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Arno Zacharias * 1904

Grevenweg 89 (Hamburg-Mitte, Hamm)

1937 Flucht Holland
deportiert 1942
Auschwitz
ermordet

further stumbling stones in Grevenweg 89:
Selig Seligmann

Arno Zacharias, born 24 June 1904 in Wischwill on the Memel (present-day Viesiele, Lithuania), murdered 18 Dec. 1942 in Auschwitz

Grevenweg 89 (formerly Grevenweg 109)

Little is known about the first 21 years of Arno Zacharias’ life. He was born on 24 June 1904 in Wischwill on the Memel (present-day Viesiele, Lithuania) to a German-Jewish family. He had six siblings. His parents, Simon and Johanna (Rautenberg) Zacharias, were both originally from Eastern Prussia – Simon (*30 Jan. 1873) from Mahlaucken, Johanna (*16 Sep. 1880) from Landberg in Prussian Eylau. During the Nazi era Arno’s parents and his brothers Alfred (*8 Aug. 1906) and Kurt (14 Jan. 1910) lived in Königsberg (present-day Kaliningrad). Another brother, Chaim, emigrated to Palestine.

Arno Zacharias apprenticed as a salesman. It is not known when he came to Hamburg. He joined the Hamburg German-Israelitic Community on 6 July 1925, and left it 12 years later when he emigrated to the Netherlands. He first worked as a salesman of linen and cotton goods, then was sales manager at the Hermann Tietz department store until he was fired in 1934 when the company was Aryanized and the name changed to Alsterhaus.

Arno Zacharias moved frequently, and always lived in rented rooms. Around 1930 he was living at Grevenweg 109 with the non-Jewish couple Carl Abraham and his wife Anna, née Müller. Carl Abraham was a shoemaker and had a shop at Süderstraße 174. Their daughter Erna (*7 Mar. 1906) followed in her father’s professional footsteps, and also lived with her parents. When Carl Abraham died on 26 November 1930, his widow and daughter remained in the apartment and supplemented their income by renting out rooms. Erna Abraham and Arno Zacharias became engaged on 29 September 1934. On 30 August 1935 Arno moved out of the apartment and took a room at Amandastraße 21 in Eimsbüttel. When the Nuremberg Race Laws were proclaimed a short time later, the couple was forced to separate. They planned to emigrate and then marry.

During this period, Arno Zacharias had no regular income. When he joined the Jewish Community he was paying a yearly rate of 65.40 Reichsmarks. The religious community taxes were determined by the tax office. Since Arno had no taxable income in 1927, he was exempted from paying religious community fees. This changed, and his fees rose between 1928 and 1933 from 10 Reichsmarks per year to 19.80 Reichsmarks. When he became unemployed in 1934, he was again exempted.

Apparently Erna Abraham and Arno Zacharias’ engagement was denounced, because he was arrested on charges of "racial defilement” in his rooms on Amandastraße on the morning of 6 April 1936. A few hours later Erna Abraham was also arrested at her workplace, the Bottina Shoe Works on Hamburger Straße. Arno Zacharias was held in pre-trial detention, but Erna Abraham was released after questioning. Four months later both were tried in court. While Erna came out of the trial with an official reprimanded for "dishonorable conduct,” Arno was sentenced, on 12 August 1936, to ten months in prison. Both were ordered to separate permanently. Arno’s time spent in pre-trial detention was deducted from his sentence, and he was released on 5 February 1937. According to prison records, he was 5 feet 6 inches tall, thin, had an oval-shaped face and blue eyes.

Arno Zacharias and Erna Abraham continued to plan their emigration and marriage. On 8 April 1937, Arno moved to Amsterdam. Erna remained in Hamburg and attempted to get travelling papers and permission to leave the country. They corresponded through a cover address, but their correspondence and Erna’s attempts to emigrate ended with the outbreak of the war. The Wehrmacht occupied the Netherlands in May 1940, but the situation for the Jews remained, at first, unchanged. In September, however, the same laws as had been proclaimed in the German Reich, limiting the liberties, rights, and property of Jews, began to be put in place in Holland. In January 1942 preparation began for the "Final Solution.”

After Arno Zacharias had to give up all plans of marriage with Erna, he married Lydia Barnass (*5 June 1899). She was originally from Hohensalza near Bromberg (present-day Inowraclaw, Poland). She worked as a typist, he as a household servant in Enschede. He was registered as living at Emmastraat 158, while she was registered at Haaksbergerstraat 82. They were both arrested in a police raid in early October 1942 (probably on 3 October) and sent to the Westerbork Transit Camp. From there they were deported to Auschwitz on 25 October. Lydia was murdered immediately upon arrival, on 29 October. Arno was given the prisoner number 71053, and died on 18 December 1942 in the Auschwitz prison infirmary. He was 38 years old.

Arno Zacharias’ brothers were also murdered in Auschwitz. Kurt Zacharias was first held in the Wasserburg Transit Camp, then sent from Berlin to Auschwitz on 19 April 1943. Alfred Zacharias had fled to Belgium, and was sent from the Mechelen Transit Camp to Auschwitz on 20 September 1943. Their parents had been taken to Theresienstadt on 24/25 August 1942, and from there were sent to Treblinka on 23 September 1942, where they were murdered immediately upon arrival.

When Chaim Zacharias submitted the Pages of Testimony for his parents and brothers to Yad Vashem, he did not yet know the fate of his brother Arno.


Translator: Amy Lee
Kindly supported by the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung, Hamburg.

Stand: April 2018
© Hildegard Thevs

Quellen: 1, 5, 7, 8, 9; Hamburger Adressbücher; StaH, 242_1 II Abl. 13 und Abl. 16; 332-5 Standesämter, 7109-1008/1930; 351-11 Amt für Wiedergutmachung, 30394; 552-1 Jüdische Gemeinden, 390, 391; Herinnerungszentrum Westerbork, José Martin, 3.6.2013.
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