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Alice Rosenbaum, geb. Kallmes
© Yad Vashem

Alice Rosenbaum (née Kallmes) * 1877

Hallerstraße 76 (Eimsbüttel, Rotherbaum)

1941 Riga

further stumbling stones in Hallerstraße 76:
Alice Baruch, Sara Carlebach, Charlotte Carlebach, Dr. Joseph Zwi Carlebach, Noemi Carlebach, Ruth Carlebach, Margarethe Dammann, Gertrud Dammann, Charlotte Dammann, Dina Dessau, Felix Halberstadt, Josabeth Halberstadt, Elsa Meyer, Margarethe Meyer, Julius Rothschild, Jente Schlüter

Alice Rosenbaum, née Kallmes, born 30 Aug. 1877 in Hamburg, deported 6 Dec. 1941 to Riga

Hallerstraße 76

The real estate and insurance agent Adolph Kallmes (1832, Hamburg–1898) and Sara, called Saravine, Fehr (1841, Peine–1913) married in 1861 in Peine. Their children Sigfried (1869) and Alice (August 1877) were born in Hamburg. The family lived in Hamburg-Neustadt at Neuer Wall 94 (1862–1877), Neuer Wall 92 (1869–1875), Neustädter Fuhlentwiete 92 (1876–1877), and ABC Straße 6 (1878–1890). They then moved to the newly incorporated district Rotherbaum to a ground-floor apartment at Grindelallee 102, where they lived from 1891 until 1898. After Adolph Kallmes death, his widow moved to Grindelallee 131a (1898–1909) and then to Grindelberg 36 (1909–1913).

Adolph Kallmes entered his real estate and insurance agency into the Hamburg Commercial Register in 1875, although he had been operating it since 1866. He had his own stand for his business on the Hamburg Börse, and included its location ("hint. PF 12”) in his entry in the Hamburg Address Book of 1880. After his death, his son Sigfried took over the business. Sigfried had attended the Johanneum secondary school until 1885, then apprenticed for three years as a real estate agent. He had worked in his father’s company since 1889 and was a member of the board of the Hamburg Realtors Association.

Alice Kallmes married the Hamburg merchant Benjamin Simon Rosenbaum (born 2 May 1861 in Hamburg) in 1896 in Hamburg. Their daughters Margarete Paula (born 1 May 1897 in Hamburg) and Wally (born 28 Apr. 1902 in Hamburg) grew up in the well-to-do neighborhoods of Rotherbaum and Harvestehude. The family lived at Grindelallee 162 (1897–1899), at Klosterallee 21 (1900–1916), and at Jungfrauenthal 12 (1917–1927). In 1928, Alice and Benjamin moved to an apartment on the 2nd floor of Lenhartzstraße 11 in Eppendorf.

In 1886, Benjamin "Benny" S. Rosenbaum and his father Simon Rosenbaum founded the accessories and fashionwear company S. Rosenbaum & Sohn in Hamburg. In 1892, the father left the company and Benjamin S. Rosenbaum changed the company’s legal form to a general partnership, with Nehemias (called Hermann) Rosenbaum (1863–1938) becoming co-owner in 1894. James Rosenbaum was a partner from 1897 to 1905. The family business had salesrooms in the Hamburg city center at various addresses: Neuer Wall 51 (1900–1901), Neuer Wall 51–53 (1902–1905), Alter Wall 60 (1906–1907), Alter Wall 63 (1908–1912), Alter Wall 58 Hinterhaus (1913–1916), and Dammtorstraße 40 (1917–1918). In June 1918, Benjamin S. Rosenbaum resigned from the company. Nehemias Rosenbaum took over, and from 1920 onwards ran the company together with another partner, Lilly Helene Salomonson, called L. Salden).

From 1920 onwards, Benjamin S. Rosenbaum, who had initially listed his name in the Hamburg Address Book as "Benny," then later generally as "B.S. Rosenbaum," ran the textile company Rosenbaum & Co. His wife Alice Rosenbaum was named as an authorized representative in November 1920. In January 1932, the company was removed from the commercial register. Benjamin Rosenbaum died in 1935. At the time of his death, the couple’s fortune amounted to a stately 500,000 Reichsmarks. The former State Councilor Leo Lippmann (1881–1943) took care of the family’s financial affairs and correspondence with the authorities. After the death of her husband, Alice Rosenbaum remained in the apartment on Lenhartzstraße for four years. On 1 Oct. 1939, she moved to the Pension Schlüter at Hallerstraße 76, 3rd floor. The move may have been a result of the Reich Law on renting to Jewish Tenants, which excluded Jews from tenant protection.

