Julius Poppert

Eintrag im »Gedenkbuch« des Bundesarchivs:

• Poppert, Julius
• geboren am 20. Juli 1889 in Gronau i. Westfalen / Ahaus / Westfalen wohnhaft in Gronau i. Westf., Harburg-Wilhelmsburg und Hamburg
• Inhaftierung: November 1938 - 17. Dezember 1938, Sachsenhausen, Konzentrationslager
• Todesdatum: 28. August 1942 Todesort: Hamburg Schicksal: Freitod

cf.: http://www.stolpersteine-hamburg.de/?&MAIN_ID=7&BIO_ID=2507

Humiliated leading to suicide

Escape to the Death 28.08.1942

Julius Poppert, born 20.7.1889 in Gronau, suicide on 28.8.1942

Neighborhood Harburg-Altstadt, Sand 12

The fact that Julius Poppert had grown up on the German-Dutch border and had served as a soldier in the First World War knew only a few in the fine society of Harburg, but that he owned two exquisite coffee shops and confectioneries in Rathausstraße 4 and Wilstorfer Straße 29 In the center of the city, the "better" ladies knew only too well. Here they found everything in the Advent and Christmas time or before Easter, with which they could spoil their family and themselves on the feast days. Julius Poppert had a third business in Bahnhofstrasse 1 in Stade.

Lore Poppert, born Hoffmann (born 6.12.1889), was an indispensable support to her husband, not only in private but also in business matters. She came from a non-Jewish family in Wuppertal. They had married in 1917. Soon after, they were able to welcome their friends and acquaintances in a distinguished apartment. A prudent maid took care of her household. One of the proud achievements of the young married couple was soon their own car, which few could afford in their surroundings. With two carers, Julius and Lore Poppert experienced unhappy days of common happiness after the First World War. When Julius Poppert opened his first shop in 1921, Inge Doris Kluge was seven years old. Her brother Hans Gerd Kluge was five years younger. The children were doing well in the family.

The fact that the "golden" years for Julius Poppert were over should, like all other concerned parties, be realized by April 1, 1933, the day of the "Abwehrboykotts against Judaism". Both in Harburg and in Stade, as everywhere else in the German Reich, SA posts with huge posters had been placed in front of all large and small Jewish shops in order to deter potential customers and move them to buy German goods.

In the Staedersblatt of April 1, 1933, the following was read: "Shortly after 10.00 am, double-posts [of the SA] moved to the EPA office, the company Lindor, the company Poppert and the banking firm Friedländer & Wertheim Which are undoubtedly owned by the Jewish capital, and the items which are in front of the store have been used to order placards for the public to buy only German goods. "The items also have a brochure" STAATSFEIND "for sale in their hands, plentiful material For the popular destroying intentions of international Jewry ... From the fish market to the station ... patrols of the SA, which also carry the above-mentioned posters and the enlightening brochures ... "

Already two days earlier, the Stader Tageblatt had declared in a statement "that business advertisements of Jewish companies would no longer be published". The "Harburg advertisements and news" were not quite in such a hurry in this respect, although the Harburg magistrate would have liked this.

The boycott officially lasted only one day, but had long-term consequences, which could not be overlooked in the coming weeks and months. The progressive repression of the Jews from German economic life increasingly transcended the everyday life of the victims. Julius Poppert had to repeat the fact that unknown perpetrators smeared the anti-Semitic shame words over night. Sales declined by more than half because not only members of the NSDAP were absent as customers, but also a lot of wealthy citizens who played a role in public life, wanted to save themselves anger and rather the "German" competition Bought

In 1935, Julius Poppert first had to give up his business in Stade and three or four years later also his two Harburg shops. On the basis of an official order, they were no longer supplied by the sweets trade. Julius Poppert passed the business of his caregiver Inge Doris Kluge. He then lived with his wife more badly than right from the shared savings and had to exchange his large apartment in the Rathausstraße No. 4 against a smaller one on the sand No. 30 (today: No. 12).

The Gestapo captured Julius Poppert like many other Jews in connection with the Pogrom Night from November 9th to 10th, 1938, and took him to Sachsenhausen concentration camp. One may assume that his last store was also among the Harburg shops, whose shop windows, as the Harburg advertisements and news reported, were "hit by a large crowd of people" on 10 November 1938, "disguised for their abhorrence [on the murder of the Secretary of State Ernst von Rath]. " Julius Poppert remained in prison for five weeks.

Under a majority of the decisive measures against Jews, Julius Poppert, despite his marriage to a non-Jewess, suffered just as much as Jews who lived in "full Jewish" marriage. Thus, after September 19, 1941, he had to wear the "yellow star" in public. His request for exemption from the obligation to sign was rejected by the head of the Jewish Council of the Hamburg Gestapo, Claus Göttsche, with the additional remark "Further inputs are pointless". In fact, the Jewish spouse did not have to wear a "star" for a "privileged" mix, that is, with non-Jewish children, but nurses did not absolve Julius Poppert of this prescription. So the marriage of the Popperts was considered "notprivileged" and Julius Poppert became "sternpflichtig".

When the great deportations from Hamburg began in October 1941, all Jews had to expect an "evacuation order" to be "resettled" sooner or later. It is true that the Jews living in "privileged" mishhs were not affected at the time, and that the "nonprivileged" marriage was provisionally reserved, but this fact could be lifted at any time and replaced by more detailed provisions. Julius Poppert, too, did not rule out a further intensification of the national socialist Jewish policy. He had told his wife early on that he was ready for separation from her and the nursing children in an emergency, and that he would take his life if he received the deportation order.

When he was to report to the Harburg Gestapo on August 28, 1942, he feared the worst. He let the date pass, and when a detective wanted to pick him up, Lore Poppert called in vain for her husband. Seconds later she realized that he had hanged himself on the cross of the bedroom window. The physician, Hans Riebeling, who was quickly summoned, could only determine his death. "On the 28th of August, 1910, at 15:10, Secretary of the Criminal Police, Meyer took over the apartment of Poppert Poppert was found hanged by him in the bedroom of his apartment, and he had also opened the pulse veins. "

© Klaus Möller

Sources: 1; 4; 5; 8th; StaH 351-11 AfW, Abl. 2008/1, 200789 Poppert, Julius; StaH, 331-5 Police Offenses - Unnatural Deaths, 3, 1942, 1519; StaH, 430-5 Stock magistrate Harburg-Wilhelmsburg, 181-08 Urban police affairs, elimination of Jewish businesses and consumer associations 1933-1938; Heyl (Hrsg.), Harburg Victim; Heyl, Synagoge, pp. 118, 195; Written communication of the memorial and the museum Sachsenhausen from 3.3.2011; Lohmann, "Not so bad.", 2nd edition, pp. 293ff .; Written communication Johanna Buchholz, 6.8.2006; Written communication from the Sachsenhausen memorial site from 3.3.2011. For the numbering of frequently used sources, see Research and Sources.