Markus Esther – Gedenkbuch

Markus, Esther

Geburtsdatum:: 21.05.1940
Geburtsort:: Düsseldorf

Beruf:: Kind

Wohnorte:: Kölner Straße 60

Todesdatum:: 00.08.1944
Todesort:: Vernichtungslager Auschwitz

Esther Markus wurde als Tochter von Jenny Markus am 21. Mai 1940 in Düsseldorf geboren. Die Oberin des Dominikanerklosters in der Rheinallee 26/27 in Düsseldorf-Heerdt zeigte die Geburt beim Standesamt Düsseldorf-Oberkassel an. Der Name des Vaters wurde nicht vermerkt.

Ihre fünfundzwanzigjährige Mutter Jenny Markus arbeitete als Hausgehilfin. Ihre Großeltern, der Metzger Bernhard Markus und dessen Frau Mathilde Markus, geborene Mainz, waren im Mai 1939 zusammen mit ihrem Onkel Alfred Markus von Düsseldorf nach Belgien emigriert. Warum ihre Mutter Jenny damals nicht auch das Land verlassen hat, ist nicht bekannt.

Ihre Mutter heiratete Friedrich Salm. Sie brachte Esther mit in die Ehe. Am 6. Mai 1941 musste die Familie Salm in die Kölner Straße 60 (in der NS-Zeit: Horst-Wessel-Straße) – ein sogenanntes „Judenhaus“ – umziehen.

Die kleine Esther war erst ein Jahr alt, als sie mit ihrer Mutter und ihrem Stiefvater Friedrich Salm am 27. Oktober 1941 von Düsseldorf in das Ghetto von Litzmannstadt/Łódź deportiert wurde. Auf der Deportationsliste wurde sie mit ihrem Geburtsnamen Markus geführt, während sie im Ghetto auch manchmal als Esther Salm verzeichnet wurde. Über das „Düsseldorfer Kollektiv“ erhielt sie die Brotkarte mit der Nummer 168536.

Ihre Eltern konnten sie bis in Jahr 1944 beschützen und vor allen Deportationen retten, erst im August 1944 wurde Esther im Alter von vier Jahren zusammen mit ihrer Mutter aus dem Ghetto von Litzmannstadt/Łódź nach Auschwitz gebracht und dort vermutlich sofort ermordet.

Autorin: Hildegard Jakobs, Mahn- und Gedenkstätte Düsseldorf

Quellenangaben
Einzelnachweise

Die Lebensmittelkarten-Abteilung des Ghettos vermerkt noch 1944 Friedrich Salm, Justin Salm und Jenny Salm sowie Esther Markus mit Wohnung in der Sperlinggasse 10. (APL)

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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