Schaye family

Wilhelm Schaye (1891-1974)

Persecuted as "Jewish"

Stumbling stone inscription:

HERE LIVED
WILHELM SCHAYE
JG. 1891
'PROTECTIVE CUSTODY' 1938
BUCHENWALD CONCENTRATION CAMP
FORCED LABOUR DRESDEN
SURVIVED

Wilhelm Schaye was born on 3 November 1891 in Dresden, the son of Moritz and Ida Schaye. After attending secondary school in Dresden-Johannstadt, he completed a commercial apprenticeship from 1908 and worked in Hamburg, Aschersleben and Dresden-Zschieren. During the First World War, he served on the Western Front, was wounded several times and returned from captivity as a prisoner of war in 1919.

In 1921, he married Gertrud Benedict from Dresden; the couple lived in Niederlößnitz at Schweitzerstraße 11. Schaye initially worked as a bank employee at Dresdner Bank until 1925, and from 1926 he worked in the administration of the Gröba electricity association in Radebeul.

As a Jew, Wilhelm Schaye was persecuted by the National Socialists after 1933. In 1935, he lost his job under pressure from the management. He kept his head above water with various jobs, including as a landscape gardener. In November 1938, he was arrested during the pogroms, deported to Buchenwald concentration camp and only released on 1 December 1938.

From 1941, Schaye had to wear the "Jewish star". After being forced to give up their home in Radebeul, the couple lived in the "Jews' house" at Kaiserstrasse 1 in Dresden. Despite the increasingly harsh persecution, Wilhelm Schaye was initially spared deportation - presumably due to his "privileged mixed marriage" with his Protestant wife. The air raids on Dresden in February 1945 prevented his planned deportation to Theresienstadt.

After the end of the war, Wilhelm and Gertrud Schaye returned to Radebeul. He resumed his work at Gröba-Werke and later worked as an accountant for the HO (trade organisation). Schaye was politically active as a member of the KPD and later the SED, was actively involved in persecuted organisations and served as a lay judge at the district court.

In 1966, he moved to a home in Dresden and later to the "Lößnitzhöhe" district nursing home in Radebeul-Zitzschewig. Wilhelm Schaye died there on 4 September 1974 and is buried in the New Israelite Cemetery in Dresden.

Text: D. Ristau

Gertrud Schaye (1894-1966)

Persecuted as "Jewish kin" ( >> term "Jewish kin")

Stumbling stone inscription:

HERE LIVED
GERTRUD SCHAYE
GEB: BENEDICT
YG. 1894
OSTRACISED/HARASSED
1937 EXPELLED FROM THE
REICH CHAMBER OF MUSIC
SURVIVED

Gertrud Schaye, née Benedict, was born on 13 December 1894 in Dresden as the daughter of Friedrich Wilhelm and Ida Helene Benedict. She attended primary school from 1901 and studied music at the Fischer-Peckels Music School from 1908. She made her first public appearances as a cellist in Dresden in 1915/16.

After her marriage to Wilhelm Schaye, her professional activities as a musician took a back seat, although she continued to make music privately. This changed when the National Socialists came to power in 1933: Professional colleagues withdrew and social isolation set in. An attempt to make a living with her own soap business failed, as her trade licence was revoked because of her Jewish husband. In 1937, she was also expelled from the Reich Chamber of Music, which was tantamount to a professional ban.

Despite all the discrimination, Gertrud Schaye remained faithful to her husband and accompanied him through the difficult years of persecution. After the war, they both returned to Radebeul. She remained a housewife and lived with Wilhelm Schaye in Dresden until her death on 22 July 1966. The couple are buried together in the New Israelite Cemetery.

Text: D. Ristau