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Rolf Edgar Frankenthal * 1921

Sorbenstraße 15 (Hamburg-Mitte, Hammerbrook)

1941 Minsk
ermordet

further stumbling stones in Sorbenstraße 15:
Theodor Frankenthal

Theodor Frankenthal, born 27 Feb. 1899, died 26 July 1943 in the Buchenwald Concentration Camp
Rolf Edgar Frankenthal, born 29 May 1921, deported 8 Nov. 1941 to Minsk

Theodor Frankenthal was born on 27 Feb. 1899 in Hamburg. His parents, Leo Frankenthal and his wife Ina, née Lindenfeld, both died in 1942 in Theresienstadt. His brother Kurt, a photographer, emigrated to the US in 1939, and his sister Margot apparently survived the Holocaust.

Theodor Frankenthal was a member of the Hamburg German-Israelitic Community since at least 1921. He and his family lived at Sorbenstraße 19. He was an independent salesman of furs. His wife Alice was born on 16 July 1900 in Altona. According to the Nuremberg Laws, she was a "half-breed of the first degree.” Their son Rolf Edgar was born on 29 May 1921. The couple divorced, but the date is unknown.

Theodor Frankenthal was accused of "racial defilement” in 1937 and sent to the Fuhlsbüttel prison for three years. He was then sent directly to the Fuhlsbüttel Concentration Camp. During his time in prison his wife Alice emigrated to England.

Alice Frankenthal was only a "half-Jew,” according to the Nuremberg Laws, but as she was married to a Jew and was a member of the Jewish Community, she was considered a Geltungsjude (she was treated as a Jew) and was subject to all of the discriminatory measures imposed upon the Jews. She could, however, apply for aid from Jewish relief organizations. The Jewish Relief Association assumed her costs when she emigrated to England on 26 January 1939. She worked there as household help.

In 1941, Theodor Frankenthal was transferred to the Dachau Concentration Camp. There he began to make plans to emigrate, with the help of his son Rolf Edgar and his father Leo. An entry in his emigration record from 7 June 1941 reads:

"Name: Theodor Israel Frankenthal
Exact address: at present Dachau Concentration Camp K 3, Block 15, Room 1
Prisoner-Number 18543. Home address: Kleine Schäferkamp 32 I with parents, Hamburg 6
German from birth, 27 Feb. 1899 in Hamburg”

He was granted a clearance certificate to Haiti from the Chief Tax Authority on 5 January 1941. He was unable to emigrate, however, because he was transferred to the Buchenwald Concentration Camp. He died there on 26 July 1942. His urn was buried at the Ilandkoppel Jewish Cemetery.

Rolf Edgar Frankenthal apprenticed as a precision mechanic for electronics. In 1938, his mother arranged for him to emigrate to Holland, where he would continue his apprenticeship. Although he was granted a clearance certificate, the attempt failed, just as had one before to leave Germany on a children’s transport to England, and another in 1940 to emigrate to Palestine.

Rolf Edgar Frankenthal lived at Sorbenstraße 19 until 1939, and then with his grandparents Emil and Anna Maria Freund at Wrangelstraße 22b. His grandmother was Protestant and an "Aryan.” He was on the list of substitutes for the transport to Lodz on 25 October 1941, but his deportation was postponed until the next mass transport on 8 November 1941 to Minsk in White Russia. There all trace of him is lost.

Unlike his paternal grandparents, his maternal grandparents were not deported, because theirs was a "mixed marriage.”

Translator: Amy Lee

Kindly supported by the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung, Hamburg.

© Hildegard Thevs

Quellen: 1; 2 314-15 FVg 3811 und FVg 8850; 4; 5; StaH, 522-1, Jüdische Gemeinden, 992 e 2 Deportationslisten Band 2; o. Sign. Mitgliederzählung der DIGH 1928; 391 Mitgliederliste 1935; BA Bln., Volkszählung 1939.
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