In May 2015 Susan Wachtel Levine had stumbling stones laid for her father and grandparents. The Wachtel family were able to emigrate to the USA. However, the physician Dr. Hans Wachtel died a tragic death there.

Fritz was born on 27 February 1877 in Marksuhl near Eisenach. He was the son of trader Jakob Wachtel and his wife Helene (née Strauss). He studied medicine until 1901, then worked in Gotha before moving to Nuremberg in November 1902 to work as an ENT physician and ophthalmologist. His surgery was located at Königstrasse 29.

In July 1908 he married Berta Haymann. Berta was born on 17 October 1888 in Amberg. Her parents were the banker Karl Haymann und Fanny (née Oppenheimer). On 9 June 1909 their son Hans was born. From August 1918 onwards the family lived at Marienstrasse 23.

Hans Wachtel also studied medicine, in Munich and Berlin. He emigrated to the USA in 1936, settling in Chicago. His parents followed at the beginning of January 1938. Dr. Fritz Wachtel died in Chicago on 5 April 1944, his wife Berta on 29 April 1962.

Dr. Hans Wachtel was a gynaecologist. He worked from 1946 onwards in Woodlawn Hospital, eventually becoming head of the gynaecology department there. On 2 February 1977 he was shot dead in front of his home in Chicago. The two perpetrators were later convicted. They claimed they had been hired by a middleman who in turn implicated another doctor in the same hospital, alleging that the latter had contracted him to arrange Wachtel’s murder. It appears Wachtel had discovered that the doctor had been performing unnecessary operations for financial gain. There has been no adequate account of the circumstances surrounding the case.