Arthur Dannenbaum

In the 1930s, the Dannenbaum family lived in a 4-room apartment at Alt Moabit 85. Athur Dannenbaum was born on 16 April 1861 in Posen (Poznan). His wife Cäcilie, née Lewin, was born on 2 December 1891 in Müncheberg. She gave birth to the couple’s first daughter, Ilse, on 5 April 1920 and another daughter, Gerda, on 12 May 1925, both in Berlin. Living in Nazi Germany, the family was made to perform forced labour: Arthur Dannenbaum was a manual worker for the company Schupke in Reinickendorf; his daughter Gerda was forced to work in the German arms and munitions factory and her younger sister worked at the Siemens and Halske Werner works in Charlottenburg. Even though Arthur’s relatives living in the USA tried to help their Berlin relatives to escape to the USA, this did not succeed. On 19 January 1943 the family completed a declaration of assets, on the basis of which the family’s property was seized “for the benefit of the German Reich” after their deportation. Arthur Dannenbaum was deported on 26 January 1943 on the 82nd “transport of the elderly” to Theresienstadt. From there he was sent to Auschwitz, where he was murdered. His two daughters were deported to Auschwitz on the 27th “transport to the East” on 29 January 1943 and murdered. Cäcilie Dannenbaum was deported to Theresienstadt with her husband, but she survived the camp and emigrated tot he USA after the liberation. She died in Corpus Christi, Texas in 1988.