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Selma Heymann * 1893

Eppendorfer Baum 11 (Hamburg-Nord, Harvestehude)

HIER WOHNTE
SELMA HEYMANN
JG. 1893
GEDEMÜTIGT / ENTRECHTET
FLUCHT IN DEN TOD
3.12.1941

further stumbling stones in Eppendorfer Baum 11:
Anna Loewenberg, Paul Loewenberg, Ida Löwenberg, Hugo Löwenstein, Ida Löwenstein

Selma Heymann, born on 3 Mar. 1893, humiliated / deprived of her rights, flight to death on 3 Dec. 1941

Eppendorfer Baum 11 Harvestehude

Selma was born as the only child of the Jewish couple Philipp Heymann and Auguste Heymann, née Blumenthal, in Lübeck on 3 Mar. 1893. Selma Heymann’s mother Auguste Heymann had been born in Hamburg on 18 May 1862, her father Philipp Heymann on 13 Nov. 1864 (He passed away in Hamburg on 29 Dec. 1933 and was buried in the Ilandkoppel Jewish Cemetery).

Selma Heymann’s parents had been living separately since she was one year old. Selma’s contact with her mother Auguste Heymann had subsequently broken off. Selma lived with foster parents, and on 26 Sept. 1893, according to the Lübeck residents’ registration file, she stayed with the Büchner family at Kleine Altefähre 10. She moved in with the Heymann family at Hafenstrasse 10 in Lübeck on 26 May 1894. Presumably, Selma Heymann was related to the family.

A year and a half later, on 30 Dec. 1895, she was again registered as residing at Kleine Altefähre 10, where she remained until 7 May 1896. We have not been able to determine whether this address was an orphanage.

Selma was then placed with foster parents in Hamburg. Why this frequent change took place and where the new foster parents lived, we do not know.

As a young woman, Selma Heymann learned the trade of sales clerk.
From 1916 to 1922, she lived in Berlin and worked there as a sales clerk; starting in 1917, she paid contributions to the Reich insurance fund toward her pension.

In 1918, she contracted syphilis in Berlin, but it did not initially result in any significant symptoms or complaints, which caused Selma Heymann problems only later.

On 1 Sept. 1922, Selma Heymann moved back to Hamburg. We do not know her address from 1922 to 1930. Again, she worked as a sales clerk, from 1922 to 1930 for Heidmann & Co. at Hammerbrookstrasse 92. The store was a very reputable ready-to-wear store for women’s coats.

The plan was for Selma Heymann to take up a job with the Hirschfeld Brothers Company in Mar. 1930. This did not happen, however, because she fell ill and she was then placed in the convalescent home in Reinbek. By this time, the syphilis she had contracted in Berlin in 1918 was causing her more and more problems.

Syphilis is an infectious disease transmitted through sexual intercourse. The course of the illness usually progresses in three phases. Symptoms range from swollen lymph nodes to kidney damage and paralysis of the cranial nerves. Today, patients are treated with penicillin injections.

Selma Heymann suffered frequent headaches because of the disease. She was treated with drugs used to combat malaria. In addition, she received a drug called Salvarsan. This was a medication containing arsenic. It was so effective that often a single dose was sufficient for treatment. On the other hand, the drug also caused very severe side effects, such as corrosive injuries to the internal organs and veins.

Her doctor diagnosed on 10 Nov. 1930 that there were no signs of syphilis and no signs of diseases of the central nervous system either.

During the period of her illness, Selma Heymann changed her accommodations very frequently, sometimes monthly, mostly as a subtenant: In 1930, she lived first at Albertstrasse 23 with Becker, then at Albertstrasse 38 with Heuer, at Capellenstrasse 22 with Steinbach, and then at Nagelsweg 9 with Froböse. In 1931, she resided at Holzdamm 44 in the Compart guest house, then at Mittelweg 115 with Schmid, and on 25 June 1931, she moved to Gosslerstrasse 10 (now an extension of Eppendorfer Weg) to live with Rosalie Spitzer (Rosalie Spitzer passed away on 18 Aug. 1940). From 1934 onward, she mainly found accommodation with Jewish landlords; for example, in that year she lived at Brahmsallee 14 with Clara Jaffe (Clara Jaffe was deported to Riga on 6 Dec. 1941. See www.stolpersteine-hamburg.de). Subsequently, she moved in with the merchant Adolf Zinkower (born on 3 June 1870) at Grindelhof 19 (Adolf Zinkower fled to Palestine on 15 June 1935).

In 1935, she resided at Lattenkamp 8 with Stella Wagner (born on 18 Nov. 1889). Starting on 20 Jan. 1936, Selma Heymann lived at Abendrothsweg 34 with Susanne Zirker (Susanne Zirker was deported to the Lodz/ Litzmannstadt Ghetto on 25 Oct. 1941. See www.stolpersteine-hamburg.de).

In Jan. 1936, Selma worked as a reader for an elderly woman unknown to us. In this year, starting in the summer, she was registered with the authorities as residing at Oderfelderstrasse 7 with Moritz Weis (born on 14 Mar. 1871). (Moritz Weis was deported to Theresienstadt on 19 July 1942. See www.stolpersteine-hamburg.de). She resided at Hegestieg 12 with Leopold Müller (born on 1 Aug. 1891) on 25 Nov. 1936. (He was in custody in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp for five months after the November Pogrom in 1938. He emigrated to the USA, where he died on 21 Aug. 1942 due to the effects of the concentration camp imprisonment).

On 7 Feb. 1938, Selma Heymann had rented a room at Isestrasse 89 from Magda Klyscz (born on 23 May 1910). (Magda Klyscz fled abroad on 26 July 1939).

Selma Heymann then moved into a room at Jungfrauenthal 14 with Bertha Koopmann, née Fränkel (born on 25 Nov. 1869). (Bertha Koopmann was deported to Theresienstadt on 15 July 1942). In the summer months of 1939, Selma Heymann moved, as a home resident, into a room at Bundesstrasse 35, House C, where she was able to stay for two years.

On 6 Dec. 1941, Selma Heymann was to be deported to Riga. To evade this deportation, she chose suicide by means of carbon dioxide on 3 Dec. 1941.

She was buried at the Ilandkoppel Jewish Cemetery in Grave ZW-10-211.

Selma Heymann’s mother Auguste Heymann was deported from her apartment in Düsseldorf to Theresienstadt on 9 June 1943. She perished there on 17 Sept. 1943.

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

Stand: May 2021
© Bärbel Klein

Quellen: StaH, 1; 2; 4; 5; 8; 9; 351-14_1290; 213-13_4333; 332-5_609/1892; 332-5_2144/1893; 332-5_1509/1933; 332-5_7/1942; 741-4_K 6250; 741-4_K 4253; 351-11_13125 Aron Leopold Müller; 351-11_1600 Bertha Koopmann; www.geni.com; agora.sub.uni-hamburg.de; www.wikipedea.de; www.ancestry.de (Einsicht am 26.9.2020).
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