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Gertrud Weinstein (née Samuel) * 1884

Innocentiastraße 37 (Eimsbüttel, Harvestehude)

1942 Theresienstadt
1942 weiterdeportiert nach Treblinka

further stumbling stones in Innocentiastraße 37:
Prof. Friedrich Adler, Zerline Adler, Kaethe (Käte) Pincus, Martin Pincus, Abraham Sarfaty, Franziska Sarfaty, Joseph Sarfaty, Rosa Sarfaty, Israel Abraham Sarfaty, Annette Sarfaty, Ruth Klara Sarfaty, Benjamin Sarfaty, Henriette M. Schmid, Fritz Weinstein

Gertrud Weinstein, née Samuel, widowed name Hirschfeldt, born on 7 Oct. 1884 in Trebbin, deported on 19 July 1942 to Theresienstadt, deported on 21 Sept. 1942 to Treblinka

Innocentiastrasse 37 (Harvestehude)

Gertrud Weinstein was born in 1884 as Gertrud Pauline Samuel in the small Brandenburg town of Trebbin in the district of Teltow, about 30 kilometers (nearly 19 miles) south of Berlin. She was the first child of Paul Samuel (1855–1933), born in Pasewalk (Western Pomerania), and Bertha Samuel, née Itzigsohn. After Gertrud, Käthe Rebecca (1886–1886), Walter (on 1 Nov. 1891), and Ernst (on 24 Feb. 1893) were born in Trebbin. In Mar. 1895, their father Paul Samuel married a second time in Landsberg; the marriage with Clara Samuel, née Müller (1868–1938), produced two more children: Erna (born on 22 Dec. 1895) and Günther (born on 25 June 1903). Paul Samuel owned a large fashion shop in the center of Trebbin (at Marktstrasse 16) and was an honorary member of the small town’s municipal council. Paul Samuel (died on 5 Nov. 1933) and Clara Samuel (died on 7 Aug. 1938) were buried in the Trebbin Jewish Cemetery. Their son Ernst Samuel studied German and English philology at the universities of Munich (in 1912) and Berlin (1912–1916) after graduating from the Realgymnasium [a high school focused on the sciences, math, and modern languages] in Berlin-Lichterfelde (1912). During the First World War, he was taken prisoner of war by British troops (1917–1919). On his return, he obtained his doctorate in history in Giessen (1920) and is said to have worked as a teacher at a "Hebrew high school” in Lithuania. When he died in Nov. 1923 in Trebbin, he was buried in the local family grave, as were his parents later on. In 1920, Ernst Samuel had written clearly and concisely in his curriculum vitae for his doctorate as a second line, "I am Jewish.” Whether this openly confessing form was shared by all family members is not known.

Though considerable detail is known about the life of Gertrude’s brother Ernst, by contrast we know little about her childhood, education, or training. In Apr. 1911, she married in Trebbin in her first marriage the merchant Franz Hirschfeldt (born on 5 Feb. 1882 in Teterow/Mecklenburg), who had moved to Hamburg in 1906. His parents, the "produce trader” ("Productenhändler”) Louis Hirschfeldt (1845–1916) and Debora "Dora” Hirschfeldt, née Burchard (1850–1925), had already lived in the Hanseatic city since 1900, as had his brother Eduard Hirschfeldt (1878–1941), who had opened a linen and woolen goods store at Grindelallee 80 (Rotherbaum) in 1904. Before 1919, his brother Walter Hirschfeldt (1884–1942) also moved to Hamburg. Another brother, the engineer Hugo Hirschfeldt (born on 25 July 1874), lived in Kreuzburg/Upper Silesia (today Kluczbork in Poland) from 1910 to 1916.

On the occasion of the funeral of Gertrud and Franz’ only child, who died at birth on 4 Aug. 1912, Franz Hirschfeldt had joined the Hamburg German-Israelitic Community as well as the liberal religious community of the Temple Association (Tempelverband). In 1913, he acquired Hamburg civic rights (Bürgerrecht), i.e. citizenship.

In 1915, Franz Hirschfeldt was drafted as a soldier to fight in the First World War. Gertrud’s siblings Erna and Günther supported her during this time by visiting several weeks at a time.

