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Siegmund Panofsky (Panowski) * 1874

Isestraße 7 (Eimsbüttel, Harvestehude)

HIER WOHNTE
SIEGMUND
PANOWSKI
JG. 1874
DEPORTIERT 1941
MINSK
???

further stumbling stones in Isestraße 7:
Jenny Brager, Paula Panofsky (Panowski)

Paula Panofsky, née Michaelis, born 14 Nov. 1887, deported 8 Nov. 1941 to Minsk
Siegmund Panofsky, born 3 Jan. 1874, deported 8 Nov. 1941 to Minsk

Paula and Siegmund Panofsky married on 7 Jan. 1910 in Hanover where the bride was born. Shortly thereafter the couple moved to Hamburg. In Nov. 1910 Paula Panofsky gave birth to their son Robert. Siegmund Panofsky provided for his family as a merchant. In 1920 he founded his own company: Siegmund Panofsky, Electrical Supplies. The store was located at Kaiser-Wilhelm-Straße 53 and was run very successfully by Siegmund Panofsky.

An historic witness whose aunt was a friend of the couple remembers his wife Paula Panofsky as "an elegant, Hanseatic lady". "I only know that my aunt always said, "Ach, Mrs. Panofsky, she has a magnificent household, such beautiful dishes and (it was) so beautiful when she set the table …".

From 1933 onward, the Panofskys felt the effects of the National Socialists’ boycott operations. Their son Robert later reported during the so-called redress of wrongs proceedings that some customers cancelled their orders when they found out the Panofskys were Jews.

His father took Robert into the company as a partner, but as the environment worsened, Robert Panofsky decided to immigrate to the USA. An uncle gave him the money for his passage on a steamship from Rotterdam to New York which he took on 4 Oct. 1938. His parents stayed behind and were forced to sell their store in 1939 to a non-Jewish businessman. The proceeds were transferred to a blocked account from which the Foreign Currency Office paid them a fixed monthly allowance as means of subsistence. On 8 Nov. 1941 the Panofskys left their home behind and followed the deportation order to Minsk. Their household goods were auctioned off, their assets seized and transferred from Hamburg banks to the Berlin State Bank. The couple was killed in Minsk.

Translator: Suzanne von Engelhardt
Kindly supported by the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung, Hamburg.

Stand: February 2018
© Maike Grünwaldt

Quellen: 1; 4; 8; AfW 281110; Inge Hutton, Interview am 5.6.2007; Frank Bajohr, "Arisierung" in Hamburg: die Verdrängung der jüdischen Unternehmer 1933–1944, Hamburg 1997, S. 367.
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