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Kurt Wald * 1882

Von-Essen-Straße 5 (Wandsbek, Eilbek)

HIER WOHNTE
KURT WALD
JG. 1882
VERHAFTET 1938
1938 -1939 KZ FUHLSBÜTTEL
DEPORTIERT 1941
LODZ
ERMORDET 1942 IN
CHELMNO

Kurt Wald, b. 1.12.1882 in Bamberg, imprisoned several times, deported to Lodz on 10.25.1941, murdered in the Chelmno extermination camp on 5.15.1942

Von-Essen-Straße 5 (formerly: Von-Essen-Straße 6)

Kurt Wald came from his natal city of Bamberg to Hamburg at an unknown point in time. He was the eighth of nine children of the hops dealer Adolf Wald, from Reditz, and his wife Karoline, née Öttinger, from Thalmassing. Kurt Wald’s parents were of the Jewish faith. Besides Kurt, three of his siblings also left Bamberg: Max (b. 1872) went to New York; Richard (b. 1875) moved to Bochum; and the youngest sister, Sidonie, married and went to Nuremberg. His brother Karl died in 1911 at 34 years of age. The death dates of his siblings, Sigmund (b. 1873) and Ella (b. 1880) are not known. Soon after the death of his father in 1920 – he was 77 years old – Kurt Wald settled as a businessman in Hamburg. At that time he was 40 years old and single, as were his older sisters Rosa (b. 28 May 1869) and Lilli (b. 13 June 1870).

In 1924 or 1925 and holding a 23% share in its capital, Kurt Wald joined Fischer & Eckmann, Inc. as a director, alongside Max Eckmann. The firm dated back to its founding in 1898 as the "German Ship’s Bed and Wrought Iron Furniture factory." In 1902 it had become a limited liability company and in 1922 a joint-stock corporation. It dealt in the specialized production of iron bedsteads and patented mattresses in Wandsbek on Blücherstrasse; the city office was at Berliner Tor 8. In August 1925, Kurt Wald obtained a domestic passport valid for two years; in August 1930 it was renewed for two years. In 1931, his activity in the Fischer & Eckmann Company came to an end. Thereafter he remained unemployed.

Up to 1931–1932, Kurt Wald made considerable contributions to the German Israelite Congregation. He lived at first at Von-Essen-Strasse 6 in the Auenviertel section of Eilbek, the finer quarter of that city district.

As a result of his joblessness, Kurt Wald gave up his apartment, and moved to Petkumstrasse 7 in Winterhude, then to Uhlenhorster Weg 33, and finally to Curschmannstrasse 31. He now lived by the help he received from his siblings. His mother Karoline Wald died, aged 90, in September 1937.

During the November Pogrom of 1938, Kurt Wald was imprisoned, first in the Fuhlsbüttel police prison, then in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp. He was released on 21 December under the condition that he emigrate by 23 June 1939. The Passport Office informed the Finance Office on 25 May 1939 that Kurt Wald’s intended emigration destination was America.

Before that he was once again imprisoned in the Fuhlsbüttel concentration camp from 13 to 22 May 1929, this time on the initiative of the 24th Criminal Commissariat, which was responsible for the investigation of "offenses” by homosexuals. It is not known that he was prosecuted by the state’s attorney under §175 of the Reich Penal Code; possibly a relevant act was not proven.

In June he was in Bamberg where his oldest sister, Rosa (b. 1869), and the one year younger Lilli, still lived. He could not meet the emigration deadline because the required application papers had not yet been delivered. He finally received them at the end of July 1939, after another visit to the foreign currency office. In his declaration of assets – his fortune stood at 200 RM in cash which he kept in his room – he reported that he would apply to the Reich Association of Jews in Germany for financial assistance to aid his emigration. On 23 November 1939, the Finance Office granted his certificate of clearance on the basis of which he could apply for a passport, which in turn was the precondition for the application of a visa for Chile, now his emigration destination.

On 20 January 1940, he presented to the Office of the Chief Financial Governor, among other documents, an application for the relocation of goods, which he had filled out the day after receiving his certificate of clearance. In it he declared that he possessed no claims against foreigners, but also indicated that in his time as a board member of Fischer & Eckmann, Inc. it had conducted an export business. The firm was dissolved in 1936. Further indications concerning his emigration and why it foundered are not to be found in the documents.

In November 1940, Kurt Wald moved to live with Bertha and Iwan Seligmann at Dillstrasse 21 and, from there, moved one more time to Hansastrasse 73 with Frensdorff. The Gestapo placed him as number 193 on the standby list for the first transport of Hamburg Jews "for construction work in the East,” which was scheduled for 25 October 1941 with Lodz as its destination. Kurt Wald was deported along with 1033 others to the ghetto there. After six days in a makeshift group accommodation, the Jewish Council assigned him to a single room with a kitchen for 12 people in dwelling 78 at Hohensteinstrasse 43. At 60 years of age, he apparently could not secure a workplace which would have assured him of adequate food and medical care. On 15 May 1942, he was logged out from his address an "resettled,” which signified his murder by truck exhaust fumes at Chelmno.

Whether Kurt Wald’s siblings learned of his deportation is not known. His brother Richard was married to Isabella Else, née Willstaedt (b. 15 June 1883 in Lüdenscheid). Because Richard Wald was ill, his wife was deported without him from Dortmund on 28 April 1942 to the Zamosc ghetto, east of Lublin. On 29 July 1942, he also was deported, to the "old people’s ghetto" Theresienstadt. He died there, before his two sisters Rosa and Lilli arrived in September 1942. They were, in the same month, sent on to Treblinka where they were murdered immediately upon their arrival.


Translator: Richard Levy
Kindly supported by the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung, Hamburg.

Stand: May 2019
© Hildegard Thevs

Quellen: 1; 5; 9; AB; StaH 213-8 Staatsanwaltschaft Oberlandesgericht – Verwaltung, Abl. 2, 451 a E 1, 1 c, Abl. 2, 451 a E 1, 1 d; 314-15 OFP Oberfinanzpräsident FVg 7870; 332-8 Meldewesen A 24 Band 328, Nr. 17009; 552-1 Jüdische Gemeinden 992 e Band 1 Deportationslisten; Stadtarchiv Bamberg, Melde- und Personenstandsregisterauszüge, 19.4.2012; Stadtarchiv Bochum, E-Mail vom 30.4.2012; www.bochum.de/stolpersteine; Archivum Panstwowe w Lodzi; Schneider, Hubert, Die Entjudung des Wohnraums – Judenhäuser in Bochum – Die Geschichte der Gebäude und ihrer Bewohner; Dank an Ulf Bollmann für Unterstützung bei der Recherche.
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