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Siegmund Goldschmidt * 1887

Woldsenweg 13 (Hamburg-Nord, Eppendorf)

1941 Lodz
ermordet

further stumbling stones in Woldsenweg 13:
Juliane Appel, Henriette Cohen, Mathilde Laski

Siegmund Goldschmidt, born on 19 Apr. 1887 in Twistringen near Diepholz, deported on 25 Oct. 1941 to Lodz, deported further on 11 May 1942 to Chelmno

Woldsenweg 13

Siegmund Goldschmidt belonged to the Goldschmidts, a family with numerous branches and a good reputation in Twistringen and the surrounding area. Since the mid-nineteenth century, members of this family repeatedly held the office of head of the synagogue of Twistringen. Siegmund’s parents were the tanner Hertz Goldschmidt and his wife Berta, née Jacobsohn (1849 to 1934).

Siegmund had ten siblings. Two of them died at a very young age. Fritz and Moritz were killed in action in the First World War. Else was deported along with her husband Felix Löwenstein to Theresienstadt in 1942. Both perished there. Mathilde and Isidora were forcibly taken to Poland by the Nazis and are reported missing there. Three brothers survived: In 1938, Julius and Erich escaped to San Francisco, Wilhelm to Buenos Aires.

Siegmund had no special occupational training. He acquired professional experience in commerce, especially working in various enterprises of his older brothers Julius, Erich, and Wilhelm. These were active in the grain and animal feed trade and partners in department stores, including the Alsberg department store in Gelsenkirchen.

Later, Siegmund Goldschmidt started his own business, opening a grocery store in Delmenhorst. In 1935, though, as anti-Semitic actions were further encouraged there as well by the Nuremberg Laws [on race], he gave up his business and returned to his home town of Twistringen. However, in the small town, everyday anti-Semitism was omnipresent, and consequently, Goldschmidt, by then 50 years old, evaded the situation by going to Hamburg in 1937. It is not known in which professional field he was active there. He seems to have cooperated with his brothers in terms of business though, because as he indicated to the Hamburg Chief Finance Administrator’s Office in 1940, he received a monthly pension of 133 RM (reichsmark) from Erich and Wilhelm, even after their emigration. Beyond that, he had, as the entries in the Jewish religious tax (Kultussteuer) file card show, other revenues as well until 1940/41, something rarely possible for Jewish men and women in those years. Yet by this time, his income and the pension coming in belonged to him by name only: The Chief Finance Administrator’s Office (Oberfinanzpräsidium) subjected all of his accounts to the "security order” ("Sicherungsanordnung”). He was allowed to withdraw only 200 RM a month from his own assets.

At that time, the unmarried man had already moved from Isestrasse 37 on the third floor to Woldsenweg 13 on the ground floor. At this address, he lived as a subtenant with Henriette Cohen (born in 1885); another fellow occupant was Mathilde Laski (born in 1888) (see corresponding entries). On 25 Oct. 1941, all three were deported to Lodz and murdered there.

Translator: Erwin Fink

Kindly supported by the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung, Hamburg.

© Johannes Grossmann

Quellen: 1; 2; 4; 5; 8; StaH 314-15 OFP, R 1940/196; Archiwum Panstwowe, Lodz (Getto-Archiv), Einwohnerregister Cranachstraße 20, PL-39-278-1022-219.tif; www.juedische-geschichte-diepholz.de/13/Schicksale 1933–45 (eingesehen am 15.5.2010); Auskünfte von F. Kratzsch, Stadtarchiv Stadt-Twistringen, E-Mails vom 31.5.2010 und 11.6.2010; Auskünfte von Gregory Lind, San Francisco, E-Mail vom 9.7.2010.
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