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Martha Holländer (née Samson) * 1883

Heimhuder Straße 14 (Eimsbüttel, Rotherbaum)

1942 Auschwitz
ermordet

further stumbling stones in Heimhuder Straße 14:
Dr. Albert Holländer

Martha Holländer, née Samson, born on 29 Mar. 1883 in Hamburg, deported to Auschwitz on 11 July 1942

Heimhuder Strasse 14

The parents of Martha Johanna Holländer, née Samson, were the Hamburg banker Alfred Samson (1850–1908) and the Mainz-born Hortensia Samson, née Rubin (1860–1928). The mother Hortensia (born on 1 May 1860 in Mainz) was the fourth of five children of the merchant Baruch Rubin (1810–1863), who had married Rosalie Pfann (born in 1823 in Mainz) in his second marriage in 1850.

After Martha, the siblings Lucie Alice Irma Samson, later married name Rosenberg (1884–1941), Richard Kurt Samson (1885–1945), Ilse Herta Samson, later married name Zachmann (1887–1942), and Nelly Paula Samson, later married name Aufhäuser (1889–1985) were born. The family’s addresses in Hamburg were Uhlenhorsterweg 8 (in 1882, the house Martha’s grandfather Daniel Samson had moved into in 1871), Königstrasse 8 (1883–1884), Uhlandstrasse 22 (1886–1888), Uhlandstrasse 64 (1889–1890), and Wartenau 23 (1891–1928), the latter town house had been owned by the Samson family since 1895.

The grandfather Daniel Samson (1821–1877 ?), married to Mathilde Samson, née Schwerin (1822–1908), from Clausthal/ Harz, had founded the D. Samson private bank in Hamburg in 1850. For the male descendants, the choice of profession was thus decided. When the founder of the company died at the age of 56, his sons Alfred Samson (1850–1908) and Paul Samson (1851–1888) continued the business together at Paulstrasse 30 (Hamburg-Altstadt). After Paul Samson’s death, in Gnauck’s Kurhaus für Nervenkranke, a clinic for mentally ill patients in Pankow near Berlin, Alfred Samson ran the private bank on his own until finally Daniel’s grandson Richard Samson (1885–1945) continued the company tradition and managed the banking business starting in 1909 (while he was liable with his private assets, his mother’s liability was limited to the assets she brought into business, amounting to 100,000 marks).

Richard Samson had finished school in 1903, stayed in Switzerland at the beginning of 1905, and started his one-year military service in Bavaria in Oct. 1905. During the First World War, he fought as a cavalryman for the German Empire, including on the Eastern Front.

Ownership of a private banking business and the residential addresses indicate an upscale standard of living for the family. In 1879, Alfred Samson acquired Hamburg civic rights. One may assume that, in accordance with the social position of the family, all children of Alfred and Hortensia Samson enjoyed a good school education. Presumably, Martha attended a girls’ secondary school and received music lessons.

In 1907, at the age of 24, Martha married Albert Alexander Holländer (born in Hamburg on 1 Sept. 1877), a Hamburg-based lawyer with a doctorate. Two years later, their son Alfred Erich (on 15 Sept. 1909 in Hamburg) was born and named after the grandfather on the mother’s side who had died the year before. The residential addresses of the Holländer family were Parkallee 31/ Harvestehude (1908–1914), Giesestrasse 2/ Gross Flottbek (1915–1918), and Maria-Louisen-Strasse 104/ Winterhude (1919–1932). In accordance with the professional position of her husband and the upscale residential area, the couple probably employed several domestic workers. After attending Antonie Brockmeyer’s private preschool in Othmarschen, the son attended the Academic School of the Johanneum high school (Gelehrtenschule des Johanneums) in Hamburg-Winterhude from the fall of 1918 to Aug. 1924, and then switched to the nearby Lichtwarkschule (today Heinrich-Hertz-Schule) in Hamburg-Winterhude.

