Search for Names, Places and Biographies

Jenny Moses (née Mendel) * 1868

Hoheluftchaussee 19 (Eimsbüttel, Hoheluft-West)

1942 Theresienstadt
ermordet 5.9.1942

further stumbling stones in Hoheluftchaussee 19:
Jonny Joel Jaffé, Anneliese Jaffé, Ruth Jaffé, Tirza Jaffé, Alexander (gen. Süsskind) Moses

Alexander Moses (called Süsskind), born on 31 Mar. 1858 in Bleckede, deported on 19 July 1942 to Theresienstadt, died there on 7 Nov. 1942
Jenny Moses, née Mendel, born on 21 Feb. 1868 in Essen, deported on 19 July 1942 to Theresienstadt, died there on 5 Sept. 1942

Hoheluftchaussee 19

Since the beginning of the twentieth century until its forced closure in 1938, the Jewish Süsskind butchery owned by Alexander Moses was located at Hoheluftchaussee 19. His parents were the butcher Simon Süsskind Moses and Amalie, née Cohn. The family lived in Bleckede at Breite Strasse 29, operating a butcher’s shop there. As early as 1743, a butcher by the name of Salomon Moses had moved to Bleckede, where 41 Jews resided in 1848.

The story of Jenny and Alexander dates back far into the nineteenth century, which is why it was hard to find out anything at all about their childhood and youth. Alexander was born on 31 Mar. 1858 in Bleckede. He had three siblings about whose fate nothing is known. We have no information as to when he moved to Hamburg. Apparently, he already lived in Hamburg as a student, for he attended the Talmud Tora School until obtaining his intermediate secondary school certificate (mittlere Reife). Subsequently, he did a commercial apprenticeship at the Philipps weaving mill. He got a position from that company at a branch in Flensburg. Then, in 1879, he started a business of his own as a butcher, moving within Hamburg to Hoheluftchaussee in 1908.

His wife, Jenny Mendel, was a native of Essen. The oldest person bearing the name of Mendel in Essen, Benjamin Mendel, was born there in 1824.

The Moses couple had four children that managed to emigrate and survive. When the oldest sons, Kurt and Ernst, were born, the Moses couple still lived at Lehmweg 35. Margot Moses was eventually born at Hoheluftchaussee 19 in 1900.

The oldest son, Kurt (born in 1895), was married to Lucie Curjel, for whom a Stolperstein is located at Beim Andreasbrunnen 8 in Eppendorf. Kurt died in 1940 of a pulmonary condition; his wife was deported to "Litzmannstadt” (Lodz) in Oct. 1941. The only son managed to escape to Britain on a children transport (Kindertransport) in 1938 (on this see also Stolpersteine in Hamburg-Eppendorf, p. 298ff.)

Son Ernst Moses (born in 1898) also became a butcher. He operated a butcher’s shop at Lindleystrasse 24 in Rothenburgsort. Ernst Moses married only after the war in the USA. In Hamburg, he was convicted for racial defilement ("Rassenschande”), serving about a year in the Glasmoor prison. However, he managed to emigrate to Shanghai, where he arrived in May 1939. Forced to live in the ghetto there from 1943 until the end of the war, he emigrated from Shanghai to the USA after the war, where he died childless.

Daughter Margot (born in 1900) was an employee of the Jewish Community from 1918 until 1922 and between Sept. 1935 and Jan. 1939. With her husband Eduard Cohn and the children Helmuth and Marion she lived at Kaiser-Friedrich-Ufer 18. In Mar. 1939, she departed by ship to Montevideo (Uruguay), joining her husband, who had already emigrated in 1938 after imprisonment in Fuhlsbüttel.

Daughter Betty (born in 1910) learned the milliner’s trade, though subsequently working in her father’s business starting in 1927. In Mar. 1932, she married Alfred Mendelsohn (born in 1906), who also worked at the butcher’s shop and became a co-owner. Betty Mendelsohn emigrated with her son Herbert, born in 1933, to the USA in 1938. Her husband continued to live in Hamburg for some time and he was enlisted for compulsory labor as late as 1940. However, he also managed to emigrate. Via the Soviet Union and Japan, he reached the USA in Sept. 1940.

