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Irmgard Löwenthal * 1930

Angerstraße 44 (Hamburg-Nord, Hohenfelde)

1943 Theresienstadt
ermordet Auschwitz

further stumbling stones in Angerstraße 44:
Arnold Löwenthal

Arnold Löwenthal, b. 3.17.1931 in Hamburg, deported on 6.23.1943 to the Theresienstadt ghetto, murdered on 10.23.1944 in the Auschwitz concentration and extermination camp
Irmgard Löwenthal, b. 1.5.1930 in Hamburg, deported on 6.23.1943 to the Theresienstadt ghetto, murdered on 10.23.1944 in the Auschwitz concentration and extermination camp

Angerstrasse 44

On the list of Jews in the 14th transport from Hamburg to the East stands, under numbers 74 and 75, the names of two children: Irmgard und Arnold Löwenthal. It was a transport to the Theresienstadt ghetto, comprising 109 people. It left Hamburg on 23 June 1943 and arrived at its destination as Transport VI/8 on 25 June 1943. What was unusual was that the children were deported from their familiar environment on Angerstrasse in Hohenfelde, without previously having lived in a "Jew house.” Moreover, they traveled without any identifiable caregivers. On the transport there were no people of the same name or address. There were also no other documents with the names of the two children. According to the national census of May 1939, there were at Angerstrasse 44 a Martha Lorenz, née Löwthe, "full Jewess,” and two "half-Jewish” children with the last name of Lorenz. Finally, the scarcely legible record from the tenants index file for the 1930s yields an explanation. As tenants of a 3-room apartment on the 3rd floor of house 9 at Angerstrasse 44, five names are listed. Lorenz, Adolf, b. 11.20.1877, Evangelical-Lutheran, Lorenz, Martha Sarah, née Löwenthal, b. 8.10.1895, Lorenz, Alfons, b. 1.27.1920, Lutheran, under which appears the postscript, written in small letters, "Löwenthal.” According to this, the mother of the two children was Martha Lorenz, née Löwenthal.

Martha Löwenthal joined the German Israelite Congregation in Hamburg on 28 March 1919. In the following year her son, Alfons, was born. On 6 July 1922, she married Adolf Lorenz, who acknowledged his paternity. He was a port and warehouse worker, 22 years older than Martha Lorenz and an Evangelical Lutheran, as were all the children they had together. In the same year as their marriage, their daughter Edith was born. On 17 May 1925, their son Alexander entered into the world. He died in childhood. In 1929, Adolf and Martha Lorenz separated. In the next four years, she lived with Joseph Melhausen, 30 years her senior, in Rothenburgsort, at Billhorner Röhrendamm 185. Joseph Melhausen was single, Jewish, and worked as a cigar maker. He was the father of Irmgard and Arnold, however, did not acknowledge his paternity. Irmgard’s birth certificate was issued by the Uhlenhorst registry office, Arnold’s by the Hammerbrook office. Both bore the birth names of their mother, Löwenthal. After the death of Joseph Melhausen on 26 May 1933, Adolf and Martha got together again. Their common household now consisted of six people; Adolf Lorenz allowed the children to take his name.

When Irmgard entered school in 1936, the family was already living in Hohenfelde. The applicable public school for boys and girls was at Angerstrasse 33. Martha Lorenz had, herself, attended a Jewish girls school and remained connected to the Jewish Congregation. However, she attempted – the National Socialists had come into power – to conceal her own and her children’s Jewish descent, even in relation to the Jewish Congregation. Only Arnold Löwenthal was registered there, and with a small question mark. He occasionally belonged to the Jungvolk, an organization of the Hitler Youth for boys between ten and fourteen. When, in 1937, the Jewish Congregation wanted to assess her assets for tax purposes, she asserted firmly that she had no income whatsoever. Apparently, Adolf Lorenz’ wages sufficed to defray the costs of food and rent.

