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Paula Cohn (née Goldberg) * 1896

Dillstraße 16 (Eimsbüttel, Rotherbaum)

1941 Minsk

further stumbling stones in Dillstraße 16:
Julius Cohn, Walter Horwitz, Else Horwitz, Gertrud Weidner

Paula Cohn, née Goldberg, born 20.2.1896 in Melsungen, deported to Minsk Ghetto on 8.11.1941

Dillstrasse 16 (Rotherbaum)

Paula's parents, Salomon Goldberg (1856-1917) and Malchen, née Stern (born 1867), had married in 1893 in Langenschwarz, where Malchen had lived until then. They had seven children. Paula Goldberg was the second of them to be born in Melsungen, North Hesse, in 1896.

At the age of 16, Paula Goldberg moved to Hamburg in June 1912 and accepted positions as a maid: After working for four weeks for the self-employed metal broker Julius Philipp (Beneckestraße 2), she stayed for two years with the self-employed banker Michael Flörsheim Jr. (Werderstraße 30). Five days before the start of World War I, she moved to the self-employed metal dealer Herbert Gotthold (Werderstraße 7) and in May 1915 to the "private official" Isidor Isaak (Rappstraße 2). (A Privat-Beamter was employed in a private company under similar conditions as civil servants in the civil service).

Due to her father's poor health, Paula Goldberg signed out for Melsungen on August 17, 1917 - her father died two weeks later, on September 2, 1917.

Presumably, Paula Goldberg returned to Hamburg after some time. In any case, she married there on September 2, 1930, the merchant Julius Cohn (born 16.1.1886 in Hamburg), who had been a member of the Jewish Community of Hamburg since 1921. In the community he belonged to the Orthodox synagogue association. Witnesses to the marriage were Paula's widowed mother-in-law Johanna Cohn, née Ehrmann (age 75, resident at Dillstraße 16), and her sister Frieda's husband, the bank clerk Max Oppenheimer.

Paula and Julius Cohn lived at Dillstraße 16 in the Rotherbaum district; the marriage remained childless.

Two of Paula's sisters had followed her to Hamburg: Gidel, called Julie (born 19.11.1894 in Melsungen) in December 1920 and Frieda Goldberg (born 23.11.1897 in Melsungen) in April 1922. Both worked as saleswomen and also married in the Hanseatic city in 1922 and 1924, respectively.

The contributions noted on Julius Cohn's Jewish Community record card are quite low; from 1924 to 1926 they were completely absent, i.e. Julius and Paula Cohn had little or no income. Their situation then improved again slightly. However, their already economically strained situation may have been further aggravated by the Nazi rule, as evidenced by the fact that from 1935 they again paid only very low contributions to the Jewish Community. Apparently, both were unemployed and had to claim state welfare benefits.

In December 1938, the labor offices introduced an obligation for Jewish welfare recipients to perform physical labor in Jewish work crews. Thus, starting in April 1939, Julius Cohn had to perform compulsory labor (Pflichtarbeit) for which he received RM 12.30 a week. This was not even enough to pay the rent. We know from Paula Cohn that she worked as a cook at least in 1941.

The house where they lived, at Dillstraße 16, was probably declared a "Judenhaus" in 1940 and included in the preparations for the deportations. The Jews who had been committed there lived in the cramped apartments or rooms (some had to move again to other "Judenhäuser") until they received the deportation order.

Paula and Julius Cohn were deported to Minsk on November 8, 1941. Also on the deportation train was her sister Julie Josephs, née Goldberg (see www.stolpersteine-hamburg.de), with her husband Martin and daughter Hannah, for whom Stolpersteine were laid at 28 Hudtwalckerstraße (Hudtwalckertwiete 4).

None of them survived.

Translaton Beate Meyer

Stand: February 2023
© Björn Eggert

Quellen: Standesamt Hamburg (StaH) 332-5 (Standesämter), 13291 u. 375/1930 (Heiratsregister 1930, Julius Cohn u. Paula Goldberg); StaH 332-8 (Meldewesen), K 6139 (Alte Einwohnermeldekartei 1892-1925), Paula Goldberg, Frieda Goldberg, Julie Goldberg; StaH 522-1 (Jüdische Gemeinden), 992b (Kultussteuerkartei der Deutsch-Israelitischen Gemeinde Hamburg) Julius Cohn, Paula Cohn geb. Goldberg; Standesamt Langenschwarz-Grosenmoor Nr. 7/1893 (Heiratsregister 1893, Salomon Goldberg u. Malchen Stern); Standesamt Melsungen 4584 u. 27/1896 (Geburtsregister 1896, Paula Goldberg); Standesamt Melsungen 4682 u. 80/1917 (Sterberegister 1917, Jakob Salomon Goldberg); Bundesarchiv Koblenz, Gedenkbuch, Opfer der Verfolgung der Juden unter der nationalsozialistischen Gewaltherrschaft in Deutschland 1933-1945 (Paula Cohn geb. Goldberg, Julius Cohn); Adressbuch Hamburg 1913 (Michael Flörsheim, Julius Philipp); Adressbuch Hamburg 1915 (Herbert Gotthold, Isidor Isaak); Adressbuch (Dillstraße 16 Erdgeschoss) 1932, 1934, 1936, 1938, 1940 (Kaufmann J. Cohn); www.stolpersteine-hamburg.de (Julie Josephs geb. Goldberg).