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Siegismund Zweig * 1859

Klaus-Groth-Straße 60 (Hamburg-Mitte, Borgfelde)

HIER WOHNTE
SIEGISMUND ZWEIG
JG. 1859
DEPORTIERT 1942
THERESIENSTADT
ERMORDET 5.8.1942

further stumbling stones in Klaus-Groth-Straße 60:
Paul Borkowski, Rosa Priebatsch, Rudolfine Zweig

Siegismund Zweig, born on 23 Apr. 1859 in Landsberg/Warthe (today Gorzow Wielkopolski/Warta in Poland), deported to Theresienstadt on 15 July 1942, died there on 5 Aug. 1942
Rudolfine Zweig, née Kreslawski, born on 30 June 1864 in Glogau/Warthe (today Glogow/Warta in Poland), deported on 15 July 1942 to Theresienstadt, deported further on 21 Sept. 1942 to Treblinka

Klaus-Groth-Strasse 60 (Klaus-Groth-Strasse 52)

Siegismund and Rudolfine Zweig came from assimilated Jewish families in Silesia and apparently arrived in Hamburg after the First World War. Siegismund, the son of Michael David and Friederike Zweig from Landsberg, married Rudolfine Kreslawski, born in Glogau. Around 1890, they lived in Magdeburg, where their daughters were born, Else on 6 May 1890 and Felicia on 6 Oct. 1893.

When he joined the German-Israelitic Community of Hamburg on 12 Nov. 1919, Siegismund Zweig decided to join the liberal Temple Association (Tempelverband). He found a position as general manager of Conrad Tack & Co. GmbH, a shoe retailer on Billhorner Röhrendamm 158/160 in the working-class district of Rothenburgsort, and he lived in Borgfelde at Klaus-Groth-Strasse 52. He had barely established himself professionally, when he was hit hard by the period of inflation; nevertheless, he fulfilled his payments of dues to the Jewish Community. His economic situation improved again in the 1920s until after his retirement, enabling the couple to live in modest prosperity.

On 7 June 1920, his younger daughter Felicia married the merchant Alphons Koopmann, and on 21 Jan. 1921, Else married the merchant Paul Zechlinski. Both left their parents’ home, but Felicia Koopmann moved to Hammer Landstrasse 47 and thus stayed in the neighborhood, whereas Else Zechlinski moved to Grindelallee. The Koopmann couple oriented themselves to the Synagogue Association (Synagogenverband), the Zechlinski couple to the "Neue Dammtor Synagoge.”Between 1921 and 1926, Siegismund and Rudolfine Zweig’s four grandchildren were born, Fritz, Gerda, Hans, and Lotte. Felicia’s father-in-law, the shoe retailer Moritz Koopmann, passed away in 1926 and his widow Jenny, née Levy, from Randers in Denmark, moved in with her youngest daughter, who was married in Krefeld.

In the early 1930s, the Zweig couple moved to Blücherstrasse 9 in Altona and joined the Jewish Community there, but in 1937, they returned to the Hamburg German-Israelitic Community with the incorporation of Altona. By then completely destitute, they lived as subtenants at Haynstrasse 5. With the world economic crisis, Alphons Koopmann also lost his position, left Hamburg in 1930 with his wife and sons Fritz and Hans, and moved to Frankfurt. He had become wealthy as a banker at the Wilhelm Rosenbacher Bank.

Paul Zechlinski’s position as an authorized signatory in the H. Jacob Zechlinski Company, a wholesaler of tailoring supplies, provided him with a very good income until 1938. After the November Pogrom of 1938, he was imprisoned, lost his job, and found no new employment. It was not possible to establish whether he tried to emigrate. In 1939, the Chief Finance Administrator (Oberfinanzpräsident) issued a "security order” ("Sicherungsanordnung”) on his assets. Starting in Nov. 1939, Paul Zechlinski supported his parents-in-law via the welfare office of the "Jewish Religious Organization” ("Jüdischer Religionsverband”), initially with 110 RM (reichsmark) per month, from Feb. 1940 onward with only 100 RM, and in 1941 with varying amounts, the highest of them being 300 RM in November, the month of his deportation.

Because of this support, but above all because of taxes and duties, Paul Zechlinski’s assets shrank rapidly, so that in 1940, he paid only the basic amount of 12 RM to the Hamburg Jewish Community, the district office of the "Reich Association of Jews in Germany” ("Reichsvereinigung der Juden in Deutschland”).

Siegismund Zweig, too, paid this amount to the Community once in 1940. In 1941, the "Jewish Religious Organization” accommodated the Zweig couple at Rothenbaumchaussee 217, a "Jews’ house” ("Judenhaus”) administered by it, and finally had the couple, at a very advanced age, housed in its former community center at Beneckestrasse 6, which served as a retirement home. Upon her return to Hamburg, Jenny Koopmann was accommodated in the "Jews’ house” at Kurzer Kamp 6 in Fuhlsbüttel.

Else, Paul, Gerda, and Lotte Zechlinski were deported to the Minsk Ghetto on the second transport of Hamburg Jews leaving the city on 8 Nov. 1941; Franziska Koopmann, Alphons Koopmann’s oldest sister, was deported on the last transport of 1941 to Riga departing on 6 December.

Rudolfine, 76 years old, and Siegismund Zweig, 82 years old, left Hamburg on the first transport to the Theresienstadt Ghetto on 15 July 1942; Jenny Koopmann followed them with the next transport four days later. None of them still had any funds for the "home purchase” ("Heimeinkauf”) in Theresienstadt. Siegismund Zweig did not even survive the first month; Rudolfine Zweig and Jenny Koopmann were deported to the Treblinka extermination camp on 21 Sept. 1942 and presumably murdered immediately after their arrival. Their relatives deported to Minsk and Riga perished in the Shoah as well.


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

Stand: May 2019
© Initiative Stolpersteine in Hamburg-Borgfelde

Quellen: 1; 4; 5; 7; StaH, 332-5 Standesämter, 3380+671/1920; 3408+34/1921; 351-11 AfW, 15091; 522-1 Jüdische Gemeinden, 992 e 2, Bde 2, 4; Abl. 1993, 42, Bd. 2.
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