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Alice Sachsenhaus (née Cohn) * 1882

Schlüterstraße 5 (Eimsbüttel, Rotherbaum)

HIER WOHNTE
ALICE
SACHSENHAUS
GEB. COHN
JG. 1882
DEPORTIERT 1941
ERMORDET IN
RIGA

further stumbling stones in Schlüterstraße 5:
Lotte Mansfeldt, Bela Mansfeldt, Günter Rosenthal, Adolf Sachsenhaus, Martha Seidel

Adolf Sachsenhaus, born on 6 Feb. 1876 in Jaroslaw, deported to Riga on 6 Dec. 1941

Alice Sachsenhaus, née Cohn, born on 6 Sept. 1882 in Hamburg, deported to Riga on 6 Dec. 1941

Schlüterstrasse 5

Adolf Sachsenhaus was born as the son of the Jewish couple Meyer and Lotti Sachsenhaus, née Glasscheib, in Jaroslaw in southeastern Poland. He emigrated to Hamburg, where he married Alice Cohn on 24 Aug. 1920. Edgar Seligmann, residing at Emilienstrasse 78, and the merchant Siegmund Rosenkranz, residing at Grindelallee 126, served as witnesses to the marriage. The marriage of the Sachsenhaus couple remained childless.

Alice Cohn was the daughter of the merchant Philip Cohn (born on 20 June 1842 in Hamburg) and his wife Cecilia, née Polly (born on 14 Feb. 1854 in Puerto-Cabello, Venezuela). The Cohn family lived in the Rotherbaum quarter at Bornstrasse 20. Philip Cohn died on 22 Oct. 1898. Probably mother and daughter moved to Rappstrasse 3 on the fourth floor afterward. The resided there at the time of the wedding in 1920. Cecilia Cohn died on 20 Apr. 1921 and she was buried in the Jewish Cemetery on Ilandkoppel.

After Cecilia Cohn’s death, Adolf and Alice Sachsenhaus took over the apartment at Rappstrasse 3. Adolf Sachsenhaus worked as an authorized signatory and owned a wood brokerage firm, which had its headquarters in the same building. From 1933 onward, business went worse and the couple had to move. In 1937, they lived at Rothenbaumchaussee 101/103 in House 5 on the second floor. On 1 Mar. 1940, they moved for three years to Schlüterstrasse 5, their last address in Hamburg. During this time, they took in Martha Seidel as their Haustochter [note: in this context, a daughter/girl of legal working age employed as domestic help/nanny in another household]. She was deported to Lodz on 25 Oct. 1941, where she died. A Stolperstein was also laid for her at Schlüterstrasse 5.

On 3 Dec. 1938, the "Ordinance on the Use of Jewish Assets” ("Verordnung zum Einsatz jüdischen Vermögens”) was issued, according to which "security orders” ("Sicherungsanordnungen”) could prevent Jews from disposing of their financial means. In Mar. 1941, this ordinance also affected Adolf Sachsenhaus. He was ordered to liquidate his business by 31 March and to arrange for the deletion of the business from the company register.
Adolf Sachsenhaus complied with the requests. In a letter to the Chief Finance Administrator (Oberfinanzpräsident), however, he once again drew attention to his poor financial situation: "I would like to note also that I am completely destitute and that if I do not find any employment, which I have not yet succeeded in doing at the age of 65, I will be dependent on welfare support in a short time.” His objection did not help.

In 1940, Adolf Sachsenhaus had earned at least 274 RM per month. This was just enough to cover his living expenses. (72 RM in rent, 120 RM in living expenses, no domestic helpers, 20 RM in miscellaneous expenses). However, according to the "security order,” the Sachsenhaus couple had only 60 RM in cash, according to their own statements. At this time, they were dependent on the Jewish Community and its welfare service.

Documents from the Chamber of Commerce confirm the difficult economic situation of the Sachsenhaus couple. In 1937, the annual sales of the timber brokerage firm was still around 5,000 RM; in 1938, it was only 3,000 RM; and a year later, it had shrunk to 1,500 RM. Shortly before the business was liquidated, Adolf Sachsenhaus had very few customers left. The warehouse still contained wooden goods with a value of around 300 to 400 RM.

On 6 Dec. 1941, one and a half months after Martha Seidel’s deportation, Adolf and Alice Sachsenhaus were deported to Riga-Jungfernhof and later murdered there.

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

Stand: December 2020
© Carmen Smiatacz

Quellen: 1; 4; 5; 6; 8; Archiv der Handelskammer Hamburg, 100.B.1.37, Entjudung des Großhandels; StaHH 213-13, Landgericht Hamburg, Wiedergutmachung, 14289; StaHH 214-1, Gerichtsvollzieherwesen, 603; StaHH 314-15, OFP, R 1941/49; Hamburger Fernsprechbuch 1920; Geburtsurkunde Alice Cohn, Heiratsurkunde Alice und Adolf Sachsenhaus, Sterbeurkunde Philip Cohn, Sterbeurkunde Cecilia Cohn (alle www.ancestry.de, zuletzt eingesehen am 6.9.2018); Grenville, John: The Jews and Germans of Hamburg. The Destruction of a Civilization 1790–1945, New York 2012, S. 187.
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