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Rosa Goldblatt
© Yad Vashem

Rosa Goldblatt * 1921

Bernstorffstraße 71 (Altona, Altona-Altstadt)

HIER WOHNTE
ROSA GOLDBLATT
JG. 1921
DEPORTIERT 1941 RIGA
1944 STUTTHOF
ERMORDET

further stumbling stones in Bernstorffstraße 71:
Lina Goldblatt, Max Goldblatt, Lotti Weissmann

Max Goldblatt, born on 13.3.1892 in Landshut (Galicia, today Łańcut/ Poland), forcibly expelled on 28.10.1938 to Bentschen/ Zbąszyń/ Poland, "protective custody" in Fuhlsbüttel police prison, murdered in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp on 17.5.1940

Seir Liebe, called Lina, Goldblatt, née Goldblatt, born on 15.2.1893 in Landshut (Galicia, today Łańcut/ Poland), forcibly expelled on 28.10.1938 to Bentschen/ Zbąszyń/ Poland, deported on 6. 12. 1941 to Riga-Jungfernhof, deported on 9.8.1944 to the Stutthof concentration camp near Gdansk and to Neustadt/ Holstein, died on 16.5.1945 in Neustadt

Rosa Goldblatt, born 8.10.1919 in Altona, forcibly expelled on 28.10.1938 to Bentschen/ Zbąszyń/ Poland, deported on 6.12.1941 to Riga-Jungfernhof, deported on 9.8.1944 to the Stutthof concentration camp near Gdansk and to Neustadt/ Holstein, died on 21.5.1945 in Neustadt

Bernstorffstraße 71 (former Adolphstraße respectively Adolfstraße), Altona-Altstadt

Max Goldblatt, the son of a synagogue servant, was born on 13 March 1892 in Landshut in Galicia, which was then part of Austria (today Łańcut, Carpathian Foothills Voivodeship in south-eastern Poland). He was married to Seir Liebe (called Lina) Goldblatt, née Goldblatt, born on 15 Feb. 1893, also in what was then Landshut. While still in Landshut, the couple had two children: Rywa (Regina), born on 26 Dec. 1907 (according to other sources on 25 Dec. 1909), and Markus (he later called himself Max) on 26 Feb. 1912. At the beginning of 1919, the family settled in the then still independent Prussian city of Altona.

The decision in favour of Altona may have been influenced by the fact that Max Goldblatt's brother Benjamin had already been living there with his family since 1913.

The latter, Benjamin Goldblatt, born on 15 Aug. 1890 in Landshut, had learned the "knitting trade" after attending primary school in his home town. He practised his craft in various places until he settled in Altona in 1913. During the First World War, he served in the Austrian army on what was then the Eastern Front, was wounded and returned to Altona after the end of the war. He was member of the Hochdeutsche Israeliten-Gemeinde Altona. Benjamin Goldblatt's family included his wife Estera (Erna), born on 25 Apr. 1894 in Landshut, his foster daughter Erna, born on 15 May 1916 in Landshut, and his sons Markus (Max), born on 27 Oct. 1920 in Altona, and Michael, born on 4 Feb. 1926 in Hamburg.

Benjamin and Estera Goldblatt had married on 14 June 1920 in Altona. Estera Goldblatt also worked as a knitter. Together they opened a knitwear factory with 12 machines and up to 15 employees at times, as well as a white goods wholesale business (mainly underwear) at Parallelstraße 38 (now Eifflerstraße). This business continued to exist until its closure in 1938. It provided the family with an income of 500 to 600 RM per month.

Benjamin and Estera Goldblatt's older son Markus attended primary school in Altona from 1926 to 1931, then the Talmud Tora School in Hamburg. Afterwards he began a locksmith training at the technical college of the Jewish community in Hamburg. The younger son Michael was also a pupil at the Talmud Tora School until 1939. We know nothing about the fate of the foster daughter Erna.

