Search for Names, Places and Biographies

Leo Massenbacher * 1896

Wohldorfer Straße 3 (Hamburg-Nord, Barmbek-Süd)

HIER WOHNTE
LEO MASSENBACHER
JG. 1896
EINGEWIESEN 1940
HEILANSTALT LANGENHORN
"VERLEGT" 23.9.1940
BRANDENBURG
ERMORDET 23.9.1940
"AKTION T4"

Leopold Massenbacher, born on 1 Jan. 1896 in Burghaslach (Middle Franconia), murdered on 23 Sept. 1940 in the Brandenburg/Havel euthanasia killing center

Stolperstein in Hamburg-Bramfeld, at Wohldorfer Strasse 3

In Burghaslach, a village in Middle Franconia, the first traces of "Israelites” can be found in 1525. After the complete legal equality of the Jews in Bavaria in 1868, a diverse cultural community life developed in Burghaslach, characterized by the activities of the Synagogue Association (Synagogenverein), the Talmud Tora Association for Pious Studies (Vereinigung für fromme Studien), and a relief fund. There were local groups of the Central Association of German Citizens of Jewish Faith (Centralverein deutscher Staatsbürger jüdischen Glaubens) and the Agudat Israel, a strictly religious league of Jewish orthodoxy. The Jewish Community maintained a Jewish elementary school (Volksschule) with its own teacher.

The Massenbacher family had lived there for several generations. Leopold Massenbacher’s father, the wine merchant Maier Massenbacher, and his mother Helena Massenbacher, née Blum, had 12 children between 1881 and 1901: Seligman Moshe Chaim Massenbacher, born on 21 Dec. 1881; Jette Massenbacher, married name Lieber, born on 8 Aug. 1883; Moshe Chaim Massenbacher, born probably in 1884; Selma Massenbacher, married name Sichel, born on 16 Aug. 1884; Jakob Massenbacher, born on 15 Mar. 1886, deceased on 30 Aug. 1886; Salomon Massenbacher, born on 21 June 1887; Laura Massenbacher, married name Levi, born on 2 May 1890; Rosa Massenbacher, born on 17 Aug. 1892; Bella Massenbacher, married name Wallach, born on 29 May 1894; Leopold Massenbacher, born on 1 Jan. 1896; Lia Massenbacher, born on 6 July 1897; and Max Massenbacher, born on 8 Aug. 1901.

The parents of this large family stayed in the Middle Franconian village until the end of their lives. Helena died in 1924, Maier Massenbacher in 1929. His gravestone is located in the Burghaslach Jewish Cemetery.

Leopold Massenbacher lived in Hamburg since 1922 and worked as a commercial clerk. His address was Wohldorfer Strasse 3 with Schirmer in the Bramfeld-Süd quarter. Probably the relatives living in Hamburg made the city attractive to Leopold. His sister Jette was married to Hermann Lieber, the cantor and kosher butcher (shohet) of the German-Israelite Synagogue Association (Deutsch-Israelitischer Synagogenverband) in Hamburg. Since 1912 the couple lived at Glashüttenstrasse 89 in the St. Pauli quarter. Bella and Rosa Massenbacher had also taken up residence there at times. Salomon Massenbacher lived in Hamburg as well for about a year in 1909/1910. Leopold’s sister Selma Sichel, née Massenbacher, also resided in Hamburg.

On 5 Aug. 1924, Leopold Massenbacher was admitted to the Friedrichsberg State Hospital (Staatskrankenanstalt Friedrichsberg) at the behest of the Hamburg police authority. Richard Löwenberg, later assistant physician in Friedrichsberg, had declared the admission necessary because of "urgent suspected risk of suicide.” The stationary treatment in Friedrichsberg was later justified with the diagnosis of "sensory illusions.” Leopold Massenbacher was transferred from Friedrichsberg to the Langenhorn State Hospital (Staatskrankenanstalt Langenhorn) on 15 Jan. 1926 and to the Strecknitz "sanatorium” ("Heilanstalt”) near Lübeck on 9 Oct. 1930.

