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Margot Schafheimer (née Kayser) * 1910

Hallerstraße 1 (Eimsbüttel, Harvestehude)

HIER WOHNTE
MARGOT SCHAFHEIMER
GEB. KAYSER
JG. 1910
FLUCHT 1939
HOLLAND
INTERNIERT WESTERBORK
DEPORTIERT 1942
AUSCHWITZ
ERMORDET 17.7.1942

Margot Schafheimer, née Kayser, born 2 Jan. 1910 in Hohensalza (Inowroclaw), deported 15 July 1942 from Westerbork to Auschwitz, murdered there

Hallerstraße 1

Margot Schafheimer's birthplace in the Prussian province of Posen was only called Hohensalza after 1904, when the city of Inowroclaw was renamed as part of the Germanization of Polish place names. Her father, who was born there on 3 Aug. 1857, was a merchant named Samuel (Sally) Kayser. He moved to Hamburg in November 1919 with his wife Therese, née Mensor (*8 Feb. 1870 in Kaspral), and his three daughters, all of whom were born in Hohensalza. Edith, the eldest daughter (*13 Feb. 1904, Irma (*17 Jan. 1906), and Margot, the youngest, were admitted to Dr. Jacob Loewenberg’s private school for girls. While her sisters finished their schooling there, Margot had to leave school in 1925 due to illness.

At the end of 1935, the family moved into a second-floor apartment at Hallerstraße 1. When Samuel Kayser died on 30 Sep. 1937, Margot's mother was fully reliant on her daughters for financial support. Margot initially worked in an office and as a housekeeper. In November 1934 she received a trade license as the "owner of a commercial business and manufacturer, production of chemical preparations for technical purposes." The production took place in her parents’ home at Bogenstraße 11a, and was not highly profitable. In her 1938 "questionnaire for emigrants" Margot described her employment: "Approx. 1 year (1934-35) self-employed (chemical-technical articles), but abandoned because of lack of success. Since then again employed outside the home."

On her application for emigration to the Foreign Exchange Office in September 1938, she listed her preferred destination as the United States. The application was denied. At the end of February 1939, she and her sister Edith tried again, and described her plight to the Foreign Exchange Office: "Enclosed please find one list in triplicate of the items we are to take with us. At the same time, we would like to politely request that you process our applications with the utmost speed, as we have been offered employment in the Netherlands, but the positions will only be held open for us for a short time. Unfortunately, it was impossible for us to submit the applications earlier, since the entry permits for Holland, which it should be noted are time-limited, were only received by us a few days ago." In March 1939 they succeeded in emigrating to Amsterdam. Her sister Irma left Hamburg in early August 1939 for London. Her 69-year-old mother was not able to flee to the daughters. In May 1939, she applied to the Foreign Exchange Office for permission to emigrate to Angola, whence she traveled in the summer of 1939.

In the Netherlands, Margot married Julius Schafheimer. Born in Lohrhaupten on 17 Feb. 1902, the businessman had emigrated from Borken in the Münsterland to Winterswijk in 1937 and later lived in Amsterdam. In 1938 he tried in vain to gain an entry visa for the United States; likewise unsuccessful were his 1940/1941 applications to Cuba and Ecuador. He and Margot were deported from the Westerbork Transit Camp to Auschwitz on 15 July 1942. Margot's husband was murdered there on 9 August 1942. The date of her murder in Auschwitz is not documented.


Translator: Amy Lee
Kindly supported by the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung, Hamburg.


Stand: September 2019
© Jürgen Sielemann

Quellen: StaH, 522-1 Jüdische Gemeinden, 992 b; StaH, 314-15 Oberfinanzpräsident, 7062, 7063, 7531; StaH, 332-5 Standesämter, 167, 1937 Nr. 1664; 361-2 II Oberschulbehörde II, Abl. 2007/1, 341 und 441; Peter Lande, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington; Internetquellen: http://www.joodsmonument.nl/search?q_mm=Schafheimer; http://www.borken.de/uk/town-life/culture-and-education/town-museum/ausstellungen/grensgevallen/zu-dieser-ausstellung.html; http://www.werkgroeplvdo.com/whzag/persoon/310/