Back to Max and Lina Goldblatt:
The couple and their two children initially found accommodation at Parallelstraße 53 (now Eifflerstraße). Two more children were born in Altona: daughter Rosa on 8 Jan. 1919 and son Sally on 8 March 1921 (he called himself Sydney after fleeing Germany). Max Goldblatt initially earned his living as a harbour worker. Around 1923/24, he ran a bicycle shop and shortly afterwards a mail-order laundry business.

The close proximity suggests that the two Goldblatt families were in close contact.

We do not know how Max Goldblatt fared financially. However, the changing business purposes suggest that the respective business results were rather unsatisfactory.

Towards the end of the 1920s, Max Goldblatt moved the underwear sales business to Adolphstraße 122 (today Bernstorffstraße, Altona-Altstadt), and in the 1930s to General-Litzmann-Straße 110 (later no. 95, today Stresemannstraße). From around 1935, he initially worked as a book printer and soon opened a printing business.

Max Goldblatt's older son Markus worked as a wine salesman after leaving school. In 1937, his travel licence was revoked and he lost his livelihood. His younger brother Sally was not allowed to attend grammar school. He began an apprenticeship as a mechanical engineer, but was unable to complete it.

On 28 Oct. 1938, 17,000 Jews of Polish origin were deported from the German Reich to Poland as part of the so-called Polenaktion (Poland Action). The Polish government had previously threatened to confiscate the passports of Poles living abroad. This would have turned them into stateless persons. The Nazi government therefore feared that thousands of "Eastern Jews" would stay permanently on German territory. Without warning and regard of the person, men, women and children were taken from their workplaces or homes throughout the German Reich, herded at various locations and deported by railway across the Polish border at Zbąszyń (Bentschen), Chojnice (Konitz) in Pomerania and Bytom (Beuthen) in Upper Silesia on the same day. The costs of the deportation campaign were to be borne by the Reich budget "insofar as they could not [...] be collected from the deported foreigners".

From Hamburg, to which Altona had also belonged since 1 Jan. 1938, around a thousand people were forcibly transported to Neu Bentschen (today Zbąszynek) and from there brought across the Polish border to Zbąszyń, about 10 km away. The deportees included the couple Max and Lina Goldblatt with their daughter Rosa and son Sally, Rywa (Regina) Goldblatt's husband Max Nathan Aschkenazy, as well as Benjamin and Estera Goldblatt with their son Markus. Their underage son Michael Goldblatt apparently remained in Hamburg.

In January 1939, the German and Polish governments agreed that a total of around a thousand of the people deported to Poland would be allowed to return to Germany temporarily to "liquidate their remaining assets". A deadline of 31 July 1939 was set for the temporary return. Those deportees who wanted to emigrate to third countries were to be allowed to travel through Germany outside the quota of one thousand people.

It was probably on this basis that Max Goldblatt and his relatives returned to Hamburg. Sally Goldblatt had to remain in Zbąszyń until 13 July 1939. His address and that of his brother-in-law Max Nathan Aschkenazy was Zbąszyń, Pl. Wolnosci 12 (Freedom Square).

Max, Lina and Rosa Goldblatt tried to escape to Tangier in Morocco. But this plan failed. The reasons for this are not known. At the beginning of the war, they were still in Hamburg like other deportees.

After 1 Sept. 1939, thousands of male Polish Jews still remaining in the German Reich were imprisoned as "enemy aliens", Max Goldblatt and his son Sally in the Fuhlsbüttel police prison on 9 Sept. 1939. Sally was released on 15 Jan. 1940 after receiving a visa for the USA. He left Hamburg on 18 Jan.

