Sztutowo, Poland Archives - bruckfamilyblog.com

POST 183: FATE OF SOME OF MY FATHER’S FRIENDS FROM THE FREE CITY OF DANZIG

Note: This post is primarily a discussion about the fates, where I’ve been able to learn them, of some of my father’s closest friends from his time living in the Free City of Danzig. Knowing that some of these friends were Mennonites provides an opportunity to expand on the discussion begun in Post 121 on the connection of this religious community to the Holocaust, particularly to the notorious concentration camp in nearby Stutthof [today: Sztutowo, Poland].

POST 3, POSTSCRIPT: DR. OTTO BRUCK & TIEGENHOF: THE “SCHLUMMERMUTTER”

POST 4: DR. OTTO BRUCK & TIEGENHOF: HANS “MOCHUM” WAGNER

POST 4, POSTSCRIPT: OTTO BRUCK & TIEGENHOF: HANS “MOCHUM” WAGNER

POST 5: DR. OTTO BRUCK & TIEGENHOF: “IDSCHI & SUSE”

POST 7: DR. OTTO BRUCK & TIEGENHOF: THE CLUB RUSCHAU

POST 67: THE SUSPICIOUSLY BRUTAL DEATHS OF MY FATHER’S PROTESTANT FRIENDS FROM DANZIG, GERHARD & ILSE HOPPE (PART I)

POST 67: THE SUSPICIOUSLY BRUTAL DEATHS OF MY FATHER’S PROTESTANT FRIENDS FROM DANZIG, GERHARD & ILSE HOPPE (PART II)

POST 76: MY FATHER’S FRIEND, DR. FRANZ SCHIMANSKI, PRESIDENT OF TIEGENHOF’S “CLUB RUSCHAU”

POST 77: MY FATHER’S FRIEND, DR. HERBERT HOLST, VICE-PRESIDENT OF TIEGENHOF’S “CLUB RUSCHAU”

POST 78: MY FATHER’S FRIEND, KURT LAU, JAILED FOR “INSULTING THE NAZI GOVERNMENT”

POST 121-MY FATHER’S ENCOUNTERS WITH HITLER’S MENNONITE SUPPORTERS

POST 121, POSTSCRIPT: MY FATHER’S ENCOUNTERS WITH HITLER’S MENNONITE SUPPORTERS—FURTHER HISTORICAL OBSERVATIONS

If my father were alive, I’ve no doubt he would characterize the years that he lived and worked in the Free City of Danzig between ~1930 and 1937 as the halcyon days of his life. When he opened his dental practice in the nearby Mennonite farming community of Tiegenhof [today: Nowy Dwór Gdański, Poland] in April 1932, he was only 25 years old. He quickly developed a thriving business and joined various civic, community, and sports organizations in town. He had many friends and acquaintances, and an active social life. Never a practicing Jew, he nevertheless converted from Judaism to Protestantism while living there to “fit in.” Growing up, I remember my father telling me this was also the reason he drank so much during his years living in Tiegenhof.

It’s safe to say that the larger city of Danzig [today: Gdańsk, Poland], where my father apprenticed, while still staunchly conservative was a more cosmopolitan metropolis than Tiegenhof and had a more diverse mix of ethnic and religious groups. While I’ve been able to learn little about the social and religious background of his friends from Danzig, I’m sure they came from a mix of backgrounds including Jewish. By contrast, his closest friends in Tiegenhof were mostly Mennonites.

Given the widespread support for the Nazi Party among Mennonites in the Free City of Danzig that helped them gain a majority of seats (38 out of 72) in the 1933 parliamentary elections, it’s inevitable that my father was quickly “blacklisted” following the National Socialists’ electoral victory. Periodically, I contemplate how disconcerting and upsetting it must have been for my father and many persecuted Jews to suddenly be ignored or worse by Germans who’d only the day before been cordial, if not friendly.

Among my father’s closest friends during his years in the Free City of Danzig were people he commonly referred to as “the Schlummermutter,” “Idschi and Suse” (Figure 1), “Mochum” (Figure 2), and “Gerhard and Ilse.” (Figure 3) I had to work hard to figure out their surnames since my father was typically silent on this matter.

Figure 1. My father with Suse, the “Schlummermutter,” and Idschi in Tiegenhof

Figure 2. My father with his erstwhile friend “Mochum,” probably at the beach in Steegen [today: Stegna, Poland]

Figure 3. My father in Danzig with Ilse and Gerhard in the early 1930s

The Schlummermutter (Figure 4), most often mentioned to me growing up, was an enormous woman, weighing over 200kg (~440lbs). She was a revered figure and like a surrogate mother to my father. He never once referred to her by name, only by her sobriquet. Knowing her date of birth from pictures my father had taken on her birthday in 1937, thanks to the help of my friend, “the Wizard of Wolfsburg,” I eventually discovered her real identity, Margaretha “Grete” Gramatzki (1885-1942). Because of her size, she was referred to locally as “Grete dicke,” “fat Grete.” Gramatzki is considered a Mennonite surname. The Schlummermutter ran a boarding house in Tiegenhof, co-owning the building where my father had both an apartment and his dental practice, at Marktstrasse 8. (Figure 5)

Figure 4. The Schlummermutter in Spring 1933 in Tiegenhof

Figure 5. The building in Tiegenhof located at Markstrasse 8 where my father both lived and had his dental practice

The Schlummermutter, born on the 13^th of June 1885, died on the 24^th of February 1942 at 56, relatively young by today’s standards. In one of my father’s last known photos of her, taken following his departure from Tiegenhof, she appeared to have suffered a stroke, probably not unexpected given her obesity.

Two very close friends of my father, Suse (Figure 6) and Idschi (Figure 7), lived in Tiegenhof in the same apartment building owned by Grete Gramatzki. I discovered from a day planner I found among my father’s surviving papers that they were related, that’s to say, the oldest and youngest sisters in their family. Their surname “Epp” is yet another traditional Mennonite name. I discussed the sisters long-ago in Post 5, so refer readers to that publication for more background.

Figure 6. Suse Epp in Tiegenhof in 1933 with her and her sister’s dog “Quick”

Figure 7. Idschi Epp in Tiegenhof in 1933 with her and her sister’s dog “Quick”

A 1943 Tiegenhof Address Book lists Ida Epp (Figure 8) as the owner of a “werderkaffeegesch.,” a coffee and tea shop located at street level in the building then owned by the Epp sisters at Adolf Hitler Strasse 8, previously known as Marktstrasse. As I discussed in Post 3, Postscript, a 1930 Tiegenhof Address confirms that one or both Epp sisters were business partners of Grete Gramatzki (Figure 9), rather than simply boarders in the building Grete owned.

Figure 8. Ida Epp listed in the 1943 Tiegenhof Address Book as the owner of a “werderkaffeegesch.,” a coffee and tea shop located at Adolf Hitler Strasse 8

Figure 9. A 1930 “Kreis Grosses Werder” Address Book showing Grete Gramatzki and Epp in business together at Markstrasse 8

As the Red Army was approaching Tiegenhof in 1945, Suse and Idschi fled by ship to Denmark along with thousands of other Germans. They lived there in prison-like conditions, and that’s where Suse (1877-1948) passed away in 1948, at the age of 71. Idschi (1893-1975) eventually went to live in Munich with her nephew, Rupprecht Braun, and died there in 1975.

