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Anna Reichenbach * 1868

ABC-Straße 2 (Hamburg-Mitte, Neustadt)

HIER WOHNTE
ANNA REICHENBACH
JG. 1868
EINGEWIESEN 1935
HEILANSTALT LANGENHORN
"VERLEGT" 23.9.1940
BRANDENBURG
ERMORDET 23.9.1940
"AKTION T4"

Anna Reichenbach, born on 25 Apr. 1868 in Hamburg, murdered on 23 Sept. 1940 in the Brandenburg/Havel euthanasia killing center

Stolperstein in Hamburg-Neustadt, at ABC-Strasse 2

On 14 Nov. 1858, Anna Reichenbach’s mother, Amalie Koppel, born on 23 July 1840 in Hamburg, married the furrier Bernhard Reichenbach, born in Apr. 1833 in Borbeck (today a part of Essen). Both were of the Jewish faith. The couple initially lived on Fuhlentwiete in Hamburg’s Neustadt quarter and changed residence several times until they finally resided for many years at ABC-Strasse 2, where they also had eleven of their 18 children. Four of the children were stillborn or died at or shortly after birth, seven in their infancy.

The fate of four descendants, namely that of Bertha Reichenbach, born on 8 Nov. 1862, Bruno Reichenbach, born on 4 Feb. 1864, Alfred Reichenbach, born on 2 Feb. 1870, as well as Gretchen Reichenbach, born on 19 June 1874, is uncertain.

Regarding three children, we know that they reached adulthood: Anna Reichenbach, born on 25 Apr. 1868, Mary Reichenbach, born on 2 Feb. 1867, and Carl Reichenbach, born on 3 Oct. 1881.

Bernhard and Amalie Reichenbach, who suffered many strokes of fate from the stillbirths and the early deaths of several children, did not live to see either the subsequent fate of their daughter Anna or that of their daughter Mary. Both parents had died still in the nineteenth century: Bernhard on 23 Aug. 1884, Amalie on 3 June 1899.

Anna Reichenbach, about whose childhood, youth or education we know nothing, was admitted for the first time to the "Friedrichsberg lunatic asylum” ("Irrenanstalt Friedrichsberg”) at the end of the nineteenth century. On the patient file card, which still exists, seven photographs in Friedrichsberg can be reconstructed. The last admission to the institution, renamed "State Hospital” ("Staatskrankenanstalt”) after the First World War, due to a "mental illness” dates from 16 July 1930. Anna Reichenbach was there until June 1935 and was then transferred to the Langenhorn State Hospital (Staatskrankenanstalt Langenhorn) for the next few years.

In the spring/summer of 1940, the "euthanasia” headquarters in Berlin, located at Tiergartenstrasse 4, planned a special operation aimed against Jews in public and private sanatoriums and nursing homes. It had the Jewish persons living in the institutions registered and moved together in what were officially so-called collection institutions. The Hamburg-Langenhorn "sanatorium and nursing home” ("Heil- und Pflegeanstalt” Hamburg-Langenhorn) was designated the North German collection institution. All institutions in Hamburg, Schleswig-Holstein, and Mecklenburg were ordered to move the Jews living in their facilities there by 18 Sept. 1940.

Anna Reichenbach was one of the patients who had already lived in the Langenhorn "sanatorium and nursing home” (Langenhorn Heil- und Pflegeanstalt) before the cut-off date. On 23 September, she was loaded on to a train with a further 135 patients from North German institutions at the Ochsenzoll freight station and transported to Brandenburg/Havel. On the same day, these persons were killed with carbon monoxide in the part of the former penitentiary that had been converted into a gas-killing facility. Only Ilse Herta Zachmann escaped this fate at first (see corresponding entry).

It is not known whether, and if so, when relatives became aware of Anna Reichenbach’s death. In all documented death notices, it was claimed that the person concerned had died in Chelm (Polish) or Cholm (German). Those murdered in Brandenburg, however, were never in Chelm/Cholm, a town east of Lublin. The former Polish sanatorium there no longer existed after SS units had murdered almost all patients on 12 Jan. 1940. Also, there was no German records office in Chelm. Its fabrication and the use of postdated dates of death served to disguise the killing operation and at the same time enabled the authorities to claim higher care expenses for periods extended accordingly.

Anna Reichenbach’s sister Mary married the Jewish mechanic Feodor Stern, born on 1 Dec. 1871 in Borbeck, on 12 Jan. 1894. Feodor Stern came from a plumber’s family.

