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Erich Friedberger * 1892

Maria-Louisen-Straße 92 (Hamburg-Nord, Winterhude)

HIER WOHNTE
ERICH FRIEDBERGER
JG. 1892
FLUCHT 1938 HOLLAND
INTERNIERT WESTERBORK
DEPORTIERT 1943
BERGEN-BELSEN
1944 THERESIENSTADT
ERMORDET 23.5.1944

further stumbling stones in Maria-Louisen-Straße 92:
Henriette Friedberger

Erich Friedberger, born on 23 Mar. 1892 in Giessen, deported on 14 Sept. 1943 from the Netherlands to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, further deported on 25 Jan. 1944 to Theresienstadt, died on 23 May 1944 in Theresienstadt

Henriette Friedberger, née Franck, born on 18 June 1897 in Berlin, deported on 14 Sept. 1943 from the Netherlands to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, further deported on 25 Jan. 1944 to Theresienstadt, further deported on 23 Oct. 1944 to Auschwitz

Maria-Louisen-Strasse 92 (Winterhude)

Erich Friedberger was born in Giessen (Hessen) as the son of the merchant and Giessen resident Moritz (Moses) Friedberger (1851–1912) and Bertha Friedberger, née Mannheimer (1859–1933), who came from the Hessian town of Ungedanken near Fritzlar. Erich grew up with three older sisters: Elsa Meyer, née Friedberger (1881–1938); Paula Hertz, née Friedberger (1882–1936); and Toni Steinreich, née Friedberger (1886–1913). The family lived in comfortable circumstances in the provincial capital of Giessen, which had a population of 12,000, at Walltorstrasse 44 and Neuenbäue 25. Two domestic servants did the housework. In Apr. 1910, at the age of 18, Erich Friedberger moved to Frankfurt/Main, about 50 kilometers (approx. 31 miles) to the south. His sisters married and left the parents’ home between 1903 and 1911. After the death of her husband, Bertha Friedberger moved to Wiesbaden (at Adolf-Allee 23) in 1913, where daughter Elsa and her husband had moved to in 1904. Daughter Paula joined her husband Hermann Maximilian "Max” Hertz (born on 22 Feb. 1875 in Mannheim) in Mannheim in 1907, where she died in the municipal hospital in 1936. Her parents Moritz and Bertha Friedberger were both buried in the Jewish part of the New Cemetery in Giessen.

Erich Friedberger fought as a soldier in World War I and he was wounded. He was decorated with the Iron Cross and the Wound Badge. The injuries seem to have been so severe that he did not have to return to the front. Since Apr. 1918 at the latest, he had been residing in Hamburg. He worked at the E. Calmann banking house (at Neuer Wall 101), founded in 1853 and operating ten branches at times. In his enterprise, he was promoted to authorized signatory and head of the stock exchange department in Nov. 1920. His residential addresses were Fröbelstrasse 5 on the fourth floor (Rotherbaum) and Bieberstrasse 7 on the third floor (Rotherbaum) as a subtenant with M. von Appen. In Apr. 1918, he joined the Hamburg German-Israelitic Community and became a member of the liberal Temple Association (Tempelverband).

In Berlin, on 10 Aug. 1920, he married Henriette "Netti” Franck (born on 18 June 1897 in Berlin). The witnesses to the marriage were the mother and widow of a merchant, Elsbeth Franck, née Pariser (1870–1930) from Berlin-Moabit (at Calvinstrasse 5) and the merchant Egon Meyer (born around 1889) from Hamburg (at Eppendorfer Landstrasse 55), who was co-owner of the Robert Stade Company (funds and merchandise broker, Gröningerstrasse 14, Room 415/416). At the time of the wedding, the groom lived in Hamburg-Rotherbaum (at Bieberstrasse 7) and the bride in Berlin with her mother. The passport issued for Erich Friedberger in Hamburg on 3 Aug. 1920, covered "special areas in the West.” Valid for only six weeks (instead of the usual 12 months), it was probably used for the honeymoon. The passports dating from Jan. 1924 and May 1926 had been issued for both spouses, that is, they had been applied for toward private vacations. In 1926, the names of the children also appeared on the travel document; the vacation destination then was Switzerland.

