Search for Names, Places and Biographies

Chaile Charlotte Lippstadt (née Engel) * 1873

Kurzer Kamp 6 Altenheim (Hamburg-Nord, Fuhlsbüttel)

1942 Theresienstadt/Minsk
ermordet

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, Hanna Hirsch, Regina Hirschfeld, Clara Horneburg, Anita Horneburg, Emma Israel, Jenny Koopmann, Franziska Koopmann, Martha Kurzynski, Laura Levy, 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

Chaile Charlotte Lippstadt, née Engel, born 20.5.1873 in Hamburg, deported 19.7.1942 to Theresienstadt, deported 21.9.1942 to Treblinka and murdered.

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

Chaile Charlotte Engel was born in Hamburg on 20 May 1873. Her mother Regina Engel, née Messeritsch, gave birth to her with the help of the midwife Frau Wehrenberg at Valentinskamp 31. Her father Benny Engel ran a white goods business there. On her father's side, the family descended from Joseph Salomon Engel (born around 1670 in Burg auf Fehmarn, then still part of Denmark). Since the end of the 18th century, the Naftali Hertz Engel family had been resident in Hamburg. Gravestones can be found in the Königsstraße cemetery in Altona. Charlotte's father Bieme Engel, called Benny (born 31.8.1830 in Altona), had grown up in a Jewish orphanage in Altona. He had already lost his parents as a child, his father Ruben when he was three years old, his mother Hannchen, née Praeger, when he was seven.

Like his ancestors, Benny Engel had become a merchant. For nine years he had worked in the white goods shop of the Lemos brothers in Altona to their complete satisfaction. After being granted Hamburg citizenship in 1861, he was accepted into the respected "Uhr-Alte-Löbliche-Kramer-Amt" as an official brother. This guild-like association existed until the freedom of trade in 1865. Benny Engel had set up his own business in the "Manufacture and White Goods Trade".

Benny Engel had set up his own business in the "Manufacture and White Goods Trade" and married Gella Jenny, née Samson (born 16.10.1837 in Hamburg), on 26 May 1861. He had moved from Altona to Hamburg at the request of his bride's parents. His wife had given birth to two sons in the following years, Rudolph Ruben (b. 19.6.1862) and Semmy (b. 19.2.1864). After the birth of her second son, she had contracted puerperal fever and died a week later, on 4 March 1864.

Charlotte's father, who had been widowed early with two small sons, had married Charlotte's mother Regina, née Messeritsch (b. 13.10.1834 in Bockenheim), the following year. She was the daughter of Bella, née Levien, and the banker Sussmann Messeritsch. In the following years Charlotte's older siblings were born: Anna Hannchen (b. 7.9.1866), Emil Eliser (b. 18.1.1868), Joseph (b. 3.7.1869) and Siegfried Simon (b. 23.2.1871). Two sisters had died very early of whooping cough, Bella (b. 11.12.1870) at one year and four months on 11 April 1872 and Auguste, Siegfried's twin sister, five days later at ten months.

Charlotte was the youngest and grew up with her six older siblings in Hamburg. Her mother managed to raise all seven children in a secure atmosphere. As a young woman, Regina had received good training as a governess. Already her grandfather Elieser Sussmann Messerit
is said to have been a tutor to Baron Rothschild in Frankfurt. Thus Charlotte and her siblings also received a good education, her brother Semmy a sound education.

On New Year's Day 1878, Charlotte was admitted to "Class R" at the Höhere Töchterschule with attached kindergarten at Großneumarkt 36, run by Dr. Katzenstein, for a school fee of 15 marks; later this school became Dr. Jakob Löwenberg's Realschule for girls. Charlotte stayed there until July of the next year, when she left together with her brother Joseph and her sister Anna, who had attended this school for four years.

Charlotte was six years old when her father had a large commercial and residential building built at Gänsemarkt 61 (later Jungfernstieg). During this time Benny Engel became the head of the Jewish congregation Neweh Scholaum with the preacher Dr. Joseph Isaacsohn. The synagogue opposite his parents' house was consecrated in the same year, 1879. The parents took on the responsible task of keeping the sacred silver.

Due to the financial burdens from guarantees assumed and the increased building costs due to the poor building ground, Charlotte's father had to sell the house on Gänsemarkt two years later. The family and the shop moved to Theaterstraße and two years later to Colonnaden 21/22, where Benny Engel ran a "confections, silk and fashion shop".

