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Clara Borchardt (née Wittmund) * 1875

Papendamm 24 (Eimsbüttel, Rotherbaum)

1942 Theresienstadt
ermordet 18.03.1944

further stumbling stones in Papendamm 24:
Alfred Borchardt

Alfred Borchardt, born 30.10.1870 in Schönberg/Mecklenburg, deported to Theresienstadt on 15.7.1942, died there on 16.12.1942.
Clara Borchardt, née Wittmund, born 29.3.1875 in Hamburg, deported to Theresienstadt on 15.7.1942, died there on 18.3.1944.

Papendamm 24

An early proof of the quite frequently found Jewish surname "Borchardt" can be found in the city of Halberstadt. Approximately 1670 a "Baruch ben Lippmann" appears there. Approx. 1698 this Baruch moved to Köslin, where he ran a successful trade in cloth goods. In 1699 he acquired a letter of protection from the Elector of Brandenburg, which was confirmed by King Frederick I in 1701.

As a "Schutzjude" he needed a family name with which he could communicate with all authorities as a full citizen. As a result, he Germanized his Hebrew name by taking the Hebrew consonants "b, r, ch" of the verb "barach" (= to bless) and its passive formula "baruch" (a blessed one) as the basis for "Borchardt", while other Jews partly kept Baruch as a surname or also used it as a first name. The different spelling with "dt" or "t" at the end of the name is explained by the fact that the consonant cluster "dt" does not degenerate in the English, Greek and Latin languages.

Alfred Borchardt was born as the eldest child of the merchant Isaak Borchardt (born Sept 11, 1840, died Nov 19, 1892) and his wife Emma, née Asher (born Oct 2, 1843) in Schönberg/Mecklenburg on Oct 30, 1870. The family also included the sister Anna Borchardt, née Kaufmann (born Oct 7, 1872 in Schönberg) as well as the two younger brothers Richard (born Febr 2, 1875) and Henry (born Dec 24, 1881), who were both born in Hamburg after Alfred Borchardt and his wife Clara (born March 29, 1875 in Hamburg) had moved from Schönberg/Mecklenburg to Hamburg with the two first-born children.

Alfred Borchardt had attended the Israelitische Freischule (Jewish Free School) of 1815, whose concept was based on German reform pedagogy, intended to encourage the students in the area of crafts as well, and to provide them with an undogmatic approach to basic ethical principles of religion. After initially admitting only Jewish students, the school was opened to Christian students in 1852 under the long-time head of the school, Anton Rée, and thus became a so-called Simultanschule, i.e., coeducational, co-religious and socially mixed instruction in order to compensate for social disadvantages.

In 1880, the school was the largest school in Hamburg with 680 students. From 1890 it was officially called "Stiftungsschule von 1815". The school building is located on the Zeughausmarkt and is built in the typical red clinker brick construction known for Fritz Schumacher. (The building was not destroyed in World War 2 and today houses the Anna-Siemsen Schule, Gewerbeschule für Bekleidung).

Evidence shows that Alfred Borchardt attended Class I, 2 here in the 1885/86 school year and Class I, 1 in the 1886/87 school year. He passed the final examination at the end of the school year 1886/87, which was considered the so-called Einjähriges (Mittlere Reife). Alfred's younger brother Richard went to class IVb of the same school at this time and took the final examination in the school year 1890/91.

Alfred Borchardt then went to England for two years and learned the language fluently.

Of Clara Borchardt, born in Hamburg as the youngest child of Louis Bär Wittmund and his wife Emma (née Wurm, in St. Andreasberg), we know nothing about her life before marriage.

Alfred and Clara Borchardt were married on May 19, 1899 in Hamburg. The residence listed on the marriage certificate is Carolinenstr. 11. At the time of the marriage, Alfred Borchardt worked as a commercial assistant and merchant, later he became self-employed and traded in articles for shipyards, ships and machinery. According to the address book, his company was located at Stubbenhuk 32 near the port of Hamburg. Feldstr. 58, from 1934 Papendamm 24, is listed as his private address on the Jewish Community of Hamburg's tax files (Kultussteuerkartei). There the family lived in a 100 square meter 4-room apartment. The building belonged to the property of the Louis-Levy-Stift, a foundation that provided housing for needy people.

Until 1938, Alfred's brother Henry, his daughter Louise (until she moved with her husband Willi Wartelsky to his native Danzig), and sons Isaak Theodor and Hans also lived at times in Papendamm 24.
In 1938, Alfred Borchardt received a visitor's visa for England on July 20, 1938, which was valid until October 1, 1940. He wanted to contact his sister-in-law Lucy Borchardt in London (born Dec 10, 1877 in Hamburg, died Febr 4, 1969 in London), the wife of his brother Richard, who had already died in 1930.

