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Elsa Salomon (née Riess) * 1877

Kurzer Kamp 6 Altenheim (Hamburg-Nord, Fuhlsbüttel)

1941 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, Chaile Charlotte Lippstadt, Isidor Mendelsohn, Balbine Meyer, Helene Adele Meyer, Ida Meyer, Ella Rosa Nauen, Celine Reincke, Friederike Rothenburg, Benny Salomon, Martha Rosa Schlesinger, Louis Stiefel, Sophie Stiefel, Louise Strelitz, Eugenie Hanna Zimmermann

Elsa Salomon, née Riess, born on 10.9.1877 in Hamburg, deported on 8.11.1941 to Minsk and murdered.
Benny Salomon, born on 5.1.1875 in Hamburg, deported on 8.11.1941 to Minsk and murdered

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

Elsa, née Riess, was born on 10 September 1877, in the afternoon at 2 o'clock, in Hamburg at Zeughausmarkt 9 in her parents' flat. The world of her childhood was accompanied by the scent of tobacco. Her father Robert Riess (born 9.2.1847 in Fürstenberg, Mecklenburg) had come to the Hanseatic city at the age of 23 to earn his living in the tobacco business. Three years later he had acquired a trade licence as a cigar manufacturer. After starting his own business, he married Elsa's mother Selma Meyer (born 18.9.1845 in Stavenhagen) on 22 November 1874. Elsa's brother Henry had been born one and a half years before her, on 9 March 1876, also at Zeughausmarkt 9. Elsa was followed by her sisters Lilly (born 3.4.1881) in the flat at Spielbudenplatz 13 and Erna (born 25.5.1884) at Thalstraße 57.

When Elsa reached school age, her father's company "R. J. Riess" with tobacco and cigars was located at Spielbudenplatz 13. No records have yet been found about Elsa's school years and education. When Elsa was 20 years old, her father and with him she and the whole family were admitted to the Hamburg state in 1897. It was to be about 9 years before she married Benny Salomon.

Benny Salomon was born on 5 January 1875 at Margarethenstraße 35 in Hamburg-Eimsbüttel. His father, the "Manufacturwarenhändler" Selig Salomon (born 23.12.1836), came from Königsberg, East Prussia, Benny's mother, Friederike, née Mannheimer (born 2.3.1843), from Schwedt. His parents had married in Schwedt on 18 December 1866. Before the marriage, his father had gone to California for nine years, from 1853 to 1862. After his return, he had run a cut and dress shop in Königsberg. Benny's three older siblings Bertha (born 28.10.1867), Julie (born 29.4.1869) and Meyer (born 3.8.1870) had also been born there. The family moved with the three children to Hamburg in 1872. The youngest sister Beate was born on 11 December 1876, one year after Benny, in Hamburg-St. Pauli at Amandastraße 10. The family was members of the German-Israelite community in Hamburg. In Benny's year of birth, his father Selig Salomon had registered his business as a "commissionaire", i.e. he traded in goods that he had taken on commission. He had joined the Landsturm on 1 October 1875.

Benny was nine years old when the family was able to move into the Marcus-Nordheim-Stift, Schlachterstraße 41/42, which was founded in 1882, without having to pay rent. According to the ideas of the founder of the foundation and his predecessor Lazarus Gumpel (Lazarus Gumpel Foundation, established in 1837), families could move into the free flats who, exempt from paying rent, could still support themselves. The foundation's statutes state that this was done "to prevent the increasing complete impoverishment of proper and active but impecunious Jewish citizens". That same year, in November 1884, Selig Salomon and family were admitted to the Hamburg State Association.

Benny's seven-year older sister Bertha worked as a seamstress and lived with the family in Schlachterstraße until her marriage on 23 December 1892. She became the wife of the police sergeant Karl Emil Ernst Schneider (born 25.4.1866) from Bergstraße in Altona. He was Catholic, Bertha stuck to her Jewish faith. Karl Schneider came from Memszin, Katonitz, his parents were the hunter Karl Josef Schneider and Karoline, née Grzyb. Their first-born daughter Johanna died of "paedatrophy" (emaciation) in September 1893 at the age of 20 days in her parents' flat in Schlachterstraße. The couple had three other daughters: Ella Karoline (born 1894), Gertrud (born 1896) and Sophie (born 1898).

