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Stolpertonstein
Sprecher: Carlo von Tiedemann
Biografie: Klaus Möller
© Yad Vashem
Walter Horwitz * 1893
Dillstraße 16 (Eimsbüttel, Rotherbaum)
1941 Minsk
further stumbling stones in Dillstraße 16:
Julius Cohn, Paula Cohn, Else Horwitz, Gertrud Weidner
Walter Horwitz, born on 26 Oct. 1893 in Harburg, deported on 8 Nov. 1941 to Minsk, date of death unknown
District of Harburg-Altstadt, Lüneburger Strasse 25 and Rotherbaum, Dillstrasse 16
"My father was an incredibly good person,” Celia Lee, née Cilly Horwitz, remembers her father, whom she lost much too early.
Her father, Walter Horwitz, was the youngest child of the Jewish merchant Bernhard Horwitz (15 Apr. 1863 to 5 Dec. 1928) and his wife Cilli, née Israel, (26 Nov. 1859 to 18 Aug. 1923). Together with his older siblings Ella and Max he grew up in Harburg, where the family lived in a large villa at Heimfelder Strasse 93 (today Heimfeld Hotel).
In 1886, Bernhard Horwitz had opened a small store at the intersection of Wilstorfer (today: Lüneburger) Strasse and Bremer Strasse, which soon grew to become the largest department store in town. It covered four floors and offered a wide range of goods. A particular attraction was the elevator, which customers could use to go all the way to the top floor. From there, it was possible to see Harburg’s inland port and, weather allowing, to gaze far toward Wilhelmsburg. Also located behind the glass façade was the in-store photo studio, then quite popular with all Harburg residents, where many a Harburg family photo was taken.
The Jewish faith did not play a dominant role in the life of the Horwitz family. The parents and their children definitely paid attention to the Christian holidays. Just how closely connected to the non-Jewish majority society the Horwitz family felt is shown by the fact that for the two brothers it was a natural duty in the First World War to fight in the Imperial Army against the enemies of the German Reich. Max Horwitz paid for his patriotism with his life. His younger brother Walter, after returning from the front, increasingly took on responsibility in managing the department store.
On 2 Aug. 1922, the family celebrated the wedding of the junior director with Margarethe (Miriam) Charlotte Körner (13 July 1898 to 7 June 1996), who came from a Christian family in Arendsee in the "Old March” (Altmark) and had converted to Judaism prior to getting married. The young couple moved into an apartment at Mühlenstrasse 18 (today: Schlossmühlendamm), where the children Max (24 Nov. 1924 to 9 Mar. 2005) and Cilly-Jutta (born on 7 Sept. 1926) also spent the first years of their lives.
After the death of the father in Dec. 1928, Walter Horwitz and his sister Ella Hirschfeld, née Horwitz, succeeded him. The succession was ill fated. During the world economic crisis, the department store began to totter, prompting the siblings to opt for selling. However, the purchaser did not meet his contractual obligations. The subsequent legal battle dragged on for years, ultimately ending in an unsatisfactory conclusion in the Nazi period. Whereas his sister Ella emigrated to Argentina along with her family, Walter Horwitz managed to join another company as a manager with a correspondingly high salary, enabling the family to maintain the previous lifestyle to a large extent.
However, it was impossible to stave off the social decline any longer when his new company dismissed Walter Horwitz as a general manager as early as spring of 1933 because he was Jewish. In the time ensuing, he did not find any new gainful employment despite desperate efforts. Soon afterward, the family moved to a different apartment at Buxtehuder Strasse 37, without the two children having to change schools. The siblings became aware that numerous classmates distanced themselves from them to an increasing extent.
One may assume that these changes played a role in the summer of 1936 with respect to the parents’ decision to move to the Grindel quarter. However, the political reality quickly caught up with them there as well. Walter Horwitz increasingly suffered from the mounting pressure of persecution. He did not find any employment and his wife did not fare any better. The family lived more or less on their modest savings, the occasional sale of the remaining household effects, or the social assistance benefits from the Jewish Community. In his deep despair, Walter Horwitz made three suicide attempts. He felt guilty of his wife’s and his children’s fate and hoped to afford them a better life.
