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Walther Henry Specht * 1884

Maria-Louisen-Straße 2 (Hamburg-Nord, Winterhude)

HIER WOHNTE
WALTHER HENRY
SPECHT
JG. 1884
FLUCHT HOLLAND
INTERNIERT WESTERBORK
DEPORTIERT 1943
SOBIBOR
ERMORDET 3.7.1943

further stumbling stones in Maria-Louisen-Straße 2:
Clara Nordheim, Moritz Nordheim, Herbert Gustav Specht

Walther Specht, born on 26 June 1884 in Hamburg, deported in 1943 from the Drancy camp to the extermination camps Majdanek and Sobibor, murdered on 7 Mar. 1943

Maria-Louisen-Strasse 2 (Winterhude)

Walther Henry Specht was born on 26 June 1884 in Hamburg-Eimsbüttel together with his twin sister Irma in the home at Fruchtallee 1. Fourteen months before them, their brother Reinhold Specht (on 7 Apr. 1883 in Hamburg) had been born. The parents August (called Gustav) Specht (1851–1918) and Henriette Gitel Specht, née Hirsch (1857–1884) had married in Hamburg in July 1882. In Dec. 1882, August Specht acquired Hamburg civic rights as well as German citizenship (instead of the previous Hungarian citizenship). For this, he had to submit character references, which he received from lawyer Julius Segalla and merchant Martin Lassally (Lassally & Sohn, Kaffee- u. Warenkommissionäre). His wife Henriette, a native of Hamburg and daughter of the Hamburg merchant and Hamburg citizen Samuel Hirsch (1829–1905) and Adele, née Danziger (1834–1910), died two months after the birth of the twins and she was buried in the Jewish Cemetery in Hamburg-Ohlsdorf.

The father August Specht, who came from the then Hungarian wine-growing region of Werschetz/Versec in the Banat (Temes County), was the son of the wine merchant Josef Specht (1822–1888) and his wife Rosa, née Deutsch (1825–1905), who had lived in Vienna since 1878 and were also buried there in the Viennese Central Cemetery, "Israelite Section.” August (Gustav) Specht had six siblings, three brothers (Ladislaus Specht, 1847–1932; Hugo Specht; Emil Specht, 1866–1942?) and three sisters (Hyazinte Hirsch, née Specht; Gisela Hirsch, née Specht, born in 1854; Sidonie "Siddy” Schenk, née Specht).

August Specht had moved to Hamburg in 1880 and applied for a trade license that same year. In 1881, he had joined the recently founded company "Colonialwaaren en gros” Hirsch & Co., a wholesale grocery, as co-owner (at Catharinenstrasse 16 on the second floor). The founder of the company was his brother-in-law, born in Cservenka in Hungary, and from 1888 Hamburg citizen Josef Hirsch (1845–1892, married since 1873 to Gisel(l)a Specht, born on 9 June 1854 in Versec). August Specht also vouched for Josef Hirsch when the latter had to produce two guarantors for his naturalization. The company expanded its wholesale business to include tea starting in 1883, and in 1888, moved its business premises to the newly completed duty-free port area (Pickhuben 1).

August Specht also traveled for the company: In 1886, he applied for a passport for Scandinavia, which was valid for one year. In 1887, he again obtained a passport for trips abroad, which were presumably also on business, but this time, no country name was noted in the passport log. In 1889, August Specht changed industries and became co-owner of the Hermann Hamberg banking business at the age of 38.

In 1891, August Specht had married Regina Liepmann (1861–1921), a native of Altona, in his second marriage. Their son Arthur Joseph Abraham was born in 1892. The family lived at Klosterallee 20 (1883–1884), Fruchtallee 1/ Eimsbüttel (1884–1885), Bogenstrasse 15/ Eimsbüttel (1886–1887), Oberstrasse 2/ Harvestehude (1887–1890), Wrangelstrasse 51/ Hoheluft-West (1891), Hochallee 37/ Harvestehude (1892–1899), Schlüterstrasse 16/ Rotherbaum (1900–1914), and Eppendorfer Landstrasse 44/ Eppendorf (1914–1921).

