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Leopold Liebreich * 1919

Klosterallee 100 (Hamburg-Nord, Hoheluft-Ost)

HIER WOHNTE
LEOPOLD LIEBREICH
JG. 1919
VERHAFTET 2.11.1943
GEFÄNGNIS FUHLSBÜTTEL
DEPORTIERT
1944 AUSCHWITZ
KZ BUCHENWALD
BEFREIT

further stumbling stones in Klosterallee 100:
Ely Liebreich, Rosa Stern

Rosa Stern, née Gumpel, born 17.6.1870 in Hamburg, deported to Theresienstadt on 15.7.1942, died there on 9.1.1943
Ely Liebreich, born 17.5.1884 in Hamburg, deported to Theresienstadt on 14.2.1945, liberated there, died on 26.11.1958 in Hamburg
Leopold Liebreich, born 2.11.1919 in Hamburg, 2.11.1943 Fuhlsbüttel prison, deported on 25.1.1944 to Auschwitz, 13.10.1944 Buchenwald concentration camp, liberated there

Klosterallee 100

Rosa Stern, née Gumpel, was the third-born child of Julie (called "Fanny"), née Beer (born 31.8.1845 in Hamburg) and the Jewish butcher and poultry merchant Gottschalk Abraham Gumpel. Gottschalk Abraham Gumpel had been born on 17.9.1838 as the fifth of seven children of the Jewish slaughterer and later elder of the Jewish Community, Abraham Isaac Gumpel (died 1858 in Lübeck-Moisling) and Jette/ Gitel, née Gumpel (died 1844 in Lübeck-Moisling) in Lübeck-Moisling. On 23.10.1865 Gottschalk Abraham Gumpel had obtained the citizenship of Lübeck. At that time he worked as a copiist (= old job title for a transcriber of documents) for the city of Lübeck.

On Dec. 3, 1865, only two months later, he had married in Hamburg the daughter of the quite wealthy Jewish butcher and poultry merchant Beer Mendel Beer and Bertha, née Marcus. At the time of his marriage to Julie "Fanny" Beer, Gottschalk Abraham Gumpel was already registered in Hamburg at Schlachterstraße 22, according to the marriage entry. The marriage had been reported in the Hamburg News on Nov 25, 1865. As his occupational title is given in the marriage entry of the Jewish Community "Tobacco and Cigar Dealer". Julie Beer lived with her parents at Peterstraße 5 in Hamburg at that time. This house was owned by Beer Mendel Beer and his uncle and father-in-law Isaac Marcus.

Between 1866 and 1873, six children were born to this marriage, the first of whom died soon after birth: Jette (1866), Adolph (1867), Olga (1868), Rosa (1870), Betty (1871), Siegfried (1873). (Stolpersteine were laid for the children Rosa, Betty and Siegfried, who had taken the surname of his stepfather Schmay Liebreich in 1904, see www.stolpersteine-hamburg.de). Little is known about the fate of son Adolph, who allegedly managed to escape from the Nazis to Ecuador. Olga married one of the Wolf brothers, Leopold Wolf, and died in Hamburg on March 14, 1941.

Before 1871 Gottschalk Abraham Gumpel, who called himself Gustav, had left Hamburg for a short time, there is a re-registration with the date 2.5.1871. Where he had stayed, and for what purpose, cannot be determined yet. In any case, all children were born in Hamburg.

On May 19, 1879 Gottschalk Abraham Gumpel died in the Israelite Hospital in Hamburg. His death was reported by his father-in-law Beer Mendel Beer, who continued to live in the house at Peterstraße 5, while the deceased, together with his wife and children, rented the entire first floor of the neighboring house at Peterstraße 7. It was not until Rosa's grandfather Beer Mendel Beer died in 1893 that the house at Peterstraße 5 was sold and the extended family dispersed to several apartments, mainly at Grindel.

Julie "Fanny" Gumpel was now 34 years old and had five minor children to care for. After the year of mourning, on Nov. 15, 1880, she married Schmay Liebreich, a journeyman butcher in her poultry business, born 2.12.1855, who was from Weigenheim and ten years her junior. This marriage produced two more children, Mary, born 26.3.1882, and Ely Liebreich, born 17.5.1884. (Stolpersteine were also laid for them.)

There are no records of Rosa's childhood and youth. The table song of her brother Siegfried for the silver wedding anniversary of her mother and stepfather in 1905 contains a hint that she was interested in fashion, and indeed she learned the profession of dressmaker, which she practiced until she was unable to work in 1935. The table song literally states:

"As a cleaning mamsel we saw in earlier years.
Rosa, for she was chick and plick
only when it was said at home that she should pay,
So she could almost never.
But later she migrated to Hanover,
Where her art was better still paid.
There she has remained until today,
because there a beautiful "star" shines for her."

