Zwangsräume
Antisemitische Wohnungspolitik in Berlin 1939–1945
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16.10.2023
Falkentaler Steig 16
Falkentaler Steig 16
Historisch: Albertstraße 10, Reinickendorf
This building in Hermsdorf, a district of Reinickendorf, belonged to the Jewish Community. It was one of the few Berlin buildings used as compulsory accommodation that had housed exclusively Jewish people, apart from the non-Jewish wife of one of the residents. More than half of them were deported and murdered.
It was built in 1926. That same year, the women’s society Frauenverein von 1833 acquired the building and set up a Jewish orphanage for girls in it. In 1930/31 it was renamed “Jewish Children’s and Young People’s Home, Hermsdorf”.
In 1935, it was repurposed as a residential building. A prayer hall was installed on the ground floor, which allowed the building to be used as a synagogue for the “Jewish Religious Association of the northern suburbs”.
In 1936 the Jewish Community took over the building. In 1939, as it became harder for Jewish people to find accommodation, the prayer hall was reconverted into an apartment. On November 1, 1942, the Jewish Community was forced to sell the property to the City of Berlin.
The building contained three apartments. Between 1939 and 1943 a total of 27 Jewish people lived there. Ten of them were forced to move in. 16 of the Jewish residents were deported from this address.
Apartments
1st floor
1st
Latte
In August 1939 the Latte family moved into the large 5-room apartment on the ground floor. They were probably the first residents to occupy the reconverted prayer hall.
Paul Latte was a fish monger in Pankow. He lived with his wife Selma and his sister Henriette. Selma Latte’s sisters lived with their husbands on the upper floor of the building. It is very likely that more subtenants lived in the apartment.
On January 13, 1943 the SS deported Paul and Selma Latte to the Theresienstadt ghetto. A day later, Henriette Latte was also deported to Theresienstadt.
2nd floor
2nd
Broh
The two married couples Ephraim and Rosa Broh and Adolf and Regina Broh moved into the five-room apartment on the second floor in 1937. Ephraim and Adolf Broh were brothers and Rosa and Regina Broh, both née Noah, were sisters. They had fled together from Posen to Berlin in 1937.
Rosa and Regina were sisters of Selma Latte, who had moved into the ground-floor apartment with her family in 1939.
The Brohs no doubt also accommodated Jewish subtenants in their apartment. The Brohs were all deported on September 14, 1942, to the Theresienstadt ghetto.
Top floor
3rd
Wolff/Heimann
On the top floor, under the roof, there was a slightly smaller apartment with four rooms. Alma and Marcus Wolff and their daughter Marga were listed in the Berlin directories from 1936 on as resident here.
In 1938 or 1939 David Heimann moved into the apartment as well. It is unclear whether he did so voluntarily or not. His daughter Thekla Hirsch seems also to have lived in the apartment before emigrating to the United Kingdom. After the war, she moved to Brazil.
The apartments of deported Jews were sealed, awaiting clearance, before being rented out again. In the meantime, the rents were paid by the Chief of Finance’s office, using assets seized from the deported Jewish residents.
Neighborhood
The district of Hermsdorf was the center of Jewish life in Reinickendorf. That is why there there was a building here that housed only Jewish tenants.
Unlike in the middle-class districts in the center and south of Berlin, the Jewish residents of Berlin-Reinickendorf were always in a distinct minority. In 1933, 1,115 people of Jewish faith were counted here. They made up about 0.7% of the Jewish population of Berlin. It was therefore easier for the local authorities here to separate the Jewish from the non-Jewish residents.
