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Käthe Neugarten (née Pünjer) * 1893

Fabriciusstraße 22 (Wandsbek, Bramfeld)

HIER WOHNTE
KÄTHE NEUGARTEN
GEB. PÜNJER
JG. 1893
GEDEMÜTIGT / ENTRECHTET
FLUCHT IN DEN TOD
31.7.1942

further stumbling stones in Fabriciusstraße 22:
Jacob Neugarten, Alfred Neugarten

Jacob Neugarten, b. 1.8.1882, arrested in July 1942 in Hamburg, deported in October 1942 first to Natzweiler concentration camp, then to Mauthausen, and finally to Auschwitz where he was murdered in November 1942
Käthe Marie Sophie Neugarten, née Pünjer, b. 10.27.1893, fled into suicide on 7.30-31, 1942
Alfred Neugarten, b. 4.22.1925, arrested in Hamburg on 9.3.1942, in 1944 deported to Auschwitz, transferred to Buchenwald on 1.22.1945, died in the satellite camp of Ohrdruf on 3.18.1945

Fabriciusstraße 22 (Cornehlstraße 22, from 1933, Adolf Hitler-Straße 22)

When Hitler was named Reich-Chancellor on 30 January 1933, Jacob Neugarten had just celebrated his 51st birthday, lived with his second wife Käthe, and had three children aged 23, 11, and 9 years. All of the available biographical information we have for him attests to the fact that at this time he lived an orderly existence and was materially secure.

Jacob Neugarten was born the son of Jewish parents from Raboldshausen in Hesse-Kassel. When and under what circumstances he came to Hamburg is not known. On 14 March 1910, in his first marriage, he fathered a daughter named Gertrud Henriette, who was born in Hamburg. We do not know the name of her mother.

On 21 May 1921, Jacob Neugarten married the non-Jew, Käthe Marie Sophie Pünjer of Hamburg (b. 27 October 1893). He had two children with her. Daughter Ruth Wihelmine was born on 20 November 1922, son Alfred on 22 April 1925. The family lived on the ground floor of a two family house at Cornehlstrasse 22 (from 1933, Adolf-Hitler Strasse; presently, Fabriciusstrasse) in the Bramfeld-Hellbrook district of Hamburg. The house and land belonged to the family. Jacob Neugarten was a businessman. Shortly after the First World War he had opened a store dealing in agricultural machinery at Herrengraben 72 in the inner city (Hamburger-Neustadt); until Hitler came to power, it was said to have been very successful. In 1934 there was still an entry for the Reich postal zone in the official telephone directory that read:
Neugarten, Jacob
Buyer/Seller of machines, metal goods
Herrengraben 72, Postal Zone 11
Telephone no.: 366028

Two sworn affidavits from the reparations dossier, dating from 1958, yield information about the standard of living of the Neugarten family.

On 4 November 1958, the Hamburg auctioneer, Leopold Nattenheimer made the following notarized declaration:

"Mr. Jacob Neugarten, with whom I had a close business and social relationship, had his office and storerooms at Herrengaben 72 in Hamburg. Mr. Neugarten owned a machine business. He had a fully paid up inventory of machinery worth approximately 15,000 Marks. I did not know the amount of his operating funds. In my opinion it must have been considerable because resources were always available for purchases. As was known to me at the time, Mr. Hugo Gerechter, an employee, was deported to Minsk and did not return. The entire furnishings were auctioned off by the Hamburg Judicial Executor’s office ... "

The second sworn statement comes from Ilse Krause, b. Schweers, once a close friend of the Neugarten family, who testified on 20 September 1958: "I know that Mr. Jacob Neugarten of Herrengraben 72 in Hamburg owned a business for the sale and repair of farm machinery. About this business I myself have no sort of details since I never visited it. We were friendly with the Neugarten family, but I was only in their private residence in Hellbrook. I do know that the family lived well. Mrs. Neugarten owned [sic] much jewelry, linens, and so forth. Their financial situation must have been very good ... "

According to witness testimony, Jacob Neugarten followed political developments closely and knew how to recognize the signs of the times. In 1939, he apparently tried to soften the fate of his family. Thus, on 1 February 1939, he surrendered to official pressure and decided to give up his business. The department of trade noted the submission as "voluntary." He entrusted his friend and business partner Leopold Nattenheimer with the sale of the machinery. In the framework of the reparations procedures, Nattenheimer indicated there had been a large warehouse and that the wares were profitable at that time.

