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Camilla Bloch * 1914

Marktstraße 5 (Hamburg-Mitte, St. Pauli)

HIER WOHNTE
CAMILLA BLOCH
JG. 1914
MEHRMALS VERHAFTET
ZULETZT 1942
RAVENSBRÜCK
"VERLEGT" 11.3.1942
BERNBURG / SAALE
ERMORDET 11.3.1942

further stumbling stones in Marktstraße 5:
Alice Bloch, Waldemar Bloch, Rosa Bloch, Bertha Gangloff, Anni Krümmel

Alice Bloch, born on 2 Aug. 1917 in Hamburg, detained on 9 Feb. 1938 at the Moringen concentration camp, transferred on 21 Mar. 1938 to the Ravensbrück concentration camp, murdered on 30 Mar. 1942 at the euthanasia killing center in Bernburg/Saale
Anni (Anna) Krümmel (Krümel), née Bloch, born on 7 Oct. 1912 in Hamburg, arrested on 8 Aug. 1938, murdered on 30 Mar. 1942 at the euthanasia killing center in Bernburg/Saale
Bertha (Berta) Gangloff, née Bloch, born on 22 June 1904 in Berlin, detained on 9 Feb. 1938 at the Moringen concentration camp, transferred to the Lichtenburg concentration camp, transferred in May 1939 to the Ravensbrück concentration camp, murdered on 30 Mar. 1942 at the euthanasia killing center in Bernburg/Saale
Camilla (Kamilla) Bloch, born on 27 Mar. 1914 in Hamburg, detained on 9 Feb. 1938 at the Fuhlsbüttel concentration camp, died on 10 Mar. 1942 (11 Mar. 1942) in the Ravensbrück concentration camp
Rosa (Röschen) Bloch, née Itzig, born on 16 Sept. 1877 in Jastrow (Jastrowie), detained from 1 July 1937 to 31 Dec. 1938 in Hamburg, transferred in 1939 to the Fuhlsbüttel concentration camp, transferred on 8 Apr. 1939 to the Ravensbrück concentration camp, murdered on 1 Apr. 1942 at the euthanasia killing center in Bernburg/Saale
Waldemar Bloch, born on 25 Mar. 1880 in Frankfurt/Main, arrested in July 1937, died on 18 Mar. 1940 in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp

Marktstraße 5

In early July 1937, Rosa and Waldemar Bloch were arrested by the Gestapo. On 10 Jan. 1938, the verdict was passed against the married couple "for joint aggravated procuring in coincidence with joint aiding and abetting in racial defilement (Rassenschande)” – thus the text from excerpts of the verdict. This was preceded by the fact that they as parents had not prevented their 35-year-old daughter Bertha from being visited by a non-Jewish boyfriend at the shared apartment at Schulterblatt. Bertha and her parents were denounced. The opinion of the court also contained reference to the fact that their daughters Alice, Camilla, and Anni as well as son Walter were entangled in proceedings for "racial defilement” as well.

After the end of their prison term, neither Rosa nor Waldemar were released but instead taken into "protective custody” ("Schutzhaft”). Rosa was sent to the Ravensbrück concentration camp via the Fuhlsbüttel concentration camp. Two reasons were put forward there for her imprisonment. That she was "asocial” and Jewish. When she arrived in Ravensbrück in Apr. 1939, her daughter Alice had already been imprisoned in that women’s concentration camp for over a year. Five months later, Bertha was transferred there as well. The time when Anni and Camilla arrived in Ravensbrück is not documented. Two days after the murder of her daughters Alice, Anni, and Bertha, and three weeks after the death of her daughter Camilla, Rosa was murdered in Bernburg.

Apart from Hamburg, the Memorial Book of the Federal Archives also lists Prettin among the places of residence for Rosa, Bertha, Anni, and Camilla. Prettin was the location of the Lichtenburg concentration camp for women. Bertha’s imprisonment there is documented. One can assume that her mother and sisters also did not "reside” in Prettin but were interned in the concentration camp.

What did the lives of the family members look like prior to their imprisonment? The mother, Rosa Itzig, came from what was then West Prussia – her birthplace was today’s Jastrowie. She lived in Berlin when she had her first daughter Ernestine in May 1902. The following year, she married Waldemar Bloch. He had attended elementary school (Volksschule) up to the first class [equivalent to today’s grade 8 due to the reverse way of counting] and was a cigar maker by trade. In June 1904, Rosa and Waldemar had their first child born in wedlock, Bertha, also in Berlin. In 1906, the Blochs moved to Hamburg. Their son Reinhold was born in Mar. 1907. The children who followed were Heini (Heinrich) in 1908, Elsa (Else) in 1909, Walter in 1911, Anni in 1912, Camilla in 1914, and Alice in 1917.

