Search for Names, Places and Biographies

Hedwig Blank (née Dessauer) * 1875

Pelzerstraße / Schauenburgerstraße (Hamburg-Mitte, Hamburg-Altstadt)

HIER WOHNTE
HEDWIG BLANK
GEB. DESSAUER
JG. 1875
DEPORTIERT 1942
THERESIENSTADT
1942 TREBLINKA
ERMORDET

further stumbling stones in Pelzerstraße / Schauenburgerstraße:
Albert Blank

Albert Blank, born on 10 Oct. 1872 in Steinhude, deported on 15 July 1942 to Theresienstadt, died there on 31 July 1942
Hedwig Blank, née Dessauer, born on 7 July 1875 in Oschersleben, deported on 15 July 1942 to Theresienstadt, murdered on 21 Sept. 1942 in the Treblinka extermination camp

Pelzerstrasse 9-13/intersection to Schauenburgerstrasse (Pelzerstrasse 9)

Albert Blank was born as the son of Julius Blank and his wife Bertha, née Davidsohn, in Steinhude/Hannover. After a commercial apprenticeship at the sawmill of his family, he had married Hedwig Dessauer from Oschersleben in the Magdeburg Börde on 17 Jan. 1899. Her parents were Hermann Dessauer and Jenny, née Heynemann. In Albert’s hometown of Steinhude, their son Paul was born on 19 Oct. 1899 and daughter Else on 24 Apr. 1901. In 1904, the family first moved to Rehburg and around 1908/1909 to Rinteln in the Weser Uplands region of Lower Saxony. Until 1931, the Blank couple had run a flourishing textile shop there with several employees at Weserstrasse 7-8. Their move to Grosse Gärtnerstrasse 25 (today Thadenstrasse) in Altona took place, on the one hand, because strong anti-Semitism made itself felt very early in the small town of Rinteln (73 Jewish persons were registered in Rinteln in 1933) and, on the other hand, because Albert and Hedwig Blank wanted to live near their daughter Else Behrend, who had been married in Hamburg since 1927. Their grandchild Ursula-Lilli was born on 23 Mar. 1930. Else and her husband Bruno Behrend (born 28 Oct. 1898) ran a factory for confectionery and marzipan at Zollstrasse 14-16 in Hamburg-Wandsbek.

To secure their livelihood, Hedwig Blank opened a laundry and hot air ironing shop in 1932 at Pastorenstrasse 20, near St. Michael’s Church. Her husband Albert could no longer find a job in Hamburg and helped in the business. In Mar. 1938, the couple moved into a bright one-bedroom apartment at Pelzerstrasse 9 in Hamburg’s historic downtown. Already in the following year, their income declined so much that Albert and Hedwig Blank were dependent on support from the Jewish Community. At the beginning of 1939, the shop on Pastorenstrasse was closed and the furnishings sold for 800 RM (reichsmark). The couple lived on their savings and later had to rely on welfare support.

Son Paul Blank, like his sister Else, had attended secondary school in Rinteln and studied in Hannover after participating in the First World War. He passed his state examination as an engineer in Berlin in 1924. From there, he emigrated on 21 June 1934 together with his wife Jenny, née Levy, to Tel Aviv. His efforts to obtain entry permits for his parents into the British Mandate probably failed with the beginning of the war on 1 Sept. 1939. Shortly before, Hedwig and Albert Blank had made purchases toward the forthcoming journey to Palestine.

Daughter Else and son-in-law Bruno had also been forced to give up their confectionery factory in 1939. By then, marriage had ended in divorce and Else as well as her daughter Ursula-Lilli had moved back in with her parents. However, Bruno Behrend, too, was registered as residing on Pelzerstrasse in the very end. There they received their deportation orders and, together with their daughter Ursula-Lilli, were deported to the Minsk Ghetto on 8 Nov. 1941.

Albert and Hedwig Blank were forced to move again. They received their deportation orders for 15 July 1942 to Theresienstadt at Bundesstrasse 43, a so-called "Jews’ house” ("Judenhaus”) located in the former John R. Warburg Stift.

Albert Blank died on 31 July, shortly after their arrival in the ghetto.

Hedwig Blank was deported on 21 Sept. 1942 to Treblinka with 2,002 mostly elderly persons. Only one person of this transport survived the extermination camp.

Bruno, Else, and Ursula-Lilli Behrend are commemorated by Stolpersteine at Wandsbeker Zollstrasse 89 (see Stolpersteine in Hamburg-Wandsbek).

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

Stand: April 2020
© Susanne Rosendahl

Quellen: 1; 4; 9; StaH: 351-11 AfW 22345 (Paul, Blank); StaH 351-14 Arbeits- und Sozialfürsorge 976 (Blank, Albert); StaH 522-1 Jüdische Gemeinde Nr. 992 e 2 Band 2; StaH 522-1 Jüdische Gemeinde Nr. 992 e 2 Band 4; Einwohnerbuch der Stadt Rintel a.d.Weser 1927, http://forum.ahnenforschung.net/showthread.php?t=17709 (Zugriff 20.12.2015); Louven: Stolpersteine, S. 24;
http://www.holocaust.cz/de/opferdatenbank/opfer/45547-hedwig-blank/ (Zugriff 20.12.2015).
Zur Nummerierung häufig genutzter Quellen siehe Link "Recherche und Quellen".