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© Steffi Wittenberg
Hans Siegbert Leser * 1924
Danziger Straße 14 (vormals Nr. 6) (Hamburg-Mitte, St. Georg)
1941 Riga
further stumbling stones in Danziger Straße 14 (vormals Nr. 6):
Siegbert Leser, Amalie Leser
Amalie Leser, née Janover, born 3 July 1896 in Bremen, deported 6 Dec. 1941 to Riga
Siegbert Leser, born 5 June 1888 in Hamburg, deported 6 Dec. 1941 to Riga
Hans Siegwart Leser, born 12 July 1924 in Hamburg, deported 6 Dec. 1941 to Riga
Amalie and Siegbert Leser, and their sons Hans Siegwart and Siegmund Manfred (*1927), had lived at Danziger Straße 6 since about 1933/34. The building in which they lived belonged to Siegbert’s father, Siegmund Leser (*1859), until it was "Aryanized” in 1938. Siegmund Leser was a well-known businessman in St. Georg, who owned not only a large block of buildings on Lindenstraße, Brennerstraße, and Danziger Straße and one on Steindamm, but also a large fabric shop on Steindamm, which he had opened in 1889. Siegbert’s mother was Julie Leser, née Hertz (1853–1924). He had one sister, Lily, who later lived in Hanover with her husband Paul Sternberg, and emigrated to Argentina.
Siegbert Leser fought in the First World War, and was decorated with the Iron Cross, 2nd Class. His first registered profession, in February 1918, was as a sales agent for household goods. In 1920 he had a photo shop at Dammtorstraße 4, which also sold optical instruments. Siegbert and Amalie Leser married in the early 1920s. The family later lived at Isestraße 121 in a large apartment.
In 1931 Amalie Leser took over the management of the shop, which was now located at Eppendorfer Landstraße 14, where the family also lived.
In about 1933, the family moved their residence and the photo shop to Danziger Straße. Beginning in 1936, Siegbert Leser also worked as an independent representative for x-ray film, which he supplied to hospitals and doctors. He was also a partner in his father’s company, which had been transformed into a limited partnership in 1924, although he had no part in the management. The partnership had to be dissolved in 1938, however, as a result of the Nazi regime’s anti-Jewish measures. It was "Aryanized,” in that the company’s former general manager, Julius Schneider, took over. A real estate agent named Ladiges bought the family’s real estate.
After the family moved to Danziger Straße, both boys attended the Borgesch School in St. Georg. As Jews, however, they were soon forced to leave, and changed to the Claire Lehmann School, a Jewish private school. When the Nazi authorities closed it down, they went to the Talmud Tora School. Although Siegbert Leser was from a wealthy family, he had apparently been in a difficult financial situation since the end of the 1930s, since his business was boycotted and he had to pay the so-called Jewish Property Levy in 1939. Siegbert was arrested on the day of the November Pogrom, 9 November 1938, and held in the Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp for two months. While her husband was imprisoned, Amalie procured passage for the four-member family on a ship to Shanghai. But Siegbert refused to emigrate, as he was convinced the Nazi regime would end soon.
On 6 December 1941, the Leser family was among the 753 Hamburg Jews who were deported to Riga. When they arrived, Amalie and the younger son Manfred were sent to the provisional camp at Jungfernhof, near Riga, which was run by the SS. Siegbert and the elder son Hans Siegwart were sent from Jungfernhof to the notorious labor camp Salaspils, known as "the white hell,” not far from Riga. There Siegbert fell severely ill due to the abysmal living conditions, and was assigned to a "hospital transport.” His son volunteered for the transport as well, since he didn’t want to leave his father. As all of those assigned to these transports were destined to be exterminated, it can be assumed that both father and son met with this fate.
Amalie Leser and her son Manfred were eventually sent to the Riga Ghetto, and then transferred to the Kaiserwald Concentration Camp in Latvia on 1 October 1943. From there they were taken by ship to the Stutthof Concentration camp near Danzig on 5 September 1944, where the two were separated. Nothing more is known about Amalie Leser after that. Manfred volunteered for a work detail which built submarines in Burggraben near Danzig. With the advance of the Soviet Army, Manfred Leser and the other prisoners were sent to various camps in Pomerania. His last station was the Rieben SS camp near Lauenburg, from which he was liberated by Russian troops in early March 1945. In 2004 Stolpersteine for the three members of the Laser family who did not survive were placed at the address of their last residence on Danziger Straße.
Translator: Amy Lee
Kindly supported by the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung, Hamburg.
Stand: March 2017
© Benedikt Behrens
Quellen: 1; 4; 5; AfW, Entschädigungsakten; StaH, 522-1, Jüdische Gemeinden, 992 e 2 (Deportationslisten); Interview mit Manfred Leser, April 2008; Meyer, Beate, Die Deportation der Hamburger Juden 1941– 1945, in: dies. (Hg.), Die Verfolgung und Ermordung der Hamburger Juden 1933–1945. Geschichte. Zeugnis. Erinnerung, Hamburg 2006, S. 42–78; Bajohr, Frank, "Arisierung" in Hamburg. Die Verdrängung der jüdischen Unternehmer 1933–1945, Hamburg 1997, S. 363.
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