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Käthe Greiffenhagen (née Goldschmidt) * 1902

Eichenstraße 54 (Eimsbüttel, Eimsbüttel)

HIER WOHNTE
KÄTHE GREIFFENHAGEN
GEB. GOLDSCHMIDT
JG. 1902
DEPORTIERT 1942
THERESIENSTADT
ERMORDET 6.10.1942

further stumbling stones in Eichenstraße 54:
Elsa Coutinho, Hans Greiffenhagen

Käthe Greiffenhagen, née Goldschmidt, born on 7 Jan. 1903 in Herlinghausen/ Westphalia, deported to Theresienstadt on 15 July 1942, died there on 6 Oct. 1942
Hans Greiffenhagen, born on 28 Aug. 1872 in Magdeburg/Saxony-Anhalt, deported to Theresienstadt on 5 July 1942, died there on 16 Feb. 1944

Eichenstrasse 54

Käthe Greiffenhagen, née Goldschmidt, was born on 7 Jan. 1903 in Herlinghausen, a small quarter of Warburg/Westphalia. Her father, Sally Goldschmidt, was a horse dealer. His residents’ registration card shows a first wife Minna, née Israel, who was probably the mother of the first child Joseph and died early. Together with his second wife Emmi, née Herschel, and his seven children, Sally moved to Paderborn in Mar. 1915. The marriage was divorced on 11 Jan. 1921. Sally married two more times. He died on 28 Mar. 1932 in Paderborn.

The mother of their children, Emmi, was born on 23 Jan. 1877 in Bonn. Before the divorce, she first moved to a hotel at the beginning of 1919 and from 19 Feb. 1919, she was "traveling,” as is noted on her registration card.

We know nothing about Käthe’s childhood, youth, and possible training. In 1919, at the age of 17, she went to Hannover as an apprentice cook and lived in Hamburg starting in 1924. There she married, on 8 Oct. 1927, Hans Greiffenhagen, born on 28 Aug. 1872, who was 31 years her senior. The marriage remained childless.

Hans Greiffenhagen was born in Magdeburg. His father, Gustav Greiffenhagen, had married Ernestine, née Herzberg, and had seven children with her. Gustav Greiffenhagen was a merchant and according to the 1872 Magdeburg directory, together with the merchant Julius Kronheim he ran a linen goods store and linen factory there, the Kronheim & Greiffenhagen Company. Gustav Greiffenhagen died in 1903.

We know nothing about Hans’ childhood, youth, and training. At some point, he moved to Hamburg, where he was listed as a member in the files of the Jewish Community since 1918. His professional designation there was merchant, later he apparently worked as a bank clerk.

According to the Hamburg directory, in 1930 the Greiffenhagen couple lived at Woermannsweg 3, in 1933 at Stöttrupweg 3, and from 1934 to 1937, at Jarrestrasse 41. From 1938 to 1942, they were registered as residing at Eichenstrasse 54, where today a Stolperstein commemorates both of them (for Käthe Greiffenhagen, 1902 is mistakenly given as the year of birth).

They had to leave this apartment (the "Law on Tenancies with Jews” ["Gesetz über die Mietverhältnisse mit Juden”] dated 30 Apr. 1939 allowed landlords to terminate them) and move to a former Stift, a residential home, which by this time served as a "Jews’ house ("Judenhaus”), at Bundesstrasse 35.

Due to the advanced age of the husband, they received the deportation order for the transport to the Theresienstadt "ghetto for the elderly” ("Altersghetto”) for 15 July 1942.

In Theresienstadt, Käthe Greiffenhagen died on 6 Oct. 1942. Hans Greiffenhagen followed her on 16 Feb. 1944.

Käthe’s mother Emmi Goldschmidt lived in Cologne after she had left the family. She, too, was deported to Theresienstadt, on 15 June 1942. Subsequently, on 19 Sept. 1942, she had to board the train to the Treblinka extermination camp, where she was murdered. She was declared officially dead as of the end of the war.

Translator: Erwin Fink
Kindly supported by the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung, Hamburg.

Stand: June 2020
© Ursula Mühler

Quellen: Auskünfte des Stadt-und Kreisarchivs Paderborn vom 12.2.2018 und 10.1.2019, Auskünfte des Landesarchivs Sachsen-Anhalt vom 18.4.2018 und 7.5.2018, Hamburger Adressbücher , Staatsarchiv Hamburg, 522-1, 992 b Kultussteuerkarten der jüdischen Gemeinde Hamburg, Deportationslisten: http://www.statistik-des-holocaust.de/VI1-14.jpg; https://www.Holocaust.cz/de/Opferdatenbank/Opfer/12917-Hans-Greiffenhagen/