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Flora Francke * 1862

Colonnaden 40a (Hamburg-Mitte, Neustadt)

HIER WOHNTE
FLORA FRANCKE
JG. 1862
DEPORTIERT 1941
MINSK
ERMORDET

further stumbling stones in Colonnaden 40a:
Edgard Francke

Edgard Wilhelm Francke, born 8/29/1900 in Hannover, deported to Minsk on 11/8/1941
Flora Francke, born 10/6/1862 in Hamburg, deported to Minsk on 11/18/1941

Colonnaden 40a

Flora Francke was the daughter of Eduard/Ephraim Francke and his wife Sara, née Dreyer (born 2/28/1825). The couple had married in Hamburg in 1851. Flora’s father, a respected businessman, had been born in Kitzbüttel as the son of Jacob Moses Francke and his wife Friedericka, née Schwabe. He had opened a clothing store at Ellentorsbrücke 18 in 1858 and a further shop at Neuer Wall 76 two years later. Flora’s mother Sara came from "an old Hamburg family”. Already her grandfather Abraham Isaac Dreyer had done business as a merchant in Hamburg, his wife Adelheid’s maiden name was Fürst. Flora Francke was born at her parents’ home at Neuer Wall 78; later, the family moved to ABC-Strasse 34. Her brother Benny/Benno was born April 20, 1865. He became a bank clerk and lived at Gertrudenstrasse 8 in Hamburg’s old town.

Eduard Francke died in November 20, 1893 at the age of 70, his wife Sara on October 10, 1916, aged 91 at her home in Colonnaden, where she had lived with her daughter Flora and her grandson Edgard.

Flora’s son Edgard Francke had been born out of wedlock on August 29, 1900 in Hannover. It is not documented if his father Siegfried Fürst was a distant relative of Flora’s grandmother Adelheid Dreyer, nee Fürst. Siegfried Fürst was killed in the war in 1916.

His son Edgard also fought in the great war. He was only seventeen years old when he was drafted and returned to his home town in 1918 decorated with an Iron Cross. Edgard Francke absolved a commercial apprenticeship and then worked as an innkeeper’s helper until 1926. After that, he worked as a messenger for several companies until he was dismissed by a company at Mönckebergstrasse 7 because there was no more work for him; later, he only got temporary odd jobs.

At that time, his mother Flora ran a boarding house in the rear building of Colonnaden 40, where most of the guests were artists who performed at the renowned Trocadero cabaret at Grosse Bleichen 32. During the hyperinflation of 1923, Flora got into financial difficulty. In 1928, she temporarily asked for welfare support and later declared she no longer had any relatives who might have been able to help her. Her brother Benny Francke had died on November 6, 1929 of peritonitis, his wife Margaretha Francke, née Kaiser (born 2/4/1866, died 6/18/1927), had already died two years before. Flora’s son Edgard was unable to contribute much to her livelihood – since 1927, he suffered from epilepsy, so that the labor agency no longer placed him, in spite of the fact that he was "very keen to work”. Edgard received so called "crisis support”. For a short while, he worked as a "welfare worker” at a flying field and as an excavator.

In May 1937, Edgard Francke caught the attention of the attention of the "court for hereditary health” and was forcibly sterilized pursuant to the "law for the prevention of genetically ill offspring” on account of "hereditary epilepsy”.

For some time already, his mother had applied to the Jewish community for accommodation in a welfare apartment. After she had been forbidden to take in "Aryan” subtenants, she gave up her apartment in Colonnaden and moved to the Lazarus-Gumpel-Stift in (no longer existing) Schlachterstrasse 47, house 6 on December 1, 1938. Edgard Francke was put on the list for deportation to Minsk on November 8, 1941, his profession given as "shop helper”.

In spite of the fact that Flora Francke, on account of her age, pursuant to the directives of the Gestapo, would not have been designated to be transported "to the east”, but to the "old folks’ ghetto” Theresienstadt, she had to follow her son ten days later, shortly before her 79th birthday. Neither of them survived. By mistake, Edgard Francke’s first name on the Stumbling Stone was engraved as "Edgar.”

Translated by Peter Hubschmid
Kindly supported by the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung, Hamburg.

Stand: May 2020
© Susanne Rosendahl

Quellen: 1; 4; 9; StaH 351-14 Arbeits- und Sozialfürsorge 1174 (Francke, Flora); StaH 351-14 Arbeits- und Sozialfürsorge 1175 (Francke, Edgard); StaH 332-5 Standesämter 349 u 2185/1893; StaH 332-5 Standesämter 3020 u 64/1904; StaH 332-5 Standesämter 749 u 922/1916; StaH 332-5 Standesämter 1004 u 922/1927; StaH 332-5 Standesämter 954 u 393/1929; StaH 352-5 Todesbescheinigung 1929 Sta 2a, 393; StaH 522-1 Jüdische Gemeinde Nr. 992 e 2 Band 2; StaH 522-1 Jüdische Gemeinde Nr. 992 e 2 Band 3; diverse Hamburger Adressbücher.
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