Search for Names, Places and Biographies

Stolperstein für David Meyer
© Johann-Hinrich Möller

David Meyer * 1874

Wrangelstraße 65 (Eimsbüttel, Hoheluft-West)

HIER WOHNTE
DAVID MEYER
JG. 1874
DEPORTIERT 1941
RIGA
ERMORDET

further stumbling stones in Wrangelstraße 65:
Golda Meyer, Henny Meyer

David Meyer, born on 14 July 1874 in Hamburg, deported on 6 Dec. 1941 to Riga
Golda Meyer née Baumgarten, born on 14 Feb. 1879 in Halberstadt, deported on 6 Dec. 1941 to Riga
Henriette Jetta (Henny) Meyer, born on 20 Mar. 1906 in Hildesheim, transferred on 23 Sept. 1940 from the Langenhorn "sanatorium and nursing home” (Heil- und Pflegeanstalt Langenhorn) to the euthanasia killing center in Brandenburg/Havel, murdered there on 23 Sept. 1940

Wrangelstrasse 65

In 1905, David Meyer (born 14 July 1974 in Hamburg) married Golda Baumgarten (born 14 Feb. 1879 in Halberstadt). Both spouses were from Jewish families. The couple first lived in Hildesheim and had three children there: Henriette Jetta (Henny) born on 30 March 1906, Julius Noah born on 15 May 1907 and Angela (Anni) on 2 Aug. 1908.

After finishing elementary school, David Meyer had learned the craft of wallpapering and decorating. He worked in Hildesheim as a "Master Wallpaperer, Upholsterer, Decorator and Furniture Trader” before the family moved to Wrangelstrasse 65a in Hamburg-Hoheluft-West in 1910. David Meyer ran a workshop opposite the apartment as a wallpaperer and decorator. The business must have gone well during the first few years as people who knew the family described the situation as "solidly middle class” and "the children as always well dressed”. David Meyer belonged to the Jewish Community in Hamburg from 1914.

In the 1920`s, David Meyer was still working in Hamburg as a Master Wallpaperer. In the main, he practiced his trade alone only employing assistants on a temporary basis. In 1923, the orders ceased to come in as a result of the economic crisis and hyper inflation. The family was now at times dependent upon welfare support. When David Meyer once again had to apply for welfare support in 1932 because of rent arrears, the welfare worker noted "These are decent people and it has become very difficult for M to apply to the W(elfare)”. David Meyer had to give up his business and workshop for health reasons in 1933. He was able to resume his work later, however, until he was prohibited from carrying out his trade at the end of 1938.

Both daughters, Henriette and Angela Meyer, attended the German-Israelite Community Girls School at Karolinenstrasse 35, the only son, Julius, the Talmud Tora school until 1922. He learnt the trade of precision engineering. At the time of the transfer of power to the Nazis in 1933, he was working at the Telegraph Arsenal in Lokstedt. He lost his job in connection with the Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service (Gesetz zur Wiederherstellung des Berufsbeamtentums vom 7. April 1933). After various temporary jobs, he finally obtained a position as caretaker at the Israelite Girls’ School at Karolinenstrasse 35 where he also lived with his wife Gerda née Cohen (born on 31 March 1909) and his daughter, Ruth, (born on 19 Nov. 1935).

Angela Meyer lived with her parents until she left Hamburg for professional reasons in 1928 and moved to Königsberg. She left Germany in 1933 and lived from then on in Palestine. Angela Meyer married and took the surname Böhm.

Henriette Meyer also lived with her parents. After leaving school, she worked as a clerk in a bank. She lost her job in 1923. She was hoping to find a new position but was classified as disabled by the Welfare Office due to a "nervous disease”. In 1930/31, she was twice admitted to the State Hospital Friedrichsberg. According to a note in her father`s welfare file, she seems to have resided temporarily in the Israelite Nursing and Care Home for the Mentally Ill and Emotionally Depressed in Bendorf – Sayn near Koblenz. Henriette Meyer`s Friedrichsberg patient index card shows that her last stay in this institution started on 8 Oct. 1936. Henriette Meyer has probably later accommodated again in an institution outside Hamburg. This is suggested by the fact that her name is not to be found in the Hamburg documents relating to the Census of May 1939.

