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Charlotte Feldstein (née Rosenthal) * 1906

Isestraße 43 (Eimsbüttel, Harvestehude)

1941 Lodz

further stumbling stones in Isestraße 43:
Helene Aberbach, Max Gideon Feldstein, Edgar Freimuth, Emil Freimuth, Renate Eva Freimuth, Bella Freimuth

Charlotte Vera Feldstein, née Rosenthal, born 6 May 1906 in Weimar, deported to Lodz 25 Oct. 1941
Max Gideon Feldstein, born 17 May 1928 in Hamburg, deported 25 Oct. 1941 to Lodz, listed in a Displaced Persons Camp on 9 Oct. 1945

Although Charlotte Feldstein was born in Weimar, she was considered stateless. No information could be found as to whether she was widowed or divorced. From 1939 onwards she lived in rented rooms on Brahmsallee. Her son Gideon lived in the Jewish Boys’ Orphanage on Papendamm.

In 1940, when Gideon was 12 years old, Charlotte began preparations for his emigration to Lithuania. It is likely that she planned to send him to live with relatives there. All documents had been procured, the certificate of approval for emigration had been granted, the items that Gideon would take with him were listed and approved. But Lithuania was no longer a safe haven. As a result of the Hitler-Stalin Pact, it had become a pawn in the negotiations between the German Reich and the Soviet Union. The Red Army occupied the country on 15 June 1940 and declared the Lithuanian Socialist Republic. The last entry in Gideon’s file at the Regional Tax Office, from 20 August 1940, reads: "Feldstein intended to emigrate to Lithuania. As a result of the constitutional transformation in Lithuania, the emigration has been postponed.”

Gideon had to remain in Hamburg with his mother. It is not known whether he moved in with her when she rented rooms with the Jordan family at Isestraße 43 in August 1941, or if he remained in the orphanage. Mother and son were deported to Lodz on 25 October 1941. In the Lodz Ghetto, Charlotte and Gideon first lived on Alexanderhofstraße, then on Hohensteiner Straße. She performed forced labor as a factory worker. Her date of death is unknown. She may have perished as a result of the catastrophic living conditions, the hard labor, and the lack of food and privacy; she may have been among those sent to the Chelmno Death Camp in May 1942.

It is possible that Gideon survived the Shoah. His name is on a list of evacuees from Lodz to Chelmno from 15 May 1942, but this transport was extremely chaotic, and many of those destined for death at Chelmno remained in Lodz, without their names being documented. It is possible that Gideon Feldstein was among them. If so, he would have been evacuated to Auschwitz in the summer of 1944 when the Lodz Ghetto was abandoned, and would have been liberated by the Red Army. Or was he able to escape? Whatever the case, his name appears on a list of Displaced Persons in Hungary in October 1945. That is the last trace of him.

Translator: Amy Lee

Kindly supported by the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung, Hamburg.

© Christa Fladhammer

Quellen: 1; 2 ;4; 8; ITS/ARCH/ZNK DP3 Kartei; USHMM, Auskunft per E-Mail vom 20.11.2008 und 27.11.2009.
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