Given the close friendship my father had with the Epp sisters, he was naturally included in their social circle. One event he attended and took pictures at was hosted by Susie and Idschi’s brother, Gerhard Epp (1884-1959), at his home in Stutthof [today: Sztutowo, Poland]. (Figure 10) Originally a Mercedes dealer in Russia, following the 1917 Russian Revolution, Gerhard moved with his first wife, Margarete Epp, née Klaassen, to Stutthof. There, he founded and operated an engineering workshop, where among other things, he provided electricity for the village and serviced agricultural equipment. (Figures 11a-b)

Figure 10. Gerhard Epp with his first wife Margaretha Epp, née Klaassen with their Great Dane “Ajax” in Stutthof

Figure 11a. Leadership of the Mennonite-owned Gerhard Epp firm

Figure 11b. Gerhard Epp and his daughter Rita Schuetze, née Epp from the leadership team photo

Let me digress and explain to readers how a recent query from a reader led me to learning more about Gerhard Epp and his connection to the notorious nearby Stutthof concentration camp. I think readers will agree that this is far more interesting than learning about the fates of my father’s friends. The recent query came from a historian researching the background of a Mennonite man named Johannes Reimer, an SS member from 1933 and an SS guard at Stutthof from 1939 to 1944. The researcher is trying to counter a not-so-uncommon narrative by descendants that their German ancestors were “reluctant” SS members and committed no war crimes.

I’ve never previously come across the “Reimer” surname so out of curiosity did an Internet query in combination with “Stutthof.” In the process, I stumbled upon a well-researched article entitled “Mennonites and the Holocaust: From Collaboration to Perpetuation” written by Gerhard Hempel in October 2010 with multiple mentions of Reimer; it’s not clear all references are to Johannes Reimer, though I’m inclined to think most are. The author is or was a professor of history emeritus at Western New England College.

The collaboration of the Mennonites with the Nazis and their often-brutal treatment of inmates as camp guards was previously known to me, and, in fact, I delved into this topic in Post 121, specifically in connection with Gerhard Epp. The reader who contacted me found this earlier post. The reason I’m revisiting the topic of the Mennonites and the Holocaust is that Rempel’s lengthy article mentions Gerhard Epp several times and provides more detail than I previously knew.

Let me begin by telling readers a little about the prison camp at Stutthof. This was a Nazi concentration camp established by Nazi Germany in a secluded, marshy, and wooded area near the village of Stutthof 34km (~21 miles) east of Danzig in the territory of the German-annexed Free City of Danzig. This was the first concentration camp to be constructed outside of Germany. It was established in 1939 by the Waffen-SS (Schutzstaffel), an armed unit of the Nazi Party under the control of Heinrich Himmler. As an early stronghold of the National Socialists, Danzig had a contingent of 6,000 SS stationed within the area as early as 1933. This was expanded following a clandestine visit by Himmler in 1939 with the creation of the so-called “SS Heimwehr Danzig” and the “SS-Wachsturmbann Eimann.” The latter organization was tasked with developing plans for prison camps to accommodate anticipated arrests.

An isolated and secluded spot surrounded by water and swamps close to the village of Stutthof near the East Prussian border was selected. The initial barracks were begun and constructed by Polish inmates from the nearby Danzig prison in August 1939, with the first 200 prisoners arriving by September. The number of barracks was quickly expanded so that by January 1940, the camp held 4,500 prisoners. Eventually, the Stutthof complex included 200 outlying camps, so-called Aussenlager, and external commando units. The camp was under the command of SS Standartenführer Max Pauly.

A brief aside. My Bruck family is related by marriage to the Pauly family. I’m in touch with several Pauly cousins, so I asked one of them how and if we’re related to Max Pauly. He does not know. Suffice it to say that when one discovers odious war criminals with a surname like one’s own, sometimes one prefers not to look too closely into possible connections.

The prisoners at Stutthof included victims from 25 countries, including many Jews. Appalling sanitary conditions prevailed in the camps, with inmates suffering extreme malnutrition, disease, and torture. Many succumbed from the living conditions and the slave-like work; others were summarily executed through various means.

As noted, some of the Stutthof camp guards were Mennonites. It is worth noting that Stutthof was in an area with the highest density of Mennonite residents of any place in the world. Some Mennonite apologists have tried to minimize the role that people of Mennonite heritage played in the atrocities committed at Stutthof, but it has become clearer over time they played a significant role in the number of people killed there. Rempel writes: “Horst Gerlach [EDITOR’S NOTE: a prolific German Mennonite writer] emphatically denies. . .that any gas chambers ever existed at Stutthof, despite ample evidence to the contrary. Furthermore, his optimistic estimate that only 9,000 people were killed at Stutthof is a huge miscalculation—the most recent research concludes that at least 65,000 victims died at Stutthof.” (P. 512)

Regarding one of Stutthof’s auxiliary slave-camps, Rempel notes the following: “The SS owned the factory, and the guard contingent was made up largely of a group of ordinary criminals and rowdies, many of them recruits from ethnic German communities in Croatia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Czechoslovakia, and Hungary. But the worst characters were from Germany itself, among them two Mennonites.” (p. 518)

Very briefly, the larger context for the Mennonite participation in the Holocaust stems from the fact that many had earlier joined the counterrevolutionary forces of the former Tsar in Russia. With his defeat, the “Mennonites now found themselves on the losing side of the conflict as enemies of the new communist government.” (Rempel, p. 509) Stalin’s emergence and the period known as the “Great Terror” or the ”Great Purge” brought about a campaign to rid the Soviet Union of the so-called undesirable class. Mennonites were among the first to be targeted in the late 1920s, which led to a fraying of Mennonite communal life. As Rempel notes, “A decade later this trend [“moral and lawless indifference”] blinded many to the inherent evil of the carriers of National Socialism who came to Communist Russia in German uniforms as purported liberators.” (Rempel, p. 511)

Stutthof began as a camp for political opponents of the Nazi regime and socially undesirable minorities. Since the SS organization provided no financial support for expansion of the camp, the local SS command staff was determined to profit from the incarcerated inmates. Initially, land was allotted to grow vegetables and for animal husbandry, allowing the camp to quickly become self-sufficient. However, once it began to engage in local trade it started to generate profits. It became even more profitable when the SS command began to lease out inmates to work in public and private enterprises throughout the region. This resulted in the expansion of subcamps and special command units, all whose economic activities became SS-specific enterprises.

From 1939 until December 1944, Stutthof grew from 1.2 acres to 296 acres. It goes without saying that the establishment of additional subcamps was the result of an increase in the number of inmates. By 1944 Stutthof had become the destination of choice for transport from other camps and for those arrested after the Warsaw uprising. It is estimated that between 110,000 and 120,000 prisoners passed through Stutthof between 1939 and 1945. If the estimate that 65,000 victims died at Stutthof is accurate, clearly more than 50 percent of prisoners who passed through were murdered.

Theoretically Stutthof was a political prison, that’s to say, a forced labor camp for various industries owned by the SS or other government agencies. Holocaust scholars have tended to use “slave labor” and “forced labor” interchangeably, though some make a distinction. Slave labor included Jews working in concentration camps, death camps, and other work camps with the intent by Nazis to work these Jews to death. By contrast, forced laborers included anyone “who was compelled to leave his or her home in order to work for Nazi Germany.” As Rempel notes, however, “In any case, compulsory physical labor. . .was no less deadly than mass murder by gas or poison pellets.” (p. 516)

In June 1944, Stutthof was converted from a slave labor camp to an extermination camp. Outdoor furnaces were constructed to dispose of bodies. The crematoria were justified to eliminate dead bodies, but by 1944 Stutthof was nothing less than a killing center. Proof of this could be found in barracks built to “house” Jewish men and women transferred from eastern camps overrun by the Soviet Army that were merely walls with no internal furnishings. Clearly, arriving inmates were immediately sent to the gas chambers. (Rempel, p. 515-516)

Stutthof was liberated on May 9, 1945, the first camp established outside Germany and the last to be freed. The camp was dissolved on January 25, 1945, and the inmates forced to slog west on a death march that by some accounts resulted in the death of one-third to one-half of the inmates.

