Search for Names, Places and Biographies

Clara Lehmann, undatiert
© Privatbesitz

Clara Lehmann * 1874

Heilwigstraße 46 (Eimsbüttel, Harvestehude)

HIER WOHNTE
CLÄRE (CLARA) LEHMANN
JG. 1874
GEDEMÜTIGT / ENTRECHTET
FLUCHT IN DEN TOD
6.1.1942

further stumbling stones in Heilwigstraße 46:
Dr. Berthold Jungmann, Anna Lehmann

Anna Lehmann, born 8 Sep. 1878 in Linden near Hannover, death by suicide 6 Jan 1942 in Hamburg
Cläre (Clara) Lehmann, born 22 Sep. 1874 in Linden near Hannover, death by suicide 6 Jan. 1942 in Hamburg

Heilwigstraße 46

Cläre Lehmann’s preschool on Heilwigstraße was an institution in Hamburg. The bulletin for Jewish genealogy Maajan – Die Quelle, published an article, written by Ursula Randt, about it in 2005. The article is reprinted here, slightly abridged, with the permission of the chief editor Daniel Teichman.

A few additional notes:
Cläre and Anna’s parents, the horse trader Gotschalk Lehmann and his wife Käthe, née Davis, had not only the three daughters mentioned in the text, but also a son, Richard (*18 September 1867 in Linden). In his tax records with the Jewish Community his profession is listed as "agent,” which means he ran a commercial agency. He probably ran it together with Grete (*1877), as her profession is likewise listed as "agent.” It is not known what the siblings sold. All four Lehmann children remained unmarried, and lived together on Heilwigstraße. Richard died in March 1940.

Three congregations had formed within the Hamburg Jewish Community: an orthodox, a reform, and a neo-liberal congregation. Cläre Lehmann was a member of the third, and was active in their community work, as can be seen in the minutes of a members’ meeting on 14 December 1937. In May 1939 Anna Lehmann, aged 61, was interrogated by the customs office on suspicion of a currency offense. The report reads: "Based on information from the Hamburg Gestapo, according to which diamonds had allegedly been sold on the black market at the Lehmann Jewish private school at Heilwigstr. 46, the entire premises were searched. No proof of the accusation was found. The search yielded only 110 Czechoslovak koruna, which Fräulein Lehmann claims to have brought back from her last trip to visit a friend in Czechoslovakia in 1936 or 1937. Fräulein Lehmann stated that she had completely forgotten about them. She was questioned on the subject and is prepared to pay a fine, to be determined by the Foreign Currency Office, for failing to report them.”

"Because of her advanced age and the minimal value,” Anna Lehmann was given a warning and charged a fine of 11 Reichsmarks (the value of the Czechoslovak koruna).

Denunciation, police search, interrogation, penalty – the memory of these disturbing events likely contributed to the sisters’ decision, when Anna Lehmann was ordered to appear before the Gestapo in January 1942, to avoid further humiliation and to take their lives.

Many of the individuals included in this and other "Stolperstein books” were connected to Anna and Cläre Lehmann: Annemarie Deutschländer and the Leser sons were their pupils, Paul and Anna Mendel spent the last months before they were deported as lodgers in their house.

The life of their colleague Thekla Bernau, who is also mentioned in Ursula Randt’s article, is described in "Stolpersteine in Hamburg-Winterhude,” as is that of their lodger Anna Levy. Antonie Schär, the wife of the resistance fighter Alfred Schär, taught in Cläre Lehmann’s school from 1930 to 1934. In 1934, she and her husband sheltered Jewish children from the preschool in their home. For this and other reasons the couple was accused of "unpatriotic behavior.” The fate of the Schär family can be read in "Stolpersteine in Hamburg-Wandsbek mit den Walddörfern.” It also contains a diary entry from Theodor Tuch about the Mendels’ move to the Lehmanns’ boarding house.

