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Jenny Jastrow
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Jenny Jastrow (née Michael) * 1858

Heinrich-Barth-Straße 21 (Eimsbüttel, Rotherbaum)

HIER WOHNTE
JENNY JASTROW
GEB. MICHAEL
JG. 1858
DEPORTIERT 1943
THERESIENSTADT
ERMORDET 18.7.1943

further stumbling stones in Heinrich-Barth-Straße 21:
Hedwig Eisemann, Felix Levy, Amalie Levy, Gerda Link

Jenny Jastrow, née Michael, born on 1 July 1858, deported on 23 June 1943 to Theresienstadt, died there on 18 July 1943

Heinrich-Barth-Strasse 21

Jenny Jastrow was born on 1 July 1858 as the daughter of Jacob Joseph Michael and Rebecka Michael, née Mainz. Her father worked as a merchant in Hamburg, her mother was a native of Frankfurt/Main. In addition to Jenny, the couple, married since 6 June 1854, had three other children: Joseph Jacob (born on 3 Nov. 1855), Elieser Jacob (born on 3 Feb. 1860), and Sophie (born on 20 June 1862).

On 29 Aug. 1876, Jenny was married to Joseph Hirsch Jastrow, who worked as an office and administrative employee for the Norddeutsche Bank in Hamburg. Daughter Rebecka was born as the first child on 26 Aug. 1878. On 6 Feb. 1880, Amalie followed. Joseph Hirsch already passed away on 22 July 1880 and thus did not live to see the birth of their third child, Joseph, on 12 Jan. 1881. From this time onward, Jenny had to raise the three children on her own. After many moves, the family settled on Fehlandstrasse in 1900. From 1916 until 1934, Jenny lived by herself at Beneckestrasse 24.

By then 77 years old, starting in 1935 Jenny Jastrow, together with her daughter Amalie and her son-in-law Felix Levy, occupied an apartment at Heinrich-Barth-Strasse 21. From Nov. 1940 onward, she lived at Jungfrauenthal 6. There, she paid 35 RM (reichsmark) a month for a room including heating and hot water. However, Jenny’s daughter and her son-in-law were not able to attend personally to her well-being, and thus, owing to the efforts of Felix Levy, she moved to the Jewish retirement home at Sedanstrasse 23 in Mar. 1942. This was a charitable institution of the Jewish Community in Hamburg (officially opened on 10. Jan.1886), a place where poor people could find accommodation, free of charge. When moving in, Jenny indicated that she still had 1,900 RM in assets and that to date she had lived from funds sent by relatives emigrated (they had departed for Sweden). However, the Nazi state confiscated their funds. Therefore, Felix Levy came to an agreement with the retirement home, stipulating that Jenny did not have to come up with a deposit payment. Moreover, she was a morphine addict, i.e., she had to take morphine for medical reasons to relieve pain and required up to 40 RM a month for drugs. In order to guarantee this care, the parties agreed upon a monthly nursing care fee of 150 RM. Jenny’s son-in-law also intended to see to it that Jenny handled her own money economically.

On 11 June 1942, Amalie and Felix Levy were deported to Auschwitz. There is no death certificate for either of them, and they were declared officially dead retroactively as of the year 1945.

After the forced evacuation of the retirement home, Jenny had to move to Beneckestrasse 6, where a "Jews’ house” ("Judenhaus”) was located. On 23 June 1943, she was deported from there to the Theresienstadt concentration camp, where she died in the "infirmary room” ("Siechenzimmer”) as early as 18 July.

Jenny’s other daughter, Rebecka, was able to emigrate to New York with her husband Louis Levisohn before the outbreak of World War II, thus evading the Nazi persecution in the "Third Reich.” She put an obituary for her mother in the Aufbau magazine (The publication was established in 1934 and served German Jewish immigrants in the USA as a source of information). On 23 Nov. 1952, Rebecka died in the USA.

Joseph Jastrow, who worked as a bookseller in Berlin, was arrested by the Gestapo together with his wife Gertrud Emelie, née Ickenberg (born in 1895), in their apartment on Kaiserallee on 2 June 1942. Their names are on the list of the "XIV. Transport” (transport to the East, departure on 2 June 1942), whose exact destination is unknown. Joseph and Gertrud Emelie were declared dead as of 8 May 1945.

About 25 years after the murder of Jenny Jastrow, her granddaughters Ruth Therese Rosettenstein and Ella Hanna Heller, both daughters of Amalie, were awarded restitution amounting to 3,300 deutschmarks for the period from 19 Sept. 1941 (from that day, Jews were compelled to wear the "Jews’ star”) until Jenny’s death.

Translator: Erwin Fink

Kindly supported by the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung, Hamburg.

Stand: October 2016
© Johanna Matthiesen

Quellen: StaHH 322-5 Standesämter 45004, 47001, 47002; StaHH 351-11 Amt für Wiedergutmachung 662; StaHH 522-1 Jüdische Gemeinde 696 e, 696 f, 992 n Bd. 15, 992 e 2 Bd. 4, 992 e 2 Bd. 5; Hamburger Adressbücher (HAB) 1873, 1900, 1916-1934, 1935; 522-1 Jüdischen Gemeinden 992b Kultussteuerkarte Jenny Jastrow; http://www.holocaust.cz/de/victims/PERSON.ITI.439596 (27.2.2014, 12:34); http://archive.org/stream/aufbau101944germ#page/n126/mode/1up. (27.2.2014, 11:30); http://www.statistik-des-holocaust.de/OT14-21.jpg (28.2.2014, 10:05); Lange, Alissa: Das jüdische Altenhaus am Grindel. Die jüdische Geschichte des heutigen katholischen Studentenwohnheims Franziskus-Kolleg in Hamburg im 19. Jahrhundert, Hamburg 2008, S. 16.