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Else Kurzbart, Verlobungsfoto
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Else Kurzbart (née Tichauer) * 1893

Dillstraße 1 (Eimsbüttel, Rotherbaum)

1941 Minsk

further stumbling stones in Dillstraße 1:
Frieda Löb, Jakob Löb, Julius Löb, Hildegard Simon

Else Kurzbart, née Tichauer, born on 1 Dec. 1893 in Oppeln (today Opole in Poland), deported to Minsk on 18 Nov. 1941

Dillstrasse 1

Else Kurzbart was born as Else Charlotte Tichauer in Oppeln on 1 Dec. 1893 at nine o’clock in the evening. Her parents were the Jewish couple Nathan Tichauer, an innkeeper, and Dorothea Tichauer, née Schifftan. They probably lived at Proskauerstrasse 43.

No further evidence of the family can be found from this period. They probably moved to Breslau (today Wroclaw in Poland) immediately or a little later. The first official record of the Tichauer family in this city dates back to 1918: Nathan Tichauer lived at 44 Moritzstrasse, and little is known about Else’s life in Breslau. There she learned the profession of a milliner or hatter, respectively, which she practiced all her life.

The date Else met her husband Georg Kurzbart is not known. They married on 26 May 1921. At the age of 14, Georg (born on 17 Dec. 1894) had completed a commercial apprenticeship, and four and a half years later, he had gone to Hamburg for about half a year, where he found employment in Wandsbek. At the age of 19, he had volunteered for military service in the First World War. Due to a gunshot wound on his right upper arm with resulting paralysis, he had returned as a disabled veteran.

On 24 Dec. 1921, their daughter Susi Hanna Kurzbart was born. According to her younger sister Miriam, she was a "five-month child,” which means that she was born shortly after her parents’ marriage. A directory entry in 1923 shows both Georg Kurzbart and Dorothea Tichauer, widowed by then, as residents of the house on Moritzstrasse. On 12 July 1923, their son Hans Micha Kurzbart was born and three years later (13 Mar. 1926), their last child: Dora Thea Kurzbart, who called herself Miriam after the Second World War.

The Breslau directory of 1927 lists Georg Kurzbart for one last time in this city. Apparently, Dorothea Tichauer had died in the meantime and the family had decided to leave Breslau. Therefore, the Kurzbarts sold their property there and moved to Zurich. Miriam reported that her father had gone to Switzerland during the First World War to recover from his injury. Because of this positive experience, he wanted to return there. However, he was not granted a work permit and the family felt that Jews were "unwanted” there.

The family went to Hamburg, the "gateway to the world,” because they intended to emigrate from there to the USA. Although they received an entry permit, Georg Kurzbart would have had to have his hernia operated beforehand in order to be able to start the journey, something he did not want. That is why they stayed in Hamburg. The family can be documented at Breitenfeldstrasse 8 starting in 1928, and for the next three years at Am Kaemmerer Ufer 8.

Both Anna Schulz, a friend of Else, and her daughter Miriam report that the relationship between the spouses had broken down. On 11 Mar. 1931, they divorced and custody of the children was granted to the mother. Nevertheless, the father continued to maintain a good relationship with his children and they visited him every Sunday.

There are contradictory statements about possible alimony payments. One version is that Georg paid 100 marks a month to Else, the other that no payments were made on his part. During this time, Else was employed at the Hammerschlag Hutsalon, a millinery on Neuer Wall, as "1st saleswoman or director,” where she earned around 300 marks a month. With this income, she was able to feed her three children and pay for their education. It is not known when Else got her job there. However, Anna Schulz reported in an affidavit that in 1933, Else had "already worked […] for the company for a long time,” "belonged to the old core work force and held a position of trust within the company.” In addition to providing for "three children of school age,” she had reportedly also been able to "finance a spacious apartment [...] and a housekeeper for the entire household.”

The apartment on Am Kaemmerer Ufer consisted of "three rooms, a tiled kitchen, and a bathroom with hot running water.” Else Kurzbart and her children moved to Neumann-Platz 7 in 1933 and in 1938 at the latest to Dillstrasse 1, where the family lived in five rooms: in addition to a living room and bedroom, they also had a guest room, a room for the two girls and one for Hans. Reportedly, this apartment was "furnished in sophisticated middle-class style.” Else owned a radio, a phonograph, as well as a camera, and an electric sewing machine made by Singer. In addition, there was furniture made of oak wood, as well as glasses and vases made of crystal and porcelain. Apparently, the children were always well dressed and their wishes always granted.

