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Deportation Assembly Points.
No. 38 Altonaer Straße/No. 120 Schanzenstraße.
In 1883/84 a twin secondary school, separate for boys and girls, was built in Altonaer Straße,
on public land north of the railway line connecting Hamburg with Altoner, and officially opened
in 1884. In 1886, a gynasium was added, and in 1891 an extention was built.
In the school's register of enrolement between 1884 and 1919 the vast majority of children are
recorded as being of the Protestant, Lutheran faith; and only rarely does the faith Jewish (mosaisch)
appear.
From 1919 onward, as far as records exist, the religion of the children no longer appears.
The Schanzenstraße entrance of the School Altonaer Straße/Schanzenstraße, with inscription,
1982.
A document from 1942 records a shameful incident in the history of the school.
On 2nd April 1942
the former Volksschule No. 105 Schanzenstraße/No. 58 Altonaer Straße, in a letter to the
Hamburg Education Authority,
cited "serious" reasons for not making the planned transfer of the "Judenschule" (Jewish
School) into the classrooms on the third floor of the school. The acknowledged "good" reputation
of the established Mädchenvolksschule (Girl's School) Schanzenstraße would be destroyed should
the Jewish children be accommodated in the school building at No. 105 Schanzenstraße/No. 58
Altonaer Straße. The floor of the building proposed for the Jewish children, and the schoolyard
at No. 58 Altonaer Straße are conspicuously in view of neighbouring families. The school
neighbourhood is not accustomed to Jewish inhabitants. There is only one girl "Mischling zweiten
Grades" ("half-caste grade 2" = one Jewish grandparent, quarter Jewish) in the school. Neighbourhood
provocation and other disagreeable incidents would make unnecessary demands on the already
overburdened staff. The air-raid shelter at No. 105 Schanzenstraße is authorized for only 200
people; an additional 120 Jewish children would cause an unavoidable closeness. In the
Third Reich a proximity between Aryans and Jewish children must be completely avoided. In addition,
in the event of fire, or fire practice, one half of the girl pupils would have to use the same
staircase used by the planned Jewish school at No.58 Altonaer Straße. Furthermore, repairs and
complaints, that would inevitably arise due to the old heating system, would lead to necessarily
"unpleasant" discussions between the head of the Jewish School and the head and caretaker of the
Schanzenstraße School.
In conclusion the school argued that the reasons cited would seriously disturb the quiet
composure of school life and that the deterioration in the accommodation situation would
seriously effect the care and education of the children. For these reasons they urgently requested
a re-examination of the proposed move.
Sternschanze and environs, 1880, detail, showing Schanzenstraße, Altonaer Straße, Louisen
Straße (today Sedanstraße) and Israelite cemetery (Begräbnisplatz der Israeliten) i.e.
Grindel cemetery.
The "judische Schule in Hamburg" was ultimately not transferred to the School Schanzenstraße.
However, only a few months later the School No. 105 Schanzenstraße/No. 58 Altonaer Straße
functioned, on two occasions, as a deportation assembly centre for numerous Jews. This school
was one of the deportation assembly centres in Hamburg where Jews had to appear or were brought
by police or Gestapo van, generally a day
prior to their "Evakuierung" ("evacuation") or "Abwanderung" ("emigration") as it was later officially
known, (the euphemistic terminology used by the Nazis for deportation).
Dr. Max Plaut who since 2.12.1938 had had the sole responsibility for the management of
the affairs of the Jüdische Religionsverband (Jewish Religious Association), names the school in
his report as a "school adjacent Sternschanze station."
Sternschanze and environs, detail, 1930, with the School Schanzenstraße (Sch.) and the
cattle railway station (Vieh Bhf), on the site of the former Central Hotel, with railway lines.
