Johanna (Anna) Strauß, née Hamburger came from a long-established Jewish family of Bad Kissingen who had been butchers for some generations. She was born in Bad Kissingen on September 3, 1885 as the first child of Isaak Hamburger and his wife Regina, née Fröhlich. In the next years, three brothers followed her. The family ran a butchery in Grabengasse 9.

In 1911, Johanna married the wine wholesale merchant Max Strauß, who came from Geroda, in Munich. She moved into the Bavarian capital. In July 1912, their daughter Nelly was born. In 1919, the family returned to their Franconian home region and first lived in Bad Kissingen in Kurhausstrasse. Their son Rudi was born there on January 3, 1923.

When the situation for Jewish citizens became more and more dangerous in the 1930s, Johanna’s daughter Nelly emigrated to the USA in 1936 as the first of the family. The rest of them managed to flee there in August 1938.

Fortunately, Johanna’s brothers also survived the Nazi Era, either because they had already emigrated to the USA before the Nazi’s seizure of power or – like the youngest brother Heinrich – escaped to the United States in 1937.

The Strauß family lived in New York. Johanna’s husband died there in August 1957. Johanna died in December 1964 at the age of 79.