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Henry Meier * 1915

Agathenstraße 3 (Eimsbüttel, Eimsbüttel)

1941 Minsk

further stumbling stones in Agathenstraße 3:
Margarethe Conu, Herbert Frank, Frieda Laura Frank, Kraine Goldberger, Benjamin Goldberger, Lea Goldmann, Bela Meier, Alexander Nachum, Clara Nachum

Bela Meier, born on 21 Mar. 1940 in Hamburg, deported on 18 Nov. 1941 to Minsk
Henry Meier, born on 15 May 1915 in Hamburg, deported on 8 Nov. 1941 to Minsk
Inge Meier, née Rosendorff, born on 27 Sept. 1917 in Hamburg, deported on 18 Nov. 1941 to Minsk
Rosa Meier, née Meyer, born on 24 Feb. 1882 in Hamburg, deported on 8 Nov. 1941 to Minsk
Anita Senta Meier, born on 30 Jan. 1919 in Hamburg, deported on 8 Nov. 1941 to Minsk
Lothar Meier, born on 30 Jan. 1919 in Hamburg, deported on 8 Nov. 1941 to Minsk

Agathenstrasse 3

In front of the former "Jews’ house” ("Judenhaus”) at Agathenstrasse 3, Stolpersteine are located for Henry Meier and his son Bela Meier. From there, Henry Meier was deported to Minsk on 8 Nov. 1941; only ten days later, the little son and his mother, Inge Meier, née Rosendorff, were also deported to Minsk. That only two Stolpersteine lie at this location must not obscure the fact that an entire family was eradicated.

Henry Meier was the son of Max and Rosa Meier, née Meyer. The family already lived at Agathenstrasse 3 in the Nanny-Jonas-Stiftung, a charitable foundation, when the building was not yet used as a "Jews’ house.” Henry’s son Bela was born as an illegitimate child, thus first receiving his mother’s last name and being called Bela Rosendorff. Henry Meier and Inge Rosendorff were married on 20 Apr. 1941, one year after the birth of their son. At Agathenstrasse 3, they lived together with Henry’s mother Rosa Meier and his younger siblings, the twins Anita and Lothar Meier. The older brother Manfred, born in 1909, had already started his own family, living with his wife Hedwig, née Vogel, and their small son Günther Max at Laufgraben 39.

Henry Meier had completed an apprenticeship as a plumber with the Hermann Lampe Company at Eichenstrasse 27. Later, he worked at the L. Wagner Company at Elbstrasse 70/84, a wholesale business selling dry goods, woven goods, yarns, knitwear, linens, etc.

Inge Meier’s parents, too, the pharmacist Hugo Rosendorff and his wife Hertha, were deported from Agathenstrasse 3, more specifically to Theresienstadt in July 1942. Both had lived in Bergedorf, where they had owned the "Germania-Drogerie,” a drugstore at the former Sachsenstrasse 23 (today Sachsentor 75) since 1912. Until the birth of daughter Inge, the family had still lived in Hamburg-Neustadt at Schlachterstrasse 54. The mother operated a store in Hamburg-Neustadt. Then the family moved initially to the Prussian town of Sande (today Lohbrügge), and subsequently, after the end of World War I, into a four-bedroom apartment at Ernst-Mantius-Strasse 5 in Bergedorf, where the Stolpersteine are located today. In 1938, the drugstore had to be given up under the pressure of political persecution.

Inge was the youngest child of the Rosendorff family. Her older siblings, Herbert Simon (born in 1912), and Ellen (born in 1916), were able to emigrate in 1935, subsequently living in Uruguay. The Rosendorff family lived in Bergedorf in solid middle-class circumstances. According to the siblings, the youngest daughter Inge and her sister Ellen attended Erna Luetgen’s Secondary Girls’ School on Eimsbütteler Schulweg. That is surprising, considering that the distance from Bergedorf to Eimsbüttel is very long.

Henry Meier’s brother Lothar had trained as a decorator, his sister Anita as a tailor. In Nov. 1941, Anita, Bela, Henry, Inge, Lothar, and Rosa Meier received deportation orders to Minsk. Anita, on the deportation list as a worker, Henry, Lothar, and Rosa had to board the train on 8 November, Inge and Bela, only a year and a half old, ten days later. None of them survived.


Translator: Erwin Fink

Kindly supported by the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung, Hamburg.

Stand: October 2017
© Susanne Lohmeyer

Quellen: 1; 4; 5; StaH 351-11 AfW AZ 200282 und AZ 180480; StaH 522-1 Jüdische Gemeinden 992e2 Bd. 3 Deportationsliste; HAB II 1918 und 1933; Geerd Dahms, Familie Rosendorff – ein Bergedorfer Schicksal; in: Bergedorf im Gleichschritt, hrsg. Vom Kultur- & Geschichtskontor, 2. verbesserte Auflage Hamburg 1996, S. 66ff.; ders. In: Stolpersteine in Hamburg, S. 49ff.
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