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Herbert Schönmann * 1922

Hasselbrookstraße 169-173 (Wandsbek, Eilbek)

HIER WOHNTE
HERBERT SCHÖNMANN
JG. 1922
DEPORTIERT 1943
THERESIENSTADT
1944 AUSCHWITZ
TOT 7.1.1945
DACHAU

Herbert Edgar Schönmann, born 7/17/1922 in Hamburg, deported to Theresienstadt on 6/9/1943 after being imprisoned, deported on to Auschwitz and then to Dachau concentration camp, where he died 1/27/1945

Hasselbrookstrasse 169

Herbert Schönmann was the son of the Jewish merchant Moritz Schönmann, born September 12th, 1878 in Kaminiec, Brest-Litowsk county, White Russia (Belarus), and his wife Helene, née Kösling, born May 21st, 1889 in Königsberg (now Kaliningrad).

In World War I, Herbert's father Moritz served in the German army as a sapper, i.e. a soldier who did not actively take part in combat, but worked behind the front building and maintaining fortifications.

Moritz Schönmann had nine siblings, two of whom perished in the holocaust - nothing is known about the others' fate. Moritz Schönmann's parents lived in Königsberg and died there. Moritz Schönmann, who had run a brokerage in Königsberg, followed his brother Max (cf. Schönmann, Max) to Hamburg. Max Schönmann had founded a brokerage in Hamburg in 1902; it was entered into the company register in 1909. According to the register, Moritz Schönmann entered his brother's company that had its headquarters at Lübecker Strasse 15 in October 1921. The following year, the house and mortgage brokerage was listed in the Hamburg telephone book as "Max Schönmann & Co.". Moritz Schönmann first paid culture tax to the German-Israelitic Community in 1923.

Herbert Schönmann's parents married on September 30th, 1921. His mother, who was not Jewish, converted to the Jewish faith before her marriage; she is listed in the electoral role of the Jewish Community of 1930. The Schönmanns had two sons: Herbert Edgar, born in Hamburg on July 17th, 1922, and Hans-Joachim (called Hans), born February 22nd, 1927, both in Hamburg.

The Schönmann family first lived at Borgeschstrasse 73 (now Soester Strasse) in Hamburg-St. Georg, from 1924 to 1927 at Blumenau 119 in Hamburg-Eilbek. In 1928, a year after Hans-Joachim's birth, the family moved to a 4 ½ -room apartment at Hasselbrookstrasse 169, also in Eilbek. The rooms measured about 12-13 square meters each, the half room about 6 square meters. The apartment had central heating, parquet floors and two balconies; the rent was 97 RM per month.

Herbert Schönmann's father Moritz was a successful real estate agents; counting one of Hamburg's savings banks among his clients. After leaving the partnership with his brother in the real estate agency "Max Schönmann & Co." in March 1923, he worked as a real estate agent on his own, initially not as a registered trader. Moritz Schönmann's real estate business was only entered into the company register in April 1930, as a company that had been moved from Königsberg to Hamburg. In the compensation procedure after the war, Moritz Schönmann's annual net income was given as almost 7,000 RM. For unknown reasons, Moritz Schönmann's company was officially deleted from the company register in May 1932; nonetheless, he continued his business as a real estate agent.

Due to the boycotts following the Nazis' rise to power in 1933, the business results rapidly deteriorated. Little by little, the family was forced to sell their valuables far below their value to pay for their subsistence. In 1938, the Nazi regime banned Jews from working as brokers or real estate agents, and the formal closing of the business at the beginning of 1939 marked the end of the long process by which the Nazis deprived Jewish business people of their economic foundation.

In the meantime, the brothers Herbert and Hans-Joachim Schönmann first attended the Moosengel private school in Papenstrasse near their home, later the Eilbek high school at Uferstrasse 9. Herbert was good at school, wanted to pass his finishing exam and study. However, in March 1938, not quite 16 years old, he was expelled from school because he was Jewish. Therefore, he began a commercial apprenticeship at the old-established Jewish Hamburg trading company Siegmund Robinow & Sohn at the Barkhof office building in Mönckebergstrasse. The company no longer existed after the "aryanization" on December 31st, 1938, and Herbert Schönmann could not complete his apprenticeship as the new owners refused to take him on. And it turned out to be impossible to find another company where he could complete his training, as so-called Aryan companies no longer hired Jews, and all Jewish companies were being liquidated. Herbert Schönmann thus worked as an unskilled laborer to contribute to the family subsistence with his income.

On July 29th, 1938, Herbert Schönmann's mother Helene left the "Jewish Religious Association in Hamburg" even before Hermann Göring appealed to the "German-blooded" women who had married Jews and converted to Judaism to reverse this step and get divorced. Like most of the women concerned, Helene Schönmann followed this "advice", but she did not divorce her husband. Perhaps she had hoped to reduce eminent threats to her family by leaving the Jewish Community. Maybe she hoped that the thus created status of a "privileged mixed marriage" could spare her family some grave discriminating measures. However, a "privileged mixed marriage" required children not educated as Jews, so-called Mischlinge of the first degree.
However, since her sons had a Jewish father and a Jewish mother when they were born, they were considered as Geltungsjuden in the Nazi race classification, i.e. half-Jews who for this reason were treated as Jews. Their mother's reconversion thus did not change the children's status.

Helene Schönmann now attempted to "improve" Herbert and Hans-Joachim's classification by submitting an application. However, the Chief of Police to whom such applications had to be submitted rejected her petition in June 1941. On top, the authority decreed that the local police precinct and the registrar's office that had recorded his birth were to be informed that he had adopted the additional first name "Israel." Also, he was to apply for a "Jew-ID-card" at the local Police precinct without delay.

