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Carl Rühs * 1878

Hütten 105 (Hamburg-Mitte, Neustadt)

HÜTTEN 105
WOHNTE
CARL RÜHS
JG. 1878
DEPORTIERT 1941
ERMORDET IN
MINSK

Carl Rühs, born 15 Feb. 1878 in Hamburg, deported 8 Nov. 1941 to Minsk

Hütten 24 opposite building number 49 (Hütten 105)

Carl Rühs earned a living as a street vendor. As of 1903 he ran a market stall selling notions at Großneumarkt. In Sept. 1938 National-Socialist legislation took away his business license because his grandfather on his mother’s side was of Jewish heritage, as noted in his welfare file.

Carl’s father Johannes Adolf Friedrich Rühs was born the son of Johann Peter Rühs, a carpenter, and his wife Johanna Gesine, née Junghans, on 7 Feb. 1847 in Greifswald in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. He was baptized at St. Nikolai Domkirche. Following craft training as a painter, he went on the road for several years as a journeyman and worked in Berlin, Rostock and Lesum near Bremen. In 1871 he settled in Hamburg.

Carl’s mother Elise, née Rosenberg, was born on 15 Oct. 1846 in Aumund on the Aue. At the time, the town Aumund belonged to Kirchspiel Lesum. Carl’s parents may have met before moving to Hamburg. When they wed in Hamburg in 1873, Johannes Rühs converted to Judaism and added Isaac as his middle name.

The Rühs lived at Peterstraße 33 where their eldest son Max was born on 29 Nov. 1872. Wilhelm followed on 11. Dec. 1876, and Carl was born on 15 Feb. 1878. One or two years after Carl’s birth, his father Johannes Rühs immigrated to the USA, allegedly with his "mistress”. He left his family behind in Hamburg, penniless, so Elise Rühs was forced to care for her children by herself. When Carl was three, his brother Max died of the effects of tuberculosis on 7 June 1881 at the age of eight. In 1886 Elise Rühs and her two sons moved to the neighboring building Bei den Hütten 105 (renamed Hütten in 1900) where she ran a newsstand on the ground floor. Her second-eldest son Wilhelm contracted meningitis and he died on 16 Apr. 1889 at the age of twelve.

It is not known whether Carl Rühs underwent vocational training when he finished school. He probably had to help earn a living at an early age. According to the Hamburg address books, Elise Rühs ran her newsstand until 1910. As of 1919 her business listing described her in general terms as a trader. Elise Rühs died on 19 Aug. 1932 and was buried at Ilandkoppel Jewish Cemetery in Ohlsdorf, like her son Wilhelm.

Carl Rühs was not a member of the Hamburg Jewish Community. After his means of earning a living was revoked in Sept. 1938, he applied to the welfare office for support. He was not entitled to a pension. While applying at the office, the clerk advised him to claim his status as "half-breed” at the Gestapo. Since both of his parents were members of the Jewish Community at the time of his birth, it was decided he was to be treated as a Jew and subject to the same laws as Jews. Had he been recognized as a "half-breed of the first degree,” he would have been exempt from numerous restrictions, above all he would not have had to wear a "yellow star” later on, nor would he have been deported. He followed the advice, but his application failed. At the end of July 1939, Carl Rühs had to do "compulsory work” at Moorredder in Volksdorf five days a week as a welfare recipient. A staff member of the welfare office noted in his file following a visit to his home that Carl Rühs still lived at the address Hütten 105, a condemned house, in a very small room furnished with a minimum of furniture but kept very clean. It was there that Carl Rühs received his deportation orders to leave on the first transport to the Minsk Ghetto in the occupied capital of Belarus on 8 Nov. 1941. All trace of him was lost following his "migration”, as it was called in official terminology.

Since his name was given as Rüss on the deportation list, the same spelling was used in the memorial books.

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

Stand: May 2020
© Susanne Rosendahl

Quellen: 1; StaH 351-14 Arbeits- und Sozialfürsorge 1778 (Rühs, Carl); StaH 332-5 Standesämter 97 u 2051/1881; StaH 332-5 Standesämter 1889 u 5689/1876; StaH 332-5 Standesämter 9859 u 880/1932; StaH 332-5 Standesämter 258 u 1027/1889; StaH 352-5 Todesbescheinigung 1881, Sta. 2, Nr. 2051; StaH 232-4 Amtsgericht Hamburg – Aufgebotssachen 1030; StaH 522-1 Jüdische Gemeinde Nr. 992 e 2 Band 2.
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