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Eva Maria Seidner (née Hoenicke) * 1908

Deichstraße 3 (Hamburg-Mitte, Hamburg-Altstadt)

HIER WOHNTE
EVA MARIA SEIDNER
GEB. HOENICKE
JG. 1908
INTERNIERT
"POLENAKTION" 1938
BENTSCHEN / ZBASZYN
1940 GHETTO WARSCHAU
BEFREIT

further stumbling stones in Deichstraße 3:
Hermann Seidner

Hermann Seidner, born on 15.1.1906, deported to Bentschen/Zbaszyn in the "Polenaktion" on 28.10.1938, murdered in occupied Poland
Eva Maria Seidner, née Hoenicke, née. Radlow, born 23.2.1908, deported to Bentschen/Zbaszyn in the "Polenaktion" on 28.10.1938, survived

Deichstrasse 3 Altstadt

Hermann Seidner was born as the third of six children of the Jewish couple Alter Albert Ursio (Aron) Seidner and Rosa, née Felsen, on Jan. 15, 1906 in Hamburg. Like his siblings, he was considered a Polish citizen after his father. We know nothing about Hermann Seidner's childhood. He married Eva Maria, née Hoenicke, in Hamburg on May 17, 1934.

She had been born on Feb. 23, 1908 to Lutheran parents Eduard August Christian Hermann Hoenicke and his wife Franziska Agnes Auguste, née Meyer, in Hamburg at Rosenallee 3 in Hammerbrook. She had a sister Johanna Hoenicke, who was born in Hamburg on June 20, 1900.

Eva Maria Hoenicke worked in Hamburg as a stenotypist.
The National Socialists had enacted the "Blood Protection Law" on September 15, 1935, which prohibited marriages (and extramarital sex) between Jews and non-Jews. Since Hermann and Eva Maria Seidner had married before, they were not affected. In National Socialist terminology, they lived in a "non-privileged" mixed marriage.

Hermann Seidner ran a typewriter store at Holzbrücke 5/Altstadt together with his father Alter Seidner from 1932 to 1934. Alter Seidner died in Hamburg on January 27, 1935. He was buried in the IIandkoppel Jewish Cemetery. After his death, Hermann Seidner took over the business as sole owner and moved it to Neuer Wall 55-57 in Neustadt. Eva Maria Seidner handled the bookkeeping and office duties.

On October 28, 1938, Mr. and Mrs. Seidner were deported as Polish citizens to Bentschen/ Zbaszyn on the Polish border.

The background: On March 31, 1938, a law had been passed in Poland that revoked the citizenship of all Polish citizens who had lived abroad continuously for more than five years. The law was implemented in October 1938. People were asked to report to the appropriate consulate to have a control note entered in their passport. If they did not comply with this request, the Polish passport was declared as not guilty as of October 30, 1938. The German Reich feared that thousands of Poles would remain in Germany as stateless persons and deported them in the "Polish Action." But since Poland refused entry to most of the arrivals, they were stuck in no man's land between the borders and were housed and cared for in a makeshift manner by the local Jewish community and then also by the Jewish aid organization Joint. This was also the case for the Seidner couple, who - actually well off - had now arrived in the border town completely destitute.

Hermann Seidner telegraphed Louis Thau Seidner, a relative who lived in the USA, and asked for money, which he immediately sent.

Eva Maria Seidner reported after the war about the deportation to Bentschen/ Zbaszyn: "I and my husband were picked up by the Gestapo from Hamburg and taken to the Polish border to Neu-Bentschen. There we were chased across the border by the German side. The Polish border guards did not let us in and we were driven back instead. After being herded back and forth between the border trees several times, we were finally allowed to stay for a short time in a grove next to the border. Afterwards we were accommodated by the Polish police in a facility surrounded by a wall called Zbaszyn. In the camp we had to live in a horse stable. The radius in which we were allowed to move was 2 km. In the evening the gate to the compound was locked by the Polish police. We could only buy food from the Poles at extortionate prices. We had to stay in the internment camp until September 1939, when we were taken to Warsaw under guard of the Polish police."

Hermann and Eva Maria Seidner received a control note in their passport from the Polish consulate on April 14, 1939, which was valid until June 9, 1939. They returned to Hamburg one day later, on April 15, 1939.

Hermann Seidner's typewriter business had been confiscated in the meantime. The couple applied for a visa for the USA. On June 20, 1939, hoping to obtain the visa in time, they booked two boarding passes with the Hamburg-America Line. The cost of the passage to the USA with Hamburg-Amerika-Linie was RM 802.50. Hermann Seidner also received permission from the Oberfinanzdirektion to transfer the amount from his "security account" for the crossing. He was also allowed to pay another 200 RM for sea freight. But the emigration was delayed. The passports were extended again until July 9, 1939.

On June 21, 1939, Hermann Seidner submitted an application to the Oberfinanzdirektion to release RM 225 from his "security account" for his sister Golda Seidner for her living expenses, which was also approved.

Hermann Seidner's account contained 2,638 RM. He also owned other material assets such as a "Hanomag" car purchased in 1937, watches, gold and bracelets.

But Hermann Seidner had to inform the Hamburg-America Line on July 9, 1939, that they had not received an exit permit for the USA. As a result, the shipping company canceled the crossing for the couple the following day, and they still had to pay RM 200 in cancellation fees.

