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Moritz Rosenblum * 1876

Bockhorst 52 (Altona, Iserbrook)

1942 Theresienstadt
ermordet am 2.3.1944

Moritz Rosenblum, born on 14 Sept. 1876 in Salzwedel, deported on 15 July 1942 to Theresienstadt, date of death 2 Mar. 1944

Bockhorst 54 (the Stolperstein was mistakenly laid in front of house no. 52)

He could not have been an unfamiliar appearance in the Blankenese street scene; one had to show consideration for him, for Moritz Rosenblum was blind.

Moritz Rosenblum was a native of Salzwedel. His father, Adolf Rosenblum, had set himself up as a "produce trader” ("Productenhändler”) at Reichestrasse 25 in 1870. With his wife Johanna, née Simon, born in Hamburg and of the Jewish faith like her husband, he had four children: The oldest son Max was born in 1875, and son Moritz was followed in 1878 and 1880 by daughters Betti and Rosa. The 1902 and 1910 Salzwedel directories identify Moritz Rosenblum as a Rechtskonsulent, a legal adviser.

At some point, he relocated his residence to Hamburg. First, the Jewish religious tax (Kultussteuer) file card of the Jewish Community listed him as a subtenant with Katz at Rutschbahn 5c, and from there he moved in Apr. 1933 to Friedrich-Legahn-Strasse 11 in Blankenese, where he continued to reside as a subtenant. His wife, Ida Rosenblum, had passed away. His brother Max lived in Hamburg, at Grindelhof 9, since 1918.

In 1934, the card file of the Jewish Community notes that Moritz Rosenblum had "gone blind,” and his occupation was indicated as a "person of independent means;” from 1938 onward, he was listed as "destitute.”

Widowed, gone blind, and a Jew – living conditions turned out to be difficult for Moritz Rosenblum. He could not rely on tenant protection. In 1934, he was registered with the authorities as residing as a subtenant at Blankeneser Bahnhofsstrasse 52a; still that same year at Sülldorfer Kirchenweg 5; in 1935 at Witts Allee 22; and from 1936 until 1939 at Bockhorst 54. There, on the edge of the Feldmark, Moritz Rosenblum found some peace and quiet for some time. Destitute Jews were supported from a fund of the Jewish Community to which emigrating Jews contributed.

In the villas on Am Bockhorst, no one remembers having heard the name of Rosenblum from the former occupants, but many recall the remark caught as children, "They picked up and took away someone from here as well.”

For Moritz Rosenblum, the beginning ghettoization of Jews meant committal to Isestrasse 19, later 27, and then to the houses at Grindelberg 45 and 80. From the "Jews’ house” ("Judenhaus") at Beneckestrasse 6, he was deported to Theresienstadt on 15 July 1942. He lived there for another 19 months. Perhaps the Jewish self-administration working there took care of the blind man.

The Hamburg Memorial Book for Jewish victims of the Nazi regime reunites the three Rosenblum siblings in a painful manner: Betti was deported to Riga on 6 Dec. 1941 and murdered; Max was deported on 19 July 1942 to Theresienstadt and from there onward to Minsk on 21 September; Moritz was deported to Theresienstadt on 15 July 1942, perishing there on 2 Mar. 1944.


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

Stand: October 2018
© Gisela Dulon

Quellen: 1; 4; StaHH, 332-8 Meldewesen, Band 2, Meldekartei; Adressbuch Salzwedel 1902 und 1910; Bundesarchiv Berlin, Liste der in Deutschland lebenden Juden 1932–45.
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