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Julius Rothschild * 1881

Hallerstraße 76 (Eimsbüttel, Rotherbaum)

1941 Lodz
ermordet am 19.2.1942 in Lodz

further stumbling stones in Hallerstraße 76:
Alice Baruch, Sara Carlebach, Charlotte Carlebach, Dr. Joseph Zwi Carlebach, Noemi Carlebach, Ruth Carlebach, Margarethe Dammann, Gertrud Dammann, Charlotte Dammann, Dina Dessau, Felix Halberstadt, Josabeth Halberstadt, Elsa Meyer, Margarethe Meyer, Alice Rosenbaum, Jente Schlüter

Julius Rothschild, born 29 May 1881 in Eberstadt, Baden, deported 25 Oct. 1941 to Lodz, died 19 Feb. 1942 in Lodz
Hallerstraße 76

Julius Rothschild was born in Eberstadt (now Buchen in the district of Mosbach, Baden), which lies about halfway along the Heidelberg-Würzburg railway line. His parents were the cattle dealer Israel Rothschild (1849?–1924) and the baker's daughter Babette, née Steinhardt (1851–1927). The Rothschilds are said to have been based in Eberstadt since about 1650, when the local lords settled Jewish families there after the devastation of the Thirty Years War. The eldest of the 13 Rothschild children, Adolf (born 6 Mar. 1876 in Eberstadt), moved to Hamburg in 1894 at the age of eighteen. His brother Louis (Lui) (born 6 June 1878 in Eberstadt) followed around 1906, and in May 1915 volunteered to the Artillery Regiment 45 (Bahrenfeld). Julius was drafted in 1916 to the Imperial Army and deployed with his unit to the Crimea. His brother Simon (1882–1917), a lawyer in Mannheim, was killed in Flanders.

In 1922, the 50-year-old Julius Rothschild set up his own business in Hamburg as a grain broker, with a grain and feed wholesale firm, and had his offices at Besenbinderhof 3 (St. Georg). A few years later, he moved his office space to Pelzerstraße 9, where the feed and grain import and export company Gebr. Rothschild, founded in 1906 founded by his older brothers Louis and Adolf, was located. Julius later moved his offices to the Bugenhagenhaus, built in 1914 at Bugenhagenstraße 5. Adolf Rothschild had emigrated to Argentina in 1901, where he was a merchant and the Imperial German Consul for the province of Santa Fe. The Gebr. Rothschild company was the German representative for the livestock feed export company Sigmond Rothschild Company Inc. (probably founded by the Rothschild brother Sigmund, born 15 Jan. 1888 in Eberstadt) and Steinhardt & Co., which exported from the USA to Europe. The Brinckmann & Mergell oil mill in Harburg did business with Gebr. Rothschild until 1933.

Julius Rothschild and Louis Rothschild became members of the Hamburg German-Israelitic in March 1922. The religious taxes for Julius in 1922 and 1923 and for Louis in 1922 were settled by Caesar Laski (1871–1945), the owner of the grain and feed trading house Caesar Laski & Co., founded in 1897. In 1922 and 1923, Julius rented rooms from the dressmaker E. Tredup at Danzigerstraße 35 (St. Georg). His membership in the Hamburg Jewish Community lapsed between 1926 and 1935 when he was not living in Hamburg. In 1929/30 Julius and his youngest brother Jacob (1890–1931) had speculated in wheat on the stock market and thereby suffered heavy losses. Afterward their brother Louis supported both of them with fixed monthly payments. Jacob also moved in with his brother Louis and ran his company from home.

Julius Rothschild never married. According to tax records, in 1935/36 he lived in rented rooms, sublet from three different persons named Mayer or Meyer: at Lindenplatz 1, at Frankenstraße 3 and Frankenstraße 14, all in St. Georg. In 1936 he moved to Hallerstraße 76. Beginning with the 1922 Hamburg Address Book, Julius Rothschild was falsely listed as the owner of this five-story apartment building (previously owned by the construction company JH Andersen & Söhne AG). In fact the building was owned by his cousin, Adolf Steinhardt, who lived in the US, and Julius was the building manager. This position ensured him a regular income. Julius Rothschild was first listed as a tenant of this building in the 1936 Hamburg Address Book. He lived on the 5th floor. In 1935 and 1936 his brother Louis was also listed as the tenant of a 5-room apartment on the 5th floor.

The Julius Rothschild Company was removed from the Hamburg Commercial Register in April 1937. Julius was forced to turn over the management of the apartment building to a non-Jewish company in May 1939. August Skröder from Blankenese, who had founded a property management company in 1926, became the new manager.

