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Paula Feldmann (née Schüler) * 1874

Woldsenweg 9 (Hamburg-Nord, Eppendorf)

1942 Theresienstadt
ermordet 11.12.1942

further stumbling stones in Woldsenweg 9:
Alice Feldmann, Aurelie Levison, Elisabeth Wulff

Alice Feldmann, née Furmanski, formerly Goldberg, born 11 June 1897 in Altona, deported 25 Oct. 1941 to Lodz, presumably transferred to Chelmno 15 May 1942

Woldsenweg 9

"I base my request for retraction of the deportation order on the fateful blows I have suffered here. My eldest son, Kurt Goldberg, was sent to Posen in December 1941, and I have heard nothing from him since. My second son, Werner, who was not yet 18, developed such dire illnesses, frostbite, and furuncles after volunteering for both day and night shifts of hard labor in the winter, that he died on 16 April 1942 after both of his feet had been amputated. My former husband, Walter Goldberg, who came alone to the Ghetto with his nine-year-old, half-Aryan son, and whom I have cared for, died on 1 April 1942, one day after the death of his nine-year-old child, of physical exhaustion and incurable frostbite, just like his child.
I have suffered these terrible emotional wounds and physical degeneration here in the Ghetto, but still, or perhaps for this reason, I ask that the honored Commission allow me to remain here. In the hope that my request has not been in vain, Respectfully yours, Alice Feldmann”

Alice Feldmann directed this poignant request to the "Deportation Commission” at the Lodz Ghetto on 2 May 1942, after she and her sister Elly Furmanski had received their deportation orders, numbered III/256 and 257. The letter was stamped with "odmowa” – denied – since only those able to work had a chance of surviving in the Ghetto. Both were stricken from the Ghetto’s register on 15 May 1942, presumably the day the sisters, along with many others from the Hamburg transport, were transferred to Chelmno and murdered.

Alice Feldmann grew up on Schulterblatt in Altona. She was the third of five children born to Jakob Moses Furmanski and his wife Martha, née Brandon. Her two older sisters Wally and Elly were born in 1893 and 1894, the younger children Paula and Harry in 1900 and 1901.

In 1919 Alice married the businessman Walter Goldberg, and their first son Kurt was born on 30 December of that year. Walter Goldberg was the son of an independent small business owner. He attended a private primary school in Celle, paid for by a family scholarship. He left school before finishing, and entered a commercial apprenticeship in Hamburg at the Alsberg Bros. department store. In 1913 he switched to the insurance business, where he was an agent and inspector, but never achieved a great income. He fought in the First World War from 1915 to 1918 and was lightly wounded twice. When he returned from the war he married Alice Furmanski and tried his hand at sales in the tailoring accessory business. In 1923, when their second son Werner was born, Alice was 26 years old. The family lived in a two-room apartment in a rear building at Gärtnerstraße 114.

Walter Goldberg’s income was not enough to support the family. He was dependent on loans from the welfare agency and the support of the Jewish Community and the Nehemia Nobel Lodge of B’nai B’rith to pay the rent and living expenses. In June 1927 Walter Goldberg returned to the insurance business, but when financial success once again remained elusive, he resorted, out of necessity, to embezzlement in order to help pad the family’s budget. The continuing financial difficulties put so much pressure on the marriage that Alice sued for divorce. It was finalized in June 1931. Kurt and Werner remained with their father on Gärtnerstraße. Walter Goldberg remarried a year later and had three more children with his second wife Elfriede, so that the family, now at seven members, was living in extremely cramped conditions.

Alice married the salesman Leopold Feldmann, 18 years her senior. He was also divorced and had two grown children. She lived with him in House 10 at Rentzelstraße 12. His income was also so low that he had been exempted from paying church taxes since 1930. Leopold Feldmann died at the age of 60 on 3 April 1940 as a result of a heart condition. After his death Alice rented rooms from the widow Aurelia Levison (see Biographies: Aurelia Levison) at Woldsenweg 9. It was here that she received her "evacuation orders” on 25 October 1941. Together with her sons Kurt and Werner Goldberg, her sister Elly Furmanski, her ex-husband Walter Goldberg and his nine-year-old son, she was deported to the Lodz Ghetto on 25 October 1941. None of them survived.

Translator: Amy Lee

Kindly supported by the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung, Hamburg.

© Maria Koser

Quellen: 1; 4; 5; 8; StaH 351-11 AfW Abl.2008/1, 271132 Goldberg Hans Hermann; StaH 351-11 AfW Abl.2008/1 301219 Goldberg Kurt; StaH 351-11 AfW Abl.2008/1, 150377 Goldberg, Walter; StaH 552-1 Jüd. Gemeinden, 992e2 Band 1; StaH 332-5 Personenstandsbuch 8168 Nr. 210 1940 Feldmann, Leopold; StaH 352-5 Todesanzeige Sta. 2a, Nr. 210 1940; StaH 213-11 A 16366/30 Staatsanwaltschaft Landgericht – Strafsachen; USHMM, RG 15.083, 299/626, Fritz Neubauer, Universität Bielefeld, E-Mail v. 5.5.2010.
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