In the Spring/Summer of 1940, the "Euthanasia” Central Office in Berlin, Tiergartenstrasse 4, planned a special operation against the jews living in public and private Nursing and Care Institutions. They ordered that all the Jews living in the institutions had to be registered and concentrated in so called Collection Institutions. The Nursing and Care home Hamburg-Langenhorn was designated as the North German Collection Institution. All Institutions in Hamburg, Schleswig Holstein and Mecklenburg were instructed to transfer all the Jews living in their establishments to there by 18 Sept. 1940. After all the jewish patients from the North German institutions had arrived in Langenhorn, they were transported, together with the jewish patients who had already been living there for longer – amongst them Henriette Meyer – to Brandenburg an der Havel on 23 Sept. 1940. On the same day, they were killed with carbon monoxide in a part of the former prison which had been converted into a centre for execution by gassing.

It is not known whether and/or when relatives were informed of Henriette`s death. In all notifications that have been documented, it was alleged that the person concerned had died in Chelm (polish) or Cholm (german). However, the people murdered in Brandenburg were never in Chelm/Cholm, a town to the east of Lublin. The polish nursing home which had previously existed there was no longer operational after SS units had murdered nearly all the patients on 12 Jan. 1940. In addition, there was no german Registry Office in Chelm/Cholm. Its invention and the use of dates of death later than the real ones served to cover up the killings and, simultaneously to enable the claiming of food costs for a correspondingly longer period of time.

With the exception of her sister, Angela Böhn, Henriette Meyer`s family died in the Holocaust. Henriette`s parents, David and Golda Meyer, received the deportation order for the transport to Riga/Jungfernhof on 6 Dec. 1941. No sign of living was ever heard from them. Stumbling stones for both of them have been laid at Wrangelstrasse 65 in Hoheluft-West. A Stumbling stone for Henriette Jetta (Henny) Meyer has also been laid here.

Henriette`s brother, Julius Meyer, his wife Gerda and their daughter Ruth were deported to Theresienstadt on 19 July 1942. Gerda Meyer died there on 30 April 1944. Julius was deported on to Auschwitz on 28 Sept. 1944 and the nine year old daughter Ruth on 9 Oct. 1944. Both were murdered in Auschwitz. Stumbling stones have been laid for all three of them at Karolinenstrasse 35 in front of the building which housed the former Israelite Girls’ School.

Their biographies can be found in the internet at www.stolperstein-hamburg.de


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


Stand: October 2018
© Ingo Wille

Quellen: 1; 3; 4; 5; 7; 8; 9; StaH 133-1 III Staatsarchiv III, 3171-2/4 U.A. 4, Liste psychisch kranker jüdischer Patientinnen und Patienten der psychiatrischen Anstalt Langenhorn, die aufgrund nationalsozialistischer "Euthanasie"-Maßnahmen ermordet wurden, zusammengestellt von Peter von Rönn, Hamburg (Projektgruppe zur Erforschung des Schicksals psychisch Kranker in Langenhorn); 314-15 Oberfinanzpräsident Abl. 1998/1 J7/517/19; 332-3 Zivilstandsaufsicht A 181 Geburtregistereintrag Nr. 5044/1874 David Meyer; 351-11 Amt für Wiedergutmachung 32948 Anni Böhm geb. Meyer, 32949 Golda Meyer, 351-14 Arbeits- und Sozialbehörde, Sonderakten 1548 David Meyer; 352-8/7 Staatskrankenanstalt Langenhorn Abl. 1/1995 Aufnahme-/Abgangsbuch Langenhorn 26.8.1939 bis 27.1.1941; Stadtarchiv Halberstadt, Heiratsregister Nr. 125/1905 David Meyer/Golda Baumgarten; UKE/IGEM, Archiv, Patienten-Karteikarte Henriette Meyer der Staatskrankenanstalt Friedrichsberg.
Zur Nummerierung häufig genutzter Quellen siehe Link "Recherche und Quellen".