With the introduction of identity cards for Jews on 22 July 1938, at the latest, Martha Lorenz made an effort to conceal her own Jewish descent. She ignored the order to apply to the police for an identity card, as well as the adoption of the compulsory name "Sara.” When charged for this in 1941, she referenced her murky parentage, a child born out of wedlock, as reason to be recognized as a "half-breed [Mischling] of the first degree.” But in light of her Jewish education and membership in the Congregation, the district court sentenced her, as a Jewess, to a fine of RM 30, or 10 days in jail. Martha Lorenz paid the fine in installments.

Martha Lorenz’s oldest son, Alfons, had become an agricultural laborer. He had stopped working for his employer in Segelitz at the beginning of 1940, and two months later found new work in Tötensen. During these two months, he lived with his parents and two younger half-siblings. When Germany went to war against the Soviet Union on 22 June 1941, he became a soldier. Around a week later, on 3 July 1941, he lost his life at 21 years of age in the fighting in Bessarabia. Martha’s daughter Edith earned her living as a seamstress and from 1942 lived in her own apartment in a neighboring house.

On 30 June 1942, a general prohibition of instruction for Jewish pupils was issued. Nevertheless, in the spring of 1943, Arnold took part in a children’s evacuation to a youth hostel in Gera, Thuringia. From there, he sent his parents and siblings a postcard, an Easter greeting, asked for a package, "at the very least, my knapsack,” and other posts.

The steps by which Irmgard and Arnold Lorenz again became Irmgard and Arnold Löwenthal cannot be reconstructed in detail. In June 1943, they were deported to the Theresienstadt ghetto. On that transport were also the remaining staff workers of the former Jewish Congregation. Irmgard wrote a postcard during the train trip to her parents and her sister, Edith: "I am well. We will soon be in Theresienstadt. There are many children here. Today, Friday, we will perhaps already be there. We have each received a loaf of bread. We have not slept all that well. Otherwise I am fine. I hope you are the same. I’m sorry I cannot write better, but the train stops often and there is always a jolt. We stopped for a few hours in Dresden. Now, once again, cordial greetings from Irmgard." She apparently put this card in the mail box upon arrival at the Bohusovice station at the end of the trip, before arriving in Theresienstadt. Further letters had to pass through the Jewish Congregation in Hamburg. Irmgard and Arnold received a package from the Congregation for which Arnold, on 20 July 1943, sent a thank you postcard to Harry Goldstein at Dillstein 16:

"We greatly enjoyed the package. My sister and I continue healthy, and we hope the same for you. Many greetings to our parents. Arnold sends you his cordial greetings.” After this, there was no further correspondence.

When Irmgard and Arnold were deported to Theresienstadt, there still lived in Hamburg 1257 registered Jews, most in "mixed marriages” and/or as "Jews of mixed parentage.” Among them was Martha Lorenz. In July 1943, she and Adolf were bombed out of their home on Angerstrasse and moved to Adolf’s native village Klein-Rheide in Schleswig. The children were permitted to write cards every six weeks. Irmgard and Arnold Löwenthal, as well as the two boys, Peter Perls and Ewald Marcus, who were on the same transport (see "Stolpersteine in Hamburg-Eimsbüttel" and www.stolpersteine-hamburg.de), were assigned to House Q 609. The house was under the direction of Beppo Krämer. Beppo (actually Jirka) Krämer was a Czech, his deputy was Else Timendorfer, an educator from Berlin. The House Q 609 – the Q stood for crossroad – was on the corner, right next to the SS billet; it had 15 rooms.

The children and teenagers of the Theresienstadt ghetto were divided by gender, nationality (Czechs, Germans, and Austrians), and age, each assigned to a so-called home: a single room, designated by a letter. The supervisors lived in the attic. Irmgard Löwenthal belonged to home G. Arnold Löwenthal, Peter Perls, and Ewald Marcus, along with 12 teenagers, who came from Berlin, Vienna, Erfurt, and other cities, were put in home F. It was equipped with triple bunk beds; there was no private space. Scarcely had Irmgard arrived when she learned to know the word "dysentary” in its full horror. In the whole house there was but one WC and it was locked most of the time. The opportunity of washing was limited to a few wash basins with only a feeble jet of water. The need to relieve oneself was served by a many-seated latrine under a tree in the courtyard, often too far away to be reached in time and repulsively filthy.

