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Rudolf Samson (rechts) mit seinem Vater Max Samson
© Privatbesitz

Rudolf Samson * 1920

Wentzelstraße 14 (Hamburg-Nord, Winterhude)

1936 Flucht nach Holland
deportiert 1942
Auschwitz
ermordet

further stumbling stones in Wentzelstraße 14:
Rosa Samson

Rudolf Samson, born on 23 Mar. 1920 in Hamburg, deported in Aug. 1942 from Belgium to Auschwitz, perished sometime after 25 June 1944

In 1907 and 1908, Max Jakob Samson (born on 14 Aug. 1881 in Norden), was a partner in the B. Löbenstein & Co. banking house (Alterwallbrücke 2). In July 1909, he started his own banking house, "Max Samson & Co.,” which was transformed into a limited partnership in 1922. The merchant Joseph Samson, residing in Amsterdam, joined the company as a partner. The company addresses were close to the newly constructed office buildings in the Hamburg city center: Alte Wallbrücke 2/4; from 1910 until 1921, Catharinenstrasse 29–30; from 1922 until 1925, Kleiner Burstah 1/3; and from 1926 until 1936, Alsterthor 2 (building of the Thalia Theater).

In 1910, Max Samson and the native of Gleiwitz /Silesia (today Gliwice in Poland) Rosa Weiss (born on 28 Oct. 1890) were married. Since May 1920, they were registered as members of the German-Israelitic Community in Hamburg. Assimilated Jews, they probably went to the religious locations only on high holidays. Their three children, Erika (born on 24 Oct. 1911), Leonie (born on 18 Aug. 1913), and Rudolf (born on 20 Mar. 1920), grew up in financially secure circumstances at Brahmsallee 25 in Hamburg-Harvestehude (from 1910 until 1920) and at Wentzelstrasse 14 in Hamburg-Winterhude (from 1921 until 1936).

From Easter of 1930 until Easter of 1932, Rudolf Samson attended Heinrich Hertz Gymnasium high school, then changing to the private Wahnschaff School at Neue Rabenstrasse 15 (in Hamburg-Rotherbaum), a "Realschule [a practice-oriented secondary school up to grade 10] with pre-school authorized to administer final examinations,” where he went until 16 Jan. 1935.

After the Nazis assumed power, access to wide areas of public life was made more difficult for Jews, causing many to look for alternatives. In late 1933/early 1934, Rudolf Samson joined the Hamburg branch of the "Kameraden” German-Jewish hiking group, which had already existed since the 1920s. In this association, he met, among others, Inge Pein (born in 1920), Ingeborg Hecht (born in 1921), and Franziska "Fränzi” Alsberg (born in 1920). (Fränzi Alsberg emigrated on a children transport [Kindertransport] to Britain on 1 Dec. 1938; her father, Ernst Alsberg, and her mother Gertrud, née Feiss, were deported to the Theresienstadt Ghetto in 1942 and then further to the Auschwitz extermination camp).

On foot, by bike, or hitchhiking, they undertook group outings and hikes through the Harburg Mountains and the Lüneburg Heath on Sundays and holidays. Although Jews were banned from using the Reich railroad only later, doing so would have attracted unwanted attention from non-Jewish passengers. The hiking group’s flag featured a white seagull on a blue ground.

Until its disbanding in 1936, the group was headed by Kurt van der Walde (1915–2003), called "Kuvo,” a commercial apprentice from a liberal Jewish family, who was five years older than the members. Having joined the "Kameraden” in the spring of 1929, he guided hiking groups there from 1931 onward. In 1933, he had to surrender his leader’s identity card, valid for the Reich railroad and youth hostels. His contacts to the SAJ, the "Socialist Young Workers” (Sozialistische Arbeiterjugend), and the German Young Communist League (Kommunistischer Jugendverband Deutschlands – KJVD) led him to join a non-partisan resistance group in 1934. He became actively involved in flyer and graffiti campaigns against the Nazis. The illegal group, comprised of Communists, Social Democrats, leftist intellectuals, members of the Bündische Jugend [German youth movement in the Weimar Republic], and of Jewish youth groups, was headed by the Communist Rudolf Mokry (1905–1944). Kurt van der Walde was arrested in May 1936 and, only owing to saving testimony by Rudolf Mokry, sentenced to two and a half years’ imprisonment in the Fuhlsbüttel concentration camp. In Dec. 1939, he emigrated to Britain, returning to Hamburg in 1946.

