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Rosalie Strauss (née Cramer) * 1858

Hegestraße 39 (Hamburg-Nord, Hoheluft-Ost)

HIER WOHNTE
ROSALIE STRAUSS
GEB. CRAMER
JG. 1858
DEPORTIERT 1943
THERESIENSTADT
ERMORDET 2.12.1943

Rosalie Strauss, née Cramer, born on 13.8.1858 in Nordhausen/ Thuringia, deported on 9.6.1943 to Theresienstadt, murdered there on 2.12.1943

Hegestraße 39

Rosalie Cramer grew up with her older sister Julie (1849-1910) in a Nordhausen merchant family. Possibly there were other siblings whose traces we have not yet found. The father, Nathan Cramer (1804-1900 in Berlin), came from Ballenstedt, located in the eastern Harz Mountains. The mother, Jeanette, née Pick, (1816-1890 in Berlin) was born in Treuenbrietzen, southwest of Berlin. Nathan and his brother David Cramer sold goods made of linen and cotton, a profitable business, so that in February 1860 they sought a "Mosaic" apprentice by newspaper advertisement.

How the two daughters spent their childhood and adolescent years we do not know.

Rosalie's sister Julie married Gabriel Siegmund Loewy (1844) around the beginning of the 1870s, but he died in Berlin in 1878. Julie Loewy then lived alone with their son Ernst Eduard Loewy (1876 in Berlin), who was only two years old. At the time of the census in May 1939, Ernst Eduard Loewy was living in the Berlin Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg district. He is said to have emigrated on July 18, 1939. No further traces were found about him.

It is not known when Rosalie Cramer met her future husband Meyer Strauss (1850 in Kassel-1920 in Hamburg). Meyer Strauss, who later chose the additional name Moritz, had grown up with three sisters: Sarah Sophie (1846-1900), Johanna (1853-1916 in Leipzig) and Frieda Therese (1857-1907 both in Kassel).

By the early 1880s, the couple was already living in Hamburg, as evidenced by the births of their daughters: Alice Jeanette (1882-1965 in Detroit/USA), Gertrud Mathilde (1884-1923 in Hamburg), Elsbeth Julie (1885), Käthe (Katharine) Sophie (1887), Carola Johanna (1889-1973 in São Paulo/Brazil) and Irma Frieda (1892-1951 in England). Around 1880, Meyer Moritz Strauss and a partner, Philipp Winter, were involved in the import/export and trade of grain and pulses. The office was located in the old town, within walking distance of the stock exchange. However, in order to be allowed to trade the goods at the Hamburg Grain Exchange, they became members of the corresponding association. A few years later, the father of the family opened his own agency, located in Gröningerstraße (where Willy-Brandt-Straße runs today).

Business apparently went well for the Strauss family. This is also evidenced by the monthly cultus taxes they paid to the Jewish community. And accordingly, the places of residence changed over the decades. At first the family lived for almost twenty years at Grindelberg 42, then for a few years in Werderstraße/Harvestehude in the house of the lawyer Wilhelm Blitz (see www.stolpersteine-hamburg.de) and finally in Maria-Louisen-Straße in Winterhude.

The daughters, now grown up, had married and gone their own ways. The youngest and unmarried daughter Irma Strauss turned to art. It is not known in which genre she was active; she also taught languages. The second oldest married daughter, Gertrud Jacobsohn, devoted herself to music and trained as a concert violinist. In the meantime, Rosalie and Meyer Moritz Strauss had become grandparents several times over.

The death of Meyer Moritz Strauss in March 1920 marked a major turning point in the life of the Strauss family. He was laid to rest in the Ilandkoppel Jewish Cemetery. Rosalie Strauss, now widowed, was left alone in the Winterhude apartment. But only three years later the next sad event in the life of the family took place: The second oldest daughter Gertrud Jacobsohn died at the age of 39. She too was buried in the Ilandkoppel Jewish Cemetery.

It was not until the beginning of the 1930s that traces of the family were found again. In the meantime, the youngest daughter Irma Strauss was dependent on state support, which amounted to five Reichsmark per week. This was probably the reason why mother and daughter Irma Strauss lived together in the Winterhude apartment. Already at that time, gloomy prospects for the future of Jews in the German Reich were becoming apparent.

The reasons why Irma Strauss decided to move to Bad Godesberg in the fall of 1933 are not known. She probably lived there with her married sister Elsbeth Fabian. But after a few months she returned to Hamburg, where she again lived with her mother, now at Klosterallee 28 in Harvestehude. It became increasingly difficult for Jews to take up a professional activity, as the rulers had issued corresponding laws and decrees that pushed them further and further out of social life. The majority society used these state measures to gain advantages for itself. Thus it was not surprising that the welfare authorities withdrew Irma Strauss's weekly benefit because a "need for assistance is no longer recognized," according to the terse notice.

