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Mejer Meier Adest * 1907

Bernstorffstraße 161 (Altona, Altona-Altstadt)

HIER WOHNTE
MEJER MEIER ADEST
JG. 1907
"POLENAKTION" 1938
BENTSCHEN / ZBASZYN
ERMORDET IM
BESETZTEN POLEN

further stumbling stones in Bernstorffstraße 161:
Pinkus Adest, Anna Mathilde Adest, Senta Adest

Pinkus Adest, born on 15 June 1885 in Strzyzow (now Strzyżów, Poland), deported across the German-Polish border near Zbąszyń (German: Bentschen) on 28 October 1938, murdered in occupied Poland

Chana (Anna Mathilde) Adest, née Engelberg, born probably on 1 September 1888 in Rzeszow (Poland), deported across the German-Polish border near Zbąszyń (German Bentschen) on 28 October 1938, murdered in occupied Poland

Mejer Meier Abraham (Adolf) Adest, born on 7 January 1907 in Rzeszow (Poland), deported across the German-Polish border near Zbąszyń (German: Bentschen) on 28 October 1938, murdered in occupied Poland

Senta Adest, born on 25 June 1914 in Altona, deported across the German-Polish border near Zbąszyń (German Bentschen) on 28 October 1938, murdered in occupied Poland

Bernstorffstraße 161 (formerly Adolphstraße or Adolfstraße), Altona-Altstadt

The Jewish Adest family had immigrated from Galicia to the then still independent city of Altona in 1910. This can be seen from the declaration of membership of the High German Israelite Community. At that time, Galicia still belonged to Austria.

Pinkus Adest was born on 15 June 1885 in Strzyzowin, Galicia. Today's Strzyżów is located in south-east Poland in the Carpathian Foothills Voivodeship at the confluence of the Wisłok and Stobnica rivers.

The couple Pinkus and Anna Mathilde (Chana), née Engelberg, probably born on 1 September 1888 in Rzeszow (now Poland), had married in Galicia. Two of their three children were born there: Mejer Meier Abraham (Adolf), born on 7 January 1907 in Rzeszow, and Moryc (Moritz/Morris), born on 15 January 1908 in Rzeszow. Senta, the third and youngest child, was born on 25 June 1914 in Altona.

All family members were listed as Polish citizens in the official documents.

The family initially settled in a rear building at what was then Adolphstraße 149 (from 1938 Adolfstraße after Hitler's first name, from 1 January 1939 Bernstorffstraße). Pinkus Adest initially provided for his family as a labourer. However, according to the Altona address book, he was already running a linen wholesale business at Adolphstraße 159 in 1914. The business must have been very successful. Pinkus and Anna Mathilde Adest had already acquired the neighbouring (residential) property at Adolphstraße 161 around 1924, which they also moved into. According to the land register, Anna Mathilde (Chana) Adest was the owner. The Altona address book also named "Mrs Anna" as the owner until the 1940 edition, but in 1941 after "E." (for owner) there was only a blank line.

The eldest son Adolf Adest worked as a merchant. Moritz Adest, the second youngest son, who was the only one to survive the National Socialist era, attended the Talmud Tora School in Hamburg from 1914 to 1923. He then completed a commercial apprenticeship at the white goods wholesaler Seligmann & Franck at Deichstraße 9 in Hamburg-Altstadt. Between 1930 and 1933, Moritz Adest worked on a temporary basis at the Alsterhaus department stores' on Jungfernstieg. At the same time, he traded in fabrics and cloth on his own account. He continued to live with his parents at Adolphstraße 161.

Senta Adest, the youngest of the three children, was very good at school according to her parents' reports. She attended commercial college and then worked as an office clerk. From September 1932 - Senta Adest was now eighteen years old - her parents noticed changes in her. She behaved anxiously and shied away from people. For this reason, she was treated in the Friedrichsberg State Hospital from 30 June 1934 to 30 April 1935 and then transferred to the Langenhorn State Hospital. According to the entries in her medical file, she had little contact with her surroundings there. She had talked to herself, screamed loudly at times and called for help. Her diagnosis was schizophrenia.

Against medical advice, her father took her home on holiday on 14 May 1935, but brought her back to the institution on 9 November 1935. The clinical picture, as documented in the medical records, was similar to that in Friedrichsberg. She was said to have sat listlessly in the day room without paying any attention to her surroundings. She was said to have hastily made handicrafts that her relatives had brought with them. Sometimes she played the piano with great pleasure, always at a marching pace. The young woman was repeatedly described as unclean. She had eaten excessively and her weight had increased accordingly.

On 9 May 1938, she was transferred to the Barmbek General Hospital, where she was forcibly sterilised on 13 May 1938. Due to a secondary illness, she was only able to leave the hospital on 22 July. She was then considered mentally quiet, without drive, autistic. Pinkus Adest brought his daughter home on 31 August 1938 in exchange for a lapel. From 28 September, the Langenhorn institution listed her as "finally discharged".

While the parents were caring for Senta, they were affected by the anti-Jewish measures of the National Socialists, such as the boycott of Jewish businesses in April 1933. Moritz Adest's report in the restitution proceedings after the war gives an impression of this. He recalled that his parents had earned incomes of around RM 40,000 to RM 45,000 in 1930 and 1931, which dwindled to RM 5,000 in 1937 and RM 1,000 in 1938.
Moritz Adest estimated his own income between 1930 and 1932 at RM 5,000 to RM 6,000 per year. In 1933 it fell to RM 3,000 and in 1934 to RM 1,500. From 1935 onwards, he earned nothing. He was unable to collect his outstanding debts because customers refused to pay outstanding invoices.

