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Hulda Blumenthal (née Samuelsohn) * 1874

Jungestraße 12 (Hamburg-Mitte, Borgfelde)

HIER WOHNTE
HULDA BLUMENTHAL
GEB. SAMUELSOHN
JG. 1874
DEPORTIERT 1942
THERESIENSTADT
ERMORDET 6.5.1943

Hulda Blumenthal, née Samuelsohn, born on 30 May 1874 in Christburg/West Prussia, deported on 15 July 1942 to Theresienstadt, died there on 6 May 1943

Jungestraße 12 (Wallstraße 14)

Hulda Blumenthal’s biography is closely connected with that of her brother Ludwig Samuelsohn, who was two years older. Both of them were born in Christburg [today’s Dzierzgon] in West Prussia. Their parents, the merchant Josef Samuelsohn, and his wife Bertha, née Lorenz, relocated their place of residence to Hannover, where Josef Samuelsohn died as early as 1900. In 1902, Hulda married Alfred Blumenthal, a merchant and subsequent ship dealer born in Hannover in 1874; their first son Erich was born in 1904. Five years later, the family moved to Bremen, where Hulda gave birth to a second son, Heinz, in 1910.

Ludwig Samuelsohn started his family in Strasbourg, though moving back to Hannover probably in the course of World War I. He married Paula Mayer from Ingenheim in the Anterior Palatinate, who was eight years his junior. The wedding took place in her hometown on 22 Apr. 1902. Their children Hans, Margarethe, and Elisabeth were born between 1903 and 1906.

Both families, and with them the siblings’ mother, Bertha Samuelsohn, settled in Hamburg in the early 1920s. Ludwig Samuelsohn lived with his family in Hartwicusstraße "Auf dem Uhlenhorst,” Alfred Blumenthal moved together with his wife Hulda, his mother-in-law, and their sons into an apartment at Wallstraße 14 in Borgfelde. Bertha Samuelsohn died there, at a very old age, in Sept. 1922.

As he had already done in Bremen, Alfred Blumenthal became active dealing in ships. Heinz attended the nearby Realschule [secondary school without Latin] on Lübecker Tor, finishing his one-year graduating class ("Einjähriges”) with the intermediate secondary school certificate (mittlere Reife) in 1925. Afterward, he completed a commercial apprenticeship with Rappolt & Söhne. Whether Erich, 16 years old when he arrived in Hamburg, continued to take any schooling is not known. He went into banking.

Both families joined the Hamburg German-Israelitic Community. After two years, Alfred Blumenthal’s payments of membership dues ceased, without any reasons provided, such as withdrawal, death, relocation, or non-assessment. He died at the age of 52 on 24 Dec. 1926, leaving his widow behind destitute. Initially, only Erich contributed toward supporting her, and after completing his apprenticeship, Heinz did so as well. Heinz continued to work for the company that had trained him, though changing later to Lavy & Co., where he was dismissed for "racial reasons” in 1938.

Ludwig Samuelsohn’s work as a merchant afforded his family a modest life. At the age of 16, Margarethe married the factory manager Wilhelm Klint, Hans left Hamburg for an unknown destination in 1926, and Elisabeth emigrated to Stockholm in 1936.

Around 1933, Erich Blumenthal married Ellen Theilheimer, born on 14 Apr. 1905 in Hamburg, and joined the German-Israelitic Community Hamburg, as did Heinz Blumenthal one year later. They continued to pay dues on a regular basis. Hulda Blumenthal moved with her sons to Schlankreye 73. Erich and Ellen Blumenthal emigrated to Uruguay in Jan. 1939, and Heinz left Hamburg for Portugal in May 1939. He found a job with a Portuguese company on the Cape Verde Islands and married Ilse Klahr, a native of Hamburg.

Following the emigration of her sons, Hulda Blumenthal remained behind in the same apartment. She likely provided for herself by renting out rooms. Added to this was a regular modest support payment from her brother, which was transferred via the welfare office of the "Jewish Religious Organization” ("Jüdischer Religionsverband”). Ludwig Samuelsohn died on 2 Oct. 1941 at the Israelite Hospital, which at the time was located at Johnsallee 68. His sister Hulda gave notice of his death. Paula Samuelsohn continued the support payments to her sister-in-law, enabling Hulda to pay the basic amount of 1 RM (reichsmark) to the Jewish Community. The sum was entered in the books even as late as 26 Aug. 1942, when she was already in the Theresienstadt Ghetto together with her sister-in-law.

In Mar. 1942, the two women were forced to move to Martin Brunn-Stift at Frickestraße 24, a residential home owned by the Jewish Community and then serving as a "Jews’ house” ("Judenhaus”). This is where they received orders by the Gestapo for their departure to Theresienstadt on 15 July 1942. Paula Samuelsohn contributed her last funds, 1,302.92 RM, to a so-called "home purchase” ("Heimeinkauf”), while Hulda possessed nothing any more. On 5 Mar. 1943, Paula Samuelsohn died aged 63 of the deprivations associated with life in the ghetto; Hulda Blumenthal died two months later on 6 May at the age of 69.

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

© Hildegard Thevs

Quellen: 1; 4; 5; 7; StaH, 314-15 AfW, 191210; 332-5 Standesämter, (StA 22) 859+687/1922, (StA 2a) 8174+355/1941; 332-8 Meldewesen, K 6850; 552-1 Jüdische Gemeinden, 992 e 2, Bd. 4.
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