From Semmy Engel's unpublished memoirs we learn that Charlotte's childhood was accompanied by people mostly from her father's clientele, mostly artists from the nearby municipal theatre. Thus, the family often received free tickets for theatre visits. In the summer, they visited the zoological gardens together with friends, and the family had a season ticket. Perhaps Charlotte also took part in the lottery of the "Israelitischer Mitgift-Verein", formerly the "Ausstattungsverein von 1840", as it is handed down from her sister Anna in the files of the Jewish community. Anna was lucky enough to draw the winning ticket with ticket number 1097 in the 173rd drawing in June 1885. It was recorded in a document that she was to be paid the amount of 1,200 marks four days before her wedding. She was married to Emanuel Grünthal on 24 November 1889. They had known each other from childhood. The Grünthal family had lived in the neighbourhood in the Colonnaden and had founded the dancing lesson club for the families' youth in their house.

Charlotte's brother Semmy Engel married Selma Peine (b. 23.5.1871) from Hamburg on 2 February 1892. The young couple moved to Bergedorf, Am Baum 36, in the summer of that year, when cholera was rife in Hamburg. One year later, on 28 July 1893, Semmy Engel acquired Hamburg citizenship and registered his trade as an architect with his office at Große Reichenstraße 1, 2nd floor.

On 17 April 1898, Charlotte's father Benny Engel died in his flat at Schlump 88 as a result of diabetes. Charlotte's brother Semmy Engel had stood by him, and it can be assumed that Charlotte had also cared for her father during his illness. For eleven days he had been under the treatment of Dr. Julius Sachs, who also worked as a doctor for the city theatre. Benny Engel was 67 years old. He found his final resting place two days later in the Jewish Grindel cemetery next to his first wife.

Almost two years after his father's death, Charlotte's brother Emil Engel married Clara Grünthal on 12 January 1900. She came from the family of his brother-in-law, the husband of his sister Anna.

Charlotte Engel remained without a profession and married late by the standards of the time. Shortly before she turned 29, she married Emil Lippstadt, a merchant and "agent" (commercial representative) ten years her senior, on 11 April 1902. Both belonged to the German-Israelite community in Hamburg. Until then Charlotte had lived with her mother at Eimsbüttelerstrasse 53 with her sister Anna and the Grünthal family. The best man was Charlotte's 38-year-old brother Semmy Engel, an architect living at Rothenbaumchaussee 22, and the 62-year-old merchant Louis Lippstadt, a Hamburg citizen living at Marktstraße 15.

Charlotte's husband Emil Lippstadt (born 5.11.1863) was the son of Auguste, née Ascher, and the cattle dealer Kallmann Lippstadt from Elmshorn, district of Pinneberg. His father had already died in Elmshorn. Emil Lippstadt had a trade licence as a merchant since 1891 and had been resident in Hamburg since 1894. He was the owner of the company "Lippstadt & Loewenherz", export agency "for electrical and photographic apparatus", which had been founded in 1901, initially with the co-owner Henry Löwenherz, in Johannis- und Knochenhauerstraße.

Charlotte Lippstadt gave birth to her son Kurt Kallmann one year after their wedding on 7 February 1903 in Hamburg. In the same year, Charlotte's mother-in-law, the widow Auguste Lippstadt, moved to Hamburg. Until Kurt started school, Charlotte Lippstadt lived with her family at Weidenallee 57. Then the family moved to the flat at Wrangelstraße 40, 2nd floor. After the primary school years at the Wahnschaff School, popular with merchant families, Kurt attended the Talmud Tora School, the recognised Jewish boys' school right next to the new Bornplatz Synagogue in the Grindel Quarter, from 3 June 1912. According to notes passed down to him, he was a mediocre pupil and enjoyed reading more than gymnastics.

Charlotte's mother continued to live with the Grünthal family, who were friends and relatives. She died on 20 August 1910 in her flat at Grindelberg 44, 2nd floor, in the presence of her stepson Semmy Engel. Regine Engel, née Messeritsch, was buried in the Jewish cemetery Ilandkoppel Ohlsdorf, grave location A 10, no. 169.

One month later, Charlotte's mother-in-law Auguste Lippstadt, née Ascher, also died in her flat at Grindelallee 153, 3rd floor.

In April 1914, Charlotte's husband Emil Lippstadt gave up his Prussian citizenship and obtained Hamburg citizenship. At that time he paid tax on 7,265 marks a year. His office of the "Exportagentur Lippstadt & Loewenherz mit Musterlager für Kurzwaren der Eisen-Musik- und Confektionsbranche" (Lippstadt & Loewenherz Export Agency with a sample warehouse for haberdashery for the iron, music and confectionery industries) was located at Grosse Burstah 9.

