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Jonni Melhausen * 1891

Otto-Speckter-Straße 2 (Hamburg-Nord, Barmbek-Nord)

HIER WOHNTE
JONNI MELHAUSEN
JG. 1891
VERHAFTET 1943
KZ FUHLSBÜTTEL
DEPORTIERT 1943
AUSCHWITZ
ERMORDET 26.8.1943

further stumbling stones in Otto-Speckter-Straße 2:
Hertha Melhausen

Hertha Melhausen, nee Lübeck, b. 11.8.1866, deported to Theresienstadt on 7.19.1942, date of death 8.18.1942
Jonni Melhausen, b. 12.20.1891, d. 8.26.1943 in Auschwitz

Otto-Speckter-Straße 2 (formerly Otto-Speckter-Straße 1)

Hertha Melhausen was born in Hamburg on 8 November 1866, the daughter of a Jewish married couple, Wilhelm Lübeck and Hannchen, nee Lilienfeld. Hertha‘s husband was Isaak Melhausen. The couple had several children in addition to Jonni; Hertha gave birth in 1907 and 1910 to sons Walter and Kurt; Max, an older son, possibly came from Isaak Melhausen’s first marriage. Hertha Melhausen was widowed in her thirties. She lived in various parts of the city; in Barmbek North in the 1930s, finally at Otto-Spekter-Strasse 1. We know that she was deported to Theresienstadt on 19 July 1942. Her date of death is held to have been 18 August 1942.

In the same transport were her relatives, Marianne Melhausen, born on 9 April 1864 in Hamburg, and Louis Melhausen, born on 2 January 1867. Both were killed, Louis on 26 January 1943 in Theresienstadt, and Marianne on 26 September 1942 in the Treblinka extermination camp.

Hertha Melhausen’s son Jonni was born in Hamburg on 20 December 1891. He attended primary school and completed a commerical apprenticeship in flour handling. On 28 August 1918 he married the Lutheran-baptized Auguste Karoline Luise Haberland, born 14 November 1898. A year thereafter on 2 September, a daughter Käthe was born and three years later, on 8 June 1922, a daughter Edith.

Jonni Melhausen ran a small general store in the Grindalallee; the Office of Economic Regulation issued the license on 15 November 1914. After sale of the shop in 1921, he opened another shop in the Schwenkestrasse, which did not do well. From 1932 Jonni worked as an independent sales representative, at first for his brother Max Melhausen, who owned a business dealing in tobacco goods. After differences between the brothers, he was active as, among other things, a salesman for vacuum cleaners and radio sets with the Electrolux firm Matthes on Schulterblatt Strasse. At this time he supposedly earned approximately 500 RM a month. His rent in 1932 was 90 RM a month. In 1934 Jonni Melhausen was not a member of the the Jewish Community and therefore paid no communal religion tax. After promulgation of the "Nuremberg Laws" he no longer was able to find work because no one wanted to hire Jews. Thus he had to report as a job-seeker to the employment office. In consequence he was oliged to work for various firms for an extraordinarily low wage of 50 RM per month.

In 1938 Jonni Melhausen, like all Jewish householders, had to give up his radio. The family occupied successive residence in Barmbek and Uhlenhorst; the Hamburg directory of 1938 listed the address as Otto-Speckter-Strasse 1. It is possible that because of the difficult economic situation they lived together with his mother Hertha Melhausen, who lived in the house and who had taken care of an elderly relative there. Both daughters had married early and it is not certain how long they lived with their parents.

In the fall of 1939, as a Jew Jonni Melhausen was ordered by the employment office to do compulsory labor as a street sweeper, and in other jobs. On 27 February 1943, as part of the so-called Operation Schallert, he was arrested at his work in a factory in Harburg (possibly a rice mill), along with several other forced laborers. Affected were seventeen male Jews who lived in "privileged mixed marriages" and who thereby enjoyed a degree of protection. Willibald Schallert, leader of the Special Services Department of the Employment Office and in charge of assigning Jews to labor, had participated in the "Factory Operation," which nationwide had arrested thousands of Jewish forced laborers and deported them to Auschwitz. In Hamburg, he had created a list of Jewish "work saboteurs," all of whom lived in "mixed marriages." Jonni Melhausen’s wife, Auguste, got the news of his imprisonment from another worker.

On 12 February, two weeks before his arrest, Jonni’s first grandchild was born, greeted by his grandfather only briefly and never permitted to get to know him. August Melhausen was allowed to speak to her husband for fifteen minutes in the presence of an offical. On that occasion he puzzled over the grounds for his imprisonment, because he had had no previous convictions. His wife was permitted only once a week to bring him food and exchange clean for soiled laundry. In the wash she found a note from her husband with the information that he was to be deported.

After twleve weeks in "protective custody" in the concentration camp at Fuhlsbüttel, he was deported to Auschwitz on 27 April 1943. Jonni Melhausen died there, according to a death certificate in the Kasernenstrasse archive, on 26 August 1943. His wife claimed a certificate of death and received one dated 11 November 1943.

Auguste Melhausen received neither support nor work because no one wanted to hire the widow of a Jew. During an air raid, her dwelling was destroyed; none of the household effects were saved. Thus she was compelled to borrow money and go into debt. After the war she found employment as a cleaning lady and messenger with the the consulate of the Netherlands. She had to pay down her debts and wage a long struggle for reparation payments, because Jonni Melhausen’s income, during his years of occupational freedom, proved difficult to estimate.

The Matthes Department store confirmed that he had worked there as a vacuum cleaner salesman in the 1930s. However, additional documentation no longer existed so that personal details regarding his level of earnings could not be established. Mills that were queried later maintained that they had no contact with him – no one wanted to acquire the reputation of having employed forced labor.

A one-time payment of 140 Marks was allowed. For the four months of her dead husband’s incarceration she was given 225 Marks in compensation and another small sum for the personal effects taken at his arrest, such as his watch and rings.

Her daughter, who had in the meantime married, also had to struggle for her material existence. Auguste Melhausen died on 8 June 1962,


Translated by Richard Levy

Kindly supported by the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung, Hamburg.

Stand: October 2017
© Eva Acker/Erika Draeger

Quellen: 1; 4; 5; StaHH 351-11, AfW, Abl. 2008/1, 20.12.91 Melhausen, Jonni; StaHH 351-11, AfW, Abl. 2008/1, 14.11.98 Melhausen, Auguste; Beate Meyer: Die Verfolgung und Ermordung der Hamburger Juden, S. 70ff; S. 84; Beate Meyer: Jüdische Mischlinge – Rassenpolitik und Verfolgungserfahrung 1933–1945, S. 199; Archivum Panstwowe, Lodz.
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