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Minna Aron (née Levy) * 1879

Abteistraße 35 (Eimsbüttel, Harvestehude)

1941 Riga
ermordet

further stumbling stones in Abteistraße 35:
Edith Cahn, Hermann Glass

Minna Aron, née Levy, born 3.9.1879 in Altona-Ottensen, deported 6.12.1941 to Riga

Abteistraße 35 (Harvestehude)

Minna Levy was born in 1879 as the daughter of the cigar dealer Eduard Levy (born Sept 2, 1847 in Hamburg) and Elisabeth "Elise" Levy, née Gosch (1844-1912) from Oldesloe, in Ottensen at Arnoldstraße 4. Two and a half years after her, her sister Selma was born.

After the death of his wife in their shared apartment at Eppendorferweg 258 in September 1912, Eduard Levy moved in the same month to live with his daughter Minna at Bismarckstraße 90. From that time on he was listed as a member of the Jewish Community of Hamburg. He passed away in 1924.

Minna Levy, about whose childhood and youth we know nothing, married in August 1906 the commercial clerk Albert Aron (born Aug 3, 1877 in Hamburg), son of the Hamburg musician Meyer Aron (1854-1891). Albert Aron had lived with his parents at Schlachterstraße 7 III (Neustadt) and later, until his marriage, with his widowed mother Therese Aron, née Fränckel at Hoheluftchaussee 37.

The couple moved to Roonstraße 34 (Hoheluft-West) immediately after the marriage. Six months before the birth of their daughter Margot (1910), they moved to Eppendorferweg 260, I. floor (Hoheluft-Ost). The second daughter Ruth was born in 1912. A few days before her birth, the family had moved to Bismarckstraße 90 III. floor (Hoheluft-West). The upscale residential area can be seen from the stores on the first floor of this house: in addition to the cleaning store (cleaning goods for hats) of widow H. Leonhardt and the hairdresser's store of August Lüdemann, the confectionery with cafe and jam store of Fräulein L. Stelling, a branch of Colonialwaren Carl Schmitt and the delicatessen store of A.H.F. Bargfeld had rented space there. Among the tenants of the building were the cigar manufacturer Adolph Levy (1849-1929, owner of the company Heinrich Rosenberg Nachfolger) and the architect Ernst Dehmlow (1880-1945).

In the summer of 1914, foreign policy threats, mobilizations and declarations of war shook Europe. Albert Aron, who had been assigned to the Infantry Reserve after his military service in 1897, was also drafted and ordered to serve on the front. He died on July 16, 1916, as a soldier of Fusilier Regiment 90 in Aachen in Reserve Hospital 3.

His 36-year-old widow now had to care for herself and her two five- and three-year-old daughters alone. From the apartment at Bismarckstraße 90, she moved with the children and her 70-year-old father to Grindelallee 186 (Rotherbaum) in 1917/1918. Financially, she was not well off: since 1923 she had been exempt from the Jewish Community's cult tax. In 1926, her monthly war widow's pension amounted to 88.90 Reichsmark. The older daughter Margot nevertheless attended the private and religiously liberal Realschule für Mädchen (Lyceum) run by Dr. Jacob Loewenberg (1856-1929) at Johnsallee 33 until 1926.

In 1929 Minna Aron lived briefly at Hochallee 10 (Harvestehude), where the only other tenant was the editor of the newspaper "Konfektionär" and brother-in-law Paul Israel (born June 19, 1868 in Hamburg) with his wife Selma Israel, née Levy (born Febr 8, 1882 in Altona-Ottensen) and their three children Egon Simon, Ilse Elisabeth and Hans-Heinz Ludwig (according to the tax card of the Jewish community (Kultussteuerkartei), the family emigrated abroad in 1937). According to the Hamburg address book, Minna Aron lived at Abendrothweg 64 (Hoheluft-Ost) from 1931 to 1933 and at Hauersweg 10 (Winterhude) from 1934 to 1940.

Presumably, shortly after the discriminatory Nazi tenancy laws of April 30, 1939, she no longer lived in an apartment of her own, but only in a room as a subtenant with Jewish main tenants or spouses of a "privileged mixed marriage" according to Nazi racial criteria, such as in Hegestieg 12 (Eppendorf) with Leopold Müller (born Aug 1, 1891 in Altona, emigrated Aug 27, 1941 to the USA) and Marianne Müller, née Polack (born Oct 21, 1893 in Hamburg, deported Dec 6, 1941 to Riga) from January 1940.

Two months later she moved to Moltkestraße 19/Hoheluft-West, where her brother-in-law and representative Ludwig Aron (born Febr 26, 1879 in Hamburg) also lived on the first floor. Her last residence was at Abteistraße 35 (Harvestehude) with the house and estate broker Hermann Glass (born Nov 8, 1863) and his wife Martha Glass, née Stern (born Jan 31, 1878 in Mönchengladbach); Hermann Glass had been running his business since 1917 and had acquired this townhouse in 1932.

