Search for Names, Places and Biographies

Julius Speyer-Kleeberg * 1859

Grindelberg 1 (Eimsbüttel, Harvestehude)

HIER WOHNTE
JULIUS
SPEYER-KLEEBERG
JG. 1859
DEPORTIERT 1943
THERESIENSTADT
ERMORDET 21.6.1943

Julius Speyer-Kleeberg, born on 12 Mar. 1859 in Wolfhagen, deported on 10 Mar. 1943 to Theresienstadt, perished there on 21 June 1943

Grindelberg 1

Julius Speyer-Kleeberg was born as the son of Abraham Kleeberg and his wife Johanna, née Wolff. The origin of the double name Speyer-Kleeberg is unclear (only the surname Speyer was provided by his children after the war to the Restitution Office [Amt für Wiedergutmachung]).

Julius was a trained horse dealer by trade. It is not known where he spent the first 30 years of his life. On 31 Aug. 1890, he married in Altona Cassy Caroline, née Leopold, who originally came from Philippolis in South Africa, where she was born on 11 Jan. 1869. She had two brothers, Otto and Garry Leopold.

Since the 1890s, the Speyers lived in Göttingen, at Groner Strasse 5, where their daughter Erna was born on 18 June 1891. On 12 Mar. 1894, the second daughter Else was born and she would celebrate her birthday on the same day as her father. There was also a third daughter, Gertrud, whose date of birth is unknown.

Erna Speyer first attended the girls’ secondary school in Göttingen and then changed to a similar school in neighboring Northeim. Later, she went business school (Handelsakademie) in Hannover for another year and subsequently studied singing. On 1 Aug. 1919, she married in Göttingen the merchant Friedrich Nattenheimer, born on 16 June 1891 in Göttingen. With him, Erna probably moved to Hamburg, where they first lived in a large apartment with domestic staff on Parkallee, later on Klosterallee. Friedrich Nattenheimer was the general representative for the Greater Hamburg area of the Geritz knitwear factory, which had its seat in Lübben. He earned 800 to 1000 RM (reichsmark) a month and had a car at his disposal for business trips. Erna and Friedrich had one child, a son named Kurt.

Nothing is known about the education of daughter Else. She later worked as a "Tagmädchen” [a maid hired in return for low wages as well as partial board] for the Robery family. Through her wedding with Max Robery, she then married into the family.

Gertrud, the third daughter, died in 1923. In the same year, Julius and Cassy Speyer moved to Hannover, where they lived until 1934. Probably because they both suffered from health problems, they then felt drawn to Hamburg, close to their children. However, these also suffered from health problems. Else is said to have been in need of care just like her father, while Erna suffered from arthritis. On 4 Apr. 1937 Julius’ wife Cassy died in Hamburg at the age of 68.

Between 1934 and 1943, Julius Speyer – at first still together with his wife – had numerous addresses in Hamburg, including Brahmsallee 16, Grindelberg 77, Werderstrasse 7, Grindelallee 146, Sedanstrasse 23, and then once again on Grindelallee. Probably, his last freely chosen address was Grindelberg 1, where the Stolperstein for him lies. The last address in Hamburg, also noted on the deportation list, was Beneckestrasse 6, a "Jews’ house” ("Judenhaus”).

On 10 Mar. 1943, two days before his eighty-fourth birthday, Julius Speyer and 49 other Jews were deported to the former garrison town of Theresienstadt (today Terezin in the Czech Republic). There the deportees were crammed together in a confined space, mainly in the barracks, but also in other buildings. Julius did not survive for long in the camp; he died about three months later, on 21 June 1943. In the death notice, "myocardial degeneration” ("Herzmuskeldegeneration”) was indicated as the cause of death. It was also noted that he had previously suffered from intestinal inflammation.

Both daughters of Julius had already left Germany with their husbands in 1939. Erna and her husband Friedrich Nattenheimer had emigrated to Chicago in the USA, where Friedrich first found work as a messenger and then worked in a factory. However, he died suddenly on 14 Feb. 1942.

Else Speyer had fled to Belgium with her husband Max Robery in 1939, but fell into the hands of the Nazis or the Vichy regime after the German invasion in 1940. Between 1940 and 1941, she was interned in the French Rieucros concentration camp. According to her own information, after this internment period she was in hospital several times under conditions similar to prison, including in St. Eloit and Montpellier. After her release in 1944 following the liberation of France and the end of Vichy-France, she went back to Brussels and then to Spain, where she reunited with her husband, who had apparently been able to elude repression. Probably as a result of her experiences, Else later suffered from a nerve disease. In the post-war period, the couple emigrated to the USA and resided in New York. Around 1960, Else and her husband returned to Hamburg, where they lived in a retirement home.

Like her sister, Erna Nattenheimer initially lived in New York after the war, but her living conditions are said to have been quite poor. She had previously assumed American citizenship. From New York, she moved for a short time to a kibbutz in Israel, where her son Kurt also lived. After that, she went to Miami to reside in a retirement home. Else and Erna both fought prolonged battles with the Hamburg Restitution Office (Wiedergutmachungsamt). In 1964, Erna also returned to Hamburg and lived in the same retirement home as her sister.

However, the reunion lasted only a short time. Erna died the same year, on 25 Aug. 1964, at the age of 73. Else, who was bedridden several years before her death, died on 7 Feb. 1968, also at the age of 73.

Translator: Erwin Fink
Kindly supported by the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung, Hamburg.

© Fabian Boehlke

Quellen: 1; 5; 8; StaH 351-11 Amt für Wiedergutmachung 697 Else Johanne Robery, 698 Erna Nattenheimer, 13508 Erna Nattenheimer; StaH 351-14 Arbeits– und Sozialfürsorge – Sonderakten 1859 Julius Speyer; StaH 522-1 Jüdische Gemeinden 992 e 2 Bd. 5, Deportationsliste von Hamburg nach Theresienstadt am 10.3.1943, www.statistik-des-holocaust.de/VI4–3.jpg (Aufruf 29.4.2016); Todesfallanzeige Julius Speyer-Kleeberg, www.holocaust.cz/en/database-of-digitised-documents/document/96876-speyer-klee berg-julius-death-certificate-ghetto-terezin (Aufruf 29.4.2016); Meyer: Die Deportation, S. 42–78.
Zur Nummerierung häufig genutzter Quellen siehe Link "Recherche und Quellen".