During this time, not only the social but also the economic situation of the Samson family deteriorated noticeably. Probably in Jan. 1935, Rudolf Samson was enrolled by his parents in the "Eerde” international Quaker rural residential school in the Dutch town of Eerde-Ommen, located only a few miles from the German border. Reflecting the origins of the students, the languages used there for teaching and socializing were Dutch, German, and English. At Easter of 1935, Rudolf Samson joined four classmates and a teacher by the name of Boost in undertaking an extended bicycle tour, and that same year, he visited the world exhibition in Brussels.

In the meantime, his father’s business in Hamburg went bankrupt. The company’s 1934 financial statement already reflected the sharply declining business development of recent years. Even as early as 1928, the married couple no longer paid any dues to the Jewish Community, though this might have been a manifestation of their distancing from the religious community and not necessarily indicative of an increasingly precarious economic situation. On 20 and 21 Sept. 1935, the Hamburg-based Buchprüfungs- und Treuhand AG "Habetreu” (Bülowhaus, Rathausstrasse 27), an auditing and trustee company, carried out an audit of the banking house on the orders of the Reich Commissar for the Credit System (Reichskommissar für das Kreditwesen) in Berlin. The findings were "that the company was clearly passive.” Max Samson stated "that in addition, no bank transactions have been effected for a considerable period.” As a result, the executive board of the Hanseatic Stock Exchange (Hanseatische Wertpapierbörse) revoked the listing.

Questioned by the Hamburg District Court (Amtsgericht), company register division, on 27 Dec. 1935, the authorized signatory Hugo Pahl (Altona), working for the company since 1920, testified that the business activities of Max Samson & Co. had been at a standstill "for several months.” "Due to substantial losses going into the hundreds of thousands, the company has collapsed. Max Jacob Samson, the general partner, is abroad, I suspect in London. Joseph Samson, the limited partner, passed away a few years ago.”

With assistance from the police, the authorities then made inquiries. Police Station 21 in Winterhude (at Langenkamp 1), having jurisdiction over the private residence of the Samson family, reported on 7 Jan. 1936: "Samson had moved with his family to London in Oct. 1935. More details can probably be obtained from the real estate agent for houses by the name of Fischer.” Police Station 7 in Hamburg-Altstadt (on Sprinkenhof) was able to report the following on 14 Jan. 1936: "The real estate agent for houses Richard Fischer stated that as of 29 Nov. 1935, he was appointed official receiver for the property by court order. Samson [he said] had turned over the key to his former authorized signatory Hugo H. F. Pahl, since furnishings apparently still existed. Deregistration with the authorities did not take place because he might return any time. He was not aware of Samson’s whereabouts.”

On 22 Feb. 1936, the Reich Commissar for the Credit System (Berlin) inquired whether the company was still entered in the company register, requesting if necessary "to initiate the deletion procedure.” In May 1936, the Max Samson & Co. banking house was "officially” struck from the company register.

Probably in Oct. 1935, the parents emigrated with their 16-year-old son Rudolf to London. On 5 Sept. 1936, the married sister Leonie, called Loni, followed with her husband, Walter Hene, an independent chemist with a doctoral degree, and their small son. In Oct. 1933, Walter Hene had moved from Lübeck (Fackenburger Allee 1b) to Hamburg. After the change of residence, he joined the German-Israelitic Community, and in 1935, he and Leonie Samson were married. The couple lived in a villa at Harvestehuderweg 13 (Pöseldorf) at the intersection of Milchstrasse and Pöseldorferweg, across from the Budge-Palais (today Hochschule für Musik und Theater [College of Music and Theater]) in a ground-floor apartment featuring an adjacent "laboratory.”

The villa and its annexes were constructed according to plans by Martin Haller in 1890/91. For his invention concerning the production of a chrome tanning agent, probably patented in 1931, Walter Hene received a share of the profits from Nordischer Erzkontor GmbH in Lübeck in the years after his emigration. However, even in Britain, Walter Hene was not safe from financial harm through Nazi policies. The "atonement payment” or "levy on Jewish assets” ("Sühneleistung,” "Judenvermögensabgabe") constituted a comprehensive administrative enrichment measure of the Nazi state. Walter Hene’s profit sharing in the Erzkontor Company was also included in this. In Jan. 1939, the Lübeck Tax Office seized 44,000 RM (reichsmark). From then on, the payments from Germany ceased. In exchange for paying 28,000 RM to the Nazi state, the Erzkontor Company was able to purchase Walter Hene’s Reich patent. In May 1940, Walter Hene started a company of his own in Britain. Max, Rosa, and Rudolf Samson, by this time stateless persons, remained on the British Isles for about two years.

