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Felix Nemann * 1865

Großneumarkt 37 (Hamburg-Mitte, Neustadt)

FELIX NEMANN
JG. 1865
DEPORTIERT 1942
THERESIENSTADT
ERMORDET 1942 IN
TREBLINKA

further stumbling stones in Großneumarkt 37:
Isidor Nemann, Lea Nemann

Felix Nemann, born on 10 Apr. 1865 in Rackwitz (today Rakoniewice in Poland), deported on 15 July 1942 to Theresienstadt, deported further on 21 Sept. 1942 to Treblinka
Dr. Isidor Nemann, born on 23 Mar. 1866 in Rackwitz, died on 5 Nov. 1942 in Hamburg
Lea Nemann, born on 15 May 1868 in Rackwitz, deported on 19 July 1942 to Theresienstadt, died there on 18 Oct. 1942

Grossneumarkt 37 (in front of the Pelikan pharmacy)

Isidor Nemann was born as the second child of the Jewish couple Moritz Nemann (born on 14 Sept. 1836 in Reisen, today Rydzynan in Poland) and Betty, nee Friedländer (born on 29 Apr. 1837 in Jutroschin, today Jutrosin in Poland), in Rackwitz in the Province of Posen. His older brother Felix was born one year earlier on 10 Apr. 1865, his siblings Lea on 15 May 1868 and Max on 2 Nov. 1871. The youngest, Simon, was born on 22 Nov. 1873 in Berlin. According to his entry in the birth register, his parents lived at that time in Wittstock, Ostprignitz District in Brandenburg. They had married on 19 Oct. 1864 in Wollstein/Posen (today Wolsztyn in Poland).

The father, Moritz Nemann, established himself in Hamburg in 1880 as a wine and tea merchant. First, he ran his business near the Brooks Bridge, at "Auf dem Sande 19,” then at Neustädter Fuhlentwiete 44. The family moved into an apartment at Marktstrasse 104 in the St. Pauli quarter.

When Moritz Nemann submitted an "application for citizenship in the Hamburg Federation” (Hamburgischer Staatsverband) in Dec. 1888, his oldest sons Felix and Isidor still lived in Berlin. The request was granted. The Nemann family had been living at Bundesstrasse 31 since 1901. Moritz Nemann died on 20 Jan. 1902, his wife Betty 14 years later on 24 June 1926. The siblings kept the apartment.

The parents had enabled Isidor Nemann to attend university. He studied medicine and obtained his license to practice medicine in Kiel in Mar. 1890, at the age of 25. He wrote his dissertation on Über einen Fall von Circulärem Irrsein im Verlaufe einer Zwangsvorstellungspsychose ("On a Case of Circular Wrong Being in the Course of a Obsessional Psychosis”). Three years later, in Apr. 1894, he established himself as a general practitioner and specialist for skin diseases at Grossneumarkt 37 in the building of the Pelikan pharmacy, which still exists today. Since Isidor Nemann remained unmarried like his siblings, he also resided in the practice. As a contemporary witness recalled, Isidor Nemann was very good with children and showed a lot of understanding when she, a young patient then, called on him with her mother. On 7 Apr. 1933, the "Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service” ("Gesetz zur Wiederherstellung des Berufsbeamtentums”) revoked his statutory health insurance license, since he was a "non-Aryan.” However, he was able to continue his practice at the Grossneumarkt for private patients until, like that of all "non-Aryan” physicians, his license to practice medicine at all was revoked after 42 years of professional activity on 30 Sept. 1938, based on the "Fourth Ordinance to the Reich Citizenship Law” ("Vierte Verordnung zum Reichsbürgergesetz”). With the forced abandonment of the practice, he also lost the apartment. (The practice was taken over by Dr. C. Böttler.)

