gb-003348-wl1790
type: RecordSet
biographical history: The Simons family were successful Jewish businessmen who owned the oil company, Simons & Söhne AG in Neuss, North Rhine-Westphalia (now Walter Rau, Neusser Ã–l und Fett AG). Both families tried to flee Nazi persecution by emigrating to Holland but perished in the Holocaust. Gertrud and Max Joseph: Gertrud (Trude) Blach was born into a family of six children in Stralsund in 1878. The family moved to Berlin when she was a young child and had their own leather business. Max Joseph also came from Strahlsund. He was born in 1874, the eldest of three children. Max married Gertrud and they had two children: Martin (1903-1974) and Rose Marie (1910-2003). In the 1920s there was widespread anti-Semitism in Pommerania making it difficult for the couple to run their business. The business started to decline after the boycott of Jewish shops in April 1933. It was closed down in 1936. Rose Marie and her first husband Guenther left Germany with their son Peter and settled in The Hague. They arranged for Max and Trude to flee to Holland in 1939. Trude, Max, Rose, Guenther and Peter settled in Hilversum until they were ordered to move to Amsterdam in 1942. Max and Trude were soon arrested and taken to Westerbork transit camp. They were both deported to Sobibor in July 1943 where they were gassed. Ida and Paul Simons: Amelie Caroline (Ida) Rosenberg was born in 1881 in Verviers, Belgium, one of five surviving children. She got married to Paul Moritz Simons (born in 1876) in 1903 and moved to Neuss am Rhein where the Simons family lived. They had two sons: Ralf Rene (1904-1980), Gaby Glassman-Simons' father, and Edgar (1907-1928). The children had a French-speaking governess enabling them to become fluent in French which helped Edgar's survival in the south of France during World War II. Paul Simons joined the family business, Oelmuehle N Simons Söhne. The factory became the second largest margarine factory in Germany. The business was sold in 1929 due to the economic crisis in the 19…
related material: Digitised material available on photo server (Doc 1790). Material relating to Arthur and Hans Bial can be found at the Leo Baeck Institute, New York, and the Deutsches Historisches Museum Berlin. See also audio server for interviews with Walter Rau and Hans Sahl.
conditions of access: Open
has beginning date: 1914-01-01
has end date: 2005-01-31
has or had holder: gb-003348
has or had identifier: 1
has or had some members with language: fra
has or had some members with language: deu
has or had some members with language: nld
has or had some members with language: eng
has or had subject: 203
has or had subject: 504
has or had subject: 2019
has or had subject: 2031
has or had subject: 641
has or had subject: 381
has or had subject: 304
has record set type: Collection
identifier: WL1790
record resource extent: 2 folders
results or resulted from: 1
scope and content: This collection contains papers relating to the Jewish family of Gaby Glassmann-Simons, in particular her grandparents, Gertrud and Max Joseph and Ida and Paul Simons. These papers include personal accounts as well as interviews with Walter Rau and Hans Sahl. Also included is other material relating to Jewish persecution such as an article by Gaby Glassman regarding Irene Bloomsfield's work on intergenerational communication within families affected by Nazi persecution (2003), and correspondence and papers relating to the Jewish community in Stralsund. The collection also consists of the personal papers of Arthur Bial and his son Hans Bial who survived the Holocaust at Westerbork transit camp. Included are Arthur Bial's diary of his military service during the First World War, introduction to Hans Bial's diary, correspondence and press cuttings relating to the persecution of Jews in the Netherlands. English German French Dutch
title: Gertrud and Max Joseph, Ida and Paul Simons and Arthur and Hans Bial: papers