Search for Names, Places and Biographies

Jerubaal Toeplitz * 1921

Hammerbrookstraße 90 (Hamburg-Mitte, Hammerbrook)

HIER WOHNTE
JERUBAAL TOEPLITZ
JG. 1921
EINGEWIESEN 1940
HEILANSTALT LANGENHORN
"VERLEGT" 23.9.1940
BRANDENBURG
ERMORDET 23.9.1940
"AKTION T4"

Jerubaal Toeplitz, born on 16.3.1921 in Hamburg, murdered on 23.9.1940 in the "State Care Home" Brandenburg an der Havel

Stumbling Stone Hamburg – Hammerbrook, Hammerbrookstrasse 90

Jerubaal’s parents John Toeplitz, born on 20. Nov 1891 in Hamburg, and Ida née Blumberg, born on 27. Nov 1894 in Libau, belonged to the Jewish faith and had married on 4. June 1920.

John Toeplitz’ father, Doctor Peter Toeplitz, born in 1862 in Posen, worked, according to the Hamburg Address Book, as a "practicing physician, wound doctor and obstetrician” at Billhorner Röhrendamm 94 in Rothenburgsort, later at Rödingsmarkt 38 in Hamburg-Altstadt. He had another son, Erich, born on 24. March 1896, by his wife Emmy, née Brann, born on 5. July 1869 who originated from Libau (today Liepaja/Latvia).

Like his father, John Toeplitz choose the medical profession. The Hamburg Address Book contains an entry for the first time in 1921 for "Toeplitz, John Dr Med Physician”. According to this, his practice was in Eimsbüttel, Bei der Apostelkirche 4.

Ida Toeplitz was a teacher.

John Toeplitz was a socially committed man. He promoted sex education and was attached to socialist ideas. This attitude may have influenced the move to the working class district of Hammerbrook. In 1922, he took over a practice at Süderstrasse 81A and also relocated his residential address to the nearby Hammerbrookstrasse 90. "John Toeptlitz was a well-known figure among workers in the city," reports Arie Goral-Sternheim in his memoirs about the Grindel district. "He had his practice in Hammerbrook, then a stronghold of the class-conscious, mostly unemployed proletariat. He treated everyone who came to him, regardless of whether they were members of the health insurance fund or not. If necessary, he also paid for the medicines he prescribed, as long as he did not have them in his cupboard. In the time of the great economic crisis he was the saviour in the distress of many workers' wives in questions of contraception. [...] Members of the 'Red Front' and the 'Iron Front' who had suffered wounds in fights with the SA and the 'Stahlhelm' were brought to Toeplitz, but could not be reported. John's flat was a kind of night asylum. People came late in the evening, unannounced, whoever came stayed for supper, of course, and discussed until late at night. Those who didn't have a bicycle stayed overnight.”

Jerubaal Toeplitz, John Toeplitz’ first son, was born on 16. March 1921 in Hamburg. The birth was complicated and had to be assisted with forceps. From birth onwards a disability was apparent which was put down to a "trauma during birth”. At the time of his admission to the Children and Education Home Vorwerk (Kinder- und Erziehungsheim Vorwerk), Jerubaal’s disability was described as "Little’s Disease” (Littlesche Krankheit), a cerebral palsy. At the age of seven he could neither dress nor undress himself. He was not enrolled in school.

On 30. July 1925, Jerubaal’s brother Raphael was born. We do not know what life was like in the Toeplitz family. Probably Jerubaal’s parents will have felt themselves overtaxed so that they put "Bubsi” (as he was known in the family) into the care of the Children and Education Home Vorwerk in Lübeck on 9. Oct 1928. Jerubaal lived in this home for the following twelve years.

In 1929, John Toeplitz gave a lecture on sex education at a school in Hamburg and attracted so much attention that it was debated by the Hamburg City Parliament.

Toeplitz, a member of the SPD, treated the injured on the side of the "Reds” after street battles and brawls between the SA and leftists such as the "Altona Blood Sunday” on 17. June 1932. He stood as a candidate for the Jewish Social Democrats in the Community Election of the German Israelite Community in 1930.

In the course of the years, John and Ida Toeplitz had drifted apart. They divorced in April 1932. John Toeplitz very soon remarried. In May 1932, he married Mirjam Gertrud Besser, born 1909, the daughter of Doctor Max Besser and his wife Käthe Besser, née Bischofswerder. Before the First World War, Max Besser had his practice at Süderstrasse 157 in Hammerbrook.

After the transfer of power to the National Socialists being arrested would have been life threatening for John Toeplitz. He fled to Palestine in 1933 together with his wife Mirjam and his son Raphael.

The Vorwerk Institution contacted John Toeplitz repeatedly regarding the costs of Jerubaal’s stay. He, however, regarded himself as unable to pay the costs as "my plantations have not yet yielded anything and I have no cash and also can not practice my profession”. With the help of friends, he managed to raise RM 60 per month for the maintenance, but from 1938 onwards this money ran out.

Dr. Paul Burwick, manager of the Vorwerk Home, wrote to John Toeplitz on 1. March 1939: "Years have passed in which we have heard nothing more from you and you have heard nothing more from us. To date, until the end of 1938, your child was cared for in the Vorwerk Home. From the beginning of this year, however, nobody is paying the maintenance costs for Bubsi. For years, his mother has no longer looked after her child and now we are addressing to you the request that you advise us who will take over the care costs for your poor boy. You know the problem in general and we must hear from you as soon as possible how we will be relieved of the worry concerning Jerubaal. You, dear Doctor, know his home for the child has been in Vorwerk for more than 10 years. He has grown bigger, but sadly not more independent, he is and remains in need of help to a particularly large extent. We expect your answer soon and send you hearty greetings from your son.
Yours respectfully,
Signed: Burwick”

Obviously Dr. Burwick did not get an answer.

