Julius Brumsack
Julius Brumsack (born January 19, 1915 in Beverstedt ; † October 22, 2011 in Oldenburg (Oldenburg) ) was a merchant in Beverstedt and a survivor of the Holocaust . He returned to Beverstedt in 1948 and opened a textile shop.
Childhood in Beverstedt
In his estate, Brumsack describes his childhood in Beverstedt as a carefree time. The families were members of the Jewish community in Osterholz-Scharmbeck and often met in family circles on the Sabbath . In 1927 the children Annelise, Hans Leo and Julius celebrated the Bar Mitzvah . The men were members of the shooting club and the fire department. The women took part in charity events and coffee parties and belonged to the women's association. At the age of ten, Julius and his siblings switched from elementary school to private middle school in Beverstedt. Julius learned English there. He benefited from this during his later escape to Great Britain , as did his passion for stamp collecting .
Youth and training in Sehnde
When Julius and his cousin Hans Leo were 14 years old, they began a commercial apprenticeship with relatives in Sehnde .
“Julius Brumsack attended the private bogeyman school in Hanover . He visited jazz bars, played drums, was a co-organizer of dirt track races in the Eilenriede and discovered another passion, photography. "
The seizure of power by Hitler initially did not have such a strong impact in the everyday life of families. People gave themselves up to the fallacy: We are not meant! We are loyal Germans! (E. Brumsack, see literature, p. 184) After a trip to Yugoslavia , Julius Brumsack's camera was removed, he was suspected of espionage, and post officials, with whom he was connected through stamp collecting, let him know that he was being monitored by the Gestapo and his mail would be checked. He was beaten up in the street by an SS man because he “had contact with an Aryan girl”. (E. Brumsack, see literature, p. 185)
“Even the benches on walking paths had a sign 'Forbidden for Jews!' - We were told by word of mouth that a restaurant called 'Sollinger' was intended for Jewish young people in Hanover, which, although civilly guarded downstairs at the entrance, brought us some variety - but the conversation was serious and full of concern, always there some friends were missing and we knew that they were being transported to the east. "
Julius Brumsack experienced the pogrom night in Hanover in 1938, but luckily escaped arrest. His cousin Hans Leo was arrested and taken to Sachsenhausen concentration camp . Now it was clear to Julius Brumsack that he had to leave Germany. But where should he go?
Discrimination and persecution in Beverstedt
On April 1, 1933, a boycott of Jews was declared nationwide . It was directed against Jewish shops, department stores, banks, medical practices, law firms and notaries' offices. In Beverstedt, not all residents let the SA and SS men stop them from shopping in front of the shops. Many bought at the Brumsack slaughterhouse after closing time through the back entrance and when it was dark. Many farmers wanted to keep doing business with the Jewish cattle dealers, also because of their positive experiences.
“But the farmers are still dependent on the Jewish cattle dealers. ... While the German cattle dealer can usually only buy cattle on credit, the Jew pays in cash. ... Here educational work must fail as long as the Jewish trader is not confronted by a solvent German competitor. "
The German competitor was Friedrich Teschen - member of the NSDAP, cattle agent at the cattle distribution center in Wesermünde and district manager of the NSV in Beverstedt. On August 8, 1935, the regional farmers 'leader of the Hanover regional farmers' association issued an order.
"I urge the district farmers' leaders
- 1. to report to me by the 20th harvest (August) of the year those volunteers who are still in business or personal contact with Jews today so that I can remove them from their offices,
- 2. To blacklist all other members of the Reichsnährstand who are still in contact with Jews today and to report to me if they ... for voluntary work in the Reichsnährstand and its affiliated organizations (members of the supervisory board and board of directors in cooperatives, etc. .) should be proposed so that I can prevent such unworthy representatives from taking over such positions. "
Just one week later, the savings and loan fund Meyerhof-Beverstedt canceled a loan of 7,000 Reichsmarks. On September 8, 1935, Siegmund Brumsack asked the Wesermünde tax office to defer income and sales tax for August.
