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Martha Salomon (née Waldheim) * 1879

Sierichstraße 56 (Hamburg-Nord, Winterhude)

HIER WOHNTE
MARTHA SALOMON
GEB. WALDHEIM
JG. 1879
ENTRECHTET / GEDEMÜTIGT
FLUCHT IN DEN TOD
21.2.1942

further stumbling stones in Sierichstraße 56:
Siegfried Salomon

Siegfried Salomon, born on 15 Apr. 1873 in Hamburg, deported on 19 July 1942 to the Theresienstadt Ghetto, died there on 24 Aug. 1942
Martha Cerchen Salomon, née Waldheim, born on 21 Apr. 1879 in Altona, died on 21 Apr. 1942 in Hamburg (suicide)

Siegfried Salomon was the son of Joseph Salomon and his wife Jeannette, née Salomon. The family was of the Jewish faith.

With his wife Martha, Siegfried had two children: Marfriede Jeannette (born on 4 Dec. 1907) and Hans (born on 25 Feb. 1913). The couple lived with their children – and by themselves after the children had moved out – in a spacious rented apartment at Sierichstrasse 56.

In 1875, Siegfried’s father, Joseph Salomon, had joined his brother Michel in founding J. & M. Salomon, an export agency specializing in porcelain, glass, and stoneware (located on Barkhof, house no. 2). In 1917, the son inherited the partnership, continuing the company with his uncle. In addition, he was a member and sworn expert of the "Association of the Honorable Merchant.” Following the death of his uncle in the late 1930s, he tried to continue managing the export agency on his own but soon the boycott legislation of the Nazis forced him to liquidate the company.

About the ensuing period, his daughter Marfriede wrote in a letter dating from 1955:

"After all of the ... known instances of harassment, such as: occupational ban, banning from going to public places and using public transportation, owning a radio and phone, subscribing to a lending library, etc., etc., my parents, already close to collapse due to the cold, the food shortage, air raids, and the ever increasing moral suppression, were ordered by a circular letter in late Jan. or early Feb. 1942 to give up their apartment and to have all the furniture and other items contained in it ready for auctioning. Silver objects and jewelry as well as furs had already been seized from them earlier. … Furthermore, our parents were told that they had to move to the ‘retirement home’ of Mrs. Meier-Ahrens in Hamburg, at Grindelhof 101.”

The only support during this time was the non-Jewish domestic help, Anna Possehl, who continued to work for the Salomons.

Upon being ordered to leave their home, the Salomon couple attempted to commit suicide. Martha Salomon died while her husband was brought back to life by the domestic help and a physician. Testifying after the war, the domestic help related that parallel to Martha Salomon’s coffin, the pieces of furniture auctioned off by then were carried out of the apartment. As ordered, Siegfried Salomon moved to Grindelhof (see also entry on Paul Löwenthal) and was deported from there to Theresienstadt on 19 July 1942. Prior to that, he had been forced to surrender his last money toward a so-called "home-purchase contract” ("Heimeinkaufsvertrag”), used to lead those designated for deportation into believing that they had purchased a comfortable right to residence in Theresienstadt. Following the deportation, he lived for only one more month.

Daughter Marfriede had already moved to Dresden in the 1930s, then emigrating to Italy in 1937. When the Fascist government there adopted German anti-Jewish legislation in 1938, commencing to harass the Jewish population and deport them to German concentration camps, Marfriede Salomon was forced to go underground, but she survived the persecution. Son Hans emigrated to Colombia in 1935.


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

Stand: January 2019
© Ulrike Sparr

Quellen: 1; 4; 8; AfW 150473, Amtliches Fernsprechbuch Hamburg, 1932.
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