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Margot Massé * 1895

Hauersweg 7 (Hamburg-Nord, Winterhude)

1941 Riga
ermordet

further stumbling stones in Hauersweg 7:
Adele Massé, Gretchen Massé

Margot Massé, born 15.7.1895 in Hamburg, deported to Riga on 6.12.1941 and murdered there

Hauersweg 7 (Winterhude)

Margot Massé was born in 1895 at Schlüterstraße 12 (Rotherbaum) as the daughter of the fund broker Marcus Massé (1837-1917) and his wife Franzi, née Frankel Kohn (1857-1910). Margot's mother was from Hungary, and her father, the merchant Simon Frankel Kohn, had died in Vienna. Margot had three siblings: Grete Massé (born 20.5.1883 in Hamburg), Adele Massé (born 11.1.1889 in Hamburg) and James Massé (born 27.10.1896 in Hamburg). Margot's father came from Wandsbek, where his parents Jacob Isaac Massé (died 7.2.1867 in Neumünster) and Merle, née Moses (1816-1890) were buried in the Jenfelder Straße Jewish Cemetery.

Their father Marcus Massé had founded a company in the financial sector in 1872. Until 1895 it was referred to in the address book as a "lottery, bank and bill of exchange business", in the following two years as a "banking business" and thereafter until 1918 as a "fund business". In 1874, the Frankfurt/Main District Court sentenced him to a fine "for advertising the Hamburg lottery tickets" in Frankfurt by means of "offer letters" - this form of customer advertising was not punishable in Hamburg. In November 1880, he was responsible for a silver raffle in favor of the Hamburg Zoological Garden and was also named on the corresponding newspaper advertisement.

His son James Massé did not continue his father's company. In September 1919, together with Paul Scharpp, he founded the import and export company Massé & ScharppoHG, which existed until 1930 and was then deleted from the commercial register. According to the cultural tax index of the Jewish Community of Hamburg (Kultussteuerkartei), James Massé was listed as a member of the Jewish Community only from 1921 to 1925.

The Massé family lived in Hamburg at Feldstraße 32/ St. Pauli (a.o. 1875-1882), Große Bleichen 70/ Neustadt (a.o. 1885), Große Theaterstraße 4 (1889-1891), Colonnaden 9/ Neustadt (1892-1894), Schlüterstraße 12/ Rotherbaum (1895-1897), Bieberstraße 8/ Rotherbaum (1898-1908), Brahmsallee 25/ Harvestehude (1909-1910), Schäferkampsallee 28/ Eimsbüttel (1910-1912), and Hartungstraße 1/ Rotherbaum (1913-1918).

After graduating from the secondary girls' school, Margot Massé trained as a home economics teacher, passing her exams on October 1, 1914. According to the Hamburg address book, the training was held at Wallstraße 32 (Borgfelde) at the Verein für Haushaltungsschulen von 1899 e.V. (foundation for housework schools). The address book described the content of the training as follows: "Cooking and housekeeping courses for young girls of educated classes. Training to become a housekeeper; advanced housekeeping courses for daughters of all classes. Apprenticeship period ½ to 1 year. Boarding school for admission before pupils of the seminary and other training courses." The director, Christine Vollbehr, was also president of the Verein Hamburger Haushaltungslehrerinnen e.V. (Hamburg Association of Home Economics Teachers).

From October 1914 to September 1920, Margot Massé worked as a substitute teacher or assistant teacher at the Verein für Haushaltungsschulen Hamburg. (According to the address book, the association had been founded in 1899).
It was not until October 1, 1920 that Margot Massé became a "contract teacher." In 1915, there were thirty housekeeping schools in Hamburg. The address book described the education as follows: "In the state home economics schools in Hamburg, all confirmands of the selecta and the 1st to 5th grades of the elementary schools, as well as those of the auxiliary schools, are taught. The lessons are compulsory, and each pupil attends the domestic science school for 4 hours every week for one year. According to the mental abilities of the pupils, the girls are distributed in the school kitchens and taught according to the curricula established for the different classes. (...) Lunches are prepared in pairs, calculated, and the expenses entered in an economic book." Other subjects taught were laundry care and child care and nursing.

Margot Massé was permanently employed in the Hamburg school service as a vocational school teacher from November 1920. She taught at the "Gewerbeschule für die weibliche Jugend" in Seilerstraße (St. Pauli) from 1927 to 1931 and at the "Berufsschule für weibliche Jugend" (Bezirksschule II) at Weidenstieg 29 (Eimsbüttel) in the 1932/33 school year.

Her sister Grete (Gretchen Melita Olga) also worked as a teacher in Hamburg. She belonged to the Jewish Community, but on her tax card (Kultussteuerkarte), which she kept from 1925, no more payments are noted from 1927. She lived together with Margot Massé in an apartment.

Their sister Adele Massé worked as a stenotypist, secretary and clerk for the renowned banking house M. M. Warburg & Co. and, from around 1934, for the retired state court director and now active lawyer Dr. Walter C. Ertel (born 20.3.1859 in Breslau) at Klosterallee 53 (Harvestehude).

