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Paula Heipertz
© Yad Vashem

Paula Heipertz (née Levy) * 1889

Grindelhof 40 (Eimsbüttel, Rotherbaum)

HIER WOHNTE
PAULA HEIPERTZ
GEB. LEVY
JG. 1889
DEPORTIERT 1942
AUSCHWITZ
ERMORDET

Paula Heipertz, née Levy, born on September 26, 1889, in Hamburg; deported to Auschwitz on July 11, 1942, and murdered there

Grindelhof 40

Paula, whose real name was Pauline, was born in Hamburg to Eduard Levy and Sara (née Bauer). Like her grandfather Ephraim Levy (died August 16, 1876), her father was a "carriage manufacturer.” Under the company name "Levy Gebr.,” Eduard Levy operated a "luxury carriage factory” as a co-owner at Große Drehbahn 6 in downtown Hamburg. The building had been owned by the family since 1877. Paula had at least eight siblings: Minna, later married name Pettersson, born September 16, 1871, Henriette, later married name Meyer, born July 20, 1876, Emilie (Mile), later married name Block, born July 13, 1878, Mariane/Mary, later married name Boas, born June 17, 1881, James Levy, born August 3, 1884, Julie Levy, born Jan. 25, 1885, Jeannette Levy, born July 27, 1882, and Alice Levy, born Feb. 26, 1888; the latter two died in infancy.

Their father, Eduard Levy, died on September 2, 1898, at the age of 58, in the apartment at Drehbahn 6. His widow, Sara Levy, moved a few years later to Königsberg in Prussia (today Kaliningrad) to live with her married daughters. She died there on February 17, 1920.

Paula married the non-Jewish real estate agent Hugo Heipertz in Duisburg in 1926; his religion was listed as Protestant. The childless couple lived at Hohenstaufenstraße 15 in Duisburg in 1929. Paula Heipertz moved to Düsseldorf to live with her sister Mariane/Mary Boas’s family at Roßstraße 20. In 1930, she opened a "Spezial-Offenbacher” leather goods store at Am Wehrhahn 18. Three years later, in 1933, the Düsseldorf directory lists her at Düsselthaler Straße 3 without specifying a business. The first entry for Hugo Heipertz appears only in 1936 at 29 Litzmannstraße in Düsseldorf. It is not known when the marriage broke down and they divorced.

Apparently without any assets, Paula Heipertz moved back to Hamburg in 1936. She initially lived at Hartungstraße 7a, as a subtenant; in 1937, she moved to Grindelhof 40 to live with the Meyers. According to an entry by the Jewish Community, with which she was now registered again, she lived "in the household of her impoverished brother-in-law, completely destitute” and without income. Her sister Henriette Meyer, who was married to the former editor Friedrich Karl Meyer (born July 24, 1871, in Osnabrück), died on May 25, 1935, in Königsberg, Prussia.

Like all Jewish women, Paula Heipertz was forced to adopt the name "Sara” in 1938. As required by law, she had to apply for it herself. On November 11, 1938, the registrar then entered it as a note on her birth certificate.

Through her divorce, Paula Heipertz had lost the (fragile) protection of a "privileged mixed marriage,” which would have spared her from deportation at least until shortly before the end of the war. Instead, she received a deportation order for the transport from Hamburg to Auschwitz on July 11, 1942. More than three hundred Jews boarded the train that took them to Auschwitz-Birkenau. The Gestapo had marked the destination as "unknown” on the deportation list, and the names of the new arrivals were not registered at Auschwitz either. They were likely murdered by gas immediately upon arrival.

The bureaucracy in Hamburg, however, continued to function: On September 1, 1942, a bailiff auctioned off a few items of clothing, bedding, and shoes belonging to Paula Heipertz for 125.50 Reichsmarks (RM). After deducting fees and insurance costs, 117.65 RM was transferred to the account of the Hamburg Oberfinanzkasse.

After the war, the Hamburg bureaucracy took action once more: On February 17, 1947, it declared the forced name "Sara” on the annotation to the birth certificate invalid. By then, Paula Heipertz had already been dead for four and a half years.

