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Bernhard Liepmann * 1905

Großneumarkt 38 (vorm. Schlachterstraße) (Hamburg-Mitte, Neustadt)

BERNHARD LIEPMANN
JG. 1905
’HEILANSTALT’ LANGENHORN
1940 VERLEGT NACH
LANDESANSTALT
BRANDENBURG
ERMORDET 23.9.1940

further stumbling stones in Großneumarkt 38 (vorm. Schlachterstraße):
Hanna Aghitstein, Julie Baruch, Ludwig Louis Baruch, Julius Blogg, Rebecca Blogg, Kurt Cossmann, Mathilde Cossmann, Frieda Dannenberg, Alice Graff, Leopold Graff, Flora Halberstadt, Elsa Hamburger, Herbert Hamburger, Louis Hecker, Max Hecker, Marianne Minna Hecker, Lea Heymann, Alfred Heymann, Wilma Heymann, Paul Heymann, Jettchen Kahn, Adolf Kahn, Curt Koppel, Johanna Koppel, Hannchen Liepmann, Henriette Liepmann, Johanna Löwe, Martin Moses, Beate Ruben, Flora Samuel, Karl Schack, Minna Schack, Werner Sochaczewski, Margot Sochazewski, verh. Darvill, Sophie Vogel, Sara Vogel

Bernhard Liepmann, born on 24 July 1905 in Altona, murdered on 23 Sept. 1940 in the Brandenburg/Havel euthanasia killing center
Hannchen Liepmann, born on 19 Dec. 1883 in Hamburg, deported on 6 Dec. 1941 to Riga
Henriette Liepmann, born on 27 Feb. 1872 in Hamburg, deported on 6 Dec. 1941 to Riga
Flora Samuel, née Liepmann, born on 28 Sept. 1877 in Hamburg, deported on 6 Dec. 1941 to Riga

Stolpersteine in Hamburg-Neustadt, at Grossneumarkt 38 (formerly Schlachterstrasse)

Bernhard Liepmann’s mother Hannchen (according to birth register entry: Hanchen), Henriette Liepmann, as well as her sister Flora Samuel were born into a large family in Hamburg-Neustadt. Their father Nathan Liepmann, born on 8 May 1844, and Rebecka Mathilde, née Kussel, born on 14 Sept. 1847, married on 20 June 1869. The couple had eleven children between 1869 and 1889. When the oldest daughter Henriette was born in 1872, the family lived at 2nd Marktstrasse 16 (later Marcusstrasse). Nathan Liepmann was a "Kommis,” a dated German term for sales or office clerk. Later he worked as a trader. When Flora was born in 1877, her parents moved to Neuer Steinweg 91 and Hannchen was born in the apartment at Neuer Steinweg 60. In 1891, the Hamburg directory lists the Liepmann family at the former Schlachterstrasse 47, house 4. In the Lazarus-Gumpel-Stift there, a residential home, the family lived in a four-room apartment. Apart from Hannchen, Henriette, and Flora, the following children belonged to the family: John Liepmann, born on 25 Oct. 1881; David Liepmann, born on 16 Dec. 1869; Ferdinand Liepmann, born on 15 July 1874; Frieda Liepmann, born on 12 Feb. 1879; Siegmund Liepmann, born on 15 Sept. 1880.

Siegmund Liepmann, born on 24 July 1876; Max Liepmann, born on 6 Jan. 1883; and Sam Liepmann, born on 14 Mar. 1889, had already died in early childhood. Siegmund Liepmann, born in 1880, was killed in action during the First World War in 1916.

Henriette Liepmann completed an apprenticeship as a commercial clerk at the Oppenheim & Rappolt Company at Admiralitätsstrasse 71/72 (from 1897 onward: Rappold & Söhne) after attending the "Bürgerrealschule mit Fremdsprachen als Lehrfach,” a ten-grade school for middle-class children with foreign languages as an academic discipline. In later documents, Henriette was listed at the company as a warehouse employee. Her younger brother, John Liepmann, reported that his sister always worked in the company that trained her. After the business moved to Mönckebergstrasse 11, she was responsible for textile purchasing in London and Paris in a managerial position until her retirement in Mar. 1937. Henriette had made a significant contribution to her family’s livelihood during her working life because her father Nathan Liepmann had already become unemployed at the age of 56 due to health problems.

Hannchen Liepmann had completed an apprenticeship as a sales assistant. From May to Oct. 1904, she worked in Berlin, where her older brothers David and Ferdinand also lived. In Berlin, she met the merchant Jacob Müller. When she became pregnant by him, she gave up her position and returned to the household of her parents in Hamburg. Son Bernhard was born on 24 July 1905 in Altona at Schulterblatt 139. Hannchen Liepmann worked for many years at the Alexander & Magnus suspender plant at Pickhuben 4. In 1920, probably through facilitation by her sister Henriette, she was then employed at the Rappold & Söhne plant as a "rubber coat gluer.” As a result of an illness, however, her earnings were very low. She suffered from temporary paralysis of the arms and legs. Also, a crippled thumb prevented her from some activities. Every two years, she was allowed to take a cure at Waldesruh in Lüneburg. In 1935, her Jewish religious tax (Kultussteuer) file card of the Hamburg Jewish Community notes: "unemployed for nine years.” At this time, she was managing the household of her mother, who was 88 years old by then, and of her sister Henriette. Bernhard Liepmann’s father Nathan had died on 20 Mar. 1926 at the age of 82.

