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Bella Speyer (née Heckscher) * 1867

Hinrichsenstraße 29 (Hamburg-Mitte, Borgfelde)

HIER WOHNTE
BELLA SPEYER
GEB. HECKSCHER
JG. 1867
DEPORTIERT 1942
THERESIENSTADT
ERMORDET 30.12.1942

Bella Speyer, née Heckscher, born on 9 Feb. 1867 in Hamburg, deported on 19 July 1942 to Theresienstadt, death there on 30 Dec. 1942

Hinrichsenstrasse 29 (Baustrasse 29)

After getting married, the millinery employee Bella Heckscher became the milliner Bella Speyer. Her husband, the commercial clerk Anton Speyer, born on 12 May 1870 in Hamburg, subsequently worked as a salesman in the flourishing Speyer & Brager lottery-vending business. The Speyer and Heckscher families lived at Schlachterstrasse 47 in Hamburg-Neustadt. Bella Heckscher and Anton Speyer married on 24 July 1896. Traditionally, their fathers, David Speyer, who worked as a messenger, and Wolf Heckscher, who did not pursue gainful employment, served as witnesses to the marriage. Their mothers, Pauline Speyer, née Bauer, and Lea Heckscher, née Behrend, were still alive as well.

Bella and Anton Speyer’s first child, daughter Ruth, was born on 8 July 1897, son Herbert David on 1 Nov. 1900. Anton Speyer belonged to the German-Israelitic Community and the Synagogue Association (Synagogenverband). At the beginning of the First World War, the family resided at Dillstrasse 3 in modest circumstances. There are no clues as to any gainful employment pursued by Bella Speyer at this time; the only detail known about the children’s training is that Herbert Speyer studied medicine starting in 1919. He began his university career in Breslau (today Wroclaw in Poland), continuing it in Freiburg and eventually in Munich, and repeatedly returning to Hamburg in between times to stay with his parents, who by this time had moved to Grindelhof 43. At the beginning of 1924, news reached the family that Herbert, by then a doctoral candidate of medicine had been found dead on the Jewish Cemetery in Ohlsdorf on 31 January at three o’clock in the morning. The exact details of his death are not known.

On 10 Aug. 1923, Ruth Speyer married Martin Starke, an employee of her father born on 22 Dec. 1899 in Harburg, and continued to reside at her parents’ place with her new husband. This shared accommodation lasted until 1935. On 18 May 1924, Bella Speyer’s first granddaughter was born, Sulamith Starke. She was followed by Vera on 19 Jan. 1928 and eventually Irene Antoinette on 14 Feb. 1937.

Bella Speyer lost her husband, probably also due to an unnatural death. His dead body was found on 9 Sept. 1932 at the rear of the houses at Heilwigstrasse 29 to 35. In this case, too, the background remained unclear. Her husband left his wife without any provisions. One cannot assess whether she would have been able to succeed in any gainful employment at the age of 66, had it not been for the anti-Jewish measures from 1933 onward. In 1935, the tax office cancelled the tax debts she owed due to insignificance. The Hamburg German-Israelitic Community also ceased to issue tax assessments. Bella Speyer probably sought to make ends meet in the trade for which she was trained, as a milliner, and she gave up the family apartment.

What caused her to leave the Grindel quarter and move to Hinrichsenstrasse 29 in Borgfelde remains in obscurity. She shared the apartment there with the two Jewish women Marta Dederichs, née Levinson, and Augusta Costa. Marta Dederichs lived in a "mixed marriage” ("Mischehe”), and Augusta Costa emigrated to Great Britain shortly before the outbreak of World War II, as a result of which both survived.

In 1935, Ruth and Martin Starke along with their children obtained accommodation in the basement of the administrative office of the "Jewish Religious Organization” ("Jüdischer Religionsverband”) at Beneckestrasse 2, where Martin Starke was employed as a caretaker. After returning to the Grindel quarter, Bella Speyer initially resided as a subtenant with Jews, then in the "Jews’ house” ("Judenhaus”) at Rutschbahn 25a. From there, she set out on the transport to the Theresienstadt Ghetto on 19 July 1942.

For the price of the "home purchase” ("Heimeinkauf”) payable, she had no funds available. Impoverished as she was, she received 1,000 RM (reichsmark) from Marcus Cohen on 27 Nov. 1941. The sum was administrated by the welfare office of the "Jewish Religious Organization” and paid out to her in monthly installments of 50 RM. Added to this was a one-time payment of 40.15 RM to the W. C. Wolff electrical store for electrical fixtures and fittings, probably in connection with her move into the accommodation on Rutschbahn. At the time of her deportation, a remaining credit balance was still available, transferred to the account of her son-in-law Martin Starke. Martin Starke was arrested in Nov. 1942 due to a denunciation. Whether Bella Speyer learned of this is not known. She died of enteritis on 30 Dec. 1942 in the hospital ward of the Theresienstadt Ghetto.

On 12 Feb. 1943, her daughter Ruth, along with the granddaughters Sulamith, Vera, and Irene were assigned to a small transport comprised of 24 persons transferred to the secret state police headquarters in Berlin for evacuation to Auschwitz, where Martin Starke had also arrived by then. In contrast to his wife and children, he survived.


Translator: Erwin Fink
Kindly supported by the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung, Hamburg.

Stand: January 2019
© Hildegard Thevs

Quellen: 1; 4; 5; StaH, 332-5 Standesämter, 2869+823/1896, 8779+448/1923, 1926+8/1924, 8114+69/1932; 332-8 Meldewesen, K 7001; 522-1 Jüdische Gemeinden, 992 e 2, Bd. 5; Abl. 1993, 42, Bd. 2, Teil 2.
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