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Bella Josias (née Lippmann) * 1878

Brunsberg 9 (Eimsbüttel, Lokstedt)

1941 Lodz

further stumbling stones in Brunsberg 9:
Lipmann (Leo) Josias, Alfred Rinteln, Rahel Rinteln

Lipmann (Leo) Josias, born on 19 Dec. 1883 in Friedrichstadt, deported on 25 Oct. 1941 to Lodz, deported further on 30 Mar. 1943 to Auschwitz or Chelmno
Bella Josias, née Lippmann, born on 17 Dec. 1878 in Hamburg, deported on 25 Oct. 1941 to Lodz, died there on 5 July 1942

Brunsberg 9 (Walderseestrasse 9)

Lipmann (called Leo) Josias was born into a Jewish family with many branches from Friedrichstadt on the Eider River. His grandfather, Lipmann Josias (1807–1886), was a hawker and tradesman, entered in the city’s register of citizens (Bürgerrolle) in 1854. His father, Moses Lipmann Josias (1846–1916), practiced the same trade and obtained civic rights in 1880.

Leo Josias, the fourth of seven children, moved to Hamburg in Apr. 1899, at the age of 16. (His sister Johanna, three years his senior, went to Altona the same month and married a Jewish wholesale merchant in Copenhagen in 1908). In the Hanseatic city of Hamburg, Leo Josias probably completed a commercial apprenticeship. About five years after finishing his training period, in 1907, he founded, together with the five year older Siegmund Lippmann (who left the business again after two months, however), the banking house L. Josias & Co., which in addition to the headquarters in Hamburg at least temporarily operated branches in the Holstein towns of Elmshorn, Kellinghusen (Brauerstrasse 32), and Itzehoe (there from 1920 to 1929), as well as south of the Elbe River in Jork (Altes Land region) and Horneburg (near Stade). The early relocations and addresses document the attempts to establish the new banking house with an office in the private residence: Werderstrasse 10 (in 1907) and Schlump 5 (1908– 1909).

From 1910 until 1914, the company address was Schlump 88. The focus of the newly founded enterprise was on the trade in securities, which was expanding rapidly at the time. The First World War spelled the temporary end of speculations and the stock market – as early as July 1914, official trading was halted, and starting in Aug. 1914, bankers, merchants, and investors were drafted from their civilian professions to fight in the war. The L. Josias & Co. banking enterprise, too, probably came to a near standstill, after its owner was sent to the front. War decoration awarded by Germany, Austria, Hungary, and Bulgaria bear witness to Lipmann Josias’ effort in the war and point to his area of deployment.

In 1920, the company address was Grosse Bleichen 31, in the "Kaufmannshaus,” the largest Hamburg office building constructed before the First World War. From 1927 until 1933, the banking house rented space in an office building at Kaiser-Wilhelm- Strasse 40 (Hamburg-Neustadt). The world economic crisis in 1929/1930 led to significant losses in turnover and to valuation adjustments in the L. Josias & Co. banking house as well. In 1930, the bank applied for a reduction of dues to the chamber of commerce, and in 1932, only three employees working short time were left as staff in the L. Josias banking business. A move of the company to smaller premises, though in a good location, aimed at bringing some relief. In 1934/35, the company address was relocated to Mönkedamm 7 (raised ground floor), right next to the Hamburg post office branch no. 11 and in the immediate vicinity of the Hamburg stock exchange and the main branch of the Reichsbank. By this time, the company employed only one person.

Leo Josias had probably met his future wife, Bella Lippmann, in Hamburg through his partner in the founding phase of the company, Siegmund Lippmann.

On 6 Feb. 1907, Leo Josias and Bella Lippmann were married and moved to the address at Schlump 5. In this building, the newly established banking house also had its company premises. After the birth of the two children Berthold (born in 1910) and Irmgard (born in 1913), a move followed to a larger apartment at Bismarckstrasse 96 (Eimsbüttel). In 1915, Bella Josias was entered in the company register as an authorized signatory of the banking house. Starting in 1921, their residence was Hallerstrasse 6 (Rotherbaum). In 1931, Leo and Bella Josias joined the Jewish Community in Hamburg, where they were members of the Orthodox Synagogue Association (Synagogenverband). The following year, their son was admitted to the Community, and in 1934, admission of the daughter as a community member followed.

