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Jacob Boldes * 1887

Neuer Steinweg 20 (Hamburg-Mitte, Neustadt)

HIER WOHNTE
JACOB BOLDES
JG. 1887
DEPORTIERT 1941
ERMORDET IN
MINSK

further stumbling stones in Neuer Steinweg 20:
Clara Boldes, Margarethe Ruth Goldstein, Ernst Lissauer, Fanny Salomon, Rosa Salomon

Clara Else Boldes, née Goldstein, b. 12.29.1882 in Görlitz, deported on 11.8.1941 to Minsk
Jacob Boldes, b. 1.15.1887 in Glogau, deported on 11.8.1941 to Minsk
Margarethe Ruth Goldstein, b. 6.14.1909 in Breslau, deported on 10.25.1941 to Lodz, deported again on 5.23.1942, probably to the Chelmno (Kulmhof) extermination camp

Neuer Steinweg 20 (Neuer Steinweg 78)

Jacob Boldes was born the son of Louis Boldes and his wife Rike/Ritta, née Kunz, in Silesian Glogau (today Głogów). Jacob’s wife Clara Else, née Goldstein, came from Görlitz on the left bank of the Neisse River. Her parents were Isidor Goldstein and Bianca, née Kretschmer. In 1915, when the couple married in Brieg (today Brzeg) near Breslau (now Wrocław, Poland), Clara brought her 6-year old daughter Margarethe Ruth into the marriage. Margarethe was born on 14 June 1909 in Breslau, then part of Lower Silesia, and after her mother’s marriage received the birth name of Goldstein.

The Boldes couple lived in Breslau as sub-lessees at Bahnhofstrasse 9. They were market dealers, traveling traders. Jacob Boldes could no longer pursue his original profession as an actor and artist because he had received a head wound and was gassed while serving as a reserve soldier in the First World War.

Clara Boldes came to Hamburg around 1924 with Margarethe. At first they lived in a pension in the St. Georg district. Jacob was still on his travels in Rügen and Stettin. When he got to Hamburg, he initially found lodgings in the Daniel-Wormser-Haus, at Westerstrasse 27, in the southern part of St. Georg, until the family reunited as sub-lessees in the former Gängeviertel of the New City, at Bäckerbreitergang 39. Their hope of acquiring a stall at the Hamburg Dom market did not come to fruition. The plan to visit the markets in close proximity to Hamburg with a wheel of fortune, fancy goods, and toys also was not realized. Their earnings did not suffice for a solid livelihood. In order to contribute to the family income, Margarethe took a sales job in a fruit and vegetable store. In 1927, they lived in one room at Glashüttenstrasse 110. It was there, on 8 August 1927, that an accident happened. To get a look at a firetruck, Margarethe leaned too far over the balcony railing, fell from the second floor to the street, and broke her pelvis. After her convalescence and a six week stay at a health spa in Lüneburg, Margarethe joined her parents on their travels. They were in Sorau (today Żary) and in Guben (today Gubin) in Lower Lusatia, Brandenburg, running a gambling booth in markets and amusement parks. From 1929, they lived at the former Schlachterstrasse 34-36, House 3.

Jacob and Clara registered then as street dealers in fancy goods and accessories on Elbstrasse (today Neanderstrasse) and on the Strasse Kohlhöfen. The competition in the traditional flea markets there, called in common parlance the "the stock market of the Jews,” was intense; moreover, because the other dealers knew Clara Boldes’ husband was also a dealer, they hassled her as a "double-dealer.” Jacob was now and again on the road and worked seasonally as a carnie at the Hamburg Dom grounds and in Neumünster at the annual market.

In 1935, he, as a "non-Aryan," was not admitted to a village market near Magdeburg. Part of the 170 plus miles back to Hamburg he had to do on foot. Shortly before Christmas 1936, Jacob was again on the road, this time with the owner of a shooting gallery. In early 1937, he traded in notions which he hawked in Hamburg inns. In April of that year, the couple moved into a rent-free apartment on the ground floor of the Lazarus-Samson-Cohen-Eheleute and Levy-Hertz-Eheleute Foundation at Neuer Steinweg 78, House 9. Margarethe moved into her own apartment on the second floor. Following a control visit by the Welfare Office in June 1938, a notation in the report, reveals the antisemitic attitude of the case worker: "The cramped little apartment in the Foundation was, by Jewish standards, quite clean; also, G.[oldstein] is relatively quite properly dressed.” Margarethe Goldstein and her finance had moved to Moscow in July 1932. After an attack of spotted typhus and with serious arthritis of the knee she was expelled from there and returned alone to Hamburg. She was treated in the Israelite Hospital until May 1934 and remained unable to work immediately thereafter.

Jacob Boldes on the road again, for the last time, as a dealer in Rostock. On 11 November 1938, he was forced to surrender his license. Jewish peddlers could no longer belong to the "Reich Association of Ambulatory Traders”; they no longer received permission to work at markets or trade shows. Afterwards, he worked with his stepdaughter, Margarethe, as a sales representative for a grocery firm.

Clara Boldes had run a stand selling pelts and woolen goods at Heidenkampsweg in St. Georg. Finally, she put together a stand at Billhorner Röhrendamm that was not profitable. She then worked as a packer until she was fired because of her Jewish origins. Jacob had to do public relief work in Wohlershof in Harsefeld. Later he had to do forced labor as a ditch digger in Otterndorf.

On 25 October 1941, listed with the profession of "serving girl” and her address as Schlachterstrasse 40-42, Margarethe Goldstein was on the first Hamburg transport to the Litzmannstadt (Lodz) ghetto; according to the deportation list she had reported "voluntarily.” In the ghetto, Margarethe was put to work as a seamstress. Until 23 May 1942, she lived at Altmarkt 4, then was entered as "de-registered.” Presumably, she had received the order for "resettlement” to the nearby Chelmno/Kulmhof extermination camp.

Clara and Jacob Boldes were deported on 8 November 1941 from the Hanover Railroad Station to the Minsk ghetto, whereupon all trace of them was lost

Translator: Richard Levy
Kindly supported by the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung, Hamburg.

Stand: April 2020
© Susanne Rosendahl

Quellen: 1; 4; 9; StaH 351-14 Arbeits- und Sozialfürsorge 1023 (Boldes, Jacob); StaH 522-1 Jüdische Gemeinde Nr. 992 e 2 Band 1; StaH 522-1 Jüdische Gemeinde Nr. 992 e 2 Band 2; United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust Survivor and Victim Catalog, http://www.ushmm.org/online/hsv/person_view.php?PersonId=1860668 (Zugriff 27.1.2014).
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