Ursula Randt mentions the preschool in "Die Talmud Tora Schule in Hamburg” (The Talmud Tora School in Hamburg), and Werner Skrentny wrote about the boarding house at Heilwigstraße 46 in "Das Eppendorf-Buch” (The Eppendorf Book).

Many puzzle pieces about the Lehmann sisters thus came together to give testimony to their lives and keep their memories alive.


Translator: Amy Lee
Kindly supported by the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung, Hamburg.

Stand: March 2017
© Sabine Brunotte

Quellen: 1; StaH Polizeibehörde Unnatürliche Sterbefälle, 1942/158; StaH 522-1 Jüdische Gemeinden, 838 Jüd.-Lib. Gemeindeverein e. V.; StaH OFP 314 – 15 R 1939/1027; Hamburgische Biografie, Bd. 2, Franklin Kopitzsch (Hrsg.) 2001; Weidlich/Skrentny, (Hrsg.), Das Eppendorf-Buch, 1991, S. 83f.; Randt, Die Talmud Tora Schule, 2005.
Zur Nummerierung häufig genutzter Quellen siehe Link "Recherche und Quellen".

The Cläre Lehmann School, by Ursula Randt

Cläre Lehmann was born in 1874 in Linden near Hannover, where she and her sisters Anna and Grete grew up. They attended a private girls’ school and then a teaching seminary, where they were certified to teach at mid- and upper-level girls’ schools. The entire family moved to Hamburg, where Cläre taught at various secondary girls’ schools. Then an intriguing offer came from England. Cläre became headmistress at a preparatory school for the Manchester High School for Girls and the Manchester Grammar School, and Anna worked at the school’s boarding house for German girls. Their pleasant lives there came to an abrupt end with the outbreak of the First World War. The sisters had to flee with their German pupils back to Germany.

Cläre offered her services to the Hamburg school authority, which was in desperate need of teachers, since many had been called to serve in the military. She took positions at the secondary schools in Eppendorf and Uhlenhorst, and apparently enjoyed teaching boys. In 1918 she decided to open her own school. The house at Heilwigstraße 46 had enough space for several small classes, and the school authority granted her permission to establish a private elementary school. A member of the school board wrote in her evaluation: "She is an experienced and animated teacher, who knows how to hit the right note with a lively bunch of children, and to keep them busy.”

The new Cläre Lehmann School quickly became very popular. She started in 1918 with only 14 pupils, but the number grew from year to year and by 1924 she had 90. By 1930 the enrollment was at 110, although her permit only allowed for 95. She had several teachers working in the school. Six- to ten-year-old boys and girls, Christian and Jewish, learned and played together and added a cheerful note to the elegant residential area. The majority of the pupils were Protestant. After 1933 there was an influx of "non-Aryan” children, whose parents were happy to be able to trust their children to a school run by a Jew, and to know that they were protected from harassment. In July 1937 the school authority noted that the Cläre Lehmann School was in the process of becoming a purely Jewish elementary school, a "branch of the Talmud Tora school.” There were still 70 children in four classes – by May 1938 there were only 52. One of the teachers was Thekla Bernau. She was a Jew according to the Nuremberg Laws, but was a practicing Chrisitian, as were many of the pupils.

In mid-December 1939 Cläre Lehmann received a letter from Berlin. It was from the education department of the Reich Association of Jews in Germany, an administrative body which had been forced upon the Jews by the Nazi regime, informing her that she would have to close her school by 1 January 1940. The children were to be sent to the Jewish school at Carolinenstraße 35. She responded that most of the children in her school were Christians, and therefore the orthodox Jewish school was unsuitable for them. In addition, several of her pupils were handicapped and needed the special care and attention a small group could offer. It was futile. After more than 20 years of successful work, the Cläre Lehmann School was forced to close.