Walther Specht attended a Realgymnasium [a high school focused on the sciences, math, and modern languages] in Hamburg, from which he graduated in 1902. He completed his commercial apprenticeship at the Hermann Hamberg banking firm, which his father had joined as a partner in Mar. 1899; in Jan. 1910, Walther Specht was given power of attorney there. Since 1913, Walther Specht was an independent member of the Hamburg German-Israelitic Community.

He did not complete his one-year military service with the Hanseatic Infantry Regiment 76 as planned, since the draft board classified him as unfit and only intended him for the "Landsturm I mit Waffe” ("Armed Territorial Reserve I”; i.e., the last draft of conscripts). After the beginning of the First World War, the Landsturm was also drafted. His brother Reinhold, who had also been assigned to "Landsturm I mit Waffe” at his army physical, enlisted as a war volunteer in Aug. 1915 for the Replacement Battalion of Infantry Regiment 76. His brother Arthur Specht, who had been classified as temporarily unfit for military service, was recalled two days after Germany's entry into the war and assigned to a training unit. Walther Specht would also have been drafted into the Imperial Army as a soldier, either voluntarily or with by draft notice. During the war, he maintained a friendship with the independent coal broker Hubert Frensdorff (born on 17 Sept. 1880 in Hamburg), whom he supported in Dec. 1938 with 500 RM for his intended emigration to Shanghai.

On 25 Feb. 1922, Walther Specht married Gertrud "Trude” Franck (born on 10 July 1900 in Berlin) in Hamburg, the daughter of Hermann Franck (1856–1910), a Berlin merchant born in Gadebusch/Mecklenburg, and his wife Elsbeth "Else” Franck, née Pariser (1870–1930), who came from Breslau (today Wroclaw in Poland). The father was buried in 1910 in the Jewish Cemetery in Berlin-Weissensee, the mother in 1930 in the Hamburg-Ohlsdorf Jewish Cemetery.

The bride had graduated from the Realgymnasium in 1919 and worked briefly at the Springer publishing house in Berlin. Walther and Gertrud Specht had two sons: Herbert Gustav (born on 3 Sept. 1923 in Hamburg) and Edgar (born on 2 Oct. 1926 in Hamburg). Edgar attended Bertram’s Preparatory School for Boys (at Esplanade 42) starting in April 1933, which students left after four years to transfer to a high school. Herbert Specht had been attending this school since the spring of 1930.

The family’s residential addresses were Eppendorfer Landstrasse 44 on the raised ground floor/ Eppendorf (1922–1932) and Maria-Louisen-Strasse 2 on the second floor/ Winterhude (1933–1935). Two domestic servants took care of the latter home. The residential addresses indicate spacious apartments with upscale furnishings – where the furnishings ended up cannot be inferred from the restitution files subsequently compiled. In Sept. 1926, Walther Specht purchased two oil paintings from the "Commeter’sche Kunsthandlung (Wilhelm Suhr), Hamburg, Hermannstrasse 37 (Commeterhaus)” for a total of 2,500 RM (reichsmark): "Straße mit Kirche” ("Street with Church”) by the French painter Maurice Utrillo and a landscape painting by the French Impressionist Frédéric Cordey.

Walther Specht’s sister Irma Specht (1884–1953) married the merchant Julius Philip (born on 18 May 1877 in Hamburg) in 1914. The brother Reinhold Specht (1883–1953) married (in 1936 ?) Frieda de Beer (born on 18 July 1900 in Emden), who had moved in May 1936 from Oldenburg (Oldenburg) to Hamburg to live at Brahmsallee 25 on the third floor.

