Rosa Pauson

Authors: Paul Dörrzapf, Bastian Girschke

Header Pauson

Family

Rosa Fechheimer Pauson was born on 16th May1864 in Mitwitz as the daughter of Sigmund Fechheimer and Regina Frank Fechheimer. She married Pankraz Pauson (1856-1916) and had  the children Tekla (1884-1968), Stefan (1887-1963) and Robert (1897-1960) with him.

 

Rosa Pauson Portrait 1939

Rosa Pauson in June 1939

Pankraz Pauson

1916-1920: Successful "basket-maker’s widow"

After the death of her husband in 1916, Rosa took over responsibility for the family business as the "basket maker's widow." She transformed the company into a general partnership, thus laying the foundations for the company's steady growth in the 1920s.

 

At the same time, she showed exemplary social commitment: The company helped the local elementary school through a cold winter with 100 hundredweight of coal and donated, among other things, 1000 marks for the construction of rest homes for soldiers, for which she was honored with the Bavarian King Ludwig Cross.

Rosa Pauson um 1914 Rosa Pauson mit Kindern um 1914
© Pauson family

The Pauson family around 1912

(from left: Stefan Pauson, Hans Hess [son of Thekla Pauson Hess], Robert Pauson, Rosa Pauson, Thekla Pauson Hess).

© Pauson family

 

 

 

In the November pogroms of 1938

On the night of November 9-10, 1938 Rosa was the only one of the family in the Bahnhofstrasse property when a horde of Nazi henchmen broke down the front door. The seventy-four-year-old lady stood up to the mob, of course without being able to do anything. Trusting in law and order, she called the police, but got the terse reply, "Police don't listen." The estate was ransacked and vandalized. A precious concert grand piano was thrown from the second floor into the street, the globe from the boss's desk was stolen, all the windows smashed.

Escape to England

Together with her son Stefan and his family, she managed to escape to England in March 1939, where she lived with her son Norbert and his family in Leicester. She died in 1949.

 

Juni 1939: Margit, Rosa und Emilie Pauson im gemieteten Häuschen in Leicester

June 1939: Margit, Rosa and Emilie Pauson in their rented little house in Leicester.

© Pauson family

 

Rosa Pauson 1939 mit Körben

Rosa Pauson in 1939 - also in England with baskets.

© Pauson family

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