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Hanna Hirsch (née Levy) * 1863

Kurzer Kamp 6 Altenheim (Hamburg-Nord, Fuhlsbüttel)

1942 Theresienstadt
tot 9.4.1943

further stumbling stones in Kurzer Kamp 6 Altenheim:
Dr. Julius Adam, Johanna Hinda Appel, Sara Bromberger, Therese Bromberger, Friederike Davidsohn, Margarethe Davidsohn, Gertrud Embden, Katharina Embden, Katharina Falk, Auguste Friedburg, Jenny Friedemann, Mary Halberstadt, Käthe Heckscher, Emily Heckscher, Betty Hirsch, Regina Hirschfeld, Clara Horneburg, Anita Horneburg, Emma Israel, Jenny Koopmann, Franziska Koopmann, Martha Kurzynski, Laura Levy, Chaile Charlotte Lippstadt, Isidor Mendelsohn, Balbine Meyer, Helene Adele Meyer, Ida Meyer, Ella Rosa Nauen, Celine Reincke, Friederike Rothenburg, Benny Salomon, Elsa Salomon, Martha Rosa Schlesinger, Louis Stiefel, Sophie Stiefel, Louise Strelitz, Eugenie Hanna Zimmermann

Hanna Hirsch, née Levy, born 25.12.1863 in Altona, deported 19.7.1942 to Theresienstadt, perished there 9.4.1943

Kurzer Kamp 6, Old People's Home (Hamburg-North, Fuhlsbüttel), designated 1939 a "Judenstift"

Hanna Levy was born on December 25, 1863 in Altona, on the birthday of her father, Jacob Salomon Levy. German federal troops had entered Altona that Christmas to put an end to the Danish administration, but this was not to be finally achieved until the following year. Jacob Salomon Levy (born 25.12.1822 in Hamburg) was the son of Rieke, née Wagner, and Levy Salomon, married since 1825. Hanna grew up with her father and her mother Renette, née Wiener (born 10.11.1823 in Altona), where her parents had married. Hanna's mother, daughter of Hannchen, née Ashkenasi, and Joel Wiener, had grown up in Altona. Hanna's great-grandparents were already rooted there. These, her maternal great-grandparents, Breindel, née Spanier, and Joel David Ashkenasi, indicate with their names a connection between Ashkenazi and Sephardic Jews. The family belonged to the High German Israelite community of Altona. Hanna's father, together with his brother Joseph Salomon Levy, ran a "furniture and upholstery store with bed feathers and down" in Ottensen, at Lindenstraße 38/40 and Flottbekstraße 19.

Hanna Levy (also Salomon) married the merchant Salomon Hirsch in Altona on May 5, 1883 at the age of 20. He came from Flensburg and was born on June 28, 1852 as the son of Pinne, née Hasenberg, and the merchant Jacob Salomon Hirsch. Hanna and Salomon Hirsch both belonged to the High German Israelite Community of Altona. In the marriage certificate there is a note that Hanna's surname was Levy and not Salomon. Hanna's husband Salomon Hirsch ran trading businesses in Santiago de Chile. After her marriage, Hanna followed him there. A year later, their first child, son Paul, was born in Santiago on April 8, 1884. Their daughter Margarita was also born there three years later, on 12 March 1887. The young family returned to Hamburg for some time. On December 30, 1888, Hanna Hirsch and her husband, together with five-year-old Paul and one-and-a-half-year-old Margarita, set sail once more from the port of Hamburg to reach Valparaiso, Chile, in a first-class cabin on the steamship Abydos. Her 60-year-old "servant" Christina Rohde accompanied her. Six months later, daughter Erna (born June 30, 1889) was born in Santiago.

