Julie Hahn née Schwarz

Location 
Roscherstr. 12
District
Charlottenburg
Stone was laid
23 September 2010
Born
29 March 1872 in Kosten / Kościan
Deportation
on 15 December 1942 to Theresienstadt
Murdered
01 September 1943 in Theresienstadt
Julie Hahn née Schwarz was the second of seven children born to Michael Schwarz and his wife, Ottilie Schwarz, née Fischel. In November 1892 Julie married wealthy leather goods manufacturer, Arthur Hahn, who was from Berlin. Julie moved from Kosten into Arthur’s home at Prinzessinnenstraße 26 in Kreuzberg.

Julie and her husband Arthur had 4 children – Margarete (Grete), Leo, Erna and Charlotte (Lotte), all of whom married and had just one child each. The family lived in a spacious apartment at Uhlandstrasse 162 in Wilmersdorf.
In
1933, Arthur died of a heart attack, and was buried at Weissensee cemetery. Son Leo died two years later in 1935 during cancer surgery. Daughter-in-law Margit and grandson Hans then went to Prague to live with Margit’s parents. Julie visited them often in Prague.

Then Julie’s daughter Lotte died of kidney failure in July 1938. By this time Julie had already moved in with Lotte, her husband Lutz and daughter Steffie at Roscherstrasse 12 in Charlottenburg. In 1939 the widowed Lutz was deported to Lublin ghetto and never heard of again. Julie’s granddaughter, Steffie, was sent on the Kindertransport to England, where she was adopted by a Christian couple and never reclaimed her Jewish identity. Julie’s daughter Erna, and granddaughter Ursula (Uschi) were also living at Roscherstrasse 12 with Julie. Erna’s ‚Aryan’ husband had divorced and abandoned her (in Mecklenburg) because she was a Jew. During Kristallnacht, Erna’s locksmith business was smashed and looted, and she was ordered to get out of Mecklenburg. So she and Uschi returned to Berlin, to be with Julie at Roscherstrasse 12, and to await a visa to leave Germany.

In August 1939, Erna and Ursula finally left for England, and later the USA. Julie was now alone and forced to join daughter Grete and her husband Werner, in a Jew house around the corner at Sybelstrasse 58. Julie’s grandson Max had escaped to England 5 months prior. Julie had to sell her beautiful ash and oak furniture for very little, as there was no room for it at Sybelstrasse.

On December 15, 1942, Julie Hahn née Schwarz was deported from Berlin on Transport 1/80-10040 to Theresienstadt concentration camp. The next day, daughter Grete and her husband Werner Nathan were also deported to Theresienstadt, but managed to survive and are buried at Wuerzburg Jewish cemetery. Julie died at Theresienstadt on September 1, 1943, less than nine months after her deportation. She was 71. Her death certificate states she died of pneumonia, but grandson Max Nathan wrote in 1961 that Julie starved to death at Theresienstadt. She died about two months after daughter-in-law Margit and 16 year old Hans also joined her, daughter Grete and son-in-law Werner Nathan at Theresienstadt, and before she had to witness the 1944 ongoing deportation of Margit and Hans to their deaths at Auschwitz.