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Alice Baum (née Haarburger) * 1873

Efeuweg 16 (Hamburg-Nord, Winterhude)

HIER WOHNTE
ALICE BAUM
GEB. HAARBURGER
JG. 1873
GEDEMÜTIGT / ENTRECHTET
FLUCHT IN DEN TOD
15.10.1941

Alice Baum, née Haarburger, born 21 Oct. 1873 in Hamburg, died 15 Oct. 1941 in Hamburg (suicide)

Efeuweg 16

Alice Baum, née Haarburger was the daughter of the tobacco agent Wolff (born on 22 Oct. 1836 in Altona) and Agnes Haarburger, née Heine (born in 1853 in Hamburg). As was common at the time, her mother gave birth at home; the doctor and obstetrician Hinrich Otto de la Camp (1816–1878) attended the birth. He was listed in Hamburg’s address book as early as 1842 as an "Accoucher” (obstetrician). Since there was no state health insurance, the child’s father had to pay the doctor’s costs.

Alice’s parents had wed on 5 Jan. 1872 at the civil registry office in Hamburg and were married by Chief Rabbi Stern on 14 Feb. 1872 in the synagogue of the German-Israelite Community in Hamburg. It was her father’s second marriage. His first wife Adele née Fränkel (born in 1835 or 1836 in Hamburg) had died in June 1870 after the birth of their second child at the age of 35. Wolff Haarburger, son of the lottery collector Simon Wolff Haarburger, had belonged to Hamburg’s Jewish Community since 1863. In 1877 he obtained Hamburg citizenship. He lived with his wife and children Alice (1873–1941), Leo (1876–1938) and Paul (1878–1941) in secure financial circumstances. The family’s homes were located at am Neuen Wall 37 in Neustadt (1872), at Wexstraße 21 in Neustadt (1873–1877) and at 2nd Durchschnitt 9 in Rotherbaum (1878–1880).

Wolff Haarburger died of cancer in 1879 at the age of 43. His 40-year-old wife’s sorrow was soon accompanied by a precarious financial situation for herself and her three small children. Her brothers-in-law Marcus Haarburger (born on 16 July 1842 in Altona) and Hartwig S. Haarburger (born on 6 Apr. 1833 in Altona) may have come to her aid. During the following years, Agnes Haarburger moved several times within Rotherbaum city district. She lived at Bornstraße 34 (1881–1882), Grindelallee 186 (1883–1884), Bundesstraße 29 (1885–1889), Rutschbahn 37 (1890) and Papendamm 23 (1891–1893).

Alice Haarburger married in Hamburg on 3 July 1893, shortly before her twentieth birthday, the merchant Nathan Baum (born 30 Nov. 1864 in Dortmund-Huckarde, Westfalen), son of the spice merchant Herz Baum and Ester Baum née Herz. At the time of their wedding, the couple Alice and Nathan Baum both lived in Hamburg-Rotherbaum at Papendamm 23. The widow A. Haarburger was registered there on the third flood as the main tenant from 1891 to 1893. There was no entry for Nathan Baum in the address book, which means he lived at the house in a sublet, probably in Widow Agnes Haarburger’s apartment. After their wedding in 1893, the Baum couple moved to Cologne in the Rhineland (1893–1897) and later to the Ruhr Region where Nathan Baum worked as managing director of a livestock trade association in Dortmund until 1933. He was also a representative of the Dortmund Synagogue Community. In autumn 1933 in the wake of National-Socialist anti-Jewish measures, he was relieved of all his positions and expelled from his office by the SS in Dortmund.

Robbed of their livelihood and endangered by the exposed position of the Jewish Community, Nathan and Alice Baum decided of necessity to leave Dortmund. The couple moved to the city where Alice Baum was born and lived in the neighborhood Winterhude at Efeuweg 16 in a modernly furnished 3½-room apartment (the landlord was the building firm Wilhelm Mehler, Ludolfstraße 46). The anti-Jewish tenancy laws which came into force on 30 Apr. 1939 forced the couple to move several times more within Hamburg. On 4 Oct. 1939 they moved to Johnsallee 69 (Rotherbaum) into a ground-floor room of a guesthouse belonging to Johanna Beckmann (born on 23 Oct. 1883 in Leer) who had lived there since 1932. On 3 Apr. 1941 followed the move to Hansastraße 65 (Harvestehude) where the unmarried Thekla Michaeli (born on 6 June 1882 in Hamburg) ran a guesthouse on the ground floor. On 23 June 1941, Nathan Baum died there of heart failure, as was noted on his death certificate and as the Jewish doctor Berthold Hannes (1882–1955) noted on his death certificate. Nathan Baum was buried in Hamburg in the Jewish part of the Ohlsdorf Cemetery.

