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Leopold Valk * 1884

Isestraße 9 (Eimsbüttel, Harvestehude)

HIER WOHNTE
LEOPOLD VALK
JG. 1884
EINGEWIESEN 1935
HEILANSTALT LANGENHORN
"VERLEGT" 23.9.1940
BRANDENBURG
ERMORDET 23.9.1940
"AKTION T4"

Leopold Valk, born on 21 Feb. 1884 in Lübeck, murdered on 23 Sept. 1940 in the Brandenburg/Havel euthanasia killing center
Stolperstein in Hamburg-Harvestehude, at Isestrasse 9

Iwan Valk, born on 8. Oct. 1878 in Lübeck, murdered on 16. July 1943 in Sobibor
Ella Valk, née Pincus, born on 7. Jan. 1887 in Mölln, murdered on 21. May 1943 in Sobibor
Stolperstein Hoheluft-West, at Mansteinstraße 3

Semmy Valk, born on 11. May 1889 in Lübeck, murdered on 11. June 1943 in Sobibor
Stolperstein Hoheluft-West, at Eppendorfer Weg 185

Selma Lissauer, widowed Rothschild, née Valk, born on 16. Jan. 1877 in Lübeck, deported on 6. Dec. 1941 to Riga, murdered
Julius Rothschild, born on 9. Aug. 1902 in Altona, deported on 15. July 1942 from the Netherlands to Auschwitz, murdered
Stolperstein Rotherbaum, at Bundesstraße 35 (planned)

Leopold Valk was the sixth of ten children of the merchant Simon Moses Valk, born on 5 July 1847, and his wife Hanna, née Lion, born on 20 Nov. 1857. The Jewish family lived in Lübeck, the birthplace of the two spouses. All other children were born there: Friederike (Riekchen), on 16 Aug. 1875; Selma, on 16 Jan. 1877; Iwan, on 8 Oct. 1878; Jenny (Jenni), on 22 June 1880; Ina, on 29 May 1882; James, on 26 Jan. 1887; Semmy, on 11 May 1889; Erwin, on 13 Jan. 1892; and Siegfried, on 30 Oct. 1893.

The Valk family moved to Hamburg in 1898 and initially found accommodation at Eimsbütteler Chaussee 17. Since 1904, the Hamburg directory had contained the following entry: "Simon Valk, Commissionsgeschäft [commission business], Susannenstrasse 4.” The family lived in the Sternschanze quarter at that time. After moving to Schlump, in Apr. 1914 they finally settled at Isestrasse 9 in the Harvestehude quarter.

Simon Valk’s commission business seems to have developed well. In the 1914 Hamburg directory, one finds his entry with the addition of "HR” for entry in the company register. This means that Simon Valk was a fully qualified merchant with the right to grant power of attorney. He died on 15 Nov. 1919 at the age of 72.

Hanna and Simon Valk’s children developed without any problems in the first years. Many of the boys attended the Talmud Tora School and, with the exception of Leopold, were successful in their professional lives. Even Leopold Valk is not known to have had any signs of mental disability or psychological illness in his childhood or adolescence. Unlike his brothers, he did not train in any occupation. His patient file card of the Friedrichsberg State Hospital (Staatskrankenanstalt Friedrichsberg) shows that Leopold Valk was first admitted there toward the end of 1922 and then again in 1923. The reasons for this are not known. It is unclear whether this was directly followed by a transfer to the Hamburg-Langenhorn State Hospital (Staatskrankenanstalt Hamburg-Langenhorn). His Langenhorn patient file contains records only starting in early 1936, when Leopold escaped from the Langenhorn institution on 4 Jan. 1936, after "previously completely proper behavior.” The police returned him in May of the same year. As Leopold reported, he had "roamed about,” selling a coat and trying unsuccessfully to use the proceeds toward winning money at gambling. His medical record contains the derogatory note "talk of a feebleminded person.” Leopold was characterized as suspicious and shy, as someone who "liked to do small haggling deals with his fellow patients.” At the institution, he worked in the vegetable garden. He received regular leave so that there was probably close contact with his relatives. In the spring of 1939, Leopold did not return from one of his leaves. Some two weeks later, he was back in Langenhorn after being picked up by the police in an unkempt state. His sister Selma reported that Leopold had "hung out” with relatives and "pumped” them all. She asked in writing to ban her brother from going on leave. Back in Langenhorn, Leopold resumed his work in the nursery. On 27 Oct. 1939, he was transferred to the Düssin Estate in western Mecklenburg. The City of Hamburg had acquired this estate at the end of 1938 and accommodated 220 people with mental disability or mental illness from Langenhorn who were employed there in agricultural work. Among them were Leopold Valk and two women and four men of Jewish origin from Langenhorn. One man, Richard Guth (see corresponding entry), had to return to Langenhorn on 30 Aug. 1940, the other six on 13-14 Sept. 1940.

