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Lina Katz * 1882

Brahmsallee 15 (Eimsbüttel, Harvestehude)

HIER WOHNTE
LINA KATZ
JG. 1882
DEPORTIERT 1941
RIGA
ERMORDET

Caroline "Lina” Katz, born 26 Nov. 1882 in Minden, deported 6 Dec. 1941 to Riga-Jungfernhof

Brahmsallee 15 (Hansastraße 57)

Lina Katz was born in Minden on 26 Nov. 1882, the daughter of the trade merchant David Katz (1852–1925) and his wife Sophie, née Mendel (1853–1936). She grew up with nine siblings: Hermann (1872), Johanna (1876), Max (1878), Dora (1880), Jeanette (1885), Emilie (1887), Käthe (1890), Rosalie (1892) and Bertha (1894).

We know little about Lina Katz’s life in her large family. As of Oct. 1909, Lina Katz lived in Oldenburg at Bismarckstraße 25. It is not known whether she worked while she lived there.

Lina’s father David Katz opened a fashion goods store at Minden’s Hohnstraße 32 in 1911. In 1913 the family bought their own house at Brüderstraße 27. Their daughter Dora, born in 1880, signed on as co-owner, and the fashion goods store grew. The residents of Minden liked to shop there due to its broad assortment. Until 1933 the store took in monthly profits of around 900 to 1,100 RM. After the death of David Katz in 1925, the daughters Emilie and Käthe continued to run the store with their mother. When the National Socialists came to power in 1933 and called for a boycott of all Jewish shops and businesses on 1 Apr. 1933, their monthly profits dropped to around 200 to 400 RM. In 1936 Sophie Katz died and the sisters agreed to give up the business.

A Jewish community existed in Minden as early as the 13th century. It grew steadily over the centuries, attaining a membership of up to 400 during the 19th century. It had a synagogue and a Jewish cemetery, the latter at some point falling victim to the construction of a fortress and was later replaced by a new cemetery. In the pogrom during the night from 9 to 10 Nov. 1938, SA men destroyed the synagogue under the very eyes of the authorities, the fire department and quite a few onlookers. It was burned in a controlled fire, the ruins torn down a few days later.

In April 1938, Lina Katz changed apartments in Oldenburg and lived at Lindenallee 33 until Feb. 1939, a street previously called Meinardusstraße. That building had belonged to Ivo Israel (1881–1940 in emigration) since 1932, and he ran a livestock trading business from there until 1938. In Mar. 1939 she moved again, this time to Donnerschweerstraße 59, a building housing the Louis Wiesenfeld Bakery. His sister Sophie (1876) had purchased the building in 1935. (Sophie Wiesenfeld was deported from Hamburg to Minsk on 18 Nov. 1941.)

As of 26 Apr. 1938, Jews had to report their assets if they were in excess of 5,000 RM. After Lina Katz submitted her list of assets, the Weser-Elms chief finance president in Bremen imposed a "security order” on her on 21 Sept. 1939 which meant that Lina Katz could only access her bank account with permission from the authorities. In a letter dated 20 Sept. 1940, her bank, the Oldenburg Landessparkasse, informed her that her "Jewish account” held a balance of 3,550.85 RM.

Lina Katz could no longer stay in Oldenburg as National-Socialist harassment of Jews increased. Their aim was to report the city as being "free of Jews” as quickly as possible. A memo in the files of the chief finance president of Bremen shows that Lina Katz was sentenced to three days in prison or a fine of two payments of 10 RM for an unspecified "criminal offense”.

Lina Katz left Oldenburg, moved to Hamburg and registered as a member of the Jewish community. She immediately notified the chief finance president in Bremen of her address and her newly opened "security account” at the Hamburg Sparkasse of 1864. She was allowed to withdraw 150 RM each month. We learned from her religious tax card that she found accommodation with the married couple Minka and Julius Behrend (see their entries) at Hansastraße 57. Her occupation was given as a home worker. She may have sewn clothes for Jewish customers.