In the same month, on 20 February 1939, Jacob Neugarten applied for permission to sell the property on Cornehlstrasse – Adolf-Hitler Strasse since 1933 – to his "Aryan" wife. On 3 March 1939, the relevant currency office noted that the sale had gone through. The value of the property was reported at 14,400 RM. A pay-out in cash was not successful since the sum was offset by a 10,000 RM mortgage in the name of his wife.

The departure of their 17-year old daughter Ruth Wilhelmine also occurred in 1939. On 21 August, she emigrated to Palestine. Käthe Neugarten suffered greatly from the separation, becoming "depressed." Leaving saved their daughter’s life.

After the war, Ruth Pollack, née Neugarten, testified that her father had been obliged to do forced labor from 1941 on. In addition, as stated in the reparations form, he had to pay cash "fines and penalties" to an unknown amount.

On 30 July 1942, the private property of the Neugarten family was seized by the Gestapo. What transpired on this day in the Neugarten’s home is recorded in the Gestapo report of 3 August 1942:

"On 7.30.1942, the undersigned sought out the dwelling of the Neugarten couple in Hamburg-Hellbrook, Adolf-Hitler-Strasse 22, ground floor, because of a complaint specially lodged against the Jew, Jacob Israel Neugarten. During a thorough search of the dwelling a great abundance of hoarded goods was found. Mrs. Neugarten seems to have been responsible for this. Upon completion of the search, the couple were ordered to get dressed in order to be interrogated at the office. Mrs. Neugarten, who was only partially dressed, sought out the bedroom, in order to dress. There she must have swallowed a great quantity of sleeping pills, for she was soon afterwards found senseless and had to be placed on a chaise. With the help of a neighbor woman ... a doctor from the neighborhood ... was asked to render first aid. He could not leave his consultation hours and summoned an ambulance from the German Red Cross to fetch Mrs. Neugarten to the St. Georg general hospital. As has now become known, Mrs. Neugarten died there on 7.31 at 4:30 pm."

Jacob Neugarten was imprisoned. According to an eyewitness report, he was furloughed to attend the burial of his wife.

A commissar by the name of Gutmann was installed in the Neugarten family home. As part of the reparations process, he was summoned as witness. According to his report, it was sealed from the moment it was taken over by the Gestapo. The furnishings – including a "quite well-appointed living room" and "relatively new kitchen equipment" – were sold off by an auctioneer named Huck. The total value was later estimated to be between 3500–4000 RM. The house is no longer standing on Fabriciusstrasse. As is to be learned from the reparations documentation, it fell victim to an air raid.

In contrast to his older sisters, Alfred Neugarten still lived with his parents in 1942. The files of the detention center of the City of Hamburg reveal that the 17-year old welding trainee was arrested on 3 September 1942 on the grounds of racial defilement and that he was remanded to prison on 16 June 1943. He served his penal sentence from 14 April 1943 to 2 August 1944. His total sentence of two years in prison was reduced by the 254 days he spent in pretrial detention.

Thereafter, the accounts of Alfred Neugarten’s onward path diverge: the records of the International Tracing Service state that he was sent to Auschwitz, where he received inmate number 175259. On his Auschwitz prisoner’s card, his grandfather Ernst Pünjer from Kanalstrasse in the Wilhelmsburg quarter of Hamburg was listed as his closest next of kin. The card records an arrest date of 13 August 1942 in Hamburg, and the transfer to Auschwitz on 26 January 1945. 24 March 1944 is given as "first admission" (which is not possible because A.N., according to the prison records, was released in Hamburg only on 2 August 1944). The entire dossier is stamped "Concentration Camp Auschwitz 1.22.45."

On 22 January 1945, Alfred Neugarten was transferred to Buchenwald where he received the number 118459. There, in the Ohrdruf/Crawinkel camp, he died on 18 March 1945. Ohrdruf was a men’s satellite camp assigned to do SS-special construction work "S III." The inmates had to build extensive subterranean tunnels and buildings. On 16 February 1945, the camp reached its peak population with 12,459 prisoners.

On the memorial sheet deposited at Yad Vashem by Alfred’s sister, Ruth Pollack the site of his death is still given as Auschwitz with question marks. Apparently, she never got more precise information concerning her brother’s fate.

His Buchenwald prisoner’s card lists Alfred Neugarten under the number 110458. The date of transfer is 20 January 1945, the date of admission to Auschwitz is, once again, 24 March 1944. Under "previous convictions" nothing is noted; the grounds for internment is given as "political" and the religious affiliation as "Prot." From the card’s physical description we learn that Alfred Neugarten was a slim, 6-foot tall man with dark brown hair and gray eyes.

