Alice Bendheim
* 1875

Alice Bendheim, née Israel, born 5.7.1875 in Hamburg, deported 19.7.1942 to Theresienstadt, further deported 29.9.1942 to Treblinka extermination camp

Hochallee 104

Alice Israel was born on July 5, 1875 in Hamburg in the apartment Bergstraße 25 (near Petrikirche) as the daughter of the merchant Alfred Israel (born March 4, 1849 in Altona) and Julie Israel, née Israel (born July 8, 1850 in Hamburg). In November 1872 Alfred Israel (1849-1902) had married his cousin Julie Gunilde Israel (1850-1924) in a civil ceremony in Hamburg; on January 8, 1873 they were married by rabbi Max Saenger in the Israelite Temple (liberal Jewish community). Among the documents presented at the registry office were the groom's military certificate and the current vaccination certificates of both spouses.

The groom had only moved to Hamburg from the neighboring Prussian city of Altona at the end of October 1872; his parents Eliot Israel and Rahel, née Saalfeld were already deceased, the father was still listed in the Altona address book in 1870 with the "Manufacturwaarenhandlung B. Saalfeld & Israel" (Reichenstraße 23). The mother's parents, the merchant Adolph (Abraham) Israel (1813-1883), born in Schwerin and resident in Hamburg since 1840, and Emma Israel, née Levy (1821-1894), born in Copenhagen, lived from 1869 to 1894 in Grindelallee 128 (Rotherbaum), among other places. Adolph (Abraham) Israel, together with Benjamin Ahron Simon (1814-1882), had founded the large merchant firm Simon, Israel & Co. in Hamburg in 1843. As advocates for their economic solidity, they had named the following three companies or tradesmen at the Hamburg Commercial Court in 1843: Banker Martin M. Fränckel (Hamburg, Admiralitätsstraße 25), the firm A. J. Saalfeld & Co. (Hamburg, Ellernthorsbrücke 9, whose owners were the merchants A. J. Saalfeld and Ad. Alexander) and Michaelson & Co. (Stockholm); Adolph Israel left the company in 1879.

Alice's father, Alfred Israel, became the owner of the firm B. Saalfeld & Israel after his father's death, and he moved its headquarters to Hamburg. In October 1876, he acquired Hamburg citizenship. Alfred Israel (1849-1902) lived with his wife Julie Israel (1850-1924) at Bergstraße 25 (1874-1876), Bornstraße 1 (1877-1892) and Eichenallee 37/1899 renamed Brahmsallee 9 (1892-1902).

On May 22, 1898, Alice Rahel Israel and merchant Karl Bendheim (born Dec. 3, 1865 in Bensheim/Hesse) were married in Hamburg. The bride's father Alfred Israel and uncle Max Adolph Israel were witnesses. The 22-year-old bride had last lived with her parents at Eichenallee 37. The 32-year-old husband, son of the wealthy merchant Heinrich (Herz) Bendheim (1829-1902) and Eva Bendheim, née Bodenheimer (1832-1867), lived at Schlüterstraße 84 (Rotherbaum) and had founded the company Karl Bendheim, Großhandel mit Säcken, Juteleinen und Calcutta-Säcken (Karl Bendheim, Wholesale of Sacks, Jute Cloth and Calcutta Sacks) near the Freeport in 1893. In December 1902 he had acquired Hamburg citizenship. In 1905, the business address was Catharinenstraße 38-39. After the company's owner died on January 28, 1910, Gumpel Gustav Altmann (1848-1914), a brother-in-law from Hamburg who had been working for the company as an authorized signatory since 1897 (he married in Bensheim in 1885), and Adolf Heinrich Möller joined the company, which was now called "Karl Bendheim Nachf. Company”. In December 1914, Altmann's widow Sara, called Sophie Altmann, née Bendheim (born July 19, 1863 in Bensheim/Hesse), took over the business with a new partner and continued to run it at Deichstraße 48-50 until February 1933; she lived at Hansastraße 45 (1915-1933).

The childless couple Alice and Karl Bendheim lived at Klosterallee 29 (1900-1907) and at Alte Rabenstraße 26 (1908-1910). After her husband's death in 1910, the name of 35-year-old widow Alice Bendheim did not appear in the Hamburg address book for several years, which may indicate that she was living with family members.