Shortly after the end of the cholera epidemic in Hamburg, Hanna Hirsch and her family returned to the Hanseatic city from Santiago de Chile. They moved into the villa at Oberstraße 86 in October 1892. A year and a half later, they returned to Valparaiso on 13 May 1894, on the same Deutsche Schiffahrts-Gesellschaft steamship. The 30-year-old "Johanna" Hirsch travelled with the two younger children, the seven-year-old Margarita and the four-year-old Erna, accompanied by the maid Ida Behnke. Salomon Hirsch had probably already travelled ahead with their son Paul.
The frequent travelling back and forth ended two years later in September 1896. Hanna Hirsch, her husband and their three children returned to Hamburg. First they lived for a few days at Esplanade 29 with Salomon Levy & Sohn, Hanna's parents, then for a month at the Central Hotel in St. Pauli, Average 68, and then at Parkallee 13. Finally they moved back to Oberstraße 86; Salomon Hirsch became the owner of this villa. In the meantime, as a Prussian citizen, he had applied for admission to the Hamburg Senate. On 28 August 1897 this was granted and he, and thus also his wife Hanna and their children, were issued the Hamburg citizenship certificate. In October 1897, he received permission from the Hamburg Senate to use the additional name "Santiago", which he had applied for.

Hanna Hirsch gave birth to her fourth child, her daughter Maria Luisa, at Oberstraße 86 in the spring of March 31, 1898, at 7:30 in the morning. On Maria Luisa's birth certificate, her mother's religious affiliation is entered as "Jewish" and her father Salomon Santiago Hirsch's as "Lutheran". The following year, Hanna's husband founded the company "Santiago Hirsch" with a branch in Santiago de Chile. Alfredo Delmonte was given power of attorney.

On May 16, 1907, Hanna's father Jacob Salomon (Levy) died at the age of 84. He had been out that morning and was found dead at the paddock in front of house 80. He was laid to rest at the Bornkampsweg Jewish Cemetery. Hanna's daughter Margarita Hirsch married the non-Jewish lawyer Dr. jur. Gustav Oldenburg in August of the same year. They both lived together afterwards at Rothenbaumchaussee 118. In their marriage certificate, her mother Hanna Hirsch, née Levy, is listed as "Juana née Salomon". Margarita's son Geert Oldenburg was born the following year.

In the years 1910 to 1913, the Hamburg office of the company "Santiago Hirsch", trading in fashion, short, Dutch, gallantry, leather, tapestry and music goods, was located at Pickhuben 9, ground floor, Block 6.

On 10 November 1913, a tragedy occurred in the life of Hanna Hirsch. Her husband Salomon Santiago Hirsch died at the age of 61. At half past nine in the morning he was found dead in his house at Oberstraße 134 (formerly No. 86) with a pistol beside him; he had taken his own life. The reasons for this are not known. After cremation in the Ohlsdorf crematorium, his ashes were buried in the Oldenburg family grave, which the father-in-law of daughter Margarita had chosen with 16 grave sites in 1906, in the Ohlsdorf cemetery, grave site P 8, no. 201.

Only two months later, on 16 January 1914, Hanna Hirsch's mother Renette Salomon (Levy), née Wiener, also died. She had reached the ripe old age of 90 and had spent her entire life in Altona, lastly at Winterstraße 5.
She was buried next to her husband in the Bornkampsweg Jewish Cemetery.
One month later, Hanna Hirsch's second grandchild was born. Her daughter Margarita had given birth to Ruth on 25 February 1918.
In 1918, Hanna Hirsch moved from Oberstraße to a flat at Jungfrauenthal 8, thus remaining in the immediate vicinity of her daughter Margarita and her family.

In the meantime, Hanna Hirsch's daughter Erna lived in Berlin and married the Imperial and Royal Senior Physician, Doctor of Medicine, Ludwig Paneth (born 14.2.1886 in Vienna) on 11 August 1914. Both were of Protestant denomination. Their first son was stillborn on 26 November 1917 in their flat in Friedrichshagen, Seestraße 57. One year later, their son Peter, Hanna Hirsch's third grandchild, was born on 13 December 1918.

Hanna Hirsch's son Paul had gone to Santiago de Chile, presumably to continue his father's business there.

Hanna Hirsch's youngest daughter, Maria Luisa, had attended a secondary school for girls and graduated during the First World War. This was followed by training as a nurse and infant welfare worker. She passed the nurse's examination at the university hospital in Marburg. She then learned infant care in Hamburg and completed her studies with the state examination. From 1923, Maria Luisa Hirsch practised her profession for a short time. For financial reasons, she went to Belgium for some time in the mid-1920s and took up a nursing post there. After her return, she began studying again, mainly in Berlin and with two semesters in Hamburg, in the summer semester of 1929 at the Faculty of Philosophy. She then passed the interpreter's examination in Japanese at the Oriental Seminar in Berlin and was therefore able to take the "Begabtenprüfung", which was equivalent to an Abitur, at the Ministry of Education. She enrolled at the Humboldt University in Berlin and studied five subjects, including ethnology, at the Faculty of Philosophy for eight semesters. She received a scholarship for the first few semesters. Along the way, she worked for pay in the Oriental Department of the Prussian State Library.
On 26 November 1931, the marriage of Erna and Ludwig Paneth was divorced before the District Court III in Berlin. It is recorded that Ludwig Paneth strongly dissociated himself from Judaism, although his mother was Jewish.