I’ve told readers more about Stutthof than I planned but let me move now specifically to a discussion of Gerhard Epp’s connection to Stutthof.

The direct involvement of Mennonites as guards at Stutthof has been well established by Holocaust scholars. What has also become clearer is the extent to which Mennonite farmers and businessmen exploited the inexpensive labor available from Stutthof. The inmates were particularly in demand during the hard work associated with harvest time. They received no salaries, although they appear to have been reasonably well fed and decently housed. The farmers had to pay the camps for use of prison labor, likely at a rate less than the going rate for unskilled labor.

As to Gerhard Epp’s role, Gerhard Rempel remarks the following: “A Mennonite builder, Gerhard Epp, for example, not only leased 300 Jewish slave laborers at Stutthof to build a new factory near the camp but also served as some sort of general contractor to the SS in assuming responsibility for the construction of all buildings on the premises. It is not much of an exaggeration to say that a Mennonite built the barracks for the first concentration camp on non-German soil.”

Epp’s stepson, Hans-Joachim Wiebe (Figures 12-13), whom I once met in Lubeck, Germany, was interviewed by the Mennonite researcher mentioned earlier, Horst Gerlach, to gather information about Gerhard Epp’s industrial machine factory. Quoting: “According to Wiebe, the inmates marched the two kilometers to the building site every morning and back again at night. Meals were delivered to the site from the camp kitchens.” (p. 523)

Figure 12. Gerhard Epp’s stepson and Rita Schuetze’s half-brother, Hans Joachim “Hajo” Wiebe, in 2013 in Lübeck, Germany

Figure 13. Hajo Wiebe in 2013 surrounded from left to right by his great-niece Paula Schuetze, his partner Gunda Nickel, and his niece Angelika Schuetze

Gerhard is mentioned yet again: “Gerhard Epp’s machine factory in the village of Stutthof was certainly the largest Mennonite employer of slave labor. Epp had endeared himself to the regime by building a home for Hitler Youth in Tiegenhof. His main factory employed some 500 prisoners from at least 1942 to the end of the war and focused on the production of various kinds of armaments such as small firearms. Epp’s factory, along with others, evacuated machinery and stock supplies to the West to continue producing armaments in a place safe from the advancing Russian Army.” (Rempel, p.525) Today, Epp & Wiebe GmbH continues to be a thriving business in the field of heating and air conditioning in Preetz, Germany.

Rempel’s mention that Gerhard Epp’s armaments-producing machinery was shipped West as the Red Army was approaching is the second case that I’ve come across that this took place. I don’t mean to suggest that the evacuation of industrial equipment from West Prussia was uncommon, quite the contrary. I mention this because the other case involved a good friend of my father, Kurt Lau (Figure 14), who came to purchase the rapeseed oil production factory in Tiegenhof. I’ve come across no evidence or accounts that implicate or connect Kurt Lau to the lease or use of slave labor. In any case, prior to the arrival of the Russian Army, Kurt evacuated his machinery to Hamburg Germany which was eventually reconstructed in Deggendorf, Germany.

Figure 14. My father (right) in Koenigsberg, East Prussia [today: Kaliningrad, Russia] with Kurt Lau (middle)

Kurt Lau and his wife Käthe were lifelong friends of my father, who he first met in Tiegenhof. They were Protestants but unlike other purported friends never distanced themselves from him after the Nazis came to power. In fact, Post 78 is the story of how Kurt Lau was jailed for three months for “insulting” the Nazis. I became friends with their surviving son, Juergen Peter Lau (1923-2022), who identified many of my father’s friends and acquaintances from his pictures.

One couple who were at one time my father’s excellent friends were Gerhard (1908-1941) and Ilse Hoppe, nee Grabowsky(i) (1907-1941). My father met them in Danzig when he and Gerhard were dental apprentices. Gerhard opened his own dental practice in Neuteich [today: Nowy Staw, Poland], located a mere 13km (~8 miles) SSW from Tiegenhof, but eventually relocated to Danzig. Both tragically died young under gruesome circumstances. I wrote about their deaths in Post 67 (Part I) & Post 67 (Part II). They had a son named Rudi and a daughter named Gisela. With the help of my friend Peter Hanke, I eventually was able to track down Gisela (her brother Rudi committed suicide in 1965). She explained what she knew of her parents’ deaths, and, while tragic, they appear to have been self-inflicted in Ilse’s case and an accident in Gerhard’s instance.

Peter Lau identified another of my father’s very good friends who I knew only as “Mochum,” but whose full name was Hans “Mochum” Wagner (1909-1942). My father’s photo albums include many photos of him, and at one time they were likely extremely close. He was a physical education teacher in the primary school in Tiegenhof.

I located the Wagner family’s “Heimatortskartei (HOK),” literally translated as “hometown index.” Heimatortskartei was set up in post-WWII Germany for the purpose of identifying and locating people in the catastrophic aftermath and destruction of the war. From this I learned Mochum was killed or went missing on February 11, 1942, in Volkhov, Russia [German: Wolchow], 76 miles east of St. Petersberg, formerly Leningrad. He may have died during the Russian offensive launched in January 1942 against the Germans around the Wolchow River. I recorded his story in Post 4 and Post 4, Postscript.

My father was a member of a social and sports club called the “Club Ruschau.” (Figure 15) My father’s pictures enabled the local museum in Nowy Dwor Gdanski to locate one of the surviving structures of this club, now privately owned. I wrote about this in Post 7. My father spent many hours socializing with its members, swimming, playing pool, bowling, ice boating, drinking, and partying. His friends included the club president Dr. Franz Schimanski (?-1940) (Figure 16), the vice president Dr. Herbert Holst (1894-?) (Figure 17), as well as Herbert Kloss and Kastret Romanowski (Figure 18), and likely other club members.

Figure 15. My father recreating at the Club Ruschau

Figure 16. Club Ruschau President Dr. Franz Schimanski

Figure 17. Club Ruschau Vice-President Herbert Holst

Figure 18. My father standing alongside two of his good friends, Herbert Kloss (left) and Kastret Romanowski (middle) at the beach in Steegen [today: Stegna, Poland] in June 1932

Franz Schimanski is often pictured holding a cane. Records indicate he was wounded during WWI. He was a lawyer and notary by profession. He died in 1940 according to his HOK card. The surname Schimanski is a Germanized form of the Polish surname Szymanski, suggesting the family had a Polish cultural heritage.

Herbert Holst was a high school teacher who, according to Peter Lau’s wife, taught in the Langfuhr district of Danzig after leaving Tiegenhof. His fate is unknown, and I’ve learned little about him.

Herbert Kloss’ destiny is similarly unknown to me. “Kloss” or “Kloß” is a common enough surname that without an HOK card for him or his family, it is difficult to determine his fate. He appears to have been about the same age as my father so was likely drafted into the German army. If this in fact happened, he could easily have died in battle.

