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Lina Falck (née Heimann) * 1892

Försterweg 43 (Eimsbüttel, Stellingen)

1942 Auschwitz
ermordet

further stumbling stones in Försterweg 43:
Salomon Falck, Hilde Falck, Ruth Falck, Gerta Lazarus, Ilse Lazarus

Lina Falck, née Heimann, born 29 Jan. 1892 in Hamburg, deported 11 July 1942 to Auschwitz

Försterweg 43

Lina Heimann was the second daughter of the Jewish watchmaker Bernhard Heimann (1860-1918). He was born in Hamburg, and opened a clock and goldware shop at Neue Steinweg 36 in 1888. He was granted Hamburg citizenship in 1889.

His shop and apartment were in the Jewish quarter around Großneumarkt. Bernhard Heimann was a member of the Hamburg Jewish Community, and probably also of the orthodox synagogue association. His wife Sophie, née Cohn (*1867) was from Lübeck.

Lina (*1892), her brother Sally (*1894), and her sister Nanny (1899) were born in the family’s apartment at Peterstraße 16, which was directly adjacent to the Synagoge der Alten und Neuen Klaus. The eldest daughter Betty (*18 Dec. 1890) had been born at Peterstraße 36, House 3. She attended the Israelitic Girls’ School until she was 16, and then a public trade school for stenography, bookkeeping and typewriting. Betty Heiman never married. From 1911 until 1938 she worked as an office clerk for the James Mathiason real estate company in Hamburg (Königstraße 21-23), at a salary of around 95 Reichsmarks per month. The company was shut down in November 1938 and the owner was sent to a concentration camp. The company was officially dissolved in February 1939.

Sally Heimann (*6 June 1894) attended the Talmud-Tora secondary school and then, from 1911 to 1914, completed a commercial apprenticeship at the L. Segelbaum & Co. bag factory in Altona. After his apprenticeship he founded a small postcard publishing company. In September 1916 he was deployed to the western front as a soldier in the Imperial Army, and was awarded the Hamburg Hanseatic Cross. He returned from the war in September 1918, one month before the death of his father. Sally Heimann was registered as an independent member of the German-Israelitic Community in 1920. He was also a member of the orthodox synagogue association.

His sister Nanny Heimann (*13 Feb. 1899) attended the Israelitic Girls’ School on Karolinenstraße for nine years. Afterwards, she attended a trade shool and learned stenography, typing, and bookkeeping. She worked as an office clerk at the W. B. Levy sack factory and linen and jute warehouse at Hopfenmarkt 20 from January 1915 to June 1916, and then in her brother Sally’s postcard publishing house, which she ran while he was away at war. After the return of her brother and the death of their father, she worked in her father’s clock shop. In September 1921 she took over the Carl Wille Nachfolger clock and goldware shop. She was athletic and played the "upper class” sports tennis and field hockey. In 1928 she married the salesman Adolf Mühlgay (*17 July 1896 near Lemberg, Galicia – modern-day Lviv, Ukraine). Their sons Bernhard and Walter were born in 1929 and 1931.

Ely Sussmann Heimann (*6 June 1905) was the youngest of the five Heimann children. After his schooling he attended a trade school in the 1920s, where he became a radio technician. From 1924 onwards he worked in his brother Sally’s radio shop (Funk-Heimann), where he earned 500 Reichsmarks per month plus a 500 Reichsmarks sales commission. He was a member of the Oberalster canoe club.

In 1900, the seven-member family moved to the third floor of the Hertz Joseph Levy Home at Großneumarkt 56. The Home offered 20 apartments for orthodox Jews, some for rent and some free of charge. This move indicates that the family had chosen to live in an orthodox environment. As they were financially well-situated, they probably paid rent, which benefitted less well-off families in the form of rent-free accommodations. The Heimann children all attended Jewish schools, and for the parents it was out of the question that their children marry outside of the faith. When their youngest son married a Protestant, they were strongly opposed, as were the wife’s parents. The prayer robe that Sally Heimann took with him when he emigrated in 1939 is further evidence of the family’s orthodoxy.

