Search for Names, Places and Biographies

Betty Kurzynski * 1875

Hochallee 75 (Eimsbüttel, Harvestehude)

Freitod 04.12.1941

further stumbling stones in Hochallee 75:
Olga Beer, Dr. Hermann Gerson, Dr. Ernst Kaufmann, Käthe Kaufmann

Betty Kurzynski/Kurzinsky, born on 19 Sept. 1875 in Löbau/ West Prussia, suicide on 4 Dec. 1941 in Hamburg

Hochallee 75

Betty Kurzynski was born in 1875 in the West Prussian town of Löbau (Polish: Lubawa) as the fourth daughter of the merchant Jacob Kurzynski (1830–1903) and the Tilsit (today Sovetsk in Russia) native Hedwig Kurzynski, née Salinger (1838–1921). Her sisters Fanny Kurzynski (born on 4 Feb. 1868), Martha Kurzynski (born on 21 Aug. 1870), and Helene Kurzynski (born on 15 May 1873) were also born in Löbau. Löbau, a district town with about 4,600 inhabitants on the border to East Prussia had been annexed by Prussia in the course of the "Partition of Poland.”

The parents moved with their children to Hamburg around 1891. In 1892, the father appeared for the first time in the Hamburg directory, but with the different spelling of Kurzinsky, retained until his death. The residential addresses – all in the Rotherbaum quarter – were 2nd Durchschnitt 5 (1892–1893), Rutschbahn 22 (1894–1895), Rutschbahn 23 (1896–1899), Bornstrasse 8 (1900), and Dillstrasse 6 (1901–1903). Betty’s youngest sister Helene had moved to Berlin-Charlottenburg as a governess in Dec. 1895 at the age of 22.
After the death of Jacob Kurzynski in 1903, the widowed Hedwig Kurzynski moved several times in the following 18 years; it is not known whether the daughter Martha indicated on her residents’ registration card moved with her. The addresses of the mother after Dillstrasse 6 were Königstrasse/Gross Borstel (1903–1905), Osterbekstrasse 9/Barmbek-Süd (1905–1908), Bahnstrasse 21/Bergedorf (1908), Hasselbrookstrasse 138/Eilbek (1909–1910), Gross Flottbek (1910–1916), and Dorotheenstrasse 180/Winterhude (1916–1921), where she had registered a telephone connection. Hedwig Kurzynski died in 1921 at Abteistrasse 47 (Harvestehude) in the apartment of Semmy Kurzynski, born in 1879 in Löbau, perhaps her son, but the relationship could not be reconstructed with certainty.

Semmy Kurzynski had been a co-owner of "Sally Fries. Fabrik für alkoholfreie Getränke und Spirituosen,” a beverage and spirits plant (in 1921 at Dorotheenstrasse 180), where he had previously been employed as an authorized signatory. The company had already been founded in 1856 as "Louis Fries & Co,” was renamed "Sally Fries” in 1901 and, among other things, it served as the general agency of Bilz-Sinalco with a warehouse at Süderstrasse 83. In 1925, Semmy Kurzynski took over the company under the name of "Sally Fries Nachfolger [Succrs.],” whose bankruptcy filing was rejected in Apr. 1928 due to lack of assets. Only a few days later, his job title changed, and he was henceforth the managing director of "Getränke Industrie GmbH” (Wendenstrasse 22), which produced and traded alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages and fruit juices. He lived at Loehsweg 11 (1923–1933) and Hochallee 106 (1934–1936). Getränke Industrie GmbH was "officially deleted [from the company register] on 14 Jan. 1935.” Semmy Kurzynski, who lived in a "mixed marriage” ("Mischehe”), no longer appeared in the Hamburg directory for the years 1937 to 1939; the Jewish Community listed him and his son Peter as having emigrated as of 26 Feb. 1940, without indicating a country of destination.

