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Cloe Neuburger (née Rosenfeld) * 1885

Woldsenweg 5 (Hamburg-Nord, Eppendorf)

1941 Lodz
1942 weiterdeportiert ???

further stumbling stones in Woldsenweg 5:
Ella Davidsohn, Walter Davidsohn, Dr. Marie Anna Jonas, Dr. Alberto Jonas, Marie Therese Moser, Bernard Moser, Fritz Neuburger, Ruth Neuhaus, Georg Peters

Fritz Neuburger, b. 5.6.1876 in Augsburg, deported to Lodz on 10.25.1941, deported again in May 1942 to Chelmno
Chloë Neuburger, née Rosenfels, b. 6.7.1885 in Rouxville, deported to Lodz on 10.25.1941, deported again in May 1942 to Chelmno

Woldsenweg 5

How did Chloë Rosenfels, who grew up in the little village of Rouxville on the edge of the Maluti mountain range in South Africa, and Fritz Neuburger, from Augsburg in Bavaria, get to know each other? Perhaps their parents, Albert and Rosa Neuburger, née Frank, and Jacob and Peppi Rosenfels, née Bacharach, new each other? Or perhaps their fathers had a business relationship? We do not know.

Fritz Neuburger grew up in Augsburg, received training in business, and at age 21 in 1897–1898 finished his military service as a one-year volunteer with the 3rd Infantry Regiment. By 1908 at the latest Fritz and Chloë Neuburger moved to Hamburg where they at first rented a dwelling at Grindelallee 53, and in 1914 moved to Klosterallee 5. They must have felt at home in this neighborhood, because in the next years, although they moved often, it was always to home just a few doors away: in August 1931 to Werderstrasse 34 and in May 1933 to Hansastrasse 63, both times on the third floor. Fritz Neuburger rented an office for his businesses at Stadthausbrücke 29–26 and Adolfsbrücke 7.

In 1925 the married couple joined the Jewish Community. During the pogroms of November 1938, Fritz Neuburger was imprisoned in the Fuhlsbüttel concentration camp and later transferred to Sachsenhausen concentration camp. As inmate number 010689, he was conducted to prisoner bloc 60. After his release on 23 November 1938, the Neuburgers decided to leave Germany and applied for an exit visa. They wanted to go to Chloë’s home country, South Africa. Authorization became drawn out and their economic circumstances grew worse and worse. At this time they were already living on their savings and from the proceeds of the sale of their personal possessions which they gradually had to sell off, for example, a stamp collection for 800 RM, two diamond rings, and a pearl necklace for 3000 RM. In addition to this, Chloë’s uncle, Max Bacharach from Wiesbaden, sent them 100 RM each month. Fritz Neuburger had bonds from the "Mortgage and Exchange Bank" valued at 200 RM he kept at home and which he did not report on his financial statement; these he sold to the Dresdener Bank in 1939. However, it was obligatory for anyone wanting to emigrate to list the value of his assets down to the smallest detail. Because of the reporting discrepancy, the commercial police initiated proceedings against him. On 22 May 1939 he was arrested in his home.

His statement:
"From 11.10.38 until 11.23.38 I was in the Oranienburg concentration camp. While staying here I fell ill with laryngitis and bursitis. Even after my release I was in the care of Doctor Axem, on Beim Schlump street. At that time I was so down physically and mentally that I could not even read a newspaper. For that reason I was not familiar with the latest news about the law in question. My release papers were held by the Gestapo. I would also like to point out that the savings of 200 RM in question were handled by my wife. For so paltry a sum I would never risk making myself criminally liable. In consideration of my poor health at the time of my release from the camp, I plead that the matter be judged leniently. Evil intent was certainly absent. I have set my emigration to South Africa in progress. Fritz Israel Neuburger."

He was fined 50 RM "and in case this amount is not recovered," to ten days in jail. On 31 July 1939 Fritz Neuburger could pay the Hamburg court cashier 52 RM and thereby escape the threatened imprisonment.

In the course of the following months, the Neuburgers liquidated their household. Their furniture was relocated to the Port of Hamburg’s free trade zone. The required emigration fee of 275 RM was paid. In July 1940 they moved in as sub-lessees of the Moser family (see entry) at Woldsenweg 5. It was supposed to have been only a temporary stop before emigration. But it was not to be. A few Jews were still allowed to emigrate in the spring of 1941. In March 1941, the free trade zone of the port was again made part of the area subject to customs. The Berlin Golddiskontobank (Dego) refunded the emigration fee by certified check.

On 25 October 1941, they, along with Bernhard and Marie Therese Moser, were deported to Lodz. In the Lodz ghetto they lived in house 39 at Rubenstrasse 2, in two rooms with thirteen other people and no kitchen. Chloë Neuburger worked as a seamstress. Fritz Neuburger was bedridden when they received the "exit order" to Chelmno extermination camp. In his letter to the resettlement commission, he asked to be admitted to an old people’s home because his "physical condition made transporting him impossible ... Every attempt to move him ends with fainting ... I note that my wife ... is my devoted care-giver, despite the fact that she suffers from a paralysis of the foot and had to undergo an operation in the last few days. It is literally a matter of life or death for me, or, in other words, transport will lead directly to my death. My heart and my bladder have been severely affected, first and foremost because of my far advanced emaciation." This letter of entreaty was marked "Odmowa," (Polish: refused).

In the beginning of May 1942, Fritz and Chloë Neuburger were deported to Chelmno. Once there, the victims were taken to the "castle," an old Polish manor house. They had to undress, supposedly to be disinfected in preparation for the next step in the journey. A ramp led directly into the cargo area of a truck, in which they were then killed by the exhaust.


Translator: Richard Levy

Kindly supported by the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung, Hamburg.

Stand: November 2017
© Maria Koser

Quellen: 1; 2; 4; 5; 8; 9; StaH 213-11 Staatsanwaltschaft Landgericht – Strafsachen, 6214/39; StaH 314-15 OFP, R 1939/129; StaH 314-15 OFP, Fvg 7714; StaH 314-15 OFP, R 1940/873; schriftl. Auskunft Gedenkstätte und Museum Sachsenhausen vom 6.11.2008, AZ 2-10/5; USHMM, RG 15.083, M300/358-360, Fritz Neubauer, Universität Bielefeld, E-Mail vom 9.6.2010; StaH 213-8 Staatsanwaltschaft Oberlandesgericht-Verwaltung, Abl. 2 451a, E1, 1c; Löw, Das Getto Litzmannstadt, in: Feuchert/Leibfried/Riecke, Chronik, Bd. 5, 2007, S. 158f.
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