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Arno Glassmann
© Yad Vashem

Arno Glassmann * 1898

Haynstraße 5 (Hamburg-Nord, Eppendorf)

1941 Minsk

further stumbling stones in Haynstraße 5:
Liselotte Brinitzer, Fanny David, Kurt Glassmann, Helene Herzberg, Eleonore Holz, Jacob Holz, Antonie Fanny Riess, Helma Wehl, Irma Zancker

Arno Glassmann, born on 4 Feb. 1898 in Ahlbeck, deported on 8 Nov. 1941 to Minsk

Haynstrasse 5

It is a little known fact that there is another town named Ahlbeck besides the Ahlbeck on the Island of Usedom. The town, called "Sandbad Ahlbeck” today, is located about eight kilometers (slightly more than five miles) from the Stettiner Haff (Szczecinski Lagoon) on the Ueckermünder Heide (Ueckermünde Heath) and was the birthplace of Arno Glassmann. Today, its population is 840. In 1865, Ahlbeck had 614 inhabitants earning their livelihoods with farming, fishing, linen weaving, and trade. Arno’s father, the merchant Moses H. (Max) was born there in 1857. In the year 1886, he gave notice to the local records office of the death of his brother Adolf, with whom he had shared his apartment.

Max married Johanna Manasse, a native of Dölitz near Leipzig. The couple had five children. Herbert was born in 1896, Arno (entered in the register of births, deaths, and marriage of the records office as "Arnow”) in Feb. 1898. July 1899 saw the birth of Erna who only reached the age of four weeks. In Nov. 1900, another son, Kurt, was born, and finally, in 1904, Edith in Arnswalde. All of the other children were born in the parental home in Ahlbeck. For both the parents and the children, the religion entered was "Mosaic,” i.e. Jewish.

In Oct. 1901, Johanna Glassmann reported to the records office the death of Max’ mother Scheine (Janette) Glassmann, née Levi (or Levin, respectively), who was a native of Fiddichow. Her husband, the merchant Hirsch Glassmann, had already passed away at an earlier date.

So far, we know nothing about the life of the Glassmann family in Ahlbeck. At the latest by the time Arno’s sister Edith was born in 1904, the family moved to Arnswalde. In the city’s 1924 directory of inhabitants, the following are entered at the address of Steintorstrasse 8: Glassmann, Max (owner), manufactory and ready-to-wear clothes store, dry goods, finery, and footwear articles; Kurt, shop assistant, as well as Edith, no occupation.

Edith married the merchant Heinrich Seckel, who lived in Leipzig and owned a commercial agency for textiles at Waldstrasse 72. The couple had two children, Ilse Jutta, born on 18 Feb. 1929, and Joachim Philipp, born on 8 Feb. 1930. All of them were members of the Jewish Community. Heinrich Seckel emigrated to Britain in Aug. 1939 and later moved to the USA. We do not know whether his family was able to reach safety as well.

By Nov. 1933 at the latest, Max Glassmann must have moved to Hamburg along with his wife and sons Arno and Kurt, as Jewish religious tax (Kultussteuer) card files of the Hamburg Jewish Community are available for him and Arno since that time. The occupation entered for Arno is shop assistant, then servant, and eventually, on the deportation list, cook and servant. Max is entered as a retiree. He lived with Johanna at Grindelberg 33, where he died in 1935. One year later, his widow moved to Heinrich-Barth-Strasse 19 as a subtenant with Kronthal. Johanna Glassmann died in 1937 in Leipzig at Waldstrasse 72, thus having spent the last year of her life with her daughter. Subsequently, her coffin was transported to Hamburg. Her name also appears on her husband’s gravestone in the Jewish Cemetery on Ihlandkoppel.

There is no grave for son Kurt, nor for Arno and Herbert. Of Kurt, a patient’s medical file is preserved of the Langenhorn "sanatorium and nursing home” ("Heil- und Pflegeanstalt” Langenhorn). What emerges from this document is that in Jan. 1936, he was transferred from Eppendorf (probably meaning the University Hospital) to Langenhorn with a diagnosis of "feeblemindedness” ("Schwachsinn”). The date entered in the column labeled "discharged or died” is 23 Sept. 1940, the day he was deported to the euthanasia killing center in Brandenburg. Since Kurt had still been working as a shop assistant in Arnswalde as late as 1924, he probably fell ill (e.g., with meningitis) later or had an accident. Arno’s brother Herbert had lived in Berlin and was deported to Riga on 5 Sept. 1942, where he was murdered three days later.

Arno, who remained single, had frequently changing residential addresses in Hamburg. Probably, these were at the same time workplaces because he did work as a domestic help. The addresses entered on the Jewish religious tax card file are: Heinrich-Barth-Strasse 19 with Poppenburg, then Eppendorfer Baum 11 with Löwenberg, Hegestieg 12, Wrangelstrasse 30 with Müller and Eppendorfer Baum 10 with Gaus or Jens (difficult to read). In the very end, he lived, as noted on the deportation list as well, as a subtenant at Haynstrasse 5 on the fourth floor with Josephi.

His financial circumstances must have been bleak. For years, he was unable to pay any taxes to the Jewish Community. A letter by the "Merkur Kontor” to the Chief Finance Administrator (Oberfinanzpräsident) dated Aug. 1939 reveals that Arno, the sole executor of his mother, had sold a mortgage amounting to 692.74 RM (reichsmark) to the Merkur. The mortgage was entered in the land register of Zabelsdorf (administrative district of Stettin). The Merkur Company wished to get written confirmation that "no security order [Sicherungsanordnung] exists and that there are no reservations to acquiring the deed.”

In May 1939, Arno had a tax clearance certificate ("Unbedenklichkeitsbescheinigung”) issued for himself by the office of the Chief Finance Administrator. It stated that he had paid all required taxes and levies. This was a prerequisite for a possible emigration. Arno Glassmann actually did not have any means, though, to reach safety abroad. In early Nov. 1941, he received the "evacuation order” and had to report to Moorweidenstrasse 36 (Masonic Lodge house). The people gathered there were told they would rebuild the cities in the east. Arno Glassmann was deported to the Minsk Ghetto. Just how long he managed to survive there is not known.

Translator: Erwin Fink

Kindly supported by the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung, Hamburg.

© Sabine Brunotte

Quellen: 1; 2; 4; StaH 314-15 OFP, R 1939/2920; StaH 352-8/7, Abl. 1999/01 Kartei; StaH 522-1 Jüd. Gemeinden, 992e2 Band 2; StaH 332-8 Meldewesen, A 51/1 (Arno Glassmann); schriftl. Auskunft Stadtverwaltung Eggesin, Standesamt, vom 2.9.2009; www.sandbad-ahlbeck.de, Zugriff 6.9.2009; mündliche Auskunft Gudrun Stein, Heimatstube Ahlbeck, Telefonat vom 8.9.2009; schriftliche Auskunft Israelitische Religionsgemeinde zu Leipzig vom 29.6.2010; www.bundesarchiv.de/gedenkbuch, Zugriff 13.5.2010; mündliche Auskunft Waldfried Schnabel, Heimatstube Arnswalde, Telefonat vom 5.10.2010
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