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Hanna Sander (née Isenberg) * 1886

Colonnaden 41 (Hamburg-Nord, Neustadt)

HIER WOHNTE
HANNA SANDER
GEB. ISENBERG
JG. 1886
DEPORTIERT 1942
THERESIENSTADT
1942 TREBLINKA
ERMORDET

further stumbling stones in Colonnaden 41:
John Sander

Hanna Hertha Sander, née Isenberg, divorced name Marcus, born 2 May 1886 in Hamburg, deported 15 July 1942 to Theresienstadt, deported 21 Sept. 1942 to Treblinka extermination camp
John Sander, born 18 Nov. 1874 in Hamburg, deported 15 July 1942 to Theresienstadt, deported 21 Sept. 1942 to Treblinka extermination camp

Colonnaden 41

In downtown Hamburg, outside the building at Colonnaden 41, two Stumbling Stones honor the couple Hanna and John Sander. They were deported to Theresienstadt on 15 July 1942 and killed at Treblinka extermination camp on 21 Sept. 1942.

John Sander was born in Hamburg on 18 Nov. 1874, the son of Nathan Sander (born 6 Apr. 1837) and Amalie, née Eisenmann. He also had an older brother Joseph, born on 18 Apr. 1870, and an older sister Ella, born on 25 Aug. 1873.

Their father Nathan Sander came from a long-established Jewish family who worked in trade. Their grandfather Sander Ephraim sold lamp oil in Hamburg’s Neustadt neighborhood and turned his first name into his last name. He died on 27 Apr. 1879. Nathan Sander, John’s father, ran a commission business at the 2nd Marienstraße 22 (from 1940 Jan-Valkenburg-Straße) during the years when his children were born. The family lived at the same address. Financial success made it possible for them to move to a better neighborhood and live on the shopping street Hohe Bleichen 34. Their mother Amalie passed away at the age of 50 on 30 Jan. 1892. Three years after her death, her son John started his own banking business. Yet the Hamburg address book does not list him at the business address Büschstraße 4 near Gänsemarktes until two years later. According to the mercantile directory, he traded shares in mining operations, so-called Kuxen, stocks and shares in mines.

John Sander joined the Hamburg Assembly of Honorable Merchants. He added his membership to his entry in the address book in 1907. At the time, he had rented an office at Gerhofstraße 44 and lived with his widowed father at Hansastraße 16. John’s unmarried sister Ella will have taken care of their joint household. His older brother, the authorized representative Joseph Sander, had left home in 1901 when he married the non-Jewish Charlotte Laurette Auguste Knobloch (born 13 July 1877); they were divorced in 1913. Joseph Sander died in Muralto, Switzerland in 1929.

Over the course of the following years from 1908 to 1923, John Sander changed his business address several times along Großen Reichenstraße. In 1918 or 1919 the Sander Family moved out of Hegestraße 64 to Rothenbaumchaussee 103. John’s father Nathan Sander died on 11 Oct. 1921. Just a few months later, on 17 Feb. 1922, John married the divorcée Hanna Marcus from Isestraße 30. After their wedding, they moved to Rothenbaumchaussee with her daughter Edith who was ten years old at the time.

Hanna Sander was called Hannchen by her family. She was born on 2 May 1886 at Alten Steinweg 16, the daughter of the travelling salesman Leopold Isenberg (born 12 May 1860) and Sara, née Jacobson (born 14 Sept. 1861). After her came Willi, born on 17 July 1887. Their youngest son Arthur was born on 5 Oct. 1893, after the family had moved to Mühlenstraße 23/24 (today a part of Gerstäckerstraße). Their grandfather Salomon Isenberg (born 19 Feb. 1835, died 25 Sept. 1916) was a native of Bremke near Göttingen and earned a living selling lottery tickets. His wife Friederike, née Wolfson (born 29 Jan. 1834, died 28 May 1902), was a native of Hamburg. Around 1895, Hanna’s father Leopold Isenberg started his own business with his brother David Isenberg (born 26 Apr. 1861), first a cloth shop at Wexstraße 1, later adding footwear. In 1904 the offices of the company Gebrüder Isenberg, Footwear Wholesalers were moved to Amelungstraße 13/14 and finally to nearby Hohen Bleichen 9.

In her first marriage, Hanna had married the Hamburg authorized representative and later merchant Max Marcus, born on 20 Nov. 1879. Their wedding took place on 16 Aug. 1907. The son of a master shoemaker and slipper manufacturer Martin Marcus (born 22 Aug. 1845, died 8 Jan. 1910) and Jenny, née Meyer (born 1 Dec. 1849, died 15 Dec. 1911), lived at Grindelallee 139. Hanna was still living with her parents at Eimsbüttlerstraße 45 in the neighborhood of St. Pauli at the time. Four years later, on 15 June 1911, their daughter Edith Paula was born.

On 19 Nov. 1916 Hanna’s brother, the "war invalid” Willi, passed away in his parents’ apartment, who by then had moved to Bogenstraße 11a in Eimsbüttel. Before the war, Willi Isenberg had worked as a shop assistant. He was only 29 years old when he died. Two years later, on 29 Aug. 1918, their father Leopold Isenberg died at the age of 58.

Her marriage to Max Marcus did not last, and the couple was divorced on 15 Nov. 1921. Hanna initially stayed with her daughter Edith on Isestraße. Edith attended the private higher girls school of Dr. Jacob Löwenberg and afterwards a business school. She found work as an office clerk, first with a bank on Königstraße, then at Deichstraße 1. When her employer Richard Glückstadt (see www.stolpersteine-hamburg.de) immigrated with his family to Belgium in 1933, she lost her job.

