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Walter Stock * 1897
Bendixensweg 3 (Hamburg-Nord, Barmbek-Nord)
1944 Auschwitz
ermordet
Walter Wolfgang Stock, b. 1.17.1897 in Altona, arrested 3.9.1944, deportation to Auschwitz in July 1944
Bendixensweg 3
Walter Wolfgang Stock came into the world on 17 January 1897 in Altona, the son of his unmarried Jewish mother Adelheid Stock, b. 7 January 1867 in Fliestedten. Walter had an older sister Helena, b. 1888 and a younger sister Louise Stock. Adelheid Stock later married Ludwig Behr, b. 17 March 1877 in Leimersheim, and with him had another son, Joseph Behr.
Walter Stock attended the Talmud Torah school, leaving with an intermediate certificate (the equivalent of the "one-year" preparatory school diploma); thereafter, he pursued an apprenticeship in business in a firm that produced tailoring necessities. He worked in this profession until 1928 and then as a sales representative for the Lessner rental listings gazette on ABC-Strasse. His average monthly salary was 360 RM.
In 1936, he married the Evangelical Protestant Erna Marie Sophie Baumgartl (b. 28 August 1899) and lived with her and her daughter Marianne (b. 2 September 1924), who was baptized a Protestant. Thus, he was in a "privileged mixed-marriage" (according to the Nuremberg Laws of 1935). The family lived at Alten Wöhr 2a and at Bendixensweg 3 in Barmbek; they had frequent contact with Lissi Acker, the paternal grandmother, born a Stock, and who was related to Walter’s mother. In 1942, Walter and Erna spent Christmas and New Year’s Eve at the home of Lissi Acker and her nine-year old son Helmut at Genslerstrasse 16.
Walter Stock lost his job because of "racial" persecution. He maintained that he was a "half-Jew” and that his father was "Aryan,” but the Gestapo nevertheless considered im a "full-Jew.” After a long period of joblessness, he worked in 1941 as a tailor and took on work from home.
The family survived the devastating bombing raids on Hamburg in 1943. On the basis of a remark he made in the air raid shelter before or during one of the bombardments – "long live the air gangsters and non-Aryans” – Walter was denounced a few months later by a man from the neighborhood.
His arrest followed on 9 March 1944. He was taken to the Fuhlsbüttel police prison and then, in July 1944, deported to Auschwitz. His wife received letters dated 24 September, 8 October, 26 November, and 10 December; afterwards there was no sign of life from him; he was considered missing. By ruling of the Hamburg District Court, Walter Stock was declared dead as of midnight on 8 May 1945.
There is a lack of clarity as to who denounced him. Conjectures implicated two neighbors, one of whom wrote to the widow Erna Stock in 1946, defending himself against the suspicion of having made the denunciation. He named a married couple who had tried to make him responsible. Erna Stock reported later that, because of the arrest of her husband, an eviction had been carried out. Homeless, penniless, and sick, she had to apply for emergency pension aid immediately after the war, which was supposed to be augmented by the 1953 Act Amending the Federal Supplementary Law on Compensation for Victims of Nazi Persecution. Yet as of 1957, the investigations were still not complete, and it took another year for the pension amount finally to be adjusted.
Walter’s brother Joseph Behr was the director of the M. Lessmann publishing house from which the Israelische Familienblatt [Israelite Family Newspaper] appeared. He and his wife Hildegard, née Holland, lived in a three and one-half room apartment at Alten Teichweg 7 in Barmbek. The publishing house was liquidated on 9 November 1938 by order of the Gestapo, and, in the Night of Broken Glass, Joseph Behr was arrested at the home of his parents-in-law on Hufnerstrasse. He was taken to the Fuhlsbüttel police prison and from there to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp. He was released on 15 December because he could demonstrate efforts to emigrate. Until his final departure he had to endure the demoralizing procedure of daily reporting to the Gestapo.
Joseph Behr and his wife embarked on 29 March 1939 for Buenos Aires aboard the ship "General Osono." In Argentina, the couple could stop holding their breath, at least at first. However the marriage failed, or the first Mrs. Behr died there. There were two later wives.
Because of his difficulties with the language, Joseph Behr had trouble finding himself professionally. After a long period of acclimatization, he worked as a bookkeeper. Moreover, his health was impaired; he suffered for years from a duodenal ulcer and hearing disorders. Neither did the tropical climate agree with him. Joseph – now, José – Behr was able to fight to receive compensation for a portion of his losses because of the circumstances of his flight but had to do so within the framework of long drawn out reparations procedures. He died at just 65 years of age on 18 July 1969.
Hildegard Stock‘s parents lived at Hufnerstraße 40; her mother Lisette Holland (born on 15 May 1881 in Fliestedten, was Walter Stock’s aunt. Lisette was deported to Theresienstadt on 15 July 1942 and from there to Auschwitz, where she was murdered. Hildegard’s father, Eugen Holland (b. 13 August 1876 in Bad Rappenau), followed her to Theresienstadt in the transport of 23 June 1943; he died there on 24 January 1944.
Walter’s mother Adelheid Behr and his stepfather Ludwig Behr were shipped off to Minsk and died there. His younger sister Louise was deported to Auschwtiz, the older, Helena Stein, survived the Holocaust.
Translator: Richard Levy
Kindly supported by the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung, Hamburg.
Stand: January 2019
© Eva Acker/Erika Draeger
Quellen: 1; 4; 5; 8; StaHH 351-11, AfW, Abl. 2008/1 28.08.99 Stock, Erna; StaHH 351-11, AfW,Abl. 2008/1 14.08.04 Behr, José; Interview mit Lissi Acker, Dez. 1990, Geschichtswerkstatt Barmbek.
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