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Johanna Rosenbaum * 1893

Brüderstraße vor Passage (vormals Gr. Trampgang 24) (Hamburg-Mitte, Neustadt)

HIER WOHNTE
JOHANNA ROSENBAUM
JG. 1893
DEPORTIERT 1941
RIGA
ERMORDET

Johanna Rosenbaum, born 25 Jan. 1893 in Barmen, deported 6 Dec. 1941 to Riga-Jungfernhof

Brüderstraße in front of the Passage Großer Trampgang (Großer Trampgang 24)

Johanna Rosenbaum was born in Barmen near Wuppertal where her father Siegmund Rosenbaum worked as a merchant. Her parents’ Jewish home, in which there were five or six other children, was located at Gauss Straße 29 at the time of her birth. In 1904, when Johanna was eleven, her mother Julie, née Rosenthal, died. Johanna then grew up in an orphanage in Barmen and when she left, she worked for several years in her father’s household. Siegmund Rosenbaum died in Hagen, Westphalia in1923.

At the age of 24, Johanna Rosenbaum went to Berlin to work as a maid. According to her file at the Berlin welfare office, she is said to have fallen in with "nasty crowd” and during the subsequent twelve years worked as a prostitute in Berlin, Altona and Braunschweig. In 1927 Johanna Rosenbaum went to Hamburg. Upon her arrival, she lived at Großen Trampgang 24, first as a lodger, then as the main tenant. The Hamburg address book listed her as a seamstress. By her own account, she was self-employed. She held a trading license, but it was taken away from her in 1935. Johanna Rosenbaum lived in a steady partnership which she ended in June 1931. The following year she became gravely ill with diabetes and was unable to work. Since she did not have health insurance, she had to submit a request for the welfare office to cover her doctor and hospital bills. For a time she was able to survive by selling her personal belongings. In 1935 she was given notice on her apartment because she was behind on the rent. She moved into an apartment at the former Mauerstraße 13 where she took in a lodger who the welfare file referred to as a "control girl” (a prostitute monitored by the police).

On 12 Jan. 1939 Johanna Rosenbaum agreed to live at Oberaltenallee Care Home. On 23 May of that same year she was transferred, at her own request, to the old age and care home of the Jewish Community at Grünestraße 5 (today Kirchenstraße) in Altona. From there, Johanna Rosenbaum was deported to Riga-Jungfernhof on 6 Dec. 1941 and since then is considered lost, meaning it is not known when or where she died or was shot to death.

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

Stand: May 2020
© Susanne Rosendahl

Quellen: 1; 4; StaH 351-14 Arbeits- und Sozialfürsorge 1732 (Rosenbaum, Johanna); StaH 522-1 Jüdische Gemeinde Nr. 992 e 2 Band 3; diverse Hamburger Adressbücher; Gedenkbuch für die NS-Opfer aus Wuppertal, http://www.gedenkbuch-wuppertal.de/de/person/rosenbaum-2 (Zugriff 17.4.2017).
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