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Manfred Norden
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Manfred Moses Norden * 1907

Amelungstraße 6 (Hamburg-Mitte, Neustadt)

HIER WOHNTE
MANFRED MOSES NORDEN
JG. 1907
VERHAFTET 1938
KZ FUHLSBÜTTEL
DEPORTIERT 1942
THERESIENSTADT
1944 AUSCHWITZ
ERMORDET 30.12.1944
DACHAU

further stumbling stones in Amelungstraße 6:
Carl Norden, Betty Norden, Josef Norden

Betty Norden, née Jaffé, born 18 May 1877 in Hamburg, deported 19 July 1942 to Theresienstadt, deported 6 Oct. 1944 to Auschwitz
Carl Norden, born 10 Oct. 1875 in Hamburg, deported 19 July 1942 to Theresienstadt where he died 1 Mar. 1944
Manfred Moses Norden, born 23 Nov. 1907 in Hamburg, deported 19 July 1942 to Theresienstadt, deported 28 Sept. 1944 to Auschwitz, perished 30 Dec. 1944 in Kaufering subcamp of Dachau concentration camp
Josef Carl Norden, born 26 Sept. 1913 in Hamburg, deported 19 July 1942 to Theresienstadt, deported onward 28 Sept. 1944 to Auschwitz, perished 21 Dec. 1944 in Kaufering subcamp of Dachau concentration camp

Amelungstraße 6

In Nov. 2010 Stumbling Stones were laid at Amelungstraße 6, outside the newly constructed building, in memory of the couple Carl and Betty Norden and their sons Manfred and Josef Norden. The family lived there for two decades until other residents in the building demanded that the Nordens move out and threatened to reduce their rent payments as they would not tolerate Jewish neighbors in their building.

When Betty Jaffé and Carl Norden wed in Hamburg on 27 Oct. 1905, they each were still living with their parents who were neighbors at Peterstraße 67 and 68. Carl and his twin brother Alexander Norden were the youngest sons of Moses Norden (born 9 May 1831 in Emden, died 25 Mar. 1905) who ran a pawn shop and his wife Bertha, née Levy (born 10 Feb. 1841, died 5 Aug. 1909). Their older brother Joseph was born five years earlier on 17 June 1870.

The brothers attended the Talmud Torah School at Kohlhöfen 20 which at the time was situated close to their parents’ apartment. After successfully completing the tenth grade, Carl went into commercial training. As of 1904 he was self-employed as a real estate agent at Rödingsmarkt, later at Neuen Wall 71.

Betty’s parents the cigar seller Jacob Jaffé (born 25 Aug. 1828, died 4 June 1915) and his wife Rechel Riekchen, née Ruben (born 14 May 1839, died 10 May 1924), had wed in 1866 in the city of her mother’s birth Halberstadt. She had a brother ten years her senior, Abraham Jacob (born 2 Aug. 1867) and an older sister Julchen Jaffé (born 17 Sept. 1875). When Betty was born in 1877, her parents lived at the 2nd Marktstraße 25 (later Marcusstraße, today Markusstraße). After her came her sister Pauline (born 9 May 1879, died 13 Jan. 1880) and her brothers Meyer (born 2 Nov. 1882, died 15 Nov. 1882) and Benjamin (born 9 Apr. 1884, died 2 Oct. 1917) who were born at Marienstraße 20 (as of 1940 Jan-Valkenburg-Straße).

After their wedding, Betty and Carl Norden moved to the Grindel neighborhood. They lived at Grindelallee 146, then at Bornstraße 3. In 1919 the couple and their four children moved back to Neustadt, Amelungstraße 6. Their eldest daughter Erica was born on 24 Oct. 1906, Manfred Moses followed on 23 Nov. 1907, Martin on 30 May 1911 and Josef Carl on 26 Sept. 1913.

Manfred Norden attended the Talmud Torah School, located in a newly constructed building at Grindelhof 30 since 1911. When he finished school, he undertook commercial training in the tobacco industry before joining his father’s business which also employed two to three staff members. As a licensed real estate agent, Carl Norden visited the Hamburg stock exchange on a daily basis. His office was located at am Pfeiler 22A.

After the National Socialists took power on 30 Jan. 1933, the family’s life gradually changed. Ever new decrees and laws were enacted. As of 6 July 1938, Carl Norden was no longer allowed to work as an estate agent. His license was revoked and with it he was refused admittance to the Hamburg stock exchange. His company was struck from the business register on 10 Mar. 1939.

Manfred found a job at the Jewish community as director of the department for property administration. During the night of the November Pogrom from 9 to 10 Nov. 1938, he and his younger brother Josef were arrested and held at Sachsenhausen concentration camp until 22 Dec. Josef was not released until Jan. 1939.

