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Dina Reichmann (née Scheideberg) * 1880

Heimhuder Straße 70 (Eimsbüttel, Rotherbaum)

1942 Auschwitz
ermordet

further stumbling stones in Heimhuder Straße 70:
Irmgard Blatt

Dina Reichmann, née Scheideberg, born on 21 Apr. 1880 in Brakel (Höxter District), deported on 11 July 1942 to Auschwitz

Heimhuderstrasse 70 (Rotherbaum)

Dina Reichmann, née Scheideberg, was born in 1880 in Brakel as the first child of the butcher Uri (called Victor) Scheideberg (born on 22 Oct. 1853 in Brakel, died in 1939) and Berta Scheideberg, née Hakesberg (1858–1943); her parents had married in Brakel in 1879. After Dina, nine more children were born: Ida Julchen (1881–1958), Isaias Joseph (1883–1885), Sara (1885–1934), Salomon (born on 1 Aug. 1886), Heinrich (1888–1985), Johanna Helene (1890–1942?), Selma (1891–1908), Simon (1893–1925), and Ludwig (1898–1942?). The family lived in Brakel at Rosenstrasse 4 (1885–1886) and at Kirchplatz 1 (in 1890). Around 3,760 inhabitants lived in the small town of Brakel in the Westphalian District of Höxter (Weser Uplands) in 1919. According to Meyers Lexikon, the largest branches of the town’s economy were the sugar plant, cigar production, and grain trade.

We do not know anything about Dina’s childhood and youth. As an adult, she moved westward, where she worked as a sales assistant: first in Emmerich on the Lower Rhine close to the Dutch border and from 1903 in Gelsenkirchen in the Ruhr area.

In 1903 or 1904, she married the merchant Hermann Reichmann, who was "without a religious creed” but of Jewish origin. His parents, the merchant Levy Reichmann (1850–1928) and Pauline Reichmann, née Katz (1846–1934), were buried in the Jewish Cemetery at the Göttingen Municipal Cemetery. Apart from Hermann, the parents had four younger children: Hugo (born on 15 May 1882 in Mollenfelde), who attended university and received his doctorate (Ph.D.); Henriette (born on 6 June 1885 in Göttingen), who trained as an office clerk, Frieda (born on 27 Feb. 1887 in Göttingen); and Elise (born on 23 May 1890 in Göttingen), whose profession we do not know (and who may have managed the household). In Oct. 1884, the family of seven had moved from Mollenfelde to Göttingen. Since 1912, they lived in the house at Untere Marschstrasse 23, which was also owned by the Reichmann family until 1935.

Dina and Hermann Reichmann had two children: Hugo (born on 10 Oct. 1904 in Erkeln) and Hans Werner (born on 16 Aug. 1915 in Erkeln). From 1904 to 1911, the young family lived in Gelsenkirchen as well as from Feb. 1911 in Düsseldorf (Oststrasse 135) and moved to Grindelallee 146 on the third floor in Hamburg (Rotherbaum) in Apr. 1913. Hermann Reichmann was listed in the Hamburg directories from 1914 to 1918 with the occupation of "traveling salesman.” Still in Jan. 1915, he was issued a passport for the neutral Netherlands; his conscription for military service followed only a few months later. Immediately after his drafting, pregnant Dina Reichmann moved again to Erkeln and after the birth of her (second) son back to Hamburg. At the beginning of Dec. 1918, the husband, on leave from military service, applied for a passport for Denmark. Since 1922, the spouses lived separately.

Hermann Reichmann (born on 24 Jan. 1881 in Mollenfelde, District of Göttingen) moved to Münchenbernsdorf (Thuringia) in Feb. 1922, according to the Hamburg register of residents. Together with Paul Hartung (died approx. in 1928), he took over the management of one of the leading plants producing hair yarn carpets, Naundorf & Poser AG. The company, whose product range appeared on its letterhead ("Specialities: bouclé and velour, rugs, and carpets”), employed some 400 persons. In the city of Münchenbernsdorf (in 1925 about 2,430 inhabitants), which was located some 14 kilometers (approx. 8.5 miles) from Gera, Hermann Reichmann is said to have lived in a villa at Geraer Strasse 34 and to have owned an American car. In Hamburg (Breite Strasse 34 on the fourth floor), the representation of Naundorf & Poser including the distribution warehouse was managed by Christian Petersen since 1934.

