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Textile Agent Felix Halberstadt

A Restituted Book from his Library

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The owner stamp in the upper left corner reveals that this popular Torah translation Die fünf Bücher Moses, 1914 (The five books of Moses) belonged to the textile salesman Felix Halberstadt (1877-1942) from Hamburg. LBI Library, r 953.
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Photo of Felix Halberstadt, 1941
Photo of Felix Halberstadt which he sent to his son Helmuth/Howard shortly before his deportation on December 6, 1941. LBI Archives, Howard and Jenny Hall Collection, AR 25249.
Letter by Helmuth Halberstadt to Max M. Warburg, December 1, 1942
"... to save our dear ones from hell ..." One of many letters that Helmuth Halberstadt wrote to secure funds for visas to Cuba for his parents and his mother-in-law, here to Max M. Warburg, December 1, 1942. LBI Archives, Howard and Jenny Hall Collection, AR 25249.
Letter by Max M. Warburg to Helmuth Halberstadt, December 2, 1942
"... I am overwhelmed with similar requests ..." One of many equally desolate responses that Helmuth Halberstadt received in his desperate attempt to find a sponsor to get his family out of Germany, here an answer by Max M. Warburg, December 2, 1942. LBI Archives, Howard and Jenny Hall Collection, AR 25249.
Last letter by Felix Halberstadt to his son in New York, December 1, 1942, shortly before his deportation
"... the departure is postponed to Friday ..." Last letter by Felix Halberstadt to his son Helmuth/Howard in New York, December 1, 1942, shortly before his deportation to Riga. LBI Archives, Howard and Jenny Hall Collection, AR 25249.
Resume of Helmuth Halberstadt/Howard Hall, 1939
"I want to get a job as soon as possible. I am healthy and strong and can do every hard work ... I am very religious and observe the Shabbat." Resume of Felix Halberstadt's son Helmuth/Howard, April 1939, shortly after his arrival in the US. LBI Archives, Howard and Jenny Hall Collection, AR 25249.

On November 27, 2015, representatives of the State and University Library Hamburg transferred a book that was previously owned by Felix Halberstadt on behalf of descendants of surviving family members to the library of the Leo Baeck Institute New York, as part of their Nazi Looted Assets Project.

Felix Halberstadt (1877-1942) was a sales agent for textiles in Hamburg. He lived a religious life and took an active part in various Jewish organizations including the Burial Society of Hamburg. Felix Halberstadt and his second wife Josabeth were deported on December 6, 1941 together with Hamburg’s prominent Rabbi Joseph Carlebach and his family who lived in the same apartment house at Hallerstrasse 76. They were all shot near Riga on March 26, 1942. The Gestapo confiscated his belongings like that of other deported or emigrated Jews. The book that was identified, a German translation of the Pentateuch, was handed to the State and University Library Hamburg by the Gestapo in 1943.

Felix Halberstadt’s son Helmuth Halberstadt (1911-2003) was able to emigrate with his wife Jenny Heckscher (1910-1994) to the United States via London in March 1939. In America, they changed their names to Howard and Jenny Hall. Their estate has been deposited with the Leo Baeck Institute New York as the “Howard and Jenny Hall Collection” and includes extensive correspondence between 1939 and 1941 documenting their efforts to bring family members from Germany to the United States. Felix Halberstadt was related to the well-known photographer Max Halberstadt from Hamburg who grandson decided to transfer the book to the Leo Baeck Institute in order to connect it with the family papers.

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