The Reich Law on Renting to Jewish Tenants of 30 Apr. 1939 changed their legal rent protections, and landlords were now allowed to end rental contracts at short notice.

The lawyer of the landlord of Amelungstraße 6 informed the Norden Family, among other things, "While Mr. B. gave you notice on your apartment, he is not responsible for the circumstances forcing him to terminate your rental contract. In today’s climate, those circumstance are solely to be attributed to yourselves. Had the other residents of the building not demanded of the administrator that you move out, then he would not have issued the termination.”

This difficult situation was compounded by the fact that the Norden Family was in arrears with their rent payments. They moved back to the Grindel District, to Beneckestraße 4, into one of the houses still owned by the Jewish Religious Association, as the Jewish Community now had to call itself.

Their youngest son Josef married Erna Laser on 14 Aug. 1941. She had been born on 10 June 1914, one of six children of the couple Mannheim (Max) Laser (born 3 Apr. 1874) and Johanna, née Rosenberg (born 1 Apr. 1881), in Rothenburgsort. Erna worked as a clerk in the office of the Aid Organization of German Jews. After he was forced to give up his sales job at the Papierhaus Komet am Glockengießerwall in Aug. 1938, Josef worked in the "clothing closet” of the community’s welfare department.

Six months later on 5 Feb. 1942, his brother Manfred married the nurse Margarethe Ofsijowitz from Insterburg in East Prussia, born on 14 Feb. 1917.

At the time his brothers were getting married, Martin Norden had already emigrated. After finishing school, he had started studying to become a high school teacher in Hamburg in 1930. His application for his teaching examination was rejected by the state education board on 22 July 1936 because "non-Aryans” were no longer admitted to the examination. To attain a recognized teaching certificate, he left Hamburg in Jan. 1937 and began studying at the Jewish Teacher’s College in Würzburg. In Mar. 1938 he passed his exam and was qualified as a teacher and religion teacher. In May 1938 he married Ruth Plaut. Ruth was born on 26 Mar. 1912 in Sohrau in Upper Silesia. Her father Raphael Plaut, a public school teacher in Prussian service since 1897, had left Upper Silesia in 1919 with his wife Else, née Fraenkel, and their children and was director of the German-Israelite Orphanage at Papendamm 3 in Hamburg. Her older brother Max Plaut (born 17 Oct. 1901, died 8 Mar. 1974 in Hamburg), former legal advisor of the Jewish Community, was appointed by the Gestapo to the executive committee of all Jewish organizations in Hamburg and since then steered the destinies of the Jewish Religious Association, now a branch of the Reich Association of Jews in Germany.

Martin Norden was offered the position as director of the Jewish orphanage in Wroclaw in July 1938. He was arrested there in the course of the November pogrom (Kristallnacht) and taken to Buchenwald concentration camp. He was released in Jan. 1939 under the provision that he leave Germany immediately. He first fled to Hamburg, dodged the ban on Jews moving to Hamburg by temporarily going into hiding, and immigrated to England in Mar. Two months later Ruth Plaut followed her husband into exile.

Betty and Carl’s only daughter Erica moved to Hanover in Oct. 1934 and later lived in Leipzig on Funkenburgstraße. She too was apparently able to immigrate to England. It was there in 1950 that she married the Hamburg real estate agent James Mathiason (born 16 Sept. 1885, see Eva Emma Mathiason, Stolpersteine in Hamburg-Eimsbüttel).

The Norden couple, their son Manfred and daughter-in-law Margarethe received their deportation orders at the building at Beneckestraße 4; Josef Norden and his wife Erna at Heimhuderstraße 70. On 19 July 1942 they and Erna’s parents were deported to Theresienstadt. In the ghetto, located about 60 kilometers from Prague, they were housed at Berggasse 15. Carl Norden died there on 1 Mar. 1944.

A final sign of life from Betty Norden reached Bornstraße 22 on 15 Sept. 1944. Addressing Fritz Katz, she wrote, "Dear Mr. Katz, I hope you and your dear wife are healthy. I can say the same for us. Due to an overload at the post office, from now on I will write you every other month, while you can send us news every month through the Reich Association of Jews in Germany in Berlin. Parcels are not subject to any limitations and can continue to be sent directly to our address. I hope to hear from you soon. Stay healthy, warm regards, your Betty Norden.”