The 15-year-old son’s change of schools also says something about his parents’ liberal attitude. After all, they took him out of one of Hamburg’s most renowned traditional schools, which Albert Holländer had also attended until 1897, and transferred him to a reform-oriented school founded only a few years earlier. That school not only featured coeducational and non-denominational classes, but also curricular freedom, democratic methods in pedagogy, as well as parental and student participation.

From 1904 until the ban on Jewish lawyers from practicing as lawyers (30 Nov. 1938), Albert Holländer practiced as a lawyer in his own firm. In addition, he was active in various organizations, including the Jewish Community (in 1920, member of the College of Representatives; in 1930, supporter of the Religious Liberal List for the election of the College of Representatives). We know of memberships in the Central Association of German Citizens of Jewish Faith (Centralverein deutscher Bürger jüdischen Glaubens) (in 1920, First Chairman); the Patriotic Society (Patriotische Gesellschaft) (since 1921); the Masonic Lodge (1914–1928); the German Alpine Association (DAV), Section Hamburg (since 1921); and the National Liberal Party (Nationalliberale Partei – NLP); as well as later in the Progressive People’s Party, and finally the German Democratic Party.

During the First World War, attorney Albert Holländer was appointed assistant judge of the Hamburg District Court (Amtsgericht) from Dec. 1914 to Dec. 1915 (together with lawyers Walther Nord and Abraham Luria, as well as senior civil servant (Regierungsrat) Leo Lippmann), serving as court officer of the Dragoon Regiment in Wandsbek and the IXth Army Corps in Altona from 1916 to 1918.

The three sisters and Martha’s brother also married in accordance with their station: Nelly married the chemist David Aufhäuser (born on 14 July 1878 in Oettingen, Bavaria) in 1909. He had founded the "Thermochemische Prüfungs- u. Versuchs-Anstalt Dr. Aufhäuser,” a thermochemical inspection and research institute located at Dovenfleth 20, in 1905 and he was the authorized signatory of the D. Samson banking business from 1914 to 1918; Irma married the jurist Eugen Baruch Rosenberg (born on 1 Nov. 1877 in Cologne) in 1916; Richard married the physician Louise Guttfeld, née Lewandowsky, in 1919; and Herta married the established merchant Fritz Zachmann (1879–1935) in 1920.

Probably at the end of 1932, Albert and Martha Holländer moved from Maria-Louisen-Strasse 104 to Magdalenenstrasse 12/ Rotherbaum (1933–1934). The anti-Semitic measures of the Nazi regime and the declining income as a Jewish lawyer made further moves necessary in the following years. At Heimhuder Strasse 14 (1935–1937), they were still the main tenants; we do not know whether they had taken in subtenants. As of 30 Nov. 1938, Jewish lawyers were no longer allowed to practice in Germany; only a few were permitted to work as "legal advisers” ("Konsulenten”) for Jewish clients only – among their number was Albert Holländer.

As of 1933, Martha and Albert Holländer, too, became victims of anti-Jewish measures and exclusion by the officials of the Nazi German Reich. With the identification of the Jews in Germany and their forced membership in the Jewish Community, further steps toward isolation were taken. On 4 Jan. 1939, registry office staff noted the additional compulsory first name of "Sara” on her marriage certificate and on 4 Mar. 1939, on her birth certificate. In Mar. 1939, she was also issued a new identity card stamped with a "J.” From 1 July 1940 onward, they were only allowed to shop with specially marked food ration cards in separate food distribution points for Jews; the "Social Administration, District Branch 3a, Pay Office” at Schönstrasse 9 (St. Pauli quarter) had jurisdiction on that account. Beginning on 19 Sept. 1941, the "Police Ordinance on the Identification of Jews” ("Polizeiverordnung über die Kennzeichnung der Juden”) forced them to wear a six-pointed yellow star on their clothing, clearly visible.

