Philipp Dilloff lived at Wakenitzstraße 8.

Philipp Dilloff lived at Wakenitzstraße 8 from 1934 until 1939.  When he was a 71 year old pensioner, this former teacher, his daughter and her family moved into a flat on the ground floor of that large apartment building on Wakenitzstraße.

Philipp Dilloff was born on 18 December 1863 in Frankenberg an der Eder 130 km/80 miles north of Frankfurt am Main.  His father was the merchant Loeb Dilloff (1829-1909) and his mother was Fanny Frummet, née Theisebach (although other references have her maiden name as Heilbrun) (1823-1899).

The Dilloff family was one of many families, which were long time residents in the small town of Hessen and the family tree had many branches.  Philipp Dilloff grew up in Frankenberg with his older siblings, Benedict, Friederike, Moses and Sannchen.  His younger sister, Ester, died when she was two and a half years old.

After his secondary education he completed a teaching course in Cologne and Büren.  In 1887 the 24 year old Philipp answered the following “Employment” advertisement in the Israelit newspaper:

“On 1 April of this year the elementary teacher in Ziegenhain will retire and the position will become vacant.  The position pays 800 M (this amount is difficult to discern so it might also be 900 M) yearly, with housing and heating provided.  Those wishing to apply for this position should do so within 4 weeks and include their test scores and a police clearance certificate. Head Master/Principal Israeli School Dr. Munk.

Philipp Dilloff received the teaching position in the Israeli Congregation of the Hessen town of Ziegenhain, which today is part of Schwalmstadt, about 100 km north of Frankfurt on Main.  The congregation consisted of about 100 members.  Five years later he married Veilchen Stern, who was born in Salmünster in 1871.  They were married in Salmünster on 31 October 1892.  The following year, 1893, their daughter, Elsa, was born in Ziegenhain.  Whether Veilchen and Philipp Dilloff had any other children is not known.  The family lived in the building owned by the Israeli Congregation at Kasseler Straße 28.  

The teacher’s flat was located on the second floor while the classroom and congregation’s ritual bath facility were located on the ground floor of the half timbered building, which was built in 1853.  The congregation’s prayer room, which had a balcony for women, was located in an addition built onto the back of the original building.

Philipp Dilloff remained at the teacher postion in Ziegenhain until 1908, at which time he became the teacher and cantor for the Israeli Congregation in the small town of Melsungen.  The school and synagogue of the congregation, which also had about 100 members, was located on Rotenburger Straße.  It can be assumed that the teacher’s flat was also located in the same building.  He taught primary classes of 15 children of various ages until he retired in 1923 but he continued to teach religion classes until 1925, since it is stated in the 3 March 1925 edition of the newspaper “Der Israelit”:  “The teacher, Philipp Dilloff, who continued teaching religion classes after retiring has resigned.  The congregation has chosen Löwenstein from the town of Jeßberg . . . as its new teacher and cantor.”

In 1925 Veilchen and Philipp Dilloff left that little town in Hessen and moved to Riga, Latvia to be close to their newly married daughter.  Elsa had married the Lübeck lawyer Ludolph Alexander (Ludwig) Häusler.  Ludwig had been working for the Swedish finance concern “Stockholms Akitebolag ut Privat’ in the capital of Latvia since 1924.  He represented Swedish shares and financial interests in Riga and all of Latvia.  Veilchen and Philipp Dilloff’s first grandchild, Immanuel, was born in Kassel in 1924 and their second, Mirjam, was born in Riga in June of 1926.  

Surely Phillip and Veilchen Dilloff wanted to watch their grandchildren grow up and be able to help their daughter and son-in-law with their young family.  It also gave them the unique opportunity to experience Riga and the rest of Latvia as well as much of the Baltic area.  

The whole family moved to Lübeck in 1927.  At first they all lived together at Friedrich-Wilhelm-Straße 12.  Sometime later Veilchen and Philipp Dilloff obtained their own flat at Overbeckstraße 10, then later a flat at Spillerstraße 7 and finally in 1929 a flat at Kleiststraße 10.    

