This page was translated from the German original with the help of AI. The German version is authoritative.

• Hugo Lindenberg
• Meta Lindenberg née Karger
• Hans Lindenberg
• Günther Lindenberg

Hugo Lindenberg was the second-youngest son of Salomon Lindenberg and his first wife Caroline (née Wolfers). He and his twin sister Clara Lindenberg were born on 12 November 1878. After their father Salomon had retired from active business life, Hugo and his elder brother Richard were the managing directors of the firm S. Lindenberg in the old Lindenberg commercial building at Bahnhofstr 53 (old building number 63). They may also have run together the firm Gebrüder Lindenberg, dealing in millinery, fashion goods, woollens and white goods, which was registered in the Bremen address book before 1904 at Waller Chaussee 41.

As a young man, Hugo had once been engaged, but the wedding did not take place. In the meantime, his twin sister Clara had married and moved to the USA. In 1925, at the age of 47, Hugo met his future wife Meta Karger (*9 May 1894), probably through business contacts. She came from a Hamburg family in the textile trade. The Kargers had come to northern Germany from West Prussia. Meta’s brothers Isidor and Jack ran  textile shops  in Steindamm and Grindel. ¹⁾

Hugo and Meta married in 1926, and in 1927/1928 Hugo opened his own business, “Hugo Lindenberg”, at Bahnhofstrasse 65, where their sons Günther (*1927) and Hans (*1930) were also born. Here the family sold textiles and sewing machines, among other things. 

Hugo appears to have been well liked by the neighbours. In 1948, shortly after Hugo’s death, Meta wrote from Argentina to Vilsen: ³⁾

… I know that you also thought very highly of dear Hugo, and it was just the same here in the colony; he was on friendly terms with everyone and highly respected.

However, the boys’ childhood was overshadowed by the rise of the National Socialists. Even as an old man, Hans Lindenberg was hardly willing to talk about his childhood in Vilsen, but he told his grandson Ezequiel that his schoolmates and former friends had tried to drown him in a frozen lake on his way home because he was Jewish. ⁵⁾

As a former front-line soldier of the First World War, Hugo was probably affected somewhat less severely by the anti-Jewish laws in the first years of National Socialism. In 1935, like countless other Jewish veterans, he still received the Iron Cross. Its award had an important protective function, but in retrospect it must also have seemed cynical to the recipients. ⁷⁾

In 1936 the family was registered at Bahnhofstr. 46, but shortly before their emigration in 1938 they appear to have lived temporarily in the Lindenberg commercial building at Bahnhofstr. 53. ⁸⁾

On 27 June 1938, together with the family of Meta’s brother Jack, they boarded the ship  General Osorio in Hamburg to emigrate to Argentina. ¹⁰⁾

By this time, emigration to the USA was no longer possible, despite the relatives living there who could have provided a guarantee. Argentina was one of the few countries still admitting Jewish refugees at all. The Lindenbergs and the Kargers found a home in Alcaraz in the province of Entre Rios, where in the 19th century the Jewish philanthropist Baron de Hirsch had set up settlement projects for emigrants. ¹²⁾

Meta’s brother Isidor was no longer able to leave Germany; he was murdered in Flossenbürg concentration camp. Her brother Max died in the Shanghai ghetto shortly after his flight, and her sisters Natalie and Martha are considered missing. A Stolperstein was laid in Hamburg for Isidor Karger. ¹³⁾