Ida Silberschmidt was born on December 2, 1870, in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Kanton of Neuchâtel, Switzerland. Her father was Moses Moise Silberschmidt, who came from Niederwerrn near Schweinfurt and had emigrated to Switzerland. He settled in La Chaud-de-Fonds with his family and founded a watch factory there. In 1887, an anvil with a hammer was registered as the company’s trademark. Ida´s mother was Rosa Silberschmidt, née Gutmann. She had a brother, Prof. of Medicine William Silberschmidt (born January 17, 1869, La Chaux-de-Fonds), who died on April 8, 1947, in Zurich.
Ida Silberschmidt attended the Higher Girls‘ School. She lived in French-speaking Switzerland until her marriage. Her mother died at the age of 32 in La Chaud-de-Fonds, where she was buried at the Cimetière israélite des Eplatures. There is also the grave of her father, who died on May 24, 1890. On September 7, 1891 Ida married in Heidingsfeld the Privy Court Councellor Prof. Dr. jur. Wilhelm Silberschmidt, born July 18, 1862 in Würzburg.
Wilhelm Silberschmidt later worked as a supreme regional court councellor in Munich. From 1918, he had already been a private lecturer and was an honorary professor at the law faculty of the Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich. On 1 May 1919 he was appointed to the council of the Bavarian Supreme Court. He was chairman of the conference of the Association of Bavarian Jewish Communities for many years and was active in committees of the Jewish Community. After his appointment as Privy Councellor of Justice, he retired in the summer of 1928. After the beginning of the National Socialist era, he was banned from lecturing in May 1933 and in June of the same year his teaching license was revoked.
The couple had five children. Their son Friedrich Maximilian died 19 August 1897 at the age of two months in Aschaffenburg. Their son Benno Daniel, born on April 3, 1899 in Aschaffenburg, was awarded a doctorate in law and was appointed district judge in Ingolstadt. He was dismissed from the civil service in 1935 and emigrated to Sao Paulo in November 1939. He returned to Germany in 1954 and died in Munich April 14, 1988. Their son Dr. phil. Karl, biologist, born August 31,1903 in Aschaffenburg, emigrated to Sao Paulo in November 1936 and remained there until his death on April 2, 1974.
Ida’s and Wilhelm’s daughter Rosa was born December 18, 1892 in Nuremberg. She had a doctorate in teaching and taught at the Sophienschule in Würzburg. In 1933 she was dismissed from teaching and moved the same year to Munich to live with her parents. Until 1941 she taught at the Israelite elementary school in Munich.
Ida and Wilhelm’s son Hans Silberschmidt, lawyer, born March 28, 1895 in Nuremberg, attended the Humanistic Gymnasium there. He remained unmarried.
Ida and Wilhelm moved to Munich with Hans on January 1, 1916 and moved into an apartment in Isabellastrasse 22/II.
Hans passed the state examination in law in Munich. From 1915 to 1918 he took part in the First World War as a front-line fighter. His father had a law firm in the same house in Isabellastrasse 22/I, which Hans joined as a partner. On January 24, 1930, he was rewarded his doctorate in law. Hans Silberschmidt was an expert on insurance issues. He spoke several languages fluently: French, English, Dutch, Portuguese, Italian and Scandinavian languages. With the beginning of the Nazi regime, living conditions changed dramatically. His license was revoked but he continued to work as a „consultant“ until February 1939.
In the beginning of 1937 Ida, Wilhelm and Rosa moved to Bauerstrasse 26. Hans followed them on July 14, 1937. He lived on the ground floor and his parents and Rosa on the first floor. On March 6, 1939, Wilhelm Silberschmidt died in Munich after a long illness. Ida Silberschmidt and her daughter then probably moved in with Ida´s son Hans.
On April 16, 1940, mother, daughter Rosa and son Hans were sent to Martiusstrasse 8/0 by the Nazi authorities. They had to move again to Bauerstrasse 26 on September 15, 1941 and shortly afterwards to Jakob-Klar-Strasse 1; on December 1, 1941 they were forced to move again to Herzog-Rudolf-Strasse 1.
On March 7, 1942, Rosa was sent to the Knorrstrasse barracks camp. Hans Silberschmidt was deported from Munich on April 4, 1942, together with his sister Rosa to the Piaski transit ghetto near Lublin, where they were murdered by the SS there or in the Bełżec or Sobibór extermination camps. Their mother Ida was deported from Munich to the Theresienstadt concentration camp on July 23,1942 and murdered there on April 7, 1943.
A stumbling block has been laid for Dr. Rosa Silberschmidt in Würzburg.