Alfred Borchardt wanted to find out the situation for a possible emigration and ask for financial support. But he was picked up in Amsterdam in May 1940 before his trip, immediately after the German troops had occupied the Netherlands. Soon the same laws and regulations applied here as in the German Reich. The compulsory identification card for Jews was introduced on July 23, 1938 in connection with the ordinance on identification cards.

Alfred Borchardt had failed to notify the German Consulate General in Amsterdam, without being asked, of his "status" as a Jew with his identification card (No. B 040044), which had been issued in Hamburg on March 9, 1939. The penalty order of July 8, 1940 provided for a fine of 50 RM, or 10 days' imprisonment. With the argument that he had acted in ignorance, since he believed that the reference to the identification card and identification number was only necessary with the authorities within the German Reich, the penalty was reduced to 25 RM or 5 days' imprisonment on the basis of his objection. Alfred Borchardt paid this amount in small installments of 2 to 5 RM to the court cashier in Hamburg. The last payment was made on June 24, 1941. Thus the attempt to reach his sister-in-law in London failed and he gave up the idea of emigration.

Alfred Borchardt and his wife Clara were deported to Theresienstadt on July 15, 1942, after having lived in the "Judenhaus" average 1 for the last months of 1942. Alfred's transport number was IV/1 No. 106, his wife's was IV/1 No. 108. Euphemistically, this camp was called a ghetto for the elderly, but conditions there were catastrophic: Total confinement, overcrowding, the worst hygienic conditions, lack of medical care, as well as malnutrition and hunger, so that many Jews died shortly after their arrival in the ghetto.

In Theresienstadt, Clara and Alfred Borchardt lived at Langegasse 12; Alfred died as early as December 16, 1942.
After his death, Clara lived with her sister-in-law Anna Kaufmann, after her husband Karl Kaufmann had died on August 12, 1942. Anna Kaufmann died on Jan 16, 1943 and Clara Borchardt on March 18, 1944.

In front of the house Papendamm 24, where the Borchardt couple lived from 1935 to 1938, two Stolpersteine commemorate them.

All of Clara and Alfred Borchardt's furniture and household effects were auctioned off by the Aktionshaus W. C. H. Schopman und Sohn for 942 RM on behalf of the German Reich on October 15, 1942, after they were forced to move into a 1-room apartment in the "Judenhaus."

The fate of the family members:
Clara Borchardt's parents died before the Nazi era: Louis Bär Wittmund on 7/19/1919, the mother Emma Wittmund on 12/12/1920.

Alfred Borchardt's parents also escaped persecution through early death: Emma Borchardt died of arteriosclerosis on 7/21/1924, Isaak Borchardt of pulmonary tuberculosis on 11/18/1892.

Alfred's brother Richard Borchardt, who died in 1930, was married to Lucy Borchardt, a shipowner who had emigrated to England. Their eldest son Jens, a lawyer with a doctorate in law (born Febr 22, 1903), emigrated to Palestine in 1934 after his license to practice law had been revoked on April 25, 1933. He founded the shipping company "Atid" there. He was married to Elice (born March 22, 1907) and had a daughter Ursula Ronja with her name, who was born on May 10, 1932. Jens Borchardt died on Dec 13, 1986 in Jerusalem.

Richard and Lucie Borchardt's son Friedrich Karl Borchardt, called Fritz (born March 27, 1905) emigrated to France in 1939, where his trace is lost. Daughters Charlotte (born Aug 14, 1909) and Susan (born Feb 17, 1913) survived with their mother in England.

Alfred's sister Anna Borchardt had become a teacher. She married the factory owner Adolf Aron Hirsch Bergmann on June 16, 1899 in Hamburg, who died on Dec 10, 1915. Her second husband was the graduate engineer Karl Kaufmann (born Dec 11, 1868), who was employed in Altona as a civil engineer at the railroad directorate. For him, too, it was the second marriage. His son Maximilian from the first marriage, born Sept 30, 1906, was apparently mentally ill or mentally handicapped and lived in the sanatorium and nursing home Hamburg-Langenhorn. From there, he was deported to Brandenburg/Havel on Sept 23, 1940 as part of the T4 euthanasia program, along with 135 other Jews, and immediately murdered in a part of the penitentiary converted into a gas killing facility (his biography will be published in 2017).

Anna and Karl Kaufmann's marriage remained childless. Both were deported to Theresienstadt on July 15, 1942 under transport numbers IV 1-No. 440 and IV 1, No. 441. Karl Kaufmann died there on Aug 12, 1942. For his wife, who also died there, the date of death is given as Jan 16, 1943 (cause of death pulmonary embolism). For Anna and Karl Kaufmann as well as their son Maximilian there are stumbling stones in front of the house Abendsrothweg 23 in Hamburg.