Dina and Hermann Reichmann’s son Hugo had first attended the preschool of the Klostergymnasium high school in Düsseldorf; after the family’s move, he went to the Bismarck-Oberrealschule [a secondary school without Latin] at Bogenstrasse 3 in Hamburg-Eimsbüttel, and finally from 1917 to the boarding school of Dr. Christmann on Kalenbergerstrasse in Hannover. Starting in Sept. 1922, he completed a technical and commercial apprenticeship as a trainee at his father’s carpet factory in Thuringia and then qualified as a textile engineer from 1923 to 1925 at two state universities (graduation from the state weaving school in Chemnitz). After a stay of several years in the USA (1928–1932), he was to join the management of the Naundorf & Poser textile factory, but political developments prevented him from doing so. In Jan. 1930, a new state government was formed in Thuringia with the participation of the Nazis; in the state elections of 31 July 1932, the NSDAP achieved 42.5% of the votes and provided almost all ministers in the new government.

In 1935, the Naundorf & Poser textile factory became the target of the SA, which forcibly entered the company building. Due to his Jewish descent, factory director Hermann Reichmann was asked per ultimatum to resign and leave the company, and Hugo Reichmann was deported to a concentration camp almost simultaneously. The details of this SA operation and the reactions of the professional and private environment are not known. Hermann Reichmann took his own life with Barbital (Veronal) on 22 May 1935. His sister Else Rosalie Reichmann (born on 23 May 1890 in Göttingen) arrived from Göttingen to complete the necessary formalities. Apparently, Hermann Reichmann was buried in the Leipzig Jewish Cemetery, as was reported in the local press of Münchenbernsdorf on 24 May 1935. Only allusively, the report also read, "The investigation initiated will bring clarity about the motives of the deed.” (Research done in 1993, however, did not provide evidence for a grave in Leipzig.) The company was taken over by the Koch & te Kock Halbmond-Teppichfabrik, a carpet plant (founded 1880) based in Oelsnitz/Vogtland.

His son Hans Reichmann (born on 1915) still lived with Dina Reichmann in Hamburg. He attended Dr. Theodor Wahnschaff’s private preschool and secondary school (Rotherbaum) and from 1929 to 1936, the state secondary school just outside the Holstentor (today Albrecht-Thaer-Gymnasium). The plan was that after graduating from high school, he should study law. The massive obstruction and exclusion of Jews from German universities, however, led him, also with a view to possible emigration, to an apprenticeship at the long-established C. Bromberg import and export company (hardware, tools, machines), which also had a branch in Africa.

Dina Reichmann had stayed behind in Hamburg. She lived together with her sister Johanna Scheideberg (born on 2 Sept. 1890 in Brakel/ District of Höxter) at Grindelallee 146 at the time of the German national census of May 1939. Johanna Scheideberg, a sales assistant by occupation, was on file as a Jewish Community member in Hamburg since Nov. 1937. Her Jewish religious tax (Kultussteuer) file card noted as employer "Kaufhaus A. Finkels.” This department store owned by Abisch Finkels in Altona-Ottensen (since 1911 at the intersection of Bahrenfelder Strasse 106–110 and Grosse Rainstrasse 1) was forcibly "Aryanized” in 1938, which left Johanna Scheideberg and the other Jewish staff members unemployed. The owner John Finkels (born on 18 Aug. 1895 in Altona) succeeded in emigrating with his wife and two daughters in Jan. 1939.

The apartment at Grindelallee 146 remained unchanged even after Hermann Reichmann’s departure: Thus, (according to the older son’s statement) it still featured the smoking room with a desk, leather club chairs, a bookcase, smoking table, and a carpet of the Halbmond brand. Various oil paintings could be found in the apartment, including two paintings by the Biedermeier painter Carl Spitzweg as well as three paintings by Breitner and a large-format seascape by Greupner. A phonograph with about 300 shellac records attested to the enthusiasm for music and the financial means of the Reichmanns.

By Apr. 1937 at the latest, Dina Reichmann’s financial situation had deteriorated dramatically, so that on her own, she could only pay a medical bill of 8 RM (reichsmark) from the physician Paul Katzenstein (1895–1982) in installments. As a reason she stated, "Unfortunately, I have become impoverished over time.” This is all the more surprising since two years earlier she should have received money from the inheritance of her well-off husband. Like all Jews, Dina Reichmann had to hand in her jewelry in the spring of 1939 for a fraction of the value to a state purchasing office.