Two weeks before Irmgard and Arnold arrived, the approximately 10-year old Gerhard Lilienfeld and his four and one-half year old brother Hansjürgen reached Theresienstadt. At first, for about three weeks, they were assigned to a room with Czech children in the Hamburg barracks. In July 1943, Gerhard and his brother, now six years old, were resettled and separated in house Q 609. They came from Bremerhaven and felt drawn to the North German children.

The pretty-looking Irmgard awakened a strong affection in Gerhard. Arnold seemed chubby and lazy to him, Irmgard, on the other hand, sporty. She wore her hair in a Prince Valiant style. Although three years older than Gerhard, she was not taller. To Gerhard’s question as to whether she wanted to be his girlfriend, she answered in writing with a riddle. She helped dispel Gerhard’s confusion by holding a note near him in front of a mirror. What he read filled him with pride: "Dear Gerhard. My heart aches with love for you.” That made the everyday bearable. Only rarely was there enough to eat. Despite the separation of German and Czech children, there was constant tension between them. Bedbugs, lice, and fleas made life equally unbearable for all of them. One day the children from Q 609 were distributed to other houses, so that the building could be "fumigated” – meaning that the pests would be poisoned. It was not long before the plagues returned.

There was as little activity and diversion as there was instruction for the children. Religious life, whether Jewish or Christian, played a role for only a few children. Religious holidays with their unfamiliar conceptions and traditions appeared alien to the others. However, Beppo Krämer and a boy from Vienna, who sang well, often entertained the children in the evening. The Jewish self-government countered the spiritual neglect with a program, which was carried out in the rooms in which the children ate and slept. A Professor Hahn gave painting lessons; Professor Heller taught arithmetic, always in fear of surveillance by the SS. A great loss for the children was the death of Else Timendorfer on 4 April 1944.

In the summer of 1944, there took place in Theresienstadt a general "beautification action.” The reason for it was the planned visit of the International Committee of the Red Cross on 23 June 1944. It was in this context that Gerhard Lilienfeld’s entitled "Images and Texts of Horror” later originated. He so-named it because scarcely an illustrator or texter survived. On the occasion of Beppo Krämer’s birthday on 19 April 1944 an album was created. Many of the children from Q 609 took part. For example, Peter Perls, the "professor,” wrote in verse a detailed report on life in the home. Irmgard Löwenthal, Gerhard Lilienfeld, and many others contributed drawings and more texts. Artful collages decorated the cover and title page. From the quality of Irmgard Löwenthal’s drawing it can be assumed that she did not first learn to draw in Theresienstadt.

A general euphoria seized the Theresienstadt camp, also among the children and teenagers. All or most of them believed that things would get better and take a turn for the good. On instructions from the camp directors, the children and teenagers were allowed to form soccer teams, to be sure, consisting of only seven players – because the playing field on the bastion of the fortifications was quite small, perhaps, as well, because there were no more than seven presentable boys. One can assume that it was all about appearances. The team leaders, for example, were not good soccer players, but they looked good. The team of German youths was called "Condor.” Artists performed, but mostly for the grown-ups and Czech ghetto-dwellers.

As planned, the Red Cross Committee came to the ghetto on 23 June 1944. It visited, among other things, the cafés especially created for the visit, as well as the "children’s pavilion,” created for the same purpose, and attended a performance of the children’s opera "Brundibár.” In connection to the visit, a propaganda film was produced entitled "Theresienstadt. A Documentary Film of the Jewish Settlement Area.” It was supposed show the good living conditions of the Jews under the protection of the National Socialists, thereby veiling the policy of extermination.

