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Else Freudenthal (née Badt) * 1893

Jungfrauenthal 37 (Eimsbüttel, Harvestehude)

1942 Theresienstadt
1944 Auschwitz

further stumbling stones in Jungfrauenthal 37:
Sophie Rosalie Alexander, Hendel Henny Behrend, Henny Dublon, Dr. Ludwig Freudenthal, Jakob Grünbaum, Lea Grünbaum, Renate Jarecki, Elchanan Jarecki, Arnold Rosenbaum

Else Freudenthal, née Badt, born on 17 Feb. 1893 in Schönlanke, deported on 19 July 1942 to Theresienstadt, deported further on 16 Oct. 1944 to Auschwitz

Jungfrauenthal 37

Else Badt came from a wealthy Jewish family. Her parents Moritz (Moses) Badt and Cäcilie (Zerline) Badt, née Ehrlich (1868–1940), owned one property, among others, in Schönlanke at Moltkestrasse 2. Schönlanke (today Trzcianka in Poland), near Schneidemühl (today Pila in Poland), had been Prussian since 1772 and was the capital of the Netze administrative district in the border region of Posen-West Prussia. Around 1900, the Jewish population of the village was about 8%. The population in 1925 was approx. 8,600 people. In Schönlanke, there was a synagogue (new building from 1883) and a Jewish cemetery (since the 1820s), both of which were almost completely destroyed during the Nazi era.

Twenty-seven-year-old Else Badt married Ludwig Freudenthal (born on 4 Apr. 1885 in Gotha), a lawyer from Erfurt who was seven years her senior, in 1920. As a dowry, she brought 100,000 RM (reichsmark) into the marriage, which remained childless. The Erfurt apartment of Else and Ludwig Freudenthal at Wilhelmstrasse 23 (1926–1935), today Wilhelm-Külz-Strasse, was furnished elegantly and luxuriously according to their financial means.

As early as 1933, Ludwig Freudenthal was denied the license to practice as a lawyer by the Nazis because he was Jewish and did not fall under any of the exceptions. Starting on 1 Apr. 1933, he was banned from the court building in Erfurt and on 9 May 1933, he was banned from working as a notary. In the 1935 Erfurt directory, his name was followed by the professional title of "Rechtskonsulent” ("legal adviser”), who was only allowed to represent Jewish clients. For these defendants, however, the laws and jurisdiction of the Nazi dictatorship had developed in such adverse ways that Jewish lawyers were mostly tolerated for the sake of appearances only until 1938. On 11 Mar. 1935, the couple moved from Wilhelmstrasse 23 on the ground floor to Futterstrasse 17 on the second floor, and on 30 Apr. 1936 to Paulstrasse 8.

In 1936, Ludwig and Else Freudenthal moved from Erfurt to Hamburg. The deregistration officially took place on 6 July 1936, but on 4 June 1936, 51-year-old Ludwig Freudenthal had already joined the Hamburg German-Israelitic Community and the liberal Temple Association (Tempelverband – T.V.). On his Hamburg Jewish religious tax (Kultussteuer) file card, "Syndikus im Central-Verein Beneckestrasse 2, Rechtsberater” (association secretary and legal adviser) and "Hilfsverein” (aid organization) were entered under occupation. In 1958, in connection with the restitution proceedings, Max Plaut (1901–1974), initially association secretary and then head of the Community, testified on Freudenthal’s activities in Hamburg: "Dr. Freudenthal was appointed to Hamburg as managing director of the Central Association of German Citizens of the Jewish Faith. In this function he worked, as I recall, until 9 Nov. 1938. After this, the Central Association was liquidated and Dr. Freudenthal worked in the emigration department (formerly Hilfsverein der Deutschen Juden – Aid Organization of German Jews). He also completed other tasks within the framework of the Community. His income was probably about 600 RM [reichsmark] and then, according to the regulations, it was repeatedly reduced.” Ludwig Freudenthal was also active in the administration of the Advisory Center for Jewish Economic Aid (Beratungsstelle für jüdische Wirtschaftshilfe), whose fields of activity included economic aid, occupational redeployment, and training courses.