Benny's sister Julie, called Golde, worked as a saleswoman. She married the widower Salomon Loebel Berger (b. 16.3.1859), ten years her senior, on 15 March 1894 at the age of almost 35. He was a "Victualienhändler" (traded in food) and came from Bergfreiheit, district of Beuthen.

Benny's older brother Meyer Salomon became a merchant and traded in grain and other things. He was a member of the Hamburg Chamber of Commerce and had founded the Hamburg Grain Exchange in 1897. His company exported chemicals, bought damaged goods, especially from shipwrecks, from all Hamburg shipping companies, shipbrokers and warehouses, from Llyod, Hapag, Hansaline, Knoehr & Burchard, Sloman Jr. ect. He received "Fegselscheine" (for goods resulting from cleaning) and surplus goods; it was the biggest business in the industry in Hamburg. Meyer Salomon married Goldine Drucker (born 13.4.1873) on 1 June 1899. Her brother Ernst Drucker was the well-known theatre director at Spielbudenplatz. Two children were born of this marriage, Abraham Alfred (born 25.6.1903) and Mathilde (born 24.7.1905).

Benny Salomon made his living as an insurance broker during this time, in 1905. The 29-year-old Elsa Riess and the 31-year-old Benny Salomon married on 25 October 1906, their fathers acting as witnesses. Both had lived with their parents until then, Elsa at Logenstraße 20 and Benny at Marcus-Nordheim-Stift. Together they moved to Breitenfelderstraße 12. Benny Salomon was now the owner of a registered trading company with his own stock exchange stand, Pfeiler 27. He ran his business with cigars en gros, possibly in conjunction with his father-in-law, initially at Catharinenkirchhof 31. On 6 December 1907, their daughter Irma was born. One week later, on 13 December 1907, Benny's father Selig Salomon died, unexpectedly shortly before his 71st birthday. He had been staying at Meßberg 7 that afternoon. The family refused an autopsy, presumably for religious reasons. He found his final resting place at the Ilandkoppel Ohlsdorf Jewish Cemetery. Benny's mother Friederike Salomon continued to stay in the Marcus-Nordheim-Stift.

Benny's youngest sister Beate Salomon married the merchant Feis Plaut (b. 25.4.1849) on 13 August 1908 at the age of 31; her brother Meyer Salomon was best man. Feis Plaut, also called Theodor, came from Reichensachsen (Hesse) and had come to Hamburg from South Africa a year earlier. He had then lived in the Salomon family's neighbourhood at Schlachterstraße 20. The newlyweds Plaut moved to Lehmweg 3.

One and a half years after Benny Salomon's father, Benny's mother also died. On 28 May 1909, Friederike Salomon, née Mannheimer, succumbed to a heart attack in the flat of her son Meyer Salomon, Rutschbahn 2. She was 66 years old. Benny Salomon ran a "Commissionshandel" with the business address Grimm 20 during this time.

Elsa's youngest sister Erna Riess had been married to the merchant Hirschel Fischer (born 23.7.1867 in Myslowitz) since 30 June 1909. His father, the merchant Baruch Fischer, had already died in Breslau, his mother Ernestine, née Sternberg, married Markwald, lived in Berlin. In the following year, Hirschel Fischer received permission from the High Senate to use the additional name "Hugo". Under this name he ran a trading company for the export of small ironware, later, from 1919, under the name "Hermann Hugo Fischer". Their son Kurt Maximilian Fischer was born on 11 April 1910.

Benny's sisters Julie Berger and Beate Plaut both became widows within a short time. Julie Berger's husband Loebel Berger died at the age of 51 on 31 December 1910 in the Eppendorf hospital. He was buried in the Ilandkoppel Ohlsdorf Jewish Cemetery. The marriage of Beate and Theodor Plaut lasted only three years. Theodor Plaut died at the age of 61 on 27 January 1911 in the Eppendorf General Hospital. The marriage remained childless. Julie, née Salomon, widowed Berger, married Ludwig Louis Baruch (born 17.3.1870 in Frechen, Cöln district) in her second marriage on 16 June 1911. He was a member of the Henry Jones Lodge.

