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Charlotte Rosenbacher (née Bendix) * 1874

Agnesstraße 39 (Hamburg-Nord, Winterhude)

1941 Minsk

further stumbling stones in Agnesstraße 39:
Richard Carl Abraham, Brunhilde Olschewitz, Manfred Olschewitz

Charlotte Rosenbacher, née Bendix, born on 2 Dec. 1874 in Dülmen, deported on 18 Nov. 1941 to Minsk, date of death unknown

Charlotte Rosenbacher was born as the daughter of the textile factory owner Meyer Bendix (1843–1905) and his Dutch wife Sara, née Spanjaard (1852–1912). When his brothers Pins Bendix (1832–1876) and Leeser Bendix (1839–1883) died, Meyer Bendix became the company’s sole owner. His mother, Sara Spanjaard from Borne/Netherlands, also came from a family of textile industrialists (S. J. Spanjaard).

Four years after Charlotte, her brother Paul (1878–1932) was born, who in 1905, following the father’s death, took over the "Mechanische Weberei für Leinen, Halbleinen, Gebild, Damast etc.,” a linen and damask weaving mill, and converted to Christianity in 1909. Around 1898, Charlotte married the lawyer Dr. Martin Rosenbacher, a native of Hamburg ten years her senior, whose father was Emanuel Rosenbacher (1833–1897). He co-owned Rosenbacher & Co., a banking and insurance company founded in 1872, which did business under the name of Wilhelm Rosenbacher from 1902 onward. A brother of Martin Rosenbacher, Paul Rosenbacher (1865–1930), worked in the father’s company. The lawyer Martin Rosenbacher, holding the certificate of Hamburg civic rights (Bürgerbrief) since 1888 and recorded in the register of residents as having Jewish religious affiliation, was listed in the Hamburg phone directories from 1895 until 1904 with an office address at Heuberg 10. Starting in 1907, he operated a joint law office with lawyer Letz at Gänsemarkt 33 (Nicolaihof). In 1898, Martin Rosenbacher left the parents’ home at Alsterchaussee 17 and moved with his wife into an apartment of their own at Heimhuderstrasse 64 on the second floor (Rotherbaum). On 25 May 1899, their only child, daughter Fritzi, was born there. In 1902, the Rosenbachers moved to an apartment on the third floor at Mittelweg 29/30 (Pöseldorf) for a short time – the building belonged to Martin Rosenbacher’s uncle, Nachmann Jacob Levy (1829–1904). A year later, they already purchased the urban villa at Agnesstrasse 39 built in 1902/1903.

The First World War brought far-reaching changes for Charlotte Rosenbacher and her husband, too. Right after the outbreak of war in 1914, Charlotte’s brother, the factory owner Paul Bendix, volunteered for military service. At his request, his brother-in-law Martin Rosenbacher managed the family company during his absence. Thus, Charlotte Rosenbacher moved with her family to Dülmen again for about four and a half years, the place of her childhood and youth. After the imperial army had been demobilized, Paul Bendix returned to Dülmen. Handing back the company management to the brother and brother-in-law Paul Bendix did not go as smoothly as the transfer in 1914. In the ensuing period, family contacts did not take place. In 1922, at the age of 57, Charlotte Rosenbacher’s husband passed away in Hamburg. As heirs, the mother and daughter continued the community of property, with the house and the other assets now belonging to them.

Fritzi Rosenbacher studied political science and obtained her doctoral title, Dr. rer. pol. In 1931, she married the mechanical engineer Hans John Sudheim (born in 1899), who was also a member of the Jewish Community. The daughter and son-in-law then occupied part of the spacious house at Agnesstrasse 39. As late as 1935/36, renovations took place in the building. On 8 Nov. 1936, the Sudheim couple reacted to the increasing instances of discrimination and harassment by the Nazi state and emigrated to Cairo. Charlotte Rosenbacher remained behind and in 1940, she was forced to have the additional first name of "Sara” entered in the phone directory.

The National Socialist state systematically recorded the assets of German citizens classified as Jews according to Nazi racial theory. The capital tax assessment for Charlotte Rosenbacher drawn up in Feb. 1936 constituted the basis for the economic plundering ensuing: In 1938/39, payment of the newly introduced "levy on Jewish assets” ("Judenvermögensabgabe”) amounting to 45,500 RM (reichsmark) as well as the surrender of any gold, silver and jewelry at the "Administrative Office for Economic Enterprises and for Commercial Affairs, purchasing point” ("Verwaltung für wirtschaftliche Unternehmen und für Verkehrsangelegenheiten, Ankaufstelle”) at Bäckerbreitergang 75 on 2 Nov. 1940. In the next step, the Nazi state decreed the confiscation of the securities account with the M. M. Warburg & Co. KG bank (94,100 RM) as well as the other balances. These instances of dispossession were covered up with special legislation and ordinances that resembled the practices in the period of the democratic Weimar Republic in form only.

The Nazi state had also ordered compulsory quartering according to "racial” principles. For instance, the Brunhilde and Manfred Olschewitz couple (see corresponding entry) was assigned a room in the house of Charlotte Rosenbacher in Nov. 1940. On 8 Nov. 1941, the Olschewitz couple was deported. On 17 Nov. 1941, one day before her own deportation, Charlotte Rosenbacher was informed by registered mail certificate that her entire assets had been confiscated as of 14 November. In this way, the Nazi state became the owner of the house and furnishings (later, in 1951, the value of the furnishings was estimated at 16,000 RM).

Ten days afterward, Charlotte Rosenbacher, by this time completely destitute and deprived of her rights, was deported to the Minsk Ghetto. All traces of her disappear there, and it was impossible to find any documents about her death. In 1950, the Hamburg District Court (Amtsgericht) declared Charlotte Rosenbacher dead as of 8 May 1945. According to the guidelines issued for the deportations by the Reich Security Main Office (Reichssicherheitshauptamt), she should have been deferred due to her age of nearly 67 and later deported to Theresienstadt, where she might have had a (small) chance of survival.

In the 1943 Hamburg directory, the residential building on Agnesstrasse was identified as the property of the Hamburg Property Management Company of 1938 (Grundstücksverwaltungs- gesellschaft von 1938 m. b. H.). It had been founded at the behest of the Nazi Gauleiter Karl Kaufmann and served to manage confiscated Jewish properties.

Fritzi Sudheim lived in Maadi near Cairo until her death in May 1959. Due to a prolonged illness of her husband, who passed away in May 1948, as well as a lack of adequate job opportunities, she lived in very modest circumstances in Egypt. The restitutions of robbed assets came too late for her.


Translator: Erwin Fink

Kindly supported by the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung, Hamburg.

Stand: October 2018
© Björn Eggert

Quellen: 1; 2; 4; StaHH 741-4, Alte Einwohnermeldekartei; AfW 250599; AB 1866, 1875, 1898, 1900, 1913, 1919, 1932, 1936, 1941, 1943; Telefonat mit Herrn K. O. B. (Dülmen); Standesamt Dülmen; Generalregister der hamburgischen Standesämter; Bauamt Hamburg-Nord; Amtliche Fernsprechbücher Hamburg 1895–1907, 1912, 1915, 1919, 1920, 1924, 1927, 1932, 1935–1940; Hamburger Börsenfirmen, Hamburg 1933, S. 516, 718; Wolfgang Werp, Das Textilunternehmen Bendix in Dülmen, in: Dülmener Heimatblätter 1-2003, S. 187.
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