On 28 October 1938, 17,000 Jews of Polish origin were forcibly expelled from the German Reich across the Polish border as part of the so-called Polen-Action. The Polish government had previously threatened not to renew the passports of Poles living abroad. This would have turned them into stateless persons. The Nazi government therefore feared that thousands of "Eastern Jews" would remain permanently on German territory. Without warning and regardless of the person, men, women and children were collected from their workplaces or homes throughout the German Reich, rounded up at various locations and deported on the same day by railway across the Polish border at Zbąszyń (Bentschen), Chojnice (Konitz) in Pomerania and Bytom (Beuthen) in Upper Silesia. The costs of the deportation campaign were to be borne by the Reich budget "insofar as they could not be collected [...] from the deported foreigners".

Around a thousand people were forcibly transported from Hamburg, to which Altona had also belonged since 1 January 1938, to Neu Bentschen (now Zbąszynek) on the German side of the border and from there forcibly driven across the Polish border to Zbąszyń, around 10 km away. The deportees included the Adest couple and their two children Adolf and Senta.

Moritz Adest escaped deportation because he was in Berlin at the time. He was imprisoned there in the Gestapo prison on Alexanderplatz. He was released four weeks later after it was established that he had not evaded deportation. He was ordered to leave Germany within six months.

His attempt to save his parents' assets by applying for them and his two siblings to "emigrate" to Poland at the end of November 1938 was unsuccessful. He estimated their cash assets at RM 500 and claims against deported customers at around RM 5,000. He named his household and furniture as further assets. The question as to what amount should be paid out in cash was answered with RM 10. Pinkus and Anna Adest never came into possession of the financial assets they had been forced to leave behind.

Pinkus and Anna Adest moved from Zbąszyń to Rzeszow with their two children Adolf and Senta. According to a report by Moritz Adest in the later restitution proceedings, the family lived there at Seitenfrauengasse 10 and Ulica Tredy 16a. Moritz Adest received a postcard from them dated 15 July 1942 as their last sign of life. It showed that Senta Adest was no longer living with her parents. It is not known whether Adolf Adest was still with his parents at this time.

In 1941, the Germans set up a ghetto in Rzeszow, from which many Jewish residents were later murdered in the Belzec extermination camp. It can be assumed that all members of the Adest family who were deported to Poland were also murdered. No further details are known. They were all declared dead on 8 May 1945.

Moritz Adest boarded a ship to Cuba on 28 March 1939. In December 1940, he finally received permission to enter New York. He became a citizen of the United States and changed his first name to Morris.

After Moritz Adest's departure, the tenant Bertha Durkee initially managed the property at Bernstorffstraße 161 at his request. In 1939, the Hamburgische Grundstücksverwaltungs-Gesellschaft von 1938 m.b.H. took over the property in its forced administration. The Gauleitung had founded this company in 1938 specifically for the purpose of expropriating Jewish property owners and thus seized a large part of the Jewish property.

Pinkus, Anna Mathilde, Mejer Meier and Senta Adest are commemorated by stumbling stones in front of their former house at Bernstorffstraße 161.

Stand: April 2025
© Ingo Wille

Quellen: Adressbücher Altona und Hamburg (diverse Jahrgänge, 1; 2; 4, 5; StaH 213-13 Landgericht Hamburg – Wiedergutmachung 2018 (Anna Adest), 2019 (Morris Adest), 34598 (Morris Adest), 314-15 Oberfinanzpräsident F11 (Pinkus und Mathilde Adest geb. Engelberg), FVg 3973 (Morris Adest), R1939/126 (Sicherungsmaßnahmen Pinkus und Mathilde Adest), 424-111 Amtsgericht Altona 7278 (Adest, geb. Engelberg, Anna Mathilde (Chana)), 351-11 Amt für Wiedergutmachung 3305 (Morris Adest), 352-8/7 Staatskrankenanstalten 21474 Senta Adest; 741-4 Fotoarchiv Alpabetische Meldekartei Altona K7270 (1892-1919). Frank Bajohr, "Arisierung" in Hamburg. Die Verdrängung der jüdischen Unternehmer 1933-1945, Hamburg 1998, S. 290-293 (Hamburgische Grundstücksverwaltungsgesellschaft von 1938 mbH); Alina Bothe, Gertrud Pickhan (Hrsg.); Ausgewiesen! Berlin, 28.10.1938, Die Geschichte der "Polenaktion", Berlin 2018; Marian Wojciechowski, Die deutsche Minderheit in Polen (1920-1939), in: Deutsche und Polen zwischen den Kriegen. Minderheitenstatus und "Volkstumskampf" im Grenzgebiet (1920-1939). Texte und Materialien zur Zeitgeschichte, Bd. 9/1, Hrsg. von Rudolf Jaworski und Marian Wojciechowski, München u.a. 1997, S. 6 ff.; Ina Lorenz und Jörg Berkemann, Die Hamburger Juden im NS-Staat 1933 bis 1938/39, Band II, S. 1096-1107, Göttingen 2016; Beate Meyer (Hrsg.), Die Verfolgung und Ermordung der Hamburger Juden 1933-1945, 2. Aufl., Hamburg 2007, S. 25; Jerzey Tomaszewski, Auftakt zur Vernichtung, Warschau 1998, S. 15 ff.; Jürgen Sielemann, Paul Flamme, Hamburger jüdische Opfer des Nationalsozialismus – Gedenkbuch, Staatsarchiv Hamburg 1995, S. XVII; Das nationalsozialistische Lagersystem, Frankfurt/M, 1998.
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