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Hans Viktor Meyer * 1877
Hammer Straße 38 (Wandsbek, Marienthal)
HIER WOHNTE
HANS VIKTOR MEYER
JG. 1877
VERHAFTET 1941
KZ FUHLSBÜTTEL
DEPORTIERT 1942
AUSCHWITZ
ERMORDET
Hans Viktor Meyer, born on 13 June 1877 Berlin, detained in 1941 in the Fuhlsbüttel penitentiary, taken on 10 Dec. 1942 to the Auschwitz concentration camp, murdered
Hammer Strasse 38 (formerly: Hammer Strasse 56)
Hans Viktor Meyer lived intermittently until 1935 in Berlin, where he had been born on 13 June 1877. His parents, Siegbert Meyer and Bertha, née Oppenheimer, came from solid middle-class Jewish families. Siegbert Meyer wrote, under his name and under the pseudonym of Siegmey, cultural-historical novels and comic literature. He died before Hans Viktor started school, in 1883 at the age of 43. Against this family background, Hans Meyer attended a French-language high school (Gymnasium) and at the end of the eighth grade (Untertertia), he transferred to the Realgymnasium [a high school focused on the sciences, math, and modern languages] in Charlottenburg, where he finished his schooling around 1894.
After completing his one-year military service, he began a commercial apprenticeship at Metall & Galanteriewarenfabrik Hornpasch Gebr. [Bros.], a metal and fashion accessories plant in Berlin, where he continued to work as a shipping clerk after completing his training. In 1901, at his own request and with minimal equity capital, he took over the representation of this company and other well-known companies for Britain and its colonies in London. The Boer War in South Africa had a very negative impact on business, which is why Hans Meyer returned to Germany in 1904 and settled in Berlin as a trade and export agent.
He operated an export sample warehouse for several German companies, which was geared particularly toward foreign buyers. His product range included stationery, fashion accessories, and household goods. He traveled to companies in central and northern Germany on behalf of his clients and put on exhibits at the Leipzig trade fairs. In addition to his professional pursuits, he was active in a variety of volunteer work, e.g. as a guardian and as an aide to the head of his Berlin district.
During the First World War, Hans Meyer was classified as fit for garrison duty only; because of his English language skills, he was employed as a clerk and orderly in the English civilian prison camp at Ruhleben. However, he aspired to deployment as a medical soldier and took part in a Red Cross course to gain qualifications. Through connections, he obtained an assignment to care for and accompany the wounded in a field hospital near Arras-Cambrai.
Still during the war, on 4 Oct. 1917, he married Else Margarethe Albertina, née Klemmer, 14 years his junior, in Berlin-Schöneberg. Else, born on 8 Aug. 1891 in Stettin (today Szczecin in Poland), came from a Lutheran working-class family and lived in Berlin-Lichterfelde at the time of their wedding. Their son Hans-Georg was born on 24 Dec. 1919. He was baptized and confirmed in the Lutheran church. In 1925, he started school and in 1930, he transferred to the Oberrealschule [a secondary school without Latin] in Schöneberg.
When Hans Meyer was not traveling, the family spent a lot of time in their allotment garden.
In 1932, Else Meyer died in Nowawes near Potsdam due to a protracted serious illness. In 1934, Hans-Georg left school in ninth grade (Obertertia) and began an apprenticeship as a druggist at F. Reichelt A.G. in Berlin. Until 1935, Hans Meyer maintained the sample warehouse next to his apartment.
Because of his Jewish descent, he lost his main suppliers after the Nazi takeover. The agencies left to him were not enough to cover his living expenses. A Hamburg business associate offered him the opportunity to move to Hamburg and work for him. He had another contact there, the lawyer Paul Oppenheimer, a brother of his mother Bertha (www.stolpersteine-hamburg.de, Alice Oppenheimer).
Thus, in Aug. 1935, Hans Meyer moved to Hamburg with his son and worked in a self-employed capacity for the business friend. Hans-Georg finished his apprenticeship at the Hamburg branch of the company that trained him. In Aug. 1938, Hans Meyer had to discontinue his business.
There is no evidence of any intentions on Hans Meyer’s and his son’s part to emigrate. They remained registered as residing with Ahmling at Hammer Strasse 56.
Hans-Georg Meyer, a "Jewish crossbreed of the first degree” ("Mischling 1. Grades”) according to the Nazi classification, did his labor service in Basbeck/Oste and was called up for military service in Aug. 1939. He first took part in the campaign in the West, then being deployed in Russia, and he was discharged from the German Wehrmacht in Nov. 1941 because of his "racial status” as a "Mischling.” At that time, his father was already in custody.
Hans Meyer had registered for labor duty, but he was declared unfit for heavy physical labor because he suffered from osteoporosis. However, the placement office did not find any light employment for him either. For almost a year and a half, he tried in vain to find work so that he would not have to rely on welfare assistance. His son supported him as far as he could. In response to an application to the Deputation for Trade and Shipping, Hans Meyer received notification from the office of the Reich Governor (Reichstatthalter) that there were no objections to his employment.