Alice Baum was now alone and exposed to hostilities, harassment, financial demands and looming deportation. On 25 Oct. 1941, the first deportation train was to leave Hamburg to the East, heading to "Litzmannstadt” Ghetto in Lodz, Poland. On 15 Oct. 1941 Alice Baum took her own life. She hung herself on the clothing hook on the door of her room. Her suicide note with the reasons for her suicide is no longer in the files of the police authority. Doctor Berthold Hannes confirmed her death, and an ambulance service transported her body to the port hospital. The Jewish Community took care of her funeral. Alice Baum was buried in the Jewish cemetery in Hamburg-Ohlsdorf, next to her husband. The court appointed Richard Schwabe (1894–1978) as curator of the estate on 5 Nov. 1941. Richard Schwabe practiced law until he was banned from his profession on 30 Nov. 1938. After that he was registered with the "legal advisor” Dr. Edgar Fels with offices at Ostmarkstraße 64 (formerly Hallerstraße). Her relatives who had emigrated were to be notified by Mr. Theilheimer, residing at Schüterstr. 5 at Posener. The main tenant, lawyer Walter Posener (born on 23 Jan. 1901 in Hamburg), son of Jenny Posner, née Theilheimer, had immigrated to the USA with his wife in Sept. 1938. Alice Baum’s children Margarethe Vogelbaum, widowed Meibergen, née Baum (born on 10 Oct. 1893 in Cologne) and Hans Baum (born on 21 Oct. 1897 in Cologne) had also managed to immigrate to the USA. Police Station 24 on Oberstraße, which was responsible for the case, did not unseal her apartment until 13 Nov. 1941 when they received written notification from the criminal investigations department (department of burials). The National-Socialist government took possession of Alice Baum’s assets through the "Levy on Jewish Assets” (Judenvermögensabgabe) (6,500 RM) and her seized securities (1,200 RM).

Alice Baum’s brother Leo Haarburger (born on 8 Jan. 1876 in Hamburg) had attended high school in Lüneburg which he completed in 1895, eligible to undergo one year of military service and the option to advance to a reserve officer. In the society of the Kaiserreich, based on military hierarchy, this was a sign of belonging and prestige, in equal measure. It is uncertain whether Leo Haarburger ever began his military service because he was classified as partially unsuited in his 1898 physical examination. As of 1926 at the latest he worked as an authorized representative at the prestigious Hamburg bank M.M. Warburg & Co. In Nov. 1911 he married in Frankfurt am Main. He lived with his wife Adele Haarburger, née Holländer (born on 12 May 1888 in Frankfurt am Main) in Hamburg at Overbeckstraße 1 in Uhlenhorst (1913–1932), at Faaßweg 3 in Eppendorf (1933–1939) and from 1940 at Brunsberg 9, 1st floor in Lokstedt (see biography of Lippmann, Leo Josias). Following the "Aryanization” of the Warburg Bank in May 1938, he was dismissed. Five weeks after the November pogrom, he died on 16 Dec. 1938 at the Israelite Hospital at Eckernförderstraße 4 (Altona). His widow Adele Haarburger, née Holländer (1888–1968) immigrated to Johannesburg, South Africa in June 1939 and from there continued on to the USA. Shortly beforehand, the National-Socialist state had gotten rich off of her through the obligatory surrender of gold, silver and jewelry in May 1939, the "Reich Flight Tax” (Reichsfluchtsteuer) in May 1939 as well as horrendous transfer fees for transfers abroad.

Alice’s brother Paul Haarburger (born 3 Mar. 1878 in Hamburg) lived with his mother until July 1893, then several weeks in Hanover and in Hamburg with the entrepreneur H. Schöning (company H. L. Schöning jun., importer of game skins, founded 1861) at Grindelhof 77. From there he moved to Cologne in Sept. 1893 where his sister Alice Baum, four years his senior, lived, at that time still unmarried. We do now know why he decided to move. Later Paul Haarburger himself was married and had two sons. In Sept. 1939, when he was forced to adopt the additional name "Israel”, he was being cared for by a nurse on Karl-Anton-Straße in Düsseldorf. He was deported from the Düsseldorf-Grafenberg Mental and Nursing Home on 15 Nov. 1941 and killed within the framework of the National Socialists’ euthanasia program. The details on his death certificate "1 June 1941 Cholm II” were intentionally falsified, giving the wrong date and place in order to cover up the systematic killing of disabled people in the German Reich.

