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Wolff William Hagenow * 1871

Heinskamp 20 (Hamburg-Nord, Barmbek-Süd)

1944 Theresienstadt
ermordet 16.04.1944

Wolff William Hagenow, born 21 Nov. 1871, deported 19 Jan. 1944 to Theresienstadt, died there 16 Apr. 1944

Heinskamp 20

After finishing his schooling, Wolff Hagenow entered a commercial apprenticeship. Afterwards he had his own business as a textiles salesman at Conventstraße 32.

With his first wife Helene, who, like himself, was Jewish, he had one daughter, Erna, who was born on 7 January 1903. The marriage did not last long and the couple divorced. Helene and Erna emigrated to New Jersey in the 1930s, where they remained after the war.

Wolff Hagenow’s second wife was Betty Adolphine Berta Dittmann. She was from Hamburg, 20 years his junior, and non-Jewish. They married on 16 February 1920. Six years later, on 1 July 1926, their son Curt Siegmund was born. The half-siblings Erna and Curt did not know about each other until shortly after the end of the war.

Wolff Hagenow had to give up his textiles business for financial reasons. He worked for a short time as a sales representative and then as a warehouse clerk for the Jacobsen company at Woltmannstraße 7–9. Beginning in 1934, he received a small pension and the family had to move to a smaller apartment at Heinskamp 20.

According to Nazi classification, Wolff and Betty Hagenow had a "privileged mixed marriage,” since she was an "Aryan” and they had a child. Wolff Hagenow was thus protected from Nazi prosecution for a time. That changed when the couple divorced on 29 January 1941. Hagenow had to move out of the apartment, and took rooms at Weidestraße 6. From his small pension, 64.40 Reichsmarks per month, he paid 10.50 Reichsmarks in alimony.

Curt Hagenow, who was classified as a "first degree Mischling,” was ordered to join the Deutsches Jungvolk in 1939 (a section of the Hitler Youth organization for boys aged 10-14). He joined the Hitler Youth two years later – no one seemed to have noticed that his father was Jewish. In the summer of 1943, the building where Betty Hagenow and her son lived was destroyed by bombs, and they moved into the Hitler Youth dormitory at Elbchaussee 88/90. Shortly thereafter, however, Curt’s Jewish heritage became known and they were forced to leave the dormitory.

Wolff Hagenow was deported to the Theresienstadt Ghetto on 19 January 1944. At the time he was living at Rappstraße 16. He died on 16 April 1944 in the ghetto.

Translator: Amy Lee

Kindly supported by the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung, Hamburg.

Stand: October 2016
© Carmen Smiatacz

Quellen: 1; 4, 5; 7; 8; StaHH 351-11, AfW, Abl. 2008/1, 12.03.91 Hagenow, Betty; StaHH 351-11, AfW, Abl. 2008/1, 01.07.26 Hagenow, Curt; ITS/ARCH/Kartei Getto Theresienstadt/5039313#1 (1.1.42.2/THERES37/1177); ITS/ARCH/Transportlisten Gestapo, zum Getto Theresienstadt/11197641#1 (1.2.1.1/0001-0060/0017/0148); ITS/ARCH/Transportlisten Gestapo, Hamburg/11198449#1 (1.2.1.1/0001-0060/ 0017G/0287).
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