The married Friedberger couple had two children: Gerhard (born on 2 July 1921) and Vera (born on 11 June 1925). The family resided at Beim Andreasbrunnen 8/ Eppendorf (1923–1925), Heilwigstrasse 121 on the fourth floor/ Eppendorf (1926–1932), and in a four-bedroom apartment at Maria-Louisen-Strasse 92 on the fourth floor/ Winterhude (1933–1938). An annual rent of 1,920 RM (reichsmark) was payable for the Winterhude apartment, which was apparently somewhat smaller than the home on Heilwigstrasse.

Henriette Friedberger’s sister Gertrud "Trude” Franck (born on 10 July 1900 in Berlin) married the banker Walther Specht (born in 1884 in Hamburg) in February 1922. This also led to a family contact between Erich Friedberger and Walther Specht, who was eight years his senior.

Their daughter Vera attended the private preschool operated by Cläre Lehmann (at Heilwigstrasse 46) (about 1931–1935) and then, until spring 1938, the private school run by Ria Wirth (at Mittelweg 90).

Son Gerhard attended Gustav Bertram’s private school from 1927 to 1933 (at Harvestehuder Weg 65/67) and then the Heinrich-Hertz-Realgymnasium [a high school focused on science, math, and modern languages] in Winterhude, which he had to leave in 1936 due to his Jewish origins. To complete his interrupted school education, he was sent by his parents to a business school in Great Britain in 1936/1937. Presumably, the English school diploma and the intensive learning of the English language were a backup toward a possible emigration later. Although he began an apprenticeship in Hamburg on 1 Apr. 1937 with the Otto Meyer & Sohn import and export company (at Schauenburgerstrasse 15), founded in 1932, its Jewish owners Otto Meyer (born on 12 Mar. 1874 in Lübeck) and Hans Meyer (born on 28 Apr. 1904 in Hamburg) emigrated to the Netherlands as early as Dec. 1937. This had been preceded by a state boycott of companies in the centrally controlled economy of the Nazi state. The supervisory authorities in Berlin refused import permits for the company’s imported goods, which spelled its economic ruin. After negotiations with the owners (in Rotterdam), Carl Scheper, the authorized signatory, took over the business, joined the Nazi party (NSDAP), and changed the company name to Scheper & Weber. Nevertheless, the Berlin supervisory office for import licenses saw no reason to change its negative position, "since (...) the interests of the Hamburg import trade in this sector are preserved by several Aryan companies (...).” Gerhard Friedberger broke off his training in Sept. 1938 due to anti-Semitic pressure in Germany, the worsening situation in Europe (on 29 Sept. 1938, Munich Agreement), and the imminent end of his apprenticeship. He emigrated to Amsterdam, where his parents had already been staying for six months.

At the age of 32, Erich Friedberger became co-founder of the Hamburg-based Hühnken & Co. banking enterprise (at Adolphsbrücke 7), in which the co-owner Ernst Hühnken and the limited partner Julius Floersheim (1879–1959) held shares from 1924 to 1931; both were former authorized signatories of the E. Calmann banking house. The newly established Hühnken & Co. banking business specialized in investment transactions (securities). In 1932, Erich Friedberger left the company and started a banking operation under his own name at Mönkedamm 8 in the immediate vicinity of the Hamburg Stock Exchange. The enterprise was deleted from the Hamburg Company Register in Aug. 1938. However, even years before the closure, the banking business had already been massively hindered and disadvantaged by the Nazi state.

After the emigration of Walther Specht (1884–1943), the sole owner of the Hermann Hamberg banking business since 1923, to the Netherlands in Dec. 1935, the banking operation was transformed into a general partnership (offene Handelsgesellschaft – oHG) in Jan. 1936, with Julius Philip now also serving as a partner. An audit report of the foreign currency office in Sept. 1938 came to the following conclusion with regard to the ownership and shareholding structure: "The distribution of profits is based on 20% for Walter [sic!] Specht and 80% for the partner by the name of Philip, who in turn sub-participated the former bankers Otto Hertmann and Erich Friedberger with 33 1/3% each, after these latter two persons had placed their securities clients at the disposal of the company under report.” On 20 Oct. 1938, customs secretary Janssen issued a "security order” ("Sicherungsanordnung”) against the Hamberg banking house as well as its owner Julius Philip (born on 18 May1877 in Hamburg) and his wife Irma Philip, née Specht (born on 26 June 1884 in Hamburg), whereby all accounts were blocked. In Jan. 1939, the Hermann Hamberg banking business, founded in 1885, was deleted from the company register. The liquidation of the enterprise was managed by the authorized signatory Otto Hertmann (1890–1943) and the external auditor Friedrich Marquardt.

