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Sophie Sakom (née Kagan) * 1880

Curschmannstraße 13 (Hamburg-Nord, Hoheluft-Ost)

HIER WOHNTE
SOPHIE SAKOM
GEB. KAGAN
JG. 1880
FLUCHT 1938
LITAUEN
VON SS-EINSATZGRUPPEN
ERMORDET 1941

further stumbling stones in Curschmannstraße 13:
Martha Goldschmidt, Dr. Jacob Sakom

Dr. Jakob Sakom, born on 9 July 1877 in Panevezys/Lithuania, missing in Lithuania in the fall of 1941
Sophie Sakom, née Kagan, born on 14 Aug. 1880, place of birth unknown, missing in Lithuania in the fall of 1941

Curschmannstrasse 13

"My grandfather wanted to take me to the opera for the first – and last – time. The Magic Flute was on the program. During intermissions, we walked up and down, and since Sakom was very well known among the musicians and the audience, one would assume that people would greet him. Throughout, he would say, that is so-and-so … but the so-and-sos turned their backs and did not greet him.” His granddaughter later recalled this traumatic experience in 1935/36.

Jakob Sakom was born as the first child of a lawyer’s family in Lithuania. After attending high school in Riga, he began studies in natural sciences, which he completed with a doctorate, obtaining the title of Dr. rer. nat. Concurrently, from 1897 until 1902, he studied cello with Friedrich W. Mulert at the Imperial School of Music in Kiev. In 1902, he went with his wife Sophie to Leipzig, where he continued his musical studies until 1905.

In 1905, still in Leipzig, their daughter Valentine was born. The family moved to Hamburg, for at the beginning of the 1905/1906 season, Jakob Sakom signed up for an engagement as a solo cellist in the orchestra of the Philharmonische Gesellschaft, to which he belonged for 28 years, until his dismissal in 1934. He participated in chamber music ensembles and performed as a solo cellist at the "Volkstümliche Konzerte,” popular concerts organized by the Association of Hamburg Friends of Music (Verein der Hamburgischen Musikfreunde) to familiarize new listeners with works of classical music. Added to this were performances at the "Volkstümliche Kirchenkonzerte” ("popular church concerts”) by Alfred Sittard and at the annual stagings of Bach’s St John Passion, featuring Jakob Sakom playing the solo cello.

At the beginning of the 1920s, he participated in the concert cycle for new music (Konzertzyklus für Neue Musik) established in 1923. For instance, he played the cello in Arnold Schönberg’s Pierrot lunaire on 3 Mar. 1924, conducted by the composer himself. In addition to this work as a practicing musician, Sakom was also in very high demand as a teacher. From 1907 until 1916, he taught at the Bernuth Conservatory in Hamburg. This time also saw the publication of the violoncello etude tutor (Violoncello-Etüden-Schule) published in six issues. Starting in 1928, he was a teacher at the Vogt Conservatory based in the Curiohaus. Aside from that, he also gave lessons to private students at home.

The year 1929 saw the founding of the Gesellschaft Hamburger Tonkünstler, a music association aspiring to revive music making in the home. Jakob Sakom, too, was among its sponsors. For instance, on 22 Feb. 1929, the Hamburgische Correspondent wrote, "From this new institution … one can expect only the best, especially since it is under the patronage of well-known personalities, such as: … Dr. Jakob Sakom.” However, even before 1933, his fame did not protect him from anti-Semitic comments. According to Robert Jaques, at one performance, Karl Muck, conductor of the Philharmonische Orchester since 1922, had muttered, audible to all members of the orchestra, "Now, I march through the Jews’ Gate.” Both the concertmaster Heinrich Bandler to the left and Jakob Sakom, who stood to the right of him, were Jews.

After the Nazis assumed power, Sakom continued to be employed for the time being. Since the 1920s, there had been plans to merge the two big Hamburg orchestras, the Philharmonische Orchester and the orchestra of the City Theater, for financial reasons.

In Apr. 1934, all members of the orchestra were dismissed, though most of them were rehired based on new contracts. The exceptions were "non-Ayran” musicians. The official regulations of the new Hamburgische Philharmonische Staatsorchester established specifically that only "those of Aryan descent” might be members of the orchestra. The position of the solo cellist remained vacant. By this time, Sakom received a monthly old-age pension, which did not support him and his wife, however. He continued to teach private students but they, too, were allowed to be taught by "Aryan” instructors only. Thus, his granddaughter Nora related that as late as 1935, a young student had shown up wearing a Hitler Youth uniform, upon which Sakom explained to him that he was no longer permitted to teach him.