The following residential addresses of the Holländer couple were subtenancies, that is, they lived in one or two rooms and shared the kitchen and bathroom with the main tenants. The addresses were Loogestieg 11 with Margarethe Marum, née Frank (born on 20 Dec. 1871, in Frankfurt/Main), and from 15 Jan. 1938, at Hochallee 106. By 30 Apr. 1939, the "Law on Tenancies with Jews” ("Gesetz über die Mietverhältnisse mit Juden”) deprived them of all protection for tenants, and in cooperation with the Gestapo, a "de-Jewification” of the houses was carried out by housing offices, homeowners, and brokerage firms. The increasingly smaller residential quarters inevitably led to the gradual sale of the apartment furnishings. The remnants of Albert and Martha Holländer’s household effects were then auctioned off by the auctioneer Arthur Landjunk (at Alter Wall 64) in the absence of the owners on 29 Aug. 1942, for 4,783 RM (reichsmark) to the benefit of the German Reich (the auction documents of the company were lost due to air-raid damage, so the individual items cannot be traced).

Presumably, from 1940 or 1941 onward, Martha and Albert Holländer were quartered at Sonninstrasse 14 on the third floor (today Biernatzkistrasse) in Altona. The house had been declared a "Jews’ house” ("Judenhaus”) by the Nazi regime and served as a collection point for the planned deportations. From there, they were deported to the Auschwitz extermination camp on 11 July 1942 and murdered.

In 2003, Stolpersteine were laid for Albert and Martha Holländer at Heimhuder Strasse 14 (Rotherbaum), not at Maria-Louisen-Strasse 104, as was erroneously stated in 2008 in the volume on Stolpersteine for the Winterhude quarter. For Martha’s sister, Herta Zachmann, née Samson, a Stolperstein was laid at Böttgerstrasse 14 (Rotherbaum).

Martha Holländer’s brother, the banker Richard Samson (born on 19 Sept. 1885 in Hamburg), who had resided in his own thatched cottage with park and forest in Rissen (Auenweg 34/ Bruchweg, Haus Moorfred, located on the Wedeler Au) since 1928, managed to emigrate to Sweden with his wife in the spring of 1939 and from there to Britain. Their five children had already been sent on children transports (Kindertransporte) to England between Jan. and Mar. 1939, because Richard Samson and his wife Louise Samson, née Lewandowsky, widowed name Guttfeld (1889–1963) did not yet have a British entry visa. Through a contact with a Swedish diplomat, they obtained visas for Sweden and traveled there in Apr. 1939. After two months, they were able to continue on to Great Britain to join their children. Their country house in Rissen (today Rüdigerau 34) had to be sold by their general agent to the city of Hamburg in Oct. 1940, together with the park, for a price far below value, after the "Reichsstatthalter [Reich Governor] in Hamburg” had set a deadline for the forced sale with reference to the confiscation of Jewish assets. Richard Samson died in London on 5 Mar. 1945. He had supported his sister and brother-in-law Holländer since May 1939 with 100 RM a month.

Martha Holländer’s son Alfred Holländer had set out on the passage to New York as early as Mar. 1931, where about 27 years earlier, uncle Franz Gottlieb Holländer (1883–1945) had completed his commercial traineeship. According to his father’s old judicial personnel file, he had already been active "as a manufacturer of radio sets abroad” before Mar. 1939. Later, he reportedly lived in Tel Aviv (in 1950/51) and Los Angeles (in 1965), changing his family name to Hollander.

Translator: Erwin Fink
Kindly supported by the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung, Hamburg.