Charlotte's brother Siegfried Simon Engel became a soldier in the First World War. He returned physically unharmed and married Lilly Feiber (born 21 May 1891 in Frankfurt) on 28 November 1919. She had lived with her parents, Charlotte Jenny, née Mayer, and merchant Leopold Feiber, at Schlüterstraße 64.

Economically, the situation for Charlotte's husband's export agency had become increasingly difficult with the start of the First World War, and this was exacerbated by inflation in 1923 and the stock market crash in 1929.

Within this time Charlotte's brother Emil Elieser Engel had died on 17 January 1926, one day before his 58th birthday. Emil Engel, a coal broker at Beim Schlump 86, had succumbed to a heart attack at 7 o'clock in the evening opposite his shop at house No. 83. He had suffered from coronal sclerosis. He was buried in the Jewish cemetery Ilandkoppel, grave location A 9, No. 318. In addition to his wife, Emil Engel left behind five children, Annie (born 1901), Bruno (born 1902), Robert (born 1906), Friedrich (born 1908) and Wilhelm (born 1912). His wife Clara, née Grünthal, died five years later in February 1931.

Charlotte's brother Siegfried Simon Engel died on 13 January 1934 and was buried in the Jewish cemetery Ilandkoppel, grave location F, No. 148. He last worked as a merchant in the import and export business, finally at Gerhofstraße 2. In this year Charlotte Lippstadt's son Kurt, who had left the German-Israelite community in 1927, became a member of the community again.

Charlotte Lippstadt still lived with her family at Wrangelstraße 40. She was almost 62 years old when she became a widow. Her husband Emil Lippstadt died of a heart attack in the Israelite Hospital on 1 March 1935 at the age of 72. It was the time of National Socialist persecution, which increasingly burdened the lives of Jewish citizens. Emil Lippstadt found his final resting place in the Jewish cemetery Ilandkoppel, grave location O 3, No. 309, where Charlotte's brothers and his brother Alfred were also buried. Alfred Lippstadt, owner of the firm Zinner & Lippstadt, had died of a heart attack in Hamburg a year before him at the age of 60, grave site M 2, no. 57.

Charlotte Lippstadt's son Kurt took over the management of his father's company at the age of 33 during this difficult time, in the meantime relocated to Grindelhof 83, House 10.

Charlotte Lippstadt's brother Semmy Engel had become a well-known architect in Hamburg. In 1904 he carried out the alterations to the building of the Henry Jones Lodge in Hartungstraße and built the club synagogue of the "United Old and New Klaus". According to his plans, which he had drawn up together with Ernst Friedheim, the large main synagogue on Bornplatz was built from 1904 to 1906. This was followed in 1909 by synagogue buildings in Hoheluftchaussee and later, in 1920, in Gluckstraße in Barmbek and in 1929 in Kielortallee 22 for the Oppenheimer Foundation. In 1911 he extended the chapel at the Langenfelde Jewish Cemetery; in 1919 he undertook the conversion of the mortuary at the Ilandkoppel Jewish Cemetery and in 1924 the conversion of the Wilhelminenhöhe children's home at Rissener Landstraße 127. In 1928/29 he worked in a joint office with his son Bernhard on the Bauhaus-style designs for the "Sophieneck" terraced housing complex at Sophienterrasse. During his creative years, he also built several residential and office buildings. In 1936, Semmy Engel was expelled from the Chamber of Architects as a Jewish member. This made it impossible for him to continue practising his profession. In this year, Semmy Engel's son and partner Bernhard Engel emigrated with his wife Renée, née Loewenheim, and their five-year-old daughter Lilian to London. Semmy Engel followed them two years later in July 1938.

In 1936 Rudolf Ruben Engel also died two weeks before his 74th birthday on 3 June 1936 in Eppendorf University Hospital. He had lived at Grindelberg 1a, was unmarried and had run his business as a merchant with "white goods and ready-made clothing" at Carolinenstraße 12. Like his brothers, he was buried in the Jewish cemetery Ilandkoppel Ohlsdorf, grave location ZX 10, No. 419.

Charlotte Lippstadt remained in Hamburg, she had moved with her son to Neumünsterstraße 37 in 1937. At the beginning of the year, on 7 January 1937, three years after her brother Siegfried Simon, his widow Lilly Simon, née Feiber, had also died.

When persecution against the Jews intensified in 1938 after the November pogrom, Charlotte's son was also affected. Kurt Lippstadt was taken into Gestapo custody in Stade on 16 November 1939 at 4:40 pm. Based on the acceptance request of the Stade district court for an alleged "theft", he was transferred to custody in Stade prison seven days later, on 21 November 1939 at 11 a.m., under No. 192. After almost five months, on 2 March 1940, 1 p.m., Kurt Lippstadt was released from prison to Hamburg. The journey by train N2 182 was predetermined for him.

