Else von der Wall
* 1892

Else von der Wall, b. 3.7.1892, deported to Lodz on 10.25.1941

Else von der Wall was born in Norden in East Frisia, the daughter of Moses Joseph and Georgine von der Wall, née Wollf. During the Second World War, Else, her older sister, Eva, and Eva’s husband Schlomo lived in Hamburg. The single, childless Else always lived as a sub-lessee, first at Hansastrasse 65, then at Rutschbahn 39, Grindelhof 62, and finally, at Grindelallee 116 in the apartment of her sister’s family.

Else von der Wall worked as a "housekeeper"; her last such appointment was with the Kessler family at Innocentiastrasee 47. It is to be assumed that she received only a modest salary since she had to pay only a small sum as her Jewish religious communal tax. From the records it is clear that she originally wanted to emigrate in February 1939, a wish that could not be realized for unknown reasons. The beginning of the Second World War foiled these plans once and for all.

Like other Jews, she, too, had to adopt the given name "Sara" and was compelled to wear the “Jewish Star” as of September 1941. On 25 October 1941, she and her relatives received the deportation order for the Lodz ghetto.

This was the first deportation from Hamburg to Lodz. All 1,037 Jews, who had received the order, had to assemble on the preceding evening at the building of the Lower Saxony Masonic Lodge on Moorweidenstrasse. They were allowed to carry luggage of no more than 110 lbs. per person, food for two days, and 100 RM. The trip was supposed to take 25 hours, yet got to Lodz only after two days. Whether Else von der Wall worked in the Lodz “production ghetto” and how she died is not known. Today, in addition to a memorial stone at Grindelallee 116, a brass plaque commemorating the Holocaust has her name inscribed on it in her Norden hometown.

Translator: Richard Levy
Kindly supported by the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung, Hamburg.