In 1913 the Heimann family moved to the new Rotherbaum district, where a large percentage of the city’s Jewish population had settled. From 1913 to 1916 the family lived in the Grindelviertel at Rutschbahn 31. The building had a grocer’s shop and a bookstore on the ground level, and Rabbi Immanuel Plato (1863-1937) lived on the second floor. In 1916 the family moved to a ground-floor apartment at Heinrich-Barth-Straße 23. The building next door at Number 21 housed the "Israelitic Boarding House and Luncheon Room,” run by Jenny Heimann and a men’s clothing shop run by M. Heimann, but it is unknown if the families were related. From 1917 onwards the Jewish sports club Bar Kochba was on the second floor of Number 21.

After his father’s death in October 1918, Sally Heimann took over his clock and goldware shop on Neue Steinweg, and in 1924, taking advantage of the newly expanding medium of radio, turned it into a radio shop (Funk-Heimann). The shop employed a salesman and sales girl, two technicians and a manager (from 1930 this was his brother Ely Sussmann Heimann, who was a radio technician). Adolf Mühlgay, the owner of the Barmbek Radio Center (Funk Zentrale Barmbek) and Heimann’s brother-in-law, recalled in 1957, from his new home in London: "Funk-Heimann was one of the best-known radio parts shops in Hamburg…”. Sally Heimann also showed his business savvy when he sold the buildings at Neue Steinweg 34, 35, and 36 in 1922, shortly before the most severe phase of hyperinflation. The buildings were auctioned off by the National Socialists in January 1940.

Lina Heimann married Salomon Falck (see Biographies: Salomon Falck) in 1923. He was born in Hamburg in 1897 in the Jewish Charity Home at Schlachterstraße 40, House 3 to Ferdinand Falck (*21 Nov. 1840 in Wandsbek) and his wife Rosalie, née Rittlewski (*5 May 1861 in Hamburg). He lived at this address until he married. Charity Homes, such as the Marcus Nordheimsche Freiwohnungen-Stiftung, which was established in 1882, were established as residences for the needy by wealthy Jewish families. The Falck family likely had only a small income at their disposal. Witnesses at Lina and Salomon’s wedding were Salomon’s half-brother Siegfried S. Falck (1872-1942) and Lina’s brother Sally Heimann.

Beginning in December 1923, Salomon (Siegbert) Falck, aged 26, was registered with the German-Israelitic Community as a head of household. He also became a member of the orthodox synagogue association. His Jewish Community church tax file states that he was a travelling salesman for the Holsatia plant in Altona-Ottensen, a wood-working factory which manufactured everything from matchboxes to furniture. By this time he had added ‘Siegbert’ to his name, probably so that he would not automatically be recognized and ostracized as a Jew. On the marriage certificate from ten months earlier, only the name Salomon is listed. His half-brother Siegfried S. Falck also disguised his Jewish name of Salomon with the intitial S.

