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Martha Wolff (née Stiefel) * 1881

Rappstraße 7 (Eimsbüttel, Rotherbaum)

HIER WOHNTE
MARTHA WOLFF
GEB. STIEFEL
JG. 1881
DEPORTIERT 1941
LODZ
ERMORDET 10.2.1943

further stumbling stones in Rappstraße 7:
Angela Kohlstädt, Alfons Liebenthal, Carmen Liebenthal, Fränzel Liebenthal, Salo Liebenthal, Adolf Wolff

Adolf Wolff, born on October 22, 1891 in Burgdorf, June 23 to December 13, 1938 Sachsenhausen concentration camp, deported to the Litzmannstadt/Lodz ghetto on October 25, 1941, perished there on February 10, 1943

Martha Wolff, née Stiefel, born April 9, 1881 in Hamburg, deported to the Litzmannstadt/Lodz ghetto on October 25, 1941, perished there on August 24, 1942

Rappstraße 7 (Eimsbüttel, Rotherbaum)

When the young Wolff couple went on a family outing to the Stadtpark with Martha's relatives from Hamburg and Bremen in July 1925, they were still full of hope.
Adolf Wolff, aged 33, and Martha, née Stiefel, who was 10 years older, had been married for almost two years.

Adolf, known as Adje, was the fourth child to be born in Burgdorf near Hanover on October 22, 1891 and grew up with his seven siblings in Celle and Hanover. His father Michael, born on March 11, 1854, worked as a butcher and came from Friedrichstadt, while his mother Anna, née Cussel, born on February 14, 1856, came from Schleswig. Both came from Jewish families.

Nothing is known about the siblings' childhood and youth.

His brother Willy, born on April 5, 1888 in Rendsburg, was the first of the family to settle in Hamburg. He ran a grocery store at Werderstraße 24. He married Emilie Levinsohn on February 2, 1913, and their son Ludwig was born on December 12 of the same year. They lived at Brahmsallee 31.

The Wolff parents moved in with their sisters Paula and Elsa in April 1915. Sister Johanna, born on April 3, 1896 in Celle, also followed and married Ludwig Braun, an opera singer from Nuernberg, in May 1920.

Adolf Wolff was drafted into the infantry in the First World War from 1914-1918, as were two of his brothers. He then also moved to the Hanseatic city.

On August 30, 1923, Adolf Wolff, now a journeyman baker and 32 years old, married Martha Stiefel, 10 years his senior, daughter of the shoemaker Koppel Stiefel, born May 10, 1846 in Abterode/Krs. Eschwege/Preußen and the Hamburg woman Elise Cohen, born November 6, 1841, both of Jewish descent. She had lived in Dillstraße with her parents and, after their deaths in May and December 1913, with her two unmarried sisters, Jenny (born 10.3.1876) and Selma (born 9.6.1882) and two brothers, Louis (born 29.12.1874) and Joseph (born 21.12.1877); she had completed an apprenticeship as a tailor and earned her living as an office clerk. She had spent some time with her sister Jenny in the Israelite girls' home at Grindelallee 42. This home had been founded by the Israelite Humanitarian Women's Association and was run by Sidonie Werner. Women and girls were taught how to raise children and run a kosher household there. This came in handy after her marriage. She brought her son Walter into the marriage with Adolf Wolff, whom she gave birth to in February 1912 at the age of almost 31. Walter never met his non-Jewish father Kurt Bauer.

At the beginning of 1928, Adolf Wolff opened a kosher bakery at Rappstraße 7 as the owner and master baker together with Martha. Martha's eldest sister Angela, née Stiefel, divorced Kohlstädt, born on January 15, 1872 in Hamburg, also worked in the bakery as a trained sales assistant.

One month after the wedding, mother Anna Wolff, née Cussel, died at the age of 72 on June 3, 1928. She was laid to rest in the Ilandkoppel Jewish cemetery.

Adolf Wolff's father, now a widower, was no longer able to gain a foothold in Hamburg; Adolf, his brothers and his sister Paula, who worked at Karstadt until she was dismissed as a Jew in 1933, supported him as best they could.

However, the business situation in the kosher bakery, which had developed so hopefully with two journeymen and two apprentices at times, soon changed, as the bakery business was under police surveillance: Adolf Wolff had already been convicted of "selling and employing employees on Sundays" at the beginning of 1929, with a fine of either 20 RM or two days in prison.
In August 1932 and before the day of the boycott of Jewish stores on April 1, 1933, further penalties followed: for forbidden night work in the bakery and selling baked goods before 7 a.m., a fine of either 100 RM or 10 days in prison was imposed.
Further convictions were handed down in 1933 and 1934 for "not using potato flour in the bakery trade" and "not declaring the gross weight".

In addition to all these existentially threatening burdens, the Wolff couple had to cope with the death of Martha's sister Jenny Josias, married to Mendel Josua Josias, who was now a civil servant in the German-Israelitic community. On February 3, 1933, she died in the Israelite Hospital in Hamburg one month before her 57th birthday after suffering from bronchopneunomia.

