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Ruth Falck * 1929

Försterweg 43 (Eimsbüttel, Stellingen)

1942 Auschwitz
ermordet

further stumbling stones in Försterweg 43:
Salomon Falck, Lina Falck, Hilde Falck, Gerta Lazarus, Ilse Lazarus

Salomon (Siegbert) Falck, born 21 Sep. 1897 in Hamburg, deported 25 Oct. 1941 to Lodz, died 29 Mar. 1945 at Buchenwald
Lina Falck, née Heimann, born 29 Jan. 1892 in Hamburg, deported 11 July 1942 to Auschwitz
Hilde Falck, born 16 Dec. 1924 in Hamburg, deported 11 July 1942 to Auschwitz
Ruth Falck, born 16 June 1929 in Stellingen, deported 11 July 1942 to Auschwitz

Försterweg 43

Ferdinand Falck and his wife Rosalie, née Rittlewski (*8 May 1861 in Hamburg) were married in 1894. They were living in a Jewish charity home at Schlachterstraße 40 in 1897 when their son Salomon was born. Charity homes of this kind were often established by wealthy Jews as residences for the poor. The Falck family probably had only a very low income.

Ther is no information about Salomon Falck’s schooling or vocational training. He may have served as a soldier in the First World War. An entry in the Jewish Community church tax records from 1923 lists him as a travelling salesman for the Holsatia Plant in Altona-Ottensen, a woodworking factory which manufactured everything from matchboxes to furniture. By this time he had added ‘Siegbert’ to his name, probably so that he would not automatically be recognized and ostracized as a Jew.

The inflation in Germany between the wars likely caused financial problems for both him and his customers. He nevertheless decided to start a family.

In Febraury 1923 Salomon Siegbert Falck married Lina Heimann, the daughter of the Jewish watchmaker Bernhard Heimann (1860-1918). He was a citizen of Hamburg and had a small shop at Neuen Steinweg 26, near two synagogues (one was the oldest synagogue in Hamburg, in the courtyard at Neuen Steinweg 45, which was closed in 1895) and a Jewish cemetery. Lina Heimann was born in 1892 in the family’s apartment at Peterstraße 16, just around the corner from the shop. Her mother Sophie, née Cohn (*1867) was from Lübeck.

Sophie’s brother Sally Heimann (*1894) was also a watchmaker. The Heimann family moved to the Rotherbaum district in 1913, first to Rutschbahn 31 (1913-1916) and then to Heinrich-Barth-Straße 23. The building next door housed the "Israelite Boarding House and Luncheon Room,” run by Frau Jenny Heimann. It cannot be determined if she was a relative.

Salomon Siegbert and Lina Falck had two daughters, Hilde (*1924) and Ruth (*1929).

Salomon Siegbert Falck and his family joined the German-Israelitic Community in December 1923, when he was 26 years old. They were also members of the orthodox synagogue association. At this time they lived in Stellingen, which was still in the administrative district of Pinneberg in Holstein. It was incorporated into the Prussian city of Altona in 1927. For several years around 1931, Salomon Siegbert Falck was the cemetery inspector at the orthodox Jewish cemetery in Langenfelde, which had been established in 1883. The cemetery’s grounds included a mortuary with a synagogue and a home for the cemetery inspector and his family. Siegbert Falck started a business selling gravestones in 1931. His workshop was at Fuhlsbüttelerstraße 685 until 1936, then at Försterweg 43, on property that belonged to the Alte und Neue Klaus Hamburg synagogue. The family also lived at this address.

Beginning in 1937, a "J” was entered in front of the names of Jewish residents in the official registry for each house. In 1938 the Falck family withdrew their membership from the Jewish Community, probably in the hope of avoiding Nazi persecution. In 1939 however, they were reinstated, when all German Jews were forced to become members of the Reich Association of Jews in Germany. In February 1939, the registry office in Hamburg added "Sara” to Lina Falck’s name.

In November 1938 the daughters were attending the Carolinenstraße Jewish Girls’ School, and then attended the Talmud Tora School on Grindelhof in Hamburg-Rotherbaum when the two schools were consolidated in April 1939. In November 1939 they returned to the Carolinenstraße school, the name of which had been changed to the "Secondary School for Jews.”

Salomon Siegbert and Lina Falck divorced in May 1940. The daughters remained with their mother at Försterweg 43. The building was confiscated by the Nazis and used as a "Jews’ house” when they began concentrating and deporting Jews. The three-member Lazarus family lived there as well. In the church tax file opened for Lina Falck after the divorce, she is listed as having "no income.” Her financial situation must have been dire at this time.

