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Bertha Michelsohn (née Hirsch) * 1899
Kanalstraße 2 (Hamburg-Nord, Uhlenhorst)
1942 Auschwitz
ermordet
Bertha Michelsohn, née Hirsch, born on 23 Oct. 1899, deported on 1 July 1942 to Auschwitz
Kanalstrasse 2
Bertha Michelsohn was the third of four siblings: First-born Arthur, born on 3 Apr. 1895, was followed by Käthe (on 27 July 1893), then Bertha, and, on 4 May 1902, the youngest, Hermann. The father, Leopold Hirsch, born on 14 June 1862, worked as a cobbler; it is not known whether his wife Johanna, née Lehmann (31 Oct. 1871), helped out in the workshop or took care exclusively of the household and the four children. Leopold died by 1925 at the latest.
Bertha married the commercial clerk Waldemar Michelsohn, who was born on 25 Jan. 1890 as the son of Simon Arye Michelsohn and his first wife Adele, née Lilienfeld.
Waldemar and Bertha Michelsohn lived at Kanalstrasse 2 "auf der Uhlenhorst.” Bertha was widowed early, since Waldemar passed away on 28 Mar. 1928, only 37 years old, after he had suffered from the effects of an armed robbery for three years. Like his half sister Erika, the dancer and choreographer who died in 1996, he was buried in the Jewish Cemetery on Ilandkoppel.
Bertha Michelsohn earned her livelihood as a domestic help; her last place of residence and possibly also her last workplace was at Johnsallee 54 (a so-called "Jews’ house” ["Judenhaus”]).
The building belonged to the Jewish Community, and over the course of time, it accommodated various Jewish institutions, e.g., a wide range of youth organizations, a music school, a community library, a sports club, and a branch of the Israelite Hospital. The old building no longer exists as it was destroyed during one night of bombing.
Bertha Michelsohn was deported on 11 July 1942 from Hamburg to Auschwitz. Probably she perished there in the gas chambers soon after her arrival. After the end of the war, Bertha Michelsohn was declared dead.
Translator: Erwin Fink
Kindly supported by the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung, Hamburg.
Stand: October 2017
© Stefanie Rückner
Quellen: 1; 4; 5; 8; ITS/ARCH/Transportliste Gestapo, Hamburg am 11. Juli 1942/11197782#1 (1.2.1.1/0001-0060/0017A/0117); E-Mails mit Ralph Michelson, Israel, 2009; Jüdischer Friedhof Ilandkoppel.
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