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Erna Schniek (née Joseph) * 1887

Wincklerstraße 3 (Hamburg-Mitte, Neustadt)

HIER WOHNTE
ERNA SCHNIEK
GEB. JOSEPH
JG. 1887
DEPORTIERT 1941
RIGA
ERMORDET

Emma Erna Schniek, née Joseph, born 23 Mar. 1887 in Hamburg, deported 6 Dec. 1941 to Riga-Jungfernhof

Wincklerstraße 3

Emma Schniek was one of thirteen children born to the Jewish couple Louis Joseph (born 29 Apr. 1853, died 30 Sept. 1936) and Auguste, née Herzfeld (born 4 Feb. 1855, died 2 Aug. 1924). She was born on 23 Mar. 1887 in her parents’ courtyard apartment at Neuen Steinweg 61. Her father, son of the tailor Samuel Joseph and Sarah, née Druk, was born in London and became a master shoemaker. Her mother was a native of the small town of Brüel in Mecklenburg where her grandfather Marcus Herzfeld (born 8 Aug. 1821, died 16 July 1888) had established himself as a businessman and taken the oath of citizenship in 1850. He and his wife Hannchen (Johanna), née Bernhard (born 4 Feb. 1823, died 27 June 1904 in Hamburg) had eight children, three of whom later settled in Hamburg, Harburg and Altona.

Emma’s parents had married in Altona on 21 Aug. 1876, and it was there that the older children were born. Not all of the children lived to reach adulthood. The Joseph Family moved to Hamburg, into an apartment at 1st Marienstraße 21 (as of 1940 Jan-Valkenburg-Straße), later to Großneumarkt 22, to Neuen Steinweg 94 and to Marcusstraße 37/41 (today Markusstraße). In 1919 Emma’s parents moved into an apartment at the Jewish Marcus-Nordheim Foundation, Schlachterstraße 40/42, where her father ran his shoemaking workshop on the ground floor until he reached an advanced age (see Anna and Ida Prager). Emma stayed in her parents’ household until she married, at the age of 24, the office clerk Martin Friedrich Wilhelm Schniek (born 4 May 1886) on 10 Oct. 1911, who was not Jewish.

The following year, Emma Schniek opened a hosiery store on the ground floor at Wincklerstraße 3. She later added woolen goods and notions to her assortment. After 13 years of marriage that remained childless, Emma Schniek and her husband were divorced on 8 Apr. 1924. Her husband moved to Sophienstraße 15 where he opened a wholesale business for notions, later he became the owner of a suspender factory.

We do not know whether Emma Schniek was affected by the boycott of Jewish shops after 1933. She was registered at Winklerstraße 3 until 1938. According to a members list of the Jewish Community, one of her sisters Julie Kischko, née Joseph (born 17 Mar. 1885, died 1 Mar.1939) (see Senta Joseph) also lived with her there around 1935. Emma Schniek probably had to give up her business at the start of 1939, like all Jewish business owners, and giving up her store will almost certainly have included giving up her apartment.

Emma Schniek found work as a maid in exchange for free room and board with the coal trader Meetz at Grandweg 64. It was there, in Hamburg-Lokstedt, that she received her deportation orders for 6 Dec. 1941 to Riga. The transport, which her older sister Celine Wenkel, née Joseph (born 2 July 1879) (see her entry) was also on, was first rerouted to the derelict manor Jungfernhof outside of Riga. We do not know if the sisters died there of cold and starvation during the first months of winter or if they were shot to death during "Operation Dünamünde” on 26 Mar. 1942 in Bikernieki Forest near Riga. Emma Schniek and Celine Wenkel were declared dead as of 8 May 1945.

Her sisters Selma Meffert, née Joseph (born 21 Aug. 1890) and Elise Hartmann, née Joseph (born 7 Jan. 1893) survived in so-called mixed marriages, her brother Max Joseph (born 1 Mar. 1895, died 22 May 1960) survived in exile.

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

Stand: June 2020
© Susanne Rosendahl

Quellen: 1; 4; 9; StaH 332-5 Standesämter 2561 u 1109/1876; StaH 332-5 Standesämter 6207 u 1849/1879; StaH 332-5 Standesämter 2230 u 3571/1890; StaH 332-5 Standesämter 2310 u 140/1893; StaH 332-5 Standesämter 2100 u 1466/1895; StaH 332-5 Standesämter 2370 u 815/1895; StaH 332-5 Standesämter 7980 u 531/1904; StaH 332-5 Standesämter 3173 u 585/1911; StaH 332-5 Standesämter 884 u 311/1924; StaH 332-5 Standesämter 1052 u 240/1936; StaH 351-11 AfW 15000 (Hartmann, Elise); StaH 351-11 AfW 12708 (Meffert, Selma); StaH 351-11 AfW 16918 (Joseph, Max); StaH 522-1 Jüdische Gemeinden 391 Mitgliederliste 1935; StaH 522-1 Jüdische Gemeinde Nr. 992 e 2 Band 3; diverse Hamburger Adressbücher; Gramenz/Ulmer: Juden, S. 114–121.
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