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Herbert Oberschitzky * 1904

Hallerstraße 8 (Eimsbüttel, Rotherbaum)

1942 Theresienstadt
tot am 27.7.1942

further stumbling stones in Hallerstraße 8:
Levy Louis Oberschitzky, Zerline Oberschitzky

Levy (Louis) Oberschitzky, born 13 Sep. 1869 in Burgdorf, deported 15 July 1942 to Theresienstadt, 21 Sep. 1942 to Treblinka, murdered there
Zerline Oberschitzky, née David, born 1 July 1873 in Hanover, deported 15 July 1942 to Theresienstadt, 21 Sep. 1942 to Treblinka, murdered there
Herbert Fritz Oberschitzky, born 1 Apr. 1904 in Hamburg, deported 15 July 1942 to Theresienstadt, died there 27 July 1942

Hallerstraße 8

Levy and Zerline Oberschizky were both born into Jewish merchant families. Levy’s parents, Salomon and Friederike (née Aron) Oberschützky, moved from Altona, which was at that time Danish, to Burgdorf in the Kingdom on Hanover around 1860. Salomon opened a draper’s shop. At that time Burgdorf was a small village with only about 3000 residents, of whom about 100 were Jewish. There was a synagogue and a Jewish school. All eight of Salomon and Friederike Oberschützy’s children were born in Burgdorf – Rosa and Abraham, Levy and Willy, Ida and Moritz, Hermann and Ruduolf.

When Levy was born on 13 Sep. 1869 – after the Austro-Prussian War – the Kingdom of Hanover had become the Prussian Provice of Hanover. He and his younger siblings were thus Prussians by birth. Salomon Oberschützky later moved his business and family to Lüneburg, so Levy and his siblings grew up in Burgdorf and Lüneburg. Levy attended school until he was about 16. He did his military service with the Prussian Landsturm. He later called himself Louis rather than Levy and changed the spelling of his last name.

All of Salomon Oberschützty’s sons became merchants like their father, all of the daughters married merchants. Around 1900 the first of the children moved to Hamburg, and by the early 1920s all eight siblings and their families were living there. The third generation – a total of sixteen sons and daughters – kept up the family tradition and became or married merchants. Almost all of them also lived in Hamburg until the fateful year of 1938.

The family history is characterized by a sharp decline in the birth rate within three generations. Salomon and Friederike Oberschützky had eight children between 1865 and 1880. This seciónd generation had a total of 16 children between 1895 and 1905, with one child born much later in 1921. Of the 16 grandchildren of Salomon and Friederike, only three had one child each, born between 1920 and 1934 in Hamburg. All three great-grandchildren were girls.

Salomon David, Zerline Oberschitzky’s father, was also a merchant. He was originally from Wittmund in Eastern Frisia. Her mother Rosa (called Röschen), née Rosenbaum, was from Braunschweig. The couple had five children. The eldest child was born in Hagenburg, a small village near Hanover, the next three in Hanover – Zerline on 1 July 1873.

In Hanover Salomon David had worked as a book-seller. One year after Zerline’s birth the family moved to Hamburg. Salomon was granted Hamburg citizenship on 6 April 1877, a few days before the birth of his youngest daughter Jettchen. His profession was listed in the Hamburg Register of Citizens as "manufactured goods trade,” and later in the Hamburg Address Book as "silk ribbon trade.” Although Hamburg had eased access restrictions to certain professions in 1864, this term hearkened back to the Hamburg industrial code from an earlier era when Jews were forbidden to trade in items that were reserved for members of the merchant and craft guilds. Trade in what was then "new” manufactured and imported goods – like silk ribbons - was already open to non-guild members under the earlier industrial code, and was thus permitted for Jews.

Salomon David set up his business in the Neustadt at Alte Steinweg 51. Around 1880 he moved it to Neuer Steinweg 96, to his own house, where Zerline and her siblings grew up. When he retired in 1905, Salomon David and his wife moved from the Neustadt to Grindelberg 76/1. He died on 24 July 1917. Röschen David remained in the apartment on Grindelberg for nearly thirty years. She died at the age of 93, on 10 Feb. 1933, a few days after the National Socialist takeover.

