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Marion Marcus * 1929

Grindelberg 7 (Eimsbüttel, Harvestehude)

1941 Minsk

further stumbling stones in Grindelberg 7:
Dr. Kaatje Benninga, Else Marcus, Julius Marcus

Else Marcus, née Koppel, born on 10 Jan. 1906 in Hamburg, deported on 8 Nov. 1941 to Minsk, murdered there
Julius Marcus, born 26 Apr. 1904 in Hamburg, deported on 8 Nov. 1941 to Minsk, murdered there
Marion Marcus, born on 21 July 1929 in Hamburg, deported on 8 Nov. 1941 to Minsk, murdered there

Grindelberg 7

Julius Marcus and Else Koppel married in the fall of 1928, on 12 October. Else was 22 at the time, her husband 24 years old. Both natives of Hamburg, they grew up around Grossneumarkt, the old Jewish quarter of Hamburg – Julius on Peterstrasse, Else at Schlachterstrasse 47, which no longer exists. It extended from Grossneumarkt to the Michel (St. Michael’s Church) and crossed today’s Ludwig-Erhard-(Ostwest-)Strasse. Both also came from families that lived – or had lived – predominantly from the work of their respective fathers as small traders. Else’s father, Konrad Koppel, born on 11 July 1880 in Hamburg, had already died at the age of 42 on 27 Sept. 1923. He had worked as a cigar dealer in Hamburg-Neustadt. Thus, Else’s mother Johanna, née Gressmann, had become a widow at an early age. From the end of the 1920s, she worked for the Jewish Religious Organization (Jüdischer Religionsverband) and from 1935 for the Jewish Cultural Federation (Jüdischer Kulturbund). Else was the oldest of the three children of the couple, and she had two younger brothers: Curt (Kurt), born on 3 Oct. 1907, had trained as a plumber, and Herbert, born on 14 Oct. 1908, had become a painter working in the company of the master painter Ivan Levy on Kippingstrasse in Eimsbüttel.

Julius’ father Gustav Marcus, on the other hand, who was also the best man at his son’s wedding to Else Koppel, first ran a coal trade in Hamburg-Neustadt, then a stationery store. A native of Wolmirstedt in Saxony-Anhalt, he was married to Dina, née Simon, from Hamburg. Like him, she came from a Jewish family and she was two years younger than her husband. The couple had two children; Julius was born almost five years after his sister Rosalie. Named after one of the two grandmothers and called Rosa for short, she was born on 15 Nov. 1899. She married Ludwig Dietzmann, a non-Jewish man born in Hamburg on 6 Apr. 1889.

Julius Marcus had trained as a silversmith – a trade that required both craftsmanship and artistic skills. Only a few months after the wedding, on 29 July 1929, Else and he had a daughter whom they named Marion. At that time, they lived at Schumannstrasse 50a in Barmbek-Süd, where Julius also pursued his profession. With the transfer of power to the National Socialists in Jan. 1933, his earnings immediately decreased and from 1934 onward, it was so low that he no longer had to pay Jewish religious tax (Kultussteuer) to the Jewish Community. One reason for this was certainly the Nazi call to boycott Jewish businesses on 1 Apr. 1933. In 1939, Julius Marcus earned slightly more again; apparently, he had found new employment in a completely different sector, as a postal worker. At that time, he was able to make some payments in Jewish religious tax to the Jewish Community, albeit only a low 1.50 RM (reichsmark) on average.

In 1940, Julius, Else and Marion, by then eleven years old, resided as subtenants with Port in the terraced houses at Grindelberg 7a. Starting in Sept. 1941, like all Jews, they had to sew the "Jews’ star” ("Judenstern”) on to their clothing in order to be immediately recognizable. By that time, Else’s brother Curt Koppel lived with his and Else’s mother Johanna at Schlachterstrasse 47, house no. 3, they were neighbors of Else’s parents-in-law, Dina and Gustav Marcus.

Julius, Else and Marion Marcus, together with Else’s mother Johanna Koppel, her brother Curt and almost 1,000 other Jews, were deported from the Hannoversche Bahnhof railway station to Minsk in Belarus on 8 Nov. 1941. The day before, they had to report to the former Masonic lodge on Moorweide. They were only allowed to take along their identification card, if available the time book and passport, a suitcase with a maximum weight of 50 kilograms (approx. 110 lbs), bedding and a blanket, as well as food for a few days. They arrived in Minsk on 10 November. Together with Jews from Frankfurt, the deportees from Hamburg set themselves up in the so-called "Red House.” Many soon died of hunger and infectious diseases. Of those who survived the hard work, unbearable living conditions, and frequent shootings, almost all were shot or killed in gas trucks on 8 May 1943. Of the 7,000 German-Jewish prisoners in Minsk, not even twelve survived. Julius, Else, and Marion Marcus as well as Johanna and Curt Koppel were not among them.

Apparently, Julius Marcus’ brother-in-law Ludwig Dietzmann had left his wife Rosa after 1939. In 1942, she lived again with her parents at Schlachterstrasse 47, house no. 4, and had lost the protection of her "mixed marriage” ("Mischehe”). On 19 July 1942, she was deported to Theresienstadt together with her and Julius’ parents, Gustav and Dina Marcus. Two months later, on 21 Sept. 1942, Gustav and Dina Marcus, together with 2,000 other Jews, were deported on Transport Bp, No. 435 to the Treblinka extermination camp and murdered. Rosa Dietzmann survived the hunger, disease, and violence in Theresienstadt for more than two years. On 9 Oct. 1944, she was deported to Auschwitz on Transport Ep, No. 676, and murdered there.

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

© Frauke Steinhäuser

Quellen: 1; 4; 5; 6; 8; 9; StaH 332-5 Standesämter 13176 u. Nr. 3686/1899; StaH 522-1 Jüdische Gemeinden 992 e 2 Bd. 2, Transport nach Minsk am 08. November 1941, Liste 1, u. Bd. 5, Transport nach Theresienstadt am 19. Juli 1942, Liste 1; Hamburger Adressbücher; Meyer: Die Deportation, S. 58f. u. 62ff.; www.holocaust.cz/de/opferdatenbank/opfer/8935-rosalie-dietzmann; www.holocaust.cz/de/opferdatenbank/opfer/23635-gustav-marcus/; www.holocaust.cz/de/opferdatenbank/opfer/23622-dina-marcus.
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