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Kätchen Derenberg (née Heymann) * 1882

Werderstraße 30 (Eimsbüttel, Harvestehude)

HIER WOHNTE
KÄTCHEN DERENBERG
GEB. HEYMANN
JG. 1882
DEPORTIERT 1942
AUSCHWITZ
ERMORDET

further stumbling stones in Werderstraße 30:
Gustav Derenberg, Lilly Derenberg

Käthchen Alice Emilie Derenberg, née Heymann, born on 6.7.1882 in Hamburg, deported on 11.7.1942 to Auschwitz and murdered
Gustav Derenberg, born on 7.6.1876 in Hamburg, deported from Baden-Baden on 22.10.1940 to Gurs/ France, death on 12.1.1941
Lilly Magdaleine Derenberg, born on 4.10.1906 in Hamburg, deported on 19.7.1942 to Theresienstadt and from there on 23.1.1943 to Auschwitz and murdered

Werderstraße 30

Käthchen's grandfather Isaac Daniel Heymann (1820- 1894), who was married to Ester, née Neukircher (d. 1882 in Hamburg), worked as an "upholsterer" in his own workshop on the edge of the Karolinenviertel. Over the decades, this became a furniture factory and the associated business was located at Neuer Wall 42, which was already a fine shopping street in the 19th century. Private life was not neglected, however. In 1846, Käthchen's father Julius Daniel Heymann was born, followed by the later lawyer Sigmund Robert (1850 - 1914 in Hamburg) and Alfred Theodor Heymann (1852 - 1941 in Hamburg). This developed into a family business, in which Käthchen Heymann's cousin Herbert Alfred (1888, see www.stolpersteine-hamburg.de) later also worked.

Käthchen Heymann's future husband Gustav Derenberg grew up quite differently with his younger brother Richard (1879-1943, see www.stolpersteine-hamburg.de) in the Grindel quarter. Their father Carl (1845-1881 in Hamburg) was successful in banking. When Carl Derenberg died, the young widow Nanny (1851 in Hannover- 1915 in Hamburg), née Samson, took up the challenge with the two small children. Financial means were available so that Nanny Derenberg could live first in Harvestehude and later in Rotherbaum. Professionally, Gustav Derenberg took his cue from his father and chose his father's profession as his own.

Käthchen's Heymann parents, Julius Daniel Heymann and Anna, née Siegheim (1854- 1918 Hamburg), a native of Berlin, lived in Hochallee. Käthchen Alice Emilie was born in early July 1882; she remained an only child. We found no traces of how she spent her childhood and adolescence. It also remained unclear when and where Gustav Derenberg and Käthchen Heymann met. On February 11, 1902, they were married in front of the registry office in Hamburg.

The couple moved into their shared apartment at Werderstr. 30, which was to become their home for many years together with their children. Their first-born daughter, Anna Maria, who was born in December, was unable to meet her grandfather, who had died at the end of August 1902. Her sisters, Ilse Hildegard, Lilly Magdaleine and Erika Marguerite were born in the following years. They completed different educations after their school years. In November 1918, Käthchen's mother Anna Heymann died. Käthchen's parents found their final resting place in the Ilandkoppel Jewish Cemetery.

On April 25, 1927, there was a reason to celebrate, the eldest daughter Anna Marie (1902 - 1972 USA) married the successful and respected Hamburg house broker Siegfried Peine (1889 - 1951 USA). Two years later the Derenbergs became grandparents, granddaughter Eva Ruth Claere (1929 - 1978 USA) was born. (In early 1939, the family emigrated to the U.S. via the Netherlands and Great Britain).

The Derenberg family apparently survived the Great Depression without major financial problems.

There are only a few traces of the daughter Lilly Derenberg, who remained unmarried. On her cultural tax card of the Jewish community there is the handwritten note "unemployed and suffering". There was also the note "Dürrheim," which surely meant Bad Dürrheim, which had been designated as a health resort since 1921.

Possibly she stayed there with regard to the "suffering". In the middle of 1935, she returned to Hamburg, where she lived at various addresses as a subtenant. One of them was Laufgraben 37, in the girls' orphanage "Paulinenstift" located there, Lilly Derenberg worked as a nurse. This was only a stopover, however, as the number of children to be cared for decreased, so that at the end of 1941 she and her caregivers were placed in the boys' orphanage on Papendamm.

Lilly's older sister Ilse Hildegard Derenberg (1904- 1966 USA), a trained kindergarten teacher, had already been living in the USA for several years at that time. There she had married Otto Meyer Lehmann (1871- 1963 USA), a native of Hamburg, in New York in March 1932. No further traces were found.

We do not know why the Derenbergs divorced in the late 1920s. From then on, Gustav Derenberg lived as a subtenant in the Grindelviertel. In February 1929 he deregistered with the Jewish Community and moved to Freiburg. The registration file still available there shows that he lived on Gartenstraße from March 1, 1929 to April 17, 1930, after which he moved to Berlin. There was a "new sign of life" from Gustav Derenberg in 1935 from Baden-Baden, the well-known health resort on the edge of the Black Forest, where an international audience was at home and/or took a cure.