Since Aug. 1923, Walther Specht had been the sole proprietor of the Hermann Hamberg banking business (Gutruf-Haus, Neuer Wall 10 on the fourth floor). In 1935, he left the banking business with his investment of around 400,000 RM (reichsmark) and emigrated to the Netherlands with his wife and sons on 29 Dec. 1935. The state authorities of Nazi Germany plundered him, with the outward appearance of legitimacy, by means of laws in such a way that the family lost more than half of its assets (Reich flight tax [Reichsfluchtsteuer] of 100,000 RM; transfer losses to the Netherlands amounting to 102,000 RM; levy on Jewish assets ("Judenvermögensabgabe”) amounting to 14,500 RM).

In Jan. 1936, the Hamberg banking business was converted into an oHG (general partnership), in which the brother-in-law Julius Philip was now additionally included as a partner, but according to the extract from the company register, Walther Henry Specht was still entered as well. An audit report of the foreign currency office in Sept. 1938 came to the following conclusion with regard to the ownership and shareholding structure: "The distribution of profits is based on 20% for Walter [sic!] Specht and 80% for the partner by the name of Philip, who in turn sub-participated the former bankers Otto Hertmann and Erich Friedberger (see www.stolpersteine-hamburg.de) with 33 1/3% each, after these latter two persons had placed their securities clients at the disposal of the company under report.”

On 20 Oct. 1938, customs secretary Janssen issued a "security order” ("Sicherungsanordnung”) against the Hamberg banking house as well as its owner Julius Philip and his wife Irma Philip, née Specht, whereby all of their accounts were blocked. In Jan. 1939, the Hermann Hamberg banking business, founded in 1885, was deleted from the company register. Finally, the unsettled clientele had also left and on 19 July 1938, the Nazi state had withdrawn the bank’s status as a foreign exchange bank. The liquidation of the enterprise was managed by the authorized signatory Otto Hertmann (1890–1943) and the external auditor Friedrich Marquardt.
The owners of the banking business emigrated: Walther Specht in Dec. 1935 to the Netherlands, Erich Friedberger in Mar. 1938 also to the Netherlands and Julius Philip in Nov. 1938 to the USA. Together with Erich Friedberger, his wife Henriette "Netti” Friedberger, née Franck (born on 18 June 1897 in Berlin), a sister-in-law of Walther Specht, emigrated as well. In Nov. 1940, the Secret State Police (Gestapo)/ State Police Headquarters Hamburg (at Stadthausbrücke 8) inquired with the foreign currency office of the Chief Finance Administrator (Oberfinanzpräsident) (at Grosser Burstah 31) whether Walther and Gertrud Specht still had assets in the German Reich, which the foreign currency office answered in the negative. Otherwise, further asset seizures would have been made from the Specht family’s property.

For the neutral Netherlands, visa-free entry was still in effect in 1935; however, the Amsterdam aliens branch of police tightened asylum practices and issued only temporary residence permits starting in 1935. The Spechts sent their household goods to the Netherlands in a large shipping container. They moved into a house in Heemstede (Franz Schubertlaan 50) west of Amsterdam. Edgar attended the "Dreefschool (Lagere School)” in Heemstede and in 1939, after passing the entrance examination, transferred to the Kennemer Lyzeum in neighboring Overveen (Bloemendaal), which the older son Herbert also attended until Sept. 1940.

Walther Specht also opened his own banking business in the Netherlands. Its revenue amounted to about 18,000 RM (10,333 Dutch guilders = hfl) in the business years 1936/37, about 36,000 RM (20,858 hfl) in 1937/38, about 12,000 RM (6,886 hfl) in 1939/40, and about 2,600 RM (1,457 hfl) in 1940/41. He had the business address of Heerengracht 384 in Amsterdam (including from Oct. 1937 to July 1938) printed on the letterhead of his company stationary.

At the end of 1938, all immigrants in the Netherlands were required to obtain new residence documents; the "illegal immigrants” identified as a result were interned in the Westerbork camp. Since the Specht family had entered the Netherlands legally and had also imported a large sum of capital, they were not affected by this tightening of the law. Alarmed by Nazi Germany’s aggressive expansionist policies, Herbert’s father made efforts to emigrate to the United States with his family; however, the attempts were unsuccessful.

