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Liesel Abrahamsohn * 1920

Isestraße 69 (Eimsbüttel, Harvestehude)

1941 Riga
ermordet

further stumbling stones in Isestraße 69:
Johanna Adelheim, Henry Blum, Rosalie Blum, Louis Böhm, Gertrud Böhm, Bertha Brach, Hillel Chassel, Irma Chassel, Michael Frankenthal, Erna Gottlieb, Ella Hattendorf, Frieda Holländer, Gertrud Holländer, Henriette Leuschner, Elfriede Löpert, Helene Löpert, Walter Löpert, Ella Marcus, Ernst Maren, Josephine Rosenbaum, Günther Satz, Selma Satz, Else Schattschneider, Gottfried Wolff, Lydia Wolff

Josephine Rosenbaum, neé Beit, adopted Elbe, born on 17 Dec. 1877, deported to Riga on 6 Dec. 1941
Liesel Abrahamsohn, born on 17 May 1920, deported to Riga on 6 Dec. 1941

On 17 Dec. 1877 at 11 am. Sara Beit, neé Marcus gave birth to her third daughter Josephine. One year before that the twins Rosa and Martha had been born on 14 Apr. 1876. Already one day after Josephine was born, her father Siegmund Hermann Beit - who came from Altona – went to court to organize his daughter’s adoption by the married couple Michel and Louise Elbe, neé Schwarz. While her sisters remained with the natural parents Josephine grew up at Schauenburgstraße 51.

Later Josephine married Nehemias Rosenbaum who was fourteen years older than her. He ran a prosperous shop for textile fabrics together with his brother Benjamin at Rathausstraße 29. The couple rented an apartment at Hansastraße 72 and on 14 Nov. 1896 their only daughter Senta was born.

In 1933 the family moved to a noble 5-room-appartment at Isestraße 69. The family owned some property in Barmbek and the shop yielded approximately 30000 RM annually, so they could afford a raised standard of living. Among Josephine’s clothes were expensive jewellery and fur coats, and the apartment was arranged with extravagant pieces of furniture. Later, Senta remembered carpets of high value, other luxurious objects, and a grand Steinway piano in the living room.

Senta married twice. Her first husband was Alfred Abrahamsohn, an employee at a company for metal-besteads. They had a daughter Liesel, born on 17 May 1920. They lived together at Loogestieg 2, but after the divorce Senta returned to her parents to Isestraße together with her daughter. Alfred moved to Berlin where he died in 1935.

In the same year Liesel’s uncle Benjamin Rosenbaum died and Nehemias Rosenbaum carried on the business alone until he died in 1938.

On 21 July 1938 Senta married Rudolf Bachner. They managed to leave Germany and to migrate via Spain to America.

Liesel – 18 years old by this time – remained with her grandmother at Isetraße 69. Her family then consisted only of Josephine and Alice Rosenbaum, Benjamin’s widow. The father, uncle, and a paternal aunt had died already, the mother, a paternal uncle with his family and two cousins had emigrated. The financial situation of the family members who had stayed in Hamburg gradually deteriorated. In Nov. 1941 a bank account with 34000 RM was confiscated, and they had to hand in their entire jewellery, among others a pearl necklace Josephine felt particularly attached to since she had worn it at her wedding. An acquaintance reported that Josephine had been very upset about the loss.

On 29 Nov. 1941 Josephine transferred another 16000 RM, this time to the Reich Association of Jews in Germany (Jüdischer Religionsverband e.V): "The Reich Association of Jews in Germany demanded this financial support of all Jews who were about to be deported. The money was allegedly used for the benefit of the evacuated”, tells the record. In Dec. 1941 the 64 year old Alice and Josephine Rosenbaum together with the 21 year old Liesel were set on the deportation list for the first transport to Riga. They were forced to leave Hamburg on 6 Dec. shortly before, Senta Bachner received a final sign of life; she was told that her mother and Liesel had to "go on a journey”. Mother, daughter, and aunt did not survive the ghetto.

Josephine’s two sisters Martha and Rosa Beit suffered the same fate. Having remained unmarried they lived together in a so-called Jews’ house (Judenhaus) at Bundestraße 43 until they were deported. On 15 July 1942 they were "resettled” to Theresienstadt, and on 21 Sep. 1942 they were killed at Treblinka Extermination Camp.

The entire property was confiscated and their household and personal belongings were auctioned off three weeks after the owners had been deported. To ensure that the victims would not leave any debts the auction proceeds were used to clear debts at the telephone exchange and at a carpet-company.

The two stumbling stones for the Rosenbaum family at Isestraße 69 commemorate Josephine and Liesel, and the stone at Hallerstraße 76 commemorates Alice Rosenbaum.

Translator: Paula Antonella Oppermann
Kindly supported by the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung, Hamburg.

© Eva Decker

Quellen: 1; 4; 5; 8; StaH, 351-11, AfW 69108; StaH, 552-1 Jüd. Gemeinden, 992 e 2, Bd. 3.
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