The "beautiful star" that shone for her in Hanover was Moritz Stern, born 3.9.1862 in Elze near Hanover, a traveling salesman. He was the son of David Stern, tanner in Elze (death 1889) and Johanne, née Jacobson (death 1908). David Stern, son of the merchant Marcus Stern, came from the neighboring village of Mehle, where the wedding had also taken place on June 6, 1855. The tannery was later continued by Moritz's brother Siegfried in Elze. The family included a wide network in the field of processing kosher animal products, besides tannery also shoemaker and butcher. Fritz David Stern (1899), shoemaker and nephew of Moritz Stern married Paula Isaac/ Wolf (1901), niece of Rosa Stern, née Gumpel. Fritz David, Paula and their son Leopold (1928) Stern later were deported together via Westerbork to the Sobibor extermination camp after escaping to the Netherlands and were murdered there on April 30, 1943.

Rosa Gumpel and Moritz Stern married around 1899 in Hannover. Whether Rosa had moved to Hanover before or only for the marriage requires further research. Out of this marriage came the children Hans Stern, born 8.7.1900 in Hannover, and Margarete, called "Greta", born 12.6.1902 in Hannover. The family moved frequently and lived at least three different addresses on Gretchenstraße in Hanover.

On July 20, 1907, Moritz Stern died in Hanover and Rosa Stern, née Gumpel, soon returned to Hamburg with her children. It was a difficult year for her, because shortly before, on Apr 18, 1907, her mother Julie "Fanny" Liebreich, née Gumpel, née Beer, had also died. The Jewish meat trade had not been doing well for years after the privileges for kosher butcher shops were abolished and the range of products had thus increased dramatically, and had probably already been abandoned around 1898, i.e. at the latest at the time of Rosa's move to Hanover. Her parents lived in small apartments on Großneumarkt, Alter Steinweg, Wexstraße and Grindelhof 69, where her mother died.

The 1909 Hamburg address book listed her as "Widow Rosa Stern" at Grindelallee 55 with the occupational title "Partiewaren" (= special items). However, a trade license cannot be found and by 1910 she was already registered as a "dressmaker" at Grindelhof 81. Her widowed stepfather Schmay Liebreich lived with the two youngest children Mary (1882) and Ely (1884) Liebreich in the terrace houses right next door, namely in Grindelhof 83. We can assume that there was an intensive contact between these two parts of the family. Also registered in Grindelhof 81 was Jeanette Ascher, née Israel (born 23.11.1857 in Altona), with whom Rosa Stern later lived in a shared apartment for 15 years.

Rosa Stern referred to Jeanette Ascher as "great-aunt" on a document found in her restitution file. In fact, Jeanette Ascher even became the mother-in-law of Rosa's daughter Greta when she married Jeanette's son Alfons David Ascher (born 10.7.1888 in Hamburg, died 15.12.1942 in the Auschwitz concentration camp) on July 31, 1926. However, the marriage lasted only 3 years and was divorced on Febr 8, 1929. This marriage, as well as the following three marriages of Greta, née Stern, remained childless.

By now almost 41 years old, she gave birth to her illegitimate son Richard Fred Stern on 13.5.1911 at a Christian midwife in Altona. She probably did not have a long relationship with the father, Richard Hermann Otto Wegner, born 23.4.1886, who was only 25 years old, and he never officially acknowledged paternity. However, he paid alimony for fourteen years for the boy, who was called only with the middle name "Fred".

Until 1916, Rosa Stern and her children lived together with Jeannette Ascher at Grindelhof 81, probably in adjoining apartments at the beginning (see address books). On June 11, 1915, Rosa registered with the Jewish Community. Initially, only the legitimate children Hans and Greta were registered on her tax card there, son Fred only later. This may be due to the fact that Fred was (allegedly?) baptized Protestant. The baptism cannot be proven either in Hamburg or in the immediate vicinity, but it is noted in his death certificate.

Since 1917 Rosa Stern and her three children were registered at Schlüterweg 6, a small terrace apartment, one room of which she sublet to Jeanette Ascher until her death on November 14, 1925. In May 1920, the now adult son Hans Stern moved first to Bergedorf, then to Cologne. Later, however, he returned to Hamburg. In 1925, the 14-year-old son Fred Stern was able to enter the Anton-Ree-Realschule, a foundation school of the Jewish Community at Zeughausmarkt, as a free student. His father, R.H.O. Wegner took an oath of disclosure and stopped paying alimony.