Isidor Nemann moved as a subtenant to Isestrasse 54 and received a pension of 95 RM (reichsmark) from the "Physicians’ Association” ("Ärzte-Vereinigung”). Like many of his colleagues who decided to leave Germany, Isidor Nemann also prepared for emigration. Perhaps because of his old age, however, he ended up staying in Hamburg. After payment of special dues and charges such as the "Reich flight tax” ("Reichsfluchtsteuer”) and the "levy on Jewish assets” ("Judenvermögensabgabe”), the Hamburg Chief Finance Administrator (Oberfinanzpräsident) imposed a "security order” ("Sicherungsandordnung”) on him. Isidor Nemann could no longer freely dispose of his Dresdner Bank account, with only a monthly sum of 300 RM left to him for the cost of living. Isidor Nemann nevertheless supported his destitute brother Felix, who had previously worked as a merchant in the iron and metal goods trade. He also paid the maintenance for his sister Lea, who since 1935 had been housed in a nursing home in Elmshorn at Kaltenweide 217. The youngest brother Simon, a commercial employee, had died on 15 Nov. 1931.

After a fall on the stairs, or perhaps because his landlady Else Rosenkranz from Isestrasse (see Stolpersteine in der Hamburger Isestrasse) had received her deportation order for Oct. 25, 1941 to the "Litzmannstadt” Ghetto in Lodz, Isidor Nemann moved to the Jewish retirement home at Schäferkampsallee 29, where he died on 5 Nov. 1942, at the age of 76. The outdated name of "paralysis agitans” for Parkinson’s disease was indicated as the cause of death.

Isidor Nemann had already made testamentary provisions for the further care of his siblings in Aug. 1940 and chose the "Community Syndic” of the German-Israelitic Community, Nathan Max Nathan, as the executor of his estate. In the event of his death, he ordered, among other things, to be buried without a previous autopsy and without ceremonies, which might point to a planned suicide.

He also wished to be buried in one of three free row graves in the Jewish cemetery, "so that we siblings find our last resting place next to each other.”

Isidor Nemann’s last wish was not fulfilled.

He lived to witness the deportations of his siblings. The older one, Felix, was deported on 15 July 1942 from Rothenbaumchaussee 217 to the "ghetto for the elderly” ("Altergetto”) in Theresienstadt. Sister Lea was deported on the next transport to Theresienstadt on 19 July 1942. Her name was on the supplemental list for this deportation. Felix Nemann was murdered in the Treblinka extermination camp on 21 Sept. 1942. Lea Nemann died, according to the death notice of the Theresienstadt Ghetto, in the same year, on 18 October of "infirmity of old age,” and her last address was indicated as "Hamburg Schlachterstrasse 46.”

Isidor Nemann found his last resting place at the Jewish Cemetery on Ilandkoppel in Ohlsdorf, as he had determined in his will. The gravesites for his siblings remained unused. Stolpersteine for them were laid side by side in front of the building at Grossneumarkt 37, as a symbolic sign.

Nathan Max Nathan (born in 1879) was no longer able to perform his duties as executor: Together with his wife Dora, née Rieger (born in 1881), he was already deported to Theresienstadt on 19 July 1942, and both were murdered in Auschwitz in 1944 (Stolpersteine at Werderstrasse 16, see Stolpersteine in Hamburg-Eimsbüttel).

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

Stand: May 2020
© Susanne Rosendahl

Quellen: 1; 3; 4; 8; 9; StaH 351-11 AfW 1086 (Nemann, Isidor); StaH 314-15 OFP, R 1940/277; StaH 314-15 OFP, R 1939/2510; StaH 332-7 B III 87940/1906; StaH 332-5 Standesämter 7952 u 165/1902; StaH 332-5 Standesämter 8085 u 237/1926; StaH 332-5 Standesämter 9855 u 2241/1931; StaH 332-5 Standesämter 8179 u 523/1942; StaH 352-13 Karteikarten jüdischer Ärzte 15; StaH 522-1 Jüdische Gemeinde Nr. 992 e 2 Band 4; StaH 522-1 Jüdische Gemeinde Nr. 992 e 2 Band 5; StaH 332-7 B_III 31627; Nationalarchiv in Prag/Theresienstädter Initiative, Jüdische Matriken, Todesfallanzeigen Theresienstadt (Lea Nemann); Villiez: verdrängt, S. 369; Hamburger Adressbuch 1915; www.ancestry.de (Geburtenregister Simon Nemann am 22.11.1873 Berlin (Zugriff 30.7.2017).
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