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Ernst Rothstein * 1881

Blumenau 166 (Wandsbek, Eilbek)

1942 Auschwitz
ermordet

Ernst Rothstein, born on 9 Aug. 1881 in Coppenbrügge, deported on 11 July 1942 to Auschwitz

Blumenau 166 (Blumenau 170)

Ernst Rothstein was a native of the small town of Coppenbrügge near Hameln. His parents, Louis Rothstein and Lina, née Oppenheimer, were both of the Jewish faith. The only detail about his early career known is that he received commercial training.

Ernst Rothstein, who remained unmarried, maintained contact to his relatives:
An older sister, Ida, married name Reifenberg, born on 9 Mar. 1878 in Coppenbrügge, moved to Menden in the Sauerland region, where her two children, Helene and Hans, were born in 1900 and 1903, respectively. In 1927, Helene Reifenberg married the dermatologist Hugo Alexander in Hannover and moved to Gelsenkirchen, where her mother Ida followed her. Hugo Alexander belonged to the founding members of the liberal Jewish Synagogue Community (Synagogengemeinde) in Gelsenkirchen.

In 1924, Ernst Rothstein went to Hamburg, probably for work-related reasons, and rose to departmental head and general manager at the renowned Karstadt Department Store on Mönckebergstrasse in Hamburg’s city center. He moved into a rented apartment in an urban villa at Blumenau 170 in the "Auenviertel,” the part of the Eilbek quarter facing toward the Eilbek River.

In 1924, Ernst Rothstein was recorded for the first time in the Jewish religious tax (Kultussteuer) card file of the German-Israelitic Community, to which he paid substantial taxes until the 1931/32 business year. His income was comprised of a monthly basic salary amounting to 1,800 RM (reichsmark) plus 200 RM in expense allowance and a share of the profits. The latter declined considerably during the world economic crisis, forcing Ernst Rothstein in Sept. 1932 to ask the Jewish Community for deferment and recalculation of his "church tax.”

In the period from 1926 until early 1933, Ernst Rothstein lived as a subtenant with Heinrich Sonnemann and his wife, the parents of Hermann Göring’s wife Emmy, at Lohmühlenstrasse 1.

Apparently, Ernst Rothstein had not put aside any money in savings, for when he was dismissed without notice on 1 Apr. 1933, he was no longer able to meet his tax obligations to the Jewish Community to full extent. He did not find a new job in Hamburg right away, traveling to see his relatives in Gelsenkirchen. In Oct. 1933, he returned to Hamburg and moved into a smaller apartment at Richardstrasse 76, also located in Eilbek. By this time, the Jewish Community urged him to make outstanding tax payments calculated on the basis of his 1932 income, without taking into account that he had become unemployed in the meantime.

At this point, Ernst Rothstein made an effort to start a business of his own in cooperation with two other merchants. Together they bought Teppich-Moser, a carpet company at Graskeller 21 in Hamburg-Neustadt. However, the business activities were not very profitable, forcing him to give up his apartment on Richardstrasse. From then on, he lived as a subtenant at changing addresses, initially at Wandsbeker Chaussee 57.

In 1936, when his work in the carpet company ended, he once again went to Gelsenkirchen searching for a job, though returning without having achieved anything. Eventually, he found employment with the L. Wagner Company at Elbstrasse 70–84, a wholesale and exporting business trading in dry and woven goods, yarns, knitwear, stockings, undergarments, and toys. The company owner, Max Haag, granted him an advance on his salary of 700 RM, which he used to enable relatives to emigrate. By this time, his income was less than half of what he had made as a general manager at Rudolf Karstadt AG, but it did allow him to support his relatives and other persons close to him as well. For his part, he resided as a subtenant with Max Deutschländer, a sworn auditor, at Carolinenstrasse 4 in the St. Pauli quarter.

In the course of the Pogrom of November 1938 Ernst Rothstein was arrested on 10 Nov. 1938 and taken to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp. After a four-month detention, he was released on condition that he emigrate from Germany. He had lost his position at the L. Wagner Company. It was not possible to establish what sources of income Ernst Rothstein lived on after his release from "Oranienburg,” as he called the Sachsenhausen concentration camp. Apparently, he paid his debts to his former employer, Max Haag, and to the Jewish Community.

Ernst Rothstein took steps toward emigrating, initially trying to arrange it on his own. In the meantime, he had become completely destitute but in Mar. 1939, he asked the Jewish Religious Organization (Jüdischer Religionsverband) for advice as to how he would be able to obtain its tax clearance certificate (Unbedenklichkeitserklärung), one of the prerequisites for emigration. In this connection, the point was to move the Organization to issue a statement according to which no financial claims would be made against him, at least for the time being. Apparently, his emigration ultimately failed due to a lack of financial means.

In Oct. 1939, he moved to Fröbelstrasse 12 in Hamburg-Rotherbaum; in Feb. 1941, he changed within the quarter to Seligmann at Bornstrasse 25. Eventually, on 7 Apr. 1942, the Jewish Community quartered him at Kleiner Schäferkamp 32, a "Jews’ house” ("Judenhaus”). Four months later, one among 300 persons, he was ordered to report to the transport on 11 July 1942 that left Hamburg with destination unknown. This was a top-secret transport headed for the newly constructed gas chambers in Auschwitz. None of the deported persons survived.

Two months later, on 12 Sept. 1942, Ernst Rothstein’s remaining household effects were auctioned off by Richard Jäkel auctioneers on the orders of the Chief Finance Administrator (Oberfinanzpräsident), generating proceeds of 351.56 RM, remitted to the treasurer’s office with the Chief Finance Administrator.

Ernst Rothstein’s niece, Helene Alexander, and her husband Hugo reached the USA; nephew Hans Reifenberg and his wife Edith, née Sternberg, made it to South Africa in Aug. 1939. Ida Reifenberg, his sister, took her own life in Gelsenkirchen on 19 Nov. 1941.


Translator: Erwin Fink
Kindly supported by the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung, Hamburg.

Stand: October 2018
© Hildegard Thevs

Quellen: 1; 5; 9; AB; StaH 314-15 OFP Oberfinanzpräsident – Devisenstelle, Abl. 1998, R 556; 351-11 Amt für Wiedergutmachung 5278; 522-1 Jüdische Gemeinden 992 d Steuerakten Band 27; 992 e 2 Deportationslisten Band 4; Stadtarchiv Coppenbrügge, Personenstandsurkunde Helene Alexander; Stadtarchiv Menden, Geburtsregistereintrag Helene Reifenberg; www.gelsenzentrum.de/wahlliste_1930.pdf (zugegriffen am 8.6.2013).
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