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© StaHH
Hans-Joachim Kubel * 1905
Haynstraße 25 (Hamburg-Nord, Eppendorf)
HIER WOHNTE
HANS-JOACHIM
KUBEL
JG. 1905
DEPORTIERT
KZ LUBLIN
ERMORDET 4.3.1944
Hans Joachim Kubel, born 19 June 1905 in Hamburg, died 4 Mar. 1944 in the Majdanek Concentration Camp (Lublin)
Haynstraße 25
Hans Joachim Kubel was born on 19 June 1905 in Hamburg-Winterhude. He was the second son of Friedrich Wilhelm and Martha (Martini) Kubel. His brother Herbert was two years his senior. Herbert later became a municipal court judge and died, unmarried, in 1945 as a prisoner of war. Hans Joachim Kubel attended the Eppendorf public secondary school between 1912 and 1921. He then did a four-year apprenticeship as a precision mechanic. From 1925 to 1932 he worked in Bremen as a salesman for an orthopedic instruments company. He then worked for six months in Chemnitz. His father died in 1933, and he returned to Hamburg to take over the running of his insurance company until 1937. He then worked in sales for the Hans Schattschneider company.
Kubel first found himself in the clutches of the Nazi regime in June 1938. One of his acquaintances had been arrested on the suspicion of "homosexual activity,” and a suitcase with around 200 letters from his friends, including one from Hans Joachim Kubel, had been confiscated.
Police officers arrived at his parents’ apartment at Haynstraße 25, where he was living, on 28 June 1938. He agreed to let the apartment be searched. His personal letters and a notebook were confiscated, and Kubel was taken in for questioning. Kubel first denied his homosexuality. During the interrogation it was determined that he frequented well-known homosexual establishments like "Zu den 3 Sternen” in Hamburg-Neustadt. He was arrested on suspicion that he would suppress evidence and continue to seek same-sex relationships.
After an intensive investigation, which found four of Kubel’s former sexual partners, he was sentenced by the Hamburg Municipal Court on 8 September 1938 to five months in prison on charges of homosexuality. An excerpt from the court’s statement reads: "It speaks to the advantage of the accused that he has no previous convictions, and that he faces a strong predisposition to homosexuality, which is very difficult to overcome. Kubel has attempted to free himself from this evil, and has had no convictions for three years.” Kubel served his first prison sentence in the Harburg jail until he was released on 28 November 1938.
After his release he moved to Kiel, where he lived at Preußerstraße 5. On 4 January 1941 he once again stood trial, this time for public indecency in connection with the laws against homosexuality. He was sentenced to 14 months in prison. Kubel was classified as a Kriegstäter (war-time offender), and thus his prison sentence was to be served after the war. Until that time he was held in various prisons and prisoner camps in Hamburg, in Emsland, and in the Eifel. On 29 May 1943 he was sent to the Ravensbrück Concentration Camp (prisoner number 4051), the first in a long succession of concentration camps. On 22 October 1943 he was put on a transport to Buchenwald, and he was registered as a prisoner at the Mittelbau-Dora Concentration Camp in February 1944. From there he was transferred to the Majdanek Concentration Camp on 18 February 1944, where he died on 4 March 1944, aged 38. The Stolperstein in his memory was placed in front of his parents’ apartment building at Haynstraße 25.
Translator: Amy Lee
Kindly supported by the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung, Hamburg.
Stand: October 2016
© Bernhard Rosenkranz(†)/Ulf Bollmann
Quellen: AB 1938 und 1941; StaH, 213-11 Staatsanwaltschaft Landgericht – Strafsachen, 8974/38; StaH, 242-1 II Gefängnisverwaltung II, Ablieferungen 13, 16 und 1998/1; Sterbeeintragung des Sonderstandesamtes Arolsen Abt. 1 Nr. 1570/1983; Auskunft von Rainer Hoffschildt, Hannover; Rosenkranz/Bollmann/Lorenz, Homosexuellen-Verfolgung, S. 227–228.