Alice’s cousin Frida Haarburger (born 6 Mar. 1872 in Hamburg) lived and worked as a music teacher from 1911 to 1918 at Husumerstraße 19 (Hoheluft-East). As of 1920 she was no longer listed in the address book as the main tenant. Her last place of residence was a sublet at Curschmannstraße 31 (Hoheluft-East) with Bertha Cassel, née Eggers (1879–1965). It was there that she took an overdose of sleeping pills on 3 Nov. 1941. She died on 7 Nov. 1941 at the Israelite Hospital (Johnsallee 54). There are plans to relocate the Stolperstein for Frida Haarburger to Husumerstraße 19.

Alice’s nephew Hermann Hiskias Kugelmann (born on 3 Apr. 1864 in Wohra, District of Marburg-Biedenkopf), son of Meier Kugelmann and Preine née Kadden, moved to Hamburg and lived at Grindelallee 178 (Rotherbaum) as early as 1913 where he ran his own butcher shop on the ground floor. His date of birth is a little perplexing since it makes him ten years older than his Aunt Alice. By 1913 he had joined the German-Israelite Community and the religious, conservative cultural society "Synagogue Association”. He had to give up his butcher shop in Nov. 1938 and sell his house at Grindelallee 178 to Artur Bruczik (Duisburg) in Apr. 1939. His son John Kugelmann (born on 6 Oct. 1894) had already immigrated to the USA in May 1938; Hermann Hiskias Kugelmann’s attempt to follow his son failed. His wife Rebecka Kugelmann née Wertheimer (born on 1 May 1866 in Hamburg) died in February 1941. Hiskias (Hermann) Kugelmann’s last residence was at Dillstraße 15 (Rotherbaum), a house with eight apartments established in 1903 by the Zacharias and Renate and Simon and Mathilde Hesse Foundation. Hiskias (Hermann) Kugelmann was deported from the building, which had been declared a "Jewish house”, on 17 July 1942 to Theresienstadt Ghetto where he died on 10 April 1943.

The landlady Thekla Michaeli (born on 6 June 1882 in Hamburg), originally shop owner in Hamburg-Niendorf (at Pinnebergerstr. 25), was deported with her sister Rosa Michaeli (born on 10 June 1880 in Hamburg), who was also unmarried, to Litzmannstadt Ghetto, Lodz in occupied Poland on 25 Oct. 1941. She was later deported on to the Chelmno (Kulmhof) killing center on 25 May 1942. Her 5-room apartment at Hansastraße 65 was cleared out by the moving company Friedrich Wiese (Schäferkampsallee 16) on 19 Nov. 1941 and her belongings delivered to the office of the court bailiff in Hamburg-Neustadt (Dehbahn 36). The public auction on 9–10 Jan. 1942, previously announced in three Hamburg newspapers, brought in 3,000 Reichsmarks, paid into the state treasury. The items may have included possessions of Alice Baum. Next to the 246 auction lots, the auctioneer meticulously noted the family name of each purchaser and the price.

Information as of Mar. 2016


Translator: Suzanne von Engelhardt

Kindly supported by the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung, Hamburg.