The reports below establish that the school referred to is the School Schanzenstraße/Altonaer
Straße and that this school was an assembly centre for the deportation of Jews on at least two
occasions, namely on 15.07.1942 and 19.07.1942. Both transports went to
Theresienstadt (Polish, Terezin), in Czechoslovakia, formerly in the Protectorate of
Böhmen. The first transport, being the sixth to leave Hamburg, numbered 926 deportees, of whom
881 were later murdered. The second transport, being the seventh to leave Hamburg, numbered
801 deportees, of whom 668 were later murdered. Theresienstadt was designated "Reichsaltersheim
der Reichsvereinigung" ("Reich old peoples home in the Reich Confederacy"). It was possible to
correspond with people in Theresienstadt, and the Jüdische Religionsverband (Jewish Religious
Federation), or the "Bezirksstelle Nordwestdeutschland der Reichsvereinigung der Juden in
Deutschland" ("North-west German regional office of the Reich Confederation of Jews in Germany")
could send food and medicine with each transport. A part of the workshop equipment was also sent
via inland waterways, also two pianos, books, etc.
The people who were deported to Theresienstadt generally had to conclude a "Heimvertrage" (contract
on entering an old peoples' home) with the Reichsvereinigung, and surrender their entire property,
which was administered perpetually for them. The money had to be transferred to a special account,
for example the Bankhaus Bassermann (Bassermann Bankers).
The completion of "Heimvertrage" for "Gemeinschaftsunterbringung" (communal accommodation) were
based on the announcement of 30.06.1942 made by the Reichsvereinigung on instructions
from the "Aufsichtsbehörde" (Gestapo). Following this it was necessary to complete
"Heimeinkaufvertrage" (contract for the purchase of a place in a home) at regional offices of the
Reichsvereinigung or Jewish religious associations, when there were liquid assets involved, which
included securities and shares, that amounted to at least 1,000 RM. The Reichsvereinigung reserved
the right to accommodate people in "any" communal accommodation even outside the "Altreich"
(Germany with its 1937 borders).
The transfer of assets to the Reichsvereinigung was executed "with great haste."
The School Schanzenstraße/Altonaer Straße functioned as a deportation assembly centre at least for the
two large
deportation transports in July 1942, i.e. on 15.07.1942 and 19.07.1942.
From these transports only the following representative number of the greater total are here
recorded:
Only a few of those named survived; the vast majority died in the ghetto of Theresienstadt, or
other concentration camps and death camps.
Deportation Transport on 15.10.1942 destination Theresienstadt:
| Name | Status | Date of Birth
| Place of Birth | Occupation | Address
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| Bari, Magnus | Single | 19.12.1927
| Hamburg | | Steubenweg 36
| | Caro, Rosalie | Single | 15.09.1871
| Hamburg | Waiter | Frickestraße 24
| | de Castro, Dr. Alfonso David | Married | 9.01-1865
| Altona | Doctor | Frickestraße 24
| | Fränkel, Dr. Ernst | Married | 21.08.1872
| Rubnitz | Doctor | Frickestraße 24
| | Glaser, Dr. Friedrich | Married | 12.08.1888
| Hindenburg | Doctor | Großneumarkt 56
| | Josephs, Joachim Clau | Single | 21.01.1925
| Oldenburg | Laboritory Assistant | Beneckestraße 6
| | Leibowitz, Fanny | Widow | 5.01.1869
| Hamburg | Infant Teacher | Sedanstraße 23
| | Lewy, Aron | Single | 3.09.1940
| Hamburg | | Sedanstraße 23
| | Mendel, Dr. Max | Married | 4.07.1864
| Stargard | Doctor | Bogenstraße 25
| | Norden, Dr. Joseph | Widower | 17.06.1870
| Hamburg | Rabbi | Kielortallee 13
| | Regensberg, Margot Ilse | Single | 16.03.1915
| | Infant Teacher | Beneckestraße 6
| | Rosemann, Aron julius | Married | 22.07.1872
| Hamburg | Civil Servant | Dillstraße 15
| | Rosenbaum, Hans | Single | 21.06.1901
| Hamburg | Pediatrician | Johnsallee 68