Flora Samuel, née Liepmann, had her own apartment in the Lazarus-Gumpel-Stift at Schlachterstrasse 47, house no. 4. She also worked as a "gluer” for Rappold & Söhne. For a time, she lived in Britain and probably also in Berlin, where her husband Heinrich Samuel had passed away. Since 1921, she was a member of the Jewish Community in Hamburg.

The Lazarus-Gumpel-Stift had already become a "Jews’ house” ("Judenhaus”) when the three sisters Hannchen and Henriette Liepmann as well as Flora Samuel received their "evacuation order” for deportation to the East on 6 Dec. 1941 by registered mail. They were probably already at the collection point in the building of the former "Provincial Masonic Lodge for Lower Saxony” on Moorweidenstrasse, where they had to report to before their departure, when they informed their brother John Liepmann, who lived with his wife Adele in Dortmund, about their forthcoming "departure.” A hastily written postcard, dated 5 Dec. 1941, reached him with the following content: "Dear loved ones! I inform you that tomorrow, Saturday, 6 Dec. 1941, at 11 o’clock, we will depart; for two more days, we have been nicely fed here. Hope you are quite well. I will keep you posted. With kind regards and kisses. Your Dreimäderlhaus ["three girls’ house”].” And on the other side of the card: "Dear loved ones, one more farewell and stay healthy, give our best to Adele. You will hear from us.
Your Dreimäderlhaus”

The transport, which the next day left the Hanseatic city with 753 Hamburg Jews from the former Hannoversche Bahnhof railway station, the site of today’s Lohseplatz, was originally destined for Minsk. However, it was diverted to Riga and ended outside Riga, in the vacant Jungfernhof estate six kilometers (nearly 4 miles) away. It is not known whether the sisters died there, where dreadful living conditions prevailed, or whether they belonged to the 1,700 to 1,800 persons who were shot during "Operation Dünamünde” ("Aktion Dünamünde”) in the forest of Bikernieki in Mar. 1942.
John Liepmann survived the Holocaust and died in Dortmund in 1964. He never heard from his sisters again.

Bernhard Liepmann’s brother Ferdinand was deported from Berlin to Theresienstadt on 17 Mar. 1943 and further to Auschwitz on 16 May 1944.
Bernhard, Hannchen Liepmann’s son, was severely ill due to an infectious disease of his mother during pregnancy. After his birth, he had first remained with his midwife in Altona and was later placed with a foster family in Hamburg-Hamm. Already as an infant Bernhard often had to be treated in hospital. Following another stay in the St. Georg General Hospital in 1906, his foster parents failed to pick him up from there. They were probably overwhelmed with the sick child.

Bernhard first came to an orphanage. Since there he did not develop according to his age, on 13 Apr. 1907, almost two years old, he was admitted to the former Alsterdorf Asylum (Alsterdorfer Anstalten, today Protestant Alsterdorf Foundation [Evangelische Stiftung Alsterdorf])

Michael Wunder describes Bernhard Liepmann’s fate: "Bernhard was regarded as ‘born out of wedlock.’ With his health impaired due the mother’s syphilis, the infant often had to be treated at the St. Georg General Hospital. The child lay there on the ward for a total of eleven months. Before turning two years of age, Bernhard was transferred to the Alsterdorf Asylum; the diagnosis was: ‘idiot’.”

Bernhard Liepmann frequently had to be treated in hospitals throughout his childhood and youth. He had skin diseases, eczema, boils, and frequent colds. He developed very haltingly. The physician stated, "Made a completely idiotic impression in the first few years.” Bernhard did not learn to walk until he was five years old. He learned to go to the toilet on his own even later. He was suffering from continuous salivation. He could not participate in many things because he was paralyzed in the arms. He often had states of excitement when, as the records say, "something did not go his way.” Nevertheless, he tried to make himself useful. He helped to clear the dishes and also transported the kettles to the kitchen. While sitting, however, he constantly made movements with his upper body. Nevertheless, over the years he learned to report when he needed to be taken to the toilet. He even learned to stay dry at night. For the nurses, however, Bernhard meant a lot of effort. He could only eat mushy food because he was unable to chew properly due to his disability. He only uttered "some garbled, incomprehensible words.”

