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Hermann Lanzkron (o. J.)
© Algemeen Rijksarchief/Brüssel

Hermann Lanzkron * 1904

Zeughausmarkt 34 (Hamburg-Mitte, Neustadt)

HIER WOHNTE
HERMANN LANZKRON
JG. 1904
FLUCHT FRANKREICH
INTERNIERT DRANCY
DEPORTIERT 1942
ERMORDET IN
AUSCHWITZ

Hermann Lanzkron, born on 10 Sept. 1904 in Hamburg, flight to Belgium, deported on 14 Aug. 1942 to Auschwitz

Zeughausmarkt, entrance to the right of house no. 34 (Zeughausmarkt 35/36)

Hermann Lanzkron was born on 10 Sept. 1904, the fifth of eight children to an Orthodox Jewish family. His parents had married on 7 Aug. 1892 in Hofheim near Hassfurt. The mother Babetta, née Stern (born on 22 Jan. 1868, died on 20 Nov. 1932), came from Mechenried in Lower Franconia. His father Gabriel Lanzkron (born on 19 Feb. 1864) was a native of Hamburg and worked as a doctor at Zeughausmarkt 35/36.

Before Hermann, the older siblings Arthur Aron (born on 16 Oct. 1896, died on 25 Jan. 1966 in Tel Aviv), Siegmund (born in 1899, died on 12 Feb. 1903), Betty (born on 27 Mar. 1900, died on 22 Jan. 1903), and Helene (born on 31 Dec. 1902, died on 8 July 1949 in Tel Aviv) had been born. After him followed John (born on 26 Nov. 1906, died on 18 Dec. 1978 in Albany, New York), Hedwig (born on 21 Sept. 1908, died on 30 May 1913), and Paul (born on 12 Sept. 1913, died 1 May 1928).

Hermann had received his name after his paternal grandfather who had died in Hamburg on 24 Apr. 1900. The grandfather’s actual name was Hershel/Herzel Lanckorona/Landskron (born in 1833) and he came from Bendzin (today Bedzin in Poland), which at that time belonged to the Russian Tsarist Empire. The son of Aron and Anna, née Miodownik, is said to have come to Hamburg as a child, later chose the German-sounding name of Hermann, had his surname changed to Lanzkron, and acquired the certificate of Hamburg civic rights (Bürgerbrief). Hermann/Hershel worked as a cigar worker, then founded a cigar factory in 1871 at what used to be Grosse Michaelisstrasse 20. On 16 Mar. 1856, he married in Altona Betty Gabrielsen (born in 1835 in Altona, died on 20 Feb. 1877), the daughter of a school teacher. The couple Hermann/Hershel and Betty Lanzkron initially lived with their children in Neustadt and from 1897 at Annenstrasse 17 in the St. Pauli quarter.

The economic success of his grandfather had allowed Hermann’s father Gabriel Lanzkron to study medicine. He had written his dissertation in 1888 on the subject of Über Urobilinurie und Urobilinicterus ("About Urobilinuria and Uroblinikterus”), and one year later, he established himself as a general practitioner, first at Mühlenstrasse 21 (today part of Gerstäckerstrasse); from 1902 onward, the practice and the corresponding apartment were on the third floor at Zeughausmarkt 35/36, where Hermann was born.

In addition to his work as a doctor, Gabriel Lanzkron held various honorary posts in the Jewish Community. In 1920, he was elected to the College of Representatives. In 1921, he was one of the founding members of the youth welfare office of the Community. In 1927, he sat on the board of the Marcus-Nordheim-Stift, a foundation operating residential homes. Gabriel Lanzkron was also a synagogue commissioner in the Kohlhöfen Synagogue and probably also later in the Bornplatzsynagoge built between 1904 and 1906. He was a member of the association "Mekor Chajim,” founded in 1862, which "gave young people the opportunity to study the Torah by themselves” as well as a member of the "Association of Former Students of the Talmud Tora School in Hamburg” ("Verein ehemaliger Schüler der Talmud Tora Schule zu Hamburg”). Gabriel Lanzkron was described by his patients as "very kindhearted” and as a "statutory health insurance lion” [Krankenkassenlöwe, probably meaning he fought for reimbursement on behalf of his patients]

