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Hermann Wolff * 1899

Hasselbrookstraße 96 (Wandsbek, Eilbek)

HIER WOHNTE
HERMANN WOLFF
JG. 1899
DEPORTIERT 1941
MINSK
ERMORDET

further stumbling stones in Hasselbrookstraße 96:
Uri Wolff, Herta Wolff

Hermann Wolff, born on 14 Dec. 1899 in Neumark (today: Nowemiasto, Warmia-Masuria Province in northern Poland), deported to Minsk on 8 Nov. 1941
Hertha Wolff, née Happ, born on 11 May 1902 in Berlin, deported to Minsk on 18 Nov. 1941
Uri Wolff, born on 19 Jan. 1941 in Hamburg-Altona, deported to Minsk on 18 Nov. 1941

Hasselbrookstrasse 96

Hermann Wolff was born on 14 Dec. 1899 in the small town of Neumark in the area of the former Marienwerder near the Baltic Sea coast in what was then East Prussia. No further information is available about his parents, Bernhard and Bertha Wolff, née Jacob. Hermann Wolff is said to have had five siblings, of whom only four are known by name: the brothers Julius and Arthur as well as the sisters Eva Weiss, née Wolff, and Paula Wolff. They all survived the Holocaust.

After moving from Berlin to Hamburg on 28 Oct. 1925, Hermann Wolff married Hertha Happ, born on 11 May 1902 in Berlin, on 19 Nov. 1925. Both belonged to the Jewish Community.

During his time in Berlin, Hermann Wolff was professionally successful. According to his brother Julius, he rose to general manager of the local Finkelstein fabric company, earning an income of about 400 RM (reichsmark) per month.

In Hamburg, too, Hermann Wolff and his wife must have been doing well at first. He ran a trade in yard goods. The business address was Burggarten 4 in Hamburg-Borgfelde. The first tax entry in Jewish religious tax (Kultussteuer) file card of the Hamburg Jewish Community dates from 1927, when Hermann "lived independently and carefree,” recalls his brother Julius. In 1928, the Wolff couple moved to Eilbek, residing at Hasselbrookstrasse 96, where they lived as subtenants of the widow C. F. Möller. Since May 1930, the married Wolff couple lived on the Dulsberg, first at Probsteier Strasse 35, from the beginning of 1932 at Probsteier Strasse 33. From 1934 to 1939, Probsteier Strasse 23 is noted in the Hamburg directory, in 1937 with the addition of "window dresser” ("Schaufensterdekorateur”).

During the Dulsberg years, the living conditions became more difficult. In the global economic crisis, the independent trade generated less and less money, so that from 1931 onward, Hermann Wolff "was on welfare subject to placement by the employment office.” The family now received support from public funds. In addition, Mr. and Mrs. Wolff’s health was poor. The situation was also complicated by the fact that Hertha Wolff’s mother now lived with the family. Hermann Wolff became unfit for work in 1932. Starting in 1937, he carried out so-called "welfare work” ("Unterstützungsarbeit”) with interruptions. Welfare or compulsory work was imposed on unemployed men and women who received unemployment and welfare benefits. During these operations, Hermann Wolff suffered a rib bruise. Later, his conditions included heart complaints, bronchitis, and a stomach ailment.

From 1935, the Labor Welfare Department of the Hamburg Health and Welfare Authority set up extra jobs for Jewish people. They were used for the heaviest excavation work. In 1938, Hermann Wolff worked for a short time in Waltershof and had to build sports fields and playgrounds with other men on a mud field for the local children’s daycare branch and for the site of an allotment garden. In 1938, he also worked at the race track in Hamburg-Horn and on a construction site in Buxtehude. In 1938 and 1939, the labor welfare department sent laborers, exclusively Jewish, to two, at times three, external locations in the District of Stade. Here, too, they were separated from the other workers. In these special camps near Buxtehude, up to 90 Jewish unemployed benefit recipients were employed in heavy excavation work. In 1939, Hermann Wolff worked for a company in Altona for about eight months. In 1940, he was enlisted for work duty at a construction company in Stade. In Apr. 1941, he worked at the Steen & Co. hemp spinning mill in Lokstedt. This company had several locations in Hamburg. In 1944, it employed Polish forced laborers and Soviet and Belgian forced laborers.

