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Esther (Elise) Mansfeld (née David) * 1854

Hofweg 9 (Hamburg-Nord, Uhlenhorst)

1943 Theresienstadt
ermordet am 2.1o.1943

further stumbling stones in Hofweg 9:
Herbert Oscar Adler

Esther (Elise) Mansfeld, née David, born on 27 Sept. or 15 Oct. 1854, deported on 23 June 1943 to Theresienstadt, died there on 2 Oct. 1943

Hofweg 9

Her "official” first name was Esther – but she was always called Elise. She was born in Grossendorf, today Rahden/District of Minden-Lübbecke in North Rhine-Westphalia. Her parents were Ascher David and his wife Mina, née Leeser. Her father worked as a tradesman and butcher. Several times, he undertook journeys "to carry out trading business,” e.g., "to Tecklenburg via Osnabrück.” He was issued the passports required for this purpose in those days. Elise had one older sister, who died at the age of four, however. Of her five younger siblings, two died when they were still infants. Elise attended school in Grossendorf.

About 1864 or 1865, the family left Grossendorf. It is not known where they moved. Starting in Mar. 1874, the Jewish David family lived in Hannover.

On 2 Jan. 1879, Elise David, by then 24 years old, married Albert Mansfeld, three years his senior. The entry about her in the marriage certificate indicates "without any special business,” which suggests that she was not pursuing any gainful employment. She moved out of her parents’ home at Engelborsteler Damm 2 and into the apartment of her husband at Engelborsteler Damm 74, where he ran a tobacco and cigar store.

On 14 Nov. 1879, the first child was born, son Paul. The entry in his birth certificate reads, "… that Esther, called Elise, Mansfeld, née David, wife of the merchant Albert Mansfeld, both of the Mosaic [Jewish] faith, residing with her husband in Hannover at Engelborsteler Damm 74, gave birth in her husband’s apartment … to a child of the male sex, who was given the first names of Marcus Paul … .”

On 28 Aug. 1881, the second child was born, daughter Bertha. She was followed by son Otto on 7 Mar. 1884 and daughter Martha on 13 Jan. 1886. The last child born was daughter Clara on 28 Feb. 1890. Elise Mansfeld was 35 years old by then. Starting in 1890, the family moved several times within Hannover. In the first decade of the new century, all members of the Mansfeld family gradually left Hannover.

Elise and Albert Mansfeld initially moved with Clara to Neuruppin on 1 Apr. 1905. From about 1909, they lived in Boxhagen-Rummelsburg, a suburb of Berlin. As he had been in Hannover before, Albrecht Mansfeld was entered in the local directory as a merchant.

Since 1913 at the latest, they lived in Berlin at Graudenzer Strasse 2. In that year, Albert Mansfeld passed away. By then, Elise Mansfeld was 59 years old. She stayed in the apartment for another two years, subsequently residing at nearby Gubener Strasse 13. There she lived for about 20 years until 1938. On 1 July 1938, at the age of 83, she moved in with her daughter Bertha and her husband, who lived in Hamburg, to Hofweg 9. In this place, she spent the last five years of her life until she was deported to Theresienstadt on 23 June 1943, where she died on 2 Oct. 1943.

Elise Mansfeld’s younger sister Jette, born in 1861, suffered a similar fate. She was deported on 3 Oct. 1942 from Berlin to Theresienstadt and died there on 3 Feb. 1943.

What happened to Elise Mansfeld’s children?

The oldest son, Paul, did a commercial apprenticeship in Hannover. He lived with his first wife in Berlin since 1907. This marriage ended in divorce in about 1926.

Paul Mansfeld got married to his second wife, Thea, in Berlin in Feb. 1935. He was detained in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp from 18 June until 12 Sept. 1938. On 3 Feb. 1939, he and his wife gave notification to the residents’ registration office in Berlin that they were moving to Paris, where they wished to wait for their visas for the USA. After the beginning of war, they were interned in France. When their visas were finally available, departure from a French port was no longer possible. On foot, they fled to Spain by way of the Pyrenees and onward to Lisbon. From there, they traveled to the USA by ship in May 1941 to join Thea Mansfeld’s daughter from her first marriage. Paul Mansfeld died in the USA in July 1963.

