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Harriet Perlmann * 1915

Mühlenkamp 29 (Hamburg-Nord, Winterhude)

1941 Minsk
HIER WOHNTE
HARRIET PERLMANN
JG. 1915
DEPORTIERT 1941
MINSK
ERMORDET

further stumbling stones in Mühlenkamp 29:
Emma Perlmann, Herbert Perlmann, Isaac Perlmann

Harriet Perlmann, born on 11 Dec. 1915 in Hamburg, deported on 8 Nov. 1941 to Minsk, date of death unknown

Mühlenkamp 29

Harriet Michaela Perlmann was born in 1915 in the Hanseatic city as the first child of Isaac Perlmann (born on 30 Apr. 1881 in Hamburg) and Emma Perlmann, née Depken (born on 19 Apr. 1883 in Hamburg). The couple had married in Hamburg in 1915; witnesses to the marriage were the brother-in-law of the groom, Schneider Wilhelm Rahlf (1865–1947) residing at Bundesstrasse 42, and the merchant Friedrich Martens (Eppendorf, at Tarpenbeckstr. 75). Four years after Harriet, her brother Herbert was born. Their paternal grandparents, Michael Perlmann (1845–1915) and Ida Perlmann, née Jacobsen (1841–1921), were buried in the Hamburg-Ohlsdorf Jewish Cemetery. The maternal grandparents belonged to different denominations, so that only the grandmother Hendel Depken, née Levy (1844–1919), was buried at the Jewish Cemetery in Hamburg-Ohlsdorf. It is not known where her Christian husband, the cigar worker Albert Depken (1838–1896), born in Bremen-Vegesack, was buried.

Harriet’s father Isaac Perlmann had been a member of the Hamburg German-Israelitic Community and the orthodox Synagogue Association (Synagogenverband) since 1913. From 1901 to 1903, he had completed his military service at his own request in Lörrach near the Swiss border. Since 1909, he had lived together with his parents and his brother Harry at Colonnaden 96 in Hamburg-Neustadt (the older brother Benjamin, born on 16 Oct. 1876, was already married and lived in the Rotherbaum quarter). Isaac Perlmann operated under his own name an export sample warehouse at Colonnaden 96 (1909–1910), then a shop for fashion accessories, souvenirs and "patented novelties” at Dammtorstrasse 14 (1911–1913), as well as, after some bankruptcy proceedings and a court-imposed settlement, an agency at Colonnaden 96 (1914–1915), where his brother, the merchant Harry (Hirsch Moses) Perlmann (1883–1915), also had his business premises for some time. From 1916, after the marriage, Isaac Perlmann appeared in the Hamburg directory with Mühlenkamp 29/31 as an address and the professional designations of agency (1916–1917), commercial agent (1918–1928), and ship equipment agent (1929–1938). The Isaak Perlmann export sample warehouse, which according to an encyclopedic entry entailed a "permanent exhibition of the newest makes, models, pictorial representations (...) of domestic commercial enterprises” in order to "inform importers abroad about the export industry of the country and to facilitate business transactions,” had been converted in Mar. 1920 into Perlmann & Krüger oHG (partnership) with the business orientation of book wholesaler. The co-owner, Richard Kurt Krüger, took over the company in Jan. 1921 and continued it under the name of Köhler & Krüger.

The Perlmann family lived in Hamburg-Winterhude in the residential building at Mühlenkamp 29 (built just a few years earlier) in a five-room apartment on the second floor. The design of the house (from 1913) came from the Hamburg architect J. G. Heinrich Schmidt (1850–1940). The ground floor of the building had housed the Hamburg 40 post office since May 1914. Harriet attended school probably also in Winterhude during the 1920s. It is not known where she began an apprenticeship at the beginning of the 1930s, presumably as a sales assistant. In Mar. 1932, she joined the Hamburg German-Israelitic Community as an independent member, presumably after celebrating her bat mitzvah (religious maturity) around 1930. In 1937, she was employed by "Bischof Moden,” a fashion store at Neuer Jungfernstieg 7/8 for a weekly salary of 20.15 RM (reichsmark). Heinz Bischof had opened his cleaning and fashion shop on the premises of the bankrupt Richard Rassweiler jewelry store in 1933, right next to the Vierjahreszeiten Hotel (house no. 9); the fashion shop was on the ground floor and the offices were on the sixth floor. In 1939, Harriet Perlmann no longer had to pay Jewish religious tax (Kultussteuer) to the Jewish Community. Presumably dismissed in 1938 by Bischof Moden because of her Jewish descent, she was then unemployed.

