Waller Elsa Anna – Gedenkbuch

Waller, Elsa Anna

geb. Gross

Geburtsdatum:: 13.02.1878
Geburtsort:: Augsburg

Beruf:: Hausfrau

Wohnorte:: Aderstraße 79, Worringer Straße 78

Todesdatum:: 25.11.1944
Todesort:: Ghetto Theresienstadt

Die am 13. Februar 1878 in Augsburg geborene Elsa Anna Gross war das dritte Kind der Eheleute Aron und Regina Gross, geborene Neuburger. Seine Eltern hatten vier weitere Kinder: Joseph (geboren 1875), Eduard (geboren 1876), Ida (geboren 1879) und Eugen (geboren 1882). Ihr Vater Aron Gross (1848 Fischach – 1907 Augsburg) arbeitete als Pferdehändler in Augsburg.

Am 7. September 1902 heiratete sie den sechs Jahre älteren Düsseldorfer Kaufmann Bernhard Waller in Augsburg. Nach der Hochzeit zog sie zu ihrem Ehemann nach Düsseldorf. Sie wohnten im eigenen Haus in der Aderstraße 79.

Am 5. August 1907 verstarb ihr Vater in Augsburg und wurde auf dem dortigen jüdischen Friedhof begraben. Ihre Mutter Regina Groß verstarb am 7. März 1927 in einem Hamburger Krankenhaus. Elsa Bruder Eugen Gross, der eigentlich mit seiner Familie in München lebte, meldete den Hamburger Behörden den Tod.

Seit dem 18. Juni 1935 wohnte das Ehepaar in der Worringer Straße 78. Als Beruf ihres Mannes wird im Düsseldorfer Adressbuch nun „kaufmännischer Angestellte“ angegeben. Am 4. November 1941 musste das Ehepaar in das „Judenhaus“ Geibelstraße 39 ziehen.

Bernhard und Elsa Anna Waller wurden am 21. Juli 1942 von Düsseldorf in das Ghetto Theresienstadt deportiert. Elsa Anna Waller verstarb am 25. Februar 1944 im Ghetto Theresienstadt. Ihr Mann Bernhard Waller wurde aus dem Ghetto am 15. Mai 1944 in das Vernichtungslager Auschwitz deportiert und ermordet.

Autorin: Hildegard Jakobs, Mahn- und Gedenkstätte Düsseldorf

Quellenangaben

Teil der Deportationsliste von Düsseldorf ins Ghetto Theresienstadt, 21. Juli 1942 (Sammlung 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