In the Hamburg directory, the sisters Martha and Fanny Kurzynski were registered, among other times, from 1922 to 1925 and 1928 with the joint entry of "Kurzynski, Geschw. [siblings] F. u. M., Dorotheenstrasse 180”; in 1930, 1932, and 1935, the entry read "Kurzynski, Frl. [Miss.] F. u. M., Schedestrasse 19.” The entry in the 1938 and 1939 directories with the residential address of Schedestrasse 29, House 33 in the Julius- und Betty Ree-Stift, a residential home, was also located in the Eppendorf quarter. Betty Kurzynski was not represented in these directories with an entry of her own, which indicates a subtenant relationship for the period from 1922 to 1939 – that is, since the death of their mother.

The Nazi regime placed the formerly independent Jewish communities, designated as "Reich Association of Jews in Germany, Branch Office Northwest Germany” ("Reichsvereinigung der Juden in Deutschland, Bezirksstelle Nordwestdeutschland”), under the supervision of the Hamburg Secret State Police (Gestapo) and in that constellation under the notorious "Jewish Affairs Department” ("Judenreferat”). If, in accordance with Nazi racial theory, a person was classified as Jewish, membership in the Reich Association of Jews and its membership fees were obligatory. From Oct. 1940, the Reich Association of Jews had Betty Kurzynski on file as a member. Her pension must have been very low; she paid 12 RM (reichsmark) in Jewish religious taxes (Kultussteuer) overall for the year 1940 and did not have to pay any contributions at all in 1941. Her sister Martha Kurzynski was also forcibly listed as a Community member from July 1940 and she paid 12 RM each for the years 1940 and 1942, and in 1941, she donated 6 RM to the Jewish Children’s Relief Fund.

The systematic policy of exclusion pushed by the Nazi regime also included restrictions on residence. As of 30 Apr. 1939, the "Reich Law on Tenancies with Jews” ("Reichsgesetz über die Mietverhältnisse mit Juden”) deprived Jews of their tenant protection and they began to be accommodated in separately registered and marked houses ("Jews’ houses” – "Judenhäuser”). In 1940, Betty Kurzynski lived at Isestrasse 86 with the sisters Jeanette Ostwald (born on 16 Oct. 1874 in Wattenscheid) and Sophie Ostwald (born on 11 Dec. 1882 in Wattenscheid). There she received her "evacuation order” for 25 Oct. 1941, whereupon 66-year-old Betty Kurzynski tried to drown herself in the Alster River on 23 Oct. 1941, but was rescued. Her deportation was thus postponed. The Ostwald sisters and their subtenant Emma Hinrichs, née Markus (born on 1 Aug. 1881, in Lüneburg), were deported to the Litzmannstadt/Lodz Ghetto in occupied Poland on 25 Oct. 1941.

Betty Kurzynski was then accommodated as a subtenant of Hermann Gerson (born on 16 May 1895 in Hamm, Westphalia, a retired regional court judge [Landgerichtsrat]) at Hochallee 75 on the third floor. Hermann Gerson belonged to the Protestant denomination, but he was also forcibly listed by the Nazi regime as a member of the Jewish Religious Organization (Jüdischer Religionsverband) starting in July 1939 because of his Jewish descent. The house at Hochallee 75 belonged to the asset manager Ernst Kaufmann (born on 16 Mar. 1880 in Hamburg), who had been forced to become a member as well. According to the Hamburg directory, Walter Bamberger lived on the second floor of the house. At Hochallee 75, Betty Kurzynski was sent notification of the new deportation date, 6 Dec. 1941.

On 2 Dec. 1941, Betty Kurzynski visited her sister Martha Kurzynski at the Mendelsohn-Israelstift (Kurzer Kamp 6), where she lived in Room 17. The Nazis had declared the residential home to be a "Jews’ house” where only Jews were allowed to live. There they received deportation orders to the ghettos and camps in the occupied eastern territories. On the morning of 4 December, Betty Kurzynski had taken a fall in her sister’s room and complained of being unwell. She went to bed and she was found dead by her sister at noon. In the police report, the wording regarding the pending deportation was lapidary: "yet again, she was to be deported with the next transport.” Her body was transferred to the Harbor Hospital on the instructions of the police. The result of the autopsy revealed poisoning as the cause of death. Betty Kurzynski was buried in the Jewish Cemetery in Hamburg-Ohlsdorf next to her sister Fanny.

