Skalitzer Str. 108–109/ Oranienstr. 206–207
Skalitzer Str. 108–109/ Oranienstr. 206–207
This property in what was then Luisenstadt was built in 1882. It was decorated with stucco and had various entrances. On the ground floor there were boutiques, a restaurant, and a corner store with large windows. It was unusual for the predominantly working-class area, which was characterized by small-scale commerce and industry.
In 1922, the property was bought by a group of shareholders including Shlomo Chanoch Rabinowicz, a Polish rabbi. He was a wealthy man who owned a factory and houses in various cities. He never lived in Berlin himself. A Berlin-based property manager dealt with the tenants and business owners. During the Second World War, Shlomo Chanoch Rabinowicz was deported to the Warsaw ghetto, where he and his family were shot on August 1, 1942.
The building was destroyed in the war. In the postwar period, the state of Berlin bought the undeveloped corner lot and, between 1987 and 1990, had a park laid out here, which is currently being redesigned.
Apartments
Oranienstraße 207, 2nd floor, right
Apartment Schnurmacher
From 1934 to 1942, Channe (also known as Hanna or Anna) Schnurmacher, née Davidsohn, lived in a 3.5-room apartment on the second floor of the building at Oranienstraße 207. Her daughter Klara Birnbaum (born in 1897), née Schnurmacher, and her granddaughter Doris lived with her. Channe Schnurmacher's husband Wilhelm had opened a clothes store on the first floor around 1907, long before she moved in; his first store had been just a few doors down in a basement at Skalitzer Straße 113. After his death in 1933, Channe Schnurmacher carried on the business until 1940. Channe and Wilhelm Schnurmacher had two other children besides Klara: a son named Max (born in 1899) and another daughter, Erna (born in 1892). Channe Schnurmacher was deported on August 31, 1942, to the Theresienstadt ghetto, where she died. Klara Birnbaum and her 17-year-old daughter Doris were deported on March 1 and 3 to Auschwitz and murdered. The Schnurmachers' daughter Erna Katz wrote to her mother from Brazil in 1947, by which time not even the building existed.
In November 1940, husband-and-wife Albert and Martha Sorauer, née Lewin, were also housed in the apartment. They had moved to Berlin from Breslau, where Albert Sorauer had owned a laundry where his wife had worked. After the First World War, he changed his line of business and opened a lighting store, which he ran until the 1930s. Finally, he ran a medical store. It is not clear when the Sorauers moved to Berlin. Before they moved in with the Schnurmachers they had lived as subtenants at Moritzstraße 22. Albert Sorauer performed forced labor as a precision mechanic for a company in Französisch-Buchholz on the outskirts of Berlin. Martha Sorauer worked as a cleaning lady. Albert and Martha Sorauer were deported on October 3, 1942, to the Theresienstadt ghetto, where Albert Sorauer died on May 7, 1943. Martha Sorauer was deported from there on May 16, 1944, to Auschwitz, where she was murdered. The Sorauers had a son who managed to escape to Australia.
Oranienstraße 207, 3rd floor
Apartment Jacoby
Samuel Jacoby, a physician, and his non-Jewish wife Hedwig Schreder moved in at Oranienstraße 207 in the late 1930s. They were registered as resident here in May 1939. Samuel Jacoby had studied medicine in Breslau and in 1897 opened a practice for dermatology and venereology at Oranienstraße 62, on Moritzplatz. Around 1910, he moved his practice and home to Oranienstraße 144, on the opposite side of the street. On December 9, 1938, Samuel Jacoby's medical license was withdrawn because he was Jewish. He was forced to give up his practice and apartment at Oranienstraße 144 but survived the Nazi dictatorship in Berlin, protected by his marriage to a non-Jew. After the war, the Jacobys lived at Spremberger Straße 1 in Neukölln. For a short time, Samuel Jacoby owned a practice on Sonnenallee. He died on November 24, 1949, in Neukölln hospital.
