Steinheim

07/28/1942

Fritz Eisenstein can be seen in the omnibus that brought the deportees to Bielefeld; a lot of luggage is on the bus.

Image: Johannes Waldhoff Collection, Stadtarchiv Steinheim

Annotations

Steinheim, 07/28/1942

Historical context

De­por­ta­ti­on von Stein­heim nach The­re­si­en­stadt am 28.07.1942

On July 20, 1942, the district administrators and mayors in the district of Bielefeld were instructed to make preparations for the “Abschiebung" (deportation) of 625 Jews, nine of whom came from Steinheim in the district of Höxter. They were told to gather at the Loeb family home on July 28, 1942. Fritz and Paula Eisenstein, mother and son from the neighboring village of Bergheim, were already seated in the omnibus that picked up the nine people from Steinheim. All eleven were taken to Bielefeld, where they had to undergo a humiliating body search before spending three nights in catastrophic conditions in the "Kyffhäuser" ballroom, which was used as an assembly camp. On July 31, the Jews were taken to Bielefeld's main train station and forced to board a train from Münster. The "Da 77" train consisted of passenger and cattle cars, which were used to take a total of 901 Jews to Theresienstadt. The train was escorted and guarded by Gestapo officers Heinrich Brodesser and Ernst Diehle as well as four municipal police officers. Women between 60 and 85 made up almost half of the passengers on this “Alterstransport” (transport of elderly people).

About the image se­ries

The Steinheim series consists of four pictures in the format 9 x 6 cm, all of which were taken in front of the Loeb family home in Sedanstraße 485. They show nine female Jewish citizens of Steinheim boarding the omnibus, which would take them to the assembly camp in Bielefeld's "Kyffhäusersaal." Two people from nearby Bergheim were already on board. Two of the pictures have survived as historical prints in the Johannes Waldhoff collection in Steinheim, the two others are available as recent reproductions only. Other prints of unknown vintage or origin are held by the Jewish Family and Children's Services Holocaust Center in San Francisco. 

Photographer

Un­be­kannt Schra­der, Ei­sen­bah­ner:in

Not much is known about the person who took the photos in the Steinheim deportation series. The little information available is based on the testimonies of contemporary witnesses. The name of the alleged photographer was Schrader; he worked for the Reichsbahn and was probably a leader in the HJ (= Hitler Jugend / Hitler Youth). He was one of the few people in the town who owned a camera. After the war, he was transferred from Steinheim. During a visit home, he handed the prints to retired police officer Frömling. It can be assumed that Schrader took the photos without having been commissioned or asked to do so.

Provenance

Shortly after the war, the person who took the pictures in the Steinheim photo series handed prints of the photos to the local police officer named Frömling on the condition that the latter would not reveal his identity. In the early 1970s, when Frömling learned that local historian Johannes Waldhoff was researching the history of the Jewish people in Steinheim, he passed the pictures on to him. Since then, the pictures have been part of the Waldhoff collection and are now kept in Stadtarchiv Steinheim. The prints available at the JFCS Holocaust Center were donated to the archive by Werner Loeb, a survivor of the said deportation. It is not known how the pictures came into his possession or when he took them to the U.S.

Call num­ber at source ar­chi­ve

Ohne Si­gna­tur

Tit­le at source ar­chi­ve

Ohne Ti­tel

Acknowledgements

We thank Johannes Waldhoff for allowing us to use his collection and for generously sharing research findings and information with us. We would also like to extend our thanks to Heike Sternberg-El Hotabi for her warm welcome to Stadtarchiv Steinheim.

Text und Re­cher­che: Lisa Pa­duch.

Kooperationsverbund #LastSeen.
Bilder der NS-Deportationen

Dr. Alina Bothe
Projektleiterin

c/o Selma Stern Zentrum für Jüdische Studien Berlin-Brandenburg
Freie Universität Berlin
Habelschwerdter Allee 34A
14195 Berlin
lastseen@zedat.fu-berlin.de