Search for Names, Places and Biographies

Hermann Dugowski * 1875

Isestraße 61 (Eimsbüttel, Harvestehude)

HIER WOHNTE
HERMANN
DUGOWSKI
JG. 1875
DEPORTIERT 1942
ERMORDET IN
AUSCHWITZ

further stumbling stones in Isestraße 61:
Josepha Ambor, Else Baer, Hedi Baer, Ingrid Baer, Joseph Baer, Minna Benjamin, Rosalie Benjamin, Emma Dugowski, Henriette Dugowski, Ida Dugowski, Moritz Dugowski, Wanda Dugowski, Selly Gottlieb, Heinrich Ilse, Ella Meyer, Max Meyer, Otto Meyer, Gregor Niessengart, Sophie Philip, Michael Pielen, Gertrud Rosenbaum, Edmund Sonn

Henriette Dugowski, born 9 April 1867 in Eydkuhnen, on 15 July 1942 deported to Theresienstadt, on 21 September 1942 deported further to Treblinka

Wanda Dugowski, born 15 March 1869 in Eydkuhnen, on 15 July 1942 deported to Theresienstadt, on 21 September 1942 deported further to Treblinka

Ida Dugowski, born 10 March 1871 in Lyck, on 15 July 1942 deported to Theresienstadt, on 21 September 1942 deported further to Treblinka

Moritz Dugowski, born 11 July 1873 Prostken, on 15 July 1942 deported to Theresienstadt, on 21 September 1942 deported further to Treblinka

Hermann Dugowski, born 1 March 1875 in Prostken, on 11 July 1942 deported to Auschwitz

Emma Dugowski, born 17 September 1877 in Prostken, on 11 July 1942 1942 deported to Auschwitz

Isestraße 61

In 1938 the six Dugowski siblings, Henriette, Wanda, Ida, Moritz, Hermann and Emma were living in two apartments on the second, today the third, floor of Isestraße 61.

Their father, Jeremias Dugowski, was born on August 18th, 1838 in Wilna in the Tsarist Russian Empire. The family moved to Eydkuhnen in Prussia, right on the Russian border. The oldest daughters Henriette and Wanda were born there in 1867 and 1869. As the birthplaces of the four younger siblings show, as of 1870/71 the Dugowskis lived in Prostken in the Prussian District of Lyck.

Moritz Dugowski was the first to move to Hamburg. On April 28th, 1894 here he joined the Jewish Community. As merchant, Schmiedestraße 8, he is entered in Hamburg address book of 1897. In 1899 he founded his own firm "In- and Export of Products of all kinds, especially drugs and vegetarian remedies”. The firm was first located in Fuhlentwiete 92, also Moritz’s home address. Then until 1894 the firm address was Neuer Wall 26. In January 1905 Hermann Dugowski is noted as co owner. The company seat was now Schmiedestraße 8. The firm was registered at the stock exchange and the brothers had their seat "Am Kandelaber”.

Hermann had already joined the Hamburg Jewish Congration in 1903. He was married to Jenny, née Kleve. They lived in Hochalle 125. Their daughter Ingeborg, called Inge. was born on June 26, 1909. In 1913 the Family moved to Klosterallee 29. Jenny Dugowski died in 1919, when Inge was 10 years old.

In 1910 the parents, Jeremias Dogowski, already 72 years old, and his two years younger wife Johanna, née Berlowitz, followed their sons. As of December 2nd, 1910 they were registered with the Hamburg Jewish Community together with their daughters Henriette, Wanda and Ida. We can take it for granted that also Emma, the youngest came with them. All four sisters later worked and had their cult tax card index with the Jewish Community. Only about Wanda we know her job for sure. She was the book keeper of her brother’s firm.

In Grindelallee 93, Moritz had rented an apartment for himself and the family. Everyone except Hermann moved in there.
Jeremias Dugowski died in 1913, his wife Johanna lived until 1930.

In 1935 the siblings together moved to Hansastraße 65, with them also Herman with his daughter Inge. She had a cult tax card with the Jewisch Congregation of her own, stating that she had a job as an office clark. On January 30th, 1937 she withdrew her membership in order to emigrate to Singapore.

The brothers Hermann and Moritz with their sister Wanda as a bookkeeper ran the mercantile agency from the office in Schmiedestraße. They dealt in in-and- export - as well as transit trade/goods, mainly of cocoa, fish meal, animal feed and drugs, since 1935 only drugs and herbal medical products. The firm could obviously support the large family until the early 1930s. After the National Socialistic seize of power their income decreased significantly. The firm shrank to domestic trade only. Exporting was no longer possible because they had no non-Jewish employee who was qualified to process export applicactions.

The office in Schmiedestraße was given up in September 1938 and relocated to one of the two apartments in Isestraße 61, where all the siblings together had moved in 1937.
On September 1st, 1938 the upper financial administration (Oberfinanzdirektion) ordered a detailed inspection of their assets. At this time, the siblings lived already in bitter poverty. As a result Hermann and Moritz did not even have to file an assets declaration "because the owners of the firm had no assets.” Quite the contrary, the balance per July 1st 1938 showed a minus of 10,656 Reichsmarks. Meanwhile they even had ”to take advantage of a Jewish support device”. It was stated, that they didn’t intend to emigrate. The verification file ran,”Considering that one brother is 63 and the other 65, the inspector considers the statement plausible. After all they also have several sisters who are partly older and so far have to be fed as well. Security arrangements (Sicherheitsanordnungen) according to the situation shouldn’t come into question.”

