Isidor Straußer was born in Bad Kissingen on October 26, 1873 but lived there for only a short time. As early as in 1874, the Straußer family moved to Schweinfurt.

Isidor’s father was the master butcher Simon Straußer from Euerbach. He had three sons with his second wife Agatha (Agathe) Sara, née Löwengard: Jakob, who was born in Euerbach in 1869, and Moses and Isidor, who were born in Bad Kissingen in 1871 and 1873.

In 1874, the family moved to Schweinfurt where Isidor’s father bought an estate in Lange Zehntstrasse 1 and opened a butchery. Soon he turned to gastronomy and got the permit to run an Israelite restaurant with a hostel attached. The couple ran the restaurant for 30 years. After Simon Straußer’s death in 1899, his widow Ricka (Rebekka), née Hofmann (his third wife) and son Isidor ran it on her own.

The concession for this establishment ended as her son Isidor had had it transferred to “Hotel Central” at Rossmarkt. Isidor Straußer hat bought an estate there in 1905 and had a hotel, “Central-Hotel”, built there after an old brewery had been demolished. According to family tradition, they also ran a butchery there. At the same time, it served as the ritual dining house for the Jewish Community of Schweinfurt where the Jewish dealers made a stop after the cattle market.

Isidor Straußer took part in World War I as a gunner and fought e.g. in the Battle of Verdun in 1916/17. His superiors attested him a “very good” conduct.

In 1922, the estate was already sold to AOK (Allgemeine Ortskrankenkasse = general regional health insurance) and Hotel Central closed for ever. It must have been an extremely popular and smart place (Information received from Website “Schweinfurtführer”).

In February 1904, Isidor Straußer had married the cattle dealer’s daughter Laura (in other sources: Sara Agatha), née Gutmann, from Niederwerrn. In the December of the same year, their son Siegfried (Simon) was born. Isidor’s wife died in October 1931 at the age of 52. She had run the renowned kosher Hotel Central together with her husband and is paid tribute to in the Jewish periodical “Der Israelit” as a “warm-hearted, amiable philanthropist”, who had also earned great merits for the public by her eager activities as a member of the Women’s Chewra (women’s association) (Alemannia Judaica Schweinfurt).

The widower Isidor Straußer was forced to experience the increasing ostracism and disenfranchisement of the Jewish citizens and was arrested by Gestapo on November 10, 1938 (after Pogrom Night) together with his son Siegfried. Ten days later, he was released, whereas his son Siegfried was taken to Dachau Concentration Camp. In the last years of his life, Isidor Strauß committed himself in the Israelite Community of Schweinfurt and was elected into the community as a member of the administration in December 1938.

Isidor Straußer planned to emigrate to the Philippines with his son Siegfried and his daughter-in-law Klara. The plans weren’t realized, however, maybe because his health was no longer good enough. When he was 67, Isidor Strauß died from a stroke in Schweinfurt on November 19, 1940 and was buried in the new Jewish Cemetery of Schweinfurt.

Isidor’s brother Moses had already died in Schweinfurt in 1898, his oldest brother Jakob was deported to Auschwitz/ Oświęcim Extermination Camp and murdered (See biography of Jakob Straußer!).

Isidor’s son Siegfried could escape to the Philippines in February 1939 where his wife Klara, née Thanhauser followed him some months later. In 1946, the couple went to the USA. The dramatic circumstances of their emigration are described in: Frank Ephraim, Escape to Manila. From Nazi Tyranny to Japanese Terror, Urbana-Chicago 2003).