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Eva Emma Mathiason (née Levy) * 1900

Schäferkampsallee 29 (Eimsbüttel, Eimsbüttel)

1943 Theresienstadt
1944 Auschwitz

further stumbling stones in Schäferkampsallee 29:
Dr. Rudolf Borgzinner, Martha Dessen, Heinrich Harth, Meyer Jelinewski, Margaretha Magnus, Gertrud Stillschweig, Clara Streim, Emma Weiland

Eva Emma Mathiason, née Levy, born on 27 July 1900 in Hamburg, deported on 23 June 1943 to Theresienstadt, deported to Auschwitz on 4 Oct. 1944 and murdered there

Schäferkampsallee 29

The parents of Eva Emma Mathiason were Alexander and Emma Levy, née van Son. The father, Alexander Levy, died in 1938; the mother survived. Eva Emma Mathiason was a niece of Regina van Son, also deported from Hamburg, letters of whom to relatives were preserved and published. For Regina van Son, a Stolperstein is located at Binderstrasse 13.

On 28 May 1920, Eva Emma Levy had married the house and mortgage broker James Mathiason (born on 16 Sept. 1885). Her husband was the son of Eduard Mathiason and his wife Elisabeth, née Feuchtwanger. Until getting married, Eva Emma had lived with her parents at Lehmweg 9. At the time of the wedding, her husband resided at Hansastrasse 57. Until the mid-1930s, James Mathiason’s business address was Gerhofstrasse 19 and then Königstrasse 21/23 near the Gänsemarkt. Königstrasse no longer exists in the city center; it is part of Poststrasse today.

The couple had three daughters: the twins Edith and Gerda (born on 26 Mar. 1921) as well as Elisabeth (born on 12 Dec. 1922). All of the children departed for Britain on 1 Dec. 1938 – probably on a "children transport” (Kindertransport). The father followed to join them in Mar. 1939. Originally, he had indicated in a questionnaire for emigrants that he intended to emigrate with his daughter Edith to Palestine. Edith was a kitchen intern at the Jewish retirement home and she learned to sew. Eva was actually supposed to emigrate to Palestine as well. The reason why she remained in Hamburg was perhaps that she did not want to leave her mother by herself. All three daughters survived, subsequently getting married. The youngest daughter later took up residence in the USA.

Before 1933, the family lived in solid middle-class circumstances in Harvestehude. The following addresses appear on the tax file cards: Hansastrasse, Brahmsallee 11, Werderstrasse 7, and Johnsallee. Since the early 1930s, the married Mathiason couple with their daughters lived at Werderstrasse 7 until 1937 or 1938. In Nov. 1938, a "security order” ("Sicherungsanordnung") was imposed on James Mathiason.

After her husband’s emigration, Eva Emma Mathiason had to deal with financial difficulties arising from his business transactions, getting advice from the Jewish "legal adviser” ("Konsulent”) [a newly introduced Nazi term for Jewish lawyers banned from full legal practice] Ernst Kaufmann. The Jewish citizens’ complete deprivation of rights by the state also lowered the inhibition threshold among non-Jewish business partners, causing them from time to time to line their pockets at the expense of Jewish business partners. The assets of the Mathiasons were confiscated. This included properties in Hamburg, e.g., on Gänsemarkt. The property at Gänsemarkt 24/25 was owned jointly by Eva Emma and Alexander as well as Leonhard Levy. It was purchased by a neighboring company, Girardet & Co. Eva Emma Mathiason had a brother-in-law by the name of Zygmunt Weissmann, against whom criminal proceedings due to an offense against foreign currency regulations were pending in Kattowitz (Katowice in Poland). In this context, her assets were mortgaged. However, the assets were not seized as collateral. All the same, Eva Emma Mathiason had to pay 3,100 RM (reichsmark) to Jewish "legal advisers” who had dealt with the case.

After her husband’s emigration, Eva Emma Mathiason lived with her mother at Brahmsallee 25 (with Perlmann) until Sept. 1941. At the beginning of 1942, she fell seriously ill, spending many weeks at the Jewish Hospital at Johnsallee 68. On 14 Sept. 1942, she was forced to move to the "Jews’ house” ("Judenhaus”) at Schäferkampsallee 29. There she received the deportation order to Theresienstadt, a transit station on the way to Auschwitz, where she was murdered.

The mother, Emma Levy, died as late as 1953 in Israel. She had traveled along with a group of persons to Palestine in 1944 in connection with an exchange "approved” by the Gestapo. In return, non-Jewish Germans were released from internment in Palestine to Germany.


Translator: Erwin Fink

Kindly supported by the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung, Hamburg.

Stand: October 2017
© Susanne Lohmeyer

Quellen: 1; 2 (FVg 9197); R1938/3310; R1940/330); 4; 5; 8; StaH 332-5 Standesämter, 8741 und 365/1920; StaH 351-11 AfW 270700 Mathiason, Eva Emma und 220786 van Son, Else (zu Mathiason, geb. Levy, Eva Emma); StaH 621-1/84 Konsulent Ernst Kaufmann, 79; HAB II 1920, 1928, 1937; Jürgen Sielemann, Aber seid alle beruhigt; Amtliche Fernsprechbücher Hamburg.
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