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Robert Meyer * 1887

Grindelhof 66 (Eimsbüttel, Rotherbaum)

1942 aus Drancy (F) nach Auschwitz
ermordet am 12.9.1942

further stumbling stones in Grindelhof 66:
Erich Meyer

Robert Meyer, born on 30 June 1887 in Hagen, Westphalia, emigrated to France in 1933, deported on 7 Sept. 1942 to Auschwitz, murdered on 12 Sept. 1942
Erich Meyer, born on 25 June 1924 in Hamburg, emigrated to France in 1934, deported on 7 Sept. 1942 to Auschwitz, declared dead as of 8 May 1945

Grindelhof 66

Robert Meyer was the son of Fanni, née Seligmann, and Salomon Meyer. He completed a commercial apprenticeship and worked in the textile industry. On 9 May 1923, he married Margarete Fanny Cohen from Hamburg in the Hanseatic city, where the young couple settled in a well-appointed five-room apartment. Margarete (also Margarethe), born in Hamburg on 18 Oct. 1897, came from a wealthy merchant family. She had attended the girls’ high school (Lyzeum) operated by Dr. Jacob Löwenberg at Johnsallee 33 and learned the profession of a secretary. Her father Jacob Cohen, born in 1864, had been a successful merchant and owned three plots of land at Elbstrasse 68, 88, and 90 (since 1948 Neanderstrasse) in Hamburg. He was married to Goldchen Dora, née Bauer, born in 1867. The couple had two other children, the sons Siegbert Simon, born on 16 Aug. 1893, and Julius, born on 9 Aug. 1894. Both pursued a commercial career like their father, took part in World War I as soldiers, and they were awarded the Iron Cross.

Robert was firmly established in the Hamburg business world as an independent representative and appraiser, so that the family was able to furnish their home tastefully and afford amenities such as the employment of a maid, holiday trips, as well as theater and concert visits. The prosperity of the family can also be gathered from the costs of the furnishings that Margarete listed on the occasion of the emigration in 1934 and again in connection with the restitution proceedings. On that account, she wrote that in 1923, the year of the wedding, they had bedroom furniture made of oak for 2,000 RM (reichsmark), two children’s rooms for 1,000 RM, a master bedroom for 2,000 RM, lacquered kitchen furniture worth 600 RM, and a complete dining room set with six mahogany chairs for 3,500 RM in 1932. In addition, there were smaller pieces of furniture and furnishings, the purchase value of which Margarete put at another 2,500 RM. This constituted a total value of almost 12,000 RM.

Erich was born on 25 June 1924, and nearly four years later, on 25 Apr. 1928, Lotte. Both moved into the two children’s rooms. Until 1932, Robert was able to offer his family a good livelihood as an independent auditor and bankruptcy trustee working on a fee basis – not least because of the prevailing economic crisis. He was active through an association and received a daily allowance and a percentage share of the value of the affected company’s stock or, if applicable, part of the proceeds from an auction. According to the documentation, the income from such projects could amount to several thousand RM, but for 1933, Margarete indicated revenues of only 700 RM. This compared to 400 RM in costs for the emigration of the family in 1933 and 1934, because, as she later stated, "My (...) husband was the leader of a Banner of the Reich (Reichsbanner) group in Hamburg and as such had already been severely attacked by the National Socialists and personally threatened. In June 1933, he was beaten and threatened by the Nazis, so that he left Germany in a hurry, fleeing to Holland. I stayed behind with both our children, but sold off all our things at bargain prices as quickly as possible and then went to France in 1934, where my husband had moved on in the meantime.”

The "Black, Red, and Gold Banner of the Reich” ("Reichsbanner Schwarz-Rot-Gold”) was founded in Magdeburg in the spring of 1924, mainly on Social Democratic initiative, but as a non-partisan association. It set itself the goal of defending the Weimar Republic. Local groups were quickly established in Germany. In the years before the transfer of power to the National Socialists in 1933, there were conflicts between the groups that were hostile to each other. Moreover, like all organizations that did not adapt and subordinate themselves to the Nazis in 1933, the Reichsbanner was outlawed. Like Robert Meyer, many leading Reichsbanner members feared for their lives and fled into exile.

The hastily initiated emigration cost the family not only their feeling of security, but also a lot of money, for Margarete sold the entire furnishings of the Hamburg apartment at almost a quarter of the purchase price and followed her husband with the two children to Dijon in France on 11 July 1934, where they probably initially lived on the proceeds from the dissolution of the apartment, for Robert did not succeed in gaining a foothold in France professionally in the following years.

For Margarete’s brothers Siegbert and Julius Cohen in Hamburg, the situation also became worse and worse. Since in the 1930s both worked, among other things, as representatives in sales for textile companies, the travel ban, which affected Julius starting on 1 July 1938 and Siegbert starting on 1 October of the same year, deprived them of any livelihood. When they became victims of physical violence and persecution as well during the night of the November Pogrom on 9 to 10 November, they no longer had any reason to stay in Germany. Siegbert only escaped arrest by spending weeks in changing places hiding from the Gestapo, an experience that would leave its mark on him for life. In Dec. 1938, the two brothers managed to flee Germany with their families. Julius and his wife Lily, née Bock, managed to reach New York with their son Gerhard. Siegbert and his wife Thea, née Hildesheimer, fled with their two children Eva Ruth and Kurt to Montevideo, Uruguay. The parents remained behind by themselves in Hamburg. However, their health deteriorated and only a few months after the two sons had left Germany, illness struck them down. On 1 Feb. 1939, Jacob Cohen died of a bladder disease, his wife Dora only two weeks later, on 15 February, of pneumonia and pleurisy in their former apartment at Heinrich-Barth-Strasse 3 on the third floor. These sad events set several things in motion.