Stand: December 2020
© Björn Eggert

Quellen: Staatsarchiv Hamburg (StaH) 213-13 (Landgericht Hamburg, Wiedergutmachung), 3413 (Gottlieb Holländer, darin enthalten Hinweis auf Alfred Holländer); StaH 213-13 (Landgericht Hamburg, Wiedergutmachung), 3414 (Gottlieb Holländer, darin enthalten Hinweis auf Alfred Holländer); StaH 213-13 (Landgericht Hamburg, Wiedergutmachung), 7678 (Kurt Richard Samson); StaH 213-13 (Landgericht Hamburg, Wiedergutmachung), 7679 (Kurt Richard Samson), StaH 231-7 (Handelsregister), A1 Band 20 (HR A 5223, D. Samson 1907-1927); StaH 231-7 (Handelsregister), A1 Band 199 (HR A 43963, D. Samson); StaH 241-2 (Justizverwaltung Personalakten), A 1727 (Albert Holländer, mit Passbild); StaH 314-15 (Oberfinanzpräsident), F 2079 (Richard Samson); StaH332-5 (Standesämter), 2053 u. 1741/1883 (Geburtsregister 1883, Martha Johanna Samson); StaH 332-5 (Standesämter), 2078 u. 2042/1884 (Geburtsregister 1884, Lucie Alice Irma Samson); StaH 332-5 (Standesämter), 6306 u. 275/1889 (Geburtsregister 1889, Nelly Paula Samson); StaH 332-5 (Standesämter), 6456 u. 568/1907 (Heiratsregister 1907, Albert Holländer u. Martha Samson); StaH 332-5 (Standesämter), 6879 u. 563/1908 (Sterberegister 1908, Mathilde Samson geb. Schwerin); StaH 332-5 (Standesämter), 6466 u. 50/1909 (Heiratsregister 1909, Nelly Paula Samson u. David Aufhäuser); StaH 332-5 (Standesämter), 3181 u. 292/ 1911 (Heiratsregister 1911, Franz Gottlieb Holländer u. Frieda Jarchow); StaH 332-5 (Standesämter), 6553 u. 911/1919 (Heiratsregister 1919, Kurt Richard Samson u. Louise Elsa Guttfeld); StaH 332-5 (Standesämter), 6566 u. 304/1920 (Heiratsregister 1920, Fritz Zachmann u. Ilse Herta Samson); StaH 332-5 (Standesämter), 4905 u. 150/1928 (Sterberegister 1928, Hortensia Samson geb. Rubin); StaH 332-7 (Staatsangehörigkeitsaufsicht), AI e 40 Bd. 8 (Bürger-Register 1845-1875, S-Z), Daniel Samson (geb. 12.9.1820 in Hannover, ohne Berufsangabe, Bürgerrecht Nr. 3885 am 7.3.1873); StaH 332-7 (Staatsangehörigkeitsaufsicht), AI e 40 Bd. 10 (Bürger-Register 1876-1896, L-Z), Alfred Samson (geb. 3.6.1850 in Hamburg, vermutlich Prokurist, Bürgerrecht Nr. 8554 am 10.10.1879); StaH 332-7 (Staatsangehörigkeitsaufsicht), AI e 40 Bd. 10 (Bürger-Register 1876-1896, L-Z), Paul Samson (geb. 7.5.1851 in Hamburg, vermutlich Kaufmann, Bürgerrecht Nr. 8351 am 25.7.1879); StaH 332-8 (Meldewesen), Alte Einwohnermeldekartei 1892-1925, Mikrofilm K 6850 (Alfred Samson); StaH 342-2 (Militärersatzbehörden), DII 119 Band 8 (Richard Kurt Samson); StaH 351-11 (Amt für Wiedergutmachung), 8124 (Kurt Richard Samson); StaH 522-1 (Jüdische Gemeinden), 992b (Kultussteuerkartei der Deutsch-Israelitischen Gemeinde Hamburg), Albert Holländer, Hortensia Samson, Richard Samson; StaH 614-1/71 (Vereinigte 5 Logen), 5.2 H44 Nr. 135 (Mitgliederverzeichnis 1922, Albert Holländer, Abraham Luria, beide in der Loge Ferdinande Caroline); Staatsarchiv Hamburg, Hamburger jüdische Opfer des Nationalsozialismus – Gedenkbuch, Hamburg 1995 (Hertha Zachmann geb. Samson); Bundesarchiv Koblenz, Gedenkbuch – Opfer der Verfolgung