According to the Hamburg address book, her mother Hanna and stepfather John were already living at Grindelallee 157. One year later they moved to Colonnaden 41. John Sander worked from home. He no longer listed his operation as a "banking business”, but instead "Insurance of all types”. In 1938, the Hamburg Assembly of Honorable Merchants barred its Jewish members, which affected John Sander, and his membership was deleted from the address book.

That same year, John’s sister Ella Sander took her own life. After her brother married, she had moved out of their shared apartment on Rothenbaumchaussee and was living at the Senator Erich Soltow Foundation at Jacobistift 8 in Winterhude. She was found dead there on 19 Mar. 1938, poisoned by coal gas. The circumstances that led to her decision are not known.

In Jan. 1939, all Jewish men and women who did not already have a "Jewish name” were forced to add the name "Israel” or "Sara” to their own. John Sander changed his name to "Jona”, the Jewish spelling of John. A short time before, the Sanders had moved to the building at Colonnaden 40a, but they were no longer allowed to freely choose their abode. They had to move to the "Jewish house” at Durchschnitt 1.

Meanwhile, Edith had found work as a bookkeeper at the company of Tobias Feinstein (see his entry), where she stayed until the business was forced to close because its owner was Jewish. Afterwards she worked at the Jewish Community in the Palestine Office. Edith married Helmuth Perlmann (born 15 Mar. 1907) in 1939. The young couple first lived with Helmuth’s parents at Brahmsallee 25, then as lodgers at Hansastraße 79. Helmuth Perlmann managed to leave for the USA early in Jan. 1940. Edith followed him on 2 May 1940 to New York. Two years later on 11 July 1942, her parents-in-law Benjamin Jacob Perlmann (born 16 Oct. 1876 in Perleberg), who had owned a banking business in earlier years, and Else, née van Son (born 2 Mar. 1880), were deported to Auschwitz and killed. Stumbling Stones have been laid for them at Brahmsallee 12 (see Stolpersteine in Hamburg Grindel I, Hallerstraße and Brahmsallee).

Hanna and John Sander received their deportation orders for 15 July 1942 to the "old age ghetto” Theresienstadt. Beforehand they had paid 60 Reich Marks to the Jewish Religious Association for their "home purchase contract” for Theresienstadt, which was probably that last of their savings.

Hanna’s brother Arthur Isenberg, who had run a freight forwarding business in Hamburg, had moved with his wife Paula, née Furmanski (born 12 Dec. 1898), and their three children Lissi (born 28 Sept. 1922), Gerda (born 11 Nov. 1924) and Inge (born 22 Nov. 1929) out of their home at Bornstraße 14 to Frankfurt on the Main in Nov. 1935. (For Paula’s sister Alice Feldmann, see the entry under Walter Goldberg.). Hanna’s widowed mother Sara Isenberg followed them in Mar. 1936. According to the census from May 1939, they lived at Eschersheimer Landstraße 16.

On 1 Sept. 1942, Sara Isenberg was on a transport that left Frankfurt and headed to Theresienstadt. Shortly after her arrival, her daughter Hanna and son-in-law John were taken to Treblinka extermination camp on 21 Sept. along with two thousand other Jewish men, women and children. Sara Isenberg had to follow them on 23 Sept. on a further transport. The date of death for Arthur and Paula Isenberg is not known. They were sent to Majdanek concentration camp near Lublin, Poland.

Hanna’s first husband Max Marcus re-married, this time to Elsa Fröbel who was born on 7 Sept. 1886 into a non-Jewish family in Hildburghausen. The couple lived at Isestraße 27. On 28 Dec. 1939, Max Marcus was arrested under the pretext of "repeatedly procuring prostitutes and one count of repeated racial defilement” and charged with having tolerated an "adulterous relationship” between his ex-wife and her lodger. The Hamburg Regional Court sentenced him to four years in prison on 12 Apr. 1940, which he partly served at Oslebshausen Penitentiary. From there, Max Marcus was transferred to Auschwitz-Birkenau, when all of the Jewish prisoners were being moved there. He was killed in Auschwitz-Birkenau on 18 Jan. 1943. His daughter Edith Perlmann died at the age of 92 in New York.

Translator: Suzanne von Engelhardt
Kindly supported by the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung, Hamburg.

Stand: June 2020
© Susanne Rosendahl

Quellen: 1; 3; 4; 9; StaH 332-5 Standesämter 68 u 1293/1879; StaH 332-5 Standesämter 2127 u 2185/1886; StaH 332-5 Standesämter 320 u 311/1892; StaH 332-5 Standesämter 2317 u 3744/1893; StaH 332-5 Standesämter 6424 u 56/1901; StaH 332-5 Standesämter 3091 u 468/1907; StaH 332-5 Standesämter 8002 u 7/1910; StaH 332-5 Standesämter 9750 u 3750/1911; StaH 332-5 Standesämter 8033 u 704/1916; StaH 332-5 Standesämter 8047 u 539/1918; StaH 332-5 Standesämter 8065 u 541/1921; StaH 332-5 Standesämter 8765 u 63/1922; StaH 352-5 Todesbescheinigung Sta 3a Nr. 238/1938; StaH 351-11 AfW 36800 (Perlmann, Edith); StaH 351-11 AfW 32286 (Perlmann, Helmuth); StaH 522-1 Jüdische Gemeinden, Abl. 1993 Ordner 10 Heimeinkaufsverträge Theresienstadt; StaH 213-11 Staatsanwaltschaft Landgerichte – Strafsachen 3742/40; StaH 522-1 Jüdische Gemeinden 696 f; StaH 131-1 I Senatskanzlei 33 S 2004; StaH 522-1 Jüdische Gemeinde Nr. 992 e 2 Band 4; Thevs: Stolpersteine, S. 29; Hamburger Börsenfirmen, 1923, S. 929.
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