With heavy hearts, Cläre and Anna Lehmann decided to establish a boarding house for Jewish boarders in their house, in order to secure a living for themselves. The sisters kept only one room on the upper floor for themselves. Their sister Grete was spared the worst – she died in the summer of 1939. The ever growing harassment and persecution made the lives of those Jews who had not been able to flee the country in time more unbearable from day to day. Cläre and Anna had to wear the yellow star beginning on 15 September 1941. Then the deportations from Hamburg to the Eastern regions began. In late autumn of 1941, thousands were shipped into misery and death on four large transports. Among them were several of the Lehmann sisters’ boarders. Thekla Bernau, their colleague and friend of many years, also received her "evacuation orders.” The destination for her last journey was Riga.

In the state archives there is one further document that offers some insight into the last days in the sisters lives and into their deaths. Written on the cover of the file in capital letters is: State Police. Fatalities! A police officer made a detailed report of what exactly he found in the house at Heilwigstraße 46 on 6 January 1942.

On this day at about 2:00 p.m., a boarder in the house, the Jewish physician Dr. Jungmann, discovered Cläre and Anna Lehmann lying dead in their room. They were lying next to each other in their beds, dressed in nightgowns. On each of the bedside tables stood a cup and a glass with a brown liquid. A note was on Cläre Lehmann’s bedside table. It contained just one sentence: "We request that we be cremated. 5 January 1942.”

Both sisters had signed the note. There was also an opened envelope on the table, which contained a summons from the Gestapo, dated 4 January 1942. Anna Lehmann was to appear on 6 January 1942, between 8:25 and 8:35 a.m., at the Gestapo offices on Düsternstraße 52, Room 1 on the second floor.

When he was questioned, Jungmann stated that the sisters had mentioned that they would take their lives if they received their "evacuation orders.” The police officer saw it as a clear-cut case. He concluded:

"Apparently the sisters committed suicide by ingesting a sleep-inducing drug. The summons from the Gestapo would have concerned the deportation of the Jews, so that they decided to take their lives. This is clearly a case of suicide, as the Jewesses apparently did not want to go to the ghetto.” And: "There are apparently no relatives living in Germany.”

He wrote further: "A search of the deceased belongings yielded two wills, the birth certificate of Anna Lehmann, the above mentioned suicide note, the Gestapo summons and 438.07 Reichsmarks in a pouch for ration cards and a leather wallet. Also a book for a savings account at the Deutsche Bank with 1348.57 Reichsmarks. All items are included with the report.”
The letter from the Gestapo, with the envelope cleanly cut open with a letter opener, is still in the file. It is beside the point that the Gestapo summons was probably not about the "deportation of Jews,” as there were no deportations from Hamburg in January 1942. The "evacuation order” would certainly have arrived eventually – the sisters were simply ahead of the game.


Translator: Amy Lee
Kindly supported by the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung, Hamburg.

Stand: March 2017
© "Maajan – Die Quelle", Heft 76, 2005

Quellen: 4; StaH Oberschulbehörde (OSB) II, B 192 Nr. 3, Vorsteher-Akte Cläre Lehmann; StaH Oberschulbehörde II B 192 Nr. 7, Revisionsvermerk vom 18.12.1918; StaH OSB, B 192 Nr. 5, Statistik; StaH OSB II, B 192 Nr. 1, Cläre Lehmann, Allgemeine Schulakte. Schreiben von Oberschulrat Köhne an Husfeldt vom 27.7.1937; StaH, Talmud Tora 73. Reichsvereinigung der Juden in Deutschland, Berlin, Schulabteilung, Paula Sara Fürst an Cläre Sara Lehmann vom 11.12.1939. Die "Volks- und Oberschule für Juden" war die letzte jüdische Schule Hamburgs; StaH, Talmud Tora 73. Reichsvereinigung der Juden in Deutschland, Berlin, Schulabteilung, Aktennotiz undatiert, betr. TTS-Parallelklassen Lehmann; StaH Polizeibehörde-Unnatürliche Sterbefälle, 1942/158.
Zur Nummerierung häufig genutzter Quellen siehe Link "Recherche und Quellen".