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Adolf Cohen * 1923

Grindelallee 46 (Eimsbüttel, Rotherbaum)

HIER WOHNTE
ADOLF COHEN
JG. 1923
DEPORTIERT 1941
NATZWEILER
ERMORDET 19.1.1945

further stumbling stones in Grindelallee 46:
John Rothenburg, Adolf Simon, Gerda Simon, Max Simon, Johanna Simon

Adolf Cohen (Kohen), born 14 Dec. 1923 in Delmenhorst, deported 18 Nov. 1941 to Minsk, died 19 Jan. 1945 in the Natzweiler concentration camp

Grindelallee 46

Adolf Cohen, who turned eighteen in December 1941, came to Hamburg on 5 Apr. 1939 and boarded with Siegfried Hasenberg at Grindelallee 46/Grindelstieg 4. He was still in school, and worked as a gardener. His tax records indicate that he became a member of the Hamburg Jewish Community (or Reich Association of Jews in Germany, as it had, by then, been redesignated) in 1941, but withdrew again on 9 Apr. 1941, because he moved back to his parents in Bremen on 28 Mar. 1941. His father Ernst Cohen, was a cattle dealer and member of the synagogue board. He was born on 29 Sept. 1885 in Wittmund, East Frisia. His mother, Clara Pinto, was born on 7 Aug. 1898 in Jemgum, East Frisia.
Adolf Cohen's older brother Helmut, born on 30 Dec. 1913 in Delmenhorst, probably became a cattle dealer like his father. He was married to Ida de Haas, born on 12 Feb. 1917. They had one daughter, Joel Denny, born on 19 May 1935. By 1938, his livelihood had been destroyed.

The entire Cohen family - parents, children, daughter-in-law and grandchild - was deported on 18 Nov. 1941 from Bremen via Hamburg to Minsk. The Bremen deportation roster lists the addresses Wilhelmshavener Straße 3 for Ernst, Clara and Adolf and Wartburgstraße 31/33 for Helmut, Ida Emma and Joel Denny Cohen.

Adolf Cohen was sent from the Minsk Ghetto to the Radom labor camp in Poland on 26 May 1944, where he was assigned the prisoner number 1945. Radom was a satellite camp of the Majdanek concentration camp. From there he was evacuated to Auschwitz on 24 July 1944, together with thousands of other inmates, and classified as fit for work immediately upon arrival. 2187 men "selected" in this way were sent to the Vaihingen an der Enz concentration camp, a satellite camp of the Natzweiler concentration camp in Alsace. They arrived on 11 Aug. 1944. A large underground bunker was to be erected in a quarry in Vaihingen, where parts for the Messerschmitt fighter planes were to be produced on an areal of around 80,000 square meters. Work on this project was discontinued at the end of October 1944. On 8 Nov. 1944, Adolf Cohen was transferred from the Vaihingen concentration camp to the Dautmergen concentration camp (prisoner number: 25255), another Natzweiler satellite camp. The command there was involved in "Operation Desert," the code name for an SS operation that extracted oil from oil shale to produce fuel essential to the war effort. Concentration camp prisoners had work in strip mines with nothing more than their hands, shovels and buckets.

Adolf Cohen died on 19 Jan. 1945 at the age of 22 in the SS labor camp Natzweiler, Dautmergen commando. In the 38 months from his deportation to his death, he was literally "worked to death.”

Stolpersteine for Helmut, Ida, and Joel Denny Cohen and for Adolf Cohen are at Mühlenstraße 66 in Delmenhorst. Stolpersteine for Ernst, Clara, and another for Adolf Cohen are at Hauffstraße 2 in Bremen.

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

© Dieter Wolf

Quellen: 1; StaH 332-8 Meldewesen Bd. 4–6; Digitales Archiv ITS Bad Arolsen, Teilbestände: 1.1.23.2, Dok. ID: 1218052 (Individuelle Unterlagen Lublin); 1.1.29.1, Dok. ID: 3131453 (Listenmaterial Natzweiler); 1.1.29.2 Dok ID 3187889 (Individuelle Unterlagen Natzweiler); Becker/Meyer (Hrsg.): Geschichte; https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liste_der_Stolpersteine_in_Delmenhorst (letzter Aufruf: 10.6.2016); Spurensuche (Hrsg.): Deportation; Auskünfte von Dr. Norbert Boese vom Freundes- und Förderkreis der Jüdischen Gemeinde Delmenhorst vom 24.10.2015; Gerhard Kronsweide vom Heimat- und Kulturverein Jemgum vom 3.4. und 6.4.2016.
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