Similarly, I’ve learned nothing about Kastret Romanowski. Using names of members found in the index to the “Tiegenhofer Nachrichten,” an annual monograph once published for former Tiegenhof residents and/or their descendants, I wrote a letter to a woman listed named Clara Romanowski; her connection was through marriage so she could offer no clues as to Kastret’s fate. Romanowski appears to be another surname of Polish origin.

As I mentioned at the outset, my father’s circle of friends and acquaintances in Tiegenhof and Danzig was extensive. I’ve chosen to highlight a few of his best mates. My father’s photo albums include pictures of other good friends, but unfortunately there are no captions to help with their identifications.

As I touched on earlier, I often ponder how his relationship with non-Jewish friends and acquaintances devolved once the Nazis applied pressure on them to sunder their social connections and business associationswith people of Jewish heritage. I can only imagine this was initially shocking to my father until he realized how personally at risk he was.

REFERENCE

Rempel, G. Mennonites and the Holocaust: From Collaboration to Perpetuation. The Mennonite Quarterly Review, 84 (October 2010), 507-550. https://www.goshen.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/75/2016/06/Oct10Rempel.pdf

POST 142: “STOLPERSTEINE” COMMEMORATING THREE HOLOCAUST VICTIMS FROM RACIBORZ

FOOTNOTE ADDED ON 10/17/2023

Note: Three “Stolpersteine” or commemorative brass plaques commemorating Holocaust victims were recently installed in Racibórz, Poland, my father’s birth place when it was part of Germany; these are the town’s first-ever “stumbling stones.” In this post, I look briefly into the Kochen family whom these Stolpersteine memorialize and discuss a surprising discovery I made on my journey.

POST 121, POSTSCRIPT: MY FATHER’S ENCOUNTERS WITH HITLER’S MENNONITE SUPPORTERS—FURTHER HISTORICAL OBSERVATIONS

On May 26, 2023, a coaster-sized brass plaque commemorating a victim of Nazi persecution in Nuremberg, Germany became the 100,000^th “Stolperstein” installed. Literally meaning “stumbling stone,” Stolpersteine commemorate all victims of Nazi oppression, including Jews but also Roma, Sinti, the physically or mentally disabled, homosexuals, and other persecuted groups (e.g. Communists, members of the anti-Nazi Resistance, Christian opponents, etc.). So far, they have been placed in 27 European countries. The names and fates of the victims are engraved on the brass plaques, along with information on where and when they were deported.

Initiated in 1992 by the German artist Gunter Demnig (Figure 1), his idea was to place a cobblestone-like memorial outside a Holocaust victim’s “last address of choice.” By placing a Stolperstein on a sidewalk or in the middle of a pavement, Demnig hopes people happening upon them will stop, curious to know whom it commemorates and what happened to them. He is convinced “there’s a difference between a teenager opening a book and reading about 6 million murdered Jews, and them learning about the fate of family while standing where they lived.”

Figure 1. Gunter Demnig, artist who developed the idea of “Stolpersteine” in 1992, holding two commemorative brass plaques

Placement of Stolpersteine in the middle of pavements has not been without its detractors. Interestingly, Munich, the historic home of the Nazi movement, banned the implementation of Stolpersteine until recently. The reason for Munich’s opposition actually stems from a member of the city’s Jewish community, a Charlotte Knobloch, herself a Holocaust survivor. Ms. Knobloch argues that it is disrespectful for people to walk over the names of Holocaust victims, allowing the victims’ lives to figuratively be desecrated.

The Munich City Council recently decided to move ahead with plans to commemorate the last known addresses of Holocaust victims in their city but stopped short of allowing the installation of Stolpersteine. The compromise allows plaques on private property with the owners’ approval and on top of posts on public property. While sidewalk plaques remain against the law, there will be a central memorial with a list of the Holocaust victims’ names.

Elsewhere, for example in some places in Poland, such as Szczecin, city authorities have refused to install memorial stones for Holocaust victims because the country’s “Institute of National Remembrance” fears that visitors to the city might think the perpetrators of the crimes were Poles.

Notwithstanding the concerns some people and jurisdictions have expressed about Stolpersteine, it came as a pleasant surprise to learn that several had recently been placed in the town where my father was born, Ratibor, Germany [today: Racibórz, Poland]. An acquaintance, Magda Wawoczny, a Jewish studies student from Jagiellonian University in Kraków, Poland who hails from Racibórz, recently sent me photos of the first ever brass plaques installed in her hometown.

They were for three members of a family deported in 1938 to the Łódź Ghetto (Figure 2), namely, Szyja Kochen (1897-1944), Ester Bajla Kochen (1898-1944), and Natan David Kochen (1935-1944). (Figure 3) The family once lived in an apartment at 10 Breite Strasse, also known in German times as Brunken; the building still stands today (Figure 4), and the address today is ulica Londzina 10. The Stolpersteine were placed in front of this building. And, Gunter Demnig, who initiated the project in 1992 installed the brass plaques himself. (Figures 5-9)

Figure 2. Map showing distance between Racibórz and Łódź

Figure 3. Ester Bajla Kochen (1898-1944) and her husband Szyja Kochen (1897-1944) (Yad Vashem)

Figure 4. The apartment building as it looks today at Breite Strasse 10, today Londzina 10, where the Kochen family once lived

Figure 5. Gunter Demnig preparing to install the first ever Stolpersteine in Racibórz, Poland

Figure 6. Gunter Demnig beginning the installation of the Stolpersteine in Racibórz, Poland

Figure 7. The installed Stolpersteine for three members of the Kochen family

Figure 8. The installed Stolpersteine for three members of the Kochen family, surrounded by peonies and roses

Figure 9. Gunter Demnig with the Kochen family descendants from Israel in front of their family’s “last address of choice”

While multiple members of my family died during the Shoah, my family had departed Ratibor no later than 1926, therefore, no Stolpersteine are located there. Stumbling stones have been placed at two separate locations in Berlin for my beloved aunt Susanne Müller née Bruck (1904-1942) (Figure 10) and my great-aunt Franziska Bruck (1866-1942). (Figure 11) From personal experience I know that a target of the Nazis need not have died to have a commemorative stone placed at their last address of choice; two members of my Mombert family by marriage have Stolpersteine placed on the pavement in front of their last residence in Giessen, Germany. (Figure 12)

Figure 10. Stolperstein for my beloved aunt Susanne Müller née Bruck (1904-1942) placed in front of her “last address of choice,” Kastanienallee 39 in the Charlottenburg borough of Berlin

Figure 11. Stolperstein for my great-aunt Franziska Bruck (1866-1942) situated in front of her apartment building at Prinzregentenstrasse 75 in the Wilmersdorf borough of Berlin

Figure 12. Four Stolpersteine for my Mombert family by marriage located at Molktstrasse 18 in Giessen, Germany; only Ernst Mombert was murdered in the Holocaust, arrested on the same day in Fayence, France as my aunt Susanne, and both murdered in Auschwitz

In the case of the Kochen family from Ratibor, I have no concrete evidence that they interacted with my family, although I’m certain the Kochen family would have been familiar with my family’s establishment, the Bruck’s “Prinz von Preußen” Hotel. Szyja Kochen, the patriarch of the family, is believed to have been a salesman, possibly a “stepper” (i.e., dancer), so unless he dealt in a service required by the hotel, it is unlikely our families’ paths ever crossed. Still, one can never be certain given that Ratibor was a relatively small town with a small Jewish population. Also unknown is how long the Kochen family was associated with Ratibor; my Bruck family was there since the early 19^th century.