Leopold Massenbacher spent the following ten years there. During this time, Hermann Lieber, Jette Massenbacher’s husband, had taken over the guardianship of Leopold for several years. Other relatives were also concerned about Leopold. In July 1940, his sister Bella, married name Wallach, who resided in Berlin, inquired about the condition of her brother. She received a reply to the effect that Leopold was physically well, but that he was not interested in his condition and environment. Under supervision, he carried out minor work in the ward.

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 officially 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.

Leopold Massenbacher arrived in Langenhorn on 16 Sept. 1940. On 23 Sept. 1940, he was transported to Brandenburg/Havel with a further 135 patients from North German institutions. The transport reached the city in the Mark (March) on the same day. In the part of the former penitentiary that had been converted into a gas-killing facility, the patients were immediately driven into the gas chamber and murdered with carbon monoxide. Only Ilse Herta Zachmann escaped this fate at first (see corresponding entry).

Probably Leopold’s relatives did not know he was dead. Otherwise Leopold’s sister, Rosa Massenbacher, who lived in Würzburg, would not have written to Strecknitz on 5 Feb. 1941 to inquire about his condition. She received the reply dated 8 Feb. 1941 that her brother had already been transferred back to Langenhorn on 16 Sept. 1940.

On the birth register entry of Leopold Massenbacher, it was noted that the records office Chelm II registered his death under number 418/1941. Those murdered in Brandenburg, however, were never in Chelm (German: 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.

Eight of Leopold Massenbacher’s siblings died a natural death, some after emigrating from Germany. Salomon Massenbacher, a soldier in World War I, was considered missing. Bella Massenbacher, married name Wallach, was deported from Berlin to "Litzmannstadt” (Lodz) on 18 Oct. 1941 and from there to Kulmhof (Chelmno) on 8 May 1942. There she was murdered on the same day. Like Gitta Sichel, Leopold’s niece, Rosa Massenbacher is said to have been murdered in Auschwitz.

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

© Ingo Wille

Quellen: 1; 4; 5; 9; AB; StaH 133-1 III Staatsarchiv 3171-2/4 U.A. 4, Liste psychisch kranker jüdischer 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 1024 Sterberegisterauszug Nr. 305/1934 Jacob (Jacob) Massenbacher; 332-8 Meldewesen K 6571 Massenbacher; 351-11 Amt für Wiedergutmachung 6667 Jette Lieber, 34341 Selma Sichel; 352-8/7 Staatskrankenanstalt Langenhorn 1995/2 16089 Leopold Massenbacher; UKE/IGEM, Patienten-Karteikarte Leopold Massenbacher der Staatskrankenanstalt Friedrichsberg; Markt Burghaslach, Geburtsregisterauszug Nr. 20/1883 Jette Massenbacher, Geburtsregisterauszug Nr. 8/1886 Jakob Massenbacher, Markt Burghaslach, Geburtsregisterauszug Nr. 10/1890 Laura Massenbacher, Geburtsregisterauszug Nr. 12/1894 Bella Massenbacher, Geburtsregisterauszug Nr. 1/1896 Leopold Massenbacher; IMGWF, Patientenakte Leopold Massenbacher der Heilanstalt Lübeck-Strecknitz; JSHD Forschungsgruppe "Juden in Schleswig-Holstein", Datenpool Erich Koch, Schleswig; Hinz-Wessels: Antisemitismus und Krankenmord in VfZ 1/2013, S. 81; Fleischmann, Johann: Burghaslach 1828–1834, S. 99ff., Opfer der nationalsozialistischen Gewaltherrschaft aus Burghaslach, S. 109ff. in: Fleischmann: Mesusa 4, Mühlhausen, 2004; Von Villiez: Mit aller Kraft verdrängt, S. 343 (Dr. Löwenberg).
Zur Nummerierung häufig genutzter Quellen siehe Link "Recherche und Quellen".