In the families of Rosalie Strauss' married daughters, therefore, the decision gradually matured to leave the German Reich, to flee while it was still possible. For from the mid-1930s onward, the rulers not only tightened the financial regulations on emigration. Certainly the daughters were worried about their mother and mother-in-law, who was now over seventy years old, and the decision to leave them behind was - according to family lore - not an easy one. Rosalie Strauss remained in Hamburg, and her daughter Irma stayed with her for the time being.

Rosalie Strauss gave up the Klosterallee apartment for financial reasons. After that, it had become "common" for Jews to live as subtenants, because since April 30, 1939, tenant protection for them ceased and frequent changes of apartment were the result. At first, Rosalie and Irma Strauss occupied furnished rooms in the apartment of Käthe (Katharine) Busch at Hegestraße 39/ Eppendorf, until the latter's emigration. Afterwards, Rosalie Strauss found lodgings with the widow Posselburg in Isestraße/ Harvestehude. In addition, a car accident occurred in which Rosalie Strauss was involved and broke her leg. She was initially treated in the Jewish Hospital.

By that time, all of the daughters had already left the German Reich. Rosalie Strauss was now on her own and still dependent on nursing support. Thus, from 1941 to 1942, she was admitted to the Laufgraben 37 old people's and nursing home. Until November 1941, the home had been used as a girls' orphanage, after which the girls moved to the Orphan Institute on Papendamm and the new residents moved in. In the meantime, the large-scale deportations from Hamburg had begun. Persons over 65 years of age were initially put on hold, as was Rosalia Strauss.

Rosalie Strauss found her last accommodation in Hamburg in the house of the Jewish Community (which had to call itself the "Jewish Religious Association" since 1938) at Beneckestraße 6 (the street running across today's university campus no longer exists). In the meantime, the older Jews were deported to Theresienstadt.

This concerned Rosalie Strauss: at the ripe old age of almost eighty-five, she was deported ter to Theresienstadt Ghetto on June 9, 1943. Rosalie Strauss survived there until December 2, 1943.

What traces were found to the emigrated daughters and their families:
Gertrud Mathilde Strauss married the Hamburg merchant Ekiva Jacobsohn (1878-1961) in November 1907. They lived in Hamburg Eppendorf with their three children Herbert (1908), Niels (1915) and Erika (1917). Gertrud Jacobsohn died already in 1923 and found her last resting place at the Jewish Cemetery Ilandkoppel.
At a date unknown to us, Ekiva Jacobsohn married Erna Wollenberg (1893) from Berlin. They lived in Harvestehude until their emigration to South Africa in March 1939. Already in April 1938, Erika, later married Heller, and her brother Niels Jacobsohn had fled to New York/USA. Ekiva's brother, John Jacobsohn (1874 in Kiel-1937 in Hamburg), married Adele Hertz (1871- in 1941 Minsk, see www.stolpersteine-hamburg.de) from Hamburg in 1901. Adele and her son Iwan Julius Jacobsohn (1903- 1941 in Minsk, see www.stolpersteine-hamburg.de) did not manage to escape abroad, they died in the Minsk ghetto.

The unconventional Alice Jeanette Strauss met the chemist Paul Herz (1882 in Mühlhausen/Thuringia-1928). He had grown up with four older siblings: Margarete (1872 in Halberstadt - 1947 in Chicago/ USA), Moses Oscar (1873 in Halberstadt - 1939 in Hamburg, see www.stolpersteine-hamburg.de), Wolf Arthur (1875 in Mühlhausen - 1944 in Chicago/ USA) and Lina (1878 in Mühlhausen - 1934 in Blankenburg/Saxony-Anhalt). In March 1908 Alice Strauss and Paul Herz announced their engagement, which the future father of the bride was not pleased about. Getting engaged after a short acquaintance was not considered "proper" at the time. As a result, her father set the wedding date for April 1908 in Hamburg at short notice. After their marriage, the couple lived in Güstrow, Mecklenburg, where their two children Helga (1912-2010) and Konrad (1915-1929 in Berlin) were born. Over the years, Alice Herz developed into a well-known women's and peace activist. But she also had to deal with strokes of fate: the death of her husband at the end of 1928 and that of her son Konrad Herz, only fourteen years old, in February 1929.
The changes at the beginning of the 1930s did not escape her. As early as 1933, she emigrated with her daughter Helga to France, where she continued her political work. This certainly helped her when she was interned with her daughter in the Gurs/France camp in 1940. A few months later they were released and in 1942 they took the opportunity to escape via Cuba and Chile to the USA. Presumably like-minded people helped them. After 1945, she continued her committed path in the peace movement in the USA, supported by her daughter Helga. Alice Herz, however, went to extremes. As a sign against the Vietnam War, she publicly set herself on fire in March 1965. A few days later, she died from her injuries. Until the end of her life in 2010, Helga Herz continued her mother's political commitment.