Erich Friedberger emigrated to Amsterdam with his wife and 13-year-old daughter in Mar. or Apr. 1938. It is not known whether this was an official emigration or an illegal escape disguised as a visit with sister-in-law Gertrud Specht, née Franck, in the Dutch town of Heemstede (Province of North Holland). An "emigration file” usually created and archived by the responsible foreign currency office of the Chief Finance Administrator (Oberfinanzpräsident) has not been preserved for Erich and Henriette Friedberger. In the event of an illegal emigration, all assets, including the furnishings, would have been confiscated by the German Reich, i.e., they would have arrived in the country of exile completely destitute.

One indication that assets and valuables were plundered or withheld from them by the German Reich on a large scale was the fact that they repeatedly received financial assistance from Walther Specht in 1938 and 1939. For each individual transfer from Specht’s "emigrant’s credit balance” blocked in Hamburg, he had to obtain permission from the foreign currency office of the Hamburg Chief Finance Administrator (Oberfinanzpräsident). "There (note by author, B.E.: in emigration,) he could only make a meager living and he was largely dependent on support from his brother-in-law, the aforementioned Walther Specht,” his son Gerhard explained to the restitution office in 1963. In Mar. 1939, the Friedberger couple and their daughter Vera Friedberger were stripped of their German citizenship – this information was also transferred to the German criminal register (the entries still existed there as late as the mid-1950s). The residential addresses in Amsterdam were Stadionweg 61/corner of Holbeinstraat (Mar. 1938 – Oct. 1938), where the "Huize Tesselschade” guesthouse was located; Stadionweg 113 (Nov. 1938 – Mar. 1939); and the nearby Beethovenstraat 106 on the fourth floor (among other times, Mar. 1939 – Feb. 1941).

Due to the German occupation of the Netherlands in May 1940, Erich and Henriette Friedberger and their children were persecuted by the Nazis in that country as well. They had to assume that the occupiers were aware of their statelessness, which made legal departure from the Netherlands with existing (but invalid) German identity documents very unlikely and highly risky. The only remaining alternatives were the acquisition of forged identity documents (which Walter Specht and his family decided on) or a hiding place with Dutch people – in both cases, money would have been required. It was no longer possible for Jews in the Netherlands to work after the occupation.

From Aug. 1939 to July 1941, daughter Vera attended the Dutch secondary school called "De Lairesseschool” in Amsterdam, which she had to leave due to new laws and transfer to a Jewish school (Joodse MULO), which in turn was closed in June 1942 by order of the German occupying power. Starting on 2 May 1942, Jews in the Netherlands were also required to wear a yellow "Jews’ star” on their clothing in a clearly visible manner. Henriette Friedberger’s sister Gertrud Specht, née Franck, fled the Netherlands through Belgium to France in July 1942, along with her husband Walter Specht and their two children, with forged identity documents.

Starting on 15 Feb. 1943, 51-year-old Erich Friedberger worked for the Amsterdam Jews’ Council, which gave the family a temporary respite with regard to internment and deportation. After a police raid, the Friedberger family of four was taken to the Westerbork camp on 20 June 1943, which meanwhile had come under the control of the SS. When the Friedberger couple was deported from the Westerbork camp on 14 Sept. 1943, the majority of the Jews had already been deported from the Netherlands. Persons who worked for the Jews’ Council in Amsterdam were initially exempted from deportation. However, on the orders of the German occupying forces, the Jewish auxiliary personnel, too, who had been deferred were eventually interned in the Westerbork camp and deported from there.