Aware that three members of the Kochen family had perished in the Holocaust, I checked the Yad Vashem Holocaust Remembrance Center’s victims’ database. As expected, I found all three listed along with Pages of Testimony that have been submitted by a Nadav Kochen, who I surmise is a grandson or a grandnephew of Szyja and Ester Kochen. Nadav also included two photographs of his ancestors. (see Figure 3)

According to the Stolperstein for Szyja Kochem, he was deported to Łódź, and purportedly murdered there on the 7^th of March 1944 in the Łódź Ghetto. By contrast, his wife Ester Bajla Kochen’s Stolperstein and that of his son Natan David Kochen indicate they were murdered in August 1944 at Auschwitz [Oświęcim, Poland]. Obviously, at some point they were moved from the Łódź Ghetto to Auschwitz. (Figure 13)

Figure 13. Map showing distance between Łódź and Auschwitz

Among the documents I found for Szyja, Ester, and David Kochen was a list with their names showing their address when they were locked inside the Łódź Ghetto, Pfeffergasse 14, Flat 25; this information comes from a so-called “Jewish Ghetto Inhabitant List.” (Figure 14) The dates of birth on this list match the dates on the Pages of Testimony submitted by Nadav Kochen. Yad Vashem also includes Szyja Kochen’s Łódź work permit with his photo confirming his address (Figure 15); boldly stamped across this document is the word “GESTORBEN,” died.

Figure 14. A page from the “Łódź Ghetto Inhabitant List” showing four members of the Kochen family were living at Pfeffergasse 14, Flat 25, including the previously unknown to me Frida Kochen born on the 28th of December 1925

Figure 15. Szyja Kochen’s Łódź Ghetto work permit with his photograph, place of residence, and the word “GESTORBEN,” died, boldly stamped across it

What immediately caught my attention on the Łódź Jewish Ghetto Inhabitant List was the name of another family member, Frida Kochen, shown as being born on the 28^th of December 1925. (see Figure 14) Obviously, no Stolperstein has been placed in her honor in Racibórz, so I assumed her fate might have turned out differently. And, sure enough, I found another list in Yad Vashem, entitled “Stutthof survivors who had been on a barge that was stranded in the bay of Eckernförde in Schleswig-Holstein (Northern German)” with Frida listed under her married name, “Frieda Ben David Cohen,” born in 1925 in Ratibor. (Figure 16) Again, in contrast to her mother and brother, this list makes clear that at some point she had been transferred from Auschwitz to the concentration camp in Stutthof [today: Sztutowo, Poland], located about 370 miles north of Auschwitz. (Figure 17)

Figure 16. A list from Yad Vashem, entitled “Stutthof survivors who had been on a barge that was stranded in the bay of Eckernförde in Schleswig-Holstein (Northern German)” with Frida listed under her married name, “Frieda Ben David Cohen”

Figure 17. Map showing the distance from Auschwitz to Sztutowo (Stutthof)

I next turned to ancestry.com trying to untangle this surprising finding. I quickly found information for “Fridah Ben David” who I ascertained was the Frida Kochen in question, born on the 28^th of December 1925 in Ratibor, and learned she had done an interview with the USC Shoah Foundation on the 5^th of February 1998 in Tel Aviv, Israel; unfortunately the dialogue is in Hebrew and no transcript nor translation has been done of the two-hour long testimonial. (Figure 18)

Figure 18. Screen shot from the USC Shoah Foundation Visual History Archive with information on the testimonial Fridah Ben David née Kochen did in 1998

Obviously, Frida avoided the fate of her parents and younger brother, although I’m still trying to understand the circumstances of how she accomplished this. Separately, in ancestry, I discovered Szyja and Ester had two additional offspring, Shoshonah Rozah Fayvel née Kochen (b. 1920 in Ratibor) and Me’ir Maks Kochen (b. 1921 in Ratibor), both of whom also survived the Holocaust. (Figure 19) I’m trying to contact Nadav Kochen who submitted the Pages of Testimony to Yad Vashem hoping he might shed some light on his ancestor’s ordeal. Watch this space for a future postscript.

Figure 19. Page from ancestry.com showing the names of Frida Ben David’s three siblings, two of whom survived the Holocaust

Even though Frida’s testimonial contains no transcript nor translation, the USC Shoah Foundation’s website includes very brief one-line annotations for the 137 segments of the two-hour interview. These notations provide clues to the places where Frida was held during the war and moved to following the war though in no chronological order.

I know from the document I found in Yad Vashem of Stutthof survivors who were stranded in the bay of Eckernförde in Schleswig-Holstein that Frida was moved from the Stutthof concentration camp to mainland Germany. Let me reconstruct what may have happened based on the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum’s historical accounts of this concentration camp.

The Germans established the Stutthof camp in a wooded area west of Stutthof [today: Sztutowo, Poland], a town about 22 miles east of Danzig [today: Gdansk, Poland] in September 1939. Stutthof was secluded. To the north was the Bay of Danzig, to the east the Vistula Lagoon, and to the west the Vistula River. The land was very wet, almost at sea level. As a related aside, Danzig is where my father apprenticed as a dentist; the Bay of Danzig where he sometimes went sailing; Stutthof where he often went to the beach; and the Vistula Lagoon where he engaged in winter sports.

Originally, Stutthof was a civilian internment camp under the Danzig police chief. In November 1941, it became a “labor education” camp, administered by the German Security Police. Finally, in January 1942, Stutthof became a regular concentration camp.

Tens of thousands of people were deported to Stutthof, mostly non-Jewish Poles, Polish Jews from Warsaw and Białystok, as well as Jews from forced labor camps in the occupied Baltic states, which the Germans evacuated in 1944 as the Red Army was approaching. I can find no clue as to why Frida would have been transferred all the way from Auschwitz to Stutthof.

Conditions in the camp were brutal. Typhus epidemics regularly swept the camp and many prisoners died. Those too weak to work were gassed in the camp’s small gas chamber. Camp doctors were complicit in killing many injured or sick prisoners by injection. Purportedly, more than 60,000 people died in the camp.

The Germans used Stutthof prisoners as forced laborers. Some prisoners worked in SS-owned businesses while others labored in local private industrial enterprises. In Post 121 and Post 121, Postscript I discussed Gerhard Epp’s use of forced laborers from Stutthof in his nearby metal working and munitions workshop; Gerhard was the brother of two close friends of my father from Tiegenhof [today: Nowy Dwór Gdański, Poland], 10 miles to the south of Stutthof, when my father had his dental practice between 1932 and 1937.

The part of the story I want to focus on is the evacuation of prisoners from Stutthof, which was barbaric. By January 1945, there were nearly 50,000 prisoners in the 105 subcamps of Stutthof, mostly Jews. Beginning at around this time, about 5,000 prisoners were marched to the Baltic Sea, forced into the water, and machine gunned. The remainder of the prisoners were marched towards eastern Germany but were cut off by advancing Soviet forces. The Germans forced the survivors back to Stutthof, thousands of whom died en route on account of the severe winter conditions and brutal treatment by SS guards.

By late April 1945, because Stutthof was completely encircled by Soviet forces, the remaining prisoners were removed by sea. Again many prisoners were forced into the sea and gunned down. Over 4,000 were sent by small barge to Germany. (Figure 20) The list of survivors includes Frida’s name showing she made it to Eckernförde in the German state of Schleswig-Holstein and was incarcerated in an adjacent concentration camp in Kiel. She was finally liberated by British Army troops in May 1945. It is estimated that of the 50,000 prisoners held in Stutthof in January 1945, 25,000, or one in two, died during the evacuation. This makes Frida’s survival even more remarkable.

