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Josef Lambertz (o. J.)
© Privatbesitz

Josef Lambertz * 1873

Hütten 86 (Hamburg-Mitte, Neustadt)

HIER WOHNTE
JOSEF LAMBERTZ
JG. 1873
DEPORTIERT 1943
THERESIENSTADT
TOT 6.3.1944

further stumbling stones in Hütten 86:
Adele Lambertz, Wilhelmine Lambertz

Adelheid/Adele Lambertz, née Bettelheiser (Bettelhäuser/Bettelheimer), born on 26 Sept. 1871 in Bendorf/Rhine, deported on 24 Mar. 1943 to Theresienstadt, deported further on 15 May 1944 to Auschwitz
Josef Lambertz, born on 23 Sept. 1873 in Kempen, deported on 23 June 1943 to Theresienstadt, died there on 6 Mar. 1944
Wilhelmine Lambertz, born on 23 Oct. 1900 in Hamburg, deported on 24 Mar. 1943 to Theresienstadt, deported further on 15 May 1944 to Auschwitz, deported further to the Stutthof concentration camp

Hütten 86

Adelheid Lambertz, called Adele, came from Bendorf in the District of Mayen-Koblenz on the Rhine. When she married the butcher and livestock wholesaler Moritz Lambertz (born on 15 Nov. 1869) there on 13 May 1896, the registrar entered the birth name of Bettelhäuser in the marriage certificate. However, Adele and her father Hermann, who was her witness to the marriage, signed the certificate with Bettelheiser. As well, the gravestone of her mother Bertha, née Weil (born on 29 Jan. 1840, died on 16 Dec. 1906), in the Jewish Cemetery in Bendorf shows the last name of Bettelheiser. (In the applications for restitution, the maiden name of Bettelhäuser was indicated). Father Hermann, actually Herz, was a merchant and butcher. There were at least three other children in the family: Karoline (born on 13 June 1876), Marianne (born on 16 June 1874), and Sara (born on 27 Mar. 1883).

Adele and Moritz Lambertz had settled in Hamburg in Aug. 1897. During the first years, they lived at Hütten 126/127, where their children were born, Rosa on 7 Feb. 1897, Paul on 16 Dec. 1898, and the youngest, Wilhelmine, on 23 Oct. 1900. In 1904, a move followed to Schlachterstrasse 40/42, with accommodation in the Jewish Marcus-Nordheim-Stift, a residential home. In 1921, the couple took over the four-and-a-half-room apartment from Moritz’s sister Helene (see below), who had occupied it since 1913 with her family, her mother Jeanette, and finally also with her sister Elise/Lizzie Lambertz (born on 14 Jan. 1876) at Hütten 86. Since the 1920s, Moritz’s brother Josef Lambertz (born on 23 Sept. 1873) also belonged to their house community.

The brothers Josef and Moritz Lambertz were two of the 15 children of the butcher and livestock dealer Nathan Lambertz (born on 4 Dec. 1821) and his second wife Jeanette, née Levy (born on 4 Mar. 1842 in Meiderich), twelve of whom reached adulthood. The brothers had been born in Kempen, where their parents had married on 22 Dec. 1862 (the first wife of Nathan Lambertz, Jette Lambertz, née Sender, born on 20 Sept. 1834, had died on 8 Oct. 1856. Her sister Judula (born on 11 July 1830) had married Nathan Lambertz’s brother Salomon.) This branch of the family, which also included a Nathan Lambertz, lived in St. Hubert near Kempen (see below).

The father of Joseph and Moritz, Nathan Lambertz, was a well-known resident of Kempen. As a young man, he had been one of the leaders who in May 1849 had fought against the Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm IV for democracy and national unity. However, the revolution had been violently suppressed and Nathan Lambertz had been forced to flee to the Netherlands. It was only after testimonies from witnesses who rehabilitated him before a court in Kleve that he was able to return home. Nathan Lambertz had died on 25 Mar. 1899 in Kempen. His widow Jeanette had left the hometown shortly afterward and had moved to Krefeld. Her children lived in different cities like Dortmund and Saarbrücken, Mannheim, Düsseldorf, Berlin, London, and Hamburg. In the latter place, the family got together again for a time. The mother, Jeanette Lambertz, lived in the Hanseatic city from Oct. 1911 to July 1919. Passing away in Saarbrücken on 31 Mar. 1921, she was buried next to her husband at the Jewish Cemetery in Kempen.

