Search for Names, Places and Biographies

Max Kaufmann * 1888

Rendsburger Straße 7 (Hamburg-Mitte, St. Pauli)

HIER WOHNTE
MAX KAUFMANN
JG. 1888
EINGEWIESEN 1929
HEILANSTALT LANGENHORN
"VERLEGT" 23.9.1940
BRANDENBURG
ERMORDET 23.9.1940
"AKTION T4"

Max Kaufmann, born on 25 Mar. 1888 in Altona, murdered on 23 Sept. 1940 in the Brandenburg/Havel euthanasia killing center

Stolperstein in Hamburg-St. Pauli, at Rendsburger Strasse 7

Max Kaufmann, born on 25 Mar. 1888, was the son of the merchant Josef Kaufmann, born 1846 in Goch in the Kleve administrative district, and his wife, Male Lewie from Altona, born in 1875. The couple, who was of the Jewish faith, had three other sons: Iwan, born on 6 Nov. 1886; Hans, born on 17 June 1889; and Carl, born on 12 May 1892. All the children were natives of Altona.

Eleven months after the birth of his youngest son, Josef Kaufmann passed away on 9 Apr. 1893 at the age of 46 in his apartment at Waterloohain 8 in Eimsbüttel. In the death certificate, his profession was indicated as "agent” (representative).

From 1921 to 1923, Max Kaufmann worked as an office assistant at the H. Langmaak book and magazine shop at Marcusstrasse 19 in Hamburg-Neustadt. He remained unmarried. Four different addresses are noted on his Jewish religious tax (Kultussteuer) card file of the Jewish Community. Afterward, he lived at Eimsbütteler Strasse 45 in the Eimsbüttel quarter with the artist agent William Fontheim, who was registered as residing there since 1917. Periods of subtenancy followed at Paulinenplatz 5 in St. Pauli, at Speckstrasse 5 in Hamburg-Neustadt, and finally at Rendsburger Strasse 7, again in the St. Pauli quarter, with the widow Emma Falkendahl. Her husband had died in Aug. 1923, so that Max Kaufmann must have lived there at the earliest since that time.

On 12 Feb. 1929, Max Kaufmann was admitted to the Hamburg-Langenhorn State Hospital (Staatskrankenstalt Hamburg-Langenhorn) because of a mental illness. Further details are not known. Apparently, he stayed in Langenhorn in the following years.

In the spring/summer of 1940, the "euthanasia” headquarters in Berlin, located at Tiergartenstrasse 4, planned a special operation aimed against Jews in public and private sanatoriums and nursing homes. It had the Jewish persons living in the institutions registered and moved together in what were so-called collection institutions. The Hamburg-Langenhorn "sanatorium and nursing home” ("Heil- und Pflegeanstalt” Hamburg-Langenhorn) was designated the North German collection institution. All institutions in Hamburg, Schleswig-Holstein, and Mecklenburg were ordered to move the Jews living in their facilities there by 18 Sept. 1940. After all Jewish patients from the North German institutions had arrived in Langenhorn, they were taken to Brandenburg/Havel on 23 Sept. 1940, together with the Jewish patients who had lived there for some time. On the same day, they were killed with carbon monoxide in the part of the former penitentiary converted into a gas-killing facility. Only one patient, Ilse Herta Zachmann, escaped this fate at first (see corresponding entry).

It is not known whether, and if so, when relatives became aware of Max Kaufmann’s death. In all documented death notices, it was claimed that the person concerned had died in Chelm (Polish) or Cholm (German). A note on Max Kaufmann’s birth register entry indicated: "Died on 30 Jan. [19]41 Chelm No. 375/41 Chelm II.” Those murdered in Brandenburg, however, were never in Chelm/Cholm, a town east of Lublin. The former Polish sanatorium there no longer existed after SS units had murdered almost all patients on 12 Jan. 1940. Also, there was no German records office in Chelm. Its fabrication and the use of postdated dates of death served to disguise the killing operation and at the same time enabled the authorities to claim higher care expenses for periods extended accordingly.

Nothing is known about the life and fate of Max Kaufmann’s mother Male. We also know nothing about his brothers Iwan, Hans, and Carl.

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

© Ingo Wille

Quellen: 1; 4; 5; 9; AB; StaH 133-1 III Staatsarchiv III, 3171-2/4 U.A. 4, Liste psychisch kranker jüdischer Patientinnen und Patienten der psychiatrischen Anstalt Langenhorn, die aufgrund nationalsozialistischer "Euthanasie"-Maßnahmen ermordet wurden, zusammengestellt von Peter von Rönn, Hamburg (Projektgruppe zur Erforschung des Schicksals psychisch Kranker in Langenhorn); 332-5 Standesämter 2200 Geburtsregister Nr. 2606/1889 Hans Kaufmann, 5221 Sterberegister Nr. 818/1893 Josef Kaufmann, 5892 Heiratsregister Nr. 902 Josef Kaufmann/Male Lewie, 6244 Geburtsregister Nr. 3159/1886 Iwan Kaufmann, 6252 Geburtsregister Nr. 1049/1888 Max Kaufmann, 6275 Geburtsregister Nr. 1640/1892 Carl Kaufmann, 352-8/7 Staatskrankenanstalt Langenhorn Abl. 1/1995 Aufnahme-/Abgangsbuch Langenhorn 26.8.1939 bis 27.1.1941.
Zur Nummerierung häufig genutzter Quellen siehe Link "Recherche und Quellen".