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Benjamin Martin Josephs * 1886

Hudtwalckerstraße 28 (Hudtwalkertwiete 4) (Hamburg-Nord, Winterhude)

HIER WOHNTE
BENJAMIN MARTIN
JOSEPHS
JG. 1886
DEPORTIERT 1941
MINSK
ERMORDET

further stumbling stones in Hudtwalckerstraße 28 (Hudtwalkertwiete 4):
Gidel Julie Josephs, Hannah Josephs

Martin Josephs, born 18.1.1886 in Jever, deported to Minsk Ghetto on 8.11.1941

Hudtwalckerstraße 28 (Hudtwalckertwiete 4) (Winterhude)

Martin Josephs was born in 1886 in Jever, East Frisia, which at that time belonged to the Grand Duchy of Oldenburg. Actually, the family name was Meyer. We do not know why and when Benjamin Meyer received the new name Martin Josephs. In 1880 there were 219 Jewish inhabitants and about 4,100 non-Jewish inhabitants living in Jever. His parents, Joseph C. Josephs and Johanna Josephs, née van Cleef, came from Jever and were buried there around 1916. He had three older siblings, Ferdinand Josephs (born 19.7.1879 in Jever), Margarethe "Mary" Josephs (born 21.8.1881 in Jever), and Jenny Josephs (born 19.6.1883 in Jever).

Martin Josephs' brother completed an apprenticeship as a merchant around 1895, his sister Mary learned to be a saleswoman, and his sister Jenny learned to be a seamstress. After completing elementary school in Jever, Martin Josephs entered a commercial apprenticeship from March 1901 to December 1903 at the Seckel textile store in Walsrode, 170 km to the southeast. During this time he lived with the Jewish merchant Philipp Hurwitz (1861-1920). He then moved to Ebstorf/Heide; circa 1906/1907 he is said to have moved to Hamburg. When and where he did his three-year military service is not known to us.

Ferdinand Joseph's brother had lived in Hamburg-St. Pauli as a subtenant from 1906 to 1907, before he left for London in 1907, and his sister Mary had lived in Hamburg-Neustadt at Fuhlentwiete 28 as a subtenant since 1909. She worked as a saleswoman, lived again in Jever during World War I, and again in Hamburg 1920-1921. In 1921 she married Joseph Kaiser from Frankenberg (Hesse) and moved in with him in Kassel. Ferdinand Joseph's brother also lived there later.

For the first time in 1914, the name M. Josephs was printed in the Hamburg address book with the addition "Berufskleidung" (clothes for work) and the business address Alsterdorfer Straße 20. Winterhude had been elevated to the status of a Hamburg district in 1894. The opening of the Ringbahn (1912) and the branch line to Ohlsdorf with the stops Hudtwalckerstraße and Lattenkamp (1914) further connected Winterhude in terms of transportation. The creation of the Stadtpark recreation area (1910-1914) gave Winterhude a further boost.

Through the First World War, in which Martin Josephs participated as a soldier, inflation and the Great Depression, he was able to maintain his business. Around 1931, he even expanded the product range to include curtains and beds and rented a store for this purpose at Alsterdorfer Strasse 4 near Winterhude's market square. He maintained his checking account and savings account at a branch of Commerz- und Privatbank AG at Alsterdorfer Strasse 3.

Since February 1922, Martin Josephs had been a member of the Jewish Community of Hamburg; religiously, he professed to belong to the Orthodox Synagogue Association.

His income had plummeted after 1930, so the Jewish Community exempted him from the cult tax from 1931 to 1934. Presumably, relatives of his wife helped him with loans during this time: Meda Goldberg from Hamburg (Sedanstr. 23), Betty Goldberg from Frankfurt/Main, and Max and Frieda Oppenheimer from Hamburg.

In April 1922 he married Gidel, called Julie Goldberg (born 19.11.1894 in Melsungen/Hesse). One of the witnesses was the 45 year old merchant Julius van Cleef from Isestraße 49, possibly a cousin of the groom (see www.stolpersteine-hamburg.de). In March 1923 their daughter Hannah was born (see www.stolpersteine-hamburg.de). It is likely that his wife Julie also helped in the business.

