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Harry Rothstein * 1924

Schmilinskystraße 60-68 (Hamburg-Mitte, St. Georg)

HIER WOHNTE
HARRY ROTHSTEIN
JG. 1924
EINGEWIESEN 1938
VERSORGUNGSHEIM FARMSEN
DEPORTIERT
ERMORDET IN
AUSCHWITZ

Harry Rothstein, born on 26 Jan. 1924 in Danzig (today Gdansk in Poland), committed to various juvenile shelters, the Alsterdorf Asylum (Alsterdorfer Anstalten, today Protestant Alsterdorf Foundation [Evangelische Stiftung Alsterdorf]), and the Farmsen care home (Versorgungsheim Farmsen), deported to Auschwitz, murdered

Schmilinskystrasse 68, St. Georg

When Harry Rothstein was born in Danzig on 26 Jan. 1924, he was not a German citizen, because the city had been declared a partly sovereign, independent Free State called "Free City of Danzig” in 1920 as a result of the Treaty of Versailles, along with the cities of Sopot, Praust, Tiegenhof, and Neuteich.

Harry Rothstein’s father, Alfred Rothstein (born on 7 Nov. 1892) was also a native of Danzig. He was the son of the Danzig couple Phöbus and Helene Rothstein. Apart from Alfred, their marital union produced five other children, sons Siegfried (born on 26 Feb. 1882) and Rudolf (born on 21 Jan. 1895), as well as daughters Betty (born on 26 Oct. 1886), Gertrud (born on 20 Jan. 1888), and Else Lina (born on 21 Jan. 1895). The family was Jewish.

As an adult, Alfred Rothstein, a commercial clerk who worked at times as a messenger, had participated in World War I as a "front-line veteran” and he had been awarded the Wound Badge and the Cross of Honor for Front-Line Veterans.

Harry Rothstein’s mother Adelheid Gertrud Jaquet (born on 16 Dec. 1896 in Berend near Seehausen, today Behrend, a quarter of Seehausen, District of Stendahl/ Saxony-Anhalt) reportedly came from a Huguenot family; she was Protestant.

The marriage between Adelheid and Alfred Rothstein, which took place in 1919, produced Harry and his sister Helene, who was already born on 23 July 1920. Alfred Rothstein stated that the marriage was divorced on 14 June 1929. Alfred Rothstein had separated from his family for good in 1927, after having lived in Hamburg for a time before. Starting in May 1929, he lived permanently in Hamburg, where he rented space as a subtenant.

His ex-wife and the children stayed behind in Danzig, where his parents, who themselves lived in poor circumstances, supported them financially as best they could. Nevertheless, Adelheid Rothstein had to rely on welfare support for herself, Harry, and Helene. Alfred Rothstein, who occasionally worked as a percussion musician and briefly with the Busch Circus, did not contribute to the living expenses. He had become unemployed in 1929 and had to apply for welfare support himself in Hamburg.

Alfred Rothstein married Lucie Margarethe Katharine Bartholomä (born on 4 Sept. 1895 in Hamburg), a Protestant, on 4 Oct. 1930. From Feb. 1931 onward, the couple lived in their own apartment at Ruthsweg 7 in Barmbek, but lost it again at the end of 1931 because of rent arrears, and in the period that followed, they often changed their accommodation. Alfred Rothstein was equally unsuccessful in finding a permanent job.

Harry’s mother also entered into a second marital union, marrying Felix Franz Albert Meissner (born on 11 Feb. 1897 in Danzig) in 1931. On this occasion, she and Alfred Rothstein agreed that the six-year-old son Harry should move in with his father in the Hanseatic city of Hamburg in May 1930. His sister Helene remained with her mother and stepfather in Danzig.

Harry, who had known his father only as a toddler, perhaps rebelled against the new surroundings, perhaps Alfred Rothstein and his wife were overwhelmed with him, or perhaps they were unable to care for the child for other reasons. In any case, they applied for Harry’s admission to the children’s supervised home (Kindererziehungsheim) in Hamburg-Niendorf, where he initially stayed from 18 Feb. to 25 Mar. 1931.

Six months after his return to his father, he suffered an accident on 17 Oct. 1931, and he was treated for two weeks at Barmbek General Hospital for craniocerebral trauma and an injury to his lower jaw. He himself later spoke of a slight concussion.

