Ingetraut Meyring

Krenkelstraße 23, Blasewitz

HIER WOHNTE
INGETRAUT MEYRING
JG. 1923
SCHULVERWEIS
FLUCHT 1938
USA

Weitere Stolpersteine in Krenkelstraße 23:
Meyring, Walter
Meyring, Lucie

On July 4, 1923, Walter and Lucie Meyring welcomed their first and only baby into the world. lngetraut Meyring was the ultimate blessing of their marriage. In 1938, it was with great pain and exceptional disappointment that Walter Meyring was forced to uproot his wife and daughter from their harne in Dresden, Germany, relinquish his business to the Nazi government, and leave behind his aging mother so that he could find refuge for his family in the United States of America.
In 1952, lngetraut Meyring Smith, founded an independent school for young children in Franklin, Tennessee, fourteen years after she and her parents narrowly escaped Nazi Germany. Smith Preschool holds the distinction of being the oldest business continuously owned by the same individual in Williamson County, Tennessee. Several thousand young children have attended this independent school. In fact, the school celebrates the fact that multiple generations of some families have received an early childhood education at Smith Preschool.
lt was September 1938 when 15-year-old lngetraut learned that her family's application for immigration to America had been approved. With minimal belongings, the Meyrings were to travel by train November 12 from Dresden to Hamburg, where they had appr?val to board the American ocean liner S.S. Manhattan. As their departure date neared, Walter Meyring chose to stay in Dresden one more night to console his widowed mother Lina Meyring Cohn. She was not accepted for immigration due to her aging health. A close friend had agreed to look out for her, but it was a heartbreaking experience for both mother and son. Meanwhile, Lucie and lngetraut boarded their train, initially stopping in Berlin overnight to say goodbye to relatives before continuing to Hamburg.
In their collective efforts to leave the country, an historic event transpired that rapidly altered the Meyring family's safety and moreover the safety of Jews throughout the Third Reich. On the night now infamously known as Kristallnacht, Night of Broken Glass, lngetraut and Lucie witnessed the horrific chaos and destruction that ensued after Adolf Hitler unleashed his Gestapo to violently confront Jews in what history has recorded as a brutal pogrom. Although they did not fully understand the source of the unrest they were witnessing, Lucie and lngetraut maintained their course, first traveling by streetcar and then train to Hamburg. They certainly feared for the safety of Walter Meyring when they noticed flames engulfing a Berlin synagogue. Their instincts were sadly true because as they were traveling to Hamburg, Walter was being sought out by Gestapo agents, who made their way to his mother's harne after receiving a tip of his whereabouts. That infamous day marked the turning point where Jewish men, adults and boys, were systematically targeted. Walter Meyring would narrowly escape arrest that day in part because of the wisdom and profound theatrics of his dear mother Lina.
When the Gestapo rapped on the widow Cohn's front door November 11, Walter hid under a bed in a room nearby. Pretending to be senile and hard of hearing, she answered the door calmly, but she managed to frustrate the Gestapo agents with a lifesaving performance. She went to extraordinary lengths to feign utter confusion when questioned about her son. lrritated and thoroughly frustrated, the Nazi's forced their way past her, combing every room and closet, intending to arrest Walter Meyring. Despite their intensity, Walter, and even his canine companion, a Schnauzer, remained so quiet the police never suspected their presence. When the men had exhausted their search, they left the Meyring harne angry, but without lngetraut's father.
These events and more have been recorded in a published memoir titled Born for America: The Life of lnge Meyring Smith, released in Franklin, Tennessee in 2012. They have also been preserved through the production of American Blackguard in a documentary titled One of the Mirac/es, released in 2013.
The story of the Meyring family's lass, however, begins well before Kristallnacht. lt began when Walter received an unexpected visit in 1937 from Gestapo agents who walked into his business, lnfeld and Meyring, which was in the Schloss Platz of Dresden. These Nazi agents were aggressive, threatening, and disrespectful to him in the deepest way. They told him his business would become the property of a new owner, and so on the spot Walter was told to hand over the key to his firm. He resisted. They told him to reconsider his resistance, especially if he was interested in seeing his wife and daughter remain unharmed. In one solitary moment, Walter was denied his livelihood. No financial arrangements were made to compensate him. lnfeld and Meyring, a thriving business that provided for his family, was now in the hands of the Third Reich.
