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Fanny Borower (née Schwarz) * 1876

Vogelhüttendeich 34 (Harburg, Wilhelmsburg)

1941 Riga
siehe auch den unter Thekla Bernau veröffentlichten Brief aus der Hartungstraße

see:

further stumbling stones in Vogelhüttendeich 34:
Wolf Borower

Wolf Borower, born on 20.2.1870, deported to Riga on 6.12.1941
Fanny Borower, maiden name Schwarz, born on 21.11.1876, deported to Riga on 6.12.1941.

Vogelhüttendeich 34

Wolf (or Wolff, henceforth as Wolf) was born in Neustadt near Pinne in the administrative district of Neuomischel in Posen (today: Lwowek in Poland). His parents were named Minna, neé Feldmann, and Liebermann Borower. Wolf Borower married Fanny Schwarz, who was born in the city of Posen (today Poznan in Poland). She was the daughter of Malwina, neé Elkeles and Julius Schwarz. The Borowers (as a married couple) had no children, lived in Berlin and first registered in Hamburg with the address of Brigitten Straße 9 on 28 Sep. 1903. At the beginning of Sep. 1904 they both returned to Berlin. When they exactly settled in Harburg-Wilhlemsburg cannot be determined in the local registry reports.

The merchant Wolf Borower owned several buildings in Wilhelmsburg in the 1920s, lived however in Harburg in 1925/1926, among other addresses in Mühlen Straße 5 (today Schlossmühlendamm). As late as 1936/37 he lived with his wife Fanny in Wilhelmsburg, Vogelhüttendeich 44, in one of the two flats on the first floor. On 10 Mar. 1928 he registered his shoe business in the company register at the Harburg county court. The address of the shop was given as Fährstraße 73. After the boycott of Jewish businesses in April 1933 his earnings decreased so much that he had to have his business deleted from the registry for companies.

When Wolf Borower was called up by the exchange department of the Chief Finance Ministry on 21 Dec. 1938 he claimed ownership of the following plots of land in Wilhelmsburg: Vogelhüttendeich 25/27 (half of which belonged to Alex Kessel, who was able to emigrate to the U.S.A.; today: number 67/69), Vogelhüttnedeich 68/70 (today number 32/34), Henrietten Straße (today Ilenbrook) 13, Quer Straße (today Schutenort) 1 and 3, Emilien Straße (today Schipperort) 10. The Borowers lived from the rental income of the buildings and could therefore offset their mortgage debt with the payments. The Chief Finance Ministry imposed a security order on their bank account on 24 Sep. 1938 as – this was the standard explanation – it was to be expected that the Borowers were planning to emigrate in the near future. They were only allowed 275 RM for their basic living costs.

Presumably the first negotiations between Wolf Borower and potential buyers began towards the end of 1938. The plot of land in Vogelhüttendeich 25 was bought by the dairy owner H. Cordes from Wilhelmsburg. The house in Vogelhüttendeich 27 belonged to M. Christensen in 1942. The contract of sale for the plot of land in Vogelhüttendeich 68/70 was finalised with Johann Blender on 23 Mar. 1940.

After the deduction of the "Jewish capital levy” as well as the legal transfer costs only 16600 RM of the 80000 RM from the sale of the plots of land was transferred to the "restricted access secure account” of the married couple.

Wolf and Fanny Borower, who still lived in their House in Vogelhütten Deich 68, finally sold their remaining plots of land and houses in the Emilien Straße, Henrietten Straße and Quer Straße in 1941. Although the negotiations were applied for on 8 Apr. 1941, they were only concluded by the time the notary and lawyer Richard Wittber from Harburg settled the contract of sale with Fanny Borower by Dec. 1941. The price of the plots of land was 56000 RM together with the interest of 186,47 RM from the mortgage. When the several debts and costs were deducted only 12600 RM was transferred to the "restricted access secure account”.

Fanny and Wolf Borower had left Wilhelmsburg and lived from 12 Nov. 1941 for a short period in "Jewish House” in Lenhartz Street 3 in Hamburg-Eppendorf. Shortly before their deportation to Riga the Gestapo quartered them together with nine other persons in a two-roomed flat in Hartung Straße. One of their fellow occupants Thekla Bernau reported about Wolf and Fanny Borower in a letter just before their deportation: " Now we know: on the 5th or 6th Dec. they will leave. Nobody asks about the destination.

Everyone knows it, but no one is prepared to admit it. We are now twelve people in two rooms in Hartung Straße. The Borowers are the oldest and both are ill. Will they survive the journey? Wolf Borower said to his Fanny that it would be the promised land. And when she whimpered and tried to stretch out her swollen knee, he caressed her and said that she should be glad about the bizarre ice patterns on the window. Such beautiful frost patterns this year. As never before …”

On 6 Dec. 1941 Fanny and Wolf Borower together with 966 Hamburg Jewish men and women were deported to Riga. The date of their deaths remains unknown. 


Translator: Peter Huggett
Kindly supported by the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung, Hamburg.


© Barbara Günther

Quellen: 1; 5; StaH, 332-8 Meldewesen, K 4398; 2 (R 1938/3641, Abl. 1998/01 J4 / 55 (+56), V 1/313); StaH, 213-13, AfW, Z 405; StaH, Adressbuch Harburg 1926, Adressbuch Wilhelmsburg 1937; 1942; Morisse, Heiko: Das "jüdische" Haus Lenhartzstraße 3, in: Koser/Brunotte, Stolpersteine Eppendorf, S. 438; "Keine Umstände!"; Thekla Bernaus letzter Brief, in: Sparr, Stolpersteine Winterhude, S. 55–57; Apel (Hrsg.), Tod, S. 105.
Zur Nummerierung häufig genutzter Quellen siehe Recherche und Quellen.

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