I. Buildings Integral to the Former Life and/or Persecution of Jews in Hamburg - Neustadt/St. Pauli. © Wilhelm Mosel, Deutsch-jüdische Gesellschaft Hamburg. 16. Nos. 40-42 Hütten. Former Bei ben Hütten. Former Helmuth-Hübener-Haus des Amtes für Jugend (Jugendhilfsstelle) (Childrens Home) (Youth Welfare Service). Former Hüttenwache (Police Station). Later Polizeigefängnis an den Hütten (Hütten Police Prison) (Hütten Prison). Former deportation assembly centre for Polish Jews. Later, following "Reichskristallnacht" (Pogrom Night), deportation centre for Jews. On 28.10.1938 the Hamburg Chief Constable of Police presented the syndic of the Judische of the Judische Religionsverband (Jewish Religious Federation), Dr. Max Plaut, with the following authorization: "Dr. Plaut is authorized to contact the Polish Jews imprisoned in Hütten Prison". The same day more than 1,000 Jews of Polish nationality, who had lived in Hamburg or Altona for decades, were deported to Sbondzin (former Bentschen) in Poland. A small number returned immediately, as emigrants, to Germany, and a small number were able to flee to Russia, so that it is not possible to ascertain with certainty the total number of deportees to Poland. One reliable estimate has it that 800 people died as a consequence of this deportation transport. Other estimates state 1,000 died. Of these a total of 34 are named in the 1982 edition of the Commemmorative Book. The names were declared by surviving relatives and friends. The following were born after 1920: Name Date of Birth Place of Birth Hermann, Cilly 24.05.1921 Altona Schlumper, Alexander 14.04.1929 Hamburg Schlumper, Martin 16.04.1923 Hamburg Siegmann, Herbert 30.09.1926 Hamburg Siegmann, Manfred 12.09.1929 Hamburg During their first years of power the Nazis showed a certain indulgence towards foreign Jews. A pretence to take action against them was furnished by the Polish government in 1938. On 31.03.1938 the Polish government enacted a law critical to the status of expatriate Poles. According to this law any Pole who had lived longer than 5 years abroad could be deprived of his citizenship, thereby making a return to Poland impossible. The circa 70,000 Polish Jews, who had lived in Austria and Germany for years, were immediately made stateless. The prescribed period in which to attain an entitlement from the Polish government allowing an unrestricted return to Poland elapsed on 31.10.1938. As only very few Polish Jews obtained the entitlement, on the 26.10.1938 the German Foreign Office empowered the Gestapo to immediately expel all Polish Jews without such an entitlement. At around 5 a.m. of 26.10.1938 Gestapo officials appeared in the homes of Polish Jews not in possession of the entitlement from the Polish government and took them to pre-arranged assembly points from where they were taken to railway stations. When the special trains containing the deportees, including helpless old people, women and children, reached the German-Polish border railway station of Neu-Bentschen, Poland refused them entry. The deportees were disembarked and encamped, some in the open fields in no-mans-land. Around 17,000 people, from all over the German Reich, were affected by this action. It was several days before a compromise was reached between the two governments. Some were allowed to travel on to Poland, others were allowed to return to their flats for the short period necessary to wind up their businesses and to send their belongings to Poland. Among these deportees were the parents of Herschel Grynszpan who on 7.11.1938 shot Ernst vom Rath, the Embassy Secretary in the German Embassy in Paris. This action, from which vom Rath died on 9.11.1938, gave the Gestapo the opportune grounds to execute the pogrom that has entered history as Reichskristallnacht. A total of 91 people were killed and around 30,000 people, all Jewish males, were dragged off to police prisons, Gestapo prisons and concentration camps where they remained for weeks or months, and where many died. In Hamburg circa 1,200 Jewish males were imprisoned in police prisons or concentration camps, 722 being imprisoned in Fuhlsbüttel Concentration Camp (Fuhlsbüttel is a district of Hamburg). Dr. Plaut was, according to his own account, the first to be arrested but also the first to be freed, after 2½ days. One of those arrested was Eduard Hirsch, owner of a pawnshop in Wexstraße, who was imprisoned for 8 days in Hütten Prison before being deported to Dachau Concentration Camp. This account was given by Herr R. from Hamburg, in November 1982. Former Hütten Police Prison seen from Hütten (drawing). Former Hütten Police Prison seen from the prison yard (drawing). Hütten Prison had, formerly as Hütten Police Station, places to accommodate 50 prisoners. In 1889 the police station was enlarged to accommodate a further 15 prisoners. On certain days up to 165 men and 109 women were imprisoned here, so that in 1926 it was again enlarged. In 