Max Goldblatt was transferred from the Fuhlsbüttel police prison to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp on 24 Feb. 1940. There he was given the prisoner number 020391 and assigned to prisoner block 43, which was one of the special barracks in which Polish and stateless Jews were isolated under terrible conditions. They were subjected to excessive violence by SS men and non-Jewish prisoner functionaries. In the 1959 indictment against the block leader and later SS-Hauptscharführer Richard Bugdalle, witnesses described this as follows: "On the morning of 17 May 1940, the accused and 3 to 4 other SS-Unterführer chased the staff of 3 to 4 blocks occupied by Jewish prisoners outside. The prisoners were ordered to move at a run. Anyone who ran too slowly was beaten with iron pipes. Prisoner Goldblatt from Hamburg-Altona was weakened by a stomach illness and was therefore unable to keep up the pace demanded by the accused. Bugdalle therefore beat him with a pipe and then, as Goldblatt had soiled himself, placed him in a washbasin that could be used by 10 people together. He let water run over his victim until Goldblatt turned blue due to the cold water. After 10-15 minutes, Goldblatt died as a result of this cruel treatment." In contrast, the death register entry for Max Goldblatt's death states "intestinal catarrh" as the obviously false (or cynical) cause of his death.

Lina Goldblatt continued to try to obtain an exit permit for herself and her daughter Rosa, but in vain. It can be assumed that she had no income and lost her flat in General-Litzmann-Straße.

Lina and Rosa Goldblatt's last address in Hamburg was Bernstorffstraße 71 (formerly Adolphstraße, from 1938 Adolfstraße after Hitler's first name). This address could have the following history:
Hermann Wolff and his wife Herta lived in the basement of Bernstorffstraße 71 until mid-1940. They had to "move" to the "Jews' house" at Wohlers Alle 58. Their son Uri was born there on 19 Jan. 1941 (see Stolpersteine Hasselbrookstraße 96 and Stolperstein Wohlers Allee 50).

It is possible that Lina and Rosa Goldblatt were given a room here after the Wolff couple had to leave their accommodation.

Rosa Goldblatt was admitted to the Israelite Hospital on 21 Oct. 1941 and diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis. She was discharged after two days. If the aim of the hospitalisation was to save her from imminent deportation, it was not achieved.

Lina and Rosa Goldblatt received the order for the deportation to Riga on 6 Dec. 1941, known as the "evacuation". The 753 people arriving from Hamburg could not be admitted to the ghetto there because a mass shooting of local Jews was still taking place. The people therefore had to leave the train at the Šķirotava goods station and march to the Jungfernhof estate, six kilometres away. The run-down estate consisted of a manor house, three wooden barns, five small houses and cattle stables. Almost 4,000 people (in addition to those from Hamburg, people from transports from Nuremberg, Stuttgart and Vienna) were crammed together there. Many died of the inhumane living conditions there during the winter. Between 1700 and 1800 of those who survived were shot in March 1942 as part of "Aktion Dünamünde", while at least 200 women were sent to the Riga ghetto. Some of the men between the ages of sixteen and fifty were sent to the Salaspils forced labour camp, eighteen kilometres from Riga, where only a few survived.

Lina and Rosa Goldblatt survived Riga. In the summer of 1944, in the face of the advancing Red Army, they were transferred back to Germany together with other Jewish prisoners from the Baltic region, first destination was the Stutthof concentration camp, east of Danzig.

The prisoners from Riga first came by sea to Gdansk. They were brought further up the Vistula on river barges and across a canal to the harbour of the brickworks belonging to the Stutthof camp. From there, they walked about two kilometres to the camp, which Lina and Rosa Goldblatt reached on 9 Aug. 1944. Some of the people from this transport were sent to the Stolp subcamp (now known as Slupsk). 640 of them returned to the main Stutthof camp in February 1945. We do not know whether Lina and Rosa Goldblatt were among them.

Lina Goldblatt was given the prisoner number 56259 in Stutthof, Rosa got number 56260.