In Spring/Summer 1940 the "Euthanasia”-Central Office in Berlin, Tiergartenstrasse 4, planned a special action against Jews living in public and private Nursing and Care Homes. They arranged for the Jewish people living in the homes to be registered and transferred to so called Collection Homes. The Nursing and Care Home Hamburg-Langenhorn was designated the Collection Home for North Germany. All establishments in Hamburg, Schleswig Holstein and Mecklenburg were instructed to transfer all the Jews living in their institutions to Langenhorn by 18. Sept 1940.

Jerubaal Toeplitz arrived in Langenhorn on 16. Sept 1940. Together with a further 135 patients from North German institutions, he was loaded onto a train in the Freight Terminal Ochsenzoll on 23. Sept 1940 and transported via Berlin to Brandenburg an der Havel.

The train reached the town in the Mark of Brandenburg on the same day. In the part of the prison, situated in the centre of town, which had been converted into a gas extermination centre, the patients were herded into gas chambers without delay and killed with carbon monoxide. Only one woman, Ilse Herta Zachmann, initially escaped this fate (see www.stolpersteine-hamburg.de).

We do not know whether Jerubaal’s relatives were informed of his death. The T4 Central Office in Berlin arranged for death certificates to be issued in which the place of death was given as "Chelm” or "Cholm” and the date of death was extended days and months beyond the real one. Jerubaal’s date of death was noted on his Birth Certificate as follows: "Died no 469/1941 Chelm II on 2.2.1941. General Gouvernement”. However, the people murdered in Brandenburg had never been in Chelm (German) or Cholm (Polish), a town northest of Lublin. The Polish sanatorium which had been there before no longer existed after SS units murdered nearly all the patients on 12. Jan 1941. In addition, there was no German Registry Office there. Its invention and the use of dates of death later than the real ones served to cover up the murder operation and, at the same time, to be able to charge maintenance costs for a correspondingly longer period of time.

Max and Käthe Besser, the parents of John Toeplitz’ second wife Mirjam, received the deportation order on 8. Nov 1941. They decided to commit suicide. Both were found dead in their apartment at Bogenstrasse 15 as a result of an overdose of sleeping tablets on 7. Nov 1941. Stumbling stones have been laid for them at Hammer Landstrasse 32 in Hamburg-Hamm (see also www.stolperstein-hamburg.de)

We do not know the fate of Jerubaal’s mother Ida or of Erich Toeplitz, the brother of John Toeplitz.

Jerubaal Toeplitz is commemorated by stumbling stones in Hamburg-Hammerbrook, Hammerbrookstrasse 90, and in the foyer of what is today the Diakonie Vorwerk in Lübeck, Triftstrasse 139–143.

Translated by Steve Robinson

Stand: January 2021
© Ingo Wille

Quellen: 1; 2; 4; 5; 8; AB; StaH 133-1 III Staatsarchiv 3171-2/4 U.A. 4, Liste psychisch kranker jüdischer Patientinnen und Patienten der psychiatrischen Anstalt Langenhorn, die aufgrund nationalsozialistischer "Euthanasie"-Maßnahmen ermordet wurden, zusammengestellt von Peter von Rönn, Hamburg (Projektgruppe zur Erforschung des Schicksals psychisch Kranker in Langenhorn); 213-13 Landgericht Hamburg-Wiedergutmachung 5498 Mirjam Toeplitz, 5499 Mirjam Toeplitz; 332-5 Standesämter 581 Sterberegister Nr. 387/1907 Peter Toeplitz, 2393 Geburtsregister Nr. 857/1896 Erich Toeplitz, 8018 Sterberegister Nr. 124/1913 Emma Toeplitz, 8173 Sterberegister Nr. 488/1941 Max Besser, 8173 Sterberegister Nr. 489/1941 Käthe Besser, 8745 Heiratsregister Nr. 441/1932 Toeplitz/Blumberg, 13851 Heiratsregister Nr. 176/1932 Toeplitz/Besser; 351-11 Amt für Wiedergutmachung 13588 John Toeplitz, 17064 Ida Basch gesch. Toeplitz, 34329 Mirjam Toeplitz, 47757 Raphael Toeplitz; 352-8/7 Staatskrankenanstalt Langenhorn Abl. 1/1995 Aufnahme-/Abgangsbuch Langenhorn 26. 8. 1939 bis 27. 1. 1941; Archiv Vorwerker Diakonie, Patientenakte Jerubaal Toeplitz; JSHD Forschungsgruppe "Juden in Schleswig-Holstein", Datenpool Erich Koch, Schleswig. Jenner, Harald, Das Kinder- und Pflegeheim Vorwerk in der NS-Zeit, in: Theodor Strohm/Jörg Thierfelder (Hrsg.), Diakonie im "Dritten Reich". Neuere Ergebnisse zeitgeschichtlicher Forschung, Heidelberg 1990, S. 169-204. Goral-Sternheim, Arie, Im Schatten der Synagoge, Hamburg 1994, S. 29. Reh, Sabine, Von der "Idioten-Anstalt" zu den Vorwerker Heimen, Lübeck 1997, S. 57–65. Goldberg, Bettina, Abseits der Metropolen. Die jüdische Minderheit in Schleswig-Holstein, Neumünster 2011, S. 139, 170, 191, 192, 206, 215, 218, 219, 230, 239 246, 250, 592, 595, 605. Villiez von, Mit aller Kraft verdrängt. Entrechtung und Verfolgung "nicht arischer" Ärzte in Hamburg 1933 bis 1945, Hamburg 2009 S. 410f. (John Toeplitz).
Zur Nummerierung häufig genutzter Quellen siehe Link "Recherche und Quellen".