Location
Kieler Str. 5
District
Steglitz
Stone was laid
12 July 2019
Born
22 March 1882 in Konitz (Westpreußen) / Chojnice
Deportation
on 19 January 1942
to
Riga
Murdered
-
Stolperstein Selma Braun.Das korrekte Deportationsdatum ist 1942.© A. Hermes
Selma Braun, née Alexander
Selma Alexander was born on the 22nd of March 1882 in Konitz (today Chojnice) in West Prussia.
Selma was the fourth of eight children. Her parents were Michaelis Alexander (1852 – 1918) and Rosa, née Chaim (1851 – 1934).
It follows from the address book of 1918 that her parents moved to Berlin Schöneberg. Her father was a plumber. In 1918 Michaelis Alexander passed away and in the following year only his wife Rosa is mentioned in the address book in Sponholzstaße.
In 1901 when Selma gave birth to a son named Walter on the 27th of November she lived in Stettin. Auguste Braun, the midwife, confessed at the register office that she lived together with Selma in her apartment at Kräutermarkt 5 and that the child was born there. The child died with only eight months on the 12th of July 1902.
From the census of population 1939 it follows that Selma lived at this time with the couple Otto and Therese Wiener in Steglitz, Siemensstraße. Both Wieners were deported to the ghetto Theresienstadt on the 3rd of October 1942. They died there.
Selma Alexander lived in Kieler Straße 5, when she was deported on the 19th of January 1942 to Riga.
Her exact date of death is unknown.
As we said in the beginning research work is often difficult and we can only speak about the information which can be found in the files. Sometimes the documents are puzzling. So, it happens with the story of Selma Braun:
Selma was married for a certain time or at least declared she was. When her son was born in 1901 in Stettin – she was not married according to her name which was Selma Alexander.
We didn’t find any documents that are proof of the fact that Selma was married. In the census population she is referred as Selma Alexander too. Improbably she was married between May 1939 and January 1941 which is the date of her deportation. In the Address book of 1940 she isn’t mentioned in Kieler Straße 5 neither as Selma Braun nor as Selma Alexander.
It is possible that she took the name Braun as her surname because she lived with her midwife Auguste Braun in the time she was in Stettin.
In the file of the Nazi authorities of Berlin-Brandenburg exist only a card of the utilization agency with a note to Selma Alexander and that there existed “no file”. This could be evidence that the authorities didn’t know of Selma’s marital status neither.
We describe this lack of clarity concerning the marriage and the surname of Selma, because such a mistiness in the surveillance society of the Nazis was very seldom. One can reflect whether Selma didn’t want to admit to her parents that she got a son unmarried. Or she tried to prevent deportation with another surname.
On the transporting list she again is “Selma Braun, née Alexander (without profession)”, also in the book of remembrance and in Yad Vashem – and now on the stumbling stone as well.
Selma Alexander was born on the 22nd of March 1882 in Konitz (today Chojnice) in West Prussia.
Selma was the fourth of eight children. Her parents were Michaelis Alexander (1852 – 1918) and Rosa, née Chaim (1851 – 1934).
It follows from the address book of 1918 that her parents moved to Berlin Schöneberg. Her father was a plumber. In 1918 Michaelis Alexander passed away and in the following year only his wife Rosa is mentioned in the address book in Sponholzstaße.
In 1901 when Selma gave birth to a son named Walter on the 27th of November she lived in Stettin. Auguste Braun, the midwife, confessed at the register office that she lived together with Selma in her apartment at Kräutermarkt 5 and that the child was born there. The child died with only eight months on the 12th of July 1902.
From the census of population 1939 it follows that Selma lived at this time with the couple Otto and Therese Wiener in Steglitz, Siemensstraße. Both Wieners were deported to the ghetto Theresienstadt on the 3rd of October 1942. They died there.
Selma Alexander lived in Kieler Straße 5, when she was deported on the 19th of January 1942 to Riga.
Her exact date of death is unknown.
As we said in the beginning research work is often difficult and we can only speak about the information which can be found in the files. Sometimes the documents are puzzling. So, it happens with the story of Selma Braun:
Selma was married for a certain time or at least declared she was. When her son was born in 1901 in Stettin – she was not married according to her name which was Selma Alexander.
We didn’t find any documents that are proof of the fact that Selma was married. In the census population she is referred as Selma Alexander too. Improbably she was married between May 1939 and January 1941 which is the date of her deportation. In the Address book of 1940 she isn’t mentioned in Kieler Straße 5 neither as Selma Braun nor as Selma Alexander.
It is possible that she took the name Braun as her surname because she lived with her midwife Auguste Braun in the time she was in Stettin.
In the file of the Nazi authorities of Berlin-Brandenburg exist only a card of the utilization agency with a note to Selma Alexander and that there existed “no file”. This could be evidence that the authorities didn’t know of Selma’s marital status neither.
We describe this lack of clarity concerning the marriage and the surname of Selma, because such a mistiness in the surveillance society of the Nazis was very seldom. One can reflect whether Selma didn’t want to admit to her parents that she got a son unmarried. Or she tried to prevent deportation with another surname.
On the transporting list she again is “Selma Braun, née Alexander (without profession)”, also in the book of remembrance and in Yad Vashem – and now on the stumbling stone as well.