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Bruno Schulz * 1912

Ilenbrook 14 (Harburg, Wilhelmsburg)

1939 verhaftet
KZ Fuhlsbüttel
KZ Neuengamme
ermordet 08.02.1943

Bruno Schulz, born 10/31/1912 in (Hamburg-)Wilhelmsburg, repeatedly imprisoned at the Fuhlsbüttel police jail, died at Neuengamme concentration camp on 2/8/1943

Ilenbrook 14

The musician Bruno Schulz was born on October 31st, 1912 as the son of Elisabeth Ullmann and Walter Schulz, who later married. Bruno Schulz is one of the homosexuals whose life can only be traced by a few prison file cards; the records of the criminal proceedings against him that could have provided more details of his biography.

In the years 1934, 1936 and 1937 he was "on the road” and convicted of property crimes in Stade, Ludwigslust and Flensburg. It seems that he tried to make a living as a travelling musician. After his release from the Hamburg-Fuhlsbüttel prison on March 28th, 1939, where he had served a one-year sentence for larceny, Bruno Schulz was again targeted by the police only two days later. The 24th criminal commissariat, in charge of such "offenses”, arrested him on March 30th and took him into "protective custody” until April 3rd, 1939, followed by remand until his trial on May 24th, when the Hamburg District Court sentenced him to one year pursuant to Art. 175 of the penal code (homosexual activities). Protective custody and remand were taken into account, probably because of confessions. Bruno Schulz served his sentence At the Fuhlsbüttel and Glasmoor jails. He was released to home on March 28th, 1940. His file card notes a further conviction of larceny from February 1941, this time in Berlin-Moabit. After that, his trace is lost.

The inmate number 13820 of Neuengamme concentration camp revealed that Bruno Schulz was admitted there in January 1943 as a prisoner in preventive detention. Perhaps he had been on one of the larger transports that had come from Buchenwald concentration camp or from the Emsland camps. Bruno Schulz perished in Neuengamme only a few days later, on February 8th, 1943. The official cause of death was "heart failure during pneumonia.”

A stumbling stone at Bruno Schulz’ last voluntary residence, at the home of his mother at Henriettenstrasse 14 in Hamburg-Wilhelmsburg, now Ilenbrook 14, commemorates his fate.


Translation by Peter Hubschmid 2018
Kindly supported by the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung, Hamburg.

Stand: January 2019
© Bernhard Rosenkranz(†)/Ulf Bollmann

Quellen: StaH 213-8 Staatsanwaltschaft Oberlandesgericht – Verwaltung, Abl. 2, 451 a E 1, 1 d; 242-1II Gefängnisverwaltung II, Abl. 13, 16; StaH 332-8 Meldewesen, A 34/1; Auskunft Dr. Reimer Möller, KZ-Ge­denkstätte Neuengamme, aus dem Krankenrevier-Totenbuch Stammlager III, vom Juli 2011; Rosenkranz u. a., Homosexuellen-Verfolgung, S. 256.