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Erika Adler * 1909

Grindelallee 146 (Eimsbüttel, Rotherbaum)

HIER WOHNTE
ERIKA ADLER
JG. 1909
DEPORTIERT 1941
MINSK
ERMORDET

further stumbling stones in Grindelallee 146:
Markus Adler, Ida Adler, Lotti Adler, Hermann Adler, Georg Schumacher

Markus Adler, born 22 Jan. 1881 in Kiel, deported to Minsk on 8 Nov. 1941, murdered
Ida Adler, née Einhorn, born 17 Aug. 1885, deported to Minsk on 8 Nov. 1941, murdered
Erika Adler, born 31 Oct. 1909 in Kiel, deported to Minsk on 8 Nov. 1941, murdered
Lotti Adler, born 9 Mar. 1918 in Kiel, deported to Minsk on 8 Nov. 1941, murdered
Hermann Adler, born 26 May 1937, deported to Minsk on 8 Nov. 1941, murdered

Grindelallee 146

Ida Adler’s parents were Chaskel Dawid Einhorn (1859-1920), a Jewish businessman, and his wife Beila Hitzel, née Szenker (1861-1918). They immigrated from Galicia to Hamburg in 1881. Chaskel Dawid Einhorn first ran a linens shop at Alte Steinweg 35 in Neustadt. In 1892 he became a citizen of Hamburg. In 1900 he opened a shop for hats and fur goods at Große Burstah 22. The store did so well that in 1908 he was able to move the main shop to the ground floor of the Kaufmannshaus at Bleichenbrücke 10 – even then a very good address. He also had one branch store at Große Burstah 4 until 1915, and another at Rathausstraße 7, which later moved to Mönckebergstraße 31. Chaskel Dawid Einhorn and his wife Beila Hitzel already had two children when they left Galicia, Chaim Hirsz Heinrich (born 1880) and Frieda (born 1883). Between their arrival in Hamburg and 1900 they had seven more – two sons, Siegfrid (born 1888) and Bruno (born 1900), and five daughters, Ida (born 1885), Hulda (born 1887), Fanny (born 1890) and the twins Rosa and Emma (born born 1891).

Both Hulda and Frieda died on 17 May 1887 within a few hours of each other - Hulda was only a few weeks old, Frieda was four. Chaim was killed on 20 Jan. 1915, aged 35, during the First World War by a headshot in a battle between the Germans and the French near the Hartmannsweiler Kopf, a mountain peak in the southern Vosges. Bruno, the youngest son, died suddenly in 1922 of an intestinal obstruction. He was only 21 years old. Very little is known about Siegfrid Einhorn's life. He worked for a short time in his father's business, but then left Hamburg. In 1922 he was a manufacturer in Düsseldorf.

Ida and her other four sisters all reached adulthood and married in Hamburg. Fanny married Hermann Hirt (born 1885) in 1918. He was originally from Galicia and was an accountant at the time of the wedding. The couple’s two daughters, Liselotte Berta and Edith, were born in 1921 and 1924. In 1919 Rosa married the chemist Moritz Landau (born 1888), who had also immigrated from Galicia. After Chaskel Einhorn’s death in 1920, he and his brother-in-law Hermann Hirt took over the running of Einhorn’s business. By 1931 Landau was last sole managing director. Emma was the only one of the Einhorn daughters to marry a Hamburg native. She and John Hirschel (born 1889), the son of the Jewish restaurateur Hermann Hirschel and his wife Franziska, née Rosenthal, married in 1920. Emma and John had two sons, Heinz David (born 1920) and Fritz Bruno (born 1924).

Ida had married the Jewish hat and fur merchant Markus Adler from Kiel in 1908. His parents were Hermann Adler and Bertha, nee Cohn. Ida left Hamburg after the wedding and moved to Kiel with her husband. Three of the couple's four children were born there: daughters Erika (born 1909) and Lotti (born 1918), and son Wolf-Heinz (born 1919). Their fourth child, Ruth, was born in Hamburg in 1913.

Given the continued close ties to Hamburg, it was only natural that Ida and Markus Adler and their children would move from Kiel to Hamburg after 1933, when the situation for Jews in the German Reich became increasingly difficult after the transfer of power to the Nazis.

