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Clara Levy (née Pein) * 1878

Isestraße 55 (Eimsbüttel, Harvestehude)

1941 Riga

further stumbling stones in Isestraße 55:
Rudolf Fürst, Isidor Fürst, Hedwig Fürst, Martha Fürstenberg, Walter John Israel, Herbert Pincus, Ignatz Pincus, Marianne Pincus

Clara Levy, née Pein, born 11/18/1878 in Hamburg, deported to Riga on 12/06/1941

Clara Levy was married to the bank officer Albert Levy; the couple had two daughters: Susanne, born 1907, and Rosalie, born 1914. At the end of 1914, Albert Levy was appointed assistant general manager of the main branch of the Dresdner Bank in Hamburg at Jungfernstieg 22. In 1926, the family moved from Grindelberg to a house of their own at Werderstrasse 17.

In 1933, Clara Levy’s sister Martha Fürstenberg fell into distress when her husband, a communist, fled from the Nazis to the Soviet Union. The Levys gave her shelter at their home. Albert Levy himself was also directly affected by the Nazi persecution policy; Germany’s major banks had voluntarily agreed to apply the rules of the "Reich Law for the Restoration of Professional Civil Service” to their own employees.

Already in June of 1933, all employees of the Dresdner Bank had to complete a questionnaire regarding their "Aryan” descent. Albert Levy was retired in March, 1934; he died from the effects of an accident in August of 1936.

The Levys’ daughter Susanne, now a Fränkel by marriage, moved to Parkstrasse with her husband and later emigrated to the USA. Rosalie also married and moved to Berlin. Her name was now Rosalie Wolff.

In 1939, Clara Levy was forced to sell her share in the house in Werderstrasse in order to pay the so-called levy on Jewish assets. The non-Jewish Heins couple bought the property; Clara Levy’s assets were blocked by a security order of the Chief Finance Administrator; she was only allowed to withdraw a monthly allowance to pay for her livelihood. Together with her sister Martha Furstenberg, she moved to Isestrasse 55 as a sub-tenant. Clara Levy was deported to Riga in December, 1941.
A few days before her deportation, she had donated a part of her assets, mostly securities, to the Jewish Religious Association. The Association used such donations to pay for the cost of providing the deportation transports with food and medicines and the deported persons with clothing and utensils for work. Clara Levy was murdered in Riga; her daughter Rosalie was deported from Berlin to Auschwitz on March 2nd, 1943 and also murdered.
The Levys’ daughter Susanne survived in the USA.


Translated by Peter Hubschmid
Kindly supported by the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung, Hamburg.

Stand: March 2017
© Maike Grünwaldt

Quellen: 1; 2; 4; 8; StaH 351-11, AfW 3868; StaH 622-1/55, A 23; Inge Hutton, geb. Pein, Interview am 5. Juni 2007, Gespräch am 21. Juli 2009; Dieter Ziegler, Die Dresdner Bank und die deutschen Juden, München 2006, S. 37; Auskunft des historischen Archivs der Dresdner Bank (inzwischen Commerzbank) am 28. Juli 2009.
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