Probably due to their strained financial situation, the address listed for Salomon and Lina Falk in the Hamburg Address book of 1925-27 was listed as Neue Steinweg 78 – a Jewish charity home of the Levy Foundation. At this time Salomon (Siegbert) Falck was working in a warehouse. Their daughter Hilde was born in December 1924.
Salomon Falck’s persepectives began to look up in 1928/29 when he got a job as cemetery inspector at the orthodox Jewish cemetery in Langenfelde. The family moved to Stellingen, a small town in the Pinneberg administrative district of Holstein. It was incorporated into the Prussian city of Altona in 1927. On the cemetery grounds (Försterweg 43), which belonged to the Alten und Neuen Klaus Hamburg, were a mortuary with a synagogue and a home for the cemetery inspector and his family. The Jewish burial ritual calls for a mortuary at the cemetery where the body can be washed and laid out, as well as a room for watchers who stay with the deceased. The Langenfeld cemetery, which was located outside the Hamburg city limits, guaranteed the sanctity of the graves "for eternity.”
The family’s second daughter Ruth was born at this address in 1929. In addition to his work as cemetery inspector, Siegbert Falck also started a business selling gravestones, from 1931-1936 at Fuhlsbüttler Straße 685, across from the Ohlsdorf Jewish Cemetery, then from 1937-1940 at Försterweg 43. The Hamburg Sculptors’ and Stonecutters’ Guild, later the Reich Guild Association of Sculptors and Stonecutters, had its offices very near his first place of business, at Fuhlsbüttler Straße 719.
An article in the Israelitischen Familienblatt from 16 January 1936 has the title "A new Memorial for the Fallen.” It says: "The dignified and elegant memorial of black gold with golden lettering was donated by the burial society and is the work of the sculptor Siegbert Falck (Altona-Langenfelde). It is a testament to the brilliance of his work.” The memorial lists the names, written in Hebrew, of those soldiers killed during the First World War who were buried in the Langenfeld cemetery or who were members of the burial society.

After the National Socialists came to power in January 1933, the situation of the Jews in Germany deteriorated steadily. Jewish-owned businesses were boycotted and their owners were compelled to give them up or sell them. Sally Heimann sold his business in August 1938 to his employee Arthur Engel, and Adolf Mühlgay’s trustee Karl Kessler sold the Barmbek Radio Center to himself. The systematic compilation of data for the purpose of ostracizing and expelling Jews made use of the administrative documents that already existed. In the official registry for the building at Försterweg 43, a "J” was entered in front of the names of Jewish residents. In January 1938, the Falcks withdrew their membership in the German-Israelitc Community, probably in the hope of avoiding Nazi persecution. But as of 1939 they were mandatorily registered, as were all "full Jews,” with the Reich Association of Jews, which was under the control of the Reich Main Security Administration and thus of the Gestapo. In February 1939 the Hamburg Registry Office added "Sara” to Lina Falck’s name, and she was required to use it in her signature.

Lina’s mother Sophie, her brother Sally and her sister Betty all emigrated in early 1939 to England, after Sally had been released from the Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp. Two Gestapo agents had arrested him on 10 November 1938 at 6 a.m. He was taken to the Fuhlsbüttel prison, then transferred to Sachsenhausen. He was released on 16 December 1938 on the condition that he leave Germany immediately. He was unable to find passage on a ship on such short notice, so he flew with Lufthansa to London, where his daughter Irma (*1922) had lived since 1937. Ely Sussmann Heimann and his fiancée had also emigrated to Great Britain in 1935. He procured British visas for his sister Nanny and her husband Adolf Mühlgay, who, together with their maid, had been deported to the Zbaszyn Camp in Poland on 28 October 1938. Nanny’s deportation had been postponed because her son was ill. The couple emigrated in July 1939 to Great Britiain. Both sons had already arrived there on a children’s transport.

By at least 15 November 1938, Lina and Salomon (Siegbert) Falck’s daughters, Hilde and Ruth, were enrolled at the Karolinenstraße Jewish Girls’ School. A Reich edict prohibited Jewish children from attending public schools as of this date. In April 1939 they were at the Talmud Tora School (Grindelhof 30 and 38), with which the girls’ school had been merged, then in November of that year they returned to the Karolinenstraße school, which was now called the "Secondary School for Jews.”