Her son Josef Lambertz is said to have arrived in Hamburg from Düsseldorf already at the beginning of 1892. However, he gave notification to the authorities that he was moving from Kempen to Krefeld only in 1899 and he was registered as residing in Düsseldorf since the beginning of 1901. There, he married the non-Jewish laundress Amanda Habermann, née Müller (born on 20 Nov. 1874 in Kleinosterhausen) on 3 May 1901. According to his own statements, Josef Lambertz worked for six years at the Düsseldorfer Schauspielhaus, the local theater, though whether as a stagehand or in administration is not known. After the divorce on 24 Mar. 1910, Josef Lambertz left Düsseldorf and moved into the household of his mother, who at the time still lived at Neuer Steinweg 50/52. According to the Hamburg directories, his sister Helene Zwerger, née Lambertz (born on 1 July 1881, died on 7 May 1957), with her non-Jewish husband Hermann (born on 24 Mar. 1880 in Innsbruck, died on 16 Apr. 1927) was registered there, and later also at Hütten 86. The Zwerger couple had married on 27 Sept. 1909 in Saarbrücken and later ran a wine store in Mannheim.

Another brother, the merchant and gold articles dealer Simon Lambertz (born on 11 Nov. 1868), lived in Hamburg at Neuer Steinweg 70. On 24 Mar. 1905, he had married the ironer Anna Martha Wolf (born on 7 May 1884) in Hamburg, who belonged to the Lutheran Church. Simon Lambertz was found "in the Elbe as a corpse” on 28 Feb. 1922. According to tradition handed down by his grandniece, he chose suicide because he did not want to be a burden to his wife due to the threat of blindness. His brother Moritz Lambertz was responsible for the funeral, carried out according to religious rites in the Ohlsdorf Jewish Cemetery on Ilandkoppel.

Moritz Lambertz worked in Hamburg as an accountant ("Comptorist”) for "Eliadah” GmbH, Société d'Exportation de Vins on the Elbe Island of Steinwärder (today Steinwerder), which sold wines from Palestine.

In addition, around 1916 the Moritz and Adele Lambertz couple opened a "Dutch goods shop” at Elbstrasse 63, then in house 58 (today Neanderstrasse). The linen and dry goods they sold were later supplemented by toys. As it was usual at that time on Elbstrasse, a stall was also operated in front of the house. Street trading on Elbstrasse had already developed before the introduction of freedom of trade. Since 1775, Jewish street vendors offered their mostly used goods there, as shops featuring displays and advertising signs were still forbidden to them. Therefore, Elbstrasse was also called the "Jewish exchange” ("Judenbörse”) in the vernacular.

Moritz’s brother Josef Lambertz had worked in the "Kaiserhof” hotel at Bismarckstrasse 44 in Altona since Feb. 1916. In 1919, he lived in Berlin, but after a few months, he returned to Hamburg and worked for four years as an elevator operator in the "Tietz department store” (after the "Aryanization,” called Alsterhaus) and for eight years as an employee at the Deutsche Werft AG shipyard in Finkenwärder (today Finkenwerder). Because of a "severe spinal cord disease,” however, he was only able to earn a living to a limited extent. In 1927, he turned to the Jewish Community with the request to pay the costs for a stay at a spa.

Eventually, he worked as a messenger at the "Union” tobacco and cigarette factory at Wandsbeker Chaussee 62. In 1931, he became unemployed and received a small disability pension of 42 RM (reichsmark).