The deportations were prepared with the abolition of the tenants’ rights of Jews in the Nazi state in Apr. 1939 and the administrative definition of buildings as "Jews’ houses” ("Judenhäuser”) for Jewish residents only. In Feb. 1942, Dina Reichmann and her sister, both of whom had to wear a yellow "Jews’ star” on their clothes since 19 Sept. 1941, were quartered in the building at Heimhuderstrasse 70 (Rotherbaum), which had been declared a "Jews’ house.” The furniture from Grindelallee was either stored at a shipping company or auctioned off.

The Hamburg Jewish Community had previously held courses for later emigration in the building at Heimhuderstrasse 70, which it had received as a gift in 1935. In the period from Oct. 1941, several training directors had received their deportation orders there, and the deportation route of Dina Reichmann and her sister Johanna Scheideberg to the Auschwitz extermination camp on 11 July 1942 began there as well. No one on the transport survived.

In 1956, the Hamburg District Court (Amtsgericht) declared Dina Reichmann dead as of 8 May 1945.

What happened to the other members of the large family?
Sons Hans and Hugo went to the Netherlands. Hans Reichmann emigrated in Aug. 1938 to the place where his brother Hugo had arrived in June. Behind Hugo lay the arrest in May 1935 and committal to the concentration camp in Bad Sulza/Thuringia until Jan. 1936, which was answerable to the Thuringian Minister of the Interior. Together, the Reichmann brothers founded a weaving mill in Hellevoltsluis, which they were able to develop into a mechanized carpet-weaving mill after some time. Following the invasion of the German Wehrmacht (in May 1940), they were banned from staying in the coastal town in Sept. 1940. In the fall of 1941, the new company branch in Huizen was placed under German forced administration and liquidated after a few months.

Hans Reichmann and his wife were able to hide with various Dutch people from 1942 to 1945 and thus escape deportation. Hugo Reichmann was arrested in Mar. 1943 and deported to the newly established ‘s-Hertogenbosch concentration camp (Kamp Vught). In Dec. 1943, he was deported from there to the Auschwitz extermination camp, where he was employed as a nurse in the barrack for typhus patients until May 1944 and then as a nurse in the barrack for tuberculosis patients. One to three sick people per bed were lying in the barracks and about 15 infected camp inmates died every day. In Sept. 1944, he had to work as a technician in the X-ray department of the infirmary. The old X-ray apparatus was mainly used for the experiments on twins conducted by the camp physician. In Jan. 1945, the Auschwitz extermination camp was evacuated and destroyed ahead of the advancing Red Army. The camp inmates still alive, including Hugo Reichmann, were driven to the Mauthausen concentration camp by the SS guards in long marches. There, he fell seriously ill with scarlet fever and spent four weeks in the infirmary. In Apr. 1945, he was liberated, severely malnourished and gravely traumatized.

Dina Reichmann’s mother Berta Scheideberg, née Hakesberg (born on 27 Jan. 1858 in Erkeln/District of Höxter) lived in Brakel (at Am Markt 5) when she was deported to the Theresienstadt Ghetto on 31 July 1942, where she died on 31 Jan. 1943, officially of old age and intestinal catarrh, in building A II Room 3. Her name appears on a memorial plaque at the entrance of the Brakel Jewish Cemetery.

Dina Reichsmann’s brother, the butcher Ludwig Scheideberg (born on 5 Mar. 1898 in Brakel/ District of Höxter) and his wife Sabina also lived in Brakel. Their sons Harry Scheideberg (born on 3 Nov. 1931 in Erkeln/ District of Höxter) and Fritz Scheideberg (born on 24 Dec. 1932 in Erkeln/ District of Höxter) had both been registered since 27 June 1939 as residing at Leostrasse 3 (renamed Sudetendeutschestrasse 3) in Paderborn. This location accommodated the Paderborn Jewish Orphanage with its own orphanage school, where the Jewish students from Paderborn and environs were taught after their exclusion from public schools. Harry and Fritz Scheideberg returned to Brakel on 25 Mar. 1942. The building of the Jewish Orphanage was taken over by the National Socialist People’s Welfare authority (Nationalsozialistische Volkswohlfahrt – NSV) at the end of May 1942. All four family members were deleted from the Brakel register of residents with "destination unknown” on 30 Mar. 1942; in 1948, they were declared dead by the Brakel District Court (Amtsgericht) as of 8 May 1945. On 31 Mar. 1942, the second deportation from Paderborn took place (collection point was in the former Jewish orphanage); destination was Warsaw (originally Trawniki near Lublin was intended as destination). Whether the Scheideberg family was on this transport could not be determined due to a lack of deportation lists.