Rosa Stern continued to work as a self-employed seamstress. But in 1931 she fell into large rent arrears and was "suspended" from the apartment at Schlüterweg 6. On October 1, 1931, she stayed for six months with her widowed sister Olga Wolf and her children at Schäferkampsallee 88. Olga had married (see above) Leopold Wolf, one of the Wolf brothers musicians, on November 12, 1891, who had died in Hamburg on May 16, 1926. On Apr 20, 1932 Rosa Stern moved in with her sister Betty Worms at Wilhelminenstraße 63 (today Hein Hoyer-Straße) and only another half year later, on Oct 5, 1932, to acquaintances, the Henschel family, at Isestraße 32 on the 3rd floor.

In the meantime, all the children had rented their own apartments or rooms. Rosa Stern was now already 61 years old and suffered increasingly from health problems with her back, teeth, eyes and also her stomach, which is why she was unable to eat well and, according to a doctor's report, was considerably underweight. From this doctor's report about cures in 1924 (Harz) and 1927/1928 we also know that she was of medium height and had green eyes. The physician Dr. Mars recommended already in 1928, due to the underweight and the general exhaustion a 4-week cure stay in the home of Sidonie Werner in Segeberg.

At the age of 65, Rosa Stern was considered incapacitated for health reasons as of 1935. On April 27, 1936, she moved into a dignified furnished room with her youngest brother Ely Liebreich and his family at Klosterallee 100 in exchange for rent and self-catering. The daughter Greta married on Dec 16, 1937 to Siegelsbach near Mannheim and emigrated with her husband, the widower Julius Grötzinger and his three children in 1938 to the USA (there she died after two further marriages on 23.11.2003 at the age of 103 in Aventura/Florida).
When brother Ely Liebreich moved away from Hamburg in the hope of escaping Nazi persecution, Rosa Stern was able to move into the two-room apartment No. 22 in the Warburg-Stift at Bundesstraße 43, which had in the meantime been declared a "Judenhaus", with her sister Betty Worms at the beginning of 1941. Betty Worm had previously lived there in single room No. 6b. Around the time Rosa Stern moved in, her sister Olga died of stomach cancer; she had also lived there in the side wing, at No. 19, since March 14, 1940.

From Sept 19, 1941 Rosa Stern - like all adult Jews - had to wear the Jewish star.

From Bundesstraße 43, the sisters Rosa and Betty, together with their brother Siegfried Liebreich, were deported to Theresienstadt ghetto via the Sternschanze elementary school on July 15, 1942. (Note: The deportation date in the memorial book of the Federal Archives reads July 19, 1942, but this is demonstrably incorrect). Before the Gestapo picked them up, their niece Carola Israel, née Isaac/Wolf had helped them with packing (see Stolperstein biography Olga Wolf, née Berlin, www.stolpersteine-hamburg.de).

On August 25, 1942, the Chief Finance President of the City of Hamburg gave the auctioneer Wilhelm Wehling the order with the number 2747 to offer the last belongings of Rosa Stern: 2 iron bedsteads with mattresses, 2 fantasy wardrobes, picture frames, 1 regulator, 1 chair, 1 lamp, dishes, 1 cupboard (defective), 1 suitcase. The auction proceeds were RM 40, of which the auctioneer received 6% commission (RM 2.40).

Rosa Stern died at the age of 72 on Jan 9, 1943 in Theresienstadt as the last of the three siblings deported together, allegedly of "heart muscle degeneration", heart weakness and general loss of strength.


How did Rosa Stern's sons fare?
Son Hans Stern was a fine mechanic of typewriters and survived the Nazi period in a "privileged mixed marriage", concluded in Hamburg on Dec 2, 1931 with Luise Pforr, born 8.3.1902 in Hamburg, as a forced laborer in Hamburg. After the war, he appointed his uncle Ely Liebreich as his legal representative in matters of reparations and emigrated with his wife Luise and their two children Fred, (1933) and Karl-Heinz (1940) to the USA in mid-1953, where he died in Dade/Florida on Nov 17, 1974.

Son Fred Stern had married a baptized Christian woman in Hamburg on Febr 23, 1935. The marriage was forcibly divorced on Sept 23, 1938 with guilt on both sides. Despite several applications for permission to remarry, the couple was not allowed to remarry. The first-born son of this marriage, born in 1935, had died shortly after birth; the second-born son, born in 1936, was considered legitimate and was allowed to bear the surname Stern. The couple continued to live together at Revalerstraße 29 after the divorce and had two more children, but during the Nazi era they were not allowed to use their father's last name and were considered illegitimate. Fred Stern took his own life on March 23, 1944 by carbon monoxide poisoning to avoid arrest by the Gestapo. His Stolperstein is located at the corner of Revalerstraße and Stiftstraße.