In 1933 this existence of Martin Joseph, secured by democratic rights, ended. As early as April 1, 1933, the National Socialists organized a nationwide boycott against businesses owned by Jews. This was followed by exclusion from supply chains and the introduction of special taxes for Jews. Minor violations by Jews were also magnified into major crimes and punished with arrest. This was also the case with Martin Josephs, who had employed the journeyman tailor Willy Koninski (born 15.10.1915 in Hamburg) as a messenger from December 6, 1934 to March 2, 1935. He had been hired by the "Israelitischer Stellenvermittlungsverein e.V." (Jewish jobcenter) (Große Bäckerstraße 2).

Although Martin Joseph's employment office had certified in writing prior to his hiring that, as a small business with fewer than 20 employees, he did not need to obtain a permit, this was precisely what was demanded of him in March 1935. The police arrested the messenger Koninski and summoned Martin Josephs to two interrogations for "unauthorized employment." The public prosecutor's office applied for an order of punishment in April 1935; both were sentenced to a fine of RM 20 each.

The pogrom of November 9/10, 1938 ("Reichskristallnacht"), planned and executed by the NSDAP and its organizations, marked the beginning of open terror against Jews. Whether Martin Josephs' two stores were also affected by the vandalism of the SA squads is not known to us. As early as November 23, 1938, the Reich Minister of Economics and the Reich Minister of Propaganda issued the "Decree for the Implementation of the Decree for the Elimination of Jews from German Economic Life." Martin Josephs thus faced the end of his economic existence altogether. There was no prospect of starting anew in another line of business.

The financial situation had already deteriorated in the previous years, so that the family gave up their apartment at Hudtwalckerstraße 35 II. Stock and moved into the newly built Hudtwalckertwiete 4 II. Stock. They were last recorded at this address in the 1940 Hamburg address book. However, according to the records of the Residance Office (Einwohnerstelle), they had already moved out there again in 1939. (In a file of the Chief Finance President, however, the residential address was still Hudtwalckertwiete 4 in January 1940). In addition to the economic hardships came the fear of arbitrary arrest and mistreatment.

The Administration for Trade, Shipping and Commerce commissioned Gustav von Bargen, a "book auditor, helper in tax matters, liquidator, trustee" (Mönckebergstraße 10), to liquidate Martin Josephs' business. While Martin Josephs still hoped to achieve a reasonably realistic sale price for his goods and inventory, the authorities responsible for the "Aryanizations" commissioned an appraiser who usually applied the bankruptcy value instead of the purchase value, which meant a halving of the value.
The then employed textile salesman Kurt Heesch (born in 1905, NSDAP member since May 1933) had already looked around for suitable properties with which he could set up his own business: "The store at Alsterdorferstr. 18 was pointed out to me for purchase by a textile agent, after I had traded on two different textile stores in Halstenbek and Wedel," was how he explained the acquisition. Kurt Heesch took over the business from Martin Josephs, including the warehouse, for 15,200 RM and continued to run it as the "Manufacturwarengeschäft Kurt Heesch" across the street (Alsterdorfer Strasse 21). As a result, his annual income jumped 2 ½-fold (from around RM 4,000 to around RM 11,000). (In the compensation proceedings 30 years later, the high loss of value for Martin Josephs due to the forced sale was noted by the court).

The Nazi state, which had excluded Martin Josephs from economic life in Germany, then initiated the officially organized robbery of his remaining assets. With sham legal rules and regulations, the bureaucracy of the German Reich implemented the ideas of the National Socialists. After the November pogrom in 1938, Jews were required to pay an "expiatory payment" (Judenvermögensabgabe/ ”Sühneleistung”) based on their respective assets, payable in five installments. Martin Josephs received a total of 4,000 RM, which was collected as a "Jewish property levy" via the tax offices.

In April 1939, Martin Josephs' remaining assets were frozen by means of a "security order". The foreign exchange office stipulated permitted monthly expenses of RM 400 for him; sums in excess of this required approval. In October 1939, the authorized expenses were reduced to RM 350.

The passports of Jews were marked with a capital "J" from October 1938. In order to emigrate, Jews had to go through a bureaucratic procedure, which was also supervised by the Foreign Exchange Office of the Chief Finance President. High levies, mandatory sales of real estate, securities and life insurance, as well as arbitrarily high deductions on money transfers abroad usually deprived emigrants of most of their remaining assets. Nevertheless, Martin Josephs tried to do so. In April 1939, he indicated to the foreign exchange office that he wanted to emigrate to the USA with his family.