Her sister Martha Kurzynski was deported to the Theresienstadt Ghetto on 19 July 1942; she died there on 15 May 1943. A Stolperstein at Kurzer Kamp 6 (Fuhlsbüttel) has been commemorating her.

Stolpersteine were laid at Isestrasse 86 (Harvestehude) for the landlords Jeanette Ostwald and Sophie Ostwald.

Hermann Gerson was deported to the Theresienstadt Ghetto on 19 July 1942, where he perished on 22 June 1944. A Stolperstein at Hochallee 75 commemorates him.

Ernst Kaufmann and his second wife Käthe Kaufmann, widowed name Eggerling, were deported to the Theresienstadt Ghetto on 9 June 1943. From there, Ernst Kaufmann was deported to the Auschwitz extermination camp on 9 Oct. 1944; his wife had already died in Theresienstadt on 9 June 1943. Stolpersteine in front of the house at Hochallee 75 commemorate both of them.

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

Stand: December 2020
© Björn Eggert

Quellen: Staatsarchiv Hamburg (StaH) 331-5 (Polizeibehörde – unnatürliche Sterbefälle), 1941/1918 (Betty Kurzynski; StaH 332-5 (Standesämter), 9790 u. 914/1921 (Sterberegister 1921, Hedwig Kurzynski geb. Salinger); StaH 332-8 (Meldewesen), Alte Einwohnermeldekartei (1892–1925), K 6471 (Hedwig Kurzynski, Helene Kurzynski); StaH 522-1 (Jüdische Gemeinden), 992b (Kultussteuerkartei der Deutsch-Israelitischen Gemeinde Hamburg), Betty Kurzynski, Martha Kurzynski, Dr. Hermann Gerson, Dr. Ernst Kaufmann; Jüdischer Friedhof Hamburg-Ohlsdorf (Grablage A10-490 Jacob Kurzynski, A10-491 Nanne Kurzynski, M3-106 Betty Kurzynski, M3-106 Fanny Kurzynski); Handelskammer Hamburg, Handelsregisterinformationen (S. Fries & Co, HR A 15233; Sally Fries Petroleum en gros, HR A 7239); Hamburger Börsenfirmen, Hamburg 1910, S. 106 (Sally Fries, Prokuristen Semmy Kurzynski und Bruno Otto Fries); Hamburger Börsenfirmen, Hamburg 1926, S. 301 (Sally Fries Nachfolger, Inhaber Semmy Kurzynski); Adressbuch Hamburg (J. Kurzynski) 1892–1896, 1898–1902; Adressbuch Hamburg (Frau H. Kurzynski, Hasselbrookstr. 138) 1910, 1914; Adressbuch Hamburg (Semmy oder S. Kurzynski) 1921–1925, 1928, 1932, 1933, 1934, 1936; Adressbuch Hamburg (F. u. M. Kurzynski) 1922–1925, 1928, 1930, 1932, 1935, 1937, 1939; Adressbuch Hamburg (Hochallee 75, Isestraße 86) 1940; Telefonbuch Hamburg 1914, 1920 (Firma S. Fries, Vertreter für Bilz-Sinalco, Fabrik alkoholfreier Getränke, Wendenstr. 22 Hinterhaus); Telefonbuch Hamburg (Witwe Hedwig Kurzynski) 1920; Meyers Lexikon, Band 7, Leipzig 1927, S. 110 (Löbau); www.stolpersteine-hamburg.de (Jeanette u. Sophie Ostwald); www.tracingthepast.org (Volkszählung 1939, Gerson, Kaufmann, Kurzynski).