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© Institut für die Geschichte der deutschen Juden
Gerda Meyer (née Cohen) * 1909
Karolinenstraße 35 (Hamburg-Mitte, St. Pauli)
HIER WOHNTE
GERDA MEYER
GEB. COHEN
JG. 1909
DEPORTIERT 1942
THERESIENSTADT
TOT 30.4.1944
further stumbling stones in Karolinenstraße 35:
Jenny Cohen, Alexander Cohen, Julius Noah Meyer, Ruth Meyer
Gerda Meyer, née Cohen, born on 31 Mar. 1909 in Düsseldorf, deported on 19 July 1942 to Theresienstadt, died there on 30 Apr. 1944
Julius Noah Meyer, born on 15 May 1907 in Hildesheim, deported on 19 July 1942 to Theresienstadt, deported further on 28 Sept. 1944 to Auschwitz, date of death unknown
Ruth Meyer, born on 19 Nov. 1935 in Hamburg, deported on 19 July 1942 to Theresienstadt, deported further on 9 Oct. 1944 to Auschwitz, date of death unknown
Karolinenstrasse 35 (Carolinenstrasse 35)
Julius Noah Meyer was born on 15 May 1907 as the son of the married couple David and Golda Meyer, née Baumgarten, in Hildesheim. One year before, sister Henny had been born, and one year later, sister Angela. Prior to the family moving to Hamburg in 1910, David Meyer worked as a "master paperhanger, upholsterer, decorator, and furniture dealer,” as the 1909 "Adressbuch der Stadt Hildesheim,” the Hildesheim directory, indicated. In Hamburg, the family registered with the authorities as residing in Eimsbüttel at Wrangelstrasse 65a, where David Meyer operated a workshop as a paperhanger and decorator right across the street. Business must have gone well because acquaintances of the family described the family’s circumstances as "solidly middle-class” and "the children as well dressed throughout.”
Detailed information about Julius Meyer’s life was provided by sister Anni (Angela) Böhm in the course of her restitution proceedings in 1959. She had already emigrated to Palestine in Oct. 1933 and she was the only surviving family member. According to her statements, her brother Julius "left the Talmud Tora Realschule in Hamburg after completing his one-year graduating class ("Einjähriges”) in 1922, subsequently learning the trade of precision mechanic at Stührmann & Co. Simultaneously, he attended and successfully completed the accompanying technical courses in 1926. Afterward, he worked for the German Reich Postal Service and for different private companies. In the very end, he was employed at the telegraph workshop (Telegrafen-Zeugamt) in Lokstedt from 22 June 1930 to 14 July 1933.
On the day of his dismissal, he was to be promoted to civil servant status but instead he was dismissed as a Jew. I cannot provide any information about his salary payments but I know that he was a capable tradesman, well trained in theoretical and practical matters, as well as very industrious and assiduous. Following that, he only had temporary positions until he, being a Jew, was unable to find any jobs at all in his field. Then, on 1 Nov. 1935, he became school janitor at the Jewish girls’ school, which was subsequently merged with the Talmud Tora School.”
After getting married in 1932, Julius Meyer moved out of his parents’ apartment on Wrangelstrasse and relocated with his wife Gerda Cohen to Pfauenweg 35 in Barmbek, close to his parents-in-law, Alexander and Jenny Cohen. Although he was employed as a mechanic at the Telegrafen-Zeugamt in Lokstedt, his income was apparently modest, because in May 1932, he turned to the Jewish Community asking that he be "struck from the list of community members. In light of this high tax contribution, I am not in a position to continue belonging to the community. My own circumstances are in a very bad way and I also have to support my parents.” As a result, he only had to pay a reduced community tax and due to being unemployed, he only earned an "income exempt from income tax” during the following two years anyway.
On 1 Nov. 1935, Julius Meyer got a post as a janitor at the Israelite Girls’ School on Karolinenstrasse. A few weeks later, on 19 November, his wife gave birth to their only child by the name of Ruth. The family now lived in an official apartment at the school, where the caretaker ("Pedell”) Julius Meyer, as he was on file in his tax card, also operated a small but well equipped workshop. He also temporarily employed there a close relative of his wife who as a Jewish musician no longer found any job with a state orchestra. Judging from the tax payments, his income as a school janitor was modest but apparently sufficient to support the small family. Based on the apartment furnishings, as described in detail by Gerda Meyer’s cousin in 1950, one can see that the family’s apartment was well appointed. When the entire furnishings were seized and auctioned off "to the benefit of the Reich” in July 1942, they fetched nearly 3,000 RM (reichsmark).
