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Selma Menke (née Plaut) * 1896

Hallerstraße 2 (Eimsbüttel, Rotherbaum)

HIER WOHNTE
SELMA MENKE
GEB. PLAUT
JG. 1896
DEPORTIERT 1941
ERMORDET IN
MINSK

further stumbling stones in Hallerstraße 2:
Hugo Menke, Hannelore Menke, Ivan Sally Seligmann, Frieda Seligmann

Hugo Menke, born 17 June 1884 in Gifhorn, imprisoned from 10 Nov. 1938 to 6 Dec. 1938 at Fuhlsbüttel and Sachsenhausen concentration camps, deported 8 Nov. 1941 to Minsk Ghetto
Selma Menke, née Plaut, born 23 Sept. 1896 in Willingshausen, Ziegenhain District Hesse-Nassau, deported 8 Nov. 1941 to Minsk Ghetto
Hannelore Menke, born 14 Aug. 1924 in Hamburg, deported 8 Nov. 1941 to Minsk Ghetto

Hallerstraße 2

The surviving son of the family, Ralph Arthur Menke, born in Hamburg on 23 Feb. 1927, wrote the following in a letter to the author Harald Vieth early in 1990: "I lost my entire family: my father, 58 years of age, my mother, 47 years of age, and my 17-year-old sister. I myself was taken to various concentration camps, the last one was Flossenbürg. While on a death march to Dachau concentration camp in Apr. 1945, I was liberated by the Americans. In 1946 I immigrated to the USA. Today I still wear the letters K.L., clearly visible on my right forearm, with which I was ‘marked’ at Budzyn camp, near Lublin, Poland.”

We do not know when the family, who was deported from Hamburg, first arrived in the Hanseatic city. Hamburg’s 1914 address book shows the first listing at the address Gertrudenkirchhof 7 in downtown Hamburg. The couple then lived at various addresses in Barmbek, Wandsbek and Winterhude. Hugo Menke worked as a self-employed businessman until around 1919. He may have met E. Melind while working at a small factory at Rosenstraße 19A which manufactured stamps, dies, printing plates, etc. In 1923 Hugo Menke took over running the business as its sole owner under the name Melind & Co. It appeared to have been a profitable business. Their contracts were steady. The business employed an office clerk who was responsible for the accounting and a typesetter. The monthly revenue was around 2,000–2,500 RM. Their customers included, among others, the Mannheimer Versicherung, the haulage company Kühne & Nagel, Glücksklee and Carl Spaeter.

Hugo Menke came from a successful business family in Gifhorn. The Gifhorn Menkes felt closely tied to their home city and took part in social life there. Dagobert David Menke (born in 1838 in Gifhorn, died in 1894 in Hamburg), Hugo Menke’s father, was a major and commander of the marksmen corps from 1888 to 1893 in Gifhorn’s Uniformed Marksmen Corps of 1823, one of Gifhorn’s two gun clubs. He died in 1894 and was laid to rest in Gifhorn. We were unable to find any information regarding Hugo Menke’s mother, Adolphine Philippine, née Ostwald, born 1851 in Petershagen, died 1915 in Dessau. Her burial at the Gifhorn Jewish Cemetery in 1915 was the last one there. Dagobert David Menke had three siblings: Samuel (1839), Alexander (1843–1920) and Sophie (1851–1851) who were all born in Gifhorn.

We do not know anything about the parents of Hugo Menke’s wife Selma, Dina and Levi Plaut. We could not find any indication as to when and why the family sold their company in Gifhorn and moved to Hamburg. The Hamburg Address Book from 1877 shows the first listing of the Menkes who were active in various branches of business. As of 1890, the business activities of the Menke brothers became clearer. Alexander Menke worked at the company Menke & Busse and took over the business from around 1900 as owner. His brother Samuel owned (along with others) the company S. Menke & Co., storage of manufactured goods. From 1909 the Menke brothers were able to turn a new business idea into reality, they founded a tropical fruit business which they ran for many years under the company name Menke & Busse. In the meantime, Hugo Menke’s older brother Artur, born in Gifhorn on 7 July 1877, had also settled in Hamburg with his wife Johanna Jacobine, née Freund, born on 18 Nov. 1881. They lived in Winterhuder at Willistraße 3. Artur joined the company as co-owner and continued to run it until Samuel and Alexander Menke’s passing. The tropical fruit business had by then moved from the outskirts of the port directly to Fruchthof. In Hamburg’s address book from 1938, Artur Menke was still listed as the owner of Menke & Busse. What followed next was the "Aryanization” of the company.

Hugo and Selma Menke moved from Mundsburger Damm to Claudiusstraße 7 prior to the birth of their daughter Hannelore on 14 Aug. 1924. Selma Menke became pregnant again in 1926 and gave birth to their son Ralph Arthur on 23 Feb. 1927. Since their apartment would not be large enough in the long term, the family moved to a larger place in Uhlenhorst, Richterstraße 13, in 1932. Even at that time the neighborhood was already a very good residential area. Their son Ralph Arthur Menke has fond memories of the apartment and its surroundings and did not understand back then why they could no longer live there after the National Socialists came to power.