The Oberschützkys and the Davids were members of the Jewish Community. Only one family member, Zerline’s brother Bernhard David, officially left the Jewish Community. His tax records recorded his exit in 1929, with his grounds for leaving being that he was a "non-believer." All of the siblings married within the Jewish Community – none of them had a Jewish-Christian mixed marriage. They were considered "full Jews" in Nazi Germany, as defined in the Nuremberg Laws of 1935.

Louis Oberschitzky and Zerline David married on 11 June 1896 in Hamburg. Initially, they lived Altona, at Schulterblatt 30A/I. Their two daughters were born there: Friederike on 6 Apr. 1897 and Paula on 23 June 1898. From 1900 onward they lived in Hamburg, at Grindelallee 165, where their son Herbert Fritz was born on 1 Apr. 1904. In 1907 they moved to the third floor of the building at Hallerstraße 8, near Zerline's parents. A few years before they moved in, an ad in the Hamburger Fremdenblatt had described exactly this full-story unit as follows: "... vis a vis the Klosterallee ... very elegant 3rd floor apartment ..., 4 large drawing rooms, 4 bedrooms, 1 bath, maid’s room, servery, wardrobe, pantry, laundry room, attic and wine cellar.” From 1907 to 1939 – as long as the synagogue stood at Bornplatz – this was the Oberschitzkys’ family and company headquarters. The children grew up here, and the company’s main office was here. Friederike, Paula and Herbert walked to school from here. We do not know which school Friederike and Paula attended, but Herbert went to the secondary school in Eimsbüttel. At the time that Herbert was in school, during the First World War, it was temporarily housed at the Heinrich Hertz School on Bundesstraße. After his schooling he did a commercial apprenticeship.

According to the commercial register, Louis Oberschitzky was the owner and personally liable partner of Neumann & von Ancken, founded in 1899. This was his position from 1903 until the company was "Aryanized." The business traded primarily in (black) protective coatings and other chemical building materials. In 1931, the company began producing these substances itself, in a small factory at Schulterblatt 58. One of the products bore the trade name "Zerlanin," named after Louis’ wife Zerline. In 1931 the company also became a general partnership when Herbert Oberschitzky joined the company at the age of 27 as a shareholder. Despite the boycott of Jewish companies after the Nazi seizure of power, the company held its ground until 1938, even increasing sales and profits during these years, as documented by the taxes Louis Oberschitzky paid during this time.

Louis and Zerline Oberschitzky bought an apartment building in 1909 at 104–108 Schulterblatt in Altona, where they had lived earlier. It was "Aryanized” in 1941, and later destroyed during a bombing raid.

The "fateful year" of 1938 finally destroyed their economic existence. Since their income exceeded 5,000 Reichsmarks, according to the Reich Ministry of Economics’ "Decree on the Registration of Jewish Property” of 26 April 1938, they had to submit a "declaration of assets" covering all of their property, business and capital assets, and all personal valuables. Another decree issued by Göring on the same day deprived them of their entire fortune. A "security order" issued by the Foreign Exchange Office of the Hamburg Chief Finance Authority placed all of their assets into a "secured account," to which they were not allowed access, except for 600 Reichsmarks per month for living expenses. Any expenditure exceeding this sum had to be applied for and approved by the Foreign Exchange Office.

Neumann & von Ancken was "Aryanized," sold and liquidated. The family was only allowed to sell the inventory, raw materials and warehouse, however. The sales contract "obliged" them to hand over all registered trademarks, formulas and exact manufacturing processes, and the customer file – the company’s real capital – to the buyer free of charge. Sales contracts in the context of "Aryanization" required the approval of the Hamburg Reich Governor. He approved this contract on 18 Nov. 18, 1938, a few days after the pogrom night, under the condition that the already extremely low purchase price for the company was halved again. In the end, a company that had achieved an annual (!) profit of around 50,000 Reichsmarks despite the boycott of Jewish companies was sold for only 17,500 Reichsmarks. The "Jewish capital tax" alone, which Louis and Herbert Oberschitzky had to pay after the pogrom night, was many times higher than this selling price.

The "Aryanization" was handled by the Hamburg accountant Dr. Friedrich P. Siegert. As he noted in a letter, it was "... not in the interests of the Reich ... that the settlement be reached by a Jew." Siegert was a member of the Reich Chamber of Economic Trustees, but not, as far as is known, a member of the Nazi Party.