Hermann’s deceased wife, Jenny, was the sister of Selma Satz. Selma lived four houses up in Isestraße 69. She had been a widow since 1935, her son Werner had emigrated to the USA in December 1938.

The letters she wrote him tell us a lot about Hermann and his siblings. Since the end of 1938 Hermann had accompanied Selma on her errands to the tax office and the bank to help with the "business affairs” after the "aryanization” of her firm. As a compensation she supported the Dugowskis with food. Once she even gave Hermann 30 Reichsmarks because she knew how they had "to pay attention to the penny”.
Meanwhile Hermann’s daughter Inge was married to an Indian, her name now was Ingeborg Abdulhussain Saif. In 1937 she had gone to Singapore and moved on to India. But she must have come back once, because, from Selma Satz’s letters we know, that in spring 1939 she and her husband paid a visit to the siblings at Isestraße 61, and that even her father in law stayed in Hamburg. From then for one year, Hermann had no news from her.

In November 1940 there was a sign of life, but again no address for him to write to his daughter. It preyed very much on his mind, that he had no connection with her.
Hermann and his brother Moritz, whose nickname was "Mohr”, often came to Selma Satz’s place. They enjoyed the company of Selma’s uncle Michael Frankenthal, who stayed with her, and her subtenant Dr. Wolff, often playing cards together.

The relationship between Selma Satz and the Dugowskis, due to her care for them became closer.

In April 1939 Hermann Dugowski had became seriously ill but recovered in the course of the year, certainly with the help of the good food that Selma took over to their place. Since 1940 she had been paying regular visits to the Dugowskis for afternoon coffee, bringing coffee and cake.

She also advised them on how to improve their income by taking in lodgers. After initial difficulties for a short time they could rent a room each to Edmund Sonn and Gregor Niessengart.

Gregor Niessengart "volunteered” to join the transport to Lodz on October 25th, 1941. Edmund Sonn was deported to Minsk on November 8th, 1941.

In Februar 1942 the Dugowskis had to move into the "Jews’ House” at Bornstrasse 22. From there on July 11th, 1942 – it was Moritz’ 69th birthday –the two youngest siblings, Emma and Hemann were directly deported into death in Auschwitz .
Four days later, Henriette, Wanda, Ida and Moritz came to Theresienstadt. On September 21st, 1942 with Transport Bp they were taken to Treblinka and murdered there.

Hermann’s daughter Inge was alive until 1970. In November 1940, when her father got her last message she was already living in India. She had a daughter, Yasmin. After her husband’s death in 1955 they moved to Singapore, where Inge became a successful fashion designer, her daughter a ballet teacher and well known model. She also got involved in a welfare organisation for children.
It remains an open question, whether far away in India, she didn’t know anything about her father’s fate and the option of restitution, or that she thought it was not worth it because of her father’s extreme poverty.

Therefore, on November 21st, 1950, the Jewish Trust Corporation for Germany initiated a refund process (Rückerstattungsverfahren) at the office for restitution at the Hamburg district court (Wiedergutmachungsamt beim Landgericht Hamburg) for a Hungarian war bond and a Hungarian gold pension from the possession of the Brothers Dugowski deposited at the Hansa-Bank. These assets must have been unknown to the Hamburg upper financial administration when they confiscated the Dugowski’s assets in 1938.

The securities had been transferred from a joint account at the Hansa-Bank in Hamburg to the Deutsche Reichsbank in Berlin on September 15th, 1942, two months after Hermann’s and Moritz’s death. In 1948 they were returned to the same account at the Hansa-Bank, which now, practically was the owner of the assets.
The Jewish Trust always entered when there are no heirs to claim reparation.
Obviously at this time Hermann’s daughter could not be found. In 1954 the Trust stalled the claim until further notice. But the search for possible heirs went on.
On September 5th, 1957, the Jewish Trust withdrew the claim because of the global agreement (Globalabkommen) between the Trust and the Finance Secretary of the Federal Republic of Germany. It regulated the use of Jewish property, that could not be assigned to an heir.

Only after 2000, distant relatives of Ingeborg Dugowski found out that she had lived until 1970.

Stand: July 2020
© Christa Fladhammer

Quellen: 1; 2; StaH 522-1 Jüdische Gemeinden, 992 e 2, Bd.4; STAH 213-13 Landgericht Hamburg Wiedergutmachung; "Eydkuhnen Grenzstadt an der Ostbahn" wiki-de.genealogy.net, Zugriff 20.02.2020; Briefe von Selma Satz an ihren Sohn Werner in den USA, Privatbesitz; Auskunft per E-mail am 15.04.2019 von Joan Poulin, Enkeltochter von Selma Satz; Zeitungsauschnitte: The Straits Times, Singapore 16.11.1968, dieselbe 26.10.1973. Zur Nummerierung häufig genutzter Quellen siehe Link "Recherche und Quellen".