Luise Zickel

In October 2025, two books were returned to the community of heirs of Luise Zickel (1878–1942). The clear personal identification was made via the stamps identified in the books and the associated address and data comparison, including in the Jewish address book for Greater Berlin 1931/32, the memorial book of the Federal Archives and the 1939 census. In addition, the clear assignment of Luise Zickel could be verified by extensive file holdings of the Zickel Family Collection at the Center for Jewish History. Luise Zickel was persecuted as a Jew and a victim of the Shoah.

Luise Zickel was born in Breslau on August 25, 1878, as the daughter of Louis (1845–?) and Ida Zickel (1848–1919, née Oelsner). Luise had three siblings: Martin (1876–1932), Georg Kurt (1880–1957) and Anna Lina Zickel (1883–1942). According to the marriage certificate, Louis Zickel was a merchant by profession.

In the files of the Berlin school authorities for the year 1903/04, Luise Zickel was listed as a private teacher for English, French and History. In 1907, Zickel passed her school principal's examination. At this time, when there was great interest in private girls' schools, she ran a boarding school for “higher daughters” who had completed their school education. The following year, the authorities prohibited Zickel from continuing this activity as she was unable to produce a senior teacher's examination. In 1911, Luise Zickel opened a higher private girls' school at Kufsteinerstraße 6 in Berlin-Schöneberg with permission. The private school met with great interest and expanded so successfully that the local premises were no longer sufficient. In 1932, the girls' school moved to Kufsteiner Str. 16.

After the National Socialists came to power, Luise Zickel became in the focus of the Nazi persecution apparatus due to her Jewish religious affiliation. The “Gesetz gegen Überfüllung deutscher Schulen und Hochschulen” (law against overcrowding in German schools and universities) passed on April 25, 1933 was primarily aimed at Jewish schoolchildren and students. The Nazi authorities limited the admission quota for Jews at state schools and universities to 1.5% in line with the Jewish population in Nazi Germany. Luise Zickel therefore decided to open her private girls' school to Jewish boys. As the premises of the private secondary school for girls and boys and Jewish elementary school were no longer sufficient due to this forced reorganization, the institution moved to the former Lorenz Lyceum at Schmargendorfer Str. 25 in Berlin-Friedenau. A total of 16 Jewish teachers, who had been forcibly dismissed from state institutions, supplemented the previous school program with the foreign languages English, French and Hebrew as well as religious education. Although anti-Jewish legislation and the associated anti-Jewish measures increased, Luise Zickel did not consider emigrating. It is clear from her surviving correspondence, which is held by the Jewish Center for History, that Zickel believed that the Nazi era would “soon be over”. The documents were written between 1938 and 1943 and also include letters from Luise's brother Georg.

Two uncles (on the mother's side) of the Zickel siblings had been living in the USA since around 1870. Their cousin Nina Factor (1891–1981) in particular, who lived in America, urged the siblings to emigrate and obtained the necessary affidavits. Despite intensive efforts, Luise's emigration and that of her younger sister Anna Lina could not be realized. Brother Georg initially managed to flee to England in 1939, where he married Lotterita Stargardt (1900–1993), who had also fled Berlin. The couple emigrated to New Delhi in 1940. The relatives assume that the marriage – also in light of Georg's advanced age – was connected to the emigration efforts. Georg Kurt Zickel was the only child of Louis and Ida Zickel to survive the Shoah. He died on October 2, 1957 in Hampstead, England.

Luise's hope that the Nazi era would not last much longer did not materialize. Even though Luise Zickel herself refused to emigrate, she was committed to helping her pupils. She offered courses for a “Cambridge Certificate”, which enabled German school qualifications to be recognized in England and the USA. On March 31, 1939, the girls' and boys' school was forcibly closed. Afterwards, Luise Zickel continued to offer private lessons in her apartment at Bayerischer Platz 2. Like her younger sister Anna Lina, who moved into her older sister's apartment in 1939, Luise Zickel was unmarried and childless.

On January 25, 1942, sister Luise and Anna Lina Zickel were deported from platform 17 of the Berlin-Grunewald train station to the Riga ghetto on the so-called 11th Osttransport. Many of the 1,044 forced inmates died on the journey to the ghetto due to the extreme cold. Five days after departure, the deportation trains reached Riga on January 30, 1942. Almost all of the deported Jews were murdered immediately upon arrival. The siblings Luise and Anna Lina Zickel were victims of the Shoah.

According to the accession books, the two books identified in the ZLB holdings came to the Berlin Stadtbibliothek via two different suppliers. The book with the shelfmark “Dh 99” comes from the so-called accession “J”. This refers to the purchase of around 40,000 books by the BStB in 1943, which demonstrably came from the last apartments of the last deported Berlin Jews. The books were stored in the Berlin pawnshop. The book with the accession number “464” was included in the accession book “J”. It is conceivable that the book with the shelfmark “Dh 99” may also have come to the Berlin Stadtbibliothek via the pawnshop. Even if the book was not recorded in the accession book “J” and therefore does not contain a “J” in front of the accession number, this access route is also possible. Of the approximately 40,000 books acquired in 1943 from proven Jewish ownership, of which, according to the latest findings, the BStB sold approximately 20,000 books, only 1,920 copies were entered in the accession book “J” by April 20, 1945. Against this background, it is possible that the book described here could also have come to the BStB via the pawnshop and then remained uncatalogued until it was entered in the “Gift” accession book for the year 1945 under the supplier “Kulturamt”.

Three books could also be identified in the Stiftung Neue Synagoge Berlin - Centrum Judaicum (CJ), which could be clearly attributed to Luise Zickel on the basis of their provenance. The books in the CJ are donations from the BStB from the 1990s, which Peter Rohrlach (1933–2023) initiated at the time for the establishment of a foundation library in the CJ. Against this background, a joint restitution was initiated.