Figure 20. Forcible evacuation by barge of Stutthof concentration camp inmates in 1945 from Danzig (from the United States Holocaust Museum website)

The annotated interview the USC Shoah Foundation conducted with Frida lists a host of places connected to her presumed movements following her liberation, including cities in Germany (i.e., Schafstedt) Austria (i.e., Innsbruck, Bad Gustein, and Klagenfurt), and Italy (i.e., Udine Displaced Person’s Camp, Savona). Absent translation and chronology, it is mere conjecture whether these movements were by choice or necessity.

Knowing Frida eventually emigrated to British Palestine, I theorize she boarded the ship named the “Josiah Wedgewood” in Savona, which she specifically mentioned in her testimonial. Savona is a seaport community in the west part of the northern Italian region of Liguria and is known to have been one of the embarkation ports for this ship boarding Jewish refugees attempting to reach Palestine. There exists a June 1946 photography by Emil Reynolds showing some of the 1,300 European refugees aboard the former Canadian corvette Josiah Wedgewood after it was fired upon and captured on June 27^th by British warships after the corvette tried to land illegally in Palestine. (Figure 21) It’s unknown whether Frida was aboard the ship at this time. What is conclusive is that unlike so many of her fellow inmates in the Łódź Jewish Ghetto and in the concentration camps of Auschwitz, Stutthof, and Kiel, Frida survived and thrived. (Figure 22)

Figure 21. June 1946 Emil Reynolds photograph taken aboard the “Josiah Wedgewood” ship with some of the 1,300 Jewish refugees who attempted to escape British authorities and land illegally in Palestine (from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum website)

Figure 22. Frida Ben David née Kochen surrounded by her granddaughter and daughter in an undated photograph taken in Tel Aviv, Israel

FOOTNOTE: A Polish reader of my blog was dismayed and pained by my failure to specifically mention that non-Jewish Polish victims of Nazi German crimes should be among the groups recognized through installation of Stolpersteine in Poland. I wholeheartedly agree. While acknowledging the importance of commemorating innocent victims of the Holocaust, the reader stressed that I was “. . .distorting the historical truth by saying ‘Nazi crimes’ instead of ‘Nazi German crimes’” The reader emphasized that Nazism was a creation of German culture and it was supported in a democratic vote by Germans, and by failing to make this clear I avoided distinguishing between victims and executioners.

I don’t use the term “Nazi crimes” in this post. I was talking about German war crimes based on the extermination policies of Germany’s National Socialist regime. I acknowledge mention should be made of the millions of non-Jewish Polish citizens killed by the Germans during WWII. According to the Holocaust Encyclopedia, “It is estimated that the Germans killed between 1.8 and 1.9 million non-Jewish Polish civilians during World War II. In addition, the Germans murdered at least 3 million Jewish citizens of Poland.” My blog post was in no way intended to minimize the enormous number of non-Jewish Polish victims of Nazi aggression, which should most assuredly be commemorated, but rather was to indicate the efforts that some Polish towns and cities are making to recognize some of their Jewish victims.

REFERENCES

Ben David, Fridah. Personal interview with USC Shoah Foundation. 5 February 1998.

Ben-Tzur, Tzvi and Aryeh Malkin. “The Voyage of the ‘Josiah Wedgewood’.” http://www.palyam.org/English/Hahapala/hf/hf_Wedgwood.pdf

Dege, Stefan. “’Stolpersteine’: Commemorating victims of Nazi persecution.” DW, 30 May 2023. https://cc.bingj.com/cache.aspx?q=stolpersteine%3a+commemorating+victims+of+Nazi+persecution&d=4770772662747258&mkt=en-US&setlang=en-US&w=NjbMU3Tw6fh5fwT1QFxwCDfU2uG9SmRu

Markusz, Katarzyna. “Polish city refuses to install memorial stones for Holocaust victims.” 23 December 2019, The Times of Israel. https://www.timesofisrael.com/polish-city-refuses-to-install-memorial-stones-for-holocaust-victims/

Rafter, Catherine. “Munich compromises on Holocaust Memorial Plans.” Observer, 5 August 2015. https://cc.bingj.com/cache.aspx?q=munich+compromises+on+holocaust+memorial+plans&d=4994802452810164&mkt=en-US&setlang=en-US&w=MqJZbPJj4z_fX5-uIPDyOAtbDaiFWg_J

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. “Jewish refugees wait aboard the Josiah Wedgewood after British navy fired at the ship.” Photograph Number: 37543

POST 123 (GUEST POST): IN MEMORY OF THE JEWISH FAMILY LIEB-LIB FROM STUTTHOF [SZTUTOWO, POLAND]

EDITOR’S NOTE: For the first time on my Blog, I’m hosting a guest post by a gentleman named Mr. Uwe Sager, a longtime contributor to the German-language Forum.Danzig.de. Members in this Forum post articles about people, places, events, etc. associated with the former Free City of Danzig [German: Freie Stadt Danzig; Polish: Wolne Miasto Gdańsk] and investigate and try to answer queries posted by participants and fellow researchers. The Free City of Danzig was a city-state under the protection of the League of Nations between 1920 and 1939, consisting of the Baltic Sea port of Danzig [today: Gdańsk, Poland] and nearly 200 other small localities in the surrounding areas. Because my father, Dr. Otto Bruck, lived in Danzig and nearby Tiegenhof [today: Nowy Dwór Gdański, Poland] in the Free City of Danzig between roughly 1930 and 1937, several years ago I posted multiple queries on the Forum hoping members might help me determine the fate of several of my father’s friends from his time living there, to little avail. However, this is how Uwe and I became acquainted. At the time, Uwe was already researching the fate of the Jewish family “Lieb” or “Lib” from Stutthof [today: Sztutowo, Poland] that is the subject of this guest post, although he’d not yet worked out most of the details presented below. Uwe’s research into the Lieb’s was prompted by one of the Forum’s readers who’d formerly lived in Stutthof, a woman named Irmchen Krause, asking about them. What follows is what Uwe and a fellow Forum member, Rainer Mueller Glodde, have unearthed about the Lieb family’s fate. Since I’ve mentioned the notorious Stutthof Concentration Camp in previous posts, including my father’s encounter with Gerhard Epp who relied on Jewish inmates from there to produce munitions in his converted Stutthof machine factory, it seems appropriate to include a guest post discussing the fate of one Jewish family from Stutthof.

Stutthof-Sztutowo

In memory of the Jewish family Lieb/Lib in Stutthof

By Uwe Sager – Forum.Danzig.de

With Contributions by Rainer Mueller Glodde (Administrator of momente-im-werder.net)

April 2020

When I was informed at the end of 2016 by Irmchen, née Krause, former Stutthof resident, of a Jewish family that had once lived there, I wanted to learn more about their history and whereabouts. The family’s name was Lieb. I hope my findings may remind the town’s current inhabitants that Jews once lived there, even though the family itself may not have attached much importance to it. Yet, the family was part of the community at one time and represents a segment of the town’s dark past.