Brother Moritz and sister-in-law Adele Lambertz got into financial difficulties in the 1920s because of inflation and the continuing economic crisis; the modern large department stores, too, had made it difficult for the retail trade. In 1926, they had to file for bankruptcy. Daughter Wilhelmine, who, like her mother, was described as very enterprising, dared to reopen the business with a private loan. However, in Apr. 1928, she went her own ways again. She returned the business to her parents and took up a position in the department store of Rudolf Karstadt AG on Mönckebergstrasse. Her mother Adele became the driving force of the company. Moritz Lambertz was already very restricted in his professional activity due to an eye disease, as he was suffering from cataracts.

In 1933, Wilhelmine Lambertz, like all Jewish employees in the Karstadt AG department store, was dismissed. At times, she was dependent on welfare support. She then found employment as a controller and cashier in the Bucky department store at Eimsbütteler Chaussee 4-6 until Carl Bucky’s company was "Aryanized” at the end of 1938. Her parents were also forced to close their business at the end of the year. In Jan. 1939, the family had to give up their long-time home at Hütten 86 and moved back to Schlachterstrasse 40/42, house 1, the Jewish residential home. In Sept. 1942, they were relocated to the "Jews’ house” ("Judenhaus”) at Benekestrasse 6. Moritz Lambertz died there on 31 Oct. 1942 at the age of 72. His daughter Rosa and son Paul had already left Germany by this time.

Adele Lambertz remained in Hamburg with her daughter Wilhelmine. They were deported together to Theresienstadt on 24 Mar. 1943. Adele’s brother-in-law, Josef Lambertz, had to follow them to the ghetto on 23 June 1943, where he died on 6 Mar. 1944. Adele and her daughter Wilhelmine were further deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau on 15 May 1944. Seventy-three-year-old Adele was probably murdered as soon as she arrived. Wilhelmine, declared fit for work within the framework of the selection common there, came to the Stutthof concentration camp near Danzig (today Gdansk in Poland) on 20 July 1944, where she was given the prisoner number 52,008. All traces of her disappear there.

The fate of the other family members unfolded as follows:
Moritz Lambertz’s daughter Rosa had attended the Israelite girls’ school on Carolinenstrasse and she was then employed in the Robinson brothers’ department store. On 11 Oct. 1917, she married the merchant Abraham/Aby Kargauer, the son of Isidor Kargauer (born on 27 Nov. 1864, died on 23 May 1918) and Eva, née Posen (born on 8 Feb. 1864). His parents, who had married in Hamburg on 2 Aug. 1887, had initially emigrated to the USA to stay with relatives three years after the birth of their oldest son Enoch Enno (born on 13 Jan. 1889). Abraham/Aby was born in Chicago on 6 Sept. 1893, as was presumably his sister Marion (in 1898). After their return, shortly before the turn of the century, Isidor Kargauer ran a lottery business at Durchschnitt 51. Two more children were born there: Hertha (on 8 Sept. 1899) and Julius (on 1 Jan. 1902, died on 12 May 1970). The Kargauer family made a second trip to the USA in Apr. 1904, but returned to Hamburg this time as well. (Eva Kargauer later emigrated with her son Enoch Enno and his family to the Netherlands. From there they were deported to Auschwitz and murdered.)

After the wedding, Abraham/Aby and Rosa Kargauer moved into an apartment at Englische Planke 8. Following the birth of their children Werner (born on 7 July 1921) and Lieselotte (born on 12 Aug. 1922), they relocated to Woldsenweg 14, and then to Oderfelderstrasse 17 in Hamburg-Harvestehude. Abraham/Aby Kargauer was co-owner of Kargauer & (Max) Pick, Rauchwaren, Fell, Pelzkonfektion en gros u. Export, a company specializing in the wholesale and export of peltry, hides, and ready-to-wear furs located at Hohe Bleichen 31-32. The company had been founded in 1919 at Dammtorstrasse 14. Since Abraham/Aby Kargauer feared being arrested shortly after the Nazi takeover, he fled with his family to Paris in Aug. 1933. At the end of 1934 or beginning of 1935, they moved to Wiesingerstrasse 6 in Vienna’s I. District. After the "Anschluss” of Austria to the Nazi German Reich, they emigrated to Buenos Aires on 26 Oct. 1938 aboard the "Alsina Marsella.”

