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© Renate Nottrott
Gretchen Susmann * 1885
Neumühlen 40 (Altona, Ottensen)
1941 Riga
Gretchen Susmann, born 2 July 1885, deported 6 Dec. 1941 to Riga, killed Mar. 1942
Neumühlen 40
Gretchen Susmann was the third daughter of the Hamburg couple Leopold Achilles and Fanny Susmann, née Polack, and had a brother by the name of Ludwig. She came from a Jewish family. She grew up on Bundesstraße in Hamburg-Eimsbüttel. From Oct. 1893 until Mar. 1900 she attended the Higher Girls’ School. Afterwards she began training as Kindergarten teacher at the Fröbel Seminar, the state-accredited school of the Fröbel Association on Bundesstraße. It is not known whether she finished the training or whether she worked in her field.
Until her father’s death in 1919 and the dissolution of his household, she lived on Bundesstraße as an unmarried daughter. In 1921 she moved to an apartment at Neumühlen 39 in Altona with her younger sister Gertrud Courmont, née Susmann, and her son, born in 1913. Her sister had been a widow since 1915. In 1930 her sister married the river pilot Peter Sander who lived next door. From then on, Gretchen Susmann lived together with her sister and her brother-in-law in the neighboring house at Neumühlen 40. River pilots and captains had traditionally settled with their families in the old houses of the street Neumühlen which ran directly along the Elbe – a beautiful location. Yet under the National-Socialist regime, the sisters could no longer enjoy unrestricted access to walks outside their front door: Jews were banned from walking on the beach along the shore of the River Elbe on the weekend.
Gretchen Susmann received her deportation order at the address Neumühlen 40 early in Dec. 1941. Her sister Gertrud was protected by her marriage to the "Aryan” Peter Sander. In the 1950s, Gertrud Sander wrote an account of her sister’s deportation which her granddaughter Renate Nottrott, née Courmont, received:
"On 5 Dec. 1941, Gretchen had to report in front of the lodge house on Moorweidenstraße, ready to go. She had a long list of items that she was allowed to take with her, a mattress and a wool blanket were also on the list. Frost salve, various pharmaceutical items. Tools, full gear. Food for the first few days. Everything had to be marked with her name. A specific weight was stipulated. She was allowed to take a book, she took our old schoolbook along to read. She had her things weighed at Fräulein Fiedler’s [the owner of the colonial goods store in Neumühlen]. It rained the day she left. I accompanied her on her last walk here, and we took turns carrying her backpack. Along the way we met Ruth and her husband [neighbors]. Ruth shook Gretchen’s hand. Dr. T. was clearly uncomfortable and spurred her on. We met young Martin Steinkopf. He gave us a friendly greeting. Back then G. had already been wearing the yellow star for weeks. We were not downhearted because we couldn’t imagine that this would be goodbye forever. Anna Metz [a cousin of Gretchen Susmann] had also arrived. Gretchen and I talked in front of the lodge house until one of the security police posted there quite rudely interrupted us and asked me in a threatening manner whether I wanted to go too. We shook hands, saying ‘chin up’. She had left her little white hairbrush behind. I went to the hairdresser on Grindelallee and bought a brush. I hurried back to the guard at the door and asked him to give the brush to Gretchen Susmann. Her number was 2144. He promised he would. If he did it, I never knew. The Steinhäusers, Bine and Ella, were also with her. The next day we received a card from her, written at Hamburg’s central train station. She wrote very optimistically and gaily that the food was great. The Jewish Community had taken care of it. It was very cosy. She was traveling with Mrs. Ehrlich. They wanted to play skat, but they couldn’t find the cards. That actually should have made us suspicious because I had put the cards in one of the outside pockets of her backpack, which she knew. That was the last sign of life from her. I have never heard from her since. But not a day has gone by in which I haven’t been asked about her by one person or another. I’m not exaggerating. She was so popular, and probably more and more trickled through as to what happened with the transports. Until the surrender I had the firm hope of seeing Gretchen again. Sometimes I said to Peter, he should perhaps captain a steamship to Riga, where the transport was meant to go, and I would go along with him. Klara [Clara Orphal, Gretchen Susmann’s older sister] immediately said at the time, ‘She’s never coming back.’ I was optimistic the whole time, only now I can’t comprehend how calm and indifferent I was back then. We learned of all the suffering from the war-crime trials. As soon as it was feasible, I got in touch with a Mrs. Pergamon, on Rothenbaumchaussee, who had also gone to Riga back then. She said she had worked diligently for the SS, and then it was possible for her to escape. I asked her about Gretchen and showed her her picture. She didn’t know her. I asked her about the journey, she said the journey had been bearable. It wasn’t until they arrived in Riga, at the camp ‘Jungfrauenhof’ [correction: Jungfernhof, B. G.] did they realize what was in store for them when the SS greeted them with rubber truncheons at 20 degrees below [-4° F].
She was not inclined to talk about it and just said, Gretchen was probably shot in Mar. 1942 […] near Dünamünde in Hochwald with machine guns. Time and again I have tried and tried, even today still, to find out something more about that transport. Always in vain. Did she die, where did she die, how did she die, who killed that wonderful, innocent human being with the cheerful heart?”
Apparently Gretchen Susmann had tried to leave Germany. A Swedish passport was found among her estate items in 1969. It had been procured for her but arrived in Hamburg too late. Thus she was taken on the Hamburg transport to Riga, to the manor Jungfernhof and presumably killed: On 26 Mar. 1942, 1,700 to 1,800 elderly and sick people and children with their mothers were taken away from Jungfernhof; allegedly to work. However in a forest near Riga, large pits had been dug. They were shot there.
Gretchen Susmann’s sister Melanie, two years her junior who was married to Max Johannsen, was deported to Auschwitz in 1944 and killed there. A Stolperstein has also been laid for her in Othmarschen.
In 1945 her sister Gertrud Sander received an order for "work deployment”, a code word for deportation to Theresienstadt which took place on 14 Feb. 1945. However her non-Jewish husband was able to prevent her forced deportation – which saved her life.
Her brother Ludwig Susmann survived the war.
Translator: Suzanne von Engelhardt
Kindly supported by the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung, Hamburg.
Stand: April 2018
© Birgit Gewehr
Quellen: 1; 4; 8; StaH 424-111 Amtsgericht Altona, 6131 (Todeserklärung); Informationen von Großnichte Renate Nottrott, geborene Courmont, und Großneffe Peter Courmont; Aufzeichnungen von Gertrud Sander, geb. Susmann, Privatbesitz Peter Courmont.
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