Nevertheless, the family felt the threatening changes with the beginning of the Nazi era: First, they hit Georg Kurzbart. From 1929 to 1935, he ran a tobacco shop in Hamburg, having to give it up due to boycott calls by the Nazis. In 1934, the Gestapo arrested and interrogated him. Reportedly, he had been a member of the German Communist Party (KPD) since 1931, a party banned in 1933. He was taken into custody on charges of "preparation to high treason” ("Vorbereitung zum Hochverrat”) because he had been supposed to forward a letter between two parties. He was helped by the good relationship with his former comrades from the First World War, who attested that he had been a good soldier and comrade during the war. After six months in prison, he was released and the charges were dropped. In the years after that (1936 and 1937), he was arrested several more times.

Apparently, this caused a very tense atmosphere in the family, even though the children were not directly exposed to the persecution measures at the beginning. Else Kurzbart reportedly inquired about Georg at the Gestapo office every day, trying to obtain his release. One year after his release, he married Martha Mensor on 26 Sept. 1937 and emigrated with her to Britain in June 1939.

The family also felt the social upheaval in everyday life. For example, Hans Kurzbart describes that the boys from the Hitler Youth frequently attacked and insulted the Jewish students. The most embarrassing thing for him was that he was not allowed to defend himself, although he was physically able to do so. The atmosphere, he said, had been charged with hatred and threats. For that reason, he shed tears repeatedly.

Else’s employment relationship was also affected. Due to the "Aryanization” of the Jewish Hammerschlag Company, the business received a new management and the Jewish staff was dismissed "as a result of the Nazi legislation” in 1938. In order to be able to compensate for the loss of earnings, Else then worked from her home, where she manufactured hats and also offered services reworking them. She earned only a fraction of her former salary. It is unclear how long she was able to do this work. Anna Schulz reported on her visits, which continued until 1941: "I never went there empty-handed, because I knew of the great financial distress in which Mrs. K. was.”

In 1940, Else Kurzbart was no longer able to keep her apartment on Dillstrasse and moved into a smaller one. At that time, she had already been able to send her children to a safe foreign country. Despite numerous attempts, she was unable to obtain an entry permit for herself to enter another country. She moved several times, to Mainstrasse 9 and to Heinrich-Barth-Strasse 11, as her last entry in the Hamburg directory of 1941 read. In the course of the moves, she had to sell most of her furniture, but was able to keep some of it until her deportation in 1941.

Until 1941, daughter Miriam received regular letters from her mother to neutral Sweden. (In her Bachelor thesis, the author evaluated these letters under the aspect of the mother-daughter relationship). Else also kept in touch with the other children through letters. In her last message to her youngest daughter, she said she "was about to depart." What she meant was deportation.

Else Kurzbart was served the deportation order to the address of "Hamburg Rutschbahn 3 b. [with] Cohn, basement 2.” When she was deported, she had to "drop everything on the spot,” with her furniture confiscated by the Gestapo. Under number 289, "Else Sara Kurzbarth, née Tichauer,” is entered on the deportation list for the transport to Minsk on 18 Nov. 1941.

In the period between 8 Nov. 1941 and 6 Feb. 1942, seven transports from several German cities went to the "Generalkommissariat [also: Generalbezirk] of Weissruthenien [Belarus].” The transport on 18 November left Lloydbahnhof train station in Bremen at 8:40 in the morning and arrived at the Hannoversche Bahnhof train station in Hamburg at around 11:30 a.m. It transported a total of 407 Hamburg residents together with the people from Bremen to Minsk, reaching its destination on 22 November. A ghetto had been set up in this city on 20 July 1941. The Jews from the transport in which Else Kurzbart found herself were accommodated in the "Sonderghetto II.” This "special ghetto” was probably located in the area near the streets "Samkojava” and "Ostrowskogo.”

The exact circumstances under which Else Kurzbart died there can no longer be reconstructed. According to the International Tracing Service of the Red Cross, no "proof of death” exists for her, just as there is no such proof for most of the people deported to this ghetto. Else Kurzbart’s children were also unsuccessful in their research into the exact whereabouts of their mother.

Finally, we will look at what the subsequent lives of the other family members looked like:

After his emigration to Britain, Georg Kurzbart and his wife had another child, by the name of Frank, on 1 Jan. 1945. The family emigrated to San Francisco, USA, either in late 1946 or in early 1947. There Georg called himself "Kurtz” henceforth and worked in a hotel as an "elevator operator.” In 1958, he filed an application for restitution due to National Socialist persecution with the Restitution Office (Amt für Wiedergutmachung) in Hamburg.