Irmchen recalls a Jewish family by the name of Lieb that lived in Stutthof in the 1930’s. They ran a clothing store located on the corner of Schulstraße and Poststraße. (Figure 1) The family had a young daughter named Antonia, affectionately called “Tania.” Only a few Stutthöfer dared to shop at Lieb’s. As Irmchen notes, “Whoever bought from the Lieb’s had fingers pointed at them.” Additionally, customers were threatened by telling them their names would be published on the “Stürmerkasten” (EDITOR’S NOTE: Stürmerkasten is a kind of wall newspaper, that was erected in every village during the Hitler era in Germany) (Figure 2), situated directly opposite the Lieb store.

Figure 1. The corner of Schulstraße and Poststraße in Stutthof where the Lieb family store was once located

Figure 2. Example of a “Stürmerkasten” or a wall newspaper where, among other things, the Nazis posted the names of people who continued to frequent Jewish businesses despite the ban against such interactions (Credit: Bundesarchiv_Bild_133-075, Worms,_Antisemitische_Presse,__Stürmerkasten_)

The boycott measures against Jewish businesses and businesspeople are well known. Despite these measures, ironically, some Stutthöfer secretly shopped with the Lieb’s in the evening. According to Irmchen, the talk at the time was that Mr. Lieb was taken away with his wife and child in what is referred to as a “Nacht und Nebel aktion” (EDITOR’S NOTE: German for the “night and fog action” of abductions and disappearances decreed by Nazi Germany). Irmchen is not aware of any community support on behalf of the Lieb’s. According to another witness, some members of the community were still in contact with Mrs. Lieb who was supposedly then living in Danzig [today: Gdansk, Poland]. Mrs. Lieb is said to have warned comers against contacting her, saying it was too dangerous. Not unexpectedly,it was reported that she wore a Jewish star.

Following the Lieb family’s abduction or departure, their business was taken over by the Antony family who ran a grocery and dairy store next door. The textile portion of the Lieb business was assumed by Heinrich Thiessen, who ran his own textile store on Poststraße.

My own research, as well as that of colleagues from Forum Gdansk, led to several documents from which the life of the Lieb/Lib family can partially be reconstructed.

Zalman Lib (Salomon Lieb) was born on the 21^st of December 1891. The difficult-to-read place of birth, combined with the possibility that the place name was incorrectly spelled by the registrar, is by appearances Dziewienszki (Polish), Dieveniškės (Lithuanian) (Figure 3), Divenishok (Lithuanian), or Jevenishok (Yiddish) (see Wikipedia and Jewish Gen KehilaLinks (English), including pictures of the town). Family surname listings for Divenishok show no Lieb or Lib; the closest is the surname “Leyb.”

Figure 3. Location of Dieveniškės, Lithuania, presumed birthplace of Salomon Lieb

Around 1928 Salomon Lieb opened his clothing store at the corner of Schulstraße and Poststraße. However, the “Adreßbuch Danzig-Land von 1927/28” does not have him listed in either Stutthof nor elsewhere in the Free City of Danzig. Presumably he was living in the region but without his own household.

The existence of the Lieb clothing store is documented in two places:

Günter Rehaag, “Ostseebad Stutthof” Band 2, Einwohnerverzeichnis Stutthof (Volume 2, Register of Residents Stutthof).

Number 1445:

Name: Antony, Walter, born 1908

Place of Residence: Stutthof, Schulstraße 2

Occupation: Merchant, Milk Butter Groceries, Schulstraße/corner Poststraße

Other: Besitz Fr. Löwner, tenants Rathke and Antony (early merchant Liep)

Info: Hermann Rohde

Deutsches Reichs-Adressbuch für Industrie, Gewerbe und Handel, 1934, Stutthof, Manufakturwaren (German Reich Address Book for Industry, Trade and Commerce, 1934, Stutthof, Manufactured Goods)

Dau, G. – Gerber, Fritz – Glodde, Alfr. – Lieb, Sal., – Thiessen, Heinrich (Figure 4)

Figure 4. Listing in the “Deutsches Reichs-Adressbuch für Industrie, Gewerbe und Handel, 1934, Stutthof, Manufakturwaren” documenting Solomon Lieb’s manufactured goods store. Readers will also note below the listing of manufactured goods retailers, the machine factor of “Epp & Co. GmbH”

(EDITOR’S NOTE: Readers will notice that immediately below the list of manufactured goods merchants on Figure 4, there is a single “Maschinenfabrik,” Machine Factory, with the merchant “Epp & Co. GmbH” listed. This would refer to Gerhard Epp who was a middle brother of two of my father’s friends from Tiegenhof [today: Nowy Dwór Gdański, Poland]).

In 1929 Salomon Lieb got married in Danzig. (Figures 5a-c).

Figure 5a. Cover page from ancestry.com of Sarra Woloweleski’s marriage to Salmon Lib on the 16th of July 1929 in Danzig, Free City of Danzig

Figure 5b. Page 1 of Sarra Wolowelski and Salmon Lib’s 16th of July 1929 marriage certificate

Figure 5c. Page 2 of Sarra Wolowelski and Salmon Lib’s 16th of July 1929 marriage certificate

The marriage certificate records the following information:

Registry Office Danzig I, Certificate Number 528 dated 16^th of July 1929

The merchant Salmon Lib, Jewish religion, born on the 21^st of December 1891 in Dziewienszki, district Oszmiany, Lithuania, living in Stutthof, Danziger lowland.

The parents are the merchant David Lib and his already deceased wife Tony, née Katz, both residing in Dziewienszki.

Married to Sarra Wolowelski, accountant, Jewish religion, born on the 31^st of August 1898/ 10^th of September 1898 (Julian/Gregorian calendar) at Pinsk-Karolin, Belarus (Figure 6), living in Danzig.

The parents are the merchant Josef Wolowelski and his wife Lea, née Menzel, both living in Pinsk-Karolin, Belarus.

Figure 6. Location of Pinsk, Belarus, birthplace of Sarra Wolowelski

In 1932, presumably in Stutthof, Salomon and Sarra’s daughter Tania was born.

The exclusion, harassment, and persecution of the Jew Salomon Lieb in Stutthof, supporting what Irmchen previously noted, is confirmed in the following account:

“Kurt Gutowski, son of a local blacksmith and later poet, has given anecdotal evidence in his short memoirs of the growth of fascism and racist ideologies in his home village (Gutowski, Kurt: Aus meiner Stutthöfer Kinderzeit, p. 66). Gutowski attributes the everyday fascism to his school principal Reinhold Zube, who asked students to damage deliveries to the Jewish department store Lieb to make them unusable. Zube pulled out of the ordered district council elections in November 1934 as a firebrand in the Kreistag. . .” (Zimmermann, Rüdiger: Friedrich Rohde (1895-1970), Danziger Volkstagsabgeordneter, Fischer und Sozialist, Bonn 2020, S. 44)

In 1936, the Lieb family left Stutthof. Whether they were, as Irmchen postulated, picked up in a “Nacht und Nebel” action, or they left Stutthof quietly and secretly on their own remains unclear. The latter is supported by the above-mentioned meeting with Mrs. Lieb, who was apparently living in freedom in Danzig. (EDITOR’S NOTE: After all my father’s dental clients had abandoned him, he left nearby Tiegenhof in around fall 1937 in favor of Berlin where the anonymity of a larger city temporarily provided Jews like him more freedom of movement and economic opportunities. For the same reason, the Liebs may have felt that Danzig as a larger city might similarly and temporarily provide haven.)