| | Rudolphi, Dr. Walter Julius Alois | Married
| 27.05.1880 | Hamburg | Oberlandsgerichtsrat
| Oderfelderstraße 21
| | Salinger, Dr. Hugo | Married | 5.04.1866
| Marienwerder | Reichsgerichtsrat | Bogenstraße 25
| | Toczek, Reha | Single | 16.04.1942
| Hamburg | | Beneckestraße 4
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Deportation Transport on 19.10.1942 destination Theresienstadt:
| Name | Status | Date of Birth
| Place of Birth | Occupation | Address
|
| Adam, Dr. Julius | Single | 22.08.1862
| Lissa | Doctor | Kurzerkamp 6
| | Arndt, Dr. Otto Eduard | Widower | 23.02.1870
| Hamburg | Speaker of the Senat | Loehrsweg 2
| | Bachrach, Pauline juliane | Single | 10.02.1917
| Hamburg | Nurse | Rutschbahn 25 a
| | Bloemendal, Alice | Single | 16.02.1974
| Hamburg | School Board, Altona | Sonninstraße 14
| | Bohm, Dr. Hermann | Married | 9.01.1869
| Graudenz | Doctor | Bogenstraße 25
| | Derenberg, Lilly Madeleine | Single | 4.10.1906
| Hamburg | Nurse | Laufgraben 37
| | Gerson, Dr. Herman | Divorsee | 16.05.1895
| Hamm | Landgerichtsrat | Hochallee 75
| | Jonas, Dr. Alberto | Married | 19.02.1889
| Dortmund | Head Teacher | Laufgraben 39
| | Jungmann, Dr. Bertold | Divorsee | 5.11.1868
| Kobylin | Doctor | Heilwigstraße 46
| | Majud, Dr. Hugo Julius | Single | 15.08.1864
| Berlin | Doctor | Frickestraße 24
| | Meier, Dr. Gertrud, née Ahrens | Widow | 4.08.1894
| Dömitz | Doctor | Grindelhof 101
| | Mendel, Max | Married | 19.05.1872
| Hamburg | Senator, Altona | Breitestraße 46
| | Moddel, Ruben | Married | 2.03.1873
| Samter | Civil Servant | Rutschbahn 25 a
| | Nathan, Dr. Nathan Max | Married | 15.07.1879
| Emmerich | Trustee of the Jüdische Religionsverband, Altona
| Breitestraße 46
| | Noafeldt, Amalie | Single | 18.05.1881
| Neumark | Nurse | Johnsallee 68
| | Philip, Fanny | Single | 29.11.1867
| Hamburg | School Board | Steubenweg 36
| | Samson, Martha | Single | 28.08.1880
| Hamburg | Civil Servant | Ostmarkstraße 24
| | Sarason, Dr. Nathan Mendel | Married | 2.08.1862
| Wittkowo | Doctor | Grindelhof 101
| | Simonsohn, Dr. Berthold Alfons | Single | 24.04.1912
| Bernburg | Manager of the Bezirksstelle Nordwestdeutschland der Reichsvereinigung | Jungfrauenthal 37
| | Zacharias, Dr. Max | Widower | 24.11.1863
| Kowno | Doctor | Papendamm 3
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The reports that follow are accounts of the deportation transport on 15.07.194 from the
Volksschule Schanzenstraße/Altonaer Straße to Theresienstadt.
In telephone conversations, in April 1983 and January 1984, Frau R. from Hamburg gives the
following account:
She was able to get her former husband Dr. Walter Julius Rudolphi (former Oberlandesgerichtsrat
in the Oberlandesgericht (OLG), and later a member of the board of the Jüdische Religionsverband
Hamburg) released from "Fuhlesbüttel" concentration camp and prison only after fulfilling two
conditions stipulated by the Gestapo.
The first was that she immediately remarry her former husband Walter
Rudolphi, which she did on 14.07.1942, the second being that they immediately join the group
deportation transport, that departed the day after the wedding. Herr Rudolphi requested that her
parents accompany them, which the Gestapo granted. Frau R's last address was a room with kitchen
on the first floor at No. 70 Heimhuderstraße. Herr Rudolphi lived at No. 21 Oderfeldstraße, from
where he was deported.
On the morning of 15.07.1942 Frau R, with other inhabitants of the house, was driven to the school
in Schanzenstraße in a covered lorry. She was accompanied by her daughter. They were discharged
from the lorry in front of the school. She no longer remembers the school entrance. There was no
large gathering of people in the schoolyard. She does not remember there being arrivals of other
lorries bringing people to the school. This did not occur particularly early in the morning.
They were then taken to a hall (gymnasium). She did not spend the night there.