For more than twenty years, according to the Hamburg address book, Alice Bendheim lived at Jungfrauenthal 24 (among others 1920-1941) in the Harvestehude district. A different residential address had been noted by the Jewish Community of Hamburg, where Alice Bendheim was not listed as an independent member until several years after the death of her husband. According to the tax card of the Jewish community (Kultussteuerkartei), she lived from about 1934 to 1942 as a subtenant at Hochallee 104 in the Harvestehude district with her uncle Max Adolph Israel (1858-1947), house owner and proprietor of the Stapel & Israel export company (founded in 1888, in 1926 his wife Louise Israel née Magnus as authorized signatory, in 1941 forcibly deleted from the register). For a time, the pianist E. Schumann was also listed as a tenant at Hochallee 104.

The Nazi state systematically seized Alice Bendheim's assets and valuables. The German Reich had enacted laws that were supposed to give the looting a legal appearance. In Alice Bendheim's case, these included (in rounded-off amounts): "Judenvermögensabgabe" (Jewish property levy) (RM 100,000), surrender of gold, silver and jewelry for a very small equivalent value (RM 30,000), payments to the Jewish Community now called Jewish Religious Association (RM 40,000) and confiscation of the household goods even before the deportation (RM 70,000).

In September 1938, under the pressure of state demands for money and coercion to sell, Alice Bendheim sold the apartment building at Kantstraße 39/41 (Eilbek) for around RM 60,000 less than its value to Albert Quast (Traunsallee 12, Wandsbek), who was co-owner of the barge chartering company Wolter & Quast (Klosterstr. 24/26). Also in the case of the property Pinnasberg 60/63 (St. Pauli), which had been bought up by the Nazi state in 1940 and in which Alice Bendheim owned a 50% share as heiress, the absentee guardian estimated the withheld sales value in 1947 at around RM 83,000 (= DM 16,600).

Since Alice Bendheim was deprived of the power of disposal over her checking account (except for a fixed "tax-free amount"), her securities account and her real estate due to a state asset freeze, her brother Albert Max Israel (born May 30, 1881 in Hamburg, married Ethel Bendheim, born May 2, 1884 in Savannah/Georgia/USA, parents: Adolph David Bendheim and Katie née Selig) in 1913), who had been living in New York since 1913, transferred the RM 413 for the purchase of a radio (visit to the music store) in July 1939 (the attendance of musical events, cinema and theater etc. had been forbidden to Jews in the German Reich by decree of November 12, 1938). Further restrictions followed with the beginning of the war, such as a night curfew, the obligation to shop in separate stores and to deliver radio equipment. In October 1939, the radio was therefore confiscated by the Nazi state without compensation.

In March 1941, April 1941, October 1941, November 1941 and August 1942, the auctioneer Louis Krohn, with business premises at Alte Wall 40, offered Alice Benheim's confiscated household for sale. Items worth around RM 70,000 were sold off for RM 18,000 and the proceeds passed on to the state treasury.

Shortly before her deportation, Alice Bendheim was supposed to have received an entry permit for the USA, according to the absentee guardian's (Abwesenheitspfleger) recollection in 1947. Presumably she wanted to join her brother. The departure probably did not take place because of the war situation.

On July 19, 1942, 67-year-old Alice Bendheim was deported to the Theresienstadt ghetto on Transport VI/2. From Theresienstadt she was deported after two months to the extermination camp Treblinka and probably murdered immediately; her exact date of death is not known.

Her aged maternal aunt Auguste Bentheim, née Israel (born 26.5.1853 in Hamburg), widow of the export agent Siegfried Bentheim (1842-1928), had lived until 1939 in a six-room apartment at Hansastraße 56, first floor. The valuable furnishings included carpets, paintings, an extra cabinet for silverware and porcelain. In September 1939 she moved to Haynstraße 10 II. On June 9, 1943, she was deported from the "Judenhaus" at Beneckestraße 6, where she had been committed, to the Theresienstadt ghetto. There she died seven weeks later on July 30, 1943.

Her brother Max Adolph Israel suffered a cerebral stroke after her deportation and died of paralysis in 1947. Auguste Bentheim's sons Ernst Ferdinand Bentheim (1874-1917) and Hugo Bentheim (1878-1915) had already died, and her two grandsons emigrated to England.

Translation by Beate Meyer