Erich and Henriette Friedberger were deported to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp on 14 Sept. 1943; their children remained interned in Westerbork until Jan. 1944. On 27 Jan. 1944, the Friedberger couple was deported from Bergen-Belsen to the Theresienstadt Ghetto, where Erich Friedberger died on 23 May 1944. Henriette Friedberger was further deported to the Auschwitz extermination camp on 23 Oct. 1944 and murdered.

Son Gerhard (later Gerald) Friedberger (1921–1979) endured an almost two-year camp odyssey from Westerbork (20 June 1943 to 18 Jan. 1944) through Theresienstadt (20 Jan. 1944 to 28 Sept. 1944) to Auschwitz-Birkenau Camp B IIe (29 Sept. 1944 to early Oct. 1944) and Buchenwald (Oct. 1944 to 11 Apr. 1945). After his liberation by U.S. troops, he was nursed for three months in a French military hospital in Reims, returning to the Netherlands in Aug. 1945 and completing his commercial apprenticeship, only to emigrate further to the United States in 1949.

Daughter Vera Friedberger (1925–2014) was also interned in various camps for almost two years until her liberation: Camp Westerbork (20 June 1943 – 18 Jan. 1944), Theresienstadt Ghetto (20 Jan. 1944 – 23 Oct. 1944), Auschwitz extermination camp (25 Oct. 1944 – 28 Oct. 1944), Oederan women’s subcamp in Saxony of the Flossenbürg concentration camp (1 Nov. 1944 – 14 Apr. 1945), and Theresienstadt Ghetto, where she was liberated by the Red Army. She returned to the Netherlands and emigrated to the USA in 1947. There she married Ernst Isenberg in 1949.

Translator: Erwin Fink
Kindly supported by the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung, Hamburg.