In Hamburg, the Freudenthal couple resided briefly, from June to Aug. 1936, at Sierichstrasse 84 (Winterhude), then as subtenants for a quarter of a year at Brahmsallee 6 on the second floor (Harvestehude) with the merchant Max Hoffmann (born on 6 Oct. 1885 in Hamburg) and his wife Henny, née Goldscheider (born on 3 Aug. 1889 in Hamburg), before they found a suitable two-and-a-half-room apartment at Klosterallee 35 (Harvestehude) on the fourth floor in Nov. 1936. The niece of Else Freudenthal, Charlotte Bauchwitz, who lived in Hamburg from 1937 to 1939 and then emigrated to the USA, later described the Freudenthal’s Hamburg furnishings, which still came from the larger Erfurt house: The dining room furnishings were made of mahogany (oval pull-out table for 12–14 persons, chairs with leather seats, sideboard and buffet), in addition an octagonal tea table made of glass with two armchairs, as well as an oil painting and carpets; the living room was furnished with a desk, leather armchairs, a sofa, a smoking table, and carpets. Solid silver cutlery was available for 24 persons, and Else Freudenthal owned high-quality jewelry (platinum ring with diamonds, pearl necklace with diamond clasp, diamond brooch, and gold woman’s wristwatch). In 1939, they – like all Jews – had to surrender their jewelry as well as gold and silver objects to a state purchasing office in exchange for very little compensation.

On 10 November, Ludwig Freudenthal was imprisoned in the Fuhlsbüttel concentration camp and then transferred to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp, as were about 700 other male Jews from Hamburg.

In May 1939, at the time of the German national census in which Jews were recorded separately, the Freudenthals still lived at Klosterallee 35 on the fourth floor. This address is also given in the directories of 1940, 1941, and 1942. The last Hamburg address of Ludwig and Else Freudenthal was Jungfrauenthal 37, where they had to move on 28 Mar. 1942 according to the Klosterallee house registration file. This house was included by the Nazi regime as a so-called "Jews’ house” ("Judenhaus”) in the preparation of the deportations and was no longer a freely chosen accommodation.

Her mother Cäcilie (Cerline) Badt, née Ehrlich (born on 21 June 1868 in Schönlanke), had lived in the house of her brother-in-law Heinrich Badt (born on 25 June 1869 in Schönlanke) at Altonaer Strasse 11 in Berlin-Tiergarten at the time of the census (in May 1939). On 17 May 1940, four weeks after the death of her daughter Frieda, she had moved in with Ludwig and Else Freudenthal on Klosterallee in Hamburg. On 28 June 1940, she had rented her own apartment at Hochallee 66 (owned by Leo Robinsohn). Cäcilie Badt died on 28 Apr. 1940 of the consequences of a stroke (Apoplexie Kolaps) in the Hamburg-Altona General Hospital; she was reportedly buried in Berlin.

Else and Ludwig Freudenthal were deported to the Theresienstadt Ghetto on 19 July 1942 and from there to the Auschwitz extermination camp on 16 Oct. 1944.

For them, Stolpersteine were laid in front of the house at Jungfrauenthal 37 in 2003.


The fate of the other family members:
Else’s widowed brother-in-law Kurt Bauchwitz (born on 27 Jan. 1881 in Sangerhausen), until 1935 lawyer and notary in Halle/Saale (at Humboldtstrasse 19), was arrested in the course of the November Pogrom and held in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp until 16 Dec. 1938. According to the May 1939 national census, Kurt Bauchwitz lived in Halle/Saale at Grosse Ulrichstrasse 2; there, a Stolperstein has been commemorating him since 2004. Kurt Bauchwitz subsequently had to move to a building at Hindenburgstrasse 63, today Magdeburger Strasse, which had been declared a "Jews’ house,” and he was deported from there to the Sobibor extermination camp on 1 June 1942.