Hertha Wolff’s health was severely affected. She suffered from acute back pain, trembling hands, and palpitations. She became slightly dizzy, had rheumatism and was "terribly weak” overall. Nevertheless, in 1938, she was strongly urged to look for work; she ought to be able to find work in a Jewish household soon, the argument went. From mid-June 1938 onward, she was ill and unfit for work. It is reported that even then she was asked to take up work nevertheless. In 1940, she then had a "cleaning job” on the Mittelweg.

Meanwhile, starting at the end of Jan. 1939, the family lived in Altona-Altstadt at General-Litzmannstrasse 93 (today: Stresemannstrasse in the Sternschanze quarter), later in a basement apartment at Adolfstrasse 71 (today: Bernstorffstrasse) in Altona. The Wolffs were given notice of termination for this apartment on 1 July 1940 because of their Jewish faith. The last known address before the deportation was Wohlersallee 58, also in Altona (today Wohlers Allee).

The Wolff family often had contact with the Hamburg welfare authority. According to special instructions, their personal circumstances were to be monitored on an ongoing basis "beyond the usual extent.” From 6 Feb. 1939 onward, the "Special Office B” ("Sonderdienststelle B”) in St. Pauli began its work. It was exclusively responsible for Jewish welfare recipients, for whom the Jewish Community had to pay by then. The Wolffs were henceforth subject to this office well. On 18 Apr. 1941, the family was visited again by a male or female employee of this special office. The entry in the welfare file stated, "There is now an infant in the house. The married couple lives in a small basement apartment for 20 RM a month; the property belongs to the J.R.V. [Jewish Religious Organization]. The rent is paid on an ongoing basis.” On 19 Jan. 1941, the only son, Uri, was born.

The basement apartment mentioned in the welfare file at Wohlersallee 58 in Altona was located in a "Jews’ house” ("Judenhaus”) in which Jews were concentrated and had to live in a very confined space.

In 1941, the family was deported from Hannoversche Bahnhof train station to Minsk, Hermann Wolff on 8 November, Hertha and son Uri, who was only ten months old, followed on 18 November. There has not been any sign of life from them since. In 1965, Hermann, Hertha, and Uri Wolff were declared dead by the Hamburg-Altona District Court (Amtsgericht) as of 8 May 1945.

In a letter dated 6 Jan. 1942, the Hamburgische Electricitäts-Werke (HEW), the local electricity company, demanded, on a list containing several pages, compensation for used electricity, including 2.73 RM for Hermann Wolff, from the "Administrative Office for Jewish Assets” ("Verwaltungsstelle für Judenvermögen”) with the Hamburg-Dammtor Tax and Revenue Authority for "Jews who have recently been evacuated.”

For Hermann Wolff there is a Stolperstein in Eilbek and another one at Wohlersallee 50.


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

Stand: May 2019
© Ingo Wille

Quellen: 1; 4; 5; 9; AB; StaH 314-14 Oberfinanzpräsident 29 (HEW); 332-5 Standesämter 6637-582/1925; 351-11 Amt für Wiedergutmachung 22241; Standesamt Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg von Berlin 1324/1902 Geburtsurkunde; Lohalm, Fürsorge und Verfolgung, S. 35, 52; Littmann, Zwangsarbeit in der Hamburger Kriegswirtschaft 1939–1945; Lohalm, Völkische Wohlfahrtsdiktatur, S. 403ff.; Rosenberg, Jahre des Schreckens; freundliche Mitteilungen von Angehörigen, Oktober 2016.
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