Ruhr Albert – Gedenkbuch

Ruhr, Albert

Geburtsdatum:: 27.06.1928
Geburtsort:: Düsseldorf

Beruf:: Schüler

Wohnorte:: Luegallee 6, Luisenstraße 122

Todesdatum:: 08.05.1942
Todesort:: Vernichtungslager Chełmno (Kulmhof)

Albert Ruhr kam am 27. Juni 1928 in Düsseldorf als einziges Kind des Ehepaars Alfred und Berta Ruhr, geborene Katz, zur Welt. Sein Vater hatte einen Friseursalon in Düsseldorf. Noch im Juni 1938 schaltete er Werbung für seinen Salon in der Gemeindezeitung für den Synagogenbezirk Düsseldorf. Am 2. Mai 1938 musste die Familie jedoch die Wohnung in der Luegallee 6 aufgeben und sie zogen in die Luisenstraße 122.

Albert Ruhr war 13 Jahre alt, als er zusammen mit seinen Eltern am 27. Oktober 1941 von Düsseldorf in das Ghetto von Litzmannstadt/Łódź deportiert wurde. Er wurde dort in einer Namensliste von Kindern des „Düsseldorfer Kollektivs“ geführt. Für ihn wurden darin sechs absolvierte Schuljahre eingetragen.

Seine Mutter verfasste im Ghetto eine Postkarte an Freunde in Düsseldorf. Sie berichtete den amerikanischen Freunden von der bitteren Kälte im Ghetto und bat dringend um eine Geldsendung. Der 13-jährige Albert und auch sein Vater unterschrieben die Postkarte, die nie zugestellt wurde.

Albert Ruhr wurde sechs Wochen vor seinem 14. Geburtstag zusammen mit seinen Eltern am 7. Mai 1942 mit dem IV. Transport aus dem Ghetto von Litzmannstadt/Łódź gebracht und im Vernichtungslager Chełmno ermordet.

Autorin: Hildegard Jakobs, Mahn- und Gedenkstätte Düsseldorf

Quellenangaben
Einzelnachweise

Die Postkarte an die Familie Coulter unterschrieben Alfred Ruhr, seine Frau Berta und der 13-jährige Sohn Albert (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