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Emma Stern * 1877

Grindelallee 24 (Eimsbüttel, Rotherbaum)

1941 Minsk

further stumbling stones in Grindelallee 24:
Veronika Bartels, Elsa Borower, Harald Ehrmann, Rifka Gänser, Max Gänser, Franz Stern

Emma Stern, b. 2.16.1877 in Marienbad, deported on 8 November 1941 to Minsk
Franz Stern, b. 3.22.1897 in Berlin, deported on 8 November 1941 to Minsk
Veronika Bartels, née Stern, b. 4.24.1875 in Iglau, deported on 8 November 1941 to Minsk

Grindelallee 24

Scarcely any trace of Emma Stern has been preserved. Her Hamburg communal religion tax record reveals only that she was divorced and childless. As a retired seamstress she received financial support of 26 RM per month.

Franz Stern, a messenger by profession, was likewise divorced and childless. As a "welfare recipient” he was given a token lump sum of 56 RM on which to live.

Both lived until 1941 at Grindelalle 24 with Veronika Bartells, who was Franz’s mother and Emma’s sister. After divorcing her husband Garry Bartels, who belonged to the Evangelical-Lutheran Church, Veronika retained his surname. Whether he was the biological father of Franz is, on the basis of the contradictory records, not verifiable.

What stands out in an examination of the communal tax records for Franz and Emma is the annotation, "Czechia." With the annexation of a part of Czechoslovakia and the erection of the "Reich Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia,” laws regarding the Jewish population were issued. Former Czechs living in Germany like Emma and Franz Stern were subject to the anti-Jewish measures.

By law in Nazi Germany, since 1 January 1939, members of the Stern family had to introduce the compulsory names "Sara" or "Israel," to let it be known that they were Jews.
Emma, Veronika, and Franz received their deportation orders to Minsk and, on 8 November 1941 at 10:52 AM, from the out-of-the-way Hannover Railroad station, were "evacuated" to the East. "For Jews the identity card and, if at hand, the workbook and passport are to be surrendered. These papers will be stamped to show the evacuation."

In contrast to later deportations, neither freight nor cattle cars were used but rather passenger trains, although even here cramped conditions prevailed. Up to the last moment, the majority of people had no idea of where they were supposed to be going or what awaited them at their destination. The newcomers found fresh traces of the SS murder action carried out on 12,000 local Jews, in order to "make room” for the German Jews. Three days after their departure, that is on 11 November, the train from Hamburg arrived. The civil administration brought the newcomers from the Reich into "Special Ghetto I and II,” which was cordoned off with barbed wire from the main ghetto. No information about the physical state of the Sterns has been preserved. But considering their age, especially that of the two sisters who were in their sixties, it is likely that they were not put to hard labor and consequently received only meager rations.

Emma Stern, Veronika Bartels, and Franz Stern were murdered in or around Minsk at an unspecified time.

Emma and Veronika had a younger sister, Paula Stern (b. 9.11.1881). She was apparently deported from the Netherlands.


Translator: Richard Levy
Kindly supported by the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung, Hamburg.

Stand: January 2019
© Lisa Luckschus

Quellen: Opfer der Verfolgung der Juden unter der nationalsozialistischen Gewaltherrschaft in Deutschland 1933–1945, 2. Aufl., Bd. IV (S-Z), herausgegeben vom Bundesarchiv Koblenz, Koblenz 2006; StaHH, 522-1, Jüdische Gemeinden, 922b, Kultussteuerkartei der Deutsch-Israelitischen Gemeinde Hamburgs; StaHH, 522-1 Jüdische Gemeinden 992 e 2 Band 2, Deportationsliste vom 8.11.1941 nach Minsk; Bundesarchiv Berlin, Bundesarchiv Berlin, R 1509, Ergänzungskarten für Angaben über Abstammung (Volkszählung v. 17.5.1939), ebd., Liste der jüdischen Einwohner des Deutschen Reichs 1933-1945; Meyer, Beate: Die Deportation der Hamburger Juden 1941–1945, in: Meyer, B. (Hrsg.): Die Verfolgung und Ermordung der Hamburger Juden 1933–1945. Geschichte. Zeugnis. Erinnerung, 2. Auflg., Hamburg 2007, S. 42–74; Gerlach, Christian: Die Wannsee-Konferenz, das Schicksal der deutschen Juden und Hitlers politische Grundsatzentscheidung, alle Juden Europas zu ermorden, in: WerkstattGeschichte Bd. 18/1997; Gerlach, Christian: Kalkulierte Morde. Die deutsche Wirtschafts- und Vernichtungspolitik in Weißrussland 1941 bis 1944, 2. Aufl., Hamburg 1999, S. 704; Rosenberg, Heinz: Jahre des Schreckens. …und ich blieb übrig, dass ich Dir´s ansage, Göttingen 1992.