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Gisella Kaufmann * 1880

Bornstraße 1 (Eimsbüttel, Rotherbaum)

1941 Riga
ermordet

Gisella Kaufmann, born 12 June 1880, deported to Riga 6 Dec. 1941

Gisella Kaufmann was an unmarried, well-to-do woman. She worked as a clerk and had invested her savings in securities and mortgage-backed bonds. A note on her tax slip of Jan. 1st, 1940 indicates a salary of 900 RM and assets of 16,000 RM. As a sideline, she did embroideries at home. The Nazi government blocked her assets by a security order, and the Tax Authority "generously” allowed her to sell her needlework for cash and then deposit the proceeds in her account.

The government allotted her 230 RM for her living, an amount with which she obviously made do. Only once, on Nov. 21st, 1941, did she apply for the permission to withdraw an extra 300 RM, giving "purchase of necessary items for my evacuation on 3/12/1941 or earlier” as the reason. Evacuation meant deportation. The Chief Finance Administrator approved her expenses of 300 RM before the evacuation, subsequently confiscating all her assets to the benefit of the German Reich – the standard procedure for the possessions of all Jews deported "to the east”. Gisella Kaufmann was served her deportation order at her last address at no. 1 Bornstrasse.

Translated by Peter Hubschmid

Kindly supported by the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung, Hamburg.

Stand: October 2016
© Beate Meyer

StaH: StaH, 522-1, Jüdische Gemeinden, 992b, Kultussteuerkartei der Deutsch-Israelitischen Gemeinde Hamburgs 522-1; ebd., 314-15, Oberfinanzpräsident, R 1940,/385; Adreßbücher 1938, 1942; Hamburger jüdische Opfer des Nationalsozialismus. Gedenkbuch, Hamburg 1995.