In July 1939, he wrote to the Foreign Exchange Office, which had blocked his capital: "I request that I be granted 200 RM per month on an ongoing basis for training courses, language courses, as well as retraining courses in preparation for emigration for my wife, my daughter and myself." In October 1939, he requested 50 RM to be paid to Grete Michelson in Hamburg because of "language lessons for emigration." Also in October 1939, he requested the release of 50 RM for the Beratungsstelle für Jüdische Wirtschaftshilfe (an advisery board for Jewish self-help). There he completed "emigration training in carpentry." Too late: With the beginning of the deportations in October 1941, the emigration of Jews was officially forbidden.

Martin Josephs was deported to the Minsk ghetto with his wife and daughter on November 8, 1941. Their room was sealed and the furnishings confiscated in accordance with Nazi Germany's guidelines and sold at public auction.

Martin, Julie and Hannah Josephs did not return from Minsk. Due to hunger, diseases and mass shootings they died like almost all deportees to Minsk.

Translation Beate Meyer

Stand: February 2023
© Björn Eggert

Quellen: Staatsarchiv Hamburg (StaH) 213-11 (Staatsanwaltschaft Landgericht), 51297 (Martin Josephs u. Willi Koninski, Einstellung ohne Genehmigung des Arbeitsamts, 1935); StaH 213-13 (Staatsanwaltschaft Landgericht, Wiedergutmachung), 18356 (Martin u. Julie Josephs); StaH 213-13 (Staatsanwaltschaft Landgericht, Wiedergutmachung), 25134 (Martin Josephs); StaH 213-13 (Staatsanwaltschaft Landgericht, Wiedergutmachung), 27269 (Benjamin Meyer genannt Martin Josephs); StaH 314-15 (Oberfinanzpräsident), R 1939/2487 (Sicherungsanordnung gegen Martin Josephs 1939); StaH 332-5 (Standesämter), 9591 u. 263/1922 (Heiratsregister 1922, Martin Josephs u. Gidel/Julie Goldberg); StaH 332-8 (Meldewesen), K 6328 (Alte Einwohnermeldekartei 1892-1925), Ferdinand Josephs (1906-1907 Carolinenstr. 30 bei Jacobsen, 6.4.1907 abgemeldet nach London), Mary Josephs; StaH 351-11 (Amt für Wiedergutmachung), 8676 (Benjamin Meyer genannt Martin Josephs); StaH 522-1 (Jüdische Gemeinden), 992b (Kultussteuerkartei der Deutsch-Israelitischen Gemeinde Hamburg), Martin Josephs, Hannah Josephs; StaH 221-11 (Entnazifizierung), C/R 1770 (Kurt Heesch); Stadtarchiv Walsrode, HA 1074 (Anmelderegister 1896-1906) und HA 1075 (Abmelderegister 1896-1906); Standesamt Kassel 1, 415/1921 (Heiratsregister 1921, Joseph Kaiser in Frankenberg/Hessen u. Mary Josephs in Hamburg, Klosterallee 100); Frank Bajohr, "Arisierung" in Hamburg. Die Verdrängung der jüdischen Unternehmer 1933-1945, Hamburg 1998, S. 285, 361 (Martin Josephs), S. 237 (Gustav v. Bargen); Staatsarchiv Hamburg, Hamburger jüdische Opfer des Nationalsozialismus, Hamburg 1995 (Benjamin Martin Josephs, Gidel (Julie) Josephs geb. Goldberg, Hanna Josephs, Willy Koninski); Adressbuch Hamburg (M. Josephs, Berufskleidung bzw. Textilwaren, Alsterdorferstr. 20) 1914, 1920, 1929, 1930, 1937; Adressbuch Hamburg 1940 (Kurt Heesch KG, Manufakturwaren, Alsterdorfer Str. 18, Inh. Kurt Heesch); Telefonbuch Hamburg 1931 (Martin Josephs, Textilwaren/Betten/Gardinen, Alsterdorfer Str. 18, Tel. 52 89 70); Telefonbuch Hamburg (Gustav von Bargen) 1939; https://www.alemannia-judaica.de/jever.htm (Anzahl jüdische Einwohner in Jever); www.stolpersteine-hamburg.de (Julius van Cleef geb. 1877).