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Gisela Kargauer (née Mularski) * 1920

Heinrich-Barth-Straße 1 (Eimsbüttel, Rotherbaum)

1941 Lodz
ermordet

further stumbling stones in Heinrich-Barth-Straße 1:
Heinz Kargauer, Cilly Mularski, Leweck Mularski, Sigfried Mularski

Gisela Kargauer, née Mularski, born on 12 Apr. 1920 in Brzezany/Poland, deported on 25 Oct. 1941 to the "Litzmannstadt” (Lodz) Ghetto, probably died on 9 Sept. 1942 in the Kulmhof (Chelmno) extermination camp

Heinrich-Barth-Strasse 1

Gisela Kargauer, née Mularski, was born as the child of Ziwje Hyroje, née Finkelberg, and Leweck Leo Mularski in Brzezany in Poland. Seven months after Gisela’s birth, the family emigrated to Germany. On 23 Dec. 1920, they moved to Lübeck. Their belongings included a gold watch, 30 rubles in gold, and one ring. The sister of Ziwje, Chana Daicz, née Finkelberg, had already taken up residence with her family in Lübeck in the course of 1920, as had the mother of the two, Malka Finkelberg.

In the following years, three additional children were born: Iwan Issac, Julius, and Siegfried Mularski. In 1931, a few months after his birth, Siegfried was admitted to the infant and maternity home at Schildstrasse 12 in Lübeck for a short period, and starting in 1934, the disabled Siegfried was registered in the Vorwerk Home (located in Lübeck-Vorwerk). From 1932 onward, the rest of the Mularski family lived at Dankwartsgrube 1 in Lübeck’s poor district. The father, Leweck, tried to support the family by working as a tailor. Gisela and her brother Iwan attended the Israelite Religious School in Lübeck.

On 27 July 1936, the family moved to Hamburg. They now lived in a four-and-a-half-bedroom apartment at Heinrich-Barth-Strasse 1, where Leweck Mularski set up his tailor’s workshop. In addition, the family received assistance from the Jewish welfare office. Starting on 15 Apr. 1939, Siegfried lived with his parents again. They probably fetched him to Hamburg to protect him from the "T4 operation” ("Aktion T4”). This code name designated the "euthanasia murders” during the Nazi period. In the Vorwerker Diakonie, the charitable home where Siegfried had lived, the people in charge did attempt to protect the occupants from deportation. However, they were unable to prevent ten persons from being deported from the home on 16 Sept. 1940 and murdered.

In Hamburg, too, the Mularskis had to struggle with exclusion and discrimination. On 11 Jan. 1939, Leweck Mularski was committed to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp. At this point, the family tried with all means in their power to escape from Germany. It was possible for Iwan and Julius to flee on a children transport (Kindertransport) organized by the Initiative "Gloucestershire Association for Aiding Refugees” to Gloucestershire in Britain. It was particularly hard for them not being able to bid farewell to their father who was still in prison at the time. When Leweck Mularski had returned to Hamburg, he undertook efforts to get the rest of the family out of Germany as well. He submitted an application for himself and his wife Ziwje, as well as for Gisela for emigration to Shanghai. Some of the Jews living in Lübeck had already fled to Shanghai, and perhaps Leweck Mularski maintained contact with them.

In the application for an exit visa, he indicated not having any assets. He hoped to be able to work as a tailor again later, listing pieces of equipment he wished to take along, such as a tailor’s sewing machine, a tailor’s desk, and an ironing block. In the summer of 1939, the shipping of the items abroad was approved. However, eventually the Mularski family did not emigrate to Shanghai because the start of the Second World War prevented this.

Around this time, Gisela must have met her future husband, Heinz Kargauer. A passage in a letter written by friends of Gisela from Lübeck in the spring of 1940 reads, "Gisela Mularski got engaged recently, and she and the groom called on us last week. He seems to be a very nice person, and they intend to get married soon.”

Heinz Kargauer moved in with his wife Gisela and her family to the apartment at Heinrich-Barth-Strasse 1, which was located only a few houses away from his parents’ home.

One year later, the remaining members of the Mularski family, as well as all members of the Kargauer family, were deported to the "Litzmannstadt”/Lodz Ghetto. On the day before, the persons affected had to report to the former Masonic Lodge at Moorweidenstrasse 36. At this place, oppressive conditions prevailed: 1,000 persons were crowded into crammed space, there were dreadful hygienic conditions, and the Gestapo beat people arbitrarily. On the next morning, the persons had to board trains going to Lodz.

There, the Mularski family was able to stay together with Heinz Kargauer. Initially, they lived in apartment no. 18 at Siegfriedstrasse 2, later at Rauchgasse 16. At the end of Aug. 1942, the Reich Security Main Office (Reichssicherheitshauptamt) ordered all occupants of the ghetto under ten years and over 65 years of age, as well as all ill persons and those without work to be deported. The ghetto was intended to become a pure labor camp. From 5 Sept. until 12 Sept. 1942, an "Allgemeine Gehsperre” [literally, "general walking block”] was in effect in the ghetto, in the course of which the SS deported children, sick and old people. A total of 15,685 persons fell victim to the operation. Nearly every occupant of the ghetto lost family members during the "Sperre” ("block”). The people were taken to Radegast train station and deported to Kulmhof (Chelmno), where they were murdered immediately upon arrival. Gisela and Heinz were also among those deported in the course of "Aktion Gehsperre” [literally, "operation walking block”]. On a list of the ghetto administration, 9 Sept. 1942 is indicated as the date of their deportation. Gisela and Heinz were probably murdered even on that same day.

Translator: Erwin Fink

Kindly supported by the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung, Hamburg.

Stand: October 2016
© Mariane Pöschel

Quellen: StaHH, 522-1 Jüdische Gemeinden, 992b, Kultussteuerkartei der Deutsch-Israelitischen Gemeinde Hamburg; StaHH, 314-15 Oberfinanzpräsident, Fvg.7673; StaHH, 314-15 Oberfinanzpräsident, 47Ua3 Listen jüdischer Fürsorgeempfänger; StaHH, 314-15 Oberfinanzpräsident, 24UA1 Deportationslisten, Deportation am 25.10.1941 Kugler-Weiemann, Heidemarie, "Hoffentlich klappt alles zum Guten", Göttingen 2006; Nicholas Mark Burkitt, Dissertation an der University o exeter 2011: Britisch Society and the Jews_ A Study into the Impact of the Second World war Era and the establishment of israel, 1938-1938; https://ore.exeter.ac.uk/repository/bitstream/handle/10036/3372/BurkittN.pdf?sequence=4 (Zugriff 20.7.2014); Archiv der Hansestadt Lübeck, Meldekarten u. Verzeichnis der Schulen; www.stolpersteine-lübeck.de; www.bundesarchiv/gedenkbuch , Meyer, Beate (Hg.), Die Verfolgung und Ermordung der Hamburger Juden 1933–1945, Hamburg 2006: Yad Vashem, Gedenkblatt für Heinz Kargauer, Gisela Kargauer, Leweck Mularski; Löw, Andrea, Juden im Getto Litzmannstadt: Lebensbedingungen, Selbstwahrnehmung, Verhalten, Göttingen 2006, S. 307–311; Archiv Lodz, div. Dokumente.