Beate Ruben
* 1895

Adolf Maurice Ephraim Ruben, born 20 Apr. 1863 in Paris, deported 19 July 1942 to Theresienstadt, killed 26 Sept. 1942 Treblinka extermination camp

Martin-Luther-Straße 21

Beate Ruben, born 4 Jan. 1895 in Hamburg, deported 25 Oct. 1941 to Lodz, killed 3 May 1942 at Chelmno (Kulmhof) extermination camp

Großneumarkt 38 (Schlachterstraße 46/47)

Adolf Maurice Ephraim Ruben was born in Paris on 20 Apr. 1863, where his parents had married on 26 Aug. 1856. His mother Alida Ruben (born 24 July 1831) was born in Amsterdam, the daughter of Mietze/Mietje Emanuel, née Digtmaker, and Machiel Alexander von den Broek (alternative spelling Brook or Wandenbrock). His father Eduard Ephraim Ruben (born 13 Sept. 1824) was the son of the Hamburg couple Abraham Ephraim Ruben and Betty, née Prager. He earned a living as a travelling salesman, and two years after their wedding in Paris he registered in Hamburg again at 2nd Elbstraße 34 (today Neanderstraße). Alida Ruben did not follow her husband to Hamburg until their son Adolf was two years old.

Eduard Ruben opened a “rummage store” in the St. Pauli neighborhood at Reeperbahn 66. As of 1897 the family lived at Bundesstraße 35. Alida Ruben died at the age of 75 on 14 Mar. 1907 at Israelite Hospital, Eduard Ruben ten years later on 25 Mar. 1917 at the advanced age of 92.

Adolf Ruben finished elementary school in Apr. 1878 and began a four-year apprenticeship as an engraver, chaser, gold and silversmith at Hermann Rädel’s workshop in St. Pauli, specializing in monograms and club insignias. Afterwards he worked for 14 years as an assistant at Joseph Bauer’s company in the same line of work at Kaiser-Wilhelm-Straße 115 before starting his own business.

He married Emma Cohen (born 5 Jan. 1862) on 31 Dec. 1888. She was born the daughter of Georg Cohen and Riecke, née Renner, in Kuhstedt, Osterholz District, and lived with her parents at Glashüttenstraße 5.

The couple moved to Peterstraße 65. After moving to Neuen Steinweg 14, they had three children, their son Georg on 17 Sept. 1889, daughter Martha on 11 Jan. 1891 and their youngest, Beate on 4 Jan. 1895. In 1905 they lived at Elbstraße 49 (today Neanderstraße), two years later they moved to Schlachterstraße 46/47, House 6 at the Jewish Lazarus-Gumpel-Stift Foundation. Georg Ruben underwent commercial training and became a soldier in World War I. When he was killed in Galicia on 24 Sept. 1916 at the age of 27, his parents had already separated.

Adolf Ruben moved into Peterstraße 59 as a lodger. In the years after the World War I, in which his business was no longer running well – which he attributed to being in the luxury goods sector – he set up a room for himself in his workshop at Marcusstraße 8 (today Markusstraße).

For a time he still received contracts from other companies and then gave up his workshop altogether. In the following years Adolf Ruben lived in a shabby back room on the ground floor at Martin-Luther-Straße 21 with Widow Grundlich. In 1933 he applied for welfare support because he could no longer scrape together the rent. In his room, which he had furnished more like a workshop according to an entry in his welfare file, he still did small repair jobs. Yet they were not enough to live from. Adolf Ruben’s last, not voluntarily chosen, residences were at the foundation Lazarus-Samson-Cohen-Eheleute and Levy-Hertz-Eheleute Stift at Neuen Steinweg 78 and at the Jewish Community’s old age home at Schlachterstraße 40/42, Building 2. Both facilities were already serving as so-called Jewish houses. On 19 July 1942, Adolf Ruben was deported to Theresienstadt. He was then deported to Treblinka extermination camp on 26 Sept. 1942 where all further trace of him was lost.

Their daughter Beate was a trained seamstress and as of 1914 was self-employed. Her mother Emma Ruben died on 13 Apr. 1928 at Israelite Hospital. After her mother’s death, she lived alone on Schlachterstraße. She had not had any further contact with her father since her parents’ separation. In 1936 Beate Ruben was forced to give up her business license. She received financial support from her sister Martha Dahms. Martha had trained as a hair stylist, and shortly after her divorce, she immigrated to the USA in the summer of 1922. Any hopes of bringing her sister Beate to join her were never realized.

Beate Ruben was deported to “Litzmannstadt” Ghetto in Lodz on 25 Oct. 1941. On 3 May 1942 she received her “departure order” in the ghetto at her address at Neustadtstraße 31. The term “departure order” was a euphemism for deportation to Chelmno (Kulmhof) extermination camp.

Translator: Suzanne von Engelhardt
Kindly supported by the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung, Hamburg.