In Apr. 1935, the family moved from Werderstrasse 6 in the district of Hamburg-Harvestehude to Lokstedt, which did not yet belong to Hamburg at the time. There, the family lived in a single family home with a garden at Walderseestrasse 9 (today Brunsberg 9), which Leo Josias had purchased. The house had seven rooms, which were "tastefully” furnished: The dining room (in oak with hand-carved ornamentation) featured a table seating 12 persons with leather-covered chairs, a sideboard, piano, Persian rug, tea trolley, and oil paintings. The smoking room for men, too, was done in oak, containing a desk with marble top and an armchair, a bookshelf, a round table with six leather-covered chairs, a leather sofa, as well as a leather wing chair; on the wall, there was the oil painting entitled "Die Sachsenquelle” by the Hamburg painter Valentin Ruths (1825–1905), who also painted the stairwell of the old Hamburger Kunsthalle art museum. In the veranda, carpeted with a Persian rug, there was, in addition to an armchair and a Philipps radio set, a display case with figurines made of Meissen porcelain.

A common instrument to harm Jewish entrepreneurs economically under Nazi rule was the "audit.” The unclear business practices discovered or suspected in this procedure could result in fines or the blocking of companies. According to a file memorandum of the Hanseatic Stock Exchange (Hanseatische Wertpapierbörse), in Oct. 1935, Lipmann Josias refused to the management board "clarification regarding the transaction of his business by submission of his books.” Because of his refusal, Lipmann Josias was excluded from attending the Hanseatic Stock Exchange for three months, and he had to pay a fine of 1,000 RM (reichsmark). In a very businesslike tone, the stock exchange formulated more far-reaching measures: "Incidentally, this decision was also brought to the attention of local daily newspapers with the request for publication.” In fact, concealed behind this sentence was the attempt to discredit and ruin the banking house by means of newspaper reports. In Nov. 1935, the national weekly Die Bank printed a piece of news along these lines. For the company, already struggling with great difficulties, the exclusion from the stock exchange and the media campaign were probably the last and decisive hit. The exclusion from the stock exchange was not lifted after the blocking period had expired either; thus, by that time the business probably already existed in name only.

In 1938, Leo Josias gave up his private banking enterprise for good. On 15 Dec. 1939, the Josias Banking House was deleted from the company register. In Mar. 1939, the Hamburg Customs Investigation Department had listed the individual parts of the assets owned by the Josias couple in an "investigation report.” These reports constituted the working basis of the officials for the ensuing systematic plundering. As early as 26 May 1939, the house purchased in Sept. 1923 in Kellinghusen (Brauerstrasse 32) had been sold by compulsory auction. As well, an undeveloped property in Rissen (Marschweg) owned by Lipmann Josias was put up for compulsory auctioning by the Hamburg-Blankenese District Court (Amtsgericht) in June 1939. Due to an ordinance to that effect, the Josiases had already surrendered all silver and gold items as well as jewelry to the public "purchasing point” (Ankaufsstelle), located at Gothenstrasse 10–16, in May 1939, Aug. 1939, and Dec. 1939. In terms of the "levy on Jewish assets” ("Judenvermögensabgabe”), they were forced to pay 9,700 RM in four installments from Apr. to Nov. 1939.

After the Pogrom of Nov. 1938, Leo Josias was placed together with his son Berthold in protective custody ("Schutzhaft”) in Hamburg and shortly afterward transported to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp. There he was imprisoned as prisoner no. 8,382 in the "small camp” in Barrack 19 together with his future son-in-law, Fritz Simon, and his son, Berthold Josias. On 21 Dec. 1938, Lipmann Josias was released.

Son Berthold Josias was already released on 17 Nov. 1938, probably on condition that he leave the country immediately. For the goods to be exported, he had to pay a duty of 480 RM to the Gold Discount Bank ("Dego-Abgabe”). Berthold Josias already emigrated a week later, on 23 Nov. 1938, aboard the "SS President Roosevelt” from Hamburg to the USA. An American citizen, his cousin Jacob Levy (New York), had made the emigration possible. In the USA, Berthold Josias (1910–1991) planned to continue working as a commercial clerk in the textiles trade.

Daughter Irmgard Josias (born in 1913) succeeded in emigrating to Britain in Feb. 1939. In 1939, Alfred Rinteln and his wife Rahel, née Cohn (see corresponding biography) moved into the by then vacated rooms of the house. According to the phone directory, for a short time, Leo Haarburger was also quartered in the house; he perished in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp on 16 Dec. 1938.

Probably on 22 Oct. 1941, the Josias couple was told by "evacuation order” ("Evakuierungsbefehl”) to report to the Provincial Masonic Lodge on Moorweidenstrasse on 24 October 1941. They were taken to the Lodz Ghetto on the first deportation train departing Hamburg on 25 Oct. 1941 from the Hannoversche Bahnhof train station. The deportees were allowed to take along one suitcase weighing a maximum of 50 kilograms (approx. 110 lbs), containing bedding, food supplies, and 100 RM. Lipmann Josias and Lucian Luca (1889–1943), the former owner of a shipping company, were appointed transport overseers by the SS, answerable for smooth implementation of the orders. The Rinteln couple, who lived in the house as subtenants, was deported to Lodz/Litzmannstadt on 25 Oct. 1941 as well.