Alfred's brother Henry Borchardt married the "Aryan" Erna, née Kröger, widowed Bergmann (born Dec 1, 1844 in Hamburg), they had four children: Inge Marie (born March 16, 1920), Gert Theodor (born Nov 15, 1921), Heinz Arthur (born Febr 17, 1923) and Walter Adolf (born June 15, 1924). Henry Borchardt resigned from the Jewish community on Aug 8, 1940. His children had not been brought up in the Jewish faith. Erna Borchardt ran a well-established coffee and jam retail business with a roastery. Due to her marriage to Henry Borchardt, her business was considered a Jewish business and was listed in the Jewish Tradesmen's List from 1938. The husband was banned from any activity there. Because of the boycott of Jewish businesses, sales fell sharply, in 1940 the store had to be temporarily closed, and in 1943 it was destroyed by bombs.

Henry Borchardt was unemployed from 1934 to 1941, until in November 1941 he was assigned as a forced laborer by the Hamburg Labor Office to the company Resch & Jung, a shoe wholesaler. He was allowed to sleep at home, but was under the general control of the Gestapo. Low wages, which were also taxed in an aggravated form, and the denial of food ration cards, as they were granted to free employees, additionally characterized the hardship of this forced labor. On February 14, 1945, Henry Borchardt was deported to Theresienstadt together with other Jews from still existing mixed marriages. In June 1945, he returned to Hamburg in poor health.

Henry's son Heinz Artur Borchardt was first a branch manager, later a policeman. As a so-called "Mischling 1. Grades" he was controlled by the Gestapo, as were his brother Gert Theodor, a trained baker, living at Grindelallee 14/16 with Ziegler, and his brother Walter Adolf, a merchant's assistant. From May 1944 until the end of the war, they performed forced labor assigned by the cleanup office. At the company "Stormanwerk GmbH" on Lübeckertorplatz, he and his fellow sufferers had to remove rubble by hand, among other things. They worked in columns of 10-12 people.

Clara Borchardt's brother Richard Wittmund (born July 7, 1867 in Hamburg), a salesman, lived with his sister Else Wittmund at Hoheluftchaussee 105 until his death on Dec 12, 1936 in Hamburg.

Clara Borchardt's sister Else Wittmund (born Sept 12, 1885 in Hamburg) remained single, worked as a housekeeper and lived at Goebenstraße 35 since her retirement. She left the Jewish Community on Dec 31, 1936. On Jan 21, 1939 she died of apoplexy (stroke).

Alfred and Clara Borchardt had three children. The eldest son Isaak Theodor Borchardt, born on March 17, 1900, profession: machine assistant, died on June 8, 1941 of an open bilateral pneumonia in the sanatorium Bahrenfeld.

The daughter Louise Borchardt, née Wartelsky, born Apr 23, 1901 in Hamburg, became a state-certified kindergarten teacher and worked in the state kindergarten Rostockerstraße. She married the carpenter Willy Wartelsky, (born March 25, 1908 in Danzig) and moved with him to Danzig on March 15, 1938. From Febr 14, 1940 to March 11, 1940 they both visited her parents Alfred and Clara Borchardt for four weeks, probably to inform themselves about the political situation in Germany. Louise died on Sept 30, 1941 in Warschawa/Poland.

Hans Borchardt, born Febr 19, 1908 in Hamburg, ran an import and export company for raw imports and semi-finished products, which was later "aryanized". At the end of 1933 he attempted to reach Harrich/England, but was not allowed to leave the ship because the English authorities assumed he was not entering as a tourist but as a job seeker. So he returned.

From memories of Manfred Gerhard (see Cordes, "Stolpersteine und Angehörige") we learn that his mother was friends with Hans Borchardt since 1929, but they separated for "security reasons" in 1935. Hans married on Nov 13, 1941 Martha Biskupitzer, gesch. Aron (born Apr 22, 1890), a teacher. From the first marriage, which was divorced in 1937, came four children. She worked as a bookkeeper and continued to run a bookstore at Hallerstraße 76 independently after the owner's emigration. Her later husband Hans Borchardt worked there. In December 1938, the business was closed and the entire stock of books was transferred to the Jewish Cultural Association, where she then worked as a clerk. Hans and Martha Borchardt were deported to Minsk on Nov 18, 1941 and perished there. Last they lived in the "Judenhaus" average 1, there two Stolpersteine commemorate the couple.

Translation by Beate Meyer
Stand: January 2022
© Brigitte Hübner

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