In 1933, Margot Massé, 38, was dismissed from the teaching profession under the "Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service" (Gesetz zur Wiederherstellung des Berufsbeamtentums) because of her Jewish origin and was compulsorily retired on November 1, 1933. After cuts, she received a net monthly pension of RM 113.32. The Nazi state thus systematically ousted Jews from their professions.

Margot Massé found new employment with the Jewish Community. The latter employed her and Dr. phil. Carry Salomon (born 19.11.1893 in Hamburg) to hold home economics courses for young Jewish women at Innocentiastraße 19 from October 15, 1933. The association "Heim für jüdische Mädchen und Frauen e.V." was listed as the tenant there.

According to the "Beratungsstelle für jüdische Wirtschaftshilfe" (Advice Center for Jewish economic help, at Beneckestraße 2) to the responsible Regierungsdirektor Richard Flemming of the Oberschulbehörde (Dammtorstraße 25) dated February 5, 1934, Margot Massé was scheduled to teach home economics, cooking and sewing. It can be assumed that Carry Salomon, who had worked at the housekeeping school of the Israelitischen humanistischen Frauenverein Hamburg in Bad Segeberg from 1924 to October 1933, taught nutrition and food, domestic arithmetic and bookkeeping.

Presumably Margot Massé later worked as a cook, this profession was noted on the deportation list in 1941.

Carry Salomon emigrated to the USA via the Soviet Union and Japan in March 1941.

From 1926, Margot Massé was a member of the Jewish Community of Hamburg and paid religious tax. On her index card, the occupations "employee" and "teacher" are noted in succession, followed by the employers "counseling center" and "IT(?)" as well as "JRV" (Jewish Religious Association); no additional year information is noted.

Her residential addresses were Schrammsweg 21/ Eppendorf (among others 1919), Grindelallee 165 III. floor/ Rotherbaum (among others 1922-1933) as well as together with her sister Grete the 3-room apartment Hauersweg 7/ Winterhude (1934-1940). After the WWII, acquaintances described her furnishings in the reparation proceedings as "well bourgeois." From the apartment Hauersweg 7 they remembered two blue upholstered high-quality armchairs and a blue carpet. The witnesses could also remember mahogany furniture in Biedermeier style (vertico, cabinet, table and chairs) as well as an old-fashioned oak buffet cabinet.

From 1941, all three Massé sisters lived as lodgers with Marie von Biema (1870-1942) at Hochallee 53/ Harvestehude. There they also received the deportation order to Riga, which they had to obey on December 6, 1941. Her sisters Grete and Adele Massé were deported together with her. The Hamburg transport was sent to the Riga-Jungfernhof makeshift camp. There they either died of hunger, cold or disease or were shot in the "Aktion Dünamünde". The exact circumstances of their deaths are not known.

The Nazi state systematically appropriated the assets of Jews. Even after their deportation, it confiscated the remaining assets and objects "by order of the Reichsstatthalter." After the deportation and the sealing of the apartment, the "Property Realization Office" of the Chief Finance President, together with customs officials, took over the examination of the left-behind apartment objects on the basis of the property lists of the deported owners. Forwarding agencies took the items to the auctioneers. The household effects of the three Massé sisters were also auctioned off - presumably in April/May 1942 via an auction by Alfred Albers (Drehbahn 30/Neustadt and Reichenstraße 37/Altona). They yielded 1,321.70 Reichsmark for the NS state.

The Nazi state camouflaged its systematic deprivation of Jewish Germans with ordinances and laws. The "11th Ordinance to the Reich Citizenship Law" of November 25, 1941, stipulated: "A Jew loses German citizenship a) if he has his habitual residence abroad when this ordinance comes into force." For the National Socialists, this also applied to deportees. At the same time, these persons also lost all pension entitlements. In 1951, the Hamburg District Court still directed this Nazi interpretation against the heirs of Margot Massé and denied them compensation for pension payments between the time of her deportation and the date of death determined by the District Court (May 1945).