In the spring/summer of 1940, the "euthanasia” headquarters in Berlin, located at Tiergartenstrasse 4, planned a special operation aimed against Jews in public and private sanatoriums and nursing homes. It had the Jewish persons living in the institutions registered and moved together in what were officially so-called collection institutions. The Hamburg-Langenhorn "sanatorium and nursing home” ("Heil- und Pflegeanstalt” Hamburg-Langenhorn) was designated the North German collection institution. All institutions in Hamburg, Schleswig-Holstein, and Mecklenburg were ordered to move the Jews living in their facilities there by 18 Sept. 1940. After all Jewish patients from the North German institutions had arrived in Langenhorn, they were taken to Brandenburg/Havel on 23 Sept. 1940, together with the Jewish patients who had lived there for some time, on a transport comprised of 136 persons overall. On the same day, they were killed with carbon monoxide in the part of the former penitentiary converted into a gas-killing facility. Only one patient, Ilse Herta Zachmann, escaped this fate at first (see corresponding entry).

On the birth register entry of Leopold Valk, it was noted that the records office Chelm II registered his death in 1941. Those murdered in Brandenburg, however, were never in Chelm Polish) or Cholm (German), a town east of Lublin. The former Polish sanatorium there no longer existed after SS units had murdered almost all patients on 12 Jan. 1940. Also, there was no German records office in Chelm. Its fabrication and the use of postdated dates of death served to disguise the killing operation and at the same time enabled the authorities to claim higher care expenses for periods extended accordingly.

Leopold Valk is commemorated by a Stolperstein at the former residential address of his parents at Isestrasse 9 in the Harvestehude quarter.

We know about Leopold Valk’s siblings that several brothers went into business for themselves as merchants and that the sisters married. Nazi rule in Germany destroyed this family as well. Only a few family members were able to get to safety from the Holocaust in time. Most of them were killed. In detail:

Friederike Valk
Friederike married the Protestant real estate agent for houses Wilhelm Emil Paul Tettenborn, born in Berlin on 5 Sept. 1880, in 1905. The couple initially lived in Hamburg at Susannenstrasse 4 and from 1908 in Ottensen at Flottbeker Chaussee 11, where Friederike Tettenborn gave birth to a stillborn girl in 1908. The marriage was divorced in 1919. In 1939, Friederike received the compulsory name "Tana” instead of her previous first name. We have no information about her subsequent fate.

Selma Lissauer, widowed Rothschild, nèe Valk
Julius Rothschild
Selma Valk was married in her first marriage to the Jewish dental technician Georg Rothschild, born on 1 Feb. 1872 in Leipzig. The couple settled in Altona and had two sons, John Joseph, born on 6 Nov. 1900, and Julius, born on 9 Aug. 1902. Georg Rothschild died on 22 Feb. 1919 at the age of 47. Selma remarried Jacob John Lissauer, an antiques dealer by occupation. She had four children with her Jewish husband, also a native of Lübeck, who was 17 years her senior. Jacob John Lissauer died on 7 Dec. 1937 in Hamburg. The destitute Selma Lissauer was now dependent on welfare assistance. In the very end, she lived at Bundesstrasse 35 house B, a "Jews’ house” ("Judenhaus”). There she received the order for deportation to Riga on 6 Dec. 1941. After that, there was no longer any sign of life from her.

Her son John Joseph from the first marriage emigrated to Australia. Julius Rothschild fled to the Netherlands on 28 May 1937. He was interned in Westerbork on 8 Feb. 1941, deported to Auschwitz on 15 July 1942, and murdered there. We have no details about the fate of Selma Lissauer’s children from her second marriage.

