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Martin Magnus * 1870

Steinwegpassage 5 (Hamburg-Mitte, Neustadt)

HIER WOHNTE
MARTIN MAGNUS
JG. 1870
DEPORTIERT 1942
THERESIENSTADT
ERMORDET 1942
TREBLINKA

further stumbling stones in Steinwegpassage 5:
Flora Magnus, Han(n)chen Magnus

Flora Magnus, née Eschwege, born on 4 Nov. 1881 in Hamburg, deported on 15 July 1942 to Theresienstadt, deported further on 21 Sept. 1942 to the Treblinka extermination camp
Hanchen Magnus, born on 15 Dec. 1873 in Hamburg, deported on 6 Dec. 1941 to Riga-Jungfernhof
Martin Mann Magnus, born on 10 June 1870 in Hamburg, deported to Theresienstadt on 15 July 1942, deported further to the Treblinka extermination camp on 21 Sept. 1942.

Steinwegpassage 5

The siblings Martin, Hanchen, and Fanny Magnus were the children of the dairy merchant and subsequent lottery store operator Selig Magnus (born on 7 Sept. 1836) and his wife Cheichen/Eva, née Lazarus (born on 11 Sept. 1839). Martin was the oldest child, born on 10 June 1870. Fanny followed on 12 Dec. 1871, and Hanchen almost exactly two years later, on 15 Dec. 1873. For several years, the Magnus family lived at Bei den Hütten 112 (today Hütten), then moved to Alter Steinweg 71/72. At this address, the parents’ home, Martin registered his first company in 1894, an export agency. In 1905, relocation to Steinwegpassage 5 took place.

The sisters Hanchen and Fanny remained unmarried in the household of their parents, while their brother Martin married Flora Eschwege on 4 Nov. 1908, who happened to celebrate her twenty-seventh birthday on that very day. Flora lived with her widowed mother Bertha Eschwege, née Wetzlar (born on 13 Sept. 1839, died on 12 May 1918), at Caffamacherreihe 53. Her father Sally Joseph Eschwege (born on 9 Oct. 1818) had passed away on 21 Jan. 1901, at the age of 82. He had started a family only late in life. Sally Joseph Eschwege, a cigar manufacturer at Neustädter Neustrasse 91 (today Neustädter Strasse) and choir leader at the Israelite Temple, was a member of the "Cigar Workers’ Association” ("Cigar-Arbeiter-Verein”) in Hamburg from its foundation, and from 1851 until its dissolution in 1890, he assumed its chairmanship. The grandfather, Joseph Moses Eschwege, had already worked as a self-employed cigar worker at Pilatuspool 45.

Flora had two more brothers who were active as merchants. Max Eschwege (born on 20 July 1873, died on 3 Jan. 1926) lived at Hochallee 125 and operated an export and import business at Grosser Burstah 10. Albert Eschwege (born on 21 Jan. 1875) was the owner of the "Abraham Kaatz” paper wholesale company at Amelungstrasse 6, which had been founded by his wife’s first husband, who had died in 1909. In 1932, Albert Eschwege relocated the business to the vicinity of his brother Max’s company, at Grosser Burstah 44.

Flora and Martin Magnus initially lived at Gärtnerstrasse 48 in Eimsbüttel. Their only child, daughter Hertha, was born on 14 Aug. 1909. Two years later, Martin and his family moved back into his mother’s household. His father had died on 6 May 1911 at the age of 74.

In addition to his export agency, Martin Magnus had been running a small metal goods factory in the rear building at Alter Steinweg 61 since 1907, in which his sisters Hanchen and Fanny were also involved. Starting in 1912, the company was called "H. & F. Magnus.” From 1914 to 1919, the Hamburg directories listed Hanchen Magnus as the sole owner, although production had to be discontinued at the beginning of the First World War. Martin, who was not drafted into the military, worked as an assistant clerk in the tax office between 1914 and 1916. After the war, he and his sister Fanny founded a shop for celluloid goods. His wife Flora Magnus also worked in the business. They distributed hair accessories like combs and hairnets. Their customers were hairdressers and drugstore operators whom they supplied in urban and rural areas.
Sister Hanchen Magnus retired, and she received an invalidity pension of 16.60 RM (reichsmark) per month and an enhanced annuity of 110 RM per year following a nervous disease. At that point, she managed the joint household at Steinwegpassage 5. The mother, Eva Magnus, died on 31 Mar. 1922.

In times of inflation and economic crisis, the company made little profit. The Magnus family lived in very modest circumstances. Flora and Martin’s daughter Hertha made a substantial contribution to their livelihood by working as a shorthand typist; they also received welfare benefits. Hertha then started her own household: On 12 Aug. 1932, she married the commercial employee Philipp Falck (born on 9 May 1906), the son of the Jewish couple Felix Falck (born on 16 Mar. 1868, died on 30 June 1932) and Rosa, née Emanuel (born on 9 Aug. 1871, died on 24 May 1937). Their daughter Eva, named after her deceased great-grandmother, was born on 5 June 1934.

