Norbert Wagener
* 1901

Adolf Wagener, born 5/2/1877 in Hamburg, deported to the Minsk ghetto on 11/8/ 1941
Therese Wagener, née Worms, born 10/3/1876 in Hamburg, deported to the Minsk ghetto on 11/8/ 1941
Bruno Wagener, born 8/1/1909 in Hamburg, deported to the Minsk ghetto on 11/8/ 1941
Elise Wagener, née Polak, born on 3/1/1908 in Oldersum, deported to the Minsk ghetto on 11/18/ 1941
Uri Wagener, born 5/18/1940, deported to the Minsk ghetto on 11/18/ 1941

Wrangelstrasse 80

Herbert Wagener, born 8/17/1902 in Hamburg, deported to the Minsk ghetto on 11/8/ 1941
Therese Wagener, née Polak, born on 8/31/1896 in Oldersum, deported to the Minsk ghetto on 11/8/1941
Willi Walter Wagener, born 8/23/1927, deported to the Minsk ghetto on 11/8/ 1941
Heinz Wagener, born 11/29/1934, deported to the Minsk ghetto on 11/8/ 1941

Gneisenaustrasse 18

Norbert Nathan Wagener, born on 21/7/1901 in Hamburg, deported to the Minsk ghetto on 11/8/ 1941
Edith Mary Wagener, née Lippmann, born on 9/28/1916 in Hamburg, deported to the Minsk ghetto on 11/8/ 1941
Bela Wagener, born 1/11/1939 in Hamburg, deported to the Minsk ghetto on 11/8/ 1941
Jana Wagener, born 11/15/1940 in Hamburg, deported to the Minsk ghetto on 11/8/ 1941

Heinrich-Barth-Strasse 19, Rotherbaum

Therese and Elise Polak came from the East Frisian community of Oldersum. This town south-east of Emden had approx. 1.200 inhabitants. Jewish families had settled here since the beginning of the 17th century; a Polak family was first mentioned here in the census and residential buildings count of April 1st, 1842.

The two sisters went to Hamburg in the early 1930s. Therese registered with the Jewish community and lived at Woldsenweg 14 until she married Herbert Wagener on October 6th, 1933. On December 24th, 1939, her sister married Herbert’s brother Bruno Wagener. Both couples are said to have been very thrifty, industrious people.

Therese brought her son Willi Walter into the marriage; Herbert Wagener adopted him. Their son Heinz was a common child. After their marriage, they moved to an apartment on the ground floor of Gneisenaustrasse 18. Therese’s aunt Therese Presser (see there) lived on the third floor of the same building. Herbert Wagener was a butcher by trade, in the 1933/34 Address book, he was listed as Kopfschlachter (“head butcher”) at Düppelstrasse 33. He was a member of the Jewish Community, but his income remained so slight he did not have to pay culture taxes. The family’s three-room apartment is said to have been well decorated with mahogany furniture and rugs. But Herbert Wagener soon had to abandon butchery, the basis of his existence. Thereafter, he “accepted any type of work and also helped unload coal”, as a neighbor later told. In the course of the 1938 pogrom night, Herbert Wagener was detained at the Fuhlsbüttel police prison.

Having arrived in Hamburg, Elise Polak initially hired herself out as a housemaid (at least in 1936) After she married Bruno Wagener, she gave birth to their son Uri on May 5th, 1940, and she stopped working. Bruno Wagener was a commercial clerk. The young family lived in two rooms with Bruno’s parents, Adolf Wagener and Therese, née Worms at Wrangelstrasse 66 (now number 80). Their slight income wasn’t sufficient to rent an apartment for themselves. In this cellar apartment, Adolf Wagener, a trained coachbuilder, also had a workshop for repairing baby carriages, but it yielded only very little money.

Herbert and Bruno Wagener had an elder brother, Norbert, who worked as a travelling salesman. Norbert later married Edith, née Lippmann (born on 9/28/1916 in Hamburg). Her parents were Siegmund Lippmann born 9/4/1877) and Recha, née Tannenwald (born 10/28/1887); she died on 8/7/1936. On January 18th, 1938, Siegmund Lippmann married again; Sara, née Rosenblatt (born 4/3/1881) became his second wife.

When Edith met Norbert Wagener, she was working as a domestic servant. She also belonged to the German-Israelitic Community in Hamburg. Later, she began an apprenticeship (we don’t know for which trade or profession) and paid slight cultural taxes. She lived at Beim Schlump 5. Norbert and Edith Wagener’s daughter Bela was born on 1/11/1939, their second daughter Jana on 11/15/1940. This young family now also moved in with Norbert’s pa