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Gemälde von Rachel Pincus
© Ingeborg Bauer
Fotograf/in: Gesche Cordes (Repro)

Rachel Pincus * 1879

Grindelallee 134 (Eimsbüttel, Rotherbaum)

HIER WOHNTE
RACHEL PINCUS
JG. 1879
DEPORTIERT 1941
RIGA
ERMORDET

further stumbling stones in Grindelallee 134:
Betty Bandmann, Gerda Baruch, Malchen Berlin, Bella Hirsch, Leopold Hirsch, Alfred London, Sophie London, Minna Meyer, Röschen Wertheim

Rachel Pincus, born on 22 July 1876, deported on 6 Dec. 1941 to Riga, perished there

Grindelallee 134

Rachel Pincus was a daughter of the Jewish lottery collector Samuel Pincus. Born in 1849 in Lübeck, he had lived in Denmark for several years and moved to Hamburg in 1875. There, he married Lea (Helene) Samuel (1853–1901), born in Altona, on 18 May 1876. The couple initially lived in Hamburg-Neustadt, where their first child, daughter Jenni (1877–1944), was born on Alter Steinweg. Then the family moved to the St. Pauli quarter. Five more children were born there between 1878 and 1885: Siegfried (1878–1922), Rachel, Albert (1880–1961), Leopold (1882–1955), and Arthur (1885–1927).

The two brothers Siegfried and Arthur died relatively young in the 1920s. Leopold Pincus survived the Nazi regime. He was married since 1919 in a "mixed marriage” ("Mischehe”). His wife Clara, née Bührig (1891–1964), was a Catholic from Detmold and stood by her husband during the difficult times.

Rachel’s brother Albert, unlike his siblings, was not at risk, as he had already emigrated to the USA in 1896 as a 16-year-old apprentice baker. As a baker, he became very successful there and eventually owned several bakeries. He settled in California and started a family there. Since he never made contact with Germany again, people there knew nothing of his subsequent life.

However, hardly anything about the life of sister Rachel has been passed down in the family either. Even her original first name had been forgotten for a long time. The beautiful portrait that shows her as a distinctive, self-confident young woman was rather considered in the family as the portrait of the aunt or great aunt, respectively, Edith. Incidentally, all that was really known was that she had remained unmarried. The few facts that could be ascertained so far derive from the Jewish religious tax (Kultussteuer) file card of the Jewish Community and from the deportation list. According to that, Rachel worked as an office clerk and last lived at Grindelallee 134 on the third floor with the Philipp Isaac family.

On 6 Dec. 1941, Rachel Pincus was deported to Riga-Jungfernhof. The exact date of her death is unknown.

Rachel’s older sister Jenni and her husband Johannes Kahn also died in the Shoah. They were deported to Theresienstadt on 19 July 1942. Johannes Kahn died there on 1 Mar. 1944. Jenni was taken from Theresienstadt to Auschwitz on 15 May 1944 and murdered there. Stolpersteine for the couple are located at Isestrasse 98 (see Stolpersteine in der Hamburger Isestrasse and www.stolpersteine-hamburg.de).

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

© Petra Schmolinske

Quellen: 1; 4; 5; 8; Bestattungsregister Friedhof Ohlsdorf; StaH 332-5 Standesämter 2559–552/1876, 1905–1202/1877, 8591–559/1898, 1930–1636/1878, 9796–1019/1922, 1952–1474/1879, 1978–2261/ 1880, 2033–4844/1882, 6041–177/1919, 2100–1270/1885, 9826–1781/1927; 332–7 Staatsangehörigkeitsaufsicht BIII 6839; Telefongespräch am 23.5.2016 mit Ingeborg Bauer (Großnichte von Rachel Pincus); www.findagrave.com/cgi–bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=29281433.
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