Stand: December 2020
© Björn Eggert

Quellen: Staatsarchiv Hamburg (StaH) 221-1 (Staatskommissar für die Entnazifizierung), Ad 2540 (Carl Scheper); StaH 231-7 (Handelsregister), A 1 Band 28 (HR A 6929, Robert Stade); StaH 231-7 (Handelsregister, A 1 Band 142 (HR A 32033, Hühnken & Co.); StaH 231-7 (Handelsregister, A 1 Band 169 (HR A 37812, Erich Friedberger); StaH 314-15 (Oberfinanzpräsident), FVg 8591 (Julius Floersheim); StaH 314-15 (Oberfinanzpräsident), F 1733 Band 2 (Firma Otto Meyer & Sohn Hamburg in Liquidation. 1938-1939); StaH 332-8 (Meldewesen), A 24 Band 232 (Reisepassprotokolle 35231/1920, Erich Friedberger); StaH 332-8 (Meldewesen), A 24 Band 305 (Reisepassprotokolle 190/1924, Erich Friedberger); StaH 332-8 (Meldewesen), A 24 Band 335 (Reisepassprotokolle 6293/1926, Erich Friedberger); StaH 332-8 (Meldewesen), A 24 Band 335 (Reisepassprotokolle 6294/1926, Henriette Friedberger); StaH 351-11 (Amt für Wiedergutmachung), 14612 (Erich Friedberger); StaH 351-11 (Amt für Wiedergutmachung), 19667 (Henriette Friedberger); StaH 351-11 (Amt für Wiedergutmachung), 44661 (Gerald Friedberger); StaH 351-11 (Amt für Wiedergutmachung), 47521 (Vera Isenberg geb. Friedberger); StaH 351-11 (Amt für Wiedergutmachung), 2446 (Otto Meyer); StaH 351-11 (Amt für Wiedergutmachung ), 4471 (Julius Floersheim); StaH 522-1 (Jüdischen Gemeinden), 992b (Kultussteuerkartei der Deutsch-Israelitischen Gemeinde Hamburg), Erich Friedberger; Stadtarchiv Gießen, Personenstands-Aufnahme, Personenstands-Register, Judenkartei, Polizeikartei; Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv Wiesbaden (über ancestry), Geburtsurkunde Gießen 1882 (Paula Friedberger), Heiratsurkunde Gießen 3/1902 (Emil Meyer u. Else Friedberger), Heiratsurkunde Gießen 117/1907 (Hermann Maximilian Hertz u. Paula Friedberger), Heiratsurkunde Gießen 143/1911 (Dr. Emil Steinreich u. Toni Friedberger), Sterbeurkunde Mannheim 697/1936 (Paula Hertz geb. Friedberger); Stadtarchiv Mannheim (über ancestry), Geburtsregister 291/ 1875 (Max Hermann Hertz); Stadsarchief Amsterdam, Archiefkaarten van Persoonskaarten (nachträglich erstellt), Erich Friedberger, Henriette Friedberger; Handelskammer Hamburg, Handelsregisterinformationen (Hühnken & Co., HR A 32033; Erich Friedberger, HR A 37812; Robert Stade, HR A 6929; E. Calmann); Hamburger Börsenfirmen, Hamburg 1910, S. 104 (E. Calmann, gegr. 1853, Bankgeschäft, Neuer Wall 101, Inhaber: Ahron Louis Calmann, Gustav Joseph Rosemeyer, Witwe Mathilde Calmann, Prokuristen: S. Rothschild, L. Baruch, Th. Lehmann, J. Floersheim, Niederlassungen: Neumünster, Itzehoe, Cuxhaven, Otterndorf, Altona, Lüneburg, Nienburg a.W., Hannover, Magdeburg, Nürnberg); Hamburger Börsenfirmen, Hamburg 1926, S. 481 (Hühnken & Co. KG, Bankgeschäft u. Fondsb., gegr. 1924, pers. haftende Gesellschafter: Ernst Hühnken u. Erich Friedberger, Prokurist: Julius Floersheim, Adolphsbrücke 7); Hamburger Börsenfirmen, Hamburg 1935, S. 242 (Erich Friedberger, gegr. 1932, Bankgeschäft u. Fondsb., Mönkedamm 8); Hamburger Börsenfirmen, Hamburg 1935, S. 395 (Hühnken & Co., Inhaber Ernst Hühnken, Neuer Wall 75); Frank Bajohr, "Arisierung" in Hamburg. Die Verdrängung der jüdischen Unternehmen 1933-1945, Hamburg 2008, S. 351 (E. Calmann), S. 366 (Otto Meyer & Sohn); Hanno Müller, Juden in Gießen 1788-1942, Gießen 2012, S. 144 (Moses Friedberger); Hamburger Adressbuch (Erich Friedberger), 1923, 1925-1927, 1932-1935, 1937; Hamburger Adressbuch 1920 (Egon Meyer, Robert Stade); Hamburger Adressbuch 1932 (Frl. Cläre Lehmann, Vorschul-Unterricht, Heilwigstr. 46); Hamburger Adressbuch 1933 (Harvestehuder Weg 65/67, Schulvorstand G. Bertram; Firma Otto Meyer & Sohn, tierische Rohprodukte, Ferdinandstr. 25/27, Zimmer 60/63, Inhaber: Otto u. Hans J. Meyer); www.stolpersteine-hamburg.de (Otto Hertmann); Bundesarchiv Gedenkbuch, Opfer der Verfolgung der Juden unter der nationalsozialistischen Gewaltherrschaft in Deutschland 1933-1945, Internetdatenbank (Erich Friedberger; Henriette Friedberger); https://www.joodsmonument.nl/en/page/213218/erich-friedberger (eingesehen 25.09.2019); https://www.joodsmonument.nl/nl/page/107377/beethovenstraat-106-iii-amsterdam (eingesehen 27.11.2019); https://www.holocaust.cz/de/opferdatenbank/opfer/149961-erich-friedberger/ (eingesehen 25.09.2019); https://www.geni.com/people/Erich-Friedberger/6000000032274519399 (mit Familienfoto, eingesehen 25.09.2019); www.ancestry.de (Geburtsurkunde 1897, Berlin XIIa, Henriette Franck; Heiratsregister 1920, Berlin XIIa, Erich Friedberger u. Henriette Franck; Entzug der deutschen Staatsbürgerschaft 1939, Erich Friedberger, Henriette Friedberger, Vera Friedberger; US-Sozialversicherungs-Index 1979, Gerald M. Friedberger); www.stolpersteine-hamburg.de (Hugo Cohen, Otto Hertmann; Herbert Oettinger, Walther Specht).