Anna Hess née Daniel (1855 - 1943)

Anna Hess was the great-grandmother of Madelaine Linden , the artist who created the Weil memorial plaque.

Anna Daniel was born on May 21, 1855 in Celle. The Daniel Family is one of those Jewish families in Celle, who had been living in the „Altenceller Vorstadt” since the end of the 17th century and had become prosperous and well respected.

Anna's parents, the merchant and banker Philipp Daniel and his wife Ernestine Meyer married on May 16, 1854 in Berlin, the birthplace of the bride. After one year they were overjoyed by the birth of their first daughter  which they announced in the Cellesche Anzeigen on May 23, 1855 (this was unusual at that time).

At that time Philipp Daniel probably worked in the money, changing and banking business which his father Süssel Daniel had in the Zöllnerstraße. After his father's death Philipp Daniel took over and conducted the business until his death. The successful banker and merchant was politically active, too. He was a member of the „Nationalliberaler Verein”, one of the parties that supported Bismarck in the Reichstag. Philipp Daniel died on May 13, 1899 in Celle.

After Philipp's death the family sold the estate in Celle and the widow Ernestine Daniel moved to Hannover. There she died only a few years later on June 19, 1902. Her son Eugen Daniel, a judge at the Landgericht in Hannover, announced his mother's death in the name of the family. Both Philipp and Ernestine Daniel are buried in the Jewish cemetery in Celle, where their gravestones still stand.

Anna Daniel probably grew up in this well-to-do household as a "Höhere Tochter" together with her sisters and brother — well looked after by a nanny. 1868/9 she attended the Lyzeum in Celle (at the same time as Sara Delano, mother of President Franklin Roosevelt). First they lived in the house in Zöllerstraße until Philipp Daniel acquired the house in Bahnhofstraße 7. At the age of 18 Anne got engaged to Joseph Hess from Hamburg. Her parents announced the engagement in 1883 in the Celleschen Anzeigen. The marriage took place on June 5, 1883 in the Standesamt and on June 6th in the synagogue of Celle.

Little is yet known about their life in Hamburg.

It is, however, known that in the days before her deportation she had to live in a „Jews' house” in Beneckestraße 6, the former Jewish community center. From there she was deported together with 79 other persons in transport VI/7 on June 11, 1943 to Theresienstadt. Her name was number 26 on the transport list.

Anna Hess was 88 years when she was deported. The train took two day from Hamburg to Theresienstadt. After that she had to live in Wallstraße 8, a former cavalry barracks. She died in the same year on September 28, 1943, probably from malnutrition and exhaustion. At that time the dead in the ghetto were no longer buried. On September 29, 1943 at 11 o'clock Anna Hess's body was cremated in the Theresienstadt crematory. Her ashes were put in cardboard box no 19501 in the underground passageways of the garrison.

In November 1944 the SS started to destroy the traces of their crimes. During four days the ashes of about 20000 victims were thrown into the River Eger. Today there is a memorial stone at that place.

Memorials

There is a Stolperstein for Anna Hess in Hamburg, Rothenbaumchaussee 207 (Eimsbuettel, Harvestehude) and one in Celle, Bahnhofstrasse 7 .

There is an entry in the Memorial Book under No 862268

In the Central Database of Yad Vashem the entry for Anna Hess has number 146597