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Edgar Horschitz 1922 in Reinbek
© Archiv David Blank, Jerusalem

Edgar Horschitz * 1887

Rothenbaumchaussee 31 (Eimsbüttel, Rotherbaum)

1941 Riga
1940-41 Zuchthaus HH-Fuhlsbüttel, KZ Fuhlsbüttel

• http://www.blankgenealogy.com/getperson.php?personID=I9588&tree=Blank1
  (Edgar Horschitz at blankgenealogy)

further stumbling stones in Rothenbaumchaussee 31:
Erwin Horschitz, Jenny Landjung, Helene Lurie, Hertha Wohl, Erich Wohl

Edgar Bruno Horschitz, born on 15 Aug. 1887 in Hamburg, deported to Riga on 6 Dec. 1941

Rothenbaumchaussee 31

Edgar Bruno Horschitz was born in Hamburg as the youngest child of merchant Julius Horschitz (1843–1910) and Ilka Betty Horschitz, née Fleischel (born in 1854 in Leipzig). Before him, his siblings Erwin (in 1878), Walther (in 1880), Katharina (in 1882), and Richard (in 1884) were also born in the Hanseatic city. When they married in Hamburg in 1877, both parents were recorded as having Jewish religious affiliation. However, in 1888, they had their five children baptized as Christians in Hamburg-St. Georg.

Edgar attended the private Wahnschaff primary school in Hamburg. In Apr. 1897, the family moved to Kassel, the hometown of grandfather Moritz (Moses) Horschitz.

In 1905, Edgar Horschitz graduated from the Realgymnasium [a high school focused on science, math, and modern languages] in Kassel (up to the Oberprima, the last year of high school) and he was also eligible for the shortened one-year military service. In Apr. 1906, he traveled to his father’s home in Britain, where he worked briefly in his father’s business and then completed a two-and-a-half-year apprenticeship in a London metal company. Accordingly, he was temporarily deferred from military service in 1907 and was not mustered until 1908. The military record sheet recorded standard height (1.7 meters), weight (66 kilograms), and chest circumference (87/95 centimeters), as well as denomination (Protestant).

Shortly thereafter, Edgar Horschitz sent a medical certificate via the German Consulate General in London, which further delayed his enlistment. He stayed with his father in London in April/May 1908 as well. His father, Julius Horschitz, for 28 years a partner at "Arnthal & Horschitz Gebr. [Bros.]” (Hamburg), died in Oct. 1910 in Hempstead near London. Already in 1908, Edgar Horschitz had joined his uncle’s company, Staackmann, Horschitz & Co (Hamburg and Antwerp), in a position of responsibility, at his uncle’s request. The company was active in the import/export business and owned its own fertilizer plant, and Edgar Horschitz was employed in the Antwerp business of the company. In 1910 and 1911, among other periods, he stayed for a long time in Antwerp, where he was included in the list of immigrant foreigners.

He did his military service from Oct. 1910 to Sept. 1911 with the 1st Electoral Hesse Field Artillery Regiment No. 11 in Kassel. His brothers Erwin and Walter had also served with a field artillery regiment, but in Baden. Edgar Horschitz finished his military service as a non-commissioned officer and officer candidate. He then returned to work in his uncle’s Antwerp business.

From Jan. 1912, he went on a world tour for one and a quarter years, "which took me across all continents for the purpose of studying fertilizer conditions and toward the interest of the sales of our plant.” In Oct. 1912, together with his uncle Fritz W. Horschitz (born in 1874 in Kassel), who had departed Hamburg in May 1905 with destination Antwerp, he traveled from Hong Kong (British Crown Colony) to Honolulu/ Hawaii (USA), during which Edgar Horschitz fell ill with malaria. This voyage was one leg of their route from Yokohama (Japan) to Cherbourg (northern France).

In 1913, after his world trip in fertilizer matters, he was hired by his uncle’s company to establish and manage a new branch office in London. This work lasted until the summer of 1914. The First World War put an end to this international life, because the German Empire was henceforth at war with many of the countries he had traveled shortly before.

Edgar Horschitz, too, volunteered for the war. After the initial declaration of war, he left London to make himself – in his words – "available to my regiment in Kassel, moving out in mid-Aug. 1914 with Res.Field.Art.Reg. 22 as a non-commissioned officer, was promoted to vice sergeant in Sept. 1914 and appointed lieutenant of the reserve in Dec. 1914. I was assigned to the Western Front during the four years of the war and served with my regiment as battery officer, battery commander, observation, and liaison officer in the infantry. I was the first of my formation to receive the Iron Cross Second Class on 13 Nov. 1914 and for my efficiency outside Verdun in 1916, on the Emperor’s birthday (January) 1917, the Iron Cross First Class. I also hold the Hanseatic Cross of Merit and the Frontline Veteran’s Badge.” His highest military rank until 1918 was captain. One may assume that Edgar Horschitz, too, returned to Germany after the armistice on the Western Front (11 Nov. 1918) and was demobilized.

