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Julia Schwarzwald * 1872

Glockengießerwall / Ferdinandstraße (vormals Glockengießerwall 23) (Hamburg-Mitte, Hamburg-Altstadt)

HIER WOHNTE
JULIA SCHWARZWALD
JG. 1872
GEDEMÜTIGT / ENTRECHTET
FLUCHT IN DEN TOD
22.2.1942

further stumbling stones in Glockengießerwall / Ferdinandstraße (vormals Glockengießerwall 23):
Eugen Gowa

Julie (Julia) Schwarzwald, born 18 Dec. 1872 in Hamburg, suicide 22 Feb. 1942 in Hamburg

Glockengießerwall 22 (Glockengießerwall 23)

Julie Schwarzwald was born in Hamburg on 18 Dec. 1872, the daughter of the glazier Julius Schwarzwald (born 21 June 1847) and Fanny, née Spanier (born 26 Sept. 1850). She never married and as of 1900 she lived with her mother in Wandsbek at Königstraße 91, her father already passed away 2 days after her birth on 16 Dec. 1872. Her mother Fanny died on 20 Sept. 1911 at the age of 60.

Julie Schwarzwald left Wandsbek and became a member of Hamburg’s Jewish community. The address Glockengießerwall 23 was noted on her religious tax card. Under the heading Company and Industry was written "Institute for Electrolysis”. Martha Wolters founded the Institute for Ladies’ Electrolysis and Facial Care in 1906 at Glockengießerwall 23. In 1912 Martha Wolters advertized in the Hamburg business directory: "permanent removal of facial hair pain-free with electrolysis, guaranteed no scars”. English and French were also spoken at the institute, and there were branch institutes in London, Ostende, Berlin, Mannheim and Cologne. We were unable to determine whether Julie Schwarzwald worked for Martha Wolters as a domestic servant or for the business. In 1911 when she reported her mother’s death to the civil registry office responsible in Wandsbek, she noted herself as being unemployed. From 1913 to 1916 Hamburg’s address book listed Julie Schwarzwald as a tenant at Glockengießerwall, then Martha Wolters was again listed with her institute at the address. It was not until 1940 that Julie Schwarzwald resurfaced in the Hamburg address book, this time at Reinhard-Keiser-Straße 47, a street which the previous year had still been called Große Theaterstraße.

Julie Schwarzwald lived reclusively in a two-room apartment on the first floor, as a neighbor later reported. The neighbor crossed paths with her in the stairwell or on their way down to the air-raid shelter (where Julie actually was not allowed to take cover as a Jew). It was during one of these encounters on 21 Feb. 1942 that Julie Schwarzwald told her neighbor that her landlord had given her notice on her apartment and that she was supposed to move in with a stranger in a "Jewish house” at Großneumarkt (her religious tax card shows her last address as the former Nanny Jonas Foundation at Agathenstraße 3). The neighbor said Julie was against the move and figured she too would soon be "evacuated”, which she did not want to submit to.

The neighbor and another resident of the building, unsettled by what they thought was strange behavior, met on the morning of 22 Feb. 1942 and realized after knocking on the door several times that the letter slot was glued shut from the inside. Police were called in who had the apartment opened by a locksmith. Inside they found Julie Schwarzwald sitting dead in an armchair in the kitchen. The cause of death was carbon monoxide poisoning. According to the police report, Julie Schwarzwald had carefully prepared her suicide – she had sealed all of the gaps and cracks in the kitchen, then she disconnected the tube from the gas stove. No family members could be found. Julie Schwarzwald was laid to rest at the Jewish Cemetery in Ohlsdorf.

Translator: Suzanne von Engelhardt
Kindly supported by the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung, Hamburg.

Stand: April 2020
© Susanne Rosendahl

Quelle: 1; 4; 9; StaH 522-1 Jüdische Gemeinde Abl. 1999/01, 181; StaH 332-5 Standesämter 4559 u 321/1911; StaH 332-5 Standesämter 1152 u 109/1942; StaH 331-5 Polizeibehörde Unnatürliche Sterbefälle 860/42.
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