Salomon Siegbert Falck married the sales clerk Liselotte Rosenberg (*16 Dec. 1911 in Hamburg) in June 1940. He moved in with her at Bogenstraße 25 (Eimsbüttel), where she had lived with her parents since 1938. This building and the neighboring one, both of which had been built in 1913, belonged to the "Z. H. May and Wife Foundation.” Beginning in March 1939, the owners were forced to overcrowd the buildings with residents, and later the buildings were used as "Jew’s houses” when the deportations began. Salomon Siegbert Falck’s last address is given as Dillstraße 20, in the home of Max and Betti Würzburg. This means that he and his second wife were living as boarders. The buildings at Dillstraße 13, 15, and 16 were all Jewish charity homes that had been turned into "Jews’ houses.”

Salomon Siegbert Falck and his second wife were deported to Lodz on 25 October 1941 on the first transport of Jews from Hamburg. Liselotte Falck died on 30 June 1943 in the Lodz Ghetto. Salomon Siegbert Falck was transferred from Lodz to the Buchenwald Concentration Camp. In 1963, the German Red Cross Tracing Service investigated his whereabouts for a restitution claim, and reported: "On 24 December 1944 he was transferred by the Reich Security Main Administration from Tschenstochau (Czestochowa) to the Buchenwald Concentration Camp, prisoner number 11874. He died there on 29 March 1945 at 5:45 p.m. Cause of death: gastroenteritis.” The camp was liberated by US troops two weeks after his death.

His first wife Lina and his two daughters, aged 17 and 13, were deported to the extermination camp at Auschwitz on 11 July 1942. They were sent immediately to the gas chambers, without their arrival having been registered. No dates of death are given. Their belongings were stored in the camp’s depot. The Hamburg District Court declared the date of death for Lina, Hilde, and Ruth Falck as 8 May 1945.

In 1934, Salomon Falck’s mother Rosalie lived in the Jewish Marcus-Nordheim Home (Schlachterstraße 40, House 3). In October 1939 she moved to the Jewish Lazarus-Samson Home and Joseph-Levy Home at Neue Steinweg 78. On 15 September 1942 she was assigned to rooms at the former German-Israelitic Community at Beneckestraße 6, and was then deported to the Theresienstadt Ghetto on 24 February 1943. She died there on 6 May 1944, shortly before her 83rd birthday. Her death certificate is no longer extant.

Salomon Falck’s parents-in-law, Harry Rosenberg (*17 Oct. 1875 in Hamburg) and his wife Bettina, née Westheimer (*25 Sep. 1877 in Hamburg) ran an office supply shop on Brandstwiete until it was "Aryanized” in 1938/39. The Rosenbergs had been members of the German-Israelitic Community since at least 1913, and were also members of the orthodox synagogue association. They lived at Hoheluftchaussee 119 until 1932. In June 1938 they moved into an apartment at Bogenstraße 25. This building was later declared a "Jews’ house” and used as a pre-deportation assembly point. The couple was deported to the Riga Ghetto on 6 December 1941. Their fate is unknown. Their eldest daughter Edith Rosenberg (*22 Mar. 1907 in Hamburg) emigrated to England in 1939, where she found employment as a factory worker.

Translator: Amy Lee

Kindly supported by the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung, Hamburg.

© Björn Eggert

Quellen: 1; 4; 5; 8; StaH 332-5 (Standesämter), 2282 u. 2/458 (Geburt Lina 1892); StaH 332-5 (Standesämter), 2433 u. 2/3243 (Geburt, 1897); StaH 332-5 (Standesämter), 8778 u. 59/1923 (Heirat, 1923); StaH 332-8 (Alte Einwohnermeldekartei), Bernhard Heimann; StaH 332-8 (Hauskartei), K 2517 (Försterweg 43); StaH 351-11 (AfW), Eg 210997 (Salomon Falck); FZH/WdE 1 (Abbildung); FZH/WdE 15 (Abbildung); AB Hamburg 1932, 1935; AB Altona 1931; TB 1931–1940; TB Anhang Altona, 1920 (Holsatia); TB 1914 (Jenny Heimann); Hamburgs Handel u. Verkehr, Illustriertes Export-Handbuch der Börsen-Halle 1912– 1914, Hamburg (ohne Jahresangabe), S. II 272 (Holsatia); Recherchen von Jürgen Sielemann, 2007; Irmgard Stein, Jüdische Baudenkmäler in Hamburg, Hamburg 1984, S. 120 (Friedhof Langenfelde); Wilhelm Mosel, Wegweiser zu ehemaligen jüdischen Stätten in den Stadtteilen Eimsbüttel/Rotherbaum (I), Heft 2, Hamburg 1985, S. 52 (Bogenstr. 25, 27); Hermann Hipp, DuMont Kunst-Reiseführer Freie und Hansestadt Hamburg, Köln 1990, S. 391 (Jüd. Friedhof Langenfelde); Ursula Randt, Die Talmud Tora Schule in Hamburg 1805 bis 1942, Hamburg 2005, S. 13 (Schülerliste: Hilde u. Ruth Falck); Hamburger Börsenfirmen, 36. Auflage, Hamburg 1935, S. 719 (Gustav Rosenberg); Frank Bajohr, "Arisierung" in Hamburg, Hamburg 1998, S. 369 (Gustav Rosenberg).
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