Lina and Salomon (Siegbert) Falck divorced in May 1940. One month later Salomon married the sales clerk Liselotte Rosenberg (*16 Dec. 1911 in Hamburg), and moved in with her at Bogenstraße 25. The daughters remained with their mother at Försterweg 43. The house had been confiscated by the Nazis and used as a "Jews’ house” when they began concentrating and deporting Jews. The three-member Lazarus family were quartered there, as were Firtz Benscher (*1904) and Manfred Menco (*10 July 1910). Jews were no longer permitted to choose where they wanted to live. Lina Falck’s financial situation after the divorce was dire. She did not have the funds to emigrate, and, with the outbreak of World War II, more restrictive immigration requirements had been put in place. Beginning in September 1941, Lina Falck was required to wear the yellow "Jews’ star,” and was prohibited from using any public transportation. Her formerly freely-chosen place of residence was slowly becoming a ghetto. .

On 11 July 1942, Lina Falck and her 17- and 13-year-old daughters were deported from Hamburg to the Auschwitz-Birkenau Extermination Camp. They were sent to the gas chambers immediately upon arrival, without being registered. Their belongings were stored in the camp’s depot.
The Hamburg District Court declared their date of death as 8 May 1945.

Salomon Siegbert Falck and his second wife were deported to Lodz on 25 October 1941. In 1963, the German Red Cross Tracing Service investigated his whereabouts for a restitution claim, and reported: "On 24 December 1944 he was transferred by the Reich Security Main Administration from Tschenstochau (Czestochowa) to the Buchenwald Concentration Camp, prisoner number 11874. He died there on 29 March 1945 at 5:45 p.m. Cause of death: gastroenteritis.” The camp was liberated by US troops two weeks after his death.

His mother, Rosalie Falck, née Rittlewski, died on 6 May 1944 in the Theresienstadt Ghetto, as did his half-brother Siegfried Falck (*18 July 1872 in Hamburg), on 11 October 1942. He and his sister Jenny (*11 Oct. 1870 in Hamburg) had been deported on 19 July 1942. She was transferred to the Treblinka Extermination Camp on 21 September 1942.

Translator: Amy Lee

Kindly supported by the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung, Hamburg.

