Dirks Berta – Gedenkbuch

Dirks, Berta

geb. Wolf

Geburtsdatum:: 04.11.1892
Geburtsort:: Düsseldorf Gerresheim

Beruf:: Hausfrau

Wohnorte:: Dreherstraße 14, Kölner Tor 32

Todesdatum:: 15.05.1944
Todesort:: Vernichtungslager Auschwitz

Berta Wolf wurde am 4. November 1892 in (Düsseldorf-)Gerresheim geboren. Ihre Eltern waren der Metzger Lehmann Wolf und dessen Frau Elise, geborene Moser. Berta hatte fünf Geschwister, die ebenfalls in Gerresheim lebten. Berta Wolf heiratete am 22. November 1919 in Gerresheim den nicht-jüdischen und gehörlosen Schreiner Heinrich Dirks ( geboren 1893 in Münster). Ihren Sohn Walter, der am 29. Mai 1921 in Gerresheim geboren wurde, ließ das Paar evangelisch taufen. Die Familie wohnte in der Dreherstraße 14.

Während der NS-Zeit wurde auf die nichtjüdischen Partner in „Mischehen“ von Seiten der Nationalsozialisten in vielfacher Hinsicht Druck ausgeübt. Dies mag ein Grund dafür gewesen sein, dass Heinrich Dirks sich im Sommer 1939 von seiner Frau Berta trennte – er ließ sich aber bis 1941 nicht scheiden.

Nach der Trennung zog Berta Dirks am 7. Juni 1939 mit ihrem Sohn in ihrem Elternhaus Kölner Tor 32. Ihre Mutter Elise Wolf war am 30. März 1939 verstorben.
Solange die Ehe nicht offiziell geschieden war, blieb Berta Dirks im Status der „privilegierten Mischehe“, sie wurde also zunächst von den Deportationen jüdischer Bürger verschont. Dieser „Schutz“ entfiel, als ihr Mann sich am 6. Februar 1941 offiziell scheiden ließ. Berta Dirks wurde am 21. Juli 1942 in das Ghetto Theresienstadt deportiert. Am 15. Mai 1944 wurde sie von Theresienstadt nach Auschwitz-Birkenau deportiert und ermordet.

Auch ihr Sohn Walter Dirks überlebte die Verfolgungszeit nicht. Er wurde am 22. Februar 1943 im Vernichtungslager Auschwitz-Birkenau ermordet

Autorin: Hildegard Jakobs, Mahn- und Gedenkstätte Düsseldorf

Quellenangaben
Stolperstein

Berta Dirks mit ihrem damaligen Ehemann Heinrich und dem Sohn Walter in Gerresheim (Sammlung Suchy in der Mahn- und Gedenkstätte Düsseldorf)

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Introduction

Presented by the City of Düsseldorf, this digital memorial book commemorates the Jews who were murdered during the Nazi. The City’s Memorial and Education Centre has been researching victims’ life stories since its foundation in 1987, collecting biographical data, documents, letters and photographs. Using databases whose origins can be traced back to the 1990s, together with the collated information to be found in the archival collection, almost 3,000 individuals have been identified who were persecuted and murdered because they were Jews, or “non-Aryan” Christians.

Biographical research into the above necessitated searches – of both national and international archives – for a variety of documents such as register office certificates, registration indexes, address books and exit papers. Perpetrator resources, too, were searched, for example Gestapo files, files relating to communal matters, and tax and administrative district files. Numerous interviews with survivors and members of victims‘ families provided insights into family life, routine and otherwise, as well as of the personality of the deceased.

The cohort of those who were murdered is heterogeneous. Old and young, men and women, the young and the elderly, people from modest backgrounds or those who had built a secure living for themselves; people who, after 1933, had fled to the European continent but who were then “reeled in” by the German occupation; people whose death or murder came about in a variety of circumstances. Some died of starvation, disease or forced labour in the ghettos and concentration camps to which they had been deported, others were murdered in extermination camps. And there were also those who, out of despair, committed suicide or were murdered before the outbreak of war whilst still at home, for example during the 1938 November Pogrom and in other violent events.

The relationship to Judaism of many of those who died was very individual. The breadth and depth of the spectrum was such that they ranged from the deeply pious and orthodox to those of a more liberal or conservative persuasion and, at the other end of the scale, to atheists. All were persecuted as “Jews” by reason of their ancestry, whether they were baptised Christians, having previously been Jews, or had become Jews only in the course of Nazi “investigations”, despite never having had a Jewish identity. Nazi ideology decreed that the decisive factor was not individual identity but “ancestry”, “blood relationship” and “racial hygiene”. Despite all their differences, what all these people had in common was that they came from Düsseldorf, had been born there or had lived there for many years.

Scientific research can access genealogical connections by availing itself of the online compilation of names, dates and biographies; but in addition, by creating connections with their own personal research, survivors and their descendants the world over can also search for their murdered families.

The work on an online memorial book is never done. The intention is to add more dates and names. Of course the Düsseldorf Memorial and Education Centre is grateful for any leads, additions and corrections which contribute to the overall picture.

Düsseldorf, May 2022

Hildegard Jakobs
Academic Project Leader
and Deputy Director

Dr. Bastian Fleermann
Director