Maria Luisa intended to become an academic librarian. Due to the anti-Jewish legislation and persecution measures that began in 1933, she left the university. She describes her subsequent arrest in her own words: "Due to Jewish laws ect. I left the university. Under the influence of some fellow students I became involved in political activities, my imprisonment in 1933 was for real and alleged political activity." Records from the arrests state that she had been a member of the KPD since 1931 and was said to have been a leading functionary in Hamburg after the Nazi takeover. In July 1933 she was arrested and sentenced to two years in prison. She was imprisoned in Jauer prison from 2 July 1933. After serving her two-year prison sentence, she was not released but taken into "protective custody" in Jauer-Liegnitz, where she had been imprisoned since 26 June 1935. There she was attested good conduct and talent. According to her ancestry, she was Jewish, but she now wanted to join the Protestant Church. It was noted positively that she had completely abandoned her attitude towards the KPD and no longer wanted to be involved in politics. Maria Luisa Hirsch was transferred to the Moringen women's concentration camp on 31 July 1935.

It was thanks to officer R. of the Liegnitz state police station and his positive assessment that Maria Luisa Hirsch was finally released on 14 October 1935. The prerequisite for this was the indication of accommodation. She went to Hamburg and worked there as a missionary sister. She was still registered at 31 Eimsbüttelerstraße on 11 May 1939 and, like all Jewish women, was given the additional compulsory name "Sara", which was entered on her birth certificate in accordance with the decree of August 1938. In March 1939, she managed to escape National Socialist persecution and emigrate to England.

Hanna Hirsch's grandchildren Geert and Ruth Oldenburg, the children of her daughter Margarita, were also affected by the persecution measures. On 16 July 1939, Margarita Oldenburg applied for the "security order" issued for her by the National Socialist rulers to be lifted. This was granted by the Chief Finance President on 1 August 1939, as the conditions no longer applied. The head of the Office for Genealogical Research had determined in his decision of 3 March 1939 that she was not Jewish but a "Mischling of the first degree". According to this, Margarita's father would have to be an "Aryan" and not Salomon Hirsch. Whether this corresponds to the facts or whether it was a tactical approach by Margarita and her husband, the lawyer Oldenburg, in joint agreement with Hanna Hirsch to mitigate the persecution measures is unclear.

In the meantime, Hanna Hirsch had left the flat in Jungfrauenthal, lived for a while in Nissenstraße 13, 1st floor, and then, in order to be able to spend a secure old age, had moved on 23 October 1929 to the newly built retirement home of the "Kleinrentner e. V.", Braamkamp 64. There she lived in a two-room flat on the 3rd floor.

As can be seen from the cultural tax file of the Jewish Community of Hamburg, Hanna Hirsch, as a "full Jew", had to become a compulsory member of the Reich Association of Jews in Germany as of 1 July 1939, i.e. a member of the Jewish Religious Association in Hamburg, regardless of the fact that "Protestant" is noted as her religious affiliation. It is not known when Hanna Hirsch converted to Christianity after the birth of her youngest daughter.

On 8 January 1940, Hanna Hirsch had to appear at the foreign exchange office of the Chief Finance President to submit her declaration of assets. Among other things, she asked for permission to receive a life annuity from the Norddeutsche Lebensversicherung A.G., "as I am forced to do so due to my financial situation in order to be able to live". On 19 January 1940, Hanna Hirsch was sent the "security order" regarding her assets. According to this, her assets had been confiscated and her credit balance transferred to a "security account", which she could only dispose of to a limited extent. She was entitled to only RM 145 per month. Any further expenditure had to be applied for and approved by the foreign exchange office.

