Julius Neumann, whose often-used nickname was “Juller”, was born in Bad Kissingen on August 1, 1894 as the son of the respected dealer in fashion articles Karl Neumann (1860-1942) and his wife Klara Löwenthal (1869-1915). He attended Kissingen Realschule since September 1904 which he graduated from successfully in July 1910. Then he completed an economic apprenticeship of two years in Munich. In World War I, Julius Neumann fought as a soldier on the Western Front. There he distinguished himself because of his great bravery and was awarded the Iron Cross 2^ndclass for that. After his release from military service, he returned to Bad Kissingen and worked in his parents’ shop which he was to take on later. His mother Klara had already died in 1915.

After the seizure of power of National Socialists in January 1933, Julius experienced manifold hostilities. Immediately after their seizure of power, he was accused of “Communist machinations”. In spite of having fought in World War I and his openly confessed sympathy for the liberal “Deutsche Demokratische Partei” (German Democratic Party), he was always suspected of being radically left-wing. It is astonishing how courageously Julius Neumann resisted against this defamation. In March 1933, he placed an advertisement in ‘Saale-Zeitung’ in which he objected to the infamous rumours and announced to take legal action against everybody who spread lies against him, even if he knew that District Leader Renner was behind this libeling campaign. He didn’t have to wait long for the reaction of the Kissingen National Socialists. Four days later, on March 17, 1933, Julius Neumann was taken into “Schutzhaft” (protective custody) and only released at the end of May after all the accusations had proved to be baseless. In the following years, Julius Neumann and his father Karl were continuously exposed to intimidations and repression, e.g. in October 1937, there was a nightly raid on Fashion House Neumann – 50 years after its founding – in the course of which the panes of the shop windows were smashed.

Since the beginning of 1938, Julius Neumann and his father endeavored to get visa for New Zealand where his sister Else Wolff and her husband lived at that time. But like many other Kissingen Jews, the Neumanns met with insurmountable obstacles which made it impossible for them to put their decision to emigrate into practice.

In the Pogrom Night of 1938, the two businessmen were arrested; Julius Neumann was even interned in Dachau for some months. Under the massive pressure of Kissingen National Socialists, the Neumanns had to consent to the sale of their estate and their business. On February 1, 1939, in the course of “Aryanization”, a SA Man opened a delicatessen in the Neumann’s house which was from then on registered as his possession. After what had happened in Pogrom Night, Julius Neumann increased his efforts for emigration. But when the longed-for immigration permit of the government of New Zealand arrived at last, it was too late for organizing the emigration. The beginning of World War II prevented the emigration. On February 1, 1940, the Neumanns had to leave their house in Ludwigstrasse 9 and move to Maxstrasse 23a into the house of the family of Hermann Holländer, who had succumbed to the maltreatment of his imprisonment by the Gestapo already in 1938. The house had been declared a “Judenhaus” (Jews’ House) by the Kissingen authorities. The fashion dealers who had been highly respected few years before were now forced to do menial labour such as street sweeping or cleaning the sewer. Accordingly, Julius Neumann was described as an unskilled worker in the registration files.

On April 24, 1942, Julius Neumann and other Jewish citizens of Bad Kissingen were deported to Würzburg. One day later, they were deported to Krasniczyn Ghetto near Lublin on the third deportation train of Würzburg Gestapo. The only hint to his death is a note in the Bad Kissingen Citizens’ Registration Files: In 1952, Bad Kissingen District Court declared Julius Neumann dead and gave as his fictitious date of death June 30, 1942.