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Senta Löwenthal (née Jacobsohn) * 1893

Jungfrauenthal 31 (Eimsbüttel, Harvestehude)

1941 Riga

Senta Löwenthal, née Jacobsohn, born on 23 Jan. 1893 in Schwerin/ Mecklenburg, deported to Riga on 6 Dec. 1941

Jungfrauenthal 31

Senta Jacobsohn’s grandfather, the "Comptoirist” (commercial employee) and accountant Caesar Jacobsohn (born on 22 Dec. 1852 in Hamburg) lived with his wife Martha Jacobsohn, née Reich (born on 7 Nov. 1864 in Hamburg), whom he had married in May 1887, in the Hanseatic City of Hamburg, where his children John (born on 8 Dec. 1887) and Berthold (born on 10 Aug. 1889) were born at Peterstrasse 63 (Hamburg-Neustadt). In 1892, the family of four moved to Schwerin in Mecklenburg, where Senta Sofie Jacobsohn was born on 23 Jan. 1893.

Already on 27 July 1893, the family returned to Hamburg; they resided first in the Rotherbaum quarter, at Grindelhof 35a, House 2 (1893–1894). This was followed by a move to the St. Pauli quarter, where the family lived for the next 12 years: at Glashüttenstrasse 111, House 2 (1894–1896), Glashüttenstrasse 4 (1896–1908), and Glashüttenstrasse 2 (1908–1912). Afterward, they returned to Rotherbaum, where the family resided at Grindelweg 1a. In Jan. 1933, Martha Jacobsohn stated to the Hamburg Welfare Office that she had worked as a cook at the Israelitische Speiseanstalt (possibly referring to the "Speiselokal hilfsbedürftiger israelitischer Kinder” at Rentzelstrasse 11–13, House 4), a soup kitchen for Jewish children, from 1911 to 1923.

On 20 May 1923, Caesar Jacobsohn passed away at the age of 70 in the shared apartment at Grindelallee 129. The Jewish religious tax (Kultussteuer) file card was then changed to Martha Jacobsohn. Behind the contribution of five marks for 1924 was noted: "voluntary donation, no income.” In the following years, she did not pay any Jewish religious tax either, and in 1927, she received support from the welfare department.

We know nothing about Senta’s childhood, youth, and training. In Dec. 1912, Senta married the Hamburg office clerk (Kommis) John Löwenthal (born on 17 Dec. 1878 in Altona), whose father Julius Löwenthal (born on 9 Sept. 1844 in Malchin/Mecklenburg) had also been an office employee and had lived in Hamburg since 1869. Like her, John Löwenthal was of the Jewish faith and he also resided at Grindelweg 1a; however, he did not join the Jewish Community here until 1932 at the age of 54.

In Hamburg, the couple lived from 1920 to 1934 in House 13, second floor, of the "Grindelthal” residential complex (Grindelallee 14–16 ), which featured 15 house entrances. John Löwenthal was listed in the Hamburg directory as a merchant (1920–1934) and accountant (1935–1938). In 1936, investigation by the Hamburg Welfare Office into her mother-in-law Martha Jacobsohn also examined the financial possibilities and career prospects of her relatives and noted the following about Senta Löwenthal: "Used to work for the tax office as an employee and was downsized.” This formulation might point to the mass dismissals of public employees after the hyperinflation of 1923.

With the beginning of the Nazi regime, doing economic damage to Jews became a central goal of domestic policy in Germany. The bureaucratic apparatus of specialized civil servants, jurists, and police officers was instrumentalized for this purpose and it formed the administrative backbone of the Nazi terror state until its capitulation. John Löwenthal was unemployed starting on 1 Oct. 1933. This relatively early date allows the conclusion that he was neither self-employed nor employed by a company with Jewish management. The directory of 1935 listed John Löwenthal with the new address of Jungfrauenthal 31 (third floor) and the profession of "accountant,” although he was still unemployed.

In Dec. 1938, the registrar noted the two additional compulsory first names of "Sara” and "Israel” on the duplicate of their marriage certificate, which they had to indicate everywhere from then on and insert in their signature.

According to the German national census of May 1939, in which Jews were recorded separately, Friederike Levy, née Hirsch (born on 14 June 1851 in Hamburg) also lived on their floor.

