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Israel Bartfeld * 1870

Mannesallee 34 (Harburg, Wilhelmsburg)

1941 Riga

further stumbling stones in Mannesallee 34:
Sara Bartfeld

Israel Bartfeld, born on 10 Oct. 1870, deported on 6 Dec. 1941 to Riga
Sara Bartfeld, née Fleischmann, born on 6 Sept. 1902, deported on 6 Dec. 1941 to Riga

Mannesallee 34

Israel Bartfeld was born as the son of Mordehof Bartfeld in Krasna (Galicia; today: Ukraine). He married Jette or Jetti (Jutta Channa) Krug, born on 5 Oct. 1867, and lived with her in Kolomea (today: Kolomyia, Ukraine), Jette’s birthplace. Two of their three daughters were born there: In 1896, Golda, and on 31 Jan. 1899, Phaya (Berta). In the course of the two years following, the family left their home and moved to Harburg, where the third daughter, Rosa, was born on 4 Dec. 1901.

Israel Bartfeld, working in the textiles industry throughout, opened a new business for textiles and furniture on the corner of Wilstorfer Straße and Feldstraße (today: Kalischerstraße) in Harburg in 1908. On 12 Feb. 1925, he relocated his "ready-to-wear clothes and yard goods” business from Harburg to Wilhelmsburg. Initially, he ran the company in the corner house at the intersection of Kurze Straße (today: Otterhaken) 10 and Fährstraße. One year later, on 8 June 1926, Israel Bartfeld had his operation entered in the company register with the Harburg District Court. The family continued to live in Harburg, accommodated in a three-bedroom apartment – in middle-class circumstances – at Wilstorfer Straße 51.

On 13 Apr. 1929, Israel’s wife Jette died. She was buried on the Jewish Cemetery in Harburg. In 1929 or 1930, Israel Bartfeld moved with his business to the house at Fährstraße 62, in addition running a drop-off point for "Rekord” dry cleaners. Later, he moved his operation to Kirchenallee (today: Mannesallee). When the Harburg city council decided to exclude Jewish businesses and department stores from municipal bids on 6 Apr. 1933, the "I. Bartfeld, Manufaktur, Kirchenallee 34” appeared on its list as well.

Following the April boycott, Israel Bartfeld gave up the business in Wilhelmsburg in the course of 1933, at the latest, however, by 1934. When his daughter Golda, since 1916 married to Fritz Bartfeld, a distant relative, emigrated to Palestine in Dec. 1934, he managed his trade in linens and woolen goods from his home in Harburg. In 1935, he gave up this enterprise. In Sept. 1937, the Hamburg Chamber of Industry and Commerce, Harburg branch office, applied to have the business struck off the company register.

On 28 Oct. 1938, the German government expelled approx. 17,000 Jews to Zbaszyn (German: Bentschen) in Poland on grounds of their Polish descent. The 1,000 persons forced to leave their hometown of Hamburg also included Israel Bartfeld as well as his youngest daughter Rosa, her husband Max Bartfeld (born in 1897) and their children Jutta (born in 1929) and Benni (born in 1935). The family remained in Zbaszyn until the summer of 1939, subsequently travelling on eastward and finally reaching relatives who lived near Lviv (Lemberg). From there, Rosa sent one last message to her sister Golda in Palestine. The family did not survive the National Socialist persecution.

Israel Bartfeld, however, returned from Zbaszyn to Hamburg in order to prepare his emigration to join his daughter Golda in Palestine, planned for 1939. He lived as a subtenant with one of his former neighbors at Wilstorfer Straße 54 in Harburg. After the German invasion of Poland, the Gestapo detained Polish Jews, including also, from 26 to 28 Sept. 1939, Israel Bartfeld who was imprisoned in the "Kola-Fu,” the Fuhlsbüttel concentration camp. From 24 Oct. 1939 onward, he lived in the so-called "Jews’ house” ("Judenhaus”) at Schlachterstraße 40/42 in Hamburg-Neustadt.

It was probably there he met Sara Fleischmann, who had been living in the house already since 16 May 1939. Sara Fleischmann was born in Wilna (today: Vilnius, Lithuania) on 6 Sept. 1902 and lived on "welfare” in 1939.

Sara Fleischmann and Israel Bartfeld got married on 7 July 1940 and stayed at Schlachterstraße 40/42. They were among the Hamburg Jews deported to Riga on 6 Dec. 1941. The day before, all persons appearing on the deportation list had to report to the "Lower Saxony Provincial Masonic Lodge” on Moorweidenstraße. There they were registered, had their luggage searched, and were subjected to body searches. A total of 753 persons, herded together, spent their last night in Hamburg in degrading circumstances. The next morning, they were transported on trucks to the Hannoversche Bahnhof. Israel and Sara Bartfeld did not survive.

The Stolpersteine for Sara and Israel Bartfeld are located in front of his last business address, the house at Mannesallee 34 in Wilhelmsburg.

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

© Barbara Günther

Quellen: 1; 5; 6; 8; StaH, 351-11, AfW, 18191; StaH, 430-5 Magistrat der Stadt Harburg Wilhelmsburg, 1810-08; StaH, 430-64 Amtsgericht Harburg, VII B-948; StaH, 213-8 Staatsanwaltschaft Oberlandesgericht-Verwaltung, Signatur Abl. 2, 451 a E 1, 1d; (Thevs) Stolpersteine Billstedt-Horn-Borgfelde, S. 62–64; Kändler/Hüttenmeister, Friedhof, S. 236; Ellermeyer u. a. (Hrsg.), Harburg, S. 98; Apel (Hrsg.), Tod, S. 105; StaH, Wilhelmsburger Adressbücher; StaH, Harburg-Wilhelmsburger Adressbücher.
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