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Frieda Hassler (née Driels) * 1894

Bartelsstraße 13–15 (Altona, Sternschanze)

HIER WOHNTE
FRIEDA HASSLER
GEB. DRIELS
JG. 1894
GEDEMÜTIGT / ENTRECHTET
FLUCHT IN DEN TOD
10.12.1941

Frieda Hassler, née Driels, born 21.12.1894, humiliated/disenfranchised, escaped to her death on 10.12.1941

Bartelsstraße 13-15, Altona

Frieda Driels was born as the youngest of five children of the Jewish couple Jonas Nathan Jonathan Driels and his wife Sara Zerle Driels, née van der Wall, on Dec. 21, 1894 in Warsingsfehn/Leer in Lower Saxony. (Warsingsfehn is a small village in the district of Leer, around 1900 about 1000 people lived there).

We know nothing about Frieda Driels' childhood or possible education. Presumably she met her future husband Hermann Hassler through her father, as both worked in the local slaughterhouse. Frieda and Hermann Hassler were married in their hometown on October 29, 1920.

Hermann Hassler had been born in Warsingsfehn on March 24, 1892, to Hermann Heeren Hassler and his wife Almuth Gerdes, née Wehsels. The family was Roman Catholic. He lived in Kleinhesel/ Gemeinde Hesel in the district of Leer. Hermann Hassler owned a house and a barn there. The first years the newly married couple lived in a village with the name Warsingsfehn.

In 1926, the Hassler couple decided to move to Altona. They moved to Kleine Freiheit 53 in St. Pauli and lived there as subtenants. At the end of 1926, they found their own apartment at Kleiner Schäferkamp 26 in Sternschanze. They shared the apartment with Waldemar Söhrnsen, who, like Hermann Hassler, worked as a master butcher.

In 1930, the Hassler couple moved into an apartment at Fuhlsbüttlerstraße 124 in Barmbek Nord and moved from there to Bartelsstraße 15 in 1932, thus living in Sternschanze again. Hermann Hassler kept the apartment at Fuhlsbüttlerstraße 124 until 1937, but we do not know the reason.

The apartment at Bartelsstraße 15 was very conveniently located for Hermann Hassler, as it was in the immediate vicinity of the slaughterhouse on Schanzenstraße. In the meantime, Hermann Hassler described himself as a cattle dealer. From 1935, the couple sublet a room in the 3-room apartment to Anna Hinrichsen (b. 5/15/1869), who was single.

On February 12, 1937, Frieda and Hermann Hassler were inspected by the foreign exchange office of the Oberfinanzdirektion. We have no information about the reason and the result of this inspection.
According to the National Socialist assessment, the childless couple lived in a "privileged" mixed marriage. Such marriages were not touched by the state, but employers, landlords, block guards, sometimes relatives or others exerted pressure on the couple to divorce or annul the marriage. Even if spouses like the Hasslers did not give in to this pressure, it put a heavy psychological strain on them.

Frieda Hassler committed suicide on December 10, 1941, poisoning herself with carbon monoxide. Neighbors stated that she had been very depressed in the last weeks before her suicide.

One reason might have been that three of her family members from Warsingsfehn had been deported to the Kowno (Kaunas) ghetto on November 17, 1941: her brother Nathan Driels, his wife Wilhelmine Minchen Driels, and a nephew Heimann Driels (See www.stolpersteine in Papenburg und Aschendorf.de).

The police interrogated Hermann Hassler very extensively in order to exclude external guilt or murder. He suffered repeated crying fits. He could not believe, as he stated, that 20 happy years of marriage ended like this.

According to the statement of Anna Hinrichsen, who in the meantime had lived with the couple as a subtenant for 6 years, they had lived together happily and contentedly. In the past six years there had been no quarrels or fights, according to her recorded statement.

Frieda Hassler was buried a few days later in the Ilandkoppel Jewish Cemetery.

Her husband Hermann Hassler last lived at Susannenstraße 13 in Sternschanze. He died of a stroke at the age of 60 on January 25, 1953.

On the fate of Frieda Hassler's siblings:
As mentioned above, Nathan Driels (born Jan. 13, 1884) was deported with his wife Wilhelmine Minchen Driels, née Pels (born April 11, 1886), and son Heimann Driels (born Aug. 8, 1920) to the ghetto of Kowno/Lithuania (now Kaunas), where they perished. Stolpersteine commemorate them in Warsingsfehn: www.stolpersteine in Papenburg und Aschendorf.de

Josef Jonas Driels (born Aug. 15, 1885) and his wife Jenny, née Weinberg (born April 29, 1894), were deported to Auschwitz on March 3, 1943 and murdered there. (See www.stolpersteine in Papenburg und Aschendorf.de)

Sigmund Driels (born June 3, 1887) and Hinderina Driels (born May 3, 1891) fled with their children Senta (born Oct. 1, 1919) and Norbert Driels (born July 17, 1921) to England, the children in 1934 and 1938, the parents in 1939.

Marianne Driels (born June 9, 1889) had fled to the Netherlands together with her husband Moses Leonhard Hirschtick (born March 26, 1885); they were deported from the Westerbork camp to Auschwitz and murdered.

Translation by Beate Meyer
Stand: February 2022
© Bärbel Klein

Quellen: 1; 2; 4; 5; 8; StaH 331-5_3 Akte 1932/1941; 332-5_721/1941 Hassler; 621-1/85_373; 741-4_5185; 741-4_K4445; 741-4_K4718; 741-4_4556; 741-4_2512; 332-5_50/1953 Tod Hermann Hassler; Nr. 14/1888 Lina Driels; Nr. 4/1928 Nathan Driels; Hamburgs Viehmärkte und Zentralschlachthof, von Dr. J. Neumann, herausgegeben 1914, Paul Conström’s Verlagsanstalt und Druckerei, Seite 1, 2. Absatz, Seite 3, 3. Absatz, Seite 4, 1. Absatz; www.gcjz-ostfriesland.de/ Archivpädagogische Schriften, Daten zur jüdischen Bevölkerung der Stadt Leer; www.wikipedea.de; www.geni.com; www.ancestry.de (Einsicht am 26.9.2020).
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