Senta Löwenthal’s sister-in-law thought she recalled later that Senta had eventually run a guesthouse at Jungfrauenthal 31, but this could not be proven. A note in the welfare file of Senta’s mother-in-law clarifies this: Due to the tense financial situation, the married Löwenthal couple reached agreement with an over 80-year-old apartment owner suffering from a nervous disorder that they would rent a three-and-a-half-room apartment, with the owner herself moving in as a subtenant and they as tenants caring for her. The Löwenthal couple paid 100 marks in monthly rent and received 125 marks a month for the subtenancy and care. Senta Löwenthal was probably registered in the files as a "caregiver” for this reason.

John Löwenthal died on 24 Sept. 1939 in Hamburg in the Israelite Hospital from a ruptured intestinal ulcer. His death certificate shows the original signature of Senta Löwenthal, who as a widow subsequently received a surviving dependent’s pension of 35.70 RM (reichsmark) a month. The husband’s Jewish religious tax file card, which was kept from Oct. 1932 onward and did not note any children, was changed after his death to Senta Löwenthal, who was also a member of the orthodox Synagogue Association (Synagogenverband – S.V.).

Completely deprived of rights and marginalized by a close-knit web of laws and regulations, 48-year-old Senta Löwenthal was deported on 6 Dec. 1941, to the Riga Ghetto, Jungfernhof subcamp, where she died or, respectively, where she was murdered. The Hamburg District Court (Amtsgericht) later declared her dead in the course of the restitution proceedings.


Details on the fate of the family members:
Senta’s brother John Jacobsohn (1887–1963), who joined the Hamburg German-Israelitic Community in 1926, worked as a bandmaster, sometimes as a musician. His residential address was Koppel 22 on the ground floor (St. Georg quarter). From 1927 to 1931, there were no entries in his Jewish religious tax file card, which indicates a permanent absence. Only for 1932/33, a contribution was noted again. At Altonaer Strasse 2 on the third floor (St. Pauli quarter) he lived with his mother in an expensive apartment (monthly rent of 101 RM) since May 1931. In the 1931 telephone directory, a phone connection for Martha Jacobsohn was listed.

That John Jacobsohn did not choose the official route of leaving Germany is shown by the information from the Residents’ Registration Office (Einwohnermeldeamt – EMA) of 1937, which had only noted "on the road since 1 Mar. 1933,” in its records; this information was provided by the Jewish Community. Perhaps the musician John Jacobsohn had hoped in vain that Nazi rule would end after a few years. He remained in his country of emigration, Brazil, even after the end of the war. In 1962, he addressed letters to "the Secretariat of His Excellency Chancellor Dr. Konrad Adenauer,” explaining a belated application for restitution: "Dear Sirs! In great distress, I am turning to the kindness of His Excellency the Federal Chancellor. I reside in Brazil in a small town in the interior of the country, Calvados. I came to Brazil in 1933, because being Jewish I had to leave Germany. I am 75 years old, born in Hamburg, where I studied music. For a long time, I worked on ships of Hapag as a violinist, later I had the orchestra in the Hotel Reichshof in Hamburg. Until 1954, I was able to make a good living as a violinist, but without having any reserves. In that year, I lost my position as a standing violinist in a German café in Sao Paulo (Café Vienense). (...) I therefore ask the Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany most urgently to let me enjoy the benefits of the restitution laws. (…).” However, in May 1962, the Hamburg Office of Restitution, to which this letter was forwarded, pointed out that the deadline for submission had expired on 31 Mar. 1958, and could be extended only in case of inability to apply through no fault of one’s own. John Jacobsohn’s statement of reasons was not sufficient, so that the Office rejected the application for restitution in Sept. 1962. John Jacobsohn died in Sao Paulo in 1963.

Senta’s mother, Martha Jacobsohn, née Reich, was dependent on welfare after the oldest son had emigrated and her children and children-in-law had run into economic hardship induced by the state. In order to save on rent, she had to relocate several times: In Mar. 1933, she moved one floor up in the house to stay with the painter Robert Holz (Altonaer Strasse 2 on the fourth floor), where she paid 20 RM a month and once also lived rent-free for five weeks in exchange for furniture. When Holz gave up the apartment about a year later, she moved to the widow E. Willig at Rappstrasse 10 on the second floor for the same amount of rent. From Sept. 1937 onward, she rented a three-room apartment together with her friend Mrs. Kall at Bundesweg 7 on the ground floor (Rotherbaum quarter), paying 20 RM in monthly rent there (Mrs. Kall paid 33 RM), but then, in Dec. 1938, she had to move to butcher Albert Rosenstein (born on 23 May 1882 in Neustadt/Rübenberge) and his wife at Rutschbahn 5 on the third floor (Rotherbaum). In 1937, she got a monthly rent subsidy ("Wohlu”) in the amount of 33 RM from the municipal welfare department and 7 RM per month from the Jewish Community. In addition, she received special allowances, such as for dentures and shoes with firm insoles. Her daughter Senta and acquaintances often invited her to lunch. According to the welfare file, the regular state benefits ended on 1 Dec. 1939, when the Nazi state imposed the care of Jews on the Jewish communities.

