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Bernhard Reiss * 1871

Krayenkamp / Ecke Wincklerstraße (Hamburg-Mitte, Neustadt)

HIER WOHNTE
BERNHARD REISS
JG. 1871
EINGEWIESEN 1940
HEILANSTALT LANGENHORN
"VERLEGT" 23.9.1940
BRANDENBURG
ERMORDET 23.9.1940
"AKTION T4"

Bernhard Reiss, born on 31.10.1871 in Hamburg, murdered on 23.9.1940 in the "State Care Home” Brandenburg at river Havel

Corner Krayenkamp/Wincklerstraße (Hamburg-Neustadt)

In December 1865, Michael Reiss from Alsheim near Worms, a citizen of Bavaria born on 25. March 1840, married Adele Lewin, born 1843, from Hamburg and settled in his wife’s home town. Both were Jewish.

A few months later, on 28. Feb 1866, their first son Alexander was born. He was followed on 5. Aug 1869 by Theodor and on 31. Oct 1871 by Henry, whose name was changed to Bernhard in May 1872. The fourth child, Henry, was born on 21. May 1876. On 25. Feb 1880, Michael and Adele Reiss also had a daughter, Hanchen.

Initially the family lived in the Peterstrasse and, probably from 1869 onwards, at Krayenkamp 18 in Hamburg-Neustadt. At the time when his children were born, Michael Reiss declared his profession as "tradesman”. In the Hamburg Adress Book, he was regularly described as a cigar worker.

Adele Reiss died already on 5. Feb 1882 at the age of 39. Bernhard then was only ten and Hanchen not yet quite two years old. Nine months later on 14. Nov 1882, Michael Reiss married a second time namely to Regina Katz, born on 10. Nov 1843 in Eiterfeld, North East of Frankfurt/Main. She also professed the Jewish faith. The marriage remained childless.

Bernhard Reiss lived with his father and stepmother even as a young man and was employed as a shop assistant. He was 24 years old when his doctor diagnosed him as "maniacally agitated” and had him committed to the then "Lunatic Asylum” Friedrichsberg on 26. May 1895. Since Bernhard Reiss’ state of health remained unchanged over a long period of time, he was transferred to the then "Lunatic Asylum” Hamburg-Langenhorn on 19. Sept 1902. According to his Patient’s Record, no improvement in his symptoms was noted here either.

Due to permanent overcrowding in the Langenhorn institution (which had been renamed "State Hospital” in the meantime), the state of Hamburg had financed new buildings with an initial capacity of 300 beds in the Lübeck Health Sanatorium Strecknitz on a loan basis, and in exchange Hamburg got the right of occupancy for these "Hamburg Houses”. On the basis of this agreement, Bernhard Reiss was transferred to Strecknitz on 3. Oct 1930 and stayed there till 1940.

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 Homes. They arranged for the Jewish people living in the homes to be registered and concentrated together in so-called State Collection Institutions. The "State Hospital” in Langenhorn was designated the Collection center for the Northern part of Germany. All institutions in Hamburg, Schleswig Holstein and Mecklenburg were instructed to transfer their Jewish patients to Langenhorn by 18. Sept 1940.

Bernhard Reiss arrived in Langenhorn on 16. Sept 1940.

On 23. Sept 1940, he was transferred together with a further 135 patients of both sexes from the North German institutions to the "State Care Home” Brandenburg an der Havel. The transport reached the town in the Mark of Brandenburg on the same day. Except lse Herta Zachmann initially escaped this fate (see www.stolpersteine-hamburg.de). The patients were herded without delay into the part of the prison which had been converted into a centre for execution by gas, and were killed there with carbon monoxide.

It is not known whether and, if so, when his relatives got knowledge from Bernhard Reiss’ death. In all other notifications which have been documented, it was claimed that the person concerned had died in Chelm (Polish) or Cholm (German). However, the people murdered in Brandenburg had never been in Chelm/Cholm, a city to the Northeast of Lublin. The Polish sanatorium which had operated there before no longer existed after SS units had murdered almost all the patients on 12. Jan 1940. There was also 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 the charging of maintenance costs for a correspondingly longer period of time.

Bernhard Reiss’ father, Michael, had passed away in 1910, aged 70 and his stepmother, Regina Reiss, neé Katz, in 1916, aged 72. We do not know the fate of Bernhard’s brothers Alexander, Henry and Theodor and their sister Hanchen.

At Krayenkamp 18, where the Reiss family lived, there is now an extensive green space. The stumbling stone in memory of Bernhard Reiss was therefore set into the pavement at the corner of Krayenkamp and Wincklerstraße.

Translator: Steve Robinson

Stand: November 2021
© Ingo Wille

Quellen: 1; 4; 5; AB; StaH 133-1 III Staatsarchiv III, 3171-2/4 U.A. 4, Liste psychisch kranker jüdischer 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); 332-03 Zivilstandsaufsicht A 3 Geburtsregisterauszug Nr. 874/1866 Alexander Reiss, A 119 Geburtsregisterauszug Nr. 6501/1871 Henry (Bernhard) Reiss, 332-5 Standesämter 123 Sterberegisterauszug Nr. 384/1882 Adele Reiss, 749 Sterberegisterauszug Nr. 558/1916 Regina Reiss, 1882 Geburtsregisterauszug Nr. 2437 Henry Reiss, 1975 Geburtsregisterauszug Nr. 975/1880 Hanchen Reiss, 2644 Heiratsregisterauszug Nr. 1303 Michael Reiss/Regina Katz, 8005 Sterberegisterauszug Nr. 805/1910 Michael Reiss; 352-8/7 Staatskrankenanstalt Langenhorn 1991/1 1154 Bernhard Reiss; 522-1 Jüdische Gemeinden 702 d Heiratsregisterauszug Nr. 85/1865 Michael Reiss/Adele Lewin; JSHD Forschungsgruppe "Juden in Schleswig-Holstein", Datenpool Erich Koch, Schleswig.
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