At the beginning of 1939 the house in Poststrasse, where Siegmund, Elise, Annelise and Hans Leo Brumsack lived, had to be sold to the Busch family. Both families then lived in the house of Emma, Grete and Julius Brumsack on Meyerhofstrasse. From the proceeds of 9,100 RM, which had been determined by the NSDAP, the remaining liability to the savings and loan fund and the Jewish property tax were paid, so that nothing was left. The slaughterhouse and livestock trade, which had provided the livelihood for all family members, had to be closed in 1937 and leased to an Aryan butcher. The Brumsacks worked as civil engineering workers in Bremerhaven and in a sack factory in Hahnenknoop (today Loxstedt). Siegmund Brumsack was expelled from the shooting club. The name "Markus Brumsack" was chiseled out of the memorial for the fallen of the First World War and only added again after the Second World War at the instigation of his son Julius.
Escape to Great Britain
Julius Brumsack left Germany on April 28, 1939. He had been granted entry to England in February. At the end of 1939 he received an urgent recommendation from the Jewish Aid Committee to register as a Jewish refugee for the fight against Hitler's Germany.
“It was of course our duty to 'volunteer' to join the British Army; ... and the Brumsack was supposed to be a British soldier, since I've always been against the military. "
In 1940 a brigade of Jewish refugees went to France with the British Expeditionary Forces (BEF) ; At the beginning of June 1940 he was evacuated from the Dunkirk pocket. He had to come up with a new name in order not to be considered a traitor if captured. The initials JB were to be retained - he took the name Jeffrey Barclay. In 1944, during the invasion, he returned to France as a British soldier across the Channel. In Brussels he saw Germany surrender.
"I thanked God for this victory over the Nazi tyranny and thought, as often before, what has happened to my loved ones - will I see at least some of them again?"
At various locations, including in Osterholz-Scharmbeck and Stade, he took part as an interpreter in negotiations against Nazi people and in denazification proceedings.
Return to Beverstedt and clarification of the fate of his family
He visited the Schragenheim house in Sehnde several times from Bielefeld to find out something about the fate of his relatives. From Stade he made the first trip to Beverstedt on a light motorcycle.
“I rang the doorbell, which had a small sign with the name 'Schnaars' as new residents. ... When I said 'You probably don't know me anymore, I'm Julius Brumsack, this is the place where I was born', she almost fainted and just said: 'I think you are no longer alive.' "
Immediately after the end of the war, Brumsack wrote from Bielefeld under the pseudonym Joseph Braun to the Beverstedt community to find out something about the fate of the Brumsack family. He received no real information. At the end of August 1948 Brumsack left England for good. In November he married his girlfriend Emmi Barg, his son Hans-Jürgen was born in 1950 and his daughter Sabina in 1955. In an exchange of letters with the Israelite community in Hanover, Julius Brumsack complained about the “lack of willingness to provide information on the part of the Beverstedt population”.
However, it was possible to largely reconstruct the events surrounding his family. The police officer Toskowski described the deportation of the family members to Bremen, the sealing of the property until the auction by the auctioneer Heinrich Jäger on December 8, 1941 and April 7, 1942. He later denied the existence of auction lists. But Brumsack got it with difficulty. In the school chronicle of the elementary school teacher Ludwig Behrens there was the entry: “Beverstedt free of Jews since November 17, 1941.” The traces of Julius Brumsack's relatives end on November 18, 1941 in Bremen. All family members from Beverstedt and Sehnde (including his mother, sister, cousin and uncles and aunts) were murdered by the Nazis. Only his cousin Annelise was able to save herself to England with Julius' help (see E. Brumsack, see literature, p. 206f).
His parents' house in Meyerhofstr. The Schnaars family bought 2 for 11,000 RM (see E. Brumsack, see literature, pp. 205f).
New beginning from nowhere in Beverstedt
“The“ zero hour ”did not exist for [the formerly persecuted]. Anti-Semitic thought patterns did not suddenly disappear from people's heads on May 8, 1945, but continued to have an effect for years, if not decades. "
On behalf of the Beverstedt beneficiaries of the Brumsack family property, lawyers tried by all means to declare the forced sales in the Nazi era as voluntary. Attempts were also made to portray the measure as a consequence of declining sales, so that the sale was necessary to pay off loan debts.
"So in my own house, which was never sold but stolen directly by the Nazi authorities, I have to pay a rent of 22.50 RM to the current residents for these two rooms."
