Zehdenicker Str. 25
Zehdenicker Str. 25
The property was bought in 1921 by Juda Kohn, a Jewish businessman who lived with his family in one of the apartments until 1932. Between 1933 and 1940 it was owned by the company Frank & Glaser, which was probably Jewish, and subsequently by a private person; a non-Jewish widow who hired an agent to manage it. The building contained 19 apartments and store premises which were also used as a dwelling. Four of the apartments were used as compulsory accommodation. It has two entrances, each leading to a different stairwell: one on Zehdenicker Straße and another at Gormannstraße 17b. The store premises on the first floor housed a Jewish Community nursery for some years in the mid-1920s.
Apartments
The entrance on Zehdenicker Straße leads to four floors with two apartments on each: an expansive, stucco-decorated 3-room apartment with a maid’s chamber, large kitchen, and generous hallway on the left; and a smaller 3-room apartment on the right.
1st floor
Apartment Jüttner
Theodor Jüttner, a shoemaker, and his wife Paula moved into the store premises on the first floor in February 1939. Their adult daughters Senta and Hanna and their husbands Rudi Neufeld and Heinz Josel lived with them. On June 13, 1942, baby Gittel was born to Hanna and Heinz Josel. As well as the central salesroom, the premises had two adjoining rooms, which were used as bedrooms, and a kitchen. All six adult family members were made to perform forced labor for different businesses. The entire family was deported on January 29, 1943, to Auschwitz and murdered.
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After the Jüttners were deported, a court appointed receiver meticulously listed and evaluated all the belongings remaining in the apartment. The list was made in preparation for the property’s sale to the public, the proceeds of which went to the state. At the top-right of the document, the receiver noted that the concierge at the Gormannstraße entrance had held the key to the apartment since the family’s deportation.
2nd floor, left
Apartment Weisskirch
Josef Weisskirch, a businessman, and his wife Fanny, moved into the large 3-room apartment on the 2nd floor with their sons Max and Heinrich in 1934. The Weisskirch family originally came from Poland. Fanny Weisskirch’s mother Chaja Gottselig also lived in the apartment. Max and Heinrich managed to emigrate to Palestine. Josef Weisskirch and his mother-in-law Chaja Gottselig were deported in January 1943 to Auschwitz and murdered. It is not known what happened to Fanny Weisskirch.
Husband-and-wife Moses und Hadossa Rück moved in to one room as subtenants on April 1, 1941. Just eight months later, they were deported to Riga and shot upon arrival in the Rumbula forest. In late 1941, Feiga Kampf, who also came from Poland, moved into the maid’s chamber. She was deported about a year later, on December 14, 1942. Lajbus and Rivka Zalcmann moved into one of the large rooms with their five-month-old baby in May 1942. They lived there until they were deported with many other occupants of the building in January 1943 to Auschwitz.
3rd floor, left
Apartment Hirsch
Heimann Hirsch lived in the apartment above the Weißkirch family with his adult sons Hans and Rudi. They had moved in sometime after 1932. Heimann Hirsch was deported on November 17, 1941, to the Kovno ghetto and murdered. Hans Hirsch subsequently moved to Neuruppin. Nothing is known about his later whereabouts, or those of this brother.
In November 1941, Resi and Adolf Weinberg and their seven-year-old son Wolf moved into one room of the apartment as subtenants. They had come to Berlin from Jever in March 1940, following a Gestapo operation to expel Jewish people from East Frisia. They had initially been allocated compulsory housing at Weißenburger Straße 13 (now Kollwitzstraße) in Prenzlauer Berg and moved from there to Zehdenicker Straße. Adolf Weinberg was made to perform forced labor for the municipal garbage removal service. The Weinberg family was deported to Auschwitz at the end of January 1943.
By 1942, Irmgard and Hans Zlotnitzki had also moved in to the apartment. They were deported on February 26, 1943, to Auschwitz, after being held for about four weeks in the assembly camp on Große Hamburger Straße.
The International Tracing Service compiled all the available information on Adolf Weinberg’s history of persecution on a form known as a “certificate of imprisonment”. The only information given on his time in Berlin was that his last place of residence was a “Jew house”.
4th floor, right
Apartment Sieburth
In July 1942, Benno and Else Sieburth took over the tenancy of the small 3-room apartment on the fourth floor. They had previously lived for many years on Pasteurstraße in Prenzlauer Berg. Their adult son, Peter Sieburth, lived in the Hakhshara camp on the farm at Neuendorf im Sande, where he was preparing to emigrate to Palestine. In March 1938, Benno Sieburth had come to the attention of the Gestapo as he was working as a travelling salesman in the area around Berlin and Jewish people were banned from market trading.