Despite the extremely low purchase price, the buyer, a merchant from Blankenese, failed to maintain the business. Sales representatives of Neumann & von Ancken had handled the sales of construction chemicals, and they were, with the exception of one, all Jews. When they were forced to leave the company in the course of the "Aryanization," sales collapsed.

In October 1938, before the November Pogrom, Paula, Louis and Zerline Oberschitzky's younger daughter, left Hamburg – almost voluntarily. With her husband, Hermann Martin Goldschmidt, and her daughter Ingeborg (*23 Dec. 1920) – the only grandchild of Louis and Zerline Oberschitzky – she emigrated to the USA. The emigration saved their lives, but did not save them from financial ruin at the hands of the Nazi state. The "Reich Flight Tax" alone, which they had to pay in order to leave Germany, amounted to 25 percent of their entire fortune. Because it was forbidden to take Reichsmarks out of the country, they had to exchange them for a foreign currency, and the fee for doing so, which was paid to the Deutsche Golddiskontbank (Dego), was 90% of the amount exchanged. By emigrating, her husband forfeited outstanding commissions in the amount of 5,000 Reichsmarks. The collection of these receivables and their transfer to the United States were prevented. They were "collected" in 1941 after all - not to transfer them to the US, however, but rather for the payment of Goldschmidt’s "levy on Jewish assets." This perfidious compulsory levy, which was imposed on Jews in Germany after the November Pogrom, did not exist at the time of the Goldschmidts’ emigration. After Goldschmidt emigrated and was subsequently expatriated, it was still required of him. All of their belongings - furniture, appliances, clothing – that were stored in the Port of Hamburg for transfer to the USA were first impounded and then, after the outbreak of the war, confiscated by the Gestapo and publicly auctioned "for the benefit of the Reich."

Paula Goldschmidt later married Lutz Weisskopf in New York.

Friederike, Louis and Zerline Oberschitzky's eldest daughter, also left Hamburg, a few days after Paula. Unlike her sister, however, her departure was not voluntary. She and her husband Jacob (James) Gärtner were arrested on 28 Oct. 1938 and deported. They were two of the approximately 17,000 Jews of supposedly "Polish origin" from Germany – including about 1,000 from Hamburg – who were arrested on 28 and 29 Oct. 1938 and transported to the Polish border. Although they managed to escape the "no-man's-land" on the Polish border first to Warsaw and from there to Holland, which was still neutral, they did not escape Nazi persecution. On 23 Mar. 1943, Jacob and Friederike (Fryderyke) Gärtner were arrested in Amsterdam and sent to the Westerbork Detention Center. On 30 Mar. 1943 they were deported from there to the Sobibor extermination camp and murdered. Two Stolpersteine in front of the house at Brahmsallee 62 were placed in remembrance of them.

A few days after their daughter was deported, Louis and Zerline Oberschitzky witnessed the November Pogrom in Hamburg. It is possible that they did not see the destruction of the Bornplatz synagogue, but the desecration and demolition of the synagogue "Vereinigte Alte und Neue Klaus" happened right in front of their eyes – outside the back windows of their apartment. The day after the Pogrom, Louis Oberschitzky's youngest brother Rudolf was arrested and taken to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp. He did not return to Hamburg until 14 Dec. 1938, marked by the ill-treatment he had suffered. He was released on the condition that he leave Germany. He was not the only member of the Oberschützky family to leave Hamburg after the November Pogrom. Within a few months, the exodus of family members began. Before the Pogrom, Louis' siblings all lived in Hamburg, with the exception of two brothers who had already died. And apart from one nephew, Louis Behr, who had emigrated to the United States in 1934, almost all of their sixteen sons and daughters and their families lived there. After the Pogrom, four of Louis’ siblings and eight of his nephews and their families fled Hamburg. All emigrated to the US or South America. Of those who stayed, none survived the Holocaust.

Louis and Zerline Oberschitzky stayed. First, they "only" had to leave their apartment on Ostmarkstraße – as Hallerstraße was called from 1938 until after the war – after more than thirty years. The Reich Law on Renting to Jewish Tenants, issued on 30 Apr. 1939, abolished tenant protection for Jews and prepared for the concentration of the Jewish population in "Jews’ houses." The house at Haynstraße 7, where Louis and Zerline Oberschitzky lived with their unmarried son Herbert for the next three years or so, was one such "Jews’ house." In the 1939 census, their daughter Friederike Gärtner was also temporarily registered there. She and her husband James Gärtner had stopped in Hamburg on their flight from Warsaw to Amsterdam. Where James Gärtner was at this time we do not know.