Hertha’s parents, Flora and Martin Magnus, got into even greater difficulties when they contracted open tuberculosis. Because of the risk of infection, the sisters Fanny and Hanchen both had to leave the joint apartment. They were accommodated by the Jewish Community in a two-room apartment of the Lazarus-Gumpel-Stift, a residential home at Schlachterstrasse 46/47, house 3. Without her brother, Fanny Magnus could not continue running the company. She tried to make a living for herself and her sister by embroidering, but the few orders were not enough to live on.

The Magnus couple was sent to the Edmundsthal-Siemerswalde pulmonary clinic near Geesthacht. From there, they were discharged home uncured at the end of 1932. Under supervision by the public lung care service (Lungenfürsorge), Martin at least tried to keep the apartment by renting out rooms. They were not allowed to take in younger people and families with children, as the risk of infection was too great. In Apr. 1936, they gave up their apartment and moved to the neighboring Jewish Marcus-Nordheim-Stift, at Schlachterstrasse 40/42, house 2.

Two deaths occurred in the summer of 1939: Daughter Hertha, also suffering from pulmonary tuberculosis, died on 6 Aug. 1939 in St. Georg General Hospital. On 24 September, Martin reported the death of his sister Fanny to the responsible records office. She had died of a lung tumor in the Israelite Hospital at Johnsallee 68.

Her sister Hanchen Magnus had to share the apartment with Alice Holländer (see corresponding entry). Shortly before her sixty-ninth birthday, she was deported to Riga-Jungfernhof on 6 Dec. 1941 with her roommate and 752 other persons. The widowed brother of her sister-in-law Albert Eschwege from Grindelstieg 1 also belonged to this transport. He had not been able to prevent the "Aryanization” of his paper wholesale business in June 1936, as a result of which his wife Paula Eschwege, widowed name Kaatz, née Hirschfeld (born on 7 Feb. 1876 in Teterow), committed suicide with Barbital (Veronal) pills on 26 June 1936.

Martin and Flora Magnus were relocated to the "Jews’ house” ("Judenhaus”) at Kielortallee 22 in the former Oppenheimer Stift in Hamburg-Eimsbüttel. From there they were deported to Theresienstadt on 15 July 1942. With their further transport to the Treblinka extermination camp on 21 Sept. 1942, all traces of them disappeared.

After the death of her mother Hertha, their granddaughter Eva Falck lived at the Jewish orphanage in the Paulinenstift for some time. The father Philipp Falck, after retraining as a male nurse, worked at Parkallee 8, where the married couple Erna and Leo Löw resided. On 8 Nov. 1941, Philipp Falck was deported from Parkallee 8 to the Minsk Ghetto with his second wife Edith, née Roesel (born on 12 Feb. 1900 in Hannover), and daughter Eva. Stumbling stones were laid for them at Parkallee 10.

The names of the Löw couple were on the deportation list to Riga on 6 Dec. 1941 (see Stolpersteine in Hamburg-Eimsbüttel).

Translator: Erwin Fink
Kindly supported by the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung, Hamburg.

Stand: May 2020
© Susanne Rosendahl

Quellen: 1; 3; 4; StaH 351-14 Arbeits- und Sozialfürsorge 1539 (Magnus, Martin); StaH 351-14 Arbeits- und Sozialfürsorge 1543 (Magnus, Hanchen); StaH 351-14 Arbeits- und Sozialfürsorge 1542 (Magnus, Fanny); StaH 351-11 AfW 30610 (Kaatz, Hans-Martin); StaH 351-11 AfW 35041 (Roesel, Irmgard); StaH 332-5 Standesämter 2009 u 5183/1881; StaH 332-5 Standesämter 485 u 120/1901; StaH 332-5 Standesämter 3110 u 704/1908; StaH 332-5 Standesämter 655 u 286/1911; StaH 332-5 Standesämter 853 u 217/1922; StaH 332-5 Standesämter 8164 u 367/1939; StaH 332-5 Standesämter 1110 u 1712/1939; StaH 314-15 OFP, R 1940-1076; StaH 522-1 Jüdische Gemeinden 388 a, Liste der Hamburger Juden ohne Jahr; Bauche: Sally Joseph Eschwege in: Institut für die Geschichte der deutschen Juden (Hrsg.): Das jüdische Hamburg, S. 72f.; Lungenheilanstalt Edmundsthal-Siemerswald s. http://www.geesthacht.de, Leben und Kultur in Geesthacht (Zugriff 7.10.2015).
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