Some two years before the Sieburths moved in, in August 1940, husband-and-wife Leo and Selma Lewinsky had moved into the apartment as subtenants. On February 11, 1941, their daughter Rachel was born. Another subtenant in the apartment was the 63-year-old widow Johanna Katz. No record exists of when she moved in.
The Gestapo deported Benno and Else Sieburth on January 12, 1943, more than two weeks before their subtenants, to Auschwitz. The Sieburths had already been forced to witness the deportation of Charlotte Grünberg, Else Sieburth’s unmarried sister, who had also lived with them, in September 1942.
Nothing is known of the fate of the previous tenants, the four members of the Kajet family. It is likely that Georg and Margot Israelski took over the tenancy of the apartment from them but it is not clear exactly when.
Margot Israelski was made to perform forced labor for Siemens in Spandau. A sales representative by profession, Georg Israelski performed forced labor from 1939 on. He was arrested by the Gestapo in retaliation for a bomb attack by a Communist-Jewish resistance group on May 27, 1942, and taken to the assembly camp in the synagogue on Levetzowstraße. He and 153 other men were subjected to a show trial, taken to Sachsenhausen concentration camp, and shot. A few weeks later, on June 19, 1942, his wife Margot Israelski was deported to the Theresienstadt ghetto. She was the only survivor of the 29 people known to have been deported from this address. After 1945 she emigrated to the United States.
“With reference to my numerous letters concerning reimbursement of the rental payments for Jew homes […] I am writing once again today to urgently request immediate remittance of the outstanding rental payments since January of this year for the following: Jüttner, Weisskirch, Hirsch, Sieburth.“
Neighborhood
Only four of the eleven residential units in the building were used as forced homes. The other apartments were rented out on a regular basis. One of the building’s long-term tenants was Frieda Loth, who lived on the Gormannstraße side and worked as the concierge for both parts of the building. She took the keys to apartments used as forced homes after they had been vacated and the occupants deported. She also assisted the court appointed receiver who evaluated the property that the deportees left behind, not only accompanying him but also helping him to assess the value of items and identify their original owners.
Author
Akim Jah
Laizer Josek Ehrlich
Born October 3, 1891, in Zduńska Wola
Emigrated September 9, 1939
Alfred Goldstein
Born March 12, 1924, in Berlin
Deported to Poland 1939, to the Kolomyja ghetto 1942, probably murdered in Belzec extermination camp
Dina Goldstein, née Twiasshor
Born June 15, 1886, in Kolomea (Kolomyja)
Deported to Poland 1939, to the Kolomyja ghetto 1942, probably murdered in Belzec extermination camp
Israel Goldstein
Born March 9, 1888, in Lanczyn
Deported October 28, 1938, to the German-Polish border, to the Kolomyja ghetto 1942, probably murdered in Belzec extermination camp
Hans Hirsch
Born April 29, 1910, in Berlin
Later whereabouts unknown
Heimann Hirsch
Born June 22, 1881, in Wągrowiec
Deported November 17, 1941, to the Kovno ghetto, murdered
Rudi Hirsch
Born August 10, 1913, in Berlin
Later whereabouts unknown
Feiga Kampf
Born January 22, 1897, in Ujście
Deported December 14, 1942, to Auschwitz, murdered
Chaja (Chawa) Gottselig, née Mendler
Born January 25, 1874, in Nowy Wiśnicz
Deported January 26, 1943, to the Theresienstadt ghetto, December 18, 1943, to Auschwitz, murdered
Charlotte Grünberg
Born July 21, 1891, in Berlinchen
Deported September 24, 1942, to Raasiku, murdered
Georg Israelski
Born October 23, 1898, in Dirschau
Arrested by the Gestapo May 27, 1942, shot May 28, 1942, in Sachsenhausen concentration camp
Margot Israelski, née Rosenthal
Born May 29, 1905, in Stolp