The Blochs’ first Hamburg address as listed in the Hamburg directory from 1907 to 1910 was: Waldemar Bloch, worker, Rademachergang 19. Between 1913 and 1918, there is a listing for the longshoreman W. Bloch at Neuer Steinweg 91 in Hamburg-Neustadt. Waldemar fought in World War I, returning with severe injuries. From 1920 onward, the Hamburg directory lists a worker by the name of Waldemar Bloch at Marktstraße 5, house no. 1. Until 1933 or 1934, he was employed as a dispatch clerk at GEG – the cooperative "Großeinkaufs-Gesellschaft Deutscher Consumvereine m.b.H,” [a wholesale corporation of German consumers’ cooperatives]. The GEG was "forcibly coordinated” ("gleichgeschaltet”) by the NSDAP: On 5 May 1933, the Hamburg district inspector (Gauinspektor) Erich Grahl, vested with full powers, took over the management of the GEG. Waldemar Bloch was dismissed because he was Jewish. Subsequently, he found work only on a temporary basis, among other places, at "Kaufhaus Wagner,” a department store on Elbstraße, and was no longer placed with companies by the employment office. Shortly before his arrest, he was working as a packer.

Daughter Bertha married one Mr. Gangloff, with whom she had her son Rolf Fedor in Hamburg in July 1925. The marriage was divorced. She lived as a subtenant with her son at Schulterblatt 75, later at house no. 83. The boyfriend, for whom she was accused of "racial defilement,” was sentenced to 18 months in prison because of his relationship with Bertha. After her parents’ arrest, Bertha shared the apartment with Rolf, Camilla, and Alice. When the Gestapo arrested the three sisters in Feb. 1938, twelve-year-old Rolf ran to his Aunt Else, telling her what had happened. She immediately put him into foster care. He was later adopted in Britain, living under a different name since then.

Bertha was initially brought to Moringen in southern Lower Saxony. She was detained there in the local concentration camp for women until it was closed in Mar. 1938, and subsequently committed – like the other inmates – to the Lichtenburg concentration camp for women near Torgau. Prior to the closure of the Lichtenburg camp on 18 May 1939, the detained women were transferred to Ravensbrück, in the process of which Bertha’s committal from the Fuhlsbüttel concentration camp was registered. In Sept. 1939, she was brought to Hamburg, returning to Ravensbrück at the end of the month. She continued to be imprisoned in Ravensbrück until her murder at the euthanasia killing center in Bernburg.

Bertha’s sister Anni had started a milliner’s apprenticeship. As hat makers and tailors, milliners were responsible for stylish outfitting. Her sister Elsa does not remember whether Anni completed this apprenticeship. She had a job as a "Tagfrau,” an archaic German term for "domestic.” Anni married one Mr. Krümmel. She joined the Jewish Community on 28 Apr. 1934. At this time, she was already divorced. She had no children. Initially, she lived in Vereinsstraße, from Nov. 1936 at the Lüders’ – her sister Elsa’s name after marriage – in Heinrich-Dreckmannstraße, today’s Susannenstraße. Prior to her imprisonment, she lived at Böhmkenstraße 30 in Hamburg’s Neustadt. The register of residents indicates that she had moved to an unknown address after 8 Aug. 1938. Therefore, the assumption in the restitution proceedings was that she was arrested on that day. Elsa stated that she was imprisoned in the Moringen concentration camp for some time. It is very likely that she was transferred to the Lichtenburg concentration camp together with her sisters and from there to Ravensbrück, before being murdered in Bernburg in Mar. 1942.

Camilla’s sister Elsa declared in her application for restitution that Camilla had not learned any trade "because she was constantly ill.” She worked as a domestic and lived at Innocentiastraße 21 until Oct. 1932. Afterward, she left the Jewish Community due to her move to Blankenese. From 1934 onward, she apparently lived with her parents again. In the opinion of the court handed down against the Bloch couple, the judges based their verdict in Jan. 1938, among other things, on the fact that according to them Camilla was involved in proceedings due to alleged "racial defilement,” in which her partner was sentenced to eight months in prison. Shortly thereafter, Camilla was arrested by the Gestapo together with Bertha and Alice on 9 Feb. 1938. Their sister Elsa assumed that they were imprisoned without trial and verdict. Camilla was initially detained in the Fuhlsbüttel concentration camp and subsequently in the Ravensbrück concentration camp for women, where she died in Mar. 1942.