And the accusations concerning the bakery business intensified with the increasing persecution of the Jewish population by the Nazi regime. On July 8, 1936, they culminated in Adolf Wolff being accused of "producing and storing baked goods in a way that is disgusting to health, with 6 weeks in prison, confiscation and a ban on the business".
The National Socialist rulers had thus come close to their goal of destroying this business owned by a Jewish proprietor and torpedoing the supply of kosher baked goods to the Jewish population.

Adolf Wolff was sent to Sachsenhausen concentration camp on June 23, 1938 as part of a so-called "asocial action" in so-called "protective custody". Martha had to run the bakery business alone. She also provided bread for her father-in-law's household.
During her husband's imprisonment, she received support from the Jewish community in the amount of 100 RM.

While arrests took place in Hamburg and elsewhere in the course of the November pogrom of 1938 and many of Adolf Wolff's fellow sufferers had already been released, he remained in custody. Meanwhile in Bremen, Martha Wolff's youngest sister Selma Zwienicki, née Stiefel, was shot in cold blood by an SA man in her home. The seven-day shiva, the Jewish period of mourning immediately after the funeral, took place at Martha's home. The husband of her murdered sister, Joseph Zwienicki, and her children Gerd, Alfred and Liesel also attended.

On December 13, 1938, Adolf Wolff was released from Sachsenhausen concentration camp on condition that he leave Germany by March 31, 1939.
His bakery business, which he had run with his wife Martha for ten years, had to be closed at the end of the year. They had already accumulated debts of RM 6,000 and owed their landlady Mrs. Schultze-Nissen alone around RM 5,000 in rent.

The business had also declined more and more due to the exodus of Jewish customers. In the end, Martha and Adolf Wolff lived off their small savings and the sale of their remaining valuables. In the end, they had nothing left to sell and were completely destitute. They had to sublet one room of their apartment for 22 RM. The living room furnishings had been seized by the delivery company Arthur Ahlers. The store fittings were transferred to the flour wholesaler Hermann van den Bergh & Co. at Spaldingstraße 134/136. The couple could not count on any help. The relatives were also destitute.

The option of emigration was also closed to them: Adolf Wolff was unable to settle his financial affairs with the Chief Finance President and he was also unable to book a passage with the shipping companies to embark on an outward journey, for which the Hilfsverein might have covered the costs. The couple had had to leave their own apartment and had been living in an empty room on the third floor of Nathan's at Grindelallee 38 for 22 RM since January 1939.

Adolf Wolff, who would have had to leave the German Reich by the end of 1939, was ordered to report to the criminal investigation department every day [BM1].
Completely impoverished, he had to go to the welfare office on March 23, 1939, from which they only received a small allowance of 64 RM.

Adolf Wolff was last forced to carry out earthworks for the company Johannes C. Meyer, Straßen- Tiefbau, Dockenhuder Straße 26 in Blankenese from May 1939 to January 1940. In the meantime, the couple lived with his brother Willy Wolff, whose wife Emilie had died on April 2, 1939, at Schlüterstraße 10 (Willy then married Malcha, née Spatz, who came from Kalusz/Galicia, on September 20, 1940).

Martha and Adolf Wolff were deported to the Litzmannstadt/Lodz ghetto with the first Hamburg deportation on October 25, 1941. Martha Wolff died there in hospital at the address "10. Straße 35" on August 24, 1942 at the age of 61, the cause of death being "cardiomyopathy". Adolf Wolff followed her six months later on February 10, 1943, at the age of 51.

The further fate of the family members

Adolf's brother Georg Wolff, born on September 29, 1894 in Celle, who worked as a teacher at the Talmud Tora School in Hamburg and as a temple servant for the Liberal Jewish Community in Oberstraße, married the photographer Lilly Engers, born on May 22, 1900 in Hamburg, on May 4, 1928 and had daughters Anneliese on February 10, 1929, Renate on October 19, 1933 and Ellinor on September 9, 1935.
On October 31, 1929, Adolf's sister Elsa Wolff, born on January 21, 1898 in Celle, married the tailor John Dessau, born on October 16, 1895 in Hamburg. When their son Heinz was born in Hamburg on April 13, 1930, John could no longer see a livelihood for his family and left them out of economic hardship. Heinz never saw him again: John Dessau was sent from Compiègne to the Drancy transit camp on June 5, 1942, from where he was deported to Auschwitz and murdered on July 22, 1942.

Georg, Lilly and Ellinor were deported to the Riga ghetto and murdered on December 6, 1941, together with Adolf's brother Willi Wolff and his wife Machla, as well as his sister Elsa Dessau and her little Heinz.
Stumbling stones commemorate them at Heinrich-Barth-Straße 8 and Rutschbahn 39 (biographies see www.stolpersteine-hamburg.de).

Adolf Wolff's eldest sister Bella, born on April 10, 1885 in Rendsburg, was deported from Warburg to her death in Riga on December 13, 1941.

