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Mathilde Jordan (née Lehmann) * 1880

Oberaltenallee 72 (Hamburg-Nord, Uhlenhorst)

HIER WOHNTE
MATHILDE JORDAN
GEB. LEHMANN
JG. 1880
EINGEWIESEN 1939
HEILANSTALT LANGENHORN
"VERLEGT" 23.9.1940
BRANDENBURG
ERMORDET 23.9.1940
"AKTION T4"

Mathilde Jordan, née Lehmann, born 17.1.1880 in Speyer, murdered on 23.9.1940 in the killing centre Brandenburg an der Havel

Oberaltenallee 60 (Care Home Oberaltenallee)

Mathilde Jordan was born on 17 Jan. 1880 in Speyer, the daughter of the livestock trader Jacob, known as Gerson, Lehmann I and his wife Karoline, née Meyer. Mathilde`s parents professed the jewish faith. Jacob Lehman married Karoline Meyer ca 1878 in what was his second marriage. His first wife, Susanna, née Berg born 1842 had died in Speyer on 1 Sept. 1877. By her he had six children: Flora, born on 6 June 1864, Samuel, born on 18 March 1866, Ludwig, born on 22 Jan. 1869, Isaak, born on 22 Dec. 1870 and died 2 Nov. 1893, Markus, born on 9 March 1872 and Karolina, born on 11 Oct. 1874. With the exception of Karolina who was born in Speyer, all the children were born in Gommersheim, a small place in the Southern Weinstrasse region.

With his second wife, Karoline, née Mayer, born on 19 Nov. 1845 (1843), Jacob Lehmann had four more children: Arnold, born on 10 Jan. 1879, Mathilde, born on 17 Jan. 1880, Melanie, born on 21 Jan. 1882 and Paula, born on 26 Jan. 1885. All four children were born in Speyer.

Very little information is available concerning the life story of Mathilde Jordan, née Lehman. Nothing is known, for example, about her childhood and youth, her husband and the date of her marriage.

We also do not know when Mathilde Jordan was admitted to Hamburg Care Home Oberaltenallee. As reason for her admission is noted that she suffered from "mental illness”. On 16 Oct. 1939 she was transferred from there to the Nursing and Care Institution Hamburg-Langenhorn.

In Spring/Summer 1940 the "Euthanasia” central office in Berlin, Tiergartenstrasse 4, planned a special action against Jews living in public and private Nursing and Care Institutions. They arranged for all the Jews living in the institutions to be registered and concentrated in so called Collection Institutions. The Nursing and Care Institution Hamburg-Langenhorn was designated as the Collection Institution for Northern Germany. All establishments in Hamburg, Schleswig Holstein and Mecklenburg were instructed to transfer all the Jews living in their institutions to Langenhorn by 18 Sept. 1940. After all the Jewish patients from the Northern German institutions had arrived in Langenhorn, they were transported to Brandenburg an der Havel on 23 Sept. 1940 together with Jewish patients who had already been living there for a longer period of time. Among them was Mathilde Jordan. Already on the same day, they were killed with carbon monoxide in the part of the former prison which had been converted into a gas extermination centre. Only one patient, Ilse Herta Zachmann, initially escaped this fate (see entry on her).

It is not known whether or when her relatives received notification of Mathilde Jordan`s death. In all the communications which have been documented, it was claimed that the person concerned had died in Chelm (Polish) or Cholm (German). It was noted on Mathilde Jordan`s birth certificate entry that the Registry Office Chelm II had registered her death under Number 446/1941.

However, the people murdered in Brandenburg had never been in Chelm or Cholm, a city to the east of Lublin. The Polish sanatorium which had been there before did not exist any longer after SS units had murdered almost all the patients on 12 Jan. 1940. There also was no German Registry Office in Chelm. Its invention and the use of dates of death later than the real ones served to cover up the murders and, at the same time, to enable charging maintenance costs for a correspondingly longer period of time.

The fates of Mathilde Jordan`s brothers and sisters is largely unknown. Isaak Lehman, who – like his father – worked as a trader, died already on 2 Nov. 1893. Melanie married Gustav Bauer in 1909. It is not known if he was of Jewish descent or not. In 1913 Paula married Siegfried Strauss from Hahnheim/Hessen.

Translator Steve Robinson

© Ingo Wille

Quellen: 1; 4; 5; StaH 133-1 III Staatsarchiv III, 3171-2/4 U.A. 4, Liste psychisch kranker jüdischer Patientinnen und Patienten der psychiatrischen Anstalt Langenhorn, die aufgrund nationalsozialistischer "Euthanasie"-Maßnahmen ermordet wurden, zusammengestellt von Peter von Rönn, Hamburg (Projektgruppe zur Erforschung des Schicksals psychisch Kranker in Langenhorn); 352-8/7 Staatskrankenanstalt Langenhorn Abl. 1/1995 Aufnahme-/Abgangsbuch Langenhorn 26.8.1939 bis 27.1.1941; Stadtarchiv Speyer, Sterberegister Nr. 333/1877 Susanne Lehmann, Geburtsregister Nr. 8/1879 Arnold Lehmann, Geburtsregister Nr. 23/1880 Mathilde Lehmann, Geburtsregister Melanie Lehmann Nr. 25/1882, Geburtsregister Nr. 44/1885 Paula Lehmann, Sterberegister Nr. 406/1893 Isaak Lehmann, Heiratsregister Nr. 198/1913 Siegmund Strauss/Paula Lehmann. Bruno, Johannes, Schicksale Speyerer Juden 1800 bis 1980, Speyer 2000, S. 297f. Kukatzki, Bernhard, Die Juden im Gäudorf Gommersheim. Eine historische Skizze, Landau 1995.
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