In some instances, Jewish men and women continued to be stigmatized in the Federal Republic of Germany for a long time after their murder at the hands of the Nazis if they had been subjected to accusations of "racial defilement.” For example, one official dealing with the case at the Restitution Office (Amt für Wiedergutmachung) gave free rein to his imagination in Sept. 1962, making the following conjectures about Camilla Bloch – without basing them on even a single concrete clue: "… there is cause to suspect that there was possibly a lack of genuine willingness to work (possibly casual prostitution?).” Only in 1998 did the German Bundestag reverse the "racial defilement” verdicts.

Alice Bloch attended the Israelite Girls’ School on Karolinenstraße from 1924 to Easter of 1934. It was her wish to become a photographic laboratory assistant. Since she was Jewish, she did not get a position as an apprentice. She had only a small income as a worker. For a while, she lived at Glashüttenstraße 26, and afterward at Schulterblatt 85. Alice was engaged. Her fiancé was under investigation on a charge of "racial defilement.” The investigation was discontinued in Dec. 1935. Alice was initially detained at the Moringen concentration camp for juveniles and then transferred to the Ravensbrück concentration camp in Mar. 1938. Because of an entry on her Jewish religious tax (Kultussteuer) card dating from Jan. 1941, the Restitution Office subsequently surmised that Alice may possibly "have been free for a short period after serving her sentence before being transported to Ravensbrück.” On the same day as her sisters Anni and Bertha, she was gassed at the euthanasia killing center in Bernburg.

Heini, assessed as a baker for taxation by the Jewish Community for the first time in early Oct. 1929, moved from Lerchenstraße 8 to Berlin two weeks later. Nothing is known about his subsequent whereabouts. Walter was prohibited by the records office from marrying his non-Jewish fiancé, and he was sentenced to 15 months in prison for "racial defilement.” The sentence was considered served in Sept. 1938. Afterward, the Gestapo transferred him to the Buchenwald concentration camp. When the camp was liberated, he was freed as well. A few months later, he finally married his fiancé. The trained projectionist Reinhold lived with his parents at Marktstraße 5 at least until 1930. Later he got married to a Christian woman, with whom he had a daughter seven years old in 1939. On 15 Nov. 1939, he plunged from the third floor of his house on to the street. According to the Jewish Community, he had already died the year before – in Oct. 1938, the organization noted the following cryptic remark on his Jewish religious tax (Kultussteuer) card: "Withdrawal due to relig. death” ("Austritt durch Relig. Tod").

Elsa was deported to Riga in Dec. 1941, surviving the ghetto and returning to Hamburg. In 1950, when an application for restitution was filed, of the nine siblings only Ernestine, Elsa, and Walter were still alive. What remains unresolved is whose children Waldemar Bloch’s grandchildren Helga and Rita were, particularly since we do not know their last names. Both were declared dead as of 8 May 1945. What we do know is that one Rita Bloch, born on 28 Apr. 1932, and one Helga Bloch, born in 1929, were deported from Berlin to the Lodz Ghetto on 1 Nov. 1941.

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

© Christiane Jungblut

Quellen: 1; 4; 5; 8; AB 1922; StaH 213-1 OLG, Oberlandesgericht Verwaltung, Abl. 8, 143 E, L 4 a; StaH 351-11 AfW, Abl. 2008/1, 020817 Bloch, Alice; StaH 351-11 AfW, Abl. 2008/1, 160977 Bloch, Röschen; StaH 351-11 AfW, Abl. 2008/1, 250380 Bloch, Waldemar; StaH 351-11 AfW, Abl. 2008/1, 270314 Bloch, Kamilla; StaH 362-6/10, TT 19; StaH 522-1 Jüd. Gemeinden, 390 Wählerliste 1930; Gedenkstätte Lichtenburg, AV Li 906G; 911G; Sammlungen Mahn- und Gedenkstätte Ravensbrück/Stiftung Brandenburgische Gedenkstätten, RA Band 35 Bericht 398; RA Nr. VIII/2 (Kopie); RA Nr. XVI/3 (Kopie); RA Nr. IV/1, MF 135, Nr. 54, Zugangsliste vom 28.4.39 (Kopie); Przyrembel, "Rassenschande", 2003, S. 495; KZ-Gedenkstätte Moringen, Geschichte, http://www.gedenkstaette-moringen.de/geschichte/geschichte.html (14.2.2009); Arbeitskreis Schloss und Gedenkstätte Lichtenburg e.V., Geschichte, http://www.lichtenburg.org/13.0.html (14.2.2009); Bösche/Korf, Konsumgenossenschaften, http://www.zdk-hamburg.de/download/ Chronik_ZdK.pdf (19.2.2009).

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