User:Kahetu/Hugo Juhl

Hugo Juhl; 27 November 1872 – 10 June 1939, was a German-born Jewish businessman who run the „Wäschefabrik Juhl& Helmke”, a manufactory of textiles from 1913 to 1938 in Bielefeld. In 1993, the ancient manufactory of textiles and linen has been changed into a museum which is located today in Viktoriastrasse 48a Bielefeld.

Born in Adendorf near Meckenheim, Germany, Hugo Juhl began at the age of 20 years an apprenticeship in the linen industry of Moritz Dahl in 1892 which had been initiated by Juhl’s father Michael Juhl (1836-1906). When the owner Moritz Dahl died in 1899, his widow Bertha Dahl sold the business to the former employees Hugo Juhl and Max Helmke in 1900 who ran the office in the following years.

In 1911, Juhl bought the houses in Viktoriastrasse 48 and 50 including a property where he set up an integrated residential building for the entire family to live which was located next to the manufactory. The manufactory began its work in 1913 producing bed and table linen, underwear, women’s blouses and men’s shirts by making use of modern industrial production processes. Juhl’s wife, Klara (born Selig), issued from a prosperous Jewish family, played a crucial role in supporting her husband financially in the creation of his textile business.

In the beginning of the 1920s, the “Wäschefabrik” experienced economic prosperity and benefited from a continuing export boom due to the expanding demand for textiles and linen by the currency decline at that time. This was the reason why Hugo Juhl set up further production halls in Viktoriastrasse 65 and in Heeper Straße 48 in order to increase the workforce. However, these “golden years” were not of lasting nature, since the stabilising of the Reichsmark in 1924 made the manufactory experience a crisis in demand which hit the textile business hard in 1925. Given these conditions, Juhl was forced to take action and introduced some restructuring measures within the factory which yielded a positive economic gain.

After the NSDAP came to power, the manufactory was not immediately affected by the boycott on Jewish businesses because of the “Aryanisation”. However, Jewish business people were systematically displaced from the German industry branch.

Given the political change within the country, the youngest daughter Hannah Juhl and her husband Dr. Fritz Bender flew already in the beginning of the 1930s and emigrated to the Netherlands. From 1938 onwards, the manufactory and other buildings in Bielefeld were sold to the brothers Theodor and Georg Winkel; in between the health condition of Juhl became worse and he died in June 1939 from kidney failure. After his death, both his wife Klara and their elder daughter Mathilde flew to Amsterdam to join Hannah and her husband Fritz Bender in order to escape the approaching Nazi Regime but on May 10, 1940 the German Wehrmacht marched in the Netherlands.

On the 3rd July 1940, Klara, Hannah, Mathilde and the daughter of Hannah and Fritz Bender chose to undergo suicide. Fritz Bender was the only one who survived his family by fleeing on a rowing boat in the North Sea to England where he, then, flew to Canada where he stayed till his death. While he was in an internment camp in Canada, he learned from the Red Cross that his family had passed away.

Today, Stolpersteine inscribed with the name and the life dates of the family members have been placed in front of the building at Viktoriastraße Bielefeld where the Juhls have lived during their lifetime.