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Otto Streit * 1880

Isestraße 49 (Eimsbüttel, Harvestehude)

HIER WOHNTE
OTTO STREIT
JG. 1880
DEPORTIERT 1942
THERESIENSTADT
ERMORDET 6.4.1943

further stumbling stones in Isestraße 49:
Manfred Leipziger

Otto Streit, b. 11.7.1880 in Hamburg, deported to Theresienstadt on 7.19.1942, date of death, 4.6.1943

Isestraße 49

Otto Streit belonged to the Jewish Congregation in Hamburg since 1923. He withdrew in 1935 with the rationale that he was a dissident, that is, he declared that he was no longer of the Jewish faith. At that time, he had already been divorced for three years from his non-Jewish wife Martha, née Meckel; he lived alone in sublets, first in Langen Reihe and then on Isestrasse, with the Breslauers. His "mixed marriage" no longer afforded him protetction from Nazi persecution; no more so than the fact that at least one of his two daughters was baptized as a Protestant.

Otto Streit owned a renowned office furniture and machine business, located finally on Ferdinandstrasse. It was listed in the Commercial Register since 1911. Its income allowed the family to live in bourgeois circumstances in a comfortable home on Woldsenweg, served by a housemaid. The daughters attended private schools; they took five week annual vacation trips.

Even after the divorce, Irmgard, the older daughter, was employed by her father as a clerk. In the later reparation proceedings, the daughter gave only vague particulars concerning the circumstances of the dissolution of the firm. In any case, the growing political and social pressure prompted Otto Streit to give up his business, even before the Night of Broken Glass in 1938, auctioning off his inventory at rock-bottom prices.

On 20 January 1939, the Commercial Register designated that: "the firm is dissolved." One month before, Otto Streit had surrendered 2200 RM as a "capital levy on Jewish wealth." In 1940, he had to make a declaration of wealth from which it is known that he still possessed an account with 5200 RM in securities. How much of this he was able to utilize for himself is not determinable from the records.

On 8 November 1941, Otto Streit received a deportation order for Minsk. However, at the last minute, his name was stricken from the list, presumably on account of his earlier "mixed marriage." Six months later, he had to board the train to Theresienstadt where he lost his life on 6 April 1943.

For his landladies, Jenny and Paula Breslauer, commemorative stones have been placed at Jungfrauenthal 22.


Translator: Richard Levy
Kindly supported by the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung, Hamburg.

Stand: January 2019
© Christa Fladhammer

Quellen: 1; StaH, 522-1 Jüd. Gemeinden, 992 e, 2 Bd.1 und Bd.2; StaH, 351-11, AfW 4864.
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