Since all three children of the Cohens had emigrated, a Jewish estate executor was appointed. He meticulously inventoried the couple’s possessions – from the furniture in each of the rooms to individual pieces of clothing. A lot of items accumulated, but not everything was passed on to the heirs. The Nazi state claimed the couple’s jewelry, which consisted partly of gold and silver and was, in some instances decorated with diamonds, and only returned cutlery that was not made of silver.

Nevertheless, on 26 June 1939, the considerable sum of 20,544.80 RM was transferred to the "emigration account [maintained] with us [Hardybank, Berlin] to the credit of Mrs. Margarethe Meyer, Lugano.” Thus, Margarete was not allowed to dispose of that money. The Meyers may have stayed in Lugano or merely set up a bank account there, which cannot be clarified from the available sources. The family also tried to have some pieces of furniture shipped to them to France. This would have been possible, since the estate executor stated to the authority in charge that "movables and linen” were old and had already been purchased well before 1933. It cost the Meyer family some 380 RM in shipping costs, which they were, however, allowed to cover from the inheritance. Furthermore, from this sum invested in Germany, 180.10 RM in tax debts were paid, which Robert still owed from the years 1925 and 1926 and which would actually have been subject to the statute of limitations, as well as debts in amounting to 300 RM owed to a Mr. Caesar Sandel.

After all, the inheritance gave the Meyers the opportunity to settle in France. In July 1939, they expressed interest in a plot of land in Alsace. They had contact with an Erich Langeneckert from the small town of Obernai (Oberehnheim) who intended to immigrate to Germany and sell his property to Robert and Margarete Meyer for reichsmarks. "The value of the foreign land is indicated as ffrs [French francs] 87,200. Moreover, the immigrant has obligations in the amount of ffrs. 19,000, which Robert Meyer, husband of Margarethe Meyer, has agreed to pay.” The official in charge noted in this matter: "In view of the particular situation of the case, I intend to comply as far as possible with the mandate along these terms.” Margarete’s brother Julius also wanted to take part in the purchase of the property, but his residence at that time and the status of his emigration were not known in Germany.

However, this plan did not work out and the Meyers were not able to leave Dijon anymore. Even the expensive furniture shipment they had arranged did not reach them. The shipment was to reach France via Basel, but due to the start of the war in Sept. 1939, it could no longer leave Switzerland. At first, the contents of the container were to be auctioned off, but the local officials were not allowed to do this for customs tax reasons, so that the shipping agent finally gave everything away under their eyes.

With the German invasion of France in the spring of 1940, the situation deteriorated for refugees from Germany and the allied countries. From then on, despite the fact that they had fled the Nazi regime, they were regarded as enemies and in many cases were arrested and interned. In May 1940, even before the Franco-German armistice on 25 June, Robert Meyer was also affected. Initially, he was held in various camps in the unoccupied south of France. The German occupiers demanded that the Vichy government intern non-French Jews. In July 1940, for this reason, about 7,500 "Reich Germans,” of whom about 5,000 were Jews, were finally imprisoned in French camps. The supply of food and medicine as well as the hygienic conditions there were disastrous.

On 24 Aug. 1942, Robert’s son Erich, who was 18 years old at the time, was also arrested and, like Robert, interned in camps in the south of France. These were probably camps in Montbard, Nimes, La Tour D’Aigues, and Camp de Milles. Finally, on 2 Sept. 1942, they both reached the Drancy collection camp in central France. It was located in the occupied zone of France and had already been established by the Germans in May/June 1940 as a central "transit and collection camp.” Since 27 Mar. 1942, 67 of the 77 transports overall from France to Auschwitz and Sobibor departed from Drancy, sending 65,000 Jews, 6,000 of them children, to their deaths. This also included Robert and Erich Meyer. Together with about 1,000 Jewish men, women, and children, they were deported on Transport Nr. 29 to Auschwitz on 7 Sept. 1942, where they arrived two days later. Two hundred men were selected for a work assignment in connection with the Schmelt Organization and were thus used to perform hard forced labor; 59 additional men and 52 women were taken to the concentration camp and all 689 remaining persons, probably mainly children and elderly people, were murdered in the gas chambers.

With respect to Robert Meyer, it was possible to establish 12 Sept. 1942 as the date of his death. His son Erich, 18 years old, was declared dead as of 8 May 1945.

Margarete and Lotte Meyer survived the war in Dijon, but they were not allowed to leave their homes from June 1940 to September 1945. For this reason, Lotte had to interrupt her training, and the two possibly lived from renting rooms.

After the war, both emigrated to Montevideo in Uruguay and Lotte trained as a teacher.

Robert Meyer had been arrested in France in 1940 due to his Jewish ancestry, but in a decision dated 8 Oct. 1952, he was also adjudged the status of a politically persecuted person because of his membership in the Reichsbanner Schwarz Rot Gold.

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

© Anne Lena Meyer

Quellen: 1; 2; 4 (S. 286, 290); 8; StaH 314-15 Oberfinanzpräsident F172; StaH 351-11 Amt für Wiedergutmachung 10047, 955, 15284 u. 16382; digitales Archiv ITS Bad Arolsen, Teilbestand 1.1.9.1., Dokument ID 11181264 – Listenmaterial B. d. S. Frankreich; ebd. Teilbestand: 6.3.3.2, Dokument ID 101226729 – Korrespondenzakte T/D 06 735; Czech (Hrsg.): Kalendarium, S. 297; Distel: Frankreich, S. 273–291; Ziemann: Die Zukunft, Kapitel II, XIII, XIV.
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