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Louisenweg 27 um 1920
© Stadtteilarchiv Hamm

Siegmund Steindler * 1889

Luisenweg 27 (Hamburg-Mitte, Hamm)

1943 Majdanek
ermordet
zuvor:
Flucht Frankreich
deportiert aus Drancy

Siegmund Steindler, born 3.8.1889, 1934 escape to Bohemia, 1938 escape to France, 1939 interned in Gurs, 1941 forced labor camp Casseneuil/Garonne, February 1943 camp Drancy, deported to Majdanek on 4.3.1943

School Pröbenweg/Parking lot entrance Luisenweg (formerly Luisenweg 27)

Siegmund Steindler's roots were in Bohemia on his father's side and in Hamburg on his mother's side. He was the second oldest of five children born in Hamburg between 1888 and 1893.

His father, Julius Steindler, was born on Jan. 6, 1862, in the small town of Münchengrätz, now Mnichovo Hradiště, in the Czech Republic. At that time the town was Austrian, in 1866 it became Prussian. Julius' twelve years younger brother Jakob Steindler was born on Sept. 11, 1874 in Komotau, an up-rising town further west, where their father Maximilian Steindler was a merchant. Little is known about the sisters Auguste and Jenny.

Julius Steindler moved to Hamburg in the mid-1880s, while his parents, Maximilian Steindler and Henriette, née Fischl, remained in Bohemia until their deaths. His father died in 1902 in Karlsbad, while his mother continued to live in Leitmeritz. Jacob Steindler followed Julius to Hamburg, where he took up permanent residence from 1895.

Before Julius Steindler settled permanently in Altona/Ottensen, he pursued various activities as a merchant. In 1888, he founded a factory for roofing felt and chemical-technical products at Holstentwiete 90/92, establishing a family business. His brother Jacob completed his commercial apprenticeship with him.

In 1887, Julius Steindler married Rosa Horwitz, born June 21, 1865 in Hamburg, daughter of the lottery collector Wulff Horwitz and his wife Bertha, née Bieber, from Lübeck. On Aug. 8, 1888 the first son, Maximilian, was born. One year later, on March 8, 1889, Siegmund was born, followed by Hermann on Nov. 21, 1890. The only daughter, Susanna, was born on Dec. 31, 1891, finally the youngest son Adolf Eduard, born Jan. 6, 1893.

On May 1, 1891, Julius Steindler was naturalized in Hamburg with his wife Rosa and sons Maximilian, Siegmund and Hermann. In addition to his business property, he owned an adjoining small plot of land in Altona, but lived in Hamburg and belonged to the German-Israelite community there.

Jacob Steindler did not join the company of his brother Siegmund, but founded his own company, A. Jontorf-Hutter & Co. together with his sister Auguste, who lived in Strasbourg in Alsace. It was a distributor of roofing felt and tar products, mainly from the brother's company. Auguste left after only eight months, Jacob remained sole proprietor and ran his business from his apartment at Grindelberg 78.

In 1902, Jacob Steindler married Bettina Westheimer, a stenotypist born in Hamburg on July 5, 1876. On Oct. 2, 1903 their daughter Anni was born, on Febr. 5, 1906 their son Ferdinand. The youngest son Eduard died when only 19 months.

On May 31, 1907 Jacob Steindler and his family were also granted citizenship. His "admission into the Hamburg State Union" had been delayed because of the Prussian provision that "Jews are only to be naturalized if very special circumstances speak for the approval of the naturalization application", which did not apply here. His mother's brother, Martin Horwitz, and his brother Julius vouched for him. The fact that the latter's application for naturalization had already been successful in 1891 now decided in his favour. The Austrian passport was withdrawn.

Maximilian, Siegmund, Hermann and Adolf Eduard Steindler became merchants like their father, the two older sons were working in his business. Hermann founded his own import and export company, but remained connected to his father's company through his banking business. He moved to Barcelona in 1911 and returned to Hamburg ten years later.

Maximilian, Siegmund and Adolf Eduard survived World War I as front-line fighters, but Adolf Eduard died of Spanish flu on October 27, 1918. He was buried in the Jewish Cemetery in Ohlsdorf, like his grandparents Wulff and Bertha Horwitz before him. They had died within a year of each other (March 14, 1912 and Febr. 17, 1913) and were buried together in the Jewish Cemetery in Ohlsdorf.

Julius and Jacob Steindler managed to lead their companies successfully through the First World War and then also through the inflationary period.

Hermann Steindler joined the German-Israelite community and was assessed to pay the Jewish community tax. He paid a contribution only once before moving away again. On his tax card, Morocco is noted as his destination. When and where he married is not known. His wife Agnes, née Broll, was Catholic and came from Kattowitz in Upper Silesia. Their son Hans Adolf was born on Oct. 29, 1927 in Ceuta in Morocco.

After his return to Hamburg, he worked as a clerk in the family business in Holstentwiete in Altona.

The Steindler siblings who remained in Hamburg gradually moved out of their home at Barcastraße 8 in Hohenfelde: Susanna married Erich Keibel (born Aug. 3, 1880), a dentist with a doctorate, and already had two children (Gertrud, born Apr. 4, 1914, and Max, born Nov. 9, 1915) when her oldest brother, Maximilian, married Käthe Laski, born June 20, 1893, in Hamburg, on Sept. 21, 1919. They remained childless, as did Siegmund. He married Maria Komorowski, born April 20, 1896 in Bogatzkowolla near Lötzen/OPr. (today Bogacko near Giżycko, Warmia-Masuria Voivodeship) on October 10, 1926. She converted to Judaism when she married and never gave it up.