The household effects, left behind in Hamburg-Lokstedt, were auctioned off to the benefit of the German Reich on 23 Dec. 1941, generating proceeds of 6,600 RM. A subsequent estimate found that the actual value had been about 11,000 RM. The house was also confiscated by the state. The retired Lokstedt mayor Johannes Wohlers (1877–1954), a political independent, head of the municipality from 1919 to 1938, moved into the house, which the Hamburg mineral water producer Karl Harbeck (born in the Rendsburg District in 1907), also a political independent, had purchased from the Nazi state. Within a mere five years, Harbeck had gone far, acquiring his own company producing mineral water (in May 1938) as well as three developed properties of various sizes in Hamburg (in May 1940 and Dec 1942) and in Hohenwestedt/Holstein (in 1943). On his denazification form dating from 1947, however, he neglected to mention the purchase of the house at Walderseestrasse 9.

In the Lodz Ghetto, the Josias couple had their place to sleep at Hohensteiner Strasse 53, apartment no. 23, in a four-story, shabby residential building with a well located in the courtyard. Deliberately, the German occupational force brought about massive overcrowding of the ghetto with concurrent insufficient housing, poor sanitation, and very bad provisions with food. The authorities approvingly accepted the high mortality rate resulting from this. On 5 Jan. 1942, Lipmann Josias was appointed permanent deputy of the Hamburg transport leader Naumann and was designated as an "official in the department for in-migrants” ("Abteilung für die Eingesiedelten”) as of Jan. 1942.

In May 1942, the transport lists were prepared for the further deportation of about half of the 21,000 German-speaking Jews forcibly quartered in the ghetto. The destination of the deportation was the Chelmno extermination camp (called Kulmhof at the time), but the official version spoke of "resettlement” ("Aussiedlung”), creating the impression of forced labor in the East. It was possible to obtain an exemption from the deportations by submitting an informal application, provided one was a bearer of the Iron Cross or the Wound Badge [from World War I] or had an official job in the ghetto. On 11 May 1942, Lipmann Josias filed a joint application for himself and his wife to the "Resettlement Commission of the Office for In-Migrants [those "settled in” ("eingesiedelt”) from the "Old Reich” ("Altreich”)]” ("Aussiedlungs-Kommission des Amtes der Eingesiedelten"), which was approved.

Bella Josias, who despite health problems helped care for the sick in an honorary capacity, suffered from severe diabetes, a diagnosis confirmed by the Hamburg physician Else Rosenbaum, née Philip (born on 12 Mar. 1879 in Hamburg), who had also been deported on 25 Oct. 1941. She would have required "foreign foods,” as the doctor wrote, which were not available. Bella’s state of health worsened noticeably, especially since she was also plagued by a heart condition. She died in the Lodz Ghetto on 5 July 1942. The official cause of death indicated was enteritis.

Leo Josias was forced to move within the ghetto to a room at Matrosengasse 77. Apparently, he was deported further along with 27 other occupants of the house to the Chelmno extermination camp or to Auschwitz on 30 Mar. 1943. We do not know his date of death. In 1948, the Hamburg District Court (Amtsgericht) declared him dead "as of 8 May 1945.”

Leo Josias’ unmarried sister Henny (official name probably Henriette) Josias (born on 22 July 1890 in Friedrichstadt) had moved to Hamburg in 1907, working as a domestic help. Only in 1935 did she join the Jewish Community. In the period from 1937 to 1940 alone, the Jewish religious tax (Kultussteuer) file card shows six addresses for her; possibly an indication of her Jewish employers emigrating. On 6 Dec. 1941, Henny Josias was deported to the Riga Ghetto, where all traces of her disappear.

The cousins Willy Josias (born on 13 May 1886 in Friedrichstadt) and Mendel Josias (born on 15 Jan. 1891 in Friedrichstadt) as well as the cousin Flora Hasenberg, née Josias (born on 21 Mar. 1888 in Friedrichstadt) were also deported.

Mendel Josias had joined the German-Israelitic Community in Hamburg in 1912, becoming a member of the Orthodox Synagogue Association (Synagogenverband). From 1921 to 1930, he owned a company for "stationary and production of printed matter in first-class quality” ("Papierwaren und Anfertigung von Drucksachen in bester Ausführung”) at Dillstrasse 15. Starting in 1931, he changed careers, from then on serving as the first official of the Community’s fraternal burial society (Beerdigungs-Brüderschaft), Chevrah Kadisha, which carried out burials in accordance with Jewish Orthodox rites (1931–1932 at Dillstrasse 15, 1933–1939 at Bogenstrasse 52, and in 1940 at Grindelallee 23). Together with Mendel Josias, his second wife Rosa, née Horwitz (born on 14 Apr. 1903 in Nuremberg), and their son Julius (born on 10 May 1938 in Hamburg) were deported to Theresienstadt on 19 July 1942 as well. The credit balances (including, among other things, securities with Deutsche Bank) were confiscated to the benefit of the German Reich. On 28 Sept. 1944, Mendel Josias was deported further to the Auschwitz extermination camp. The date of his death is not known; the Hamburg District Court (Amtsgericht) declared him dead as of 8 May 1945.

