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Elka Naphtalie
© Fred Naftali

Elka Naphtalie (née Haber) * 1892

Lenhartzstraße 3 (Hamburg-Nord, Eppendorf)

HIER WOHNTE
ELKA NAPHTALIE
GEB. HABER
JG. 1892
DEPORTIERT
1941 RIGA
1944 Stutthof

further stumbling stones in Lenhartzstraße 3:
Ina Behrmann, Siegmund Hofmann, Hermine Hofmann, Wolf Jägermann, Carl Löwenberg, Selma Meyer, Gerda Pulka, Marie Sievers, Elise Wilda, Emma Wilda, Therese Wilda, Ernst Wilda

Elka Naphtalie, née Haber, born on 16 Jan. 1892 in Dynow, deported on 6 Dec. 1941 to Riga, deported further on 1 Oct. 1944 to the Stutthof concentration camp

Lenhartzstrasse 3

In Austro-Hungarian Dynow, which today belongs to Poland, Elka Haber was born on 16 Jan. 1892. Her husband, Hugo Naphtalie, was the owner of a fur goods store at Kreuzstrasse 10 in Berlin. Elka and Hugo Naphtalie had three children, Manfred Naphtalie; Margot Katz, née Naphtalie; and Gerda Pulka, née Naphtalie (see corresponding entry).

On 28 Mar. 1933, Hugo Naphtalie passed away in Berlin. After her husband’s death, Elka Naphtalie took over the fur goods store.

Her son Manfred, who succeeded in emigrating on a children transport (Kindertransport) to London in time and survived, related, "Initially, she kept running the business, but she had to close it in 1936 because continued operation was made impossible for her due to boycotts and other Nazi measures directed against Jews, such as refusal to admit her to the German Labor Front (Arbeitsfront) and exclusion from occupational associations, which were prerequisites for managing her business.” Following the closure of the store in 1936, Elka Naphtalie became the general manager of a fur goods store in Berlin at Niederwallstrasse 33, which was owned by her brother-in-law Wolf Jägermann, who lived in Hamburg with his family.

Wolf Jägermann was a Romanian citizen from Vignita/Bukovina. His father Josef and his mother Reisel were already operating a fur goods store in Berlin as well.

In 1912, Wolf Jägermann had gone to Leipzig as a young man to gather his first experience in the fur industry. Then the First World War started and he was drafted into the military. In 1917, when he spent a few days on leave from the front in Berlin, he met his future wife there. On 10 Jan. 1922, Wolf Jägermann was married in Berlin-Charlottenburg to his wife Regina, née Haber, who thereby received Romanian citizenship. Regina Jägermann immediately helped in the newly opened fur store on Niederwallstrasse, a business already employing several staff members. The couple bought an apartment with five rooms quite close to their store, at Wilmersdorferstrasse 95 on the intersection of Kurfürstendamm.

Their children Thea and Heinz were born in Berlin. They were cared for by a nanny while their mother continued to work in the sales department of the store on a daily basis. In 1926, the family relocated to Hamburg, where they first took up residence at Schäferkampsallee 18–22 and then moved into a four-bedroom apartment at Lange Reihe 83. The third child was born, a son named Kurt. Wolf Jägermann had opened another fur store at Gänsemarkt 13, a business quick to earn a good reputation in Hamburg and attract a solid circle of regular customers. According to witnesses, Wolf Jägermann was considered a pleasant employer with command of great specialized knowledge. He looked after purchasing in the business, the workshop, and the wholesale trade, buying raw fur skins at auctions, while his wife was in charge of customer contacts. The couple opened a second branch at Grosse Bleichen 31 as well as a consignment warehouse at Eppendorfer Landstrasse 18 for the Carl Collel Company.

By that time, the attitude of the population toward the Jews in the Hamburg business world had already changed: Former employees testified in connection with the post-war restitution proceedings in 1955 that out of fear they had often locked themselves up in the store on Grosse Bleichen in order to avoid harassment and threats.

In Nov. 1938, Jewish businesses were destroyed and plundered across Germany, including the fur store of the Jägermann family in Berlin, managed by Elka Naphtalie. The windows were shattered, the furnishings vandalized, and the warehouse containing valuable furs plundered. The business was forced to close soon afterward. The Jägermann family went with Elka Naphtalie to the Romanian Embassy to report the case of damage there, indicating the losses to amount to approx. 10,000 RM (reichsmark), as the former consular employee Else Köster remembered in 1962.

During the November Pogrom of 1938, the family’s Hamburg retail store at Gänsemarkt 13 was also destroyed and the furs stolen. Increasing restrictions on Jewish business owners resulted in a steady decline of sales. Thus, the fur store was no longer able, for instance, to take out newspaper ads, which had yielded many orders before. By then, suppliers also refused to infringe on the regulations of the Nazi state, no longer delivering any goods to the Jägermanns. Unannounced business inspections by the SS "were the order of the day,” as the former employee Hermann J. testified later. For fear of commercial ruin, by that time Wolf Jägermann was already selling his goods, mostly valuable Persian lamb and foal skins, at "giveaway prices.”

