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Franziska Mindus (née Saalfeld) * 1886

Rutschbahn 41 (Eimsbüttel, Rotherbaum)

HIER WOHNTE
FRANZISKA MINDUS
GEB. SAALFELD
JG. 1886
DEPORTIERT 1941
LODZ
1942 CHELMNO
ERMORDET

further stumbling stones in Rutschbahn 41:
Manfred Graff, Herta Graff, Gerd Graff, Florette Graff, Siegmund Mindus, Julius Mindus, Werner Mindus

Franziska Mindus, née Saalfeld, born 8 July 1886 in Lübeck, deported 25 Oct. 1941 to Lodz, murdered 15 May 1942 in the Chelmno Extermination Camp
Siegmund Mindus, born 30 Sep. 1884 in Jemgum, deported 25 Oct. 1941 to Lodz, died there 18 Mar. 1942
Julius Mindus, born 1 Apr. 1923, deported 25 Oct. 1941 to Lodz, date of death unknown
Werner Mindus, born 5 Oct. 1924, deported 25 Oct. 1941 to Lodz, murdered 15 May 1942 in the Chelmno Extermination Camp

Rutschbahn 41

Franziska was the second of four children, although the eldest sibling died at a young age. Her parents were Fanny, née Levy (Levin) and Jacob Saalfeld. Her father was a master watchmaker and ran an antique shop in Lübeck, where the family lived in an apartment at Marlesgrube 11. They later bought a house at Marlesgrube 7. The family were members of the Lübeck Israelitic Community. It seems that the extended family was very close, as they all lived in the same area. The fact that Fanny’s sister Recha was married to Jacob’s brother Siegfried also indicates that the family was tight-knit. (Fanny Saalfeld died on 20 December 1923, Jacob died on 25 December 1935). Franziska attended the Israelitic Community’s elementary school in Lübeck, which was near her home and her father’s shop.

We were unable to learn anything about Franziska’s youth in Lübeck. On 12 October 1920 she married Siegmund Mindus, and they moved into an apartment at Rutschbahn 41 in Hamburg. Siegmund was born on 30 September 1884 in Jemgum, East Frisia. He was the second son of the merchant Isaac Mindus and his wife Bertha, née van Cleef. He had three sisters, all of whom later lived in Hamburg, and three brothers who later lived in Hanover. Siegmund had come to Hamburg in 1906 to work in sales. He apprenticed in industrial management, then served in the First World War from 1914–1918. After the war he worked at the Handelsbank AG (formerly Alexander Carlebach & Co.) in Hamburg.

The couple’s first son, Julius, was born on 1 April 1923. Werner, their second child, was born on 5 October 1924. On 26 October 1925, the family moved to an attic apartment at Schlüterstraße 77a. The rent, 51 Reichsmarks, was very high for the two-room apartment. The next years were a difficult time for the family. In 1925, Siegfried spent several weeks in the Barmbek General Hospital with a neurological condition. His admittance forms indicate that he had been out of work since 1 January 1925, and the hospital fees were paid by the Welfare Agency. Franziska also spent time in the Lohmühlen Hospital. The family had no health insurance. Siegmund was transferred to the St. Georg Hospital for the last weeks of his recovery. The three-year-old Julius also became ill and spent six months in the Hamburg Infants’ Home. Siegmund had to have an operation on his stomach, and also developed a spinal cord condition.

Because of his illness, Siegmund was unable to pay the rent and the family was threatened with eviction and a lawsuit. After months of correspondence, the Welfare Agency and the welfare office of the German-Israelitic Community finally agreed to pay the rent. Whenever his health allowed, Siegmund tried to earn a living for his family. He worked for several days as a foreman at a mill in Oldesloe which produced matzo, then he worked as a debt-collector for the Jewish Community’s welfare offices. But his average income in 1927 was only 12 Reichsmarks per week. The family also received 30 Reichsmarks every two weeks from the Jewish Community, and the Welfare Agency paid their rent.

In March 1927, the welfare subsidies were temporarily halted because a Welfare Agency official suspected Siegmund of lying about his income. In April of that year Siegmund was able to earn some money delivering Easter breads. After a long search, the family was finally able to find a bigger and less expensive apartment at Kielortalee 22 II, for which they paid only 15 RM per month. The apartment had three rooms and a kitchen. It was part of the Jewish Oppenheim Trust, which had been founded by Julius Ernst Oppenheim (1805–1872) in 1854, and had been merged with the Vaterstädtische Trust in 1905. The Oppenheim Trust required that residents abide by orthodox Jewish laws. A small synagogue was affiliated with the Trust.