In 1910, Franz Hirschfeldt had opened a "department store” for "woolen, linen, and fashion goods” at Lindenallee 47 in Eimsbüttel, not far from Hamburg’s western city limits. Starting in 1914, a branch was added at Eppendorfer Weg 44 in Eimsbüttel (including from 1914 to 1931). He gave up the main company building in 1922 and then sold the yard goods from the store on Eppendorfer Weg. The revenue situation over the next few years was stagnant to declining, as the annual Jewish religious tax (Kultussteuer) payments to the Jewish community show.

Franz and Gertrud Hirschfeldt’s apartment was located at Fruchtallee 85 in Eimsbüttel (including from 1913 to 1932) in a four-story apartment building. After Franz’ death in Mar. 1933 (due to myocarditis/endocarditis acuta, as attested by the general practitioner Lothar (Lesser) Conitzer located at Tornquiststrasse 9), his widow Gertrud continued the business for several years.

In the street listing of the 1935 Hamburg directory, she was noted for the first time with the new residential address at Schäferkampsallee 49, on the third floor (in Eimsbüttel).
In the late summer of 1937, Fritz Weinstein (born on 28 Jan. 1869 in Wommen/Hessen) moved from Gotha to Hamburg and resided as a subtenant with Gertrud Hirschfeldt at Schäferkampsallee 49. In Sept. 1937, they married in Hamburg.

The store was last listed in the 1938 Hamburg directory and most likely, it closed in the course of the Nazi policy of destroying the livelihoods of Jewish business people. The implementing regulation to the "Ordinance on the Elimination of the Jews from German Economic Life” ("Verordnung zur Ausschaltung der Juden aus dem deutschen Wirtschaftsleben”) dated 23 Nov. 1938 stipulated, "retail outlets, mail-order businesses, or order offices of Jews shall in principle be dissolved and liquidated.” This deprived the Weinstein couple of the basis for regular income. In the following years, they had to live on their savings and probably sell part of their household goods in order to get money for rent and livelihood. From Sept. 1939, they were obliged to shop in separate stores for Jews.

On 6 Aug. 1941, Fritz and Gertrud Weinstein were forcibly quartered at Innocentiastrasse 37 (in Hamburg-Harvestehude). This house was a villa that had been converted into a synagogue of the Hamburg Portuguese-Jewish Community and dedicated on 14 Mar. 1935. The building was declared a "Jews’ house” ("Judenhaus”) by the closely cooperating agencies of the Gestapo and the housing services office (Wohnungspflegeamt), and it was used as an assembly quarter toward the preparation of the deportations.

Fritz and Gertrud Weinstein were deported to the Theresienstadt Ghetto on 19 July 1942 and to the Treblinka extermination camp on 21 Sept. 1942; they did not return; their exact date of death is not known.

Since 2003, Stolpersteine in Hamburg have been commemorating Fritz and Gertrud Weinstein.

What do we know about other family members?

Gertrud’s brother Walter Samuel (born on 1 Nov. 1891 in Trebbin) was married to Gertrud Samuel, née Pintus (born on 4 Aug. 1898 in Seehausen), who had studied in Hamburg from 1918 to 1925, received her doctorate, and later worked as a teacher. The couple had married in 1925 in Seehausen in the Old March (Altmark), where the Pintus parents-in-law owned a yard goods business with a house at Mühlenstrasse 3. The Samuel couple emigrated to Palestine before May 1939, where Walter Samuel died in 1946.

Gertrud’s half-sister Ernestine "Erna” Samuel (born on 22 Dec. 1895 in Trebbin) has been commemorated by a Stolperstein in Berlin-Charlottenburg (at Kantstrasse 75) since 2015. Erna-Samuel-Strasse in Berlin-Moabit, near the "western port” (Westhafen), was also named after her in 2014. Her father made it possible for her to attend a secondary school and to graduate from the Friedrichgymnasium high school (Abitur) in Luckenwalde. After her studies in Berlin (1914–1917), she taught German, mathematics, and biology in Brandenburg at the Stadtschule Trebbin, the municipal school (today Goetheoberschule Trebbin), and, following the far-reaching public service job cuts, from 1922 at the Jewish elementary school (Jüdische Volksschule) in Berlin-Prenzlauer Berg (on Rykestrasse). She also temporarily took over the duties of headmistress there. Like all Jewish schools in the German Reich, the school was closed by the Nazi state on 30 June 1942. Erna Samuel was forced to perform forced labor at the Jewish Weissensee Cemetery and to clean a Jewish children’s home by decree of the Reich Labor Minister dating from spring of 1941 on the forced labor of all Jews fit for work. Erna Samuel was deported from Berlin to the Auschwitz extermination camp on 29 Nov. 1942. In 1960, the Berlin-Schöneberg District Court (Amtsgericht) declared her dead as of 8 May 1945 in connection with the restitution proceedings.

