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Ljuba Androssowa * 1913

Billbrookdeich 152 (Hamburg-Mitte, Billbrook)

HIER ARBEITETE
LJUBA ANDROSSOWA
JG. 1913
RUSSLAND
ZWANGSARBEIT 1943
EINGEWIESEN 22.6.1943
HEILANSTALT LANGENHORN
"VERLEGT" 19.8.1943
HEILANSTALT
MESERITZ-ORBAWALDE
ERMORDET 25.11.1943

Lyuba Androssova, born 15.9.1913 in Taganrog/Rostow, on 22.6.1943 admitted to Langenhorn Sanatorium and Nursing Home, on 19.8.1943 transferred to Meseritz-Obrawalde, death there 25.11.1943

Billbrookdeich 152 (formerly: Billbrookdeich 49)

Ljuba Androssowa (pronounced Andróssawa) came to Hamburg as a forced laborer at the age of 29. She had been born on Sept 15, 1913 as the daughter of Pawel and Anastasija Androssow in Taganrog near Rostow in the former Soviet Union. She had apparently worked as a telephone operator and, according to her own statements, was married, but kept her maiden name.

On May 28, 1943, she and 24 other female Eastern workers were assigned to the J.H.C. Karstadt company in Hamburg-Billbrook, where four forced laborers and four female forced laborers from other European countries were already employed at the time. The company was a long-established dyeing, laundry and dry-cleaning business that had been "Aryanized" on May 20, 1939 by transferring its shares to Hermann Friedrich Schneider from Pinneberg. The expropriated owner, Theodor Tuch (see www.stolpersteine-hamburg.de), had been deported to Theresienstadt on July 19, 1942, together with his wife Clara, née Levie, and two months later to the Treblinka extermination camp.

On the company premises at Billbrookdeich 49, there was a camp for forced laborers with the designation "Russian camp Hamburg 48, Billbrookdeich 49". (It was dissolved with the release of the remaining forced laborers on May 1, 1945).

Lyuba Androssowa fell ill with depression, which necessitated an inpatient stay at the Langenhorn sanatorium and nursing home. The physician J. Wehnert from Hohenfelde, Steinhauerdamm 13, admitted her there, and on June 22, 1943, she was admitted to the II Women's Ward under the direction of Prof. Dr. Heinrich and housed in house 9 on the women's side of the institution.

An interpreter assisted in taking the medical history. According to the protocol, Lyuba Androssowa gave "orderly information," named her profession, and stated that she had been mentally ill once before in Russia. She made a depressive impression on admission, but at the same time was restless and even attacked nurses. In the following three days she became calmer, participated in meals as a matter of course, but remained dismissive.

Lyuba Androssowa was examined for syphilis on two occasions without a clear result, whether routinely or due to signs of illness is not clear from the file.

Eight weeks after her admission to the Heil- und Pflegeanstalt Langenhorn, on August 19, 1943, Lyuba Androssowa was transferred to the Heil- und Pflegeanstalt Meseritz "due to air raids." From July 25 to August 3, 1943, Hamburg had experienced the heaviest attacks of the war by the Allied air force with devastating consequences for the civilian population.
The sanatorium Meseritz-Obrawalde in Pomerania was a psychiatric institution that had been put into the service of "euthanasia". Sick people from the German Reich territory and from the occupied and annexed territories were transferred there and murdered until the Red Army liberated the area. With a transport of 57 people, 39 women and 18 men, Lyuba Androssowa arrived there on August 20, 1943. Two and a half weeks after her arrival, on September 6, 1943, her medical records stated that she was depressed, cried a lot, spoke little, but understood some German.

Two days later, Lyuba Androssowa was questioned through an interpreter by a nurse named Hinz. She gave only little information, answering most of the questions with "I don't know". When asked about her age, she stated "22 years", thus did not know her date of birth or did not want to state it. Whether she answered the question about her occupation correctly cannot be verified. She stated that she had worked as a telegrapher in Bannovsky (on Donetsk in today's Ukraine). As it was written in her papers, she confirmed that she was married and added that she had no children. She did not know where her husband was. She answered why she was here with "they told me to work here", but she did not know what for. When asked why she had come to Hamburg, she answered "to go there alone". When asked why she had come to Hamburg alone, she answered "I don't know". She did not answer the question whether she had already been in an institution in Russia. She had sat there quietly. She was clean, but complained.

Nothing is known about the following two months. On November 7, 1943, "restlessness" was noted and the transfer to house 9 was ordered.

There Lyuba Androssowa died on November 25, 1943, allegedly of pneumonia.

Translation by Beate Meyer
Stand: January 2022
© Hildegard Thevs

Quellen: StaH 352-8/Staatskrankenanstalt Langenhorn, Abl. 1995/1, 31745; IST Digital Archive Bad Arolsen, 2.1.2.1. / 70644712, Liste zwangsbeschäftigter Personen bei J.H.C. Karstadt, 2.1.2.1. / 70790202, Liste von verstorbenen russischen Zwangsarbeitern aus Hamburg; Friederike Littmann, interaktive Karte Zwangsarbeit in der deutschen Kriegswirtschaft, darin Quellenangabe Archiv der Handelskammer 94. C. 480, 1.4.44 und 1.4.45; Bauche/Thevs, Theodor und Clara Tuch, Stolpersteine in Hamburg-Billstedt; Wunder, Michael, Die Transporte in die Heil- und Pflegeanstalt Meseritz-Obrawalde, in: Peter von Rönn et. al.: Wege in den Tod, Hamburg 1993; Pietsch, Ursula, Stolpersteine Walddörfer; Stolpersteine in Billstedt/Billbrook; Kümmerly+Frey, Internationaler Atlas, 1969; freundliche Mitteilung von Oleg Plekhov, E-Mail 9.6.2015.