In August 1940, husband-and-wife Siegfried and Clara Levy, née Horn, moved into a furnished room in the Jacobys's apartment. All they owned was a few items of clothing. They no longer had any furniture or household goods. Until 1938, they had lived in the upmarket Westend area and on Kurfürstendamm. Siegfried Levy had been a real estate agent. On August 21, 1942, Siegfried and Clara Levy were deported to Theresienstadt ghetto, where Siegfried Levy died on December 4, 1942. Clara Levy was deported from there on May 16, 1944, to Auschwitz, where she was murdered.
In January 1942, Max Jaspis, a stateless commercial man, moved into another room in the Jacobys' apartment. In the 1920s, he had set up his own business manufacturing mens' and ladies' clothing and ran a thriving store at Siemensstraße 14 in Schöneweide. But his success and luck were not to last: The store was demolished during antisemitic riots as early as 1934. Max Jaspis and his non-Jewish wife Frieda Jaspis, née Schiller, then started producing ladies' clothing at home. But in November 1938, their apartment was wrecked and their livelihood destroyed. In 1939, the couple divorced and Max Jaspis moved to Berlin-Mitte. He performed forced labor in his old line of business: He worked as a cutter for Pose, a company that produced “army kit” at Boxhagener Straße 16. Max Jaspis was deported on March 1, 1943, to Auschwitz, where he was murdered.
Oranienstraße 207, 5th floor, right
Apartment Goldschmidt/Schulmeister
The unmarried Goldschmidt sisters, Selma and Bertha, moved into a 2-room apartment on the fifth floor of the building at Oranienstraße 207 in October 1917. They came from the province of Posen. Bertha Goldschmidt is listed in the Berlin directory of 1918 as an office clerk, resident at this address. in the following years she – and probably her sister Selma Goldschmidt – worked as a seamstress. In the last years of their lives, the sisters lived on disability and social pensions. On March 28, 1942, Selma and Bertha Goldschmidt were deported to the Piaski transit ghetto. Which extermination camp they were sent on to is not known. The Jewish Community housing advice office wrote a month later:
“The main tenants Selma Martha and Bertha Goldschmidt have migrated under the transport no. 10774/75 with the 11th transport. Their apartment is in a Jewish owned property. We have been authorized by the General Building Inspector for the Reich Capital to introduce a new Jewish main tenant to the apartment. We would like to allocate it to the Jewish tenant Friedrich Schulmeister who, pursuant to the regulations decreed by the General Building Inspector for the Reich Capital, must vacate his current apartment at Burgherrnstraße 3, r. III, in Berlin-Tempelhof, by May 1, this year. The apartment at Oranienstr. 207 consists of two rooms and is vacant. We are writing to ask for priority clearance.”Source: Letter from Dr. Martha Mosse, Jüdische Kultusvereinigung zu Berlin, April 24, 1942, BLHA, Rep. 36A (II) No. 11773
In 1942, Friedrich Schulmeister and his wife Katharina, née Herz, moved into the Goldschmidt sisters' 2-room apartment. They had previously lived at Burgherrenstraße 3 in Tempelhof, not far from Friedrich Schulmeister's parents. Shortly after being forced to move in at Oranienstraße 207, they went underground. They left Berlin and found a hiding place at Bachstraße 108 in Hamburg. In 1943 they were apprehended and taken to Berlin. On September 28, 1943, Friedrich and Katharina Schulmeister were deported to Auschwitz and murdered.
Oranienstraße 206, 3rd floor
Apartment Kraft/Hohenstein
In 1914, Dr. Adolf Kraft, a physician, and his wife Clara Kraft moved in to the third-floor apartment at Oranienstraße 206, where Adolf Kraft also ran his practice. After his medical license was withdrawn in September 1938, he and his wife decided to emigrate. In spring 1938, they fled to Australia, where Adolf Kraft died just a few years later, on February 28, 1940. The stumbling stone laid for Dr. Adolf Kraft in 1996 is mistakenly engraved with the word “deported”. It was not known at the time that he had managed to escape.