One month later, the foreign exchange office granted her an individual authorisation to pay 400 RM to the Studentenwerk, Öffentlich Rechtliche Anstalt, Berlin-Charlottenburg. Hanna Hirsch needed this amount to repay a loan for her daughter Maria Luisa, who had emigrated to England in the meantime.

Hanna Hirsch not only had to suffer deprivation of rights and persecution during this time, but also had to cope with the death of her daughter: Margarita died of cancer on 6 July 1940 in Bethanien Hospital. Margarita Oldenburg, née Hirsch, was 53 years old. Her ashes were buried in the Oldenburg family grave in the Ohlsdorf cemetery, grave location P 8 III, No. 197 II. A gravestone with an inscription still commemorates her and her father Salomon Santiago Hirsch.

Hanna Hirsch was expelled from her supposedly safe home, the pensioners' home at Braamkamp 64, and, together with Emilie Ascher, the sisters Embden, Auguste Friedburg and Ella Nauen from the "Senator Erich Soltow Foundation", was sent to the "Judenhaus", the Mendelson-Israel-Stift, on 30 April 1942. She was only able to take a few pieces of furniture with her to the small flat No. 3, whose previous tenants were the married couple Ella and Benny Salomon. She had most of her flat furnishings stored under the name of her daughter Maria Luisa Hirsch at the Krumpf company. This warehouse was destroyed in 1943 during the bombing raids on Hamburg. In the Mendelson-Israel-Stift, she also met Jenny Friedemann, who, like her, had lived at Nissenstraße 13 in 1928.

On 12 May 1942, Hanna Hirsch applied to the Dresdner Bank, Eppendorfer Landstraße 12, for the release of RM 55 from her "security account": "To pay for my move from Braamkamp 64 III to Fuhlsbüttel Kurzer Kamp 6/3". Two and a half months later, on 19 July 1942, Hanna Hirsch was deported to Theresienstadt together with 22 residents of the Mendelson-Israel-Stift. She had previously had to sign a "home purchase contract" for an amount of RM 423.84, supposedly for accommodation and supplies in Theresienstadt.

It can be assumed that Hanna Hirsch in Theresienstadt did not learn that her daughter Erna Paneth, née Hirsch, was deported from Berlin to Auschwitz on 12 January 1943 and murdered. She had last lived in Berlin-Charlottenburg at Leipzigerstraße 62. She was 53 years old.

Hanna Hirsch died in Theresienstadt on 9 April 1943. She was 79 years old. A grandson of hers testified after the war: "Despite her age, she was decidedly spry and her health was proverbial in our family. I still remember that for years she received the highest reimbursement from her health insurance company for not claiming. So her death in Theresienstadt must have been violent."

One month after Hanna Hirsch's deportation, two small silver cups, a silver napkin ring and a small silver brooch were auctioned off to Hamburg citizens on 18 August 1942 at the bailiff's office, Drehbahn 36. This silver was once owned by Hanna Hirsch, who had to hand it over. The proceeds of 12 RM went to the Chief Finance President.

The further fate of the family members
Together with his father Ludwig Paneth, Hanna Hirsch's grandson Peter Paneth had escaped persecution by the National Socialists by emigrating to Switzerland. Since that day, he is said not to have exchanged a word with his father. He had not forgiven him for abandoning his mother. Peter Paneth started a family in Switzerland. In November 1993, he died at the age of 75 in Reinach, Baselland. He left behind four children and five grandchildren, Hanna Hirsch's descendants, who now live in Switzerland and Berlin.

Hanna Hirsch's son Paul Hirsch had stayed in Santiago de Chile and started a family. Descendants still live there today.

Hanna Hirsch's daughter Maria Luisa stayed in England and lived for a time in a Carmelite convent in Travistock, Devon. She worked as an auxiliary nurse from 1950 to 1959. Maria Luisa Hirsch died in Newton Abbot, Devon, in March 1969, aged 71.

Descendants of Hanna Hirsch's daughter Margarita live in Hamburg.

