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Eli Weiss * 1891

Deichstraße 37 (Hamburg-Mitte, Hamburg-Altstadt)

HIER WOHNTE
ELI WEISS
JG. 1891
DEPORTIERT 1941
LODZ
ERMORDET 27.6.1942

further stumbling stones in Deichstraße 37:
Frieda Weiss

Eli Weiss, born 2 June 1891 in Hamburg, deported 25 Oct. 1941 to Lodz where he died 27 June 1942
Frieda Weiss, née Markowicz, born 21 Jan. 1892 in Źnin, deported 25 Oct. 1941 to Lodz, killed 24 Sept. 1942 at Chelmno (Kulmhof) extermination camp

Deichstraße 37

Nothing is known about the childhood or youth of Frieda Weiss, née Markowicz. Nor are the names of her parents documented. Frieda was born on 21 Jan. 1892 in Źnin, in the former province Posen. On 5 Nov. 1920 she married the merchant Eli Weiss. Perhaps she left her hometown because under the Treaty of Versailles in 1919 it became part of Poland. From her husband Eli Weiss we know some more, thanks to Blanka Weinstein, née Weiss (born 29 June 1903), who gave a statement about her cousin Eli within the framework of redress of wrongs proceedings. Blanka was able to immigrate to Kenya via England with her husband Walter Weinstein (born in 1902) in Jan. 1939.

Eli Weiss was called Egon by his family. His father Adolf Weiss (born 22 Feb. 1854) was a businessman with a wholesale leather business that he had co-founded in 1881 under the name Weiss & Claussen at Venusberg 16. As of 1893 or 1894 he managed the company with his younger brother Max Weiss (born 1 June 1862), Blanka Weinstein’s father. Her grandparents, the furrier and cap maker Elias Weiss and Malchen, née Meyer, lived at the former Schlachterstraße 48 and had five other daughters, about whom nothing is known.

Around 1889 Adolf Weiss moved his company to Rödingsmarkt 40. He was married to Sophie Flora Lewisohn, the daughter of the businessman Philip Lewisohn and Theodora, née Cleve, who had been born in Copenhagen, Denmark. Eli was born on 2 June 1891, his younger brother Leo on 23 Dec. 1892. As of 1886 the family lived at 2nd Marktstraße 8 (renamed Marcusstraße in 1900, today called Markusstraße). Eli was not yet three years old when his mother Sophie passed away on 4 Sept. 1893 at the age of 38. Little Leo died on 26 Oct., just one month later. In the summer of 1892, cholera had broken out in Hamburg. They may have been victims of the epidemic. Sophie and her son Leo were buried at Ilandkoppel Jewish Cemetery in Ohlsdorf.

Adolf Weiss left Marktstraße and moved to Rödingsmarkt 17, he moved the company to Rödingsmarkt 78. As of 1902 he lived at Alten Steinweg 7/8. When he was finished with high school, Eli untertook business training. He served in World War I in the infantry, and when the war was over he joined his father’s company as a "general partner”, meaning as a shareholder, at the age of 27. His father passed away on 30 Nov. 1918.

As of 1920 the Hamburg address book lists the entry Weiss & Claussen, Owners Max & Eli Weiss, Leather Goods Store, Shoe and Slipper Maker, Wholesale Supplier.

That same year on 5 Nov. 1920, Eli Weiss married Frieda Markowicz. Max Weiss was his best man. Before their wedding, Frieda had lived at Repsoldstraße 124 in the St. Georg neighborhood and then moved in with her husband on Alten Steinweg.

After the death of his uncle – Max Weiss passed away on 28 Apr. 1922 – Eli became sole owner of the company. The Weiss couple remained childless and lived from 1929 to 1937 at Barmbekerstraße 127 (today Barmbeker Straße). Afterwards they were registered at Epheuweg 22 in Winterhude and at Brahmsallee 20 in Harvestehude. The business address changed again in 1931 to Steckelhörn 12 in the Gotenhof building, before the company was combined with their private living quarters for economic reasons in one of the baroque merchant houses that survived the great fire of 1842 at Deichstraße 37.

Eli Weiss was one of the many Jewish men who fell into the claws of the Gestapo during the November pogrom of 1938. During his incarceration at Sachsenhausen concentration camp until 14 Dec. 1938, the Gestapo blackmailed him to force the sale of his business. After 58 years of its existence, the company Weiss & Claussen was "Aryanized” in May 1939. Emil Lübbe became the new owner. Eli Weiss stayed on as an employee of his former company until 30 Sept. to ensure that the transfer went off smoothly. According to an assessment by the tax office, there were no legal objections to payment of the sale price of 1600 Reich Marks (RM): "Further private assets do not exist. His wife does not own any assets.”

Eli and Frieda Weiss moved in with the couple Ferdinand and Irma Borgolte (see their entry) as lodgers at Graskeller 16. It was there that they received their so-called evacuation orders for the first transport to "Litzmannstadt” ghetto in Lodz which left Hamburg on 25 Oct. 1941. In the ghetto, the couple was assigned accommodation at Altmarkt 4. Eli was able to obtain a job as the work director at the ghetto’s main prison, a position which ensured his survival in the ghetto. When lists were drawn up in early May 1942 for transports to Chelmno (Kulmhof) extermination camp about 70 km away, the Weiss’ received a "departure order”. On 1 May 1942 Eli Weiss asked the "Resettlement Commission” to retract the order, citing his awards and decorations for his service in World War I and including proof of his work in the ghetto. As of 12 Feb. 1942 he was employed by the "Jewish security service” (Hilfsordnungsdienst) in the medical service of the 2nd precinct, which entitled him to walk on the streets after curfew. His second application from 8 May 1942 received the stamp "UWZGLEDNIONE” – meaning "recognized”. The couple was allowed to stay in the ghetto.

After a little over two months, Eli Weiss died of pleurisy at the "ghetto hospital” on 27 June 1942. Evidently Frieda Weiss had not been able to find work in the ghetto. She was listed as a housewife. She was likely taken on one of the next transports to the nearby extermination center Chelmno (Kulmhof) where she was killed immediately upon arrival in a gas van.

Translator: Suzanne von Engelhardt
Kindly supported by the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung, Hamburg.

Stand: April 2020
© Susanne Rosendahl

Quelle: 1; 2; 5; StaH 351-11 AfW 14291 (Weiss, Frieda); StaH 351-11 AfW 12949 (Weiss, Eli); StaH 351-11 AfW 27882 (Weinstein, Blanka); StaH 314-15 OFP R1939/7826; StaH 314-15 OFP R1939/2700; StaH 332-5 Standesämter 2256 u 2339/1891; StaH 332-5 Standesämter 3371 u 1070/1920; StaH 332-5 Standesämter 789 u 1082/1918; StaH 332-5 Standesämter 2281 u 3409/1892; StaH 332-5 Standesämter 343 u 1591/1893; StaH 332-5 Standesämter 343 u 1947/1893; StaH 332-5 Standesämter 7020 u 486/1922; Lodz Hospital, Der Hamburger Gesellschaft für Genealogie zur Verfügung gestellt von Peter W. Landé, 2009, USHMM, Washington, bearbeitet von Margot Löhr; Hamburger Börsenfirmen, 1923, S. 1139; Handelskammer Hamburg (Handelsregisterinformationen); diverse Hamburger Adressbücher; Auskunft von Fritz Neubauer, Universität Bielefeld, E-Mail vom 17.4.2014; USHMM, RG-15_083M_0167_00000475 von Allison Zhang, E-Mail vom 22.12.2015.
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