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Hulda Kaufmann * 1890

Wandsbeker Königstraße 7 -11 (Wandsbek, Wandsbek)

1941 Lodz

Hulda Kaufmann, born 15 Oct.1890, deported to Lodz on 25 Oct. 1941.

Wandsbeker Königstrasse 7–11 (Königstrasse 7)

In spite of intensive research, we know virtually nothing about Hulda Kaufmann. Only the entries on her Jewish Community Culture Tax registry card and the deportation list give meager indications. To make matters worse, the few discovered traces, e.g. her resident’s registry card, are illegible, which is also the case for the entry of her profession on the Culture Tax card.
Hulda Kaufmann may have been a teacher who was no longer allowed to work in her profession and therefore unemployed, but we have no indication that she had been working in the Hamburg area before 1933; this includes private schools.

Most likely she was one of the single Jewish women – she was not married – who came to Hamburg in the 1930s from smaller provincial towns, seeking shelter from anti-Semitic encroachments and hoping to find better living conditions and professional opportunities or welfare benefits from the Jewish community in the big city.
Whereas, as mentioned above, only little could be found about Hulda Kaufmann, it was possible to trace her family origins.
Hulda Kaufmann was born on October 15th, 1890 as the daughter of Matthias (Max) Kaufmann (born 1854) and his wife Dina, née Schiff, in the town of Könnern on the Saale River. 30 Jews lived there when she was born; in 1905, only seven were left, who belonged to the Synagogue community in nearby Halle. It can be assumed that the Kaufmann family had also left Könnern by then. Relatives of her father lived in Leipzig and Bernburg; there are no further mentions of the family in Halle.

Hulda Kaufmann had two brothers and three sisters, born between 1882 and 1894; she was the second youngest of the siblings. Her father died in 1895; one of her sisters (born 1886) died 1980 in Frankfurt am Main.

It is neither known when Hulda Kaufmann came to Hamburg, nor the year when she registered as a resident in Wandsbek (the entry is illegible). Her registered address was at Königstrasse 7 II, where the widow Malchen Spangenthal, née Jacob lived until her death in 1936. According to her entry in the residents’ register, Spangenthal was a Protestant Christian; however, she was buried at the Jewish cemetery in Jenfelder Strasse next to her husband. It is not known if Hulda lived with her or only moved in after the apartment was vacated. In any case, she remained an official resident at Königstrasse 7 until she was served the deportation order. On the deportation list, her profession is given as kitchen maid, as it is on the registry card. At the end of October 1941, she was forced to leave Wandsbek, arriving at the gathering place in Moorweide with nine other Jews from Wandsbek. On October 25th, 1941, Hulda Kaufmann boarded the train for Lodz. We do not know how long she managed to survive there, because in the ghetto of Lodz, too, she left no trace. Her address there is not recorded.
The case of Hulda Kaufmann shows how little we can find out about someone in spite of all efforts if there are no records of the deprivation of assets, of actual or alleged criminal activities, of health problems or other facts, especially if there were no surviving relatives to remind us of a person or make claims for reparation.

Translated by Peter Hubschmid

Kindly supported by the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung, Hamburg.

Stand: October 2016
© Astrid Louven

Quellen: 1; 4; StaHH Meldewesen 332-8 K 4466; Landeshauptarchiv Sachsen-Anhalt Abteilung Merseburg, Auskunft von Herrn Kirbs vom 28.9.2007; Standesamt Könnern, Auskunft von Frau Fabisch vom 15.11. 2007; Bundesarchiv Berlin, Liste der jüdischen Einwohner im Deutschen Reich 1933–1945; Naphtali Bamberger, Memorbuch, Bd. 2, S. 36f.