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Dr. Leopold Winterfeld * 1887

Uhlenhorster Weg 39 (Hamburg-Nord, Uhlenhorst)

Auschwitz
deportiert aus Frankreich

further stumbling stones in Uhlenhorster Weg 39:
Lissi Winterfeld, Werner Winterfeld

Leopold Winterfeld, born on 22 May 1887, deported from France to Auschwitz, died in Lublin on 11 Nov. 1942
Lissi Helena Winterfeld, née Stern, born on 28 Feb. 1896, died in Paris on 28 Dec. 1959
Werner Martin Winterfeld, born on 30 Jan. 1918, deported from France to Auschwitz, died in Lublin on 1 Nov. 1942

Uhlenhorster Weg

Leopold Winterfeld was born in Hamburg as the son of Julius and Marianne, née Nissel. He was the oldest of three children. His brother Bruno was born on 4 Aug. 1890, his sister Louise on 23 Mar. 1893, and Leopold attended the "Academic School of Johanneum High School” ("Gelehrtenschule des Johanneums”) in Hamburg. After graduating from high school, he began studying law, which led to his establishment as a lawyer on 8 May 1914. But for the time being, he was not able to pursue the profession for long, since the First World War had just begun. Like many others, Leopold Winterfeld became a soldier. Since 1915, he fought in the 81st Field Artillery Regiment.

Lissi Winterfeld was the daughter of the merchant Bernhard Stern and his wife Martha, née Elias. She was born in Hamburg on 28 Feb. 1896, the elder of two sisters. Her younger sister Hertha followed shortly afterward. During her youth, Lissi Winterfeld attended the "Höhere Töchterschule,” a girls’ secondary school, and then spent a year at a boarding school in Brussels.

During the First World War, Leopold Winterfeld and his girlfriend Lissi Stern were engaged. The wedding took place on 17 Aug. 1916, when Lissi was already pregnant with their first child, Ilse. Daughter Ilse was born in Thorn on 21 Feb. 1917 and one year later, on 30 Jan. 1918, their son Werner Martin was born in Danzig (today Gdansk in Poland). After the end of the First World War, the Jewish Winterfeld family returned to Hamburg and Leopold resumed his work as a lawyer. Another daughter, Ruth, was born, but she died on 1 Jan. 1921, shortly after her birth.

Leopold Winterfeld’s first law firm was located at Rathausmarkt 3 or 5; later he moved to the Ballinhaus. At this time, the family lived at Hochallee 102, later at Uhlenhorster Weg 39, where today the Stolpersteine for Lissi, Leopold, and Werner Winterfeld are located, and subsequently, they moved to Am Markt 39, now called Barmbeker Markt.

In 1931, the life of the Winterfeld family changed radically. Leopold Winterfeld was charged with embezzlement and breach of trust. In addition, he was committed to pretrial detention in 1932, as there was allegedly danger of absconding. The verdict was passed on 19 July 1933. Leopold Winterfeld was found guilty and sentenced to one year and six months in prison. The court reportedly ruled in his favor because it apparently viewed the reason for the embezzled funds as grounds for mitigation. The court found that Leopold Winterfeld had used the money exclusively to finance his wife’s costly lifestyle and had not spent it on himself. Before Leopold Winterfeld was sentenced to prison, he fled to France in August. Previously, he had himself removed from the list of attorneys, thus preempting his expulsion.

Lissi Winterfeld stayed in Hamburg for a short time to accommodate her children with their parents. After that, she followed her husband into emigration. However, she kept her official address at the residence of her father, Bernhard Stern.

The children, Werner and Ilse, tried to follow their normal everyday life in Hamburg. But especially for Werner, this was almost impossible. Actually, he dreamed of graduating from high school and studying to become an engineer. However, as early as 1932, he had to change schools because he was insulted and attacked by both students and teachers. Therefore, he had no choice but to leave the Johanneum and switch to another high school, the Wilhelm-Gymnasium. In 1934, he left high school without a diploma to start an apprenticeship. He hoped that political conditions would improve and that he would be able to catch up on his degree and studies. Werner managed to complete a three-year apprenticeship with Carsten Jacobsen, who owned a car repair shop. He then received an offer from Arnold Bernstein, who owned a shipping company, Red Star Linien GmbH. Werner Winterfeld worked there as an engineering assistant from Easter 1937 onward. However, Arnold Bernstein was arrested in the same year because of his Jewish descent and imprisoned in the Fuhlsbüttel police prison, whereupon Werner Winterfeld also lost his job on 21 Dec. 1937. After that, he emigrated to Italy in 1938.