Iwan Valk and Ella Valk, nèe Pincus
Iwan Valk was listed in the 1925 Hamburg directory as the owner of "Pincus & Valk, Bürobedarf und Papierhandlung,” a company dealing in office supplies and stationary that was entered in the company register. On 3 Sept. 1920, he married Ella Pincus, born on 7 Jan. 1887 in Mölln. With her he had a son, Alfred, born on 13 June 1921. Iwan Valk fled to the Netherlands with his wife on 26 July 1937. There both were interned in Westerbork. Ella Valk was deported to Sobibor and killed on 21 May 1943. On 13 July 1943, Iwan Valk was also deported to Sobibor and murdered there. For Ella and Iwan Valk, Stolpersteine are located at Mansteinstrasse 3 in the Hoheluft-West quarter.

Alfred Valk emigrated to the USA in 1937.

Jenny Valk
In 1907, Jenny Valk married the Jewish accountant Hermann Weil, born on 20 May 1880 in Kusel, today Rhineland-Palatinate. She moved with her husband to Mannheim in 1939. After he had been imprisoned in the Dachau concentration camp from 11 Nov. 1938 to 6 Jan. 1939 following the November Pogrom, both emigrated to the Netherlands on 23 Jan. 1939. There they lived at Sint Willibrordusstraat 48 in Amsterdam. Their internment in Westerbork ended on 4 May 1943 with their deportation to Sobibor. They arrived there on 7 May 1943 and were murdered immediately.

Ina Valk
In 1905, Ina Valk married Max Klein, a Jewish horse broker born in Altona and born on 16 July 1880. Ina and Max Klein lived in Slagelse on the island of Zealand in Denmark until Max Klein died in 1938. In the same year, Ina Valk returned to Hamburg. She died of cancer on 11 Aug. 1938 in the Israelite Hospital.

James Valk
James Valk and his first wife Frieda Auguste, née Ries, born on 5 Sept. 1886 in Hamburg, had a son, Edgar Martin, born on 1 Apr. 1914. Frieda Auguste died on 21 Aug. 1917 in Vegesack. James Valk and his second wife Erna, née Edelstein, born on 21 Nov. 1896 in Hamburg, had a son, Hans-Georg, born on 2 Sept. 1920. Around 1914, James Valk set up an import and export trading company based at Katharinenstrasse 34. He lived with his family near his parents at Isestrasse 28. James Valk died in 1925 aged just before turning 37.

After the death of her husband, Erna Valk lived with her sons Edgar Martin and Hans Georg along with her brother-in-law Erwin Valk at Husumer Strasse 16.

Accompanied by her son Hans Georg, she left Germany for Britain in 1933. Edgar Martin Valk emigrated to the USA.

Semmy Valk
Semmy Valk resided in Hamburg, not far from his workplace, at Eppendorfer Weg 185. He was married to Johanna, née Oppenheim, born on 14 Aug. 1892. The couple had a son, Günther Simon, born on 4 Apr. 1921. Semmy Valk fled to the Netherlands on 14 Dec. 1938. After his internment in Westerbork, he was deported to Sobibor on 8 June 1943 and murdered there on 11 June 1943. The fate of Johanna Valk is not known.

Günther Simon Valk moved to Hannover. From there, he was deported to Riga on 15 Dec. 1941. No sign of life from him surfaced at all.

Erwin Valk
Erwin Valk worked in the company of his brother James. He ran the business after James’ death. Erwin was married to Margot, née Lion, born on 9 Oct. 1899. Whether Margot Valk came from the same family as Erwin’s mother Hanna, also née Lion, could not be clarified. The couple had two sons, Herbert, born on 1 Feb. 1923, and Walter James, born on 7 Nov. 1927. The family had an apartment at Husumer Strasse 16. Erwin and Margot Valk left Germany with their sons at the end of Aug. 1933 and took up residence in Britain.