On 13 Feb. 1908, at the age of 26, daughter Bertha was adopted in Hannover by her aunt Sophie, Elise Mansfeld’s sister, and her husband, Benjamin Biene Bargeboer. Bertha Bargeboer lived in Hamburg since 1914 at the latest. Her adoptive parents, too, lived there for a few years. As a dentist, Bertha Bargeboer operated a dental practice for several years. On 26 June 1917, she married Arnold Adolf Wilhelm Welschen, a merchant and photographer. He moved in with his wife to her apartment on Steindamm, where they would continue to live for many years. Subsequently, they resided on Graumannsweg for a few years, then moving to a spacious apartment at Hofweg 9 in Oct. 1936, where they were joined in 1938 by Elise Mansfeld, who was deported from there. From the end of Oct. 1944 until Apr. 1945, Bertha Welschen-Bargeboer’s non-Jewish husband had to perform forced labor – like all "persons interrelated to Jews” ("jüdisch Versippte"). He was deployed on the Ohlsdorf Cemetery. They were quartered there in a guarded camp, performing hard labor: clearing trees, raking soil, and repeatedly excavating graves for concentration camp prisoners from Neuengamme. Added to this was the worry about the Jewish spouse left behind without any protection.

In her application for support, Bertha Welschen-Bargeboer wrote in Mar. 1946, "I was under the constant emotional pressure of being picked up. My mother, my sister, and my brother were evacuated to the East, from where they did not return.” Bertha died in Hamburg on 19 Apr. 1948.

Otto Mansfeld was a waiter by trade. In Apr. 1906, he was married in Hannover. The couple moved to Berlin-Rummelsburg in July 1907. Nothing is known about the subsequent course of this marriage. Until his deportation, Otto Mansfeld lived in Berlin from 1924 until 1940, in Neukölln on Emser Strasse. He was deported from Berlin to Riga on 27 Nov. 1941. The Memorial Book of the German Federal Archives indicates that he perished there on 30 Nov. 1941. In 1955, the Tempelhof-Kreuzberg District Court (Amtsgericht) in Berlin declared him dead as of 31 Dec. 1945.

Daughter Martha Mansfeld gave notification to the Hannover residents’ registration office on 11 Mar. 1906 that she was moving to Hasselfelde/Harz. At the time of deregistration, her occupation is indicated as "sales assistant and domestic help.” Little is known about her subsequent life. She later lived in Berlin. She got married, and her married name was Gottberg. The marriage ended in divorce. From Berlin, she was deported to Auschwitz on 2 Mar. 1943. Martha Gottberg, née Mansfeld, was declared dead.

The youngest daughter, Clara, did an apprenticeship as a milliner in Hannover. Together with her parents, she moved to Neuruppin in 1905. On 4 Mar. 1922, she married the non-Jewish Fritz Ambos in Berlin. She probably met him at Gubener Strasse 13, where both her mother and the mother of Fritz Ambos lived. Since 1927 at the latest, Clara and Fritz Ambos lived in Berlin SO 36 [postal district] at Cuvrystrasse 36. On the orders of the Gestapo, Clara Ambos was forced to give up her job as a milliner as of 1 Apr. 1943 and leave the company. Her husband, too, had to suffer from reprisals because his wife was Jewish. Fritz Ambos died in June 1949. Clara Ambos, née Mansfeld, who continued to live at Cuvrystrasse 36, passed away on 14 Nov. 1970.


Translator: Erwin Fink

Kindly supported by the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung, Hamburg.

Stand: October 2017
© Ingrid Budig

Quellen: 5; 8; StaHH 332-5, Personenstandsunterlagen, 726 + 871/1915; StaHH 332-5, Personenstandsunterlagen, 878 + 385/1924; StaHH 332-5, Personenstandsunterlagen, 1281 + 378/1948; StaHH 332-5, Personenstandsunterlagen, 3753 + 185/1917; StaHH 351-11, AfW, Abl. 2008/1, 15.10.54 Mansfeld, Elise; StaHH 351-11, AfW, Abl. 2008/1, 28.08.81 Welschen, Bertha; StaHH 351-11, AfW, Abl. 2008/1, 22.04.86 Welschen, Wilhelm; StaHH 522-1, Jüdische Gemeinde, 992e; StaHH 741-4, Fotoarchiv, K 2401 L; StaHH 741-4, Fotoarchiv, K 2416 L; Landesamt für Bürger- und Ordnungsangelegenheiten, Abt. I –Entschädigungsbehörde, Berlin, Reg.Nr. 773, 61.631, 327.509, 348.829, 348.830; Landesarchiv Nordrhein-Westfalen, Sign. P 2 Nr. 237, 239; Stadtarchiv Rahden , Sign. A 416, A 417, A 831, A 832; Stadtarchiv Hannover; AB 1914 bis 1919, 1927, 1938; AB Berlin, 1908, 1909, 1910, 1911, 1912, 1913, 1914, 1915, 1917, 1918, 1920, 1924,1925,1927, 1928, 1935, 1938; Meyer: "Sonderkommando J", S. 102ff.
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