Another physician, Dr. Alfred Hohenstein, took over the apartment and the practice. In the 1930s, he had worked as a general practitioner in the districts Pankow, Wedding and Neukölln. His last place of work was on Anzengruberstraße in Neukölln. Alfred Hohenstein's medical license was withdrawn on December 9, 1938. From then on, he was authorized to treat Jewish patients only. Forced to give up his practice and apartment on Anzengruberstraße, he moved in at Oranienstraße 206. On March 4, 1943, Alfred Max Hohenstein, his wife Erna Hohenstein, née Lippmann, and their eight-year-old son Dieter were deported to Auschwitz, where they were murdered on April 20, 1943.
The Hohensteins sublet a room to Walter Lustig from Vienna, who performed forced labor as a metal worker at a textiles plant in Zehlendorf. He had studied at the German College of Physical Education and worked as a swimming instructor for a while. He was also a toolmaker and listed in the Berlin directory as a “sales representative”. He left the Jewish Community in 1920. In the 1930s he lived with his non-Jewish wife Lucie Lustig, née Borchert, and her mother at Weisestraße 21 in Neukölln. In 1939, the family was torn apart: Walter Lustig's sister Helene had to leave Germany because she was stateless, and fled to the United Kingdom. Walter Lustig divorced his wife against her wishes and moved into the Hohensteins' apartment. On March 1, 1943, he was deported to Auschwitz and selected to work. He survived two years in Auschwitz. In January 1945, he was made to march with other survivors to Mauthausen concentration camp. He lived to see the camp's liberation by US troops on May 5, 1945, but died a few days later, on May 12, 1945, of exhaustion.
Oranienstraße 206, unknown location
The Arndt family
Dr. Arthur Arndt, a physician, lived with his family for a short time in a 2-room apartment in an unknown location in the building. The Arndts were among the few Berliners who survived in hiding. Arthur Arndt had studied medicine in Berlin and volunteered for military service in the First World War. He was awarded an Iron Cross. He and his wife Lina Arndt, née Arnoldi, had two children.
Arthur Arndt started working as a general practitioner and obstetrician in the early 1920s. His home and practice were on Admiralstraße in Kreuzberg. When his medical license was withdrawn in 1938, he was classified as a second-class medic and authorized only to treat Jewish patients. In mid-April 1939, he advertised his new practice at Oranienburger Straße 89, near Hackescher Markt, in the Jewish newspaper “Jüdisches Nachrichtenblatt”. Around the same time, he and his family were forced to leave their home on Admiralstraße and move in at Oranienstraße 206.
“The apartment was very cramped and gloomy, nothing like the spacious apartment they had lived in before, where everyone had their own room and guests were always welcome. A short, narrow hallway, where Erich always left his two bicycles, led to the kitchen, a toilet, and two rooms. The kitchen sink was the only place to wash. The larger room, which was crammed full of the family's remaining furniture and served as a living and dining room as well as Dr. Arndt's and Lina's bedroom, was on the left of the hallway. Ruth and Erich slept in the room opposite, where there was just enough space for two beds, a table and a chair.”Quoted from: Barbara Lovenheim: Überleben im Verborgenen, mit einem Nachwort von Barbara Schieb, Berlin 2002, p. 31-32
The Arndts' daughter Ruth became a nurse and was one of the last to complete her training in the Jewish hospital, in autumn 1941. Their son Erich Joachim (Jochen) worked in a Jewish training workshop in 1939/40. Later, they were deployed as forced laborers: Ruth Arndt was made to work for the metal and electronics company Ehrich & Graetz in Treptow from October 1941 to January 1943; Erich Arndt worked for Siemens-Schuckert in Spandau.