The Memorial Book of the German Federal Archives in Koblenz lists another victim with the last name of Scheideberg, which was presumably also related to Dina Reichmann: According to this, Ludwig Scheideberg (born on 3 May 1902 in Brakel/ District of Höxter), residing in Brakel, was held prisoner from 12 Nov. 1938 to 12 Dec. 1938 in the Buchenwald concentration camp and some years later deported with unknown destination to one of the conquered Eastern European countries.

Hermann Reichmann’s brother Hugo, who received his doctorate in English philology in 1906 with a thesis on "The Proper Names in the Orrmulum” (Die Eigennamen im Orrmulum) and later worked as a teacher in Bremen, had already left Germany for Brazil (Santos) in Nov. 1933.

Else Reichmann lived in Göttingen, and the last entry on her residents’ registration card reads "26 Mar. [19]42 emigrated” – a common euphemism for the deportation of Jews. Together with her, her sister Frieda Reichmann (born on 27 Feb. 1887 in Göttingen) was taken to the Hannover-Ahlem collection camp and then deported further from there to the Warsaw Ghetto on 31 Mar. 1942.

Translator: Erwin Fink
Kindly supported by the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung, Hamburg.

Stand: June 2020
© Björn Eggert

Quellen: 1; 4; 5; Staatsarchiv Hamburg (StaH) 213-13 (Landgericht Hamburg, Wiedergutmachung), 12394 (Dina Reichmann); StaH 314-15 (Oberfinanzpräsident), F 520 (Samuel Jabob Finkels genannt John Finkels); StaH 332-8 (Meldewesen), K 6785 (Alte Einwohnermeldekartei 1892-1925), Hermann Reichmann; StaH 332-8 (Meldewesen), A 24 Band 124 (Reisepassprotokolle, 353/1915, Hermann Reichmann); StaH 332-8 (Meldewesen), A 24 Band 183 (Reisepassprotokolle, 27335/1918, Hermann Reichmann); StaH 351-11 (Amt für Wiedergutmachung), 5024 (Dina Reichmann); StaH 351-11 (Amt für Wiedergutmachung), 40571 (Hans Reichmann); StaH 351-11 (Amt für Wiedergutmachung), 55853 (Hugo Reichmann); StaH 351-11 (Amt für Wiedergutmachung), 28385 (Hugo Reichmann); StaH 522-1 (Jüdische Gemeinden), 992b (Kultussteuerkartei der Deutsch-Israelitischen Gemeinde Hamburg), Dina Reichmann, Johanna Scheideberg; StaH 741-4 (Fotoarchiv), L 23/1 (Siegfried Urias, Forderungseinziehung für Dr. Paul Katzenstein, u.a. Rechnung von Dina Reichmann 1938); Stadtarchiv Brakel, Geburtsregister 1880 (Dina Scheideberg), Geburtsregister 1890 (Johanna Helene Scheideberg), Sterberegister 1935 (Viktor Scheideberg), Sterberegister 1939 (Uri Scheideberg), Einwohnermeldekartei (Berta Scheideberg geb. Hakesberg geb. 1858); Stadtarchiv Düsseldorf, Einwohnermeldekartei (Hermann Reichmann, Johanna Scheideberg); Institut für Stadtgeschichte Gelsenkirchen (ISG), Einwohnermeldekartei (Dina Scheideberg, Johanna Scheideberg, Hermann Reichmann); Stadtarchiv Gera, Nachlass Werner Simsohn (Daten zu Hermann Reichmann); Stadtarchiv Göttingen, Meldekarten von Else Reichmann, Frieda Reichmann, Henriette Reichmann, Hermann Reichmann, Levi und Pauline Reichmann; Kreisarchiv