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Henriette Worms (née Schürmann) * 1877

Bogenstraße 15 (Eimsbüttel, Eimsbüttel)

1941 Riga

further stumbling stones in Bogenstraße 15:
Lore-Emma Philipp, Georg Philipp, Louis Worms

Henriette Worms, née Schürmann, born on 13 July 1877 in Osnabrück, deported to Riga on 6 Dec. 1941, perished there
Louis Worms, born on 22 Jan. 1876, deported to Riga on 6 Dec. 1941, perished there

Bogenstrasse 15

Louis Worms was a bank official throughout his professional life. After attending a school providing a general education, he successfully completed a one-year preparatory vocational training at the "Stiftungsschule von 1815” (originally founded as a free school for poor Jewish children), after which, when he was 16 years old, he began an apprenticeship at the W. S. Warburg bank at Breitenstrasse 15 in Mar. 1892. The bank’s founder was Wulf Salomon Warburg from the Altona branch of the famous Warburg family. At that time and during the first years of his career, Louis Worms still lived on Wexstrasse at Grossneumarkt with his parents, Moses Worms and his wife Rosalie, née Gottschalck. The father was a Heildiener, a kind of health care worker who practiced on an outpatient basis or in hospitals. Probably by way of the neighborhood, Louis Worms met his future wife. Henriette "Henny” Schürmann, one and a half years younger, lived with her parents, the merchant Benedix Schürmann and his wife Bertha, née Gabriel, on Steinwegpassage. The family originally came from Osnabrück, where Henriette was born.

Louis Worms and Henriette Schürmann were married on 25 Oct. 1901, and their first son was born on 2 Feb. 1904. They named him Adolf. Two and a half years later, on 10 Sept. 1906, the second son was born. His first names Bertold Conrad continued the alphabetical order of the first letters A-B-C. In the meantime, the growing family first moved to Osterstrasse 146 and from there to Sillemstrasse 31 two years later, in 1907. Louis Worms’ daily journey to work led from Eimsbüttel to Altona. In 1905, there had also been a change in his professional life: Norddeutsche Bank took over the W. S. Warburg Company and turned the bank into its Altona branch. Two years after the takeover, the bank also moved from Breite Strasse to Königstrasse 117.

Louis Worms was drafted at the beginning of the First World War in 1914 and served as an infantryman until 1918. He then returned to Norddeutsche Bank and over the years proved to be so competent, reliable, and responsible that his employer appointed him authorized signatory and head of accounting in 1921. This promotion entailed the privilege of a company apartment, for that same year, he and his family moved from Eimsbüttel to Königstrasse, the very building where "his” bank was located.

During the time when their father’s professional career advanced, the two sons completed their training. Nothing is known about Adolf’s career. Berthold first attended the Dr. Anton Rée Realschule on Zeughausmarkt, where he obtained the intermediate secondary school certificate (mittlere Reife) and then followed in his father’s footsteps by starting an apprenticeship as a bank clerk. However, he did not make a career in "banking” like his father. After completing his apprenticeship, he switched to the shoe and leather industry instead. From 1923 to 1927, he was initially employed as a warehouseman. After that, he worked as an independent traveling salesman with a guaranteed commission, initially for the Richard Behrmann Company on Neuer Steinweg in Hamburg-Neustadt, from 1932 mainly for Müllner & Co., a leather wholesaler. It was also located in Hamburg-Neustadt, on Martin-Luther-Strasse. In addition, he worked for Georg Igl, an Austrian leather factory. He earned an average of 400 RM (reichsmark) per month with his work, which would correspond to a current purchasing power of about 2,100 dollars (as of 2010). While his father had belonged to the Jewish Community of Hamburg or Altona since 1913, Berthold Worms became a member in 1925.

The summer of 1930 marked a profound change in Louis Worms’ life. His professional activity came to an early end. His employer, Norddeutsche Bank, was a subsidiary of Disconto-Gesellschaft, one of the largest German banking companies at the time. It merged with Deutsche Bank in 1929. As a result, Norddeutsche Bank’s staff was reduced, which also affected Louis Worms. On 1 July 1930, after 38 years of service, he was sent into early retirement. He was 54 years old then. His annual pension was 6,000 RM gross, which Deutsche Bank reduced to 5,500 RM gross as of 1 Jan. 1932 due to an "unfavorable general situation.” However, until he turned 65, on 22 Jan. 1941, the bank did not pay him anywhere near these promised pension benefits. Moreover, Louis Worms and his family had to leave their apartment on Königstrasse. They found new accommodation for the next years on Liliencronstrasse in the Rahlstedt quarter.