On 28 May 1915, Elsa Salomon's sister Lilly Riess married the Hamburg merchant Moritz Meyer Bauer (b. 12.4.1864) at the age of 34. His agency and commission business was located at Admiralitätsstraße 19, the couple lived at Glashüttenstraße 114.

Elsa and Benny Salomon's daughter Irma grew up in her parents' four-room flat at Löwenstraße 56, raised ground floor. From April 1914, she attended Dr. Löwenberg's secondary school at 33 Johnsallee.

From 1916 to 1918, Benny Salomon took part in the First World War as a soldier, as did his brother Meyer Salomon. During this time, Elsa Salomon's mother Selma Riess, née Meyer, died on 11 October 1916 at the age of 71. Elsa's father Robert Riess then lived with Elsa Salomon in Löwenstraße for a while. After the war, on 17 April 1919, he died at the age of 72 in his flat, Breitenfelderstraße 40.

Benny's sister Bertha Schneider was widowed on 13 October 1919 and her husband Karl Schneider died in their shared flat at Osterstraße 46. He was buried in a single grave in the Ohlsdorf cemetery, grave location P 33 III, No. 537. The wedding of their daughter Ella Karoline to the horse dealer Friedrich Karl Hencken took place a month later. Bertha Schneider continued to share the flat with her daughter Gertrud until she died there two years later on 1 February 1922 at the age of 56 from diabetes, myocarditis (inflammation of the heart muscle) and apoplexy (stroke). Bertha Schneider, née Salomon, was laid to rest in the Jewish cemetery Ilandkoppel Ohlsdorf, grave location ZX 11, No. 455. Her daughter Gertrud married the factory manager Willi Otto Schwarz one year later.

Elsa's brother Henry Riess had meanwhile settled in New York and had adopted the double name Riess-Vasques when he married Alma Estelle Vasques, who came from Brooklyn. At the age of 46, he and his wife, who was 16 years younger, are listed on a ship's passenger list of the "San Lorenzo", which sailed from San Juan, Puerto Rico, to New York in October 1922. He also travelled this route over the next few years, perhaps on business. In 1926 Henry Riess-Vasques became an American citizen, his business address was in New York at 130 William Street.

The period after the First World War proved difficult for Benny Salomon and thus also for Elsa and her daughter Irma. His commission business was only registered in his flat. Illness and unemployment had put him in dire straits, and from 1926 he received support from the Welfare Commission of the German-Israelite Community and the Middle Class Aid. Only occasionally did he earn a small income; with the help of friends he was able to support himself and the family.

Daughter Irma had stayed at the Löwenberg School for ten years. She had learned English and French, then attended a one-year household course at the vocational school and continued to take language lessons. Benny and Elsa Salomon wanted a practical profession for their daughter that promised a financially secure future. So in 1927 Irma began an apprenticeship in the tailor's studio of the Freundlich fashion company, Poststraße/corner of Neuer Wall. At the request of the company owner, she changed jobs after one year and was taken on as a sales interpreter because of her language skills. She stayed there for three years, then took a job at the Unger company, Jungfernstieg-Alsterarkaden.

In September 1930, doctors at the Freemason's Hospital diagnosed Benny Salomon with arteriosclerosis of the brain. Elsa Salomon was also ailing, suffering from asthma. In order to secure their livelihood, they rented out two furnished rooms. Elsa Salomon was able to supplement her income to a small extent as a seamstress and home worker. Daughter Irma was also ill for a long time. From mid-October to the end of December 1932 she was treated for a bladder complaint in the Freemason hospital. With the beginning of the National Socialist rule in 1933, the Unger company dismissed Irma Salomon for "racial" reasons.

