazing honour to meet with Peter in the US.

I would like to sincerely thank Gunter Demnig for what is an amazing project and would like to reiterate his belief that "a person is only forgotten when his or her name is forgotten".  It is through him that the family Veit will never be forgotten.