In Mar. 1942, Martha Jacobsohn’s landlord and his wife, the Rosensteins, were forced to move to a "Jews’ house” ("Judenhaus”) at Bundesstrasse 43 and were deported on 11 July 1942; Stolpersteine were laid for them in front of the house at Rutschbahn 5.

The 77-year-old Martha Jacobsohn was assigned a quarter at Bundesstrasse 35a, from where she was deported to the Theresienstadt Ghetto on 15 July 1942; according to the official death notice, she died there of enteritis in the infirmary (Building L 514) on 31 Dec. 1942.

Berthold Jacobsohn (1889–1949), Senta’s brother, had attended the decoration school in Hamburg (possibly, on Kaiser-Wilhelm-Strasse) for two years and then completed a two-year apprenticeship at the L. Wagner department store (dry goods, woolen and yard goods and toys) at Elbstrasse 70–86. He then worked in Hamburg as a shop window decorator for Hirsch & Cie ("Modewaren u. Pelz-Konfektion, feinere Damenwäsche, Korsetts, Putz” ["fashion goods, ready-to-wear furs, select lingerie, corsets, finery”]) at Reesendamm 1/3 and for Gerson & Co. Manufacturwaren (founded in Oct. 1906 by Hugo Gerson and Eduard Hertz), a yard goods store at Neuer Wall 51/53; for some time, he also worked in Magdeburg and Würzburg. In 1910, he was rejected as permanently unfit for military service due to severe visual impairment. In Hamburg, he worked as a decorator at the Rudolph Karstadt department store at Mönckebergstrasse 16, and from 1936 until its closure in 1938, he freelanced at Julius Müller’s candied fruit and jam store at Colonnaden 30, whose owner had been taken to a concentration camp from 1936 to mid-1937 and whose store furnishings had been vandalized twice.

Since 1915, Berthold Jacobsohn had been married to Frieda Grähling (born on 11 Mar. 1890 in Hamburg), who belonged to the Lutheran denomination. Since the end of 1932, she owned a flower store at Marktstrasse 100, which the Senate administration listed as a "Jewish store.” Frieda’s complaint to the "Senate Administration of the Hanseatic City of Hamburg, Economic, Agricultural and Social Department, Harvestehuderweg 12” was rejected by the Senate Administration on 14 Nov. 1938: "On 12 Oct. 1938, the Police Chief in Hamburg, in accordance with the provisions of the Third Ordinance to the Reich Citizenship Law dated 14 June 1938, ordered that the flower store you run be entered in the register of Jewish businesses because your husband is Jewish.” It then ordered the store closed.

The Gestapo then pressured a neighbor to take over the flower store, but she refused. Through the attorneys Hans Pardey/Hans Harder (Bohnenstrasse 12/14), Frieda Jacobsohn succeeded in Sept. 1940 in being allowed to continue the flower shop. However, sales had collapsed by about 75% and the husband was strictly forbidden to set foot in the store. Although they lived in a "mixed marriage” ("Mischehe”) according to Nazi racial criteria, the Nazi state plundered them by means of regulations issued specifically for this purpose. In Oct. 1939, for example, the couple had to surrender their 300-mark radio set to a state agency without any compensation.

After the November Pogrom in 1938, Berthold Jacobsohn, being Jewish, was no longer able to find regular work in Nazi Germany. Instead, from 1939 onward, he had to perform compulsory labor as an "excavator.” The Hamburg Employment Office arranged his employment with the companied Friedrich Hagen (2 Jan. to 1 Apr. 1939), K. Trebstein & Christian Keck in Blankenese (23 June to 25 Aug. 1939), which constructed outlet channels and drainage systems, Heinrich Blöcker Strassenbau [road construction] in Altona (29 Aug. to 15 Sept. 1939), and H. Müller & Sohn in Oersdorf near Stade (22 Sept. to 17 Nov. 1939), where the forced laborers were quartered in camp-like accommodations.