Benny's sister Beate Plaut, a widow for 22 years, last lived in the Samuel-Levy-Stift at Bundesstraße 35a. She suffered from arteriosclerosis and diabetes. She died at the age of 57 in the Israelite Hospital on 6 May 1933. She was buried in the Jewish cemetery Ilandkoppel Ohlsdorf next to her sister Bertha Schneider, née Salomon, grave location ZX 11, No. 456.

Elsa and Benny Salomon were ill and completely dependent on help. The Salomon family received free food from the Jewish Community and was also supported by relatives. In July 1933, they moved into a cheaper three-room flat at Alsterdorferstraße 107, where they again sublet a room. Their daughter Irma fell ill again. This time she had to spend a month in the Jewish hospital from 23 November.

In spring, on 13 April 1934, she went on a trip to Italy to recover her health. She had been invited by acquaintances. Soon after her return, she travelled to Italy again and then emigrated there for good on 11 January 1935. On 20 February 1935, Irma Salomon married Dr. Guiseppe Enea (born 20.4.1906) in Rome. He came from Naples and was a civil servant at the Ministry. In the meantime, Irma Salomon had been baptised a Christian.

Benny's brother Meyer Salomon died on 11 January 1937 in Hamburg on his way to the harbour hospital. He was 66 years old. Death from internal causes was certified at the hospital. His burial took place at the Jewish cemetery Ilandkoppel, grave location ZX 10, No. 472. The widow Goldine Salomon, née Drucker, emigrated to America one year after the death of her husband with their two children and two grandchildren. In the meantime, her son Alfred had joined his father's company and, as a businessman, was affected by the anti-Jewish boycotts. Meyer and Goldine Salomon's daughter Mathilde was a bank clerk and had married the doctor Dr. Nathan Meyer, who came from Regensburg, in March 1925 and had two children with him.

Elsa and Benny Salomon were able to move into the "Julius und Betty Rée Stift", Schedestraße 29, ground floor, in June 1937. They had to pay a monthly rent of only RM 5, which provided them with existential relief. This year, 67-year-old Benny Salomon was to be called up for "compulsory labour" in the port of Waltershof. However, his physical condition did not permit this and so he was removed from the list. After the laws and decrees of the National Socialists also included the residential homes and Jews were only allowed to live in certain "Jewish homes", the Salomon couple had to move into the Mendelson-Israel-Stift on 8 January 1940. They did not live there for two years. On 8 November 1941, Elsa and Benny Salomon were deported to Minsk and murdered. Elsa Salomon, née Riess, was 64 years old and Benno Salomon was 66.

Irma Enea, the only daughter of Elsa and Benny Salomon, searched in vain for her parents after the war from Milan via the Italian consulate. She had moved from Rome to Milan with her husband Giuseppe Enea on 21 April 1954. Six years later, from 25 August 1960, they both returned to Rome. Irma Enea, née Salomon, died in Rome on 20 October 1983 at the age of 75. Grandchildren of Elsa and Benny Salomon could not be located.

The siblings of Elsa Salomon, née Riess
Elsa's brother Henry Riess-Vasques was safe in the USA and registered with his wife in the United States Census in Los Angeles, California, in 1940. He died in New York on 9 January 1945 and was buried at Ferncliff Crematory. His wife died in Brooklyn, New York, in December 1956.

Elsa's sisters were victims of the Shoah: Lilly Bauer, née Riess, had lived with her husband Moritz Bauer, 17 years her senior, in the Martin-Brunn-Stift at Frickestraße 24 since 1933. He died there on 25 October 1937 at the age of 73 and was buried by the funeral brotherhood in the Jewish cemetery Ilandkoppel, grave location M 3, No. 111. The grave next to him remained reserved. The marriage had remained childless. On 18 November 1941, Lilly Bauer, née Riess, was deported to Minsk and murdered (for biography see www.stolpersteine-hamburg.de). She was 60 years old. A Stolperstein commemorates her at Frickestraße 24.

Elsa's youngest sister Erna Fischer, née Riess, had lived at Eppendorfer Landstraße 18 the entire time since her marriage. On 15 July 1942, she and her husband Hermann Hugo Fischer were deported to Theresienstadt. Erna Fischer, née Riess, died there four months later on 17 November 1942, she was 58 years old. Her husband Hermann Hugo Fischer died in the Theresienstadt ghetto on 23 February 1943, he was 75 years old. Stolpersteine commemorate both of them at Eppendorfer Landstraße 18.