Stolpersteine were also laid for Gertrud’s half-brother Günther Samuel (born on 25 June 1903 in Trebbin), in 2010 in Berlin-Wedding (at Groninger Strasse 36) and in 2013 in Trebbin. Günther Samuel had attended the Friedrichgymnasium high school in Luckenwalde and in the 1920s had taken over his father Paul Samuel’s ready-to-wear clothing store in the town of Trebbin with its 3,500 inhabitants. As early as Mar. 1927, the Berlin and Brandenburg SA held its founding anniversary there, with the Berlin Nazi Gauleiter Goebbels as a speaker and a rally on the market square. In 1933, Günther Samuel had to close his business in the center of Trebbin (at Marktstrasse 16) under pressure from the local Nazi party (NSDAP). Günther Samuel probably first moved to Luckenwalde and then to Berlin, where he lived in 1939 in the Wedding District at Utrechter Strasse 36 (today Groninger Strasse). His efforts to emigrate were unsuccessful. On 4 Aug. 1943, Günther Samuel was deported to the Theresienstadt Ghetto and from there to the Auschwitz extermination camp. On 10 Oct. 1944, he was deported to the Kaufering subcamp of the Dachau concentration camp, which had just been set up for German armaments production. Only a few weeks later, on 30 Dec. 1944, he was dead. The exact circumstances of his death are not known. Thus far, it has been impossible to place a commemorative plaque on his former house in Trebbin.

Gertrud’s brother-in-law Walter Hirschfeldt (born on 9 Feb. 1884 in Swinemünde, today Swinoujscie) had been the owner of the Hamburg-based Löb Kaufherr insurance brokerage firm (founded in 1900) since 1920. Together with his wife Bertha Hirschfeldt, née Kaufherr (born on 16 May 1880 in Horneburg), who was also an authorized signatory of the company, he resided at Steindamm 76 (1920–1927), Berliner Tor 22 (1928–1932), and Mühlendamm 44 (1933–1934). In 1935, he no longer appeared in the Hamburg directory. The company had already been sold in Nov. 1933 to Werner Reding (born on 1907, member of the NSDAP since 1933). Walter Hirschfeldt emigrated to Mersch/Luxembourg in 1934. After the German occupation of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg on 10 May 1940, he was once again within the reach of Nazi persecution. Walter Hirschfeldt was deported to the Rivesaltes camp in southern France and transferred to the Drancy transit camp on 11 Aug. 1942, from where he was further deported to the Auschwitz extermination camp on 14 Aug. 1942.

Her brother-in-law Eduard Hirschfeldt (born on 12 Jan. 1878 in Teterow) married in 1907 in Neubrandenburg. Together with his wife Henny Hirschfeldt, née Borchard (born on 3 Sept. 1880 in Neubukow/ Mecklenburg), he lived at Fruchtallee 95 (in 1907), Bogenstrasse 26 (1908–1910), and Grindelallee 88 on the second floor (1911–1941). He was the owner of the houses at Grindelallee 78, 80, 86, 88, and 90 and he owned a store at Grindelallee 80 (1907–1938) with the directory designations of "Weisswaren [linens]” (1907–1910), "Herren-Modeartikel [men’s fashions]” (1911–1912), "Damen-Modeartikel [women’s fashion goods]” (1913–1924), "Wäsche und Kurzwaren [underwear and dry goods]” (1925–1930), "Wäsche, Kurzwaren u. Spezial-Herrenmoden [underwear, dry goods, and special men’s fashions]” (1931–1932), and finally "underwear” (1933–1939). The business was systematically harmed in the course of the Nazi campaigns against Jewish business people. According to the decree of the Nazi regime dated 23 Nov. 1938, stores had to be closed or sold to "Aryan” owners. On 31 Dec. 1938, this company and warehouse, too, were transferred to a non-Jewish buyer. In the 1940 Hamburg directory, Johannes Feldmann (born on 1902, member of the NSDAP 1928–1932 and 1935–1945), listed with the Johannes Feldmann KG Modewaren, a fashion company, which had been entered in the company register in Dec. 1938, was recorded as the new owner of the business – the annual revenues of the former textile salesman Feldmann doubled as a result. By 1940, the pieces of real estate also had new owners: the house at Grindelallee 78/80 now belonged to the textile representative Gustav Langhein; the house at Grindelallee 86/88/90 had already been sold in June 1936 to the auditor Friedrich C.J. Busch (born on 1896, member of the NSDAP since 1933) and his brother-in-law, the real estate agent/property manager Walter Seifert (born in 1900; in 1934, return from Venezuela, not a member of the NSDAP). Eduard Hirschfeldt died on 19 Oct. 1941 in Hamburg from cerebral hemorrhage, respiratory paralysis, and cystitis – six days before the first deportation train left Hamburg for Lodz/Litzmannstadt. The combination of the first two causes of death may point to suicide, especially since according to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM), his name was on a transport list to the Lodz Ghetto. In the register of "Unnatürliche Sterbefälle” ("Unnatural deaths”) of the Hamburg police, his name did not appear. He was buried in the Ohlsdorf Jewish Cemetery. His wife was deported to the Minsk Ghetto on 18 Nov. 1941; a Stolperstein at Grindelallee 88 commemorates her.