For Rosa Stern's brother Ely Liebreich (1884-1958), with whom she had lived, a Stolperstein was also laid at Klosterallee 100.
He had married the non-Jewish Hamburg woman Any Henriette Martha Tauschwitz (1893-1963) in the Hanseatic city in 1914; the couple had two children: Lieselotte (1914-2003) and Leopold (1919-1965). Ely Liebreich had attended the Talmud Tora Realschule (1890-1898), had worked as a clerk, had been drafted for military service in 1915, and had been listed as an independent member of the Jewish Community of Hamburg since 1929.

In the Hamburg address book, among other things, he was listed from 1920 to 1926 as a clerk with the residential address Rosenallee 30 (Klosterthor); registered; from 1927 to 1930, the occupation was "head of department" with an unchanged address. In the period 1927 to 1931, he worked as a church tax employee at the tax office in Baumeisterstraße (St. Georg). This was followed by moves to Strassburger Strasse 41/Dulsberg (1930-1932), Kroogblocks 26/Horn (1933-1935) and Klosterallee 100/Hoheluft-Ost (1937-1941). In 1936, he found employment as an accountant with the livestock wholesale company Fritz Neuhaus or Neuhaus & Albers (Rahlstedt), whose stables and salesrooms were located in Mollhagen (Stormarn district).

Ely Liebreich also found accommodation away from the Hanseatic city in the village of Mollhagen near Ahrensburg in the early 1940s. Still on February 14, 1945, Ely Liebreich was transferred to the Theresienstadt ghetto, although he lived in a "privileged mixed marriage" according to Nazi criteria. But at this point the protection of such a marriage no longer applied. He survived the ghetto, returned to Hamburg on June 30, 1945, and died there in November 1958.

The son Leopold "Poldi" Liebreich worked as a cook, temporarily also in Erfurt, where he became engaged to Elfriede Bechmann. The Gestapo in Erfurt forbade him further contact with his "Aryan" fiancée, whereupon he returned to Hamburg. In September 1943, their son Peter was born and Leopold Liebreich left for Erfurt.

On the basis of an anonymous report, the Erfurt Gestapo learned of this and had him arrested in Hamburg. Unsuccessfully, the manager of the Hamburg restaurant "Imperator" (Mönckebergstraße 18), where Leopold Liebreich had worked since April 1943, tried to obtain his release. He was taken to Fuhlsbüttel Prison on November 2, 1943, from there he was transferred to Auschwitz Concentration Camp on January 25, 1944, and to Buchenwald Concentration Camp on October 13, 1944. Leopold Liebreich was liberated in Buchenwald on April 11, 1945 by units of the U.S. Army. He returned to Hamburg on May 26, 1945, and resumed his work at the "Imperator" restaurant during 1945.

Translation Beate Meyer

Stand: February 2023
© Carmen Fernandez

Quellen: Staatsarchiv Hamburg (StaH): Wiedergutmachungsakte 351-11_1563 Rosa Stern; Wiedergutmachungsakte 351-11_23090 Hans Stern; Wiedergutmachungsakte 351-11_36583 Fred Stern; 314-15 Oberfinanzpräsident, J6, Bd.2, Nr. 6/837; Todesfallanzeige Theresienstadt für Rosa Stern geb. Gumpel o Hausmeldekartei; 322-8_ o Geburts- und Sterbeeinträge; 522-1 Jüdische Gemeinden: Kultussteuerkarte Rosa Stern; Deportationsliste Theresienstadt 15.07.1942; Standesamt Hamburg Altona, Geburtseintrag Richard Fred Stern 966/1911, Altona 1; Adressbücher Hamburg - Via ancestry.com (Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2016); Archiv der Hansestadt Lübeck, Statistisches Landesamt, Volkszählungen 1845, 1851; Lübeck, Bürgerannahmebücher und Register zum Erwerb der Staatsangehörigkeit, 1591-1919, via ancestry.com o Deutschland, ausgewählte evangelische Kirchenbücher 1500-1971 [database online]; Landesarchiv Baden-Württemberg, Generallandesarchiv Karlsruhe o Wiedergutmachungsakte 480-28193 Margarete Greta Stern; Institut für Personengeschichte, Bensheim ("Tafellied" - Peter Guttkuhn "Die Geschichte der Juden in Lübeck und Moislng", Lübeck 2007; Jüdische Gemeinde Lübeck (jüdischer Friedhof, Grabsteine); Jürgen Huck "Geschichte der Juden zu Elze", Hildesheim 2012; Peter Schulze, Hannover - Jüdischer Friedhof an der Strangriede, Hannover 2016 (Grabstein Moritz Stern); Familiäre Überlieferungen; Zeitung Aufbau, 1945, Volume 38, S. 17 (Ely Liebreich); Archiv der Vaterstädtischen Stiftung, Hamburg.