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Anna Sekkel (née Jacob) * 1891

Rappstraße 2 (Eimsbüttel, Rotherbaum)

HIER WOHNTE
ANNA SEKKEL
GEB. JACOB
JG. 1891
DEPORTIERT 1941
RIGA
ERMORDET

further stumbling stones in Rappstraße 2:
Bernhard Jacobson, Dina Jacobson, Ernst Jacobson, Naphtali Jacobson, Sara Jacobson, Bertha Jacobson

Anna Sekkel, née Jacob, born on 10 Feb. 1891 in Hamburg, deported to Riga-Jungfernhof on 6 Dec. 1941, murdered there

Rappstrasse 2 (Eimsbüttel)

Anna was born in Hamburg on 10 Feb. 1891 as the seventh of eight children of the Jewish couple Aron Jacob and his wife Hannchen, née Salomon. Her father Aron Jacob was the son of a cap maker from Lissa in Posen (today Leszno in Poland). He had moved to Hamburg and lived at Grossneumarkt 32 in Hamburg-Neustadt. On 16 Feb. 1883, the newspaper publisher Aron Jacob (born on 16 Feb. 1857) and Hannchen Salomon (born on 26 Dec. 1855) had married in Hamburg. Hannchen Jacob, born in Schleswig, had moved with her widowed mother, Rosa Salomon, née Abraham, to Peterstrasse 63 in Hamburg.
(Aron Jacob died on 10 July 1919, Hannchen Jacob on 3 Aug. 1940, and both were buried in the Ohlsdorf Jewish Cemetery on Ilandkoppel).

We have no details about Anna’s childhood.

She trained as a clerk and was thus able to earn her own living. She met the Jewish master tailor Alfred Sekkel, whom she married on 11 Sept. 1913, in Hamburg at Registry Office 3.

Her husband Alfred John Sekkel was born on 13 Sept. 1886 in Hamburg, the first of three children. His parents were Abraham Sekkel and Kätchen Giedel, née Mormelstein. (Abraham Sekkel died on 23 Feb. 1929, Kätchen Sekkel on 17 Apr. 1937 in Hamburg. They were also buried in the Jewish Cemetery on Ilandkoppel).

Alfred and Anna Sekkel resided at Annenstrasse 13-15 in the St. Pauli quarter. Shortly before the beginning of the First World War, their daughter Rosa was born on 9 June 1914, affectionately known as "Resi” and she was thus registered on the Jewish religious tax (Kultussteuer) file card of the Jewish Community as well.

Alfred Sekkel was so severely injured by a shot in the head during the war that he died on 13 Oct. 1915. He had taken part in fighting in Loos/ Lille in northern France. His mortal remains were transferred to Hamburg and buried in the Jewish Cemetery on Ilandkoppel. An inscription on the cenotaph of the Jewish Cemetery on Ilandkoppel commemorates him today.

His wife Anna Sekkel initially stayed with Rosa in the apartment in St. Pauli until 1916. As a war widow and single mother, she had little money to live on. Subsequently, the two moved to Neumünsterstrasse 31 / Hoheluft-Ost and resided there until 1919. She received an orphan’s pension for her daughter Rosa.

Rosa Sekkel attended the girls’ secondary school, the Lyceum, on Bieberstrasse in the Rotherbaum quarter from 1920 to 1930. She obtained the intermediate secondary school certificate (mittlere Reife) and intended to become a fashion illustrator and designer. Anna and Rosa Sekkel moved to Rappstrasse 2 on the fourth floor in 1920. Anna Sekkel lived in this apartment until 1939.

When Rosa went to Berlin in 1931 and started training there, Anna Sekkel’s mother Hannchen Jacob moved in with her. They were financially supported by Anna’s siblings Delfred Jacob (see www.stolpersteine-hamburg.de) and Zerline, married name Peritz (see www.stolpersteine-hamburg.de).

On 1 Oct. 1931, Rosa Sekkel began a three-year apprenticeship at the Berlin-based Eduard Krämer fashion salon at Gneisenaustrasse 66 in the Kreuzberg quarter. During this time, she lived at Claudiusstrasse 16 /Hansa quarter with the Frankenberg family, distant relatives of Rosa’s mother. Since the apprentice’s wages were very low, Anna had to support her daughter financially until the end of her apprenticeship in 1934.

In July 1934, she began a second apprenticeship with the women’s tailoring guild. From 1937 onward, Rosa Sekkel then worked for a short time at the Wolters-Koppelt fashion salon on Poststrasse / corner of Neuer Wall in Hamburg. In Berlin, she had met Leonhard Podlescher (born on 24 June 1909), a merchant also of Jewish descent, who had been living as a subtenant with Anna Sekkel in Hamburg since 1 Feb. 1936.

Leonhard Podlescher had grown up in a Jewish orphanage in Berlin. He had been born in Berlin as the child of the Jewish couple Abraham Podlescher and Friederike, née Simson. His mother had died on 22 July 1914, when Leonhard was just five years old.

