Location
Strelitzer Str. 3
District
Mitte
Stone was laid
September 2008
Born
29 August 1877 in Wien
Occupation
Schneider
Deportation
on 10 January 1944
to
Theresienstadt
Later deported
on 15 May 1944
to
Auschwitz
Murdered
in Auschwitz
-
Hugo Schnürmacher © OTFW
Hugo Schnürmacher came from Vienna, where he was born on 29 August 1877. He moved to Berlin-Mitte, probably around the turn of the century, and in 1912 married Karoline Gerbsch, an “Aryan” from Berlin. They registered the birth of three children, but it is thought they had more children later. In 1940 Hugo and Karoline Schnürmacher divorced. Hugo Schnürmacher and his two elder unmarried daughters moved out of the family home on Veteranen Strasse to a 3-room apartment on the ground floor of the front-facing house at Strelitzer Strasse 3 in Berlin-Mitte, N31. In 1943, Hugo Schnürmacher’s daughters were deported, half a year before his own deportation to Theresienstadt, on the “99th transport of the elderly”, on 10 January 1944. On 15 May 1944 he was taken to Auschwitz where he was probably murdered on arrival.
The firstborn child of Hugo Schnürmacher and Karoline Gerbsch was the only one of their elder children to escape immediate persecution: Hans Kurt Schumacher, born on 8 June 1905 in Berlin, was illegitimate until his parents’ marriage in 1912. In 1938 he was categorized as a “half Jew” despite the fact that he had been baptized in 1918, aged 13, in St. Elisabeth Church. In the baptismal register, his father is noted as being a “tailor”. Hans later also married an “Aryan” woman, Margarete Beckmann. They had two daughters and, in 1943, lived at Schreiner Strasse 64 in the Friedrichshain district of Berlin.
Hugo Schnürmacher’s two elder daughters, who had lived with their father, worked as seamstresses. In June 1943 they received notice to submit their “declaration of assets”. Their father initially thought it was a mistake, as he expected his daughters to be protected by the fact they had an “Aryan” mother. But a few days later they were taken to the assembly camp in Grosse Hamburger Strasse for deportation. In the records, the two sisters - Margarethe, born on 10 September 1906 in Berlin, and Valeria, born on 10 May 1911 in Berlin - were noted as having been deported on 28 June 1943, on the “39th transport to the East”, to Auschwitz, where they would have been murdered. This was the information available at the time of applying for stumbling stones to be laid in their memory. However, their names were not found in the Berlin Memorial Book or in the List of Names at Yad Vashem. But their declaration of assets and records of their deportation are held in the Brandenburg Central Archive.
In the event, the deportation of Hugo Schnürmacher’s daughters from the assembly camp was probably delayed. More recent research has shown they were not deported – to Theresienstadt – until 30 June 1943, on the “93rd transport of the elderly”. They survived to see the liberation of the camp in spring 1945. After the war, Valeria Schnürmacher returned to Strelitzer Strasse 3 to live with her mother until the latter died. Valeria was later buried in the nearby cemetery at Liesen Strasse.
The firstborn child of Hugo Schnürmacher and Karoline Gerbsch was the only one of their elder children to escape immediate persecution: Hans Kurt Schumacher, born on 8 June 1905 in Berlin, was illegitimate until his parents’ marriage in 1912. In 1938 he was categorized as a “half Jew” despite the fact that he had been baptized in 1918, aged 13, in St. Elisabeth Church. In the baptismal register, his father is noted as being a “tailor”. Hans later also married an “Aryan” woman, Margarete Beckmann. They had two daughters and, in 1943, lived at Schreiner Strasse 64 in the Friedrichshain district of Berlin.
Hugo Schnürmacher’s two elder daughters, who had lived with their father, worked as seamstresses. In June 1943 they received notice to submit their “declaration of assets”. Their father initially thought it was a mistake, as he expected his daughters to be protected by the fact they had an “Aryan” mother. But a few days later they were taken to the assembly camp in Grosse Hamburger Strasse for deportation. In the records, the two sisters - Margarethe, born on 10 September 1906 in Berlin, and Valeria, born on 10 May 1911 in Berlin - were noted as having been deported on 28 June 1943, on the “39th transport to the East”, to Auschwitz, where they would have been murdered. This was the information available at the time of applying for stumbling stones to be laid in their memory. However, their names were not found in the Berlin Memorial Book or in the List of Names at Yad Vashem. But their declaration of assets and records of their deportation are held in the Brandenburg Central Archive.
In the event, the deportation of Hugo Schnürmacher’s daughters from the assembly camp was probably delayed. More recent research has shown they were not deported – to Theresienstadt – until 30 June 1943, on the “93rd transport of the elderly”. They survived to see the liberation of the camp in spring 1945. After the war, Valeria Schnürmacher returned to Strelitzer Strasse 3 to live with her mother until the latter died. Valeria was later buried in the nearby cemetery at Liesen Strasse.