In the years 1941/42 the children, some not even three years old, custodians and teachers remaining in the two Jewish orphanages in Hamburg at Papendamm 3 and Laufgraben 37 were deported to Auschwitz, Lodz, Minsk, Jungfernhof near Riga and Theresienstadt concentration and death camps. The laying of "Stolpersteinen" (Tripping Stones) for each individual at the places of deportation at Papendamm 3 and Laufgraben 37 is an act of remembrance.

In addition to the victims listed below there were others, mostly half-orphans, who attended the orphanages only during the day, who were deported with their mother or father. For these children a memorial "Stolperstein" has been laid at their home address.

The existing information and photographs of individual victims appears below.

Hildegard Cohen - Director of the Paulinen Trust girls' orphanage between 1939 and 1942
The road to death with the orphans.

Four letters written in 1941 by Hildegard Cohen to her friend Trude Simonsohn in New York relate the desperate situation in the Paulinen Trust girls' orphanage during the last weeks of its existence. Hildegard Cohen also hoped to contact her fiancé Max Warisch through Trude Simonsohn, who she knew was imprisoned in a camp in Southern France. As she could not write to him personally she occasionally spoke to him in her letters to her friend.
      In 1934, Hildegard Cohen, as Jewess, was dismissed from her beloved occupation as teacher. She then managed to survive by doing commercial work and giving private language tuition for adults but longed to work with children again and, despite the persecution, was happy with her new position in the girls' orphanage. On 7 January 1941 she wrote to her friend, "I have completely familiarised myself with the work in the Paulinen Trust and feel as if I have always been here." However, she did not conceal her oppressive worries: although all the necessary steps had been taken long ago, she waited, in vain, with her mother, her brother Waldemar and his fiancée Lotti Schreiber, for their entry permits to the USA. However, the thought of the fate of her fiancé tormented her the most. On 19 October 1941 she wrote to Trude Simonsohn:

"You can probably imagine how depressed I am. On the other hand I am calm and only hope that we will survive in good health. Just think, over the last 14 days, we additionally had 30 old people staying with us, now they have left again. You will hardly believe how this additional work was such a joy to me. I had never imagined I could cope so well with elderly people."

      The situation changed daily. On 22 October 1941 many Jews received registered letters. The orphanages at Papendamm 3 and Laufgraben 37 were also in receipt of such letters. The Gestapo informed them: "Your evacuation to Litzmannstadt is decreed." The "evacuation order" affected several children in both homes. Again cases were packed, again farewells were said; but how different this parting was than a few years ago when the departure was to a country which meant rescue! On 2 November Hildegard Cohen wrote:

"On 22.10., when so many of my acquaintances received such sad news, you know what it concerns, I received your dear letter. It was so affectionate and considerate that I thank you with all my heart. It is good to know that one has friends as faithful as you and yet you are so far away and thereby can be of little help and perhaps cannot precisely understand our situation. In any event we must grit our teeth and hope and pray to God that he can do something for us. Our family is still together and we are all healthy. But our nerves are on edge. My place of work is also much changed and there is so much work that one night's sleep sounds like a fairy tale      My dear sweet Max, the wonderful time we spent here together now seems like a dream. Of course we also had problems but in comparison to now they seem as nothing."

      A few days later there were further evacuation orders, and again children from the orphanages were affected. Hildegard's last letter from 12 November 1941 reflects her deep despair:

"I do not have much news, only that Waldy left on Saturday. My mother and I do not know when we are to follow. We must leave everything to fate, you know my brother, he is courageous and I hope that he will bear up despite the difficulties. My sister-in-law went with him, this was possible, and it is well known that a problem shared is a problem halved. My mother is now provisionally staying with me in the orphanage where she feels relatively comfortable and can feel so because everyone is particularly nice to her. Our orphanage has also become much smaller because all day children have returned to their parents and we have lost others who were evacuated with my brother. You and all my loved ones can imagine how deeply depressed I am, but chin up as they say, particularly for me who has to manage a home. But how difficult this is for me sometimes!!! Ottis Freundin is very ill, she is in hospital hovering between life and death, one can only hope that her end is near.