From her last accommodation Minna Aron was deported to Riga on December 6, 1941. The Hamburg transport did not make it to the ghetto, but was directed to the nearby Jungfernhof, a run-down estate. Already during the journey, some of the deportees died. The poor accommodations on the estate, the almost non-existent medical care and the low food rations soon led to a high mortality rate. In March 1942, a large number of the deportees were shot in the so-called Aktion Dünamünde.

When and under what circumstances Minna Aron died is not documented; she was subsequently declared dead on May 8, 1945.

What fate did the daughters suffer?
After finishing secondary school, Margot Aron had started working at the Ignatz Brinitzer glove and hosiery store (founded in 1899, Gutruf-Haus, Neuer Wall 10), which was run by Siegbert Brinitzer (1887-1928) in the second generation and had opened further branches at Mönckebergstraße 6, Steindamm 27 and Lübeckerstraße 121.

She left there in November 1930 to set up her own hosiery repair business together with colleague Eduard Kranz. But after the boycott of Jewish businesses organized by the Nazi state on April 1, 1933, they gave up their independent entrepreneurial activities. Unemployment followed. It was not until May 1935 that she succeeded in getting a temporary job at the wholesaler and factory for haberdashery, white goods, woolen goods, lingerie, aprons, perfumery, paper and toys L. Wagner (Elbstraße 70-84), whose owner Max Haag, however, dismissed her in the course of the "de-Jewification" of Hamburg's economy ordered by the Nazi state at the end of December 1937.

In October 1937, Margot married the commercial clerk Herbert Julius Bernstein (born Sept. 7, 1910 in Berlin-Treptow) son of the Jewish house inspector at the Tietz department store, Leopold Bernstein (born in 1877 in Berlin-Spandau, worked for Tietz in Hamburg from 1911-1933, emigrated in 1936, died in Brazil in 1939) and the Christian saleswoman Helene née Lehmann (1879-1957) from Berlin-Lichterfelde. Witnesses to the marriage were the merchant Ludwig Aron (born Febr 26, 1879) from Moltkestraße 19 and the brother-in-law and merchant Gerhard Bernstein (born Febr 11, 1905 in Klötze/Kreis Gardelegen) from Pappelallee 6.

Margot emigrated with her husband to the USA on October 7, 1938. She died there in October 1995 in the state of New Jersey. She was buried at BNai Israel Memorial Park in Pleasant Plains, Ocean County/New Jersey next to her husband Herbert Bernstein who died in 1979.

Minna's daughter Ruth Betsy Aron (born Feb 17, 1912 in Hamburg, Germany) was an independent member of the Jewish Community as of 1934, with "apprentice" on her record card. She married Erich Meier (born Sept 24, 1900 in Friedrichstadt/Eider) in July 1937. According to her sister, the couple emigrated to Romania in 1937 or 1938 and lived temporarily in Bucharest in the Hotel Egipt. No documents exist to prove that they were deported to a Romanian concentration camp and murdered - the couple is considered to have disappeared. Romania was probably not the destination of their emigration, but only a stopover on the way to Palestine.

Since 1938, Romania allowed ships from Vienna and Bratislava to pass through on the Danube to the Black Sea. From the Romanian Black Sea coast, ships carrying refugees sailed through the Sea of Marmara, the Dardanelles, the Aegean Sea and the eastern Mediterranean to Palestine. One obstacle, in addition to the Romanian right-wing nationalists who were by then aligned. At the beginning of September 1941 the family emigrated to Barcelona and in June 1943 to Philadelphia/USA, where a Hermann Korngold had given the necessary guarantee for them. An American organization for the support of Jewish emigration HIAS (Hebrew Sheltering & Immigrant Aid Society of America) advanced the travel expenses.

A stumbling block commemorates the house broker Hermann Glass (born November 8, 1863 in Stranowitz/Bohemia) in front of his home at Abteistraße 35 (Harvestehude). He had reopened a house brokerage firm four years later after the bankruptcy of his company in 1913. Since at least 1913 he had been a member of the Jewish Community in Hamburg and the liberal Temple Association.

Together with his wife and daughters Edith (born 1904) and Inge (born 1912) he lived at Isestraße 6, Beim Andreasbrunnen 5 and at Abteistraße 35. His house brokerage firm was deleted from the commercial register in March 1939. Hermann Glass was deported to Theresienstadt on July 19, 1942, together with his wife Martha Glass, and died there on January 19, 1943. Martha Glass, née Stern (born Jan 31, 1878 in Mönchengladbach) survived the Holocaust and later emigrated to the USA.