Hermann’s younger brother John, who was interested in psychiatry, was to take over the practice. He wrote his dissertation on the subject of Geschlechtsdisposition einiger funktionell-spastischer Erkrankungen im Kindesalter ("Gender disposition of some functional-spastic diseases in childhood”). On 27 May 1932, he received his license to practice medicine. Shortly thereafter, on 20 Nov. 1932, the mother died. John initially worked in his father’s practice, but was unable to continue operating it. His professional activity ended in Apr. 1933, when he was no longer allowed to practice as a Jewish doctor. His father Gabriel was initially able to continue working due to his early licensing, but his statutory health insurance license was revoked, so that he was dependent on private patients.

A longtime domestic servant, Martha B., stated after the war, "From 1934 to about 1939, I was working both as a domestic servant, but also part-time in the practice. At my age, I was actually no longer allowed to work in Jewish households. However, until 1939, I [myself] did not work in the household, but rather in the practice, as a clerk giving prescriptions on the Sabbath, which as a devout believer he observed strictly.”

As early as 30 Sept. 1938, all Jewish physicians had been deprived of their state licenses, their licenses to practice medicine. Thus, Gabriel Lanzkron would no longer have been allowed to practice in 1939. He was forced to give up his practice after almost 50 years of professional activity.

Gabriel Lanzkron and his son Hermann moved to Klosterallee 2, the guesthouse of the widow Recha Bachrach, née Moritz (born on 5 May 1888 in Mainz, deported to Riga-Jungfernhof on 6 Dec. 1941). The complete practice equipment, instruments, and devices were left behind in the premises on Zeughausmarkt.

There is no information available about Hermann Lanzkron’s school years and education. The occupation indicated was property manager. (His father had owned estates at Rentzelstrasse 36 and Rentzelstrasse 38, the so-called Henrietten Terraces with 33 rental units, since about 1926. Both buildings were destroyed during the last air raids on Hamburg). According to his own information, Hermann Lanzkron was active as a merchant dealing in chemical products, perhaps in the company of his brother Aron Arthur, co-owner of the Lanzkron & Mathiason chemicals export and transit trading company, founded in 1919 and located at Steckelhörn 11.

In the course of the November Pogrom on 9/10 Nov. 1938, Hermann Lanzkron was arrested, taken to the Fuhlsbüttel concentration camp and transported from there to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp. Assigned prison number 8,597, he was transferred to prisoner Block 20. His release on 14 Dec. 1938 was subject to the condition that he leave Germany as quickly as possible.

Hermann first tried to escape to China, but since he could not afford the necessary foreign currency for the passage, he tried to obtain a "permit” to enter Britain. On 24 Feb. 1939, he received confirmation from London that his application was being processed. On 15 July 1939, Hermann Lanzkron found his room at Durchschnitt 15 sealed by the Gestapo. His landlady Mrs. Hermann had been informed that his immediate arrest was to be expected. Hermann Lanzkron managed to escape to Antwerp, where he arrived on 25 July 1939 and moved into a room in the Hotel de l’Industrie, on Rue de Pelican. On 27 July 1939, in a letter to the Minister for Justice in Brussels, he applied for a three-month residence permit. By then, he hoped to get his "permit” for Britain or to obtain from friends the "necessary means” for a further trip to the "Far East.” As late as 24 July 1939, his cousin Lazar Lanzkron, who lived in London, had written to him, "Dear Hermann, I received your letter and would like to inform you that the application for entry to England and acceptance of a trainee position at the German Jewish Aid Committee, Bloomsbury House, has been received and in all probability will be approved within the next few days, after the amount of £ 50 has now been deposited. I will notify you immediately.”

Hermann Lanzkron was no longer able to reach England. He stayed in Antwerp and found accommodation in the Borgerhout district at Kroonsstraat 163 with Neumann.