Walther and Gertrud Specht also supported family members and friends financially as best they could from the Netherlands. To do so, they had to obtain permission each time from the foreign currency office of the Hamburg Chief Finance Administrator so that the amount could be transferred from their "emigrant’s balance,” which was blocked in Hamburg. In the period 1938 to 1939, the beneficiaries included brother Reinhold Specht, sister Irma Philip with her husband Julius Philip, Hans Philip, brother-in-law Erich Friedberger with wife Henriette Friedberger and their children Gerhard Friedberger and Vera Friedberger, aunt (?) Margarethe Tetta Pariser in Berlin-Wilmersdorf, wartime comrade Hubert Frensdorff in Hamburg, and the daughter of a longtime friend, Annie Rosenthal, in Berlin-Halensee. Walther Specht sent a telegram from the Netherlands to his brother Reinhold in Hamburg in Nov. 1939: "Passage paid Amexco (American Express Company, note by author) wire on Monday – Walther.” Background to the few words of the telegram was the financing of the ship passage by Walther Specht. This enabled Reinhold and Frieda Specht to depart for Bolivia in Jan. 1940.

With the invasion of the German Wehrmacht in the Netherlands in May 1940, the persecution of the Jews began there as well. The Specht family had to leave their house in Heemstede in mid-Sept. 1940, as they were not allowed to live in the coastal area as German Jews, according to the orders of the German occupiers. They moved to Hilversum about 40 kilometers (some 25 miles) east of their previous place of residence. However, the occupiers expelled them from there as well – in mid-March 1942, they had to relocate to Amsterdam. There they lived at Noorder Amstellaan 129 on the third floor (renamed Churchill-Laan 129 in May 1946). By order of the occupying forces, son Edgar was only allowed to attend the Jewish School in Amsterdam starting in Feb. 1942. The older son Herbert attended the "Institute for Car Dealers” (founded in 1930, today IVA Driebergen) in Driebergen until the beginning of 1942.

After the German Reich had revoked their German citizenship on 11 Nov. 1941, they were stateless, making legal emigration impossible. Visas already applied for on their German passports had suddenly become uncertain again. Only from the few unoccupied European ports with overseas traffic, such as Marseille, Barcelona or Lisbon, passage by ship was conceivable with the passports invalid by then. On 2 May 1942, the German occupation forces also introduced the wearing of the "Jews’ star” in the Netherlands. Through raids and denunciation, Jews were arrested and interned in the Westerbork transit camp, which was taken over by the SS in early July 1942.

The Spechts decided to escape to the still unoccupied French southern zone with the help of smugglers. In order to meet the costs of the escape, Herbert’s father had to sell a painting by Maurice Utrillo for 8,000 guilders (about 5,850 RM).

The Specht family of four fled illegally through occupied Belgium to occupied France in July 1942 with forged papers and paid "passeurs” (people smugglers). "We could use the railroad only occasionally and only for short distances, never when crossing the country’s borders, since our forged papers would not have held up in a border check. We covered long distances on foot and crossed the border at night, which was often only possible after days of waiting and many futile attempts,” reported Gertrud Specht in the 1950s in the course of the restitution proceedings.

They intended to flee from Paris to Vichy France, which had not yet been occupied. "Shortly after crossing the demarcation line, we were stopped by a patrol,” Gertrud Specht recalled. They were arrested and taken to the Gurs camp near the Pyrenees for a few weeks on 3 Sept. 1942. From there, Walther Specht wrote to his emigrant nephew William H. Philip (born in 1915) in San Francisco that they did have a visa for Guatemala, but "it is a rather disastrous story, when we have been intending to move our domicile there for more than three years now (it has almost been four years by now) and have been prevented from doing so again and again.” The wife and sons Herbert and Edgar also wrote a few sentences on the letter, one of which was blacked out by the camp censor.