The persecution hit Wolf Jägermann so hard that he developed bouts of depression and states of anxiety. In 1937, he suffered a nervous breakdown, prompting doctors to recommend he take a cure in Marienbad. His wife accompanied him. Since sales from the fur business were steadily declining, the Jägermann couple subsequently had to move with the children Heinz, Thea, and Kurt to Schenkendorfstrasse in Hamburg.

There, Wolf Jägermann tried to commit suicide. Shortly afterward, the Jägermann family had to leave this apartment again on the orders of the landlord, who wished to keep the house "free of Jews” ("judenrein”). Wolf Jägermann’s last residential address was Lenhartzstrasse 3 in Eppendorf. His state of health did not improve there either. One of his doctors advised him to take an extended stay in the "Rekawinkel” private sanatorium in Pressbaum near Vienna.

A short time afterward, Regina Jägermann fled from the mounting persecution to her brother in London, where her ill daughter Thea was staying already. From London, she tried to arrange for her husband to be able to return to Hamburg from the "Rekawinkel” sanatorium. She succeeded in accomplishing this, for the files of the Restitution Office (Amt für Wiedergutmachung) reveal that the adjunct professor and chief physician of the "Psychiatric and Mental Ward of the Eppendorf University Hospital” (Psychiatrische und Nervenklinik des Universitätskrankenhauses Eppendorf), Hans Bürger-Prinz, continued the treatment for Wolf Jägermann. His serious depressions, described in the medical certificates as reactive, i.e., as immediate effects of the anti-Jewish persecution measures, were treated there with, among other things, at least two large-scale courses of insulin therapy and numerous electroshocks, as documented by subsequent itemizations of charges for these special services. Apparently, Wolf Jägermann also lived for some time at Mittelweg 150 "with Dr. Bürger-Prinz” as noted on the tax file card of the Jewish Community. However, he was not registered with the authorities as residing there.

With respect to a "large-scale insulin therapy,” the physicians used an insulin injection to trigger a hypoglycemic shock and an ensuing short-term coma. A "large-scale insulin therapy” consisted of up to 40 such treatments that could result in irreversible damage to brain areas, in the worst case in dementia. The subsequent committal of such patients to the Langenhorn "sanatorium and nursing home” (Heil- und Pflegeanstalt Langenhorn) and later to the Hadamar or Grafeneck euthanasia killing centers was initiated or at least tolerated by the Psychiatric Ward of the Eppendorf University Hospital, including Hans Bürger-Prinz.

In July 1939, Elka Naphtalie moved to Lenhartzstrasse to care for her ill brother-in-law, who by then was permanently unfit for work. From 24 Nov. 1939 until 8 Dec. 1941, he was mostly at the "Friedrichsberg Lunatic Asylum” ("Irrenanstalt Friedrichsberg”) and in the Psychiatric Ward of Eppendorf University Hospital (UKE). In addition, she managed the remaining fur goods store at Gänsemarkt 13. As a Romanian Jew, Wolf Jägermann was not forced to "Aryanize” his businesses, as were the German Jews. During this time, Regina Jägermann stayed with her sick daughter Thea in London. With the help of the Romanian Embassy, Regina Jägermann succeeded in enabling her sons Heinz and Kurt to emigrate via London as well.

Since the war started, Regina Jägermann remained in Britain to be on the safe side, while Elka Naphtalie continued to care for her brother-in-law, visiting him and paying his doctor’s bills. Concurrently, she had to organize the liquidation of the fur goods store on Gänsemarkt, which could no longer be maintained in the face of growing reprisals. Gradually, the institutionalized accommodation and treatment of her brother-in-law were becoming a great financial strain. By means of an auction and sales of furs and fabrics "under the counter,” taking place at her apartment, Elka Naphtalie tried to generate the proceeds to finance, among other things, her brother-in-law’s permanent admission in the Langenhorn "sanatorium and nursing home.” She had also sold the store equipment, such as the furrier machines. Eventually, Wolf Jägermann was transferred from the UKE to the Langenhorn "sanatorium and nursing home” on 8 Dec. 1941.

Elka Naphtalie then received the order to report to Moorweide for deportation. A neighbor, Hedwig K., from Lenhartzstrasse, recalled:
"Mrs. Naphtalie had to surrender gold, silver, the radio set, and the furs. First, daughter Gerda and then she herself were transported off. She was forced to hand in the key to the Gestapo, the tax authority broke the seal on her apartment on Lenhartzstrasse and picked up all pieces of furniture.”

On 6 Dec. 1941, Elka Naphtalie was deported from Hamburg to Riga.

Her son Manfred writes on this score, "As I learned from a letter dated 22 Aug. 1946 by Mr. Oskar Salomon, who was also deported to Riga but had returned to Hamburg, upon her arrival in Riga, my mother was quartered in the Jungfernhof estate near Riga and in early 1942, she was put in the Riga Ghetto, where she remained until its dissolution in 1944. Afterward, she was taken to A. B. A. (Armee-Bekleidungs-Amt, i.e., "Army Clothing Department”), a labor camp belonging to the Riga concentration camp, where she stayed until Aug. 1944. On 26 Sept. 1944, she was taken on a transport from Riga to Stutthof near Danzig [today Gdansk in Poland].”

