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Sofie Wiesenfeld * 1876

Eimsbütteler Chaussee 25 (Eimsbüttel, Eimsbüttel)

HIER WOHNTE
SOFIE WIESENFELD
JG. 1876
DEPORTIERT 1941
ERMORDET IN
MINSK

further stumbling stones in Eimsbütteler Chaussee 25:
Johanna Magnus, Klara Magnus, Moses Samuel Magnus, Paul Meyer

Sofie Wiesenfeld, born on 6 Sept. 1876 in Apen/ Ammerland, deported to Minsk on 18 Nov. 1941, murdered

Eimsbütteler Chaussee 25

We learned little about the life of unmarried Sofie Wiesenfeld. She grew up with several siblings: Rosa (1867–1914), Louis (1869–1928), Emma (1871–1948), Veronika (1874–1953), Julius (1879–1942), and Ella (1884–1949). The family resided in Oldenburg from about 1900.

No traces were found of Sofie Wiesenfeld’s childhood, youth, and school days. Her parents Joseph (1815–1902 in Oldenburg) and Henricka, née Sachs (born in 1842 in Losser/Netherlands–1917 in Oldenburg) enabled her to learn the profession of a sales clerk. In the meantime, her brother Louis had become self-employed as a master baker on Donnerschweerstrasse in Oldenburg. Starting in 1916, Sofie Wiesenfeld lived in her brother’s house and worked perhaps as a sales clerk in the bakery. Almost ten years later, her married sister Ella Dreyer also resided with her family in the house. After the death of Louis Wiesenfeld in 1928, Sofie inherited the house.

Starting on 30 Jan. 1933, life for Jews in Germany changed step by step. The decrees, laws, etc., issued by the Nazis restricted them more and more. This was already evident on 1 Apr. 1933, the boycott day against Jewish stores, among others. The Wiesenfeld bakery was probably also affected by this. In the following years, many Jews left the German Reich, provided they could afford it. Those who remained were often not allowed to stay in their "old” apartments and houses. Some of them found refuge in the house of Sofie Wiesenfeld, such as the Minden native Lina Katz (see www.stolpersteine-hamburg.de).

Under the pretext of freeing the Oldenburg border region from spies and "unreliable elements,” the Nazis planned in early 1940 to relocate the Jews there to the Lublin District, but the Reich Association of Jews in Germany (Reichsvereinigung der Juden in Deutschland), whose Hamburg district office was headed by Max Plaut, prevented this plan and made it possible for them to move to Hamburg, Hannover, and Berlin, among other places. Sofie Wiesenfeld had to sell her inherited house far below value. She put her household effects up for sale through two advertisements in the local newspaper. Sofie Wiesenfeld went to Hamburg, where she registered with the Jewish Community in May 1940, initially "visiting,” as noted on her Jewish religious tax (Kultussteuer) file card. Toward the end of 1940, the Oldenburg Police Office reported to the Ministry of Finance, "the complete de-Jewification ["Entjudung”] of commerce and industry in the area of the City of Oldenburg has been ascertained.”

For the time being, Sofie Wiesenfeld found accommodation with Schmidt at Armbruststrasse 4 in Eimsbüttel, according to the entry on the Jewish religious tax file card. The main tenant was Veronika Schmidt, a sister of Sofie. Another sister, Emma Schriever, resided at the same address for a short time. At first, Sofie was able to live with her widowed sister and her two sons. However, this was only a temporary solution, since another relative was forced to move into the two-bedroom apartment. Possibly, through the mediation of the Jewish Community, Sofie Wiesenfeld found new accommodation with the married couple Moses Samuel and Klara Magnus (see www.stolpersteine-hamburg.de) at Eimsbütteler Chaussee 25.

Sofie Wiesenfeld was deported to Minsk on the third Hamburg transport on 18 Nov. 1941 and murdered. The Stolperstein commemorating her fate was laid at Eimsbütteler Chaussee 25. Sofie Wiesenfeld was not forgotten in Oldenburg either, where she is remembered in the "Memorial Book in Oldenburg.” In 1998, her grandniece Maria Wrage deposited a Page of Testimony (Gedenkblatt) for her in Yad Vashem/Israel.

What traces were found of Sofie Wiesenfeld’s siblings?
No traces were found concerning the life of Rosa, the oldest sister, who was born in 1867 in Aschendorf near Papenburg. Her grave from 1914 is located in the Jewish Cemetery in Oldenburg.

Her unmarried brother Louis, born in Aschendorf in 1869 and a master baker by trade, was also buried there in 1928. The siblings share the burial place.

