Gertrud Levy
* 1889

Gertrud Levy, born 07/22/1889 in Göttingen, deported to Riga on 12/06/1941

Husumer Strasse 12

Bothe of Gertrud Levy’s parents came from Jewish merchant families. Her father Nathan Levy was born 1863 in the county of Landsberg an der Warthe (1895: 421 inhabitants, of whom four were Jews). At the time, the area was part of the Prussian province of Brandenburg, today it belongs to the western Polish voivodship of Lebus. Nathan left the region where he was born at the age of 18 and came to Göttingen in 1881. There, he married the Jew Sulka Kaufmann from Dransfeld near Göttingen in 1899. The couple had two daughters, Clara and Gertrud. We know nothing about the life of Clara.

Gertrud first worked in Göttingen as a housemaid and governess, In 1930, her mother died. In October, 1933, Gertrud left Göttingen together with her father. Nathan Levy left Nazi Germany and settled in Prague. Gertrud, now 44, moved to Hamburg and found shelter with Ludwig and Pauline Schwabe at Husumer Strasse 12 (Pauline was an aunt of Gertrud’s from her mother’s side – cf. there).

Gertrud led a very modest life as a worker and saleswoman. Only once during her eight years in Hamburg was she even assessed for culture tax by the Jewish Community.

On December 6th, 1941, Gertrud Levy was deported to Riga and murdered there.

Eight days later, Ludwig and Pauline Schwabe took their own life, aged 73 and 77.

Gertrud’s father Nathan Levy, who had hoped to have escaped from racist terror in Czechoslovakia, was deported to the Theresienstadt Ghetto by the German occupants on January 30th, 1942. He died there on May 1st, 1943 at the age of 79.

Translated by Peter Hubschmid
Kindly supported by the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung, Hamburg.