Er heiratete am 26.12.1911 Gertrude Stern und war Vater der drei Kinder Gerhart (geboren 1913), Günter (1916) und Monika (1918). Otto und Gertrude Bendix traten als Juden zum Christentum über, die Kinder besuchten lutherische Schulen und wurden konfirmiert. 1925 ließen sie sich scheiden. Otto Bendix heiratete im selben Jahr Gertrud (Trude) Gurschke. Diese Ehe blieb kinderlos.
Seine erste Frau und die drei erwachsenen Kinder flüchteten 1938 in die USA. Otto blieb in Deutschland, weil er annahm, dass ihn seine guten Verbindungen und seine Position vor Verfolgung schützten. Letztlich aber verkauften die Nazis seine Wohnung und die Firma. Trude, die Arierin war, und er ließen sich scheiden, sodass sie nicht den Judenverfolgungen wie er ausgesetzt war. Wahrscheinlich blieben sie zusammen, bis er bei einem jüdischen Bekannten in der Pariser Straße 27 unterkam.
Am 4. Oktober 1942 wurde Otto Julius Bendix festgenommen und nach Theresienstadt deportiert, wo er am 8. Januar 1943 ums Leben gebracht worden ist. Er wurde 64 Jahre alt. Sein Totenschein, in den ein „akuter Darmkatarrh“ – eine Umschreibung für die Folgen der unhygienischen Zustände im Ghetto – als „Krankheit“ und Todesursache eingetragen wurde, ist einsehbar.
Julius Otto Bendix was born in Berlin, on 5 December 1878. His parents Hugo and Anna (née Hauer) Bendix, were German citizens of Jewish descent. Otto was raised in Berlin and joined his father in business at the family-owned linen / textile company, “Julius Bendix Söhne” founded in 1870. The company had offices in Berlin, and factories in Friedland, Silesia and Qualisch, Bohemia. The factories employed many residents of these small communities at a time when jobs were scarce. Otto was considered a kind and generous employer. He enjoyed skiing, and was an avid stamp collector.
Otto married Gertrude Stern on 26 December 1911, and was a loving father to their 3 children, Gerhart born 1913, Günter born 1916, and Monika born 1918. Otto and Gertrude converted to Christianity and their children attended Lutheran parochial schools and were confirmed as Lutherans.
Otto and Gertrude divorced in 1925 and he remarried in the same year to Gertrud Gurschke or Trude. They had no children.
His first wife and his three adult children fled to the United States in the fall of 1938 after the Nazis took control of Czechoslovakia. Otto remained in Germany thinking that his social connections and respected position in the business community would protect him from Nazi persecution. Ultimately, however, the Nazis forced the sale of his home and his company. It is believed that he and Trude, who was Gentile, divorced so that she would not be subject to the same persecution directed at Otto. It is likely that they continued to live together until he was deported to a concentration camp. Or it is possible that, no longer able to work, he moved to a room in the home of a Jewish acquaintance. On 4 October 1942 Otto was arrested and transported to the Theresienstadt concentration camp. His death was recorded three months later on 8 January 1943. Otto had just turned 64.
Otto’s grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and great-great-grandchildren, all citizens of the United States of America, honor his memory with the laying of this Stolperstein. Otto is also commemorated with a headstone at the Weißensee Cemetery in Berlin and is listed in the Yad Vashem Central Database of Shoah Victims’ Names.
Text: Gerald Bendix (Redding, Kalifornien, USA)