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

Stand: June 2020
© Björn Eggert

Quellen: 1; 4; 5; Staatsarchiv Hamburg (StaH) 213-13 (Landgericht, Wiedergutmachung), 14911 (Jewish Trust für Walter Hirschfeldt); StaH 221-11 (Entnazifizierung), 60857 (Friedrich C.J. Busch); StaH 221-11 (Entnazifizierung), X 1060 (Johannes Feldmann); StaH 221-11 (Entnazifizierung), F 9492 (Werner Reding); StaH 221-11 (Entnazifizierung), 25541 (Walter Seifert); StaH 332-5 (Standesämter), 8036 u. 419/1916 (Sterberegister 1916, Louis Hirschfeldt); StaH 332-5 (Standesämter), 3332 u. 340/1919 (Heiratsregister 1919, Walter Hirschfeldt u. Bertha Kaufherr); StaH 332-5 (Standesämter), 8081 u. 382/1925 (Sterberegister 1925, Dora Hirschfeldt geb. Burchard); StaH 332-5 (Standesämter), 9815 u. 1784/1925 (Sterberegister 1925, Max Pintus); StaH 332-5 (Standesämter), 8120 u. 132/1933 (Sterberegister 1933, Franz Hirschfeldt); StaH 332-5 (Standesämter), 9920 u. 602/1941 (Sterberegister 1941, Eduard Hirschfeldt); StaH 332-7 (Staatsangehörigkeitsaufsicht), A III 21 Band 16 (1911-1915 A-H), Ed. Hirschfeldt 1912 Nr. 117546, Louis Hirschfeldt 1912 Nr. 117552, Franz Hirschfeldt 1913 Nr. 121936; StaH 332-8 (Meldewesen), K 6261 (Alte Einwohnermeldekartei 1892-1925), Louis Hirschfeldt, Dora Hirschfeldt geb. Burchard; StaH 332-8 (Meldewesen), K 6734 (Alte Einwohnermeldekartei 1892-1925), Gertrud Pintus, Max Pintus; StaH 332-8 (Meldewesen), K 6850 (Alte Einwohnermeldekartei 1892-1925), Erna Samuel, Ernst Samuel, Günther Samuel; StaH 332-8 (Meldewesen), K 7441 (Einwohnermeldekartei Wandsbek), Louis Hirschfeldt, Eduard Hirschfeldt; StaH 352-5 (Gesundheitsbehörde – Todesbescheinigungen), 1912, Sta. 20, Nr. 616 ("Kind von Franz Hirschfeldt"); StaH 352-5 (Gesundheitsbehörde – Todesbescheinigungen), 1933, Standesamt 20, Nr.132 (Franz Hirschfeld); StaH 522-1 (Jüdische Gemeinden), 992b (Kultussteuerkartei der Deutsch-Israelitischen Gemeinde Hamburg), Fritz Weinstein, Franz Hirschfeldt, Gertrud Hirschfeldt; Jüdischer Friedhof Hamburg-Ohlsdorf, Gräberverzeichnis im Internet, Louis Hirschfeldt (Grablage B 9-35), Derbora Hirschfeldt (Grablage B 9-36), Franz Hirschfeldt (Grablage K2-69), Eduard Hirschfeldt (Grablage ZW10-140); Labo (Landesamt für Bürger- u. Ordnungsangelegenheiten) Berlin, Entschädigungsakte 77.910 (Erna Samuel); Stadt Teterow, Archiv, Geburtsurkunde 22/1876 (Paula Hirschfeldt), 13/1878 (Eduard Hirschfeldt), 24/1880 (Betty Hirschfeldt), 29/1882 (Franz Hirschfeldt); Justus-Liebig Universität Gießen, Universitätsarchiv (Philosophische Fakultät Promotionsakte 