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Edith Agnes Strauss (née Steinfeld) * 1891

Hans-Henny-Jahnn-Weg 8 (Hamburg-Nord, Uhlenhorst)

HIER WOHNTE
EDITH AGNES STRAUSS
GEB. STEINFELD
JG. 1891
GEDEMÜTIGT / ENTRECHTET
FLUCHT IN DEN TOD
11.11.1941

further stumbling stones in Hans-Henny-Jahnn-Weg 8:
Hugo Strauss, Hilde Edith Strauss

Hugo Strauß, b. 6.6.1878, deported to Riga on 12.4.1941, went missing there
Agnes Strauß, née Steinfeld, b. 1.20.1891, escaped into death (suicide) on 11.11.1941
Edith Hilde Strauß, b. 6.22.1914, deported to Riga on12.4.1941, went missing there

Hans-Henny-Jahnn-Weg 8 (Osterbeckstraße 8)

Hugo Strauß was born on 6 June 1878 in Hamburg, the child of a Jewish married couple. His father Selig was a teacher. Hugo visited the Talmud Torah high school and later the Wilhelm preparatory school; he spent his college years in Würzburg, Munich, and Berlin. He received his license to practice medicine in 1903; around 1906 he settled in Hamburg as a practicing physician and married in 1913 Agnes, née Steinfeld, who was also Jewish. In the same year they rented a 5½ room apartment in the Uhlenhorst neighborhood, at Osterbeckstrasse 8, near the Hofweg and Mühlenkamp district. There he opened his practice and worked as a school and welfare doctor at the same time. He belonged to the Jewish Congregation from an early date and took part in the First World War.

In 1933, Hugo Strauss was compelled to give up his activity as a school doctor; shortly thereafter, he lost the authorization to serve as a welfare doctor and to see a portion of his private patients. He maintained his practice until the revocation of his license in 1938. Hugo and Agnes Strauss had two daughters, Hilde, born on 22 June 1914, and Elisabeth, born on 17 March 1920.

Hilde attended the modern preparatory school Mittell-Redlich on Graumannsweg, receiving her certificate in 1934; however, on "racial" grounds, she was denied authorization to pursue university studies. She would have liked to become a teacher, like her grandfather; her mother’s sister, Margarethe Steinfeld, who lived in Essen, also practiced this profession. Her wish to work with children outside of school was also thwarted. The Fröbel Kindergarten Teacher seminar accepted no Jewish candidates, and the Jewish Kindergarten Institute in Berlin was hopelessly over-subscribed. However, after attending a housekeeping school, she succeeded in getting a position in the home of the Jewish Women’s Association in Wyk auf Föhr (Frisia), working with children there and subsequently in the private household of the Liebeschütz family in Blankensee. From 1938, she was employed by the Israelite Hospital, at first in the housekeeping area, but then learned nursing.

Her younger sister Elisabeth also attended the modern preparatory school Mittell-Redlich. According to a certificate from 1935, she was moved up to the fifth form, but on account of the poor prospect of beginning further studies, she broke off her schooling. She would have liked to pursue medical-technical training, but she had no chance of getting a training position and thus followed the example of her sister. She learned household management and worked in Jewish institutions in Hamburg, Wyk auf Föhr, and Hanover, where her uncle Hermann Strauss lived with his family.

In June 1932, thanks to a Scottish Quaker aid organization, she was able to escape the threatening situation in the country by emigration to Edinburgh. At first, she found work as a domestic and got to know her future husband, the Austrian Stefan Wirlander. He was an émigré, a member of the Austrian resistance and active in the British army as a radioman. The two married in March 1943. Shortly thereafter, she was able to begin training in her chosen profession and became a medical-technical assistant in 1946. Subsequently, she followed her husband, who was discharged from the army and had already returned to Vienna. They started a family, having two children.

In the wake of the November 1938 Pogrom, Hugo Strauss was in "protective custody” in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp, however he was released. He could no longer maintain the large apartment on Osterbeckstrasse and found a smaller flat at Parkallee 10.

An exit plan for Hugo Strauss and his wife Agnes cannot be verified, despite the fact that they were placed under suspicion by the authorities on the grounds of capital flight. The security order was delivered in December 1938. The passports were issued by the passport police. Cash and stock holdings were credited to a blocked account. Initially, the family was allowed 1000 RM per month; a year later it was still 450 RM.

Until 1 October 1939, Hugo Strauss received authorization to treat Jewish patients as a "medic" and conducted his practice at the Israelite Hospital, where his daughter Hilde worked. In 1941, the family received news of the death of their mother/grandmother Luise Steinfeld, who lived in Düsseldorf. Agnes Strauss’s portion of the inheritance was paid into the closed account of her husband.

The increasing resentment against Jews and the Damocles‘ sword of deportation became unbearable for Hugo and Agnes Strauss. A friend wrote to Elizabeth in 1946: "As the threat of evacuation grew, your parents came to the mutual decision to depart from this life voluntarily. They were awakened too soon and brought to the hospital, where, after a day, your mother died on 11 November 1941. Your father and Hilda were on a transport to Riga. Because I was on guard duty at the railroad, I was with your father up to the last moment ... unfortunately no more was heard of either of them."

An eyewitness recalled that Hugo Strauss expected to be faced with the choice of either being accused of having murdered his wife or accompanying the next transport as a physicisan. Hugo Strauss and his daughter perished in the Riga ghetto; the exact circumstands are not known. Both were declared dead by the Hamburg District Court as of 31 December 1945.

Like many other survivors after years of persecution and the loss of their nearest family members, Elisabeth’s susequent life was severely impacted. She suffered from chronic ulcers of the duodenum and stomach. At age 44 in 1958, her ability to earn a living was severely reduced, and after a stomach hemorrhage she was left too weak for an operation.


Translator: Richard Levy
Kindly supported by the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung, Hamburg.

Stand: January 2019
© Erika Draeger

Quellen: 1; 2; 5; 8; StaHH 314-15, OFP, R 1938/3402; StaHH 351-11, AfW, Abl. 2008/1, 22.06.14 Strauß, Hilde; StaHH 351-11, AfW, Abl. 2008/1, 17.03.20 Wirlander, Elisabeth; von Villiez: Mit aller Kraft verdrängt, S. 405.
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