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Anna Schönfeld, geb. Falk
© Forschungsstelle für Zeitgeschichte Hamburg

Anna Schönfeld (née Falk) * 1875

Gustav-Leo-Straße 4 (Hamburg-Nord, Eppendorf)

1942 Theresienstadt
ermordet am 21.03.1943

further stumbling stones in Gustav-Leo-Straße 4:
Anna Rosenbaum, Felix-Manfred Schönfeld

Felix Manfred Schönfeld, born 12/1/1869 in Hamburg, deported to Theresienstadt on 7/15/1942, died there on 12/27/1942
Caroline Anna (Annie) Schönfeld, née Falk, born 11/18/1875 in Hamburg, deported to Theresienstadt on 7/15/1942, died there on 3/21/1943

Gustav-Leo-Strasse 4

Felix and Annie Schönfeld were the paragon of social and economic success. Both came from wealthy Hamburg merchant families and married young, after Felix had established himself in his father's company, Benedict Schönfeld & Co. His father's partners in the company were Henry A. Simon and Otto Rosenstiel. Felix was a merchant and an expert for the export of textiles, toys and bicycle parts to South America.

Felix and Annie had two daughters: Margarethe (Marga) Annette, born April 10th, 1898 and (Gerda) Elise Auguste, born December 14th, 1903. The family's economic success was considerable enough that the Schönfelds could move to a splendid building at Alsterufer 19 in 1908.

Both daughters married within their social class: Marga Dr. Harry Simon, an attorney, with whom she had a son, Robert Georg Felix; Gerda Max Eduard Adler, also an attorney. Their daughter Renate was born in 1925. Max Eduard died already in 1931, and Gerda in 1942 married Dr. Walter Rudolphi, a retired judge of the court of appeals, on the day they were both deported. Rudolphi was murdered in Auschwitz.
In 1929, the reputation of the Schönfeld family received a special highlight when the young grandmother "Frau Felix Schönfeld" was elected to the executive committee of the Israelitic Temple Association, the only woman of the 20 members, doubtless the result of her longtime engagement and substantial donations. Felix and Annie Schönfeld looked back on more than half a century in wealth and security.

It was the time when the family moved from the shore of the Alster to the street named Rehagen in Eppendorf, now Gustav-Leo-Strasse. The new, modern apartment had a functional layout. In spite of the world economic crisis of that year, the family relocation was not due to financial concerns.
Klaus Hauptmann and his Jewish wife Eva, née Bernstein were neighbors in the building, he the youngest son of dramatist and literature Nobel Prize winner Gerhart Hauptmann. Eva Hauptmann saw the end of the war there (and received her mother, blind novelist Elsa Bernstein, née Porges, when she returned from Theresienstadt).

Annie Schönfeld's son-in-law Max Eduard Adler died in 1931. Annie's daughter Gerda and her granddaughter Renate left the Synagogue Community soon after the Nazis' rise to power. .
The next trace of the Schönfelds in the archives is dated 1938: Harry Simon, Felix' and Annie's son-in-law went to England in March, his wife and their son Robert Georg Felix followed shortly after - the Simons had owned Argentine passports for a long time. The Hamburg authorities accused Harry Simon of having fled to collect foreign receivables of the Schönfeld company for his personal benefit, and 69-year-old Felix Schönfeld was charged with being involved in this violation of the currency laws and was arrested. At his release three months later, he had obviously agreed to "aryanize" his company and liquidate his assets.

