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Hertha Lindenberg (née Caro) * 1901

Isekai 18 (Hamburg-Nord, Eppendorf)

1942 Theresienstadt
ermordet 1944 Auschwitz

further stumbling stones in Isekai 18:
Hugo Heimann

Hertha Lindenberg, née Caro, born 04/07/1901 in Cologne, deported to Theresienstadt on 07/19/1942, deported on to Auschwitz on 05/15/1944

Isekai 18

Very little is known of Hertha Lindenberg’s life. She was born in Cologne on April 7th, 1901 as the daughter of Isaac Caro and his wife Sophie, née Brettheimer (*09/06/1876). She had a younger brother, Kurt, born approx. 1910, and a sister, Anni, born approx. 1912. At the age of 24, she married the Christian Protestant Hans Hermann Lindenberg, a cabaret artist – the two performed as a duo.

Due to their continuously changing engagements, the Lindenbergs had to change residence regularly. When in Hamburg, they stayed at Lange Reihe 39. In 1932, Hertha and Hermann Lindenberg moved to Merseburg. As a Jew, she was banned from performing and thus lost her own income. Obviously, the couple must have quarreled and split up in 1938; on March 21st, 1939, the Lindenbergs were officially divorced, and Hertha returned to Hamburg, penniless. The former performing artist started working as housemaid for Jewish families who also gave her room and board.

When on May 11th, 1939 she received the notification that she was to get only 150 RM per month in alimony from her ex-husband, she attempted suicide. At the time, she was working for Martha and Siegmund Hildesheimer at Isestrasse 81 b. She was taken to the Israelitic Hospital and survived. By then, she was so impoverished that she could not pay her hospital bill, which had to be assumed by welfare.

Hertha Lindenberg considered emigration; but in 1939, no country in the world was willing to accept penniless Jews – with the exception of Shanghai; the international administration of the Chinese metropolis required neither an entry visa, nor an affidavit or other sureties.

She succeeded in booking a passage on the "Viktoria” that was to depart from Hamburg for Shanghai on September 14th, 1939. Her baggage, consisting of 5-6 suitcases containing her clothes, stage skirt and shoes, musical scores, contract material, stage back-cloths and a sealed package containing cutlery and some costume jewelry (this had been packed by Wempe’s, a Jeweler’s at Alsterarkaden 7, who were specially authorized for such tasks by the state) was approved as "relocation goods” on September 11th, 1939. On August 28th, 1939, Hertha Lindenberg had written to the Currency Bureau: "I hereby declare that no assets of mine will remain in Hamburg after my emigration. I have no means at my disposal and must move heaven and earth to get the money for my emigration from from my divorced husband.”

But all efforts were in vain. We were unable to find out whether Hans Hermann Lindenberg didn’t pay for her passage in full, or the passport office didn’t issue her passport in time, or the "Viktoria” was not allowed to leave the port after the war had begun on September 1st, or Hertha Lindenberg got ill shortly before the emigration that would have saved her. The sad consequence was that Hertha Lindenberg, who had continued to work and live as a housemaid for Jewish families, was deported to Theresienstadt on July 19th, 1942. Her last address in Hamburg was: with Hugo Heimann, Isekai 18.

According to a notification of the International Red Cross, she was "transferred” from Theresienstadt to the Auschwitz extermination camp on May 15h, 1944, where her trace is lost.


Translated by Peter Hubschmid
Kindly supported by the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung, Hamburg.

Stand: March 2017
© Lore Wieprecht

Quellen: 1; 2; 4; 5; 7; 8; AfW 070401 Lindenberg, Hertha; StaH 314-15 OFP, Fvg 7500; StaH 522-1 Jüd. Gemeinden, 992e2 Band 5.
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