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Hermann Müller * 1884

Eppendorfer Landstraße 30 (Hamburg-Nord, Eppendorf)

1941 Lodz
ermordet am 19.4.1942 in Lodz

further stumbling stones in Eppendorfer Landstraße 30:
Dr. Paul Blumenthal, Julius Cohn, Gertrud Cohn, Meta Müller, Erna Polak, Moritz Polak

Hermann Müller, born on 25 Mar. 1884 in Leer, deported on 25 Oct. 1941 to Lodz, died there on 19 Apr. 1942
Meta (Meda) Müller, née Eichenbronner, born on 10 June 1883 in Wiesenbronn, deported on 25 Oct.1941 to Lodz, deported further to Chelmno between 7 and 9 May 1942

Eppendorfer Landstrasse 30

Meta Eichenbronner grew up in Wiesenbronn, a small town in the Lower Franconian wine-growing area at the foot of the Schwanberg, located in the Administrative District of Kitzingen. Her grandfather and father were horse dealers there. She moved from Bavaria to East Friesland and married Hermann Müller from Leer. Hermann was the youngest child, a late arrival, of the 65-year-old "mechanic and tradesman” Joseph Müller and his wife Marianne. Since in the Leer registers of births, marriages, and deaths, the Müller family no longer appears starting in 1900, probably the entire family moved to Wilhelmshaven around this time. There, Meta and Hermann joined up with the merchant A. Paul to establish a fruit and vegetable wholesale and retail business: "Müllers Markthallen für Obst, Gemüse, Südfrüchte und Konserven en gros und en detail OHG,” set up as a general partnership. Business went well and thus they were able to buy the house at the corner of Gökerstrasse 35/Margarethenstrasse 2 to use as a residential and business building.

In May 1910 and May 1911, respectively, their daughters Käthe and Irmgard were born in Wilhelmshaven. Due to the April boycott of Jewish businesses in 1933, the fruit and vegetable wholesale company of Hermann Müller also sustained heavy financial losses. In 1935, he gave up the store, selling it to an "Aryan” merchant.

In 1938, Meta and Hermann Müller moved to Hamburg to live at Eppendorfer Landstrasse 30. However, this would only be an intermediate stop. They intended to emigrate like their daughters: Käthe had emigrated to the USA; Irmgard had managed to reach Argentina. In Hamburg, the Müllers did not pursue any gainful employment, living off the proceeds from the sold house, the property lease, and Meta’s share in a property at Marktstrasse 10 in Wilhelmshaven. Like all Jews that owned more than 5,000 RM (reichsmark), they were also subject to a "security order” ("Sicherungsanordnung”) imposed by the Chief Finance Administrator (Oberfinanzpräsident). This meant that they were allocated only a certain monthly sum from their account, having to apply separately for any other extra costs. For instance, on 11 Mar. 1940, Hermann Müller filed an "application for unblocking sums secured in accordance with Sec. 59 of the Foreign Currency Law”: "I apply for the unblocking of 200 RM charged against my security account with limited disposability at the Hamburger Sparkasse von 1827. Payment to me for covering the increased living expenses due to accommodation of two relatives who had wished to emigrate but need to stay here for a few more weeks because their ship’s passage was cancelled.

Since they have already given up their apartment in Emden and dissolved their household, I felt compelled to help them out, especially since they no longer have any funds of their own either. Probably they will be able to depart in early April. It is obvious that I cannot cater for this addition to our household with the allowance granted to me.” However, he was allocated only 100 RM. The plans of Hermann and Meta Müller to emigrate failed. On 25 Oct. 1941, they were deported to the Lodz Ghetto and quartered in Room no. 28 in the building at Rembrandtstrasse 12. Hermann Müller died after six months, at the age of 58, of the miserable conditions in the ghetto. Two weeks after the death of her husband, Meta Müller received the "departure order” ("Aufforderung zur Ausreise”).

With a letter to the "expulsion commission” ("Ausweisungskommission”) of the ghetto, she tried to avert the deportation: "This very moment, I receive the departure order and I would like to ask, for the reasons mentioned below, to exempt me from it. My husband Hermann [illegible] He was employed at auxiliary medical services starting on 10 February and performed his duties until about 14 days before his death. For my part, I have been bedridden and undergoing treatment from Dr. [illegible]. I would also like to note that I have not relied on any kind of assistance and have no one to support. My relatives here take care of my physical care. For the above-mentioned reasons, I kindly ask you to approve my request. Yours humbly, Meta Müller Rembrandtstrasse 12/room 28.”

These are the last lines from Meta Müller that still exist. Her letter was stamped with "odmowa,” "refused.” Probably between 7 and 9 May 1942, she was deported further to the Chelmno extermination camp and murdered there.


Translator: Erwin Fink

Kindly supported by the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung, Hamburg.

Stand: October 2017
© Maria Koser

Quellen: 1; 2; 4; 8; StaH 314-15 OFP, 1938/3645; StaH 314-15 OFP, R 1940/324; StaH 351-11 Abl. 2008/1 060510 Müller, Hermann; Recherche und Auskunft Frau Menna Hensmann, Stadtarchiv Leer vom 4.2.2010; Recherche und Auskunft Ulrich Räcker-Wellnitz, Stadtarchiv Wilhelmshaven vom 12.4.2010; Telefonische Auskunft Hartmut Büsing; Büsing, "so viel‘ unnennbare Leiden", Hist. Arbeitskreis des DGB Wilhelmshaven, 1986; USHMM, RG 15.083, M 300/302–304, Fritz Neubauer, Universität Bielefeld, E-Mail vom 9.6.2010.
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