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Dr. Hans Bloch * 1895

ohne Hamburger Adresse

ermordet am 23.9.1940 in der Tötungsanstalt Brandenburg an der Havel

further stumbling stones in ohne Hamburger Adresse :
Felix Cohn, Moraka Farbstein, Erland Walter Friedmann, Richard Guth, Martha Havelland, Albert Hirsch, Auguste Hirschkowitz, Sophie Kasarnowsky, Ernestine Levy, Richard Levy, Hannchen Lewin, Bronislawa Luise Dorothea Mattersdorf, Karl Friedrich Michael, Lucie Rothschild, Dorothea Dorthy Silberberg, Wilhelm Süsser, Anna Luise (Louise Hedwig) Weimann, Salo Weinberg

Dr. Hans Bloch, b. 11.29.1895 in St. Johann on the Saar River (today, Saarbrücken), murdered on 23 September 1940 in in the Brandenburg on the Havel River killing facility

No commemorative stone

Hans Bloch descended from a commercial Jewish family in the little town of Sulzburg in Baden’s Margrave’s Land (Markgräflerland). A significant Jewish community existed there since the Middle Ages. In the 19th century, the Jewish population amounted to 31 percent of the total. The synagogue, still in existence, was built in 1821-1822.

The Bloch family could trace back its existence in Sulzburg almost 300 years. Hans Bloch’s father, Leopold, was born there in 1859. He remained in his birthplace until 1878 and then resettled in St. Johann, then an independent locale, which united with the cities of Alt-Saarbrücken and Malstatt-Burbach in 1909 to form the new city of Saarbrücken. Leopold Bloch earned his living as a self-employed leather dealer. When and where Leopold Bloch married the "independent” Jette Bickart from Eichstaedten (today, Eichstetten) is not known. In any case, the couple had their first child, Siegfried, on 24 December 1885 in St. Johann, at Bahnhofstrasse 90. After him came Max, on 15 November 1886. When Jette Bloch died in 1888 at 25 years of age, Siegfried and Max were only two and three years old. Still a young man at 29, Leopold married a second time. His marriage to Amalie "Malchen,” née Jasmin, from Freiburg produced five children: Johanna, born 20 September 1891, and soon dying in 1894; Hans, born 29 November 1895; Anna, born 1 November 1896; Fanny Grethe, born 22 July 1905; and Lisel, born 12 July 1906; all were born in St. Johann.

In 1901, the Bloch family moved to Sulzbachstrasse 3, in St. Johann. When his younger siblings were born, Hans Bloch was already in elementary school. He could not complete the preparatory high school in St. Johann because his family moved early in 1910 to Wiesbaden, living there until 1932, first at Kaiserstrasse 28 and then at Kaiser-Friedrichs-Ring 44. At the outbreak of war in August 1914, Hans Bloch completed the emergency final examination at the upper modern high school. Immediately afterwards he volunteered with the "von Gersdorff” Fusilier Regiment (Hessian) no. 80 in Wiesbaden, which was stationed on the Western and Eastern fronts. Until his wounding in August 1916, a head wound, he remained with the troops. After his convalescence, he was discharged from military service in February 1917 as "unfit for war.”

With the summer semester of 1917, Hans Bloch began medical studies in Würzburg, standing for his qualifying examination in the winter semester of 1918-1919. In the following period, he studied in Munich, Würzburg, Berlin, and Frankfurt. At the time of his Frankfurt matriculation in January 1919, he lived again with his parents in Wiesbaden. In November 1920, Bloch stood for the state licensing examinations in Frankfurt. After concluding his studies he submitted a dissertation on the theme: "A Contribution to ‘expanding autopsychosis through autochthone ideas’ (Wernicke),” and received his medical doctorate.

It is not known whether Hans Bloch continued living in his parents’ home after completion of his studies.

Just two years later, in 1924, he was admitted to the Hamburg State Hospital in Friedrichsberg. This is verified by his Friedrichsberg patient record. We do not know on what grounds Hans Bloch came to Hamburg and into the Friedrichsberg State Hospital, or how long he remained there. For the following years also there are no references or documents available. On 4 July 1935, he was accepted in the Hamburg-Langenhorn State Hospital.

On 18 September 1940, in the framework of a special action planned by the "Euthanasia” Center at Tiergartenstrasse 4, targeting Jews in public and private mental institutions, the Reich Ministry of the Interior ordered the concentration of patients from Hamburg, Schleswig-Holstein, and Mecklenburg in the Hamburg-Langenhorn Sanitarium and Nursing Home. On 23 September 1940, they were transported to the so-called Sanitarium and Nursing Home in Brandenburg on the Havel River. Among them was Hans Bloch. On the same day, they were gassed by carbon monoxide in a repurposed part of a former prison. In order to disguise this murder action, death notices maintained that the patients had died in an institution located in Chelm (Polish) or Cholm (German), a city east of Lublin. In the birth register for Hans Bloch it is noted: "deceased no. 360/41 Chelm II.” However, those murdered in Brandenburg had never been in Chelm. The Polish hospital that was once there no longer existed, following the murder of almost all its patients by SS units on 12 January 1940. Moreover, there was no registry office in Chelm. The invention of these offices was later used to concoct dates of death, which disguised the murder action and also justified the claims for the costs of extended care.

In a submission to the President of the Hamburg District Court of June 1941 concerning "mentally ill Jews,” Hans Bloch’s brother, Siegfried, as executor of Hans’ affairs, reported: "On 1 April 1941, we received news from the Chelm asylum in Poland that our brother and brother-in-law Hans Israel Bloch, who was transferred there from Langenhorn on 23 September 1940, had died there on 31 January 1941. Affixed here, I submit the final accounting. Since 23 September 1940, with the best of wills, it was no longer possible for us to provide for our brother and brother-in-law, because despite all our efforts, we have not been able to be ascertain the location of his stay.”