Their son-in-law began a practice in the hanseatic city as a lawyer and notary and together with his (non-Jewish) partner, Erich Oppermann, and soon had a successful practice.  Their first office was at Schüsselbuden 2 and then later at Sandstraße 22.  He, his wife and two children first lived at Friedrich-Wilhelm-Straße 12, then at Schillerstraße 8 and lastly at Arndtstraße 18.  

Ludolph Häusler’s parents were also living in Lübeck.  Julius Häusler was born in the same year as Philipp Dilloff (1863) and had worked as a master tailor in Hamburg and Lübeck. For many years he had lived as a man of private means at Moislinger Allee 59 and later at An der Untertrave 11/112.  His wife, Marjanne, née Simon, was born in Friedrichstadt.  Their daughter, Hermine, had already emigrated to Sweden in 1915.  As a result only their son and his family lived close to them.  

In July 1931 Julius Häusler died and one year later in 1932 Veilchen Dilloff died at the age of 61.  Both of them were buried in the Jewish Cemetery in Moisling.

There is an inscription in Hebrew on the eastside of the gravestone which reads “Here is buried the virtuous, God fearing, faithful, contented and righteous woman, who did good all her life, Mrs. Veilchen, daughter of Abraham, Wife of Uri bar Jehuda Dilloff.  Died on the evening before the Sabbath, the 14 Ija 5692/20 May 1932/.  May her spirit be bound into the sheaf of life.”  On the other side (west side) of the gravestone is inscribed in Latin:  “Veilchen Dilloff, nee Stern, born 5631 / in the first half of 1871 or the second half of 1870 / died 5692”.  

In April of 1934 Philipp Dilloff, his children and his grandchildren moved in together to Wakenitzstraße 8.  Mirjam was eight years old and Immanuel ten.  For the school year of 1932-33 both children attended the 2nd Gertrudschule on Heinrichstraße, with Mirjam attending the girls’ school and Immanuel the boys’.  It is not known whether upon moving to Wakenitzstraße they attended the nearby Kalandschule, which the 1st St. Jürgenschule was called after 1934.  It is also not known which school Immanuel attended after completing primary school. It is known that Mirjam was a student at the Ernestinenschule.  

Beside their public schooling both children attended religious instruction at the Israeli Congregation’s building on St. Annen-Straße.  On the following group photo one can see Mirjam Häusler when she was eight to ten years old.

In 1933 as a lawyer Ludolph Häusler was at first left in peace compared to his fellow Jewish colleagues although he and his partner parted ways.  Thereby he set up an office at Breite Straße 25, at the corner of Pfaffenstraße 2.  Yet in 1935 he was required to give up his notary function and in October 1937 was forced to leave his office in the downtown area and conduct his business from his private apartment.  Then the „5. Verordnung zum Reichsbürgergesetz“ (“5th Decree of the National Citizenship Law”) of 27 September 1938 meant that he was forbidden to practice his profession.  

The family had actively tried to leave Germany but without success.  Now with the further lack of income their prospects of obtaining a visa, along with all of the respective exit visa expenses, sank.  

On the morning of 10 November 1938 Ludolph Häusler, like the majority of Jewish men, was arrested and taken to the Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp north of Berlin.  Then only three days later his family faced a new act of aggression, namely two Gestapo men forced Elsa Häusler to hand over any jewels the family had.  At the end of December Elsa Häusler agreed for herself, and on behalf of her children and her incarcerated husband that they all would assume the first name of Sara for women and Israel for men as was forced upon them by decree on 1 January 1939.   

At the end of January 1939 Ludolph Häusler was released from Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp and returned to Lübeck.  He obtained a Jewish lawyer’s license in spite of the Gestapo’s reservations.  Yet his income was certainly minimal during this time.  

The family’s frustrating attempts to secure a way to leave Germany continued to be unsuccessful, but both children were saved by way of the “Children Transports” to Sweden, with Immanuel leaving in February 1939 and Mirjam in March of that year.  Orphanages in Stockholm took in the children refugees.  From there both children made an effort with the help of Jewish organizations (and perhaps with the help of their father’s sister) to clear the way for their parents to come to Sweden.  So it was at the very moment that the war began there was also a very dramatic last minute flight from Germany.   