During this time, Kurt Lippstadt looked for a way to emigrate.The Jüdischer Hilfsverein supported him since 14 February 1939 in preparing his emigration and obtaining a clearance certificate.

The Secret State Police had been informed that he was living with his mother and intended to emigrate to Shanghai. He received the clearance certificate required for emigration from the tax office on 21 March 1940, since as the sole owner of the Kurt Lippstadt company he had no assets to report. Kurt Kallmann Lippstadt was summoned to Grosser Burstah 31, 4th floor, room 170, on 26 March 1940 for processing at the Chief Finance President. He had to issue the application for removal goods and the list. His declared valuables were valued by jeweller Ed. Steiner, owner E. Müller. On 29 March, eight pieces of alpacca cutlery and other silver objects, a pendant, a pocket watch, a chain and a ring were packed and sealed at Grindelallee 141. After the list of his entrained property had been thoroughly checked, he left his hometown of Hamburg on 10 May 1940 with, among other things, family pictures, scientific books, nine prayer books and a prayer shawl. He probably had to pay for the ship passage in dollars to the Italian shipping company Lloyd Triestino, as is documented for other passengers. It was one of the last ships on which Kurt Lippstadt was able to escape via Genoa to Shanghai, a country where emigrants at that time did not have to show a visa, assets or connections. (After Italy's entry into the war in June 1940, escape for Jewish emigrants from the German Reich was only possible for one year by Siberian railway via the then Soviet Union). "Kurt Kallmann Israel Lippstadt" was declared "deprived of German citizenship in absentia by notice dated 27 March 1941, published in No. 77 of the German Reich Gazette and Prussian State Gazette of 1 April 1941". Kurt Lippstadt was thus stateless.

Charlotte Lippstadt was now left on her own in Hamburg. In May 1940, she had had to move from Neumünsterstraße 37 to the "Judenhaus", the Mendelson-Israel-Stift. It is not known whether she intended to emigrate.

On 19 July 1942, Charlotte Lippstadt was deported to Theresienstadt together with 22 other Jewish women and one man from the Mendelson-Israel-Stift. Beforehand, she had had to sign a "home purchase contract" for 116.60 RM, which the Jewish community had to pay into the special account H, to which the Reich Security Main Office had access.

On 21 September 1942, Charlotte Lippstadt was deported from Theresienstadt on one of the dreaded transports to Treblinka and murdered. Chaille Charlotte Lippstadt was 69 years old. She did not have to bear the news of her son Kurt's death. Kurt Kallmann Lippstadt died in Shanghai on 14 December 1942 (the "Aufbau" of 1946 states November). According to the information on a list of the HIAS (Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society) in the Arolsen Archives, about Jews who died and were buried in Shanghai between 1939 and 1948, the cause of death is given as "bacillary dystontery" (probably correctly "dysentery"). Kurt Kallmann Lippstadt was 39 years old. A Stolperstein commemorates him in front of his former parental home at Wrangelstraße 40, Hoheluft-West.

The emigrated relatives remained in the dark about Charlotte Lippstadt's fate for a long time. Therefore, on 13 August 1944, Reuben Malachi (formerly Robert Engel, the son of her brother Emil from Jerusalem) wrote to Max Plaut (the chairman of the Jewish Religious Association in Hamburg from December 1938), who had still been able to leave for Palestine in 1944, requesting information about the whereabouts of his "Aunt Lottchen", Charlotte Lippstadt.

On 14 February 1945, Gertrud Simon, née Lippstadt (born 20 January 1902 in Hamburg), who lived at Niedernstegen 34, Hamburg-Fuhlsbüttel, was also deported to Theresienstadt. She was a daughter of Alfred Lippstadt, Charlotte Lippstadt's brother-in-law. Gertrud Simon was among those who survived and were liberated at the end of the war. She returned to Hamburg on 29 June 1945; she emigrated to the USA in April 1950.

