Search for Names, Places and Biographies
Already layed Stumbling Stones
Suche
; "Martha und Ludwig Weiss")
© Privat
Gerda Weiss * 1922
Kleiner Schäferkamp 32 (Eimsbüttel, Eimsbüttel)
HIER WOHNTE
GERDA WEISS
JG. 1922
DEPORTIERT 1941
ERMORDET IN
MINSK
further stumbling stones in Kleiner Schäferkamp 32:
Lina Bähr, Rudolf Bähr, Esther Bähr, Frida Dannenbaum, Frieda Meiberg, Julius Meiberg, Manfred Meiberg, Ruth Meiberg, Fanny Meiberg, Ellen Weiss, Louis Weiss, Martha Weiss
Louis Ludwig Weiss, born on 25 Mar. 1887 in Berlin, arrested in Sachsenhausen in 1938, deported to Minsk on 8 Nov. 1941
Martha Weiss, née Moses, called Kirschstein, born on 28 May 1891 in Berlin, deported to Minsk on 8 Nov. 1941
Gerda Weiss, born on 28 Oct. 1922 in Hamburg, deported to Minsk on 8 Nov. 1941
Ellen Anna Weiss, born on 24 Mar. 1933 in Hamburg, deported to Minsk on 8 Nov. 1941
Kleiner Schäferkamp 32
The lives and deaths of Ludwig Weiss, his wife Martha, and his daughters Gerda and Ellen have left few traces in the archives, but the memory of this family has been preserved by the descendants of Ludwig’s brother Sam in Israel. Old photos show the Weiss family in Hamburg-Eimsbüttel. Sam Weiss’ grandson has made efforts to have Stolpersteine laid for his great-uncle’s family.
Martha and Ludwig Weiss both came from Berlin. Martha Weiss was the daughter of the merchant Jacob Moses, called Kirschstein, and his wife Rudolfine, née Rosenberg. Martha was born in what was then Neue Friedrichstrasse, one of the oldest streets in the city.
Ludwig Weiss’ parents were Levy Leopold Weiss (1846–1911) and Anna Weiss, née Munk (1858–1929). At birth, he was given the name Louis, but later he called himself Ludwig. This first name subsequently also appeared in the Hamburg directory. When Ludwig was born, the family resided at Alte Schönhauser Strasse 35 in Berlin-Mitte.
Ludwig had three siblings, Sam (Samuel) Weiss (1883 to 1960), Else (married name Bendix, born in 1881 in Berlin, murdered in Auschwitz in 1943), and Gertrud (married name Hoffmann, born in 1891 in Berlin, died in 1940 in an air raid in London). Only his brother Sam, who was a Zionist, survived with his second wife – his first wife Selma Hanna, née Wolff, had died giving birth to their daughter Miriam in Hamburg – and their daughters Ruth and Miriam through emigration to Palestine. (Gertrud Hoffmann, née Weiss, and her husband Dr. med. Gustav Hoffmann have been commemorated by Stolpersteine at Ifflandstrasse 8 in Hohenfelde. The Hoffmann couple was able to send their children Hadassa and Hanan to Palestine, where they survived).
The siblings Ludwig, Sam, and Gertrud had left Berlin and moved to Hamburg. Sam Weiss, who had joined the Jewish Community in 1913, operated a medical practice at Am Weiher 23 and then at Ottersbekallee 9. The apartment was located at 21 Ottersbekallee, and Gertrud married a colleague of her brother Sam.
Ludwig Weiss worked in Hamburg as a textile sales representative or – as it was designated in the Jewish religious tax (Kultussteuer) file card – as a "traveler.” Until his deportation, he lived in Eimsbüttel at Kleiner Schäferkamp 32; before that, the address was Nissenstrasse 8 in Eppendorf. At times, he had also resided with his brother on Ottersbekallee and at Bismarckstrasse 82.
The Weiss family lived on the third floor of the Samuel-Lewisohn-Stiftung. This foundation granted free apartments "to Israelite members of the Hamburg State, and preferably to families who had previously lived in better circumstances,” as one can gather from the mission statement of the foundation. Ludwig Weiss was probably not successful as a merchant. As early as 1931, he stopped paying Jewish religious tax because of low or no income.
After the Nazis came to power, his career opportunities deteriorated further. The emigrated physician and brother Sam Weiss tried to support him financially as far as he could. He had a blocked account at Dresdner Bank in Hamburg, and in Apr. 1935, he applied for a one-time payment of 400 RM (reichsmark) to his brother Ludwig to enable him to resume his activities as a traveling salesman. The grandson of Sam Weiss reports that Ludwig Weiss had also sought to emigrate through his brother. There are no indications of this in the files of the Hamburg Chief Finance Administrator (Oberfinanzpräsident).
However, Sam Weiss had been able to arrange for Ludwig’s older daughter Gerda to emigrate to the USA. Relatives were residing there. Gerda was only 14 years old when she sailed from Hamburg to New York on the American "SS Washington” in Apr. 1936. However, in America she did not manage to settle in alone and returned to Germany, which meant her death.
The second daughter, Ellen Anna Weiss, ten years younger than her older sister, was only born during the Nazi regime (born on 24 Mar. 1933). When she reached school age, she was no longer allowed to attend public schools, only the Talmud Tora School was still open to her.
The entire Weiss family, along with 964 other Hamburg residents, was deported to Minsk on 8 Nov. 1941 and murdered.
Translator: Erwin Fink
Kindly supported by the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung, Hamburg.
Stand: December 2020
© Susanne Lohmeyer
Quellen: 1; 5; Geburtsregister Berlin 410/1891; Geburtsregister Berlin 658/1887; www.stolpersteine-hamburg.de, Biografie Dr. Gustav Hoffmann; www.ancestry.de Passagierlisten 1936; StaH 351-11, 6725; Informationen des Nachkommen Emanuel Pelleg.
Zur Nummerierung häufig genutzter Quellen siehe Link "Recherche und Quellen".
