Leo Wolff
* 1864

Leo Wolff, born on 27 Nov. 1864 in Hamburg, deported on 6 Dec. 1941 to Riga-Jungfernhof and murdered there
Toni Rahel Wolff, née Landsberger, born on 24 July 1869 in Berlin, deported on 6 Dec. 1941 to Riga-Jungfernhof and murdered there

Heinrich-Barth-Strasse 8

Leo Wolff was born as the son of Siegfried and Julie (née Westphal) Wolff in Hamburg. Initially, he lived with his wife Toni (also Tony), née Landsberger, in Cologne. Their daughter Lilly (see corresponding entry) was born there as well, on 26 Nov. 1896. In 1916, the family moved to Hamburg.

There, Leo Wolff, a merchant by trade, worked as a commercial agent for several footwear companies based across Germany. In Dec. 1934, these businesses included Badner und Co. in Dresden, a rubber goods manufacturer in the Odenwald Mountains, the Pöhler Company in Naumburg/Saale, the Buller Company, the Max Hubrich sneaker manufacturer in Lössnitz in the Ore Mountains, as well as the Storkow (Mark) Company. Since Leo Wolff suffered from rheumatism, he increasingly had a harder time taking care of his clients, making fewer sales all the time. Gradually, companies terminated their contracts with him. They justified this with the declining deals concluded. They did not spell out the fact that after the Nazis’ assumption of power in 1933, it no longer seemed opportune to employ Jewish representatives. Leo Wolf, by then 69 years old, and his wife were caught in financial straits. Initially, in Apr. 1934, he applied to the welfare office for rent subsidies, later that year also for small pensioner’s assistance for himself and his wife. The reports by welfare services make it clear that the department’s staff were aware of the anti-Semitic reasons for Wolff’s terminations. In Oct. 1938, Leo Wolff had to give up even the last of his representations. In November, his pension was cut, leaving him with only 60 RM a month henceforth, which did not even cover the rent for the family apartment. Daughter Lilly supported her parents financially to the extent she could. However, without welfare assistance payments, the Wolffs were not able to cover the expenses for food and rent, always renting out a room as it was. Even selling personal effects could not compensate for the pension reduction: For 9 tablespoons and 1 children’s spoon, 1 teaspoon, 6 forks, 1 cake server, 7 “pieces of serving cutlery,” 2 filled knife buckles made of silver, as well as a wristwatch with a cylinder escapement, and a “defective” lever watch made of gold, he received 7.63 RM.

The Wolff family was compelled to move several times within Hamburg. Until Jan. 1923, Leo Wolff had owned a summerhouse at Nusskamp 28 in Fuhlsbüttel, which probably did not serve as accommodation though. In 1933, he lived with his wife and daughter at Schleidenplatz 7 (today Biedermannplatz) in Barmbek. In 1934, they moved within Barmbek, to Meister-Francke-Strasse 5. In order to come up with the rent for the one-bedroom apartment, where the family lived until 28 Mar. 1938, they rented out a room to a woman and her 14-year-old son. However, even this additional income no longer sufficed for them to be able to cover their everyday living expenses. After all, apart from the rent, Leo and Toni Wolff also had to apply for assistance toward medical expenses, which was initially approved by the Hamburg municipal welfare department for the time being.

The subtenants continued to live in the apartment until 10 Feb. 1935. In order to be able to pay the rent for the apartment even after these had moved out, the family rented out the room to a single hospital employee starting in 1936. During this time, Lilly slept in the kitchen on “a very old chaise longue.”

On 28 Mar. 1938, Leo, Toni, and Lilly moved from Meister-Francke-Strasse into a one-bedroom apartment at Heinrich-Barth-Strasse 34, where they resided only seven months though, “since all of the Jewish families in the building at Heinr[ich-]Barthstr[asse] 34 were given notice.” From 20 Nov. 1938 until their deportation on 6 Dec. 1941, they found accommodation at Heinrich-Barth-Strasse 8. The building was used as a “Jews’ house” (“Judenhaus”).

No more traces of the family could be found for the period from 1 Dec. 1939 and the deportation on 6 Dec. 1941.

After a night at the [former] Masonic Lodge on Moorweide, they boarded the train that reached Riga on 9 Dec. 1941. The Hamburg deportees were quartered in the makeshift Jungfernhof concentration camp. There, all traces disappear of the family members who perished due to hunger, cold, disease, or the mass shooting during “Operation Dünamünde” (“Aktion Dünamünde”). The exact dates of their deaths are not known.

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