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Betty Bandmann (née Joachimson) * 1876

Grindelallee 134 (Eimsbüttel, Rotherbaum)

HIER WOHNTE
BETTY BANDMANN
GEB. JOACHIMSON
JG. 1876
DEPORTIERT 1941
RIGA
???

further stumbling stones in Grindelallee 134:
Gerda Baruch, Malchen Berlin, Bella Hirsch, Leopold Hirsch, Alfred London, Sophie London, Minna Meyer, Rachel Pincus, Röschen Wertheim

Betty Bandmann, née Joachimsohn, born 22 July 1876 in Wroclaw, deported 6 Dec. 1941 to Riga, murdered there

Grindelallee 134

Betty Bandmann’s parents were Siegfried and Ernestine Joachimsohn. She had two older and two younger sisters: Margarete (*14 Aug. 1869), Johanna (*1874), Hedwig (*12 Apr. 1878), and Rosa (*1880).

In 1902 Betty and the lawyer Eugen Bandmann (*1874) married in Wroclaw. Their daughter Lotte was born in 1905, and their son Hans Ludwig on January 15, 1916. The couple divorced in 1922 and Eugen Bandmann was declared solely at fault. Since he continued to provide for his ex-wife and children, Betty Bandmann was initially financially secure. However, that changed abruptly after the transfer of power to the Nazis. Eugen Bandmann was a Social Democrat and had been chairman of the city council of Wroclaw during the Weimar Republic. In addition, in his capacity as a lawyer he had drawn the ire of a senior Nazi official. Warned by a client, he was able to escape arrest by fleeing the country. He emigrated to the USA with his second wife and daughter Lotte from his marriage to Betty. Lotte Bandmann had married the lawyer Walter Grünpeter, a colleague of her father, in 1931.

Betty Bandmann and her son Hans Ludwig remained in Wroclaw, but with no financial support after her ex-husband was expatriated and his property confiscated when he fled the country. Hans Ludwig had to leave school. The only training option that was still open to him was a commercial apprenticeship in a woven goods and clothing company owned by Leo Lewin, a Jewish merchant and acquaintance of his father.

Beginning in 1935, Hans Ludwig Bandmann worked as an independent sales representative for this company and for other Jewish companies. He moved to Hamburg to establish professional contacts in Northern Germany. At first, the business went quite well, so that his mother was also able to move to Hamburg. They lived together in an apartment at Oderfelderstraße 17 in Harvestehude.

The increasing "Aryanization" of Jewish companies from 1933 onwards culminated in a decree issued on 1 Jan. 1939 forbidding German Jews to operate retail outlets and craft enterprises and to offer goods and services. As a result, Hans Ludwig Bandmann lost his job, and he decided to emigrate to the United States. His first stop in March 1939 was the Netherlands. There, however, he first had problems with obtaining a visa, then his departure was prevented by the outbreak of the Second World War on 1 Sep. 1939. After being interned in various camps in the Netherlands and Belgium from May 1940 onwards, he was deported to Theresienstadt on 6 Sep. 1944 via the Westerbork transport camp in the Netherlands. From there, he was sent to Auschwitz on 29 Sep. 29, 1944, and from there to Dachau, where he was liberated in April 1945 by US troops.

After her son's departure, Betty Bandmann needed other financial support. She could no longer maintain the relatively large apartment in Harvestehude, despite renting out the rooms and money she received from relatives in England. She moved first to rented rooms at Eppendorfer Landstraße 18, and from there to Grindelallee 134, where she lived in rented rooms with the Baruch family (see below). On 6 Dec. 1941 Betty Bandmann was deported to Riga-Jungfernhof and murdered there.

Two of her four sisters also died in the Shoah. Margarete (married name Koppel) took her life on 21 Aug. 1942 in Berlin. Hedwig (married name Banner) was deported to Theresienstadt and died there on 8 June 1944. Johanna (married name Graetzer, widowed) was able to emigrate with family members to England. Nothing is known about Rosa Joachimsohn other than her year of birth.

Translator: Amy Lee
Kindly supported by the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung, Hamburg.

© Petra Schmolinske

Quellen: 1; 4; 5; 8; StaH 351-11 Amt für Wiedergutmachung 3206; StaH 351-11, Amt für Wiedergutmachung 41403; StaH 522-1 Jüdische Gemeinden 992 e 2 Bd. 3, Transport nach Riga am 06. Dez. 1941, Liste 1; www.holocaust.cz/de/opferdatenbank/opfer/149388-hans-ludwig-bandmann (letzter Aufruf: 1.6.2016); www.stolpersteine-berlin.de/en/biografie/7278 (Zugriff 25.12.2016).
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