Irene Behrendt (1902 - 1942)

Irene Behrendt, née Friedmann, was born on August 5, 1902 in Arnstadt. She married Hans Behrendt, a son of the Jena department store founder Adolph Behrendt, in Arnstadt in 1928. At this time, Hans Behrendt ran the renowned Behrendt department store in Jena together with his brother Arthur. From 1929, the couple lived in a newly built house at Hufelandweg 1. Hans Behrendt died in August 1934 at the age of 43. His widow then returned to her parents' house in Arnstadt, from where she moved to Berlin.

She seems to have left Germany soon after, probably going to Copenhagen first. From 1940 at the latest, she lived in Amsterdam, where her parents were also able to flee from Arnstadt. The Wilmersdorf-Nord tax office (Berlin) issued a tax registration certificate against Irene Behrendt on 24.04.1941. According to this, she owed the Reichsfluchtsteuer (Reich flight tax) - which generally amounted to a quarter of the taxed assets of the person concerned - in the amount of 3,651 Reichsmark, with the due date being September 6, 1938.

Irene Behrendt was deported to the Westerbork collection camp in the summer of 1942. She was probably one of the first transports to Auschwitz, where her life ended in the gas chamber on August 29, 1942.

The Stumbling Stone for Irene Behrendt was placed at Hufelandweg 1 on 19.03.2015 (initiative of the Jenaer Arbeitskreis Judentum).

Irene Behrendt, née Friedmann, born 1902, fled to Holland in 1938, interned in Westerbork, deported 1942, Auschwitz, murdered August 29, 1942,lived here .