Graff Karl – Gedenkbuch

Graff, Karl

Geburtsdatum:: 30.07.1889
Geburtsort:: Krone a.d. Brahe

Beruf:: Kaufmann

Wohnorte:: Klosterstraße 144, Steinstraße 74

Todesdatum:: 06.05.1942
Todesort:: Vernichtungslager Chełmno (Kulmhof)

Karl Graff kam am 30. Juli 1889 in Krone im Kreis Bromberg als Sohn des Händlers Isidor Graff und dessen Frau Dora, geborene Sachs, zur Welt. Er hatte eine Zwillingsschwester namens Johanna. Seine Schwester heiratete 1913 in Berlin Erich Bartel und lebte danach auch in Berlin.

Karl Graff zog am 5. Dezember 1934 von Bonn nach Düsseldorf und wohnte für drei Monate, bis zum 26. Februar 1935, in der Bilker Straße 41. Bis zum 10. September 1937 lebte er wieder in Bonn, kehrte anschließend nach Düsseldorf in die Klosterstraße 144 zurück. Es folgten mehrere Umzüge innerhalb Düsseldorfs: am 5. Mai 1938 in die Steinstraße 74, am 26. Februar 1939 in die Brehmstraße 74 , am 2. November 1939 in die Stromstraße 7 und zuletzt am 6. Mai 1940 in die Karolingerstraße 88. Karl Graff war ledig und arbeitete als Kaufmann. In der NS-Zeit musste er Zwangsarbeit leisten, sein Arbeitsbuch trug die Nummer 169/293780.

Am 27. Oktober 1941 wurde Karl Graff von Düsseldorf in das Ghetto von Litzmannstadt/Łódź deportiert. Möglicherweise konnte er vor dem Transport seine Schwester in Berlin über die bevorstehende Deportation unterrichten. Seine Schwester, die seit 1920 geschieden und alleinstehend war, verübte am 18. November 1941 in Berlin Selbstmord durch die Einnahme von Schlafmittel.

Karl Graff lebte im Ghetto von Litzmannstadt/Łódź im Zimmer 9 der „Düsseldorfer“ Kollektivunterkunft Fischstraße 15. Am 5. Januar 1942 erhielt Karl Graff eine Postanweisung in Höhe von 38,70 Mark, davon musste er zwei Drittel an das „Düsseldorfer Kollektiv“ abführen.
Karl Graff wurde am 6. Mai 1942 mit dem III. „Aussiedlungstransport“ aus dem Ghetto von Litzmannstadt/Łódź in das Vernichtungslager Chełmno gebracht und dort am nächsten Tag ermordet.

Autorin: Hildegard Jakobs, 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