© Björn Eggert

Quellen: Staatsarchiv Hamburg (StaH) 314-15 (Oberfinanzpräsident), F 960 (Sally Heimann); StaH 314-15 (OFP), F 961 (Sophie und Betty Heimann); StaH 332-3 (Zivilstandsaufsicht 1866-1875, Vorläufer der Standesämter), A Nr. 134 (4663/ 1872, Geburtsregister 18.7.1872, Siegfried Samuel Falck); StaH 332-5 (Standesämter), 2233 u. 5213/1890 (Geburtsregister 1890, Betty Heimann); StaH 332-5 (Standesämter), 2282 u. 458/1892 (Geburtsregister 1892, Lina Heimann); StaH 332-5 (Standesämter), 2344 u. 2147/1894 (Geburtsregister 1894, Sally Heimann); StaH 332-5 (Standesämter), 2829 u. 106/ 1894 (Heiratsregister 1894, Ferdinand Falck u. Rosalie Rittlewski); StaH 332-5 (Standesämter), 2433 u. 3243/1897 (Geburtsregister 1897, Salomon Falck); StaH 332-5 (Standesämter), 13170 u. 570/1899 (Geburtsregister 1899, Nanny Heimann); StaH 332-5 (Standesämter), 2924 u. 272/1899 (Heiratsregister 1899, Samuel Siegfried Falck u. Minna Cohen); StaH 332-5 (Standesämter), 8047 u. 630/1918 (Sterberegister 1918, Bernhard Heimann); StaH 332-5 (Standesämter), 8778 u. 59/1923 (Heiratsregister 1923, Lina Heimann u. Salomon Falck); StaH 332-5 (Standesämter), 8823 u. 87/1928 (Heiratsregister 1928, Nanny Heimann u. Adolf Mühlgay); StaH 332-8 (Alte Einwohnermeldekartei), Bernhard Heimann; StaH 332-8 (Hauskartei), K 2517 (Försterweg 43); StaH 351-11 (Amt für Wiedergutmachung), 12599 (Betty Heimann); StaH 351-11 (AfW), 15953 (Sally Heimann); StaH 351-11 (AfW), 19952 (Salomon Falck); StaH 351-11 (AfW), 18758 (Adolf Mühlgay); StaH 351-11 (AfW), 22050 (Nanny Mühlgay geb. Heimann); StaH 351-11 (AfW), 25821 (Helene Maria Heimann geb. Hoffmann); StaH 351-11 (AfW), 21119 (Gerta Heimann geb. Laser); StaH 351-11 (AfW), 29555 (Ely Sussmann Heimann); StaH 351-11 (AfW), 45100 (Irma Heimann); StaH 522-1 (Jüdische Gemeinden), 992b (Kultussteuerkartei), Salomon Siegbert Falck, Lina Falck geb. Heimann, Bernhard/ Sophie Heimann, Sally Heimann; Forschungsstelle für Zeitgeschichte Hamburg (FZH)/Werkstatt der Erinnerung (WdE) 1 (Abbildung der Leichenhalle um 1946); FZH/WdE 15 (Abbildung Abriss der Leichenhalle 1960er Jahre); Nationalarchiv Prag, Ghetto Terezin (Theresienstadt), Todesfallanzeigen (Siegfried Falck); Yad Vashem, The Central Database of Shoa Victims Names (Salomon Falck, Lina Falck, Hilde Falck, Ruth Falck); Handelskammer Hamburg, Firmendatei (James Mathiason); Adressbuch Hamburg (Heimann) 1910, 1914, 1917, 1919–1922; Adressbuch Hamburg (Straßenverzeichnis, Neuer Steinweg) 1888, 1890, 1895, 1900, 1910, 1918, 1922, 1923, 1925; Adressbuch Hamburg (Falck) 1925–1927; Adressbuch Altona 1929, 1931; Adressbuch Hamburg (Grabsteingeschäft Falck) 1932, 1935; Telefonbuch Hamburg 1931–1940 (Grabsteingeschäft/ Grabmale); Telefonbuch Anhang Altona, 1920 (Holsatia); Telefonbuch 1914 (Jenny Heimann); Gedenkbuch, Hamburger Jüdische Opfer des Nationalsozialismus, Hamburg 1995, S. 95 (Salomon Falck, Lina Falck geb. Heimann, Hilde Falck, Ruth Falck, Liselotte Falck geb. Rosenberg, Jenny Falck, Siegfried Falck), S. 281 (Manfred Menco); Gedenkbuch, Opfer der Verfolgung der Juden unter der nationalsozialistischen Gewaltherrschaft in Deutschland 1933–1945, Bundesarchiv Koblenz, 2006; Israelitisches Familienblatt, 16.01.1936; Hamburger Börsenfirmen, 11. Auflage, Hamburg 1910, S. 393 (W. B. Levy); Hamburger Börsenfirmen, 36. Auflage, Hamburg 1935, S. 552 (James Mathiason); Hamburgs Handel u. Verkehr, Illustriertes Export-Handbuch der Börsen-Halle 1912– 1914, Hamburg (ohne Jahresangabe), S. II 272 (Holsatia); Recherchen von Jürgen Sielemann, 2007; Irmgard Stein, Jüdische Baudenkmäler in Hamburg, Hamburg 1984, S. 120 (Friedhof Langenfelde); Hermann Hipp, DuMont Kunst-Reiseführer Freie und Hansestadt Hamburg, Köln 1990, S. 391 (Jüdischer Friedhof Langenfelde); Ursula Randt, Die Talmud Tora Schule in Hamburg 1805 bis 1942, Hamburg 2005, S. 13 (Schülerliste: Hilde u. Ruth Falck); Wilhelm Mosel, Wegweiser zu den ehemaligen Staetten jüdischen Lebens oder Leidens in Hamburg, Heft 1, Hamburg 1983, S.81–89 (Israelitische Töchterschule Karolinenstraße 35).