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Alfred Samenfeld * 1898

Steinwegpassage 28 (Hamburg-Mitte, Neustadt)

HIER WOHNTE
ALFRED SAMENFELD
JG. 1898
DEPORTIERT 1941
ERMORDET IN
MINSK

further stumbling stones in Steinwegpassage 28:
Henry Koppel, Therese Lewin, William Salomon

Alfred Samenfeld, born 8 Nov. 1898 in Diepholz, deported 8 Nov. 1941 to Minsk

Steinwegpassage 28

Alfred Samenfeld was born in Diepholz in the Prussian province Hanover, the sixth and youngest child of the Jewish couple Julius, also called Joseph, Jacob Samenfeld (born 13 Oct. 1847) and Bertha, née Frankenberg (born 14 Sept. 1856 in Warmsen). His parents had wed on 28 Apr. 1880. His father ran a shop selling imported foods such as tea, coffee and sugar at Mühlenstraße 3 in Diepholz. In a book by Falk Liebezeit and Herbert Major, entitled Auf den Spuren jüdischer Geschichte in Diepholz (Tracing Jewish History in Diepholz), a woman from Diepholz recounted in 1997, "Julius Samenfeld was called Plünnenjulius and he sold assorted goods, like candies, he was a small man in a frock coat and top hat.”

In 1905 when Alfred was seven years old, his older brother Iwan (born 29 Oct. 1880), eighteen years his senior, immigrated to Havana. His sister Mathilde (born 9 Mar. 1882) never met Alfred as she died shortly after her birth. He had three other siblings, Siegfried Julius (born 2 Sept. 1883), Carl Isidor (born 21 Sept. 1885) and Johanna Bianka (born 24 Feb. 1893). She married the merchant Harry Simon (born 8 Nov. 1891) on 24 Feb. 1920 and lived in Uchte in Lower Saxony.

In his home town of Diepholz, Alfred Samenfeld trained in a commercial occupation. He served in World War I and was severely injured by shrapnel in 1918. He remained physically disabled from his war injury and later received a small monthly pension of 20.60 Reich Marks.

After the end of the war, Alfred Samenfeld worked as a commercial clerk at various "intestine sellers” (for culinary purposes) in Memel, Linden, Halle and Erfurt. From 1924 to 1928 he worked in his father’s store in Diepholz and at Fromberg Book Store until Nov. 1929. Alfred Samenfeld became unemployed due to the world economic crisis but initially found temporary work with a master baker. His father passed away in Uchte in 1931.

On 12 Oct. 1932, Alfred Samenfeld went to Hamburg and moved into a room as a lodger at Hammerbrookstraße 56 in St. Georg where his brother Carl was already registered. Carl Samenfeld went to Berlin in Oct. 1933 to works as a sales representative. According to the census from May 1939, he lived at Windscheidstraße 34 in the Charlottenburg neighborhood. In 1940 he married Minna Schönfeld (born in Berlin on 30 Aug. 1892).

Since he had excellent references, Alfred Samenfeld soon found work in Hamburg as an agent of the life insurance company Berliner Lebensversicherung at Alten Wall 8. Then he sold cleaning products as a traveling salesman working on commission for a company at Hornerweg 84. At the start of 1934, he was apprehended by the police as a "peddler” for selling notions like shoe laces without a business license, but he was let go with a warning. Afterwards Alfred Samenfeld did not work anymore, he drew support payments from a welfare office. A clerk at the Hamburg Welfare Office noted in his file after visiting him at his home that Alfred Samenfeld maintained military order in his room, and in Feb. 1934 that he gave the impression of being malnourished. At the end of 1938, Alfred Samenfeld lived at Großen Theaterstraße 39a, with the stoker O. Franke. Early in 1938 he moved to Caffamacherreihe 28, Building 1, and lived with a Ms. E. Winkler. As a welfare recipient, he was called on to do emergency work three days a week in a so-called Jewish gang as of 1937. According to his welfare file, he first did excavation work on a mud field in Waltershof, then tunneling work in Buxtehude, where he was housed in a special camp for forced laborers at Bollweg 20. Until Feb. 1940 he worked for a company in Wandsbek at Zollstraße 102.

Alfred Samenfeld’s final residence was at Steinwegpassage 28, living with Therese Lewin (see her entry). He was deported from there on 8 Nov. 1941 and sent to Minsk Ghetto where he was killed.

His brother Carl Samenfeld and sister-in-law Minna were deported on 3 Feb. 1943 from Berlin to Auschwitz-Birkenau.

His sister Johanna Simon was taken with her husband Harry from Uchte to Hanover on 31 Mar. 1942 and from there deported to the Warsaw Ghetto. After the war, they were declared dead.

Stumbling Stones have been laid in Uchte to honor Mr. and Mrs. Simon.

Translator: Suzanne von Engelhardt
Kindly supported by the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung, Hamburg.

Stand: May 2020
© Susanne Rosendahl

Quellen: 1; 4; 5; 9; StaH 351-14 Arbeits- und Sozialfürsorge 1821 (Samenfeld, Alfred); StaH 522-1 Jüdische Gemeinde Nr. 992 e 2 Band 2; Auskünfte von Falk Liebezeit, E-Mail vom 7.4.2014; Liebezeit/Major: Spuren, S. 247-248; www.ancestry.de: (Heiratsregister von Bertha Frankenberg und Josef Jacob Samenfeld, Zugriff 18.9.2016); www.ancestry.de: (Geburtsregister von Carl Isidor Samenfeld, Zugriff 18.9.2016); www.ancestry.de: (Geburtsregister von Alfred Samenfeld, Zugriff 18.9.2016); https://www.stolpersteine-uchte.de/home/stolpersteine-uchte/johanna-und-harry-simon/ (Zugriff 18.9.2016).
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