The above-mentioned Emma Wiesenfeld, born in Aschendorf in 1871, married the Düsseldorf-born Christian Heinrich Schriever (1872–1936), who was a railroad engineer, in Altona in 1901. It is not known when the couple settled in Altona. A few months after their marriage, Erwin Julius Louis Josef was born there on 10 Feb. 1902. Erwin’s sister Hendricka Ella was born in Hamburg on 25 Sept. 1905. In the 1906 Hamburg directory, there was an entry indicating that Emma Schriever ran a bread shop at Schwenckestrasse 39 in Eimsbüttel, where the family also resided.

Erwin learned the trade of baker from his uncle Louis. His sister Ella became a hairdresser. One day before her birthday in 1927, she married Erich Feldmann (born in 1903) from Hamburg, who already passed away in 1928, however. In Aug. 1928, Erwin married Bertha Kreker (born in 1901) from Henstedt. Their daughters Maria Ella and Lotte were born in Hamburg in 1929 and 1933. Erwin Schriever worked in the "Einigkeit” cooperative of bread merchants in and around Hamburg. In addition, he had been politically active in the German Communist Party (KPD) and the trade union since 1931. This was to be his downfall after the Nazis came to power. He was arrested for "conspiratorial activity” in 1935. In 1936, the Hanseatic Higher Regional Court (Hanseatisches Oberlandesgericht) sentenced him to two and a half years in prison, which he served in Fuhlsbüttel, for "preparation of a treasonous endeavor.”

Heinrich Schriever died while his son was in prison. Until this time, Emma Schriever was relatively protected by marriage to a Christian. However, the regulations that applied to her now stipulated she could no longer continue her business and had to leave the apartment she owned. Her sister Veronika took her in. At times, they lived with five or six people in the apartment. The "evacuation order” numbered 4,787, too, was sent to her sister’s address at Armbruststrasse 4. For Emma Schriever, this meant deportation on 19 July 1942, to the so-called "ghetto for the elderly” ("Altersgetto”) in Theresienstadt.

Emma Schriever survived. She returned to Hamburg in early June 1945 and died of liver cancer in the apartment of her sister Veronika Schmidt on 20 May 1948. She found her final resting place in the Jewish Cemetery on Ilandkoppel.

Erwin and Bertha Schriever survived. Erwin died in 1985 in Wedel. We found no traces of his wife. Ella Feldmann lived on Bundesstrasse after 1945. She started a new apprenticeship and worked as a baker. We did not find any other traces of her.

Veronika Schmidt’s husband Georg Jacob, to whom she had been married since 1903, worked in one of Hamburg’s port operations. On 21 July 1904, they became parents, as son Hans was born. Son Erich followed on 15 Feb. 1908. Veronika probably took care of the two children and the household. The boys went to school, though where they did so is not known. Concerning Hans Schmidt, we learned that he began an apprenticeship as a "quartermaster” (inspecting the landed goods and their storage) in the port and attended commercial school for one year. No traces surfaced regarding his younger brother Erich. Probably his illness (multiple sclerosis) impeded him in his choice of profession. A major turning point in the life of the Schmidts was the death of the father of the family in 1928.

The 1930s were marked by exclusion, discrimination, and persecution. During this time, the Wiesenfeld siblings and their families moved closer together and helped each other. With the beginning of the war in Sept. 1939, further restrictions for Jews took effect. These included a regulation banning Jews from owning radios. Veronika handed in her radio late to the Gestapo in the fall of 1942, which had serious consequences: She was immediately taken into "protective custody” ("Schutzhaft”) for almost four weeks. She spent the period of detention in the notorious Fuhlsbüttel concentration camp ("Kolafu”). After her release, she was quartered together with her sick son Erich in the "Jews’ house” ("Judenhaus”) at Bornstrasse 22. From there, the Gestapo deported Veronika Schmidt to Theresienstadt on 19 Jan. 1944, because she was widowed and no longer protected by the "mixed marriage” ("Mischehe”). Her sick son Erich, defined by the Nazis as a "Jewish crossbreed of the first degree” ("Mischling 1. Grades”), was allowed to remain in the "Jews’ house.”

The older son Hans was also arrested in Oct. 1942, because he, being a "Jewish crossbreed of the first degree,” had "intercourse with an Aryan girl,” as the Gestapo put it. Without trial, he was incarcerated in "Kolafu” until mid-December 1942. From there, the Gestapo deported him directly to Auschwitz-Monowitz, where he had to perform extremely hard forced labor, initially in the mine. He was then taken in open coal cars to the Mauthausen concentration camp, in present-day Austria, to the Gusen Kommando (detachment). In that Kommando, the prisoners had to work in underground tunnels for the aircraft industry. In late Feb. 1945, the Americans liberated the camp.