Greiz, Sterbeurkunde Münchenbernsdorf 15/1935 (Hermann Reichmann); Stadt- u. Kreisarchiv Paderborn, Meldekarten (Fritz Scheideberg, Harry Scheideberg); Gedenkbuch Bundesarchiv Koblenz (Dina Reichmann geb. Scheideberg, Bertha Scheideberg geb. Hakesberg, Fritz Scheideberg, Harry Scheideberg, Johanna Helene Scheideberg, Ludwig Scheideberg geb. 1898, Ludwig Scheideberg geb. 1902); Národni archiv Praha, Ghetto Terezin (Todesfallanzeige 18327, Bertha Scheideberg geb. 1868); Jüdischer Friedhof Brakel (u.a. Gräber von Hanchen Hakesberg 83 Jahre alt, Salomon Hakesberg ohne Lebensdaten, Selis Hakesberg 1800–1883, Sophie Hakesberg 1887-1887, Josef Scheideberg 1883–1885, Sara Scheideberg 1885-1934, Selma Scheideberg 1891–1908, Simon Scheideberg 1893-1925); Hamburger Börsenfirmen, Hamburg 1926, S. 137 (C. Bromberg); Adressbuch Hamburg (Herm. Reichmann) 1914, 1916, 1918, 1922; Adressbuch Hamburg (Dina Reichmann) 1927, 1928; Adressbuch Hamburg (Straßenverzeichnis Grindelallee 146, Frau Dina Reichmann) 1930, 1932, 1936, 1939; Adressbuch Altona (Abisch Finkels) 1911, 1912, 1914, 1922 (Bahrenfelder Str. 106-110); Frank Bajohr, "Arisierung" in Hamburg. Die Verdrängung der jüdischen Unternehmer 1933-1945, Hamburg 1998, S. 351 (C. Bromberg), S. 355 (Kaufhaus Abisch Finkels, Bahrenfelder Str. 110/116); Herbert Engemann, Nationalsozialismus und Verfolgung in Brakel, Brakel 1988, S. 138, 139, 140 (Jüdische Geburten in Brakel 1874-1945); Meyers Lexikon, Band 2 (Be-Co), Leipzig 1929, S. 763/764 (Brakel); Meyers Lexikon, Band 8 (Ma-On), Leipzig 1928, S. 845/846 (Münchenbernsdorf); Wilhelm Mosel, Wegweiser zu ehemaligen jüdischen Stätten in Hamburg, Heft 3, Hamburg 1989, S. 23-25 (Heimhuderstr. 70); Uta Schäfer-Richter, Die jüdischen Bürger im Kreis Göttingen, 1992, S. 212 (Else Reichmann, Frieda Reichmann); Werner Simsohn, Juden in Gera – jüdische Familiengeschichten II, Koblenz 1998, S. 137 (Hermann Reichmann); Anna von Villiez, Mit aller Kraft verdrängt, Entrechtung und Verfolgung ‚nicht arischer‘ Ärzte in Hamburg 1933 bis 1945, Hamburg 2009, S. 316-317 (Paul Katzenstein); https://portal.dnb.de/opac.htm?method=simpleSearch&cqlMode=true&query=nid%3D1055210679 (Deutsche Nationalbibliothek, Hugo Reichmann); www.tracingthepast.org (Volkszählung Mai 1939), Dina Reichmann geb. Scheideberg (Hamburg), Johanna Scheideberg (Hamburg); www.ancestry.de (Dr. Hugo Reichmann, geb. 15.5.1882; 1908 Schiffspassage Cuxhaven – New York; 1918 Heiratsregister Berlin-Wilmersdorf mit Ida Scherk; 1933 Schiffspassage Bremen – Santos/Brasilien); https://www.geni.com/people/Uri-Scheideberg/6000000032081680884 (eingesehen 23.8.2018); http://grabsteine.genealogy.net/tomb.php?cem=2234&tomb=70&b=&lang=de (Grabsteine Reichmann in Göttingen, eingesehen 15.11.2018); http://gc.for4mance.de/www/gerahistorie/chronik/index.htm?suche1=¶m=&suche2=Die&max=1500&abj=1116&index=7850 ("5.1935 In den Selbstmord getrieben", eingesehen 3.12.2018).
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