At the latest, with the conclusion of the production, the general optimism in the ghetto came to an end. Rumors surfaced that new transports were planned, larger and more numerous than previous ones. In October 1944, it came to this. The horror arrived, as transports again left for Auschwitz. Among many others on the transport lists, stood the names of Irmgard and Arnold Löwenthal, Peter Perls, Ewald Marcus, Gerhard and Hansjürgen Lilienfeld. The Lilienfeld brothers, however, were removed from the train, perhaps because their mother had meanwhile been released from a concentration camp. She regretted at that time that they were separated from their friends. The four Hamburg children arrived in Auschwitz with the Transport ET-911 of 23 October 1944. This was known as the so-called transport of death, because only ten percent of the deportees survived. Beppo Krämer had to leave behind the album, fabricated with so much love, because he, too, was on the transport. House Q 609, with its many homes, was now nearly empty. As Gerhard Lilienfeld walked through the empty rooms, he found the album and took it with him on his return journey to Bremerhaven.

After the liberation of the ghetto by the Red Army, on 8 May 1945, the Lilienfeld children initially remained in Theresienstadt. They were considered orphans because no one knew what had become of their parents or whether their grandparents had survived the air raids over Bremerhaven. In July 1945, police cars from Hamburg arrived in Theresienstadt. Gerhard and Hansjürgen Lilienfeld were supposed to be driven back to Hamburg in the cars. First, however, a sort of guardian had to be found and appointed, before they could be allowed to travel. This guardian was found in the person of Mrs. Lahmanns, whose non-Jewish husband worked with the Bremerhaven police. Having arrived in Hamburg, the two boys, together with most of the others on the return transport, had to spend a night in a Wandsbek school. A little woman appeared there and called out into the room as to whether anyone knew of Irmgard and Arnold Löwenthal. In ghetto-jargon, Gerhard Lilienfeld answered that they were on the transport to Auschwitz and had probably been gassed. Thereupon, the woman screamed. It had probably been Irmgard and Arnold Löwenthal’s mother, Martha Lorenz. In 1954, the two children were declared dead as of 8 May 1945.

Adolf Lorenz died on 6 January 1950 in his birthplace in Schleswig; Martha Lorenz, née Löwenthal, died at 102 years old in the Jewish old people’s home in Hamburg on 6 January 1997. For her murdered children and her son, killed in the war, she received a parental pension. Her daughter Edith Lorenz married in 1950 and had a son.


Epilogue. Gerhard Lilienfeld became a trade unionist and in the framework of his professional activity undertook informational tours to Theresienstadt. The long-time native tour guide there spoke only of Czech resistance fighters and not about the persecuted Jews. After having found a reliable partner in the Czech custodian, Gerda Janikowa, Gerhard Lilienfeld handed over the album from Q 609, which she than gave to the Jewish Museum in Theresienstadt. Fifty years after his deportation, he visited the Museum in 1993 and received from the director photocopies of the album for himself and his brother. In the following year, he began to speak to young high school students about his time of suffering and about the isolation before his deportation to Theresienstadt.

Gerhard Lilienfeld took over the sponsorship of the commemorative stones for Irmgard Löwenthal and his Hamburg companions who were murdered in Auschwitz. He died on 10 June 2009.


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

Stand: December 2019
© Hildegard Thevs mit Gerhard Lilienfeld(†)

Quellen: 1; 4; 5; 7; 9; StaH 213-14, 1431/42; StaH 332-8 Meldewesen, Hausbewohnerkartei K 2410 L; StaH 351-11 AfW, 17424; StaH 552-1 Jüdische Gemeinden 992 e 2, Bd. 5; Hamburger Adressbücher; H. G. Adler, Theresienstadt 1941–1945. Das Antlitz einer Zwangsgemeinschaft, Göttingen, 2005; Beate Meyer, "Jüdische Mischlinge". Rassenpolitik und Verfolgungserfahrung 1933–1945, 2. Aufl., Hamburg, München, 2002, S. 333–346; Mitteilungen u. Dokumente freundlicherweise von Clemens Kleiber und Gerhard Löwenthal zur Verfügung gestellt, 2007 bis 2014.
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