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Teressa Scira * 1943

Suhrenkamp 98 (Hamburg-Nord, Ohlsdorf)

TERESSA SCIRA
GEB. 25.12.1943
FRAUENKLINIK FINKENAU
TOT 27.12.1943

further stumbling stones in Suhrenkamp 98:
Jasper Holtmann, Harald Kosmo, Hanka Scira

Teressa Scira, born on 25.12.1943 in Hamburg; delivered by her mother in Fuhlsbüttel prison, died two days after her birth in the Finkenau women's clinic on 27.12.1943

Hanka Scira, born on 12.1.1913 in Kuridniki, forced labor, arrested in 1943 Fuhlsbüttel prison, 8.2.1944 Ravensbrück concentration camp, fate unknown

Suhrenkamp 98, Fuhlsbüttel concentration camp and prison memorial

Teressa's mother Hanka Scira (born on January 12, 1913 in Kuridniki) was a Roman Catholic and single. Deported from her native Poland, she had to do forced labor in Hamburg. She was later imprisoned in the Fuhlsbüttel prison, when she was heavily pregnant. The reasons for her imprisonment and the length of time she spent there are not known. On the day her child was born, Hanka Scira was admitted to the Finkenau Women's Clinic in Hamburg-Uhlenhorst. She gave birth to her daughter Teressa there on December 25, 1943.

Two days after giving birth, Teressa died on December 27, 1943 at 4:45 a.m. in the Finkenau Women's Clinic. In the obituary of the women's clinic, the cause of death is given as "Tentorial tear" (tearing of the meninges due to severe deformation of the head during birth) and Hoffmann is listed as the signing doctor; furthermore, it is noted about the mother "without acquisition".

Teressa was 2 days old.

The place of her burial is not known.

After giving birth, Hanka Scira was transferred back to the Fuhlsbüttel concentration camp on January 7, 1944. One month later, she was transferred to Ravensbrück concentration camp as a "political prisoner" on a transport dated February 8, 1944. Her name, date of birth and detention number 28195 are recorded on a transport- and admission list from February 8, 1944 at Ravensbrück concentration camp. The note "polit." indicates the reason for her arrest, political motives.

Hanka Scira (called Haska here) is included on this list together with 63 female prisoners. She herself is listed among the 45 political prisoners (including 1 Belgian woman, 6 French women, 1 Dutch woman, 3 Croatian women, 8 Polish women, including 1 Polish woman with the indication "intercourse with Germans", 12 Czech women, 4 with the indication "German Reich a. revocation", 1 woman noted as "stateless", 2 women, presumably German, with the indication "intercourse with Poles", 1 woman, presumably a German, with the indication "intercourse with French", 5 women without indication of nation and 1 woman with the indication "Jewess 1st degree"), 14 women were stigmatized as "asocial" (6 of whom were transferred to the Zwodau camp on 2 October 1944, which had been under the control of the Flossenbürg concentration camp since 1 September 1944) and 4 women who had been marked "B.V.", which officially meant "temporary preventive detention", but in the camp stood for so-called "professional criminals". Apart from Hanka Scira and another Polish woman, the "political" Polish women were transferred onwards, four Polish women to Oranienburg on September 20, 1944, one Polish woman to Dresden and one to Magdeburg.

In the prisoner file of the Wirtschaftsverwaltungshauptamtes (WVHA), which was responsible for the concentration camps, Hanka Scira is listed in a transfer to Neuengamme concentration camp with the date August 31, 1944, but this does not necessarily indicate the date of transport. The women were taken to a satellite camp of the Neuengamme concentration camp. It must have been the Watenstedt labor camp near Salzgitter, where prisoners were deployed in the production of grenades for the Braunschweig steelworks under inhumane living conditions. A second registration for Hanka Scira in Ravensbrück dated October 19, 1944 indicates that she was repatriated from the Watenstedt labour camp to Ravensbrück. She was given the prison number 78873.

Nothing is known about Hanka Scira's further fate.

Stand: January 2024
© Margot Löhr

Quellen: StaH, 332-5 Standesämter, Sterberegister, 7269 u. 635/1943 Teressa Scira; StaH, 332-5 Sterbefallsammelakten, 64276 u. 635/1943 Teressa Scira; Standesamt Hamburg 6, Geburtsregister, 2613/1943 Teressa Scira; ITS Archives, Bad Arolsen, Copy of Krankenhausliste Frauenklinik Finkenau 2.1.2.1 / 70646042, 1.1.35.1 Listenmaterial Ravensbrück/Transport- und Zugangslisten des KL Ravensbrück (Frauen) (1940–1944)/3768899; Silke Schäfer: Zum Selbstverständnis von Frauen im Konzentrationslager. Das Lager Ravensbrück, Technische Universität Berlin, Diss., Berlin 2002, https://d-nb.info/965490297/34, eingesehen am: 20.3.2022; Auskünfte Monika Schnell, Mahn- und Gedenkstätte Ravensbrück, vom 2.2.2024, https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/de/document/3766474, IPN Warschau, MF Nr. 135 Sygn. 73/19-20, Document Polski Czerwony Krzyż Warszawa, Nummernkartei (WVHA-Häftlingskartei), Kasten 19.