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Max London * 1889

Marktstraße gegenüber Haus 93 (Hamburg-Mitte, St. Pauli)

1942 Theresienstadt
1944 Auschwitz
ermordet

Max Nathan London, born on 26.9.1889, deported to Theresienstadt on 19.7.1942, further deported to Auschwitz on 28.10.1944, murdered

Markstraße 45

Max Nathan London was born on September 26, 1889 as the son of the salesman Nathan Marcus London and his wife Gelle, née Levy. Max Nathan London had married the gentile Marie Charlotte Johanna Schwarz on April 24, 1914. At that time he lived at Conventstraße 5. The couple moved to Marckmannstraße 11 in the quarter of Billwerder Ausschlag, an island in the Lower River Elbe in Hamburg, and they had two children.

But in 1939, under increasing pressure on so-called mixed marriages, Charlotte London divorced her husband. The two children - one of them the father of Jacqueline London, who now lives in Canada and researched her family history - survived in Hamburg as so-called "Mischlinge of the first degree", as it was called in the Nazi terminology.

At the time of the 1939 census, Max Nathan London lived - as his granddaughter Jacqueline London researched - in Hamburg-St. Pauli in the house at Marktstraße 47 on the 2nd floor. Presumably he was already living with Alice Gerndt, née Rubinstein (later Lorenzen), born May 25, 1887, a trained nurse who had been dismissed as a "half-Jew" and had to do forced labour. In 1941 they both moved into the nearby house No. 45 on the ground floor, and in 1942 they moved into a flat on the third floor. Alice Gerndt was temporarily ill due to the unaccustomed heavy physical work and had to comply with a registration obligation with the Gestapo, but she survived and stated on record after the war: "At that time my fiancé was still living with me (Max London, who was fully Jewish). He had supported me so that I did not have to register at the employment office or the welfare office. My fiancé was picked up by the Gestapo on July 17, 1942 and taken to Theresienstadt." He had thoughtfully left her another 200 RM "so that I," reported Alice Gerndt, "would have something to live on".

Max London was deported on July 19, 1942. On the deportation list, "Max Israel London, born 26.9.80 work[er], HH, Marktstr. 45" was recorded for the transport on that day. Apparently the year of birth was entered incorrectly. At the age of 52, Max London had to board the train to the Theresienstadt ghetto in German-occupied Czechoslovakia. The "privilege" of being deported to this "preferential ghetto" had arisen from his earlier mixed marriage. Most of his fellow sufferers ended up there because of their age. They often died quickly of hunger, cold, disease or epidemics. Only younger and stronger ghetto inmates had a better chance of survival in Theresienstadt than at other deportation sites.

Postal traffic from Theresienstadt was permitted, but regulated, censored and made more difficult by the effects of war. Important information had to be written in code. It was essential for survival to be supplied with food parcels from outside. For this reason, ghetto residents sent messages to relatives or acquaintances with hidden cries for help. If there were no replies, they tried to re-establish contact as best they could.

Max London had not received any more news from his fiancée. He therefore wrote a postcard to Max Plaut, the head of the Jewish Community of Hamburg, dated October 24, 1943: "In my 16th month here all alone in Theresienstadt, have not heard anything since May, therefore please ask me for the address of Mrs. Alice Gerndt, Hamburg 6, Marktstrasse 45, last address, and send it to me as soon as possible. Max London".

Max Plaut, appointed by the Gestapo to be solely responsible for the fate of the former Jewish Community, contacted Alice Gerndt, Marktstrasse 45 in Hamburg on 6 December of that year: "Mr. Max London, Theresienstadt Post Bauchowitz, Protectorate, Hauptstr. 15, has asked me to get in touch with you. Please let me know at which address you can now be reached, possibly to my office, Bornstrasse 22, I. (Dr. Max Israel Plaut)".

Three weeks later, on December 28, 1943 Max London received a letter from an acquaintance of Mrs. Gerndt: "Dear Mr. London! I received your card and spoke to Mrs. Gerndt today. She is in good health and now lives: Hamburg 6, Schulterblatt 9, II, b/ Orgelmann. She will be sending you post these days. She was very pleased to have a sign of life from you. With best wishes".

Max London survived almost another year in the ghetto. It is not known whether contact with Alice Gerndt was established and maintained.

On October 28, 1944 he was transported from Theresienstadt to the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp in occupied Poland, where he was murdered.

Max London's brother Siegfried London, born in 1888, was deported from the Netherlands to the Auschwitz and Sobibor extermination camps with his wife Franziska and daughters Ilse and Vera. There are Stolpersteine for the family in Hamburg at Hartungstraße 20.

His cousin Max London, born on December 8, 1891 son of David Marcus London and Hanna Heilbut, was a businessman. With his wife Charlotte Bianca, née Wolff, called Lotte, who came from Berlin, he had three children: Ruth, born on July 9, 1928, Edgar, born on May 18, 1931, and Eva, born onJanuary 23, 1933. The family lived at Jenischstraße 49 in Hamburg-Altona until the house was sold. In 1939 they moved to Eppendorfer Landstraße 42 and were finally forced to move into the so-called Jew house (Judenhaus) at Lenhartzstraße 3. In May 1940 they managed to leave the country by train to Genoa. From the Italian port, Max London was able to flee with his wife and children on the passenger ship "The Washington" to the USA, destination New York. There, Max London found work as the manager of a manufactory. Descendants of the family still live in the USA today.

In Hamburg at Rentzelstraße 10, a Stolperstein commemorates another family member with the same name: Max London, born in 1885. He was deported to Theresienstadt in 1944 and murdered in Auschwitz in the same year.

Translator: Sönke Lohse
Stand: July 2021
© Birgit Gewehr/Änderungen Christina Igla/Beate Meyer

Quellen: 1; 4; 5; 7; 8; AB Altona; Adressbücher Hamburg 1941, 1942; StaH 622-1/173 Familie Plaut D 38 (Dr. Max Plaut, Dienstliche Korrespondenz und privater Schriftwechsel); StaH 332-5 Standesämter, 9051 (Eintrag Nr. 2061, Geburt Max London); StaH 314-15 Oberfinanzpräsident R 1940/21 Sicherungsanordnungen gegen Max Israel London; StaH 552-1 Jüdische Gemeinden 992 e 2 Band 5 (Deportationsliste Theresienstadt 19.7.1942); Forschungsstelle für Zeitgeschichte Hamburg/Werkstatt der Erinnerung, Interview mit Eva London-Ritt, Tochter von Max London, geb. 1891 (Interview 14.6.2012 FZH / WdE 1751); Korrespondenz mit Jacqueline London, Enkeltochter von Max Nathan London, Mai 2021; StaH 351-11, 9824 Alice Lorenzen.
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