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Leopold Wolfskehl * 1877

Wexstraße 38 (Hamburg-Mitte, Neustadt)

HIER WOHNTE
LEOPOLD
WOLFSKEHL
JG. 1877
DEPORTIERT 1941
MINSK
ERMORDET

Leopold Wolfskehl, born on 8 July 1877 in Vallendar/Rhien, deported on 8 Nov. 1941 to Minsk

Wexstrasse 38

Leopold Wolfskehl, a native of the Rhineland, was born in Vallendar on 8 July 1877, the son of the Jewish couple Wolf Wolfskehl and Johannetta/Jeanette, née Wendel. Most families in Vallendar lived from the livestock trade, Leopold’s father is also said to have been a livestock trader. The oldest son of the couple, Heinrich, was born in London on 26 Mar. 1874. Leopold was followed by the youngest, Adolf, on 29 Mar. 1882.

Leopold Wolfskehl stated in a later recorded protocol that he had been sent to an orphanage at the age of six and that he thus knew nothing about the life of his parents. He did not mention his two brothers.

Leopold Wolfskehl learned the profession of a goldsmith after the end of his schooling, similar to his brother Adolf, and he converted to the Lutheran faith in 1905. He took part in the First World War from 1915 to 1918 as a soldier in the territorial reserve force (Landsturm) and received the Honor Cross for Front-Line Veterans for his services.

Leopold Wolfskehl was already residing in Hamburg when he married Amalie Johanna Wilhelmine Möhring (born on 8 Mar. 1879) on 3 Jan. 1920. Her parents, the "Krüger” (innkeeper) Johann Carl Gosche Möhring and Maria Henriette Caroline, née Ebel, also belonged to the Lutheran Church. At the time of their wedding, Leopold and Amalie lived at Marktstrasse 10, House 4, in the St. Pauli quarter.

Around 1924, the Wolfskehl couple moved into a ground floor apartment at former Schlachterstrasse 40–42, where Leopold Wolfskehl also ran his workshop. Their apartment in the front building at No. 41 as well as the backyard development, which also housed the Marcus-Nordheim-Stift, a residential home, belonged to the German-Israelitic Community.

On 1 May 1932, Amalia Wolfskehl passed away at the age of 53 in St. Georg General Hospital. Thus, Leopold Wolfskehl subsequently lost the protection that marriage to an "Aryan woman” would have offered him for a time. (The Jewish partners of "non-privileged mixed marriages” ("nichtprivilegierte Mischehen”), which would have been the case here, were also initially "deferred” from deportation).

Leopold Wolfskehl continued to work as a goldsmith until Jan. 1939, when all Jews were banned from pursuing self-employment. When he was sentenced three months later, on 21 Mar. 1939, to a fine of 250 RM (reichsmark) for "disposal of foreign currency gold weighing 174.4 grams of fine gold without authorization,” he claimed to be without income and not to have comprehended the decision of the Hamburg Foreign Currency Office correctly. It had ruled that melted down scrap and broken gold was also foreign currency gold and it had to be offered to the Reichsbank in due time. He was allowed to pay off the fine in monthly installments of 25 RM starting on 1 Apr. 1939.

A further fine of 20 RM was imposed on 8 Mar. 1940. Leopold Wolfskehl had neglected to report the compulsory name of "Israel” to the responsible registry office in due time (Since 1 Jan. 1939, Jews had to use the compulsory additional name of "Israel” or, respectively, "Sara”). He would also have had to apply for an identification card from the responsible police authority by 31 Dec. 1938, according to ordinance concerning identification cards. Leopold Wolfskehl gave as a reason for the late registration that he did not meet with other Jewish families and therefore only belatedly became aware of the existence of such a law. In fact, Jews could usually only learn of new measures through the Jewish Religious Organization reg. soc. (Jüdischer Religionsverband e.V.). Payment of the new fine amounting to 10 RM in monthly installments was again granted to him.

Since May 1939, Leopold Wolfskehl had been living as a subtenant at Wexstrasse 38 with the commercial clerk Otto Blume. There he received his deportation order for 8 Nov. 1941 to Minsk.
He did not survive the deportation.

About Leopold Wolfskehl’s brothers, we know that the older brother Heinrich Wolfskehl later lived as a merchant in Frankfurt/Main. When he married the cook Flora Levi (born on 18 Apr. 1883 in Rodheim vor der Höhe, Hessen) there on 19 Feb.1920, he had indicated "Catholic” as his religious denomination. Heinrich Wolfskehl died at the age of 51 on 26 Feb. 1926 in the hospital of the Jewish Community in Frankfurt/Main. (His widow Flora Wolfskehl lived there in 1939 at Sandweg 115; she was deported to Riga on 25 Jan. 1942.)

The younger brother Adolf Wolfskehl had become a gemstone cutter by trade and lived in Nalbach, Sankt Wendel District. On 17 Jan. 1910, he had married the sales assistant Wilhelmine Wolff (born on 1 Mar. 1879 in Nalbach). Adolf Wolfskehl was killed as a soldier in the First World War during the Battles of the Narew in Poland. (His widow Wilhelmine Wolfskehl, who lived in Merzig in 1939 and eventually in Berlin, was deported to Riga on 25 Jan. 1942).

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

Stand: August 2021
© Susanne Rosendahl

Quellen: StaH 314-15_Str 544; StaH 332-5 Standesämter 3373 u. 11/1920; StaH 332-5 Standesämter 989 u. 685/1932; StaH 213-11 Amtsgericht Hamburg 60646; StaH 522-1 Jüdische Gemeinde Nr. 992 e 2 Band 2; www.ancestry.de Heiratsregister von Adolf Wolfskehl und Wilhelmine Wolff am 17.1.1910 in Nalbach (Zugriff 12.4.2018); www.ancestry.de Heiratsregister von Heinrich Wolfskehl und Flora Levi am 19.2.1920 in Frankfurt (Zugriff 12.4.2018); www.ancestry.de Sterberegister von Heinrich Wolfskehl am 26.2.1926 in Frankfurt (Zugriff 12.4.2018); https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/archive/127187510/?p=2&s=wolfskehl&doc_id=127187510 (Zugriff 05.01.2021); Hamburger Adressbücher.