The likelihood that the Liebs were living in Danzig is also supported by another written account: “. . . at the home of the Danzig merchant Salomon Lieb, officials of the Tax Investigation Office discovered 30,000 Danzig guilders in gold which they confiscated along with his savings account balance of 3,000 guilders, even though Lieb no longer ran a commercial business. Nonetheless, the Financial Authority claimed he had tax debts and seized the gold coins as an alleged tax liability and tax penalty.” (Sopade 1938, p. 770f.) (Banken, Ralf: “Hitlers Steuerstaat: Die Steuerpolitik im Dritten Reich”, 2018, S. 555, Fußnote 256)

These monetary assets suggest that Salomon Lieb had successfully sold his business and stock of goods in Stutthof to the merchants Walter Antony and Heinrich Thiessen.

Where the Lieb family then lived between 1936 and 1942 remains unclear, possibly Danzig? The Liebs are not listed in Danzig Address Books of 1937/38 and 1939, although this is not definitive proof that they did not stay in the city. Alternatively, they may have returned to Dziewienszki, Salomon’s place of birth. There is documentary evidence from a 1942 Ghetto List that Salomon Lieb and his daughter Tania, without the wife/mother Sarra, were in the Woronów Ghetto.

From a Ghetto-List – https://www.avivshoa.co.il/pdf/Ghetto-List-1.8.2014.pdf (Figure 7)

Figure 7. Link to source of 1942 Woronowo ghetto list

COLUMN 1: Nr. 5288

COLUMN 2: Woronowo (Voranava [Bel], (Voronovo [Rus], Woronów [Pol], Voronova [Yid], Voranova, Voronov, Voronove, Werenów, Woronowo)

COLUMN 3: until 1941: Poland, Gebiet Nowogrodek; until 1944/1945: Reichskommissariat Ostland (White Ruthenia); today: Belarus, Gebiet Grodno (Hrodna) region

COLUMN 4: Opening 1^st June 1941

COLUMN 5: Liquidation 30^th September 1943

COLUMN 6: Deportations Lida

COLUMN 7: Remarks: on the 11^th of May 1942, 1,291 persons were shot

COLUMN 8: Handbook of Detention Centers Belarus (1941-1944), 2001; Encyclopedia of Jewish Life, 2001 [EDITOR’s NOTE: The specific ghetto list with Salomon and Tania’s name on it appears in one of these publications.]

COLUMN 9: Date of Addition: 1^st of August 2014

The map shows that the distance from the Woronów Ghetto [today: Voronovo, Belarus] to Dziewienszki [today: Dieveniškės, Lithuania] is only about 15.4 miles or 25km. (Figure 8)

Figure 8. Map showing distance from Dieveniškės, Lithuania, where Salomon Lieb was born, to the Woronowo (Voronovo) ghetto in Belarus where he and his daughter Tania were murdered

Following a request to the “Arolsen Archives International Center on Nazi Persecution,” they sent a file about the Liebs. This file does not indicate when and from where the Lieb family was taken to the Woronów Ghetto. Salomon Lieb is arrested in the ghetto on the 19^th of May 1942 and shot during an “action.” (Figures 9a-d) In the case of the 10-year-old daughter Tania the date of her arrest is given as the beginning of June 1942; she too is shot during an “action.” (Figures 10a-c)

Figure 9a. Page 1 of Salomon Lieb’s file from the Arolsen Archives

Figure 9b. Page 2 of Salomon Lieb’s file from the Arolsen Archives; circled question indicates he lived on Weidengasse in Danzig

Figure 9c. Page 3 of Salomon Lieb’s file from the Arolsen Archives

Figure 9d. Page 4 of Salomon Lieb’s file from the Arolsen Archives

Figure 10a. Page 1 of Tania Lieb’s file from the Arolsen Archives

Figure 10b. Page 2 of Tania Lieb’s file from the Arolsen Archives; circled question indicates she lived on Weidengasse in Danzig

Figure 10c. Page 3 of Tania Lieb’s file from the Arolsen Archives

[EDITOR’S NOTE: In Figure 9b of the questionnaire in Salomon Lieb’s Arolsen Archives file, under question 9, and on Figure 10b. of Tania Lieb’s file is written in German the following: “9. Letzte Anschrift vor der Inhaftierung: Stutthof bei Danzig bis etwa 1936, dann Danzig in der nähe der Weidengasse,” translated as “9. Last address before imprisonment: Stutthof near Danzig until about 1936, then Danzig near Weidengasse.” (Figure 11) This confirms that Salomon and Tania Lieb lived in Danzig after leaving Stutthof, although there is no indication for how long.]

Figure 11. Pre-WWII map of Danzig with arrows pointing to location of Weidengasse where the Liebs lived, and to Mäusegasse where the Jewish ghetto in Danzig was located

[UWE SAGER’S HISTORICAL NOTE: At today’s ulica Owsiana in Gdansk, Poland (formerly Mäusegasse pointed out on Figure 11) there was a granary (Figure 12) with the charming name “Red Mouse” at number 7. In 1939 it served as a Nazi gathering point for Jews imprisoned in Danzig and was thus a kind of Danzig ghetto. The Germans were able to gather in it about 600 people who, for one reason or another, had not left Danzig when the Jewish community emigrated before the outbreak of war. The ghetto existed until 1943, when the remaining Jews were taken to the Auschwitz and Theresienstadt concentration camps. The fact that Salomon and Tania Lieb were murdered in the Woronów Ghetto rather than in Auschwitz or Theresienstadt suggests that they returned to Dziewienszki, Salomon’s place of birth, before being deported and murdered.]

Figure 12. Photo of the “Rote Maus,” the “Red House,” a granary that served as a Nazi detention center for Jews in Danzig until 1943 when the remaining Jews were deported and murdered in either Auschwitz or Theresienstadt

Nothing is known about the whereabouts of the wife/mother Sarra, not even on the list of survivors of the Woronów Ghetto. It cannot be ruled out that Sarra died between 1936 and 1942.

In the unpublished English-language manuscript written by Moshe Berkowitz entitled “Woronow, Voronova (Voranava, Belarus) 54°09′ / 25°20′,” Chapter XIII describes how the Jewish inhabitants of Diveneshok and neighboring villages were taken to Voronovo. Before their deportation, a delegation from the villages tried to negotiate with the Germans: “The delegation was as follows: LIEB; Hirsh SCHMID; YUTAN; and KOTLIAR from Diveneshok. . .” (Figure 13) Unfortunately, the first name of LIEB is missing so it is not clear whether it refers to Salomon Lieb.

Figure 13. Chapter XIII of Moshe Berkowitz’s unpublished manuscript with the names of the Jewish residents from Divenoshok and surrounding towns who “negotiated” with the Nazis before being deported to the Voronovo ghetto, including a man with the surname of “LIEB”

Chapter XV of the manuscript describes the massacre in Woronow, which took place on the 11^th of May 1942, shortly preceding Salomon Lieb’s own death.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to thank the subscribers from the Danzig Forum, as well as the Arolsen Archive for providing the file on the Lieb family. My goal was not to write a book but as mentioned at the outset, to give the Lieb family a place in our consciousness. Therefore, I ask for your understanding that I have kept my post short.

The following is the file from the Arolsen Archives.

Copy of 6.3.3.3/82889670 through 82889675

In conformity with IST Digital Archives

With kind permission of the publication by above mentioned archive.

REFERENCES

Banken, Ralf. Hitlers Steuerstaat: Die Steuerpolitik im Dritten Reich (Hitler’s Tax State: Tax Policy in the Third Reich). De Gruyter Oldenbourg, 2018.

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