1900 the street named Bei den Hütten was shortened to Hütten. From 1910 the Hütten Police Station was officially designated a police prison. In later official documents the term Polizeigefangnis an den Hütten (Hütten Police Prison) or Hüttengefängnis (Hütten Prison) appears. In the Nazi period during state visits or visits by Nazi party leaders all political opponents were committed to Hütten Prison. Former Hütten Police Prison, plan of the groundfloor (drawing). Following the war the building housed a Jugendhilfsstelle des Amtes für Jugend (Childrens Home). An inscription, in relief in wood, above the entrance of No. 42 Hütten names the building Helmut-Hübener-Haus after the young member of the Resistence. A commemorative plaque is situated on the wall of the building: What follows is a detailed account, given by Frau W. from Hamburg in November 1982, of the arrest of a Polish Jew, and of his imprisonment in Hütten Prison: "It was a day at the end of October 1938. We lived in Grindelallee. We had subtenants one of whom was Jackie B., a young Polish Jew. He was a journeyman butcher in a local butcher's shop. I remember it being around 4 a.m. when the door-bell rang as it made us angry. On opening the door three men introduced themselves as Gestapo officers, two of whom entered. These asked my grandmother if she was the widow B. and whether a Jackie B. lived with us. When my grandmother answered in the afirmative they asked if she would show them his room. My grandmother, knowing the reason for their visit, surly answered that that was her business. Eventually, they knocked on Jackie's door, ordered him to get up, to get dressed and accompany them. My grandmother asked Jackie if he would like a warm overcoat to wear. He answered yes and quickly put one on. Grandmother asked the Gestapo officers where they were taking him. The brusque answer was that we would be informed, and they departed with Jackie. On the same day one of our other subtenants Sally A. went to our Jewish Community centre in Beneckestraße where he was told that Jackie had been imprisoned in Hütten Prison. Sally immediately went there and actually met and spoke with Jackie. Jackie had the eccentric wish to be brought his dinner-jacket. The police had no objection. They also openly informed us that the Poles were to be deported. My mother packed a bag with the dinner-jacket that day and took the No. 24 tram to Hütten Prison. Unfortunately she was not allowed to personally give Jackie his belongings. As we heard no more from Jackie I must assume that in all likelihood he was killed. Being without relatives we were his closest family and would have heard from him. That day Sally cycled to his sister Meta's flat in Bahrenfeld Chaussee in the Hamburg district of Bahrenfeld. She was married to Josef K. and they owned a shoemaker's shop, with a flat at the rear. On arrival Sally saw that the flat had been sealed up by the Gestapo. Later Sally received a letter from them in Pabianice, Poland, requesting their furniture. As a result of this my uncle Leonhard B. and my mother cleared their flat. My uncle, who was at this time unemployed, cleared many flats of deported Jews. A Gestapo officer always accompanied him. A container was ordered in which the furniture was stored. The shoes from the shop were sold to pay the transport costs. Such goods were sold by auction. Leonhard B. (1898-1957). A mother and son named F. lived in the flat below ours. They must have been arrested on the same October morning as their flat was sealed up when we left the house in the morning. We also never heard from them again". What follows is an account, given by Frau W. from Hamburg in 1982, of the arrest of two Jews, father and son, following "Reichskristallnacht", and their imprisonment in Hütten Prison. Today the son lives in the USA. "On the morning of 10th November 1938 two policemen called on family L. in Peterstraße. It must have been around 9 a.m. They ordered my great-uncle Max and his son to accompany them. As the officers knew both my relatives, the police station being situated opposite our flat, they explained that they could not do otherwise as their orders came from the Gestapo. My relatives were not allowed to take any possessions with them. So as not to attract attention they were to walk ahead of the two policemen. On learning that they were to be taken to Hütten Prison neither was alarmed as the prison was only around the corner. They were placed in a large room in the prison where they found many aquaintances. They had to sleep on plank-beds, but, unlike many others, my great-uncle was able to sleep. the food was not bad. Relatives were allowed to bring belongings. My great-aunt Flora took her husband an overcoat that same day. They were deported to Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp from which both returned home in December 1938". German text: Dipl.-Pol. Wilhelm Mosel, Deutsch-Jüdische Gesellschaft, Hamburg.