Dear Max, I have heard nothing from you for such a long time; hopefully things are not too bad with you. Who would have thought that we would be separated again in such a way, shall we ever see each other again? I doubt it. And despite everything I have heaps of work, but it is no longer the case that the work allows one to forget one's cares, but rather overwhelms one in such a way that it paralyses and one does not achieve anything real.
... My dears, if you can do something for us again, do not forget us, but I do not need to write this, I know we are bound by eternal friendship even if we should hear nothing more from each other. Very best wishes to you all from your very sad Hildy."

      In the summer of 1941 the domestic science school, housed in the building, was dissolved. Shortly after the November deportations Hildegard Cohen, with the remaining children and woman staff of the Paulinen Trust Jewish girls' orphanage, had to move into the boys' orphanage at Papendamm 3. The building at Laufgraben 37 now became the "Jewish Nursing and Old People's Home", under the direction of Julius Gottschalk, until the last of these elderly and frail people were also sent to their deaths - the Gottschalk family with them. At Papendamm 3 distress and crowding prevailed as this building now also had to accommodate elderly people beside the children. In June 1942 they were again forced to make room for others. More than 70 children and their teachers, who had not been evicted from their school building at Carolinenstraße 35 by order of the Hamburg Education Authority, had also to be accommodated. On five weekday mornings they crowded together in the hopelessly congested building to receive makeshift lessons until on 30 June 1942 this "school" was also forbidden by the Nazis.
      Only a few days later the deportation order arrived for Hildegard Cohen, her staff and 14 children of the orphanage, the youngest not yet three years old. In the meantime Hildegard's mother had died. On 10 July 1942 her transport departed to an unknown destination.
      On 9 August 1946, Dr. Berthold Simonsohn, former director of the Northwest German district office of the "Reich Association of the Jews in Germany, wrote in answer to Trude Simonsohn's who after the war had sought in vain for her missing friend:

"I knew Mrs. Hildegard Cohen from Hamburg well. She last led the orphanage in Papendamm. On 10.7.1942 she and the remainder of the orphanage left on a transport allegedly destined for Warsaw. However, it most likely went to Auschwitz and there has been no sign of life from any of the deportees. I last spoke to her, together with the children, at Ludwigslust railway station. She accompanied the children and was very composed. No one suspected their fate."

Excerpts from: Ursula Randt, Die jüdischen Waisenhäuser in Hamburg, in: Ursula Wamser/Wilfried Weinke (eds.), Ehemals in Hamburg zu Hause: Jüdisches Leben am Grindel. Hamburg, 1991.

Alice Gramm (* 06.02.1908)

Alice Gramm, herself having grown up in the Paulinen Trust girls' orphanage, later cared for the youngest children "with great love and sacrifice". On 11 July 1942, Alice Gramm, together with the last children of the orphanage at Papendamm 3, was deported to Auschwitz.

Erwin Kopf (* 18.12.1932)

Letter from 8 April 1940

My beloved Mirjam!
It is also sometimes quite merry at home. On Sabbath the children from the Paulinen Trust come to our house for breakfast, tell us some of their stories, and bring with them the refreshing atmosphere of young children. In particular, Eva's darling little Erwin scrambles up on me and allows himself to be spoilt a little in his need of affection. ...

Letter of the 5.October 1941

Beloved Eva!
..... Not many of our old guests, who used to visit us, remain but the young children from the Paulinen Trust and the boys' orphanage - your little friend Erwin among them - have visited us again. Erwin clings to me like an absent father and could only be separated from the succah under tears. The small band also often comes to our house for breakfast on the Sabbath even when, having moved into the boys' orphanage, the regulations proscribe this....

Excerpt from: Miriam Gillis-Carlebach, Jedes Kind ist mein Einziges. Hamburg, 2000.

