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Ernst Posner * 1904

Jan-Valkenburg-Straße 3 (Hamburg-Mitte, Neustadt)

HIER WOHNTE
ERNST POSNER
JG. 1904
VERHAFTET 17.6.1942
NEUENGAMME
1942 DACHAU
ERMORDET 1.8.1942

Adolf Julius Posner, born 19.4.1884 in Hamburg, deported 8.11.1941 to Minsk ghetto

Großneumarkt 38 (Schlachterstraße 40/42) (Stolperstein planned)

Ernst Posner, born on 6.2.1904 in Hamburg, arrested on 17.6.1942 in Kiel, imprisoned in Neuengamme concentration camp and Dachau concentration camp, died there on 1.8.1942

Jan-Valkenburg-Straße 3 (Marienstraße 1)

When Adolf Posner was five years old, he lived with his parents in the backyard of 2. Elbstraße 12. He still had two siblings, the three years older brother Ernst Aron Posner (see www.stolpersteine-hamburg.de) and the then 12 years old Bertha (born 1.1.1879). Their father Joel Posner was a laborer and merchant until he died in the Israelite Hospital on March 11, 1891.

The mother Fanny Posner, née Levy (born 12.2.1847), entered into a second marriage in 1895 with the non-Jewish Friedrich Wilhelm Schmidtke (born 5.1.1837, died 11.10.1913). The Schmidtke couple lived in simple circumstances at Neuer Steinweg 45 and were active as merchants. Fanny Schmidtke died on March 18, 1924 in a state nursing home.

Adolf Posner left his parental home and earned a living as a laborer and messenger. On March 15, 1906, he had married the cook Rosalie Streim. Their joint son Ernst, who saw the light of day on February 6, 1904, was given the surname Posner.

Rosalie Streim had been born (21.2.1880) in Reichenbach im Vogtland, and at the time of the marriage had lived with her father, master tailor Eduard Samuel Streim (born 2.2.1844, died 7.9.1909), at Schlachterstraße 40/42 in the Jewish Marcus Nordheim Stift. Her mother Eva, née Striem, had died early in Reichenbach and her father had returned to his hometown Hamburg. (See Johanna Löwe, www.stolpersteine-hamburg.de). On February 7, 1909, Rosalie and Adolf Posner had their second son Rudolf. A year or two after his birth, the Posner family moved from Carolinenstraße 26, House 12, to Marcus-Nordheim-Stift, House 4. On January 25, 1923, Rosalie Posner died in the Israelite Hospital. She was buried in the Langenfelde Jewish Cemetery.

A few years later, Adolf Posner's unmarried sister-in-law Clara Streim (born 5.11. 1973) moved in with him. She returned from Berlin to Hamburg because she could no longer work in her sister's "tailor's studio" for health reasons. She suffered from muscular atrophy, paralysis of the hip and the right leg, and was now receiving an invalidity pension, which, however, was not sufficient to live on. In the meantime, Adolf Posner had almost gone blind at the age of 44. "Now and then" he took on "guard duty" at the "Jewish Burial Society" and also received a small disability pension. Together they took care of the household as best they could. They had to call on help to wash and clean the apartment. Clara Streim then became dependent and moved into the nursing home of the Jewish Community at Schäferkampsallee 29, where she took her own life by hanging on February 3, 1942.

In the meantime, Adolf's sons had left their parental home. The youngest, Rudolf Posner, worked in his learned profession as an upholsterer and upholsterer. In the meantime he went to sea as a steward. Rudolf felt the growing anti-Semitism at an early age. On July 2, 1931, in the evening at 10 p.m., after an event in the Jewish Youth Home at Johnsallee 54 had been prematurely broken off, he was severely maltreated in the open street by a group of National Socialists shouting "beat the Jews to death one by one." A court hearing ensued, in which one of the attackers, 22-year-old motorist Erich Rudolf Syrig, was sentenced to one month in prison. At that time Rudolf Posner lived at Wexstraße 26 with the tailor J. Boudys.

On April 27, 1934, Rudolf Posner married the non-Jewish chambermaid Ottilie Lienau (born 11.7.1902 in Altona). Although he converted to Christianity with his marriage, Rudolf Posner, as a "non-Aryan," could no longer find work in his learned profession and decided to go back to sea in 1935. He also hoped to be able to go abroad more quickly if anti-Semitism in Germany continued to grow.

