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Jenny Löwenstein
© Yad Vashem

Jenny Löwenstein (née Rose) * 1880

Krochmannstraße 13 (Hamburg-Nord, Winterhude)

1942 Theresienstadt
1942 Treblinka ermordet

further stumbling stones in Krochmannstraße 13:
Hermann Löwenstein

Hermann Löwenstein, born on 22 June 1873 in Bredenborn, deported on 15 July 1942 to Theresienstadt, deported further on 21 Sept. 1942 to Treblinka, date of death unknown
Jenny Löwenstein, née Rose, born on 20 Apr. 1880 in Liebenau, deported on 15 July 1942 to Theresienstadt, deported further on 21 Sept. 1942 to Treblinka, date of death unknown

The Löwensteins probably moved to Hamburg only in 1937 – in November of that year, they joined the Jewish Community. Before that, they had lived in Northeim in Lower Saxony. Hermann was the son of Moses Löwenstein and his wife Sara, née Neuburg, a merchant by occupation. The couple had a daughter, Hedwig, born in Elze in 1909.

The couple had saved up a small fortune and moved into what was then the relatively new building at Krochmannstrasse 13. In 1940, they, like all Jewish inhabitants of the German Reich owning more than 5,000 RM (reichsmark), had to disclose their existing assets to the authorities. The pretext for this was that all Jewish citizens were generally imputed to have the intention of fleeing abroad and taking along foreign currency.

In Hamburg, the authority in charge of asset reports was the foreign currency office of the Chief Finance Administrator (Oberfinanzpräsident). Parallel to this reporting, the Löwensteins had to indicate how much they required per month for their own needs.

Hermann Löwenstein filled in the following:
In handwriting, an administrative official wrote down beside it the sums granted:
Rent 60.00 60.00
Subsistence 260.00 180.00
Other 80.00 60.00
Total: 400.00 300.00

Thus, the couple was able to dispose freely of 300 RM a month, whereas for any other expense they required permission in order to withdraw their own money from the blocked account they had been forced to open. Non-compliance was threatened with a "long prison term.”

At the beginning of 1942, Jenny and Hermann Löwenstein moved to the Jewish retirement home called "Hermann-Brunn-Stift” at Frickestrasse 24. To what extent this move was voluntary can no longer be ascertained. The sister of Jenny Löwenstein, Sara Rose, lived in the same charitable foundation as well. She died in June 1942. From her, Jenny Löwenstein inherited a small sum of money, which she also reported to the foreign currency office.

On 15 July 1942, Jenny and Hermann Löwenstein had to board the train to Theresienstadt. As early as 21 Sept. 1942, falling victim to a partial evacuation operation, they were transported to the Treblinka extermination camp and murdered there. (The destination of Minsk indicated on the Stolpersteine corresponds to an earlier state of research.)

Daughter Hedwig Löwenstein had emigrated to New York in Sept. 1939 and got married there. With the help of a missing person bulletin in Aufbau magazine dated 29 June 1945, she tried to learn something about her parents’ fate.


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

Stand: March 2017
© Ulrike Sparr

Quellen: 1; 4; 5; 8; StaHH 314-15 Oberfinanzpräsident, R 1940/276 und R 1942/66; Zeitschrift "Aufbau" vom 29.06.1945.
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