Stand: November 2017
© Björn Eggert

Quellen: Staatsarchiv Hamburg (StaH) 214-1 (Gerichtsvollzieherwesen), 524 (Michaeli, Hansastr. 65); StaH 314-15 (Oberfinanzpräsident), R 1939/2410 (Sicherungsanordnung gegen Vermögen von Hermann Kugelmann); StaH 331-5 (Polizeibehörde – unnatürliche Todesfälle), 3 Akte 1941/1636 (Alice Baum); StaH 331-5 (Polizeibehörde – unnatürliche Todesfälle), 3 Akte 1941/ 1857 (Frieda Haarburger); StaH 332-3 (Zivilstandsaufsicht), C Nr. 75 (Sterberegister Nr. 3044/1870, Adele Haarburger geb. Fränkel); StaH 332-3 (Zivilstandsaufsicht), A Nr. 90 (3482/1870), Simon Siegfried Haarburger (geb. 4.6.1870); StaH 332-3 (Zivilstandsaufsicht 1866–1875), B Nr. 43 (23/1872, Heiratsregister Wolff Haarburger u. Agnes Heine); StaH 332-3 (Zivilstandsaufsicht), A Nr. 163 (Geburtsregister 7169/1873, Alice Haarburger); StaH 332-5 (Standesämter), 1878 u. 187/1876 (Geburtsregister 1876, Leo Haarburger); StaH 332-5 (Standesämter), 8928 u. 641/1878 (Geburtsregister 1878, Paul Haarburger, mit Hinweis Wohnadresse 1939); StaH 332-5 (Standesämter), 7768 u. 2680/1879 (Sterberegister 1879, Wolff Haarburger); StaH 332-5 (Standesämter), 2728 u. 933/1888 (Heiratsregister 1888, Marcus Haarburger); StaH 332-5 (Standesämter), 8561 u. 255/1893 (Heiratsregister 1893, Alice Haarburger u. Nathan Baum); StaH 332-5 (Standesämter), 1089 u. 419/1938 (Sterberegister 1938, Leo Haarburger); StaH 332-5 (Standesämter), 8174 u. 210/1941 (Sterberegister 1941, Nathan Baum); StaH 332-5 (Standesämter), 47 u. 3595/1878 (Sterberegister 1878, Dr. Hinrich Otto de la Camp); StaH 332-5 (Standesämter), 1967 u. 2499/1880 (Geburtsregister 1880, Rosa Michaeli); StaH 332-5 (Standesämter), 2017 u. 2436/1882 (Geburtsregister 1882, Thekla Michaeli); StaH 332-8 / 741-4 (Meldewesen), K 6177 (Alte Einwohnermeldekartei 1892–1925), Paul Haarburger; StaH 332-8 (Meldewesen), Hauskartei, Johnsallee 69 EG; StaH 342-2 (Militär-Ersatzbehörden) D II 83 Band 2 (Leo Haarburger); StaH 351-11 (Amt für Wiedergutmachung), 995 (Nathan Baum); StaH 351-11 (Amt für Wiedergutmachung), 2244 (Alice Baum); StaH 351-11 (AfW), 10172 (Adele Haarburger geb. Holländer); StaH 352-5 (Gesundheitswesen), 1879 Standesamt 3 Nr. 2680 (Todesbescheinigung für Wolff Haarburger); StaH 352-5 (Gesundheitswesen), 1938 Standesamt 2a Nr.419 (Todesbescheinigung für Leo Haarburger); StaH 352-5 (Gesundheitswesen), 1941 Standesamt 2a Nr.210 (Todesbescheinigung für Nathan Baum); StaH 522-1 (Jüdische Gemeinden), 992b (Kultussteuerkartei der Deutsch-Israelitischen Gemeinde Hamburg), Alice Baum, Leo Haarburger, Frieda Haarburger, Hiskias/Hermann Kugelmann, Rosa Michaeli, Thekla Michaeli, Walter Posner; Bundesarchiv Berlin, R 1509 Reichssippenamt, Ergänzungskarten der Volkszählung vom 17. Mai 1939; Adressbuch Hamburg (Namensverzeichnis Haarburger) 1872, 1873, 1877, 1878, 1880–1885, 1887, 1889–1893, 1911–1915, 1918–1919, 1933, 1937–1940; Adressbuch Hamburg (Namensverzeichnis Baum) 1935, 1939; Adressbuch Hamburg (Namensverzeichnis Camp de la) 1842, 1870, 1873; Adressbuch Hamburg (Namensverzeichnis Schöning) 1893; Adressbuch Hamburg (Straßenverzeichnis) 1939 (Epheuweg/Efeuweg 16); Telefonbuch Hamburg 1931 (Leo Haarburger); Hamburger Börsenfirmen, Hamburg 1926, S. 1082 (M.M.Warburg & Co., Gesamtprokura für L. Haarburger); Hamburger Börsenfirmen, Hamburg 1935, S. 890 (M.M.Warburg & Co., Gesamtprokura für L. Haarburger); Heiko Morisse, Jüdische Rechtsanwälte in Hamburg, Ausgrenzung und Verfolgung im NS-Staat, Hamburg 2003, S. 159 (Richard Schwabe); Information der Mahn- u. Gedenkstätte der Landeshauptstadt Düsseldorf zu Paul Haarburger, 2008; Jüdischer Friedhof Hamburg-Ohlsdorf, Internetverzeichnis der Grabstellen (Nathan Baum Grab-Nr. ZW10-258, Alice Baum Grab-Nr. ZW10-259).