Mary’s brother Carl Reichenbach was present as witness to the marriage. The marriage certificate reveals that he lived in Manchester. The marriage with Feodor Stern was divorced after only two years. The divorce "from the bond” (Scheidung "vom Bande”) allowed a remarriage. The clause "vom Bande” was pronounced when the law of the Catholic Church applied in the home country of one of the spouses and thus a remarriage after a divorce was actually ruled out. The marriage produced a daughter, Käthe, born on 22 Nov. 1894. She took up the occupation of an office clerk, but died on 22 Oct. 1918 at the age of 24. On 15 July 1942, Mary Stern received the deportation order to Theresienstadt. Two months later, on 21 Sept. 1942, she was transported to Treblinka and presumably murdered there. The Hamburg deportation list dated 15 July 1942 also contains the names of her former husband Feodor Stern and his second wife Johanna, née Jüdell, born on 1 Jan. 1865 in Altona. Johanna Stern died in Theresienstadt on 8 Feb. 1943. Feodor Stern, whose first name was spelled differently from the spelling in his marriage certificate as "Fedor” on his identity card and in the deportation list, was one of the few whose captivity was ended by the Red Army.

A Stolperstein for Mary Stern is located at Isestrasse 21, where she last lived as a subtenant with Carl Richard Sohn, who was also deported to Theresienstadt (see www.stolpersteine-hamburg.de). For Johanna Stern, the Stolperstein is located at Gertigstrasse 22 in Hamburg Winterhude (see www.stolpersteine-hamburg.de). Anna Reichenbach is commemorated by a Stolperstein in Hamburg-Neustadt, at ABC-Strasse 2.

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

Stand: March 2020
© Ingo Wille

Quellen: 1;2; 3; 4; 5; 7; 9; AB; StaH 133-1 III Staatsarchiv III, 3171-2/4 U.A. 4, Liste psychisch kranker jüdischer Patientinnen und Patienten der psychiatrischen Anstalt Langenhorn, die aufgrund nationalsozialistischer "Euthanasie"-Maßnahmen ermordet wurden, zusammengestellt von Peter von Rönn, Hamburg (Projektgruppe zur Erforschung des Schicksals psychisch Kranker in Langenhorn); 332-3 Zivilstandsaufsicht A4 Geburtsregister Nr. 1068/1866 Reichenbach ohne Namen, A 25 Geburtsregister Nr. 581/1867 Carl Reichenbach, A 48 Geburtsregister Nr. 2238/1868 Anna Reichenbach, A 65 Geburtsregister Nr. 1307/1869 Herman Reichenbach, A 83 Geburtsregister Nr. 697/1870 Alfred Reichenbach, A 151 Geburtsregister Nr. 2114/1873 Kind ohne Namen Reichenbach, A 179 Geburtsregister Nr. 4395/1874 Gretchen Reichenbach; 332-5 Standesämter 16 Sterberegister Nr. 2065/1876 Frieda Reichenbach, 37 Sterberegister Nr. 3036/1877 Martin Reichenbach, 69 Sterberegister Nr. 1907/1879 Betsy Reichenbach, 165 Sterberegister Nr. 2552/1884 Bernhard Reichenbach, 1884 Geburtsregister Nr. 3434/1876 Frieda Reichenbach, 1912 Geburtsregister Nr. 4911/1877 Martin Reichenbach, 1934 Geburtsregister Nr. 3790/1878 Reichenbach ohne Namen, 1955 Geburtsregister Nr. 2820/1879 Betsy Reichenbach, 2029 Geburtsregister Nr. 2173/1882 Reichenbach ohne Namen, 2005 Geburtsregister Nr. 3443/1881 Reichenbach ohne Namen, 7925 Sterberegister Nr. 1119/1899 Amalie Reichenbach, 8047 Sterberegister Nr. 697/1918 Käthe Stern, 8565 Heiratsregister Nr. 13/1894 Feodor Stern/Mary Reichenbach, 8778 Heiratsregister Br. 130/1923 Iwan Reichenbach/Rifka Becky Grünberg, 9100 Geburtsregister Nr. 2093/1894 Käthe Stern; 351-11 Amt für Wiedergutmachung 1834 Feodor Stern; 522-1 Jüdische Gemeinden 696e Geburtsregister Nr. 70/1859 Caroline Reichenbach, Nr. 50/1860 Caecilie Reichenbach, 696f Geburtsregister Nr. 246/1862 Bertha Reichenbach, Nr. 14/1865 Selma Reichenbach, 702d Heiratsregister Nr. 56/1858 Bernhard Reichenbach/Amalie Koppel, 725i Sterberegister Nr. 124/1869 Caecilie Reichenbach, 725k Sterberegister Nr. 233/1865 Selma Reichenbach; 332-8 Meldewesen (Alte Einwohnermeldekartei 1892–1925); 352-8/7 Staatskrankenanstalt Langenhorn Abl. 1/1995 Aufnahme-/Abgangsbuch Langenhorn 26.8.1939 bis 27.1.1941.
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