After an interim transfer to the Rivesaltes camp (near the Pyrenees, close to the Mediterranean Sea), some 45 kilometers (nearly 30 miles) from the Spanish border, which had been under a German commander since the German occupation in Nov. 1942, they were again sent to the Gurs camp in Nov. 1942. On this occasion, the parents managed to hide their sons Herbert and Edgar illegally in the village of Chambon.

At the end of Feb. 1943, Walther Specht was separated from his family and deported in the direction of Paris; Gertrud Specht (1900–1981) escaped from the Gurs camp in June 1943 through the efforts of the priest Alexander Glasberg (1902–1981) and was smuggled on to Switzerland in March 1944, where the younger son Edgar had already been taken to safety in June 1943.

The older son Herbert Specht also escaped from the French camp. He had been taken from Rivesaltes to Cambon together with other young people. In Dec. 1942, together with a young man with forged papers, he returned to the Netherlands, where he was able to remain in hiding until 1943. On 26 Aug. 1943, he was tracked down by the SS Security Service (SD) and taken to the Westerbork camp. There he met his cousin Gerhard Friedberger (born in 1921 in Hamburg), who later recalled that Herbert Specht was still "in full possession of his physical and mental powers” even after four months in the camp and eight months in hiding.
From Westerbork, Herbert Specht was deported to the Auschwitz extermination camp on 31 Aug. 1943, where he arrived on 3 Sept. 1943; no information about his death has been preserved.

Walther Specht was transferred from the Gurs camp to the Drancy transit camp near Paris at the end of Feb. 1943. From there, he was deported to one of the extermination camps established in occupied Poland, Majdanek or Sobibor, in early Mar. 1943 and murdered there. (The Federal Archives in Koblenz also mention both places in their Memorial Book).

Emil Specht (born 27 Mar. 1866 in Versec), the brother of August Specht and a merchant by trade, had worked for some time in his brother’s tea wholesale business since 1888 and then set up his own wine wholesale business in Hamburg. He was best man at the second marriage of his brother August Specht in 1891, took German citizenship (instead of Hungarian) in 1900, was a member of the Hamburg German-Israelitic Community before 1913 and a member of the German Alpine Club, Hamburg Section, since 1920. He was arrested by the police on 9 Aug. 1941 for the offense of "racial defilement” ("Rassenschande”) and sentenced to two years in prison in June 1942. Since all prisons, penitentiaries, and concentration camps in the German Reich were to be rendered "free of Jews” starting in the fall of 1942, he was transferred to the Auschwitz extermination camp on 10 Dec. 1942, where he was murdered. A Stolperstein was laid for him in front of the house at Uhlandstrasse 4 (Hohenfelde).

The brother Arthur Specht (born 3.6.1892 in Hamburg) had set up his own business in January 1919 after a commercial apprenticeship and commercial activity ("Kommis"). His company Arthur Specht dealt in tobacco products; in June 1923, during the inflation, he sold the company. In October 1924 he had a passport issued in Hamburg and is said to have moved to the Netherlands in November 1924. Due to a lack of sources, the following twenty or so years of his biography cannot be reconstructed. Arthur Specht later emigrated from the Netherlands to Colombia and died in 1972.

His brother Reinhold Specht (born on 7 Apr. 1883 in Hamburg) was self-employed from 1920 to 1925 as an agent and commodities broker in the field of winery supplies and had his business premises at Alte Gröningerstrasse 2 (Hamburg-Altstadt) near the duty-free port. His Jewish religious tax (Kultussteuer) card file, which the Jewish Community had kept since 1919, showed only very small payments after the inflation year of 1923, which indicates economic difficulties. The fact that it was the Relief Organization of German Jews (Hilfsverein der deutschen Juden) that informed the former Jewish Community of Hamburg, by then organized as the Reich Association of Jews in Germany, Branch Office Northwest Germany” ("Reichsvereinigung der Juden in Deutschland, Bezirksstelle Nordwestdeutschland”), of his departure also fits in with this. Reinhold Specht, together with his wife Frieda, boarded the Italian ocean liner "M.S. Orazio” on 19 Jan. 1940, which was to take them from Genoa, Italy, to Arica, Bolivia. The tickets were purchased in Hamburg at the branch office of the "Vereinigte Italienische Schiffahrtsgesellschaften Generalvertretung für Deutschland GmbH" (Neuer Jungfernstieg 17). The steamer, carrying over 600 passengers, burned out after an engine explosion and sank off Toulon on 22 January, killing 106 people. Reinhold and Frieda Specht survived, but lost all of their suitcases and transport boxes carried on the ship.

