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Bertha Kaminer, Juni 1941
© StaH

Bertha Kaminer (née Luckmann) * 1885

Englische Planke 6 (Hamburg-Mitte, Neustadt)

HIER WOHNTE
BERTHA KAMINER
GEB. LUCKMANN
JG. 1885
EINGEWIESEN 1928
HEILANSTALT LANGENHORN
DEPORTIERT 1943
THERESIENSTADT
ERMORDET

Bertha Kaminer, née Lückmann (Glickmann), born 25.10.1885 in Dombrawa (today Dąbrowa Górnicza, Poland), admitted to the State Hospital Hamburg-Langenhorn on 3.4.1928, transferred to Berlin on 15.4.1943, deported to Theresienstadt on 15.10.1943, died there in December 1943.

Englische Planke 6 (Neustadt)

The Jewess Bertha Kaminer was deported from the Jewish Hospital in Iranische Straße in Berlin-Wedding to the Theresienstadt Getto on 15 Oct. 1943. Her exact date of death is not known. The few documents available about her give only a fragmentary picture of her life:

Bertha Kaminer was born as Bertha Lückmann or Glickmann on 25 Oct. 1885 in Dombrowa (today Dąbrowa Górnicza in the Silesian Voivodeship in Poland), a small town about 30 km from Katowice. We do not know the names of her parents and have no information about her childhood and youth. It is also unknown when and where she married the 24-year older Jewish merchant Guersch Israel Beirof Kaminer and when and how Bertha Kaminer obtained Brazilian citizenship.

Her husband Guersch Israel Beirof was born on 20 Sept. 1861 in Odessa and died on 6 Jan. 1918 in the Israelite Hospital in Hamburg. The death register entry described his occupation as "merchant". The register of the Jewish cemetery Ilandkoppel in Hamburg-Ohlsdorf lists him as a "junk dealer" and the Hamburg address book from 1909 as a dealer in "Partiewaren", initially at the address Kaiser-Wilhelm-Straße 60, and from 1911 on with the additional residence Englische Planke 6.

Bertha Kaminer was still living as a widow at Englische Planke 6 when she was admitted to the State Hospital Langenhorn (Staatskrankenanstalt Langenhorn) on 3 Apr. 1928 with the diagnosis "schizophrenia". We know neither why she was admitted, nor how her life as a widow had been before.

According to the entries in the Langenhorn patient file, she was said to have "talked a lot", "walked around and was quite disoriented". She was repeatedly described as "hypomanic". (This term refers to a weakened form of mania. It summarises a persistently slightly elevated mood, increased drive, increased activity and, as a rule, a striking feeling of well-being and physical and mental efficiency. The descriptions that can be found on the internet, say: "In most cases, outpatient therapy is sufficient in this case. Often the symptoms of hypomania can be improved with a dose adjustment of the medication already prescribed.")

Neither Bertha Kaminer nor her former husband give any indication of their closeness to Judaism or even a membership of the Jewish Community, so that it can be assumed that their lives were not religiously influenced for many years. Bertha Kaminer only joined the Hamburg Jewish Community on 5 Apr. 1937. The reason for her entry into the community is not known.

Most likely, Bertha Kaminer's non-German citizenship saved her from being murdered, when 136 Jewish patients were transported from Langenhorn to Brandenburg an der Havel on 23 Sept. 1940 and murdered there with carbon monoxide on the same day with one exception. In Bertha Kaminer's patient file, dated 23 Sept. 1940, there are the contradictory entries "Transferred to a dementia institution." and: "Patient will not be transferred. Remains here."

In 1940, the German Reich and Brazil were still on good terms. This also (still) protected Jews with that nationality, but ended in 1942 when Brazil entered the Second World War on the side of the Allies. Brazilian Jews were now Jews of enemy states who were interned. So to speak, Bertha Kaminer was already in a kind of internment in the State Hospital.

The Reich Association of Jews in Germany (Reichsvereinigung der Juden in Deutschland), to which the Hamburg Jewish Community was affiliated, also registered those Jews in the foreigners' census index. This was kept and constantly updated not only for Hamburg, but also for the central registration of Jews in Berlin. Foreign Jews from "enemy states" were exempted from deportation. They should eventually be replaced by Germans living abroad, whereby the home countries were generally not interested in the return of mentally ill citizens.

When there was a large wave of deportations from the Sanatorium and Nursing home Hamburg-Langenhorn to other institutions in 1941, five transports with 205 patients were ordered to the Lüneburg sanatorium and nursing home. Bertha Kaminer was also transferred to Lüneburg with the last transport of 20 patients on 18 July 1941. Here, no medical records were kept on her, but only noted that she wanted to peel potatoes.

On 13 Apr. 1943, Bertha Kaminer was sent back to Langenhorn "completely unchanged". Shortly afterwards, on 15 Apr., the "outwardly calm and orderly sick woman was transferred to Berlin". There, the Jewish Hospital was used as a collection point for "clarification cases" of various kinds, often because of their partly Jewish origin or dissolved mixed marriages or even because of their nationality. There it was decided whether a "clarification case" should be included in the deportations (and where the deportation should go) or not. Bertha Kaminer remained in Berlin for half a year.

In the autumn of 1943, deportations from the Jewish hospital increased, and in October and November especially the mentally ill persons were affected. So, on 15 Oct. 1943, Bertha Kaminer was also deported, namely to the Theresienstadt Ghetto with the 97th old-age transport. According to the deportation list, 19 of the 51 deportees on her transport were "mentally ill", and next to their personal data the handwritten note "foreigner" was added.

Upon arrival in Theresienstadt, the mentally ill suffered a particularly cruel fate: they were not treated there, but immediately locked away in the casemates of the Kavalierskaserne (E VII). The Theresienstadt chronicler H.G. Adler speaks of "hair-raising conditions" there, and the historian Anna Hajkova explains that men and women were locked together in dark, damp, dirty rooms where they starved and received almost no medical care. They were never allowed to leave their prison cells and the mortality rate was correspondingly high.

According to the memorial book of the Federal Archives, Bertha Kaminer died in Theresienstadt in December 1943.

Translation: Elisabeth Wendland

Stand: August 2023
© Ingo Wille

Quellen: 1, 3, 4, 5; Adressbuch Hamburg 1909 bis 1930; StaH 332-5 Standesämter 791 Sterberegister Nr. 11/1918 (Guersch Israél Beirof Kaminer), 352-8/7 Staatskrankenanstalt Langenhorn Abl. 1995/1 Nr. 17320 (Bertha Kaminer); https://digitalcollections.its-arolsen.org/01020401/name/pageview/725590/540484: ITS 802, 806; https://www.statistik-des-holocaust.de/AT97-2.jpg; Böhme, Klaus und Lohalm, Uwe (Hrsg.): Wege in den Tod, Hamburg 1993, S. 490f. Begriff Hypomanie: https://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=hypomanisch+definition&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8 (Zugriff am 1.7.2023); H.G. Adler, Theresienstadt 1941-1945. Das Antlitz einer Zwangsgemeinschaft, Göttingen (Repr. 2. Aufl. 1950), S. 522f.; Anna Hajkova, The last Ghetto. An Everyday History of Theresienstadt, Oxford 2020, S. 141f.
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