Jacques Abraham

In 2021, a book from the library of Dr. Jacques Abraham could be returned.

Jacques Abraham was born in Berlin on 10 September 1880. His parents were Franziska Abraham, née Koppenheim (1851-1914), and Joseph Leib Abraham (ca. 1842-1916). Jacques Abraham had two older sisters, Rosalie (1871-1940) and Else (1875-1954). He studied law in Berlin and earned his doctorate in Heidelberg in 1907.

Three years later he married Lotte Rosa Kosterlitz in Berlin. She was born on 4 February 1888 in Groß-Strehlitz - today Strzelce Opolskie. The Abrahams' apartment was at Passauer Str. 14 in Berlin-Schöneberg, and the law office was at Kanonierstr. 37 in Berlin-Mitte. As a lawyer, he specialized in civil service law and founded the journal Zeitschrift für Beamtenrecht in 1928. Jacques and Lotte Abraham were persecuted as Jewish in Nazi Germany. In 1933 he had to give up the direction of the journal and likewise lost the right to continue his work as a notary. In 1938 he was finally disbarred, whereupon he worked as an odd-job worker.

Subsequently, the Abrahams sought to escape from Germany, but without success: one attempt failed at the Dutch border, as did their emigration to South America. Jacques and Lotte Abraham were deported from Berlin to Riga on 19 October 1942 and murdered.
Jacques' sister Rosalie had died in Berlin in 1940. Elise Abraham and her family managed to escape to South Africa and Denmark. They survived the Holocaust.

The route of access into the collection is unknown. The book was found in unprocessed stock of the Berlin City Library. The only intermediate owner that can be named is the Ratsbibliothek Berlin, which in turn had accessioned the book in 1983