In June 1942, Ella Chraplewsky and her 21-year-old daughter Edith moved into a 37m²-large room as subtenants. Edith worked as a forced laborer for the pharmacist Hans Starke under the IG Farben group. Rosa Kniebel sublet another room, which was 20m² large, to Lucie Juliusburger. Like Rosa Kniebel, she performed forced labor for Siemens & Halske. With six occupants, the 4.5-room apartment was rather cramped. Minna Kniebel was the first to be deported. She was taken away on September 14, 1942, to the Theresienstadt ghetto, where she died a short time later. On November 29, 1942, Rosa and Henriette Kniebel were deported to Auschwitz. Lucie Juliusburger was deported with her neighbor Edith Chraplewsky during the Nazis’ “Factory Action” on March 1, 1943, to Auschwitz. Edith’s mother Ella Chraplewsky was deported two days after her daughter to Auschwitz and murdered.

Julius Coper and his non-Jewish wife Hedwig Coper, née Kuhn, moved into a second-floor apartment sometime around May 1939. They sublet a furnished room to husband-and-wife Heinz and Irma Bilski, née Seif, who had previously lived separately: Irma Bilski had been registered as resident in Bocholt on the Dutch border. Julius Coper and Heinz Bilski already knew each before Heinz Bilski moved in: In May 1939, they had both been registered as resident at Wichertstraße 40. This suggests that there was scope for taking personal relations into account when allocating housing, despite it being compulsory. Heinz Bilski worked as a forced laborer for the Reich railroads, Irma Bilski for Siemens & Halske. Their son Joel was born on March 18, 1942. About two weeks before his first birthday, Irma Bilski was deported to Auschwitz; her husband Heinz Bilski and son Joel three days later. All three were murdered. Julius and Hedwig Coper remained in the apartment at Schönhauser Allee 185–186 for the rest of their lives – until the 1950s. Most probably their “mixed marriage” saved Julius Coper from being deported.

Samuel and Anna Schaller, née Henich, moved into a 2-room apartment on the second floor on October 1, 1937. There was no kitchen. The Schallers paid to have a gas stove installed after moving in. They shared a toilet on the landing with their neighbors. Samuel Schaller died on July 7, 1939, in the apartment. Soon afterwards, Anna Schaller sublet one room to sister-and-brother Julia and Bruno Dobriner. From 1940 on, they shared the apartment with Gertrud Kahn, née Dobriner, and her ten-year-old son Norbert. They had been released from Radinkendorf labor camp. Whether or how they were related to the Dobriner siblings is not known. The apartment on Schönhauser Allee was the last known place of residence of Gertrud and Norbert Kahn before they were deported on April 14, 1942, from Potsdam to the Warsaw ghetto.

Anna Schaller was deported on August 10, 1942, to the Theresienstadt ghetto, where she only survived for a few weeks. Six months later, the Dobriner siblings took over the lease on the apartment. Unlike Anna Schaller, who had signed a rental contract with Süssmann Goldwasser, the Dobriners concluded a contract with the acting property manager, who had been appointed after the building had been confiscated. Julia Dobriner managed to evade deportation by going into hiding. She survived. After the war, she lived at Oderberger Straße 34 under the name Julia Perske. Her brother Bruno wrote in his declaration of assets that he did not know where his sister was. Whether this was the truth or whether he was protecting his sister in hiding is not known. Bruno Dobriner was deported on March 12, 1943, to Auschwitz, where he was murdered a month later.

Theodor and Regina Elkeles, née Kohn, became tenants of this apartment on January 1, 1940. They were forced to leave their previous apartment at Kopenhagener Straße 72. Their new home had two rooms, a coal closet, and a kitchen. Their children Ruth and Rudi were able to flee to Palestine. Theodor and Regina Elkeles were deported on October 19, 1942, to Riga and murdered on arrival.

Albert and Else Gotthilf, née Margolinski, and their children Gertraud, Eva, and Wolfgang occupied 1.5 rooms on the fourth floor. They moved in sometime before or around May 1939. Else’s parents Benjamin and Hulda Margolinski held the lease on the apartment. Else’s brother Siegfried Margolinski, who was also registered as resident at Schönhauser Allee 185–186, probably lived in the same apartment. Another brother of Else’s, Ascher Margolinski, also lived in the apartment for a time after his release from Buchenwald concentration camp on April 14, 1939. Later he married Margot, née Brock, and moved with her and Margot’s daughter Ruth Brock to Linienstraße 220. Their daughter Chana was born in November 1942. Just three months later, the family of four was deported to Auschwitz and murdered. Else Gotthilf died on April 27, 1941, of a stroke. Albert Gotthilf and his children Wolfgang and Gertraud were deported on March 1, 1943, during the Nazis’ “Factory Action”, to Auschwitz. Siegfried Margolinski was deported to Auschwitz the next day. Eva Gotthilf was the only member of the family to survive.

