Martin Hammerschmidt

Martin Hammerschmidt was born on 2 February 1895 in Adelnau (now in Poland). Unfortunately, we know nothing about his childhood and youth and his move to Berlin. He studied dentistry at the Friedrich Wilhelm University in Berlin from 1929 to 1933^.1 It is also unknown when he met his future wife Stefanie Hauptmann. She was six years younger than him. They had a daughter Renate (born on 22 November 1928) and lived in Berlin at Augsburger Stra?e 47 from March 1942, where he also took the equipment from his dental practice^.2

After attending the Jewish primary school in Klopstockstra?e, their daughter Renate Hammerschmidt attended the Jewish secondary school from 1 September 1941. She wrote her classmate Ruth Recknagel an entry in her poetry album, which has been preserved for posterity: "Learn to suffer without complaining. In memory of Renate Hammerschmidt, Berlin, 4 December 1941"^.3

Stefanie Hammerschmidt was a receptionist in her own practice and supported her husband at work^.4 The files of the Brandenburg State Archive show that they left the flat around the beginning of December 1942. They presumably wanted to find a safer hiding place after they were no longer able to emigrate to England as originally planned^.5

After a month, the landlord of the flat began to complain that he was no longer receiving rent. The landlord wrote several letters about this to the Chief Finance President. The first letter was dated 13 January 1943^.6 He suspected that Martin Hammerschmidt had been "deported" as a Jew and asked to be allowed to officially rent out the flat again. In the end, the Hammerschmidt family was declared fugitives and the Gestapo initiated asset confiscation proceedings. As a result, the assets of Martin and Stefanie Hammerschmidt were confiscated by the state on 28 May 1943^.7

The furnishings in the flat were sold and the landlord received his rent for three months. However, he continued to write about the missing rent for March 1943, and also about the dentist's equipment, the value of which was to be estimated by an expert^.8 The hearing was not concluded until 10 February 1945. In the end, people were obviously more concerned with the objects than with the people. There is no information in the correspondence about what happened to the Hammerschmidts during this time. They probably hid in the hope that they would not have to share the fate of the many people they knew.

At the end of July 1943, however, the whole family was arrested. They were then sent to the Gro?e Hamburger Stra?e, a collection camp for deportations, to fill in their property ^{declarations9} and were deported to the Auschwitz concentration and extermination camp on 4 August 1943^.10 All three have been considered "missing" since that day.