Deportations - Additional Info Landmarks of Jewish History
The systematic deportations from Hamburg began in October 1941. At that time, the Jewish Congregation still had 7,547 members. They were not allowed to leave the country or decide on their remaining property or place of residence. 5,848 Jews were deported from Hamburg in 17 transports to ghettos, concentration camps, and extermination camps. The total number of Jewish Hamburg residents murdered is estimated at 10,000. To this day, not all of their names are known.
The Jewish Congregation was increasingly abused as an administrative apparatus of the Nazi authorities. It was forced to participate in the preparation and execution of the deportations. This included the establishment of so-called ‘Jews’ houses’ (‘Judenhäuser’) as forced accommodation and the implementation of increasingly strict regulations. At the same time, it took care of impoverished members and facilitated religious life.
Dissolution of the congregation
The Jewish Religious Organization of Hamburg existed until August 1942. It was then incorporated into the Reich Association of Jews in Germany, a compulsory association. Its Hamburg branch was under the control of the Gestapo and no longer had any independence. Like all Jewish organizations, the Reich Association was formally dissolved in June 1943. The last employees were deported to the Theresienstadt ghetto on June 23, 1943.
Captions
Arrival at Theresienstadt
Max Weiss, pen and ink drawing, circa 1949, reproduction, SHMH-Altonaer Museum, Inv. No. 2003-47,13
The Altona artist Max Weiss (1884–1954) was deported to Theresienstadt on 14 February 1945. In the camp, he secretly drew on scraps of packing paper. After his return to Hamburg, he created a series of Theresienstadt pictures around 1949, in which he processed his experiences.
Joseph Carlebach
School Principal and Rabbi, 1883–1942
Joseph Carlebach with his son Julius Isaak, photograph, undated, Image archive Institute for the History of German Jews, reference number PER00070
Joseph Carlebach headed the Talmud Torah School in Hamburg from 1921. In 1925, he became chief rabbi in Altona and in 1936 the last chief rabbi of the Synagogue Association in Hamburg. Five of his nine children were able to emigrate before 1939. The rest of the family was deported in 1941. In 1942, Joseph and Lotte Carlebach were murdered near Riga together with their daughters Ruth, Noemi, and Sarah. Their son Salomon survived the Shoah.
Max Plaut
Lawyer and Congregation Official, 1901–1974
Residence permit for Palestine, document, 1943, reproduction, Hamburg State Archives, reference number 622-1/173, D 1
The lawyer Max Plaut worked for the Hamburg Jewish Congregation from early 1933. In 1939, the Gestapo appointed him chairman of all Jewish organizations in Hamburg. In 1943, he was allowed to emigrate to Palestine – a remarkable exception. He returned to Germany in 1950 and served on the board of the Jewish Congregation in Bremen. Starting in 1965, he resided in Hamburg again.
Gertrude “Gerta” Warburg
Artist, 1856–1943
Gerta Warburg and two of her daughters, Karl Linde, photograph, 1900, reproduction, SHMH-Altona Museum, Inv. No. 1991-42,b
Gerta Warburg and her husband Albert (1843–1919) made their home in Altona a hub promoting the arts. In 1940, Gerta fled to the Netherlands with daughter Betty. In 1943, they were deported from there to Sobibor and murdered. Daughter Helene Burchard was murdered in Auschwitz in 1942. Daughter Ada Martienssen survived deportation to Theresienstadt.
Ida Dehmel
Patron of the Arts and Women’s Rights Activist, 1870–1942
Photograph, 1939, Dehmelhaus Foundation
Ida Dehmel engaged in women’s rights and the promotion of the arts. Forced to resign from her positions in 1933, she withdrew from public life. She refused to emigrate in order to continue looking after her husband Richard Dehmel’s estate and their joint home. Shortly after receiving the deportation order, she died, presumably by suicide.
Leo Lippmann
Lawyer, Tax Official, and Congregation Leader, 1881–1943
Fotografie, nicht datiert, Staatsarchiv Hamburg, Signatur 720-1/343-1, 00059020
The lawyer Leo Lippmann had been in charge of the city’s food supply during the First World War. In 1920, he was appointed State Councillor of the Hamburg Financial Administration, the first non-baptized Jew to hold this rank. He was dismissed in 1933. From 1935, he managed the finances of the Jewish Congregation. In 1939, he and his wife Anna turned down an opportunity to emigrate. Before their deportation, they committed suicide in 1943.
Seated Hermes
Cast bronze and marble, 1880–1890, SHMH-Altona Museum, Inv. No. 1991-259
The sculpture, designed in the antique style for an upper-class audience, belonged to the collection of Olga Martienssen, who probably received it from her parents Gertrude and Albert Warburg. Her niece, Dr. Ursula Nelle-Rublack, donated the artwork to the Altona Museum in 2016 in memory of “Gertrude Margaretha Warburg and her daughters, who were murdered by the Nazis.”