Translation by Beate Meyer
Stand: January 2022
© Björn Eggert

Quellen: Staatsarchiv Hamburg (StaH) 231-7 (Handelsregister), B 1981-153 Band 1 und Band 2 (Brinitzer); StaH 332-5 (Standesämter), 1910 u. 3593/1877 (Geburtsregister 1877, Albert Aron); StaH 332-5 (Standesämter) 1952 u. 1074/1879 (Geburtsregister 1879, Ludwig Aron); StaH 332-5 (Standesämter), 6152 u. 504/1879 (Geburtsregister Ottensen 1879 Minna Levy); StaH 332-5 (Standesämter), 6155 u. 104/1882 (Geburtsregister Ottensen 1882, Selma Levy); StaH 332-5 (Standesämter), 295 u. 1003/1891 (Sterberegister 1891, Meyer Aron); StaH 332-5 (Standesämter) 9522 u. 321/1906 (Heiratsregister 1906, Minna Levy und Albert Aron); StaH 332-5 (Standesämter), 9715 u. 2667/1912 (Sterberegister 1912, Elise Levy geb. Gosch); StaH 332-8 (Meldewesen, Alte Einwohnermeldekartei 1892-1925), Albert Aron; StaH 342-2 (Militär-Ersatzbehörden), D II 87 Band 1 (Albert Aron); StaH 351-11 (Amt für Wiedergutmachung), 4241 (Minna Aron geb. Levy); StaH 351-11 (AfW), 36194 (Margot Bernstein geb. Aron); StaH 351-11 (AfW), 37497 (Ruth Meier geb. Aron); StaH 351-11 (AfW), 4420 (Ludwig Aron); StaH 351-11 (AfW), 4372 (Helene Bernstein); StaH 351-11 (AfW), 29483 (Gerhard Bernstein); StaH 351-11 (AfW), 3922 (Martha Glass); StaH 522-1 (Jüdische Gemeinden), 992b (Kultussteuerkartei der Deutsch-Israelitischen Gemeinde Hamburg) Albert u. Minna Aron, Ruth Aron, Ludwig Aron, Siegbert Brinitzer, Hermann Glass, Paul Israel, Ad. Levy, Eduard Levy, Leopold Müller; Sonderarchiv Moskau, Signatur 500-1-659, SD-Oberabschnitt Nordwest, Liste einflußreicher und vermögender Juden, Blatt 56–58 (Nr. 17 Hermann Glass); Jüdischer Friedhof Hamburg-Ohlsdorf, Gräberkartei im Internet (Grablage B 12-150 Albert Aron); Handelskammer Hamburg, Handelsregisterinformationen (Hermann Glass, HR A 19630); Ulrich Bauche (Hrsg.), Vierhundert Jahre Juden in Hamburg (Ausstellungskatalog), Hamburg 1991, S. 327, 338–339 (Jakob Loewenberg); Martin Gilbert, Endlösung. Die Vertreibung und Vernichtung der Juden. Ein Atlas, Reinbek bei Hamburg 1982, S. 54, 72–73, 87 (Deportationen in Rumänien); Heimat und Exil, Emigration der deutschen Juden nach 1933 (Ausstellungskatalog), Frankfurt/ Main 2006, S. 54 (Exilland Rumänien); Bernhard Press, Judenmord in Lettland 1941–1945, Berlin 1988, S. 96–97, 111–112, 121, 122; Martha Glass, "Jeder Tag in Theresin ist ein Geschenk". Die Theresienstädter Tagebücher einer Hamburger Jüdin 1943–1945, Hamburg 1996; Reichsbund jüdischer Frontsoldaten, Ein Gedenkbuch. Die jüdischen Gefallenen des deutschen Heeres, der deutschen Marine und der deutschen Schutztruppen 1914–1918, Hamburg 1932, S. 369 (Albert Aron, 13/Füs. R. 90); Staatsarchiv Hamburg, Gedenkbuch, Opfer der Verfolgung der Juden …, Hamburg 1995, S. 11; Hamburger Börsenfirmen, Hamburg 1910, S. 554 (Heinrich Rosenberg Nachfolge); Hamburger Adressbuch 1909–1914, 1916–1919, 1924, 1927–1929, 1931–1935, 1937, 1939, 1940; Hamburger Adressbuch (Straßenverzeichnis Neuer Wall 10) 1932, 1934–1936, 1938–1940; Hamburger Telefonbuch (Konfektionär) 1920 (Vertreter Paul Israel, Neuer Wall 70–74, Zi.41), 1931 (Vertreter Paul Israel, Woldsenweg 3); www.ancestry.de (Sterbeindex der US-Sozialversicherung; Grave-Index USA, jeweils Margot Bernstein geb. Aron).