Stand: August 2023
© Margot Löhr

Quellen: 1; 2; 4; 5; 7; 8; StaH, 213-13 Landgericht Rückerstattung, 23622 Hanna Hirsch Erben, 6725 Hanna Hirsch, 14955 Hanna Hirsch, 6726 Ruth Sarninghausen, 8641 Geert Oldenburg; StaH, 214-1 Gerichtsvollzieherei, 355 Hanna Hirsch; StaH, 314-15 Oberfinanzpräsident, R 1938-15 Hanna Hirsch, R 1940-15, Fvg 9602, FVg 3732 Maria Luisa Hirsch, R 15/1605/38; StaH, 332-5 Standesämter, Geburtsregister, 9143 u. 684/1898 Maria Luisa Hirsch; StaH, 332-5 Standesämter, Heiratsregister, 5882 u. 274/1883 Salomon Hirsch u. Hanna Levy; 8650 u. 223/1907 Gustav Oldenburg u. Margarita Hirsch; StaH, 332-5 Standesämter, Sterberegister, 5160 u. 2322/1880 Rieke Salomon Levy, 582 u. 923/1907 Jacob Salomon, 5045 u. 22/1914 Renette Salomon, 8016 u. 508/1913 Salomon Santiago Hirsch, 9909 u. 424/1940; StaH, 332-7 Staatsangehörigkeitsaufsicht, BIII 53378 Salomon Santiago Hirsch; StaH, 351-11 Amt für Wiedergutmachung, 879 Hanna Hirsch, 21536 Maria Luisa Hirsch, 33750 Geert Oldenburg; StaH, 352-5 Gesundheitsbehörde, Todesbescheinigungen, 1907 Sta 1 Nr. 923 Jacob Salomon, 1913 Sta 3 Nr. 508 Salomon Santiago Hirsch, 1940, Sta 1 Nr. 424 Ruth Oldenburg; StaH, 373-7 I Passagierlisten, VIII A1 Bd. 62, Bd. 87; StaH, 522-1 Jüdische Gemeinden, Geburtsregister, 696 b Nr. 11/1824 Salomon Levy, 696 d Nr. 231/1841 Henriette Wiener, 696 d Nr. 24/1843 Jette Wiener; StaH, 522-1 Jüdische Gemeinden, Heiratsregister, 702 a Nr. 38/1824 Nathan Spanier u. Amalie Cohn, 702 b Nr. 50/1838 Jacob Salomon Levy u. Lea Cohen, 702 f Nr. 33/1851 Joseph Levy, 702 f Nr. 40/1854 Salomon Levy; StaH, 522-1 Jüdische Gemeinden, Abl. 1993/1 A 10, Abl. 1993 B Ordner 23 Versteigerer Schopmann; StaH, 741-4 Fotoarchiv, K 2350, K 6261; StaH, Hamburger Börsenfirmen, A 902/0022, 1910–1913; Sta II Berlin, Heiratsregister, 6009/1914 Hirsch, Erna/Paneth, Ludwig; Sterberegister Berlin-Friedrichshagen, 226/1917 Knabe Paneth; Hamburger Adressbücher 1882–1943; Archiv Friedhof Ohlsdorf, Beerdigungsregister, Feuerbestattungen, Nr. 477/1913 Salomon Santiago Hirsch, Nr. F 3962/1940 Margarita Oldenburg, Grabbrief 52668/1909 Oldenburg; Auskünfte Barbara Schulze, Förderkreis Ohlsdorfer Friedhof e. V., Hirsch, Salomon, P 8, 187-202 Grabstätte Oldenburg; Datenbankprojekt des Eduard-Duckesz-Fellow und der Hamburger Gesellschaft für jüdische Genealogie, Bornkampsweg, http://jüdischer-friedhof-altona.de/datenbank.html, eingesehen am: 22.2.2022; ancestry, Staatsarchiv Hamburg, Hamburger Passagierlisten, 1850–1934, https://www.ancestry.de/search/collections/1068/, eingesehen am: 22.2.2022; Death Maria-Luisa Hirsch, https://www.freebmd.org.uk/cgi/information.pl?r=240859558:0585&d=bmd_1646647063, eingesehen am: 29.3.2022; https://familysearch.org/search/record/results?count=20&query=%2Bgivenname%3ASantiago~%20%2Bsurname%3AHirsch~, eingesehen im April 2009; Hirsch, Maria-Luisa, https://www.matrikelportal.uni-hamburg.de/receive/matrikelhh_matrikel_00022076, eingesehen am: 22.2.2022. Vielen Dank an Erika Paneth!
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