On 23 Jan. 1945, camp commander Paul Werner Hoppe ordered the evacuation of the camp. From 24 to 26 Jan. 1945, around 11,600 prisoners had to leave the Stutthof main camp. They started on a death march to the west. A total of 33,948 people were still imprisoned there, 1,863 of them in Stutthof and 2,285 in the subcamps. Further prisoners were transferred to other camps in January, also in February, March and April, including Buchenwald, Mauthausen and Neuengamme. It is assumed that around 12,000 people died during the evacuation of the subcamps and the main camp by land, the majority of them Jewish women.

On 23 Apr. 1945, the day of the final evacuation order, there were still 1976 female and 2532 male prisoners in Stutthof.

Most of the prisoners remaining in the Stutthof concentration camp were in a very poor physical and mental condition. All of them - men and women, old and sick, children and babies born in the camp - were to be evacuated by sea as the only remaining route, as the Vistula lowlands were already surrounded by Soviet forces.

The prisoners were informed of the evacuation on 24 Apr. 1945. They were given provisions for the journey, consisting of half a loaf of bread, some margarine and dried sausage.

This evacuation was to take place in three stages:
Stage I from Stutthof to Nickelswalde (today Mikoszewo),
Stage II transport of the prisoners to the Hela peninsula,
Stage III transport of the prisoners from Hela to Lübeck.

Early in the morning of 25 Apr. 1945, 3,300 prisoners were brought out of the camp, some of them loaded onto the narrow-gauge railway, while the others had to walk. Both groups waited on the banks of the Vistula near Nickelswalde for onward transport. Here, SS men murdered around 200 exhausted Jewish women. The remaining prisoners were loaded onto landing boats during the night of 26th to 27th April. The SS chased them over narrow, slippery boards onto the boats, many slipped, fell into the water and drowned.

After arriving on Hela, the people were taken in columns to the interior of the peninsula. Near the German anti-aircraft artillery, they had to endure a two-hour air raid in which many were killed or wounded. They were then loaded onto four barges of German fishermen, the Jewish prisoners onto the two barges "Wolfgang" and "Vaterland", which each held around a thousand prisoners. Lina and Rosa Goldblatt also were on one of them.

Chaim Kozienicki, a Jewish boy from the Stolp camp, described the embarkation: "The barges were divided into compartments that were perhaps five by five metres in size. We were crammed into one such compartment in such a way that everyone had to sit down with their legs spread apart, and another person sat down between their legs and so on, one after the other, to take on as many people as possible. It was so crowded that nobody could move. If someone wanted to lie back, the whole row had to lie down because they were all lying on top of each other. I envied the sardines which are stretched out in the tin and in olive oil. And here we are, squashed and in our own faeces instead of olive oil."

The barges pulled by tugboats made their first stop in Sassnitz on the island of Rügen on 29 Apr. One continued alone under a yellow quarantine flag towards Lübeck harbour, another sailed towards Flensburg.

The barges "Wolfgang" and "Vaterland", towed by "Bussard" and "Adler", reached Stralsund on 30 Apr., Warnemünde on 1 May and finally Neustadt (Holstein) on 2 May. The SS’s plan to transfer the prisoners from Stutthof to the two ships "Cap Arcona" and "Thielbeck" in the Bay of Lübeck failed. The barges were then towed back to the Neustadt Bay.

During the night of 2 to 3 May, the people on board the barges discovered that a tugboat with the German guards had disappeared. Norwegian prisoners then untied the towing ropes, set temporary sails and, with the help of makeshift oars, set one barge in motion towards the beach; the prisoners on the second barge did the same. The barges ran on sand on the beach at Pelzerhaken. Now the majority of the prisoners managed to get ashore.

They were discovered on the beach on the morning of 3 May 1945. SS men from the Stutthof guards and a group of cadets from the navy in Neustadt shot at the prisoners on the beach and those who were not able to get ashore. This murderous action took the lives of around 200 men and women.

The surviving prisoners were lined up in marching columns and taken to the sports ground of the naval school.