The gymnasium of the School Altonaer Straße/Schanzenstraße, 1982.
Among the many people present
in the hall she in fact met, among others, her parents Felix and Anna Caroline
Schönfeld, as well as her aunt, Franziska Corten with her daughter Rosi.
After some time other lorries arrived into which they had to enter. She does not remember there
being ill-treatment. As far as she can remember they were driven to Kaltenkirchener station
(today the Niederlassung Briefpost, Hamburg Zentrum Kaltenkirchener 1 = Hamburg Central Letter Sorting
Office). It was said that troops usually embarked from here. They entered normal railway carriages.
She remembers that at least once during the journey the train was coupled, but does not know if
this was, for example, at the Hannoverscher station.
After a long journey they were disembarked before arriving at Theresienstadt. She then had to walk
at least 5km to Theresienstadt carrying the luggage she had been allowed to take.
Kaltenkirchener station.
Later, in October 1944, she and her husband were transported to Auschwitz in a cattle wagon. Here,
her husband was, immediately on arrival, "selected" to be gassed. She can remember precisely how
she, being in the women's queue, had turned round and caught sight of her husband linked in the
arms of two friends, Herbert Kaufmann and Ernst Haas. This turning round had saved her life as at
that moment Dr. Joseph Mengele (the "Angel of Death". Nazi doctor at Auschwitz extermination
camp (1943-45), who directed the operation of the gas chambers and conducted medical experiments
on inmates in pseudoscientific racial studies) waved her from the line and she was flung to the side.
Shortly thereafter she and others had to break the gold from the teeth of gassed victims in front
of the gass chambers of Auschwitz II (Birkenau).
Later, she was deported to Salzwedel via Bergen-Belsen concentration camp and Neuengamme
concentration camp. (Salzwedel: Nazi satellite camp of Neuengamme Concentration Camp situated in
the former town of Salzwedel, south east of Lüneburg. It existed from July 1944 to april 1945.
At the end of March 1945 there remained more than 1,500 female prisoners in the camp. They were
employed in the production of land-mines.) There she suffered terrible experiences working in a
munitions factory, until the American forces liberated the camp.
At the beginning of June 1945 she was brought back to Hamburg by relatives. Frau R's daughter
also survived and now lives in the USA. She corroborates her mother's account of the transport
to and from the school Schanzenstraße.
In telephone conversations, in February 1982 and in March 1984, Frau H. from Hamburg gave
the following account:
Her Jewish mother-in-law, Frau B. H., widow, born 12.09.1867, lived in a flat in Beim Schlump
until the beginning of 1942 when she was forced to move to a two-roomed flat at No. 22 Kielortallee.
Two people, who were total strangers to each other, were forced to live in each of the rooms. Her
mother-in-law had lived there for about three months when she received an order from the Gestapo
to present herself at the School Schanzenstraße. Frau H. helped her 75 year old, petite and
fragile, mother-in-law to pack her rucksack. The elderly woman had fallen over backwards on
testing the weight of the rucksack.
After her mother-in-law had completed the formalities of surrendering the flat, Frau H's husband,
who was not required to wear a Judenstern (Star of David, compulsorily worn as identification)
as he lived
in a "mixed marriage", took his mother to Schanzenstraße. Frau H. had the impression that
practically the entire inhabitants of the house were deported. Frau H's husband
visited his mother in the school Schanzenstraße
on the following day. Without going into details he reported that it had been awful.
Frau H's husband later died on a death march near Buchenwald (concentration camp, 1937-1945,
located on a wooded hill about 7km northwest of Weimar, then in Thuringia, Germany).
Access from Schanzenstraße to the School Altonaer Straße/Schanzenstraße, 1982.