Susi Kurzbart had attended the German-Israelite girls’ school in Hamburg from 1928 until Easter of 1938. Her original plan to take the high school graduation exam (Abitur) and study to become a teacher was impossible to realize in Germany. To escape the persecution by the Nazis, she emigrated to the USA: Aboard the "S.S. Gerolstein,” she sailed from Antwerp on 30 July, arriving in New York on 10 Aug. 1938. On the passenger list, one "Hedel Schwartz” is mentioned as an aunt, residing at "948 E 179th St., Bronx, NY.” She was a sister of Georg Kurzbart.

In New York, Susi went by the name of Susan from then on. For a short time, she was able to live with her aunt, but then she had to earn her own living by doing household work, as a nanny, waitress, or factory worker. In the beginning, she attended evening classes at the "James Monroe High School” in New York. However, she had to stop this after about half a year, as she had no time to devote herself sufficiently to classes due to the many changes of employment. On 3 Sept. 1942, she married Larry Lubin. They had a child together. Due to a mental illness of the child and Susan’s refusal to put her son in a home, the relationship between the two spouses deteriorated rapidly, so that they were only married on paper in the end.

In 1959, however, she worked in an office and took evening classes in order to be able to pursue her dream profession as a teacher. She was able to achieve this goal. Susan remained in New York until the end of her life and died in Brooklyn on 3 Apr. 2011.

After his school enrolment at the age of approx. seven and a half, the son, Hans Kurzbart, attended the eight-grade elementary school (Volksschule) on Am Thild in Hamburg from 1930 to 1934/35. A good and popular student there, he was chosen for auditions because of his "good voice [...].” With the beginning of the Nazi era, he changed to the Talmud Tora School, which he attended for a total of two years. Since he was only superficially instructed in "Jewish teachings” at the public school and at home, his grades at the new school deteriorated. Nevertheless, after graduating from secondary school, he planned to take the high school graduation exam (Abitur) and study or to attend a "Seemann-Schule (sic!)” ("sailor school”) to become an officer at sea.

Hans was forced to leave Germany. In 1937, with the help of a Zionist organization, he managed to emigrate to Palestine via a children transport (Kindertransport). Until 1940, he was still able to maintain written contact with his mother. This, however, broke off because Britain, as the Mandatory Power for Palestine, was at war with Germany.

In Palestine, Hans lived in the "Ahawa” youth home near Haifa for about three years. In his second and third year there, he had to do field work, after which he had to earn his own living. In 1940, he became part of the "Vereinigte Kibbutz Kreisgruppe/Bejth-Haschitah” ("united kibbutz district branch, Beit Hashita”), where he also stayed for about three years and pursued changing work activities.

On 20 Apr. 1942, he became an official citizen in Palestine. From 1941 to 1946, he served in the British Army and participated in the "Israelite War of Liberation” in 1948/49. In 1949, he moved to Naharia. According to Miriam, he was fascinated by bus driving and therefore joined the "Egged” bus cooperative in 1950, where he worked as a driver, but also temporarily in the office. He married in 1953 and had three children. His own family life was said to have been "harmonious,” but he was also described as a "tidy, precise, and pedantic” person. He died in Israel in 2000.

Daughter Miriam Pollin had attended the German-Israelite girls’ school for seven years from 1932. In early 1939 – one year before she graduated – she left Germany. With the help of the Warburg family, she reached Sweden via a children transport (Kindertransport), where she lived with a foster family for about two and a half years. When Miriam had to leave her foster family, she worked for a year as a maid in a household to earn a living. For one year, she attended a "home economics school” and in 1942, she joined the "Refugee Collective in Helsingarden near the town of Falun in Sweden.”

On 22 July 1943, she learned about her mother’s fate through a newspaper article in the Göteborgs Handels och Sjöfartsidning. In it, the Soviet soldier Yefin-Leinov reported on the Minsk Ghetto as a "witness to the mass execution.” In addition to the Jews from Belarus, the Jews from Hamburg were referred to specifically. Miriam – at the age of 17 – wrote in her diary on 12 Sept. 1943: "[...] My God, I am completely empty, I have no proper thought in my head. Mommy is dead. Now all hope is gone. It is very bad to hear about the suffering of the Jews, very cruel, but it is even worse when you know exactly who it is. Up to now, I still had a little bit of hope, the hope that everybody has when you do not know that everything is lost, but now - - - -. People laugh and sing, and everyone is happy because it is the first free Sunday in a long time.” This traumatic experience and the persecution in general caused her psychological and physical ailments, which is why she sought psychotherapeutic treatment while still in Sweden and continued to receive therapy after her emigration to Palestine.

In Sweden, she met her husband, whom she married in 1945. She stayed in Falun until the fall of 1946, where she worked part-time and learned the craft of weaving the other half of the day. In 1947, she emigrated to Palestine with her husband. There they moved to Naharia and had two children. To this day, aged over 90, she is has been residing in Israel.