Veronika, Hans, and Erich Schmidt survived. Veronika Schmidt returned to her apartment on Armbruststrasse in a bad state of health. The authority of jurisdiction, where she filed applications, questioned her imprisonment in the "Kolafu,” as "there is no proof yet.” Fortunately, a witness was found who had sat with her in the police car (Hamburg vernacular: "Peterwagen”) after her arrest. In the summer, her son Hans, emaciated down to 90 pounds, returned to Hamburg. It would not be until 1947 that the 71-year-old survivor could once again call a radio her own. A few years later, on 6 Oct. 1953, Veronika Schmidt passed away in Hamburg.

In Oct. 1945, Hans married Minna Schottstedt, a native of Brandenburg. He also tried to gain a foothold again professionally. The younger brother Erich lived in a nursing home in Wandsbek.

Julius Wiesenfeld worked as a master tailor. He married Johanna Kahn (1873–1940 in Ginsheim) at an unknown date. The couple lived in Mainz, where their daughter Erna was born on 12 July 1904. At the time of the 1939 German national census, Erna Wiesenfeld was residing in Frankfurt, where she was probably working. On 24 Mar. 1942, Erna and Julius Wiesenfeld were deported from Darmstadt, where they had been taken a few days earlier, to the Piaski camp near Lublin. At the time of the deportation, father and daughter lived at Freikorps-Oberland-Strasse 37 in Ginsheim, which was a part of Mainz from 1930 to 1945. Erna and Julius Wiesenfeld were declared dead. For father and daughter, the relative Maria Wrage submitted Pages of Testimony at Yad Vashem/Israel.

Ella Wiesenfeld, born in 1884 in Oldenburg, married the Christian Friedrich Dreyer, on whom we found no further traces. The two children of the married couple, Erika and Max, were born in 1922 and 1924, also in Oldenburg. At the beginning of 1926, the family packed the moving boxes and settled in the house of the brother/brother-in-law at Donnerschweerstrasse 59. A few years later, in the fall of 1930, Friedrich Dreyer passed away. The census recorded Ella and Erika as residing at the known address, and Max lived next door in house no. 61.

Ella Dreyer was not spared deportation, since the "protection” of the "mixed marriage” was no longer in effect. On 13 Jan. 1944, she was deported from Bremen to Theresienstadt. No traces were found as to how her two children, Erika and Max, fared. Ella Dreyer survived and returned to Donnerschweerstrasse 59 in Oldenburg in July 1945, where she lived until her death on 16 Nov. 1949.

In Apr. 1946, the Oldenburg municipal administration decided that the property "which had been taken away from Jews ... during the period from 1933 until 8 May 1945,” was to be returned to the former owner family, in this case to Erika Dreyer.

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

Stand: December 2020
© Sonja Zoder

Quellen: 1; 4; 5; 6; 8; StaH Standesämter 332-5/5954-858/1901; 332-5/8624-498/1903; 332-5/8830-473/1928; 332-5/8821-566/1927; 332-5/8225-609/1953; 351-11 (AfW) 25567 und 25568; 351-11 (AfW) 2518 und 28954; Baumbach: Wo Wurzeln waren, Hamburg 1993, S. 260 und Beiheft S. 25, 26; Vieth: Von der Hallerstraße 6/8 zum Isebek und Dammtor, Hamburg 1990, S. 78; Mosel: Wegweiser zu den ehemaligen jüdischen Stätten in Hamburg, Heft 3, Hamburg 1989, S.100; Guth:, Bornstraße 22 Ein Erinnerungsbuch, Hamburg 2001, S. 99; Krispin: Ein offenes Geheimnis: "Arisierung" in Alltag und Wirtschaft in Oldenburg zwischen 1933 und 1945, S. 19, 35, 51, 54, 55, 58, 64, 65, 67, 120, Oldenburg 2001 im April 2016; URL: www.agora.sub.uni-hamburg.de; www.geni.com; https://www.tracingthepast.org/name=wiesenfeld; http://www.statistik-des-holocaust.de/ list_ger_hhn_420324.html jeweils am 9.4.2016; http://www.alemannia-judaica.de/ bischofsheim_gg_synagoge.htm am 14.5.2020; http://www.alemannia-judaica.de/oldenburg_friedhof.htm; http://erinnerungsbuch-oldenburg.de/jeo.php?PID=592 jeweils am 11.4.2016; http://digital.lb-oldenburg.de/ihd/content/search/162339?query=wiesenfeld am 15.4.2016; Jüdischer Friedhof Hamburg, Ilandkoppel Grab-Nr. J2-46 am 5.5.2016; http://www.uni-heidelberg.de/institute/sonst/aj/STANDREG/FFM1/117-152.htm am 24.5.2016; https://de.findagrave.com/memorial/180822839/johanna-wiesenfeld am 12.4.2020.
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