Deported June 19, 1942, to the Theresienstadt ghetto
Survived, emigrated after liberation to the United States
Gittel Josel
Born June 13, 1942, in Berlin
Deported January 29, 1943, to Auschwitz, murdered
Hanna Josel, geb. Jüttner
Born August 16, 1915, in Berlin
Deported January 29, 1943, to Auschwitz, murdered
Heinz Josel
Born February 16, 1913, in Berlin
Deported January 29, 1943, to Auschwitz, murdered February 9, 1943
Paula Jüttner, née Abraham
Born June 16, 1894, in Lobsens
Deported January 29, 1943, to Auschwitz, murdered
Theodor Jüttner
Born October 27, 1886, in Kurnik
Deported January 29, 1943, to Auschwitz, murdered
Johanna Katz, née Kloß
Born January 1, 1880, in Preußisch Stargard
Deported January 29, 1943, to Auschwitz, murdered
Leo Lewinsky
Born September 21, 1902, in Fischhausen
Deported January 29, 1943, to Auschwitz, murdered February 10, 1943
Rachel Lewinsky
Born February 11, 1941, in Berlin
Deported January 29, 1943, to Auschwitz, murdered
Selma Lewinsky, née Schilobolski
Born June 22, 1918, in Brinkendorf
Deported January 29, 1943, to Auschwitz, murdered
Rudi Neufeld
Born October 21, 1914, in Berlin
Deported January 29, 1943, to Auschwitz, murdered
Senta Neufeld, née Jüttner
Born May 7, 1920, in Berlin
Deported January 29, 1943, to Auschwitz, murdered
Anneliese Neumann
Emigrated November 8, 1938, to Paraguay
Survived
Anni Neumann
Born January 15, 1924
Emigrated November 8, 1938, to Paraguay
Survived
Julius Neumann
Emigrated November 8, 1938, to Paraguay
Survived
Marie Petranker
Born July 26, 1924, in Berlin
Emigrated August 2, 1938, to the United States
Survived
Johanna Polajewer
Born July 18, 1895, in Obornik
Emigrated December 2, 1939, to Chile
Survived
Ruth Cäcilie Polajewer
Born February 12, 1925, in Berlin
Emigrated December 2, 1939, to Chile
Survived
Hadossa Rück, née Weinberger
Born July 31, 1889, in Gorlice
Deported November 27, 1941, to the Riga ghetto, murdered November 30, 1941 in the Rumbula forest
Moses Rück
Born September 29, 1895, in Nowa Jastrzabka
Deported November 27, 1941, to the Riga ghetto, murdered November 30, 1941 in the Rumbula forest
Benno Sieburth
Born February 12, 1884, in Wrzesnia
Deported January 12, 1943, to Auschwitz, murdered
Else Sieburth, née Grünberg
Born February 26, 1888, in Berlinchen
Deported January 12, 1943, to Auschwitz, murdered
Adolf Weinberg
Born April 15, 1895, in Detern
Deported January 29, 1943, to Auschwitz, murdered
Dieter Wolf Dirk Weinberg
Born January 24, 1933, in Jever
Deported January 29, 1943, to Auschwitz, murdered
Resi Weinberg, née Wolff
Born August 6, 1902, in Wittmund
Deported January 29, 1943, to Auschwitz, murdered
Fanny (Feigel) Weisskirch, née Gottselig
Born December 1, 1896, in Nowy Wiśnicz
Later whereabouts unknown
Heinrich Weisskirch
Born September 14, 1927, in Berlin
Emigrated to Palestine
Survived
Josef Weisskirch
Born November 4, 1890, in Nowy Wiśnicz
Deported January 29, 1943, to Auschwitz, murdered
Max Weisskirch
Born November 1, 1923, in Berlin
Emigrated to Palestine
Survived
Frida Wolf, née Moor
Born January 2, 1892
Emigrated August 2, 1938, to the United States
Survived
Josef Wolf
Born November 30, 1892, in Tarnów
Emigrated August 2, 1938, to the United States
Survived
Siegbert Wolf
Born October 5, 1927, in Berlin
Emigrated August 2, 1938, to the United States
Survived
Lajbus Zalcmann (Zalomon)
Born March 18, 1902, in Berlin
Deported January 29, 1943, to Auschwitz, murdered
Rivka Zalcmann (Zalomon), née Fürst
Born September 7, 1914, in Czanow
Deported January 29, 1943, to Auschwitz, murdered
Zewi Zalcmann (Zalomon)
Born November 25, 1941, in Berlin
Deported January 29, 1943, to Auschwitz, murdered
Hans Zlotnitzki
Born July 27, 1909, in Berlin
Deported February 26, 1943, to Auschwitz, murdered
Irmgard Zlotnitzki, née Salomon
Born May 9, 1916, in Berlin
Deported Feburary 26, 1943, to Auschwitz, murdered