On 28 Oct. 1941 Lina Katz submitted a request to the foreign currency office to be allowed to spend 200 RM of her own money on new purchases and moving costs. Now nearly 60 years old, she only spent a short time in her new apartment. In early Nov. 1941, she and the Behrend couple lived together at Grindelallee 23. It is unclear when Lina Katz received her deportation order. On 24 Nov. 1941, she again submitted a request to the foreign currency office for 300 RM for "procurements for evacuation”, as the National Socialists euphemistically referred to deportations.

On 6 Dec. 1941 Lina Katz was deported to Riga-Jungfernhof, a satellite camp of Riga Ghetto, where she was killed.

What do we know about the lives and fates of Lina Katz’ siblings?

Hermann Katz, her eldest sibling, married Maria Schnabel from Weinsberg (date of birth 14 May 1875) on 18 Nov. 1905. They were divorced in 1908 by the Karlsruhe District Court. We do not know what kind of work Hermann Katz did. In 1920 he moved to Wolfhager Straße 21 in Kassel with his second wife Fanny, née Schaumberger, who was born on 2 Feb. 1881 in Angenrod, Hesse. After living there for nearly 20 years, the couple was moved to an apartment building at Mönchebergstraße 19 on 1 Nov. 1939. Before they were deported, the couple lived in Kassel’s Wartekuppe camp, a so-called half-breed camp for Jews in mixed marriages and children of Jews and non-Jews. From there Hermann and Fanny Katz were deported to Thersienstadt Ghetto on 7 Sept. 1942 and on 29 Sept. 1942 to Treblinka extermination camp. In remembrance of Hermann and Fanny Katz, Stumbling Stones have been laid outside of their last freely chosen home in Kassel.

Max Katz lived in Cologne and worked as a salesman. He moved to Gütersloh, possibly for work reasons, where he met Selma Hamlet (1885) from Schötmar, Lippe who was working for a few weeks in her brother’s department store. They were married on 25 May 1913. Their only daughter Hilde was born on 18 Mar. 1914. The small family first lived at Berliner Straße 65. In 1923 they moved apartments and lived in the building at Feldstraße 15 until 1932, then at Hohenzollernstraße 1. At both addresses Max Katz ran a wholesale business for saddlery and upholstery goods, apparently a lucrative business. The business made it possible for their daughter Hilde to study at the Israelite Teacher Training School in Würzburg from 1933 to 1935. After completing her training, she taught at the Jawne Jewish High School in Cologne until 1941. It was there that Hilde Katz met her future husband, her colleague Hans Joseph Heinemann (1915–1978). They wed in 1938. Her husband managed to immigrate to London by accompanying a children’s transport. In 1949 he immigrated to Israel.

In the wake of the November pogrom, Max Katz was imprisoned at Buchenwald from 12 to 21 Nov. 1938 as prisoner number 30469. Following his release, the couple was no longer allowed to stay in their apartment. In Mar. 1939 they were forced to move into the recently vacated "Jewish house” at Bismarckstraße 16. From spring 1941, their daughter Hilde Heinemann worked as a farm hand at Hachschara-Lagern in Hamburg-Rissen and Steckelsdorf near Rathenow. She returned to Gütersloh. On 31 Mar. 1942 Max and Selma Katz and their daughter Hilde Heinemann, née Katz, were deported from Gelsenkirchen via Bielefeld to the Warsaw Ghetto.

Max Katz was declared dead by ruling of the Gütersloh Local Court in 1950, his daughter Hilde by the Hamburg-Blankenese Local Court in 1966. Stumbling Stones were laid in Gütersloh in 2006 in remembrance of the family.