Translation Beate Meyer

Stand: March 2023
© Björn Eggert

Quellen: Staatsarchiv Hamburg (StaH) 131-1 I (Senatskanzlei – Gesamtregistratur I), 33 M 1532 (Marcus Massé, Lotteriekollekteur, 1877, Strafe); StaH 131-11 (Personalamt – Gesamtregistratur), 904 (Rückerstattung Ruhestandsgehalt zurückgewiesen 1950-53); StaH 213-13 (Landgericht Hamburg, Wiedergutmachung), 6504 (Margot, Adele und Grete Massé); StaH 231-7 (Handelsregister), A 1 Bd. 4 (HR A 897, Marcus Massé); StaH 231-7 (Handelsregister), A 1 Bd. 91 (HR A 21820, Massé & Scharpp); StaH 314-15 (Oberfinanzpräsident), R 1940/0930 (Dr. Carry Karoline Salomon, Feststellung von Vermögenswerten, 1940-1941); StaH 314-15 (Oberfinanzpräsident), FVg 8437 (Dr. Carry Salomon, Emigration 1941); StaH332-5 (Standesämter), 275 u. 1024/1890 (Sterberegister 1890, Merle Massé geb. Moses); StaH332-5 (Standesämter), 9110 u. 1324/1895 (Geburtsregister 1895, Margot Massé); StaH 332-5 (Standesämter), 8004 u. 343/1910 (Sterberegister 1910, Franzi Massé geb. Frankel Kohn); StaH 332-5 (Standesämter), 8046 u. 2/1918 (Sterberegister 1918, Marcus Massé); StaH 332-7 (Staatsangehörigkeitsaufsicht), A1e 40 Bd. 10 (Bürger-Register 1876-1896 L-Z), Kaufmann Marcus Massé, 1.5.1891 Nr. 18115; StaH 351-11 (Amt für Wiedergutmachung), 1917 (Max Naphtali Lefeld, Innocentiastr. 19 u. Woldsenweg 16); StaH 361-2 VI (Oberschulbehörde IV), 4882 (Hauswirtschaftliche Kurse von Dr. Carry Salomon u. Margot Massé, 1934); StaH 522-1 (Jüdische Gemeinden), 992b (Kultussteuerkartei der Deutsch-Israelitischen Gemeinde Hamburg), Adele Massé, Gretchen Massé (1925-1941), James Massé (1921-1925), Marcus Massé (1913-1917), Margot Massé (1926-1941); StaH 731-8 (Zeitungsausschnitt-Sammlung), A 755 (Ertel, Walter, 3 Artikel 1926 u. 1929); Bundesarchiv, R 1509 (Reichssippenamt), Volks-, Berufs-, u. Betriebszählung am 17. Mai 1939 (Margot Massé, Hauersweg 7 II.; Adele Massé, Hauersweg 7 II.; Grete Massé, Hauersweg 7 II.); Handelskammer Hamburg, Handelsregisterinformationen (Marcus Massé, HR A 897; Massé & Scharpp, HR A 21820); Hamburger Adressbuch (Marcus Massé) 1875, 1877, 1880-1893; Hamburger Adressbuch (Frl. A. u. M.Massé, Haushaltungslehr., Schrammsweg 21), 1919; Hamburger Adressbuch (A. Massé, Privatsekr., Grindelallee 165), 1928; Hamburger Adressbuch (Geschwister A., M. u. G. Massé, Grindelallee 165), 1929, 1930, 1933; Hamburger Adressbuch (Selma M. Günther, Leiterin d. staatl. Haushaltungsschulen) 1915, 1916, 1920, 1926, 1930, 1931; Adressbuch Hamburg (V. Abschnitt, Staatl. Haushaltungsschulen) 1915; Hamburger Adressbuch (Dr. Richard Flemming) 1934; Gedenkbuch Hamburger jüdische Opfer des Nationalsozialismus, Hamburg 1995, S. 276 (Margot Massé); Hamburger Börsenfirmen, Hamburg 1910, S. 426 (Marcus Massé, Bankgeschäft, gegr. 1872, Brahmsallee 25), S. 385 (Lefeld & Co., Import u. Export, gegr. 1907, frühere Firma B. Weinstein jr. gegr. 1891, Ness 1, Alte Bankhalle); Hamburger Lehrerverzeichnis Schuljahr 1922/23, 1927/28, 1929/30, 1930/31 und 1932/33 (Margot Massé); Frank Bajohr, "Arisierung" in Hamburg. Die Verdrängung der jüdischen Unternehmer 1933-1945, Hamburg 1998, S. 363 (Lefeld & Co.); Naftali Bar-Giora Bamberger, Memor-Buch, Die jüdischen Friedhöfe in Wandsbek, Band 2, Hamburg 1997, S. 99 (Jacob Isaac Massé und Merle Mörle Massé); Ursel Hochmuth/ Hans-Peter de Lorent (Hrsg.), Hamburg: Schule unterm Hakenkreuz, Hamburg 1985, S. 19 (Zeitungsausschnitt 4.7.1933), S. 315 (Margot Massé); Ina Lorenz, Die Juden in Hamburg zur Zeit der Weimarer Republik, 2 Bände, Hamburg 1987, S. 858 (Heim für jüdische Mädchen und Frauen); Ulrike Sparr, Stolpersteine in Hamburg-Winterhude, Biografische Spurensuche, Hamburg 2008, S. 270 (Adele, Margot u. Grete Massé); https://www.jüdischer-friedhof-altona.de/datenbank.html (Massé, Franzi, geb. Frankel Kohn, 53 Jahre 4 Monate, Schäferkampsallee 28, gestorben 22.5.1910, Grablage B 10 Nr. 242); www.ancestry.de (Sterbeurkunde Altona 2159/1894, Israel Bär Massé); www.stolpersteine-hamburg.de (Martha Hildesheim/ Gewerbelehrerin, Gertrud Pardo/ Gewerbelehrerin).