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Martha Baumstein * 1891

Rhiemsweg 12 (Hamburg-Mitte, Horn)

HIER WOHNTE
MARTHA BAUMSTEIN
JG. 1891
DEPORTIERT 1943
AUSCHWITZ
ERMORDET

Martha Baumstein, born on 12 May 1891 in Elbing, deported on 1 Mar. 1943 from Berlin to Auschwitz

Rhiemsweg 12

Martha Baumstein lived in Hamburg only for a few years. She came from a Jewish family with many children, among whom apparently only her brother Alfred lived in Hamburg as well. Martha Baumstein was born in Elbing on 12 May 1891, two years after her brother Erwin, born on 12 Aug. 1889. Her brother Alfred was born eight years later, on 9 June 1899, in Schwerin/Warthe. The only detail known about the other four siblings, born between 1883 and 1890, is that one brother died of unknown causes at the age of 46 and that probably two of them fell victim to the Shoah, as did Erwin and Martha Baumstein. Her mother Lina Baumstein, née Lipowski, died at the age of 44 while giving birth, and her father, David Baumstein, died a natural death when he was 74 years old.

Details about the moves of the David Baumstein family, particularly after the death of Lina Baumstein, are not known. Alfred Baumstein attended Realschule [secondary school without Latin] in Seesen/Harz up to completion of his one-year graduating class ("Einjähriges”), did an apprenticeship as a textile merchant, and then started positions as an employee in Posen and Danzig, before coming to Hamburg as a sales representative at the age of 22. He worked there as an employee until his dismissal in 1935, then as a self-employed traveling salesman, earning a very good income. It was in line with his self-image that he was the sole breadwinner, securing his family a solid middle-class lifestyle. His family comprised his wife Hertha, née Angress, born on 30 Oct. 1904 in Neuheiduk, their two daughters Lilian and Ivonne Golde born in 1930 and 1933, and at least from 1934 to 1936, his sister Martha. She came from Berlin, lived with the family of her brother, and worked as a housekeeper. It was not possible to determined further details about her working life. In 1936, she left Hamburg. Probably she returned to Berlin, where her brother Erwin lived with his wife Ida, née Czermak, born on 15 Oct. 1899 in Skulsk. In 1938, Alfred Baumstein and his family emigrated to Montevideo.

Martha Baumstein was deported on 1 Mar 1943 from Berlin to Auschwitz, her brother Erwin and her sister-in-law Ida on 20 Jan. 1944. With that, the traces of their lives disappear.

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

© Hildegard Thevs

Quellen: 1; 4; 5; StaH, 351-11 AfW, 090601, 301004; 552-1 Jüdische Gemeinden, 391.
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