1006 Ernst Samuel); Bundesarchiv Koblenz, Gedenkbuch (Erna Ernestine Samuel, Günther Samuel, Fritz Weinstein, Gertrud Weinstein geb. Samuel); Recherchen von Detlev Riemer zu Familie Samuel, 1990; Handelskammer Hamburg, Handelsregisterinformationen (Johannes Feldmann KG, HR A 44670); Hamburger Börsenfirmen, Hamburg 1910, S. 336 (L. Kaufherr, Assec., General-Agent d. Meckl. Lebensversicherungsbank Schwerin); Hamburger Börsenfirmen, Hamburg 1926, S. 531 (Löb Kaufherr, Assec., Steindamm 76); Hamburger Börsenfirmen, Hamburg 1935, S. 437 (Löb Kaufherr, Assekuranz, Inhaber Werner Reding, Mönckebergstraße 19); Adressbuch Hamburg (Franz Hirschfeldt) 1910, 1913, 1920, 1924, 1928, 1929, 1931, 1932, 1935, 1937, 1938; Adressbuch Hamburg (Eduard Hirschfeldt) 1907-1914, 1918-1920, 1923-1925, 1928-1935, 1937-1941; Adressbuch Hamburg (Walter Hirschfeldt) 1920-1921, 1923, 1925, 1927-1929, 1932-1934; Adressbuch Hamburg (Branchenbuch, Kauf- u. Warenhäuser) 1914, 1920 (Franz Hirschfeld, Lindenallee 47); Telefonbuch Hamburg (Franz Hirschfeldt, Woll-, Weiß- u. Modew.) 1914; Deutsche Nationalbibliothek, Ernst Samuel (Dissertation Gießen 1921, Johann Baner als Ermattungsstratege in den Feldzügen 1634-1639); Deutsche Nationalbibliothek, Gertrud Pintus (Philosophische Dissertation Hamburg 1925, Die Entwicklung der ländlichen Erzählung in der modernen vlämischen Literatur); Friedrich Detlev Hardegen (Hrsg.), Hingesehen – Weggeschaut, Die Novemberpogrome 1938 in Augenzeugenberichten, Stettin 2013, S. 156, 159 (Gesetze); Bernhard Sauer, Goebbels "Rabauken". Zur Geschichte der SA in Berlin-Brandenburg, in: Uwe Schaper/ Werner Breunig (Hrsg.), Berlin in Geschichte und Gegenwart (Jahrbuch des Landesarchivs Berlin), 2007, S. 115 (SA-Aufmarsch in Trebbin 1927); Anna von Villiez, Mit aller Kraft verdrängt. Entrechtung und Verfolgung "nicht arischer" Ärzte in Hamburg 1933 bis 1945, Hamburg 2009, S. 246/247 (Lesser/ Lothar Conitzer); www.tracingthepast.org (Volkszählung Mai 1939), Eduard Hirschfeldt, Henny Hirschfeldt geb. Burchard, Erna Samuel, Günther Samuel, Fritz Weinstein, Gertrud Weinstein, Jeanette Weinstein (eingesehen 4.4.2017); www.berlin.de/ba-charlottenburg-wilmersdorf (Stolperstein Kantstraße 75, Biografie zu Erna Samuel von Birgit Holland); www.ancestry.de (Eduard Hirschfeldt Transportliste Getto Lodz; Hugo Hirschfeldt Heiratsregister 1910 östliche preußische Provinzen); www.stolpersteine-hamburg.de (Bertha Hirschfeldt geb. Kaufherr, Henny Hirschfeldt geb. Burchard, Fritz Weinstein).
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