Search for Names, Places and Biographies

Hanna Stiefel * 1874

Königsreihe 32 (Wandsbek, Wandsbek)

1941 Minsk
ermordet

further stumbling stones in Königsreihe 32:
Sophie Hirsch, Hanna Meyberg, Erna Fratje Michelsohn, Oskar Ludwig Michelsohn

Hanna Stiefel, b. 2.14.1874, deported to Minsk on 11.18.1941

Königsreihe 32 (Langereihe 56/57)

The independent Hanna (also known as Johanna) Stiefel came from a family traceable to Wandsbek at the end of the eighteenth century, the Leons; as a homeowner she was largely able to support herself.

She was the daughter of a (kosher) butcher, Isaac Stiefel (b. 1843) and his wife Jeanette, née Leon, b. 1831, in Wandsbek. She had two older siblings, a brother Henry (b. 1870) and a sister Fanny (b. 1872), who later married Meiberg. They, too, were deported (see the soon to appear brochure concerning the commemorative stones for Hamburg-Eimsbüttel).

The center of their lives for the Stiefel and Meiberg families was the synagogue quarter, strictly speaking Langereihe 57; the single story house belonged to the family. In 1905, Isaac Stiefel was active as a member of the board and treasurer of the Israelite Immigrant Support Society of Wandsbek. He died in 1908. Hanna Stiefel continued to live with her mother, who was entered into the city directory as an independently wealthy woman, that is, one who did not have to work or a living.

Whether Hanna Stiefel was ever gainfully employed is not documented. In any case, she is listed in the directories of the 1920s as the sole owner of the property at 56/57 Langereihe. Apparently, she inherited both houses after the death of her mother in 1918. She lived off the rental income from five apartments in the front and back houses.

In the 1930s, her family members left Wandsbek. Her nephew Julius Meiberg was the first to leave, for Hamburg. Then followed his brother Gustav, who until his marriage to Charlotte, née Gabel, had lived with his aunt. He emigrated in 1934. In 1937, her brother-in-law died, and her sister Fanny moved to Hamburg in the same year. No one from Hanna Stiefel’s family lived in Wandsbek any longer. Other community members had left the city long ago. The only ones remaining were the elderly homeowners, such as Sophie Hirsch and Lina Kümmermann and their dependents (see biographical entries for Hirsch and Kümmermann). In 1939, Hanna Stiefel also had to leave her property in Wandsbek. She moved into the so-called Jew house at Innocentiastrasse 21, in Harvesthude.

At the end of 1937, the Wandsbek Jewish Community, of which Hanna Stiefel was a tax-free member, was dissolved. At the beginning of 1938, she joined the Jewish Religion Association of Hamburg. Presumably, she voluntarily paid communal taxes in 1939; there were no tax payments that followed for 1940 and 1941. Hanna Stiefel had settled her estate, depositing her will with Dr. Nathan of the Jewish Religion Association. Earlier she had reserved a cemetery plot in the cemetery on Jenfelder Strasse, where her parents were also buried. When, in November 1941, she was the first of her family to receive a deportation order, she was 67 years old. On 18 November 1941, she boarded a train with approximately 400 others bound for Minsk. How long she could withstand the hard living conditions of the ghetto is not known. One of the last traces for her is in the directory of 1942. She is listed – without the compulsory name of Sara – as "Stiefel, Miss H.,” still the sole owner of her property.

According to a ruling by the Hamburg District Court in 1951, she was declared dead as of the end of the year 1945.

At least one Wandsbek resident, who rented from the family, recalled Hanna Stiefel. She described her former landlady as an attractive, self-confident woman.

Hanna Stiefel had to leave her birthplace around the time when it became illegal for Jews to collect rents. According to the law, she then had to commission a "German-blooded" property manager. Whether such a person would be as long remembered by the renters as Hanna Stiefel remains dubious.


Translator: Richard Levy
Kindly supported by the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung, Hamburg.

Stand: January 2019
© Astrid Louven

Quellen: 1; 2 FVg 8112, R 1939/2728; 4; AfW 060172, 040697, 040400; StaHH 332-8 Meldekartei, Auskunft von Jürgen Sielemann, E-Mail vom 25.8.2003; AB 1928 VI, 1929 VI; AB 1939 IV, AB 1942 IV; 8; Auskunft von Frau Ruland am 4.5.2007 und 14.1.2008; Naphtali Bamberger, Memorbuch Bd. 2, S. 30; Astrid Louven, Juden, S. 58, 78, 217.
Zur Nummerierung häufig genutzter Quellen siehe Link "Recherche und Quellen".