Philipp and Margarete Guttentag, née Meyer, moved into this 5-room apartment at Hektorstraße 3 in September 1939. They had lived at Uhlandstraße 54/55 in Wilmersdorf for five years before being forced to move. Margarete Guttentag wrote in her declaration of assets that she and her husband sublet a partly furnished room in their apartment to Paula Rosenberg for RM 38 per month. Perhaps this was the same Paula Rosenberg as was registered as resident at Uhlandstraße 54/55 in May 1939. It is likely the Guttentags and Paula Rosenberg were friends and moved into Hektorstraße together. Certainly, a lawyer’s secretary named Ilte (Ida) Liebenthal, who had moved in with the Guttentags on Uhlandstraße in July 1, 1939, moved with them into their new apartment at Hektorstraße 3.

A week after the Czwiklitzers moved in, Philipp Guttentag died. On July 24, 1942, Martha Spicker was deported to the Theresienstadt ghetto, where she died a short time later. In September 1942, Adele Hoffmann moved into the apartment. She worked as a forced laborer at the Siemens-Schuckert works in Spandau. She stayed only a few months before moving in late January 1943 to Xantener Straße 20. She was deported from there a short time later to Auschwitz. Else and Rudolf Czwiklitzer were deported on October 26, 1942, to Riga and murdered on arrival. By the time Margarete Guttentag completed her declaration of assets, only Adele Hoffmann, Paula Rosenberg, and Gertrud Lindenbaum were left in the apartment. What happened to Paula Rosenberg is not known. A woman named Gertrud Lindenbaum, born in 1886, was deported on May 17, 1943, from Berlin to Auschwitz, where she was murdered. She might have been the same Gertrud Lindenbaum as lived at Hektorstraße but this has not been verified. Margarete Guttentag was deported on March 2, 1943, to Auschwitz, where she was murdered. About two weeks later, the apartment was passed to Karl Jeckstadt-Borchert, a member of the military.

Charlotte Heymann took the lease on a 3-room apartment at Hektorstraße 3 in April 1940. She trained to be a laboratory technician and kindergarten teacher but worked as a forced laborer for a telephone and telegraph construction company, Richard Bosse & Co, at Reichenberger Straße 79/80. Nevertheless, she was probably not forced to move into this apartment, as she is on record as already living at Hektorstraße 3 with her parents Martha and Bruno Heymann in May 1939. It is likely she took over her parents’ rental contract in April 1940.

Very little is known about Elise Adler and the circumstances in which she lived. Records show that she rented out two rooms in a mezzanine on the second floor. Whether she was forced to take in subtenants – indicating it was compulsory accommodation – is not known. It is possible she shared the apartment with her sister Ida May, née Adler, since she was also registered as resident at this address. Ida May was deported on March 28, 1942, to the Piaski ghetto. Elise Adler was deported on January 29, 1943, to Auschwitz. A short time later, the apartment was offered to a non-Jewish man named Herbert Krause, whose home had been damaged in an air raid.

Frida (or Frieda) Flessburg, née Weber, a soprano singer, moved into a 5-room apartment on the third floor at Hektorstraße 3 in 1932. Her daughter Ruth also lived at this address and fled at an unknown point in time to Switzerland. From September 1939 on, Frida Flessburg sublet two partly furnished rooms to Bertha Steigerwald and her husband Julius Steigerwald. They had probably moved from Sächsische Straße 6 in Wilmersdorf, where they were registered as resident in May 1939. In her declaration of assets, Frida Flessburg stated that a certain Kurt Lindebaum, who was registered as a partner in a “privileged mixed marriage”, rented a room for RM 45 per month. This shows that Jewish people who were spared some persecutory measures on account of their non-Jewish spouse were still forced to move into compulsory accommodation. On January 29, 1943, Frida Flessburg was deported to Auschwitz and murdered.

Wilhelm Lefebre and his sons Arthur and Kurt owned the property at Hektorstraße 3. They also owned some other properties in Berlin, including one at Oranienstraße 68, where Arthur Lefebre ran the stylish and popular “Sevilla” dance hall until repeated SS attacks, the Nazis’ antisemitic economic policy, and the impact of the 1938 November pogrom forced him to close in February 1939.

Edith’s father died a few months later, on June 14, 1943. The Lefebres’ apartment was cleared out on April 10, 1943, and offered to Paul Winkler, a bombed-out non-Jew, on April 12, 1943.

Rudolf and Alice Bachrach, née Glaser, moved in at Hektorstraße 3 in 1940 or 1941. They sublet a partly furnished room to Luise Wolff. What happened to her is not known. Rudolf and Alice Bachrach were taken to the assembly camp at Gerlachstraße 19/22 on September 30, 1942, and deported to the Theresienstadt ghetto on October 3, 1942. Rudolf Bachrach did not survive there long. Alice Bachrach was deported further on May 16, 1944, to Auschwitz, where she was murdered.

Ernst Friedrich Baschwitz and his wife Emma, née Sprossmann, stated they were resident at Hektorstraße 3 in the national census of May 17, 1939. Theirs was a “mixed marriage”, as Emma Sprossmann was not Jewish. Threatened with imminent deportation, on January 18, 1943, Ernst Friedrich Baschwitz jumped out of the window of their apartment.

Max Laboschin and his wife Erna, née Salomonis, lived in another apartment on the fifth floor. They moved in here in May 1939, immediately after tenancy protection for Jews was revoked. They shared the 2-room apartment with their daughter Gertraud. Max and Erna Laboschin witnessed their daughter being taken away for deportation to Auschwitz on March 12, 1943, before being deported themselves five days later to the Theresienstadt ghetto. From there, Max Laboschin was deported further on September 29, 1944, to Auschwitz; Erna Laboschin on October 4, 1944. None of the family survived.

In November 1939, Blanca Nehab, née Daniel, moved into a 5-room apartment on the fifth floor at Hektorstraße 3 with her adult daughters Elisabeth and Martha Nehab. She sublet two rooms of the apartment to Walter and Lotte Krotoschiner, née Gidsun, and their small children Lonny and Ellen-Gerty, and another room to Alice Werthauer, née Schweitzer. A total of six adults and two children then lived in the 5-room apartment. Blanca Nehab committed suicide on August 10, 1942, to avoid deportation. A few days later, Alice Werthauer also committed suicide. Elisabeth and Martha Nehab fled towards the Swiss border. Shortly before they reached safety, they were discovered and jailed in the cellar of the old schoolhouse in St. Gallenkirch. Elisabeth and Martha took their own lives, like their mother Blanca, to escape deportation.

The Krotoschiner family stayed behind in the apartment. They were joined by Lotte Krotoschiners’ parents, David and Jenny Gidsun, as Walter Krotoschiner stated in his declaration of assets of March 9, 1943. Lotte and Walter Krotoschiner were deported with their small daughters Lonny and Ellen-Gerty on March 12, 1943, to Auschwitz, where they were all murdered. Jenny Gidsun died the day after they were deported in the assembly camp at Auguststraße 17. Her husband David Gidsun was also taken there. He was deported on May 28, 1943, to the Theresienstadt ghetto, where he died on October 13, 1943.

The apartment at Hektorstraße 3 was renovated and passed in June 1943 to Karl Jeckstadt-Borchert, who had already taken over Margarete Guttentag’s apartment on the second floor in April.