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Isaac Perlmann * 1881

Mühlenkamp 29 (Hamburg-Nord, Winterhude)

HIER WOHNTE
ISAAC PERLMANN
JG. 1881
DEPORTIERT 1941
MINSK
ERMORDET

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

Isaac Perlmann, born 4/30/1881 in Hamburg, deported to Minsk on 11/8/1941, date of death unknown.
Emma Perlmann, née Depken, born 4/19/1883 in Hamburg, deported to Minsk on 11/8/1941, date of death unknown.
Harriet Perlmann, born 12/11/1915 in Hamburg, deported to Minsk on 11/8/1941, date of death unknown.
Herbert Perlmann, born 9/17/1919 in Hamburg, deported to Minsk on 11/8/1941, date of death unknown.

The Jewish religion teacher Michael Perlmann (1845–1915) lived in Perleberg, Brandenburg at least from 1870 to 1876 with his wife Ida, née Jacobsen (1841–1921), who came from Cuxhaven. He came from Poland, born as the son of a Rabbi in the town of Szezuegyn. Michael Perlmann had married in Perleberg in 1875, where his first son was born in 1876 and given the name Benjamin Jacob.

The family moved to Hamburg at the end of the 1870s, where Isaac Perlmann was born in 1881, followed by his brother Georg Hirsch Moses (called Harry) two years later. In 1885, Michael Perlman acquired the civil liberty of Hamburg, probably also with regard to his planned professional career and setting up his own business. In 1892, his "status or profession” in the register of inhabitants was given as "jewels, watches, gold.” In March 1893, the Michael Perlmann Company was entered in the company register. The religion teacher had become a merchant.

Of the Perlmanns officially registered in Hamburg in 1900, only Michael Perlmann and his family were members of the Jewish Community. His entry in the Hamburg telephone book from 1901 on read: Perlmann, Michael, Uhren, Juwelen, Gold- und Silberw., Münzen u. fremde Valuten, Alterwall 63, i.e. he sold and traded watches, jewelry, gold, silver, coins and foreign currencies. From 1903 to 1905, Neueburg 25 (III. Floor) and from 1905 to 1915 Colonnaden 96 (III. floor). After Michael Perlmann’ death in January 1915, his eldest son Benjamin, called Benno, (born 10/16/1876) took over the business. He had worked for decades as a moneychanger in the emigrants’ hall on Veddel Island in the Elbe River and had been acting manager of his father’s company since August 1914. Benjamin Perlman focused the company business on banking and currency changing and moved to Bogenstrasse 15. His brother Harry became assistant manager; he was killed in the war in 1915.

Benno’s five years younger brother Isaac, who belonged to the Hamburg Jewish Community and the Orthodox German-Israelitic Synagogue Association since 1913, married Emma Depken in 1914 or 1915. Her parents, Albert Depken and Hendel, née Levy, lived at Bartelsstrasse 97 house 2. Isaac Perlmann took part in World War I as a soldier. His children Harriet and Herbert were born in Hamburg in 1915 and 1919. Together with Kurt Krüger, Isaac Perlmann ran the sample stock Perlmann & Krüger at Colonnaden 96 until the end of 1920.

That year, the family moved their home from Colonnaden to Winterhude, Mühlenkamp 29, 2nd floor, the house where the Post Office Hamburg 40 was located on the ground floor since 1914. From 1927 to 1933, the official telephone registries noted "Representative for ships’ equipment, Mühlenkamp 29” after his name.

After the Nazis’ rise to power, the Perlmanns experienced ostracizing and discrimination. In August 1936, Isaac Perlmann retired from the Hamburg Historical Society, pre-empting his exclusion: from 1938, the society required an Ariernachweis from its members – documented proof they had no Jewish ancestors, and the remaining Jewish members were expelled.
In 1935, Isaac’s son Herbert was listed in the culture tax file as an apprentice metalworker. His daughter Harriet was employed at the fashion house Bischof at Jungfernstieg 7-8 until 1937, where she earned 20.15 RM per week. In October 1938, the family moved to Hamburger Strasse 97. Helmut Perlmann, a son of Benjamin Perlmann, was admitted to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp on November 10th, 1938, but released soon after. He managed to emigrate to the USA in January 1940; his sister Hilde (born 1908) and brother Michael (born 1917) went to Palestine.
Emma and Isaac Perlmann, their daughter Harriet and son Herbert were deported to Minsk on November 8th, 1941, where they arrived two days later. The ghetto in White Russia had only been partially "cleared” by mass murders a few days before. The conditions were abysmal. Famine and disease killed many inhabitants. Most of those who had survived were killed the massacre of May 8th, 1943. Isaac Perlmann’s elder brother Benjamin was deported to Auschwitz together with his wife Else, née van Son (born 1880) on July 11th, 1942.

Translated by Peter Hubschmid
Kindly supported by the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung, Hamburg.

Stand: February 2018
© Björn Eggert

Quellen: 1; 4; 8; AfW 161076; AfW 020380; AfW 150307; Stadtarchiv Perleberg, alphabetisches Register 1870 und 1871, Standesamtsregister 1875 und 1876; StaHH 314-15, FVg 3607; StaHH 741-4, Alte Einwohnermeldekartei; Handelskammer Hamburg, Firmenarchiv (Perlmann & Krüger), HR A 13238; Standesamt Hamburg-Mitte, schriftliche Auskunft aus den Personenstandsbüchern am 4.9.2007; Gräber-Kartei des Jüdischen Friedhofs Ohlsdorf; AB 1920, 1928; Amtliche Fernsprechbücher Hamburg 1901, 1902, 1904, 1906, 1908–1910, 1914–1921, 1927–1928, 1930, 1933; Jürgen Sielemann, Aber seid alle beruhigt. Briefe von Regina van Son an ihre Familie 1941–1942, Hamburg 2005, S. 106f, 151; Joist Grolle, Ina Lorenz, Der Ausschluss der jüdischen Mitglieder aus dem Verein für Hamburgische Geschichte, in: Zeitschrift des Vereins f. Hamb. Geschichte Bd. 93, Hamburg 2007; Beate Meyer (Hrsg.), Die Verfolgung und Ermordung der Hamburger Juden 1933–1945, Hamburg 2006, S. 64.
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