Rosa Kallohn
* 1874

Rosa Kallohn, divorced Kothe, née Wolff, born 3.10.1874 in Altona, hidden from deportation in 1945, survived

Planckstrasse 16 (Ottensen)

Behind Rosa Kallohn, divorced Kothe, née Wolff, lay an eventful life: she had been married twice, had given birth to a total of seven children, and had experienced the persecution of one of her sons-in-law and a grandson who were active in the resistance against the Nazi regime. In addition, Rosa Wolff was Jewish. She and her second husband, the non-Jewish Paul Emil Kallohn, therefore also suffered Nazi persecution, as the Protestant husband refused to divorce his Jewish wife despite massive threats.

Thus Rosa Kallohn, as she was now called, remained protected from deportation by the "privileged mixed marriage" until shortly before the end of the war, when the Nazi regime sent out deportation orders even for these previously spared. Rosa Kallohn was on the list of those who were to be "shipped" from Hamburg to the Theresienstadt ghetto on February 14, 1945. Like many others, however, she did not follow the order, but hid, among other places, in a makeshift home of the then Bahnkoppel allotment garden association on Bornkampsweg in Bahrenfeld and survived the period of Nazi dictatorship just like her husband.

She was born Rosa Wolff on October 3, 1874, in Altona, then still an independent city on the Elbe. Her parents, the Jewish "Handelsmann" (merchant) Jacob Wolff, called Wulff (born in Kiel 21.9.1809) and his wife Jette, née Höllenstein, who was also Jewish, had lived there since 1861 and 1856, respectively, and had married here on June 8, 1876.

Rosa Wolff had a younger sister Hannchen (born in 1867), another sister had been stillborn. From Jacob Wolff's first marriage to Henriette Wolff came an older half-brother, Levi Jacob (born 15.8.1838 in Kiel).

Rosa successfully attended an elementary school in Altona for eight years. She then worked as a factory worker in various factories until her first marriage on June 2, 1896, to Max Carl Kothe, a Protestant bricklayer (born in Altona 5.2.1873). With him she had five children in Altona, who were recorded in the birth registers as Evangelical Lutheran: Berthold (born 25.11.1894); Hannchen Minna Hermine (born 15.9.1896); Hermann Willi Hugo (born 22.10.1897); Auguste Minna Louise (born 19.4.1899); Pauline (born 16.8.1903, died 17.7. 1904); Martha Emma (born 26.6.1905) and Karl August Kallohn (born 16.10.1907).

On February 24, 1906, the marriage was divorced. A little over a year later, on April 13, 1907, Rosa married a second time. Her new husband was the Protestant crane operator Paul Emil Kallohn (born in Altona 22.9.1881). The first child of this couple was born during the marriage to Max Karl Kothe (born 26.6.1905 in Altona) and later recognized by Paul Emil Kallohn as his child. The second child, Karl August, was also born in Altona (born 16.10.1907).

Even after the divorce, all family members kept in touch with each other. Max Carl Kothe got along well with Paul Emil Kallohn, Rosa Kallohn later recounted. Photos in which they are all pictured together bear witness to this.

Of the children Martha Emma and Karl August Kallohn we know that they were raised Protestant and confirmed. Karl August Kallohn completed an apprenticeship as a locksmith. He remained single. In 1922, Martha Emma Kallohn married Carl (also: Karl) Jonny Hagen, who was born in Altona and was 19 years old. The couple had two daughters, Thea Metta Rosa (born 28.10.1922) and Elfriede Johanna Paula (born 24.6.1929), both born in Altona.

With the handover of power to the National Socialists in 1933, the life of Rosa Kallohn and her family, which until then had proceeded along somewhat manageable lines, changed.

Although her non-Jewish husband was repeatedly urged to divorce his Jewish wife, he remained steadfastly loyal to her and took on heavy burdens in return. In 1943/1944, Paul Emil Kallohn, now a "Jewish Versippter" (a Jewish related person) in Nazi terminology, his son Karl August and Martha Emma's daughters had to perform forced labor as "Mischlinge of the first degree," for example clearing rubble.

The non-Jewish husband of Rosa's daughter Martha Emma, Karl Jonny Hagen, also stood by his wife, who was "half-Jewish" according to National Socialist categories. He belonged to the communists, member of the party, the KPD and, together with his comrades, resisted the National Socialist dictatorship. On July 11, 1935, he was arrested, tortured in the Hamburg Gestapo headquarters in the town hall as well as in the Fuhlsbüttel concentration camp ("KoLaFu"), and finally sentenced on May 5, 1936, to five years in prison for preparation of high treason.

He served his sentence in the Emsland punishment camps, where he got the divorce decree. His wife had filed for it; she was about to give birth to a child by another man.
After years in the Emsland camps, Karl Jonny Hagen was released in Hamburg in 1940. The military administration drafted the previously "unworthy of military service" at the beginning of 1943 for military service in the "Bewährungsbataillon 999". He was considered missing since the end of 1944 and was declared dead. In memory of Karl Jonny Hagen there is a stumbling stone at the corner of Steintwiete and Deichstraße (see www.stolpersteine-hamburg.de).

When Martha Emma Hagen and the father of her child Karl-Heinz Andreas, Walter Hermann Theodor Sierau, wanted to marry, they did not receive a state permit: "Mischlinge of the first degree" like Martha Emma Hagen, however, needed one to marry. They were denied it - as were other couples in their situation - on the grounds that the "purity of the race" should not be endangered. Martha Emma Hagen was threatened with incarceration in a concentration camp if she maintained the relationship. Walter Sierau was drafted for military service in 1943 and was later considered missing.

The persecution of her relatives burdened Rosa Kallohn in addition to her fears for her own fate. She was regularly summoned to the Gestapo headquarters in the town hall. When she once feared that she would be arrested there and deported directly, her daughter Martha Emma Hagen took her place. Her daughter, Thea Metta Rosa, later reported that her mother must have experienced terrible things there, because she returned traumatized.

As mentioned above, Rosa Kallohn's name was on the deportation list for the transport to Theresienstadt on February 15, 1945. But like many other victims, she dared to ignore the deportation order shortly before the end of the war and went into hiding. She was helped in this by her widespread family, so that Rosa Kallohn survived the time of the National Socialist dictatorship, as did her husband.

Paul Emil Kallohn died on November 27, 1950, and Rosa Kallohn on November 4, 1963, in her apartment at Planckstraße 16 in Altona, where she had lived for decades.

Rosa Kallohn's daughter Martha Emma Hagen, as the wife of a Nazi opponent and a "Mischling of the first degree," repeatedly received notices of termination for her accommodations until she finally found a place to stay with Karl Jonny Hagen's brother-in-law. As mentioned, she entered into a new relationship with the divorced non-Jewish Walter Hermann Theodor Sierau (born in Altona 17.1.1901) which produced their son Karl-Heinz Andreas (born 25.2.1939). This could be recognized as legitimate only after the war because of the denied marriage permission and then received the surname Sierau. His father had been declared dead in the meantime. But one of the early reparation laws allowed women who, like Martha Emma Hagen, had not been allowed to marry for "racial reasons" to subsequently legalize the union. This was granted on April 18, 1946, effective January 7, 1945. Due to a Control Council law, the marriage was declared invalid, but she and her son Karl-Heinz Andreas were allowed to keep the surname Sierau.

Translation Beate Meyer