Search for Names, Places and Biographies

Sali Münster (née Stein) * 1891

Bethesdastraße 2 (Hamburg-Mitte, Borgfelde)

HIER WOHNTE
SALI MÜNSTER
GEB. STEIN
JG.1891
DEPORTIERT 1941
LODZ
ERMORDET

further stumbling stones in Bethesdastraße 2:
Esther Münster, Hermann Hirsch Stein

Saly Münster, née Stein, born on 15 Mar. 1891 in Wischnitz (or Wiznitz)/Romania, deported on 25 Oct. 1941 to Lodz
Esther Münster, born on 4 Dec. 1920 in Hamburg, deported on 25 Oct. 1941 to Lodz
Hirsch Stein, born on 28 Sept. 1919 in Czernowitz, deported on 25 Oct. 1941 to Lodz

Bethesdastrasse 2

The tailor Jakob Münster, born on 10 Apr. 1894 in Czernowitz, then an Austro-Hungarian, later a Romanian, and today a Ukrainian city, married Saly Stein, born on 15 Mar. 1891 in Wischnitz (today Vyzhnytsia in Ukraine), a town located 50 kilometers (31 miles) west of Czernowitz (today Chernivtsi in Ukraine). Two of their four children were born while the couple was still in Czernowitz, Charlotte on 4 May 1914, and Hermann on 28 Sept. 1919, before the family moved to Hamburg. Esther was born there on 4 Dec. 1920 and Necha on 26 July 1922. The family joined the Hamburg German-Israelitic Community. Jakob and Saly Münster did not succeed in gaining an economic foothold. The welfare authority supported the family from 1928 onward, and the children were temporarily put under control of public welfare services for orphans.

Jakob Münster left Hamburg on 9 Feb. 1930 in order to build a new life in Argentine and to have his family join him later. This did not come about. In early Sept. 1931, he reported to the German Embassy in Buenos Aires and then departed to seek work in the interior. After that, he went missing.

The two older children were given the mother’s maiden name as a last name. Charlotte Stein became an office employee. After her dismissal, probably in 1936, she worked as a domestic help. She emigrated to Britain on 22 Feb. 1939. Hermann changed not only his last name but also his first name, going by the name of Hirsch Stein from then on. In 1934, he apparently lived in Hannover, where he was registered for the first time as an independent member of a Jewish Community. After his return to Hamburg, he lived with his mother and the younger sisters at Bornstrasse 22. His wages as a messenger barely reached the threshold for tax liability to the Jewish Community. In 1940, he moved to Breite Strasse 54 in Altona, and in May 1941 to house no. 11, a subsequent "Jews’ house” ("Judenhaus”), from where he was deported.

Esther Münster attended the eight-grade elementary school (Volksschule) until Easter of 1934 and then a home economics course at the Paulinenstift Girls’ Orphanage of the Hamburg German-Israelitic Community at Laufgraben 37. On 1 Nov. 1935, she started her first job as a maid. At the end of 1937, she decided to emigrate to Palestine and during the two years following, she went through preparatory courses at Schniebinchen and other hachshara centers. The reason why her emigration failed is not known. In 1940, she returned to Hamburg, again finding employment as a domestic help and moving to Dillstrasse 8.

Necha, called Netty, received the same training as her sister Esther and lived at the Paulinenstift until her emigration. She reached Britain six months after her sister Charlotte, on the last departing ship on 28 Aug. 1939. The hoped-for freedom was severely restricted by a ban on working issued immediately after the outbreak of war. Moreover, there was no contact anymore to the relatives in Germany.

Saly Münster, Esther Münster, and Hirsch Stein were assigned to the first transport of Hamburg Jews sent to the alleged "Development in the East” ("Aufbau im Osten"), departing on 25 Oct. 1941 to the Lodz Ghetto. Hirsch Stein worked as a mechanic there and initially lived at Kühle Gasse 10, apartment no. 9, from where he moved to Bleicherweg 9. There are no further traces whatsoever of his mother and sister. On 3 Feb. 1942, Hirsch Stein was recorded as "de-registered” ("abgemeldet”), suggesting a move within the ghetto or, respectively, his "resettlement” ("Aussiedlung”), i.e., his transfer to an extermination camp.


Translator: Erwin Fink

Kindly supported by the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung, Hamburg.

Stand: October 2017
© Hildegard Thevs

Quellen: 1; 4; 5; StaH, 351-11 AfW, 13295, 041220; 552-1 Jüdische Gemeinden, 992 e 2, Bd. 1. Lodz-Liste JMW.
Zur Nummerierung häufig genutzter Quellen siehe Link "Recherche und Quellen".