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Ruth Mannheim * 1928

Schäferstraße 8 (Eimsbüttel, Eimsbüttel)

HIER WOHNTE
RUTH MANNHEIM
JG. 1928
DEPORTIERT 1942
ERMORDET IN
AUSCHWITZ

further stumbling stones in Schäferstraße 8:
Walter Mannheim , Eva Mannheim , Hertha Mannheim , Vilma (Wilma) Mannheim

Walter Mannheim, born on 4 Mar. 1890 (or 1891) in Ahlden, deported on 11 July 1942 to Auschwitz
Eva Mannheim, née Lachmann, born on 23 Sept. 1895 in Berlin, deported on 11 July 1942 to Auschwitz
Hertha Mannheim, born on 31 Mar. 1922 in Ahlden, deported on 11 July 1942 to Auschwitz
Wilma Mannheim, born on 21 June 1924 in Celle, deported 11 July 1942 to Auschwitz
Ruth Mannheim, born on 13 Apr. 1928 in Celle, deported on 11 July 1942 to Auschwitz

Schäferstrasse 8

The engineer Walter Mannheim, his wife Eva, and their daughters were the last Jewish inhabitants of the small town of Ahlden. Ahlden, located on the left bank of the Aller River between Celle and Verden, had a population of slightly more than 800 in 1885, among them 18 Jewish. At the end of the nineteenth century, there were only very few Jews left in the town. Albert Mannheim, who passed away in 1892, had been the last chairman of the Jewish Community. He was a native of Eldagsen. Walter Mannheim was his grandson. He was born in Ahlden in 1890 (or 1891). In 1903, the only Jewish family living there was that of Isidor Mannheim, Walter’s father. The oldest daughter of Walter and Eva Mannheim, Hertha, was born there as well. The second and third daughters were born in Celle. A note in the Celle City Archive reveals that Ruth Mannheim was born in the Celle State Women’s Hospital, though the parents lived in Ahlden.

Walter Mannheim attended the Mittweida Institute of Advanced Technology. We do not know what type of employment he practiced in Ahlden. There is a clue that he was registered by the Lüneburg State Police as a motorcyclist in 1936. Perhaps he worked in Celle or Verden, riding his motorbike there as well. In 1937, the family with the two daughters Wilma and Ruth gave official notification of changing their address to Hamburg. Probably, the oldest daughter Hertha had left the town even earlier in order to work or do an apprenticeship. With the family’s move, the municipality was "free of Jews” ("judenfrei”). We do not know whether the Mannheims were persecuted or harassed by their neighbors.

Since Dec. 1939, Walter Mannheim worked in Hamburg as an instructor in a training workshop for mechanics of the Werkschule [a school offering an applied and integrated curriculum] of the Hamburg Elementary and Secondary School for Jews (Volks- und Höhere Schule für Juden), as the Jewish school was called after the merger of the Talmud Tora School and the school on Karolinenstrasse. The training workshops for cabinetmakers and mechanics on Weidenallee had been set up in 1934. The apartment on Schäferstrasse was not very far from the training workshop.

Eva Mannheim was born as Eva Lachmann in Berlin. Before marrying Walter Mannheim, she had attended the female teacher training college in Berlin.

The family of five was deported to Auschwitz in July 1942. The last address indicated for Hertha Mannheim on the deportation list was Johnsallee 54; the job designation entered was domestic help. For Walter Mannheim, the residence named was the "Jews’ house” ("Judenhaus”) at Agathenstrasse 3; according to this, Eva, Wilma, and Ruth had continued to live at Schäferstrasse 8.

Eva Mannheim had at least two siblings that managed to emigrate: The brother, Rudolf (Rodolfo) Lachmann (born on 12 May 1894 in Berlin), one year her senior, was an architect and subsequently lived in Brazil. In 1973, he submitted Pages of Testimony for Walter and Eva Mannheim in the Yad Vashem memorial site. The younger sister, Mathilde Rabinowitz, née Lachmann (born on 19 Aug. 1898 in Berlin), later lived in Rhodesia. Probably Kurt Lachmann (born on 20 Mar. 1893 in Berlin) was another brother. He was deported to the Piaski Ghetto on 28 Mar. 1942 and murdered. Eva Mannheim’s mother was very likely Frieda Lachmann, née Ginsberg (born on 15 Sept. 1868 in Berlin), who was deported on 19 Apr. 1943 from Berlin to Theresienstadt.


Translator: Erwin Fink

Kindly supported by the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung, Hamburg.

Stand: October 2017
© Susanne Lohmeyer

Quellen: 1; 4; 5; 8; 9 StaH 351-11 AfW, 17678 und 12924; StaH 522-1 992e 2; HAB IV 1940; Herbert Obenaus, Historisches Handbuch, Bd. 1, S. 103ff.; Auskunft Stadtarchiv Celle vom 23.4.2012; Peter Offen­­born, Jüdische Jugend, S. 1218.
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