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Leonhard Stein * 1894

Sievekingplatz 1 Ziviljustizgebäude (Hamburg-Mitte, Neustadt)

DR. LEONHARD STEIN
STAATSANWALT
JG. 1894
DEPORTIERT 1941
LODZ
ERMORDET 29.8.1942

• Stolpersteine für die ermordeten Richter am Sievekingplatz (PDF, 3 Seiten, 127 KB)

further stumbling stones in Sievekingplatz 1 Ziviljustizgebäude:
Heinrich Basch, Paul Blumenthal, Franz Daus, Dr. Hermann Moritz Falk, Hermann Feiner, Richard Hoffmann, Kurt (Curt) Ledien, Lambert Leopold, Wilhelm Prochownick, Alfred Rinteln, Anna Rosenberg, Walter Rudolphi

Dr. Leonhard Stein, born on 8 July 1894 in Hamburg, deported on 25 Oct. 1941 to Lodz, died there on 29 Aug. 1942
Rosa Stein, née Frank, born on 2 Dec. 1872 in Hamburg, deported on 25 Oct. 1941 to Lodz, died there on 7 June 1942

Leonhard Stein was the first child of the merchant Karl Stein and his wife Rosa, née Frank. His sister Margarete followed three years after him, on 7 May 1897. Margarete was not even one year old, her brother Leonhard not even four, when the father died of leukemia on 17 Feb. 1898. He left to his wife substantial assets, allowing the young widow with her children an upscale lifestyle.

In the First World War, Leonhard Stein, drafted as a non-commissioned officer, was wounded as a frontline soldier. He was awarded the "Wound Badge in Black” ("Verwundetenabzeichen in Schwarz”).

Following his law studies, Leonhard Stein was appointed public prosecutor on 1 Feb. 1922. After the Nazis assumed power, he was increasingly restricted in the practice of his profession, all the way to a complete occupational ban as of the end of 30 Sept. 1933; he was 39 years old. On 27 Mar. 1933 – "even before passage of the Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service (Gesetz zur Wiederherstellung des Berufsbeamtentums) on 7 Apr. 1933” – he had been suspended from office until further notice. His forced retirement as of 19 Apr. 1933, was announced in the Hamburger Fremdenblatt under the rubric of "Purging the Hamburg Civil Service” on 2 July 1933.

Until 1933 he had held on to the hope of being able to stay in office. Despite his experiences, even after his deportation to Litzmannstadt (Lodz), he continued to trust in the "correctness of the German civil service,” causing him to ask in a letter dated 6 Dec. 1941 for the transfer of his "modest retirement benefits” to Litzmannstadt. Only in this way, the judicial administration noticed that his benefits had still been deposited into the blocked account. As a result, the order was issued to confiscate the assets as well as to reclaim the sums for November and December.

In Hamburg, Leonhard Stein had belonged to the Jewish Community until his deportation, evidently paying Jewish religious taxes ("Kultussteuer”). As a member of the Jewish Masonic "Nehemia-Nobel-Lodge,” he was a president of the Lodge and also active in their statutory committee. Probably, he met his wife there, Therese/Trude, née Levy, who was in the executive committee and served as a treasurer of the sister organization of the Nehemia-Nobel-Lodge on top of that. In 1933, the marriage was divorced.

After his dismissal from the civil service and the divorce, Leonhard Stein traveled to Italy in Apr. 1934. There, he learned Italian and successfully took law studies in Rome, completing them by passing his doctoral exam in 1935. Subsequently, he worked as a research associate.

Until Oct. 1936, the retirement benefits amounting to 294.10 RM (reichsmark) were transferred to Italy. From Nov. 1936 until Sept. 1937, only a smaller partial sum was transferred, while the remaining sum was deposited into a special account with Dresdner Bank. As of 1 Oct. 1937, transfers to Italy were no longer authorized.

After Jews became subjected to reprisals in Italy as well, Leonhard Stein returned to Hamburg in the fall of 1938. In Feb. 1940, he had to submit a declaration of assets. Apparently, his income and assets turned out to be so modest that no "security order” ("Sicherungsanordnung”) was imposed.

On 25 Oct. 1941, Leonhard Stein along with his mother Rosa was deported to Litzmannstadt, where he was initially accommodated with his mother and probably many other deportees at Rauchgasse 25.

On 13. Aug. 1942, he relocated to Rembrandtstrasse 3/2, where he died on 29 August. The cause of death indicated for the 48-year old man was "cardiac insufficiency.”