When the third child of his brother Erwin was baptized in Feb. 1916 in the St. Johanniskirche in Hamburg-Eppendorf, Edgar Horschitz was one of the three godparents, along with Professor Rothfels and Clara Lamel. Uncle Fritz Horschitz as well as Augusta Horschitz, née Villard (1880–1917), had been godparents to the second child of Erwin Horschitz in June 1915.

On 10 Mar. 1919, Edgar Horschitz had a passport issued for "Inland & Holland” in Hamburg. His Hamburg residential address in 1919 was Grindelallee 9 on the third floor. However, the Hamburg directory of 1919 and 1920 did not list him there as the main tenant, so it can be assumed that he was residing as a subtenant.

He moved to Cologne and worked there – as before the war – as a broker for his uncle’s company in London and Antwerp. The laws and ordinances of the National Socialists, enacted starting in 1933, destroyed his economic existence. Eventually, he worked as an independent merchant, until the end of 1938 with "travel activities in the textiles sector.” In a handwritten curriculum vitae, written in 1940, he noted, "After it was no longer possible for me to continue my trade as a result of the regulations against full Jews, I was taken in by my relatives in Hamburg and I have been supported by them ever since.”

For the year 1939, his address was Rothenbaumchaussee 31/ intersection of Johnsallee. In 1940, he stated that he lived at Hamburgerstrasse 70 with the related lawyer Hans Arnthal (1883–1963), who, however, had already emigrated to Australia via Switzerland with his wife Franziska in Nov. 1938.

From 1933 onward, he had been gradually marginalized and deprived of his rights in Nazi Germany due to his Jewish descent. With the "Reich Citizenship Law” and the "Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honor (Gesetz zum Schutz des deutschen Blutes und der deutschen Ehre, also called Blutschutzgesetz),” Jews were degraded to citizens of lesser rights in Germany in 1935. Marriages and intimate contacts between Jews and non-Jews were now forbidden and were legally prosecuted. On 6 Jan. 1940, Edgar Horschitz was imprisoned based on the new criminal offense of "racial defilement” ("Rassenschande”) created by the Nazi state. On 24 Apr. 1940, the court sentenced him to two years in prison; he was represented in court by "legal adviser” ("Konsulent”) Hugo Möller (1881–1951); there is no copy of the verdict in the preserved prison file.

At the beginning of June 1940, he was transferred from the Hamburg pretrial detention center to the Fuhlsbüttel prison, where he was imprisoned in Cell 139 in Ward E4 and assigned to bag gluing. He appealed against the sentence on 26 Apr. 1940. As early as 25 Apr. 1940, a judicial inspector from the public prosecutor’s office noted on a document in the prison file, "The convict is to be transferred to the criminal investigation department in Hamburg after serving his sentence.”

Apparently, neither attorney Möller nor the convict was ever sent a copy of the verdict. From Sept. 1940 onward, both of them tried to obtain it, but it was not until Mar. 1941 that they received the document.

Edgar Horschitz was visited every three months by his brother Erwin Horschitz (see http://www.stolpersteine-hamburg.de) and in Sept. 1941 also by his sister Katharina Goldschmidt, née Horschitz (1882–1942). In addition, the prison file noted three visits by "legal adviser” Hugo Möller (Nov. 1940, July 1941, and Sept. 1941) and one visit by "legal adviser” Scharlach (Sept. 1941) – a total of 10 personal contacts with the outside world during his two years in prison.

Moreover, Edgar Horschitz’ letters did not always reach his family members, such as a letter in Oct. 1941 that was enclosed in the prison file. In Mar. 1941, Edgar Horschitz asked for a Bible and a hymnal, and in July 1941, he requested the "delivery of the following books & effects: 1) the Messiah by Klopstock, 2) history tables, 3) advertising catalog for his educational purposes” (the Klopstock book was refused).

On 29 Jan. 1941, "legal adviser” Möller (based at Rathausstrasse 27) filed a petition for clemency to remit the remainder of the sentence, which was rejected by Chief Public Prosecutor Stegemann on 13 Mar. 1941. (The person in question was probably Wilhelm Stegemann, born on 16 Apr. 1895 in Hamburg, who held a dual doctorate and who, among other things, had pleaded for the death penalty in the trial of Fiete Schulze (see http://www.stolpersteine-hamburg.de) in 1935 acting as the prosecuting attorney and who, in the case of an alleged "racial defilement” of Manfred Heckscher (see http://www.stolpersteine-hamburg.de) had been instrumental in the sentencing to six years in prison in 1938).

Due to the beginning of the Second World War, emigration was very difficult because of the large number of closed diplomatic missions, closed borders, and partially discontinued transport connections. Edgar Horschitz did not succeed. On 23 Oct. 1941, the German Reich issued a general ban on emigration for Jews.

On 25 Oct. 1941, the first Jews were deported from Hamburg to the ghetto in occupied Lodz. Already at the beginning of Nov. 1941, his relatives thus feared the deportation of Edgar Horschitz. Therefore, his brother Erwin wrote to the prison administration on 10 November, "Since I am expecting the imminent evacuation of my brother Edgar Horschitz, I politely request permission for a visit outside the scheduled sequence on Thursday, the 13th of the month, for the purpose of discussing the clothes to be taken along and prepared, travel effects, etc.”