After 1933, the Alsterdorf Asylum developed into a Nazi model operation where eugenics ideas were supported and, associated with them, forced sterilization as "prevention of unworthy life” ("Verhütung unwerten Lebens”). It was only a matter of time before the persecution of the Jews in the German Reich also led to corresponding measures at the Alsterdorf Asylum. A ruling by the Reich Audit Office (Reichsfinanzhof) of 18 Mar. 1937 served as a pretext for preparing the discharge of all Jews from the Alsterdorf Asylum. Pastor Friedrich Karl Lensch, the director of the Alsterdorf Asylum, deduced from the verdict the danger of the loss of non-profit status under tax law if Jews continued to stay in the institution. A letter dated 3 Sept. 1937 to the Hamburg Welfare Authority contained 18 names of "Jewish charges who are accommodated here at the expense of the welfare authority,” including that of Bernhard Liepmann. On 31 Oct. 1938, together with 14 other Jewish residents from Alsterdorf, he was first transferred to the Oberaltenallee care home (Versorgungsheim Oberaltenallee). Unlike most of the Jewish people deported from Alsterdorf, Bernhard Liepmann probably remained in the Oberaltenallee care home for the next two years.

In the spring/summer of 1940, the "euthanasia” headquarters in Berlin, located at Tiergartenstrasse 4, planned a special operation aimed against Jews in public and private sanatoriums and nursing homes. It had the Jewish persons living in the institutions registered and moved together in what were officially so-called collection institutions. The Hamburg-Langenhorn "sanatorium and nursing home” ("Heil- und Pflegeanstalt” Hamburg-Langenhorn) was designated the North German collection institution. All institutions in Hamburg, Schleswig-Holstein, and Mecklenburg were ordered to move the Jews living in their facilities there by 18 Sept. 1940.

Bernhard Liepmann arrived in Langenhorn on 18 Sept. 1940. On 23 September, he was transported to Brandenburg/Havel with a further 135 patients from North German institutions. The transport reached the city in the Mark (March) on the same day. In the part of the former penitentiary converted into a gas-killing facility, the patients were immediately driven into the gas chamber and killed with carbon monoxide. Only Ilse Herta Zachmann escaped this fate at first (see corresponding entry).

We do not know whether, and if so, when Bernhard Liepmann’s relatives became aware of his death. His entry in the birth register contains a notice of death according to which his death occurred on 31 Jan. 1941 and was recorded under register number 358 in 1941 at the records office of Chelm II. Those murdered in Brandenburg, however, were never in Chelm (Polish) or Cholm (German), a town east of Lublin. The former Polish sanatorium there no longer existed after SS units had murdered almost all patients on 12 Jan. 1940. Also, there was no German records office in Chelm. Its fabrication and the use of postdated dates of death served to disguise the killing operation and at the same time enabled the authorities to claim higher care expenses for periods extended accordingly.

Nothing is known about the fates of Hannchen Liepmann’s siblings David and Frieda Liepmann. Bernhard Liepmann, his mother Hannchen Liepmann, and her sisters Henriette Liepmann as well as Flora Samuel are commemorated by Stolpersteine in Hamburg-Neustadt at Grossneumarkt 38.

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

© Susanne Rosendahl

Quellen: 1; 4; 6; 7; 8; 9; AB; StaH 133-1 III Staatsarchiv III, 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); 332-5 Standesämter 14579 Geburtsregister Nr. 1829/1905 Liepmann Bernhard, 16 Sterberegister Nr. 2096/1876 Siegmund Liepmann, 144 Sterberegister Nr. 1914/1883 Max Liepmann, 257 Sterberegister Nr. 959/1889 Sam Liepmann, 1912 Geburtsregister Nr. 4548/1877 Flora Liepmann, 1951 Geburtsregister Nr. 854/1897 Frieda Liepmann, 2050 Geburtsregister Nr. 203/1883 Max Liepmann, 2062 Geburtsregister Nr. 6013/1883 Hanchen Liepmann, 2009 Geburtsregister Nr. 5032/1881 Lohn Liepmann, 2050 Geburtsregister Nr. 203/1883 Max Liepmann, 2197 Geburtsregister Nr. 1221/1889 Sam Liepmann, 14579 Geburtsregister Nr. 1829/1905 Bernhard Liepmann, 1884 Geburtsregister Nr. 3448/1876 Siegmund Liepmann, 1982 Geburtsregister Nr. 4346/1876 Siegmund Liepmann, 9818 Sterberegister Nr. 620/1926 Nathan Liepmann; 351-11 Amt für Wiedergutmachung 5629 John Liepmann; 351-14 Arbeits- und Sozialfürsorge, Abl. 1999/2 Hannchen Liepmann; 522-1 Jüdische Gemeinden 922 e 2 Band 3, Deportationslisten; Evangelische Stiftung Alsterdorf, Archiv, Erbgesundheitskarteikarte Bernhard Liepmann; Evangelische Stiftung Alsterdorf, Archiv, Aufnahmebuch. Wunder, Michael/Genkel, Ingrid/Jenner, Harald, Auf dieser schiefen Ebene gibt es kein Halten mehr. Die Alsterdorfer Anstalten im Nationalsozialismus, Stuttgart 2016, S. 23. Meyer, Beate, Die Verfolgung und Ermordung der Hamburger Juden 1933–1945. Geschichte. Zeugnis. Erinnerung, S. 64ff.
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