Mendels Günther – Gedenkbuch

Mendels, Günther

Geburtsdatum:: 10.06.1934
Geburtsort:: Rheinberg

Beruf:: Schüler

Wohnorte:: Herderstraße 63

Todesdatum:: 15.05.1942
Todesort:: Vernichtungslager Chełmno (Kulmhof)

Am 10. Juni 1934 wurde Günther Mendels als Sohn der Eheleute Willy und Alwine Mendels, geborene Benjamin, in Rheinberg am Niederrhein geboren. Seine Eltern hatten sich 1932 verlobt und im März 1933 geheiratet. Seine Mutter war anlässlich der Hochzeit nach Kamp Lintfort an den Niederrhein gezogen. Dort auch wuchs Günther auf. Als Vierjähriger erlitt er mit seinen Eltern die Überfälle auf jüdische Familien im Zuge der Pogromnacht 1938. Sein Vater wurde dabei verhaftet und kam mit weiteren Verhafteten in das Konzentrationslager Dachau. Nach seiner Rückkehr konnte und wollte die Familie Mendels nicht in Kamp-Linfort bleiben und zog am 5. Februar 1940 nach Düsseldorf in die Herderstraße 63. Vielleicht wollten seine Eltern mit ihm emigrieren, doch es kam nicht rechtzeitig dazu.

Günther Mendels war sieben Jahre alt, als er mit seinen Eltern am 27. Oktober 1941 von Düsseldorf in das Ghetto von Litzmannstadt/Łódź deportiert wurde. Er gehörte zu den jüngsten (schulpflichtigen) Kindern des „Düsseldorfer Kollektivs“. Günther erlebte seinen achten Geburtstag nicht mehr. Er wurde am 14. Mai 1942 mit dem XI. Transport aus dem Ghetto von Litzmannstadt/Łódź nach Chełmno „ausgesiedelt“ und am nächsten Tag ermordet.

Autorin: Hildegard Jakobs, Mahn- und Gedenkstätte Düsseldorf

Quellenangaben

Im Haus Herderstraße 63 im Düsseldorfer Zooviertel wohnte Günther Mendels mit seinen Eltern von Februar 1940 bis zur Deportation im Oktober 1941 (Sammlung Mahn- und Gedenkstätte Düsseldorf)

Ausschnitt aus der Deportationsliste von Düsseldorf ins Ghetto Litzmannstadt am 27. Oktober 1941 (Arolsen Archives, ID11198860)

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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