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Edith Jacobs mit den Kindern Otto Julius und Ruth Elfriede Kallmes im Winter 1935 vermutlich vor dem Mehrfamilienhaus im Abendrothsweg 25
© Privatbesitz

Edith Jacobs * 1920

Hoheluftchaussee 91-93 (Eimsbüttel, Hoheluft-West)

HIER WOHNTE
EDITH JACOBS
JG. 1920
DEPORTIERT 1941
ERMORDET IN
MINSK

further stumbling stones in Hoheluftchaussee 91-93:
Gertrud Feibel, Aron Feibel

Edith Jacobs, born 19.12.1920, deported 18.11.1941 to the ghetto Minsk and murdered

Hoheluftchaussee 91, Hoheluft-West

The photograph shows Edith Jacobs with the two children of her employer Ernst Kallmes, Otto Julius Kallmes and Ruth Elfriede Kallmes. Presumably, the photo was taken in winter in front of the apartment building at Abendrothsweg 25.

Edith Jacobs was born in Gelsenkirchen on December 19, 1920, the second child of the married couple Gustav Samuel Bar Schlomo Jacobs and Regine Rachel, née Oppenheimer. The couple had three other children: Herta Jacobs (born 16.1.1918), Margot Jacobs (born 14.6.1923) and Leopold Julius Jacobs (born 19.10.1925).

Gustav Jacobs was employed as a plumber. The family lived at Josephinenstraße 75 in Gelsenkirchen in the 1930s.

When Edith was eight years old, her mother died at the age of 38 on December 24, 1928, in Gelsenkirchen. In a second marriage, Gustav Jacobs married Johanna Bat Mordechai Hacohen, née Laser (born 22.3.1890 in Gelsenkirchen) three years later.

The family now lived in Gelsenkirchen at Bismarckstraße 92. In the restitution file of the Jacobs family it is written that Johanna Bat Mordechai had been a loving mother to the children. In 1938, the family moved to the later "Judenhaus" Schalker Straße 36.

We have no further information about Edith Jacobs' childhood.

We know that she moved from Gelsenkirchen to Hamburg on December 31, 1935. Presumably, the 15-year-old worked there in the household as a "house daughter" for the house broker Ernst Kallmes (born 30.4.1892) at Abendrothsweg 25/Hoheluft-Ost. (The latter fled to the USA in 1938 with his wife Therese Kallmes (born 5.7.1895), and their son Otto Julius Kallmes (born 20.10.1931) and daughter Ruth Elfriede Kallmes (born 14.4.1933).

Due to emigration of her employers and also their impoverishment, she had to change her jobs and thus also residential addresses frequently.
In the district of Eppendorf, Loogestieg 11, she moved to the widow Margarethe Marum (born 20.12.1877), where she probably also worked. (Margarethe Marum was deported to Riga on December 6, 1941 and murdered).

In 1938, Edith Jacobs moved to Hochallee 123 to live with Clara Herz on the upper first floor. (Clara Herz was deported to Theresienstadt on July 19, 1942 and murdered. A Stolperstein is located at Hochallee 123.)

On February 4, 1938, Edith Jacobs joined the Jewish Community of Hamburg. On April 27, 1938, the latter noted on Edith Jacobs' tax file card (Kultussteuerkarte) an income of RM 30 per month. Edith Jacobs was now placed with Jewish families by the Jewish Community as a domestic servant.

In July 1939, Edith Jacobs worked on "board and lodging", i.e. she occupied a room in the 5 1/2 room apartment, at Haynstraße 13 in Eppendorf. Her employers there were Ina Löwenthal (born 8.7.1873) and Louis Löwenthal (born 23.11.1860). (Louis Löwenthal died in Hamburg on June 16, 1942; Ina Löwenthal was deported to the "old age ghetto" Theresienstadt on July 19, 1942, and murdered in Treblinka in 1942. See www.stolpersteine-hamburg.de).

Soon Edith Jacobs moved to Heimhuder Straße 19 in the Rotherbaum district to live with the heating engineer F. Schwarz in the basement. In 1940 she lived with retired teacher Edith Streim (born 17.11.1898) at Hoheluftchaussee 91 on the second floor. (Edith Streim was deported to Lodz/Litzmanstadt with her husband Iwan Streim and daughter Alice Streim on October 25, 1941 and murdered. See www.stolpersteine-hamburg.de).

Edith Jacobs received her deportation order in November 1941 and had to meet at Moorweidenstraße one evening before on November 17, 1941 and spend the night in the lodge house. The Jewish Community, which by now had to call itself Jüdischer Religionsverband e.V. (Jewish Religious Association), provided meals for those to be deported.

On November 18, 1941, Edith Jacobs was deported with 967 other people from the Hanover train station to the Minsk ghetto.

Possibly Edith Jacobs, now 21 years old, was still employed as a forced laborer in or near Minsk. Forced labor was performed there in agriculture, but also in various craft enterprises. As a rule, the dates of death of those deported to Minsk are not known. In the Ancestry family tree Edith Jacobs' year of death is given as 1943.

On the fate of Edith Jacobs' parents and siblings:
Gustav and Johanna Jacobs were deported to Riga with their son Leopold Julius on January 27, 1942. When the Riga concentration camp was dissolved, they were sent to the Kaiserwald concentration camp, a subcamp of Riga, and then to the Strasdenhof concentration camp, where they were murdered during a selection. (See www.stolpersteine-gelsenkirchen.de).

Leopold Julius Jacobs were liberated in the Stutthof concentration camp on May 9, 1945. He married Edna Gizela Eis(z)enstein (born 22.10.1931. They emigrated to Palestine/Israel, Leopold Jacobs died there on June 14, 1970 and Edna Jacobs on June 20, 1972.

Herta Jacobs (born 16.1.1918) married Oskar Rothschild (born 24.9.1891). They were able to escape from Germany in time, when, we do not know. Oskar Rothschild died on September 3, 1968 and Herta Rothschild on February 8, 2002 in the USA.

Margot Jacobs (born 14.6.1923) was deported from Gelsenkirchen to Minsk on June 27, 1942, and later to the Stutthof concentration camp, where she was liberated by the Allies on May 9, 1945. Emigrated to the USA, she married Max Zeiss (born July 25, 1908) there. Max Zeiss died on June 28, 1991, Margot Zeiss on April 11, 2022 in the USA.

Translation Beate Meyer

Stand: March 2023
© Bärbel Klein

Quellen: 1; 4; 8; StaH, 522-1; Deportationsliste vom 18.11.1941; 351-11 Amt für Wiedergutmachung 25160 (Margarethe Marum), 14373 (Ernst Kallmes); 741-4 Filmarchiv K 2355, ITS Archives Bad Arolsen Digital Archive Korrespondenzakte 6.3.3.2 / 7105 Archivnummer [106921123] und [106921120] und [106921125] Einsicht am 7.3.2017; Alfred Gottwaldt und Diana Schulle, Die Judendeportationen aus dem Deutschen Reich 1941 -1945, Wiesbaden 2005 erschienen; Email und Adresskartei aus Gelsenkirchen erhalten am 26.05.2020 von Sabine Kittel, Institut für Stadtgeschichte in Gelsenkirchen; Münster Entschädigungsbehörde K 204_10734 (Gustav Jacobs); www.ancestry.de; www.geni.com; www.familienbuch-euregio.de (Einsicht am 28.12.2020).
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