Her son Kurt Maximilian Fischer had become an insurance broker and worked as an authorized representative in his father's company. Under the pressure of National Socialist persecution, he emigrated to Italy in 1940, perhaps to join his cousin Irma Enea, née Salomon. In 1942, at the age of 30, Kurt Fischer was admitted to the "Ospedale Psychiatrico Interprovinciale dell' Umbria", the psychiatric mental hospital in Perugia, with the diagnosis "delirio paranoico". In 1962, he was transferred to the Voltera sanatorium. Kurt Fischer died there on March 7, 1962 at the age of 52. It can be assumed that his suffering was also caused by the pressure of persecution.

The siblings of Benny Salomon
Benny's sister Julie Baruch was deported to Theresienstadt with her husband Ludwig Baruch on July 19, 1942. Julie Baruch, née Salomon, died there three months later, on October 7, 1942, of "intestinal catarrh and stroke", according to the death notice. She was 73 years old. Ludwig Baruch was deported to Auschwitz on May 15, 1944 and murdered. He was 74 years old (for his biography, see www.stolpersteine-hamburg.de). Two silver knives, which Ludwig Baruch had previously been forced to hand in in Hamburg, were publicly auctioned at Drehbahn 36 on August 18, 1942. The proceeds of 4 RM went to the Chief Finance President.

Ella Hencken, the daughter of Benny's sister Bertha Schneider, died in April 1936 at the age of 41. The other two daughters died after the war. Sophie Schneider had become a singer and married Ernst Vollrath von Lepel in Berlin in 1936. She died on Norderney in January 1965. Gertrud Schwarz was 69 years old when she died in Hamburg in February 1966. All the daughters were members of the German-Israelitic community until their marriage.

Benny's sister-in-law Goldine Salomon died in New York two years after the end of the war. Her son Alfred Salomon died of a heart attack in New York in August 1961 at the age of 58.