In the meantime, the "clouds" in the German Reich had darkened for Jews since the National Socialists came to power at the end of January 1933. New laws and decrees came into force that excluded Jews from economic and social life over the years. They also made their mark in Baden-Baden. At first still cautiously, with "consideration for the foreign public", but soon they showed their true colors. This was the case at the beginning of 1937, when the spa facilities were closed to Jews and a ban was imposed on the purchase of land. The list of prohibitions for Jews could be continued indefinitely. However, all this was not enough for the rulers. On November 10, 1938, there was no stopping them; houses and apartments were searched. Under the eyes of the public, Jewish men had to walk through the city and were defenceless against the attacks of the crowd. As if that were not enough, the rulers deported about 50 of them to the Dachau concentration camp. Afterwards they set fire to the synagogue, the fire department did not extinguish the fire.

In the mid-1930s, the youngest daughter Erika Marguerite (1911 - 1995 in Hamburg) married Hans Wolf Horwitz (1908 - 1990 in Hamburg) on September 24, 1935. Previously, Hans Horwitz stayed in Palestine "on a trial basis" to work in agriculture, but he returned and married. A few weeks later, the young couple emigrated to Palestine, as there was no future for Jews in the German Reich. Hans Horwitz's mother, Selma Horwitz (1877 - 1942 Lodz, see www.stolpersteine-hamburg.de), née Levy, remained in Hamburg.

Käthchen Derenberg gave up the marital home and lived as a subtenant. With the support of the Jewish Community, she began training as a nurse and masseuse, for which she was paid very little. In addition, she still expected money from her divorced husband, but this was delayed. Käthchen Derenberg then worked as a domestic servant in the Daniel Wormser House. This accommodation, which had been built in 1909 in Westerstraße south of the main train station, was considered a place of refuge for "transients" on their way "to the new world", the USA. It was named after its founder, a former teacher at the Talmud Torah School. The number of overnight stays increased over the years, partly due to the law on tenancies with Jews enacted by the National Socialists on April 30, 1939, which deprived them of tenant protection.

On the morning of October 22, 1940, policemen and Gestapo men (Geheime Staatspolizei) appeared at the apartment doors of Jews in Baden-Baden, including Gustav Derenberg. The state authorities gave them a short time to pack the most necessary things into their suitcases. 116 women, men and children were taken to the nearest train station and the neighbors looked on. Affected by this deportation were more than 6,500 Jews from Baden, the Palatinate and Saarland: the two Gauleiters there, Wagner and Bürckel, had their territories made "free of Jews". The destination of the deportation trains was the internment camp Gurs/ France, located at the foot of the Pyrenees. (From there, the Jews were later to be taken on to the island of Madagascar, but these vague plans of the rulers fell through.)

The journey to Gurs took about three to four days. Once there, a period of horror began: the camp stood on swampy, boggy ground, the prisoners were housed in drafty barracks and received hardly any rations. Under these conditions, Gustav Derenberg barely survived three months; he died on January 12, 1941.

Käthchen Derenberg was deported from Hamburg to the Auschwitz extermination camp on July 11, 1942, where she was murdered.

Lilly Magdaleine Derenberg was deported to Theresienstadt a few days after her mother, on July 19, 1942, and was further deported from there to Auschwitz on January 23, 1943, where she was murdered.

On Friday, August 17, 1945, a wanted ad of the Derenberg children appeared in the Jewish German-American newspaper "Aufbau", in which they asked for information about their mother and sister Lilly, "Who knows anything about our mother and sister?" then followed the names and "we are grateful for any information". Whether anyone was able to give them information, we do not know.

In the Baden-Baden memorial book, Gustav Derenberg is remembered with the following text: "Lived in very modest circumstances, subletting at Sophienstraße 5. However, according to witnesses, he had a stock of cash which was taken from him when he was deported to Gurs on October 22, 1940. Derenberg died in Gurs on January 12, 1941."

The couple Erika and Hans Horwitz, who emigrated to Palestine/Israel, returned to Hamburg with their son Uriel (1936 Haifa - 1988 Hamburg) in early 1956. They lived in Eimsbüttel for many years and ran a laundromat in Bellealliancestraße under the most difficult conditions. They found their final resting place at the Ilandkoppel Jewish Cemetery.

Translation by Beate Meyer
Stand: February 2022
© Sonja Zoder

Quellen: 1; 2; 4; 5; 7; 8; StaH 213-13/4145 Landgericht Wiedergutmachung; StaH 314-15 (OFP) F1929, 314-15 (OFP) R1941/0020; 351-11 (AfW) 11915, 26529, 33449, 36628; StaH 332-5/8814-148/1927, 332-5/14543-892/1935 Standesamt (Heiraten); StaH 332-5/9045-831/1889 (Geburten); Mosel: Wegweiser zu den ehemaligen jüdischen Stätten in Hamburg, Heft 2, Hamburg 1985, S. 14; Koser, Brunotte: Stolpersteine in Hamburg- Eppendorf und Hoheluft-Ost, Hamburg 2011, S. 138-144; Apel: In den Tod geschickt, Hamburg 2009, S. 231; Stein, Jüdische Baudenkmäler, Hamburg 1984, S. 111-113; Mailauskunft vom Stadtarchiv Freiburg vom 26.5.2021; URL: https://jfhh.org/suche.php, www.agora.sub.uni-hamburg.de; www.geni.com; https://gedenkbuch.baden-baden.de/person/derenberg-gustav/;
https://www.gurs1940.de/; https://jüdische-gemeinden.de/index.php/gemeinden/a-b/329-baden-baden jeweils am 4.5.2021; https://archive.org/details/aufbau am 27.5.2021; https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/archive/4968452/?p=1&s=derenberg&doc_id=4968452, https://www.holocaust.cz/de/opferdatenbank/opfer/8845-lilli-derenberg/, https://www.mappingthelives.org/ jeweils am 5.7.2021;
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