Author
Johanna A. Kühne
In remembrance of the Jewish residents of Falkentaler Steig 16
Rosalie Arons (née Salomons)
Born February 11, 1871, in Magdeburg
Deported September 14, 1942, to the Theresienstadt ghetto, died November 30, 1944
Selma Beck (née Jacobi)
Born December 1, 1869, in Bydgoszcz
Deported September 14, 1942, to the Theresienstadt ghetto, died October 2, 1942
Adolf Broh
Born July 14, 1872, or August 14, 1872, in Schrim (Srem)
Deported September 14, 1942, to the Theresienstadt ghetto, deported May 16, 1944, to Auschwitz, murdered
Ephraim Broh
Born August 20, 1866, in Schrim (Srem)
Deported September 14, 1942, to the Theresienstadt ghetto, deported May 16, 1944, to Auschwitz, murdered
Regina Broh (née Noah)
Born December 9, 1877, in Mosina
Deported September 14, 1942, to the Theresienstadt ghetto, deported May 16, 1944, to Auschwitz, murdered
Rosa Broh (née Noah)
Born March 12, 1868, in Mosina
Deported September 14, 1942, to the Theresienstadt ghetto, deported May 16, 1944, to Auschwitz, murdered
Harry Gabriel
Born December 6, 1927, in Berlin
Imprisoned in Berlin, deported September 24-26, 1942, to Raasiku, murdered
Wally Gramsch (née. Rogasinski)
Born July 19, 1894, in Berlin
Place of residence and date of birth taken from the 1939 national census, further details unknown
Helene Gregory (née Blankenstein)
Born July 28, 1857, in Hagen
Died March 16, 1940, in Berlin
David Heimann
Born March 12, 1864, in Festenberg (Twardogóra)
Deported September 11, 1942, to the Theresienstadt ghetto, deported September 29, 1942, to Treblinka extermination camp, murdered
Hans Kirchner
Born August 1, 1924, in Berlin
Place of residence and date of birth taken from the 1939 national census, further details unknown
Helene Kirchner (née Rogasinski)
Born September 20, 1889, in Berlin
Place of residence and date of birth taken from the 1939 national census, further details unknown
Paul Latte
Born October 2, 1878, in Bydgoszcz
Deported January 13, 1943, to the Theresienstadt ghetto, died January 24, 1943
Salmia or Selma Latte (née Noah)
Born June 21, 1876, in Mosina
Deported January 13, 1943, to the Theresienstadt ghetto, died July 16, 1943
Henriette Gertrude Willheim (née Latte)
Born March 5, 1874, in Bydoszcz
Deported January 14, 1943, to the Theresienstadt ghetto, died January 31, 1943
Martha Löwenstein (née Noah)
Born June 26, 1872, in Mosina
Died September 22, 1942, in Berlin
Bertha Noerdlinger
Born March 13, 1879, in Namslau (Namysłów)
Deported September 11, 1942, to the Theresienstadt ghetto, deported September 29, 1942, to Treblinka extermination camp, murdered
Emma Pinner (née Simonsohn)
Born November 3, 1879, in Jerichow (Saxony)
Deported December 14, 1942, to Auschwitz, murdered
Paul Pinner
Born October 19, 1875, in Berlin
Died April 4, 1943, in Berlin
Walter Pinner
Born June 3, 1905, in Berlin
Place of residence and date of birth taken from the 1939 national census, further details unknown
Willy Redlich
Born February 16, 1887, in Beeskow
Probably not deported because of his non-Jewish wife
Survived
Thekla Sternberg (née Heimann, divorcée Hirsch)
Born June 4, 1895, in Güsen
Emigrated to the United Kingdom
Survived
Selma Tichauer
Born December 20, 1879, in Wodzislow
Place of residence and date of birth taken from the 1939 national census, further details unknownn
Alma Wolff (née Manneberg)
Born November 9, 1881, in Wodzislaw
Deported September 24-26, 1942, to Raasiku, murdered
Marcus Wolff
Born March 19, 1878, in Lwówek
Deported September 24-26, 1942, to Raasiku, murdered
Marga Wolff
Born January 9, 1921, in Berlin
Place of residence and date of birth taken from the 1939 national census, further details unknown