There he probably met his subsequent wife Blima/Berta Wenig. Blima was born on 29 Oct. 1906 in Dobromil in Galicia, then Austria (today Ukraine). Her parents, Ber/Berisch Nachmann Wenig (born on 10 Nov. 1866 in Grodisko) and Lea, née Tepper (born in 1868 in Dobromil), held Austrian citizenship, had left their homeland and settled in Vienna. According to the directories there, her father was a private tutor and peddler, her mother ran a grocery store at Treustrasse 12.

Blima Wenig had been living in Belgium since 1927 and worked as a tailor. At the age of 22, she had given birth to twins; Daniel and Henri were born on 15 Dec. 1928 in Antwerp. The father of her children, Juljusz/Julius Neumann (born on 5 Oct. 1909 in Blaszki), was a Polish citizen and clockwork maker by profession. He had come from Vienna to Belgium in 1924 or 1925, where he worked as a diamond cutter. His father Hersch/Hermann Neumann (born in 1850) lived in France, his mother Marie Lasker (born in 1869) in the Berchem district in the southwest of Antwerp. On 12 May 1941, Juljusz Neumann married in Antwerp Ester/Estera Neumanova (born on 7 Nov. 1910 in Sinovir in the former Czechoslovakia, today Ukraine), who had emigrated from Cologne to Belgium in Sept. 1938. The Neumann couple then lived at Mercatorstraat 74.

Hermann and Blima continued to reside at Kroonsstraat 163. After the occupation of Belgium by German troops, Hermann was arrested in May 1940 as a "suspected” person and initially taken to the Saint-Cyprien internment camp in southern France. After the flooding of the camp, he was transferred to Camp de Gurs on 29 Oct. 1940. Blima had been there since 15 June 1940, perhaps she had fled to France before. Together they were sent to Rivesaltes on 3 July 1942, where they were quartered separately in the "Ilôt B” for foreign Jews. Hermann Lanzkron was able to leave the camp on 24 July 1942, but returned on 7 Aug. 1942. The circumstances are not known. Four days later, on 11 August, Hermann and Blima were taken from Rivesaltes to the Drancy transit camp, northeast of Paris. Obviously Hermann and Blima had married in Rivesaltes, since Blima was then put on the transport list with the last name of "Landskron.”

From the Drancy transit camp, weekly transports departed for the Auschwitz extermination camp. Blima and Hermann Lanzkron were on the nineteenth transport on 14 Aug. 1942. According to the death registers in Auschwitz, "Blima Lanskran” died on 25 Sept. 1942. Hermann Lanzkron was declared dead after the war on 8 May 1945, according to a ruling by the Hamburg District Court (Amtsgericht).

The fate of the other family members unfolded as follows:
Blima’s son Daniel and his stepmother Ester Neumann were deported from the Belgian Kazerne Dossin transit camp in Malines/Mechelen to Auschwitz on 29 Aug. 1942. Both were probably sent to the gas chamber immediately after their arrival on 31 Aug. 1942. The fate of his twin brother could not be clarified; perhaps Henri had already died earlier. His name does not appear on any deportation list. Her father Juljusz Neumann was taken from Belgium to France in the summer of 1942 as a forced laborer for the Todt Organization. Juljusz Neumann’s name was put on the transport list XVI of Kazerne Dossin on 29 Oct. 1942. He departed France on 31 October and was deported, under his assigned transport number 848, to Auschwitz-Birkenau, where he arrived on 3 November. He did not survive.

Blima’s parents, the Wenig couple, had followed their children to Belgium after the Anschluss of Austria to the German Reich in 1938. They wanted to travel from there to Palestine. According to the information of their son submitted to the Yad Vashem memorial, they and his sisters Mirla/Mindla Kudisch, née Wenig (born on 12 May 1911) and Pesia/Pésie/Pepi/Paula Rosenzweig, née Wenig (born on 23 Mar. 1899) with their families did not survive the Holocaust.

