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Rosa Rehfeldt (née Goldberger) * 1870

Grindelberg 5-7 (Eimsbüttel, Harvestehude)

HIER WOHNTE
ROSA REHFELDT
GEB. GOLDBERGER
JG. 1870
EINGEWIESEN 1939
HEILANSTALT LANGENHORN
"VERLEGT" 23.9.1940
BRANDENBURG
ERMORDET 23.9.1940
"AKTION T4"

Rosa Rehfeldt, née Goldberger, born on 9 Dec. 1870 in Hamburg, murdered on 23 Sept. 1940 in the killing centre Brandenburg at river Havel

Grindelberg 5-7

Rosa Goldenberger`s parents married on 18 March 1870 in Hamburg in the presence of a rabbi from the German Israelite Community (Jewish Community). Rosas father, the "Lottery Collector” (Lottery ticket seller), Moises Goldberger, called as Moritz, originated from Bohemia. He was born in Willimow and had Austrian nationality. Rosa’s mother Jette, née Friedburg, was a Hamburger by birth. Rosa was born nine months after the marriage. Her brother Isidor, followed on 22 Sept. 1872, her second brother Gotthelf on 30 April 1874. Rosa’s sister Martha was born on 3 Oct. 1875. Eduard, the youngest child of Jette and Moises Goldberger, born on 8 Sept. 1877, died after only three months on 29 Dec. 1877. The family lived at various addresses in the Neustadt area of Hamburg, until they moved 1896 into the building of the Samuel-Levy-Foundation at Bundesstrasse 35 in the Rotherbaum district. Put briefly, the purpose of this foundation was to grant free apartments to "righteous”, "peace loving” and needy jews. The family, and later just the couple, lived here for many years.

In 1907, the Goldbergers celebrated the marriages of both of their daughters. Rosa Goldberger married the travelling salesman Marcus Rehfeldt on 11 June. He was born on 1 June 1866 in Tuchel (former West Prussia) and, like Rosa Goldberger, adhered to the Jewish faith. Marcus Rehfeldt had lived with his parents in Berlin. As can be gathered from the Hamburg Address Book from 1912 onwards, he had already settled in Hamburg in the meantime.

On 1 Oct. 1907, Martha Goldberger also got married. Her husband, the travelling salesman Löb (Leopold) Graff, was born in Altona in 1874 and also adhered to the Jewish faith. Martha and her Loeb lived at Schlachterstrasse 47 in Hamburg-Neustadt.

Rosa and Marcus Rehfeldt had a daughter, Philippine, born on 31 May 1908. The marriage of Martha and Löb Graff appears to have remained childless.

Moises Goldberger died on 5 May 1910. His widow, Jette, remained a resident of the Samuel-Levy-Foundation until her death on 13 Dec. 1914.

Rosa Rehfeldt lived with her small family for many years – at least until 1933 – at Grindelberg 5-7 (rear house). Her sister Martha died on 1 Jan, 1935 at the age of 69. Rosa herself was 66 years old when the first signs of a mental illness appeared from ca 1936 onwards which led to her first temporary admission to the State Health Institution Friedrichsberg at the beginning of 1937. After her second stay in Friedrichsberg, she became a patient of the Nursing and Care Home Langenhorn on 16 Sept. 1938. Marcus Rehfeldt died a few months later on 22 May 1939 in the Israelite hospital in Hamburg.

In spring/summer of 1940, the "Euthanasia” central office in Berlin, Tiergartenstrasse 4, planned a special action against Jews in public and private Nursing and Care Homes. They had the Jews living in these homes registered and concentrated in so called Collection Homes. The "Nursing and Care Home” Hamburg-Langenhorn was designated as the Collection Home for North Germany. All establishments in Hamburg, Schleswig- Holstein and Mecklenburg had to transfer all the Jews living in their homes to Langenhorn by 18 Sept. 1940. After all the Jewish patients from the North german homes had arrived in Langenhorn, they were transferred to Brandenburg an der Havel on 23 Sept. 1940, together with the patients who had been living in Langenhorn before – amongst them Rosa Rehfeldt. On the same day, they were killed with Carbon Monoxide in the part of the former penitentiary which had been converted into a gas killing centre. Only one patient – Ilse Herta Zachmann – initially excaped this fate (see www.stolpersteine-hamburg.de).

We do not know whether and, if so, when her relatives were informed of Rosa Rehfeldt`s death. In all the notifications which have been documented, it was claimed that the person concerned had died in Chelm (Polish) or Cholm (German). However, the people murdered in Brandenburg had never been in Chelm/Cholm, a town to the East of Lublin. The Polish Nursing Home which had previously operated there had ceased to exist after SS units murdered nearly all the patients on 12 Jan. 1940. In addition, there was no German Registry Office. Its invention and the use of dates of death later than the real ones served to cover up the murders and, at the same time, to enable charging maintenance costs for a correspondingly longer period of time.

Rosa Rehfeldt’s daughter, Philippine, did not marry. When she reported the death of her father, Marcus, to the Registry Office, she was living at Rappstrasse 22 in Hamburg-Rotherbaum. She was one of the 1034 Jews who were deported on Gestapo instructions to the Getto Litzmannstadt (Lodz) on 25 Oct. 1941. We do not know what happened to her afterwards is unclear. It is noted in the Book of Remembrance of the Federal Archive that she died there on 25 April 1942. According to other sources, she was deported further on that date with no information about the destination.

Leopold, Rosa Rehfeldt’s brother in law, and his second wife, Alice Graff, née Müller, were deported to Minsk on 18 Nov. 1941 and died there. Stumbling Stones have been laid for them at Grossneumarkt 38 (see www.stolpersteine-hamburg.de).

The fate of Rosa Rehfeldt’s brothers, Gotthelf and Isidor, is unknown.

Translator Steve Robinson

Stand: May 2020
© Ingo Wille

Quellen: 1; 4; 5; 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); 332-3 Zivilstandsaufsicht A 100 Geburtsregister Nr. 7593/1870 Rosa Goldberger, A 138 Geburtsregister Nr. 6211/1872 Isidor Goldberger, A 176 Geburtsregister Nr. 3068/1874 Gotthelf Goldberger, A 212 Geburtsregister Nr. 7453/1875 Martha Goldberger, B 31 Heiratsregister Nr. 287/1870 Moises Goldberger/Jette Friedburg, 332-5 Standesämter 38 Sterberegister Nr. 3695/1877 Louis Eduard Goldberger, 1103 Sterberegister Nr. 327/1939 Marcus Rehfeldt, 1911 Geburtsregister Nr. 4162/1877 Louis Eduard Goldberger, 8021 Sterberegister Nr. 602/1914 Jette Goldberger, 8650 Heiratsregister Nr. 172/1907 Marcus Rehfeldt/Rosa Goldberger, 8651 Heiratsregister Nr. 275/1907 Löb (Leopold) Graff/Martha Goldberger, 332-8 Meldewesen (Alte Einwohnermeldekartei 1892–1925); 352-8/7 Staatskrankenanstalt Langenhorn Abl. 1/1995 Aufnahme-/Abgangsbuch Langenhorn 26. 8. 1939 bis 27. 1. 1941; UKE/IGEM, Archiv, Patienten-Karteikarte Rosa Rehfeldt der Staatskrankenanstalt Friedrichsberg.
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