Harriet Perlmann came of age in Dec. 1936. We do not know whether she aspired to a marriage, which would have been difficult: The "Nuremberg Laws” [on race] of Sept. 1935 issued by the Nazi regime prohibited her from marrying a non-Jewish man, and the mass emigration of Jewish men made marriage more difficult for Jewish women remaining in Germany. Harriet Perlmann stayed with her parents.

In Oct. 1938, the Perlmann family moved into a four-room apartment on the raised ground floor at Hamburger Strasse 97 (Barmbek-Uhlenhorst) owned by Heinemann David (1854–1942). The residential building had two entrances next to the Rudolph Karstadt department store (at the intersection of Hamburger Strasse 101/103 and Desenissstrasse), which had been built there in 1927/1928, replacing the Heilbuth department store (1903–1927). It is not known whether it was the drastically reduced monthly income of the now unemployed family members or anti-Jewish harassment by landlords or neighbors in Winterhude that made the move necessary. The new house owner was Jewish, the tenant structure featured mixed denominations; since Sept. 1933, the Kriminalsekretär [a rank equivalent to detective sergeant or master sergeant] Karl Winkler (born on 1881 in Jerichow) lived on the third floor with his wife and four children.

Herbert Kunert (born on 24 Sept. 1907 in Wuppertal-Elberfeld) lived in Perlmann’s apartment as a subtenant; he moved to Rappstrasse 3 in Dec. 1939. Like the Perlmanns, he was deported to the Minsk Ghetto on 8 Nov. 1941.

For Harriet’s father, the "Ordinance on the Elimination of the Jews from German Economic Life” ("Verordnung zur Ausschaltung der Juden aus dem deutschen Wirtschaftsleben”) dated 12 Nov. 1938 meant that he was virtually banned from working as of 31 Dec. 1938. Through anti-Jewish laws that destroyed the economic livelihood of self-employed persons, the Nazi regime wanted to force Jews to emigrate. Isaac Perlmann had already had to leave the Association for Hamburg History (Verein für Hamburgische Geschichte) in Aug. 1936, as Jews were no longer admitted as members there either.

Harriet’s brother Herbert Albert Perlmann (born on 17 Sept. 1919 in Hamburg) probably began an apprenticeship as a mechanic in 1934 and joined the German-Israelitic Community on 22 Dec. 1934. However, he did not have to pay any Jewish religious tax (Kultussteuer) for the years 1935 to 1939. It is not known whether he completed his three-year apprenticeship in a company owned by a Jewish or a non-Jewish owner. At any rate, in 1938 he had to stop his education. A secret directive dated 20 Dec. 1938 ordered the compulsory labor deployment of unemployed Jews by the employment offices. The reference to a weekly income of 2.60 RM starting in Mar. 1939 on Herbert Perlmann’s Jewish religious tax file card might point to his deployment as a "welfare worker” ("Unterstützungs-Arbeiter”). According to the house registration file, from 24 Feb. 1941 Herbert Perlmann lived as a subtenant at Heinrich-Barth-Strasse 17 on the third floor with Moritz Abrahams (born on 5 Feb. 1905 in Dornum/Norden), his wife Irene, née Neugarten (born on 25 June 1915 in Hamburg), and their small child. The house was declared a "Jews’ house” ("Judenhaus”) by the Nazi regime and used for the preparation of deportations. Herbert Perlmann (on 27 May 1941, according to the house registration file and not before 2 July 1941, according to the Jewish religious tax file card) moved back to his parents and sister at Hamburger Strasse 97. (The Abraham family was deported to Lodz in occupied Poland on 25 Oct. 1941.)