On his return to Beverstedt and Sehnde, Julius Brumsack first encountered a wall of silence and denial. Only in early 1951 did Brumsack get his parents' property back. For example, absurdly, in a two-year legal process, he had to get the damage to the bike and radio reimbursed - witnesses were heard about the value of the things who were supposed to provide information about the brand, age and condition. The claim for compensation of the auction proceeds for 385 items auctioned in December 1941 was rejected by the reparation office. Brumsack was also accused of having “not fought for Germany, but spent the time of the war abroad”. (E. Brumsack, see literature, p. 210)
In 1949, Brumsack was to be examined by the district doctor for recognition as a “racially persecuted person”. Two years after submitting the application, things suddenly went without this certificate.
“Due to the exemption from compulsory military service, the emigration to Scotland and the service in the British Pioneer Corps, the applicant ... did not suffer any losses compared to the other German members of the 1915 class. Rather, he shared the fate of all the other men of this year, insofar as they are still alive. "
Julius Brumsack has often been asked why he returned to Germany. In his notes he wrote down the answer:
“I took this risk and haven't looked back. I am neither an avenger nor a hater, but a humane person, according to the motto “Do right and shy away from nobody”, I know not to repay evil with evil, because God's mills grind slowly but justly - that is also part of PEACE. "
Brumsack became a successful businessman in Beverstedt with a textile shop on Meyerhofstrasse. 12. His wife Emmi died in 1979 in a car accident. He himself spent the last years of his life until his death in a nursing home in Oldenburg near his son and daughter-in-law. He was buried according to the Jewish rite in the Jewish cemetery in Beverstedt .
Remembrance in sight
"To unveil a memorial plaque after Auschwitz and to give a speech about it is barbaric."
Rahel Bruns was asked by the “Stolpersteine in Sehnde” group to create a memorial plaque. At the inauguration, she reports on the technology behind the creation of this plate. All Jews known by name are listed on it. Previously, stumbling blocks had been laid in Sehnde and Ilten - but not for all. Hans-Jürgen Brumsack, the son of Julius Brumsack, reported on his father's life at the inauguration ceremony and judged that the city of Sehnde had “not let this dark chapter fall into oblivion and finally did justice to its murdered Jewish fellow citizens to let".
"We believe that poems have only now become possible again, namely insofar as it is only possible to say in the poem what otherwise defies description - Hans Sahl: Memo"
Commemoration in Beverstedt
On June 13, 2016, nine stumbling blocks were laid on the former houses of the Brumsack families in Beverstedt . At Meyerhofstrasse 12 (previously house number 2), stones for Julius, Grete and Emma Brumsack were added to the footpath. While Grete and Emma Brumsack were deported to Minsk and murdered, Julius Brumsack was able to flee to England early enough, survive and set up a textile business there after the war.
“Now, after more than seventy years, the Beverstedt community is also committed to its past. The stumbling blocks laid today are intended to commemorate the fate of the Beverstedt Jews who were murdered during the Nazi dictatorship and forced to flee. Our families, descendants of the two surviving Jewish family members Julius and Annelise Brumsack, expressly welcome this form of remembrance. Stumbling blocks are not only a legacy of the murdered and persecuted, from our point of view they are also to be seen as an important sign to face the persecuted, who are seeking protection in our country, open-heartedly and to grant them safe abode. In this respect, stumbling blocks also have a highly topical component, which shows us all that persecution and displacement by no means only took place in the past. Our history urges us to face these people openly and to help them. "
At Poststrasse 11 (formerly house no. 21), at the former business building of the butcher and cattle dealer "Brumsack Brothers" (Siegmund and Markus [after his death in World War I: his widow Emma] Brumsack), stumbling blocks for Arnold, Siegmund, Elise, Rosa, Annelise and Hans Leo Brumsack relocated. The house had to be sold in 1939. After that, both Brumsack families lived in the house on Meyerhofstrasse.
literature
- Elfriede Brumsack: "He came back" - the life path of Julius Brumsack (1915–2011) from Beverstedt. In: Men from the Morning Star. Yearbook 92/93 2013/14, Bremerhaven 2015, ISBN 978-3-931771-92-8 , pp. 177-214.
- Project group Stolpersteine 2012, On the fate of Jewish residents of Sehndes. information sheet
- Rahel Bruns, Shards against Forgetting, A memorial plaque for the sighted, ed. from the city of Sehnde 2015
Single receipts
- ↑ On Julius Brumsack's estate: E. Brumsack, see literature.
