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Isidor Karger mit seiner Frau Rea und Sohn Werner
© Privatbesitz

Isidor Karger * 1883

Grindelhof 68 (Eimsbüttel, Rotherbaum)

HIER WOHNTE
ISIDOR KARGER
JG. 1883
VERHAFTET 1938
KZ FUHLSBÜTTEL
DEPORTIERT 1941 MINSK
ERMORDET 3.12.1944
KZ FLOSSENBÜRG

further stumbling stones in Grindelhof 68:
Bella Philip, David Philip, Denny Philip, Senta Philip

Isidor Karger, b. 3.3.1883 in Czarnikau, deported to Minsk on 11.8.1941, murdered in the Flossenbürg concentration camp on 12.3.1944

Grindelhof 68

Isidor Karger was the son of the cigar maker Abraham Karger and his wife Dora, née Dworesohn. He had seven siblings: Natalie (born August 18, 1879), Martha (born March 29, 1881), Jack (born June 3, 1884), Max (born August 22, 1885), Leo (born March 2, 1890), Meta, married Lindenberg (born May 9, 1894), and Alice (born August 17, 1895, died May 6, 1896), who died of an illness while still an infant.

The family lived in Czarnikau, West Prussia, a small town on the Netze River which, at that time, had about 7000 inhabitants and which before the end of World War I was part of the German Empire. Isidor’s later wife Rea, née Crohn, was also born there on 20 July 1883. Isidor Karger fought in the First World War, receiving the Iron Cross, 1st and 2nd class, as well as a personally signed letter from Fieldmarshal Hindenburg, praising him for courage before the enemy.

In 1919 Isidor and Rea married. In 1920, according to the Treaty of Versailles, the largest part of Czarnikau was awarded to Poland with only a few houses lying north of the Netze River still situated in German territory. Apparently, Isidor Karger felt closer to Germany than to Poland, and thus in 1923 moved with his wife and son, Werner Dagobert (b. 9 February 1920), to Hamburg. There he took over a business for cleaning and fashion products, the Emma Pieper firm at Grindelallee 131. Rea Karger ran the shop, while her husband worked as a representative for laundry facilities.

Isidor’s brothers Jack and Leo also moved to Hamburg. Isidor, Rea, and Werner Dagobert lived at Grindelallee 148 and apparently comfortably on their earnings. Vacation trips and household help could be afforded, according to the statement given by Werner Karger to the Office for Reparations. Rea Karger also owned several valuable pieces of jewelry, and her son had a concert violin valued at RM 600--these and all the other furnishings the family lost after the war. Around 1932, the business on Grindelallee was renamed "Isidor Karger, Fashion Wear” and the family moved to Grindelallee 117. Probably, the original owner of the firm had reacquired it, for the Hamburg directory of 1932 shows an entry: "Pieper, Frau Emma, Cleaning and Fashion Products, Tel. 340189, Fehlandstrasse 43.”

After the Nazi takeover of power, the Isidor Karger firm was hit with the swiftly introduced repressive measures against "Jewish” businesses: calls for boycotts, harassments by officials and the SA, obstruction of business contacts, etc. According to Werner’s statement, his father could no longer work unhindered as a representative, so that the economic situation of the family rapidly worsened. Since 1926, Werner Karger attended the Talmud Torah School, which he left with an intermediate certificate in 1936. Soon thereafter he emigrated via Austria and Italy to Palestine, where he participated in the building of a Kibbutz.

His parents remained in Hamburg and experienced an ever more constricted economic sphere until they were completely without means. In 1936, they had to give up the shop on Grindelallee, and Rea Karger attempted to sell women’s hats from a 5 ½ room apartment at Bogenstrasse 11a, which they had moved into shortly before. The apartment was on the second floor, which did not promote the business. On 2 November 1936, Rea Karger wrote her son in Palestine: "On Saturday evening we moved the business into the apartment. Uncle Jack sent us Günther and Alfred the servant. On Thursday, various wardrobes left behind and summer wear were brought to the apartment. We have divided our bedroom by means of platforms on either side of the bed; the great white wardrobe is placed in front of the beds. Where our large clothes wardrobe stood there is now the chaise lounge from the bay window. The wash basin is now where the laundry bench stood and, at the oven, is now the large mirror with marble console. In the bay window stands the glass case from the shop, where the chaise lounge stood and at the corner window is a mirror with a marble table. In the window came three ladies which I have decorated with hats. In front of the door on a pedestal there will arrive in three days a modern reflective sign, that looks good….Today I sold a new hat and accepted one to rework.” The business, however, steadily declined and the now cramped apartment had several sub-lessees.