He then worked in a self-employed capacity with former customers who knew nothing of his Jewish descent, and he did not add "Israel” to his name.
On 23 May 1941, Hans Meyer was arrested. "His crime,” the indictment stated, "consisted in the violation of Sec. 1 of the Camouflage Ordinance [Tarnungsverordnung] dated 22 Apr. [19]38 in conjunction with continued offense against Secs. 3,4 I of the Second Ordinance regarding the Implementation of the Legislation on the Alteration of Family and Personal Names [§ 3,4 I der II. Verordnung zur Durchführung des Gesetzes über die Änderung von Familien- und Vornamen] dated 5 Jan. [19]38.”
In his interrogation at the public prosecutor’s office on 12 Mar. 1942, he indicated revenues amounting to 7,000 RM (reichsmark) from commissions from his activities in the ten months from Apr. 1940 to Feb. 1941. He showed neither guilt nor remorse, for he had acted in this way "because everyone was urgently needed in economic life and because he would also have wanted to contribute to victory on his part.” He was reproached for apparently not understanding the meaning of the anti-Jewish legislation. His "obstinacy (was) to be broken by severe punishment.”
On 9 July 1942, Hans Viktor Meyer was sentenced legally effective to three years in a penitentiary for "camouflaging a Jewish business,” with ten months of pre-trial detention to be calculated against his sentence. The date of release was set for 27 May 1944.
He was imprisoned in the Fuhlsbüttel penitentiary and employed as a paper worker, i.e., gluing bags. His conduct report states: good conduct; glued 29 stints in 23 ½ days, a tidy gluer. Wage: 10 pfg. [pfennigs] per stint.
Sentence "partially served from 9 July 42 – 10 Dec. 42. On 10 Dec. 42, the execution of the sentence was suspended by order of the Reich Minister of Justice.” What sounds so positive actually turned out to be his death sentence, because behind it was the decree by the Chief of Police, Himmler, issued on 17 Sept. 1942 to transfer prisoners directly and without trial to the SS, because German prisons, penitentiaries, and concentration camps were to be rendered "free of Jews.” "Transfer” ("überstellen”) meant transport to an extermination camp.
Hans Viktor Meyer was "transferred” to Auschwitz on 10 Dec. 1942. The exact date of his death is not known.
Returning to civilian life, Hans-Georg Meyer worked as a shipping clerk for the Hilmer Brauer drug wholesale company. Nothing is known about possible contacts with his father during his imprisonment.
In Apr. 1943, Hans-Georg Meyer was drafted into labor service and assigned to an armaments factory, Phönix A.G. in Harburg. Based on a denunciation by a co-worker – that he had withdrawn to read and slept – the Hamburg State Police (Stapo) arrested him on 28 June 1943 for sabotage. On 22 Mar. 1944, they transferred him as a political prisoner to the Buchenwald concentration camp, where he was assigned prisoner number 3197. When he was committed, he provided as relatives his aunt Grete Weese, his mother’s sister, who was still living in Berlin, and later his aunt Pauline Krasko from Klaistow, Belzig District, in Brandenburg.
A note in his file indicated "Dikal – [a German acronym meaning] "not allowed to go to any other camp.” The background to this is not clear from the files preserved.
Hans-Georg Meyer suffered from phlegmon (inflammation of the connective tissue) for months and was only assigned to perform light labor. After the evacuation of the camp on 19 Feb. 1945, he was sent to the Flossenbürg concentration camp; he was liberated in June 1945 and returned to Hamburg.
On 27 Sept. 1956, the sentence against Hans-Viktor Meyer was annulled "in accordance with the ordinance on the granting of exemption from punishment dated 3 June [19]47.”
Translator: Erwin Fink
Kindly supported by the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung, Hamburg.
Stand: May 2021
© Hildegard Thevs
Quellen: 1; 5 digital; StaHH 213-11_65472 Staatsanwaltschaft Landgericht Strafsachen; 242-1 II_2470 Häftlingspersonalakte (Gefängnisverwaltung II, Ablieferung 18, Meyer, Hans: neue Signatur 242-1 II_2470 Gefangenenpersonalkate Hans Viktor Meyer, geb. 13.6.1877, 1941-1942 (1957-1960)); 351-11 Wiedergutmachung, 42068; https://portal.dnb.de/opac.htm?method=showFullRecord¤tResultId=%22Meyer%22+and+%22Siegbert%22%26any¤tPosition=16; https://www.zvab.com/buch-suchen/autor/siegmey-siegbert-meyer/#top; https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/archive/6618650/?p=1&s=meyer%20hans-Georg&doc_id=6618652; https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/G/SIMS/01010503/0660/53195269/001.jpg, Abrufe
24.6.2020.
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