Hedwig Meyer, née Feibusch was born in Rogasen/ Province of Posen/ Póznan, Poland on May 2, 1898 as the daughter of the master plumber Salomon Feibusch and his wife Minna, née Schocken. Rogasen (now: Rogozno) belonged to Prussia in those days and is now a town in Western Poland. 

Around 1865, her father emigrated to New York and married there in 1867. When his wife and their baby died in childbed, he returned to Rogasen and allowed his family to persuade him to stay there. In 1877, he married Ernestine Krombach and had seven children with her. When the seventh child was born, his wife was met by the same fate as Salomon’s first wife: She died in childbed, few days after the birth of their son Arthur. One year later, Salomon married Minna Schocken and had seven more children with her. Moritz Feibusch, Hedwig’s half-brother, describes her as an “extraordinary woman” who didn’t distinguish between her own and her stepchildren” (Information in this passage derived from: Patrick Russell, Moritz Feibusch, Faces of Hindenburg. The article depicts the fascinating life of Moritz Feibusch but also includes telling details of the lives of other members of the family.) Hedwig’s father died from blood poisoning in Rogasen in 1904. Her mother Minna died in Berlin in 1939. At that time, she was too old and too ill to be able to endure the hardships of fleeing to her relatives in the United States.

Only little is known about Hedwig’s life. It is possible that she moved to Berlin after World War I when Rogasen had become Polish, like some of her siblings had done. In 1934, she lived in Berlin Charlottenburg and went to Bad Kissingen in May of the same year. She was employed as a housekeeper in the Israelite Childen’s Sanatorium for three spa seasons. In the winter months, she stayed in Bad Ems (1934/35) and then again in Berlin-Charlottenburg (1935/36). In October 1936, she left Bad Kissingen for good and checked out for Berlin-Spandau.

In May 1937, Hedwig Feibusch married the cattle dealer Max Meyer in Wriezen/ District of Märkisch-Oderland/ Brandenburg, who had been born in Rogasen like herself. He was a widower and had a son from his first wedlock whose name was Heinz Bernd and who had been born in Eberswalde in 1927. 

There are many details missing about the further fate of the family. What is sure is that all the three of them survived the Nazi Era and were living in San Francisco in 1949. There are hints that Hedwig Meyer and her stepson Heinz Bernd could flee to Shanghai/ China. Heinz Bernd left Shanghai in September 1948 and arrived in San Francisco on board a ship in October. Hedwig Meyer succeeded in immigrating to Honolulu in the Federal State of Hawaii a year later, in May 1949 on board a plane of Panam Airline. She applied for American citizenship in Hawaii, was naturalized and then lived in San Francisco. A great many of her siblings and half-siblings lived there with their families.

The survivors owe the fact that none of their numerous siblings and half-siblings became victims of Nazi terror to Moritz Feibusch, Hedwig’s older half-brother from Salomon Feibusch’s marriage to Ernestine Krombach. He had already emigrated to the United States in 1897 and had gathered an enormous fortune as the owner of “Calbaer Canneries”, a successful cannery in San Francisco. Many Feibusch siblings and their families owe it to his commitment that they could emigrate to England and – first and foremost – to the USA. After Moritz Feibusch had died in the “Hindenburg” Crash (crash of the airship ‘Hindenburg’ when landing in Lakehurst, New Jersey, USA), his business partners Emery and Rebecca Marks continued his endeavours and helped the rest of the Feibusch family to escape from Germany as well. In how far they may have been involved in the salvage of Hedwig and her family is not known. In Hedwig Meyer’s naturalization application, her half-brothers Aaron and Isidor provided the necessary affidavit.

Hedwig’s husband Max died in San Francisco in February 1960. Hedwig Meyer died in San Mateo/ California on October 24, 1967 at the age of 69.