One of the few remaining opportunities for Jewish artists to perform was the "Jewish Cultural Federation” ("Jüdischer Kulturbund”) founded in Hamburg in Jan. 1934, initially operating under the name of "Jewish Society for Arts and Sciences” ("Jüdische Gesellschaft für Kunst und Wissenschaft”). Jakob Sakom also performed there as a solo cellist, undertaking tours to other German cities, both with a chamber ensemble and as a soloist with the orchestra of the Jewish cultural federations based in Frankfurt/Main. From 1937 until 1938, he belonged to its artistic advisory board.

In 1938, Sophie and Jakob Sakom decided to emigrate. He had received an offer from Lithuania to teach at the conservatories of Vilnius and Kaunas. As Lithuanian citizens, the Sakoms had the right to emigrate. Nevertheless, they had a series of bureaucratic hurdles to take until they were able to depart along with their furniture for Lithuania. For instance, Sophie Sakom – like all emigrants – had to prepare a list in triplicate regarding the volume of the moving goods and their value and declare that the items had already been in her possession before 1 Jan. 1933. The registration and passport authority reported their move to Kaunas to the foreign currency office as of 5 Aug. 1938. Their moving goods did not follow until the end of Dec. 1938.

In Kaunas, Jakob Sakom taught at the conservatory and played in radio performances. Due to the changed political situation, in Nov. 1939, Ernst Kaufmann, Sakom’s Hamburg lawyer, tried to arrange for his account balance with the M. M. Warburg banking house and his pension payments to be transferred to a Lithuanian bank. This prompted an extensive investigation concerning his neediness. He made assurances that he did not have any assets, either in Lithuania or in Germany, and that he was therefore dependent on the support payments for his livelihood. The upshot was that his pension, reduced once more, was transferred to Lithuania starting in Aug. 1940. However, he never received his account balance with the M. M. Warburg banking house: In the last letter dated May 1940, the lawyer Ernst Kaufmann asked the foreign currency office to transfer the sum deposited in the special account to the "Garantie- und Kreditbank für den Osten” in Berlin, thus enabling Jakob Sakom to access the funds. This application was turned down.

For the period following, no application for a transfer permit was submitted to the foreign currency office. His granddaughter related she found out from Lithuania after the war that Sophie and Jakob Sakom "were shot in the forest by SS Einsatzgruppen [SS task forces, i.e., death squads] in about Oct. 1941.”

Since 1934, daughter Valentine was trying to reach a safe foreign country with her family. After the plans to emigrate to Palestine had foundered, they managed to move to the Netherlands, where Valentine’s husband, Wolfgang Meyer-Udewald, had a brother, for whom he could work. From the Netherlands, they fled to Belgium, where Wolfgang Meyer-Udewald was deported by the Germans to France. Following internment in several camps, he managed to flee to Cuba. Valentine remained behind in Belgium with the children, attempting to reach, with a helper, unoccupied Marseilles, where Cuban passports were waiting for them. However, this "helper” betrayed them to the German military police.

On 7 Mar. 1942, she was arrested and deported to Auschwitz. Her 13-year-old son Hans Siegmund was murdered immediately. Valentine perished that same year, 1942. Only daughter Nora managed to live through three years of Auschwitz. She joined her father in Cuba in 1946 and eventually went to the USA.

Another Stolperstein was laid for Jacob Sakom in front of the Hamburger Staatsoper.


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

© Maria Koser

Quellen: 2; 4; 5; StaH 314-15 OFP, F 2059; StaH 314-15 OFP, 6/1938; Petersen, Peter, Lexikon verfolgter Musiker und Musikerinnen der NS-Zeit, Hrsg. Claudia Maurer-Zenck und Peter Petersen unter Mitarbeit von Sophie Fetthauer, ab 2005 Universität Hamburg, http://www.lexm.uni-hamburg.de/ eingesehen am 4.9.2008; Pfaff, Von Deutschen in Litauen ermordet, in: Zündende Lieder, Arbeitsgruppe Exilmusik am Musikwissenschaftlichen Institut der Universität Hamburg (Hrsg.), 1995,S. 66f.f; Gillis-Carlebach, Jedes Kind ist mein Einziges, 1992, S. 133; Weissweiler, Ausgemerzt, 1999, S.303; Faksimile des "Lexikon der Juden in der Musik", Berlin 1940; Petersen, Juden im Musikleben, in: Die Juden in Hamburg, Herzig/Rohde (Hrsg.), 1991, S. 304, S. 326; Hamburgischer Correspondent am 22.2.1929.
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