Käthe (Katharine) Sophie Strauss had been married to Oskar Adolf Busch (1859-1938 in Hamburg), who worked as an authorized signatory, since the summer of 1911. Oskar Busch was a Christian, which means that their marriage was later classified as a mixed marriage by the National Socialists. Since their marriage, the couple lived in Berlin, where their children Irmgard (1922) and Horst were born. In October 1936, the family moved to Hamburg and Katharine Busch joined the Jewish Community there. Less than two years later, Oskar Busch died of heart failure in Eppendorf Hospital. According to the "race laws" of the rulers, the two children were considered "Mischlinge of the first degree". For Horst Busch, this meant that he was drafted as a soldier at the beginning of the war in September 1939 (the drafted "Mischlinge of first-degree” were discharged again in 1940 for "racial reasons", except for those who had received awards). We know nothing about Horst Busch's further fate. Mother and daughter fled to England in early 1939.

In November 1911, Carola Johanna Strauss married Theodor Silberberg (1880-1972 in São Paulo, Brazil), a native of Hanover who worked in the import/export business. Three sons were born between 1912 and 1920. In the mid-1930s, the family decided to flee to Brazil, presumably helped by professional contacts. Henny Silberberg (1858-1942, see www.stolpersteine-hamburg.de), the mother of Theodor Silberberg, could not or would not decide to flee.

Elsbeth Julie Strauss married Isidor Hans Fabian in January 1913. The son of Adolph and Sophie Fabian, née Salinger, he was born on March 4, 1877 in a small village in the Neumark region (in today's Polish province of Lebus). At the time of the marriage, Isidor Hans Fabian lived in Neuwied and practiced the profession of a graduate engineer. In the 1930s, the couple moved to Bad Godesberg. Before the census in May 1939, the couple fled to the safety of England.

Irma Frieda Strauss remained unmarried. She, too, wanted to emigrate to England and faced the challenges of bureaucratic processing, which were characterized by the fact that important documents such as countless relocation lists prepared in multiple copies "did not arrive" at the responsible office of the Chief Finance President and had to be resubmitted. In the meantime, Irma Strauss looked for new accommodation and found it for a short time with a friend in Wrangelstraße. But in June 1939 Irma Strauss reached England, a few days before the validity of her passport expired.

The great-grandson of Rosalie Strauss, Claudio Silberberg, had "visited both aunts Elsbeth and Käthe in their common home in Surrey/ England in 1971". In addition, he recalled that his father Walter "spoke of his vacation tales with Aunt Elsbeth and Uncle Isidor in Neuwied."

Translation Beate Meyer

Stand: February 2023
© Sonja Zoder

Quellen: 1; 2; 4; 5; 7; 8; StaH 213-13 Landgericht Wiedergutmachung 13900, 21514; StaH 314-15 (OFP) FVg 2954, 4950; StaH 351-11 AfW 6074, 8065, 11599, 42333, 52142; StaH 351-14 Arbeits- u. Sozialfürsorge 1943, 1944; StaH 332-5-/9076-1400/1892 Standesämter (Geburten), StaH 332-5/8656-130/1908, 332-5/8689-12/1913 Standesämter (Heiraten); StaH 332-5/9803-1835/1923 Standesämter (Sterbefälle); div. Hamburger Adressbücher; Boxhammer: Herrin ihrer selbst, Leipzig 2019, S. 32-33, 37-39, 90-91, 246-249, 252-253, 260, 322-325; Studemund-Halevy: Im Jüdischen Hamburg, Hamburg 2011, S. 124; Stein: Jüdische Baudenkmäler, Hamburg 1984, S. 113-114; URL: https://www.ancestry.de/, https://www.geni.com/ jeweils am 22.11.2020; Nordhauser Adressbuch 1859 https://zs.thulb.uni-jena.de/receive/jportal_jpvolume_00283814, https://www.mappingthelives.org jeweils am 6.1.2021; http://www.alemannia-judaica.de/nordhausen_synagoge.htm#Anzeigen%20j%C3%BCdischer%20Gewerbebetriebe%20 und%20Privatpersonen am 28.3.2022; https://www.digitales-deutsches-frauenarchiv.de/akteurinnen/alice-herz, https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice_Herz am 2.4.2022; https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stare_Osieczno am 12.5.2022; Bundesarchiv, Liste der jüdischen Einwohner des Deutschen Reichs 1933-1945. Wir bedanken uns bei Claudio Silberberg für die Hinweise.
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