Paula Heipertz’s siblings were also deported: Emilie (Mile) Levy, married name Wolley, lived in Königsberg, Prussia. Her husband, the cattle dealer Gustav Wolley, died on August 9, 1911, at the age of 45. On November 2, 1912, she married the merchant Adolf Warnecke (born April 24, 1889). After his death, she entered into another marriage with Gustav Carl Block, who was also non-Jewish. This marriage did not last, and after the divorce, she too returned to Hamburg. According to her religious tax card, issued here in 1940, Emilie Block was dependent on welfare and lived at Curschmannstraße 37 IV until she was forced to move to a so-called "Judenhaus” at Bundesstraße 43. On December 6, 1941, she was deported to Riga-Jungfernhof. On the deportation list, she is listed under the first name Emmy, with her occupation given as bookkeeper.

Mariane/Mary Levy had married the merchant Philipp Felix Boas (born May 1, 1867, in Exin) in Berlin on October 18, 1910. Their daughter Ruth Senta was also born there on May 2, 1911. The family lived in Berlin-Wilhelmsdorf, most recently at Uhlandstraße 114 in 1919. They then moved to Düsseldorf, where Philipp Felix Boas died in 1930. According to the Düsseldorf address book, Mariane/Mary Boas was still operating a shop for "furs and clothing” at Stockkampstraße 34 in 1939. Mariane/Mary Boas moved to Hamburg via Karlsruhe in May 1939 with her daughter Ruth Senta and son-in-law Rudi (Rudolf) Goldstein (born September 5, 1904, in Ruda, Silesia). Ruth and Rudi had married in Düsseldorf on August 21, 1938. In Hamburg, they lived as subtenants at Klosterallee 7. On October 8, 1941, they were deported together to Minsk. (Rudi Goldstein’s widowed mother, Anna Goldstein, née Kamm, born January 5, 1878, in Königshütte, Silesia, was deported with her younger son, Harry Goldstein, born November 1, 1909, deported from Karlsruhe on October 22, 1940, to the Gurs internment camp in southern France, where Anna Goldstein died on November 14, (Died in 1941. Harry Goldstein was murdered in Auschwitz on September 2, 1942.)

According to information from relatives, James Levy is also believed to have been murdered in Minsk (his name does not appear on the deportation lists or in the memorial book of the Federal Archives).

His sister Julie Levy, an office clerk in Hamburg, had already died on September 23, 1915.

Paula Heipertz’s eldest sister, Minna Levy, had emigrated to Sweden; according to her descendant Hans-Göran Dahl, she was the only member of the family to survive. In 2015, he submitted a testimony to Yad Vashem and estimates the number of murdered family members at 25.

Translator: Richard Levy
Kindly supported by the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung, Hamburg/Amendments and additions Beate Meyer 2026

© Jil-Aminata Gasirabo, Julia Schoeler/Änderungen u. Ergänzungen Beate Meyer

Quellen: 1; 5; 8; 9; StaH 214-1 Gerichtsvollzieherwesen 330. https://www.statistik-des-holocaust.de/OT420711-5.jpg (Zugriff 2.4.2026); https://collections.yadvashem.org/en/names/13921941 (Zugriff 2.4.2026);
https://gedenkbuch-duesseldorf.de/memory-book/goldstein-max-moses/ (Zugriff 14.4.2026);
https://gedenkbuch-duesseldorf.de/memory-book/goldstein-rudi-rudolf/; (Zugriff 14.4.2026);
https://stadtgeschichte.karlsruhe.de/fileadmin/user_upload/07_Mandantenseiten/Stadtarchiv/05_Stadtgeschichte/04_Publikationen/Vergriffene/Hakenkreuz_und_Judenstern.pdf#page=469 (Zugriff 10.4.2026); https://gedenkbuch.karlsruhe.de/namen/1269 (Zugriff 10.4.2026); ancestry.com (Zugriff 2.4.2026); Angela Genger (Hg.), Verfolgung und Widerstand in Düsseldorf 1933-1956, Essen 1981, S. 61, https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Levy-4442; diverse Adressbücher Duisburg und Düsseldorf.
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