Records of issued passports show extensive travel by the brothers Julius and Jacob, and from 1910 also Maximilian, some accompanied by their wives. The trips ranged to Russia, Denmark, Czechoslovakia, Austria and Spain. Siegmund Steindler first received a passport without restriction of validity in 1921, and his wife Maria in 1927. The personal descriptions in the passports characterize the holders as of medium height with oval faces, gray eyes, dark brown, later mottled gray hair, of stocky build, with no special distinguishing marks. Only Maria Steindler's hair is described as dark blond.

As can be seen from the tax records of the Jewish Community, all members of the company had a good income, at times all had the same income.

Despite the Great Depression, the company owners Julius, Maximilian and Siegmund Steindler had made profits, but went bankrupt around 1932. A loan of RM 30,000 from Commerz- und Privatbank was supposed to avert it, but, as they were Jews, it was cancelled after the handover of power to Hitler in 1933.

Faced with the loss of their livelihood, the family association dissolved. Julius Steindler was the most directly affected. He suffered a fatal heart attack on the eve of the boycott of Jewish stores on April 1, 1933, and was buried in a double grave at the Jewish Cemetery in Ohlsdorf, where his wife Rosa also found her final resting place four years later.

Maximilian immigrated to Sweden with his wife Käthe. He died there on October 18, 1937. We know nothing about the fate of his widow.

On August 5, 1933, Jakob Steindler's son Ferdinand, the court assessor Ferdinand Steindler, immigrated to London, where he made a living as an interpreter, teacher and merchant. His mother Bettina Steindler and sister Anni followed him in 1937, in May 1938 also his father Jacob. He was active in the Refugees' Committee for welfare issues of Jewish refugees.

While one part of the family turned to Western Europe, the other returned to Bohemia. In November 1933, Hermann and his wife Agnes Steindler moved to Aussig in what was then Czechoslovakia with their son Hans Adolf, who was not yet of school age, in order to gain a livelihood producing insulating materials.

After the forced sale of the company and the land (except for a remaining part) in 1934, Siegmund and Maria Steindler also fled in the direction of Bohemia. In 1935 they found shelter with Siegmund's brother Hermann and his family. Since Siegmund did not have a work permit, he and his wife were expelled in 1936. Next, they tried to create a new livelihood in Maribor in Yugoslavia, but they did not receive a work permit there either and lived from selling Maria Steindler's jewellery.

After a year, they were expelled from there as well and moved to Trieste, where they lived for eight months without a residence permit. They managed to get a visa for Bolivia. When they wanted to emigrate there via France, however, it turned out in November 1938 that the visa was invalid.

In the meantime, before the occupation of the Sudetenland by the German Wehrmacht, Hermann Steindler had left Aussig with his family, moved to Prague and on to Beraun. From there he pursued his emigration and obtained a visa for England from a Jewish aid organization. When the Germans occupied Prague in March 1939, the Gestapo also searched the premises of this organization and confiscated the visa. Thanks to the help of Jakob Steindler, Agnes Steindler succeeded in sending her son Adolf Eduard to England on a "Kindertransport” in April 1939. Jakob Steindler's sister Jenny, who lived in Prague, committed suicide together with her husband.

Hermann Steindler feared his arrest and fled to Poland, first to Krakow and, at the outbreak of the German-Polish war in September 1939, on to Lwów/Lemberg in Poland. In December 1939 he informed his uncle Jakob in London by mail about his stay in Lemberg and his fate. Lwów became Soviet-Ukrainian in 1940 due to the Hitler-Stalin Pact. Thus Hermann Steindler's trace is lost. (see www.stolpersteine-hamburg.de)

Since in Hamburg the former owners of Steindler & Co. could not be found, a house and land broker was hired to handle the sale of the plot that had been overlooked during the forced auction of the company's premises. With the approval of the sale on September 12, 1939, the company ceased to exist after 50 years of existence.

Siegmund Steindler initially received neither a residence nor a work permit in France, until the Grand Rabbi of Bordeaux helped him to obtain a residence permit in Agen. Nevertheless, on April 15, 1940, he was interned in the camp of Gurs/Pyrenees, while his wife remained in Agen. From August 8 to 30, 1941, they were forced to perform hard physical labour without pay in agriculture in Beaugas. Siegmund Steindler then was transferred to the labour camp for foreigners in Casseneuil, where he remained until his next transfer to Noé on February 20, 1943. On March 4, 1943, his period of internment in southern France in these little-known camps of the Lot-et-Garonne department came to an end.

His widow recalled that he had been deported by the Gestapo to Germany to a concentration camp with an unknown destination. According to the memorial book of the Federal Archives, he was deported to the transit camp Drancy and from there to Majdanek near Lublin. The date of his death is considered to be the day of his removal from the Noé labor camp.

Maria Steindler continued to perform heavy agricultural work until the end of the occupation of France in Beaugas, and remained in the south of France in Cancon even after that. From there she returned to Germany and finally to Hamburg in August 1945.

Hermann Steindler was declared dead in 1951 on May 8, 1945.

Stand: March 2022
© Hildegard Thevs

Quellen: 1, 2 R 1939/2982, 4, 5; StaHH 213-13, 5962, 5963, 23626; 314-15_FVg 4667, R 1939/2982; Bürgerregister 1876-1896, A l e 40, Band 10, 18112; 332-7, A III 21 Bd.8 Nr. 37691; B III 84857; 332-8 A 24 Band 396; 351-11, 2352, 10217, 13794, 39458; 424-111 6010, 7160; 522-1 391; JFFH; https://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/jorf/id/JORFARTI000037311742?init=true&page=1&query=Steindler+Siegmund&searchField=ALL&tab_selection=all; https://www.gedenkorte-europa.eu/content/list/63/; https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schloss_Mnichovo_Hradi%C5%A1t%C4%9B; Mitteilungen von Angehörigen Nov. 2021.
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