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Julius Bass * 1907

Altonaer Straße 63 (Eimsbüttel, Eimsbüttel)

HIER WOHNTE
JULIUS BASS
JG. 1907
1941 KZ FUHLSBÜTTEL
1941/42 NEUENGAMME
ERMORDET 9.6.1942
HEILANSTALT BERNBURG

further stumbling stones in Altonaer Straße 63:
Simon Hermann Bass

Julius Bass, born on 27 Feb. 1907 in Hamburg, in 1941 and 1942 imprisoned several times in concentration camps, transferred from the Neuengamme concentration camp to the euthanasia killing center in Bernburg in June 1942, murdered there on 9 June 1942
Simon Hermann Bass, born on 23 Dec. 1873 in Hamburg, imprisoned in 1941 in the Fuhlsbüttel concentration camp, deported to Minsk on 18 Nov. 1941

Altonaer Straße 63

Julius Bass was the son of Rosalie Bass, née Rothschild (born in Cologne on 2 Nov. 1875), and the produce trader (Produktenhändler), upholsterer and interior decorator ("Tapezier”) Simon Hermann Bass. His mother died in 1922. At the end of the nineteenth century, the parents lived at Neuer Steinweg 60, later in Eimsbüttel at Lindenallee 5 on the ground floor.

At Altonaer Straße 63, Julius Bass probably lived as a subtenant of one Rossler family. In the tax card file of the German-Israelitic Community, he was listed as a worker. Together with his father Simon Hermann Bass, he ran a junk shop, which since 1922 was located in the basement of the house at Vereinsstraße 18. For some time, Julius Bass also lived at Vereinsstraße 2, together with his father, and at Lindenallee 5. Other addresses that appear in the Jewish religious tax (Kultussteuer) card file for the year 1936 are Wilhelminenstraße 68 and Sophienallee 39. He may well not have had an apartment of his own for a while, instead changing quarters frequently as a subtenant. At the end of the 1930s, he is entered in the directory with a "produce shop” ("Prod. Hdlg.”) at Vereinsstraße 2.

Julius Bass had two older sisters. Dora, married name Dircks, survived the Nazi period and died in Feb. 1952. His sister Bertha (born in 1896) left Germany in 1922 already and lived in the USA, where she was married. Julius attended the Realschule [a practice-oriented secondary school up to grade 10] run by Dr. Anton Rée up to grade 9, then doing a three-and-a-half-year apprenticeship as an electrician. After completing his training, he first worked for his father and then ran a shop of his own from 1936 onward.

In Sept. 1931, Julius Bass became a father. The mother of his illegitimate son Carl-Heinz, Margarethe Edelmann, was Catholic and of non-Jewish descent. She died already in 1934. The child was raised by Julius Bass’ sister and his brother-in-law, Willy Dircks.

On 17 Oct. 1938, Julius Bass was sentenced by the Hamburg Regional Court (Landgericht) to 42 months in prison for "repeated racial defilement” ("fortgesetzte Rassenschande”). He had had sexual relations in 1937 with a "female German national of German blood.” During the trial, he claimed that his father was not his biological father, since his mother had had an extramarital affair with a non-Jewish man, who was his father. The court did not believe him. By the time the judgment was pronounced, he had already spent ten months in pretrial detention. From 18 Oct. 1938 to 16 June 1941, he was imprisoned in the Bremen-Oslebshausen penitentiary and in the penal institution at Celle. On 16 June 1941, he had finished serving his penalty, but he was not released. Instead, the Gestapo took him into "protective custody” ("Schutzhaft”), first transporting him to the Fuhlsbüttel concentration camp and subsequently to the Neuengamme concentration camp. From there he was transferred as one of 295 Neuengamme inmates – at least 113 of them were of Jewish descent and at least 31 were German Jews – to the euthanasia killing center in Bernburg (in today’s federal state of Sachsen-Anhalt), where he was murdered on 9 June 1942. His death was registered at the Neuengamme special records office, giving a fictitious cause of death. Supposedly, he died of intestinal inflammation. This entry served to cover up the facts, but it represents a clue to "Action 14 f 13.” Julius Bass was killed using carbon monoxide.

On 20 May 1958, the conviction for "racial defilement” ("Rassenschande”) was overturned by the Chief Public Prosecutor (leitender Oberstaatsanwalt) at the Regional Court and deleted from the criminal record.

Julius Bass’ father, Simon Hermann Bass, had already been committed for trial in Dec. 1936 on suspicion of "racial defilement” ("Rassenschande”) and was sentenced to 18 months in prison on 22 Mar. 1937. He was taken into "protective custody” ("Schutzhaft”) by the Gestapo in the Fuhlsbüttel police prison on 7 Feb. 1941 and deported to Minsk on 18 Nov. 1941. On the deportation list, he is entered among the "volunteers” with "upholsterer” as an occupational designation and Schlachterstraße 40 as an address.

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

© Susanne Lohmeyer

Quellen: 1; 3; 4; StaH 213-1 Oberlandesgericht Verwaltung Ablieferung 8 143 E, L4c; StaH 331-1, Abl. 15 vom 18.9.1984, Band 1; StaH 332-5 Standesämter, 2406 und 3783/1896; StaH 332-5, 856 + 548/1922; StaH 351-11 AfW AZ 210201; StaH 522-1 992e 2 Band 3 (Deportationslisten); Datenbank Neuengamme; HAB II 1937, 1939; HAB IV 1926; Christian Römmer, "Sonderbehandlung 14f13". Die Ermordung von Häftlingen des KZ Neuengamme in der Tötungsanstalt Bernburg, in: Beiträge zur Geschichte der nationalsozialistischen Verfolgung in Norddeutschland, Bd. 11, hrsg. von der KZ-Gedenkstätte Neuengamme, Bremen 2009, S. 31–33.