Translated by Margot Löhr

Stand: November 2023
© Margot Löhr

Quellen: 1; 3; 4; 5; 7; 8; StaH, 241-1 IJustizverwaltung, 128; StaH, 332-3 Zivilstandsaufsicht, Geburtsregister, A 296 Nr. 17/1875 Benny Salomon; StaH, 332-5 Standesämter, Geburtsregister, 1880 u. 1195/1876 Henry Riess, 1889 u. 5738/1876 Beate Salomon, 1911 u. 4276/1877 Elsa Riess, 2002 u. 1674/1881 Lilly Riess, 2078 u. 2485/1884 Erna Riess, 2316 u. 3408/1893 Johanna Schneider, 2345 u. 2547/1894 Ella Karoline Schneider, 6295 u. 2385/1896 Gertrud Schneider, 2464 u. 454/1898 Sophie Schneider; StaH, 332-5 Standesämter, Heiratsregister, 2799 u. 1343/1892 Karl Emil Ernst Schneider u. Bertha Salomon, 2830 u. 288/1894 Salomon Loebel Berger u. Julie Golde Salomon, 8596 u. 280/1899 Meyer Salomon u. Goldine Drucker, 8645 u. 280/1906 Benny Salomon u. Elsa Riess, 8662 u. 183/1909 Hirschel Fischer u. Erna Riess, 3109 u. 493/1909 Feis Plaut u. Beate Salomon, 8675 u. 197/1911 Ludwig Baruch u. Julie Berger, geb. Salomon, 8705 u. 97/1915 Moritz Meyer Bauer u. Lilly Riess, 8798 u. 74/1925 Nathan Meyer u. Mathilde Salomon, 8734 u. 702/1919 Friedrich Carl Hencken u. Ella Karoline Schneider; StaH, 332-5 Standesämter, Sterberegister, 348 u. 1866/1893 Johanna Schneider, 7891 u. 117/1895 Rosa Drucker, 332-5, 584 u. 1998/1907 Selig Salomon, 7997 u. 241/1909 Friederike Salomon, 9701 u. 1/1911 Salomon Loebel Berger, 9701 u. 247/1911 Feis Plaut, 8033 u. 612/1916 Selma Meyer, 8056 u. 502/1919 Karl Emil Ernst Schneider, 9774 u. 1283/1919 Robert Riess, 8070 u. 52/1922 Bertha Schneider, 1009 u. 198/1933 Beate Plaut, 8143 u. 54/1936 Ella Karoline Hencken, 1071 u. 8/1937 Meyer Salomon, 1070 u. 304/1937 Moritz Meyer Bauer, 10180 u. 688/1966 Gertrud Schwarz; StaH, 332-7 Staatsangehörigkeitsaufsicht, AIf Bd. 173 Nr. 22080 Robert Riess, B III 8762 Robert Riess, B III 22421 Selig Salomon; StaH, 342-2 Militärersatzbehörden, D II Nr. 79 Bd. 4 Benny Salomon; StaH, 351-11 Amt für Wiedergutmachung, 1636 Hugo Fischer, 22281 Albert Riess, 27681 Salomon Meyer, 30275 Mathilde Meyer; StaH, 352-5 Gesundheitsbehörde, Todesbescheinigungen, 1907 Sta 1 Nr. 1998 Selig Salomon, 1909 Sta 3 Nr. 241 Friederike Salomon, 1911 Sta 3a Nr. 247 Feis Plaut, 1933 Sta 2a Nr. 198 Beate Plaut, 1937 Sta 2b, Nr. 8 Meyer Salomon; 1937 Sta 2a Nr. 403 Moritz Meyer Bauer; StaH, 361-2II Oberschulbehörde, Abl. 2007/1, Nr. 1, 343; StaH, 376-2 Gewerbepolizei, Spz VIII C 9 Nr. 3451 Robert Riess Spz VIII C 11 Nr. 2117 Selig Salomon; StaH, 741-4 Fotoarchiv, K 6014, K 6737, K 6808, K 6849; StaH, Hamburger Börsen Adressbuch, A 909/0022 Nr. 11 1912/13; StaH, Hamburger Börsen Adressbuch, A 902/0017, 1926, 1928, 1829; Hamburger Adressbücher 1872–1943; Archiv Friedhof Ohlsdorf, Beerdigungsregister, 1919 Nr. 11170, 1922 Nr. 1455; Datenbankprojekt des Eduard-Duckesz-Fellow und der Hamburger Gesellschaft für jüdische Genealogie, Grindelfriedhof, Ohlsdorf 1902–1907, 1908–1914, 1922–1930, 1931–1939, C8-73, M 3-111, ZY 11-429/430, ZZ 10-115, ZX 10-244, ZX 11-455/456, ZY 10-263, http://jüdischer-friedhof-altona.de/datenbank.html, eingesehen am: 22.2.2022; Institut Theresienstädter Initiative, Nationalarchiv Prag, Jüdische Matrikeln, Todesfallanzeigen, Julie Baruch, Erna Fischer, Hermann Fischer; Maria Koser: Stolpersteine in Hamburg-Eppendorf und Hamburg Hoheluft-Ost. Biographische Spurensuche, Hamburg 2011, S. 63–65; Descendants of Sussmann PLAUT, https://www.jinh.lima-city.de/gene/chris/plaut/0303- Plauts_aus_Reichensachsen.htm, eingesehen am: 28.3.2022; Enrique Riess Vazquez, 14.2.1922, citing departure port San Juan, Puerto Rico, arrival port New York, ship name Ponce, https://heritage.statueofliberty.org/passenger-details/czoxMjoiMTAwMDA3MTgwMDIzIjs=/czo4OiJtYW5pZmVzdCI7, eingesehen am: 6.4.2022; Enrique Riess Vasquez, 9.1.1945, citing Death, Manhattan, New York, United States, New York Municipal Archives, Family History Library (FHL), microfilm 2,132,192, eingesehen im Juli 2015. Herzlichen Dank an Bruno Philippson und Daniel Victor Klein!
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