Ilse Winterfeld also initially stayed with her grandparents. At the end of the 1930s, she married Benjamin Fränkel. Together they emigrated to Britain in 1940 and found an apartment in London, where they stayed even after the end of the Second World War.

In Paris, Leopold Winterfeld could hardly provide for himself, as it was difficult to get to work. That is why he regularly received money from his father-in-law, Bernhard Stern. Until 1939, Leopold Winterfeld lived together with his wife Lissi, alternately in France and Italy. Sometimes he worked in Nice, then he went to Naples to work there as a tanner. In Italy, the parents met Werner again, who had just emigrated from Germany.

In 1939, Lissi Winterfeld spent a short time in Prague, now occupied by German troops, where she was arrested by the Gestapo. She was detained from 10 March to 18 April. After her release, she fled to Paris, where her husband and son were already waiting for her.

On 14 Mar. 1940, Leopold and Werner Winterfeld were arrested and interned in the Camp de la Viscose, where they had to perform forced labor in the 15th Foreign Laborer Company. From there, they were transferred to the Camp les Milles concentration camp near Marseille on 17 Dec. 1941. There, too, they performed forced labor in a company of foreign workers. Their detention lasted until 31 Oct. 1942, the day they were transported to the Drancy transit camp, northeast of Paris. From there, transports were sent almost weekly to concentration camps in Eastern Europe, mostly to Auschwitz. Leopold’s brother, Bruno Winterfeld, had already been deported from Drancy to Auschwitz on 28 Aug. 1942. Leopold and Werner Winterfeld were deported together on a transport to the Auschwitz concentration camp on 11 November. They both survived there until the spring of 1943. On 4 March, they were deported to Lublin and murdered.

Lissi Winterfeld stayed in Paris after the arrest of her husband and son and hid under the name of Rougier with various acquaintances. She lived with Marie-Augustine Baumann on Rue Marbeuf, then moved to Adéle Silmain on Rue MacMahon, and resided with Marthe Weinsztock on Rue du Collisée. Lissi Winterfeld tried to survive with translations and casual work. On 18 Apr. 1944, however, she was discovered and arrested by the Gestapo.

This was followed by an ordeal that led her through several concentration camps. First, she was detained in the Fresnes concentration camp in France. On 30 May 1944, she was transferred to a prison in Berlin and deported from there to Auschwitz. After the Auschwitz concentration camp was dissolved, Lissi Winterfeld was taken to Bergen-Belsen and shortly afterwards to the Salzwedel subcamp, where she performed forced labor in an ammunition factory. There she was liberated by the Allies on 11 Apr. 1945.

Only one month later, she arrived in Paris on a transport of French concentration camp inmates and learned there of the death of her husband and son. She tried to find work in Paris and got a job in the film industry for a brief period. However, this was not enough to make a living in the long run, so she decided to return to Hamburg. On 20 Dec. 1949, she arrived in her hometown and first lived at Sedanstrasse 23, in the Jewish nursing home, until she got an apartment at Sentastrasse 44b. Lissi Winterfeld, her daughter Ilse and her sister Hertha Stern, as well as Leopold’s sister Louise survived the Holocaust. Leopold’s brother Bruno perished in Auschwitz. Lissi’s father, Bernhard Stern was deported to Theresienstadt and died there. Her mother died of colorectal cancer in Hamburg.

Since Lissi Winterfeld was registered in Hamburg under her father’s address until 1944, her name was also on the deportation list to Theresienstadt. For this reason, the information that she died in Theresienstadt in 1944 can also be found on her Stolperstein. However, this does not match the available facts. After her liberation from the concentration camp, Lissi Winterfeld suffered from constant headaches, a heart defect, and a nervous disease. In 1957, during a trip to Paris, she had a stroke and suffered paralyzation on the left side. She passed away in Paris on 28 Dec. 1959.


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

Stand: May 2019
© Carmen Smiatacz

Quellen: 1; 4; 5; 8; StaHH 351-11, AfW, Abl. 2008/1, 04.08.90 Winterfeld, Bruno; StaHH 351-11, AfW, Abl. 2008/1, 22.05.87 Winterfeld, Leopold; StaHH 351-11, AfW, Abl. 2008/1, 28.02.96 Winterfeld, geb. Stern, Lissy; StaHH 351-11, AfW, Abl. 2008/1, 30.01.18 Winterfeld, Werner.
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