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Fritz Edelstein * 1901

Amandastraße 76/78 (Eimsbüttel, Eimsbüttel)

HIER WOHNTE
FRITZ EDELSTEIN
JG. 1901
VERHAFTET 1938
KZ FUHLSBÜTTEL
1938 KZ DACHAU
ERMORDET 28.2.1941
KZ BUCHENWALD

Fritz Edelstein, born on 25 May 1901 in Hamburg, imprisoned from 9 Apr. 1938 to 22 Sept. 1938 in the Dachau concentration camp, deported to the Buchenwald concentration camp and killed there on 28 Feb. 1941

Amandastrasse 76/78

Fritz Edelstein was born on 25 May 1901 in Hamburg. The Jewish religious tax (Kultussteuer) card file of the German-Israelitic Community provides no information about his parents; it only notes that Fritz Edelstein became a member of the Jewish Community on 24 July 1928. The clue regarding his parents is contained in the preserved registration card of the Hamburg penal institutions. According to this, his father, Hermann Edelstein, and his mother, Rosin Edelstein, née Süsskind, had already died by the time he was subjected to persecution by the Hamburg judiciary in 1937; there was one sibling – without a name being recorded, however. What the significance was of "Miss Lotte Strelitz (Hartungstrasse 1 b/Heinemann)” who according to the entry on the registration card "was to be notified in case of emergency” can no longer be ascertained. Perhaps the two were engaged. According to the Jewish religious tax card file, she was – born on 2 May 1908 – the daughter of Emil Strelitz (merchant at Grosser Burstah 7) and his wife Ida, née Weinthal.

Fritz Edelstein was single and a postal worker by occupation. The registration form of the Hamburg pretrial detention facility lists him as a gardener; this means that in the period leading up to his arrest he had not been practiced his original profession any longer. Maybe he had lost his job at the post office after the Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service (Gesetz zur Wiederherstellung des Berufsbeamtentums) dated 7 Apr. 1933 came into effect. Fritz Edelstein had been assessed to pay taxes to the Jewish religious community for the first time for the period 1932/33 – he had become of age that year. In subsequent years, however, he had no income anymore and thus did not pay any Jewish religious tax, from 1935 onward expressly with the note that he was "unemployed.”

His residential addresses changed from Feldstrasse 28 to Valentinskamp 83, later to Osterstrasse 5, Amandastrasse 78 (here with J. Blume), and Lindenallee 5. These were subtenant agreements throughout. The registration card of the Hamburg penal institutions listed as his last "regular residence” Valentinskamp 82/ third floor (with Kaiser).

In 1936, he was in pretrial detention because of "racial defilement” ("Rassenschande”). The Hamburg press published a brief note on the trial. According to it, he was accused of having sexual contact with a prostitute: "This type of sexual intercourse with an Aryan woman, even if she is a prostitute [Kontrollmädchen, literally, a "controlled girl”], is also subject to the ban under the Nuremberg laws [on race],” read the Hamburger Anzeiger dated 23 Feb. 1937. He had been observed while establishing contact to the prostitutes. On 27 Feb. 1937, the trial (11 Js 1458/36) began before the Hamburg Regional Court (Landgericht). The sentence was one year and six months in prison, with the pretrial detention calculated against the prison term, which meant the period left for him to serve extended from 2 to 19 Mar. 1938 – but Fritz Edelstein was never released, for he was placed in "protective custody” ("Schutzhaft”) in the Fuhlsbüttel concentration camp from 21 to 31 Mar 1938.

From Fuhlsbüttel, Fritz Edelstein was transferred to the Dachau concentration camp and from there to the Buchenwald concentration camp. Under the date of 28 Feb. 1941, the Jewish religious tax file card of the German-Israelitic Community indicates as a note "death in Buchenwald.”

The urn containing the ashes of Fritz Edelstein, who had perished in the Buchenwald concentration camp, was buried in the Ohlsdorf Cemetery.

Translator: Erwin Fink
Kindly supported by the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung, Hamburg.

© Peter Offenborn

Quellen: 1; 4; 5; StAH 213-8 Staatsanwaltschaft Oberlandesgericht - Verwaltung Abl. 2, 451aE1,1b; StAH 242-1 II Gefängnisverwaltung II, Abl. 13 (ältere Kartei) und Abl. 16; Ab.; Interview Christel Riecke/Max Plaut, IGJ Archiv 14-001.2; Interview Josef Walk/Max Plaut IGJ Archiv 14-001.3.
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