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Celine Wenkel (née Joseph) * 1879

Dammtorstraße 33 (Hamburg-Mitte, Neustadt)

HIER WOHNTE
CELINE WENKEL
GB. JOSEPH
JG. 1879
DEPORTIERT 1941
ERMORDET IN
RIGA

further stumbling stones in Dammtorstraße 33:
Bertha Bachrach, Jeanette Goldberg, Julius Goldberg, Jacob Goldberg

Cissy Celine Wenkel, née Joseph, b. 7.2.1879 in Altona, deported to Riga-Jungfernhof on 12.6.1941

Dammtorstraße 33

Celine Wenkel was one of ten children of the Jewish couple, Louis Joseph (b. 4.29.1853, d. 9.30.1936) and Auguste, née Herzfeld (b. 2.4.1855, d. 8.2.1924). Her parents, who had married on 21 August 1876, lived at first in Altona, where Celine was born on 2 July 1879.

Her father was a master shoemaker and came from London, while her mother came from Brüel in Mecklenburg. By the time Celine’s younger sister Emma (see entry for Emma Schniek) was born on 23 March 1887, the parents had already moved to Neuen Steinweg 61 in Hamburg. They then lived at Marcusstrasse (Markusstrasse) 37-1 and, since 1919, in the Marcus-Nordheim Foundation, at the former Schlachterstrasse 40-42.

Celine, an unmarried young woman, established her own household, and in 1905 lived at Strasse Beim Schlump 21, moved to Grindelberg 79, and then lived at Hoheluftschaussee 31.

From 1908, she had a telephone number, but did not indicate her professional work for the Hamburg telephone and address directory. Around 1912 or 1913, she married the non-Jewish builder August Friedrich Wenkel. Two years after a separation, in 1932, the marriage was dissolved; it was childless. Celine Wenkel kept the apartment on the fifth floor at Dammtorstrasse 33. For a short time in 1934, she entered into a relationship with the 21-year younger Hans Will (b. 1.3.1902), whom she probably met through her younger sister Julia Kischko (b. 3.17.1885; see entry for Senta Joseph). In September 1938, they got together again.

At this point, Celine Wenke intended to emigrate to Columbia. To that end the necessary tax "Clearance Certificate” with regard to the payment of all taxes and fees was issued by the Hamburg Office of the Chief Financial Governor on 7 June 1939. Nevertheless, her emigration fell through. The Foreign Currency Office of the Chief Financial Governor noted in her emigration documents: "emigration not possible at this time.” Perhaps, her failed emigration had something to do with the arrest of her friend Hans Will, who had been detained on the charge of "racial defilement.” Since September 1935, the Nuremberg Laws prohibited not only marriages between Jews and non-Jews, but extramarital relations as well. On 1 November 1939, Hans Will was sentence to three years in prison.

The detention of Celine Wenkel is not a matter of record, but her "Clearance Certificate” expired on 23 June 1939.

Her departure from Dammtorstrasse, whether voluntary or coerced, is unclear; she moved into the Grindel quarter at Heinrich-Barth-Strasse 8. Ultimately, Celine Wenkel went into a "Jew house” at Rutschbahn 25a, renting a room from the couple Ferdinand and Jenny Daniel (see, www.stolpersteine-hamburg.de). Together with them and her sister, Emma Schniek, who had divorced her non-Jewish husband, they were deported to Riga-Jungfernhof on 6 December 1941. None survived.

Her sister Julia Kischko died on 1 March 1939 in Hamburg. Two other sisters, Elise Hartmann (b. 1.7.1893) and Selma Meffert (b. 8.21.1890) were protected by their marriages to non-Jews. Their brother, Max Joseph (b. 3.1.1895, d. 5.22.1960), survived in exile.

Translator: Richard Levy
Kindly supported by the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung, Hamburg.

Stand: June 2020
© Susanne Rosendahl

Quellen: 1; 4; StaH 314-15 OFP, FVg 5748; StaH 213-1 OLG Abl. 8, 143E, L4c; StaH 351-11 AfW 16918 (Joseph, Max); StaH 332-5 Standesämter 2561 u 1109/1876; StaH 332-5 Standesämter 1887 u 4796/1876; StaH 332-5 Standesämter 1910 u 3695/1877; StaH 332-5 Standesämter 6207 u 1849/1879; StaH 332-5 Standesämter 2004 u 2592/1881; StaH 332-5 Standesämter 2195 u 200/1889; StaH 332-5 Standesämter 2261 u 4618/1891; StaH 332-5 Standesämter 2310 u 140/1893; StaH 332-5 Standesämter 2370 u 815/1895; StaH 332-5 Standesämter 2455 u 272/1898; StaH 332-5 Standesämter 3173 u 585/1911; StaH 332-5 Standesämter 884 u 311/1924; StaH 332-5 Standesämter 1052 u 240/1936; StaH 522-1 Jüdische Gemeinde Nr. 992 e 2 Band 3; Gramenz/Ulmer: Juden, S. 114–121.
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