Benjamin and Alice Rosenbaum’s daughter Margarethe married the merchant Henry Fränkel (1886–1955) in 1919 in Hamburg. After finishing his schooling, a commercial apprenticeship, and military service from 1915–1918, he became a partner in his father’s textile export business, M. Fränkel, in 1919. In 1931 he dissolved the business and opened an agency for textile merchants, but it was gradually forced out of business by the anti-Jewish restrictions. Margarethe Fränkel died of breast cancer on 21 July 1939. An operation, performed by Prof. Dr. Arthur Israel (1883–1969), head of surgery and medical director of the Israelitic Hospital, was unsuccessful.

Alice Rosenbaum had to apply to the Foreign Exchange Office for funds for her daughter’s funeral costs and gravestone, as her accounts had been placed under a security order. Her son-in-law Henry Fränkel and his son Günther (1920–1985) had already emigrated to Shanghai via Triest at the end of April 1939. Alice had been granted approval from the Foreign Exchange Office to pay their travel expenses. The Japanese occupation army had established a ghetto in Shanghai in February 1943, in which Henry Fränkel was interned. Henry and Margarethe’s daughter Stephanie (*1923) emigrated to England.

Wally Rosenbaum, Benjamin and Alice’s second daughter, was married to Hans Simon (1893–1936). She was able to send her children, aged 13 and 15, to safety in England in 1938. She emigrated to New Zealand in 1939, since it had become largely impossible to get a visa for Great Britain. All of her accounts had been placed under a security order by the Foreign Exchange Office of the Chief Tax Authority on 19 Dec. 1938. She had to request written confirmation from the authorities at the Foreign Exchange Office to withdraw larger sums. When she emigrated and transferred her capital to a foreign country, the Nazi regime withheld 94% of the amount.

Alice's brother Sigfried Kallmes, his wife Regina, née Morck, son Adolph Sigfried Kallmes (co-owner of his grandfather’s real estate agency since May 1933), and another son emigrated to London in July 1939. In the summer of 1938, the renowned agency had been forcibly placed under the management of a trustee. It was liquidated on 30 Nov. 1938 and removed from the Hamburg Commercial Register in February 1939. All family members who emigrated had their German citizenship revoked, so that they lived in the UK as stateless persons. The Nazi state seized a large part of the family’s assets by means of the levy on Jewish Property (32,000 Reichsmarks), the Reich Flight Tax (22,000 Reichsmarks), the compulsory emigration fee to the Jewish Religious Association (4,000 Reichsamarks), the fee to the Deutsche Golddiskonbank (700 Reichsmarks) and the levy on jewelry and precious metals (7700 Reichsmarks). Valuable furnishings (including the high-quality room furnishings, a piano, Meissen and Royal Copenhagen porcelain figurines) had to be sold well below value. Sigfried Kallmes remained stateless in London until his death in 1948.

The Nazi state, in its endeavor to confiscate the property of the Jewish inhabitants of the German Reich, responded immediately to the intended sale of property by Alice Rosenbaum with a security order on her accounts. As a result, she was no longer able to freely dispose of her assets, which had shrunk to around 150,000 Reichsmarks (as of October 1939). The Foreign Exchange Office of the Chief Tax Authority allowed her free access to only 500 Reichsmarks per month. Any expenses exceeding that amount had to be approved. She even had to request 150 Reichsmarks for Christmas presents. In order to give the financial plundering at least the appearance of legality, new financial regulations for Jews were enacted. Alice Rosenbaum had to pay a levy on Jewish property of 66,000 Reichsmarks to the Nazi state and 20,000 Reichsmarks to the Jewish Religious Association, which, as the district office of the Reich Association of Jews, was a part of the Reich Main Security Office.

