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Recha Lübke * 1880

Isestraße 21 (Eimsbüttel, Harvestehude)

1942 Theresienstadt
weiterdeportiert 1944 ???

further stumbling stones in Isestraße 21:
Magda Levy, Sabine Levy, Carl Richard Sohn, Martha Sohn, Vilma Lore Sohn, Elsa Sprei, Mary Stern, Julchen Tobias, Julia Weber

Recha Lübke, born 6.3.1880, deported to Theresienstadt on 19.7.1942, deported to Auschwitz on 9.10.1944 and murdered there

Isestraße 21 (Eimsbüttel, Harvestehude)
Rosenallee 11 Schule (Hamburg-Mitte, Hammerbrook)

Hermann J. Mayer had the Stolperstein for his aunt laid. He wrote: "My sel. mother Hedwig Mayer-Luebke came from Hamburg. She unfortunately died in Berlin already in 1923, when I was 8 years old ... After her death I grew up for 2 years (until my father remarried) with my aunt RECHA LUEBKE and attended the Talmud Torah School. We lived at Isestraße 21 ..." Recha Lübke's widowed mother also lived there at that time.

Recha Lübke was a teacher. From 1901 to 1934 she belonged to the college of the public girls' school Rosenallee 11. In the middle of World War I, she was offered a position as head of a Jewish orphanage. For this, the principal of her school, A. Pfau, wrote her a certificate:

"Miss Recha Lübke has been working at the elementary school for girls Rosenallee 11 since October 1, 1901. During this time she has always distinguished herself by her devotion to duty. In her 16 years of service, she has not missed a single class. Punctual and well prepared, she has always been on the spot and has always done all the work assigned to her willingly and to the greatest satisfaction. In addition, she has been a successful teacher and educator. Miss Lübke has had her present group of children, 12-13 year old girls, under her care since they started school, and I must admit that the class not only excels and stands out in writing, German, arithmetic and handicrafts, but also in their appearance, manner and behavior. I would especially like to point out Miss Lübke's ability and inclination to set up new things and to arrange them clearly. Since the beginning of the war, the school lunchroom set up here has been under her management, and Miss Lübke is at her post every day and everything goes on without a hitch. Miss Lübke is one of the teachers who have given the school its character."

Recha Lübke was awarded a Cross of Merit for her special service to the homeland during the First World War.

Just as she was involved in the school and took care of her little nephew as a matter of course, Recha Lübke was also involved in the Jewish community. She was a member of the representative college of the Hamburg Jewish and was elected to the youth office in March 1921.

Perhaps her distinction in World War I in 1933 saved her from immediate dismissal. But on June 30, 1934, at the age of 54, she was dismissed under Section 6 of the Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service. Once again she received an excellent report: "Mrs. Lübke has taught with good success at all levels during these [33 years of service]. And repeatedly conducted classes from 8th to 1st grade ... For about 25 years she devoted herself with special interest to the recreational care of our schoolgirls; she also directed the milk feeding. In addition to her teaching activities, Mrs. L. devoted herself with particular success to the education of her pupils, kept them in strict discipline and was always very concerned about their advancement, even beyond their school years."

Jörn Hass, whose mother, Ella Teves, was a student of Recha Lübke from 1911 to 1919, reports that his mother kept the memory of the beloved and revered teacher alive until the end of her life.

The later National Socialist school senator Karl Julius Witt had been her colleague in Rosenallee for twelve years. She hoped for his help when she attempted to emigrate to Palestine in 1939. This could only succeed if it was ensured that her pension was transferred to the British Mandate territory and her livelihood was thus secured. At the end of July 1939, a corresponding arrangement was in the offing. However, Recha Lübke still needed time to liquidate her apartment and organize the move. In the meantime, the Second World War began and immigration to British territory was no longer an option.

Since her dismissal from the school service, she cared for the elderly residents of the women's dormitory of the Jewish Humanitarian Women’s Club (Israelitischer Humanitären Frauenverein) in Innocentiastraße. This continued to be her main task. She referred to herself as the "vice" of the home. When the home had to be forcibly abandoned in February 1942, she was held responsible for the proper handover of the house.

The deportation order to Theresienstadt reached her at Kleiner Schäferkamp 32 on July 19, 1942, so she had previously had to move from Isestraße to a "Judenhaus." From there she was deported to Theresienstadt.

From Theresienstadt she reported that she had a post in the "sick card index" despite her 64 years. She also sent greetings to the Anker family on this card. Otto Anker lived with his non-Jewish wife and her sister on the first floor of Isestraße 21. He and Inge Pein, child of a mixed marriage, are the only "non-Aryans" of whom we know that they were not deported from Isestraße and experienced the end of the war in their own home.

Recha Lübke was further deported to Auschwitz on October 19, 1944 and murdered there.

A second Stolperstein for Recha Lübke is located in front of the Rosenallee school.

Translatipn by Beate Meyer
Stand: January 2022
© Christa Fladhammer

Quellen: 1; 2; Hermann J. Mayer, Jerusalem, an Peter Hess, 17.6.2004; StaH, 522-1, 992 q Gemeindegrundstücke 43: Innocentiastraße 19/21 und Abl.1993, Ordner 15: Postkarten aus Theresienstadt; Ina Lorenz, Die Juden in Hamburg zur Zeit der Weimarer Republik, Hamburg 1987; Der lachende Drache, Stadt­teilzeitung für St. Georg, 21. Jg. Nr. 212, 5/2007 S. 8; Wilhelm Mosel, www.uni-uni-hamburg.de/rz3a035; mündliche Auskunft von Jörn Hass, Hamburg, am 19.8.2009.
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