Rosa Sekkel and Leonhard Podlescher were married in Hamburg on 2 Sept. 1938. For Leonhard Podlescher, it was the second marriage. He had divorced his first wife shortly before. In Feb. 1939, Leonhard Podlescher, his wife Rosa, and two children (possibly from Leonhard Podlescher’s first marriage) fled via Antwerp to the United States. (There they changed their last name to Palmer).

Anna Sekkel stayed behind in Hamburg. She repeatedly tried to get work as an office clerk at various companies. Being Jewish, however, she had no chance of finding a job for a longer period and then keeping it. As a result, she had to change positions frequently; for example, she worked at the Rosenbaum Company at Grosser Burstah 34, at Robinsohn Bros. at Neuer Wall 25-33, for Wolf Hammer at Grindelallee 133, and for Adolf Gabriel at Woldsenweg 2 in Hamburg. Until 1937, her Jewish religious tax file card still recorded income of 120 RM per month, but after that, she was exempt from tax, i.e., she had only a very low income, provided she did not even have to be supported by the Community.

On 6 Dec. 1941, Anna Sekkel was deported to Riga, and in the Jungfernhof camp, all traces of her disappeared.

The following outlines the fate of the family of Anna and Alfred Sekkel:
John Jacob (born on 3 Aug. 1885), died in Hamburg on 6 Apr. 1886.
Seraphine Jacob (born on 18 Apr. 1887), died on 18 July 1887 in Hamburg.
Leopold Friedrich Jacob (born on 18 Dec. 1893) died in Russia during World War I on 9 Nov. 1916. An inscription on the cenotaph for victims of the World War victims in the Memorial Grove commemorates him.

Delfred Jacob (born on 29 Apr. 1883) and his wife Jenny (born on 3 Sept. 1886) were deported to the "Litzmannstadt”/Lodz Ghetto and murdered there. Stolpersteine at Pilatuspool 15 commemorate them. See www.stolpersteine-hamburg.de.

Frieda Warneck, née Jacob (born on 4 Aug. 1884), and her daughter Ruth Warneck (born on 5 Oct. 1920) were deported to Riga. Ruth survived the time in Riga-Jungfernhof and she was further deported to the Stutthof concentration camp. Stolpersteine for the two are located at Rutschbahn 15. See www.stolpersteine-hamburg.de.

Martha Cohn, née Jacob (born on 3 May 1888), had married Adolf Cohn on 25 Oct. 1936. She committed suicide on 15 Dec. 1941, and Adolf Cohn was murdered in Auschwitz in 1943.
Their Stolpersteine are located at Rappstrasse 24. See www.stolpersteine-hamburg.de.
Zerline Peritz, née Jacob (born on 16 Aug. 1889) and her husband Hermann Peritz (born on 16 Sept. 1882) were deported to the Minsk Ghetto. Their Stolpersteine are located at Wandsbeker Chaussee 104. See www.stolpersteine-hamburg.de.

Details concerning the fate of Alfred Sekkel’s brothers:
His brothers Jaques (born on 16 Aug. 1888) and Richard (born on 5 Aug. 1890) Sekkel emigrated with their families to Brazil in 1933.

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

Stand: December 2020
© Bärbel Klein

Quellen: StaH; 1; 2; 4; 5; 8; 213-13_13965; 213-13_14661; 213-13_25396; 214-1_203; 351-11_14363; 351-11_34951; 351-11_39751; 351-11_44595; 351-11_45670; 351-11_7643; 351-11_47894; 351-14_1041; 351-14_1321; 351-14_1807; 351-14_1959; 351-14_1974; 332-5_1012/1881; 332-5_114/1883; 332-5_2077/1883; 332-5_3664/1884; 332-5_4281/1885; 332-5_4438/1886; 332-5_2009/1887; 332-5_2255/1887; 332-5_2231/1888; 332-5_3886/1888; 332-5_754/1891; 332-5_4719/1893; 332-5_3487/1889; 332-5_3296/1890; 332-5_51/1903; 332-5_245/1913; 332-5_677/1913; 332-5_255/1916; 332-5_288/1916; 332-5_778/1916; 332-5_2136; 332-5_759/1918; 332-5_240/1919; 332-5_475/1919; 332-5_1029/1921; 332-5_576/1929; 332-5_607/1936; 332-5_213/1937; 332-5_406/1940; 332-5_445/1941; 331-5_3 Akte 1945/1941; 522-1_1066; Stadtarchiv Gudensberg Nr. 52/1886; ITS Archives Bad Arolsen Digital Archive Korrespondenzakte 1.2.4.1 / 7105 Archivnummer [12650952] Einsicht am 9.3.2017; ITS Archives Bad Arolsen Digital Archive Korrespondenzakte 1.2.4.1 / 7105 Archivnummer [99094924] Einsicht am 9.3.2017.