When the deportations of Hamburg’s "full Jews” to Lodz, Minsk, and Riga began in the autumn of 1941, Louis and Zerline Oberschitzky were spared – initially. Louis was 73 years old at the time and Zerline was 69 years old – the deportation of Jews older than 65 was to be "deferred." After this round of deportations they had to – "just one more time” – "free up living space for Volksgenossen [Aryans].” On 1 Apr. 1942, the Gestapo ordered all Jews to be relocated to "Jews’ houses." Just a few days before, on 24 Mar. 1942, the Hamburg Jewish Religious Organization put out the notice (No. 21) that "... all Jews (except those in mixed marriages) who do not yet live in a property managed by the Hamburg Jewish Religious Organization (...) should report immediately to the office of the Jewish Religious Organization, Beneckestr. 2, Room 18 ...". Louis, Zerline and Herbert Oberschitzky were probably among those who had already been assigned to "a property managed by the Jewish Religious Organization” – one of the remaining "Jew’s houses." On 25 Mar. 1942 they moved within Hamburg for the last time, to the Louis-Levy-Stift at Durchschitt 1, which had been converted to a "Jews’ house." A few months later, Louis, Zerline and Herbert Oberschitzky received their "evacuation orders." The deportation of over-65-year-old Jews to Theresienstadt – the "ghetto for the elderly,” as Nazi propaganda would have it – had begun.

Louis and Zerline Oberschitzky did not emigrate as long as it might have been possible for them to do so. One reason for this, it is believed, was their son Herbert’s illness. He had suffered from a chronic skin disease since childhood. A treatment with X-rays early in his childhood had resulted in severe burns. A 1937 diagnosis saw the only chance of recovery in the surgical removal of all skin surfaces that had been damaged by the X-ray treatment. Such an operation was not possible in any of the remaining Jewish hospitals in Germany. Although in Nazi-controlled Germany no hospital was obligated to admit a Jew under any circumstances, Herbert Oberschitzky underwent surgery several times – in Utrecht and Vienna, but also in Berlin and, for the last time, in the UKE in Hamburg. He remained in each hospital for a longer period of time. All the money Herbert Oberschitzky had left after his company's "Aryanisation" had been used up for operations and hospitalization – especially since his medical expenses were further increased by the fact that he was, as a non-Aryan, forced to occupy a single room in the hospital.

In 1941, Louis Oberschitzky wanted to take over the treatment costs for his son. In his name, his asset manager Herr Siegert repeatedly requested the Chief Finance Authority to "grant a one-time exception to access the secured account of Louis Israel Oberschitzky ... to defray the hospital and medical expenses" of his son. The answers from the Chief Finance Authority were always succinct: "We can not comply with the request." The last application, dated 10 July 1942, stated, "Herr Louis Israel Oberschitzky would like to give his son Herbert Israel Oberschitzky ... the amount of 10,000 Reichsmarks to pay for the operations and hospital costs incurred by his illness. Herr Herbert Israel Oberschitzky suffers from radiation cancer. His nose and lower lip and part of his chin have already been surgically removed. However, it has proven necessary to undergo yet another major operation. ... He is largely dependent on help ... or hospitalization." Five days later, on 15 July 1942, the Chief Finance Minister approved "the transfer, as a donation ... from the restricted secured account of Louis Israel Oberschitzky at the Dresdner Bank ... to the restricted secured account of his son Herbert Israel Oberschitzky" – to pay his "Aryan" doctors.

The day the request was approved was the day that Louis, Zerline and Herbert Oberschitzky were deported from Hamburg to Theresienstadt. The day before, they were told to come, with their luggage, to the school on Schanzenstraße, the collection point for the transport. Here is where they spent their last night in Hamburg. They were taken in an open truck to the Hannoversche train station, where they boarded the train. This was the first transport to Theresienstadt. It is possible that they hoped, with their "resettlement to Theresienstadt" as the Nazi jargon called it, to have escaped "deportation to the dreaded East." This hope was based on the "home-buyer agreement" with the Reich Association of Jews in Germany, which Louis Oberschitzky was forced to sign shortly before their deportation. It promised them lodging, food and medical care for life, in return for all assets they had to leave behind. The shock they experienced on their arrival in Theresienstadt must have been terrible, given the complete overcrowding of the camp, the lack of food and the lack of medical care.