Arthur Arndt – like so many others – could mot imagine the horror that lay ahead. He had obtained affidavits of support for the entire family, which were necessary to emigrate, but gave one of them to an acquaintance in need. It was then no longer possible for all the family to emigrate together. Eventually, Erich Arndt managed to convince his father to go into hiding. The family went underground on January 9, 1943:
“On January 9, 1943, in the evening, under cover of darkness, we left our apartment at Oranienstraße 206. My father had left behind a letter explaining that we all intended to take our own lives. The idea was to prevent the Gestapo from looking for us. Each of us went somewhere else.”Ruth Arndt-Gumpel, quoted from: Erinnerung von Ruth Arndt-Gumpel, in: Berliner Geschichtswerkstatt/Bezirksamt Kreuzberg von Berlin (ed.): Juden in Kreuzberg, Berlin 1991, p. 118
By the end of the war, the Arndts had lived in almost 30 different hiding places. Arthur Arndt was the only one of them who stayed in one place, living with Mr & Mrs Gehre at Kottbusser Ufer 25A (now Fraenkelufer). Many former patients of Dr. Arndt helped them. Lina, Ruth and Erich Arndt used false names and worked in different places, including the Max Köhler factory at Oranienstraße 20. They all survived. Arthur Arndt resumed work as a physician in Berlin. In 1946, they emigrated to the United States, where Arthur Arndt died a year later. His daughter Ruth lived with her husband Bruno Gumpel first in New York and later in California.
Author
Dietlinde Peters
Dr. Arthur Arndt
Born August 20, 1893, in Kolberg (Kołobrzeg)
Survived in hiding
Erich Joachim Arndt
Born November 30, 1923, in Berlin
Survived in hiding
Lina Arndt, née Arnoldi
Born July 22, 1886, in Preußisch Friedland (Debrzno)
Survived in hiding
Doris Birnbaum
Born January 7, 1926, in Berlin
Deported March 3, 1943, to Auschwitz, murdered
Klara Birnbaum, geb. Schnurmacher
Born August 6, 1897, in Berlin
Deported March 1, 1943, to Auschwitz, murdered
Bertha Goldschmidt
Born June 6, 1878, in Pinne (Pniewy)
Deported March 28, 1942, to the Piaski ghetto, murdered in a nearby concentration camp
Selma Goldschmidt
Born January 3, 1876, in Pinne (Pniewy)
Deported March 28, 1942, to the Piaski ghetto, murdered in a nearby concentration camp
Ruth Gumpel, née Arndt
Born May 16, 1922, in Berlin
Survived in hiding
Dr. Alfred Hohenstein
Born September 9, 1898, in Raduhn
Deported March 4, 1943, to Auschwitz, murdered
Dieter Hohenstein
Born August 7, 1934, in Berlin
Deported March 4, 1943, to Auschwitz, murdered
Erna Hohenstein, née Lippmann
Born March 14, 1905, in Berlin
Deported March 4, 1943, to Auschwitz, murdered
Dr. Samuel Jacoby
Born January 8, 1872, in Rogasen (Rogoźno)
Survived in a “mixed marriage”
Max Jaspis
Born April 15, 1891, in Berlin
Deported March 1, 1943, to Auschwitz, murdered
Dr. Adolph Kraft
Born September 29, 1880, in Friedland
Escaped 1939 to Australia
Survived
Clara Kraft
Born July 23, 1894
Escaped 1939 to Australia
Survived
Klara Levy, née Horn
Born September 23, 1877, in Dortmund
Deported August 21, 1942, to the Theresienstadt ghetto, from there to Auschwitz, murdered 1944
Siegfried Levy
Born May 29, 1872, in Osnabrück
Deported August 21, 1942, to the Theresienstadt ghetto, died there
Walter Lustig
Born October 31, 1903, in Berlin
Deported March 1, 1943, to Auschwitz, from there to Mauthausen concentration camp, died there May 12, 1945, after liberation
Channe (Hanna) Schnurmacher, née Davidsohn
Born June 10, 1869, in Konitz (Chojnice)
Deported August 31, 1942, to the Theresienstadt ghetto, died there
Friedrich Schulmeister
Born September 2, 1889, in Berlin
Deported September 28, 1943, to Auschwitz, murdered
Katharina Schulmeister, née Herz
Born October 16, 1889, in Berlin
Deported September 28, 1943, to Auschwitz, murdered
Albert Sorauer
Born May 9, 1876, in Posen (Poznań)
Deported October 3, 1942, to the Theresienstadt ghetto, died there
Martha Sorauer, née Lewin
Born August 28, 1886, in Posen (Poznań)
Deported October 3, 1942, to the Theresienstadt ghetto, from there to Auschwitz, murdered 1944