The largest part of the Bloch family lived at this time in Luxemburg and Baden-Baden. After many years in Wiesbaden, Hans Bloch’s parents resettled in Luxemburg on 1 November 1932. Their son, Max, Hans’ older brother, had been resident there since February 1925. In June 1929, Max Bloch had married Sophie Netter, born Jewish in Mülhausen, Alsace on 30 July 1895. Only a year after his move to Luxemburg, Leopold Bloch died on 22 November 1933. His widow, Amalie (Malchen) also died in Luxemburg, on 19 December 1937.

A representation of Hans Bloch’s older brother, Max

As early as between 1935 and 1937, Max Bloch was deprived of his German citizenship. As a consequence, his wife also renounced hers. Nevertheless, Max and Sophie Bloch returned to Germany from Luxemburg and attempted to escape Nazi persecution by fleeing to safety in Belgium. Nevertheless, on 28 May 1940, the German Armed Forces occupied that neutral country.

In 1942, the Blochs received an order to report to the holding camp for Jewish deportees in the Dossin barracks near Mechelen. They reported there in early August 1942. On 18 August 1942, the deportation train left Belgium, arriving in Auschwitz-Birkenau on 20 August. From this point on, the circumstances of their deaths lie shrouded in darkness.

Hans Bloch’s sister Anna married into the Fried family and lived in Baden-Baden. Along with the Fried family, consisting of Sigmund Fried, b. 4 September 1872, Eugen Fried, b. 25 July 1880, Frieda Fried, née Marx, b. 20 December 1881, Emil Fried, b. 10 March 1883, Hans Fried, b. 14 October 1905, she was thrust into France during the Wagner-Bürckel-Action on 22 October 1940. On the orders of the Nazi Party district leaders, Robert Wagner and Josef Bürckel, approximately 6500 Jews aboard two transport trains were taken to Gurs, north of the Pyrenees. Via the holding camp at Drancy near Paris, the Fried family was sent to Auschwitz in 1942 and 1943, where they were murdered.

The destiny of the siblings, Siegfried and Fanny Grethe Bloch, remain unknown. Lisel Bloch survived the Holocaust. She died in Luxemburg in June 1989.

No personal address in Hamburg could be found for Hans Bloch. Thus, until now, no individual location can be established at which to place a commemorative stone for him.

Translator: Richard Levy
Kindly supported by the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung, Hamburg.

© Ingo Wille

Quellen: 4; 5; StaH 133-1 III Staatsarchiv III, 3171-2/4 U.A. 4, Liste psychisch kranker jüdischer Patientinnen und Patienten der psychiatrischen Anstalt Langenhorn, die aufgrund nationalsozialistischer "Euthanasie"-Maßnahmen ermordet wurden, zusammengestellt von Peter von Rönn, Hamburg (Projektgruppe zur Erforschung des Schicksals psychisch Kranker in Langenhorn); 352-8/7 Staatskrankenanstalt Langenhorn Abl. 1/1995 Aufnahme-/Abgangsbuch Langenhorn 26.1.1939-27.1.1940; UKE/IGEM, Archiv, Patienten-Karteikarte Hans Bloch der Staatskrankenanstalt Friedrichsberg; Landesarchiv Freiburg, B 725_1 Nr 11523 2015_10_26 Leopold Bloch, B 725_1 Nr 11813 2015_10_26 Max Bloch; Dr. Senckenbergisches Institut für Geschichte und Ethik der Medizin, Frankfurt, Archiv, Universitätsakte Hans Bloch, Promotionsakte Hans Bloch; Dr. Senckenbergisches Institut für Geschichte und Ethik der Medizin, Frankfurt, Bibliothek, Dissertation Hans Bloch, Archives nationales de Luxembourg, Mitteilung vom 23. 10. 2015 über Inhalt der Akten der Fremdenpolizei Nr. 160697 wegen Max Bloch, Nr. 229941 wegen Leopold und Malchen Bloch, des "Commisariat au repatriement" wegen Max und Sophie Bloch geb. Netter; Stadtarchiv Luxemburg, Mitteilung vom 7. 12. 2015, Sterbedaten Leopold, Malchen und Lisel Bloch; Gedenkstätte Kazerne Dossin, Mechelen, Mitteilung Dorien Styven vom 29. 10. 2015 über das Schicksal von Max und Sophie Bloch; Stadtarchiv Saarbrücken Sterberegisterauszüge Nr. 52/1888 Jette Bloch, Nr. 57/1894 Anna Bloch, Geburtsregisterauszüge Nr. 507/1885 Siegfried Bloch, Nr. 393/1886 Max Bloch, Nr. 362/1891 Johanna Bloch, Nr. 492/1895 Hans Bloch, Nr. 489/1896, Anna Bloch, Meldekartei Leopold Bloch; Standesamt Saarbrücken, Geburtsregisterauszüge Nr. 448/1905 Fanny Grethe Bloch, Nr. 400/1906 Lisel Bloch; Statistik und Deportation der jüdischen Bevölkerung aus dem Deutschen Reich, Baden – Pfalz – Saarland nach Gurs, http://www.statistik-des-holocaust.de/list_ger_swd_401022.html (Zugriff 20.11.2015); http://juden-in-sulzburg.de/person/bloch-leopold; https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sulzburg#cite_note-5 (Zugriff 22.10.2015); https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/F%C3%BCsilier-Regiment_%E2%80%9Evon_Gersdorff%E2%80%9C_%28Kurhessisches%29_Nr._80 (Zugriff 23.11.2015); Geschichtswerkstatt Sulzburg, Sybille Höschele, Auskunft über Stammbaum der Familie Bloch in Sulzburg.
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