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

Stand: December 2021
© Björn Eggert

Quellen: Staatsarchiv Hamburg (StaH) 213-13 (Landgericht Hamburg, Wiedergutmachung), 10777 (Henry Walther Specht); StaH 213-13 (Landgericht Hamburg, Wiedergutmachung), 25206 (Walther Specht); StaH 231-7 (Handelsregister) A 1 Band 60 (Hermann Hamberg, HR A 14476); StaH 231-7 (Handelsregister) A 1 Band 83 (Arthur Specht, HR A 20284); StaH 314-15 (Oberfinanzpräsident), F 2139 (Walther Specht); StaH 314-15 (Oberfinanzpräsident), FVg 3485 (Reinhold u. Frieda Specht); StaH 314-15 (Oberfinanzpräsident), F 588 (Hubert Frensdorff); StaH 332-5 (Standesämter), 8505 u. 470/ 1882 (Heiratsregister 1882, August Specht u. Gitel Henriette Hirsch); StaH 332-5 (Standesämter), 8975 u. 1340/1883 (Geburtsregister 1883, Reinhold Specht); StaH 332-5 (Standesämter), 8988 u. 2510/1884 (Geburtsregister 1884, Walther Specht, mit Randvermerk 22.7.1940 zur Wohnadresse in Heemstede); StaH 332-5 (Standesämter), 8988 u. 2511/1884 (Geburtsregister 1884, Irma Specht); StaH 332-5 (Standesämter), 8525 u. 789/1886 (Heiratsregister 1886, Hermann Hamberg u. Emma Elkan); StaH 332-5 (Standesämter), 5919 u. 819/1891 (Heiratsregister 1891, August Specht u. Regina Liepmann); StaH 332-5 (Standesämter), 7982 u. 415/1905 (Sterberegister 1905, Samuel Hirsch); StaH 332-5 (Standesämter), 9554 u. 17/1914 (Heiratsregister 1914, Irma Specht und Julius Philip); StaH 332-5 (Standesämter), 9768 u. 3651/1918 (Sterberegister 1918, August Specht); StaH 332-5 (Standesämter), 9849 u. 1676/1930 (Sterberegister 1930, Elsbeth Franck geb. Pariser); StaH 332-5 (Standesämter), 8109 u. 269/1931 (Sterberegister 1931, Otto Hirsch); StaH 332-7 (Staatsangehörigkeitsaufsicht), A I e 40 Band 10 (Bürger-Register 1876-1896, L-Z), August Specht (15.12.1882, Nr. 10587); StaH 332-7 (Staatsangehörigkeitsaufsicht), A III 21, Band 3 (Aufnahme-Register 1880-1889, A-H), Josef Hirsch (12.5.1888, Naturalisation Nr. 28759); StaH 332-7 (Staatsangehörigkeitsaufsicht), A III 21, Band 5 (Aufnahme-Register 1880-1889, R-Z), August Specht (12.12.1882, Nr. 18607); StaH 332-7 (Staatsangehörigkeitsaufsicht), A III 21, Band 12 (Aufnahme-Register 1897-1905, Sch-Z), Emil Specht (3.2.1900, Nr. 58797); StaH 332-7 (Staatsangehörigkeitsaufsicht), B III Nr. 18607 (August Specht); StaH 332-7 (Staatsangehörigkeitsaufsicht), B III Nr. 28759 (Josef Hirsch), mit ungarischer Staatsangehörigkeits-Entlassung, Auskunft Polizeibehörde Hamburg, Leumundszeugnissen und Bürgen; StaH 332-7 (Staatsangehörigkeitsaufsicht), A I e 40 Band 9 (Bürgerregister 1876-1896, A-K) Jos. Hirsch (geb. 6.12.1845 Czervenka, Kaufmann, Bürgerrecht