According to the Buchenwald database in the Weimar Central State Archive, the internment in Buchenwald is recorded as 22 January 1945; Alfred Neugarten’s profession is given as "autogenous welder" and his prisoner category as "political." Presumably, Alfred Neugarten was already further transferred to Ohrdruf on 24 January 1945. The official cause of death was given as cardiac insufficiency.

The ordeal of Alfred’s father Jacob following his arrest on 31 July 1942 is documented inconsistently. The memorial sheet deposited at Yad Vashem by his daughter Ruth Pollack gives his place of death as the Mauthausen concentration camp. The Memorial Book of Hamburg gives the Fuhlsbüttel concentration camp internment date as the year 1942, relocation to Theresienstadt on 19 July 1942 (certainly erroneous), the transport to Mauthausen as 1 October 1942, and the date of death as 25 November 1942 in Auschwitz.

According to information disclosed by the Red Cross (contained in the reparations dossier) in 1956, Jacob Neugarten was delivered to the Natzweiler concentration camp by the Hamburg State Police on 17 October 1942. The prisoners there quarried stone for Speer’s monumental building program, a form of physical labor so strenuous that the death rate reached 40%. When he was transferred from there to Mauthausen remains unclear. He was allegedly transported on to Auschwitz on 22–23 October 1942. However, he died in Mauthausen in November 1942. In the correspondence with the Hamburg District Court from 1964, concerning the certificate of inheritance, the death date of Jacob [rsl: see above] Neugarten is recorded as 7 November 1942.

According to documentation from the International Tracing Service, Jacob Neugarten was arrested on 31 July 1942 and released on the same day. He was sent to Mauthausen in October 1942 and received the number 13509. On 22 October 1942, he was transferred to Auschwitz and died there. In this documentation, too, his next of kin was listed as his brother-in-law Ernst Pünjer whose address was Steintorweg 15 in Hamburg.

From the same source comes the Mauthausen information card of 25 August 1948 which indicates and crosses out "the last known address" as the prison at "Natzweiler, detained 10.17.42 Hamburg State Police," "transferred on 10.22.42 to Auschwitz." Hand-written under cause of death, it states "Hamburg State Police 10.17.42 Na(tzweiler)" and "10.22.42 Au(schwitz)."

Based on his inmate number, the Mauthausen archive surmises that Jacob Neugarten arrived in Mauthausen between 9 and 17 October 1942. On 23 October he was transferred to Auschwitz and died there in November 1942.

His daughters Ruth and Gertrude survived the Holocaust.


Translator: Richard Levy

Kindly supported by the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung, Hamburg.

Stand: November 2017
© Britta Burmeister, Ulrike Hoppe

Quellen: StaH 314-15 (OFP), R 1939/0727; StaH 331-1 II (Polizeibehörde II), Abl. 15, Bd.II (Gefangenenkartei); StaH 242-1 II, Abl. 1998/1 Untersuchungshaftkartei Männer (jüngere Kartei); StaH 242-1 II Gefängnisverwaltung, Abl. 13 Gefangenenkartei Männer (jüngere Kartei); StaH 331-5 (Polizeibehörde – Unnatürliche Sterbefälle); 3. Akte 1942 1161, Käthe Neugarten. StaH 351-11 (AfW), Signatur 0301; StaH 351-11 Abl. 2008/1 Ruth Melamerson 28.6.1922; 351-11 Abl. 2008/1 Ingeborg Marx 21.3.1924; StaH 351-11 Abl. 2008/1 Irene Abrahams 25.6.1915; StaH 423-3/3 III 113-3 Bramfeld Volkszählung 1933; Amtliches Fernsprechbuch für den Reichspostdirektionsbezirk Hamburg 1938; USHMM/ITS Auskunft Peter Lande vom 8.9.2011; Yad Vashem, Central Data Base of the Shoa, Gedenkblätter Alfred und Jakob Neugarten; GDW Auskunft Dr. Diana Schulle vom 7.9.2011; Gedenkstätte Buchenwald, Auskunft Torsten Jugl vom 23.9.2011, Häftlingsnummernkartei, Transportliste, Eintrag Totenbuch; Mauthausen Memorial Archives, Auskunft Dr. Christoph Vallant vom 30.9.2011, Häftlingszugangsbücher.