By 1941, Julius Rothschild's address book entry had changed. His professional title was gone and the name of his street was Ostmarkstraße; Hallerstraße had been renamed after the annexation of Austria, the so-called Ostmark. Julius Rothschild was only allowed to shop in the "Jews’ Shop" on the corner of Hallerstraße and Schlump, which was run by a non-Jew and was shut down in 1941 or 1942. This was a shop that accepted ration cards stamped with the word "Jew,” but the food on offer was not enough to ensure adequate nourishment. In April 1939, Jews were excluded from rent protection measures, and the right to choose their place of residence was revoked. The housing authority assigned Julius to a smaller accommodation: his entry in the 1940 address book was "Rothschild, Julius, Rappstr. 15." This building had been declared a "Jews’ house," where Jews were quartered until they were deported. In 1940 there were seven non-Jews living at this address, in addition to 16 Jews, so the building had apparently not yet been completely ghettoized.

On 25 October 1941 the 60-year-old Julius Rothschild was deported with the first transport from Hamburg to the Lodz Ghetto in occupied Poland, where he died on 19 February 1942. The circumstances surrounding his death are unknown.

His 61-year-old brother Louis, who lived in spacious apartments at Lohhof 7 (1921–1931), Flemingstraße 2 (1932–1933), Curschmannstraße 35 (1933–1934, owned by Emil Rothschild/USA) and Hallerstraße 76 (1934–1936), emigrated to London in July 1939. The Gebr. Rothschild company was excluded from the Nazi rationing system and was removed from in the Hamburg Commercial Register in January 1939. Louis and his wife had put up their household for auction with the auctioneer Carl F. Schlüter (Alsterufer 12). Instead of the expected 10,000 Reichsmarks for furniture, oil paintings, carpets and other high-quality furnishings, the auction only raised 2,000 Reichsmarks, and as a result Louis Rothschild left Germany with nearly no funds. He and his wife Ella, née Bergmann, left Liverpool with the SS Newfoundland and arrived in Boston May 1940. Their nephew Dick Rothschild (USA) provided the Affadavit of Support and Sponsorship and the required sum of 2000 US dollars. Louis’ sister, Gida Steinhardt, sent the money for the ship tickets from Haifa.

Gida (Gütha), born 10 May 1880 in Eberstadt, was widowed. She was able to emigrate from Würzburg to Haifa in Palestine in 1933.

Another sister, Julie (Juli) Schuster (born 18 Oct. 1883 in Eberstadt) lived in Brückenau, Bayern (1933–1936) and Frankfurt am Main (1936–1939). She emigrated to the US.

Caesar Laski (born 2 Nov. 1871 in Hamburg) was deported to the Lodz Ghetto on 25 Oct. 1941, from where he was transferred to the Chelmno extermination camp on 10 May 1942. A Stolperstein was placed in his memory at Isestraße 79 in Harvestehude.


Translator: Amy Lee
Kindly supported by the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung, Hamburg.


Stand: September 2019
© Björn Eggert

Quellen: StaH 332-5 (Standesämter), 974 u. 619/1931 (Sterberegister 1931, Jacob Rothschild); StaH 332-8(Meldewesen), Alte Einwohnermeldekartei, Mikrofilm K 6834, Adolf Rothschild; StaH 351-11 (AfW), 3771 (Louis Rothschild); StaH 351-11 (AfW), 3362 (Simon Krim, Angaben zum "Judenladen"); StaH 552-1 (Jüdische Gemeinden), 992b (Kultussteuerkartei der Deutsch-Israelitischen Gemeinde), Julius Rothschild, Louis Rothschild, Caesar Laski; Stadtarchiv Buchen (Heiratsregister 1874, Geburtsregister 1876–1890, Sterberegister 1927, Wahlprotokolle zum Synagogenrat ca. 1850–1890); Hamburger Adressbuch 1922, 1923, 1925, 1928, 1930, 1935–1940; Handelskammer Hamburg, Firmenarchiv (Julius Rothschild; Gebr. Rothschild, HR-Nr. A 4108; Louis Rothschild); Hamburger Börsenfirmen, Hamburg 1926, S. 882 (Julius Rothschild; Gebr. Rothschild); Hamburger Börsenfirmen, Hamburg 1935, S. 722 (Julius Rothschild; Gebr. Rothschild), S. 800 (August E. Skröder); Bundesarchiv Koblenz, Gedenkbuch im Internet; Staatsarchiv Hamburg, Gedenkbuch, Hamburger jüdische Opfer, S. 229 (Caesar Laski), S. 356 (Julius Rothschild); Ancestry, Passenger and Crew Lists 1820–1963, (Schiff SS Newfoundland, Louis Rothschild, Ella Rothschild).