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Kurt Wagener * 1903

Isestraße 11 (Eimsbüttel, Harvestehude)

Verhaftet 1938
KZ Fuhlsbüttel
KZ Sachsenhausen
ermordet 29.12.1938

further stumbling stones in Isestraße 11:
Alfriede Wagener

Alfriede Wagener, née Grübel, born 5/3/1880 in Hamburg, deported to Lodz on 10/25/1941, murdered in Chelmno in May 1942
Kurt Wagener, born 6/23/1903 in Hamburg, 1938 imprisonment at Fuhlsbüttel police prison, died on 12/29/1938 at Sachsenhausen concentration camp

Kurt Wagener was born as the only child of Alfriede and Henri Hirsch Wagener in 1903. The family lived at Isestrasse 11 from 1913 until at least 1932. Kurt Wagener was a shareholder in the company of "Ascher & Schubert Nachfl." In 1925, he moved to Berlin, but must have returned to Hamburg later, because he was among those who were imprisoned at the Fuhlsbüttel police prison during then pogrom of November 193, and later – like all those arrested in Hamburg – transferred to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp. He perished there on December 29th of the same year. We do not know if he was murdered or simply could not cope with the miserable conditions. The archive of the Sachsenhausen memorial site only lists his date of death, without further details.

His father died no two weeks later, at the age of not quite 66. Perhaps the family had already moved to Grindelberg then, or Alfriede Wagener had to move their alone and then once again to a sublet room before she was deported to Lodz on October 25th, 1941. Until then, she had worked for the "information center for Jewish economic aid.”

She shared the fate of 1,034 other men, women and children from Hamburg who were forced to board the train for the east on that day. None of them were prepared fort what was expecting them: mass accommodation with hastily carpentered wooden bunks. Only gradually they could move to "apartments” that only offered barren accommodation. It was icy cold, shortly after their arrival, the thermometer dropped to 8 below zero Celsius. Fuel to heat the stoves had to be carried back to the quarters. Those who had a bit of money left might have afforded a porter. Then, they were assigned to work.

From October 18th to November 4th, 20,000 "western Jews” from the "Reich”, from Luxemburg, Austria, Bohemia and Moravia arrived in Lodz, among them 100 physicians, dentists and nursing personnel, who were the first to find work. Qualified craftsmen were also very much in demand, as the ghetto supported itself by working in workshops and small factories. People who were too old or too weak could not find a job. This happened to Alfriede Wagener. Half a year later, with another deportation pending, she wrote to the Lodz Amt für Aussiedelung ("resettlement agency”):

"I kindly request that my evacuation be deferred. Since last winter, I have been suffering from frostbite in my hands and feet, and I have open wounds that are now being treated at the hospital in Hanseatenstrasse. I cannot possibly walk longer distances, so that I must fear I could not stand the hardships of evacuation. Also, I would like to point out that my son died in a concentration camp, and that I have also lost my husband a week later, so that now I am completely alone. I have been looking for work since I arrived here, but did not a job on account of my age. I am 62 years old and a perfect tailor. I am convinced that I can work just as well as younger persons. I would feel blessed if this request was not in vain. Sincerely, Alfriede Wagener.”

Her request was rejected. Alfriede Wagener had written the letter on May 2nd. Rumors about an impending "resettlement” to another labor ghetto, possibly in France or Bessarabia, were going around since the end of April. The first train departed on May 2nd. The anxiety increased when the inhabitants learned that the "resettlers” had been deprived of all their baggage at the station – the little they had been allowed to take along. From May 4th to 15th, 12 trains with a total of 10,993 "passengers” who were forced to pay 2,95 RM each for the trip left Lodz, bound for Chelmno and death in the gas chamber. Alfriede Wagener was on one of them.


Translated by Peter Hubschmid
Kindly supported by the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung, Hamburg.

Stand: May 2019
© Christa Fladhammer

Quellen: 1; Auskunft Gedenkstätte und Museum Sachsenhausen vom 29.9.2009, Signatur in Archiv Sachsenhausen D 1 A/1020, Bl.556; USHMM,RG 15.083, M 300/1104-1104a; Die Chronik des Gettos Lodz/Litzmannstadt, Hrsg. Sascha Feuchert u. a., Göttingen 2007, Bd. 1941, S. 268ff; Bd. 1942, S. 142ff, S. 160f.; Andreas Engwert, Susanne Kill, Sonderzüge in den Tod: Die Deportationen der Deutschen Reichsbahn, Köln 2009, S. 95.
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