Despite his health problems, in 1932 Siegmund Mindus attempted to support his family with an egg delivery service. Because he made the deliveries on foot, he constantly wore out the soles of his shoes, and repeatedly requested funds from the Welfare Agency to repair them or buy new ones. After three years, however, he had to give up the business because it was unprofitable. In the fall of 1935 he was in the Jewish Hospital for several weeks for a bladder operation. Franziska applied for a work permit, but was denied, so the family remained without an income. Siegmund’s condition improved very slowly, and he had to remain in the hospital until the end of the year. The family also had to turn to the Welfare Agency for funds to pay for dentures. In early 1936 Julius spent six weeks in a recovery home in Bad Dürrheim. Werner also spent four weeks in a recovery home in Bad Kreuznach. The Welfare Agency and the Jewish Community covered a portion of the costs.

In March 1936, Siegmund again found work, and the family’s financial situation improved enough for them to finally pay the rent regularly, at least for a time. They were still dependent on welfare subsidies, however. In that same year Sigmund was diagnosed with a heart condition, which caused dizziness and fatigue. He again had to undergo an operation, this time in the Eppendorf University Clinic. He nevertheless returned to his work as a transport foreman after the operation, and continued to earn a steady income. Beginning on 24 August he was required to work for the Welfare Agency work service at the Waltershof. Also in that year the 13-year-old Julius had to spend several weeks in the German-Israelitic Hospital, as he suffered from severe asthma and bronchitis. In November he also developed severe anemia, and was again admitted to the hospital.

Siegmund had assured the board of the German-Israelitic Community that his family held strictly to the Jewish Orthodox tradition, and that for this reason, his son should be sent to a Jewish hospital. In 1937 Julius was again sent to Bad Dürrheim for six weeks because of his asthma. Franziska was also physically and mentally unwell. The Eppendorf University Clinic offered to treat her for free, but she requested that she be sent to the German-Israelitic Hospital. In April 1938 Siegmund was once again unable to work because of illness for four weeks. Julius spent eight weeks in a recovery home run by the Jewish Women’s Association in Wyk on the Northern Frisian island of Föhr.

In the mid 1920s the Jewish Women’s Association had organized a Germany-wide charity drive to create a recovery home for Jewish children on Föhr. The home for children suffering from tuberculosis was opened on 23 June 1927, with the Chief Rabbi of Altona, Joseph Carlebach, in attendance at the opening ceremony. One day at the home cost 4 Reichsmarks, which included room and board. Chief Rabbi Carlebach’s patronage ensured a "true Jewish spirit” for the home. Jewish festivals like Passover were celebrated, and a Sabbath ceremony was held weekly.

Beginning in December 1938, Siegmund worked in Volksdorf as conscripted labor. In January 1939 the Nazi government abolished the payment of welfare subsidies to Jews. The Jewish Community, which was now forced to call itself the Jewish Religious Association, took over the payments of 97.70 Reichsmarks per month to the Mindus family. Siegmund again spent three weeks in the German-Israelitic Hospital during this year, this time for kidney stones.

Werner and Julius had attended the Talmud Tora school. After their schooling, Julius apprenticed as a metalworker, and Werner as a cabinetmaker. The parents had applied for an emigration permit to Holland for the sons, but the plans never came to fruition. In 1941 Werner was able to support the family with his income as a cabinetmaker in Altona. Siegmund’s last job was as a garden worker in Niendorf. Nevertheless, the family was nearly destitute in 1941 and had no friends or family who could finance their emigration.

The entire family, along with Franziska’s younger sister Mindel Saalfeld, who lived with and worked for the Haas family at Mittelstraße 29, were deported to Lodz on 25 October 1941. In the ghetto they lived in Apartment Nr. 44 at Hohensteinerstraße 43/45. Siegmund died there on 18 March 1942. Franziska and the younger son Werner were sent to the Chelmno Extermination Camp, 55 km northeast of Lodz, on 15 May 1942 and murdered there. The date and manner of Julius’ death is unknown.

Franziska’s brother Leopold, his wife Helena, and their 15-year-old daughter Margot were deported to Riga-Jungfernhof on 6 December 1941, where they died. Her widowed sister Regina and her 13-year-old daughter Fina also died in Riga. Of Franziska’s family, only her cousin (by marriage) Klara was able to escape. She fled to Southhampton, England from Bremen in 1934 on the ship Europa. Her daughter Ruth emigrated to the US.