The "boycott of Jews” on 1 Apr. 1933 will have hurt Hugo Menke’s company. His business documents also showed that the payment practices of his prominent customers left much to be desired. So the company continued to exist over the years, barely managing to stay afloat. Over the course of the years 1936, 1937 and 1938, measures aimed at restricting the Jewish population were tightened. In Apr. 1938, Jews had to declare their assets if they were in excess of 5,000 RM. In the wake of the Reich-wide pogrom the night of 9 to 10 Nov. 1938, approximately 30,000 Jewish males were arrested, including Hugo Menke. The Gestapo used the detainment to prepare for "Aryanizing” his business. On 30 Nov. 1938, a trustee was installed to wind up the business. Within a short time, an interested buyer turned up from Sievekingsallee. He offered 3,000 RM.

The trustee looked into the company’s financial situation, its inventory and Hugo Menke’s private wealth. He discovered a communal inheritance securities account (Deutsche Bank Branch Fruchthof) existed, belonging to Hugo Menke and his brother Artur. Artur Menke administered the account which held 1,005.30 RM as of 28 Nov. 1938, after claims were deducted. Rents, salaries and health insurance contributions were also to be paid from the account. The currency office summoned Selma Menke for a meeting on 1 Dec. 1938. She informed them that no further assets existed, so the authorities refrained from imposing a "security order”. Nevertheless, from that point onward the couple was only allowed to withdraw money from their account with special permission from the agency.

On 2 Dec. 1938, the chief finance president issued a "security order” for the business. An official noted on the document that Hugo Menke was still in a concentration camp.

On 7 Mar. 1939 Senator von Allwörden, responsible for the "Aryanization” of businesses, informed them on behalf of the Reich Governor that the "applicant” A. K. would purchase their business but was not permitted to carry on using the company name. On 18 Mar. 1939, the parties involved, excluding the "seller” Hugo Menke, communicated that the company would be sold for 3,000 RM, less the second installment of the 300 RM levy on Jewish assets, the trustee’s fee of 350 RM, 300 RM in living expenses for the family as well as postage and papers. The Chamber of Industry and Commerce had estimated the value of the inventory (desks, cabinets, implements, etc.) at 1,041 RM, but it was simply taken over by the buyer. At the same time, the "security order” on the business was cancelled.

Moreover, the family now had to leave their apartment on Richterstraße. At short notice they found accommodation at Grindelallee 138, later at Hallerstraße 2. In 1941, the tax office seized the family’s private assets with a "security order”. In Aug. 1941, Hugo Menke nominally owned 14,004 RM, 10,000 RM of which were claims against his brother Artur Menke. The agency ordered that the family was allowed to spend 380 RM for monthly living expenses.

Hugo Menke looked for a job and found one at the company Rasch & Jung, in Große Bleichen. He received 236 RM for his work there. At the same time his sister Olga supported him with 120 RM a month. That did not remain a secret from the chief finance president who, in a letter dated 1 Sept. 1941, warned them to strictly obey the "security order” which forbade Hugo Menke from accepting cash, no matter what the reason. In Oct. 1941, Hugo Menke applied the last time for the monthly allotted sum of 380 RM to be released to pay for rent and to purchase items for their journey to Minsk – the couple and their children had received their deportation orders. The agency approved the extra expenditures for the family on 29 Oct. 1941. On 5 Nov. 1941, three days before their deportation, Hugo Menke applied for another 100 RM for each family member and 100 RM to purchase utensils that the "evacuation order” – as the deportation order was euphemistically called – stated they should take along. That 500 RM and money to pay the Jewish community for the accumulated school tuition for their daughter Hannelore and fees for a sewing class were also quickly released.

On 8 Nov. 1941, Hugo Menke, Selma Menke, Hannelore Menke and Ralph Arthur Menke were deported to Minsk Ghetto. Ralph Arthur Menke was the sole survivor. We could only piece together Ralph Arthur Menke’s ordeal. He probably had to perform forced labor in Minsk. We do not know exactly when he was put on "transport” again. The next concrete information we found was when he was transferred from Plaszow concentration camp (southeast of Krakow, Poland) to Flossenbürg concentration camp on 4 Aug. 1944. The transport from Plaszow concentration camp held prisoners from the satellite camps Mielec and Wieliczka. The train likely also stood outside Auschwitz-Birkenau for two or three days. In Flossenbürg the prisoners were first held in quarantine barracks before being registered. Ralph Arthur Menke was issued prisoner number 15611. According to his statements, he worked as a welder. The Jewish prisoners’ death march which started on 16 Apr. 1945 was supposed to end at Dachau concentration camp. On the train they endured several bomb attacks, and then they had to march on foot from Schwarzenfeld through the Bavarian Forest. At about the end of Apr. 1945, Ralph Arthur Menke was liberated from Dachau by the Americans.