The Seidner couple received an exit visa, but only for Poland. So on July 28, 1939, Hermann Seidner bought tickets for himself and his wife to Warsaw. On August 2, 1939, they took the train to Warsaw, where they rented a room and lived off the sale of what they had brought with them in twelve suitcases, including jewelry.

On September 1, 1939, the German Wehrmacht invaded Poland. On October 1, 1940, the Seidners, like all Jews, had to move to the Warsaw Ghetto, which had already been announced on posters in August 1940. There they also rented a room.

The Warsaw Ghetto was surrounded by a high wall. The exits were guarded by the SS. All Jewish residents, and also Eva Maria Seidner as a non-Jew, had to wear the "Jewish armband". No one was given permission to leave the ghetto. If someone did leave, the death penalty awaited him. Eva Maria Seidner, she later reported, sometimes dared to leave. The SS guards would have turned a blind eye when she went outside to get urgently needed food or hygiene articles.

She was even able to make these walks legal: Walter Többens, the owner of the Többens Company, which manufactured clothing and shoes for the German Wehrmacht in the ghetto, commissioned her to run errands outside the ghetto on September 1, 1942. Together with a certificate issued by the Többens company and her birth certificate, she was able to identify herself as a non-Jew and thus leave the ghetto without permission. In 1943 she lived with Hermann Seidner in the ghetto at Frascati Strasse 4, apartment 1.

On May 29, 1943, she signed a new employment contract for the civil engineering company Schmidt & Münstermann and received a service card valid until August 31, 1943. However, this was no longer used, because on May 4, 1943, Eva Maria Seidner and her husband Hermann Seidner were taken out of the Warsaw Ghetto with the last other remaining inmates. Eva Maria Seidner was able to identify herself as a non-Jew. She had to watch as her husband and others boarded trucks.

It is not known where the trucks went and where and when Hermann Seidner was murdered. He lived to the age of 37.

Eva Maria Seidner never heard from him again.

Eva Maria Seidner herself was under police surveillance in Warsaw from May 4, 1943 to July 29, 1944. She was allowed to leave Poland when she signed that she would never enter there again. She stayed in hiding in Frankfurt/Oder until February 1945, when she returned to Hamburg.

Eva Maria Seidner regained her German citizenship, which she had lost with her marriage in favor of Polish, and emigrated to Illinios/USA in 1945. Around 1960 she married there, her name was then Radlow. The marriage was divorced a few years later. Eva Maria Radlow died in the USA.

At the request of her relatives, a Stolperstein was laid for her in Hamburg, bearing her name Seidner.

On the fate of Hermann Seidner's mother and siblings:
Hermann Seidner's mother Rosa Seidner was also deported to Bentschen/ Zbaszyn on October 28, 1938. She perished in occupied Poland; a Stolperstein commemorates her at Rappstraße 3 (www.stolpersteine-hamburg.de).

Rosa Reizela, called Röschen Seidner (born Nov. 1, 1894), fled to the USA, where she probably married and was called Melamed/ Helamed.

Moritz Seidner (born Sept. 10, 1896) lived in Danzig and was forced to give up his Polish citizenship in 1938 and reached Mauritius as a stateless person. From there, seriously ill, he was able to emigrate to Palestine after May 8, 1945. He did not receive any compensation payments, since his damage "did not occur in the territory of the Reich". He married Rachel, née Becker, divorced Selikowit (b. 12.3.1908) on October 18, 1955. He died in Israel on November 1, 1959.

Friedrich Seidner (born April 6, 1908) married Erna Kempler (born May 27, 1911) on February 9, 1934. He fled to the USA in 1937, Erna Seidner gave birth to their son Werner in Hamburg on De., 15, 1937. Mother and son were deported to Bentschen/ Zbaszyn on October 28, 1938. They were later murdered in Auschwitz.
Golda Seidner (born April 18, 1911) fled to the USA on December 31, 1939 and married Herbert Abt there in 1942. Golda Abt visited Hamburg for a week on April 18, 1986 as part of the Senate's visitation program.

Bernhard Seidner (born Jan. 6, 1914) was deported to Bentschen/ Zbaszyn with the "Polenaktion" on Oct. 28, 1938, and murdered at an unknown location.

Translation by Beate Meyer
Stand: February 2022
© Bärbel Klein

Quellen: StaH, 1; 2; 4; 5; 6; 8; 9; 131-2 II_3290 Korrespondenz; 213-13_16891; 213-13_25611; 213-13_28180; 213-13_32277; 351-11_2917; 351-11_7995; 351-11_9074; 213-13_16891; 351-11_18279; 351-11_26211; 351-11_32277; 351-11_33061; 351-11_33132; 351-11_18279, 351-11_36727; 351-11_33608; 351-11_37190; 351-11_37653; 351-11_39465; 332-5_135/1906; 332-5_519/1908; 332-5_316/1908; 332-5_41/1934; 332-5_33/1935; 351-11_18279; 621-1/86_23; 741-4_K2435; 741-4_K2448; 741-4_K4553; Institut für die Geschichte der deutschen Juden, Notgemeinschaft Nr. 2404; www.geni.com; www.ancestry.de; www.wikipedea.de; Die Abschiebung polnischer Jüdinnen und Juden aus dem Deutschen Reich 1938/1939, in: https://www.bundesarchiv.de/gedenkbuch/introduction/ (Einsicht am 6.10.2020).
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