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Sophie Sterrn * 1870

Schillerstraße 13 (Altona, Altona-Altstadt)

HIER WOHNTE
SOPHIE STERRN
JG. 1870
DEPORTIERT 1942
THERESIENSTADT
1942 TREBLINKA
ERMORDET

further stumbling stones in Schillerstraße 13:
Marianne Sterrn

Sophie Sterrn, born May 21st, 1870 in Altona, deported to Theresienstadt July 15th, 1942, deported to Treblinka September 23rd, 1942, murdered.

Marianne Sterrn, born May 7th, 1875 in Altona, deported to Theresienstadt July 15th, 1942, deported to Treblinka September 23rd, 1942, murdered.

Schillerstraße 13

Sophie and Marianne were sisters from a large Jewish family in Altona. Their parents, the merchant and accountant Mendel Sterrn, born 1827 and Henriette /Jette née Italiener, born 1837, had already been born in Altona. They were married in 1864 and had seven children: Jenny (*1867), Sophie (*1870), Cäcilie (*1872), Adolph (*1873), Marianne (*1875), Selly/Selma (*1877) and Helene (*1879). (Helene, the youngest one, died already one month after birth.)

Mendel, the head of the family died in 1882 and left Jette behind with six children, the oldest of them being just 15 years old. The family lodged at Struenseestraße (former kleine Mühlenstraße).
We don’t know if father Mendel left anything of substance to his family. However - in his death certificate and many other family documents a certain Rudolf Italiener is mentioned, probably a brother of Jette. This Rudolf Italiener seems to have been quite well off - he was post-master, had a coach business and owned several pieces of property at Palmaille and Sägemühlenstraße (former Röperstraße). He might have supported his widowed sister and her family.

By and by the children went their own way:

The oldest, Jenny, travelled to New York City when she was 20 years old. She reached the US on board the HAPAG-steamer Moravia in June 1888. There she married Antony Pontecorvo in 1890. They had three children together. In April 1918 she died, aged 51 and living in the Bronx.

Some years later, the only son of the family, Adolph, followed her lead. He reached New York City in March 1901 on board the Batavia. His draft card for World War I shows him working as a waiter in Brighton Bach. He and his wife Rose (of russian origin) had four children. He died in 1932 aged 58 in New York City.

Cäcilie, who had graduated from the Klosterschule St. Johannis, took the teacher’s exam in 1892 and was a teacher at the Israelitische Gemeindeschule in Altona from 1893.

Sophie worked as a "needlework teacher" since 1895, as is noted in the Altona address-register.
What kind of profession Marianne chose is unknown. But she worked, because she paid her own religious taxes (Kultussteuer) and in her later years is qualified as "pensioner".

Selly /Selma was called "accountant" in her marriage certificate, so there is a presumtion that she worked in this profession, too. She was the next to leave the family: in 1906 she married Friedrich Krenz from Stavenhagen. This man was 22 years her senior, a non-jewish widower with four children, who worked for the railway in the administration as "Rechnungsrat".

From 1907 on Jette Sterrn lived with the three remaining daughters on Kirchenstraße and moved in 1911 to Schillerstraße 13 (former Mathildenstraße 23, 1. floor). Probably this was a step up the social ladder into a new "Gründerzeithaus" from the old narrow and cramped historic Center of Altona, which was demolished soon thereafter.

In 1916 Jette Sterrn died and the sisters Cäcilie, Sophie and Marianne continued to live at Schillerstraße for many years.

Selly and her family lived on Riemenschneiderstieg 4 (former Emmichstraße) in Bahrenfeld, a house in the so called Steenkampsiedlung. When Friedrich died in 1931, he left the house to her.
In June 1930, Cäcilie had died, too. Sophie and Marianne stayed at Schillerstraße for some more years.

But in 1933, they left this apartment and moved to the Leja-Stift at Thadenstraße 120 (former Große Gärtnerstraße). The Leja-Stift was founded in 1869, by Benjamin Leja. It offered housing mainly to "respectable" elderly women, who did not rely on charity and could pay for their daily needs themselves. Two thirds of the 43 rooms were to be given to Christians, one third to Jews. In 1934 Sophie was 64 years old and Marianne 59. The move to the Leja-Stift might have been part of their original plan for their old age, especially as the old flat, where they used to live with four people, might have become too big and expensive for them. But in fact we don’t know anything about their motivation.

Their widowed sister Selly continued to live in the 4 1/2 bedroom house in the Steenkampsiedlung. She was on her own by now and found it increasingly difficult to take care of the house and the garden because of her bad health. In her first will 1937 she had dedicated the house in the case of her death to her sisters. But later in 1937 she moved to Hamburg and let the house. In Hamburg she stayed in several homes in the "Grindelviertel". This and the fact that her annual taxes to the Jewish community neared 20 RM indicate, that her financial means were still sufficient at that time.

Her "privileged" mixed marriage, according to Nazi terminology, to Friedrich Krenz allowed her to transfer property to non-Jewish relatives. Thus, in November 1938, Selly Krenz sold the house to her "Aryan" stepson Walter Krenz. According to a later testimony of an old school friend of Selly’s, Walter supported her and her sisters Sophie and Marianne financially during the following years.

In 1939 Sophie and Marianne had to leave the Leja-Stift and move to the John R. Warburg Stift at Bundesstraße 43, one of the subsequent "Jew-houses". The reason for this was that the authorities in Hamburg wanted to separate the Jews from the other inhabitants and also get their hands on Jewish-owned houses. Therefore they forced those foundations which donated to Jews and Christians alike to change their regulations so Jews could no longer be beneficiaries. The Jews among the inhabitants were crammed to only three of the many "Wohnstifte" in Hamburg, one of them being the John R. Warburg Stift.

Selly Sterrn died November 28th, 1941 at the Jewish hospital (Johnsallee 54). Her sister Marianne was the one to report the fatality.

On July 15th 1942, Sophie and Marianne together with 923 more Jewish citizens of Hamburg were carried off to Theresienstadt (Transport VI/1).

On September 1942 they were deported from there to Treblinka (Transport Bq), where they were murdered.

Stand: June 2021
© Carola von Paczensky

Quellen : 1; 2; 5; StaH 332-5 Standesämter, 5168 (Eintrag Nr. 540), 5313 (Eintrag Nr. 124), 5962 (Eintrag Nr. 203), 6197 (Eintrag Nr. 1770), 6208 (Eintrag Nr. 2503), 8174 (Eintrag Nr. 400); StaH 332-8 Meldewesen, A 34/1 (Alphabetische Meldekartei von Groß-Altona = 741-4 Fotoarchiv, K 4561); A 51/1 (Hamburger Hausmeldekartei - 741-4 Fotoarchiv K 2440); StaH 424-4 Personalakten Altona, St 135 (Sterrn, Cäcilie); StaH 213-13 Landgericht Hamburg Rückerstattungssachen 2341 (Krenz); www.ancestry.de (Moritz 1 family tree; Passagierlisten; www.holocaust.cz/de/Opferdatenbank; https://collections.arolsen-archives.org Kartei des Ghetto Theresienstadt (sämtlich letzter Abruf 17.05.2021); Lorenz/Berkemann, Die Hamburger Juden im NS-Staat 1933 bis 1938/39, Band VI Dokumente (S.572 - 575); Hamburger und Altonaer Adressbücher 1882 bis 1934; Beate Meyer, "Jüdische Mischlinge" - Rassenpolitik und Verfolgungserfahrung 1933-1945, Hamburg 1999. Zur Nummerierung häufig genutzter Quellen siehe Link "Recherche und Quellen".