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© Institut für die Geschichte der deutschen Juden, Hamburg
Therese Loewenthal (Löwenthal) * 1885
Husumer Straße 1 (Hamburg-Nord, Hoheluft-Ost)
1941 Riga
Therese Loewenthal, born on 16. Dec. 1885 in Mühringen, deported on 6 Dec. 1941 to Riga-Jungfernhof
Husumer Strasse 1
Therese Loewenthal was born on 16 Dec. 1885 as the daughter of Josef Loewenthal and his wife Gudela, née Bach, in the Württemberg town of Mühringen. Starting in 1902, she attended the female secondary teacher training college (Höheres Lehrerinnenseminar) in Stuttgart, receiving the license to teach at girls’ secondary schools in 1905. She started her first position in Heidelberg, and after brief visits in Paris and Hannover, she moved to Hamburg, first to Husumer Strasse 3, and, on 17 July 1908, from there as a subtenant of Bachrach into a three-and-a-half bedroom apartment at Husumer Strasse 1 on the third floor.
Therese Loewenthal was unmarried. Her occupational path in Hamburg began in Aug. 1911 at the Israelite Girls’ Realschule [a practice-oriented secondary school up to grade 10] on Biberstrasse. From Mar. 1929 until Apr. 1939, she worked at the Israelite Girls’ School at Carolinenstrasse 35, teaching classes in primary school (Grundschule), eight-grade elementary school (Volksschule), and secondary school (Oberschule). Since 1884, the school combined two schools: the Israelite Girls’ School founded in 1798 and the Girls’ School of the German-Israelitic Community founded in 1818. In 1930, the school was recognized as a Realschule. In Apr. 1939, the Nazi authorities merged the school with the Talmud Tora School to form an eight-grade elementary school (Volksschule) and secondary school for Jews. On 30 June 1942, this last Jewish school in Hamburg was closed, as were all other Jewish schools across the German Reich. In the context of language and training courses for emigrants, Therese Loewenthal gave Hebrew lessons since Dec. 1939. The classes first took place at Beneckestrasse 6, later at house no. 2, and eventually at the place where Therese Loewenthal had used to work, Carolinenstrasse 35.
Therese Loewenthal’s excellent knowledge of Hebrew and her Zionist views predestined her for emigration to Palestine, but according to her own assessment, she did not feel equal to the harsh living conditions there due to her physical and mental constitution. She decided to apply for an exit visa to the USA. When she received her quota number, she swapped it with the father of a family who would otherwise have achieved entry into the USA only at a later point. She believed that due to her job as a teacher, she still had a little time left for emigration. As were all teachers of the language and training courses, she was dismissed as of 30 Apr. 1941 but she nevertheless continued Hebrew classes for her students unpaid up to her deportation.
Therese Loewenthal was deported to Riga on 6 Dec. 1941. Due to lack of space in the ghetto there, the Hamburg transport was forwarded to the Jungfernhof farming estate that belonged to the ghetto. There all traces of her disappear. Because quarters suitable for winter were lacking on the estate, about one fifth of the 4,000 deportees arriving from the German Reich in December froze to death. Malnutrition and diseases spreading rapidly resulted in a further decimation of the occupants. Of the 964 persons deported from Hamburg, only 35 survived the Jungfernhof camp.
Translator: Erwin Fink
Kindly supported by the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung, Hamburg
Stand: March 2017
© Claudia Pufahl
Quellen: 1; 4; 5; 6; 8; StaH 362-6/10 Talmud Tora Schule; Randt, Die Talmud Tora Schule, 2005, S. 177, 252f.; Mosel, Wegweiser, 1997, S. 11; Lehberger/de Lorent (Hrsg.), Die Fahne hoch, 1986, S. 423; Hochmuth/de Lorent (Hrsg.), Schule unterm Hakenkreuz, 1985.
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