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David Hoffmann * 1877

Poolstraße 41 (Hamburg-Mitte, Neustadt)

1941 Minsk
ermordet in Minsk

further stumbling stones in Poolstraße 41:
James Isidor Pariser

David Hoffmann, born on 24 Feb. 1877 in Aurich, deported on 8 Nov. 1941 to Minsk

Poolstrasse 41

The widower David Hoffmann resided in Hamburg only for two years, and he had probably decided to live in the Hanseatic city in order to seek protection in the anonymity of the big city and to advance his emigration. In the spring of 1940, like all Jewish inhabitants of Eastern Friesland, he had to leave his home by 1 April. In Aurich, he had previously lived with various Jewish families, in the very end in Nov. 1939 at Wallstrasse 28.

David Hoffmann was born as the second son of the trader Zwi Aron Hoffmann (born on 11 June 1839, died on 17 Nov. 1930) and his wife Caroline, née de Vries, in Aurich, where his parents had married on 26 May 1874. Before him, the older brother Adolf Aron Zwi had been born (on 7 July 1875), after him the younger ones Louis Lazarus (on 14 Feb. 1879, died in 1966 in Milwaukee) and Jacob Zwi Levi (in 1881, died in 1935).

David Hoffmann was less than three years old when his mother, died of childbed fever on 23 Apr. 1881, at the age of 29, less than a month after Jacob’s birth. She was buried at the Jewish Cemetery in Aurich.

In the same year, his father entered into a second marriage with Sätje Susanne Moses Leers (born on 4 July 1845, died on 23 Feb. 1931). Five more children were born, three died soon after birth. David’s half-brother Gelli (born on 21 Feb. 1885) later lived in the USA, where he died in 1983; the younger Samuel Semmi (born on 3 May 1888) was deported on 29 Apr. 1944 from the French Drancy transit camp to Auschwitz, where he was murdered on 4 May 1944.

David Hoffmann became a livestock dealer. On 25 Nov. 1903, he married Selma Polak (born on 16 Mar. 1874). The couple had four children: Arend (born on 14 Aug. 1904) was born in Nordhorn; Siegfried (born on 2 Feb. 1906), Carla (born on 3 Sept. 1907) and Hermann (born on 1 Dec. 1908) in Rastede near Oldenburg.

David Hoffmann’s wife Selma died on 11 May 1933 and she was buried in the Jewish Cemetery in her home town of Westerstede in the Ammerland administrative district. His son Siegfried also found his last resting place there at the age of 29.

Siegfried had followed his father professionally and was active in the livestock trade. Because of his fiancée, who was not Jewish, he was placed in "protective custody” ("Schutzhaft”) on 18 Jan. 1936. He died after four days’ detention in the Oldenburg court prison. Allegedly, he committed suicide. Most likely, however, he died as a result of mistreatment.

His brothers Arend and Hermann emigrated to Australia in 1938, their sister Carla followed them a year later. She had owned a house at Knoopstrasse 120 (today Raiffeisenstrasse) in Rastede and gave her father a lifelong usufruct right. The monthly rental income of 65 RM (reichsmark) that David Hoffmann received, however, was so low that the foreign currency office of the Weser-Ems Chief Finance Administrator (Oberfinanzpräsident) initially refrained from issuing a "security order” ("Sicherungsanordnung”) on 20 Nov. 1939. On 27 Feb. 1940, the Oldenburgische Landesbank asked the Hamburg Chief Finance Administrator for permission to transfer David Hoffmann’s credit balance of 148.50 RM to a blocked account established by then with the Commerz- und Privatbank at Grossneumarkt 50. Moreover: "H. will move his residence from Aurich to Hamburg and emigrate shortly.” He could no longer realize his emigration. After his arrival in Hamburg, David Hoffmann first lived in the Jewish Hertz-Joseph-Levy-Stift at Grossneumarkt 56 with the widow Bertha Cohen (see corresponding entry). On 19 Aug. 1940, he moved in with the merchant Hermann Salomon (born on 20 July 1892) at Poolstrasse 41, who was still co-owner of that house. There, David Hoffmann received his deportation order for 8 Nov. 1941 to the Minsk Ghetto. In the city center of Aurich, at Wallstrasse 28, another Stolperstein commemorates him.

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

Stand: May 2020
© Susanne Rosendahl

Quellen: 1; 5; 9; StaH 314-15 OFP, R 1940/0236; StaH 314-15 OFP, R1942/57; StaH 522-1 Jüdische Gemeinde Nr. 992 e Band 2; Einwohnermeldekartei der jüdischen Bürger Aurichs; Überwachung von Juden, 1933-1938, Akte Dep 34 C, Nr. 137; Verzeichnis der am 20.11.1939 in der Stadt Aurich gemeldeten Juden, Dep. 34 C, Nr. 143, alle Auskünfte am 16.9.2008 von Astrid Parisius; http://www.online-ofb.de/famreport.php?ofb=juden_nw&ID=I1927&nachname=HOFFMANN&lang=de (Zugriff 5.2.2015); Erinnerungsbuch, ein Verzeichnis der von der nationalsozialistischen Judenverfolgung betroffenen Einwohner der Stadt Oldenburg 1933–1945, wiss. Bearb. von Jörg Paulsen, http://www.erinnerungsbuch-oldenburg.de/jeo.php?PID=696 (Zugriff 14.2.2015); https://stolpersteineaurich.wordpress.com/aktion/ (Zugriff 25.5.2017); https://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/affichTexte.do?cidTexte=JORFTEXT000000362588&dateTexte= (Zugriff 25.5.2017); Telefonat mit Werner Vahlenkamp, Oldenburg am 6.2.2015.
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