The operation ended at 3 pm when units of the 2nd British Army under the command of General Dempsey marched into Neustadt and liberated the prisoners. The British immediately organized medical care, including for Lina and Rosa Goldblatt. They had survived the journey across the Baltic Sea and the manhunt in Pelzerhaken and were admitted to Neustadt State Hospital. This last stage in the lives of Lina and Rosa Goldblatt was not yet known when the Stumbling Stones were laid in their memory. The inscription therefore says that they were murdered in Stutthof.

In fact, however, Lina Goldblatt died on 16 May 1945, severely weakened as a result of intestinal inflammation, underweight, pneumonia and circulatory insufficiency, and was buried in the Jewish cemetery in Neustadt (grave site 52).

A few days later, Rosa Goldblatt, who suffered from feverish diarrhoea, bloody purging and cardiac insufficiency, died on 21 May 1945 and was buried in the Jewish cemetery in Neustadt (grave site 25), too.

The number of prisoners on the two barges that left Hela and arrived in Neustadt is estimated at around 2,000. About 900 of them survived (according to historian Janina Grabowska). 1100 people fell victim to the journey and the murder on the beach.

Benjamin Goldblatt
Max Goldblatt's brother Benjamin, his wife Estera and their son Markus (Max) were also deported to Poland. Benjamin Goldblatt remained in Zbąszyń until he was deported by the Polish authorities to Jaroslau (now Jarosław in Poland) east of Reszow on 29 Aug. 1939. After the German occupation of Poland, SS troops pushed him into the Russian-occupied zone of Poland in September 1939. He fled to Buczacz in Galicia (now Butschatsch/ Western Ukraine), where he was arrested by the Soviets in May 1940 and sent to a labour camp near Bresovsk (Sverdlovsk region) in Siberia. In October 1941, he was deported to Milotynsk in Samarkand (now Uzbekistan) for forced labour and was only liberated in June 1946 (place names according to the restitution file).

Estera Goldblatt returned to Hamburg after she had been deported to the Polish border. She tried to escape to the USA with her underage son Michael, who had not been deported to Poland. However, only Michael Goldblatt, who was thirteen at the time, travelled to the USA on 20 July 1939 on a Hamburg-America Line ship accompanied by a paid employee of the shipping company.

Benjamin and Estera Goldblatt's son Markus (Max) had to stay in Zbąszyń until 27 June 1939 after being deported from Hamburg. He was then allowed to return to Hamburg for two months to prepare for his departure. He left Hamburg on 18 Aug. 1939 and reached New York on 25 Aug. 1939.

After her return from Zbąszyń, Estera Goldblatt initially continued to live in her own house at General-Litzmann-Straße 105, but she wanted to emigrate to Poland to join her husband and she therefore sold the house. The standard value of the house was set at RM 9,600. The proceeds from the sale totalled 1900 RM, which had to be paid into a blocked account. This meant that Estera Goldblatt could not dispose of it freely.
After having sold the house, she lived with Sali Ornstein at General-Litzmann-Straße 47, whose parents had also been deported to Zbąszyń in 1938.

Estera Goldblatt left Germany for Poland on 10 Sept. 1939. She reunited with her husband Benjamin, in which way is not known. Both were in the Sverdlovsk camp in 1941 and in a camp in Samarkand from 1942 to 1946.

After the war, Estera and Benjamin Goldblatt initially lived as displaced persons in the DP camp in Hofgeismar/ Kassel. They began a new life in New York in 1947. Benjamin Goldblatt died there on 3 March 1983, Estera on 16 Feb. 1984.

Rywa (Regina) Aschkenazy, née Goldblatt
Rywa (Regina) Aschkenazy left Germany in May 1939 with her children Devy, born on 5 July 1934, and Rita, born on 17 June 1937. The Aschkenazy family - Mirjam, Max Nathan, Rywa (Regina), Devy and Rita - were reunited in Buczacz in 1939. Except Devy, they all lost their lives. (For a detailed history of this family, see www.stolpersteine-hamburg.de under Aschkenazy).

