In the year 1900, the brothers Leopold and Abraham Firnbacher moved from Franconia to Regensburg. They traded with cattle, and quite successfully so, imported cows and oxen from Tyrol, from Holland, from Belgium, bought and sold large numbers of slaughter cattle. Soon they acquired a restaurant, Leopold bought a fine mansion in the city, and Abraham a charming villa in Proskestraße 5.
Then came the Nazis, which in the long run meant either emigration or extermination. In November 1936, Jewish cattle traders were barred from access to the city's abattoir. In December 1936, the "Order regulating the usage of Jewish assets" was passed becoming the rulebook which soon resulted in 113 Jewish businesses to be "aryanized" in Regensburg.
This included the Firnbacher family as well. They lost the cattle trading firm, their restaurant, and their homes. Especially the latter quickly became the centre of a showdown between several prospective buyers, amongst whom was the Chamber of Commerce, that opened a big battle on who was the most enthusiastic Nazi and should therefore rake in the prize. One of these self-proclaimed "decent and honest National Socialists" won – and all Firnbachers lost. The money from the forced sales were frozen in the bank, there were enormous sums to be paid for the 'Jewish property levy' ("Judenvermögensabgabe"), the 'Reich Flight Tax' ("Reichsfluchtsteuer"), and the sales proceeds were kept in blocked accounts of the Reich and were irremovable from Germany. Abraham Firnbacher, the last resident of the villa in Proskestraße 5, was forced to "move" into the Jewish senior citizens' home in Weißenburgstraße from where he was deported to Theresienstadt/Terezín on September 23, 1942, where he died the following year at the age of 77.
