Gertrude Kraus remembers:
Gertrude Kraus, who was reared on a big farm in Grossenbach near Huenfeld, remembers the Strauss’
business rather well. Besides other products her family used to produce soft cheese in large quantities for
marketing. It was one of Gertrude’s jobs to haul the cheese to Huenfeld to be sold. Consequently she also
would supply the Strauss grocery store with soft cheese. She told:
On Friday mornings I would deliver a big pot containing 5-6 pounds of soft cheese to
the store of Joseph Strauss, and there it would be sold by the pound to their customers.
Back than it was still customary to process the milk on the farm, although Huenfeld had
a dairy already. The Strauss store was a grocery store. Whether they used to roast
coffee I don’t recall. There was a large hatch to the basement -cellar- through which
they rolled the oil barrels to where the supplies were stored.
The whole southern part of town went shopping at the Strauss’ grocery store, nobody
had any reservations whatsoever. For how long did I take the cheese to the store? I
remember that in 1938, when the Synagogue was on fire, I ran from the Strauss’ place
down ”Gartenstrasse” past the depot -station- over to my sister’s. ( At that time the
business was already in ”arian” hands ). My sister lived at ”Hersfelder Strasse”, and I
walked by the Synagogue, which was still on fire.
As of that time we were not allowed anymore to market cheese, butter, eggs; everything
was managed by the state government. The milk had to be delivered to the dairy, and it
was not possible any longer to supply customers.