From a letter of Rea’s dated 9 August 1937, the financial straits of the couple became clear: "…if business picks up again, I will need covers for two beds; a household continually needs purchases…Aunt Toni gave us 5 marks from the aunts and I added 5 to that to send you 10 marks on Thursday. Oh, how glad we would be to send you money every month….July and August are the quietest months; from Mr. Frenkel we received 120 marks and with that we can meet our debts….Father’s representations are getting worse and worse because of the difficulties in getting raw materials….Annemarie [the "apprentice girl”] is working since shortly after Pentecost at Steindamm [thus probably in Jack Karger’s business]. As long as Uncle Jack lives here, he supports us with goods, and I can keep the cleaning supplies business going, although on this floor it does not, unfortunately, come to much….The Rudolfs are living with us still and pay the rent promptly; now I would like possibly to rent out your room, perhaps take one or two young people in pension….In April Annemarie finished training; I cannot take any more apprentice girls; also, as a Jew, I cannot take any Christian apprentices to train.”

Since 1932, Jack Karger was the sole owner of his father-in-law’s established Sam Meyer Cleaning Supply and Fashion Store at Steindamm 35. Part of the business was wholesale trade from which he supplied his sister-in-law Rea. He had to sell his business below value and his share of the house at Steindamm 35. With his wife Toni, née Meyer (b. 22 November 1887), as well as their three children, Hans (4 January 1912), Alfred (15 October 1921) and Lotte (7 June 1923), he emigrated to Argentina. In the last weeks before emigration, this family also lived at Bogenstrasse 11a. With them to Argentina went Meta Lindenberg, née Karger, with her husband Hugo and their children Günter and Hans. Jack Karger passed away on November 25, 1957, and his sister Meta Lindenberg passed away on December 15, 1964.

Leo Karger lived with his wife Elsa, née Masur, at Kielortallee 15, where their tailoring atelier was also located. They emigrated via Sweden to the USA.

Rea Karger died on 23 March 1938 in the Israelite Hospital.

Afterwards, her husband Isidor attempted also to emigrate, probably to Venezuela, but this did not come to pass. Apparently, he had scarcely any income and had to give up the apartment on Bogenstrasse. In a letter to his son, dated 15 February 1939, he lamented: "The sale of our things is very difficult, for as soon as people know it is Jewish property, they don’t want to pay anything and would much rather have it as a gift….In mid-March, I will give what I have left to be auctioned and whatever it brings, it brings.” He moved in March 1939 into a room at Eppendorfer Baum 34. At this address lived also the teacher Gustav Kron with his wife Selma; it is likely that Isidor Karger was their sub-lessee because "Aryans” were no longer permitted to take Jewish renters.

In the night of 9 and 10 November 1938, Isidor Karger was arrested and taken via the Fuhlsbüttel to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp, where he was incarcerated until 17 December 1938. On 25 October 1941, the Krons were deported to Lodz. As a sub-lessee, Isidor Karger lost his place to stay. He would make the move to his last address: Grindelhof 68. From there, on 8 November 1941, he was deported to Minsk.

The Minsk ghetto was "liquidated" in October 1943 and almost everyone trapped there was murdered.

Shortly before this approximately 1000 men had been sent on an odyssey through several concentration camps, about which one of the few survivors, Heinz Rosenberg, later wrote. This group left Minsk on 14 September 1943. After stays of a few days to a few weeks in the camps at Treblinka, Budszyn, and Reichshof, they arrived at the Plaszow concentration camp near Krakow. From there 650 men still made it to the Flossenbürg concentration camp.

Isidor Karger’s torments ended there. The International Red Cross reported that he was sent in August 1944 from Plaszow to Flossenbürg and had received the prisoner number 15143. On 3 December 1944 he lost his life. His companions in suffering were sent to a camp in Alsace and, as the last station, to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.

Isidor Karger's brother Max managed to escape to Shanghai in 1939; he died in the ghetto there on October 6, 1940. According to their descendant Ken Karger, the sisters Natalie and Martha died at the end of 1939; nothing more is known about their fate.

Translator: Richard Levy
Kindly supported by the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung, Hamburg.

Stand: October 2022
© Ulrike Sparr

Quellen: 1; StaH 351-11 Amt für Wiedergutmachung 43511, 7046 u. 12024; Hamburger Adressbücher 1930, 1931, 1932, 1933; Randt: Talmud-Tora-Schule; Rosenberg: Jahre; Koser/Brunotte (Hrsg.): Stolpersteine in Hamburg-Eppendorf und Hamburg-Hoheluft-Ost, Hamburg 2011; Ohne Autor: Meyers Konversationslexikon, 6. Aufl., Bd. 4, Leipzig 1905; E-Mail von Ken Karger v. 10.06.2019; https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Czarnków (letzter Aufruf: 24.10.2014); http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netzedistrikt (letzter Aufruf: 24.10.2014); http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ma%27ale_HaHamisha (letzter Aufruf: 24.10.2014).
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