Faces of the Community
In the aftermath of the
watershed events of the revolution of 1848 and the
decline of absolutism, a disproportional large number of Jewish
emigrants
left poverty and the relatively parochial confines of Posen during the
period 1820–1860. During this period Schneidemühl’s Jewish
community
also began to lose a fair number of their members to emigration.
However, with Imperial Germany’s
growth, and as a new colonial world power,
came stability, prosperity
and self-assurance. Schneidemühl’s Jews who
had remained, gradually became well
integrated. They were ubiquitous in
commerce and in such diverse areas as
administration of the local orphanage
or the almshouse, as chairs on
finance committees, or in
the administration of the city itself, all
honorary positions.
Many served and were decorated in the military.
With the onslaught of the Nazi period only those with enough foresight
and courage were able to evade annihilation.
The following photographs are in memory of some members of the kehillah.
Johanna
Simonstein, née Lewin, 1835-1897,
wife of Isidor Simonstein, emigrated from Schneidemühl
in 1865 with her husband and three children and settled
in Australia, where the family prospered and expanded,
establishing a new branch of the Simonstein family.
.
(Photo courtesy of E. Davis, Sydney,
Australia )
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Dr. Hermann
Heymann,
1871-1933,
well-known veterinarian in Schneidemühl.
.
(Photo
courtesy of
F. Ephraim, Washington DC)
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Siegmund Jacob, 1867-1941,
well established grain merchant and prominent figure in the community,
died in Berlin.
.
(Photo courtesy M. Cohen, Philadelphia)
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Selma Simonstein, née Anschel, 1882-1942, widow of Adolf
Simonstein. She was deported to Sobibor where she was murdered.
.
(Photo courtesy M. Cohen, Philadelphia)
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Fritz Simonstein,
1911-1942, -
son of Adolf and Selma Simonstein. After he was forbidden to practice
law in Germany, he immigrated to Holland. There he was subsequently
taken to Westerbork by the Gestapo and deported to Auschwitz where he
was murdered in 1942.
.
(Photo courtesy M. Cohen, Philadelphia)
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Richard Rosenberg, 1893-1945,
son of clothing merchant Jacob Rosenberg, emigrated with family in 1937
and settled in Santiago, Chile.
.
(Photo courtesy J. Rosenberg, Santiago)
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Dr. Emil Mislowitzer, 1868-1914,
well loved physician and respected member of the kehillah.
He died
during the First World War.
.
(Photo
courtesy P.
Mylon, USA)
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Emil Jacob, 1897-1982,
grain merchant, emigrated in 1937 and settled with family in
Philadelphia.
.
(Photo
courtesy M. Cohen, Philadelphia)
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Gustav Simonstein, 1870-1907,
eldest son of Salomon and Esther Simonstein, one of the oldest merchant
families of the community.
.
(Photo courtesy P. S. Cullman, Toronto)
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Mentheim Schleimer,
prominent clothing merchant, was deported to Sachsenhausen during
the 1938 November pogrom.
He was murdered in 1939.
.
(Photo courtesy R. Schleimer, London)
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Auguste Schleimer, née Jakubowski, 1878-1942,
widow of Mentheim Schleimer,
was deported to the Riga Ghetto where she was murdered in 1942.
.
(Photo courtesy R. Schleimer, London)
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