Herbert Oberschitzky died twelve days after he arrived in Theresienstadt, on 27 July 1942. For Louis and Zerline Oberschitzky, the ghetto was only a stop on their way to death. On 21 Sep. 1942 they were transferred to Treblinka and murdered.

On 27 August 1942, the Chief Finance Minister of Hamburg decreed that the assets of Louis, Zerline and Herbert Oberschitzky be confiscated "for the benefit of the Reich." This last plundering was fully legal, after the Eleventh Regulation on the Reich Citizenship Law had been passed on 25 Nov. 1941. It ordered the confiscation of the assets of Jews who had been deported or had emigrated. Of the Oberschitzky’s assets, 5,000 Reichsmarks were to be paid to the Reich Association of Jews in Germany for the home-buyer agreement, the remainder was transferred to the Chief Finance Authority in Hamburg. According to a statement from the Dresdner Bank dated 18 June 1957, this was about 80,000 Reichsmarks. Their movable goods – furniture and other valuables – were publicly auctioned "for the benefit of the German Reich." The auction announcement has been lost, as have the records of the auction, so we do not know which pieces of furniture and other valuables were sold nor do we know the names of those who bought them. We only know the proceeds – 9639.30 Reichsmarks, which were transferred to the Hamburg Chief Finance Authority. Since furniture that was confiscated from Jews was regularly sold at prices tremendously lower than their actual value, we can conclude from the unusually high auction proceeds that the items owned by Louis and Zerline Oberschitzky were very valuable indeed.

Since the lives of Louis and Zerline Oberschitzky were inextricably linked with those of their siblings, we would like to complete the picture with short biographies of them. First, Louis Oberschitzky's siblings and their families:

Rosa, the eldest of the eight siblings, born on 4 Mar. 1865, was married to Julius Simon. The couple lived in Hamburg, where their children Alfred, Pauline and Walter were born. Julius Simon died early, in 1911. After his death, Rosa Simon, according to her tax records, was "supported by her brothers and children." She lived at Rutschbahn 22, separated only by a garden from her brother Louis’ home. Later she lived at Schlankreye 57, at Hartungstraße 1, and finally at Hegestieg 12, c/o Möller. Her sons Alfred, born 19 Dec. 1900, and Walter, born 16 Sep. 1905, lived in Hamburg and were merchants. Both were married but had no children. Both emigrated to the US; Walter in July 1939, Alfred in January 1940. Rosa Simon was the last of the family to leave Germany. She joined her sons in the US in June 1940.
We know very little about Pauline Simon. She was born on 16 Dec. 1902 and worked as a clerk in an office. Her last known address was Rutschbahn 22. We do not know what happened to her.
Abraham Oberschützky, who called himself Adolf, was born on 4 Apr. 1867. In 1916 he applied for Hamburg citizenship, since he had lived in Hamburg for many years. His application notes that "the applicant bears the German name Adolf instead of Abraham.” He and his wife Hedwig, née Jacobsohn, had three children: Anni and Hans, who were born in Wilhelmshaven, and Käthe, who was born in 1902 in Hamburg. Adolf Oberschützky joined the Jewish Community in Hamburg on 8 Jan. 1904. He and his brother Willy were partners in the W. Otto Franke company until 1917. He first lived in the same building as his brother Willy at Grindelallee 159, then at Bornstraße 8/1. Hedwig Oberschützky died on 25 Oct. 1910 in Hamburg. Adolf Oberschützky re-married. His second wife was Rosa Wohl, born on 29 Nov. 1879 in Wilhelmshaven. Their last address was Isestraße 35. Adolf Oberschützky probably died in 1932. After his death Rosa Oberschützky lived at Isestraße 53, c/o Pein. She died on 8 Mar. 1940 in Hamburg.
Hans Oberschützky, born on 30 Nov. 1899, lived in Hamburg, worked in an office, and never married. He emigrated to the US in January 1939.
Anni Oberschützky, born 29 July 1898, married Leonhard Frankenthal, born 18 Sep. 1900 in Hamburg. They moved to Berlin in 1930, where the couple separated. Leonhard Frankenthal survived the Holocaust – in hiding in Berlin – and joined the Berlin Jewish Community after the war. Anni remarried and lived in Munich. She took her life on 11 Aug. 1942. Her suicide saved her from deportation and murder.
Käthe Oberschützky, born 2 Sep. 1902, married the printer Hans Manfred Scheier, born 21 Nov. 1903 in Hamburg, in 1933. She was the only member of the family who didn’t become or marry a merchant. Käthe’s daughter Ilma Hedwig was born on 16 Oct. 1934 in Hamburg. She was the only grandchild of Adolf and Hedwig Oberschützky. The Scheiers’ last address in Hamburg was Rothenbaumchausee 83. On 8 Nov. 1941, Käthe, Manfred, and their seven-year-old daughter Ilme were deported to Minsk and murdered there. Three Stolpersteine were placed in their memory at Rothenbaumchaussee 83.
Willy, the fourth sibling, was born on 25 Aug. 1871. In 1903 he married Ida Gottlieb, born 5 May 1879 in Neustadt near Fulda. Their son Helmut was born on 20 Feb. 1905 in Hamburg. They lived at Grindelallee 159/II, later at Durchschnitt 19, and finally at Blücherstraße 6 c/o Heilbrunn. Willy Oberschützky and his brother Adolf were partners in the W. Otto Franke company until 1917, when Willy became the sole owner. The company sold orthopedic items and construction chemicals. In the trade with construction chemicals he was a business partner with his brother Louis, until both companies were "Aryanized.”
Helmut Oberschützky lived in Hamburg and worked for his father’s company. He never married. He emigrated to the US in January 1940.
Willy Oberschützky died on 9 July 1941 in Hamburg, before he could be deported and murdered.
Ida Gottlieb Oberschützky was deported to Riga on 6 Dec. 1941. A Stolperstein was placed in her memory at Durchschnitt 19.
Ida, the fifth child of Salomon and Friederike Oberschützky, born on 29 Aug. 1873, was married to Bernhard Behr, born on 12 July 1871 in Osterholz-Scharmbek. He owned shoe stores in several German cities. Their three sons were born in Schwerin: Louis on 29 May 1896, Friedrich on 30 Mar. 1898, and Alfred on 12 May 1902. After the First World War, they moved to Hamburg. Bernhard Behr became a member of the Hamburg Jewish Community on 23 Jan. 1920. They lived at Andreasbrunnen 9 and Haynstraße 11. Bernhard Behr owned a shoe store at Kleine Theaterstraße 7. The headquarters of his company, Behr-Schuhe, was in the newly built Deutschlandhaus at Gänsemarkt. The sons, merchants like their father, took over the management of the company in 1932. The Nazi boycott of Jewish businesses forced them to abandon their headquarters in 1933. All three sons were married, but only one of them, Friedrich and his wife Ilse, had a daughter, Lieselotte, born on 9 July 1924 in Hamburg. She was the only grandchild of Bernhard and Ida Behr. Louis Behr and his wife emigrated to the US in May 1934. His brother Friedrich and family followed in April 1939. We do not know the exact date of Alfred Behr's emigration. Ida and Bernhard Behr fled via Copenhagen to Oslo in December 1939, from there by the steamer Gripsholm to New York.
Moritz Oberschützky, the sixth sibling, was born on 1 Feb. 1876. He was a sales representative. He married Else Simson, born 12 Dec. 1881 in Kiel. The couple lived in Schwerin, where their children Friederike (Frieda) (14 Oct. 1902) and Erwin (8 June 1904) were born. After the First World War they also moved to Hamburg. Moritz Oberschützky became a member of the Hamburg Jewish Community on 1 June 1919. They lived at Wrangelstraße 6, then Schlankreye 24, and finally at Grindelberg 70/I.