Rosa’s brother Paul had worked at the fashion house of the Hirschfeld bothers as a silk buyer and also resided in Berlin for a while. He had married Paula Mendel (born on 6 Jan. 1895) in Coesfeld in 1931 and had moved to Lübeck in 1932, where he had set up his own store for women and men’s fabrics at Moislinger Allee 79. There were other relatives residing in Lübeck: In 1922, Paula’s brother Emil Mendel (born on 6 Nov. 1886 in Coesfeld) had married Bertha Lambertz (born on 1 Aug. 1889 in St. Hubert), whose father, Nathan Lambertz (born on 30 Sept. 1857 in St. Hubert), in turn was a cousin of Paul’s father Moritz Lambertz and worked in Lübeck as a livestock dealer.

In 1935, their names were published as a list of "gainfully employed Jews” in a supplement of the Nazi party to the Lübecker Tageszeitung "as a warning to German national comrades [Volksgenossen].” During the night of the November Pogrom on 9/10 Nov. 1938, Paul Lambertz and his brother-in-law Emil Mendel were among the many Jewish men arrested and taken to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp. Paul’s business was closed and put in trust. Shortly after his release from Sachsenhausen, he emigrated in Dec. 1938 with his wife Paula and her niece Trude Hesse (born on 13 Aug. 1915), who lived in his household, to Shanghai, as no entry visa was required there. Emil and Bertha Mendel were also able to emigrate to Shanghai. After the war, they lived in Michigan, USA. (The mother of Trude Hesse, Helene Lina Hesse, née Mendel (born on 11 July 1889), was murdered in Auschwitz on 10 Oct. 1942; her father Richard Hesse (born on 7 Feb. 1886) was transferred to the Zamosc Ghetto, Lublin District, on 30 Apr. 1942. Bertha Mendel’s father Nathan Lambertz was deported to Theresienstadt on 19 July 1942, where he died on 4 Aug. 1942. Stolperstein at Lindenstrasse 12 in Lübeck).

The unmarried Elise/Lizzie Lambertz (born on 14 Jan. 1876), the sister of Moritz Lambertz already mentioned, had returned to Hamburg after the death of her mother Jeanette. From 1926 to 1929, she lived in neighboring Altona at Lessingstrasse 16 with her nephew Max Lambertz (born on 7 Dec. 1887 in Krefeld, died on 11 Mar. 1969), the son of her sister Julie Kauertz, née Lambertz (born on 20 Sept. 1866), who had died in London in 1905. Elise/Lizzie Lambertz was deported on 22 Oct. 1940 from Mannheim, where she lived together with her sisters Helene Zwerger and Regina Schumann (born on 15 Nov. 1883, died on 28 Dec. 1962) and her husband Ludwig Schumann (born on 19 Feb. 1876, died on 26 Mar. 1968), to the French Gurs internment camp. Elise/Lizzie Lambertz died on 14 July 1943 in the Noé internment camp.

Her sister Regina Schumann still had some protection because of her non-Jewish husband, who refused to divorce, but she was deprived of her professional livelihood. The older sister Helene Zwerger was deported to Theresienstadt on 10 Jan. 1944 as the widow of an "Aryan” spouse and lived to see her liberation there. She returned to Mannheim with severe health problems. She died on 7 July 1957. Her sister-in-law Claire/Clara Lambertz, née Simon (born on 14 Apr. 1881 in Zweibrücken), the wife of her deceased brother Philipp Lambertz (born on 3 Jan. 1865 in Kempen, died on 10 Feb. 1941 in Berlin), was deported to Riga on 13 Jan. 1942 and murdered. A Stolperstein in Berlin-Schöneberg at Stübbenstrasse 11 commemorates her.