In the Stutthof concentration camp near Danzig, all traces of Elka Naphtalie vanish. Subsequently, Manfred Naphtalie never heard from his sisters Gerda and Margot anymore or received any news about the death of his mother. All of them have been considered "missing.”

Elka’s sister Regina Jägermann, who along with her children survived all of the persecution measures, indicated in the files of the Restitution Office with regard to the case of her husband Wolf Jägermann that he was killed in the Hadamar euthanasia killing center near Wiesbaden on 4 Oct. 1943. From the documents contained in the restitution file emerges that subsequently the Jewish Community received from the Hadamar killing center a bill amounting to 340 RM (reichsmark) for Wolf Jägermann’s meals and his burial.

The file includes a note from the lawyers Rosenhaft and Fellner dated 11 Jan. 1962 on the restitution case concerning Wolf Jägermann: "From 24 Nov. 1939 until 8 Dec. 1941, he was undergoing in-patient treatment for serious, chronic depression at the Psychiatric and Mental Ward of the UKE, and he was transferred onward to the Langenhorn sanatorium and nursing home on 8 Dec. 1941. Since killings along the lines of euthanasia were conducted at Hadamar, one can assume that Wolf Jägermann was also killed with criminal intent.”

The only detail known so far about Wolf Jägermann’s path from the Langenhorn "sanatorium and nursing home” to the Hadamar euthanasia killing center is that he was committed via the Scheuern transit institution. According to information provided by the institutions, Wolf Jägermann’s medical file went along with him in each case but to date it has been impossible to locate it.

As proof for her husband’s death, Regina Jägermann produced death certificate no. 1204/1943 of the Hadamar records office. "Wolf Jägermann, without occupation, of Mosaic [Jewish] faith, place of residence unknown, died on 4 Oct. 1943 at 5 a.m. in Hadamar at Mönchberg 1. The deceased was born on 30 Dec. 1896 in Vignita, Romania. The deceased was married. Name of wife unknown. Father and mother unknown.”

Elka Naphtalie’s oldest daughter, Margaret (Margot) Katz, worked as a seamstress. She was married to Julien Katz, born on 19 May 1919 in Cologne. Margot Katz initially lived alone in Antwerp at Van Schoonhovestraat 39 and then moved with her husband to Rue du Vautour 41 in Brussels. She was arrested on 5 May 1943 and taken to Mechelen (Malines) to the local "SS transit camp for Jews.” On 31 July 1943, she was deported further on Transport XXI/92 to Auschwitz-Birkenau. This was confirmed to her brother Manfred by the Brussels-based Aide Aux Israelites Victimes de la Guerre.

The Mechelen SS transit camp in the Dossin [military barracks] served as a transit camp for the deportation of Jews and Roma and Sinti from Belgium to German extermination camps, particularly to Auschwitz-Birkenau. In today’s Kazerne Dossin, Memorial, Museum and Documentation Centre on Holocaust and Human Rights (Kazerne Dossin Mechelen Memoriaal, Museum en Documentatiecentrum over Holocaust en Mensenrechten), formerly Mechelen Memorial of the Jewish Museum of Deportation and Resistance, it is also documented that Margot Katz did not survive the deportation to Auschwitz. Her husband, Julien Katz, who was deported to Auschwitz from Drancy, died in the camp as well.


Translator: Erwin Fink

Kindly supported by the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung, Hamburg.

Stand: November 2017
© Claudia García

Quellen: 4; 6; 8; StaH 351-11 AfW Abl.2008/1, 211123; StaH 552-1 Jüd. Gemeinden, 992e2 Band 1; Angaben von Manfred Naphtalie, s. Artikel Eppendorfer Wochenblatt vom 28.11.2006, Briefwechsel Manfred Naphtalies mit Peter Hess und Johann-Hinrich Möller; Mail von Archivarin Hanne Aerts vom 12.4.2010 Jüdisches Deportations- und Widerstandsmuseum Mechelen: http://www.cicb.be/de/ home_de.htm [geladen am 08.4.2010]; Geschichte des UK Eppendorf: http://www.uke.de/kliniken/psychiatrie/index_15716.php [geladen am 28.4.2010]; Telefonat mit Dr. Christina Vanja, Gedenkstätte Hadamar vom 14.6.2010; Klementowski, Birthe, Stille/Silence. Euthanasie in Hadamar 1941–45. Berlin 2010; Meckl, Wartesaal, in: Terror im Westen, Benz/Distel (Hrsg.), 2004, S. 39–49; Les archives de l'Aide aux Israélites Victimes de la Guerre conservées au Service Social Juif (1944–1960), Bruxelles, Fondation de la Mémoire contemporaine, 2006. Zur Rolle des Psychiaters Hans Bürger-Prinz in der NS-Zeit, vgl. Kai Sammet in: Hamburgische Biografie, Hamburg 2006, S. 69–71
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