After her vocal training, the sister, Erika Samson, performed in operettas and operas under the stage name of ‘Erika Storm.’ "Until the outbreak of war, Erika had had a fantastic engagement,” Rudolf Samson wrote in 1941 in a letter to a girlfriend from the Hamburg hiking group. Eventually, however, she was able to work only in the Jewish Cultural Center on Hartungstrasse. She married (married name Graetz) and emigrated to London probably in 1939/1940.

In 1938, the parents traveled with their son Rudolf from Britain to Utrecht in the Netherlands. The reasons for this move are not known. In Dec. 1938, 57-year-old Max Samson apparently died in Utrecht of a torn appendix or after an appendix operation.

Since they had not been allowed to export cash from Germany, the Samson family had made efforts to take along as many valuables as possible to live on the proceeds from selling them for a while. However, in order to earn a regular income in the Netherlands, on 1 Jan. 1940, the mother and son founded "Firma R. Samson für Kunstgewerbe und Spielzeug” ("Kunstnijverheidsartikelen en baby speelgoederen”), a crafts and toy store at Croeselaan 221 bis B [i.e., on the third floor] in Utrecht. The company logo they chose was the front view of an elephant with the lettering "Origineel SAMSON…” Since at this time, Rudolf Samson had not yet reached his majority, i.e. the age of 21, it was necessary to obtain a court order from the Hamburg District Court (Amtsgericht) specifically for the purpose of entering the business in the Utrecht company register. The Hamburg District Court officially declared Rudolf Samson’s majority as of 23 Feb. 1939.

After the German occupation of the Netherlands in May 1940, Nazi racial policies were introduced there as well. From then on, Jews were registered in a card file and their assets were recorded. Starting in May 1942, wearing the "Jews’ star” also became obligatory under severe threat of punishment. On the orders of the Nazis, the Lippmann-Rosenthal Bank (Liro Bank) confiscated the last of the Samson family’s valuables. In accordance with Ordinance 48/1941 issued by the "Reich Commissar of the Dutch Territories” dated 12 Mar. 1941, from 8 Sept. 1942 onward a Dutch trustee in the R. Samson Company settled matters for the "business subject to compulsory registration.”

On 14 July 1942, thousands of Jews were arrested in Amsterdam. Mother Rosa Samson and Rudolf Samson fled from the Netherlands to evade the deportations on 18 Aug. 1942. Via Belgium, they intended to join the family of Siegfried Samson (1883–1924), Max Samson’s brother. In Belgium, they reportedly stayed overnight at a large hotel, being arrested there during a police raid. They were interned in the Belgium Mechelen/Malines assembly and transit camp.

In Sept. 1942, five trains from Belgium and eight trains from the Netherlands deported more than 11,000 Jews to the Auschwitz extermination camp. Rosa and Rudolf Samson were transported there on Transport XIII. "The men in this transport, aged 15 to 50, were generally assigned to forced labor in camps in Poland,” i.e., subcamps of Auschwitz, as the Dutch Red Cross wrote in 1960.

The last sign of life from Rudolf Samson is a postcard that a fellow prisoner on close terms with him sent from the "Kr. Gef. Bau u. Arb. Batl. Blechhammer” ["Blechhammer prisoner of war construction and work battalion”] on 25 July 1944, also mentioning Rudi Samson. In Blechhammer, located in the Upper Silesian Cosel Administrative District, German companies had established branches in the Auschwitz III (Monowitz) camp complex. At this site, the companies operating their plants included AEG Gleiwitz; the Uhde Company; Dyckerhoff + Widmann, concrete and rebar construction; the Krause Company, an insulation producer. In these plants, Jewish work slaves performed hard labor. At the end of 1944, the camp was liquidated. Under the direction of SS-Untersturmführer [SS rank equivalent to second lieutenant] Kurt Klipp, the weakened prisoners were driven in the course of several days’ marches, without adequate provisions and clothing, to the Gross Rosen concentration camp near Breslau (today Wroclaw in Poland), about 200 kilometers (some 125 miles) away. Inmates no longer able to walk were shot on the spot by the SS. It is not known whether Rudolf Samson perished during this death march or whether he already died earlier due to malnutrition, disease, or mistreatment.

Rosa Samson, née Weiss, was probably gassed on 13 Oct. 1942 in the Auschwitz extermination camp. Stolpersteine at Wentzelstrasse 14 in Winterhude commemorate her and her son Rudi Samson.

