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Paul Eduard Horwitz * 1876

Mittelweg 34 (Eimsbüttel, Rotherbaum)

HIER WOHNTE
PAUL EDUARD
HORWITZ
JG. 1876
EINGEWIESEN 1940
HEILANSTALT LANGENHORN
"VERLEGT" 23.9.1940
BRANDENBURG
ERMORDET 23.9.1940
"AKTION T4"

further stumbling stones in Mittelweg 34:
Antonie Horwitz

Paul Eduard Horwitz, born on 1 Jan. 1876 in Hamburg, murdered on 23 Sept. 1940 in the Brandenburg/Havel euthanasia killing center

Stolperstein in Hamburg-Harvestehude, at Mittelweg 34

Paul Eduard Horwitz was born on 1 Jan. 1876 in Hamburg-Neustadt, at Hohe Bleichen 39, as the son of the merchant Abraham Albert Siegmund Horwitz and his wife Ottilie, née Lasker. He had five older siblings who were also born in Hamburg: Friedrich Joseph, born on 21 Mar. 1857, and Elise Zipora, born on 1 June 1858, both born on Hopfenmarkt; as well as Siegmund Wilhelm, born on 17 June 1860, and Anna Friederike, born on 20 Apr. 1862, both born on Neuer Wall; and finally Antonie Louise, born on 26 Oct. 1864 on Neuer Jungfernstieg.

Paul Eduard’s father was born on 7 Feb. 1821 in Hamburg, his wife Ottilie Lasker in 1835 in Breslau (today Wroclaw in Poland). The bride and groom, who were of the Jewish faith, had married on 11 May 1856 in Ottilie’s native town. On 20 June 1856, Abraham Albert Siegmund Horwitz received the certificate of Hamburg civic rights (Bürgerbrief).

He traded in paints at various company locations in Hamburg-Altstadt and later in Hamburg-Neustadt. From 1893 onward, the residential and company headquarters moved to Mittelweg 34 in Harvestehude. Paul Eduard’s father apparently continued working until 1892/1893. Then a relative, Albert Horwitz, took over the company and continued it until about 1900. Friedrich Horwitz, the oldest son, meanwhile managed his own company. He traded in raw rubber, but still lived at his parents’ address. Abraham Albert Siegmund Horwitz died on 13 June 1900 in his apartment at Mittelweg 34. In his will, he had bestowed a considerable inheritance on Paul Eduard, who was 24 years old at that time.

We know nothing about Paul Eduard’s childhood, school years, adolescence, and vocational training. When his mother, Ottilie Horwitz, died on 15 Aug. 1914, Paul Eduard had already lived for eight years in the "Eichenhain” private mental hospital, then located in a park between Eichenstrasse and Am Weiher in Eimsbüttel. In 1914, the director of the "Eichenhain” institution certified that Paul Eduard was "completely mentally ill.” In mid-1921, he was admitted to the Friedrichsberg State Hospital (Staatskrankenstalt Friedrichsberg) and remained there until 11 June 1926. His subsequent stay at the Langenhorn State Hospital (Staatskrankenstalt Langenhorn) lasted until 11 Dec. 1929.

This was followed by a four-month stay in Friedrichsberg, which was followed by readmission to the Langenhorn State Hospital. After a further two years, Paul Eduard Horwitz was transferred to the Oberaltenallee care home on 15 July 1935. There he lived during the following years.

In the spring/summer of 1940, the "euthanasia” headquarters in Berlin, located at Tiergartenstrasse 4, planned a special operation aimed against Jews in public and private sanatoriums and nursing homes. It had the Jewish persons living in the institutions registered and moved together in what were officially so-called collection institutions. The Hamburg-Langenhorn "sanatorium and nursing home” ("Heil- und Pflegeanstalt” Hamburg-Langenhorn) was designated the North German collection institution. All institutions in Hamburg, Schleswig-Holstein, and Mecklenburg were ordered to move the Jews living in their facilities there by 18 Sept. 1940.

Paul Eduard Horwitz arrived in Langenhorn on 18 Sept. 1940. On 23 Sept. 1940, he was taken to Brandenburg/Havel with a further 135 patients from North German institutions. The transport reached the city in the Mark (March) on the same day. In the part of the former penitentiary that had been converted into a gas murder center, people were immediately driven into the gas chamber and murdered with carbon monoxide. Only Ilse Herta Zachmann escaped this fate at first (see corresponding entry).

