Jacob Kaufmann was born on April 23, 1870, in Sürth, near Cologne, to Moses and Getrud Kaufmann (born Stock). The youngest of six children, he joined the circus, which eventually brought him to Hamburg. There, in 1897, he married Hamburg-native Franziska Cohn, with whom he had four daughters. He was decorated with the Iron Cross for his service as a soldier in World War I.
Only few details of Jacob Kaufmann’s professional trajectory are known. By 1920 he had qualified for the leadership position of stage manager, having accumulated several years of experience as a stagehand followed by stage manager training. The same year he accepted a position as workshop director at the Hamburg Stadttheater.
Jacob Kaufmann was let go in July of 1935 because of his Jewish background. He subsequently became active with the Jewish Cultural Federation, where he led the theater workshop until 1937. However, funded by the Cultural Federation’s membership fees, his income was meager, and at times the family had to rely on assistance from Jewish welfare services. After the outbreak of the war, when the Gestapo began rounding up Jews into so-called “Jewish houses”, Jacob Kaufmann and his ailing wife, as well as two of their now adult daughters, were forced to move into such quarters.
Jacob Kaufmann was deported to the Theresienstadt concentration camp on July 19, 1942. He died there on February 8, 1943. Three of his four daughters were murdered at Auschwitz. His wife died at the Jewish Hospital in Hamburg shortly after the deportation of her husband and their children.
1870 Cologne
1943 Theresienstadt (Concentration Camp)