The Kaufhaus Karseboom in Wismar, Hinter dem Rathaus 17, went back to a small trading business that Adolf Karseboom took over in 1902 according to the announcement of the Stiftung Mecklenburg [4] (Kaufhaus S. Hirsch Nachfolge, in the address book of 1903) [1][4]. After his death in 1926 his son Friedrich Karseboom ran it together with his mother Frieda [1][3]. After the family had left Wismar following the boycott of spring 1933, the store was run from Hamburg and Lübeck for a while and sold in autumn 1935, the "Niederdeutscher Beobachter" reporting it on 11 October 1935 as "passed into Aryan ownership" [1]. Friedrich Karseboom emigrated to Palestine in 1937, and his mother Frieda Karseboom died in the Theresienstadt ghetto in 1942 [1][3].
Foundation and rise
Adolf Karseboom, who according to the Hamburg biography was born in 1866 and came from Uttum near Emden, married Frieda Valk of Hamburg in 1895 and first lived with her in Helmstedt, until he deregistered there in 1902 and moved to Wismar [1][3]. The Wismar address book of 1903 lists him as "proprietor of the department store S. Hirsch Nachfolge" [1]. He had the building converted and enlarged in 1904 and replaced it with a new one when Karstadt opened a store in Wismar shortly afterwards [1][3]. According to the family biographies he also took part in founding department stores in Grevesmühlen and Parchim [1][3], whereas the Stiftung Mecklenburg says only that the family shaped life in Wismar, Grevesmühlen and Parchim [4]. A list of the Claims Conference names a "Kaufhaus Karseboom" in Grevesmühlen (Hindenburgstraße 32) under the name Max Salomon [10]. According to the book announcement the store survived the First World War and the world economic crisis despite competition from Karstadt [4].
Adolf Karseboom was also active in public life, for according to the Hamburg biography he sat on Wismar's city council for the DDP for about three years after the election of 29 December 1918 [3]. On 28 May 1913 the merchant Karseboom applied to the city on behalf of Wismar's Jews for a classroom for the religious instruction of six children [5]. He died of a heart attack on 25 October 1926 [1][3].
Friedrich and Frieda Karseboom
His son Friedrich Karseboom (1900-1987) had already joined the business as junior head on 28 February 1925 and ran it together with his mother after his father's death, the City of Wismar giving 1926 as the year of the takeover [1][2][3]. Frieda Karseboom remained co-owner to the end, held 38 per cent of the profits as a silent partner of the firm and co-owned properties in Wismar and Parchim [1][3]. According to the city's biography Friedrich Karseboom was the commercially and financially most successful Jew in the town and was therefore at the centre of the attacks [1].
1933: boycott and departure
During the "Jewish boycott" of 1 April 1933, SA men stood with placards in front of the Kaufhaus Karseboom, Hinter dem Rathaus 17, and in front of the town's other shops owned by Jews [7]. Friedrich Karseboom later reported that his windows were smashed in 1933, and his daughter recalled, 60 years later, a torchlight march of SA men that passed the family's villa Am Vogelsang the evening before [1]. His wife Lucie wrote in 1955 that since 1 April 1933 she had "suffered badly from police harassment, threats, extortion, house searches, nightly raids, etc." [1].
Friedrich Karseboom travelled to Palestine in May 1933 and returned before the birth of his third child in July 1933. On 30 September 1933 the family moved to Hamburg-Eppendorf and in 1934 to Lübeck, while a manager was installed in Wismar [1]; for the move to Hamburg the city, by contrast, gives "end of 1933" [2], the text following the detailed short biography. On 29 August 1933 Friedrich Karseboom converted the business into a GmbH (limited company) whose managing directors and representatives were he and his mother, so that they no longer were liable with their private assets [1][3]. Frieda Karseboom registered with the Jewish Community of Hamburg on 14 September 1933 [3].
1935: giving up the store
In late summer 1935 the second wave of boycotts of shops owned by Jews reached its peak, in that customers were watched, noted and photographed and their names and photographs published. Friedrich Karseboom then saw himself forced to give up the store [1][3]. On 11 October 1935 the "Niederdeutscher Beobachter" reported that "the Jewish department store Friedrich Karseboom (Wismar)" had "now passed into Aryan ownership" [1]. According to the city's short biography Wilhelm Stotz and Ernst Marwedel took over the store, although the buyers are named in this one source only and purchase price, contract and course of the transfer are not known [1]. With the sale the family gave up Lübeck and moved back to Hamburg on 27 July 1936 [1].
The local accounts are compatible with this: Detlef Schmidt writes that at the November pogrom of 1938 the store was "already 'Aryanized'" [7]. Hans G. Hoch does give 1935, but as the year in which Karseboom "went to Palestine" [6], which differs from the city's account (departure in 1937) and serves only as an imprecise recollection of the year 1935.
Flight and persecution of the family
From the beginning of 1937 Friedrich Karseboom prepared emigration and travelled alone to Haifa on 28 April 1937, while his wife and the three children followed a year later [1][3]; for the emigration the city, by contrast, gives "1937/38" [2], and here too the text follows the detailed short biography. Frieda Karseboom stayed in Hamburg with a granddaughter who did not receive the certificate needed for departure, concluded in 1942 a "home purchase contract" (Heimeinkaufsvertrag) for 22,445.49 RM and was deported to Theresienstadt on 15 July 1942 with transport VI (925 people), where she died on 22 November 1942 [1][3]. Friedrich and Lucie Karseboom returned from exile to Hamburg in 1956, Lucie Karseboom dying in 1980 and Friedrich Karseboom on 9 May 1987 [1].
On 16 February 2019 eight Stolpersteine were laid in Wismar, seven of them for the Karseboom family. One stone in front of the building Hinter dem Rathaus 17 bears the inscription "Hier arbeitete" ("Here worked") and commemorates Friedrich Karseboom [2][8].
After 1945
The Konsumgenossenschaft Wismar (consumer cooperative) took over the store in 1948 and opened a "Konsum-Kaufhaus" there on 1 July 1948, which existed until 1990 [1]. The Wikipedia list for the street describes the building Hinter dem Rathaus 17 today as an office and commercial building, "formerly (1920s to 1933) Kaufhaus Karseboom" [9].