Translation: Elisabeth Wendland
Stand: September 2024
© Ingo Wille

Quellen: Die Ausführungen über die Evakuierung des KZ Stutthof und des Häftlingstransports nach Neustadt/Holstein wurden aus den unten genannten Darstellungen von Danuta Drywa und Janina Grabowska übernommen.
1; 4; 5; 6; 8; StaH 113-6 Staatsverwaltung – Wirtschafts-, Landwirtschafts- und Sozialabteilung (1939-1952) 24 Mitteilung an die Gestapo über Überweisung des Verwertungserlöses des Umzugsgutes der Lina Goldblatt, 213-8 (General-) Staatsanwaltschaft Oberlandesgericht (Verwaltung 1913-1998) 976 und 977 Polizeigefängnis Fuhlsbüttel. Verzeichnisse der in den Monaten September 1939 bis Januar 1940 durch den Vollzug von Schutzhaft für die Geheime Staatspolizei entstandenen Kosten, 213-13 Landgericht Hamburg – Wiedergutmachung 12827 Max Goldblatt, 23794 Benjamin Goldblatt, 31640 Benjamin Goldblatt, 214-1 Gerichtsvollzieherwesen 296 Lina Goldblatt, Versteigerung der Wohnungsgegenstände, 314-15 Oberfinanzpräsident (Devisenstelle und Vermögensverwertungsstelle) F0716 Markus Lina, Rosa, Estera, Benjamin Goldblatt, 351-11 Amt für Wiedergutmachtung 16668 Esther Goldblatt, 44124 Markus Goldblatt, 44424 Sally Goldblatt, 37911 Goldblatt, Max (fr. Markus), 47808 Michael, Benjamin, Max, Erna Goldblatt, 522-01 Jüdische Gemeinden 0161 Hochdeutsche Israeliten-Gemeinde Mitgliederliste 1924-1926, Benjamin Goldblatt, Max Goldblatt; Standesamt Neustadt/Holst. Sterberegisterauszug Nr. 409/1945 Lina Goldblatt, Nr. 471/1945 Rosi (Rosa) Goldblatt. KZ-Gedenkstätte Sachsenhausen, Online-Totenbuch (Zugriff am 19.9.2023), Auszug aus der Häftlingsdatenbank, Auskunft der Gedenkstätte Sachsenhausen vom 22.11.2023; Urteil über Richard Bugdalle: Landgericht München 1 Js 1471/57; Archiv Sachsenhausen, JD 5/8, Bl. 50: Anklageschrift von August 1959, Urteil vom 20. Januar 1960 gegen Bugdalle siehe JuNSV, Bd. XVI, Nr. 488, S. 275ff (Westdeutsche Gerichtsentscheidungen - Justiz und NS-Verbrechen (junsv.nl)), Auszug aus der Häftlingsdatenbank. KZ-Gedenkstätte Stutthof, Archiv, Häftlings-Personal-Karte von Lina und Rosa Goldblatt. Arolsen Archives, Signaturen: 10010439 03 Max Goldblatt, DocID: 4118353 (Max Goldblatt), 01014102 038.360 (Lina Goldblatt), 01014102 038.361 (Rosi Goldblatt) (Zugriffe am 19.9.2023); Beate Meyer, Tödliche Gratwanderung, Die Reichsvereinigung der Juden in Deutschland zwischen Hoffnung, Zwang, Selbstbehauptung und Verstrickung (1939-1945), Göttingen 2011, S. 69 f.; Danuta Drywa, The Extermination of Jews Concentration Camp Stutthof, published by Muzeum Stutthof, Gdańsk 2004; Janina Grabowska, K.L. Stutthof: Ein historischer Abriß, in: Hermann Kuhn (Hg.), Stutthof, Ein Konzentrationslager vor den Toren Danzigs, Bremen, 1995, S. 86 ff.; https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/KZ_Stutthof#cite_note-12 (Zugriff am 21.8.2023).
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