In November 1941, Alice Rosenbaum requested the withdrawal of 742 Reichsmarks from her secured account, 400 Reichsmarks of which were for "evacuation expenses.” As the reason for her request to the Chief Tax Authority she wrote: "Should I leave Hamburg on the transport on 4 December 1941, a request for Christmas money submitted on 1 December 1941 will be too late.” On 6 Dec. 1941 she was deported to the Jungfernhof Ghetto near Riga. The camp was nothing but cattle stalls and unheated barracks, into which about 4,000 deportees were crowded. A large number of them starved or froze to death; others were shot. Alice Rosenbaum’s exact date of death is unknown.

In March 1943, the Asset Recovery Office of the Hamburg Chief Tax Authority contracted the repossession agent Gerlach to auction Alice Rosenbaum’s "home furnishings which had been confiscated for the benefit of the German Reich." She had put some of her furniture into storage, probably before moving to the Pension Schlüter in September 1939, at the Heinrich Klingenberg company (furniture transport and furniture storage) at Winterhuderweg 6-10. Some of her belongings were auctioned on 25 and 26 May 1943 at the Klingenberg warehouse. The auction was announced in the Hamburger Fremdenblatt. It raised about 1000 Reichsmarks for the Nazi state, and about 200 Reichsmarks for the repossession agent. The pieces receiving the highest bids were a kitchen sideboard (60 RM), 2 chairs (54 RM) a two-door cabinet (40 RM), 18 cake plates (36 RM), 6 crystal plates (30 RM), 11 wine glasses (20 RM) and one gas stove (20 RM). The auctioneer noted the name of the buyer for each item sold. This particular auction, however, did not include many items that a wealthy family might have owned at that time, such as oil paintings, works of art, carpets, a piano, valuable books and high quality clothing. It is not known if these items were offered at another auction.

Otto Kallmes (born 4.10.1872 in Hamburg) was also deported to Riga in the occupied Baltic States on 6 Dec. 1941. He and his brothers Ivan (1863–1939) and James (1861–1919) owned the J. Kallmes, Jr. company, founded in 1860, a hide and fur traders at Große Burstah 13–17 in the Gertig Haus. Otto Kallmes, the son of the merchant Israel Kallmes (1835–1911) and Julia Kallmes, née Schöning (1839–1921), was probably a cousin of Alice Rosenbaum. He lived at Hallerplatz 13 (formerly Hochallee 13) from 1912 to 1939 in a building his family owned. His tax records with the Jewish Community list his last address before he was deported as Grindelhof 101, where he had lived since 1940, according to Hamburg Address Book. The company had been forcibly put under the management of a trustee, Henry Fick in May 1940 at the latest.

Fanny Kallmes, née Nathan (born 26.10.1871 in Hamburg), the widow of James Kallmes, lived in Hamburg at various addresses, including Eichenallee 43 (present-day Brahmsallee 15) (1898–1912), Harvestehuderweg 71 (1913–1921), Oberstraße 140 (1922–1928), Sierichstraße 90 (1929–1932) and Haynstraße 33 (1933–1934). From 1935 to 1939 she was no longer listed in the Hamburg Address Book as the main tenant. In the address books from 1940 to 1942 she was listed under the address Lenhartzstraße 13. On 15 July 1942 she took her life with sleeping pills in her ground floor apartment at Agnesstraße 3 in Winterhude. Four days earlier, her sister-in-law Anna Kallmes, née Goldschmidt (born 1 Feb. 1883 in Frankfurt am Main), the wife of Ivan Kallmes (1863–1939), was deported from Hamburg to Auschwitz. Rather than face the same fate, or deportation to the Theresienstadt Ghetto, the 70-year-old Fanny Kallmes chose to end her life.

Anna Kallmes had lived at Hansastraße 37 on the first floor in a 6½-room apartment. In 1942 she attempted to emigrate by ship to Spain. Her household furnishings, which were already packed in moving boxes, were auctioned on 25 Sep. 1942, with the proceeds going to the Nazi state. Her mother Cäcilie Goldschmidt, née Essinger (1859–1949) was able to emigrate to New York; her sister Alice Bohrmann, (born 3 Aug. 1885 in Frankfurt am Main) was likewise able to flee to the US. The placement of a Stolperstein for Anna Kallmes at Hansastraße 37 is planned.


Translator: Amy Lee
Kindly supported by the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung, Hamburg.