Harry Rothstein’s life with his father and stepmother lasted only a short time. Apparently, after little more than a year, Alfred Rothstein again applied for home placement for his son: From 20 Jan. 1933 onward, Harry Rothstein was in "voluntary complete care” of the Youth Welfare Office at Averhoffstrasse 7, where he was diagnosed with "feeble-mindedness [Schwachsinn] of a slight degree.” (The term "feeble-mindedness,” no longer used today, referred to reduced intelligence or a congenital deficiency in intelligence). That same year, Harry Rothstein was admitted to the Ochsenzoll Youth Home at Langenhorner Chaussee 659.

The boy, by then nine years old, attended a "special school” (which one is not known) because his mental abilities were not considered sufficient for attending the eight-grade elementary school (Volksschule). He graduated from the school in the first class [1. Klasse, i.e., equivalent to today’s final grade due to the reverse way of counting back then].

In Dec. 1933, the Hamburg Youth Welfare Office had Harry Rothstein medically examined because of the accident and in connection with juvenile offenses. The doctor stated that the eleven-year-old appeared "somewhat erratic” and "not very concentrated” and that he showed little understanding with regard to his "offenses” (which were not specified). Harry was clearly underdeveloped mentally, he performed poorly in school, and his memory was not up to the age norm. Overall, the medical examiner confirmed "feeble-mindedness of a slight degree.”

The documents do not reveal when Harry Rothstein’s first stay in Ochsenzoll ended and where he lived after that. In any case, on 12 Aug. 1936, he was again placed in the Ochsenzoll Youth Home operated by the welfare authorities at Langenhorner Chaussee 659. Once again he was diagnosed as "feeble-minded” and judged to be uneducable and therefore a "detention case” ("Bewahrfall”).

The welfare authorities also noted that Harry Rothstein was a "Jew” or "Jewish crossbreed of the first degree” ("Mischling 1. Grades”). This note was of great importance, because in accordance with the Nazis’ Nuremberg Laws (on race), persons with "four fully Jewish grandparents” were listed as Jews and those with two "fully Jewish grandparents” were listed as "Jewish crossbreeds of the first degree.” Harry Rothstein’s parents had lived in a "mixed marriage” ("Mischehe”), so he was a "Jewish crossbreed of the first degree” according to the Nazi classification. These "crossbreeds” were subject to special legislation and were exposed to increasing pressure of persecution in the course of the Nazi era, as radical anti-Semites repeatedly urged that "crossbreeds of the first degree” be treated the same as Jews. In psychiatry and in the penal system, they already were. (Apparently, Alfred Rothstein tried later, when this "racial status” had become life threatening, to avert this designation for son Harry, because on Harry Rothstein’s birth register extract, under the date of 6 Jan. 1943, there is the following addendum: "Child is not considered a Jew. Clarified with Pol.[ice] Pres.[ident] Hamburg.”)

First, however, on 19 Jan. 1937, the Youth Welfare Office referred Harry Rothstein to the Alsterdorf Asylum (Alsterdorfer Anstalten, today Protestant Alsterdorf Foundation [Evangelische Stiftung Alsterdorf]) as a "detention case.” The senior physician there, Gerhard Kreyenburg, prepared an expert’s report on Harry Rothstein in Oct. 1937, in which the old diagnoses of "feeble-mindedness” and "detention case” were repeated. However, according to Kreyenburg, he was "easy to manage under strict discipline.” Kreyenburg recommended that Harry Rothstein be transferred to a closed state institution with appropriate educational and nursing facilities. A year later, on 31 Oct. 1938, Harry Rothstein was nevertheless transferred to the Oberaltenallee care home and from there to the Farmsen care home.

A short time later, on 12 Dec. 1938, his father took him in again. Starting on 20 Dec. 1938, Harry Rothstein served as an errand boy for a bakery on Steindamm in the St. Georg quarter, and in 1939/1940, he even worked for a time as a baker’s apprentice. Being a "Jewish crossbreed,” however, he was unable to complete his apprenticeship.

In Mar. 1940, the then 16-year-old was again taken into the care of the Youth Welfare Office, at whose instigation is unclear. At this time, Harry Rothstein had to do agricultural work in the juvenile shelter in Wulfsdorf for about half a year. In Mar. 1941, he was again placed in the Farmsen care home, as a "detention case,” as it was called.

He escaped from this committal in July 1941 with a stolen bicycle. On 4 Aug. 1941, he was sentenced to four months in prison for the theft, which he served from 3 Sept. 1941 to 3 Jan. 1942, in the Hahnöfersand juvenile prison. From there, he was released again to the Farmsen care home.