Marion Krauthamer (* 18.04.1924)
Manfred Krauthamer (* 11.03.1928)

Marion and Manfred Krauthamer were the children of Chaim and Paja Krauthamer. The family lived at Grindelberg 5 until 1939.
      In July 1939 the family unsuccessfully tried to leave for Argentina. Probably on the assumption that nothing would happen to their 11 and 15 year old children in Germany and probably also in the hope of being able to fetch the children at a later date, the parents emigrated to Belgium in August 1939, in order to escape their immanent arrest. Seeking the protection of a guardian the children Marion and Manfred turned to Arthur Spier, director of the Talmud Tora school, who on 28 August 1939 informed police headquarters. Marion was accommodated in the Paulinen Trust girls' orphanage, Laufgraben 37, and Manfred in the boys' orphanage at Papendamm 3. Inexplicably, when deported Manfred was registered at Kielortallee 22 (Oppenheimer Trust).
      In Belgium the parents fell into the clutches of the Germans and were deported to Auschwitz and murdered there. Marion Krauthamer was deported to Lodz on 25.10.1941 and died there. On 11 July 1942, Manfred Krauthamer, together with many other children of the Papendamm orphanage, made his journey to death. They were all murdered in Auschwitz.

Source: Ursula Randt, "Vergeßt uns nicht", in: Reiner Lehberger/Hans-Peter de Lorent (eds.), "Die Fahne hoch" Schulpolitik und Schulalltag in Hamburg unterm Hakenkreuz, p.325 ff. Hamburg, 1986, and research by Johann-Hinrich Möller in the Hamburg State Archives.

Jacob Fertig (* 16.01.1927)

The name Jacob Fertig, born 1927 in Mannheim, also appears on the deportation list for the transport on 11.07.1942 to Auschwitz, under the address Papendamm 3. However, his name does not appear in the 1995 published Gedenkbuch für die jüdischen Opfer des Nationalsozialismus in Hamburg (Memorial Book for the Hamburg Jewish Victims of National Socialism). It is not known whether Jacob Fertig was murdered in Auschwitz or if he survived the Shoah.
      The Mannheim City Archives inform us that Jacob Fertig lived with his family in Viernheim, in Hessen, between August 1928 and November 1938. He came to Hamburg on 2.06.1940. In October 1940 his mother was deported to Gurs in Southern France and in August 1942 to Auschwitz. She is recorded as missing. His father emigrated to Palestine. The Mannheim City Archives also has no information about the fate of Jacob Fertig.
      However, the Central Database of Shoah Victims' Names contains an entry for Jacob Fertig, born 1927, with reference to Mannheim. The Yad Vashem database refers to an entry in the Memorial Book of the Federal Archives in Koblenz. We must therefore assume that Jacob Fertig began his journey to death from Hamburg and became a victim of the Shoah.

Esther Ascher and Ruth Geistlich - death and survival

The close friends, of the same age, Esther Ascher (* 05.09.1928) and Ruth Geistlich (today: Ruth Dräger) lived in the Paulinen Trust girls' orphanage at Laufgraben 37. In autumn 1941 they, and the other girls remaining at Laufgraben 37after the deportations that autumn, moved into the boys' orphanage at Papendamm 3. At the beginning of July they both received their deportation order for the 11 July 1942 transport to Auschwitz. With the support of a custodian Ruth's grandfather took her away from the orphanage on the eve of her intended deportation. In order to cover up tracks in the home he not only placed her belongings and the suit-case packed for the deportation but also her bedstead and bedding on a hand barrow and hurried home with his 14 year old granddaughter.

      Next day Esther and the other orphans still living at Papendamm 3 made the journey to their deaths. For a short time thereafter Ruth lived with her grandparents in Wexstraße until the Gestapo ordered them to move into a so-called "Jew House" at Bornstraße 22. On 24 March 1943 Ruth was deported to Theresienstadt. Theresienstadt was liberated by the Red Army on 8 May 1945. Ruth Geistlich had survived. She returned to Hamburg and has lived there ever since.