Moritz Oberschützky died on 12 Sep. 1930 in Hamburg. Else Oberschützky emigrated to Stockholm on 26 July 1938. Erwin Oberschützky was a sales representative like his father. In 1935 he moved away from Hamburg, but it is unknown where. At that point he was not married. We know nothing about his later fate.
Friederrike Oberschützky married Semmy Frankenthal, born 11 May 1883 in Hamburg. He had two children from his first marriage, Edgar and Lolotta. Semmy and Friederike had no children. In 1939, Semmy moved to Berlin alone, and was deported from there to Riga on 15 Aug. 1942. His date of death is listed as 18 Aug. 1942. We do not know what happened to Friederike.
The seventh sibling, Hermann Oberschützky, was born on 21 May 1878. From 1904 to 1911 he was a representative for his brother’s company Neumann & von Ancken. During the First World War he served as a soldier in the Railroad Regiment I in Berlin Schöneberg. He and his wife Elfriede, née Rosenberg (born 19 July 1883 in Dortmund), had one son, Gerhard (Gerd) Adolf, who was born on 4 May 1921 in Hamburg. The family lived at Andreasbrunnen 9/II and then at Isestraße 23. Hermann Oberschützky ran a wholesaler for chemical construction materials. He was also a business partner of his brother Louis. Hermann, Elfriede and Gerd Oberschützky emigrated to Uruguay in July 1939. Hermann died on 17 June 1959 in Buenos Aires.
Rudolf Oberschützky, born on 30 May 1880, was the youngest of the eight siblings. His first wife was Friederike Behr. She had two daughters from her first marriage, Irene and Susanne, both of whom were born in Dortmund. Friederike died in 1919. Rudolf Oberschützky was re-married to Betty Levy, born 2 Oct. 1889 in Cologne. They had no children. Rudolf Oberschützky also served in the First World War. Afterwards he moved to Hamburg. He owned the ERO Shoe Store in the city center. After the November Pogrom he was arrested and sent to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp, where his prisoner number was 010737. On 14 Dec. 1938 he returned to Hamburg, obviously maltreated and with shorn hair. His brother Hermann gave him the money to emigrate with his family via France to the US. Since they had not yet received their visas for the US when the war broke out, they were interned in France until January 1940.
Rudolf Oberschützky lived to the age of 100. He died in 1980 in Los Angeles. He suffered until the end of his life from his mistreatment in Sachsenhausen. After the war he submitted a claim for reparations in Hamburg. He was represented by Dr. Friedrich P. Siegert, a certified accountant – and the same man who handled the "Aryanization” of his brother Louis’ company in 1938.
And to complete the family picture, a look at Zerline David Oberschitzky’s siblings and their families:
Moses, called Mortiz, David, her eldest brother, was born on 15 Oct. 1865 in Hagenburg near Hanover. He married Emilie Löffler (born 6 July 1872). They lived in Hamburg, where their son Ernst was born on 5 May 1900. We do not know what happened Mortitz and Ernst. Emilie David lived at Kielortallee 15. She died in 1931.
Jettchen Alexander, Zerline’s youngest sister, was born on 18 Apr. 1877 in Hamburg. She was widowed, and lived with her mother at Grindelberg 76/I until her mother’s death in 1933. Thereafter she lived at Isestrße 53/I, c/o Pein, where Rosa Oberschützky also lived after the death of her husband Adolf. Jettchen died on 31 Oct. 1936 in Hamburg.
Zerline's brother Bernhard, born 29 July 1869 in Hanover, was married to Elfriede Perutz, born 25 Jan. 1884 in Hamburg. Their two sons were born in Hamburg: Franz Werner on 4 June 1904 and Walter S. on 31 Jan. 1908. Bernhard David was an independent businessman. He owned the chemical factory Gustav Schmidt & Co. in Eidelstedt. In 1935 his son Franz Werner David became a partner in the company. Three years later, in September 1938, it was "Aryanized." Walter David, the younger son, ran a business that traded in technical equipment, located at Neue Steinweg 96, the home the family had owned since his grandfather, Salomon David, bought it. Bernhard and Elfriede David lived at Parkallee 13, then at Jungfrauenthal 20, in 1939 temporarily at Curschmannstraße 6 and then again on Parkallee, this time at No. 10. Their last place of residence in Hamburg was a room at Heimhuderstraße 70/2, a "Jews’ house."
As a "non-believer,” Bernhard David had exited the Jewish Community in 1929. As a "Jew” according to the Nuremberg Laws, he was a mandatory member of the Reich Association of Jews in Germany from 1939 onwards.
Franz Werner David, his wife Luise, née Dreyfuss, and their one-year-old son Carl Wolfgang emigrated to the US on 30 Sep. 1938, before the November Pogrom.
Walter David emigrated to England in April 1939, after the pogrom.
Bernhard and Elfriede David died in July 1942 in Hamburg, within days of each other. Bernhard died on 23 July 1942 in the Israelite Hospital at Johnsallee 68, where he had been in treatment since March 1942. The cause of death was a heart attack. Dr. Klewansky, a Jewish physician who was only allowed to treat Jewish patients, stated on the death certificate that he "found no indication of an unnatural death.”
A few days before, on 14 July 1942, Elfriede David attempted suicide by taking sleeping pills in her room at Heimhuderstraße 70/2. "Insensible," but still alive – according to the police report - she was taken to the Harbor Hospital. Her room was sealed, the key delivered to the caretaker. The police report did not state that her husband was still at the Israelite Hospital at the time. Elfriede David died in the morning hours of 16 July 1942 at the Harbor Hospital. The hospital's report found "presumptive poisoning" as the alleged cause of death and the "motive for suicide: evacuation."
The day on which Elfriede David attempted suicide was the day that Zerline, Louis, and Herbert Oberschitzky left for the school on Schanzenstraße, where they would board the transport to Theresienstadt.
There is as yet no Stolperstein for Elfriede David. It would be placed at Parkallee 10.