Translated by Margot Löhr

Stand: November 2023
© Margot Löhr

Quellen: 1; 2; 4; 5; 6; 7; 8; 213-13 Landgericht Rückerstattung, 13948 Charlotte Lippstadt; StaH, 242-1 II Zentralgefängnis, Haftkartei, Kurt Lippstadt; StaH, 314-15 Oberfinanzpräsident, 314-15_FVg 8033 Kallmann Lippstadt, FVg 8937 Kallmann Lippstadt; StaH, 332-3 Zivilstandsaufsicht, Geburtsregister, A 154 Nr. 3341 Chaile Charlotte Engel, A 71 Nr. 3650 John Joseph Engel; StaH, 332-5 Standesämter, Geburtsregister, 2277 u. 1463/1892 Paul Engel, 2342 u. 1361/1894 Robert Engel; StaH, 332-5 Standesämter, Heiratsregister, 2745 u. 1344/1889 Emanuel Grünthal u. Hannchen Anna Engel, 8602 u. 7/1900 Emil Engel u. Klara Grünthal, 2983 u. 357/1902 Emil Lippstadt u.Charlotte Engel; 3481 u. 135/1924 Isaac Callinar u. Sara Erna Grünthal; StaH, 332-5 Standesämter, Sterberegister, 7915 u. 678/1898 Benny Engel, 8002 u. 390/1910 Regina Engel, 8002 u. 451/1910 Auguste Lippstadt, 8006 u. 103/1911 Paul Engel, 8085 u. 25/1926 Emil Lippstadt, 8089 u. 358/1927 Siegfried Grünthal, 8107 u. 66/1931 Klara Engel, 1038 u. 95/1935 Emil Lippstadt, 9884 u. 897/1936 Rudolf Engel; StaH, 332-7 Staatsangehörigkeitsaufsicht, AIf Bd. 127 Nr. 116 Benny Engel, AIf Bd. 172 Nr. 20684 Semmy Engel; StaH, 332-7 Staatsangehörigkeitsaufsicht, B I a 1861, Nr. 116 Benny Engel, BIII 125866 Emil Lippstadt; StaH, 351-11 Amt für Wiedergutmachung, 1001 Alfons Engel, 1002 Semmy Engel, 1003 Irma Samson;StaH, 352-5 Gesundheitsbehörde, Todesbescheinigungen, 1898 Sta 3 Nr. 678 Benny Engel, 1911 Sta 3 Nr. 103 Paul Engel, 1915 Sta 17 Nr. 74 Emil Engel, 1926, Sta 3 Nr. 25 Emil Lippstadt, 1935, Sta 2a Nr. 95 Emil Lippstadt, 1936, Sta 3c Nr. 897 Rudolf Engel; StaH, 361-2II Oberschulbehörde, Abl. 2007/1, Nr. 1, 342; StaH, 376-2 Gewerbepolizei, Spz VIII C 68 Nr. 1880; StaH, 522-1 Jüdische Gemeinden, Abl. 1993/1 A 10; StaH, 522-1 Jüdische Gemeinden, Heiratsregister, 702 d, Nr. 23/1861 Benny Engel u. Gella Samson; StaH, 522-1 Jüdische Gemeinden, Sterberegister, 725 l, Nr. 53/1868 Henny Engel; StaH, 741-4 Fotoarchiv, A 477, K 6044, K 6519, Sa 1246; StaH, Hamburger Börsenfirmen, A 902/0022, 1910–1913; ITS Archiv Arolsen, Ordner 957, S. 188–191, File AL 7-77; Datenbankprojekt des Eduard-Duckesz-Fellow und der Hamburger Gesellschaft für jüdische Genealogie, Grindelfriedhof, Ohlsdorf 1908–1914, 1922–1930, 1931–1939, A 9-317/318, A 10-169, F-147/148, M 2-57, O 3-309, ZX-419, http://jüdischer-friedhof-altona.de/datenbank.html, eingesehen am: 22.2.2022; "Aufbau" 12 (1946), Nr. 17, S. 38; unveröffentlichtes Manuskript von Rabbiner E. Duckesz: Die Geschichte der Familie Engel, Archiv Hamburger Gesellschaft für jüdische Genealogie e. V., mit freundlicher Genehmigung von Benjamin Maleachi; E-Mail-Auskunft von Ralph Hirsch, Council on the Jewish Exile in Shanghai (CJES), Celle, 9.6.2011; Jürgen Sielemann: Aus den Erinnerungen des Architekten Semmy Engel, in: Maajan 12 u. 13 (1998/99), 2. Folge, Nr. 48, S. 1321–1325, 3. Folge, Nr. 49, S. 1367–1370, 4. Folge, Nr. 50, S. 1414–1417; Jürgen Sielemann: Semmy Engel, in: Das jüdische Hamburg. Ein historisches Nachschlagewerk, hrsg. vom Institut für die Geschichte der Deutschen Juden, Red.: Kirsten Heinsohn, Göttingen 2006, S. 71.
Zur Nummerierung häufig genutzter Quellen siehe Link "Recherche und Quellen".