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Marianne Landau * 1909

Isestraße 3 (Eimsbüttel, Harvestehude)

1942 Auschwitz
ermordet

further stumbling stones in Isestraße 3:
Alfred Landau, Henriette Landau

Alfred Landau, born 16 Dec 1878 in Hamburg, deported from the Netherlands to Auschwitz on 26 Oct 1942
Henriette Landau, née Nehemias, born 6 Aaug 1875 in Frankfurt am Main, deported from the Netherlands to Auschwitz on 26 Oct 1942
Marianne Landau, born 25 May 1909, deported from the Netherlands to Auschwitz on 30 Sept 1942

Isestraße 3

Alfred Landau's parents, Leopold Landau, born 21 June 1841 in Varranó/Slovakia and Josephine, née Schlesinger, born 20 Febr 1849 in Zittow (Czechoslovakian in 1935), had settled in Hamburg in 1877 when Leopold Landau accepted an engagement at the Stadttheater (today's State Opera), as an opera singer. They lived not far away at Anscharplatz 1, where their fourth child, Alfred, was born the following year, on 16 Dec 1878. His eldest sister, Helena, had been born on 22 July 1869 in Prague, where Leopold Landau had worked as cantor of a synagogue. His training as an opera tenor and first engagements had taken him to various cities, which is why the second child, Felix, was born in Hamburg in 1871 and the third, Katharina, in Mainz on 23 July 1874.

Alfred was now thirteen years old, and the family was now living at 11 Parkallee in Harvestehude when his father collapsed dead during an opera rehearsal on 9 May 1894.

Son Felix Landau received a musical education, Alfred a commercial one. Details of his schooling and vocational training are not known.

In 1902 Katharina Landau married Max Gottschalck, a merchant who had converted to Lutheranism. In 1908 Alfred Landau married Henriette, née Nehemias, born 6 Aug 1875 in Frankfurt/Main. Her parents had already passed away, her oldest brother Alfred Nehemias acted as best man in place of her father. Of her siblings, Mathilde (1862), married Daniel or Daniels (1866), also lived in Hamburg. The surname Nehemias refers to a Portuguese origin. All daughters of this family received a good education, including the French language, kosher cooking and piano lessons.

Alfred and Henriette Landau lived in the Neustadt in the Fuhlentwiete, Alfred worked for Bachrach & Loeb on Cremon 11/12, a trade in skins. Their daughter Marianne was born on 25 May1909 (not 1908, as noted on the cult tax card).

In 1913 Alfred Landau joined the Jewish Community. In the same year his brother Felix Landau, who had meanwhile become a respected conductor, died on the return journey from Antwerp to Hamburg. He was buried like his father in the Jewish cemetery in Hamburg-Ohlsdorf.

Alfred Landau took part in the First World War. The family's financial situation was difficult, so that tax arrears to the Jewish community grew, were deferred and finally waived. When Alfred found work again in 1920, he supported his mother Josephine, also known as Josepha, financially despite the inflation. Marianne completed a commercial apprenticeship.

For Henriette Landau the new decade began with some changes. Her sister Mathilde died on 13 May 1930. After a few moves and career changes, the Landau family moved to Isestraße 3. Alfred Landau did not earn any significant income as a businessman until 1931, when he became general agent for the London company Ralli Brothers Ltd. on a commission basis. The company mainly maintained business relations with India and traded in jute, cotton, hides, skins and shellac, with Alfred Landau specialising in the trade in hides and skins. Since his income flowed only irregularly, he moved with his wife to a cheaper apartment at Schäferkampsallee 61. In 1932 Marianne Landau moved into her own apartment (see www.stolpersteine-hamburg.de).

In 1938 Alfred Landau's employer decided to send him to London and to fill his position in Germany with an "Aryan". The company granted a loan so that Alfred could pay off his debts and finance the move. The handling of this project kept the Foreign Exchange Office of the Chief Finance President and the Reich Office for Foreign Exchange Management very busy and dragged on for almost three months: On the one hand, the loan from the London company would bring foreign currency into the Reich, a tax debt would be paid and an "Aryan" would be able to emigrate, and on the other hand, 50 percent of the loan was to be taken from the company's foreigners account in Germany. The Ralli company was also suspected of "hoarding" commission payments for Alfred Landau abroad and thus depriving them of the German Reich's access. This suspicion was, however, invalidated by a currency audit in March 1938.

The Landau couple dissolved their apartment in Hamburg and stored their household effects with the forwarding company Gaertner. Until their departure for England on 19 April 1938, they moved into the "Streits" Hotel at Jungfernstieg. Two days later their passports were blocked, making it impossible for them to return. Alfred took his office equipment, desks, a typewriter and a small safe with him to London. He paid off his debts and supported his unmarried sister Helena, who had stayed behind in Hamburg, with a monthly financial allowance. She had run a cleaning business in the neighbourhood of the Schlump and had been penniless since its closure.

Marianne also wanted to emigrate to London, but for unknown reasons she went to the Netherlands in February 1939 and initially stayed in Rotterdam. In October 1938 her parents moved from London to Rotterdam, where they wanted to settle permanently. They had their entire household brought from Hamburg. From Rotterdam they also commissioned the cemetery nursery to maintain the graves of Nehemiah's deceased parents in the Jewish cemetery on the Ihlandkoppel.

In autumn 1940, Alfred Landau's sister Katharina Gottschalck and Henriette Landau's brother-in-law Martin Daniel(s) died in their absence, followed by Helena Landau on 5 May 1941. Her brother-in-law Max Gottschalck, the only member of the family left in Hamburg, reported her death at the registry office. They also found their last resting place at the Jewish cemetery at the Ihlandkoppel. (Max Gottschalck was deported together with his brother Siegmund to Theresienstadt on 15 July 1942 and on 21 September 1942 they were sent on to the Treblinka extermination camp).

After the German Wehrmacht occupied the Netherlands in 1940, the Landau family was again subjected to persecution. When the Jewish population was concentrated in the centre of the country, Alfred, Henriette and Marianne Landau left Rotterdam and moved to Gouda, where they lived together in Crabethstraat 36 from May 1940.

In 1942 Marianne Landau was interned before her parents in the Westerbork transit camp and from there deported to Auschwitz. According to the inscription on her birth certificate "Register of the Special Registry Office Bad Arolsen, Dept. I, No. 2745/1997", the dates of her death are 7 September 1942 and 30 September 1942.
Her parents also reached Auschwitz via the Westerbork concentration camp. They are considered to have been murdered on 26 October 1942. According to Dutch law, the third day after the transport is considered the day of death.

Translator: Amy Lee/Chenges: Beate Meyer
Kindly supported by the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung, Hamburg.

Stand: August 2020
© Hildegard Thevs/Maike Grünwaldt

Quellen: Quellen: 1; 2; 4; 8; Hamburger Adressbücher; StaHH 332-5 Personenstandsregister; 314-15 Oberfinanzpräsident, F 1383; 522-1, 992 e 2 Deportationslisten; JFHH; Joodsmonument; freundliche Mitteilungen von Viola Roggenkamp 2009 und 2020; https://www.musiklexikon.ac.at/ml/musik_L/Landau_Familie.xml.
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