This request was approved on 12 November, and at the same time, the penitentiary informed the Secret State Police (Geheime Staatspolizei – Gestapo) by means of a signal red form that the prisoner was to be released on 5 Jan. 1942; the criminal investigation department received an identical blue form. This did not happen: On 14 Nov. 1941, the chief public prosecutor of the Hamburg Regional Court (Landgericht) ordered the prisoner’s release because of "the evacuation.” For this purpose, he was transferred to the Hamburg-Fuhlsbüttel police prison. An administrative inspector noted this arbitrary act in the file as if it had been a decision under the rule of law.

On 6 Dec. 1941, 54-year-old Edgar Horschitz was deported from Hamburg to the Jungfernhof subcamp of the Riga Ghetto along with about 1,000 other persons. There all traces of him disappear. About 95 percent of the camp inmates perished.

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

Stand: May 2021
© Björn Eggert

Quellen: Staatsarchiv Hamburg (StaH) 332-5 (Standesämter), 9025 u. 3722/1887 (Geburtsregister 1887, Edgar Horschitz); StaH 332-8 (Meldewesen), Mikrofilm K 6285 (Alte Einwohnermeldekartei 1892-1925, Fritz Wilhelm Horschitz); StaH 332-8 (Meldewesen), A 24 Band 185 (Reisepassprotokolle 1897-1929), 1553/1919 (Edgar Horschitz); StaH 332-8 (Meldewesen), A 24 Band 187 (Reisepassprotokolle 1897-1929), 3865/1919 (Edgar Horschitz); StaH 242-1 II (Gefängnisverwaltung II), 2316 (Edgar Horschitz, darin handgeschriebener Lebenslauf vom 4.6.1940); StaH 342-2 (Militär-Ersatzbehörden), D II 127 Band 3 (Edgar Horschitz, 1907-1908); StaH 741-4 (Fotoarchiv), A 255 (Mikrofilm von StaH 242-1 II, Gefängnisverwaltung II, Untersuchungshaftkartei für Männer, Ha-Hy, 17512); StaH 241-2 (Justizverwaltung Personalakten), A 3449 (Dr. Dr. Wilhelm Johannes Christian Stegemann); Stadtarchiv Kassel, Meldekarten (Edgar Horschitz); Landesarchiv Berlin (über ancestry), Sterberegister 1917 (Augusta Horschitz, geb. Villard, Ehemann: Walter August Horschitz in Charlottenburg bei Berlin); YadVashem Page of Testimony (Edgar Horschitz, 2017, ohne Foto); Kirchengemeinde Hamburg-St. Georg, Taufregister 936/1888 (19.10.1888 Erwin Horschitz, Walther Horschitz, Katharina Horschitz, Richard Horschitz, Edgar Horschitz); Volksbund deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge e.V., Riga-Komitee der deutschen Städte (Hrsg.), bearbeitet von Wolfgang Scheffler u. Diana Schulle, Buch der Erinnerung: Die ins Baltikum deportierten deutschen, österreichischen und tschechoslowakischen Juden, 2011, S. 612 (Edgar Horschitz, Hamburg, Beneckestr. 2); Hamburger Börsenfirmen 1910, S. 630 (Staackmann, Horschitz & Co., gegründet 1901, Inhaber: Hermann E.A.W.E. Staackmann/ Antwerpen, Fritz Wilh. Horschitz/ Brüssel, Friedr. Ernst Hans Thielecke/ Hamburg u. Francis Gerard Baker/Hamburg, Niederlassung in Antwerpen, Import von Indien: Düngemittel, Futtermittel, Salpeter, Knochenschrot-Mehl, Futterkuchen, Adresse in Hamburg: Dovenhof 51-53); Hamburgs Handel und Verkehr, Illustriertes Export-Handbuch der Börsenhalle 1912/1914, Hamburg, ohne Datum, S. 140 (Staackmann, Horschitz & Co., Dovenhof 63, Export von Düngemitteln und Futtermitteln, Import von Düngemitteln und Futtermitteln); Heiko Morisse, Jüdische Rechtsanwälte in Hamburg. Ausgrenzung und Verfolgung im NS-Staat, Hamburg 2003, S. 116 (Dr. Hans Arnthal); Adressbuch Hamburg 1910 (Staackmann, Horschitz & Co.); Adressbuch Hamburg 1941 (Dr. Wilh. Stegemann, Staatsanwalt, Eidelstedterweg 21); www.ancestry.de (Passagierliste 1912 von Hongkong nach Honolulu); www.stolpersteine-hamburg.de (Erwin Horschitz); https://www.ndr.de/fernsehen/sendungen/panorama3/Akten-aus-der-NS-Zeit-So-urteilten-Hamburger-Richter,naziakten116.html (gesendet 3.9.2919, darin auch Dr. Stegemann erwähnt).