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Semi Werner Dawidowicz * 1922

Schäferkampsallee 25/27 (Eimsbüttel, Eimsbüttel)

1943
1943 Theresienstadt, weiterdeportiert nach Auschwitz

further stumbling stones in Schäferkampsallee 25/27:
Berl Beit, Sophie Rosenstein, Sophie Wohlwill

Semi Werner Dawidowicz, born on 23 Jan. 1922 in Hamburg, Fuhlsbüttel concentration camp from 9 to 12 Sept. 1939; deported on 10 Mar. 1943 to Theresienstadt and on 18 Dec. 1943 to Auschwitz

Schäferkampsallee 25/27

Fritz Isidor Dawidowicz, born on 17 or 18 June 1893 in Zloczew, expelled on 28 Oct. 1938 to Zbaszyn; missing in Poland
Gertrud Rosalie Dawidowicz, née Frankenthal, born on 3 Jan. 1893 in Kiel, expelled on 28 Oct. 1938 to Zbaszyn, returned to Hamburg for several months in 1939, expelled definitively in Oct. 1939; missing in Poland

Oberaltenallee 9, Uhlenhorst

Moritz Moszek Dawidowicz, born on 7 Nov. 1894 in Zloczew, expelled on 28 Oct. 1938 to Zbaszyn, until the summer of 1939 detained in the local internment camp, in 1941 Majdanek concentration camp
Gerd Dawidowicz, born on 6 July 1927 in Hamburg, expelled on 28 Oct. 1938 to Zbaszyn, detained on 23 June 1944 in Warsaw, missing
Horst Dawidowicz, born on 2 Apr. 1930 in Hamburg, expelled on 28 Oct. 1938 to Zbaszyn, detained on 23 June 1944 in Warsaw, missing
Bernd Dawidowicz, born on 17 Jan. 1936 in Hamburg, expelled on 28 Oct. 1938 to Zbaszyn, detained on 23 June 1944 in Warsaw, missing

Hofweg 22, Uhlenhorst

Semi Werner Dawidowicz was Jewish and a Polish citizen like his father Fritz (Isidor, Izydor). His mother, Gertrud Dawidowicz, née Frankenthal, was probably called Rosalie in the family and came from Kiel, where she was born on 3 Jan. 1893. The father, Fritz Isidor Dawidowicz (born on 17 June 1893) was a native of Zloczew (called Schlötzau from 1939 until 1945), a small Polish town near Lodz. In Hamburg, he traded in footwear products and leather. He ran his store at Mundsburger Damm 54, where shoes were sold and repaired. The company was "Aryanized” in 1938/1939.

The family of Semi Werner Dawidowicz lived at several addresses, first at Bornstrasse 6 and then "auf der Uhlenhorst" at Mundsburger Damm 38, at Birkenau 3, and at Oberaltenallee 9 on the third floor. Oberaltenallee was likely the last address of the family’s own choosing. Semi Werner was seriously ill and physically disabled, whether from birth or some later point onward is unclear. He had a brother eight years his junior named Edwin. Even as a very young man, Semi no longer lived with his family. According to the Jewish religious tax (Kultussteuer) file card, he lived at Westerstrasse 27, at Dillstrasse 13 on the ground floor, and at Grindelallee 93 with Leo Frankenthal, possibly an uncle or grandfather.

Becoming victims of the "Polenaktion,” the family was expelled to Zbaszyn (Bentschen) in Oct. 1938. This held true, at any rate, for the parents. Semi Werner probably stayed in Hamburg due to his illness. According to evidence given by a female relative, he was committed to a home. In any case, from Apr. to Aug. 1939, he was in the G 9 class for talented students (Aufbauklasse G 9) at the Talmud Tora School. Edwin, too, seems to have stayed in Hamburg, as a school-leaving certificate from the Talmud Tora School exists for him. According to that, he attended this school since Apr. 1935 from grade 1 onward, leaving the school after grade 5 in the summer of 1939. The mother returned to Hamburg for a few months in 1939 while the father had to remain in Poland. He was interned in the Bentschen camp until the summer of 1939. The family succeeded in sending ten-year-old Edwin by himself on a "children transport” (Kindertransport) to Britain. Semi Werner tried in vain to emigrate to Switzerland – probably at his mother’s urging. In Sept. 1939, he was detained for a short time in the Fuhlsbüttel concentration camp. After the beginning of the war, the German Reich interned thousands of Polish Jews under extremely poor prison conditions. In this way, pressure for emigration mounted. In Oct. 1939, the mother signed a form for Semi Werner. A list of Werner’s moving goods already existed as well. It indicated exclusively items of regular luggage, i.e. above all pieces of clothing. However, Semi Werner’s attempt to leave Germany failed. The mother was expelled definitively to Poland before the end of 1939.

