The document presented here contains a statistical table listing the number of
Jews remaining in
Hamburg in the final
days of the National Socialist regime. Statistics like this one were compiled about
every other week for the
Gestapo in
Hamburg and were
forwarded to the
Berlin headquarters
of the
Reich Association of the Jews in
Germany
,
which were overseen by the
Reich Main
Security Office
.
The recipient listed at the top of the page is the
“
Secret State
Police,”
specifically
section IV 4b. This
corresponds to the
Reich Main Security
Office's
departmental designation – Jewish questions and evacuations, headed by
SS-Sturmbannführer
Adolf Eichmann. The
document does not reveal who compiled this statistic in
Hamburg. The
reference initials “LE” cannot be identified. It is quite possible,
however, that the ”liaison officer” of
Hamburg's
remaining Jewish community,
physician
Dr.
Martin Heinrich Corten, wrote this document for
Hamburg's
Gestapo branch. It is
interesting that the statistic's author himself intended a copy of it to be
forwarded to the headquarters of the
Reich Association of the Jews in
Germany
located in
Berlin. The address
listed is
Berlin
N 65, which was the
district of
Wedding.
It was the address of the
Jewish
hospital on
Iranische
Straße. Since the post office in charge of this district was located at
Schulstraße
7, a street which on April 22 became the
main frontline between German and Russian troops for three days, it is safe to
assume that the copy never reached its recipient if it was ever mailed at
all.
Statistics on Hamburg’s Jewish Population, compiled for the Gestapo by the Reich Association of the Jews in Germany [Reichsvereinigung der Juden in Deutschland] Liaison Officer on April 30, 1945 (translated by Insa Kummer), edited in: Key Documents of German-Jewish History,
<https://dx.doi.org/10.23691/jgo:source-5.en.v1> [December 04, 2024].