In 1923, Willy J. Josias, a member of the Jewish Community in Hamburg since 1920, had started up his own business as commercial agent. He was a cousin of Leo (Lipmann) Josias and married to the latter’s sister Rosa (born on 13 July 1888 in Friedrichstadt). From 1920 to 1932, they lived at Blücherstrasse 44, then at Isestrasse 82 (1933–1936) and Isestrasse 65 (1937–1940). On 14 Dec. 1938, their daughter Ruth (born in 1921) succeeded in emigrating from Hamburg to the USA on board the "SS Manhattan;” she was sponsored by Wolf Levy who lived in the United States. On 8 Nov. 1941, Willy Josias was deported to Minsk along with his wife Rosa, née Josias, from Innocentiastrasse 37, the address of a villa used as a Portuguese-Jewish synagogue, which served as a "Jews’ house” ("Judenhaus”) in connection with the deportations. Stolpersteine were laid for them in front of the house at Isestrasse 65 (Harvestehude). A Stolperstein at Bornstrasse 6 (Rotherbaum) commemorates Flora Hasenberg, née Josias, who was deported to Minsk.

Translator: Erwin Fink

Kindly supported by the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung, Hamburg.

Stand: October 2016
© Björn Eggert

Quellen: 1; 4; 5; 8; StaH 213-13 (Landgericht Hamburg), Z 943 (inkl. 1 Wik 30/1956 u. 1 Wik 493/1953); StaH 221-11 (Entnazifizierung), AD 13521 (Johannes Wohlers); StaH 221-11, Fa 13557 (Karl Harbeck); StaH 314-15 (OFP), R 1939/2111 (Bella u. Lipmann Josias); StaH 314-15 (OFP), F 1208 (Berthold Josias); StaH 314-15 (OFP), R 1940/614 (Mendel Josias); StaH 332-8 (Hauskartei), Film 2496 (Brunsberg); StaH 351-11 (AfW), Eg 171278 (Bella Josias); StaH 351-11 (AfW), Eg 150191 (Mendel Josias); FZH 353-34, Fuhlsbüttel, Häftlingslisten I + II sowie Zu- u. Abgangslisten; Gedenkstätte u. Museum Sachsenhausen, Sonderliste u. Anweisung der Politischen Abteilung (Berthold Josias, Lippmann Josias); USHMM, RG 15.083, 1940 und 1941 (Museum Lodz, Briefe); TB 1907–1940; Hamburger Börsenfirmen, 1910, S.323 (L. Josias & Co.); Hamburger Börsenfirmen, 1933, S. 237 (L. Josias & Co.); Hamburger Börsenfirmen, 1935, S.419 (L. Josias & Co.); Handelskammer Hamburg, Firmenarchiv (L. Josias & Co., 1920–1928); Erich Koch, unveröffentlichte genealogische Übersicht zur Familie Josias aus Friedrichstadt; Hans H. Lembke, Das Haus an der Stör oder: Spuren eines jüdischen Lebens in Schleswig-Holstein und Hamburg. Zur Biographie von Lipmann Josias aus Friedrichstadt, in: Informationen zur Schleswig-Holsteinischen Zeitgeschichte AKENS, April 2001/39, Kiel 2001, S. 51–83; Hans H. Lembke, Erinnerung an die Ehepaare Josias und Rinteln, in: Informationen zur Schleswig-Holsteinischen Zeitgeschichte AKENS, Heft Nr. 47, Kiel 2006, S.143–145; Harald Vieth, Hier lebten sie miteinander in Harvestehude-Rotherbaum, Hamburg 1993, S. 122 (Berthold Josias), 172 (M. Josias); Christa Fladhammer/Maike Grünwald, Stolpersteine in der Hamburger Isestraße. Biographische Spurensuche, Hamburg 2010, S. 176 (Rosa u. Willy Josias); Ina Lorenz, Die Juden in Hamburg zur Zeit der Weimarer Republik, Hamburg 1987, Band 1, S. 516/517, 555 (Chewra Kadischa); Wilhelm Mosel, Wegweiser zu ehemaligen jüdischen Staetten in Hamburg, Heft 3, Hamburg 1989, Seite 84 (M. Josias); www.ancestry.de (eingesehen 13.4.2009), u. a. auch Sterberegister des Krankenhauses im Getto von Lodz 1941–1944.
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