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Leo Lesser Jacobsohn * 1881

Schlüterstraße 22 (Eimsbüttel, Rotherbaum)

1941 Minsk

further stumbling stones in Schlüterstraße 22:
Lothar Bauer, Jolanthe Fromm, Wilhelm Samson, Bianca Wolff, Alfred Wolff

Jacobsohn Leo Lesser, born on 24 June 1881, deported on 8 Nov. 1941 to Minsk

Before 1933, the merchant and innkeeper operated "Hellmanns Gaststätte” at Kleine Theaterstrasse 8 and then a restaurant at Grosse Theaterstrasse 41. He lived in a childless "mixed marriage” (Mischehe) with the Protestant Minna Jacobsohn on Kleine Rosenstrasse/Hamburg-Neustadt, Colonnaden, Fröbelstrasse, and finally, starting in June 1939, at Schlüterstrasse 22.

According to a non-Jewish relative, the fact that Minna had married a Jewish husband had been neither a problem nor a topic of conversation within the family. Leo Jacobsohn was reportedly a rather non-religious but very sociable person who liked to play cards, celebrate, and paid much attention to his appearance. If unable to attend family celebrations due to the restaurant operation, he nevertheless did show up for the freshly baked German butter cake served at midnight.

While Minna Jacobsohn did not pursue any gainful employment, he apparently had great success with his restaurants, in the very end with one located in the St. Pauli quarter, which quickly drew well-off customers to the entertainment quarter. Minna Jacobsohn died – probably in mid-1941 – of leukemia, as a result of which the (very limited) protection afforded by "mixed marriages” no longer applied to Leo Lesser Jacobsohn when the deportations started.

He received the deportation order at Schlüterstrasse 22. On the deportation list, he was registered as a "waiter.” Family tradition has it that on the eve of the transport, he handed over his watch, a small amount of jewelry, and a few documents to his father-in-law. In this context, the narrative went on, he was not overly worried but assumed that he had to go to a labor camp and would not have to bid farewell forever.

A sister of Leo Jacobsohn, also married in a mixed marriage and widowed in 1935, was not deported though but passed away in Hamburg on 17 Mar. 1943 and was buried in the Jewish Cemetery on Ihlandkoppel.

Translator: Erwin Fink

Kindly supported by the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung, Hamburg.

Stand: October 2016
© Beate Meyer

Quellen: StaH, 522-1, Jüdische Gemeinden, 992b, Kultussteuerkartei der Deutsch-Israelitischen Gemeinde Hamburgs; ebd., 522-1 Jüdische Gemeinden 992e;Adressbücher 1931, 1932, 1933, 1938, 1942; Hamburger jüdische Opfer des Nationalsozialismus. Gedenkbuch, Hamburg 1995; Schr. L.F. v. 12.11.03, Auskunft L.F. v. 18.11.2005 u. 29.12.2005