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Selig Seligmann * 1868

Grevenweg 89 (Hamburg-Mitte, Hamm)

1942 Theresienstadt
1942 Treblinka
ermordet

further stumbling stones in Grevenweg 89:
Arno Zacharias

Selig Seligmann, born 24 Dec. 1868 in Hamburg, deported 19 July 1942 to Theresienstadt, 21 Sep. 1942 to Treblinka

Grevenweg 89

Selig Seligmann was deported to the "ghetto for the elderly,” Theresienstadt, at the age of 73. Two months later he was murdered at the Treblinka Extermination Camp. We know almost nothing about his life up to the age of nearly 60.

Selig Seligmann’s parents were Mendel Moses and Sara (Gutmann) Seligmann. Mendel Seligmann was a butcher, like his father, Moses Mendel. Sara Gutmann’s father was a merchant. The Seligmanns had two sons, Adolf (*1 Feb. 1864) and Felix Selig (*24 Dec. 1868). The family belonged to the Hamburg German-Israelitic Community. Selig Seligmann was 17 years old when his mother, aged 52, died on 10 September 1886. Simon Heckscher, a messenger with the German-Israelitic Commumity, registered her death with the registry office. She was buried at the Jewish Cemetery in Ohlsdorf, which had been dedicated three years previously. At that time the family lived at Marienstraße 17.

One year after his mother’s death, the eldest son, Adolf, married Rosa Gutmann, the daughter of the clothing merchant Isaac Feitel Gutmann and his wife Doris, née Nathan. Although her family had the same name as Adolf’s mother’s family, they were not directly related. Adolf Seligmann was a merchant and co-owner of S. M. Nathan & Co., which traded in flannel goods and wool blankets. The family lived at Bornstraße 20. Rosa and Adolf Seligmann’s first child, Ivan, was born in 1891, followed by Elsa in 1893 and Irma in 1900. Ivan (see Biographies: Ivan Seligmann) and one of his sisters became graphic designers.

Selig Seligmann’s father, Mendel Seligmann, remarried one year after his wife’s death. His second wife was his sister-in-law, Sara’s sister Pauline Meyer. She was a widow, 11 years younger than Sara, and had three children – Selma, Olga, and Arthur. The youngest was eight years old, the eldest 17. The couple later divorced. Until his death at nearly 82, Mendel Seligmann lived with relatives in the Grindel Quarter. His last address was Rutschbahn 20. He died on 18 June 1907 at the Israelitic Hospital and was buried next to his first wife Sara at the Jewish Cemetery in Ohlsdorf. His son Adolf registered his death with the registry office.

Next to nothing is known about Selig Seligmann’s life during this period. He was listed with the Hamburg German-Israelitic Community beginning in 1926. He never married, and worked in the mid-1920s as a traveling salesman, although it is unknown what products he sold. He had a taxable income from 1927 to 1930, and paid yearly taxes to the Hamburg Jewish Community of between 10 and 21 Reichsmarks. Thereafter he was exempted. He reached retirement age in 1933 and received a monthly pension of 64.20 Reichsmarks. This income was so low that he was not required to pay tax on it. Selig Seligmann apparently lived in boarding houses and moved frequently. For the community representative election in 1930 he was registered in Eimsbüttel. He was also registered in Hamburg-Hamm at one point, but only for a short time.

Selig’s brother Adolf died on 26 June 1932 in his apartment on Ulmenstraße in Winterhude. His daughters Irma and Elsa, who was married to Fritz Lichtenstein, and his widow Rosa left Germany. His son Ivan remained in Hamburg with his severely handicapped wife Frieda, née Joachimstal. Ivan and Frieda’s daughter Senta had been sent to safety in England with a children’s transport in July 1939.

There is no indication that Selig Seligmann attempted to emigrate. On 30 October 1939 he moved into the Minkel Salomon David Kalker Trust at Rutschbahn 25a. This was his last address in Hamburg. In March 1941 he was given 50 Reichsmarks from Karl Stern (see Biographies: Karl Stern), an author who had lived in Hamburg for a short time in the mid-1930s. Beginning in 1942, the Trust where Seligmann lived was used as a "Jews’ house.” The Gestapo ordered the Jewish Community to quarter Jews in these houses, so that they were very overcrowded. Selig Seligmann received his deportation notification on 19 July 1942. Four days earlier his nephew Ivan had been deported to Theresienstadt. Ivan’s wife remained in Hamburg in a Jewish nursing home.

In the summer of 1942, the Theresienstadt Ghetto was extremely overcrowded and the death rate increased dramatically. The Reich Head Office of Security ordered that residents be transported to extermination camps. Selig Seligmann was assigned to a transport to Treblinka on 21 September. He was murdered there immediately upon arrival. His nephew Ivan was still at Theresienstadt when his wife Frieda was sent there in June 1943. She died six months later on 2 January 1944. Ivan Seligmann was sent to Auschwitz on 15 May 1944, where he was murdered.


Translator: Amy Lee
Kindly supported by the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung, Hamburg.

Stand: April 2018
© Hildegard Thevs

Quellen: 1, 4, 5, 7, 9; Hamburger Adressbücher; StaH 332-5 Standesämter, 483-1962/1901; 589-442/1907; 2714-1057/1887; 3019 8532-1274/1887; 9856-340/1932; 332-8 Melderegister, K 6970; 522-1, 992 e 2, Bde 4, 5; Abl. 1993, 42 Kontenkartei; JFHH, ZZ 11-234/35; Bauche, Ulrich, IVAN: Entwürfe, Plakate, Pastelle – Der Gebrauchsgraphiker Ivan Seligmann, in: Wamser, Ursula, Wilfried Weinke, Hrsg., Eine verschwundene Welt. Jüdisches Leben am Grindel, Springe 2006.
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