Stand: September 2019
© Björn Eggert, Claudia Garcia

Quellen: StaH 214-1 (Gerichtsvollzieherwesen), 583 (Versteigerung Hausrat 1943); StaH 231-7 (Handels- u. Genossenschaftsregister), B 1965-91 (S. Rosenbaum & Sohn); StaH 314-15 (OFP), R 1938/1738 (Alice Rosenbaum); StaH 314-15 (OFP), R 1939/2910 (Franziska Rosenbaum, Margarethe Rosenbaum); StaH 332-3 (Zivilstandsaufsicht 1866-1875), A Nr. 63 (Geburtsregister 1869, Sigfried Kallmes, Nr. 701); StaH 332-5 (Standesämter), 1911 u. 4098/1877 (Geburtsregister 1877, Alice Kallmes); StaH 332-5 (Standesämter), 8565 u. 138/1894 (Heiratsregister 1894, Fanny Nathan u. James Kallmes); StaH 332-5 (Standesämter), 8577 u. 58/1896 (Heiratsregister 1896, Alice Kallmes u. Benjamin Simon Rosenbaum); StaH 332-5 (Standesämter), 9131 u. 889/1897 (Geburtsregister 1897, Margarethe Paula Rosenbaum); StaH 332-5 (Standesämter), 7915 u. 603/1898 (Sterberegister 1898, Adolph Kallmes); StaH 332-5 (Standesämter), 9874 u. 655/1935 (Sterberegister 1935, Benjamin Simon Rosenbaum); StaH 332-5 (Standesämter), 9901 u. 403/1939 (Sterberegister 1939, Margarethe Paula Fränkel, geb. Rosenbaum); StaH 332-5 (Standesämter), 8163 u. 51/1939 (Sterberegister 1939, Iwan Kallmes); StaH 332-8 (Alte Einwohnermeldekartei 1892-1925), Adolph Kallmes, Sara Kallmes, Israel Kallmes; StaH 351-11 (Amt für Wiedergutmachung), 3374 (Alice Rosenbaum, geb. Kallmes); StaH 351-11 (AfW), 5448 (Regina Kallmes, geb. Morck); StaH 351-11 (AfW), 27866 (Wally Baer, geb. Rosenbaum verw. Simon); StaH 351-11 (AfW), 6198 (Anna Kallmes, geb. Goldschmidt); StaH 351-11 (AfW), 8670 (Henry Fränkel); StaH 522-1 (Jüdische Gemeinden), 992b (Kultussteuerkartei der Deutsch-Israelitischen Gemeinde Hamburg), Anna Kallmes, geb. Goldschmidt, Fanny Kallmes, geb. Nathan, Iwan Kallmes, Otto Kallmes, Alice Rosenbaum, geb. Kallmes, Nehemias Rosenbaum; Hamburger Adressbuch (Kallmes) 1862, 1865, 1867, 1868, 1873, 1877, 1878, 1880, 1884, 1887, 1889–1891, 1900, 1937–1942; Hamburger Adressbuch (Rosenbaum) 1896, 1897, 1899–1908, 1912, 1913, 1916–1919, 1925, 1927, 1928, 1930; Fernsprechbuch Hamburg 1931; Handelskammer Hamburg, Firmenarchiv (Adolph Kallmes, HR-Nr. A 10872; J. Kallmes jr., HR-Nr. A 4933; Rosenbaum & Co., HR-Nr. 19883; S. Rosenbaum & Sohn); Hamburger Börsenfirmen, Hamburg 1910, S. 332 (Adolph Kallmes; J. Kallmes jr.); Hamburger Börsenfirmen, Hamburg 1926, S. 524 (Adolph Kallmes, J. Kallmes jr.), S. 553 (S. Rosenbaum & Sohn); Villiez, Mit aller Kraft, S. 299 (Arthur Israel); Press, Judenmord, S. 115; Das Buch der alten Firmen der Freien und Hansestadt Hamburg, Leipzig ca. 1930, S. X16 (Adolph Kallmes); Bundesarchiv Koblenz, Gedenkbuch; Jüdischer Friedhof Hamburg-Ohlsdorf, Gräberkartei im Internet (Fanny Kallmes Grab B 10-340; James Kallmes Grab B 10-339).