Upon request, his family was declared dead as of 30 Aug. 1950.

Herbert and Bella Tichauer (Cleveland, OH, USA) deposited memorial sheets at Yad Vashem for Selma and Hugo Menke. According to their information, Hugo, Hannelore and Selma Menke were shot dead in Minsk.

On 19 Mar. 1942, just shy of four months after their deportation, the family’s home furnishings were publicly auctioned off by the bailiff Gerlach. Twenty people bought at auction 2 Hamburgensien (items from Hamburg), 6 pictures behind glass, 1 night lamp, 1 buffet, 2 pillows and much more. After deducting the requisite fees, the office of the chief finance president pocketed 208.25 RM for the benefit of the German Reich.

What became of Hugo’s brother Artur? His religious tax card shows that Artur and his wife Johanna left the Jewish community on 6 Aug. 1941 because they went to the USA. So they left Germany at the last instant, while it was still possible before emigration was banned in Oct. 1941. An obituary published for Artur Menke in the German-Jewish exiles newspaper Aufbau on 14 July 1944 shows that he passed away on 8 July 1944.
Hugo Menke’s sister Olga, married name Schück, (born 1879 in Gifhorn – died 1942 in Hamburg) had lived with her husband Robert (1865–1935) in Leipzig. The Schücks ran a successful furs store. As of the late 1920s, they lived at Papestraße 1. In Nov. 1938 Olga Schück lived in an apartment of the Jewish community at Gohliserstraße 1. In late 1941 she moved to Hamburg. The Jewish community registered her there as of 1 Oct. 1941. For a short time she lived with her brother Hugo at Hallerstraße 2. The two children she had with her husband, Else (1900–1995) and Karl (1901–1970), survived: Else fled in time with her husband Wilhelm Ginsburg (1886 Königsberg, today Kaliningrad–1953) to Palestine and then to Australia. Karl immigrated via Italy to the USA. In the mid 1950s, he returned to Germany where he lived until his death in 1970.
After the deportation of her brother and his family, Olga Schück lived at Kielortallee13. The building served as a "Jewish house” from 1942. On 17 Mar. 1942, Olga Schück committed suicide. Her grave is located at the Ilandkoppel Jewish Cemetery. Olga Schück’s last freely chosen address was at Papestraße 1 in Leipzig where a Stumbling Stone has been laid for her.
We found only minimal traces of the course that Hugo Menke’s younger sister Clara’s life took. Clara, married name Schüler (1886 Gifhorn–1943), lived with her husband Rudolf (1873 Berlin–1942) in Berlin. The couple was deported from Berlin to Theresienstadt on the "old age transport 63-4” on 21 Sept. 1942. Clara Schüler died there on 15 Oct. 1943, her husband had already died on 2 Oct. 1942. Stumbling Stones will be laid for the Schülers at their last freely chosen address, Melanchthonstraße 27 in Berlin.
The Jewish Cemetery in Gifhorn, where Hugo Menke’s mother Adolphine Philippine was laid to rest, remained intact. After 1945 the 31 grave stones still remaining were restored to peace when a fence and a gate were installed. In 1965 the municipal administration decided to award the Jewish Cemetery to the Menkes’ descendents (in New York).
Ralph Arthur Menke passed away on 18 Sept. 1996 in New York, USA.


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


Stand: September 2019
© Sonja Zoder

Quellen: 1; 2; 5; 8; StaH 214-1/ 502 Gerichtsvollzieherwesen; StaH 314-15 R 1938/ 3325 + 314-15 R 1941/ 158 Oberfinanzpräsident; StaH 522-1 Jüdische Gemeinden 992e Band 2 Deportationslisten; StaH 351-11/ 23571 + 351-11/ 24365 Wiedergutmachungsverfahren; 522-2 Jüdische Gemeinde KZ-Überlebendenliste 1130; Vieth: Von der Hallerstraße 6/8; Hamburger Adressbücher; Deutsch-Jüdische Exilzeitung "Aufbau" vom 14.7.1944; Obenaus (Hrsg.), Historisches Handbuch, Teil 2, Seite 610; Roshop: Gifhorn; Weinhold: Eintracht; Stammbaum der Familien Menke, zusammengetragen von Frau Rita Siegfried Hamburg/Gifhorn; Annette Redeker, Meinersen, diverse Mails; Dr. Johannes Ibel Gedenkstätte Flossenbürg per Mail am 5.2.2014; Jüdische Gemeinde Leipzig durch Achim Beier vom Archiv-Bürgerbewegung per Mail am 13.2.2014; URL: http://www.stolpersteine-berlin.de am 10.2.2014; http://www.statistik-des-holocaust.de/list_ger_ber.html; Auskünfte Susanne Kamp und Annette Redeker sowie Achim Beier, Leipzig.
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