In the May 1939 national census, the German bureaucracy recorded further persons with the birth or family name of Badt and the birthplace of Schönlanke (District of Czernikau), who were probably uncles and aunts of Else
- Henriette Philippson, née Badt (born on 28 Aug. 1858 in Schönlanke), residing at Kronenhofstrasse 27 in Stettin (today Szczecin in Poland) in May 1939, deported on 12 Feb. 1940 to Lublin, where she died three days later;
- Max Badt (born on 3 June 1856 in Schönlanke, parents: soap boiler Emanuel Badt and Rosa "Röschen,” née Asch), brother of Heinrich Badt (1869–1943), merchant, since 1886 married to Berta Badt, née Sternberg (born on 22 Oct. 1859 in Spandau), three children (Gertrud, born in 1889, and the twins Fritz and Werner, born in 1899, all natives of Aschersleben), residing in Berlin (at Frankfurter Allee 89) in May 1939, residence at the time of the deportation Berlin-Wilmersdorf W 30, at Pragerstrasse 34 on the third floor with Schwarz, deported on 29 Oct. 1942 from Berlin to the Theresienstadt Ghetto, where he died on 16 Nov. 1942 (officially of old age); Bertha Badt died on 8 Dec. 1942 in the Theresienstadt Ghetto
- Heinrich Badt (born on 25 June 1869 in Schönlanke/ Pomerania), brother of Max Badt (1856–1942), merchant, founded the "Heinrich Badt” shoe wholesale company in 1900 (from Dec. 1936, the son Emil Hans Badt, born in 1903 in Berlin, was co-owner), married to Helene Badt, née Levin (born on 29 Dec. 1873 in Rogowo, Znin District, today in Poland); Heinrich Badt lived in May 1939 and July 1942 in Berlin-Tiergarten (at Altonaer Str. 11) and was deported to the Theresienstadt Ghetto on 24 July 1942, where he died of pneumonia on 22 Jan. 1943. His wife was also deported to Theresienstadt on 24 July 1942 and to the Auschwitz extermination camp on 16 May 1944.

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

Stand: June 2020
© Björn Eggert

Quellen: Staatsarchiv Hamburg (StaH) 213-13 (Landgericht Hamburg, Wiedergutmachung), 9885 (Cerline/Zerline Badt geb. Ehrlich); StaH 332-5 (Standesämter), 5422 u. 1367/1940 (Sterberegister 1940, Cäcilie Badt geb. Ehrlich); StaH 332-8 (Meldewesen), Hauskartei, Klosterallee 35 III (Freudenthal, Schalmayer); StaH 351-11 (Amt für Wiedergutmachung), 7667 (Dr. Ludwig Freudenthal); StaH 351-11 (Amt für Wiedergutmachung), 1323 (Cäcilie/Zerline Badt); StaH 522-1 (Jüdische Gemeinden), 992b (Kultussteuerkartei der Deutsch-Israelitischen Gemeinde Hamburg), Ludwig Freudenthal, Nationalarchiv Prag, Institut Theresienstädter Initiative (Todesfallanzeigen Max Badt, Heinrich Badt); Bundesarchiv Koblenz, Gedenkbuch, Helene Badt geb. Levin, Heinrich Badt, Ludwig Freudenthal, Else Freudenthal geb. Badt, Max Badt, Heinrich Badt, Henriette Philippson geb. Badt; Gedenkbuch Hamburger jüdische Opfer des Nationalsozialismus, Hamburg 1995, S. 111 (Ludwig und Else Freudenthal); Europäisches Kultur- und Informationszentrum in Thüringen (Hrsg.), Juden in Thüringen 1933–1945, Erfurt 2000, S.34 (Lina Freudenthal geb. Hellmann, Dr. Ludwig Freudenthal); Jutta Hoschek, Ausgelöschtes Leben, Juden in Erfurt 1933–1945, Erfurt 2013, S. 133–137 (Biografie Lina Freudenthal geb. Hellmann u. Dr. Ludwig Freudenthal); Meyers Lexikon, Band 10, Leipzig 1929, S. 1435 (Schönlanke); Wilhelm Mosel, Wegweiser zu ehemaligen jüdischen Stätten in Hamburg, Heft 3, Hamburg 1989, S. 124 (Beneckestraße 2); Hamburger Adressbuch 1937, 1938, 1940–1942 (Ludwig Freudenthal); Hamburger Börsenfirmen, Hamburg 1926, S. 348 (Carl Gröschner, Inh. Carl Ludwig Max Gröschner, gegr. 1920 und Max Gröschner, Inh. Carl Ferdinand Max Gröschner, gegr. 1888, Agent und Makler); www.tacingthepast.org (Volkszählung Mai 1939), Carline Badt geb. Ehrlich, Kurt Bauchwitz, Ludwig Freudenthal, http://data.synagoge-eisleben.de/gen/fg01/fg01_199.htm (Kurt u. Frieda Bauchwitz); https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liste_der_Stolpersteine_in_Halle_(Saale) (Kurt Bauchwitz, eingesehen 21.11.2017); http://www.jüdische-gemeinden.de/index.php/gemeinden/s-t/1763-schoenlanke-westpreussen (eingesehen 2.11.2017); http://www.alemannia-judaica.de/oehringen_synagoge.htm (eingesehen 2.11.2017); Informationen von Dr. Jutta Hoschek.