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Bela Wimmer * 1940

Lehmweg 45 (Hamburg-Nord, Hoheluft-Ost)

HIER WOHNTE
BELA WIMMER
JG. 1940
DEPORTIERT 1941
MINSK
ERMORDET

further stumbling stones in Lehmweg 45:
David Hirsch, Johanna Hirsch, Wilhelm Wimmer, Margot Wimmer

Margot Wimmer, née Neufeld, born on 8.6.1911 in Hamburg, deported to Minsk on 8.11.1941, murdered

Wilhelm Wimmer, born on 23.12.1904 in Breslau (now Wroclaw, Poland), deported to Minsk on 8.11.1941, murdered

Bela Wimmer, born on 24.6.1940 in Hamburg, deported to Minsk on 8.11.1941, murdered

Lehmweg 45

Margot Neufeld grew up with her siblings Emmy (1906-1988), Hellmuth (1909-1960 USA) and Inge (1915) in Rothenburgsort. Her parents Regina Recha, née Katzenstein, (1880 Rhina/Hesse - 1942 Hamburg) and Hermann Neufeld (1872 Rawitsch/Poland - 1932 Hamburg) had married in 1905. At the time, Regina Katzenstein was living with her sister Selma (1878 Rhina-1960) at Valentinskamp 55/Neustadt, who had married Ernst Katzenstein (1872-1956), a print shop owner from Harburg, in 1904. The groom's brother, Siegfried Neufeld (1868-1935 Hamburg), in turn, had already been married to the sister of the print shop owner Toni Katzenstein (see www.stolpersteine-hamburg.de) since 1896.

Shortly after their marriage, the young Neufeld couple took over a tobacco store at 78 Billhorner Röhrendamm. They lived in a four-room apartment on the second floor of the house, which was furnished in a middle-class style, as a former customer and neighbor recalled after 1945. The busy Billhorner Röhrendamm of that time is not comparable to the one we know today. Those who could afford it shopped there and used the various streetcar lines through the neighborhood or walked.

Margot Neufeld completed her schooling at the Jewish Girls' School in Carolinenstraße. She then attended a trade school and trained as a childcare worker, for which she also spent some time in Berlin. Around this time, Wilhelm Wimmer, who was born in Breslau, moved to Hamburg. On June 28, 1928, he registered as a member of the Jewish Community. His membership card listed his occupation as trader and postal worker (the addresses noted are illegible, however).

After completing her training, Margot Neufeld found a job as a nanny in a Jewish family with three children in Klosterallee/Harvestehude from March 1930. She received a good salary with free board and lodging. In addition, her employer paid her a 13th salary on the high Jewish holidays. However, this good working relationship only lasted until December 1935, as the family fled abroad due to persecution.

In the meantime, life for Jews had changed dramatically. During the boycott campaigns, including one against stores with Jewish owners on April 1, 1933, the shop windows of his parents' tobacco store were also smeared. Everyone could see who was running a business here. There were posts outside the door signaling "don't shop here”. This significantly reduced turnover. To make matters worse, Regina Neufeld was now running the business alone, as her husband Hermann had already died in April 1932. It is possible that the children were now helping out in the business. Step by step, Jews were forced out of business and economic life. Their businesses were "Aryanized”, as in the case of the Neufeld family. This also meant that Regina Neufeld lost her home.

We found no clues as to when and where Margot Neufeld and Wilhelm Wimmer met and how they spent the time leading up to their marriage. They married on May 22, 1939 in Hamburg. The census that had taken place a few days earlier registered Wilhelm Wimmer at the address Glashüttenstraße in the Karolinenviertel. In October 1939, they moved into their first furnished "apartment”, subletting from the widow Johanna Kunodi at Lehmweg 45. They did not have enough money for their own apartment.

The marginalization of the Jews increased steadily, which became apparent with the beginning of the war in September 1939: night curfews, radio sets had to be handed in and the order to perform forced labour were serious, but by no means all anti-Jewish measures, accompanied by the compulsory identification in the form of a "yellow star” on clothing from mid-September 1941.

However, there were also small rays of hope in these times, such as the birth of Bela Wimmer on June 24, 1940. At the time, however, no one suspected that her life would be short.

In October 1941, emigration was banned for Jews. A few days later, the deportations to the East began.

On the third transport from Hamburg, the Nazis deported Bela, Margot and Wilhelm Wimmer to the Minsk ghetto on November 8, 1941. Margot's sister Inge and her husband Ernst Bauer (see www.stolpersteine-hamburg.de) as well as the landlady Johanna Kunodi (1883) and her second husband David Hirsch (1882) (see www.stolpersteine-hamburg.de) were also assigned to this transport. None of them survived. It is not known exactly when and where they died.

What traces were found of the family members:
After Margot's mother Regina Neufeld had lost her apartment in Rothenburgsort, she lived as a subtenant in Heinrich-Barth-Straße and a little later she lived at Bundesstraße 35, a former Jewish foundation, by then declared a "Jews' house”. Regina Neufeld died there on August 20, 1942 and was laid to rest in the Ilandkoppel Jewish Cemetery, next to her husband Hermann.

Margot's eldest sister Emmy Neufeld married Rudolf Freudenfels (1900-1980) in August 1933, with whom she fled to Palestine at an unknown date.

His brother Hellmuth Neufeld initially fled to Denmark. He had been living in the USA since the fall of 1946. His escape story can be found in the biography of his sister Inge Bauer (see www.stolpersteine-hamburg.de).

Translation: Beate Meyer
Stand: November 2024
© Sonja Zoder

Quellen: 1; 4; 5; 8; 9; StaH 213-13 Landgericht Wiedergutmachung 23822 (Wimmer, Margot); 351-11 AfW 36355 (Wimmer, Margot); 351-11 AfW 46978 (Neufeld, Regina Recha); 351-11 AfW 40893 (Bauer, Inge, geb. Neufeld) jeweils am 24.9./ 30.9.2019; Frank Bajohr, "Arisierung in Hamburg", S. 362, 367, Hamburg 1997, Koser/ Brunotte, Stolpersteine in Hamburg-Eppendorf, S. 65-67; URL: www.stolpersteine-hamburg.de am 14.10.2019; https://www.tracingthepast.org/minority-census am 7.10.2019; www.ancestry.de (Geburts-, Heirats-, und Sterberegister Familien Neufeld, Katzenstein, Wimmer, Kunodi und Hirsch am 9.10.2019); www.geni.com am 31.7.2024; diverse Hamburger Adressbücher.
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