Any reply will not have reached Betty Norden. Her sons were sent to Auschwitz on 28 Sept. 1944. Her daughters-in-law Erna and Margarethe were forced to follow them on 4 Oct. Betty Norden found herself on one of the subsequent so-called autumn transports to Auschwitz on 6 Oct., transports which continued until 28 Oct. 1944. Unlike their 67-year-old mother, Manfred and Josef Norden were considered fit for work. On 10 Oct. they arrived at Kaufering, a subcamp of Dachau concentration camp, near Landsberg. Upon arrival, Josef received the prisoner number 115575, his brother the number 115574. The living conditions there were catastrophic. The prisoners lived in earthen hovels and had to perform heavy digging and excavation work for armaments production. Josef Norden died on 21 Dec. 1944, his brother Manfred nine days later on 30 Dec.

Erna Norden, Josef’s wife, was transferred on 12 Oct. 1944 to the women’s subcamp of Flossenbürg concentration camp in Freiberg, Saxony (the company Freia GmbH). From there she was moved to Mauthhausen concentration camp on 13 Apr. 1945. She was liberated by the US Army on 5 May. Erna Norden married a second time in Aug. 1946 when she wed Erwin Lippmann (born 30 Aug. 1908) (see Heinz Lippmann and Rosa Cohn). The couple immigrated to Argentina in 1951. In 1971 they returned to Germany. Stumbling Stones were laid for Erna’s parents Mannheim and Johanna Laser and two siblings, Martin (born 26 Mar. 1908) and Felicia (born 7 Dec. 1918) at Billhorner Deich 89 (see Stolpersteine in Hamburg-Rothenburgsort).

Manfred’s wife Margarethe Norden was also liberated at Mauthausen. She later lived in New York, having re-married a man by the name of Weil, and left memorial sheets for her first husband Manfred Norden, her slain parents Eduard Ofsijowitz (born 22 July 1875) and Hulda, née Margulius (born 18 Sept. 1873) and for her grandmother Agathe Margulius, née Salomon (born 27 Nov. 1853) at Yad Vashem.

Carl’s twin brother Alexander Norden married Julchen Jaffé on 11 Sept. 1906, the sister of his sister-in-law Betty Norden. After her death on 9 July 1919, he re-married the following year on 3 Aug. 1920 when he wed Caroline Mindus (born 12 Oct. 1885 in Jemgum). He had three children from his first marriage, Max Moses (born 16 Aug. 1907), Leo Alexander (born 15 Oct. 1912) and Bertha Victoria (born 23 Aug. 1914). In his second marriage, he had two sons Carl (born 9 Sept. 1921) and Siegfried Simon (born 4 May 1924). Alexander Norden lived with his family at Marienstraße 4 (as of 1940 Jan-Valkenburg-Straße) and initially continued to run his father’s pawn shop. Then he worked for many years as a secretary in the Synagogue Association of the German-Israelite Community in Hamburg. As of 1911 he was choir director at the Kohlhöfen Community Synagogue where he was a cantor from 1919 until its closure in 1934.

In Dec. 1938 Alexander and Caroline Norden left Hamburg with their sons. They followed Max Norden who had fled to the Netherlands in Sept. 1937. After the Wehrmacht invaded the Netherlands on 10 May 1940, the Jewish population living there was persecuted and interned at the Westerbork and Vught camps. Alexander and Caroline Norden were deported from Westerbork to Sobibor extermination camp on 20 July 1943. Their son Carl Norden was taken via Westerbork to Auschwitz on 15 June 1942. His younger brother Siegfried Simon Norden and older half-brother Max Moses Norden were forced to follow him on a transport on 10 Aug. 1942. Leo Alexander Norden was the only member of his family to survive. He had immigrated to Palestine via the Netherlands in 1934. Stumbling Stones at Grindelallee 73 bear witness to the killing of his parents and siblings. A further Stumbling Stone has been laid for his sister Bertha Hirnheimer, née Norden, at Annastraße 26 in Würzburg.

Bertha Norden had married Jakob Benno Hirnheimer (born 3 Sept. 1897 in Greußenheim) in Würzburg’s main synagogue on 25 Dec. 1934. The mathematician and scientist, described as exceptionally talented, taught at the Israelite Teachers’ College in Würzburg until it was closed following the November pogrom Kristallnacht in 1938. The couple was deported to Theresienstadt with their three children Wolf (born 12 Nov. 1937), Rachel Mirjam (born 5 Feb. 1939), Moses Menachim (born 7 Mar. 1942) and their grandmother Getta Hirnheimer, née Fuchs (born 30 Apr. 1861), on 23 Sept. 1942. Getta Hirnheimer died there on 17 Nov. 1942. The Hirnheimer’s last common address in the ghetto was at Bahnhofstraße 23. Bertha Hirnheimer was transported to Auschwitz with her children on 12 Oct. 1944 and killed.