Felix Schönfeld first sold a plot of land in Rhineland-Palatinate, but only received 20 percent of the proceeds of 6,360 RM. His company was forced to move to more modest premises. It was deeply in dept, but seems to have been still tolerated by the regime because it was supposed to provide urgently needed foreign currencies. This, however, hardly succeeded: in 1940, the net profit was merely 3,317 RM.
The case against Schönfeld was still pending in 1939. On July 20th, Willi Lange was appointed as trustee, and shortly after, Wilhelm Schütte bought the company for 29,390 RM. On August 24th, he Chief Finance Administration refrained from issuing a "security order" against Felix Schönfeld, i.e. blocking his accounts, because he "he no longer owned any assets." Anna Schönfeld, however, was subject to such an order.
Pressured by the currency agency, she tried to sell her jewelry for foreign currency in Switzerland, but in vain. When she had not succeeded in this a year later, she in August 1940 was ordered to sell her valuables to a "public buying agency. who only paid 5% of the officially estimated value of 65,625 RM into her blocked account.
Felix Schönfeld kept working at the company that in the meantime had moved to even smaller premises: Neue Gröninger Strasse 10, room 10. In the Hamburg address book of 1941, Schönfeld was still listed as im- and export merchant.
When the deportations from Hamburg began in the fall of 1941, the household helper Anna Rosenbaum, aged 48, was sent to Lodz (Litzmannstadt) in Poland on the first transport. The Schönfelds themselves were assigned to the "Jews' house" in Haynstrasse 7, and, only a couple of weeks later to the boarding house of Frau Schwarz in Haynstrasse 10/II; from February 1942, their last lodging in Hamburg was the overcrowded "Jews' house" in Beneckestrasse 4.

On February 4th, Anna Schönfeld was asked to submit a declaration of her assets. According to her list, blocked accounts, security deposits and life insurance policies amounted to 197,170.73 RM, still a substantial fortune, which, however, she could not access. She was allowed to withdraw 700 RM per month - 530 RM for the boarding house, 80 RM for the household help and 90 RM for everyday expenses. Already in March, the amount was lowered to 600 RM. In addition, she was allowed 250 RM per month to support der obviously penniless sister Maria Hefner "at the Galles Home (?), and another 250 RM to run the company office.

In February 1942, Felix' brother Dr. Leopold Schönfeld died, a retired court of appeals judge and also partner in Felix' company. Felix applied for permission to keep running the company, in order to liquidate his brother's share in the partnership, probably the only task left for Felix. It is reported that he temporarily worked as a night porter at the end of his time in Hamburg.

A last example for the Schönfelds' miserable circumstances: In April, Anna Schönfeld, represented by husband, applied for permission to withdraw 76.45 RM, explaining: "by official order, I moved my residence from Haynstrasse 10 to Beneckestrasse 4. The stove there was so defective that.. it had to be replaced."
On July 15th, 1942, Felix and Anna Schönfeld were deported to Theresienstadt, after they had been forced to pay 20,000 RM "to purchase a homestead" in that ghetto. They were separated, but billeted not far from each other, Anna at the women's accommodation "Dresdner Kaserne", her husband in Hauptstrasse 25.

Felix Manfred Schönfeld was 73 years old when he died there; his wife followed him four months later at the age of 67, and Felix' sister Franziska Corten, the eldest of the family at the age of 79, one week later on April 1st ,1943.

Franziska was the mother of the medical doctor Martin-Heinrich Corten, the last Hamburg trustee of the "Reich Association of Jews in Germany". His daughter Gerda (then 40) and granddaughter Renate (then 18) survived and returned to Hamburg immediately after their liberation, Gerda to Schlüterstrasse 6 and Renate to Beneckestrasse 2, just around the corner from Felix and Annie Schönfeld's last home. Gerda later married Heinz Rodewaldt.

The Schönfeld Company was already "put at their disposal by a friendly agreement" in 1946, which indicates there was a deal between the trustee or the interim new owner with Felix and Leopold Schönfeld in July 1939. The compensation procedure, however, dragged on until 1960 and ended in a settlement of not quite 300,000 DM.


Translation by Peter Hubschmid 2018
Kindly supported by the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung, Hamburg.

Stand: January 2019
© Dietrich Rauchenberger

Quellen: 1; 2; 3; 4; 7; 8; StaH 314-15 OFP, F 21938; StaH 314-15 OFP, R 1939/2924; StaH 314-15 OFP, 1941/117; AfW 010269 Schönfeld, Felix Manfred; StaH 351-11 AfW, 20644; Adler, Renate, Interview vom 1.9.1993, FZH-WdE 177; AB 1930 bis 1943; Amtliches Fernsprechbuch Hamburg 1930/31; Gemeindeblatt der Deutsch-Israelitischen Gemeinde, 1929, S. 7; Bajohr, "Arisierung", 1997, S. 347, 371; Bake/ Kiupel (Hrsg.), Elsa Bernstein, 1999, S. 36/37, 174, 180; Rodewaldt, Gerda, Interview vom 30.11.1993, FZH-WdE 190.
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