Siegfried Valk
Siegfried Valk, the youngest of the Valk children, completed a commercial apprenticeship at the Gebr. Alsberg Company, a department store on Grosser Burstah, after attending the Talmud Tora School. Following positions in Augsburg and Berlin at Tietz AG, Siegfried Valk returned to Hamburg in 1914 and then worked in the company of his brother James Valk. In 1915, he was drafted into the military and served as a soldier until the end of the First World War. Together with his brother Semmy, he then founded the Gebr. Valk (Valk Bros.) furniture factory and furniture store at Eppendorfer Weg 197, which they closed again in 1928. In 1919, Siegfried Valk had married Julie Oppenheim, born on 17 Oct. 1893 in Schwäbisch-Hall, and had a daughter with her, Lisa, born on 14 May 1920. In 1928, he moved with his family to Essen and started a business with bed feathers and bed linen. In 1930, he relocated the company’s headquarters to Possmoorweg 29 in Hamburg, where he also lived. From 1932 onward, Siegfried Valk worked as a commercial agent, at times also as a general agent for various companies, e.g., Arthur Braun, Dach- und Bautenschutz, a company dealing in roof and building protection, at Bogenstrasse 16. He lost his position there in 1938 when the company was to be "Aryanized.” Siegfried Valk then traveled with his wife to Prague. They lived there supported by the Jewish Community.

The couple fled after a Gestapo interrogation in 1939. The illegal journey to Beirut on the small ship "Fossula,” which had numerous emigrants on board, lasted several months. After two months of isolation in a quarantine camp in Beirut, they finally continued the journey on a second ship, the "Tiger Hill.” There were already 600 refugees on board when Julie and Siegfried Valk boarded the ship for Palestine. During a landing attempt, English troops fired on the refugee ship. Finally, Julie and Siegfried Valk managed to land in Palestine, where they resided from then on. They later returned to Hamburg. Their grave is located in the cemetery on Ilandkoppel in Hamburg-Ohlsdorf. We know nothing about the fate of their daughter Lisa.

Leopold Valk is commemorated by a Stolperstein in Hamburg-Harvestehude at Isestrasse 9.

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

Stand: March 2020
© Ingo Wille

Quellen: 1; 4; 5; 9; AB; StaH 133-1 III Staatsarchiv III, 3171-2/4 U.A. 4, Liste psychisch kranker jüdischer Patientinnen und Patienten der psychiatrischen Anstalt Langenhorn, die aufgrund nationalsozialistischer "Euthanasie"-Maßnahmen ermordet wurden, zusammengestellt von Peter von Rönn, Hamburg (Projektgruppe zur Erforschung des Schicksals psychisch Kranker in Langenhorn); 332-5 Standesämter 940 Sterberegister Nr. 33/1928 Hedwig Valk, 1070 Sterberegister Nr. 456/1937 Jacob John Lissauer, 1089 Sterberegister Nr. 298/1938 Ina Klein, 3046 Heiratsregister Nr. 549/1905 FriedrikeValk/Emil Paul Wilhelm Tettenborn, 13096 Geburtsregister Nr. 2281/1899 Betty Margot Lion, 5966 Heiratsregister Nr. 503/1905 Max Klein/Ina Valk, 6991 Sterberegister Nr. 279/1919 Georg Rothschild, 8054 Sterberegister Nr. 710/1919 Simon Moses Valk, 8605 Heiratsregister Nr. 7/1900 Georg Rothschild/Selma Valk, 8729 Heiratsregister Nr. 379/1919 Siegfried Valk/Julie Oppenheimer, 8742 Heiratsregister Nr. 625/1920 Iwan Valk/Ella Pincus, 8743 Heiratsregister Nr. 782/1920 Erwin Valk/Betty Margot Lion, 8767 Heiratsregister Nr. 681/1922 Jacob John Lissauer/Selma Rothschild geb. Valk; 351-11 Amt für Wiedergutmachung 15578 Julie Valk, 15782 Siegfried Valk, 39412 Edgar Martin Valk, 43450 Hans Georg Valk, 45709 Herbert Simon Valk; 352-8/7 Staatskrankenanstalt Langenhorn Abl. 1/1995 Aufnahme-/Abgangsbuch Langenhorn 26.8.1939 bis 27.1.1941; 352-8/7 Staatskrankenanstalt Langenhorn 1995/2 Nr. 22082 Leopold Valk; 522-1 Jüdische Gemeinden Nr. 992 e 2 Band 3, Deportationsliste; 332-8 Meldeweseb 1892 – 1925 K 7099 Simon Valk, Selma Valk; UKE/IGEM, Archiv, Patienten-Karteikarte Leopold Valk der Staatskrankenanstalt Friedrichsberg, Stadtarchiv Lübeck, Geburtsurkunde Nr. 305/1884 Leopold Valk; JSHD Forschungsgruppe "Juden in Schleswig-Holstein", Datenpool Erich Koch, Schleswig; www.joodsmonument.nl (Zugriff 15. 9. 2016).
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