Lotti Adler was the first member of the family to move to Hamburg. She worked as a live-in maid for Albert Cohen at Lübeckerstraße 55. Later, she worked at the Max Jacob green grocers at Krohnskamp 37 in Winterhude. She eventually did a commercial apprenticeship and worked for the Ignaz Pick dry goods wholesalers at Deichstraße 9. In the course of 1934, her sisters Ruth and Erika also found employment in Hamburg. Ruth worked as a live-in maid for various employers. In 1939 she bore an illegitimate son, Dan, and in October 1940 she married Siegmund Fiebelmann from Meppen (see Stolpersteine in Hamburg-Eilbek and www.stolpersteine-hamburg.de).

Erika began an apprenticeship. Her first address in Hamburg was Herderstraße 28. After that, she lived at Bornstraße 28 with her aunt Emma Hirschel for a while, where Lotti had also lived for a time. Then she took a job as a live-in maid with Simon Lederberger at Heinrich-Barth-Straße 21. On June 26, 1936 she also had an illegitimate son, Hermann. She never identified the father.

Ida and Markus Adler's son Wolf-Heinz apprenticed in 1936 and 1937 at a paper shop owned by Alex Loewenberg. The shop was located on the ground floor at Bleichenbrücke 10, next to the Einhorn hat and fur shop.

From December 1935 onwards, almost the entire Adler family, with the exception of Ruth, lived at Grindelallee 146. Markus Adler's father, who had been a widower since 1925, had also moved to Hamburg. He died there on 13 Dec. 1936 and was buried in the Jewish cemetery in Hamburg-Ohlsdorf.

The family’s financial situation was extremely difficult. From 1938 onwards, no one had any income of note. In view of the growing persecution and threat to the Jews, they decided to leave Germany and made the necessary applications for emigration to the Main Finance Office. But Wolf-Heinz was the only member of the family who managed to emigrate. He left Germany for Shanghai in April 1939, and from there later emigrated to the US.

Ida's sister Fanny Hirt was able to emigrate to the US with her daughters Liselotte Berta and Edith in 1938. Hermann Hirt had to stay behind. He was a Polish national and was deported to Poland in 1938 (see glossary). After the beginning of the war he was interned on Soviet territory. Although he finally was able to join his family, his health had suffered so much during the years of persecution that he died on 28 Jan. 1945 in New York.

In Aug. 1939, Ida and Markus Adler, their daughters Lotti and Erika, and Erika’s two-year-old son Hermann were forced to vacate the apartment at Grindelallee 146 and move to the "Jews’ house" at Neuer Steinweg 78, Building 10. On 8 Nov. 1941 they were all deported to Minsk. Their daughter Ruth and her son Dan were on the Minsk transport ten days later, as were Ida Adler's sister Emma, her husband John Hirschel, and their eldest son Heinz David. None of the ten family members survived.

The only family member to escape the Shoah was Emma and John's younger son Fritz Bruno. When he was 16, his parents had succeeded in sending him via Japan to the United States through the organization German-Jewish Children's Aid.

Stolpersteine were placed at Hasselbrookstraße 154 for Ruth and Dan Fiebelmann and for Ruth’s husband Siegmund Fiebelmann, who was murdered in Auschwitz in 1943.

Ida and Markus Adler’s son Wolf-Heinz changed his name to Robert once he arrived in the US, and in 1999 submitted Pages of Testimony to Yad Vashem for his family.

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

© Petra Schmolinske

Quellen: 1; 4; 5; 8; StaH 332–7 Staatsangehörigkeitsaufsicht BIII 28836; StaH 351-11 Amt für Wiedergutmachung 8370, 46485, 46893; StaH 352–5 Gesundheitsbehörde – Todesbescheinigungen 1922 Standesamt 3 Nr. 445; StaH 332-5 Standesämter 2106–4001/1885, 2140–1377/1887, 2166–2250/1888, 2216–970/1890, 2251–3246/1891, 2251–3247/1891, 13277–2659/1900, 2201–3319/1889, 8657–272/1908, 8725–265/1918, 8734–675/1919, 8744–4/1920, 215 –1933/1887, 215 –1948/1887, 7982–337/1905, 8025–117/1915, 8049–913/1918, 9781–932/1920, 8068–445/1922, 1053–464/1936; Hamburger Adressbücher; Bestattungsregister Friedhof Ohlsdorf.
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