The childless Posner couple lived on the second floor of Marienstraße 1 (from 1940 Jan-Valkenburg-Straße). Rudolf's older brother Ernst also lived with them. Ottilie Posner gave up the apartment in the summer of 1939. It is quite possible that they were given notice to quit, because the "Law on Tenancies with Jews" of April 30, 1939 abolished their tenant protection. Ottilie Posner found an apartment at Hafenstraße 126, and her brother-in-law Ernst moved to Kiel to Kleiner Kuhberg 28 on June 18, 1939.

At that time, Rudolf was still going to sea on one of the ships of the South American Steamship Company. Before he was forced to muster out in August 1941, he had not taken opportunities to disembark anywhere. Perhaps he misjudged the situation in Germany.

Rudolf Posner was conscripted as a factory worker, most recently at the Steen & Co. hemp spinning mill in Hamburg-Lokstedt, where he cleaned the latrines and toilets. He had to leave the apartment at Hafenstraße 126 by order of the house owner Niemeier, who did not tolerate Jews in the house. Rudolf Posner was then registered as a subtenant at various addresses, such as at Nagelsweg 19 with Harms and at Große Bergstraße 100 in a "Judenhaus".

When the deportations from Hamburg began in October 1941, Rudolf Posner received an order from the Gestapo, "Judenreferat" department at Düsternstraße 41, to be ready for "evacuation" to Poland; he was to be deported to Minsk ghetto with his father Adolf on November 8, 1941. Because of his non-Jewish wife, however, he was able to obtain a temporary deferment, and his name was removed from the deportation list.

Rudolf's father Adolf Posner had to follow the deportation order. After he had had to give up his longtime apartment in Schlachterstraße, he had lived in the "Judenhaus" at Neuer Steinweg 78, house 4. With the job title of "corpse bearer," Adolf Posner was deported from the Hanover train station to the ghetto in Minsk on November 8, 1941.

On April 23, 1942, Ottilie Posner reported her husband to the police as missing for 14 days. On May 15, 1942, at about 2 p.m., Rudolf Posner was found dead floating in the water near the Altona harbor. Ottilie Posner stated that her husband had repeatedly told her that a "deportation" would mean certain death for him. He preferred to end his life himself. Rudolf Posner is commemorated by a stumbling stone at Hafenstraße 126 (see www.stolperstein-hamburg.de).

His older brother Ernst Posner was arrested in Kiel for unknown reasons on June 17, 1942, and transferred to the Neuengamme concentration camp in Hamburg as a "protective prisoner." From there, he arrived at the Dachau concentration camp on August 1, 1942, along with ten other men categorized as "Jewish" on a large transport. Already on the day of his arrival, Ernst Posner died at 9:30 p.m. in the "prisoners' infirmary". The cause of death was given as "failure of heart and circulation due to pneumonia".

Translation Beate Meyer

Stand: February 2023
© Susanne Rosendahl

Quellen: 1; 9; StaH 332-5 Standesämter 2563 u 1678/1876; StaH 332-5 Standesämter 1950 u 62/1879; StaH 332-5 Standesämter 2008 u 4647/1881; StaH 332-5 Standesämter 2077 u 1908/1884; StaH 332- 5 Standesämter 2698 u 798/1886; StaH 332-5 Standesämter 294 u 596/1891; StaH 332-5 Standesämter 14183 u 356/1904; StaH 332-5 Standesämter 3064 u 136/1906; StaH 332-5 Standesämter 623 u 583/1909; StaH 332-5 Standesämter 870 u 42/1923; StaH 332-5 Standesämter 5428 u 678/1942; StaH 332-5 Standesämter 8179 u 64/1942; StaH 351-11 AfW 25761 (Posner, Ottilie); StaH 331-5 Polizeibehörde – Unnatürliche Sterbefälle 3 Akte 1942/1322; StaH 213-11 Amtsgericht A17325/31; StaH 522-1 Jüdische Gemeinde Nr. 992 e 2 Band 2; Behrens: Stolpersteine, S. 155; Auskunft von Alyn Beßmann, Archiv der KZ-Gedenkstätte Neuengamme, E-Mail vom 24.8.2015; Auskunft von Andre Scharf, Archiv der KZ-Gedenkstätte Dachau, E-Mail vom 14.8.2015; http://stevemorse.org/dachau/dachau.html (Zugriff 13.2.2015), Arolsen Archives Online-Collections, Document ID: 10250983 – Ernst Israel Posner (Zugriff 10.3.2020).
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