Immediately after the first suicide attempt, the children were put under someone else’s care. Max was placed in the orphanage for Jewish children on Papendamm and Cilly into the orphanage for Jewish girls on Laufgraben. They missed their parents, whom they were allowed to visit on Sundays only. They were even less able to comprehend why almost at the same time, their mother and father gave up their joint apartment and filed for divorce after 15 years of marriage. On 21 Apr. 1938, the Hamburg Regional Court (Landgericht) divorced the marriage by mutual agreement.
In the course of the restitution proceedings, Charlotte Margarethe Körner, widowed name Horwitz, claimed after 1945 that she and her husband at the time had been pressured into the divorce by the Gestapo, something she was able to represent in a credible way. Immediately following the verdict of the Regional Court, she had re-converted [to Protestantism] and resumed her maiden name. According to National Socialist interpretation, she had thus returned "into the German union of blood.” Thus, she was able to improve her chances on the job market. Soon after, she found employment as a sales assistant in the "Top & Frank” fashion store on Neuer Wall. With her wages, she was able to earn her own living and occasionally put something aside for her divorced husband.
After the Pogrom of 9/10 Nov. 1938, the divorced parents managed, with the help of the Jewish Community, to secure a spot for their children on the first Hamburg children transport (Kindertransport) to Britain. On 1 Dec. 1938, they bid each other farewell on the Altonaer Bahnhof train station. The great hopes for a speedy reunion soon vanished.
The happy times the parents and children had spent in days past now turned into anxious letters. This correspondence was just as important for the parents as it was for the children. Some letters by the parents have been preserved. They document their worries for their children’s wellbeing and the father’s desperation in the face of the growing threat. In his distress, he clung to every straw, for he still hoped to be able to leave Germany at the very last minute after all.
When these prospects became less realistic all the time, Walter Horwitz re-married in the third year of the war. His second wife, Else Horwitz, née Ledermann (born on 24 Feb. 1892), came from a Jewish family in Glogau (today: Glogow in Poland) in Silesia. Sometime in the past, she had worked as a correspondent and had also been unemployed for an extended period. The couple’s joint address was Dillstrasse 16.
Walter and Else Horwitz were deported to Minsk in occupied Belarus on 8 Nov. 1941. On the evening before the deportation, Walter Horwitz bid farewell to his first wife in a letter, in which he expressed his heartfelt thanks and even in this dark hour hinted at his hope for a favorable outcome. These lines dated 7 Nov. 1941 were his last sign of life.
"Dear Gretel!
Once again, many thanks for all the kindness during these times. We will not forget you and pray for you that the good God will keep you, the children, and us healthy. Put up a good fight, you always were [a] dear comrade and a loyal friend to us. There was no ill intention in it. Be brave and stay healthy, things will change some day. We will see each other again one day. I am just taking care of everything. In three hours [they] will take the luggage away. I am unable to sleep. The last day here. But we want to be strong and brave, just for the sake of the children, if for no other reason, hoping for a reunion of all …"
Max and Cilly Horwitz learned only after the Second World War that their father had received a deportation order in Nov. 1941. All efforts to find out anything more about his fate came to nothing. On 23 Oct. 1949, the Harburg District Court (Amtsgericht) declared Walter Horwitz dead as of 8 May 1945. An additional inscription on his parents’ gravestone on the Harburg Jewish Cemetery commemorated his deportation to Minsk on 8 Nov. 1941.
Translator: Erwin Fink
Kindly supported by the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung, Hamburg.
Stand: October 2016
© Klaus Möller
Quellen: 1; 4; 5; 8; Heyl (Hrsg.), Harburger Opfer; Heyl, Synagoge; StaH, 351-11, AfW, Abl. 2008/1, 261093 Horwitz, Walter, 141124 Hutton, Max, 130798 Körner, Charlotte; Forschungsstelle für Zeitgeschichte in Hamburg, Werkstatt der Erinnerung, Interview mit Celia Lee, geb. Horwitz, vom 30.5.1991; Meyer, "Jüdische Mischlinge", 2. Auflage, S. 320ff.; Lehberger/Randt, Briefe, S. 38ff.; Bernhardt u. a., "Familie"; Schwarberg, Günther: Der lange Weg zurück in die Heimat, Hamburger Abendblatt vom 8.4.1998; Gespräche Celia Lees und Inge Huttons mit Schülerinnen und Schülern des Heisenberg-Gymnasiums in HH-Harburg vom 31.8.2007, 21.4.2008; Kändler/Hüttenmeister, Friedhof, S. 209, 250; Adressbücher 1900, 1912, 1926.
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