Nr. 14653 am 18.5.1888); StaH 332-8 (Meldewesen), K 6260 (Alte Einwohnermeldekartei 1892-1925), Adele Hirsch geb. Danziger; StaH 332-8 (Meldewesen), Alte Einwohnermeldekartei (1892-1925), K 6261 (Josef Hirsch); StaH 332-8 (Meldewesen), Alte Einwohnermeldekarte (1892-1925), K 7000 (Regina Specht geb. Liepmann); StaH 332-8 (Meldewesen), A 24 Band 55 (Reisepassprotokolle, Nr. 570/1886, August Specht); StaH 332-8 (Meldewesen), A 24 Band 56 (Reisepassprotokolle, Nr. 638/1887, August Specht); StaH 332-8 (Meldewesen), A 24 Band 317 (Reisepassprotokolle, Nr. 22913/1924, Arthur Specht);StaH 342-2 (Militärersatzbehörden), D II 111 Band 4 (Reinhold Specht), StaH 342-2 (Militärersatzbehörden), D II 115 Band 7 (Walther Specht); StaH 342-2 (Militärersatzbehörden), D II 147 Band 10 (Arthur Specht); StaH 351-11 (Amt für Wiedergutmachung), 7468 (Gertrud Specht); StaH 351-11 (Amt für Wiedergutmachung), 7469 (Edgar Specht); StaH 351-11 (Amt für Wiedergutmachung), 23305 (Gertrud Specht); StaH 351-11 (Amt für Wiedergutmachung), 45721 (Herbert Gustav Specht); StaH 351-11 (Amt für Wiedergutmachung), 40518 (William H. Philip); StaH 351-11 (Amt für Wiedergutmachung), 44661 (Gerald Friedberger); StaH 522-1 (Jüdische Gemeinden), 992b (Kultussteuerkartei der Deutsch-Israelitischen Gemeinde Hamburg), Walther Specht, Reinhold Specht, Arthur Specht; Stadsarchief Amsterdam, Archiefkaarten van Persoonskaarten, Walther Specht, Gertrud Specht; Institut Theresienstädter Initiative/ Nationalarchiv Prag, Todesfallanzeige Margarete Pariser, geb. 7.5.1871 (ohne Ortsangabe), wohnhaft Berlin Spichernstr. 19, gest. 8.9.1942 in Theresienstadt (Qu 808 Zimmer 02); Yad Vashem, Page of Testimony (Walther Specht 1999, ohne Foto); Jüdischer Friedhof Hamburg-Ohlsdorf, Gustav August Specht (Grablage A 12-50), Henriette Specht geb. Hirsch (Grablage A 12-49), Adele Hirsch geb. Danziger (Grablage B 10-271), Else Franck geb. Pariser (Grablage M 2-83), Otto Hirsch (Grablage K 1-166); Handelskammer Hamburg, Handelsregisterinformationen (Reinhold Specht, HR 21433; Arthur Specht, HR A 20284); Hamburger Börsenfirmen, Hamburg 1910, S. 241 (Hermann Hamberg, Fondsmakler u. Vertr. v. Londoner Stockbrokers, Börsenplatz: Pfeiler 63 Sitz a, eingetragen 1890, Inhaber: Hermann Hamberg u. August Specht, Prokurist: Walther Henry Specht, Neuer Wall 16-18), S. 293 (Otto Hirsch, gegr. 1887, Tee-Im- u. Export, Imp. jap. Seide u. japanischer Seiden-Taschentücher, Cigaretten, Pickhuben 4 II, Tel: w. Fa. Vereinsbank unter Sammy Hirsch Witwe); Hamburger Börsenfirmen, Hamburg 1926, S. 375 (Hermann Hamberg, Bankgeschäft, gegr. 1885, Inhaber: Walther Henry Specht, Prokurist: Julius Philip, Neuer Wall 16-18); Hamburger Börsenfirmen, Hamburg 1935, S. 306 (Hermann Hamberg, Bankgeschäft, gegr. 1885, Inhaber: Walther Henry Specht, Prokurist: Otto Hertmann, Neuer Wall 10 III. Stock); Frank Bajohr, "Arisierung" in Hamburg. Die Verdrängung der jüdischen Unternehmer 1933-1945, Hamburg 1998, S. 358 (Hermann Hamberg); Maike Bruhns, Geflohen aus Deutschland. Hamburger Künstler im Exil 1933-1945, Bremen 2007, S. 167-168 (Niederlande); Michael Buddrus/ Sigrid Fritzlar, Juden in Mecklenburg 1845-1945, Band 2 Kurzbiografien, Schwerin 2019, S. 181 (Hermann Franck, mit Foto seines Grabsteins); Claus-Dieter Krohn/ Patrick von zur Mühlen/ Gerhard Paul/ Lutz Winckler (Hrsg.), Handbuch der deutschsprachigen Emigration 1933-1945, 2008, S. 321-333 (Niederlande); Frank Kuitenbrouwer, Raubkunst aus dem Zweiten Weltkrieg in den Niederlanden, in: Inka Bertz/ Michael Dorrmann, Raub und Restitution. Kulturgut aus jüdischem Besitz von 1933 bis heute, Göttingen 2008, S. 259-265; Karin Thomsen, Zur Entwicklung der Sektion Hamburg und Niederelbe des Deutschen Alpenvereins e.V., insbesondere der Umgang mit ihren jüdischen Mitgliedern, Hamburg 2015, S. 53 (Emil Specht); Adressbuch Hamburg (G. A. Specht) 1883-1892, 1894, 1896; Adressbuch Hamburg (August Specht) 1897-1900, 1910, 1912, 1913, 1921; Adressbuch Hamburg (Walther Specht) 1924, 1926, 1927, 1932-1934; Adressbuch Hamburg (Arthur Specht) 1920-1924; Adressbuch Hamburg (Hirsch & Co) 1881-1883, 1885-1889; Adressbuch Hamburg (Josef Hirsch) 1885, 1887-1889; Adressbuch Berlin (Hermann Franck) 1897-1910; Adressbuch Berlin (Else Franck geb. Pariser) 1911-1922; www.stolpersteine-hamburg.de (Erich Friedberger, Otto Hertmann, Emil Specht); www.ancestry.de (Heiratsurkunde Nr. 714 von 1896 Berlin VI Hermann Franck u. Elsbeth Pariser; Geburtsurkunde Nr. 1670 von 1900 aus Berlin für Gertrud Franck; Sterbeurkunde Nr. 107 von 1910 Berlin XIIa Hermann Franck; Grab in Berlin-Weissensee 1910 Hermann Franck; Einbürgerung William H. Philip); https://www.joodsmonument.nl/en/page/219918/walter-henry-specht (mit Foto, eingesehen 25.09.2019); https://www.geni.com/people/August-Specht/6000000003304788034 (eingesehen 25.09.2019); https://www.geni.com/people/Henriette-Specht/6000000085851691924 (eingesehen 25.09.2019); https://www.geni.com/people/Josef-Specht/6000000017949364402 (eingesehen 30.10.2019); https://www.geni.com/people/Ladislaus-Specht-Jr/6000000017949590475 (eingesehen 18.11.2019); www.tracingthepast.org (Volkszählung Mai 1939), Margarethe Pariser (geb. 7.5.1871 in Breslau, Lehrerinnenseminar Breslau, wohnhaft Berlin-Wilmersdorf, Spichernstr. 19 bei Pinner).