- ↑ There were two Brumsack families in Beverstedt: Julius father Markus (killed in the First World War in 1915), his mother Emma (née Schragenheim) and his sister Grete, and Siegmund Brumsack with his wife Elise (née Schragenheim, died 1941) and the children Annelise and Hans Leo. Only Julius and his cousin Annelise survived.
- ↑ Julius Königheim and his wife Paula as well as their brother Salli Schragenheim had no descendants, so Julius and Hans Leo Brumsack were intended as heirs to the textile company "Gebrüder Schragenheim".
- ↑ Information sheet on the fate of the Jewish residents of Sehndes
- ↑ a b so the original spelling!
- ↑ The originals of the process are no longer preserved. In a statement dated February 1, 1948, Emil Lührs (then mayor and custodian of the fund) emphasized: “But we refused to take coercive measures against Brumsack, who always behaved correctly towards us. We did not follow all relevant instructions and gave Brumsack time to complete his obligations with us when he was able to do so. ”However, it is documented in writing that Siegmund Brumsack received a 1, two months after the bank claim, at the end of December 1935. Had to sell 6 hectares of pasture and 0.3 hectares of arable land in order to repay the greater part of the loan (4,500 RM) to the savings and loan fund. The remaining amount probably had to be paid back at the end of 1938. (see: E. Brumsack, see literature, p. 190)
- ↑ “Although we were fighting in the front with five brothers and one of our brothers was killed, we were excluded from the Wesermünde slaughterhouse as non-Aryans and our slaughterhouse was boycotted. We are facing ruin, have no income, no source of income or any other means to pay our taxes. ... The loan has been blocked and terminated by the savings and loan association Meyerhof by order of the Hanover State Farmers' Association with immediate effect. ”See: E. Brumsack, see literature, p. 189.
- ↑ A postage stamp friend from Glasgow was the guarantor for Brumsack, he was promised a job and his uncle Salli paid the transport costs and the flight tax .
- ↑ Mayor Reichers replied to Joseph Braun on October 26, 1945: “To the letter on the reverse I reply that the two Brumsack families no longer live in Beverstedt. I have no knowledge of where they went when they emigrated. ”Elfriede Brumsack writes:“ Everyone who wanted to know knew that 'emigration' meant 'murder' from a certain point in time. And it was just as well known to the mayor that the Brumsack family's belongings, ..., had been auctioned after their deportation. ”(E. Brumsack, see literature, p. 199).
- ↑ "Of course there were some big agitators here myself, who are also known to me, but what can I do if I cannot bring any witnesses myself and only have to rely on so-called talk?" (From a letter to the Israelite community on 10 December 1948, see E. Brumsack, see literature, p. 200)
- ↑ The memorial plaque “Shards against oblivion” is based on a complete name plaque made of glass. It was smashed and made this memorial plaque from the broken pieces.
- ↑ Rahel Bruns' website about the unveiling of the memorial plaque in Sehnde ( Memento of the original from December 8, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ Speech by Rahel Bruns on November 9, 2014
- ↑ cf. on this section Rahel Bruns, see literature
- ↑ Shards against oblivion - memorial plaque in front of the council chamber in Sehnde
- ↑ Explanation of the history of the creation of the Sehnder memorial plaque
- ↑ Speech by Hans-Jürgen Brumsack at the inauguration of the memorial plaque in Sehnde
- ↑ see: Jens Gehrke, Each stone a fate, in: Nordsee-Zeitung, June 14, 2016, p. 25
- ↑ Manuscript by the author HJ Brumsack, Oldenburg
Web links
- Jews in need
- On the trail of fates, report in the Sunday journal about the work of Martin Bensen
- Obituary of the municipality of Beverstedt for Julius Brumsack
- 150 years SPD Beverstedt, p. 8 ff Beverstedt's SPD and the Jews in Beverstedt
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Brumsack, Julius |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German merchant in Beverstedt and survivor of the Holocaust |
| DATE OF BIRTH | January 19, 1915 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Beverstedt |
| DATE OF DEATH | October 22, 2011 |
| Place of death | Oldenburg (Oldenburg) |