So, on that November day in 1938, he hastily said goodbye to his beloved mother and wasted no time walking to the train station. His mother encouraged him to stay focused on the task at hand. She blessed his departure, knowing they would never see one another again, and he knew the same. Despite chaos unfolding around him, Walter focused on getting to Hamburg. He would let nothing stand between meeting Lucie and lngetraut. Overnight Jews became an immediate target. Leaving the country, even with proper papers, was not guaranteed any langer after November 11. Hamburg was an unsafe harbor, yet the Meyring family miraculously reunited and boarded their ship, but not without being challenged by Gestapo police every step. Their voyage across the Atlantic that November was nothing short of an escape from death, so when the captain hosted a traditional Thanksgiving dinner aboard the S.S. Manhattan, lngetraut feit the hand of God and the excitement of being welcomed to America.
Their new refugee status was challenging, but Walter and Lucie, buoyed by the hope of their daughter's bright future, went straight to work in New York City. lngetraut enrolled in the public high school, tirelessly working to learn a new language without really knowing that many of her extended family members would soon face death at the hand of the Nazi's. lngetraut's name was shortened to lnge by the U.S. immigration agent who reviewed her papers when she arrived in New York. He commented that she must have been 'born for America' with a birthday that coincided with the nation's lndependence Day, but suggested she shortened her name for her new country.
As America entered World War II, lnge and her New York friends became loyal pen pals to many servicemen, or Gl's, stationed in the Pacific and in Europe. But it was her letter to one fellow, with her photo attached, that captured the attention of the platoon censor stationed in Guam in 1943. Paul Mont Smith, of West Tennessee, met lnge Meyring through correspondence that lasted well over a year. She accepted his Army bracelet as a promise that she would consider their future together after the war. In 1945, seven years after her arrival in America, lnge, who had been attending night school at City College, was working for National Distillers Products Corp. in Manhattan. Master Sergeant Smith had fallen in love with lnge's heart and mind. Her beauty just accelerated his decision to seek out the Dresden girl whose life was spared in November 1938. Paul and lnge ultimately married in New York, but their permanent home was established in Tennessee in a small farming town a short distance from Nashville.
lnge was reluctant to move to the South. However, her hesitation was overshadowed by her father's belief that marriage was a binding decision, one that meant following your spouse to a 'foreign' place. So once again, lnge packed her belongings and prepared to face her role as the outsider. Leaving was more difficult than she had suspected, especially since her mother's health was somewhat fragile and there would be lang periods before she could afford to return to New York for a visit.
In March 1957, lnge learned that her dear mother had suffered a massive heart attack just several weeks after the two had visited in New York. Lucie was only fifty-nine. lt was a devastating time for her father. lnge and Paul arranged to move Walter to Franklin, where he would reside with their family. He was able to be close to his grandsons Stefan and Mont, as well as his gr..anddaughter lngelein who was born in 1960, the same year the school was relocated from a church to the family's harne. Smith Preschool's legacy is its welcoming reputation and commitment to engaging children in their developmental years. Families from all areas of the United States and abroad have found it a harne away from harne for their youngsters.
When Walter Meyring died in 1985, lnge was faced with continuing the Meyring legacy, assuring that her three children, eight grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren will forever understand their European Jewish heritage. She has obliged the requests of elementary, middle and high school teachers on many occasions when asked to share her story in an academic or community setting. Moreover, universities, civic groups, churches and book clubs have hosted gatherings so that she could illuminate audiences about this most important, but tragic time in world history.
In recent years, Franklin's own Battle Ground Academy, established 1889, has created a long-range plan to name the institution's future elementary school campus in honor of lnge Meyring Smith, the founding headmistress of the Lower School of B.G.A., formerly known as Harpeth Academy. As lnge looks to her 97th birthday celebration in 2020, she continues to portray her incredible life as an example of God's continued providence, and for that she is deeply grateful.
Ingetraut Meyring Smith passed away in January 2023.
Biography by Pam Horne

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