On 28 Dec. 1938, Dora Katz succumbed to pressure from the National Socialists and sold her family’s ancestral home and business premises, also in the name of her sisters. Her siblings in the meantime had left Minden. Like her sister Jeanette before her, Dora Katz moved to Hanover on 4 July 1939, to Wagenerstraße 1. We learned from the Memorial Book of the German Federal Government that Dora Katz was considered "missing”. The Hanover Local Court declared her dead as of 31 Dec. 1945. That initially ended our search for what became of her. Then an unexpected detail emerged: Dora Katz had married. We do not know the circumstances under which she met her husband. On 11 Nov. 1939, Dora Katz married the Hanoverian Max Silberberg (1885). The couple found an apartment in a building at Klagesmarkt 7. Their joy did not last long. Early in Sept. 1941, Dora and Max Silberberg were forced to move to mass accommodation at Bergstraße 8. They were deported to the Riga Ghetto on 15 Dec. 1941. In remembrance of them, Stumbling Stones have been laid outside their last freely chosen address in Hanover.

As of Sept. 1937, Jeanette Katz lived in Hanover in the district Hannover-Ahlem at Wunstorfer Straße 16A. From there she was deported to Riga Ghetto on 15 Dec. 1941. In remembrance of Jeanette Katz, a Stumbling Stone was laid in front of her last residence.

The sisters Emilie and Käthe Katz lived together in Berlin-Charlottenburg, at Sybelstraße 49. From there they were deported to Auschwitz extermination camp on 14 Dec. 1942. In memory of the two, Stumbling Stones will be laid at their last home address.

Intensive research into what became of their sister Johanna Katz, born in 1876, failed to turn up any details. In a statement made in 1957, their surviving sister Rosalie spoke of her six murdered siblings. Johanna was not mentioned. We conclude from this that Johanna Katz may have died of natural causes.

The two youngest sisters of Lina Katz, Rosalie and Bertha, survived. They married in the late 1930s and immigrated to South America with their husbands.

In autumn 2001, a book of remembrance for the Jewish victims of National Socialism was presented in Oldenburg. It contains the vital details of 585 persecuted Jews. Lina Katz and her sisters have not been forgotten in Oldenburg.


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


Stand: September 2019
© Sonja Zoder

Quellen: 1; 2; 4; 5; 8; AB; StaH 314-15 R 1940/449 OFP Oberfinanzpräsident; StaH 522-1 Jüdische Gemeinden 992 e 2 Bd. 3 Deportationslisten; Stadtarchiv Gütersloh div. Mails mit Stephan Grimm im September 2014; Stiftung Gedenkstätten Buchenwald und Mittelbau-Dora, Archiv Torsten Jugl per Mail v. 8.9.2014; Mindener Tageblatt vom 14.6.2008 von Hans-Werner Dirks und Harald Scheurenberg am 13.8.2014; Juden in Minden: Dokumente und Bilder jüdischen Lebens vom Mittelalter bis zum 20. Jahrhundert, S. 80; Spuren jüdischen Lebens, S. 40/41; (Zugriff 27.10.2014: http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minden; http://www.hannover.de/Kultur-Freizeit/Architektur-Geschichte/Stadtgeschichte/Stolpersteine/Liste-der-verlegten-Stolpersteine und Peter Schulze div. Mails September 2014; www.mindener-juden.kommunalarchiv-minden.de/getperson.php?; http://erinnerungsbuch-oldenburg.de und Jörg Paulsen per Mail am 31.8.2014; http://www.online-ofb.de auf Familiendatenbank Juden im nördlichen Teil des ehemaligen Deutschen Reiches am 1.9.2014; http://digital.lb-oldenburg.de; http://stolpersteine-minden.de/standorte/; http://www.guetersloh.de und Stephan Grimm Mail vom 10.9.2014; http://stolpersteine.jimdo.com/stolpersteine-in-kassel/wohnungen/ am 6.9.2014; http://www.hannover.de/Kultur-Freizeit/Architektur-Geschichte/Erinnerungskultur/Stolpersteine am 9.9.2014; Schriftliche Hinweise von Stephan Grimm, Jörg Paulsen und Peter Schulze.
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