Kela Schwarzschild
* 1900

Ignatz Schwarzschild, born on 18 June 1896 in Hamburg, deported on 6 Dec. 1941 to Riga, perished in Salaspils in 1942
Kela Schwarzschild, née Bamberger, born on 31 Jan. 1900 in Sulz, deported on 8 Nov. 1941 to Minsk
Leopold Meier Schwarzschild, born on 2 Feb. 1924 in Hamburg, deported on 6 Dec. 1941 to Riga, murdered in Salaspils in 1942

Schlankreye 17

The Cantor Ignatz Schwarzschild and his wife Kela moved into the ground-floor apartment of the new building at Schlankreye 17 in the mid-1920s. Their son Leopold, called Poldi, had already been born, and the second son, Salomon (Schlomo) was born on Schlankreye. Salomon survived the Holocaust. Later, he often came to visit Hamburg, providing details about his life and the life of his family.

Schlomo’s earliest childhood memories related to the playground in the courtyard complex, where the children felt very much at home. The buildings were owned by the Malereigesellschaft (the Painters’ Association), a cooperative. Politically, the neighbors tended to sympathize with the left, but these were not “little people,” as the apartments were not cheap. For the most part, the tenants were merchants, master craftsmen, e.g., from the Painters’ Association, and many teachers resided on Schlankreye. The Schwarzschilds were the only Jewish family in the neighborhood. They lived according to their religious laws, e.g., the children did not go to school on Saturdays. Schlomo Schwarzschild commented on this, “We were brought up that way … We are Jews, we are not Germans but Jews living in Germany…”

Schlomo’s father, Ignatz Meier Bertram Schwarzschild, as he was called in full, was a native of Hamburg. His father was the merchant Leopold Meier Schwarzschild and his mother was Bertha, née Cohen. At the time of Ignatz’ birth, the family lived at Hansastrasse 47.

Although born in Alsace, Kela Schwarzschild already came to Hamburg as a small child, because in 1901, her father, Selig Pinchas Bamberger, had assumed a position as one of the two rabbis at the “Vereinigte Alte und Neue Klaus” synagogue on Rutschbahn, an office he held until his death in 1936. In 1898, Selig Bamberger and Lea, née Kahn, were married in Wiesbaden. Lea was born in Wiesbaden, and her parents, Rabbi Leo Kahn and Sarah, née Dukas, resided there. The marriage of Lea and Selig Bamberger produced three children: Kela, brother Isaak, and sister Matel. Lea Bamberger passed away in Feb. 1914. She reached the age of only 37. At the end of 1914, the widower Selig Bamberger was married a second time in Hamburg, to Malchen Katzenstein, a native of Copenhagen. At this point, he resided with his children at Hansastrasse 42. The second marriage of Selig Bamberger produced four children: Martin Shelomo (born in 1918, died in 1984), Naphtali (born in 1919), Lea (born in 1920, died in 1976), and Abraham (born in 1921). These were Kela’s half-siblings.

Ignatz Schwarzschild was a cantor, i.e., an official singing and chanting liturgical music and prayers, at the synagogue located at Hoheluftchaussee 25. In order to support his family, he worked as an accountant and sold cigars as well as cigarettes. The directory lists him as a merchant. Kela Schwarzschild, too, worked to provide for the family’s living. She looked after children, cleaned, and cooked in other people’s homes.

In Jan. 1936, Ignatz and Kela Schwarzschild got divorced and both remarried. They moved out of the apartment on Schlankreye. Schlomo Schwarzschild stayed with his mother, after having spent some time with relatives; Leopold stayed with the father. Kela got married a second time, to Max Bundheim, a former private banker. Max Bundheim was a divorcee as well. With his first wife Erna, née Levy, whom he had married in 1920, he had four children: Norbert (born in 1922), Paula (born in 1924), Hilde (born in 1929), and Lotte (born in 1930). The Bundheim family lived on Parkallee. Max and Kela tried to emigrate. He learned English and trained as a non-medical practitioner and masseur. His wife called on consulates and made inquiries about visas. However, it was too late. From their home on Hansastrasse, they were deported to Minsk on 8 Nov. 1941.

In 1938, shortly after his divorce, Ignatz Schwarzschild got married a second time as well, to Betty Schwarzschild, née Sachs (born in 1909), with whom he had two children: Abraham (born on 8 July 1937) and Sara (born on 9 Sept. 1938). In 1938, he lived at Grindelhof 75. For his part, he did not make efforts toward emigration but taught Hebrew to young Jews willing to emigrate. He said to his son Schlomo, “God wants Jews to return to Judaism.” This is the way he explained the persecution and bullying of Jews. Ignatz Schwarzschild had to move with son Leopold and his new family into the building at Bornstrasse 22. This house was the Louis-Levy-Stift, a residential home built from an endowment in 1903. Upon his death in 1898, the benefactor had left a considerable fortune, sufficient to build three residential homes. The building on Bornstrasse included 12 apartments and two stores with one apartment each belonging to them. After the deportations in 1941, it became a so-called “Jews’ house” (“Judenhaus”) in 1942. In Jan. 1943, the foundation was abolished. Ignatz, Betty, Abraham, Sara, and Leopold Schwarzschild were deported from Bogenstrasse 22 to Riga-Jungfernhof. This camp was a pool of laborers for Salaspils, a camp to be built from the ground and actually intended for concentrating local Jews from the area around Riga, though this did not happen. The prisoners were forced to build this camp, the barracks, and the watchtowers with their bare hands, without proper clothing and provided with only poor nutrition. Many, including Ignatz and Leopold Schwarzschild, perished in doing so.

Of Ignatz Schwarzschild’s four children, only son Salomon (Schlomo) survived because he emigrated to Palestine at the end of 1939, when he was only 14 years old. Schlomo was on hachshara in Blankenese. During this time, he also sent greetings in a collective letter written by several classmates to Karl-Heinz (see entry on the Heynemann family) in Montevideo, a boy who had already emigrated and whom he probably knew from school. Schlomo Schwarzschild passed away in the night of 16 to 17 Aug. 2009 in Haifa (Israel) after a long and serious illness.

Ignatz and Kela Schwarzschild, their new spouses, and the children from Ignatz’ second marriage were deported and murdered. For Kela Bundheim, her husband Max Bundheim, and Kela’s stepdaughter Paula Bundheim, Stolpersteine were laid at Brahmsallee 19. For Abraham, Betty, and Sara Schwarzschild, Stolpersteine are located at Bornstrasse 22.

Kela’s younger brother Isaak emigrated to Palestine. Sister Matel was married to the Polish Jew Salomon Igla in Emden. She and her five children were deported to Lodz while her husband was in the USA preparing their emigration. She was murdered in Chelmno. The second wife of Selig Bamberger emigrated via Denmark to Sweden, subsequently living in Israel as well. The children from the second marriage also survived. The records of the Talmud Tora School contain an entry according to which Lea Bamberger left school as of 31 Mar. 1936, which may have been the date of emigration. Selig Bamberger died of a heart condition in Hamburg on 9 Aug. 1936. He was buried in the Jewish Cemetery in Langenfelde. In 1989, his mortal remains were transported to Israel, as he had wished when he was still alive.

Translator: Erwin Fink
Kindly supported by the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung, Hamburg.