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Gertrud Rosalie Dawidowicz (née Frankenthal) * 1893

Mundsburger Damm 45 (Hamburg-Nord, Uhlenhorst)

HIER WOHNTE
GERTRUD ROSALIE
DAWIDOWICZ
GEB. FRANKENTHAL
JG. 1893
"POLENAKTION" 1938
BENTSCHEN / ZBASZYN
ERMORDET IM
BESTZTEN POLEN

further stumbling stones in Mundsburger Damm 45:
Fritz Isidor Dawidowicz

Fritz Isidor Dawidowicz, born on 17. or 18.6.1893 in Zloczew, deported to Zbaszyn on 28.10.1938, missing in Poland

Rosalie Gertrud Dawidowicz, née Frankenthal, born on 3.1.1893 in Kiel, deported to Zbaszyn on 28.10.1938; returned to Hamburg for a few months in 1939; finally deported in October 1939, disappeared in Poland

Mundsburger Damm 45

Fritz (Isidor, Izydor) Dawidowicz was a Jew and a Pole. He came from Zloczew (from 1939 to 1945 Schlötzau) near Kalisz (Kalisch), a small town about 100 km from Lodz, Breslau and Posen. In Hamburg he dealt in shoes and leather. His first name was Isidor, but he had adopted the nominal name Fritz, which he used not only in the family environment, but also in business. As of 1938, the first name Fritz was replaced by Isidor in the Hamburg address book, indicating that his German first name had not been officially registered at the registry office. However, the slightly Germanized spelling of the family name (Dawidowitz instead of Dawidowicz), which he used in private and in business, was retained in the address book.

We know nothing about the family of origin and the youthful years of Fritz Isidor Dawidowicz. The surviving son later thought he remembered a brother of his father named Motl.

Rosalie Gertrud Dawidowicz, née Frankenthal, had been born in Kiel in 1893 as the daughter of Samuel (Semmy) Frankenthal (Oct. 1, 1858 – Sept.2, 1908) and Anna, née Wolff (born Jan. 30, 1859 in Tilsit). Presumably the family lived in Kiel only for a short time. The father came from a Hamburg Jewish family; here he was born and here he also died at the age of 49. Rosalie Gertrud had two younger brothers, Ludwig Walter and Abraham Herbert.

Rosalie Gertrud and Fritz Isidor Davidowicz were married in Hamburg on December 10, 1920, when they lived at Bornstraße 6. Two sons were born in the marriage: Semi Werner (see www.stolpersteine-hamburg.de) on Jan. 23, 1922, and Edwin on Jan. 14, 1929. Semi Werner was seriously ill and physically disabled, whether from birth or since when is unclear. Even as a very young man, Semi probably did not live in his parents' household.

Fritz Dawidowicz ran a shoe store at Mundsburger Damm 38, where shoes were sold and repaired. The family lived across the street at Mundsburger Damm 45 for a short time, and from the mid-1930s lived nearby at Birkenau 3 on Uhlenhorst. At the time of the persecution, the addresses Oberaltenallee 9 III and Mittelstraße 90 still appear.

The family was a victim of the "Polenaktion", as the father was deported to Zbaszyn (Bentschen) in October 1938. Fritz Isidor Dawidowicz remained interned in the Bentschen camp until the summer of 1939. Since Poland did not want to accept these people, this deportation was difficult and there was no uniform procedure. The wife Rosalie Gertrud was probably deported only in 1939.

From Edwin exists a leaving certificate of the Talmud Torah School. According to it, he attended this since April 1935 from the first grade and left it in the summer of 1939 after the fifth grade. His mother managed to send Edwin, who was only 10 years old, alone from Hamburg to England on a Kindertransport.

Semi Werner probably remained in Hamburg because of his illness. According to a relative, he was placed in a home. In September 1939, he was imprisoned for a short time in the Fuhlsbüttel concentration camp. The German Reich interned thousands of Polish Jews after the beginning of the war under particularly bad prison conditions. As a result, the pressure to leave the country became very great. Semi Werner's attempt to leave for Switzerland failed. His mother was finally deported to Poland in 1939, where she disappeared.

The son Edwin later arrived in Toronto from England. He had no further contact with family members and no contact with Jewish institutions in Canada. He had not received a school education in England. He lost the German language again and his English was poor. When he tried - too late - to claim reparations, these claims were rejected because of the deadlines that had not been met. He deposited pages of testimony at Yad Vashem in 1999 for his mother and for his brother.

Rosalie Gertrud Dawidowicz's siblings:
Rosalie Gertrud Dawidowicz's brother, Ludwig Walter Frankenthal, who was only 11 months younger and was also born in Kiel, died in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp on July 8, 1940. From 1938 to 1940 he had been imprisoned in Fuhlsbüttel Prison. In the 1933 Hamburg address book, a Walter Frankenthal is listed with the occupational title merchant and the address Rothenbaumchaussee 101/103 Hs. 9.

Another brother was Abraham Herbert Frankenthal. He was born on May 14, 1899 in Lübeck, where the family lived at Johannisstraße 59. He became a merchant, but later made photography his profession. Abraham Herbert Frankenthal married Lilly Rendsburg (born Dec. 28, 1909) in Hamburg in 1932 and later emigrated to the Netherlands. He and his wife were both deported from the Netherlands and murdered. However, Lilly Frankenthal's name at the time was Lilly Meininger (deported to Sobibor on Apr. 5, 1943). She must therefore have separated and remarried. Herbert Frankenthal was deported to Auschwitz on Aug. 24, 1943.

Relatives of Rosalie Gertrud were possibly the commercial agent Leo Frankenthal and Ida, née Lindenfeld. He acted as best man at the marriage of the Dawidowicz couple, and their disabled son Semi Werner lived with him for a time. There are stumbling blocks for Leo and Ida Frankenthal at Grindelallee 93.

Translation by Beate Meyer
Stand: February 2022
© Susanne Lohmeyer

Quellen: 1; 2 (FVg 7296; FVg 7351; F 353); 4; 7; 8; StaH 213-8 Staatsanwaltschaft Oberlandesgericht – Verwaltung, Ablieferung 2, 451 a E 1, 1 d; StaH 332-5 Heiratsregister, StA 3, 836/1920; Stah 332-5 Sterberegister, 9681; StaH 332-5, 13797 50/1932; StaH 332-8 Meldewesen Hausmeldekartei; StaH 351-11 AfW, 140129; StaH 351-11, 27257; StaH 351-11, 49187; StaH 362-6/10 Talmud-Tora-Schule; StaH 741-4 Fotoarchiv, Sa 1248; Frank Bajor, Arisierung, S. 353; Stadtarchiv Kiel; Stadtarchiv Lübeck; HAB I 1935, HAB II 1925, 1926, 1933-1935; Bettina Goldberg, Abseits der Metropolen, Neumünster 2011, S. 120ff; Bettina Goldberg, Die Zwangsausweisung der polnischen Juden aus dem Deutschen Reich im Oktober 1938 und die Folgen, in: Zeitschrift für Geschichtswissenschaft, Bd. 46.1998, 11, S. 971-984. Zur Nummerierung häufig genutzter Quellen siehe Link "Recherche und Quellen".