Translator: Amy Lee
Kindly supported by the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung, Hamburg.


Stand: September 2019
© Jost v. Maydell

Quellen: 1; 2; 3; 4; 5; 6; 7; 8; 9; StaH, 213-13 (Staatsanwaltschaft) Z 20770; 214-1 (Gerichtsvollzieher) Sign. 546; 314-15 (Oberfinanzpräsident – Devisenstelle und Vermögensverwertungsstelle) Sign. R 1938/2891, R 1941/0039; 331-5 (Polizeibehörde – Unnatürliche Todesfälle) Sign. 1330/42; 332-5 (Standesämter); 332-7 (Aufnahme in den Hamburgischen Staatsverband) B III Nr. 114887; 332-8 (Meldewesen); 351-11 (Amt für Wiedergutmachung) Sign. 1586, 21227, 55695, 74221, 34100; 522-1 (Jüdische Gemeinden) 992.d (Steuerakten, Kultussteuer), 992l (Bekanntmachungen des jüdischen Religionsverbandes), 992o (Vermietung sog. Judenhäuser); Bajohr, "Arisierung", S. 153; Brockhaus – Die Enzyklopädie, Leipzig – Mannheim, 1996; Das jüdische Hamburg, hrsg. vom Institut für die Geschichte der deutschen Juden, S. 25; Enzyklopädie des Holocaust, Band III, hrsg. von Jäckel u.a.; Erinnerung eröffnet Zukunft. Der Burgdorfer Gedenkfries im Ratssaal des Schlosses, hrsg. von der Stadt Burgdorf und dem Arbeitskreis Gedenkweg 9. November; Hamburger Adressbücher, versch. Jahrgänge; Lexikon der jüdischen Gemeinden, Bd. 1 u. 2, hrsg. Alicke; Meyer (Hrsg.), Verfolgung; Morisse, Lenhartzstraße 3, in Koser/Brunotte, Stolpersteine in Hamburg-Eppendorf; Verfolgung, Vertreibung, Vernichtung, S. 206; Vieth, Hier lebten sie, S.125; von Villiez, Mit aller Macht; Wegweiser, Mosel (Bearb.), Heft 2, S. 104, Heft 3, S. 178; Auskünfte von Rudolf Bembenneck, Burgdorf vom 29.12.2012; Bernd Kasten, Stadtarchiv Schwerin vom 22.4.2013; Monika Liebscher, Archiv der "Stiftung Brandenburgische Gedenkstätten/Gedenkstätte und Museum Sachsenhausen" vom 18.10.2012; Carmen Lorenz c.lorenz@bundesarchiv.de vom 31.10.2012; Norbert Jung, Landeshauptstadt Hannover, Amt für Einwohnermeldeangelegenheiten/Archiv vom 6.1.2014; Jose Martin@kampvesterbork.nl vom 3.9.2012; Dr. Diana Schulle vom 20.1.2013 und 15.3.2013; Dr. Rebecca Schwoch, UKE, Institut für Geschichte und Ethik der Medizin vom 3.4.2012; Himali Siering, Stadtarchiv Hannover vom 6.1.2014; Nicolai M. Zimmermann, Bundesarchiv vom 22.4.2013.
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