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Ilse (links) mit ihrer Schwester Margot Löwenstein
© Privatbesitz

Ilse Löwenstein * 1924

Humboldtstraße 56 (Hamburg-Nord, Barmbek-Süd)

1941 Minsk
ermordet

further stumbling stones in Humboldtstraße 56:
Julius Löwenstein, Martha Löwenstein

Julius Löwenstein, born on 2 Apr. 1881, deported on 8 Nov. 1941 to Minsk and missing there
Marianne Martha Löwenstein, née Bielefeld, born on 13 Aug. 1884, deported on 8 Nov. 1941 to Minsk and missing there
Ilse Löwenstein, born on 21 Sept. 1924, deported on 8 Nov. 1941 to Minsk and missing there

Humboldtstrasse 56

On Baustrasse in the town of Hameln, Julius Löwenstein grew up as the son of the Jewish married couple Moses and Sara. His future wife, Martha, was a native of Hamburg and the daughter of Hermann and Jeanette Bielefeld. Together, they both lived in Hamburg in their apartment at Rutschbahn 25a.

Their first daughter, Margot, was born on 25 Dec. 1914, followed on 21 Sept. 1924 by their second daughter, Ilse. Julius Löwenstein was a trained confectioner, opening his own cake shop with café on Beim Strohhause. However, after a few years, he had to give up this business because it was not profitable. He relocated the operation to Humboldtstrasse 54, where he ran a new, smaller pastry shop. Yet even there, he was unable to hold his own for long. Due to the continuing world economic crisis and the connected rise in unemployment, the customers failed to come. Eventually, Julius Löwenstein closed his business for good on 7 July 1932, living since then on welfare assistance. Though his wife, Martha Löwenstein, was a trained hairdresser, she was unemployed as well.

Nevertheless, daughters Margot and Ilse had a happy childhood during the years of the Weimar Republic. In 1921, Margot was enrolled at school and continued to attend the private school on Johnsallee run by Dr. Löwenberg until she was 13 years old. After that, she went to the Jewish Girls’ School on Carolinenstrasse. At Easter of 1931, Ilse was enrolled at school as well, continuing to attend the eight-grade elementary school (Volksschule) until 1939.

After her schooldays, Margot Löwenstein got an apprenticeship with the Freundlich Company, located at the intersection of Neuer Wall and Poststrasse. There, she was trained as a sales assistant. In 1934, she found a job with the Alsterdamm fashion house, though being dismissed already one year later due to her Jewish faith. Afterward, she did not find any employment anymore and therefore decided to emigrate to the Netherlands. She managed to find accommodation with a Dutch family, whom she helped out in the household in return for room and board.

In 1936, Margot Löwenstein returned to Hamburg because her mother Martha had fallen ill. Margot tried to obtain a work permit, eventually getting permission to perform household work. Thus, until the end of 1938, she was able to help out in the household of the Katzensteins on Grindelallee. At the beginning of 1939, Margot emigrated to Great Britain, where she married Kurt Rosen, a British soldier, living with him in London. That same year, on 17 December, their only child, Dennis Winston, was born.

In Hamburg, Julius Löwenstein had found work as a commissioned traveling salesman starting in 1935. After the Pogrom of November 1938, he obtained a job as a confectioner at Hellmann’s Gaststätten, a restaurant. Nevertheless, his income barely sufficed to support the family.

At Easter of 1939, Ilse Löwenstein left school and strove to obtain a position as an apprentice. Since she was Jewish, no employer would give her a position as an apprentice. Eventually, in May 1940, she found a job as a laborer, which she carried out until her deportation.

During their last years in Hamburg, the Löwenstein family, like many other Jewish families, was forced to move frequently. Their last address was located at Grindelallee 21, where the deportation order for 8 Nov. 1941 was sent as well. On that day, Julius, Martha, and Ilse Löwenstein were deported to the ghetto in Minsk and they have been considered missing ever since. Margot Löwenstein was the only family member to survive the Holocaust. She passed away in a London hospital on 25 Dec. 1957.


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

Stand: March 2017
© Carmen Smiatacz

Quellen: 1; 4; 5; 8; StaHH 314-15, OFP, Abl. 1998, J 2/539; StaHH 351-11, AfW, Abl. 2008/1, 25.12.14 Rosen, Margot.
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