Hermann’s father Gabriel Lanzkron died on 27 June 1942 in Hamburg in the Jewish retirement home at Sedanstrasse 23. His widowed sister Auguste Möller, née Lanzkron (born on 30 Sept. 1869), had taken care of her brother until the end. She still hoped for a "certificate” to emigrate and join her children in Palestine, but her hope was not fulfilled. Auguste Möller received her deportation order for 15 July 1942 to Theresienstadt at Sedanstrasse 23. From there, she was deported to the Treblinka extermination camp on 21 Sept. 1942 and murdered.

Hermann’s younger brother John Lanzkron had left Hamburg in 1934 and had first gone to Luxembourg and from there to Paris. With the help of an American aid organization, he arrived in the USSR, where he worked as a doctor. In July 1938, the German authorities withdrew his license to practice medicine. At that time, he lived in Ettelbruck (Ettelbreck) in Luxembourg. Since he did not get a work permit there, he went to Antwerp, studied tropical medicine, and arrived in Brussels in 1943, where he worked as an unpaid assistant at the medical faculty of the university. Until 1944, he practiced in the Jewish Hospital in Brussels and then in a private hospital. After the war, John Lanzkron worked as a physician for the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee in Munich from 1946 to 1951 and finally emigrated to the USA.

His oldest brother Arthur Aron Lanzkron had married the lawyer Anna Askenacy-Farbstein (born on 4 Aug. 1897 in Warsaw) in Danzig (today Gdansk in Poland) on 20 June 1922. The couple lived with their sons Herbert (born on 13 June 1926) and Wolfgang Rolf (born on 9 Dec. 1929) at Eppendorfer Landstrasse 36. Together they emigrated via the Netherlands to Palestine on 20 Feb. 1938.

The sister Helene Lanzkron married Leo Spitzer (born on 21 Sept. 1898 in Kiskunhalas/Hungary, died on 21 Apr. 1972) in 1934. His father, Samuel Spitzer (born on 4 Jan. 1872 in Blassagyarmat/Hungary, died on 29 May 1934 in Hamburg), had come with his family from Miskolc/Hungary to Hamburg in 1910 due to his being appointed Chief Rabbi. After his discharge from military service, Leo Spitzer had studied medicine in Hamburg and Marburg. After passing his state examination in 1923, he received his license to practice medicine in 1924 and in the following year, he established himself as a general practitioner at Osterstrasse 104. Later, he opened a practice close to his father-in-law Gabriel at Mühlenstrasse 42/44 (today part of Gerstäckerstrasse). The apartment was located at Hütten 85. Leo Spitzer also lost his license to practice medicine at the end of Sept. 1938 and, like his brother-in-law Hermann Lanzkron, was arrested during the November Pogrom. After his release from the Sachsenhausen concentration camp in Mar. 1939, Leo Spitzer was able to emigrate with his family to Palestine via London.

Translator: Erwin Fink
Kindly supported by the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung, Hamburg.

