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Julius Bähr * 1874

Rappstraße 16 (Eimsbüttel, Rotherbaum)

1941 Riga

further stumbling stones in Rappstraße 16:
Max Fleischhauer, Sohn von Hermann und Lydia Hoffmann, Hermann Hoffmann, Lydia Hoffmann, Esther Levy, Ottilie Robertsohn, Ida Rosenberg

Julius Bähr, born on 5 Feb. 1874, deported on 6 Dec. 1941 to Riga

The greengrocer was a resident of the Grindel quarter before the Nazi era. He lived with his wife Bertha and their six children Theodor, Edgar, Max, Walter, Paula, and Lilly on Dillstrasse and on Rutschbahn, before moving to a two-bedroom apartment at Rappstrasse 16. In the basement of the apartment houses Dillstrasse and Rappstrasse, Julius Bähr operated a small greengrocery, and prior to 1936, he had a vegetable stand registered in front of the house Grindelallee 72. His income was often not enough to support his family, especially during the cold season when he had to cease street vending for health reasons.

Thus, Bertha B. already received welfare support on a temporary basis in 1914 when Julius Bähr was conscripted during the First World War, and later repeatedly whenever income was too meager to support a large family. After each visit, the responsible welfare workers emphasized the perfect orderliness in the household, in most instances endorsing the claims for support: Since the family adhered to the dietary laws, the welfare authority approved treatment at the Israelite Hospital or covered the cost of a half-year course that son Theodor wished to complete at the agricultural settlers’ school of the Israelite Community in Blankenese. He would then be able, the official hoped, "to find work abroad and help himself.” Following this course, Theodor went to Paris, where his brother lived, though returning after his mother died in 1934.

In 1935/36, Paula worked at Robinsohn ladies’ wear, Lilly as a sales assistant at the Karstadt department store and then for the L. Wegner company, Edgar as an office worker for a real estate agent, Max as a sales assistant at the Hoheluft department store, and Walter as a messenger for an unknown company. However, these financially secure times ended in Nov. 1938. Max, arrested during the November Pogrom, was interned in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp until 11 Jan. 1939. Afterwards, he had to register as unemployed.

In early 1939, Paula also lost her job with Robinsohn after 13 years of working for the company, after the business had been "Aryanized.” Initially, the family lived on her severance payment of 250 RM (reichsmark), for the amount was calculated against social assistance payments.

Sons Walter and Theodor had already emigrated to Rhodesia and Argentina, respectively. Now the others accelerated their preparations for departure from Germany: daughter Paula, assisted by the Relief Organization of Jews in Germany (Hilfsverein der Juden in Deutschland), emigrated to London, where she intended to train as a nurse, a shortage occupation there at the time (in 1953, she worked there as a sales assistant again).

Her brother Edgar went to Argentina, Lilly to South Africa. The person remaining behind was the father, who was deported from Rappstrasse 16. The Hamburg directory listed "J. Israel Bähr" even as late as 1942, when he had already been murdered in Riga long since. Later, the District Court (Amtsgericht) declared him dead as of 9 May 1945.

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

© Beate Meyer

Quellen: StaH, 522-1, Jüdische Gemeinden, 992b, Kultussteuerkartei der Deutsch-Israelitischen Gemeinde Hamburg; Adreßbücher 1938, 1942; Wolfgang Scheffler/Diana Schulle (Hrsg.), Buch der Erinnerung. Die ins Baltikum deportierten deutschen, österreichischen und tschechoslowakischen Juden, Bd. II, München 2003; Amt f. Wiedergutmachung 0502 74; Hamburger jüdische Opfer des Nationalsozialismus. Gedenkbuch, Hamburg 1995.