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Olga Schindler (née Cohen) * 1886

Leinpfad 30 (Hamburg-Nord, Winterhude)

HIER WOHNTE
OLGA SCHINDLER
GEB. COHEN
JG. 1886
DEPORTIERT 1941
ERMORDET IN
LODZ / LITZMANNSTADT

Olga Schindler, née Cohen, born 5 Oct. 1886 in Hamburg, deported 25 Oct. 1941 to Lodz, killed May 1942 in Chelmno

Leinpfad 30

Olga Schindler’s nephew John David Phillip requested that the stumbling stone for his aunt be laid at Leinpfad because he remembers from his childhood that she lived "on the other side of the Alster”. His address in Hamburg was Lehnhartzstraße in Eppendorf before he was sent to England as a twelve-year-old boy.

Olga Schindler, daughter of Adolf Leopold Cohen and his wife Alma, née Rothschild, was born in Hamburg in 1886. In 1909 she married the non-Jewish businessman Bruno Schindler. He was an authorized representative, later co-owner of the mineral water factory J.G. Wright at Bartelsstraße 65. The company belonged to Max Selenkiewicz who was married to Rosa Rothschild, the sister of Olga Schindler’s mother. Olga and Bruno Schindler had a son who died though at a very young age. They had no other offspring. Little is known about Olga’s life.

Her husband died in Apr. 1930. The family had lived on Brahmsallee since 1927. Olga Schindler took over her husband’s shares in the company and moved to Leinpfad 30. In 1933 the company, previously a partnership, was dissolved and became the property of a Jewish owner. In 1937 it again changed owners. In 1938 it was "Aryanized” and continued to exist under the old name J.G. Wright, even after World War II.

We were unable to discover any details about the circumstances under which Olga Schindler left the company. It looks as though she was forced to survive on no appreciable income after 1933. As of 1933 she lived at Lenhartzstraße 15. Soon after, an odyssey through various accommodations began for her in Hamburg: She changed her living quarters frequently and had half-board. She had assets of 11,000 RM. The finance office did not impose a "security order” on her in 1939, meaning she was still able to dispose of those funds to support herself. In 1941 she still had 3,349 RM. At that time she received 100 RM each month as support from her sister Martha who lived in Bamberg.

On 25 Oct. 1941, her sister Sophie Phillip (see her entry) received orders for her deportation to Lodz. Olga Schindler did not receive deportation orders. She registered voluntarily to go with her sister. Like her sister, she was deported in May 1942 from Lodz to Chelmno where she was killed.


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

Stand: January 2019
© Christa Fladhammer

Quellen: 1; 2; StAH 332-5/ 8662; StAH 231–7/ A1 Bd..20; Auskunft per e-mail und Telefon von John David Phillip 2013/2014.
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