In several telephone conversations, in March 1984, Frau S. from Hamburg gave the following
account:
She had previously lived in Hindenburgstraße in the Hamburg-Alsterdorf district. On 18.07.1942 she
visited her aunt Recha F., née G., born 17.03.1862, and uncle Emil G., born 30.08.1867,
wholesaler, at No. 25 Bogenstraße where they were forced to share a flat with other people. In 1938
they were required to leave their accommodation in the former Moltkestraße (today Bernadottestraße)
in Altona and move into Haynstraße. She herself had been forced to live, for several months, in a
small room in one of the flats on the second floor of this house in Bogenstraße. The room contained
beds, a chest-of-draws, a table and a hotplate, etc. She had helped her aunt, who was to be 80 years
old in March 1943, and her uncle, who would be 75 in August that year, to pack their bedding etc. The
elderly couple were calm and collected. She was not able to accompany them when they were transported
from Bogenstraße. On the evening before the deportation from Schanzenstraße Frau G., who had assisted
her mother and herself with the housework, arrived at No. 25 Bogenstraße with a freshly baked butter
cake that her uncle
liked so much. They had enjoyed the cake perched on dismantled beds, in the midst of open cupboards,
between tied-up bundles of belongings. Perhaps they had had the premonition that this would be the last
pleasure they would experience in their lives.
On the following day Frau G. sneaked into the now empty room. While doing this the Gestapo had
sealed the door. Frau G. pulled out the rolled up Persian rug from under the bed that the elderly
couple had stored following the compulsory evacuation of their former flat. As cautious as a thief
she arrived in her flat in Alsterdorf with her valuable possession without being questioned.
On 19.07.1942, a gloriously sunny day, Frau S. visited her relatives in the school
Schanzenstraße. Her aunt and uncle were accommodated on the second floor of the school. There were
bunk beds installed, normally found in air-raid shelters. She found them calm although sad and
resigned to their fate. She had known they would never return. They were finally required to leave
the school. The staff of the Jüdische Religionsverband, who generally had free access to the
deportation transports, and who were here in numbers to assist the deportees, helped carry the luggage
below. Otherwise, the deportees had to carry their last possessions themselves. In the meantime,
police vans, furnished with benches, had arrived in the schoolyard. She had to witness how the
elderly people were kicked in the back when they were not quick enough in climbing onto the high
backboard of the vans. Frau S. had at that moment thought with there being so many windows, from the
surrounding houses, overlooking the scene there must have been witnesses to the event, and wondered
what they were thinking.
Southside of the School Altonaer Straße/Schanzenstraße, 1984.
They travelled to the Hannöverscher station. (This station was formerly situated south-west
of the Hauptbahnhof (City Railway Station) on the Grasbrook island in the river Elbe in the port,
today Lohseplatz, named after the engineer of the river Elbe bridges. It was originally called
Venloer station and then Pariser station, and finally in 1892 Hannoverscher station. It
was the terminus of the north-south traffic. Today the station is almost forgotten wheras once it
was Hamburg's southern railway terminus. Before the central (city) railway station with through
traffic was built there were three separate, unconnected termini: the Berliner Station, the
Lübecker Station and the Hannöverscher Station (independent Altona had its own Altona Station
terminus). The Hannöverscher Station was built in the shape of a city gate and from 1872 was
an important transit centre for Hamburg. Then the Elbe bridges and the central railway station
(Haubtbahnhof) were built and in 1905 the Hannöverscher Station served only as a goods station.
Perhaps it would have fallen into disuse of its own accord if the Nazis had not chosen this
rather remotely situated station as the departure point for practically all the deportation
transports of Jews in Hamburg to concentration camps and extermination camps. Today what remains
of the building is used by a haulage contractor).
She was taken there, together with staff of the Jüdische
Religionsverband, in a van provided by the Gestapo. Numerous Deutsche Reichsbahn (German Federal
Railways) third class passenger carriages awaited them at the station (there were then four classes).
The station was at that time a freight depot. The scene was filmed, Gestapo personnel, with cameras
slung around their necks, took private photographs of pretty female assistants, scenes of misery
on the platform, or of elderly people close to death being lifted into the carriages on stretchers.
The situation proceeded with relatively little violence. Frau S. bid her relatives farewell. She
and her sister, who was there as a member of the Jüdische Religionsverband, told their aunt and
uncle that everything would be better by Christmas but that they must stick it out until then.
She had said this with a "false" optimism. Uncle Emil answered that she and her sister would not
be able to close their dead eyes. None of them had wept. The deportees were hardly able to wave
goodbye being so tightly packed into the departments of the train.