Leonhard Stein’s sister, Margarete, married name Byk, attended the girls’ high school (Lyzeum) operated by "Miss” ("Fräulein”) Delbanco. Subsequently, she completed training as a painter and craftswoman at the institute of Gerda Koppel at Glockengiesserwall 23. She [Gerda Koppel] was Jewish as well and no longer allowed to teach from 1936 onward. She emigrated in 1939.

On 18 Jan. 1922, Margarete married the merchant Walter Byk, born on 20 June 1882. The family lived at Schlüterstrasse 3, later at Barmbekerstrasse 144; the last address indicated is Barmbekerstrasse 133. Along with the two daughters, born in 1923 and 1924, the family emigrated to Palestine on 24 July 1934.

Rosa Stein, the mother of Leonhard and Margarete, was born as the child of Samuel and Caroline Frank, née Karpus, in Hamburg. She married the merchant Karl Stein, who passed away early. The assets her husband had left behind essentially consisted of shares in two Hamburg pieces of real estate, sold under compulsion. The proceeds had to be deposited to a trust account with the M. M. Warburg & Co. banking house. Her assets must have been relatively substantial because she paid Jewish religious tax until her deportation. On 1 July 1940, she was deprived of free disposal of her account by a so-called security order (Sicherungsanordnung). Her savings account worth 4,000 RM (reichsmark) was also blocked. The allowance applied for, 260 RM a month, was cut to 215 RM without any reasons provided. With this sum, Rosa Stein was unable to support herself and thus she had to sell several pieces of jewelry – probably far below value.

In the period from 1940 until the end of 1941, Mrs. Stein was forced to change her accommodation three times. The last two-and-a-half-bedroom apartment of her own choosing was located at Krochmannstrasse 9. From 15 Sept. 1940 until 1 May 1941, she lived at Haynstrasse 9 with Weber, then she moved to Beim Andreasbrunnen 3 with Nachum. On 17 Oct. 1941, just prior to her deportation, she notified the foreign currency office of the following: "As per seizure by the authorities of the apartment at Beim Andreasbrunnen 3, today I move to Lenhartzstrasse 3 on the fourth floor with Mayer.” The house at Lenhartzstrasse 3 was a "Jews’ house” ("Judenhaus”).

Rosa Stein was deported along with her son to "Litzmannstadt” (Lodz) on 25 Oct. 1941. Her address there was Rauchgasse 25.

In the ghetto, Rosa Stein was served the order for "resettlement” ("Aussiedlung”). This meant further deportation to the Chelmno extermination camp. Thus, "Mrs. Stein was among the very first ones receiving a departure order …, whereas all the other departure orders directed to the members of the Hamburg transport had numbers containing III/ or IX,” as Fritz Neubauer wrote.

Leonhard Stein, who had apparently had not received an order for departure himself, asked in a letter "urgently to exempt his mother from departure.” "One cannot … discern any decision by the commission but the registration card file contains a note that she died in the ghetto on 7 June 1942 …” (Neubauer).

Since Aug. 2006, Leonhard Stein is also commemorated by a Stolperstein in front of the civil justice building on Sievekingplatz.


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

Stand: January 2019
© Ulrike Graubner

Quellen: 1; 2; 4; 5; 8; AfW 070597; StaH 314-15 OFP, R 1940/ 978; StaH 314-15 OFP, R 1940/313; Morisse, MHR Nr. 3/2006, S. 4; Bergmann/Ladwig-Winters, Richter, 2004; Hochmuth/de Lorent (Hrsg.), Schule unterm Hakenkreuz, 1985, S. 19; Schicksale jüdischer Juristen in Hamburg im dritten Reich, Niederschrift einer Podiumsdiskussion mit Wissenschaftlern und Zeitzeugen sowie eines Vortrages von Gert Nicolaysen über die Rechtsfakultät der Universität Hamburg 1933, Hamburg 1985, S. 10f.; Verzeichnis Der Mitglieder Der Drei Hamburger Logen U.O.B.B. Henry Jones Loge, Steinthal Loge und Nehemia Loge, 1933, S. 14, 63, 65, 79 u. 80 (1933); Feuchert/Leibfried/Riecke (Hrsg.), Chronik, 2007, Bd. 1, S. 198; Lodz Hospital. Der Hamburger Gesellschaft für Genealogie zur Verfügung gestellt von Peter W. Landé 2009, USHMM Washington, bearbeitet von Margot Löhr; USHMM, RG 15.083 301/699-700 Fritz Neubauer, Universität Bielefeld E-Mail 8.6.2010.
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