Stand: May 2020
© Susanne Rosendahl

Quellen: 1; 3; 5; 8; 9; StaH 351-11 AfW 910 (Lanzkron, Gabriel, Dr.); StaH 351-11 AfW 31648 (Lanzkron, John); StaH 351-11 AfW 21360 (Spitzer, Leo); StaH 351-11 AfW 1623 (Möller, Auguste); StaH 351-11 AfW 28275 (Möller, Hermann); StaH 351-11 AfW 30457 (Grubner, Betty); StaH 351-11 AfW 32569 (Grubner, Rahel); StaH 314-15 OFP, R 1940/693; StaH 522-1 Jüdische Gemeinden, 391; StaH 314-15 OFP, FVg 7505; StaH 314-15 OFP, R 1937/1499 Band 1; StaH 314-15 Abl. 1998 L 327; StaH 364-5I L 50.06.027; StaH 522-1 Jüdische Gemeinde Nr. 992 e 2 Band 3; StaH 522-1 Jüdische Gemeinde Nr. 992 e 2 Band 4; StaH 332-5 Standesämter 32 u 535/1877; StaH 332-5 Standesämter 2780 u 1148/1891; StaH 332-5 Standesämter 2811 u 247/1893; StaH 332-5 Standesämter 2340 u 32/1893; StaH 332-5 Standesämter 2406 u 3596/1896; StaH 332-5 Standesämter 2455 u 374/1898; StaH 332-5 Standesämter 13402 u 948/1900; StaH 332-5 Standesämter 466 u 675/1900; 332-5 Standesämter 518 u 139/1903; StaH 332-5 Standesämter 518 u 277/1903; StaH 332-5 Standesämter 14232 u 2097/1904; StaH 332-5 Standesämter 2944 u 678/1905; StaH 332-5 Standesämter 687 u 373/1908; StaH 332-5 Standesämter 940 u 171/1928; StaH 332-5 Standesämter 992 u 303/1932; StaH 332-5 Standesämter 8124 u 254/1934; StaH 332-5 Standesämter 8180 u 296/1942; StaH 352-13 Karteikarten jüdischer Ärzte Nr.15; Auskunft aus der Gedenkstätte Sachsenhausen von Monika Liebscher E-Mail vom 02.08.2013; Auskunft von Lucas Bruijn, E-Mail vom 2.2.2014; Auskunft von Robin Mamrak, Mémorial du Camp de Rivesaltes, E-Mail vom 25.1.2014; Archives départementales des Pyrénées Atlantiques, Auskunft vom 16.6.2014; USHMM, RG-65.014 von Sarah Kopelman-Noyes, E-Mail vom 12.6.2016 und vom 9.9.2017; Dokumentationszentrum Kaserne Dossin (Mechelen/ Belgien), Auskunft von Dorien Styven, E-Mail vom 29.8.2016 und 11.9.2017; Auskunft von Filip Strubbe, Algemeen Rijksarchief/Brüssel, E-Mail vom 3.1.2017; Algemeen Rijksarchief/Brüssel, Ausländerakten 1.480.820 (Blima Wenig), 1.339.189 (Juljusz Neumann), A364.323 (Hermann Lanzkron); Villiez: Kraft, S. 327, S. 400; Lehmann: Gemeinde-Synagoge, S. 34; Lorenz: Juden, Teil 2, S. 760, S. 862, S. 871; Mémorial de la Shoah, http://bdi.memorialdelashoah.org/internet/jsp/core/MmsRedirector.jsp?id=31740&type=VICTIM (Zugriff 21.1.2015); Goldschmidt: Geschichte, (online) unter: https://archive.org/details/geschichtedesver00gold (Zugriff 8.8.2015); www.ancestryde. (Heiratsurkunde Nr. 540, von Anna Askenacy Farbstein und Arthur Aron Landzkron am 20. Juni 1922 in Danzig, Zugriff: 28.3.2017); http://auschwitz.org/en/museum/auschwitz-prisoners/ (Zugriff: 28.3.2017); Yad Vashem, Zentrale Datenbank der Namen der Holocaustopfer Paula Rosenzweig (Gedenkblatt) (Zugriff: 28.3.2017); Yad Vashem, Zentrale Datenbank der Namen der Holocaustopfer Pesla Rozencweig (Gedenkblatt) (Zugriff: 28.3.2017); Yad Vashem, Zentrale Datenbank der Namen der Holocaustopfer Nachman Ber Wenig (Gedenkblatt) (Zugriff: 28.3.2017); Yad Vashem, Zentrale Datenbank der Namen der Holocaustopfer Lea Wenig (Gedenkblatt) (Zugriff: 28.3.2017); Yad Vashem, Zentrale Datenbank der Namen der Holocaustopfer Mina Kudisch (Gedenkblatt) (Zugriff: 28.3.2017); Yad Vashem, Zentrale Datenbank der Namen der Holocaustopfer Philip Kudisch (Gedenkblatt) (Zugriff: 28.3.2017).
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