Emma Hornemann
* 1873

Emma Hornemann, born on 23 Feb. 1873 in Viersen, deported on 25 Oct. 1941 to Lodz
Caspar-Voght-Straße 84

“The Jewess Hornemann owns: bonds, savings bankbooks, worth 9,125 RM [reichsmark] overall, and receives a monthly salary earners’ pension amounting to 88.40 RM. No security order [Sicherungsanordnung],” the Chief Finance Administrator (Oberfinanzpräsident) recorded in June 1939. However, the following year, her assets were frozen and Emma Hornemann was granted the monthly allowance of 140 RM for which she had applied. Since living in Hamburg or Wandsbek, respectively, she had moved several times and seems to have lived as subtenant in furnished accommodations throughout, as in the case of this, her last accommodation in Hamburg, as a subtenant of Magda Benzihn. She obviously made do with little money. This may explain her small fortune, which she had saved up working sometimes as a salaried employee and sometimes as a self-employed person.

Emma Hornemann was deported from Caspar- Voght-Strasse 84 to the Lodz Ghetto on 25 Oct. 1941. There, “she moved into one room without kitchen together with five other persons on 2 Nov. 1941” at Talweg 11/36. The occupation indicated was “pensioner with a social security pension.” She died on Christmas Day 1941.

Emma Hornemann had an older sister, Franziska, born on 1 Apr. 1867 in Viersen. She took her life on 26 July 1942 for fear of the deportation. When her body was found at Streekbrücke in the Alster River, the authorities tried in vain to find any relatives.

Translator: Erwin Fink

Kindly supported by the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung, Hamburg.