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Emilie Mayer (née Fackenheim) * 1851

Conventstraße 27 (Wandsbek, Eilbek)

HIER WOHNTE
EMILIE MAYER
GEB. FACKENHEIM
JG. 1851
DEPORTIERT 1943
THERESIENSTADT
ERMORDET 3.8.1943

further stumbling stones in Conventstraße 27:
Irmgard Hrabe, Ernst Mayer

Emilie Recha Mayer, née Fackenheim, born on 10 Nov. 1851 in Dillich/northern Hesse, deported on 23 June 1943 to Theresienstadt, perished there on 3 Aug. 1943
Ernst Mayer, born on 12 Aug. 1878 in Gladbach (today: Mönchengladbach), deported on 8 Nov. 1941 to Minsk

Conventstrasse 27

Emilie Mayer was the daughter of the Rabbi Michael (Michel) Fackenheim and his wife Marianne Fackenheim, née Israel, who had married in 1848. Their daughter, Emilie Fackenheim, was born on 10 Nov. 1851 in Dillich in what is today northern Hesse. Three siblings of hers are known: the brothers Julius, born in 1863, and Carl, born in 1872, as well as sister Anna (date of birth unknown).

In Oct. 1877, Emilie Fackenheim married Gustav Gabriel Mayer, almost four years her senior and born on 19 June 1855 in the Westphalian town of Hagen. He too came from a Jewish family. Ten months after their wedding, Ernst Mayer was born in Gladbach (today Mönchengladbach) on 12 Aug. 1878. Ernst Mayer had three siblings: Alexander, born in 1879 also in Mönchengladbach, Susanne, born in Freiburg in 1885, and Friedrich Fritz, born also in Freiburg in 1888. Ernst subsequently attended the Polytechnic in Strasbourg.

In about 1920, the couple Emilie and Gustav Mayer moved with their son Ernst to Hamburg, where their youngest son Friedrich lived already. The second youngest son, Alexander, lived in Frankfurt/Main. In 1909, daughter Susanne married the actor Paul Thomas in Freiburg, emigrating with him to Buenos Aires in 1934.

Few details are documented about the circumstances of the Mayer family in Hamburg. The Jewish religious tax (Kultussteuer) file card of the Jewish Community indicates as Gustav Mayer’s occupation "accountant in importing and exporting.” The couple had lived in the Uhlenhorst quarter at Papenhuderstrasse 48 for more than ten years, before moving in with their youngest son Friedrich at Conventstrasse 27 in Hamburg-Eilbek in Aug. 1935. Probably in 1939, Friedrich Mayer moved in with his brother Alexander in Frankfurt.

Ernst Mayer, an electrical engineer by profession, was assessed for Jewish religious tax by the Jewish Community for the first time in 1931, but no tax amount was set. Likely his income was low. Ernst Mayer was married to Stefanie, née Steindl, who was a member of the Catholic faith. The couple resided outside of Hamburg. The childless marriage was later divorced. After separating from his wife, Ernst Mayer moved in with his parents on Conventstrasse.

The Hamburg directory lists this address as late as the 1942 edition.

In 1939, Ernst Mayer’s father fell seriously ill. He was a patient in what was then "Psychiatric and Mental Hospital of the Hanseatic University” ("Psychiatrische und Nervenklinik der Hansischen Universität”), today’s Schön Clinic in Hamburg Eilbek at the Friedrichsberg suburban train station. He died there on 28 Dec 1939 at the age of 84.

Ernst Mayer was deported to Minsk on 8 Nov. 1941. Until the very end, he lived together with his mother Emilie Mayer in the ground-floor apartment on Conventstrasse 27.

The Hamburgische Elektricitäts-Werke (the Hamburg public utility company), too, were involved in the processing of the deportation events. Concerned about payment of outstanding electricity costs at Conventstrasse 27 and in other apartments of deportees, in a letter dated 28 Mar. 1942, the company demanded from the Hamburg-Dammtor Tax Office, Administration Authority for Jewish Assets, payments for electricity used by Jews "evacuated recently.” For Ernst Mayer, the utility company asked for 17.32 RM (reichsmark).

When Ernst Mayer received his deportation order, worried about the subsequent fate of his nearly 90-year-old mother, he took time to obtain for her assisted living accommodation. One day before the deportation of her son, Emilie Mayer moved to the Nordheimstift I, a Jewish retirement home at the Schlachterstrasse 40/42 (today: Grossneumarkt).

After the deportation of her son, Emilie Mayer was left to her own devices in Hamburg. However, there must have been good contacts at least to Frankfurt-based son Friedrich, who supported her in addition to her retirement pension of only 29.90 RM. On 16 Nov. 1941, Friedrich Mayer wrote to the Jewish Religious Organization (Jüdischer Religionsverband):
"I would like to thank you for sending the address of our beloved mother, Mrs. Emilie Mayer! Our beloved mother very much misses a few of the items left behind in the apartment, including a woolen blanket, a few pieces of laundry, and also a few jars of homemade jam! Therefore, I would like to ask you to request from the responsible authority that these items be handed over to our beloved mother! I believe for certain that a 90-year-old woman will be granted this wish. I would be grateful if you were to contact our beloved mother, currently residing in the building Nordheimstift I, so as to notify her in case the application is approved. [...]."

Starting in Apr. 1942, in Hamburg all "bearers of Jews’ stars” not deported yet were committed to "Jews’ houses” ("Judenhäuser”). Emilie Mayer was affected by this measure as well. On 22 Mar. 1943, she was quartered in the premises of the former German-Israelitic Community at Beneckestrasse 6. On the day of the move, Emilie Mayer sustained a femoral neck fracture. She was admitted to the German-Israelite Hospital at Schäferkampsallee 29. The hospital reckoned with ten weeks for the duration of treatment. Only three months after her admission, she was deported on 23 June 1943, at the age of 91, from Beneckestrasse 6 to Theresienstadt. She died there 39 days later, on 2 Aug. 1943.

Emilie Mayer not only had to witness the deportation of her son Ernst in Nov. 1941. Possibly, she also learned about the deportation of her son Alexander in 1942. He was murdered in Auschwitz on 17 Jan. 1943. The third son, Friedrich, initially fled to an unknown destination, but he was apprehended and also deported to Auschwitz in 1943. He was murdered there on 25 Aug. 1943.


Translator: Erwin Fink

Kindly supported by the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung, Hamburg.

Stand: October 2017
© Ingo Wille

Quellen: 1; 3; 4; 5; 7; 9; AB; StaH 314-15 OFP Oberfinanzpräsident 29 (HEW); 351-11 Amt für Wiedergutmachung 35652, 522-1 Jüdische Gemeinden 922 e 2 Deportationslisten, 992 n Fürsorgeakten der Jüdischen Gemeinden Band 25; Stadtarchiv Freiburg; Stadtarchiv Mönchengladbach; http://www.geni.com/ people/Mariane-Fackenheim/6000000014569670394, http://www.geni.com/people/Michael-Fackenheim/6000000014569601550 (Zugriffe am 27.8.2012).
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