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Else Fanny Pels * 1898

Willistraße 1 (Hamburg-Nord, Winterhude)

1943 aus NL nach Sobibor

Else Fanny Pels, 1/17/1898 in Hamburg, deported to Sobibor 6/8/1943, date of death there 6/11/1943

Else Pels was born in Hamburg-Harvestehude at Hallerstrasse 45 / corner of Parkallee as the third child of the banker Mathias Pels (1856–1933) and his wife Mina (also: Minna), née Fürther (born 1866 in Scheinfeld near Würzburg). Her sisters Henriette, called Henny (born 1891) and Hedwig (born 1894) had been born at the family’s previous residence at Eichenallee 23.

The bank Mathias Pels & Co. in Grosse Bäckerstrasse in the center of Old Hamburg was liquidated in 1920; the same year, the family moved from Hansastrasse 64 to Isestrasse 39 (both in Harvestehude).

After her 21st birthday in 1919, Else Pels joined the German-Israelitic Community. Her father died in 1933; he was buried in the Jewish section of the Ohlsdorf cemetery. Financial problems probably caused Mina to move from their apartment in Isestrasse to Grindelberg 36. Schäferkampsallee 49 (?) and, from September 1st, 1936, Clärchenstrasse 16, 1st floor with Jonas, are further home addresses on record for Mina Pels.

To make some money, Else Pels decided to do housework for families she knew. From 1935 to 1939, she worked as a domestic servant. From February 1st, 1937, she was employed by Bernhard Stern, a widower, at Isestrasse 37. Stern owned a textile store specializing in linen and clothing, especially wedding dresses and baby clothes.

From October 1937, Else Pels and her mother lived as subtenants at Gryphiusstrasse 12, ground floor left, with Porges. In January 1939, Bernhard Stern died at the age of 72. Else Pels’ next job as a housemaid was with the Robinsohn family at Willistrasse 1, corner of Maria-Louisenstrasse. The Robinsohns owned the well-known clothing store Robinsohn at Neuer Wall / corner of Schleusenbrücke in the center of town. In November 1938, the junior manager Dr. jur. Hans Robinsohn (born 1897) emigrated to Copenhagen, followed in 1939 by his brother Walter J. Robinsohn, the assistant manager (born 1904); in August 1939, Max Michaelis Robinsohn (born 1862) went to Sweden.

Else Pels, who was single, emigrated to the Netherlands in May 1939, where her sister Henriette Jochems, seven years her elder, was living at Michelangelo Straat 105 in Amsterdam since 1920. Else’s mother Mina Pels had already moved to Amsterdam with two suitcases and two crates of china, glassware and ordinary cutlery to join Henriette. Else Pels lived at Tintorettostraat 39 in Amsterdam for four years. However, after Germany had occupied the Netherlands, Jewish immigrants were under Nazi rule again. Under a decree from the Reich commissioner for the Occupied Netherlands, all Jews in the country had to wear the yellow "Jews’ Star” from May 2nd, 1942.

Minna Pels; aged 77, was taken to the Dutch transit camp in Westerbork on April 17th, 1943 and deported to the Sobibor extermination camp in Poland ten days later. The Netherlands Red Cross gives April 30th, 1943 as the date of her death. On June 8th, 1943, Else Pels was also deported to Sobibor and murdered there by gas. According to the certificate of inheritance issued by the Hamburg district court in 1962, Else Pels died in Sobibor on June 11th, 1943.

Her sister Henriette Jochems was deported to Auschwitz together with her husband Isidorus in 1944, where they both died in the gas chamber on February 11th, 1944.
A Stumbling Stone for Minna Pels was laid at Isestrasse 39.

Translated by Peter Hubschmid
Kindly supported by the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung, Hamburg.

Stand: February 2018
© Björn Eggert

Quellen: 1; 3; 4; 5; www.joodsmonument.nl (eingesehen 8.2.2007); AfW 010865; Gräber-Kartei des Jüdischen Friedhofs Ohlsdorf; AB 1893, 1896, 1898, 1904, 1920, 1931, 1934; Amtl. Fernsprechbuch Hamburg 1895, 1901, 1909, 1914, 1920–1922; Andreas Klaus, Gewalt und Widerstand in Hamburg-Nord während der NS-Zeit, Hamburg 1986, S. 99f; Jürgen Sielemann, Aber seid alle beruhigt, Hamburg 2005, S. 115; Martin Gilbert, Endlösung – Die Vertreibung und Vernichtung der Juden, Reinbek bei Hamburg, 1982, S. 90, 160f.
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