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Edith Sandner * 1919

Großneumarkt 38 (vormals Schlachterstraße) (Hamburg-Mitte, Neustadt)

HIER WOHNTE
EDITH SANDNER
JG. 1919
SEIT 1934 AUFENTHALT
IN VERSCHIEDENEN
HEILANSTALTEN
DEPORTIERT 1943
THERESIENSTADT
ERMORDET 22.3.1944

Edith Sandner, born 23 Nov. 1919 in Hamburg, committed 12 July 1934 to the then Alsterdorf Asylum, moved 18 Sept. 1940 to Langenhorn Mental and Nursing Home, deported 15 Oct. 1943 via Berlin to Theresienstadt where she died on 22 Mar. 1944

Großneumarkt 38 (Schlachterstraße 46/47)

Edith Sandner’s father, the master tailor Anton Karl Sandner (born 3 Sept. 1887), was a native of Sossen in "German Bohemia”, born to a Catholic, Sudeten German family. Until the end of World War I, the village belonged to the Austro-Hungarian Empire. (Today Soseň is a district of Jesenice in the Czech Republic.)

Shortly before the birth of his daughter, Anton Sandner converted to Judaism and married the seamstress Röschen Oppenheim (born 8 May 1891) on 19 Aug. 1919, the eldest daughter of the Jewish merchant Manasse (Martin) Oppenheim (born 13 Mar. 1856) and his second wife Rahel, née Steinfeld (born 7 Feb. 1863). The couple lived at Neuen Steinweg 73 when their daughter was born. They would move several times before an apartment became available for them at the Samuel Levy Foundation at Bundesstraße 35a in 1916.

After their wedding, Anton and Röschen Sandner moved to Bundesstraße 18, where they opened a tailoring and dressmaking shop in the basement. Edith was born on 23 Nov. 1919. A second child, their daughter Ilse, was born on 15 Oct. 1922 and died as a toddler on 28 May 1925 of "sudden cardiac death” at Bethanien Hospital at Martinistraße 46. A further misfortune happened that same year. At the age of six, Edith sustained a skull fracture. As a result of the serious head injury, the right side of her skullcap had to be removed. She survived but suffered from epileptic seizures afterwards, which worsened over time.

According to documents of the regional education administration, Edith was admitted to the "lowest grade of elementary school” of the Israelite Daughters School on Carolinenstraße in Apr. 1926. At the age of 14, on 12 July 1934, Edith was admitted to the then Alsterdorf Asylum (today Alsterdorf Evangelical Foundation). Evidently her mother Röschen Sandner was no longer able to take adequate care of her daughter. The two of them had lived at the Jewish Lazarus-Gumpel Foundation at Schlachterstraße 46/47, Building 5 since 1932 and received support payments from the welfare office. When her daughter was committed to Alsterdorf, Röschen Sandner noted in the admission record that she did not know where Edith’s father was living at the time.

According to the Hamburg address book, Anton Sandner lived in the district of Barmbek at Harzenweg 18 from 1929 to 1931, then at Hamburger Straße 23. The couple was divorced on 7 July 1937. Afterwards, Anton Sandner left the German-Israelite Community.

After her admission, Edith stayed at Alsterdorf for the next four years. On 31 Oct. 1938 she and fourteen other Jewish patients were transferred to the state care facility on Oberaltenallee. The director of the Alsterdorf Asylum, Pastor Friedrich Lensch, had previously written to the healthcare authority, asking for the immediate transfer of his "Jewish wards”, "who we can no longer house in our asylum if we are to keep our accreditation as a charitable institution.”

Edith was taken to Langenhorn Mental and Nursing Home on 18 Sept. 1940. Apart from Edith, all of the other Jewish patients were taken away to the former prison of the city Brandenburg on the River Havel five days later where they were killed with poison gas on the day of their arrival. Apparently Edith was initially protected to a certain extent by her status as a "half-breed of the first degree”. She was cared for at Langenhorn Mental and Nursing Home for nearly three more years.

In her patient file there, the first entry dated 21 Sept. 1940 describes her as calm and orderly patient, oriented in time and place, always friendly, who liked to chat with the nurses. When she was in a good mood, she passed the time copying down poems. Although her left arm and hand were "unusable” and she needed help walking, Edith took care of herself. She wore head protection and was administered the sedative Luminal since she had epileptic seizures nearly every day.

A religion tax card was not created for Edith Sandner until relatively late. A note on it states, "not a member of the Reich Association of Jews in Germany”, whose district office was the Jewish Religious Association in Hamburg – as the former Jewish Community was renamed in July 1939. That note, like the one on her mother’s religion tax card, was struck through when she was forced to join the Reich Association by law. The additional note "Czechia” meant that Edith was a Czech citizen because her father was born in Bohemia and therefore did not have to take on the additional name "Sara” that was forced upon German Jews.

Edith was discharged from Langenhorn Mental and Nursing Home on 7 Apr. 1943 as "not cured”. She was taken to Berlin and admitted to the last medical facility for Jewish patients, Israelite Hospital on Iranische Straße. On 15 Oct. 1943, Edith Sandner was deported along with 53 other individuals from Berlin to the Theresienstadt Ghetto. She may have been reunited with her mother there once again as Röschen Sandner had been deported from Rutschbahn 25a in Hamburg to Theresienstadt a few months prior on 23 June 1943.

Edith Sandner died on 22 Mar. 1944, probably due to malnourishment and poor medical care, at the age of 24.

Her mother was liberated from Theresienstadt by Soviet troops on 8 May 1945. Röschen Sandner passed away in Hanover on 23 Nov. 1972.

There was no return for her brother Friedrich (Fritz) Oppenheim (born 1 Sept. 1896), his wife Irma, née Stöhlker (born 12 Aug. 1903), or their son Hermann (born 26 Nov. 1927). They were killed in Minsk (see Rosa Weinberg).

Translator: Suzanne von Engelhardt
Kindly supported by the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung, Hamburg.

Stand: June 2020
© Susanne Rosendahl

Quellen: 1; 3; 4; StaH 351-11 AfW 18076 (Oppenheim, Friedrich); StaH 332-5 Standesämter 2255 u 1969/1891; StaH 332-5 Standesämter 2405 u 3008/1896; StaH 332-5 Standesämter 8729 u 404/1919; StaH 332-5 Standesämter 9814 u 1037/1925; StaH 352-5 Todesbescheinigung 1925, St. 3a 1037; StaH 352-8/7 Staatskrankenanstalt Langenhorn Abl. 2/1995, 183; 352-8-7 Staatskrankenanstalt Langenhorn Abl. 1-1995, 27796; StaH 522-1 Jüdische Gemeinde Abl. 1993/01 A41; StaH 361-2 II Abl. 01/07, 331; Ebbinghaus/Kaupen-Haas/Roth: Heilen, S. 63 (Dokumente II); Meyer: "Jüdische Mischlinge"; Silver: Überleben; diverse Hamburger Adressbücher.
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