After the war, the children clearly recalled the boycott measures and the increasingly difficult living conditions. Daughter Betty stated that in Apr. 1933, SA men in uniforms took up their posts in front of the butcher’s shop, hindering customers from entering the premises, and hurling abuse at the butchers. The windowpanes were smeared all over with slogans like "Perish Juda” ("Juda verrecke”) and "Jews out!” ("Juden raus”). The SA organized a group of children shouting "Shame on you!” ("Pfui!”) whenever someone was about to enter the shop. The authorities also harassed the business owners. The livestock commission agents were no longer allowed to supply Jewish butchers. By this time, Alexander Moses was already very old and his son-in-law intended to take over the company.

For Alexander Moses, an entry in the register of qualified craftsmen (Handwerksrolle) for the butcher’s trade existed from 1 Apr. 1930 until 13 Dec. 1938. Based on an ordinance dated 13 Aug. 1938, the Administration Office for Commerce, Shipping, and Industry (Verwaltung für Handel, Schiffahrt und Gewerbe) turned down the son-in-law’s application for renewing the entry in the register of qualified craftsmen because supposedly he had not taken his examination for the master craftsman’s diploma in time. In Sept. 1938, Alexander Moses tried to sell the business to Hugo Neubauer from Wandsbek. In response, the trade guild informed the Schleswig-Holstein Livestock Farming Association (Viehwirtschaftsverband) that it did not consider the continued existence of the butcher’s shop desirable because the district in question supposedly showed a serious overcapacity. The seven butcher’s shops located in close quarters, the argument went, had such modest meat quotas that it seemed advisable to have the company fold. Then, on 14 Oct. 1938, the Reich Governor (Reichsstatthalter) decreed the following: "Permission to sell … is herewith revoked due to the order based on the ‘Decree Concerning the Reporting of Jewish Assets’ [‘Verordnung über die Anmeldung des Vermögens von Juden’] dated 26 Apr. 1938 (Reich Law Gazette [Reichsgesetzblatt] I p. 415).”

Daughter Betty recalled that the family had lived in solid middle-class circumstances before 1933. The butcher’s operation employed a staff of five, three of whom worked in the slaughterhouse and two in the shop. "We had a house of our own, a six-bedroom home, and two maids. We were four children all of whom attended secondary school and completed the one-year graduating class ("Einjähriges”) at high school. We went on vacation every year and lived a good life.” The house was supposed to be sold in 1939. However, no purchaser turned up.

Alexander Moses was also made to pay a "levy on Jewish assets” ("Judenvermögensabgabe”). After the business had to be relinquished, the economic circumstances became extremely difficult, especially since the Nazi state imposed additional charges. The daughter related that she handed over the parents’ valuables at the municipal pawnshop on Bäckerbreitergang. The family owned all of the utensils necessary to observe the traditional Jewish dietary laws. This included different dishes and silverware for dairy, meaty, and Easter meals.
On 19 July 1942, Alexander Moses was deported to Theresienstadt, allegedly dying there of old age and enteritis on 7 Nov. 1942. He was an old man aged 84. He was deported together with his wife Jenny Moses, who perished in Theresienstadt on 5 Sept. 1942. The death notice has been preserved; the supposed cause of her death was the same as that of her husband.


Translator: Erwin Fink

Kindly supported by the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung, Hamburg.

Stand: October 2017
© Susanne Lohmeyer

Quellen: 1; 2 (R1938/2896); 3; 4; 5; StaH 351-11 AfW, AZ170898 Moses, Ernst; AZ160200 Cohn, Margot; AZ300358 Moses, Alexander; StaH 522-1 Jüd. Gemeinden 992e 2 Band 5 (Deportationslisten); Maria Koser/Sabine Brunotte, Stolpersteine in Hamburg-Eppendorf; Telefonisches Interview mit Herrn Moss am 6.8.2007; www.judeninbleckede.de; Auskunft Archiv Alte Synagoge Essen.
Zur Nummerierung häufig genutzter Quellen siehe Link "Recherche und Quellen".