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Anna Levy * 1864

Barmbeker Straße 127 (Hamburg-Nord, Winterhude)

HIER WOHNTE
ANNA LEVY
JG. 1864
GEDEMÜTIGT / ENTRECHTET
FLUCHT IN DEN TOD
15.7.1942

Anna Levy, born 05/30/1864 in Hamburg, died 07/15/1942 in Hamburg (suicide)

Anna Levy was born as the second child of Nachmann Jacob Levy (1829–1904), a merchant, and his wife Sophie, née Rosenbacher (1833-1892), who came from Prague. Anna Levy’s brother Jacob (born 03/25/1867) was three years younger. By her mother’s side, she was related to the family of the Attorney Dr. Martin Rosenbacher (cf. Rosenbacher, Charlotte).

The Levy family had lived at Sophienterrasse 17, in a small private lane connecting the Alster Lake to Mittelweg, built in 1860/61. The town house with rendered façade and a front patio with a spacious terrace-like balcony above it was an expression of the fashion of the time as well as the family’s financial means. The father’s company "Mobilien-Lager, Holz- u. Fournier-Handl.”, a wood and furniture store, had its headquarters at Catharinenstrasse 31 in Hamburg’s old town, directly on the dike.

Anna’s mother had died in 1892; she was buried at the Jewish Cemetery in Hamburg; the paternal household in the spacious town house was dissolved after her father’s death in 1904. Anna Levy lived at Mittelweg 30 for the next 15 years. She and her brother had inherited the property, along with the neighboring house no. 29. Dr. Martin Rosenbacher, Anna’s same-aged cousin, had lived on the 3rd floor of this house in 1902/03.

The German-Israelitic Community kept a culture tax card for Anna Levy from 1913 on. She remained single, working as an employee. Until the mid-1930s, Anna lived in residential areas preferred by the upper middle class: from Mittelweg she moved to Maria-Louisenstrasse 50, to a villa with a view of the Rondeel Teich (a quiet branch of the Alster Lake). Ernst A. H. Levy (born 1898), a relative of hers and manager of a real estate company, lived in the same house until 1936. Later, Anna Levy moved to Rothenbaumchaussee 11, as a subtenant of Isidor Meyer. In 1927, she moved to a modern, newly built spacious 4-room apartment with bathroom and entrance hall at Barmbeker Strasse 127. In the 1936 Hamburg address book, her occupation is given as pensioner.

The obligation to pay five installments of the "levy on Jewish assets” of 3,200 RM each, the forced surrender of securities, gold and silver items and jewelry were steps on the way to complete financial despoliation and the deprivation of all rights. A Reich law abolished the free choice of residence and the protection as tenants for Jews. Anna Levy’s lease was cancelled, and she had to move to a building with exclusively Jewish tenants. She now shared a room with the also single Jewish lady Agnes Henriques (born 08/11/1861), who had previously lived at Isestrasse 115 on the ground floor of Heilwigstrasse 46, on the corner of St.-Benedictstrasse, a two-storey town house that belonged to the four Lehman siblings and was referred to as a "Jewish boarding house” by the criminal police in January, 1942. The sisters Clara (born 1874) and Anna Lehmann (born 1878) shared a room on the second floor; their sister G. Lehmann and their brother Richard Lehmann also lived in the house according to the 1939 address book. The physician Dr. Berthold Jungmann (born 1868) was quartered there by the authorities in 1939 or 1940; he was deported on July 19th, 1942.

On January 6th, 1942, the sisters Anna and Clara Lehmann jointly took their own lives; a letter from the Gestapo was lying on the night table. In their short report of the suicide, the criminal police laconically noted: "The summons from the Gestapo probably concerned the deportation of the Jews, so that they decided to voluntarily terminate their lives. This case is definitely a suicide of the two Jewish women who, it seems, did not want to move to the Ghetto.” Their housemate Agnes Henriques died on July 13, 1942. Two days later, Anna Levy was found unconscious from an overdose of sleeping pills; she died at the nearby Jewish hospital in Johnsallee 68. The police gave their Gestapo colleagues the now very common reason for this type of suicide: "The deceased was to be evacuated.” In fact, a transport with 962 men, women and children left the city of Hamburg on July 15th, 1942, bound for Theresienstadt. Anna Levy’s name does not appear on the respective list. The undertaker von der Walde (Benekestrasse 2) organized the burial at the Jewish Cemetery in Ohlsdorf.

Anna Levy‘s brother Jacob Rosenbacher Levy (born 1867), who had had his own enamel trading business since 1892, and her sister-in-law Sara, née Fehr (born 1867) had already taken their own lives on February 27th, 1942; they, too, were buried at the Ohlsdorf Jewish Cemetery. Their relative Ernst Levy had obtained a tax clearance certificate from the tax authorities on June 21st, 1939, and left Germany bound for the USA.

A Stumbling Stone at Barmbeker Strasse 127 commemorates Anna Levy; the Stumbling Stones for the Lehmann sisters as well as for Dr. Jungmann were laid in front of the house at Heilwigstrasse 46.


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

Stand: March 2017
© Björn Eggert

Quellen: 1; 4; StaHH 522-1 Jüd. Gemeinden 992 e2 Bd. 4; StaHH 741-4, Alte Einwohnermeldekartei; StaHH 331-5, Polizeibehörde – unnatürliche Sterbefälle, Akte 1942/1130 und 1942/158; AfW 211078; AB 1875, 1910, 1913 (Abt.IV), 1915, 1919, 1920, 1922, 1926, 1928 (Abt.IV), 1936, 1937, 1938, 1939; Amtliche Fernsprechbücher Hamburg 1906–1907, 1910, 1912, 1918–1920, 1922, 1924; Hamburger Börsenfirmen, 34. Auflage, Hamburg 1933, S. 516; Gräber-Kartei des Jüdischen Friedhofs Ohlsdorf; Bezirksamt Hamburg-Nord, Bauamt/Bauprüfabteilung, Akte Barmbeker Straße 125/127.
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