Six months later, on 21 June 1942, Harry Rothstein escaped again. Once more, he stole a bicycle. When he stood trial again for this, he stated that being Jewish, he had been treated badly in the home. The sentence this time was ten months in prison. He served the penalty from 13 Aug. 1942 to 28 Oct. 1942 in the Glasmoor penal institution and then in Fuhlsbüttel. On 20 Apr. 1943, he returned to the Farmsen care home.

In the meantime, Harry’s father had successfully applied for enlistment in the German Wehrmacht in 1939. He stated that he was considered a "full Jew,” but that his mother had been "Aryan,” and that he was therefore a "crossbreed of the first degree.” "Crossbreeds of the first degree” were indeed drafted, but then Hitler ordered their discharge from the Wehrmacht, which came too late for those who had already been deployed in the Western campaign. Thus, Alfred Rothstein, too, served as a private in an infantry unit from 18 Dec. 1939 to 6 July 1940, when he was discharged.

Alfred Rothstein had obviously been successful with his objection that he was a "half-Jew” ("Halbjude”). However, he had belonged to the Jewish Community until 1936. From this, the Gestapo deduced that he was to be treated as a "Jew by definition” ("Geltungsjude”), i.e., treated the same as Jews. He initially remained exempt from deportation, but he had to perform forced labor until 1943. He was apparently arrested several times for a few days and detained in the Gestapo headquarters in the Stadthaus as well as in the Fuhlsbüttel police prison. We do not know the reason.

In 1943, Alfred Rothstein – like many other "Jews by definition” – received the deportation order to Theresienstadt. Later, in 1954, he stated that his son Harry had been ordered to come with him to Theresienstadt at his – Alfred Rothstein’s – request after consultation with the Gestapo. The Gestapo had demanded that Harry convert to Judaism beforehand, which the Jewish Community had apparently agreed to at the time. Harry was taken into custody shortly before the deportation. The Gestapo official summoned Alfred Rothstein and ordered him to pack his bags for his son on 5 May 1943, the deportation date.

According to his statements, on this day, he, Alfred Rothstein, reported for deportation, asked for his son and then received a "slap in the face” from the Gestapo man. The son had supposedly not been in the transport, his luggage had been confiscated.

What Alfred Rothstein did not know was that a decree dating from Oct./Nov. 1942 demanded that German prisons, penitentiaries, and concentration camps be made "free of Jews” and that both Jews and "Jewish crossbreeds of the first degree” be transferred to Auschwitz. Presumably, Harry Rothstein had become a victim of this order immediately after his arrest, without his father knowing about it.

There was never again any sign of life from Harry Rothstein after that.

On 16 June 1943, a few days after Alfred Rothstein had been deported, his marriage was also divorced. Alfred Rothstein survived in the Theresienstadt Ghetto and returned to Hamburg after his liberation, heavily marked by the almost two years of imprisonment. He assured the Restitution Office (Amt für Wiedergutmachung) in 1954 that he had only learned of his son’s death from his daughter, who had been informed in writing in 1947 of Harry Rothstein’s death in Auschwitz.

We have no information on the fates of Alfred Rothstein’s siblings.

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

Stand: August 2021
© Ingo Wille

Quellen: Adressbuch Hamburg, div. Jahrgänge; StaH 213-11 Staatsanwaltschaft Landgericht-Strafsachen 5874-41 Rothstein Harry; 351-11 Amt für Wiedergutmachung 46716 Harry Rothstein, 13993 Alfred Rothstein, 46716 Harry Rothstein; 351-14 Arbeits- und Sozialfürsorge – Sonderakten 1768 Alfred Rothstein; 332-5 Standesämter 6347 Geburtsregister 2370/1895 Lucie Margarethe Katharine Bartholomä, 13341 Heiratsregister 664/1930 Alfred Rothstein/Lucie Margarethe Katharine Bartholomä; Standesamt Danzig Geburtsregister 3437/1892 Alfred Rothstein, Geburtsregisterauszug 256/1895 Rudolf Rothstein, Geburtsregisterauszug 3438/1889 Else Lina Rothstein, Geburtsregisterauszug 266/1888 Gertrud Rothstein, Geburtsregisterauszug 3345/1886 Betty Rothstein, Geburtsregisterauszug 703/1883 Siegfried Rothstein, Geburtsregisterauszug 720/1788 Frida Rothstein, Sterberegisterauszug 301/1930 Phöbus Isaak Rothstein; Archiwum Parlstwowego w Gdarisku, Geburtsregisterauszug Nr. 67/1924 Harry Rothstein; Beate Meyer, "Jüdische Mischlinge". Rassenpolitik und Verfolgungserfahrung 1933-1945, Hamburg 1999.