In these Jewish forced labor detachments, Berthold Jacobsohn met Willy Neufeld (born on 15 Aug. 1891 in Harburg, later emigrated to the United States), Adolf Koch (later emigrated to the United States), Ludwig Jacobsen, and Siegmund Heudenfeld (born on 18 Oct. 1896 in Hamburg), among others.

Berthold Jacobsohn died in Hamburg in 1949 and he was buried in the Hamburg-Ohlsdorf Jewish Cemetery. His widow did not receive any compensation for his forced labor until 1956.

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

Stand: December 2020
© Björn Eggert

Quellen: Staatsarchiv Hamburg (StaH) 332-5 (Standesämter), 2712 u. 530/1887 (Heiratsregister 1887, Cäsar Jacobsohn u. Martha Reich); StaH 332-5 (Standesämter), 2160 u. 6059/1887 (Geburtsregister 1887, John Jacobsohn); StaH 332-5 (Standesämter), 2201 u. 3416/ 1889 (Geburtsregister 1889, Berthold Jacobsohn); StaH 332-5 (Standesämter), 8683 u. 434/1912 (Heiratsregister 1912, John Löwenthal u. Senta Jacobsohn); StaH 332-5 (Standesämter), 3274 u. 430/1915 (Heiratsregister 1915, Berthold Jacobsohn u. Frieda Grähling); StaH 332-5 (Standesämter), 8073 u. 301/1923 (Sterberegister 1923, Cäsar Jacobsohn); StaH 332-5 (Standesämter), 8164 u. 365/1939 (Sterberegister 1939, John Löwenthal, mit Todesursache); StaH 332-8 (Meldewesen), Alte Einwohnermeldekartei (1892-1925), K 6299 (Cäsar Jacobsohn), K 6524 (Julius Löwenthal); StaH 342-2 (Militär-Ersatzbehörden, Musterungsverzeichnis), D II 92 Band 2 (Nr. 370, John Löwenthal, Landsturm I mit Waffe); StaH 342-2 (Militär-Ersatzbehörden), D II 127 Band 4 (John Jacobsohn, Musterungsverzeichnis); StaH 342-2 (Musterungsverzeichnis), D II 135 Band 4 (Berthold Jacobsohn); StaH 351-11 (Amt für Wiedergutmachung), 15365 (Senta Löwenthal); StaH 351-11 (AfW), 12326 (Frieda Jacobsohn geb. Grähling, mit Fürsorgeakte Martha Jacobsohn); StaH 351-11 (AfW), 9974 (John Jacobsohn); StaH 352-5 (Gesundheitswesen – Todesbescheinigungen), 1923, Standesamt 3, Nr. 301 (Cäsar Jacobsohn); StaH 522-1 (Jüdische Gemeinden), 992b (Kultussteuerkartei der Deutsch-Israelitischen Gemeinde Hamburg), Berthold Jacobsohn, John Jacobsohn, Cäsar/ Martha Jacobsohn, John u. Senta Löwenthal; Nationalarchiv Prag, Ghetto Terezin, Band 64, Todesfallanzeige Ghetto Theresienstadt (Martha Jacobsohn); Hamburger Adressbuch (John Löwenthal) 1914, 1920, 1926, 1930, 1932, 1934–1938; Hamburger Adressbuch 1932 (Berthold Jacobsohn, Blumenhdlg., Marktstr. 51; John Jacobsohn, Direkt., Altonaer Straße 2); Hamburger Adressbuch 1933 (Berth. Jacobsohn, Dekorat., Marktstr. 97/100; Frida Jacobsohn, Blumenhdlg., Marktstr. 97/100; John Jacobsohn, Direkt., Altonaer Straße 2; Frau Martha Jacobsohn, Altonaer Straße 2); Hamburger Fernsprechbuch 1920 (Speiselokal hilfsbedürftiger isr. Kinder); www.tracingthepast.org (Volkszählung Mai 1939) Martha Jacobsohn, Friederike Levy, Senta Löwenthal, Albert Rosenstein; www.stolpersteine-hamburg.de (Elise Heudenfeld, Albert Rosenstein).