In the City of Norden, where Jacob Heymann Samson (1850–1921) and Elli Samson, née Koppel (1856–1935), as well as their three sons Heinrich (born in 1879), Max (born in 1881), and Siegfried (born in 1883) were born, Stolpersteine at Brückestrasse 7 were laid for Heinrich H. J. Samson, Paula Samson, and their daughter Gerda Samson (born on 19 Sept. 1913) – these were the uncle, aunt, and cousin of Rudolf Samson.

(A Stolperstein at Curschmannstrasse 8 in Eppendorf commemorates Iwan van der Walde [1883–1942], Kurt van der Walde’s uncle.)

Revised edition (of the short biography dating from Oct. 2008), Oct. 2009


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


Stand: January 2019
© Björn Eggert

Quellen: 1; 4; 5; 8; Staatsarchiv Hamburg (=StaHH) 231-7 (Handels- u. Gewerberegister), B 1995-102 (Max Samson & Co., 1909-1936); StaHH 314-15 (Oberfinanzpräsident), F 981 (Dr. Walter Hene); StaHH 314-15 (Oberfinanzpräsident), FVg 3175 (Kurt van der Walde); StaHH 351-11 (Amt für Wiedergutmachung) Eg 230320 (Rudolf Samson); StaHH 351-11 (Amt für Wiedergutmachung) 13835, ehemals Eg 280991 (Rosa Samson); StaHH 351-11 (AfW) 270803 (Dr. Walter Hene); www.joodsmonument.nl Rudolf Hans Samson und Rosa Samson (eingesehen 19.3.2008 u. 17.7.2009); Amtliche Fernsprechbücher Hamburger 1907–1936 (Max Samson), 1930 (Wahnschaff-Schule); Handelskammer Hamburg, Firmenarchiv: Max Samson & Co. (1919–1936); Hamburger Börsenfirmen, Hamburg 1910, S. 565 (Max Samson & Co.), S. 888 (Magnus van der Walde); Hamburger Börsenfirmen, Hamburg 1935, S. 731 (Max Samson & Co.); Schreiben von Frau L. G. (Norden), September 2007; Lina Gödeken, Rund um die Synagoge in Norden, Aurich 2000, S. 347–351, 374–377, 463, 464 (Familie Samson in Norden); Gespräche mit Frau I. H. (Hamburg), August 2009 und September 2009 (auch Brief von Rudolf Samson aus Utrecht vom 16.4.1941 und Fotos von Rudolf Samson); Informationen von Frau N.W. (Buchholz), September u. Oktober 2009; Vanessa Blasek/Christina Ewald (Heisenberg Gymnasium), Vor dem Tod in Auschwitz letzte Grüße an die Verwandten in Hamburg, Hamburg 2008 (Privatdruck), S. 31–33, 38 (Dt.-Jüd. Wanderbund), S.39 (Rudi Samson); Wilhelm Mosel, Wegweiser zu den ehemaligen Staetten jüdischen Lebens oder Leidens in Hamburg, Heft 1, Hamburg 1983, S. 72 (Wanderbund "Kameraden"); Ursel Hochmuth/Gertrud Meyer, Streiflichter aus dem Hamburger Widerstand 1933–1945, Frankfurt/M. 1969, S. 40 (v.d. Walde, jüd. Wanderverband Kameraden), S. 171/172 (Rudolf Mokry); Ina Lorenz, Die Juden in Hamburg zur Zeit der Weimarer Republik, Band 2, Hamburg 1987, S. 1165 (Wanderbund ‚Kameraden’ 1920); Ingeborg Hecht, Als unsichtbare Mauern wuchsen, Hamburg 1984, S. 41–45 (Wanderbund "Kameraden"); Eberhard Röhm/ örg Thierfelder, Juden – Christen – Deutsche, Band 4/I, 1941–1945, Stuttgart 2004, S. 492–494 (Ommen); Het Utrechts Archief (Stadtarchiv Utrecht/NL), Handelsregister van de Kamer van Koophandel en Fabrieken, No. 13566 (1941–1950); Martin Gilbert, Endlösung – Die Vertreibung und Vernichtung der Juden – Ein Atlas, Reinbek 1982, S. 106, 119 (Holland), S. 109 (Mecheln u. Kosel), S. 110 (Belgien); Otto Friedrich, Königreich Auschwitz (The Kingdom of Auschwitz), Hamburg 1995, S. 124–131 (Evakuierung von Auschwitz-Birkenau); www.jwishgen.org/ForgottenCamps/Camps/BlechhammerEng.html (eingesehen 24.9.2009); www.norden.de (Stolpersteine) (eingesehen 31.10.2009).
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