Hanne Schnurmacher née Davidsohn

Hanne Schnurmacher, née Davidsohn, was born on 10 June 1869 in the West Prussian town of Konitz (now Chojnice, Poland). She was known as Channe, the “graceful one”. She was married to Wilhelm Schnurmacher, a textiles trader from Galicia. He had come to Berlin in 1893 and opened a clothes shop in basement premises at Skalitzer Strasse 113, where he also lived. It is not known if Hanne and he were already married at this point. The Schnurmachers had three children: Klara Charlotte, Max and Erna. Shortly after the turn of the century, the family moved to an apartment at Skalitzer Strasse 30/31. Around 1907, Hanne Schnurmacher’s husband Wilhelm opened a second shop at Skalitzer Strasse 108 (now Oranien Strasse 207). A short time later, he closed the basement shop at number 113.
Following the death of Hanne Schnurmacher’s husband in 1933, she moved from Skalitzer Strasse 30/31 to an apartment at number 108 in the same street and took over the business there. She lived with her daughter Klara Charlotte Birnbaum, née Schnurmacher, and her granddaughter Doris, born in 1926. Hanne Schnurmacher’s other daughter, Erna Katz, née Schnurmacher, managed to emigrate. The fate of her son Max is not known.
On 31 August 1942 Hanne Schnurmacher was deported to Theresienstadt, aged 73, on the “53rd transport of the elderly”. She died there on 1 November 1942, probably as a consequence of the atrocious conditions in the camp. Her daughter Klara Charlotte Birnbaum and granddaughter Doris were deported to Auschwitz a short time later and murdered.