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© Staatsarchiv Hamburg
Luise Kleimann * 1858
Isestraße 8 (Eimsbüttel, Harvestehude)
HIER WOHNTE
LUISE KLEIMANN
JG. 1858
DEPORTIERT 1942
THERESIENSTADT
TOT 1.11.1942
Luise Kleimann, born 24 Sep. 1858 in Hamburg, deported to Theresienstadt on 15 July 1942, died there on 1 Nov. 1942
Luise Kleimann lived together with her brother Paul Alexander Kleimann at Isestrasse 8. From the former neighbor’s child Claus Argenton, whose grandparents had a very good relationship to the Kleimanns, we know something about their life. In 1924, Claus Argenton’s father had taken over his parent’s apartment with his young family.
One-year-old Claus was received by the Kleimanns like a child of their own. When there was distress at home, he found comfort with the neighbor lady who sang a song with him or read a book to him. Claus Argenton remembered that she was a very delicate little person. There was a grand piano in the living-room, as Luise Kleimann gave piano lessons. Her brother, whose profession was given as "journalist” in the 1913 address book, was simply "the magician” for the little boy, because he would always delight him with little sleights of hand and tricks.
The families‘ ways separated before the Nazis came to power. The Kleimanns moved out of the stately apartment where they had employed a maid to a newly built small gangway flat in the Jarrestadt. Paul Alexander Kleimann died soon after, and Luise Kleimann lived alone in the new apartment. As far as Claus Argenton remembers, she had been able to take along her piano to the new home.
The Argenton family had moved to Braunschweig at about the same time. But when Claus came to visit his grandparents in the street called Rutschbahn in his school vacations, he never failed to visit his beloved "aunt” in Thielengasse. Even though the boy’s visits became rarer as he grew up, the tie never broke, even when Claus joined the Equestrian Hitler Youth. In April 1942, now already in the Wehrmacht, he visited Luise Kleimann at the Jewish retirement home in Bogenstrasse, in a small dark room with only a few pieces of furniture, he recalls.
The preserved records of "Konsulent” Ernst Kaufmann give a moving account of her last days in Hamburg ("Konsulent” was the title imposed on former Jewish attorneys who had been deprived of their license and only allowed to work for Jewish clients). Loneliness, helplessness and desperation characterize Luise Kleimann’s contacts with Dr. Kaufmann. The first issue was "only” the formulation of testament of the 82-year-old lady, who had no close relatives. She wanted to distribute her belongings among two nieces in Dresden and a couple with her at the Bogenstrasse home. The last valuable objects rescued from her apartment were to go to Grethe Bruns, possibly a former household helper. Luise Kleimann wanted to be cremated and buried next to her brother. Not even this last wish was to be fulfilled.
I n the course of the year it became evident that the "Konsulent” managed all of Luise Kleimann’s financial matters and her dealings with the authorities with great empathy. On October 22nd, she wrote to Ernst Kaufmann: "Dear Doctor Kaufmann, you are of course aware of what is happening just now; many residents of the Stift are affected, and everybody is trembling, should the letter arrive tomorrow. My neighbor… made me totally miserable by her exalted behavior, whereas I try to keep my head high. Is there any reason, e.g. my age, to avoid the evacuation? Please excuse me molesting you, I simply had to relieve my troubled heart, maybe you have solace and advice for me? Sincerely yours, Luise Kleimann.
Obviously, Luise Kleimann was referring to the "evacuation order” to Lodz. Although only three residents of her Stift were affected, the news must have spread like wildfire. Five days later, when the train had already left, Ernst Kaufmann answered her letter: "Dear Miss Kleimann! On account of the events of the past days, I only got answer your query of October 22nd today. I can only say that, according to what I have heard, you at your age have nothing to fear. Just keep your head high and don’t listen to other people. We all can do nothing more than wait as calmly as possible to see what the future will bring.”
On December 8th, Luis Kleimann had trouble filling out a form. "I am quite helpless in the face of this ordeal”, she started her plea for help, ending with the words: "I have no adviser but you. Please stay as kind as you have been to me.”
The rent of 30 RM became a problem in May 1942, because Luise Kleimann got a pension of 71.30 RM. The "Konsulent” assigned the amount from her account that he managed for her to the Jewish Religious Organization. She had so few assets that no security order had been issued.
The last document in this folder is the message that Ernst Kaufmann had paid 406 RM for the "Home entry Fee for Community Lodging”, i.e. for the Theresienstadt Ghetto. That was on July 18th, 1943, three days after Luise Kleimann, now almost 84 years old, had been deported there.
Claus Argenton only learned about this when he received a postcard from Luise Kleimann from Theresienstadt. As he believed the propaganda lie about the poster ghetto and the card contained no details about life Theresienstadt, he thought her to be in safety.
The sad truth is that Luise Kleimann, old and frail as she has been described, could not bear the hardships of life in the camp and died after only a short time, as did most of the old people there.
Her attorney Ernst Kaufmann was deported to Theresienstadt on June 16th, 1943, from where he was sent to his death in Auschwitz on October 9th, 1944.
Translated by Peter Hubschmid
Kindly supported by the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung, Hamburg.
Stand: October 2016
© Christa Fladhammer
Quellen: 1; 3; 5; 8; StaH, 621-1 Firmen, Konsulent Ernst Kaufmann; mündliche Auskunft Claus Argenton, Hamburg, 3.10.2007.
Zur Nummerierung häufig genutzter Quellen siehe Recherche und Quellen.
