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Erwin Levinson * 1929

Dillstraße 21 (Eimsbüttel, Rotherbaum)

1941 Minsk

further stumbling stones in Dillstraße 21:
Bertha Berges, Charlotte Berges, Marianna Berges, Emma Blitz, Herbert Cohen, Abraham Freimann, Karl Gänser, Julius Gottschalk, Minna Gottschalk, Hermann Samuel Gottschalk, Ernst August Gottschalk, Karola Gottschalk, Flora Levinson, Hugo Levinson, Bert(h)a Seligmann

Hugo Levinson, born on 22 July 1898 in Hamburg, deported to Minsk on 8 Nov. 1941
Flora Dora Levinson, née Goldschmidt, born on 26 Mar. 1902 in Harmuthsachsen, deported to Minsk on 8 Nov. 1941
Erwin Levinson, born on 3 Sept. 1929 in Hamburg, deported to Minsk on 8 Nov. 1941

Dillstrasse 21

Hugo Levinson was the son of Eduard Levy Jacob Levinson (born on 15 Mar. 1857) and his wife Henriette Levinson, née Henriquez (born on 9 Apr. 1865). He was the sixth of nine children. His siblings were Max (born on 1 May 1889), Semmy (born on 2 June 1890), Meinhard (born on 17 Dec. 1891), Elfriede (born on 2 Feb. 1894), Rudolf (born on 24 Sept. 1895), Rosa (born on 21 Aug. 1902), Clara (born on 12 Apr. 1904), and Theodor (born on 30 Sept. 1905). Of the nine siblings, only four survived the National Socialist era.

Hugo Levinson’s father worked as editor and later as managing director of Eduard Levinson GmbH (book and newspaper publishing house), which then became the Levinson und Bielfeld Buchdruckerei, a printing house.

At the time of Hugo’s birth, the family lived at Bogenallee 6, moving a little later to Wexstrasse and finally to Brüderstrasse in 1908. In 1914, the family relocated to Rutschbahn 11. In 1919, the family took up residential quarters at Hansestrasse 77.

Hugo attended the Talmud Tora Realschule, a secondary school, in his youth and then completed a commercial apprenticeship. Afterward, he worked in the Eduard Lichtenhain secondary raw materials business. In 1925, Hugo Levinson first appeared in Hamburg’s directories as the managing director of "Hapa,” Hamburger Produkte und Altmetall GmbH, a company dealing in raw materials and scrap metals, at Hansestrasse 77. Later he owned a furniture shop at Hochstrasse 4.

Hugo’s father died on 7 Jan. 1925, his mother on 15 Sept. 1941. In the very end, she had resided at Sedanstrasse 2.

On 31 July 1928, Hugo married Flora Goldschmidt in her native town of Harmuthsachsen (Hessen).

Flora Dora Levinson, née Goldschmidt, was born on 26 Mar. 1902. The Goldschmidt family had lived in Harmuthsachsen since 1751. Flora’s parents, Minna Goldschmidt (born on 20 June 1875), née Abraham, and Benjamin Marcus Goldschmidt (born in 1868), had three other children in addition to Flora, Hilde (born on 26 Oct. 1900), Siegfried (born on 12 Sept. 1914), and Selli (born on 10 Oct. 1903). They owned a yard goods business in Harmuthsachsen. After Flora’s parents had to give up their business, they moved to Kassel.

The young Levinson family probably resided with Hugo’s parents at Hansestrasse 77. In 1933, they moved to Trommelstrasse 19. Flora Levinson probably worked in her husband’s furniture shop and took care of the household. A note in the welfare file indicates that she had worked as a nurse in the past (probably midwife is meant). The first and only child of the Levinsohn couple, Erwin, was born in Hamburg on 3 Sept. 1929. The boy attended school starting in Apr. 1936.

On 15 Dec. 1934, Hugo Levinson had to give up his business, though no particulars are known. His brother suspected that it happened due to of "Nazi violence.” From then on, the family no longer had a sufficient livelihood. They received support from the welfare authorities and Hugo Levinson performed various jobs ("compulsory work”) within the scope of labor duties prescribed by the authorities, mostly as an excavator and laborer in civil engineering.

On 25 Sept. 1935, the family moved to Grindelberg 76 and at the end of 1937 to Dillstrasse 21, where they lived as subtenants in both locations. When Flora Goldschmidt’s father Benjamin died in Kassel on 4 Apr. 1939, Minna Goldschmidt moved in with her daughter and her family, who resided in Hamburg at Dillstrasse 21.

Hugo Levinson had the opportunity to emigrate to Johannesburg in 1937 through the mediation of the Jewish Community and received both the necessary financial support and the required proof of the welfare office that he was fit for work. He paid for passports and had certificates and documents translated. According to the files of the welfare office, emigration was to take place after two months. It is not clear why this did not happen in the end. An attempt by the family to emigrate to Shanghai in 1939 also failed.

The Levinson couple divorced in 1939 but continued to live under the same roof.

Hugo, Flora, and 12-year-old Erwin Levinson were deported to the Minsk Ghetto together with Flora’s mother Minna Goldschmidt on 8 Nov. 1941. None of them survived.

After the end of the war, Theodor Levinson filed a claim for restitution on behalf of his brother Hugo. In the course of the proceedings, an important point of contention was the date of death, because compensation was calculated according to this date. For Hugo as well as for Flora and Erwin Levinson – as for most of the deportees to Minsk – there is no known date of death. After some back and forth, the year 1943 was accepted as the date of Hugo Levinson’s death.

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

Stand: September 2020
© Mareike Kelzenberg

Quellen: 1; 5; StaH 332-5 Standesämter; StaH 351-11 AfW 24168; StaH 351-11 AfW 977; StaH 351-11 AfW 20895; Hamburger Adressbücher 1898-1941; Familienbuch der Harmuthsachsener Juden: Goldschmid(t). Harmuthsächser Opfer der Schoa. Rede Gedenkfeier der ehemaligen Synagoge Harmuthsachsen 2005; Rentrop-Koch: Die "Sonderghettos" für deutsche Jüdinnen und Juden im besetzten Minsk (1941-1943), in: Beate Meyer (Hrsg.): Deutsche Jüdinnen und Juden in Ghettos und Lagern (1941-1945). Lodz. Chelmno. Minsk. Riga. Auschwitz. Theresienstadt, S.88-109.
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