Even if one can say little about the family life of the Meyer couple and their daughter Ruth, the description of the apartment furnishings nevertheless provides the clue that music and playing music were of great importance to the family. For instance, in addition to a piano, they owned a "portable phonograph with approx. 80 records.” Moreover, in the first and only report card Ruth ever got in her short life, her musical talent received special mention.
On 29 Apr. 1942, Hamburg Reich Governor (Reichsstatthalter) Kaufmann decreed that "the teaching of Jewish children in schools is to cease effective immediately.” At the beginning of May 1942, the last Jewish schoolchildren moved with their teachers to the boys’ orphanage at Papendamm 3, and the school building was handed over to the city for further use. Across the Reich, Jewish schools were closed in June 1942. As a result, the Meyer janitorial couple as well as Gerda’s parents, who had found accommodation there in 1939, had to give up their apartment in the school and move to the "Jews’ house” ("Judenhaus”) at Bogenstrasse 25, the former "Maystift.” From there, on 15 July 1942, Julius Meyer wrote a short message that was not to exceed 25 words via the Red Cross to his sister Anni in Haifa: "Are healthy, parents to Riga in December; … we on Sunday to Theresienstadt … Hoping for sound reunion. Most heartfelt kisses, Julius, Gerda, Ruth.”
As Julius Meyer let his sister know, the parents David and Golda Meyer had already been deported to Riga on 6 Dec. 1941. They had been forced to live in the "Jews’ house” at Kleiner Schäferkamp 32 since 1939. Probably due to his long-standing work for the Jewish Community, Julius Meyer along with his family and the parents-in-law were on the transport list for Theresienstadt, where they were taken from the Hannoversche Bahnhof train station on 19 July 1942. The last sign of life dated from 2 Feb. 1942, when Julius again wrote to his sister, "All three healthy. Gerda Julius working. Hope you are healthy. Send us a reply. Theresienstadt L 229.”
Gerda Meyer died in the Theresienstadt Ghetto on 30 Apr. 1944. Her husband Julius, along with about 2,500 other persons, was deported further to Auschwitz on 28 Sept. 1944. It is no longer possible to clarify whether he was killed in the gas chambers on the same day like the overwhelming majority, or taken to the Birkenau camp. Possibly, due to his age and training as a craftsman, he was still classified as fit for work.
On 9 Oct. 1944, nine-year-old daughter Ruth also departed from the Theresienstadt Ghetto and was taken along with about 1,600 persons to Auschwitz, where they arrived on 12 October. She was murdered probably that same day or the day after because for this day, the Auschwitz Chronicle: 1939–1945 (Kalendarium der Ereignisse im Konzentrationslager Auschwitz-Birkenau 1939–1945; Polish original: Kalendarium wydarzen w Obozie Koncentracyjnym Auschwitz-Birkenau, 1939–1945) contains the following entry: "In the gas chamber of Crematorium II 2,000 Jewish men, women, and children are killed. Belonging to transports of the RSHA (= Reichssicherheitshauptamt [Reich Main Security Office]) from Slovakia and from the Theresienstadt Ghetto, they were selected on the day before.” For the musically talented girl, who was "good at storytelling” and capable of "calculating fast and accurately,” Stolpersteine were laid both in front of the Israelite Girls’ School at Karolinenstrasse 35 and in front of her last residential address at Bogenstrasse 25.
Henny Meyer, Julius’ older sister, was transported from the Langenhorn "sanatorium and nursing home” (Heil- und Pflegeanstalt Langenhorn) to the euthanasia killing center in Brandenburg on 23 Sept. 1940 and murdered. She was not mentioned at all in the different applications for restitution that the relatives of the Meyer family filed in the 1950s.
Translator: Erwin Fink
Kindly supported by the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung, Hamburg.
Stand: October 2017
© Gunhild Ohl-Hinz
Quellen: 1; 7; 8; StaH 522-1 Jüd. Gemeinden, 992 d Band 23, Steuerakte; StaH 351-1 AfW, Abl. 2008/1 020808 Böhm, Anni; StaH 314-15 OFP, Abl. 1998/1 J7/517/19; StaH 362-6/10 Talmud-Tora-Schule, TT 26; Randt, Carolinenstraße, 1984; Czech, Kalendarium, 1989, S. 889 u. 905.
Zur Nummerierung häufig genutzter Quellen siehe Link "Recherche und Quellen".
