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Denny Windmüller * 1911

Isestraße 67 (Eimsbüttel, Harvestehude)

1941 Lodz
ermordet

further stumbling stones in Isestraße 67:
Henriette Ballin, Edwin Ballin, Herbert Cohn, Käthe Cohn, Helene Felsenthal, Alfred Felsenthal, Dr. Richard Hoffmann, Elisabeth Hoffmann, Gertrud Horwitz, Hugo Horwitz, Amalie Salomon, Mathel Windmüller

Mathel Windmüller, née Cohn, born on 28 Sept. 1908 in Vienna, deported to Lodz on 25 Oct. 1941
Denny (Harald) Windmüller, born on 1 Oct. 1911 in Hamburg, deported to Lodz on 25 Oct. 1941

Denny Windmüller’s parents were baptized Protestants, but of Jewish descent. His father, Percival Sidney Windmüller, had immigrated from New York and practiced as a dentist in Hamburg. His mother Margarethe, née Simon, worked as a craftswoman and journalist. Harald, who later called himself Denny, grew up with two brothers and a sister in an Art Nouveau house at Hochallee 57. The family situation was difficult. When Denny was five years old, his mother attempted suicide, which she survived. Two years later, his eldest brother Kurt died. Denny was 14 when his parents got divorced. His father’s housekeeper took care of him and his brother Henning during the week. On Sundays, the father took time for his two sons. Unfortunately, we do not know anything about Denny’s subsequent career yet. In Dec. 1938, his mother wrote that he was unemployed and that she supported him financially, and her letter went on to say that he was very close to her and that she had bought woolen clothes for him.

In Jan. 1938, Denny had married; his wife Mathel was born in Vienna and her maiden name was Kohn. She worked as a stenographer. The couple resided as subtenants with Amalie Salomon at Isestrasse 67.

In 1940, the two divorced and Denny moved to Bergstrasse 9. At that time, he worked as a coal carrier, lived as a subtenant with Wolff on the fourth floor, and earned 160 RM (reichsmark) a month.

In Mar. 1941, his mother Margarethe, who had previously been admitted to the Berlin-Buch "Sanatorium and Nursing Home” ("Heil- und Pflegeanstalt” Berlin-Buch), died. We could not find out whether the death was caused by a failure to provide medical assistance or by premeditated measures.

Denny inherited two thirds of her assets, which consisted of blocked securities.

Shortly before they were deported to Lodz, Mathel and he married a second time. Denny’s aunt, Paula Rehtz, wrote four years after the war to his brother Henning, who survived the Shoah in Finland: "Harald (Denny) perished in the camp in Poznan and his wife with him.”


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

Stand: May 2019
© Maike Grünwaldt

Quellen: 1; 2; 4; 8; StaH, 621-1 Firmen; Hildegard Thevs, mündliche Auskunft 2007; Zur Familiengeschichte der Windmüllers: Siehe auch die Stolpersteinbände zu Hamm und Winterhude.
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