In Theresienstadt the uncle had cared for his starving sister. He washed her laundry at the pump
in the yard, and cared for her until her death, on 8.11.1942, delivered her from this misery. Two
days later, on 10.11.1942, he took his own life.
Frau S. also records that she also said farewell to Dr. Max Zacharias, theatre doctor in
Hamburg and, among other things, doctor to the Hagenbeck family (owners of Hagenbeck's Zoological
Gardens), until his doctor's practice was expropriated in November 1938.
Hannöverscher Station (opened 1872, initially named Venloer station, then Pariser Station
and, from 1892 Hannöverscher station). It was the deportation station for practically all of the
group deportations from Hamburg. Viewed from the south-east.
Inside view of the Hannöverscher Station, 1931.
The Hannöverscher Station, in 1889, still known as the Venloer Station.
Aerial photograph, 1931, Hannöverscher Station (top right), the sidings from the Hauptbahnhof (left
).
In April 1984, Frau F. from Hamburg recounted the following reliable eye-witness account,
from an individual wishing to remain anonymous:
In 1942, the eye-witness had lived in a house in Altonaer Straße opposite the school. One day, it
must have been a Sunday, as she was a working woman and this occured during the day (then a six day
working week), she observed many lorries that drove out from the school gate in Altonaer Straße.
Her mother had wondered what was to happen to these people.
Frau F. relates that, being a former girl pupil of the school, Schanzenstraße had been a
lively street before the war. It was probable that the transport left the school grounds through
the exit in Altonaer Straße.
Northside of the School Altonaer Straße/Schanzenstraße, with the former insciption
"Eingang für Knaben" (Boys' Entrance) 1984.
Frau B. in a telephone conversation from New York, in February 1984, recounts
her own deportation on 19.07.1942:
She, and her parents, Dr. Marie-Anna Jonas, née Levysohn, born 12.01.1893 in Fischhausen,
Ostpreußen, school doctor, who also taught Biology and Hygiene at the Girls' School in
Carolinenstraße, who died in October 1944, and Dr. Alberto Jonas, born 19.02.1889 in
Dortmund, Head of the Girls' School in Carolinenstraße, and last head of the "Judische Schule in
Hamburg" (Jewish School in Hamburg), who died on 29.08.1942, were collected from their flat at
No. 39 Laufgraben, in the Rotherbaum district of Hamburg, and taken directly to Kaltenkirchener
station. She remembers that Richard Göttsche, Gestapoleitstelle Hamburg (Gestapo Regional
Headquarters) was at the station and that he had talked to her father about Theresienstadt. The 19th
July 1942 was a Sunday. (It is probable that "prominent" Jews were taken directly to the respective
station of deportation).
Altonaer Straße entrance to the School Altonaer Straße/Schanzenstraße. The gymnasium is
in the background with the new extension on the left.
Frau M. from Hamburg recounts in the book "Schulterblatt", page 34:
"And it was a Sunday morning; I was cleaning the shop, it must have been the beginning of
1943; someone called out to me. I looked up and saw them in a lorry. They were being taken to
Kaltenkirchener station. They were loaded onto goods wagons. In Billstrand (today Billbrook)
they were killed by mines. They did not even leave Hamburg."
It is probable that deportees were taken from Schanzenstraße to Kaltenkirchener station as the
journey avoided passing through the city centre. There was a connection to the Hannöverscher
station.
The Kaltenkirchener station, 1962, shortly before its demise.
Frau M. living in Bartelstraße in Hamburg recounts the following in the same book:
"... they arrived in Schanzenstraße, where the school is, beyond the bridge; there
they had to register; it was said that when they volunteered themselves they would be transported
to Poland where they could live, untroubled, in a ghetto" (Theresienstadt).
The Hamburg districts of Eimsbüttel (south) and Altona-North, detail, 1930, with the School
Altonaer Straße/Schanzenstraße (above right) and the Kaltenkirchener station (Bhf)
(above left).
Today's School Altonaer Straße, which remains practically unchanged structurally, was, on
at least two occasions, an assembly centre for the group deportation of Jews.
A memorial plaque, important if only on educational grounds, has yet to appear on, or near, the
school building.
German text: Dipl.-Pol. Wilhelm Mosel, Deutsch-Jüdische Gesellschaft, Hamburg.
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