By that time, the recreational activities of Jews were also extremely limited: An order issued by Joseph Goebbels as President "Reich Chamber of Culture” ("Reichskulturkammer”) on 12 Nov. 1938 banned them from visiting theaters, cinemas, concerts, exhibitions, etc. In Winterhude, Jews were no longer allowed to set foot on the "Mühlenkamper Lichtspiele” movie theater (at Mühlenkamp 34) and the Winterhuder Fährhaus (at Hudtwalckerstrasse 5-7). Whether this ban also applied to the city park with the drinking hall in the spa garden, the Landhaus, the music pavilion, the municipal hall, and the outdoor swimming pool could not be established due to the lack of sources. Sports clubs had already refused membership to Jews since 1933; in anticipatory compliance, they had inserted an "Aryan paragraph” ("Arierparagraph”) into their statutes and thus forced the exclusion of their Jewish club members. In addition, starting in Sept. 1939, Jews had to shop in separate stores (with reduced food allocations) and they were forbidden to stay outside their homes after 8 p.m. (in the summer, after 9 p.m.).

Harriet Perlmann’s Jewish religious tax (Kultussteuer) file card contained a notes indicating "10 Aug. 39 U.B.” (= Unbedenklichkeitsbescheinigung, i.e., tax clearance certificate) and "Sept. 39 England.” The first note documents her emigration efforts, for which she had obtained a certificate from the tax office. However, the latter note had been crossed out again, pointing to the failure of her emigration efforts to Britain, probably because of the start of the war.

On 8 Nov. 1941, 25-year-old Harriet Perlmann, her parents, her 20-year-old brother, and 964 additional persons were deported from Hamburg to the Minsk Ghetto in the Belarusian Soviet republic conquered by the German Wehrmacht.

Like all Jews, the Perlmanns had had to wear on their clothes a clearly visible "Jews’ star” since 19 Sept. 1941, a regulation that even applied to the deportation transport. They arrived in Minsk on 10 Nov. 1941. The ghetto set up by the SS and Wehrmacht in July 1941, in the northwest of the largely destroyed city, had been partially "cleared” only a few days earlier by SS and police units through mass murders. The living conditions in the ghetto were catastrophic. The old, now overcrowded houses lacked sanitary facilities, and there was also an inadequate supply of water and food and an infestation of rats. Dysentery due to starvation, pneumonia, and frostbite led to the deaths of numerous camp inmates. Behind this was the soberly calculated scheme to let the population in the ghetto perish by lack of nourishment.

Some 900 of the 7,000 ghetto occupants were deployed in work detachments outside the camp (in plants and operations of the Todt paramilitary organization and the Reich Railway Corporation). Daimler-Benz temporarily employed up to 5,000 workers, including prisoners of war and Jews, in a repair shop for Wehrmacht motor vehicles in Minsk. It is conceivable, but not proven, that Herbert Perlmann, a trained mechanic, was obliged to do forced labor there. In July 1942, a "selection” was carried out of around 10,000 "disabled” ghetto inmates who were then murdered at the Jewish Cemetery in Minsk and buried in mass graves. On 8 May 1943, the approximately 2,600 German Jews and approximately 6,000 Russian Jews who had survived until then were almost all murdered in a massacre. In Oct. 1943, the Minsk Ghetto was finally "evacuated” by the Security Service (SD) and the Security Police (Sipo). The exact dates of death of Harriet Perlmann and her family is not known.

After the deportation, the Nazi state had also secured the remaining furnishings of the Perlmann family by sealing the apartment or room door, respectively, by an official. A few months later, household items and clothing of the Jewish deportees were auctioned off at public auctions. The remaining amounts on savings and checking accounts were also confiscated by the state to its benefit. On 20 Dec. 1941, the treasurer’s office with the Hamburg Chief Finance Administrator (Oberfinanzkasse) entered a deposit of around 1,300 RM under the names of Isaak and Emma Perlmann. It was not noted whether these were bank balances or auction proceeds. On 20 Dec. 1941, the painter Julius Grimm (born in 1881 in Hamburg) and his wife were listed as the new main tenants at Hamburger Strasse 97 on the raised ground floor.