Marianne Bettelheiser also lived for some time in Hamburg with Adele’s sisters. In the Hanseatic city, she had married the non-Jewish worker Paul Robert Reichert (born on 4 Oct. 1878 in Frankfurt/Oder) on 10 July 1903. Both resided at Borgfelderstrasse 22 before the wedding. The marriage was divorced in Berlin on 11 Nov. 1924. Marianne Reichert was deported from the Jacoby’schen Heil- und Pflegeanstalt, a "sanatorium and nursing home” in Bendorf-Sayn, to the Sobibor extermination camp on 15 June 1942 and murdered there. Sister Karoline Kaever, the widow of Johann Jakob Kaever (born in 1873, died on 20 Apr. 1906), took her own life on 19 Dec. 1941 in Bendof-Sayn. The fate of the third sister, Sara, is unknown.

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

Stand: May 2020
© Susanne Rosendahl

Quellen: 1; 4; 5; 7; 8; 9; StaH 332-5 Standesämter 2713 u 996/1887; 332-5 Standesämter 2713 u 927/1887; 332-5 Standesämter 2196 u 571/1889; 332-5 Standesämter 2428 u 545/1897; 332-5 Standesämter 2462 u 3989/1898; 332-5 Standesämter 13089 u 1854/1899; 332-5 Standesämter 13406 u 2971/1900; 332-5 Standesämter 3008 u 322/1903; 332-5 Standesämter 3044 u 106/1905; 332-5 Standesämter 3302 u 368/1917; 332-5 Standesämter 5820 u 281/1917; 332-5 Standesämter 790 u 379/1918; 332-5 Standesämter 8180 u 491/1942; StaH 351-11 AfW 1373 (Lambertz, Moritz); StaH 351-11 AfW 1734 (Lambertz, Adelheid Adele); StaH 351-11 AfW 23774 (Lambertz, Wilhelmine); StaH 351-11 AfW 15081 (Kargauer, Abraham); StaH 351-11 AfW 19409 (Kargauer, Rosa); StaH 314-15 Abl. 1998 L602; StaH 522-1 Jüdische Gemeinde 388a; StaH 522-1 Jüdische Gemeinde 992n Fürsorgeakten Band 17 (Lambertz, Joseph); StaH 351-14 Arbeits- und Sozialfürsorge 1426 (Lambertz, Joseph); StaH 332-7 B III 72171; Auskunft aus dem Muzeum Stutthof von Dr. Danuta Drywa, E-Mail vom 29.8.2012; Auskunft von Heidemarie Kugler-Weiemann, (Lübeck), E-Mail vom 18.12.2012; Auskünfte von Dr. Brigitte Zwerger (Mannheim), E-Mail vom 9.7.2015, 10.8.2015, 12.8.2015, 18.1.2016, 25.2.2016, 27.2.2016, 2.3.2016 und 18.3.2016; Auskünfte von Sylvia Runge (Hamburg); Dr. Hans Kaiser: Auf den Spuren des jüdischen Lebens in Kempen, www.min-kempen.de (Zugriff 22.3.2014); http://www.digital.wienbibliothek.at/wbrobv/periodical/structure/251748 (Zugriff 14.2.2015); http://www.steinheim-institut.de (Zugriff 29.3.2015); https://www.stolpersteine-luebeck.de/l/de/main/adressen/lindenstrasse-12.html (Zugriff 14.2.2015); www.ancestry.de (Heiratsregister von Helene Lambertz und Hermann Zwerger am 27.9.1909 in Saarbrücken, Zugriff 5.7.2017); www.ancestry.de (Heiratsregister von Regina Lambertz und Hermann Schumann am 28.12.1909 in Saarbrücken, Zugriff 5.7.2017); www.ancestry.de (Hamburger Passagierliste am 2.1.1892 nach West Hartlepool, Zugriff 5.7.2017); www.ancestry.de (Hamburger Passagierliste am 2.4.1904 nach Boulogne, Plymounth, New York, Zugriff 5.7.2017); http://www.statistik-des-holocaust.de/list_ger_rhl_420615a.html (Zugriff 5.7.2017); http://www.familienbuch-euregio.de (über Familie Lambertz, Zugriff 11.8.2017).
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