der Juden unter der nationalsozialistischen Gewaltherrschaft in Deutschland 1933-1945 (Albert Holländer, Martha Holländer); Yad Vashem, Page of Testimony (Martha Holländer, Albert Holländer, jeweils ohne Foto); Stadtarchiv Mainz, Familienregister (Eintrag Nr. 11725 Baruch Rubin); Gelehrtenschule des Johanneums, Bibliotheca Johannei, Schülerkarte (1918-1924) von Alfred Holländer; Jüdischer Friedhof Hamburg-Ohlsdorf, Gräberverzeichnis (Alfred Samson, Grablage B10-224; Hortensia Samson, Grablage B10-223; Paul Samson, Grablage A12-95); Hamburger Börsenfirmen, Hamburg 1926, S. 37 (Dr. David Aufhäuser, gegr. 1905, beeid. Handelschemiker, Dovenfleth 20), S. 892 (D. Samson, gegr. um 1850, Bankgeschäft, KG, pers. haftender Gesellschafter: Kurt Richard Samson, Prokuristen: Wilhelm Bierig, Carl Rosenberg, Wilhelm Stöckel, Paul Fischer, Neuer Wall 5); Deutsche Nationalbibliothek (dnb), Katalog (medizinische Doktorarbeit von Louise Guttfeld "Zur Frage der aktiven oder konservativen Behandlung fieberhafter Aborte" 1916, 20 Seiten); Franklin Kopitzsch/ Daniel Tilgner (Hrsg.), Hamburg Lexikon, Hamburg 2010, S. 436 (Lichtwarkschule); Heiko Morisse, Jüdische Rechtsanwälte in Hamburg. Ausgrenzung und Verfolgung im NS-Staat, Hamburg 2003, S. 136 (Dr. Albert Alexander Holländer, mit Foto); Anna von Villiez, Mit aller Kraft verdrängt. Entrechtung und Verfolgung "nicht arischer" Ärzte in Hamburg 1933 bis 1945, München/ Hamburg 2009, S. 391 (Luise Samson geb. Lewandowsky verw. Guttfeld); Ingo Wille, Transport in den Tod. Von Hamburg-Langenhorn in die Tötungsanstalt Brandenburg. Lebensbilder von 136 jüdischen Patientinnen und Patienten, Hamburg/ Berlin 2017, S. 494-499 (Ilse Herta Zachmann geb. Samson); Adressbuch Hamburg (D. Samson) 1868, 1870-1872, 1874-1875, 1877; Adressbuch Hamburg (Alfred Samson und Firma D. Samson) 1882, 1886-1888, 1890-1893, 1895, 1900; Adressbuch Hamburg (Paul Samson, Uhlenhorsterweg 8) 1888; Adressbuch Hamburg (Wartenau 23) 1894, 1895, 1897, 1900, 1905, 1910; Adressbuch Hamburg (Albert Holländer) 1905-1908, 1910, 1914-1919, 1927-1928, 1932, 1934-1938; Adressbuch Hamburg (Schönstr. 9) 1940; Telefonbuch Hamburg (Thermochemische Prüfungs- u. Versuchs-Anstalt) 1914; Adressbuch Altona (Albert Holländer) 1916-1918; www.stolpersteine-hamburg.de (Herta Ilse Zachmann); www.tracingthepast.org (Volkszählung Mai 1939), Martha Holländer, Albert Holländer; https://www.geni.com/people/Hortensia-Samson/6000000063645376043 (eingesehen 18.11.2019); https://www.geni.com/people/Dr-jur-Eugen-Baruch-Rosenberg/6000000064823530871 (eingesehen 25.2.2020); https://archive.org/stream/gastebuchhausmoo1384unse/gastebuchhausmoo1384unse_djvu.txt (Klaus Samson, Gästebuch Haus Moorfred Rissen 1920-1938); www.ancestry.de (Alfred Holländer: Abfahrt 2.3.1931 mit der "Albert Ballin" ab Hamburg, Ankunft 13.3.1931 in New York); www.ancestry.de (Paul Samson: Sterberegister Pankow 88/1888); www.ancestry.de (David Aufhauser: US-Sozialversicherungsindex, Sterbedatum 12.7.1949); www.ancestry.de (Nelly Waitzfelder: US-Sozialversicherungsindex, Sterbedatum 26.6.1985).