On the birth register entry of Paul Eduard Horwitz, it was noted that the records office Chelm II registered his death under number 423/1941. Those murdered in Brandenburg, however, were never in Chelm (Polish) or Cholm (German), a town east of Lublin. The former Polish sanatorium there no longer existed after SS units had murdered almost all patients on 12 Jan. 1940. Also, there was no German records office in Chelm. Its fabrication and the use of postdated dates of death served to disguise the killing operation and at the same time enabled the authorities to claim higher care expenses for periods extended accordingly.

Paul Eduard Horwitz’ sister, Elise Zipora, married Benjamin Radlauer and had four children with him. The family was able to flee to Uruguay.

His sister Anna Friederike married Hugo Levy. This marriage produced son Albert Bruno Ernst. We do not have any further information about this family. Also missing are references to the fates of Friedrich Joseph and Siegmund Wilhelm Horwitz. Their names appear neither in the Hamburg Memorial Book nor in the Memorial Book of the German Federal Archives.

Antonie Louise Horwitz remained unmarried. In the 1930s, she lived at various addresses in Hamburg, eventually in an apartment of a residential home on Schlachterstrasse in Hamburg-Neustadt. She was deported to Theresienstadt on 19 July 1942. She died there on 12 Aug. 1942.
To commemorate Paul Eduard Horwitz, a Stolperstein is located in Hamburg-Harvestehude at Mittelweg 34. Moreover, for his sister Antonie Louise, a Stolperstein is to be laid there as well.

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

© Ingo Wille

Quellen: 1; 4; 5; 7; 9; AB; StaH 133-1 III Staatsarchiv III, 3171-2/4 U.A. 4, Liste psychisch kranker jüdischer Patientinnen und Patienten der psychiatrischen Anstalt Langenhorn, die aufgrund nationalsozialistischer "Euthanasie"-Maßnahmen ermordet wurden, zusammengestellt von Peter von Rönn, Hamburg (Projektgruppe zur Erforschung des Schicksals psychisch Kranker in Langenhorn); 213-13 Landgericht Hamburg Wiedergutmachung Nr. 3464, 3466, 6482, 3465 Gertrud Werther, 6408 Ottilie Brann; 6408 Elise Zipora Radlauer; 6409 Ottilie Brann; 232-1 Vormundschaftsbehörde D 205 Bd. 1 Paul Eduard Horwitz; 351-11 Amt für Wiedergutmachung 1008 Antonie Luise Horwitz; 352-8/7 Staatskrankenanstalt Langenhorn Abl. 1-1995 Aufnahme-/Abgangsbuch Langenhorn 26. 8. 1939 bis 27. 1. 1941; 352-8/7 Staatskrankenanstalt Langenhorn Abl. 2-1995 Patientenakte Nr. 14341 Paul Eduard Horwitz; 522-1 Jüdische Gemeinden 696 a Nr. 17/1821 Geburtsregister Abraham Albert Siegmund Horwitz, 696 e Geburtsregister Nr. 56/1857 Friedrich Joseph Horwitz, 696 e Geburtsregister Nr. 103/1858 Elise Zipora Horwitz, 696 e Geburtsregister Nr. 110/1860 Siegmund Wilhelm Horwitz, 696 f Geburtsregister Nr. 86/1862 Anna Friederike Horwitz, 696 f Geburtsregister Nr. 281/1864 Antonie Louise Horwitz; 332-5 Standesämter 1878 Nr. Geburtsregister 155/1876 Paul Eduard Horwitz, 7935 Sterberegister Nr. 1517/1900 Abraham Albert Siegmund, 8020 Sterberegister Nr. 379/1914 Ottilie Horwitz; A 834 0077 Kapsel 01. Baumbach, Sybille/Lohmeyer, Susanne/Louven, Astrid/Meyer, Beate/Salomon, Sielke/Wienrich, Dagmar, "Wo Wurzeln waren …”. Juden in Hamburg-Eimsbüttel 1933 bis 1945, Hamburg 1993, S. 80ff. Gesundheitsbehörde Hamburg (Hrsg.), Hygiene und soziale Hygiene in Hamburg, Hamburg 1928, S. 298f.; http://www.holocaust.cz/databaze-obeti/obet/16373-antonie-louise-horwitz/ (Zugriff 9.6.2016).
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