Adolf's brother Julius Wolff, born August 9, 1886 in Rendsburg, who like his father had worked as a butcher, had married Erika Stahl, born January 17, 1884 in Medebach/Brilon Westphalia, in Stettin in 1910. Their children Manfred, born July 13, 1911, and Ruth, born September 8, 1912, were born there.
After being imprisoned in Sachsenhausen concentration camp in 1938, Julius Wolff, his wife Erika and his daughter Ruth Rainowitz and family were deported early on February 12, 1940 from Stettin to the Piaski ghetto. They were murdered there, Julius Wolff on February 11, 1941.

Adolf's father Michael Wolff from Bundesstraße 35 and Angela Kohlstädt, née Stiefel, from Kielort 22 were deported to Theresienstadt on July 15, 1942 and were deported on to Treblinka and murdered on September 21, 1942. Angela's son Walter died in Neuengamme concentration camp on June 19, 1942. Martha's brother Louis Stiefel and his wife Sophie, née Wulf, were also victims of the Shoah in Auschwitz (biographies see www.stolpersteine-hamburg.de). Stolpersteine commemorate Michael Wolff at Bundesstraße 35, Angela Kohlstädt at Rappstraße 7, David Walter Kohlstädt and his family at Bogenstraße 5 and Sophie with Louis Stiefel at Kurzer Kamp 6.

Adolf's sister Johanna Braun, née Wolff, widow of opera singer Ludwig Braun since March 1931, was able to escape to England as were Georg and Lilly Wolff's two daughters Anneliese and Renate on a Kindertransport there on January 16, 1939; Julius Wolff's grandson Hermann Wolff from Stettin also survived.
Adolf's sister Paula Beer, who had been arrested at the Belgian-French border in May 1941 while trying to follow her husband on the run to France and interned in the Riversaltes and Perpignan camps, was liberated in Lanes in May 1945. In April 1946, she joined her sister Johanna in England. Her husband Otto Beer had been murdered in Auschwitz in 1942. Both sisters remained in England, Johanna had married Edward Comfort in December 1942. Paula Beer died in June 1974 in Dover county Kent, Johanna Comfort in July 1987 in London/Ealing.

Martha's brother Joseph Stiefel and his family managed to save themselves by emigrating to Brazil on March 3, 1939. Martha's son Walter, whom she had brought into the marriage, survived; he died on January 3, 1997 in Hamburg.

Stand: February 2024
© Margot Löhr

Quellen: 1; 2; 4; 5; 8; StaH 213-13, 23403 Wolff, Martha; StaH 332-3 Geburtsregister, A 123 Nr. 284 Angela Stiefel; A 192 Nr. 9488 Louis Stiefel; StaH 332-5 Geburtsregister, 1880 u. 1283/1876 Jenny Stiefel; 1914 u. 6001/1877 Joseph Stiefel; 2002 u.1912/1881 Martha Stiefel; 2029 u. 2802/1882 Selma Stiefel; StaH 332-5 Heiratsregister 332-5, 8662 u. 24/1909 Stiefel/Wulf; 5985 u. 70/1909 Kohlstädt/Stiefel; 14871 u. 359/1920 Braun/Wolff;13234 u. 639/1923 Wolff/Stiefel; 14871 u. 359/1937 Wolff/Beer; StaH 332-5 Sterberegister, 8015 u. 248/1913 Koppel Stiefel; 8016 u. 560/1913 Elise Stiefel; 940 u. 235/1928 Anna Wolff; 974 u. 639/1931 Ludwig Braun; StaH 351-11 Amt für Wiedergutmachung, 639 Michael Wolff; 351-11 AfW, 10245 Willy Wollf; 351-11 AfW, 13693 Adolf Wolff; 351-11 AfW, 16886 Georg Wolff; 351-11 AfW, 31090 Walter Stiefel; 332-5-940, 235/1928, Sterbeurkunde; 351-11, 31090 Stiefel; Photos USHMM; Wolfgang Scheffler, Diana Schulle: Buch der Erinnerungen. Die ins Baltikum deportierten deutschen, österreichischen und tschechoslowakischen Juden, Band II: München 2003. S. 609; www.bundesarchiv/gedenkbuch; http://www.uke.de/kliniken/psychiatrie/index_15716.php;
Gertrud Bezian und das Paulinenstift (1920–1934), in: Ursula Wamser, Wilfried Weinke, (Hrsg.): Ehemals in Hamburg zu Hause. Jüdisches Leben am Grindel. Fulda: VSA-Verlag 1991, S. 58. Margot Löhr, Stolpersteine in Hamburg-Fuhlsbüttel, Biographie Sophie und Louis Stiefel, https://www.stolpersteine-hamburg.de/index.php?MAIN_ID=7&BIO_ID=1180. Susanne Rosendahl, Stolpersteine in der Hamburger Neustadt und Altstadt, Biographie Sara Vogel, https://www.stolpersteine-hamburg.de/?MAIN_ID=7&BIO_ID=222
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