Siegmund’s sister Caroline, her husband Alexander Norden, and their family emigrated to Holland in December 1938. They and the five children Max Moses (*1907), Leo Alexander (*1912), Bertha Victoria (*1914), Carl (*1921), and Siegfried (*1924) were deported from the Netherlands and murdered in Sobibor. Stolpersteine were placed at Grindelallee 73 in memory of the Nordens. Only the second son, Leo Alexander Jehuda Norden, was able to emigrate to Palestine, where he worked in agriculture.

Siegmund’s sister Jenny was married to Abraham Isaac Loew from Poland. They had two sons, John (*1924) and Berthold (*1925) and lived at Schlachterstraße 40. Isaac Leow was a merchant; Jenny had given up her job as a cook when she married. After Isaak had been held for some time in the Neuengamme Concentration Camp, the couple fled to Shanghai via Genoa. Isaac Loew died in the ghetto there of a heart attack. After the war Jenny emigrated to New York. She married Moses Perlman in 1950, but the marriage didn’t last. After her divorce Jenny was dependent on financial support from friends and the Jewish Community. She wrote: "I go from one family to the next to eke out my life. That says everything.” She died of cancer on 21 July 1957 in New York. Her eldest son John was deported from Hamburg to Riga on 6 December 1941, where he was murdered. Berthold’s fate is unknown.

Siegmund’s third sister Paula Scheifmann had one son, Erich Israel (*1919), whose last address was in Dortmund-Hörde before he eimigrated to Palestine. There he worked as a bus driver and had two children.

The Stolperstein for the Mindus family is at Rutschbahn 41.


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

Stand: April 2018
© Paula Lange

Quellen: Archiv der Hansestadt Lübeck, Personenstandsregister der Israelitischen Gemeinde Lübeck, Band 4; Archiv der Hansestadt Lübeck, Melderegister; http://agora.sub.uni-hamburg.de/subhh-adress/digbib/view?did=c1:674379&sdid=c1:674456&hit=10 (Zugriff 17.2.2014); StaHH, 522-1, Jüdische Gemeinden, 992b, Kultussteuerkarte der Deutsch-Israelitischen Gemeinde Hamburg, Kultussteuerkarte Siegmund Mindus; http://agora.sub.uni-hamburg.de/subhh-adress/digbib/start(Zugriff 17.1.2014); StaHH, 351-14 Fürsorgeakten, 1584 Siegmund Mindus; Angela Schwarz, Die Vaterstädtische Stiftung in Hamburg in den Jahren 1849–1945, "… einen Akt der Gerechtigkeit durch einen Akt der Wohltätigkeit zu verewigen …", Hamburg 2007, S. 98–102; StaHH, 351-11 Wiedergutmachungsakte, 7564 Erbengemeinschaft Siegmund Mindus, S.58; www.stolpersteine-luebeck.de/n/de/main/adressen/st-annen-strassen-11-Recha-Saalfeld.html(Zugriff 17.1.2014); Dirk Warkus-Thomsen, "Jüdische Kinder gehören in jüdische Heime.", Von einem jüdischen Kinderheim und einer "Judenaustreibung" in Wyk auf Föhr, in: Menora und Hakenkreuz, hg. v. Gillis-Carlebach, Miriam & Paul, Gerhard, Neumünster 1998, S. 387–389; Florian Freund&Bertrand Perz& Karl Stuhlpfarrer, Das Getto in Litzmannstadt (Łódż), in:Unser einziger Weg ist die Arbeit, Das Getto in Łódż 1940–1944, eine Ausstellung des Jüdischen Museums Frankfurt am Main, Wien 1990, S. 17–28; ArchiwumPaństwowe w Łodzi; http://212.227.236.244/passagierlisten/listen.php?ArchivIdent=AIII1510.06.1934_N&pass=Saalfeld&ID=510723&ankunftshafen=Southampton,%20England&lang=de (Zugriff 17.1.2014); http://stolpersteine-hamburg.de/index.php?MAIN_ID=7&BIO_ID=1798 (Zugriff 17.2.2014); StaHH, 090921, Wiedergutmachungsakte, Carl Norden, S. 1; StaHH, 110688 Wiedergutmachungsakte, Jenny Perlmann, S.1–8.