Stumbling Stones in Chemnitz
Hugo Hoff, Martha Hoff
Hugo Hoff
Born: 15 Dec. 1887
Died: 25.02.1940
Martha Hoff, née Braun
Born: 16.05.1894
Died: 25.09.1943
Installation location:
Altendorfer Straße 17aStumbling stone laying on:
29 May 2024
Photos of the laying of the Stumbling Stones
Life paths
The "Aktion Arbeitsscheu Reich" (ASR) was the first major arrest operation in April and June 1938, in the course of which a large number of Sinti were sent to concentration camps. One of these people was the musician Hugo Hoff from Chemnitz.
Due to a lack of documents, it is only possible to introduce Hugo Hoff and his family to a limited extent. He was born in Wolgast (Pomerania). Before settling in Chemnitz with his wife Martha, he lived in Trunz, Eisenberg, Eisenach, Dortmund and Hanover, among other places. The couple presumably moved to Chemnitz in 1937. They gave the undeveloped property at Hauboldstraße 34 as their address. The city authorities authorised the family to set up one or more caravans there. There was no permanent caravan site in Chemnitz.
When the "Aktion Arbeitsscheu Reich" took place in Chemnitz on 14 June 1938, Hugo Hoff was among the 15 people arrested. The day before, the criminal investigation department had ordered these people to be taken into "protective custody". They were then immediately transferred to the Buchenwald concentration camp. Hoff was not arrested because of any previous convictions, but solely because of his ethnic origin. According to his son Friedemann, however, he was arrested because of his "political function" within the banned KPD. The ASR prisoners arrived at the camp at 12 noon. Apart from a few items of clothing, Hugo Hoff had nothing with him. He had no idea at the time that he would never see his family again.
Hugo Hoff died in the Buchenwald concentration camp on 25 February 1940. The 2nd protective custody camp leader gave "heart failure due to dysentery" as the cause of death. He was last in Section II, the political section, for two hours. According to older camp inmates - as Friedemann Hoff later put on record - Hugo Hoff was "shot" at 1.30 a.m. that day. Martha Hoff received the death notice from the camp administration. The estate of the deceased was sent to the Chemnitz police headquarters to be handed over to his widow. The work book was sent to the Chemnitz labour office. The urn was presumably buried in the Ettersberg cemetery.
Martha Hoff last lived with her children and grandchildren in the Altendorf neighbourhood. She was arrested on 25 September 1943 and deported to the "Auschwitz gypsy camp", as section B II e of the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination and concentration camp was known in Nazi parlance, where she was immediately murdered.
Mr and Mrs Hoff had several children and grandchildren, at least ten of whom were murdered in the "gypsy camp" in Auschwitz in 1943/44. One son survived and reported on the extermination of his family in December 1948.
Author: Dr Jürgen Nitsche
Stumbling Stones in Chemnitz
It is a project against forgetting: stumbling stones have been laid in Chemnitz every year since 2007.
Embedded in the pavement, the memorial stones commemorate the tragic fates of fellow citizens who were persecuted, deported, murdered or driven to their deaths during the National Socialist regime.
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