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Frieda Mendel (née Davids) * 1880

Heinrich-Barth-Straße 17 (Eimsbüttel, Rotherbaum)

HIER WOHNTE
FRIEDA MENDEL
GEB. DAVIDS
JG. 1880
DEPORTIERT 1942
AUSCHWITZ
ERMORDET

further stumbling stones in Heinrich-Barth-Straße 17:
Arnold Cohn, Chana Cohn, Sally Cohn, Jettchen Israel, Albert Rosenberg, Bertha Rosenberg, Otto Zimak, Helen(e) Zimak

Frieda Mendel, née Davids, born 6/20/1880 in Liverpool, United Kingdom, deported to Auschwitz on 7/11/1942

Heinrich-Barth-Strasse 17

Frieda, also called Frederica or Friederica, was born June 20th, 1880 in Liverpool, England as the daughter of Jewish parents. We know nothing about the first forty years of her life.

Having moved to Hamburg, Frieda married the master butcher Adolf Mendel on June 8th, 1923, (born 2/9/1870), who had lost his wife three years before. Adolf Mendel had two almost grown up children from his first marriage, Emil and Rosa. The family lived at Bornstrasse 22, 4th floor, in an apartment of the Louis Levy Foundation.

In 1923, Adolf Mendel’s son had almost completed his school at the Talmud-Tora-Realschule. About 1925, he started a commercial apprenticeship with Joseph Magnus Jr. His sister Rosa Mendel (born 7/13/1907) worked as a clerk.

Family life was disrupted when Emil was arrested in nearby Schanzenpark in May 1933 – most likely for political reasons – and kept in remand until he was sentenced to two years at hard labor on December 4th. He served the sentence at Fuhlsbüttel prison.

Rosa Mendel left the family home in September 1935 for unknown reasons. Nothing is known of her further whereabouts.

Emil Mendel was unable to live in peace after his release from prison on August 4th, 1935. On June 10th, 1938, he hastily Married Mary Rogers and succeeded in fleeing to Belgium and on to England two days later, because the Gestapo was after him.

Adolf and Frieda Mendel still lived at Bornstrasse 22, but their financial situation had deteriorated – from 1936 on, they received welfare support. Adolf Mendel died of a stroke and an inflammation of the bladder at the Jewish hospital at Johnsallee 56 on November 8th,1941. He was buried in the Jewish section of the Ohlsdorf cemetery.

After his death, his widow Frieda was compelled to move to the "Jews’ house” at Hartungstrasse 17, where she continued to receive welfare payments. On June 10th, 1942, she was ordered to the Jewish Community Center at Hartungstrasse 9/11, where she spent the last night before her deportation. The following day, a train with 300 Jewish men and women left Hamburg for Auschwitz. There is no mention of the arrival of that train in the records of the Auschwitz Memorial Site, but it must be assumed that Frieda Mendel and her fellow sufferers were murdered in the concentration camp’s gas chambers immediately after their arrival.

The fate of the Other Family Members

Emil Mendel’s wife Mary joined her husband in England in October 1938. Two years later, the couple left Great Britain for the USA. On account of the back ailment he had got in prison, they settled in the warm climate of Hollywood, California, where Emil worked as a machine operator.


Translated by Peter Hubschmid

Kindly supported by the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung, Hamburg.

Stand: October 2017
© Esther Yen

Quellen: StaHH, 332-5 Standesämter, 8779 (322/23), Trauschein Adolf Mendel und Frieda Mendel; StaHH, 522-1 Jüdische Gemeinden, 992e 2 Band 4, Liste 3, Transport nach Ausschwitz am 11. Juli 1942 Liste 3, S. 39; Karin Guth: Bornstraße 22. Ein Erinnerungsbuch, Hamburg, München: Dölling und Galitz Verlag 2001; StaHH, 522-1 Jüdische Gemeinde, 922b, Kultussteuerkartei der Deutsch-Israelitischen Gemeinde Hamburg, Kultussteuerkarte Adolf Mendel, Emil Mendel, Frieda Mendel und Rosa Mendel; StaHH, 351-11 Amt für Wiedergutmachung, 31869 Wiedergutmachungsakte Mendel, Mary; StaHH, 351-11 Amt für Wiedergutmachung, 30536 Wiedergutmachungsakte Mendel, Emil; Hamburger Adressbücher (HAB) 1922-1941; StaHH, 332-5 Standesämter, 8174 2a) (368/41), Totenschein Adolf Mendel; StaHH, 522-1 Jüdische Gemeinde, 732 Bd. III, Friedhofsregister Ohlsdorf, S. 55; StaHH, 522-1 Jüdische Gemeinde, 992e 2 Band 4, Liste 1, Transport nach Ausschwitz am 11. Juli 1942 Liste 1, S. 10; Beate Meyer: Rundgang. Stolpersteine im Grindelgebiet, und dies.: Die Deportation der Hamburger Juden 1941–1945, in dies. [Hg.] :Die Verfolgung und Ermordung der Hamburger Juden 1933–1945. Geschichte. Zeugnis. Erinnerung, Hamburg: Landeszentrale für politische Bildung 2006.