Alexander and Carl Norden’s older brother, the Rabbi Joseph Norden who held a doctorate, received his first rabbinate after finishing his degree in Neustettin (Szczecinek) in Pomerania and changed to Myslowitz in Silesia in 1899. Joseph Norden moved to Elberfeld in Wuppertal in 1907 as the successor to Rabbi Zacharias Auerbach, where he worked until his retirement. He had five children with his wife Emilie, née Meseritz (born 12 Jan. 1876 in Berlin) who died in 1931. After retiring from his official position in Elberfelder, Joseph Norden returned to Hamburg in Apr. 1935 and took over the position of Rabbi Bruno Italiener (born 6 Feb. 1881) who had emigrated. Joseph Norden belonged to the Israelite Temple Association and the rabbinical court. He represented liberal Judaism and was held in high scholarly regard through his publications and lectures. He did not take advantage of an opportunity to immigrate to England after his children had already left Germany. Joseph Norden was deported to Theresienstadt on 15 July 1942 where he died on 7 Feb. 1943. Stumbling Stones lay at Kielortallee 13 and Brahmsallee 8 for Joseph Norden (see Stolpersteine in Hamburg-Eimsbüttel and Hamburg-Hoheluft-West). In Elberfeld the Joseph Norden Stairs at Engelnberg were named after him. The Joseph-Norden-Weg in Hamburg-Niendorf was named in his memory in 1982.

Four additional Stumbling Stones have been placed at Hoheluftchaussee 19 bearing the names Jaffé. They were laid in memory of Betty Norden’s nephew, the son of her brother Abraham Jacob, Jonny Joel Jaffé (born 28 Oct. 1910), his wife Anneliese, née Röss (born 5 Mar. 1911 in Kassel), and their children Ruth (born 24 June 1938) and Tirza (born 31 Oct. 1941). They were deported to Auschwitz on 11 July 1942 (see Stolpersteine in Hamburg-Eimsbüttel).

A Stumbling Stone has been laid at Brahmsallee 14 for Jonny Joel Jaffé’s stepmother Clara Jaffé, née Simon (born 15 Sept. 1877 in Friedrichstadt). She was killed in Riga (see Stolpersteine in Hamburg-Eimsbüttel, Harvestehude).

Translator: Suzanne von Engelhardt
Kindly supported by the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung, Hamburg.

Stand: May 2020
© Susanne Rosendahl

Quellen: 1; 3; 5; 7; 8; StaH 351-11 AfW 37178 (Norden, Martin); StaH 351-11 AfW 32562 (Norden, Manfred); StaH 351-11 AfW 2761 (Norden, Carl); StaH 351-11 AfW 3507 (Norden, Betty); StaH 351-11 AfW 39185 (Norden, Carl Josef); StaH 351-11 AfW 37888 (Norden, Leo); StaH 522-1 Abl. 1993 Ordner 15; StaH 314-15 OFP, R 1940/972; StaH 332-5 Standesämter 1907 u 2416/1877; StaH 332-5 Standesämter 1954 u 2264/1879; StaH 332-5 Standesämter 2034 u 5314/1882; StaH 332-5 Standesämter 2077 u 1727/1884; StaH 332-5 Standesämter 3042 u 741/1905; StaH 332-5 Standesämter 3066 u 621/1906; StaH 332-5 Standesämter 8025 u 412/1915; StaH 332-5 Standesämter 882 u 283/1924; StaH 332-5 Standesämter 809 u 484/1919; Auskünfte aus dem Archiv der Gedenkstätte-Dachau von Albert Knoll, E-Mail vom 3.5.2012; Lohmeyer: Stolpersteine, S. 411; Thevs: Stolpersteine, S. 67; Lehmann: Gemeinde-Synagoge Kohlhöfen, S. 40, S. 50; www.joodmounument.nl, (Zugriff 22.9.2011); www.stolpersteine-wuerzburg.de, (Zugriff 8.4.2012); www.alte-synagoge-wuppertal.de, (Zugriff 8.4.2012); Yad Vashem, Zentrale Datenbank der Namen der Holocaustopfer Manfred Norden (Gedenkblatt); Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Hamburg, Offizielles Börsenadressbuch für 1926, Online-Fassung, URL: http://kurzurl.net/HdvJr; Leo Baeck Institute, Internet archive, Max Plaut Collection 1944-after 1973 Bulk dates:1944-1950, S. 2, (Zugriff 25.3.2015); www.ancestry.de (Heiratsindex, England und Wales, Januar, Februar, März 1950 Erica Norden, Zugriff 5.5.2017); http://www.historisches-unterfranken.uni-wuerzburg.de/juf/Datenbank/detailsinclude.php? global=;search;24562 (Zugriff 5.5.2017); USHMM: RG-48.012M.0014.00000106 Dokument von Trevor Culley, E-Mail vom 9.5.2017.
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