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Clara Bleiweiss (née Lewin) * 1875

Grindelallee 166 (Eimsbüttel, Rotherbaum)

1941 Riga
ermordet

further stumbling stones in Grindelallee 166:
Sidonie Bleiweiss

Clara Bleiweiss, née Lewin, born 18 May 1875 in Posen, deported 6 Dec. 1941 to the Riga-Jungfernhof Ghetto, murdered there
Sidonie Bleiweiss, born 14 Feb. 1901 in Posen, deported 6 Dec. 1941 to the Riga-Jungfernhof Ghetto, murdered there

Grindelallee 166

Very little is known about the lives of Clara Bleiweiss and her daughter Sidonie. Fortunately, Johanna Neumann, Clara’s great-niece, was able to provide an undated photograph of the two.

Clara Lewin was born on 18 May 1875 in Poznan. She married Oskar Bleiweiss and had two children: Fritz, born 19 July 1898, and Sidonie, born 14 Feb. 1901. Her husband Oskar died in Poznan, and Clara probably moved to Hamburg in 1926 with her daughter, where they lived in an apartment at Grindelallee 89 until 1934. Clara's son Fritz had lived in this apartment since 1919. He probably moved to Hamburg after the end of the First World War. Fritz was called to military service in January 1916, at the age of 17. He survived the war, but was badly injured by shrapnel in his leg and back which could not be removed. In spite of his injuries he trained as a decorator and poster painter after the war. After various jobs he became a free-lance window dresser in 1928. Apparently he turned over his apartment to his mother and sister in 1926 when he married Erna Rosenberg (*1911 in Apenrade). The newly-weds moved to an apartment on Abendrothsweg (for more information on Fritz and Erna Bleiweiss and their son Oskar, see www.stolpersteine-hamburg.de).

Clara Bleiweiss may also have moved to Hamburg to be near her younger sister Louise (*15 Nov. 1876), who had lived in Hamburg since 1903. Louise was married to Samuel Schickler, the owner of Schickler & Co., a textiles and canvas goods wholesaler at Grindelallee 83.

According to tax records, Sidonie began working as a salesclerk at the Gustav Kohn shoe store at Mönckebergstraße 17 in 1931. She later worked at M. Rieder and Son, also a shoe store, on Hamburger Straße. She lived with her mother and was the sole earner. The family’s situation became critical in 1939, when Nazi persecution measures forced both children out of their jobs – Fritz in January, and Sidonie in September. Clara Bleiweiss had to apply for welfare subsidies to cover medical costs. The only way she could contribute to the family income was to rent out a room.

In 1935 Clara and Sidonie moved out of the apartment at Grindelallee 89 and into another at Grindelallee 166, then in 1936 to a 3 ½-room apartment at Dillstraße 8. They lived in one of the rooms, and Clara rented out the others in order to pay the total rent of 65 Reichsmarks (RM). Her sister Louise Schickler was one of the subtenants, paying 15 RM for her room. In 1940, Louise was able to emigrate via Siberia and China to the United States.

Sidonie was conscripted to forced labor in 1939, and her profession is thus given as "factory worker” on the deportation list.

After they were deported on 6 Dec. 1941, Clara Bleiweiss’s household goods were auctioned off by the W. C. Schopmann & Son auction house. The auction garnered proceeds of 548 RM, which were paid to the Hamburg Tax Office.

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

© Ute Harms

Quellen: Quellen: 1; 2; StaH 314-15 Oberfinanzpräsident FVg 5754; StaH 314-15 Oberfinanzpräsident R 1938/1404; StaH 314-15 Oberfinanzpräsident 47 UA 3-5; StaH 314-15 Oberfinanzpräsident 30 UA 20; StaH 314-15 Oberfinanzpräsident 26, 42; StaH 314-15 Oberfinanzpräsident 968; StaH 314-15 Oberfinanzpräsident 969; Gesche M. Cordes, Stolpersteine und Angehörige in Hamburg, Herzogenrath 2012, S. 80f.; Johanna Jutta Neumann, Umweg über Albanien, in: Eine verschwundene Welt. Jüdisches Leben am Grindel, hrsg. v. Ursula Wamser u. Wilfried Weinke, Springe 2006, S. 36–39; Ursula Randt, Wegweiser zu ehemaligen jüdischen Leidensstätten der Deportation von Hamburg nach Riga, Schriftenreihe der Deutsch-jüdischen Gesellschaft Hamburg, Reihe 2, Heft 3, Hamburg 1997; Hamburger Adressbücher; E-Mails Johanna Neumann, Washington (13.10., 14.10., 8.11. u. 15.11.2013).
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