On 16 July 2020 Gunter Demnig laid four stumbling stones – for Gerhard and Ilse Frank and their children Raoul and Trudy. The family emigrated to France and survived the German occupation there. Raoul’s granddaughter Nathalie Frank sponsored the laying of the stones.

Gerhard Frank was born on 27 February 1886 in Zeilitzheim, in the southern administrative district of Schweinfurt. The son of Raphael und Bertha (née Kohn), he worked as a trader.

In March 1921 he married Elise (Elsa) Schick, originally from Husseren near Colmar in Alsace. She was born on 27 September 1894. From 1871 until 1919 Alsace was part of the German Reich. Elsa’s parents were the butcher Abraham Schick and his wife Bertha (née Zivi).

Following their marriage, the couple moved to Nuremberg, where their two children were born: Rolf (born 16 May 1922) and Herta Gertrud (born 24 April 1925).

After the National Socialists came to power the family no longer felt safe in the German Reich. They decided to emigrate to Elsa’s home country: on 14 June 1933 they deregistered in Nuremberg and moved to Gebweiler in Alsace. From then on, Rolf called himself Raoul and Gertrud called herself Trudy.