How did other family members fare?
Harriet’s uncle, Robert Depken (16 Nov. 1886 in Hamburg), born in Hamburg as the son of a Christian father and a Jewish mother, had completed an apprenticeship as a paperhanger and worked as a commercial clerk, traveling salesman, and laborer. He was mustered for military service in 1906 (with an entry of "Mosaic” = Jewish religion) and joined the Hamburg German-Israelitic Community as an independent member in 1914. When he got married in 1914, the Jewish religious affiliation was also entered for him as well as for his bride. Moving frequently, from 1916 to 1919 the married couple lived at Rentzelstrasse 11/13, house no. 1 on Friedrich-Wilhelm-Platz. The residential complex, consisting of six houses, accommodated the "Eating house for Jewish children” on the ground floor of house no. 4. In 1922, Robert Depken moved with his wife and three children to Amsterdam, the native city of his wife Hendrina, née Gompers (born on 10 Jan. 1894). Reportedly, he worked as a tailor and ironer (activities also carried out by his mother and two of his sisters). In Amsterdam, they lived at Weesperplein 15 in Feb. 1941. The married Depken couple and their married daughters, Leentje Zeehandelaar, née Depken (born on 27 Sept. 1914 in Hamburg, residing in Amsterdam at Boterdiepstraat 26 in Feb. 1941) and Elisabeth Plukker, née Depken (born on 9 May 1917 in Hamburg, residing in Amsterdam at Grensstraat 16 in Feb. 1941) were deported from Amsterdam to the Westerbork camp after the German occupation of the Netherlands and from there to the extermination camps in occupied East of Europe in 1943.

In Jan. 1939, Harriet’s cousin Michael Perlmann (born in 1917) had applied in writing to the Hamburg Chief Finance Administrator (Oberfinanzpräsident) for a "tax clearance certificate for the purpose of issuing a passport,” and a few weeks later, he was able to emigrate via Britain to the British Mandate of Palestine. His German passport was invalidated on 15 Mar. 1939 to prevent his return to Germany. Harriet’s cousin, Michael’s sister Hildegard ("Hilde”), married name Bertenthal (born in 1908), had already emigrated to Palestine before him, and brother Helmut Perlmann (born in 1907) emigrated to the USA in Jan. 1940 after graduating from the Talmud Torah Realschule (which he attended from 1913 to 1923), an apprenticeship at Jacob Goldschmidt (1923–1925), and work at the Siegfried Abraham brokerage firm (1925–1933). They survived the Holocaust.