Betty Glindmeyer, née Rosenthal, and her non-Jewish husband Arthur Glindmeyer moved in at Schönhauser Allee 185–186 with their children Günther and Ellen before July 1939. Betty’s sister Gertrud Meyer, née Rosenthal, also lived with her family at this address, in an apartment in the rear building. On July 1, 1939, Isidor and Regina Rosenthal, née Brzcyniski – Betty’s and Gertrud’s parents – moved from Schwiebus (now Świebodzin) into this apartment, too, with their youngest daughter Dora Rosenthal and granddaughter Margot Meyer. Margot was Gertrud Meyer’s daughter, but lived with her grandparents in her aunt’s apartment.

In August 1941, Isidor Rosenthal took in another child, Stephan Pagel, who had lived in an orphanage since May 1939. On November 29, 1942, seven-year-old Stephan was deported alone to Auschwitz, where he was murdered. Just over a week later, Isidor and Regina Rosenthal were also deported to Auschwitz and murdered.

Dora Rosenthal managed to flee to the United Kingdom in 1939. Ellen and Günther, who were categorized as “of mixed race, first degree” under the Nazi’s race laws because their father was not Jewish, survived Nazi persecution. Betty Glindmeyer and her niece Margot Meyer also survived. Betty and Arthur Glindmeyer had declared that Margot was their own child to protect her.

Edith Schweigel was to stay in the apartment for only five months. She worked as a forced laborer in the Pertrix battery factory for a weekly wage of RM 15-18. The monthly rent of RM 11.95 took up a large part of her earnings. On May 4, 1942, the Berlin Jewish Community’s housing advice office – supervised by the General Building Inspector – issued authorization for Edith Schweigel to take over the lease on the apartment. Three months later she was deported to Riga and murdered on arrival.

Alfred and Gertrud (Trudy) Meyer, née Rosenthal, probably moved in here in 1938. They lived with their two infant sons Denny (born 1938) and Berl (born 1940). Their daughter Margot lived with Gertrud Meyer’s sister Betty Glindmeyer on the fourth floor of the street-facing building.

Alfred Meyer died on October 19, 1942, officially of a brain tumor. His daughter Margot later stated that he was murdered by the Gestapo. Gertrud Meyer and her sons were due to be deported in February 1943 but went into hiding shortly beforehand. Nevertheless, they did not survive. All three were deported on May 26, 1944, to the Theresienstadt ghetto. Gertrud sent Margot a postcard from Theresienstadt, with the words: “You are my sunshine”. On October 12, 1944, Gertrud, Berl, and Denny were deported from Theresienstadt to Auschwitz and murdered. The only one of the Meyer family to survive was Margot, who was taken in and hidden by her aunt Betty Glindmeyer.

Malka Zelechow moved into her small apartment, consisting only of one small room and a kitchen, in November 1938. There is no indication that it was compulsory accommodation. On July 7, 1942, Malka Zelechow was deported to the Theresienstadt ghetto. From there she was taken on September 6, 1943, to Auschwitz and murdered.

Leo and Gertrud Steinberg, née Seidel, moved into a 2-room apartment in the rear building on November 25, 1941, from Woldenberger Straße 28 (now Dietrich-Bonhoeffer-Straße), where they had moved in May 1939. They sublet a furnished room for Reichsmark 5 to Gerhard Budzyslawski, who worked as a forced laborer for the arms factory Deutsche Waffen- und Munitionsfabriken (DWM). Gertrud Steinberg was the first occupant to be deported. She was taken to Auschwitz on March 2, 1943. Her husband Leo and their lodger Gerhard Budzyslawski were deported two days later to Auschwitz. They were all murdered.

Malka Goldwasser, née Koscizki, and her son Hermann (Hirsch) Goldwasser owned the property at Schönhauser Allee 185–186. Malka Goldwasser lived in the building until she fled to the United Kingdom. Hermann Goldwasser also lived here until 1938. He was arrested by the Gestapo in 1942. By the time he was liberated three years later, he had survived several concentration camps.

The apartment building at Schönhauser Allee 185–186 was located in a district with a mixed working-class and middle-class population and a lively Jewish Community, as indicated by the Jewish cemetery on the same road, synagogue on nearby Rykestraße, and Jewish children’s home further up Schönhauser Allee.