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Fritz Mainzer * 1907

Großneumarkt 56 (Hamburg-Mitte, Neustadt)

HIER WOHNTE
FRITZ MAINZER
JG. 1907
VERHAFTET 1938
SACHSENHAUSEN
1939 ZUCHTHAUS FUHLSBÜTTEL
1939 ZUCHTHAUS
BREMEN-OSLEBSHAUSEN
ERMORDET 18.2.1943 IN
AUSCHWITZ

further stumbling stones in Großneumarkt 56:
Sella Cohen, Bertha Cohen, A(h)ron Albert Cohn, Thekla Daltrop, David Elias, Theresia Elias, Louisa(e) Elias, Helene Martha Fernich, Martha Minna Fernich, Camilla Fuchs, Siegmund Josephi, Robert Martin Levy, Hertha Liebermann, Elsa Nathan, Ruth Nathan, Siegfried Neumann, Fanny Neumann, Lieselotte Neumann, Mirjam Neumann, Max Leo Neumann, Therese Neumann, Bela Neumann, Josef Polack, Bertha Polack, Eva Samuel, Rosa Therese Weil, Bernhard Weil, Rosa Weinberg, Siegfried Weinberg

Fritz Mainzer, born on 9 Mar. 1907 in Koblenz, arrested several times, deported from the Bremen-Oslebshausen penitentiary to Auschwitz, murdered there on 18 Feb. 1943

Grossneumarkt 56

Fritz Mainzer was born as the son of Jewish parents in Koblenz. There he first attended the eight-grade elementary school (Volksschule) and did a three-year commercial apprenticeship after completing secondary school (Realschule) in Frankfurt/Main. After the death of his father Bernhard Mainzer on 24 June 1927 in Frankfurt/Main, he settled in Hamburg. His mother Bertha Mainzer, née Mayer, later lived in the Alsatian city of Strasbourg.

Fritz Mainzer initially worked at the renowned department store of Rudolf Karstadt AG on Mönckebergstrasse. He was taxed only once by the Hamburg German-Israelitic Community, in 1928/1929. His Jewish religious tax (Kultussteuer) file card mentioned addresses as a subtenant at Reichenstrasse 18 and Lincolnstrasse 10 in the St. Pauli quarter.

On 23 Feb. 1928, the first conviction for embezzlement was handed down. In the following years, twelve more convictions for fraud, theft, and forgery were documented. In the time between his prison terms, he remained unemployed or could only find employment as an unskilled painter at the Blohm & Voss shipyard and at a wool-spinning mill in Hamburg-Wilhelmsburg. In 1933, Fritz Mainzer fell seriously ill with tuberculosis (TBC); one of infected lungs was "shut down” and eight ribs had to be removed. Frequent stays in lung sanatoriums followed until his illness came to a standstill in 1936. After an accident, which he suffered as a "public relief worker” (Notstandsarbeiter) of the "Reich autobahn” in Bergen near Celle, his right leg remained stiff after a multiple knee fracture.

On 23 June 1938, Fritz Mainzer was arrested for his previous convictions (his last sentencing took place on 6 Mar. 1937 by the court of lay assessors [Schöffengericht] in Berlin). In Hamburg, in the course of the so-called June Operation (Juni-Aktion), another 700 men had been arrested along with him, who, it was said, "by committing minor but repeated violations of the law, were unwilling to submit to the order that is a given in the National Socialist state.”

On 6 Sept. 1938, Fritz Mainzer was released from prisoner block 5 of the Sachsenhausen concentration camp as "unfit for prison.” During his "protective custody” ("Schutzhaft”), he had met his fellow prisoner Siegfried Neumann (see corresponding entry), who asked him to call on his family at Grossneumarkt 56 to extend his greetings. Fritz Mainzer, who was homeless, stayed with the Neumann family as a subtenant.

Fritz Mainzer was arrested again on 15 October. Allegedly, he had entered into a relationship with a friend of the Neumanns, a neighbor. On 4 Jan. 1939, Fritz Mainzer was convicted of "racial defilement” ("Rassenschande”) against which he launched an appeal. On 16 March, the judgment was overturned and referred back to the lower court for retrial.

His lawyer Edgar Fels tried to secure a renewed "unfitness for prison” for the patient suffering from pulmonary tuberculosis, but unsuccessfully. The court called Fritz Mainzer a "worthless” person who, despite sufficient warnings, had again violated the laws of his "host people.” On 3 May 1939, the Hamburg Regional Court (Landgericht) sentenced him to four years and six months in a penitentiary for "continued racial defilement.” The period from 4 Jan. 1939 until the appeal was credited to him as pre-trial detention.

On 2 Oct. 1939, Fritz Mainzer was released from the pretrial detention center to the Hamburg-Fuhlsbüttel prison. His prisoner file card contained a note in red ink indicating "Jew!” and "risk of suicide!” Eighteen days later, his transfer to the Bremen-Oslebshausen prison took place.

From there, Fritz Mainzer was deported to Auschwitz in the course of the general deportation of Jewish prisoners from prisons and murdered there on 18 Feb. 1943.

At the Yad Vashem memorial site in Israel, a Page of Testimony was deposited for Fritz Mainzer by a niece.

His lawyer Edgar Fels (born on 20 Sept. 1885 in Mannheim) was only allowed to call himself a "Jewish legal adviser” ("jüdischer Konsulent”) at the time of Fritz Mainzer’s defense. His office was located at Alstertor 21. Lawyers such as Edgar Fels, who were only admitted to provide legal advice and representation to Jews, often stood up for their clients at risk to their own lives. They had to appear before the court without their robes and had to wear the "Jews’ star” ("Judenstern”) there since Sept. 1941, as Heiko Morisse describes in his book titled Jüdische Rechtsanwälte in Hamburg ("Jewish lawyers in Hamburg”). After a failed attempt to emigrate to Chile, he was deported to Lodz on 25 Oct. 1941, where he perished on 22 May 1942. Dr. Edgar Fels is commemorated by a Stolperstein at Hallerstrasse 64 (see Stolpersteine in Hamburg-Eimsbüttel).

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

Stand: May 2020
© Susanne Rosendahl

Quellen: 1; 8; StaH 621-1/129_3, Firmenarchiv Fels Edgar; StaH 213-1 OLG Abl. 8, 143E, L4b; StaH 242-1II, Abl.13, jüngere Kartei Strafhaft Männer; 242-1II, Abl. 16, U-Haft; Morisse: Ausgrenzung, Band 1, S. 137; Yad Vashem, Zentrale Datenbank der Namen der Holocaustopfer Fritz Mainzer (Gedenkblatt); Auskunft aus der Gedenkstätte Sachsenhausen von Monika Liebscher, E-Mail vom 2.8.2013; www.ancestry.de (Sterbeurkunde von Bernhard Mainzer am 24. Juni 1927 in Frankfurt am Main, Zugriff 28.6.2017).
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