Helene filed an objection: "As my boy [Hans] still goes to high school, we would have to leave school as soon as he takes the additional name Israel." However, the Police would not accept this type of reasoning, because that was exactly what the state wanted to achieve with these measures: the separation of Jews and non-Jews. Helene Schönmann added: "I cannot accept that my boy, who never had anything to do with Judaism, is supposed to be a Jew for the rest of his life just because of my thoughtlessness. If I had not striven for legal assimilation, the decision would not have been made, and my boy would have remained a Mischling of the first degree, which he actually is by descent and education." Helene's protest remained without effect.

In October 1941, Moritz Schönmann was fined twice 15 RM by the Hamburg District Court because he
1. "had not applied for the issuing of a Jew ID card for his son Hans Joachim "Israel" Schönmann at his local Police Precinct before 12/31/1938
2. not adopted the additional first name "Israel" for himself and his two sons Herbert "Israel" and Hans Joachim "Israel" and neglected to inform the registrar accordingly.
Moritz Schönmann paid the fine.

In the meantime or in the period following, the family – like all Jews – valuables: two radio receivers at Rothenbaumchaussee 38, headquarters of the Gestapo division II B 2, the so-called Jew department on September 23rd, 1939; and a typewriter, two bicycles and a gramophone at the premises of the Jewish Community at Hartungstrasse 9-11 on June 22nd, 1942.

In addition, the Jewish Einstein family was assigned to the home of the Schönmann family at Hasselbrookstrasse 169 in August 1940. From September 19th, 1941, Max Einstein, born March 6th, 1872 in Heilbronn (Jewish), Antonie Einstein, née Kittsteiner, born July 11th, 1875 in Hamburg (Lutheran) and their son Erich, born May 23rd, 1910 in Hamburg-Rahlstedt. The Einsteins' older sons, Rudolf, born August 5th, 1907, and Walter, born December 31st, 1908, no longer lived with their parents. The couple had the official status of living in a "privileged mixed marriage", their sons were considered "Mischlinge of the first degree." The Einsteins had not been economically well off even before 1933, mainly living from state welfare payments until these were revoked for Jews. The couple's son Erich contributed to the family subsistence.

From September 19th, 1941, the Schönmann family, like all Jews, had to wear a yellow "Jews’ star” visibly on the left side of the chest on their clothing. From 1942, they also had to display a "Jews’ star” on the doors of their home. The Schönmanns and their subtenants were the only Jews in the building at Hasselbrookstrasse 169. The families lived their together until September 14th, 1942, when the Schönmanns were forced to move to Bornstrasse 22, a so-called "Jews’ house.”

In his application for compensation payments, Max Einstein said he had been "kicked out of his home” by the Gestapo several times”, and that his "removal to Theresienstadt had been waived because of complete infirmity.” Max Einstein survived the Nazi regime. Nothing is known about the other members of his family.

Herbert Schönmann was detained in Fuhlsbüttel prison from May 2nd to June 3rd, 1943. Reason and background for his imprisonment remain obscure. In 1943, the Nazi regime began to include Geltungsjuden in the deportations, "affirmative Jews”, who had previously largely been exempt. On June 9th, 1943, a few days after Herbert Schönmann’s release from Fuhlsbüttel, he and his brother Hans Joachim, on account of their "partly Aryan” descent, were taken to the Theresienstadt "preferential camp”, where they arrived two days later.
From Hamburg, Helene Schönmann tried to alleviate her sons’ life in Theresienstadt by sending food parcels. When prisoners were sent to Auschwitz on the so-called autumn transports, Herbert Schönmann’s name was on the list. His brother Hans-Joachim Schönmann had to watch his brother being hauled away on September 28th, 1944. In Auschwitz, Herbert was "selected for work” and taken to the Dachau concentration camp in Bavaria, or rather to one of its satellite camps, Kaufering I to IX. There, thousands of prisoners were deployed by the Organisation Todt to build three huge underground factory halls where Messerschmitt jet fighter planes were to be manufactured. Thousands of Jewish prisoners perished on this project, among them Herbert Schönmann on January 7th, 1945 under unknown circumstances.

Hans-Joachim Schönmann was liberated in Theresienstadt on May 8th, 1945. According to the Theresienstadt Memorial Book, he was one of 542 survivors liberated the day the war ended. On eleven transports, 2,490 men, women and children had been deported from Hamburg to the camp and ghetto in Bohemia. 1,947 perished, the fate of one person remains unclear.
After training as an electrician in 1948, Hans-Joachim Schönmann emigrated to the USA in 1950. His parents, too, survived the holocaust; Moritz Schönmann again opened a real estate agency in Hamburg. When his parents required their son’s assistance because of old age, Hans Joachim Schönmann returned to Hamburg in May 1951 to take over his father’s business.


Translation by Peter Hubschmid 2018
Kindly supported by the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung, Hamburg.

Stand: January 2019
© Ingo Wille

Quellen: 1; 4; 5; 9; AB; StaH 213-11 2080/11 Strafakte Moritz Schönmann; StaH 332-8 Einwohnermeldekartei; StaH 351-11 Amt für Wiedergutmachung, 1911, 4009, 11493 (Einstein), 38354; 522-1 Jüdische Gemeinden 992 d Bd. 7 (Steuerakte Max Einstein), 992 d Bd. 30 (Einspruchsverfahren Herbert Schönmann); Statistisches Jahrbuch für das Deutsche Reich 1931; KZ-Gedenkstätte Dachau, email vom 25.5.2011; Schmidt, Hamburger Schulen im "Dritten Reich", Band 2: Anhang; http://www.digizeitschriften.de/dms/toc/?PPN=PPN514401303 (Zugriff 15.1.2014).
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