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Margarethe Reyersbach * 1889

Husumer Straße 14 (Hamburg-Nord, Hoheluft-Ost)

1941 Lodz
ermordet

further stumbling stones in Husumer Straße 14:
Marie Henschel, Bertha Solymos, Moric Solymos

Margarethe Reyersbach, born on 16 Apr. 1889 in Hamburg, deported on 25 Oct. 1945 to Lodz, deported further to the Chelmno extermination camp probably on 15 May 1942

Husumerstrasse 14

Unfortunately, we know only very little about Margarethe Reyersbach’s life. She was born on 16 Apr. 1889 in Hamburg, and her parents were Leopold and Emily Reyersbach, née Lilienfeld. Leopold Reyersbach probably was one of the partners of Leopold and Julius Reyersbach, bond and bill brokers, a company listed in the 1886 Hamburg directory and located at Kleine Johannisstrasse 10/12, and resided at the upper-middle-class Eppendorfer Chaussee 11a (parts of which are today Rothenbaumchaussee and Eppendorfer Baum).

The partner, Julius Reyersbach, was the father of Olga Reyersbach (see corresponding entry), Lisbeth Engelmann, née Reyersbach (see corresponding entry), and Toni Friedländer, née Reyersbach; in 1889, he lived with his family in a house of his own at Alsterchaussee 18. This family constellation was confirmed by the Yad Vashem Pages of Testimony established by Max Engelmann for his mother Lisbeth Engelmann and his aunts Olga and Margarethe Reyersbach in 1999.

Incidentally, Max Engelmann indicated for his mother and his aunts that they perished in Auschwitz. That is evidently not correct concerning his mother, who died in Lodz on 9 Feb. 1942. In the case of his two aunts, it probably does not hold true either. Substantial evidence suggests that the entries in the Memorial Book for the Victims of the Persecution of Jews issued by the German Federal Archives are correct, indicating that they have been missing in Lodz/Chelmno (Margarethe R.) and Riga-Jungfernhof (Olga R.), respectively.

Nothing is known about Margarethe Reyersbach’s life until Feb. 1939, except for the fact that she was unmarried.

On 20 Feb. 1939, she joined the Jewish Community, which means we have some information from the Jewish religious tax (Kultussteuer) card file. Her contributions for the year 1939 amounted to 10.50 RM (reichsmark) overall. Thus, her financial situation was very modest. She came from a middle-class family that was at least reasonably well off. Therefore, it is probable that in 1939 she was in difficult economic circumstances due to increasing reprisals. It appears questionable whether she still had a job in the occupation of "stenographer” entered for her in the Jewish religious tax card file in 1939 – the level of her contributions seems to make that rather unlikely.

Moreover, the fact that in the period from 20 Feb. 1939 until her deportation on 25 Oct. 1941, she lived at four different addresses, in each case as a subtenant, points to a situation in life that was in stark contrast to her earlier life. In Feb. 1939, she lived at Loogestieg 17 with Waiblinger, and the address subsequently registered with an entry indicating "Sept. 39” is Husumerstrasse 14 with Solymos (see corresponding biography). Another address during this time was also Hegestrasse 15 with Brühl. At Haynstrasse 10 with Markus, she apparently lived until her deportation – this is at the same time the only address not crossed out. There is no explanation for Margarethe Reyersbach having four different accommodations within a small radius during her last 20 months in Hamburg.

On 25 Oct. 1941, at the age of 52, she was deported to Lodz. In the local registration and deregistration list, she was entered as "deregistered” as of 15 May 1942. On that day, 606 persons were deported further from the Lodz Ghetto to the Chelmno extermination camp.


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

Stand: October 2018
© Birgit Burgänger

Quellen: 1; 5; 8; StaH 522-1 Jüd. Gemeinden, 992e2 Band 1; AB 1886; Michael, Das Leben, 2009; Wikipedia, freie Enzyklopädie, Stichwort Reichsvertretung der Deutschen Juden; Archiwum Panstwowe Lodz; Fritz Neubauer, Last Letters from the Lodz (Lodsch) Getto, 2010; Lodz Hospital, Der Hamburger Gesellschaft für jüdische Genealogie zur Verfügung gestellt von Peter W. Lande, 2009, USHMM, Washington, bearbeitet von Margot Löhr.
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