Semi Werner, increasingly physically impaired and only able to walk bent down on crutches, spent the weeks from 22 Aug. until 5 Sept. 1941 and from 2 Oct. 1942 until 10 Mar. 1943 being treated in the Jewish Hospital on Schäferkampsallee. From there, he was deported to Theresienstadt. A Stolperstein in front of the former hospital commemorates him.

His mother, missing in Poland, is not listed in the Memorial Book. Brother Edwin later reached Toronto by way of Britain. He had contact neither to his family members nor to any Jewish institutions in Canada. He also forgot how to speak German. When he tried to file claims for restitution, his applications were turned down because of deadlines expired. In 1999, he submitted pages of testimony in Yad Vashem for his mother and his brother.

In addition, Moritz (Moszek) Dawidowicz (born on 7 Nov. 1894 in Zloczew), his wife Mimi, née Wenz, and the three sons Gerd, Horst, and Bernd were expelled from Hamburg via Zbaszyn to occupied Poland and subsequently murdered. Probably Moritz and Fritz were brothers or cousins.

Moszek Dawidowicz called himself Moritz Dawidowitz – this was also the company name. During the Nazi period, he was forced to indicate his name "correctly” again as Dawidowicz. When he used his printed stationary, he corrected the name by hand. He was married to Mimi Wenz, a non-Jewish native of Hamburg, since 1925. The marriage produced three sons: Gerd (born on 6 July 1927), Horst (born on 2 Apr. 1930), and Bernd (born on 17 Jan. 1936). Gerd and Horst were, like Werner, students of the Talmud Tora School. At the time of the expulsion, Bernd was not yet of school age. Moritz owned the house and property at Hamburger Strasse 94, where his leather goods store was located as well. The family lived at Hofweg 22 in a four-and-a-half bedroom apartment and enjoyed a solid middle-class lifestyle. Socially committed, the family took care, for instance, of four orphans for several years.

In Oct. 1938, the family was expelled to Bentschen and returned for a period in the summer of 1939 to wind up business affairs. At the end of the summer, the family was then forced to depart for Poland. They did not succeed in taking along their Hamburg household effects, meticulously recorded on extensive lists. They were put in storage in Hamburg.

The apartment house at Hamburger Strasse 94 was confiscated by the "Main Trustee Office East” (Haupttreuhandstelle Ost – HTO) as the property of citizens of the former Polish state. The administration was entrusted to the Hamburg Property Management Company of 1938 (Grundstücksverwaltungsgesellschaft von 1938). In 1942, the property passed into the hands of the German Reich and was sold in 1943.

At first, the family of Moritz Dawidowicz was in the Zbaszyn camp and then, at the outbreak of war, fled to Poland, where they lived in the Lodz Ghetto and from Dec. 1939 onward in the Warsaw Ghetto. Starting in late 1940 and until mid-1944, the family stayed illegally and in destitution in Warsaw. Moritz, however, was already arrested in Lublin in Dec. 1941. His family received one last sign of life from him in Feb. 1942, after he had been deported to the Majdanek extermination camp in 1941.

The sons lived with the mother in Warsaw until 23 June 1944. Subsequently, all of them were brought to the Paviac prison in Warsaw and mother and sons separated by force. It is not known where and when the three sons were murdered. The mother, Mimi Dawidowicz, was transported to the Ravensbrück concentration camp in July 1944, where she was liberated at the end of the war. In 1946, she returned to Hamburg and lived on Hofweg again at the end of the 1940s. On 10 July 1984, Mimi died in Wedel. She survived her family by 40 years.

According to testimony by a contemporary witness, a shoemaker named Dawidowicz lived at Eimsbütteler Chaussee 128. In the 1926 directory, the entry for this address reads: Ch. Dawidowicz, leather store. Probably, this company belonged to the family. A Jewish religious tax (Kultussteuer) file card exists for Chiel Dawidowitz, born on 30 Mar. 1899, whose business address was on Eimsbütteler Chaussee. He lived in the Grindel quarter, at Rutschbahn 35, and later at Bornstrasse 34. In 1937, he emigrated together with his wife Eva, née Parcensewsky, to France.

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

© 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 332-8 Meldewesen Hausmeldekartei; StaH 351-11 AfW, 140129; StaH 351-11, 27257; StaH 351-11, 170136; StaH 362-6/10 Talmud Tora Schule; StaH 741-4 Fotoarchiv, Sa 1248; Frank Bajohr, Arisierung, S. 353; HAB I 1935, HAB II 1925, 1926, 1933–1935.
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