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Julius Poppert * 1889

Sand 12 (Harburg, Harburg)

gedemütigt / entrechtet
Flucht in den Tod 28.08.1942

Julius Poppert, b. 7.20.1889 in Gronau, escaped into suicide on 8.28.1942

Harburg-Altstadt district, Sand 12

That Julius Poppert grew up on the border of Germany and the Netherlands and served as a soldier in the First World War, probably only a few of Harburg’s high society knew. But as the owner of two refined coffee and confectionary businesses in the city center at Rathhausstrasse 4 and Wilstorfer Strasse 29, the "better class” of ladies knew him only too well. It was here in the Advent and Christmas seasons or before Easter that they found everything with which to pamper their families and themselves during the holidays. Julius Poppert owned a third shop at Bahnhofstrasse 1 in the city of Stade.

Not only in private but in social matters as well, Lore Poppert, née Hoffmann (b. 12.6.1889) was an indispensable support for her husband. She came from a non-Jewish family inWuppertal. They married in 1917. Soon thereafter they were able to welcome their friends and acquaintances in a well-appointed home. A meticulous housemaid cared for the household. Among the proud achievements of the young couple was soon added their own automobile, which only a few others in the neighborhood could manage. After World War I, Julius and Lore Poppert and their two foster children experienced untroubled days of mutual good fortune. When Julius Poppert opened his first store in 1921, Inge Doris Kluge was seven years old. Her brother Hans Gerd Kluge was five years younger. The children fared well in the family.

That the "golden" years for Julius Poppert were over became certain for him, as well as all the others affected, by 1 April 1933, the day of the "defensive boycott against Jewry." In Harburg, in Stade, and all over Germany, SA-guards with huge posters were stationed in front of all large and small Jewish businesses, to scare away potential customers and to move them toward German goods.

From the Stade Daily of 1 April 1933: "Shortly before 10:00 am, double sentries [the SA] advanced on the premises of the One Price Store, the Lindor Firm, the Poppert Firm, and the Friedländer & Wertheim Bank. Affected by the boycott were only the businesses whose owners were undoubtedly associated with Big Jewish Capital. The guards standing in front of the premises put up placards calling upon the public to buy only German goods. In addition, they had brochures on hand for sale, entitled ‘ENEMY OF THE STATE,’ which contained abundant material on the nation-destroying intentions of International Jewry. From the Fish Market to the railroad station ... SA squads were on patrol, carrying with them the above-mentioned placards and brochures ..."

Two days previously, the Stade Tageblatt issued a statement "that it would no longer publish advertisements for Jewish firms." The "Harburg Advertiser and News" had not acted so hastily in this respect, even though the Harburg Executive Authorities would have welcomed that.

Officially, the boycott lasted only a day, but its long-term consequences could not be overlooked in the next weeks and months. The progressive displacement of Jews from German economic life cast a lengthening shadow over the everyday lives of those affected. Repeatedly Julius Poppert discovered that an unknown perpetrator had, during the night, smeared his show windows with antisemitic slurs. Sales declined by half because, not only members of the Nazi Party withdrew their business, but also wealthy middle-class patrons, who played roles in public life and wanted to avoid trouble, now preferred to buy from "German" competitors.

In 1935, Julius Poppert had first to give up his shop in Stade and, three or four years later, his two Harburg stores as well. By official order, wholesale confectioner’s supplies could no longer be delivered to the shops. Julius Poppert turned the businesses over to his foster daughter, Inge Doris Kluge. Thereafter, he lived with his wife, rather poorly, on their common savings; they had to give up their large house at Rathhausstrasse no. 4 for a smaller one at Sand no. 30 (today, no. 12).

The Gestapo arrested Julius Poppert, as well as many other Jews, in connection with the pogroms of 9 and 10 November 1938 and hauled him to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp. Supposedly, as the Harburg Advertiser and News reported, the show window of his last branch shop in Harburg was, on 10 November 1938, "smashed by a great mass of humanity that gave drastic expression to their detestation (for the murder of the Legation Secretary Ernst vom Rath.” Julius Poppert was detained for five weeks.

Julius Poppert, although he was married to a non-Jew, suffered from the drastic anti-Jewish measures nearly as much as Jews who lived in "full-Jewish” marriages. Thus, as of 19 September 1941, he had to wear the "yellow star” in public. His request to be exempted from the obligatory identifier was rejected by the leader of the Jew Department of the Hamburg Gestapo, Claus Göttsche, with the additional comment, "further applications are futile.” Actually, the Jewish partner in a "privileged” mixed marriage, that is, with children not brought up as Jews, did not have to wear the "star.” However, foster children did not exempt Julius Poppert from this regulation. Therefore, the Poppert’s marriage was considered "not privileged” and Julius Poppert was "star liable.”

When the great deportations from Hamburg began in October 1941, all Jews had to calculate that sooner or later they would receive an "evacuation order" for "resettlement." To be sure, those Jews living in "privileged” mixed marriages were not affected for the foreseeable future. Those in "not privileged” marriages were provisionally deferred, although this state of affairs could be abolished at any time and replaced by sweeping new measures. Julius Poppert did not exclude the possibility of a further escalation of National Socialist Jewish policy. He had already given his wife to understand that, in consideration of her and the children, he was ready in case of an emergency to divorce her and that he would take his own life, should he receive a deportation order.

When summoned to report to the Harburg Gestapo on 28 August 1942, he feared the worst. He let the deadline pass, and when a police official came to fetch him, Lore Poppert called her husband in vain. Seconds later it was confirmed that he had hung himself from a crossbeam in the bedroom. The quickly summoned physician Hans Riebling could only confirm his death. The concluding police report states tersely: "According to the report of Criminal Secretary Meyer, Hamburg Gestapo, satellite headquarters in Harburg, Poppert, who is a Jew, is allegedly to be deported; Poppert was found hanged in the bedroom of his home. In addition, he had also slit his wrists.”

Translator: Richard Levy
Kindly supported by the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung, Hamburg.

Stand: February 2018
© Klaus Möller

Quellen: 1; 4; 5; 8; StaH 351-11 AfW, Abl. 2008/1, 200789 Poppert, Julius; StaH, 331-5 Polizeibehörde – Unnatürliche Sterbefälle, 3, 1942, 1519; StaH, 430-5 Bestand Magistrat Harburg-Wilhelmsburg, 181-08 Angelegenheiten der städtischen Polizei, Ausschaltung jüdischer Geschäfte und Konsumvereine 1933–1938; Heyl (Hrsg.), Harburger Opfer; Heyl, Synagoge, S. 118, 195; Schriftliche Mitteilung der Gedenkstätte und des Museums Sachsenhausen vom 3.3.2011; Lohmann, "Nicht so schlimm.", 2. Auflage, S. 293ff.; Schriftliche Mitteilung Johanna Buchholz vom 6.8.2006; Schriftliche Mitteilung der Gedenkstätte Sachsenhausen vom 3.3.2011.
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