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Rudolf Posner * 1909

St. Pauli Hafenstraße 126 (Hamburg-Mitte, St. Pauli)

HIER WOHNTE
RUDOLF POSNER
JG. 1909
GEDEMÜTIGT / ENTRECHTET
FLUCHT IN DEN TOD
15.5.1942

Rudolf Posner, b. 2.7.1909 in Hamburg, suicide on 5.13.1942 in Hamburg

St. Pauli-Hafenstrasse 126

Rudolf Posner was the son of Adolf (b. 1884) and Rosa Posner (1880–1928), née Streim; he had an older brother named Ernst (b. 1904). He went to sea in his youth and worked as ship’s steward. At the end of 1934, he married the non-Jewish Ottilie Linau (b. 1909) and also converted to Lutheranism. Yet this did not protect him against the racial persecution of the National Socialist regime since his "mixed marriage” was considered "unprivileged”; thus he was subject to the same repressive measures as "full Jews.”

He had to move out of the home he shared with his wife at Hafenstrasse 126. She later testified to officials that the landlord had inserted a clause in the rental contract that barred Jews from living in his dwellings. In addition, Rudolf Posner was prohibited from working in his profession and therefore was compelled to work as a laborer in the hemp factory of Stehn & Co. in Lokstedt. Finally, he was obliged to wear the "Jewish star,” even though his deportation was "provisionally deferred.”

After his forcible ejection from the house, in which his wife continued to live, Rudolf Posner sublet various places in Hammerbrook and finally, before his death, lived at Grossen Bergstrasse 100 in Altona. Otilli Posner still insisted in her filing of a missing person’s report in 1942 that her husband had not voluntarily moved out; she only lived separated from him in their apartment because she was compelled to do so by the landlord.

On 23 April 1942, she reported to the police that her husband was missing for fifteen days, having "suddenly vanished.” She said to the officials that he had on several occasions told her that "he no longer wanted to live,” without, however, announcing his suicide in so many words. She said further that the threat of deportation and the wearing of the "Jewish star” had "depressed” her husband and had "likely gone to his head.” Rudolf Posner’s corpse was found on 13 May 1942 floating in the Elbe River, nearly three weeks after the filing of the missing person’s report.

His father, Adolf Posner, whose wife had already died in 1928, also fell victim to the National Socialist regime. His job listed on the deportation list was "pall bearer; he was transported to White Russia of 8 November 1941, among the 968 Hamburg Jews who were shipped there and considered lost.

Rudolf Posner’s brother Ernst moved in 1939 from Hamburg to Kiel. At an unknown point in time he was sent to the Dachau concentration camp, where he died on 1 August 1942.

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

Stand: February 2018
© Benedikt Behrens

Quellen: 1; 4; StaH 331-5 Polizeibehörde, unnatürliche Sterbefälle, 3 Akte, 1942/1322; StaH 522-1 Jüd. Gemeinden, 992 e 1 Band 2
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