Ernst Reichenbach

Ernst Reichenbach was born at Hoher Weg 27. Halberstadt directories name Paul and Ernst together in 1914 and 1928 as the men running Paul’s women’s-fashion business at Hoher Weg 27 and Martiniplan 10. The listings do not divide their shares, but they place the brothers at work in the same rooms.

In 1928 Paul and Ernst each gave 10 Goldmarks to a Keren Kajemeth New Year collection. Ernst signed Ruth’s civil marriage entry in 1930 and the family mourning card after Paul’s death in 1935. A land-register extract later records him and Margarete as owners of Martiniplan 10.

The 1939 census places Ernst and his wife Rosalie at Hagenstraße 49 in Grunewald. A later record begins forced labor on 5 November 1941. By the end of 1942 he was living at Normannenstraße 2, the house where Max and Hedwig Harrwitz rented rooms to persecuted Jewish people after being forced to sell it.

A Berlin Jewish-community death card states Verstorben 27.11.42 and gives Normannenstraße 2 as Ernst’s last address. It records his death, but no cause and no statement about custody. The Berlin Stolpersteine biography gives 1940; the dated card is not reconciled by changing it.

A family memorandum says Ernst died in the camps. The surviving card does not confirm that account, but it does not supply another cause. Family memory also kept Rosalie’s survival and later life in Innsbruck, now supported by her 1944 transport record and the Federal Archives entry marked survived.