On 29 August 1939 the 15 year old Immanuel telephoned his parents, telling them they would indeed be receiving the necessary visas to immigrate to Sweden.  

Mr. Häusler clearly remembered, “On the next morning, 30 August 1939, a Wednesday, the Swedish Consulate in Hamburg telephones, we had been granted entrance visas, as long as we were able to present valid passports to them.” Usually it took several months for Jews to obtain passports because it was necessary to get approval from a long list of government officials.   It was required of the applicant to obtain character references, and to obtain an unbelievable amount of documentation from the Finance Office to convince other officials of the Finance Office that the “Reichsfluchtsteuer (National Exit Tax)” and the “Sühneleistung” (Compensation Payment for damages caused on 10 and 11 November) had been paid.  The Gestapo and the Criminal Police had to be in agreement with a Jew’s exit.  Another large number of officials had to give written approval for the exit.   “The situation in regard to foreign affairs was clear, a war was just around the corner and we would only have a few days to flee after getting our visas.  Then by sheer luck, with much help and understanding of the responsible people in Lübeck, I was able to complete all the necessary formalities, which usually took a month, in three days,” Häusler recalled with with a sense of relief in his voice. 

After three frantic hours making travel arrangements the Häuslers left Lübeck for good on 2 September 1939 at 21:00 hours/9 p.m.  They were in continual fear, that war would break out and that would prevent them from leaving.  They had to leave their entire household belongings behind.  Häusler was the last of the one time five sanctioned Jewish lawyers and notaries to leave his home town.  “With nothing more than could fit into two middle size suitcases we left for Uppsala, Sweden.  It was impossible to take any more with us because that very evening of 2 September most of the taxis in Lübeck had been confiscated by the authorities for the the army.  Furthermore we had to catalogue each item we were taking and make three type written copies of the list.  I could not even find the time, to say good-bye to my 85 year old mother, who was deported on 22 September 1942 to Theresienstadt and died there.”      

Philipp Dilloff remained in Lübeck, just as Häusler’s mother did.  He was 76 years old.  He was forced to leave his flat on Wakenitzstraße, but found lodging with two Jewish sisters, Margarethe and Mimi Sussmann, who lived at Hüxstraße 64.  When the two sisters were deported to Riga, Latvia, in December 1941, he as well as Marjanne Häusler went to the former seniors home of the Jewish community at St. Annen-Straße 11.   

Here at the seniors home both of these elderly people, along with the few remaining Lübeck Jewish seniors, had to suffer the ever more difficult and isolating situation and the bombing raid of 30 March 1942, which destroyed much of the old city centre.  

Both of them were forced to wear the yellow star on their clothing, which told anybody who saw them, that they were Jews.  

Philipp Dilloff, Marjanne Häusler and several other seniors from Lübeck were deported via Hamburg to Theresienstadt (Theresin near Prague) on 19 July 1942.  They arrived at the Theresienstadt Ghetto on Transport VI/2 on 20 July 1942.  

What little of their possessions they left behind was publically auctioned off by the auctioneer Alwin Pump, with the proceeds being transferred to the tax officials.  

On 22 September 1942, two months after arriving in the Theresienstadt Ghetto, Marjanne Häusler died at the age of 88.  Her “Todesfallbenachrichtigung (Death Certificate)” states as her cause of death “Universal Marasmus / gen. Weakness”, which is usually the result of chronic malnutrition.   

On the day she died, that is 23 September 1942, Philipp Dilloff was taken to Treblinka.  The means by which he was murdered is unknown.  It can be assumed, that shortly after his arrival at Treblinka he was gassed.  He was 79 years old when he was murdered.  

Two of the artist Gunter Demnig’s Stolpersteins have been laid in memory of Philipp Dilloff, one in Lübeck and the other in his home town of Frankenberg/Eder at Pferdemarkt 3, where his family once lived.  

Several years ago Immanuel Dillon completed Memorial Pages in memory of his grandparents, Philipp Dilloff and Marjanne Häusler, in Yad Vashem.  Since the given name of the donor is Immanuel Dillon and his stated address is Haifa, Ramat Gan, it is possible that he left Sweden and went to Israel, where he used another family name, which was similar to his mother’s maiden name.