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

Stand: June 2020
© Björn Eggert

Quellen: 1; 4; 5; 8; StaH (Staatsarchiv Hamburg) 213-13 (Landgericht, Wiedergutmachung), 11672 (Jewish Trust Corporation für Isaak u. Emma Perlmann); StaH 231-7 (Handelsregister), A 1 Band 55 (Isaac Perlmann, HR A 13238); StaH 314-15 (Oberfinanzpräsident), FVg 3607 (Michael Perlmann); StaH 332-3 (Zivilstandsaufsicht 1866–1875), B Nr. 42 (2264/1871, Heiratsregister 1871, Albert Depken u. Hendel Levy); StaH 332-5 (Standesämter), 1913 u. 5171/1877 (Geburtsregister 1877, Bertha Depken); StaH 332-5 (Standesämter), 2004 u. 2765/1881 (Geburtsregister 1881, Helene Depken); StaH 332-5 (Standesämter), 2053 u. 1967/1883 (Geburtsregister 1883, Emma Depken); StaH 332-5 (Standesämter), 2134 u. 5600/1886 (Geburtsregister 1886, Robert Depken); StaH 332-5 (Standesämter), 7904 u. 930/1896 (Sterberegister 1896, Albert Depken); StaH 332-5 (Standesämter), 2890 u. 1022/1897 (Heiratsregister 1897, Wilhelm Rahlf u. Martha Depken); StaH 332-5 (Standesämter), 8651 u. 326/1907 (Heiratsregister 1907, Erna Depken u. Johann Gottwald); StaH 332-5 (Standesämter), 3240 u. 237/1914 (Heiratsregister Robert Depken u. Hendrina Gompers); StaH 332-5 (Standesämter), 3266 u. 112/1915 (Heiratsregister 1915, Isaac Perlmann u. Emma Depken); StaH 332-5 (Standesämter), 809 u. 497/1919 (Sterberegister 1919, Hendel Depken geb. Levy); StaH 332-8 (Alte Einwohnermeldekartei 1892–1925), Michael Perlmann; StaH 332-8 (Meldewesen), K 4360, Alte Einwohnermeldekartei 1892–1925 (Albert Depken, Erna Depken, Helena Depken, Hendel Depken geb. Levy, Martha Depken, Robert Depken); StaH 332-8 (Meldewesen), A 51/1, Film 2415 (Hausmeldekartei Hamburger Str. 97); StaH 342-2 (Militär-Ersatzbehörden 1856-1920), D II 103 Band 3 (Isaac Perlmann); StaH 342-2 (Militär-Ersatzbehörden 1856–1920), D II 123 Band 2 (Robert Depken); StaH 351-11 (Amt für Wiedergutmachung), 4505 (Elsa Perlmann); StaH 351-11 (AfW), 637 (Heinemann David); StaH 522-1 (Jüdische Gemeinden), 992b (Kultussteuerkartei der Deutsch-Israelitischen Gemeinde Hamburg), Harriet Perlmann, Herbert Perlmann, Isaac Perlmann, Robert Depken, Witwe Albert Depken; Jüdischer Friedhof Hamburg-Ohlsdorf, Gräberverzeichnis im Internet (Michael Perlmann, Grablage ZX-76; Ida Perlmann, Grablage ZX-765; Hendel Depken, Grablage ZX11-388); Bauamt Hamburg-Nord; Handelskammer Hamburg, Handelsregisterinformationen (Isaac Perlmann HR A 13238, Richard Rassweiler HR A 33816); Hamburger Börsenfirmen, Hamburg 1926, S. 969 (Gabriel Meyer, Inh. Herbert Meyer, Bücherrevisor, Holstenplatz 9); Yad Vashem, Page of Testimony (Harriet Perlmann); Adressbuch Hamburg (A.Depken) 1889, 1890, 1892, 1894, 1896; Adressbuch Hamburg (Isaac Perlmann) 1909–1920, 1925, 1928–1930, 1932, 1938; Adressbuch Hamburg (Rentzelstr. 11/13) 1920; Adressbuch Hamburg (Hamburger Straße 97) 1939, 1940; Adressbuch Hamburg (Heinz Bischof) 1934, 1935, 1938, 1941; Telefonbuch Hamburg (Perlmann) 1901, 1902, 1904, 1906, 1908–1910, 1914–1921, 1927–1928, 1930, 1931, 1933; Joist Grolle/Ina Lorenz, Der Ausschluss der jüdischen Mitglieder aus dem Verein für Hamburgische Geschichte, in: Zeitschrift des Vereins für Hamburgische Geschichte, Band 93, Hamburg 2007, S. 95 (Isaac Perlmann); Volkhard Knigge u.a., Zwangsarbeit – die Deutschen, die Zwangsarbeiter und der Krieg (Ausstellungskatalog), Weimar 2010, S. 54–57 (Minsk); Uwe Lohalm, Die nationalsozialistische Judenverfolgung in Hamburg 1933 bis 1945, Hamburg 1999, S. 35 (Arbeitseinsatz); Meyers Lexikon, Band 1, Leipzig 1924, S. 1168 (Ausfuhrmusterlager/Exportmusterlager); Beate Meyer (Hrsg.), Die Verfolgung und Ermordung der Hamburger Juden 1933–1945, Hamburg 2006, S. 64 (Deportationsziel Minsk); Petra Rentrop-Koch, Die "Sonderghettos" für deutsche Jüdinnen und Juden im besetzten Minsk (1941–1943), in: Beate Meyer (Hrsg.), Deutsche Jüdinnen und Juden in Ghettos und Lagern (1941–1945), Hamburg 2017, S. 88, 90, 97, 98, 104–105; http://www.kmkbuecholdt.de/historisches/personen/architekten_schmidt.htm (Architekt Heinrich Schmidt, Hamburg); https://www.joodsmonument.nl/nl/page/156280/robert-depken (Robert Depken); www.stolpersteine-hamburg.de (Isaac Perlmann, Benjamin Jakob Perlmann, Heinemann David); www.tracingthepast.org (Volkszählung Mai 1939), Emma Perlmann, Isaac Perlmann, Harriet Perlmann, Moritz Abrahams, Irene Abrahams geb. Neugarten, Heinemann David, Helene Olsson geb. Depken.
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