Today, a Stolperstein in front of the house at Dillstrasse 1 commemorates Else Kurzbart. When it was dedicated, her daughter Miriam Pollin was present. Particular thanks are due to her for the valuable help in compiling this biography: She supplemented the findings from the files with her own (documented) memories.

Translator: Erwin Fink
Kindly supported by the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung, Hamburg.

Stand: July 2020
© Tabea Henn

Quellen: 1; 4; 5; Adressbuch Oppeln 1909: https://www.sbc.org.pl/dlibra/publication/1016/edition/916/content?ref=desc, aufgerufen am 19.12.2017; Adressbuch Breslau 1915, 1923, 1927: http://obc.opole.pl/dlibra/docmetadata?id=1302&from=publication, aufgerufen am 19.12.2017; Adressbuch Hamburg 1928–1933, 1938, 1940, 1941: http://agora.sub.uni-hamburg.de/subhh-adress/digbib/view?did=c1:717931&p=891&z=200 (Seite II/595), aufgerufen am 19.12.2017; Bundesgesetz zur Entschädigung für Opfer der nationalsozialistischen Verfolgung (Bundesentschädigungsgesetz – BEG), [siehe: https://www.gesetze-iminternet.de/beg/BJNR013870953.html, aufgerufen am 28.4.2018.]; Einbürgerungsakte des Staates Palästina von Hans Kurzbart; Geburtsurkunde der Stadt Oppeln Nr. 823, vom 4.12.1893 [aus: http://www.szukajwarchiwach.pl/45/1016/0/2.1/32/skan/full/kZgFdYE3-ovyehUliaZHHQ, Abb. Nr. 282, aufgerufen am 06.01.18]; Hochzeitsnachweis Susan Kurzbart; Hochzeitsnachweis Larry Lubin; Passagierliste der "S.S. Gerolstein", Nr. 18 Susi Kurzbart; StaH 351-11, AfW, 15793 (Susan Lubin); StaH 351-11, AfW, 15794 (Hans Kurzbart); StaH 351-11; AfW, 15795 (Miriam Pollin); Treffen mir Miriam Pollin am 7.8.19; U.S: Sterbe-Verzeichnis der Sozialversicherung (SSDI), siehe: https://www.myheritage.de/research/collection-10002/us-sterbe-verzeichnis-der-sozialversicherung-ssdi?itemId=90007742-&action=showRecord&recordTitle=Susan+Lubin, aufgerufen am 27.4.18.; Telefonisches Gespräch mit Miriam Pollin, am 24.4.18; Benz, Wolfgang, NS-Zwangslager und KZ-System. Eine Einführung, in: Nationalsozialistische Zwangslager. Strukturen und Regionen – Täter und Opfer, Wolfgang Benz, Barbara Distel und Angelika Königseder (Hg.), Dachau 2011, S. 13–19; Dünzelmann, Anne E., … keine normale Reise. Eva Warburg und die Kinder/Jugend-Alijah in Schweden, Norderstedt 2017; Goschler, Constantin, Der Umgang mit den Opfern des Nationalsozialismus in Deutschland nach 1945, in: Nach den Diktaturen. Der Umgang mit den Opfern in Europa, Günther Heydemann und Clemens Vollnhals (Hg.), Göttingen 2016, S. 27–45; Gottwaldt, Alfred und Schulle, Diana, Die "Judendeportationen" aus dem Deutschen Reich 1941–1945. Eine kommentierte Chronologie, Wiesbaden 2005; Kosak, Kuzma, Das Ghetto von Minsk, in: Ermordet on Maly Trostinec. Die österreichischen Opfer der Shoa, Waltraud Barton (Hg.), Wien 2011, S. 79–94; Novikau, Siarhei, NS-Lager im besetzten Weißrussland 1941–1944, in: Nationalsozialistische Zwangslager. Strukturen und Regionen – Täter und Opfer, Wolfgang Benz, Barbara Distel und Angelika Königseder (Hg.), Dachau 2011, S. 137–151; Rentrop-Koch, Petra, Die "Sonderghettos" für deutsche Jüdinnen und Juden im besetzten Minsk (1941–1943), in: Deutsche Jüdinnen und Juden in Ghettos und Lagern (1941–1945). Łódź. Chełmno. Minsk. Riga. Auschwitz. Theresienstadt., Beate Meyer (Hg.), Hamburg 2017, S. 88–109; Schulz, Nina, Spiel auf Zeit. NS-Verfolgte und ihre Kämpfe um Anerkennung und Entschädigung, Berlin, Hamburg 2016.
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