With the transfer of power to the National Socialists in 1933, the life of the Jewish Worms family was also increasingly affected by anti-Semitic discrimination and harassment. After the November Pogrom of 1938, their situation got dramatically worse. Berthold Worms was the first family member to flee Germany. As were about 1,000 other Jewish men, he was arrested in Hamburg on the night of 9-10 Nov. 1938 and taken to Sachsenhausen concentration camp. After severe mistreatment, he was released less than two months later, on 3 Jan. 1939. When he contacted his previous employer, Müller leather wholesalers, the next day, he learned that it was forced to liquidate as a Jewish company and therefore could not keep him employed. He had no income and no savings. At this point, he intended to leave Germany as soon as possible. On 7 July 1939, he emigrated from London to Shanghai on the "Suwa Mari” of the NYK Line – the only legal opportunity left at that time.

Adolf Worms also fled Germany. However, he had departed Hamburg before and moved to Stuttgart. His emigration is said to have taken place from Herford after he managed to get a visa for Australia.

Louis, Henriette and Berthold Worms had moved back from Rahlstedt to Eimsbüttel, to Bogenstrasse 15 in 1939. This apartment was probably smaller and cheaper, and moreover, Berthold had already planned his emigration and Adolf no longer lived in Hamburg anyway. The following year, Henriette and Louis Worms also decided to flee Germany and follow their son Berthold to Shanghai. When they applied for emigration in 1940, they were 63 and 64 years old, respectively. They applied to the Chief Finance Administrator (Oberfinanzpräsident) for a "tax clearance certificate” ("Unbedenklichkeitsbescheinigung”), submitted the completed questionnaire to the Hamburg foreign currency office for shipping the moving goods, and compiled extensive lists of all the things they wanted to take along to Shanghai. Since they owned assets of more than 5,000 RM, they had already had to pay a "levy on Jewish assets” ("Judenvermögensabgabe”) amounting to 3,000 RM by the end of 1939 in connection with the financial exploitation of the Jewish population by the Nazi state. They did so in five installments of 600 RM each, the first four in cash. To this end, Henriette Worms dissolved the securities portfolio left to her by an uncle. In addition, when they applied for emigration, the couple had to pay a duty to the Gold Discount Bank ("Dego-Abgabe”) of 138 RM. Louis Worms wanted to capitalize his pension and have Deutsche Bank pay him a settlement of around 14,600 RM in 1941 to settle all his pension claims. In 1940, he also terminated his membership of the Civil Service Insurance Association of the German banking and bankers’ industry (Beamtenversicherungsverein des Deutschen Bank- und Bankiersgewerbes) and had the 25 years worth of contributions paid out to him. In this way, his wife and he hoped to secure a livelihood in Shanghai. After all, how were they supposed to find work at their age? However, about 5,800 RM of the pension compensation were frozen by the tax office, and Louis Worms had to take out the remaining sum in advance as a loan from the Relief Organization of Jews (Jüdischer Hilfsverein) in order to secure a living for himself and his wife. Since 1938, they were only entitled to a monthly amount of 250 RM. Although the foreign currency office of the Chief Finance Administrator finally approved the emigration on 9 Dec. 1940 and the Worms couple then did book baggage transport abroad at the beginning of Jan. 1941, Louis Worms informed the foreign currency office of the Chief Finance Administrator on 23 July 1941 that his wife and he were unable to carry out the emigration. Six days later, they received back the duty to the Gold Discount Bank already paid. Five months later, on 6 Dec. 1941, Henriette and Louis Worms were deported to the Jungfernhof subcamp of the Riga Ghetto, where they perished.

Berthold Worms was unable to find work in Shanghai to secure his livelihood. He was entirely dependent on the support of the Jewish Joint Distribution Committee. For six years, he lived in complete destitution, suffered repeatedly from infectious diseases due to the unusually hot and humid climate and the inadequate hygienic conditions. Apparently, he had already married in Hamburg. At the beginning, he lived in Shanghai together with his wife Lydia, née Brandes, four years his junior and a native of Leck in North Friesland. But the marriage did not last and they divorced in Shanghai. In Aug. 1946, Berthold Worms left the city and moved to Sydney, Australia, where his brother Adolf lived. He had applied for Australian citizenship as early as 1944, as documented in an announcement in the Sydney Morning Herald published on 21 Feb. 1944. Berthold Worms initially worked for three years as a spray painter, later as a representative for fabrics and knitwear. He died on 21 Nov. 1970.


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

Stand: May 2019
© Frauke Steinhäuser

Quellen 1; 2 (R 1940/1057 u. FVg 8742); 4; 5; 8; StaH 332-5 Standesämter, 2967 u. 1176/1901; StaH 351-11 AfW, 220176; StaH 522-1 Jüdische Gemeinden, 390 Wählerverzeichnis 1930; Sybille Baumbach, Claudia Thorn, Shanghai als Exil für Hamburger Juden; Hochstadt, Shanghai-Geschichten.
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